I experienced quite a culture shock when returning to the US after living in Tokyo for a year. I was at some noodle place with a friend and ate the noodles in the way I considered normal. Eventually he told me he was going to leave because I was eating so rudely.
"Welcome back to the land of the Puritans," I thought to myself.
I find it seriously annoying, but I realize that others don't.
The problem is that if you don't like it, you really don't like it. Meanwhile, if you don't mind it, people who do seem like jerks.
Imagine something more universally recognized as rude. E.g. Eating with someone who keeps making really smelly farts or picking his nose all the time. The disgust is visceral, and hard to rationalize away.
> The problem is that if you don't like it, you really don't like it. Meanwhile, if you don't mind it, people who do seem like jerks.
It's more like how you say it. "Hey Buddy, if you don't stop slurping, I am going to chew and then open my mouth wide to show you my handiwork." is very different from "I am leaving. You are so rude."
> The disgust is visceral, and hard to rationalize away.
The keyword is "friend" - someone who you can talk to; asking him not to do that as it is making you uncomfortable should be pretty easy.
"Welcome back to the land of the Puritans," I thought to myself.