I grew up in New Delhi but I’ve lived in the US for over half a decade now — through my undergrad years at Colgate University, career in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, graduate school at Columbia University, and essentially all my adult life. I’ve learned plenty along the way about how things work in the States, and every year, I share my observations with several incoming international students. Compiled below are fifteen of the most popular ones.

1. Shed any assumptions about the US and its people you might have learned from the media, and interact with everyone with an open mind.

2. Be mindful of personal space — unlike the norm in India, people prefer not to be close to each other in public spaces. Also, people are extremely particular about queues and not cutting in line.

3. “What’s up/How are you?” is not necessarily a serious question; it’s often just a simple greeting and acknowledgement that you can reciprocate in brief.

4. Hugging people to greet them is not a big deal, in most places.

5. In many places, it’s not strange or uncommon to smile politely at people passing you by on the street.

6. Staring (not looking) at people is considered very odd and rude.

7. Addressing someone as “sir” or “ma’am” while talking to them can seem odd or rude (outside of the South where it’s actually preferred). Usually, it’s staff, police, or other officials that address people this way. Many people, regardless of age or occupation, prefer being called by their first name, unless otherwise specified. In school, you can just address your professors as “professor” if it’s easier to get used to.

8. Do not plagiarize or cheat on your assignments — this cannot be emphasized enough. Academic/work integrity and the honor code is a very big deal in the US, and is not taken lightly.

9. You can be cited and fined for jaywalking if there’s a designated pedestrian crossing and traffic signal. Most places have pedestrian signals by crosswalks that you need to follow and cross streets when it’s your turn. Of course, some people jaywalk anyway.

10. Tipping is pretty important — at least 10% for barbers, delivery folk etc, and 15–20% for waiters in restaurants etc. is standard. Ask if you’re unsure.

11. Taxes are added on top of the mentioned prices at most establishments and shops. If a sign says a sandwich or snack at a shop is $4.99, for instance, it will very likely have taxes added to it when you check-out.

12. Be mindful of / lose the Indian head-shake — it highly confuses anyone who’s not south asian about your intent.

13. If you want to go one step further in terms of language and accent, consciously work on avoiding Indian-isms that exist in Indian English — for instance, ‘passing out’ of school, the misuse of ‘only’, ‘doubt’, and ‘crib’, using ‘v’ and ‘w’ interchangeably phonetically, etc.

14. American TV shows are a pretty good source for picking up linguistic and cultural references that you’ll come across fairly often in everyday conversation.

15. Avoid sticking with groups of your own kind excessively. This is something I see often, where Indian and other Asian students stay in their own circles but don’t branch out. Put yourself out there and immerse yourself as fully as possible to get a better, wholesome cultural experience through academic, work, and social events — both in and out of school.

Most people you’ll interact with are very accepting of other cultures, and will be open to learning more about you as well as telling you more about how things work their way.

That said, the US is a bit more of a salad bowl than a melting pot and, to an extent, assimilating with the local culture wherever you are often tends to be advantageous in several aspects of life.

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Gaurav Ragtah is originally from New Delhi, and he is a product manager at Yelp and the founder of Profillic - candidate screening via skill-testing AI. He has previously been at Google Nest, Klout, and LinkedIn SlideShare. Gaurav is a recent graduate of Columbia University and did his undergrad at Colgate University in New York.

Reach out at @gragtah or fb.me/gauravragtah