Wisconsin vs Uruguay, Comparing Cultures

On a basic level, the American culture and the Uruguayan culture are similar, meaning I get along just fine with the people my age, we think the same things are funny, etc. On a broader level, we come from completely different cultures; everything from how they greet one another to how they flush their toilets is different.

If you speak Spanish, here is a great video of Uruguayans explaining their own culture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYZdpqbTK28

If you don’t speak Spanish, here is a list of things that I have noticed (big and small) that are different:

You say hi (and bye) with a kiss on the cheek and when you get to class or someone’s house, you literally go around and kiss everyone

I get cat called and/or “complimented” around 5 times just walking to class

If I am with a guy, this doesn’t happen

Uruguayans arrive late to like everything. If a get together starts at 10, you could be the first one there if you get there at 11:30.

“No hay apura” o “tranquilo” are common phrases; “No rush” and “peacefully”

Even the school system is laid back, I can usually turn in homework assignments late without penalty, I only need to attend 70% of my classes and get a C to not have to take the final exams. 

Exams are a month away and I still don't know what days they are (not even the professors know)

The class schedule was released the weekend before classes started

If its anything less than 70 degrees here, everyone is in winter coats

The light switches look like this:

The toilet flushes the opposite direction (due to gravity, not culture ;) ) and the flusher thing is just a button

In most apartment buildings you need a key to enter AND leave the apartment. How this isn’t a major safety concern for people, such as if there was a fire, is beyond me. Also, who is trying to break OUT of your house? Like if they needed a key to get in, you can probably assume that they are someone that can be in the house.

Normal breakfast is coffee with milk and maybe some bread. Also, mate.

Lunch is anywhere between 1-3

Dinner is anywhere between 8:30-10

Mate is a third appendage for most people, they carry it around everywhere

The drivers here are horrid. They don’t use signals (generalizing) and they create their own lanes, like in the middle of the road for example

Marijuana is legal here, which means it isn’t weird to smell weed in the streets or see someone light up a joint.

The business hours are ridiculous. Most restaurants close after lunch and reopen around 9 for dinner.

Almost nothing is open on the weekends, especially not on Sundays.

The night life stays out till the sun rises.

They cherish soccer like we cherish the Green Bay Packers

Actually, they probably love soccer more than we love the |Packers (which is saying a lot) but they literally moved elections (primaries for the presidential election) so that it wouldn’t interfere with the World Cup.

They are a country of immigrants as well as we are (there are no native people of Uruguay)

There was a dictatorship here in the 70’s and some effects are still visible today

The food is, in general, quite flavorless

There isn’t turkey meat (or at least, I have yet to find it)

They are a farming country, mainly dairy and beef farms

Ironically, the cheese is not good

Peanut butter can be found in very few places and is close to 8 dollars for a teeny tiny jar

Soda options are Coke, Pepsi, Fanta or Sprite

The girls wear platform shoes and scrunchies

They have normal shopping carts but these ones too:

Cashiers get to use chairs (Festival should adopt this policy) 

Everyone always asks “but why did you choose to come to Uruguay”

They say they are a third world country

There aren’t bubblers, I actually have never seen one here now that I think about it

There are huge dumpsters on almost every street corner so every time the garbage can fills up, we walk it over there

They have a great public bus system

If a family owns a car, it usually no more than one car per family; many are astounded that I have my own car. For them, a beater car costs in between $10,000-$15,000.

Schooling is free.

There is an age that you have to retire by, you aren’t allowed to work past this age.

It’s mandatory to vote.

The day before voting, it’s illegal to sell alcohol.

It’s a very chauvinistic society.

They are super blunt. When we came back from spring break, our host mom called us her little fat cows that had returned after eating too much chocolate. (It sounds harsh but she didn’t say it in a mean way).

It is common for public places to go on strike. More than once a year, various professors at the public university will go on strike and classes will be canceled. Student’s will show up to class to find out that they’re teacher is on strike.

They think country music is the twangy stuff from the 80’s (some would argue the good stuff)

Saying you are an foreigner, speaking English, or making your awful Spanish accent more noticeable is a great way to bypass unnecessary hoops or get special treatment.

PDA is way more common. When I first got here, I was shocked to see people making out all over the place but now I don’t even notice.

There is a large cultural difference between those who were born and raised in Montevideo and those who are from “the interior” of the country.

Most children live with their parents until they get married.

People say I have blonde hair because it is so much lighter than the majority of people here.

Also, my green eyes are often brought up in conversation.

There are hundreds of museums in this city! I have proudly been to over 30 of them but as you can see, I haven’t even scratched the surface.

Often, after saying one or two phrases in Spanish, I am told, “Wow, you speak such good Spanish” which is funny because it is usually as simple as answering the question, “How old are you?”

Most elevators have the cool iron doors that you have to pull open and close, just like the old movies.

Guys and girls don’t mix as much as they do in the states. From what I have observed, it is weird to be just friends with the opposite sex or have a group of friends that is really mixed.

They say that Americans say “Thank you” and “I’m sorry” too much.

These next three might not make that much sense, especially if you don’t know anything about Spanish:

They have a really strong Spanish accent here. The ‘ll’ sound makes a ‘sh’ sounds so “me llamo” (My name is) would sound like “me yamo” or “me jamo” in Spanish from Spain or Mexico, but here it is “me shamo” also, the ‘y’ sound is a ‘j’ sound here. So if you wanted to say “ayer” (yesterday) it would be “ajer”

<I’m not sure if this makes sense in written form so here is a video of what Uruguayans sound like>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT-D_GMuliI

Also, they use a different form of “tú” they use “vos” which is a less formal version of “tú” and different conjugations for the vos form. If I wanted to ask, “Are you from Uruguay” in normal Spanish I would ask, “Tú eres de Uruguay” but in Uruguayan Spanish I ask, “Vos sos de Uruguay”

Spanish lacks a lot of words I want to use, like awkward, or sassy. They simply don’t exist in the language. There are words that express similar sentiments but not identical. However, in Spanish there are a lot more verb tenses and distinctions between certain words like to be that make the language much more clear in fewer words.

There is no word for awkward, the closest thing you can say is uncomfortable. My English speaking Uruguayan friend uses "awkward" when he is speaking Spanish 

Alfajores exist here and they are delicious.

They have bread shops and bakeries about every 4 blocks, with homemade, cheap, fresh bread and baked goodies every morning. I’m going to miss them!

There are specific gestures that they use here that we don’t have (hard to explain in text)

I'm sure that there are many more things but it's amazing how quickly the differences stopped being noticeable. For a lot of these on the list, I had to Google Uruguay culture to remind me of the things that were once so foreign.