63 Things Basically Every American Accepts As Completely Normal But Are Actually Very, Very Strange
Here in the United States, a lot of people think the way WE do things is the way the rest of the world does things. Obviously, that ain't the case. Over the past few years, people on Reddit have shared the things they really can't quite understand about Americans and, of course, it's juicy.
Fox
Here are the best responses:
1."The obsession with high school. I have friends who say their best years were spent in high school, and I think that's really, really sad."
2."People have lunch at their desks. And usually it's just a snack. Where I come from, lunch is the most complete meal of the day."
3."Having an average of only 10 days of annual leave. And then sometimes even being looked down on for taking it."
4."Why kids have a social pressure to leave their parents' homes at 18."
5."Homecoming. Who the heck is coming home?"
6."Complete strangers asking me how I'm doing."
7."There's so much water in your toilet bowls...you could go for a swim in there."
8."You have a whole aisle in your supermarkets dedicated to just cereal."
9."The huge number of flags everywhere."
10."The fact that swearing is such a big deal and you bleep out everything is so weird."
11."Big glasses of water WITH ICE at restaurants."
12."How American towns and cities are generally designed so that you have to drive everywhere."
13."Processed cheese. There are so many delicious cheeses that are actual cheese. Why eat the gross fake stuff?"
14."The more credit you take the better for your credit score. Here in Germany, your credit score will suffer the more credit you take. Even if you pay it back on time."
15."What I will never be able to understand is this: How can it be completely normal for you people for Amazon to leave the package on your doorstep???"
16."Just the general weird attitude about alcohol. I was carded to get into a bar in the US when I was 29 years old...meanwhile I'd been drinking in pubs in England for 13 years without having to show ID."
"A few of us Brits went for a drink at lunchtime, and our American friends were basically ready to refer us to Alcoholics Anonymous."
17."Walmart. I went to buy a SIM card and some groceries, but I also discovered that I could also buy pet fish, car parts and shoes...all in one building?!?!"
18."The portion sizes. A meal in a restaurant back home will usually leave me fairly full, but I felt as if I had to be rolled out of everywhere I ate in the US."
19."I went to pay with a credit card in a restaurant and the waiter just took it and walked off."
20."Drink sizes! Whoa."
"When my family visited in 2017, we landed in Texas for a stopover. First thing I saw in the shops part of the terminal was a dude who was drinking from what looked like an actual bucket. Here in New Zealand, our 'large' drinks would be considered an American 'small' or 'medium.'" —u/The_Sly_Sloth
21."Paying for an ambulance."
"Seriously, like, WTF?"
22."Your news. It’s over-sensationalized. I couldn’t believe it when I visited. Every news program seems much less like news and more like reality TV."
23."You can buy milk in gallon-sized containers."
"When I visited America, I went to a supermarket for some breakfast stuff — cereal and milk. All they had was milk in gallons! Who could possibly want that much milk? I asked for a smaller carton, and the lady who worked there just laughed at me and asked, 'Don’t you like milk in England?'" —u/memesalwaysdie
24."Americans are nice and will stop to talk to strangers."
"I have been through a lot of big American cities and a lot of tiny towns. ALL OF YOU — north to south — make Canadians look like bloody savages. I expected something worse, probably because of television and the internet. I ended up leaving your country, after the first time I visited, blown away and with a newfound, VERY REAL love for my southern neighbors." —u/animal1988
25."Red Solo cups are not just a Hollywood prop."
"When I immigrated to the US, my mother-in-law was making dinner and offered me iced tea in a red Solo cup." —u/RavynLearnsBadly
26."You can get into university just by being good at sports."
27."How desensitized they are to violence on TV and movies."
"I'm too European to understand how swearing and curse words are such a big deal in movies and songs, but violence and guns are taken with a grain of salt."
28."That you can get fired just like that and have no income."
"In my country, if you are fired, your employer needs to pay you for at least three months after you were fired."
29."The Pledge of Allegiance."
"If that shit isn't brainwashing, I don't know what is." —u/SamCropper
30."The idolization of politicians."
"They are public servants, not rock stars. You don't need to scream their name, buy their merch, fully commit your life to them, and believe everything they say."
31."Tipping. I had zero clue about tipping/how to tip, and I got a lot of dirty looks during my first solo trip there. I felt like shit after finding out."
*NOTE: If you come to the United States, learn how to tip. It's important.
32."Yellow school buses are actually a thing in America. I honestly thought it was just a cartoon thing, but nope!"
33."There are security guards in the school halls, and some schools even have metal detectors at the entrance like the TSA at airports."
34."You have those angry sinks* that chop shit."
*AKA garbage disposals.
35."On Halloween, masked people come to your house and knock on your door asking for candy. Mostly it's just packs of kids, but sometimes whole families."
36."The minimal number of paid days off you get from work."
"A friend of mine from Wisconsin was very proud that he got 20 days off per year. If someone in Germany offered me only 20 days, I would laugh at them and leave." —u/_Warsheep_
37."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. In other parts of the world, people just identify with the country they were born in or have lived in for a significant amount of time, regardless of their ancestry."
38."Attack ads against political opponents, and ads for law firms or lawyers. These kinds of ads are illegal and considered unethical in our country."
39."American kids eat straight sugar."
"Walked onto the playground and saw kids chugging these long, thin sticks. I tried one and realized it was just colored sugar. They called them Pixy Stix." —u/whowantsrice
40."Talking really loudly in public places. Default volume of most Americans seems to be about 10 decibels higher than that of every other country's inhabitants."
41."The honking...I thought it was a movie stereotype, and then I went to New York."
![—[Deleted]](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/3vDqkvHY6G8lRCKY3cGHmQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/buzzfeed_articles_778/081af9d979057da3b07d08e4398b5998)
42."Your country is huge! I got off the plane and asked the cab guy how far the hotel was and he said about 30 miles. I almost had a heart attack."
43."Free soft drink refills in restaurants."
44."Higher education can cost upward of $50,000 per year."
45."Huge gaps in the sides and bottoms of toilet stalls that people can see through."
—49th
46."The TV ads for prescription medication always get me."
47."That you guys don't include taxes in your prices? I went to a convenience store to get a drink and was very confused when the price labeled was different at checkout."
48."Having massive student debt."
"I pay 20 euros per semester for tuition in Austria."
49."In many US states, some criminals can't vote, even while on parole."
50."The drinking age being 21."
"You can join the Army, get married, have children, and drive at a younger age, but you're too immature to drink???"
51."Expensive required textbooks that you HAVE to buy to take a university class."
52."There was a 24-hour pharmacy across the street from our apartment. Nothing shocking there, except that it ALSO sold booze and cigarettes. What the actual fuck, like..."
53."Wearing outdoor shoes inside the house."
"Do you want to get dirt and mud and dog shit all over your floors?"
54."Saying, 'How are you doing?' or 'How's it going?', etc. just means 'hello.' I've noticed non-Americans tend to think this is an invitation for them to share their life troubles while most Americans just use it as a greeting."
55."The size of your SUVs and trucks."
56."The size of rats and the amount of cockroaches. I saw a roadkill cockroach the size of a tennis ball at the Grand Canyon. I have lived in Berlin for years, and I have yet to see any rat that comes close to New York rats."
57."The extreme variety between the states."
"I went to live there for a year and on the plane over, the guy next to me said, 'Each state is like a different country.' I thought he meant it in the same way that Manchester is different to Birmingham. But everything is so different state to state: the people, the attitude, the food, etc." —u/Westlifelover
58."The coupons. I was visiting a friend of mine who is from the States, and she bought a book of coupons. The discounts you could get were ridiculously fantastic!"
59."Putting a ton of sugar in products like bread."
60."When traveling to another part of the world, an American will ALWAYS say the city and/or state they’re from, not the country. We’ll be at a hostel and someone will ask where everyone’s from: 'Denmark, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Canada ... Sacramento, California.'”
61."Not owning kettles and microwaving water for coffee/tea."
62."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?'"
63."Chanting 'USA!' for no apparent reason."
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.