Cultures are a thing. And they’re all unique in their own ways.
Hence, it’s only normal that someone outside of a particular culture would find some things odd about it—or at the very least interesting.
AskReddit is at it again, asking non-Americans who had been to the US what they thought was the weirdest thing about America that Americans don’t realize it’s weird.
Bored Panda has recently covered this topic in another article, so be sure to check it out once you’re done with this one. And while you’re down there, why not vote and comment on the submissions you like the most!
#1
Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas is over:The weirdest thing is that Americans will ask what you are doing for thanksgiving. Are you going to your family etc... When you say no. They invite you to their home.
(I was a student, My family was thousands of miles away, and I'm happy that the local Cracker Barrel is open and looking forward to a meal there)
My Professor did that. Invited me to his home. I had a good time, but it was strange. I'm meeting his uncles and aunts. and one little girl threw a tantrum, I had to take her to calm her down etc...
It was weird. But also wonderful. In my country things like this would never happen. You don't bring a stranger to a family event.
But I'm thankful things like this happen here.
Image credits: tinkrman
#2
I went to seaworld with my mum when I was in my mid teens. Halfway through the show, the performer (Not the whale) asked everybody in the military to stand up and the whole crowd gave them a round of applause. They sat back down and the show continued as if nothing had happened. Couldn't imagine anything similar happening back in Blighty.Edit: this was at Seaworld, Orlando not San Diego. Roughly 2003/4
Image credits: Daverotti
#3
How your medical ads show an old guy living life well because of X-drug. He has the best time, the wife is having the best time and it's all because of the drug making things better.The end of the ad is full of warnings about how this happy drug can potentially kill you and your family, nuke your dog and make cats impotent.
Recap the cliff-hanger episode of life in Alaska before another ad break.
Unwatchable TV
Image credits: bodhan40
#4
Tax. I find it annoying how in America tax is added after you check at the cashier. In Australia tax is included in the price, e.g if the price says $6.00 you pay $6. But in America if it costs $6.00 it's actually $6.07 or something. Idk I just have found it a nuisance.
Image credits: im_no_W0LF
#5
Americans are super friendly to the point that I (Australian) thought it was sarcasm or fake.
Image credits: dinosaur-pudge
#6
Flags. Everywhere. It’s not as if you’re likely to forget where you are!
Image credits: who-wasi
#7
Free refills. Went to a restaurant with my dad (both German) and all of a sudden the waiter took away my drink with another perfectly good sipp in it and I must have looked pretty shocked. It was only then when my dad explained to me that you guys have free refills.
Image credits: AnLe21
#8
Everything in America is huge. I don't just mean the people or portion sizes, because we all know about that- but the roads, the buildings, the ceilings, the space between everything... America is gigantic. It just feels larger than it does here. I'm Australian but I've been to Asia and size-wise it's similar to Australia, and I've seen Europeans say the same about America. Everything is bigger.
Image credits: betterthansteve
#9
Clearly the fact that there are people to put your groceries in a bag for you, I’ve never been so stressed and uncomfortable that while I was watching this young girl taking care of my groceries
Image credits: alicebaguette
#10
How much power your employer has over you. They can fire you at will, dictate that you work overtime, mandate that you take a drug test at will... the power balance between employer and employee in NZ is very different...#11
Not necessarily weird but I've been here five years and I still can't get used to people replying to "thank you" with "uh huh". To me it sounds/feels like I'm thanking them and their response is "yes that is correct, you should thank me".
Image credits: InternetWeakGuy
#12
Legal drinking age at 21 it’s really weird especially at age 18 people consider u as an adult.
Image credits: rachelxie888
#13
Car dealerships have huge flags. I don’t get why you’d have a flag the size of ten RVs.So many roads don’t have street lights.
Not weird, but portion sizes are also huge. I struggled with finishing my food sometimes.
Image credits: linerys
#14
American that just traveled overseas. I went to a great bookstore in Edinburgh and the cashier asked if I wanted to sign up for a rewards membership. This led to a conversation about how their CEO or something just took over Barnes and Noble in the States. I stated the closest B&N to me is an hour away, and the other cashier jumped in, saying how easy it is to forget how far apart things are in the States. He was just kind of baffled and said it often blows his mind. I moved 13 hours away from my hometown and I still manage to be in the same country, which seems like a foreign concept for most Europeans. When, in reality, I could have moved even further away and still been in the US.
Image credits: suomihobit
#15
When we were flying between cities, I found it weird to look out of the side of the plane and see towns midflight. In Australia, once you leave the city's airspace the landscape is completely barren until you arrive at your destination.
Image credits: victimsoftheemuwars
#16
Ranch; it is somehow both delicious and revolting. And changes which with every mouthful.
Image credits: Kiki200490
#17
The concept of pharmaceutical advertisements. Your doctor is supposed to recommend drugs to you, not the other way around.#18
Some European told me that it’s crazy how restaurants are loud and busy and how people eat quick and leave. For him it was normal to sit around and talk for an hour or more after eating in a restaurant.#19
Waste. Especially of food.I've seen half of a large pizza thrown in the garbage, simple as that. Broke something? Don't even bother fixing it, just throw it into the bin and buy another.
I once went to a show in Broadway, they had special themed cups for the Phantom of the Opera show that you could purchase. They were made of glass. Some of the theater bought it, consumed it, and just left it there. They didn't even bother taking it home as a souvenir. They saw it, had the urge to buy it, and just did it.
That's something insane for me.
#20
On behalf of my wife “what’s up with the gaps in the toilet stall doors and no bidet?”
Image credits: Inaka_
#21
In Germany "How are you?" is an actual question and you generally only ask it, if you know the other person. It was super hard to explain to my mum that the answer is always "fine, thank you" and that cashiers don't really care about how you actually feel, when we visited the US in 08.#22
The rituals for paying after food.Call server ask for bill Wait Server brings bill, put card down Wait Server takes care and bill away Wait Server brings back copy, you add tip Get up and leave.
In NZ Finish meal, go to front of the restaurant and pay then leave (no tip)
#23
Ads in general actually, it is so hard to go anywhere without having something in obnoxiously large text trying to get your attention. Whether it be on the road, on tv, on the internet, and hell even in people’s phones.
Image credits: Escrovenjah
#24
Complimenting strangers. When I visited the US I went to an amusement park and a girl complimented my glasses and that was my first time getting complimented and at the same amusement park a senior lady complimented my dad for having a beautiful family and a handsome son (lol me). I was really happy that day.#25
Canadian here, canadas fast food restaurants have signs that fairly normal height, just enough to get the point across while not being obnoxious, cross over to the usa and within 5 seconds of leaving customs you can see fast food signs hundreds of feet in the air on giant poles. 2 - 3 times taller than here in Canada, why!? also finding peanut butter and jelly swirled into the same jar was shocking.
Image credits: rustyplayer1515
#26
Lemondade made with real lemons and its like super sour but some how sugary sweet at the same time.In Australia lemonade is the same as sprite. So when I was there my mum and I ordered Jack Daniels and Lemonade and they made it with the real lemondade and it was awful. It was also weird because they sold pre mixed bottles of Jacks and lemonade with the real lemonade but in Australia you buy the same ones with sprite lemonade.
Free refills was the other big one. Everywhere has free refills as many times as you like? Never seen that before.
Image credits: Mycelium83
#27
Someone from my country who lives in USA told me that without a car you are crippled in America.Edit: this is just an observation, not criticism.
The point of that person was that a car in US is a necessity, not a luxury or extravagance or a status symbol or sth.
And a lot of people buy second hand or used cars coz they are cheaper.
Image credits: [deleted]
#28
For context: I'm from The Netherlands. The weirdest thing for me was a drive through liquor store. And a drive through ATM. In fact, it was the realization that Americans do everything by car.My wife went to Philadelphia for work about ten years ago and wanted to walk from the hotel to the Target store across the street. People thought she was crazy.
#29
Neon signs for a f!@#$%^ funeral home will always stand out.
Image credits: sassygaycriminal
#30
Canadian here, I was blown away by how weirdly social people are with strangers. Like some random guy I've never seen before just starts telling me his life story on the street. He is super normal, and doesn't seem crazy, just wants to talk to me for some reason. But then also, the dude at Wendy's is loudly threatening some 16 year old cashier in front of like 45 people. I got the impression the Wendy's guy was uncool, but the other guy seemed normal, and where I live I generally assume that a stranger talking to me for no reason is either crazy or high.#31
European here, to me what was surreal was how openly they talk about guns and how many they have at home.Also I took an uber for what 5-10 mins to get back to the hotel and the lady driving me super casually told me about how when she was a child in the compton area, she'd be playing outside, lie to the ground when there was a drive by then just continue playing
#32
For me as British bloke who only travelled for 6 weeks in the US:Your public transport is largely poor but everything is built for cars and your cars are big.
You advertise not businesses but personalities a lot. So it’s not that KGH Estate Agents will well your property but MARY HUGHTON WILL PERSONALLY SELL YOUR HOUSE (with a big picture of her face).
Random people will talk to you. I’m a Londoner so it is different up north in the UK but especially when I got to the southern states people were so happy to talk to random strangers.
You guys actually sit at the bar in bars. When we go to a pub/bar, we’ll go with friends and rarely interact outside of that group really. You guys jump up at that bar and just start chatting.
Where homelessness is visible it’s bloody awful. San Francisco was horrible for this, me and my (now) wife ended up making a load of extra spag bowl to give to the homeless people outside our hostel because it was shocking to us.
If I think of anymore I’ll add them but it’s Christmas Day and I should probably talk to my family.
#33
I'm not sure if they find it weird or not but as a Canadian who has been to a few states:Gambling at gas stations in Montana. So damn weird.
Edit: So I'm talking about slot/poker machines and sometimes a poker table or two in regular gas stations. Not just truck stops, not on native land. Find a street corner with some gas stations on it in Missoula and odds are at least one of them has a mini casino inside.
#34
I lived for a long time in different places around the world, and something that I really missed when moving to a new town was the lack of a US-style bar where it was easy for a stranger to meet people. Outside of the US, it is rare to find a bar where everyone just sits and faces the same direction, whether or not a sporting event was playing on the television. Instead, they have a more 'pub-like' environment, where everyone is sitting in groups at their individual tables.This makes meeting new people extremely difficult. Think about it, with the "table-style" bar, in order to strike up a conversation with a stranger, you literally have to approach them while they are sitting at their own table with their own friends. It's almost impossible to not look like a total freak! In a proper "Cheers" style bar, you can just say some random phrase to the bartender and if the person sitting next to you wants to talk, they'll just join in on the conversation.
Basically, In non-US bars, if you aren't invited ahead of time by someone, you are damned to sit alone in some corner of the bar.
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