I had no idea .
Here in the good ol' US of A, a lot of Americans think the way THEY do things is the way the rest of the world does things. Obviously, that ain’t the case.Overthepastfew years, people on the popular site Reddit have shared the things they really can’t quite understand about Americans, and of course, it’s fascinating and often hilarious.
Here are the absolute best responses:
1.“You guys have a whole aisle just for CEREAL in your supermarkets. I couldn’t believe it! We’ve got maybe a shelf back home.”
2.“I had no idea Red Solo cups weren’t just a Hollywood thing. People actually use them in real life. Like, a lot.”
3.“The TV ads for prescription meds always crack me up. I can’t get over how casually they list all those side effects.”
4.“Everything’s so sweet. The beer, the bread, even the home-cooked meals and the CHEESE… it’s like they put sugar in everything.”
5.“Asking ‘How are you doing?’ but not actually caring about the answer? That one really threw me off. Seems like just a weird formality there.”
6.“I always thought yellow school buses were just something out of cartoons in America. But nope, turns out they’re a real thing.”
7.“The news in the US is wild. When I visited, I was shocked… everything felt less like reporting and more like watching a reality TV show.”
8.“There was a 24-hour pharmacy across the street from our apartment. Totally normal, except it sold booze and cigarettes too. How is that even allowed in a pharmacy?”
9.“The honking… I always thought it was just a movie stereotype, but then I went to New York. I couldn’t believe how constant it was!”
10.“The sheer number of flags everywhere was wild. I’ve never seen so many in one place.”
11.“Canned cheese products.”
12.“The roads and city layouts are a nightmare for bikes. Everything’s built for cars, like bikes and people walking just don’t matter.”
13.“You air these insanely violent shows on TV during the day, but you censor nudity? I mean, how is a boob dangerous, but people stabbing each other and bleeding everywhere totally fine?”
14.“The toilet water was so high, I was legit scared to wipe. It felt like a disaster waiting to happen.”
15.“People choose pickup trucks as their daily ride, even when their job has zero need for hauling stuff. Why?”
16.“The Pledge of Allegiance. It’s bizarre.”
17.“Baby showers are a thing here in Sweden, but giving gifts before the baby is born is considered bad luck. After the baby arrives, parents usually keep it low-key for a few weeks before inviting people over one at a time, and then you bring a gift.”
18.“Milk comes in gallon-sized containers. Who needs that much?”
19.“Political attack ads and ads for law firms or lawyers? Those are actually illegal and seen as unethical where I’m from.”
20.“The supermarket has like 100,000 different versions of every food. I honestly didn’t think there could be so many types of Oreos.
21.“Americans talk so loudly in public. It’s like their default volume is 20 decibels higher than everyone else’s.”
22.“Having to pay for an ambulance. How are people okay with this?”
23.“I can’t believe you don’t include taxes in your prices. I went to buy a drink at a convenience store and got totally thrown off when the price at checkout was higher.”
24.“You can lose your job just like that and have no income? How is that something people deal with?”
25.“It blows my mind when people identify with their heritage instead of their nationality. If your ancestors came from Norway and you were born in the US, you’re not Norwegian. You’ve got some Nordic blood, sure, but you’re still 100% American, not 25% Irish, 10% Swedish, 3% Finnish, 17% Norwegian, and 5% Danish. You’re just American.”
27.“When Americans travel, they always mention their city or state, not their country. You’ll be at a hostel, someone asks where everyone’s from, and it’s like, ‘Denmark, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Canada…Sacramento, California.'”
28.“Our police cars are black and white, which totally blew my British ex’s mind. He thought those classic black-and-white cars were just a movie thing until he saw them for real.”
29.“In American restaurants, the waiter takes your credit card when you pay, which shocked me. In Europe, you always keep the card with you when you pay.”
30.“It’s so strange to see guns just casually displayed on shelves at Walmart, like they’re no different from everyday groceries.”
31.“During Halloween, masked strangers show up at your doorstep looking for treats. It’s typically groups of children, though occasionally you’ll see entire families joining in on the tradition.”
32.“I tried root beer and was completely caught off guard by what felt like drinking fizzy toothpaste. And seriously, what’s with calling it ‘beer’ when it tastes nothing like it?”
33.“I’m amazed by how common drive-thru banks and even pharmacies are here. We just don’t have the room for those kinds of amenities back in the UK.”
34.“It’s wild how you can spend five hours on the road in America and barely notice a change in your surroundings. Meanwhile, a five-hour drive in Europe lands you somewhere where the language is completely different and they have their own unique take on cheese.”
35.“I was pretty surprised to see security guards patrolling the school hallways, and some schools even have metal detectors at the entrances, just like you’d see at airports. It’s kind of jarring to think about kids going through that kind of security just to attend classes.”
36.“Those garbage disposals in kitchen sinks that violently grind up food scraps always catch me off guard. They make the most aggressive noise when you turn them on.”
37.“It’s really strange to me that you can get accepted into a university just because you excel at a sport. I was talking to this American online who mentioned he attended college on something called a ‘lacrosse scholarship.’ I couldn’t wrap my head around that concept at all.”
38.“It’s crazy how Americans barely get any paid time off. When my uncle moved here from the States, his jaw almost hit the floor when I mentioned my 35 days of annual holiday.”
39.“It’s really interesting how much of your country is actually completely uninhabited. There are these huge regions where you won’t find any development at all - no buildings, not even roads. Just empty land as far as you can see.”
40.“There are these big gaps at the sides and bottoms of public bathroom stalls that basically let anyone see in.”
41.“That whole freshman, sophomore, junior, senior naming system for school years. I always have to mentally convert it to actual years whenever someone mentions it - like, “Wait, sophomore is second year, right?”
42.“I find it strange how some Americans are so fixated on their high school years. When I hear them say it was the best time of their life, I can’t help but think that’s kind of depressing. Like, you’ve had decades of adult life since then and nothing has topped those four teenage years?”
43.“How the coupon culture works over there. I was staying with my friend from the States, and she showed me these coupon books she uses. I couldn’t believe the discounts. Incredible.”
44.“I really appreciate how restaurants in the US bring you ice water right when you sit down. You don’t even have to ask - it just appears at your table automatically.”
45.“The fear of clowns. This is pretty much anecdotal, but the fear of clowns seems to be a VERY American thing, yet with other countries, the reaction goes from ‘Meh’ to ‘I guess they’re scary?'”
46.“Everything is loud. All the time. The TV ads, the billboards, the radio, the air conditioning. Everyone is trying to get heard in a country where being number one is the only acceptable goal. It’s a loudness war to get to your brain, and it’s exhausting.”
47.“I’m from the UK, and I’d never seen refillable drinks before. I couldn’t believe you could just have as much soda as you wanted and no one was going to think you were stealing.”
48.“The importance of high school sports. My high school built an entire complex for our soccer and football teams. But our choir department didn’t have enough funding to have a single concert.”
49.“How much laws vary from state to state. It was really fun explaining to a British kid in high school that Massachusetts and New Hampshire have opposite laws on a lot of things despite the fact that their capitals are only 70 miles apart.”
50.“Chanting ‘USA!’ for no apparent reason.”
Note : Entries were edited for duration and/or pellucidity .
