Personal experience: who and why you should not move to the USA

If now, in your own country, you move from bread to water and think that, having moved to the USA, you will heal, then no. With a high probability, the states will only get worse for a number of reasons:

1) If you do not represent any value to the employer, then there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people like you outside the doors. You will receive the minimum wage, which is about 8-9 bucks per hour, on which you still have to pay, albeit minimal, taxes. That is, your salary will be approximately $1500, from which you need to pay for housing, your portion of health insurance, taxes, car insurance and a bunch of other expenses. In general, in this situation, you will count and save every cent.

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2) You will have to work a lot and hard, and not just sit around, realizing that you cannot be fired so easily. The fact is that in the states there is no labor legislation as such. You can be fired at any moment without explanation. It is especially easy to part with employees who do not represent any value. Therefore, if you are late a couple of times, arrive drunk, somehow mess up or, God forbid, be rude to a client, then that’s it, you will be fired at that very minute, and no one will regret you.

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3) Even if you don’t know how to do anything and are looking for the simplest job, you will have to compete with people like you. And to get even the simplest job, you will have to make an effort.

I see it this way: if you are a good worker / specialist in your country, be it a mechanic, plumber, builder, and so on, and you earn quite well now, then you will not be lost in the states, and if and at home you do not represent anything of value, then the states will only get worse.

The States are not the land of a magical unicorn, where money is lying on the road and you just have to cross the border. No and no again!

2. Mentality

For me, the difference in mentality with the local population turned out to be the most difficult and difficult problem of adaptation for several reasons:

1. Americans are very closed. Polite, friendly and closed. In the states it is not customary to share personal things, not at all. The most an American can allow himself to discuss personally is children, and in general terms. For the most part, all conversations come down to discussions of all sorts of superficial nonsense.

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We once invited two neighboring families for dinner: local Americans and Korean families. And it was rather sad, I tried to joke, tell some stories, but everything was rather dry, all the conversations boiled down to some insignificant idle talk. That is, the American family were so polite, smiling, nodding and keeping their distance all the time. There was no contact between us. But after the American family left and we stayed with the Korean family, our communication became much closer, we joked, laughed, told stories, discussed various topics, including personal ones. Personally, I felt when communicating with Koreans, as with old friends, with Americans, we must always remember about the distance.

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2. Americans do not speak directly. All conversations and questions, especially complex ones, must go through a certain preparatory stage; you often need to guess what they want to tell you or answer. For example, you ask some question, they answer you like “well.. I don’t know” - most likely this means “no and don’t ask again.” If you are having a business conversation with an American, then you cannot ask questions directly; you should always add phrases like “Could you tell me?”, “Can I ask?”, “Could you please?” And so on. If you ask the question directly, the American may decide that you are a terrible rude and boorish person.

Example:

We have an international development team. One day a guy from Kyiv came to us. At one of the meetings, he, as a lead (leading programmer), asked questions to the guys from Ukraine, as we, Russian speakers, are used to doing this directly: question and answer, in a businesslike manner. One of the Americans later told me that he was shocked by such a direct conversation.

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3. Americans are hysterical. Any little thing can be blown up to a huge problem in a matter of minutes. A huge drama can literally begin with nothing, and we must remember this. You should always behave as correctly, politely and politely as possible, especially at work. Any careless word can cause a tsunami.

4. Americans avoid any negativity. Your communication should always be positive, always. Even such a phrase as “I don’t like something” is a negative thing for Americans that they avoid. If you don’t like something, you should say: “I’m not a big fan” and other similar phrases. If you are asked how your holiday was, you are expected to describe your holiday in some superlative manner. You need to avoid any strong phrases in the discussion: if someone on a neighboring team did some crap that you now have to clean up, then you should keep the opinion that this comrade should be fired to yourself. All you can afford in a discussion is to speak softly about the quality of your work and nothing more, and all your complaints can only be conveyed personally and only to your boss.

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5. Americans avoid any conflict situations, even if the situation is not particularly conflict. Most likely, no one will directly tell you about your jambs: if you do something wrong, then with a high probability you will continue to smile and go to complain to your leadership. This must be remembered.

3. Racism or what is meant by it

In the states, the topic of racism is very sensitive. Moreover, racism is understood precisely when whites do something wrong towards non-whites. And if it seems to you that this is not about you, then no, you will face it. For example: Americans have a stereotype that all Russians, Russian speakers, drink vodka and a lot. It looks like this, an American hears your accent, asks where you are from, you answer that you came from Russia, and half the time the next comment will be “Ooh, vodka.” This irritates me terribly, and it does not count as racism, because it is believed that there is no racism towards whites.

On the subject: About Russians in America

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Another great example: one Russian-speaking friend worked in a team with a black one. Cherny constantly made jokes about Russians and vodka, how funny it was. One day, a black man had to leave work early, and a Russian guy joked like, “What, does KFC close early today?”, making fun of the stereotype about blacks and KFC chicken. So, the drama was at the company level, the guy was not fired, as far as I know, but he was made to regret it. There are many such examples, and you will personally have to face them, because now the most disadvantaged class is the white, healthy, heterosexual man.

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The most funny thing, according to my observation, the main wave of hysteria comes just from the wealthy whites, who feel guilty for the fact that their ancestors were black rotting. A lot of black guys are just quite adequate guys and they are trying to this, I apologize, srach not to get involved.

4. Driving a car

There is virtually no public transport in the states. You need a car, you can’t live without it, you most likely won’t be able to even buy milk without a car. Moreover, every adult member of the family needs a car, so if you don’t like, are afraid and don’t want to drive a car, then the states are definitely not for you. The only option is to settle in the central part of New York, Boston or San Francisco and not leave anywhere.

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In my family, now there is only one car that I drive to work and a motorcycle, so if my wife needs to go somewhere in a cold / rainy season, then this is just a day off, the rest of the time you just have to stay at home.

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We plan to buy a second car, but you need to remember that in addition to the car itself, you will have to pay insurance for it, and this is 120-150 bucks a month.

5. Language

Everything is simple here: the states are an English-speaking country, so you need to learn English at least at a minimum level. There is no way without this.

On the subject:

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6. The medicine

In the states, all medicine is private, insurance and very expensive. If you do not have good insurance, it is cheaper to die. Medical bills are at the top of the causes of American bankruptcy. A decent family insurance costs about 2 thousand bucks a month, most of which are usually covered by the employer, if there is one.

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A couple of examples: my colleague had a heart attack, he called an ambulance, they took him to the hospital, they performed a closed operation within a couple of hours, everything was fine, but the insurance bill came from the insurance company for about 2 thousand bucks only for the ambulance. It turned out that the problem is this: ambulances are provided by the city from the fire department, but my colleague’s insurance does not have an agreement with the city, so ambulance calls are not covered at all. But it turned out that the insurance company has a clause that if there was a threat to life, then the client pays only 400 bucks for the call, and the insurance company pays the rest.

The total bill for the operation of the hospital put the insurance order 40 thousand bucks.

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The second example: my wife became ill and we went to the hospital. There we were kept in the ward for about 4 hours, 4 did various tests, said that my wife was healthy, despite the severe pains, and sent home. The insurance bill was written out for about 3500 bucks, we paid 150 from us.

Therefore, if you decide to move, you must be sure that you will have good insurance and it is desirable that you have good health.