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When you go to another country, there’s oftentimes some culture shock. When I go to the UK, I always have to remember to ask for the “toilet” as opposed to the “ladies’ room” or “restroom.” I remember the first I saw puffin on a menu (sorry, Andy Luten) in Iceland. And seeing what Cubans have been taught about what we know as the “Cuban Missile Crisis”, while in a Havana museum, was eye-opening.
Of course, the same thing happens when people come to visit the U.S. There are plenty of things that are unique to the U.S., and foreign visitors getting to experience them, even if we think they’re insignificant, are probably as exciting to them as ordering “real” absinthe in other countries may be to some of us.
This brings us to a question a user named CapitalBread6959 had on Reddit a couple of weeks ago:
Fellow non-Americans, what is something quite common in the U.S. that is completely unheard of in your own country?
In the course of 2 weeks, they’ve gotten nearly 10,000 replies, some of which make perfect sense and others that were very surprising. Here are some of the better ones (replies have been edited only for length and adult language):
- My German friend visited us in college. First party he goes “THEY DO EXIST!!” and held up our pack of red solo cups. Haha — mulljackson
- (in reply to the above) I’ve witnessed this too
We had a German exchange student in high school. It was Friday afternoon, late summer, and we were riding home in a friend’s car when someone nonchalantly mentioned a party happening that weekend. German girl goes wide-eyed and looks at all of us in disbelief, “A REAL PARTY?!”
Cut to the party, the German girl has rounded up all the other German exchange students and they’re excitedly taking pictures of each other holding up red solo cups.
They’re so adorable I love them ❤️ — SuwanneeValleyGirl - Broken ice cream machines — Whitekyurwm39 (Note from Sharon – that one made me laugh. Here’s how to find out if a local McDonald’s ice cream machine is broken or not. There’s also a website to help people locate McRib sandwiches)
- Freshman sophomore junior senior… Have to translate this in my head every time — starfished1
- Funyuns — Strong_ad_7403
- Basing your identity on who you voted for. I have no idea who my friends voted for and would never think to ask them. If they voted for someone I didn’t, it wouldn’t affect our friendship in any way — TheRealGuncho
- American accents 🙂 — flotterham
- Free drink refills — internetsss
- (in reply to the above) First time I was in the US, the waitress kept refilling my glass without asking. I thought that was a super rude scam to make more money.
When the bill came and only had 1 drink on it, I didn’t “correct” it because I thought the place was super shady for constantly refilling my drink.
Little did I know. — CterumCenseo85 - Calling jelly jello and jam jelly. — Soggywallet94
- Active shooter workplace training — am270
- Medical debt — Rega_lazar
- School shootings – the last one here was 19 October 1923 (36,213 days ago) — defundreligion (Note from Sharon: “School shootings” and topics related to “medical debt” were, by far, the most popular responses of the 10k comments)
- Homecoming, Sadie Hawkins, Winter Formal, Prom…We have none of this, the closest thing is the graduation itself. — badeksha
- High fructose corn Sirup. Never seen this stuff in a food that I didn’t import from the US. Sure, we got added sugars, but not this stuff. — SovietSpy17
- This thing were the kitchen sink has teeth — PoetPont
- (in a reply later on) The sink that are also trashcans — ZigotoDu57
- I guess toilet seat covers is something that I never knew about before coming to USA (20 yrs ago) — bamboozled96
- Cool whip. It sounds like a dessert but I’m lead to believe it’s like mayo? — galia-water
- The high levels of daily patriotism
Yeah people in the UK get patriotic during the world cup, but when I was working at a camp over there we would salute the flag every morning at registration with them.
So strange — Bodhi-Blu (Note from Sharon: A few people suggested that saying the Pledge of Allegiance so often reminded them of Nazis or North Korea) - As a Dutchy, driving a car and turning right on a red light. That messed with my head. If you do that here you are gonna hit at least 5 cyclists. — CowabungaNL
- Dumping canned foods into a dish and calling it a ‘casserole’ — IsUpTooLate (Note from Sharon: Sorry, Midwesterners LOL)
- The tax system – having to do a return every year (ours is done for us unless you run your own business or are a contractor). Also having to pay tax when you live overseas. — HiJane72
- (Fake) Grape flavored stuff. Over here, the purple gummies are black currant. — whezzan
- Homeowners Association — Igotthebugthewire
- Iced tap water on your table immediately. Such an amazing thing! — c19isdeadly
- (in reply to the above) Go to an American Mexican restaurant and chips and salsa come automatically (and free) too! — gsfgf
- Advertising medications on TV. Dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. — crackpotJeffrey
- Americans with disabilities act is amazing. Wheel chair ramps everywhere and ease of access. — LazyBid3572
- Being able to legally drive at 16, but not able to legally vote until 18 and drink until 21. (In the UK all three are 18, when you become a legal adult). — diddygem
- I’ve been to Walmart for the first time in my life and saw they have a fire weapon section. I lived in few countries in Europe and visited most of them, you’ll never see rifles where you buy your groceries. — mali_berekin
- All signs and other things being written out in words, i.e. ”Left turn only” or such. Same in cars, buttons have the thing written in text. It’s pretty much symbols everywhere else around the world. First couple of times driving felt so difficult when nothing I saw was intuitively what I was expecting to see at that situation but rather I had to look and really process each thing separately. – wuoma
- Cheese in a can! It was the first thing I looked for on my first grocery shop working in Utah — ZacsMum
- Fraternities and sororities. What are those all about? — wassailr
- feet, yards, gallons, etc. — Delicious-Elk1605
- Signs. Signs everywhere. As in ”Branded” neighborhoods/communities. American residential neighborhoods will throw up a huge sign like ”Spring Creek Estates” or whatever, really announcing the name with a big logo instead of being low key. — Bishiop
- Wearing shoes in the house — zer0darkthirtytwo
- Peanut butter jelly sandwiches. Never seen one ever — Neihlon
- Drive thru banks and pharmacies. My partner is American and was astonished that I thought that was so weird. We simply do not have enough space for that sort of thing in the UK — Squoggs
- People caring about college sports.
Like people will actually show up to watch without being related to or friends with anyone playing?
There are actual stadiums with cheerleaders and marching bands?
Academic scholarships for being good at a sport?
Student athletes being handed passing grades even if they fail so that they can keep playing?
The only remotely comparable thing I can think of is my country is the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race. — ttnl35 - So, I only heard this like a year ago. But apparently it seems that most of American men are circumcised. Which sounds bizarre to me. — VulturicAcid
- Waffle House — frozen_tundra44
- The Hall Pass in schools. When we need to go to the restroom, we ask the teacher politely, and then… go! There’s no guard or such thing in the corridors. — nm_303
- Credit Scores — Hugo28Boss
- Monolinguals. — Daug17
- Half the flavours of American oreos are not available in my country — EvilXgrrlfriend
- Loitering. How can you arrest people for standing on the sidewalk minding their own business? — sanciasancia
- social security numbers?! what the heck are those — hydroxidehydronium
- Root beer — Ralexcraft
- Thanksgiving. We’ve heard of it of course but we don’t have it or anything like it. Seems such a big deal in the US. — poggerooza
- Bathroom stalls where you can see between the gaps — happydayswasgreat
- When I first moved to the US I went to Walmart to get some groceries. There were 10 different types of milk over there lmao. In my country we only have one type: milk. — bluecognito
- Lactation stations. I had never seen one until I first came to the US. If anyone tried to tell my Wife to go somewhere else to feed our baby, I would chew them out. — JoeyRyan1985
- This question must be difficult for Non-American who has never travelled there. But my answer will be being scared when the police stops you as a minority (no matter how innocent). — gwawill
- Knocking down historic properties to build new / generic buildings.
In Europe, history is preserved and rehabilitated when it gets run down.
One can walk into a modern supermarket built into the structure of a very old building. It is beautiful. — Touchstones-Writer - The use of freedom of speech to justify racism, misogyny, fascism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc. — ItsMeScully
- Not having sales tax already included in the price. – viticent7
- Ranch dressing — Quintenha
- houses that are fully detached. in my country the only fully detached houses are villas that cost millions — marshmallowcats
- Late-night talk shows — liebe_rootBete
- This Christmas Pickle thing. I don’t know any fellow German who does this or has ever heard of it. — Boing78
- Every state has its own set of laws. What’s legal in one state may be illegal in another. — Impossible1999
- Those weird French Fried Onions. — OnehappyOwl44
- Cashiers standing up. Like, why? Give them a seat. It’s a boring enough job without having to be on your feet the whole time.
Of course, cashiers are increasingly a rarity. It’s all self-checkouts here now, and I suppose it must be the same in the US. — CiderDrinker - Paying for education like in my country collages are free and not only are they free buy you get paid monthly for going to school. — -marvelous-
- Your cereal aisles are insane. — moonahmoonah
- S’mores. — kyleruchok
- Identifying yourself by your parents/ancestral nationality. Like first and second generation (Italian, Russian, Irish etc.) I get but when you have grandkids who don’t know about the country’s culture or speak the language but they consider themselves Italian, Russian, Irish etc… It’s a bit weird.
By that point, they’re usually more culturally American than anything else. — AnonImus18 - Not using a bidet. That is the weirdest thing ever. — Which_Royal_1009
- Same product having way different price in different stores — ITCoder
- Bail bonds. — mungdungus
- Free additional ketchup and other condiments at fast food restaurants. — Worldly_Pirate_9817
- saying how’s it going to random people you pass on the street — interstat
- I’m fully ready to accept it’s based on me visiting touristy/well-off areas but a lot of things are made to look good, and I appreciated that a lot. Having a colourful bin or bench in the street would never cross our minds. France felt very grey after so much colour everywhere. — goldinmyiris
- Girl Scout Cookies — a1g3rn0n
Feature Image: Pixabay
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