4 WE DO HAVE OUR SORE SPOTS
Religion and politics are two topics that often get passionately discussed at European dinner parties but are studiously avoided here. Part of this, of course, has to do with our astonishing diversity: You just don't know what your acquaintance believes, or how strongly he or she believes it. "People who are spiritual tend to share it," Mueller says. "But they usually share it with people they know are of the same religion." The same could be said for politics.

5 THEY THINK WE'RE ALL BUSINESS, NO CEREMONY
TIME MANAGEMENT: Compared with the rest of the world, Americans do business at a furious pace. Weaver tries to explain to visitors that "because we measure productivity based on time, when people come to meetings late, we get upset, we feel that you stole our money. Whereas in other countries, time stretches."
BUSINESS ON THE FIRST MEETING: "Things that would normally take a lot of time and massaging to get done in your home country, you don't require that here," says Karim Haggag, a press attaché at the Egyptian embassy in Washington, D.C. This means more efficiency but also leads to a feeling of having to strike early to develop sources. "It's always finding the right hook with whomever you're dealing with to take you beyond the initial phone call," he says. "If you don't find that hook—the issue at hand, whether he feels it is a benefit to him—the relationship can be halted very abruptly."
A BUSINESS LUNCH IS A BUSINESS LUNCH: Americans don't always talk business at dinner, but there is no real break in the workday. "Something people are startled by is that we have working lunches," says Mueller. "We are determined to use every possible part of the workday to get something done."
CARDS AND TITLES ARE NO BIG DEAL: Whether we're throwing them around the room—the "shotgun" approach—or unceremoniously stuffing them in our pockets, we just don't give business cards the attention other cultures do. "The verbal introduction is the most important part, not the business card," says Eyring. It's much more important to remember someone's first name than his title.
OUR FIRST QUESTION IS "WHAT DO YOU DO?": "Our identity as Americans has a lot to do with the work we do," says Bullock, "whereas others identify themselves in terms of who they are, their traditions, and where they're from." So naturally, our first question of others is about their jobs—even in social settings.
BUT WE MAY NOT TALK AS MUCH ABOUT MONEY AS YOU'D THINK: Visitors can be forgiven for asking impolite questions about money in a country where making it and spending it seems to be of unusual importance. They're shocked to discover that "how much do you make" is a rude question. In many places, it isn't.

6 THEY THINK WE EAT FUNNY
One of the common misconceptions about our eating habits (aside from the assumption that we eat only junk food) is that we're basically Europeans. So even European visitors or those from other countries who were educated in the "Continental" style may find subtle contrasts: * We often keep our hands in our laps at the dinner table, which the French consider rude.
* We generally put our knives down after cutting, switch our fork hand, and pierce our food, rather than use the knife in conjunction with the fork to cut our food and scoop it onto our fork.
* We eat much more quietly than people from some cultures: no slurping, loud sipping, or open-mouthed chewing. This seems normal to us but unnecessarily uptight to many others.
* We almost never use a fork to eat a burger or a pizza—or at least that's what their guidebooks warn them about. In truth, we do, but mostly in formal restaurants or situations.
* We don't know how to throw a dinner party—at least not by the highly choreographed, festive, and communal standards of many other cultures. The idea of just getting one serving, on a paper plate—of being told to "help yourself" to something from the fridge—leaves many visitors perplexed. Weaver tries to explain that visits to people's homes are a less planned-out affair than they are elsewhere. "?'Grab a beer, make yourself at home'—we interpret that as meaning you're one of us," says Weaver. "But it comes across in exactly the opposite way."
* We don't cook nearly as often, and we go out or order in a lot more. There's a much broader variety of price points and ordering options here than pretty much anywhere else in the world.
* For Americans, eating on the go may literally involve going while eating. That's one of the reasons so much of our fast food is handheld. In most countries, eating and walking are (sensibly) mutually exclusive activities.
* Whether we're inhaling takeout or drinking green shakes, to many visitors we just don't seem to savor our food. "You eat to lose weight or to keep yourself healthy, not to enjoy food," says Hemon. To be sure, he's talking about a rather upscale demographic, but the other extreme—grabbing a Croissandwich for breakfast, a taco to eat in front of the computer at work, and a Domino's pizza for a late dinner after soccer—is just as strange compared with the practices of many cultures where family meals dominate the day.
…AND WHAT IS IT WITH THOSE DOGGIE BAGS?
The takeaway bag for the balance of our dinner is an American phenomenon. Ask a French waiter if you can have the rest of your cake to go and you might find him scooping up scraps from everyone's dessert plates, assuming it's actually meant for your dog. Taking food home is tacky to people in many other countries, who don't go out as often and, for another thing, generally eat smaller portions than we do. The forerunner of the doggie bag actually evolved in the Old World—in ancient Rome, to be precise: Many guests at a banquet would bring their own oversized napkins and, at the end of the night, fill them with leftovers.