Quora精选：到了美国才知道

Answered by Aniruddh Chaturvedi

Aniruddh Chaturvedi 回答：

1. Nobody talks about grades here.

这里没人谈论分数。

2. Everyone is highly private about their accomplishments and failures. Someone's performance in any field is their performance alone. This is different compared to India where people flaunt their riches and share their accomplishments with everybody else.

在美国，人们极其重视自己成败的隐私，任何人在任何领域的表现只是他自己的事情。而在印度，人们喜欢到处炫耀自己的财富和成就。

3. Rich people are thin/ well maintained, poor people are fat. This stems from the fact that cheap food is fatty, rich people don't eat cheap food — they tend to eat either home-cooked food which is expensive or eat at expensive / healthy places. Unfortunately, it is expensive to be healthy in America.

一般来说，富人身材保持得很好，穷人则很胖。这是因为富人不吃廉价食物，而那些廉价食物往往油脂含量较高；他们更喜欢买昂贵的食材在家里做着吃，或是在提供健康食物的高档餐厅就餐。不幸的是，在美国，保持健康是一件奢侈的事情。

4. Support towards the LGBT community—it's fairly normal to be part of the LGBT community; it's not considered a mortal sin if you like someone in your own gender or if you aren't comfortable being male/female/etc. Proof of this is the LGBT Pride Day held in every city etc.

支持同性恋、双性恋及变性者组织（LGBT）——人们认为加入LGBT很正常，并不会将同性恋行为或对自身性别的不认同视为不可饶恕的重罪。每个城市都会举办的同志骄傲日就是很好的证明。

5. The way that stores price their products makes no apparent economic sense, and is not linear at all. For example, at a typical store:

商品标价不大能用经济学规律来解释，而且价格和数量不成正比。举个例子，在一家普通商场里：

• 1 can of coke : $1.00
  
• 12 cans of coke : $3.00
  
• 1 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar : $3.00 　　
  
• 12 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars : $7.00

• 1听可乐：1美元
  
• 12听可乐：3美元
  
• 1支哈根达斯冰棍：3美元
  
• 12支哈根达斯冰棍：7美元
  

Americans are encouraged to buy in bulk, which often leads to a lot of waste.

美国人鼓励批量采购，但这往往带来大量浪费。

6. Serving Sizes:

食品分量

American serving sizes are HUGE! Let pictures do the talking:

什么都是大号的！不说看图：

The largest size of iced coffee in Cafe Coffee Day India

印度咖啡馆“Cafe Coffee Day”里最大号的冰咖啡。

compared to:

对比：

I honestly don't understand why anyone would ever drink 32oz of iced coffee a day, but hey, to each his own.

我实在想不通谁能一天喝掉近一升的冰咖啡，但是，各有所好嘛。

If you're not convinced, perhaps this would do a better job of showing the contrast:

如果你不信，快看下面的鲜明对比：

^ That's the standard size of a packet of Lays in India.

^ 印度乐事薯片的标准包。

^ Yes, this is not a typical size, but I've seen similarly sized packages of chips being sold at Walmart and Costco.

^ 这个不是标准包，不过我曾在沃尔玛（Walmart ）和好市多（Costco）看到过这样大包的薯片。

I've noticed that entree sizes are huge as well. I am by no means a small eater, but it usually takes me at least 1.5 meals to finish the entree.

我发现餐馆的主菜量也很大。我胃口可一点儿都不小，可美国餐馆里的一顿饭往往够我平时吃一餐半。

7. An almost-classless society

社会阶级差别极小

I've noticed that most Americans roughly have the same standard of living. Everybody has access to ample food, everybody shops at the same supermarkets, malls, stores, etc. I've seen plumbers, construction workers and janitors driving their own sedans, which was quite difficult for me to digest at first since I came from a country where construction workers and plumbers lived hand to mouth.

多数美国人的生活水平大致相当。人人都有充裕的食物，去一样的杂货店、超市、商场等等。我还见到很多水管工、建筑工、清洁工开着他们自己的汽车，刚开始我实在没法理解，因为在印度，这些工人都还过着朝不保夕的日子。

Almost all sections of society are roughly equal.

美帝基本实现了共同富裕。

译注：

1. mortal sin

指不可饶恕的重罪，天主教会中指十分严重的罪恶，犯此罪恶者死后会受到惩罚，除非被教会宽恕。

2. LGBT Pride Day

(1) LGBT

LGBT是女同性恋者（Lesbians）、男同性恋者（Gays）、双性恋者（Bisexuals）与跨性别者（Transgender）的英文首字母缩略字。1990年代，由于“同性恋社群”一词无法完整体现相关群体，“LGBT”一词便应运而生、并逐渐普及。

在现代用语中，“LGBT”一词十分重视性倾向与性别认同文化多样性，除了狭义的指同性恋、双性恋或跨性别族群，也可广泛代表所有非异性恋者。

(2) Pride Day

“石墙事件”（Stonewall riots）在同性恋维权的历史上是一个标志性的事件，它引发了美国同性恋群体维权的行动，并扩展到世界范围内。

石墙骚乱是指发生在纽约的一次同性恋者和警察间的一系列暴力冲突。这次骚乱开始于1969年6月27日星期五，在石墙旅馆外，格林威治村的同性恋住所。这是第一次有同性恋者拒绝警方的逮捕。在石墙骚乱以前，警方对同性恋酒吧和夜总会的搜捕行动是城市同性恋者生活的一部分。接吻、牵手、甚至在同性恋酒吧出现都是被逮捕的理由。

1970年6月27日在纽约举行的石墙周年纪念同志大游行，将6月27、28日两天定为同志骄傲日。

3. 美国蓝领阶层

不论在哪个国家，蓝领阶层的收入都不算太高，但他们的确是社会的重要组成部分。蓝领和白领不能狭隘地以体力劳动和脑力劳动来做出区分。在美国，蓝领工作往往是指需要穿工作服、手工操作、按小时支付工作以及大部分时间不在办公室中工作的工种。美国的蓝领也存在收入偏低的问题，但有些蓝领职业的收入甚至比一些白领还高。部分高薪蓝领还需要专门的、长期的职业训练和学习。