" My wife ’s Swedish cousins thought they could go search both New York City and Los Angeles in a individual weekend . "
Americans love to joke about the quirky things people from other countries say about the US — but let’s be real, we’ve got plenty of wild misconceptions about the rest of the world, too. From thinking it’s very, very hot all year-round in Australia to assuming all of Europe shuts down for naps at noon, we’re just as guilty. Still, nothing beats the hilarity of hearing whattheythink about us.
Recently, redditorFestive-Burner123wanted to know some of the things people have heard about Americans when theyasked: “Americans of Reddit, what’s the funniest thing a foreigner has said to you about America?”
1.“Worked with a German guy once. Somehow, the History Channel came up in convo, and he responded, ‘Ah, ze Hitler Channel.’ I chuckled.”
2.“A French guy asked me if we really put ranch on everything. I said, ‘Yes, even salad,’ and he stared at me like I’d just admitted to living in a dumpster.”
3."‘Are cheerleaders real?’ —teenager in London in 2006. Cheerleaders were in movies, but they had no idea if that was a real thing. It was a charming conversation as a teenager."
4.“When I was 13, I was in Paris with my (French) friend and we went to the Paris McDonald’s. Just before we take our food to the table to sit and eat, I do the ‘mom-grab’ and take as many napkins as I can fit into a handful. My friend says, very alarmed and aggressive, ‘MICHAEL!! THIS IS A RESTAURANT! NOT YOUR HOUSE!!!'”
5.“My wife’s Swedish cousins thought they could go explore bothNew YorkCity and Los Angeles in a single weekend.”
6.“My English friend wanted to fly into New York instead of Chicago (where I lived), and asked if I could pick her up there.”
7.“I’ve had Irish guys in a cafe tease my sister and me for being California girls who want almond milk for their lattes. The whole restaurant laughed because, honestly, it was pretty funny and true.”
8.“Was at a pub in Italy with a friend, and some of the guys found out we were American. Proceeded to take shots with them toasting ‘To the Ohios!’ We’re not from Ohio, lol.”
9.“I told someone who wanted to visit both coasts in a couple of days, ‘It takes like 8 hours to fly from one side of our country to the other.’ He answered, ‘Do American planes not fly as fast as other countries?'”
10.“I was telling a group of Czech people about a time I drove to Manhattan, and one of them asked me if that was possible because it’s an island. I let her know that it has bridges.”
11.“It wasn’t said to me directly, but I read somewhere that eariler this year when TikTok was down in the US a bunch of users migrated over to RedNote and for a couple days there was a basically unmoderated cultural exchange between US and Chinese users asking each other questions, and my absolute favorite question I saw a Chinese citizen ask of an American was: ‘Why do you eat like your healthcare is free?'”
12.“A French guy at a bar in Paris would not believe that we had more varieties of beer than just Budweiser or Bud Light. I tried explaining that there was a bar where I lived with probably 50 beers on tap made just in my small Midwestern state alone. Could not convince him that there are thousands of craft beers in the States.”
13.“I’m in Paris with my wife, and we booked a professional photographer for an hour. He kept telling us his favorite thing about America was that there was a CVS on every corner. I said to him that the best part about Paris is that there is not a CVS on every corner. It was a funny moment.”
14.“The endless number of people on the internet who think we don’t have electric kettles available for purchase at any department store or even regular grocery store.”
15.“When my British friend came to visit me in the US, we passed a school bus while riding around town, and he was shocked and enthused that they existed. I thought it was cute that he was so excited over a school bus, lol.”
16.“I used to live in Chicago. When I traveled outside the country, I’d tell people where I lived, more than one person pantomimed firing a machine gun along with sound effects, like it was still prohibition and Al Capone was running things.”
17.“In Egypt 1989, I was asked if I knewMichael Jacksonor Madonna. I was also asked, ‘Where do you live, New York or LA?’ 😂”
18.“In 1985, I was 11, and my family moved to Norway from Houston, Texas. I was enrolled in 6th grade at the local school, and the kids had so many questions for me, thinking I lived on a ranch and rode a horse to school. They also asked if I knew J.R. Ewing (from the showDallas).”
19.“While in Japan, a young lady that had visited the States stated she was dumbfounded by the amount of land used for parking lots.”
20.“I had a guy with aCall of DutyT-shirt on and a Yankees hat tell me the US has no culture. He might as well have been eating a hot dog while saying it.”
21.“Had someone in the Philippines who thought that all predominantly white countries were American, including all of Europe and Australia.”
22.“I was in Spain, and a very loud Irish man told me that I was ‘very quiet for an American.'”
23.“I was at a restaurant in Morocco with some guys from the UK, and I made a comment that the ketchup was weirdly sweet compared to what you’d find in the US. One dude started laughing and said, ‘Something is too sweet for an American???'”
24.“When I studied abroad in Germany, my host family told me, ‘We bought lots of peanut butter for you. We know Americans need peanut butter.’ I do love peanut butter, but I had definitely never heard that stereotype before!”
25.And lastly, “Not said but done: When an international student took her top off at a public pool and unintentionally created quite a scene.”
You can read the original thread onReddit.
Note : Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity .
