Travel5 min(s) read
Published 11:04 04 Jul 2020 GMT
The United States of America truly is an amazing nation.
It is the country that gave the world musicians like Elvis Presley, visionaries like Walt Disney, actors like Tom Hanks, tech geniuses like Steve Jobs, and companies like McDonald's.
In addition, the nation has been led by some truly inspirational leaders - such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
But despite the fact the USA may be the home of the free and the land of the brave, it is also a hub of bizarre activity other nations just cannot get their head around.
In fact, a recent Reddit thread asked the question: "What do Americans think is normal for everyone, but actually it's not normal for anyone but Americans?"
And the results were certainly eye-opening...
1. TitanicBeta: "Toilet cubicles, where people not only can peek, but an adult person could crawl into your cubicle, there is so much space under the 'door'."
2. Sinister-Shadow: "Date Order (MM/DD/YYYY)"
3. HollowMist11: "Attack ads against political opponents, ads for law firms or lawyers. These kinds of ads are illegal and considered unethical in our country. Also expecting a teenager to be out of the house by the time they're 18. I live in Southeast Asia. There's no stigma about living with one's parents. Most of the time, there will be three generations living in one house."
4. ferret_80: "Casually driving a couple hours. Cars are so ubiquitous and stuff is so spread out a lot of the time we don't even think about travel in distance but instead in driving time. Driving 2 hours on a weekend for random day trip doesn't seem like anything of note. driving 8 hours is a long trip but not really a huge deal."
5. Ssffxx: "Asking everyone 'what do you do?' when you first meet them. I live outside the US and realized there are some people I’ve known for years and I still don’t know their job. I think in the US jobs are a bigger part of a person’s identity than in some other places."
6. sunnyeggs0: "Say 'I'll just have water' at a restaurant and not be charged for it or be asked 'What kind?'"
7. KingAceNumber1: "Actively avoiding healthcare visits/checkups because if there's something wrong and you don't have the money to pay for treatment, then you'd rather just not know."
8. I-am-a-Mango: "Being legally allowed to drink only when you reach 21."
9. Adam-West: "When I was there during the last election I was shocked at how phrases like ‘well they have the black vote’ or the ‘Latino vote’ came up all the time on the radio. Obviously it’s not racist but it’s just something that would never come up in my country. Like, why would latino people all vote for the same person?"
10. TitanicBeta: "Not putting the final price on the tag. I'm not sure whether it's still like this, but a few years ago one never knew whether the $1.00 item in McDonald's or Burger King is actually $1.00 or maybe $1.08."
11. pourmewhineoh: "Portion sizes."
12. danno49: "Gratuitous violence in entertainment is normal. But show one boob and people lose their s**t."
13. I_hate_traveling: "Willingly putting yourself massively in debt for a college degree.
"I come from a place with free university education (which has its own drawbacks of course), and the fact that you can make such a huge, life-altering decision at 17 is considered normal over there, that seems downright bizarre to me."
14. gibbylewd: "Not owning kettles and MICROWAVING their water for coffee/tea."
15. CaravelClerihew: "Putting your country's flag everywhere and on everything.
"A flagpole on your porch or car bumper sticker may be somewhat understandable, but it gets really weird when it starts popping up on baseball caps, swimsuits or underwear.
"I'm in Australia and Americans are the only ones do this (yes, with the American flag), even all the way out here."
16. Shervico: "I'm gonna say something positive, I live in southern Italy, but I go all around the state and the most fun and genuine tourists I've met were all American, didn't meet a single entitled one."
17. jAlvesrz: "Having teens as your child's babysitter."
18. bantamw: "The one that always shocks me is the whole 'thank you for your service' military thing. The military is treated like some sort of god-level being. It first struck me at Seaworld when they would make all service personnel stand up. In the UK the military guys (a) wouldn’t do it and (b) would be embarrassed. In most cases, they would be actively told not to do it so they don’t get identified."
19. VaticanCameros714: "Circumcising newborn babies."
20. bluegreentree: "Identifying as your heritage instead of your nationality. Americans will say that they’re Italian, German, Polish, etc. when they don’t speak the language and have no real connection to those countries anymore."
21. nc27kopite: "Tipping is almost compulsory. In UK tips are optional and earned."
22. HarrargnNarg: "Imitation cheese. Wtf? Why not cheese?"
And there you have it, 22 things - good and bad - about the US that other nations just can't come to grips with.
