Last summer vacation, I participated in the program called “ Work and Travel in USA” and that’s why I wrote in my resume that I have ever been a housekeeper at the Ramada Hotel in Virginia, USA. Many people were curious for the reason why I chose this kind of low-knowledge level work. The answer is very simple. I just want to challenge myself to see how I can survive in a different culture.
As you know, tip is indispensable to the life in USA. For example, for a taxi driver, the tip is usually 10%-15% of your bill and for a waiter, it is above 20% of the bill. In general, tips are not compulsory for the customers to pay and the amount of tip is dependent on the quality of services they provided.
One day, in order to save the money for the following trip, my friends and I rejected the service offered by a tour guide and just let him drive us to the destination. Then, we paid for the petrol fee and it seemed that everything followed our plan well. However, at the end of the day, the tour guide called me and asked us to pay for his “compulsory tips”. He said this is the “unwritten rules” of America. Finally, although we didn’t get the agreement with the tour guide on the issue of tips, we still paid the “compulsory tips”, because we just treated that as the “tuition fee of culture shock”
Till today, I still cannot understand why I need to pay for the tips without services. But whatever it is, it let me bear in mind that different culture has different value system. If you want to immerse with that culture, sometimes, you need to pay your “tuition fee”. This is my opinion. What do you think, my friends?
