There are cultural norms around interactions with people where I prefer things differently to most people, which can be slightly annoying sometimes. I’d be interested in hearing if anyone else has preferences that go against the norm.
My thing is about haircuts. When I go to the hairdressers, I want a haircut – nothing else, literally. I do not want anyone else to wash my hair, I definitely do not want ‘head massage’ when I’m in an uncomfortable position, I don’t want a drink and/or a biscuit, I don’t want to listen to endless marketing spiels about why I should be buying the product the hairdresser promotes that week and I don’t want anyone to put any gel/mousse/wax – anything – in my hair ‘to make it nicer’. I just want a haircut! Unfortunately the rest of the world seems to think that these are nice perks with getting your hair cut, so it’s getting more and more difficult to get what I want – which is… just a hair cut :-)
(Just to add, I am perfectly happy to chat to the hair dresser, I’m not a grumpy person, I just don’t want anything other than a haircut!)
Another example where I think Europeans generally differ from Americans is restaurant service. I’ve heard from lots of Americans who find European waitresses rude and/or inattentive since they won’t pester them every two minutes ;-) In my mind, it’s of course great if I can get their attention when I need it, but I prefer to seek them out when I need them rather than having my conversation interrupted and having to respond to ‘is everything ok with you’ every 2 minutes. Americans I’ve discussed this with much prefer it the other way round, they find it annoying to have to seek out their attention.
It would be interesting to see if anyone has other interactions where what they prefer is different to most other people!