Our cultural differences are what make us unique, and they’re what bond us with others alike. What we see as ordinary always depends on people, place, and context and surely it will differ from one person to another.
That becomes super obvious when we leave the comfort of our home behind our back and go on vacation. Ask travelers how often they've been in uncomfortable social situations, had weird conversations, and found themselves strangers in a foreign land, and they will tell numerous stories.
Now this Ask Reddit thread has recently gained a lot of attention, amassing a whopping 28.3k comments and 27.8k upvotes. “What things do Americans like and the rest of the world not so much?” someone asked and people started sharing their own experiences, impressions and stories that show us once again just how relative things can be.
#1
Tipping culture.
It's crazy how much people defend an absolutely terrible system.
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337points
#3
Commercials about pharmaceutical pills. "Ask your doctor about taking xyz... side affects can include (everything).
Wild!
Wild!
290points
#4
Opinion signs outside their houses. Like "in this house we support...". I find it weird and unusual.
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274points
#5
College sports. Particularly football and basketball.
The rest of the world loves soccer, but nobody gives a hoot about it at the university level.
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256points
#8
Threatening to press charges on people....
And being suspicious of everyone.
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194points
#9
imperial units
(edit: fahrenheit aswell as celsius are good for certain scenarios so ill omit the former)
(edit: fahrenheit aswell as celsius are good for certain scenarios so ill omit the former)
172points
#12
Driving everywhere. Anywhere you go, you go in a car.
But I suspect for many, other options are so rare they don't think about them even if they do exist.
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154points
#15
Root beer and ranch dressing. I brought some to Germany and had my friends try it and they said the root beer tasted like medicine. They politely tasted the dressing with a celery and said "hmmm, interesting" but the look on their faces was that it was terrible ha.
134points
#16
Garbage Disposals
Just shove that turkey carcass in the disposal and run some warm water behind it
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127points
#17
God damn delis. At least out of all the places I’ve traveled to the US by far has the best delis. I don’t know if I can live somewhere without a great Jewish or Italian deli.
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117points
#20
This used to be much more prevalent in the US but food coloring. When I moved from Japan to the US, I was surprised at how colorful their foods were.
These days Americans are now more keen to organic natural stuff so I see it less but it took me a while to realize that blue raspberry is not a real thing.
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100points