It is entirely normal to feel slightly out of your depth when going abroad—one of the main points of travel is to expose yourself to different cultures, customs, and ways of living. Not only does this broaden our knowledge about the world, but it can also make us value what we have at home far more once we’re back from our adventures.
One redditor recently asked their fellow internet users from Europe to share the biggest culture shocks that they experienced while visiting the United States, and they delivered. Scroll down to check out what surprised them the most on their travels, from just how B I G everything is to the (over)work culture and how friendly everyone seems.
We reached out to traveler and artist Dennis Irschara, who has been to 34 countries, to hear his thoughts about the United States. Read on to see what the traveler told Bored Panda.
#21
I was prepared for taxes not being included in price tags and the tipping stuff etc. I was not prepared for the "I love Jesus"/ "Jesus loves me" people with megaphones, banners, t-shirts and flyers walking around everywhere.
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62points
#22
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 #1 is the only acceptable goal. It's a loudness war to get to your brain, and it's exhausting.
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61points
#23
Everybody smiling to one another, as a polish person i just can't understand that. Everybody is expected to smile to you even if they are sad.
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59points
#24
Adverts (commercials). We generally don’t have medical or adversarial (mentioning competitors directly) adverts, at least in the UK
My kids picked up on this when we went to the cinema and there was a Samsung advert directly trashing Apple. They were like “what the hell was THAT?”
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57points
#25
I moved to America for 3 years when I was 18. The first time I walked into Walmart there was a very tall man with a gun and a knife strapped to his belt. It definitely took me by surprise and at first made me feel a little uneasy.
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50points
#26
Some of them would eat dessert for breakfast - things like pancakes, syrup, fruit, sweet waffles etc
47points
#28
Honestly two things that stuck me, lack of walkability and repetitive buildings or grid layouts
42points
#29
you guys have air conditioning in your house????? i was astonished
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42points
#30
Mine is going to sound really dumb, but just the way I was treated when in a shop buying clothes. Hello on the way in, always someone trying to help, and then they actually asked me if someone helpe med when I went to pay for my stuff.
In Spain you walk in, buy what you want and most of the time you're lucky if the cashier is nice enough to say hello (in all fairness they get paid a s****y wage and have to deal with lot's of idiots).
The rest of the stuff (I was in New York) didn't shock me much. The tipping situation is certainly different, but I was expecting that.
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36points
