The United States of America is the land of the free and full of opportunities. It is one of the largest economies in the world and it has always amassed people for the life one can create there. But, like every country, it has its own way of functioning and the people living there have their own culture. And if you are also attracted to this country and would like to travel to the United States or you are planning of moving there, you should expect to encounter things you‘ve never seen before or things done differently to what you are used to.
A few days ago, Reddit user Ymij asked people to share some things Americans don‘t realize exist only in the United States. And people had a lot to say. The post got more than 10k answers and Bored Panda gathered a list of some of the most upvoted responses.
More info: Reddit
#21
Food portion sizes... In EU you get food portions you can finish and are generally calculated to be pretty much fill/satisfy you over the entire meal.
When I go to the US I can fill myself up with half of the appetizer
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231points
#23
The use of the words junior, sophomore and senior in school. I don't think I have ever heard these outside of an American TV show or movie.
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197points
#24
I can't speak for the whole world, but having elections on a weekday seems crazy to me. We do it in the weekend so that people are off work anyway.
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192points
#25
A single pool of paid time off that you use for both vacation and sick leave. Therefore having to forego vacation to keep a bank of leave just in case you get ill.
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185points
#27
Those commercials featuring some sort of drug or medication. With the typical closing where the narrator states "Side effects includes blah blah blah...Discuss with your doctor about blah blah blah"
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164points
#28
Tipping, most other places actually pay their waiters/waitresses and tippings just for extremely good service or rounding up.
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162points
#29
Having to drive everywhere. I'm 27-years-old, not from the US and never learnt to drive. I've also never felt like I needed it.
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158points
#30
It's pretty funny watching Americans moan over their super-cheap petrol prices. "But we drive everywhere, cars are fundamental to our society". Yep, same here in Australia, too. Your fuel is still incredibly cheap.
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156points
#31
Garbage disposal units in sinks. I've been to nearly 20 countries, and I've never seen one.
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141points
#32
Longer ad breaks in the Muppet Show.
The UK version had two minutes of extra content in every episode due to restrictions on the amount of ads you could play on British TV.
That's 240 minutes of extra Muppet content that most Americans never saw.
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140points
#33
Playing the national anthem before sporting events. There may be a handful of other countries that do, but in much of the world it's only played for international matches.
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134points
#34
Your identity politics used to be just in America, then it spilled out like a burst sewage pipe.
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122points
#35
Red solo cups. My european cousins asked me if parties in the us really had those red cups.
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116points
#36
Bumper stickers. They’re a lot less common in Europe anyway, not sure about the rest of the world.
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115points
#39
Stores like Wal-Mart where you can buy everything that are open all the time. Groceries, alcohol, plants, medicine, tires, toys...
The first time I went to Germany on a work trip it was a bank holiday and everything was closed.
I live in Jerusalem now and there is a separate store for everything.
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96points
