My students' eyes widened in shock the other day when I explained that most Americans only have one first name and one last name (and a middle name that's often hardly used). All of my students—and most of the Latin@ community members I know—have two first names and two last names, utilizing both their father's and mother's names. I laugh at the prospect of using my first and middle name as well as both my mom's and dad's last name. I'd be Grace Francesca Maffucci McFadden. It has an interesting ring to it, I suppose.
Also, in Mexico, I almost always have to go by Grace Francesca on any forms, statements, or accounts, which is tough for me to get used to. My inital greencard application was stalled because I had to go back and apply using both names.
And there are other things that I've had to get used to: temperature in Celsius, clocks in military time, dates being written as day/month/year, and phone numbers being read in number couples (for example, with a number like (123) 456-7890, instead of being read as "one-two-three, four-five-six, seven-eight-nine-zero," here it would be read as 12 34 56 78 90 and said as "twelve, thirty-four, fifty-six, seventy-eight, and ninety").
Plus, zip codes come before the city/state, but maybe that also happens in the US? I don't always pay close attention.
More realizations to come, I'm sure.
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