Non-Americans Are Confessing Their Biggest Shocks About American Culture

Honestly, the ever-present fear factor. I always felt uncomfortable and unsafe. But it’s little things and big things: When I went to Florida for the first time as a small child I saw a man hop the barrier in the middle of the highway during a police chase. It was the first time I’d ever seen anything like that. We then proceeded to our gated vacation area and we’re literally told not to leave it at night because we were tourists and therefore targets. That’s stuff you shouldn’t have to hear in a developed country. When I went back as an adult I stayed in the hotel in Vegas where that man shot out of the hotel window with a semi-automatic rifle using a bump stock and murdered those concert goers. I was there a couple years before the shooting but I distinctly remember feeling an ominous feeling while lounging in the pool.
I also went to Florida as an adult and they literally took my fingerprint to get into a theme park. That’s not normal. And it’s not just the big, obvious stuff like that. It’s little things like how you can’t even pump your gas first and pay after, you have to pay first because nobody trusts anybody. When we got pulled over for speeding the cop came out of his cruiser super slow with his hand on his gun the entire time. Veeery cautiously as though this could turn into a shootout at any moment.

The ever-present presence of guns and a glorified cowboy, “shoot first, ask questions later” culture is a horrible mix. The fact that the argument for why there are so many people with guns is because they need them to feel safe says a tremendous amount about how backwards it is as a developed nation. I mention this because I feel it validates my sense of uneasy-ness in the country. Clearly I’m not the only one who feels this way. I’ve never experienced anything like any of this in my home country.

/Stevieeeer/

The insincerity: You'll meet plenty of people who switch on big fake grins and pretend to have an interest in you, they'll ask you way too many questions that are way too personal (and if you don't answer them you're "being difficult") and lie straight to your face.

They dont give a secondhand shit about you or anything about you, they literally just want you to think they're being nice. And the reason they want you to think they're nice (instead of just actually being nice to you in the first place) is because they're all so incredibly insincere.
The casual acceptance of state-sanctioned murder: The proliferation of firearms is past comic level, it's now absurd. People shoot and kill each other every day. There is a mass shooting literally every single day. And the police love to go around just casually murdering people entirely consequence free due to "qualified immunity" which means they are not responsible for their own actions.

Civil Forfeiture: The way the police are now legally allowed to rob you. Look it up.
The appalling quality of the food: there are only 2 flavours a) sweet b) salty Everything is packed with hormones and chemicals and additives and fat and sugar and salt.

The casual acceptance that although you pay your taxes and although you pay your insurance premiums and although you pay your co-pays and although your doctor has assessed that you need medical treatment, an unqualified non-expert who knows nothing of your medical situation or your treatment requirements will decide that you should not receive the medical treatment that you've already paid many times over for.

The unshakable belief that God has a favourite, and that favourite is the biggest warmonger on the entire planet. The insultingly low quality of the buildings and motor vehicles.

Badly designed, and poorly made, out of substandard materials...It's no wonder Americans can't sell their cars anywhere else but in America (and even then only through the liberal use of jingoism and patriotism and nationalism...)

The way the military is seen as a magical solution to all of societies problems: "I need healthcare but I can't afford it." "Then join the military!". "I need work but nobody is hiring." "Then join the military!". "I need an education but I can't afford it." "Then join the military!". I need to learn a trade but I can't afford the training." "Then join the military!". etc etc etc It's as if the only way Americans will accept "socialism" 🙄 is when it's carrying a gun.
The way opinion is accepted as news: Back in the Reagan era the republicans removed the requirement that news outlets must be Factual, Accurate and Accountable. Since then news programs have descended into a race-to-the-bottom to see who can broadcast the most wildly untrue claims. Currently OAN and Newsmax are giving the current champion Fox News a run for its money.

/Sam-Yuil-ElleJackson/

So many. Don't even know where to start. It was a big shock because I expected things to be more normal and developed and civilized coming from Europe. Healthcare isn't respected as a very basic human right and it's not free but rather a privilege of the rich. Biggest shock is people being against universal healthcare when that is actually CHEAPER than the shitty system usa has.

Same as education. Food in schools. I just can't understand. Wouldn't feed my animals that shit. Guns. I felt more insecure than in 3rd world countries. It's just crazy that usa let's crazy people have guns and even with all the deaths people still deny facts. Fat. I landed in usa and I see fat and overweight people all over. Like a dystopian reality when suddenly everyone got +50kg.

Not using the metric system. It's just so ridiculous and stupid. Worship of the military is just insane. Discounts for military personal that spread death hate torture and misery throughout the world fighting for oil. Complete lack of respect for basic human rights and even prosecuting people that defend the public best interest like heroes like Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowdon.

Having Guantanamo still open. Severe lack of public transportation. Severe lack of trains. The size. Everything is crazy big. Food portions where 1 meal could feed a family for a day. Everything has to big super big where big is perceived as better when in reality just lacks quality.

Cars are so big, maybe because everyone is so fat? Consume tons of gas and are incredibly slow and inefficient. Speeding police are crazy nazis. Carry a machine gun on a sidewalk? No problem. Going 1km/h over the speed limit, death penalty. Death penalty it's just fucked up. Innocents dying because mistakes were made. Everything is about money it's about business.

Everything else is second. Justice, business, if you are rich you bail if you are poor you get into a for profit jail. Lobbying being legal, it's just insane. Lobbying is completely and highly illegal in most democracies. 2 party dictatorship. Like any other party doesn't matter. People being so stupid. Like voting against their own interests, flat earthers, anti vax (way before covid), climate change deniers. They virtually only exist in usa, incredibly few elsewhere. I don't know anyone.

Severe lack of history and geography knowledge. The average usa citizen knows as much as a 10yo about world history here. Which is dangerous because if you don't learn history then history will repeat itself, nazis marching in the streets. Racism, I just can't even understand why it happens. Nature, stunning beautiful just amazing, the countryside the wildlife crazy beautiful scenarios. Too bad it's being all destroyed.

Income inequality, richest country in the world, millions of poor people. Tons of homeless people. Just so sad. And people don't seem to care or do anything about it. And try to justify saying they don't want to work or are drug addicts. The insane fucked up focus on security, even before 9/11 so much police and military, and doesn't make any difference just makes everyone's life more miserable.

The false American dream where many people think that anyone works hard he or she can succeed, like everyone has the same opportunities and starting place. Everything seems like a competition everything wants to be number 1. Sports, like indie car racing. Cars driving on an oval track I will never understand the fun. Drag racing even worse, racing? Like zero skills press something ends in seconds. Absurd. There's many other things but that's what came to my mind

/riskinhos/

I went to the US as an (short term) exchange student, difference in education came as quite surprise. For some background Germany has three tracks for secondary education the one I went to is the longest and is there to prepare you for University. At the time I was one year away from graduation. For the exchange I went to a public US High School and while there I join the same classes as my host.
There were some obvious differences for example I didn't have as many different classes as I had in Germany, but I had the same classes more often. Also I Germany we have sports as a class and we do different kinds of sports, in the US you could pick a sport you like and just do that all the time. School sports are also much more competitive.

What really shocked me was the level and how these classes were taught, compared to what I was used to in Germany it all seemed so easy. Here is a summury of my first day:

It started with Spanish class, since the students already learned Spanish for several years I expected a B1, B2 or even C1 level class entirely in Spanish (similar to my foreign language class in Germany). However the class was mostly in English and what little Spanish was spoken didn't seem very fluid. I was told by another German exchange student that came with me that German class was on a similar level.

After that we had American history class, the class took a in-depth look at some battle in the civil war. In-depth looks at battles is something I never had in Germany but it was actually interesting. However at some point in the middle of class everyone suddenly got up to take the pledge of allegiance and then got back to class like nothing happend, this absolutely confused me...

Next up Math: The teacher handed out a work sheet everyone was supposed to work on it by themselves. The topic was Curve sketching and the tasks felt like they would fit in 6th grade in Germany. The final task however was intended for the good students to tinker with, it was however easily solvable with the Quadratic formula.

I finished the sheet in less than halve the time and then got in trouble for helping my host (the teacher didn't like us talking). Later in class the teacher called me up front to present the solution to the final task, but interrupted me shortly after I started because I didn't solve it as intended. Instead of using "collage level math" (her exact words) we were supposed to solve in graphically.

Math was followed by Science class, where we learned how to use a soldering iron and work on a circuit board. This was my favourite class. After that we had English/literature class it began with a vocabulary test. I didn't take the test and i still don't unterstand why they had one in the first place... There were some other classes after that but nothing to interesting. Overall it was quite a surprise how different the schools were.
Also I want to make it clear that it isn't my intention to claim that US system is too easy or something like that. It makes sense that my classes in Germany are more difficult because the US high school is a "catch all"-system meanwhile in German students are separated into different tracks with different difficulties and I took the one with the highest difficulty.

/JonnyPerk/

Way more ads and just strange ads. Telling people to “tell your doctor you want X drug” while listing possible side effects of suicidal thoughts to cure acne or some minor issue. lol what?! Crispy bacon is delicious, but thick succulent bacon doesn’t exist here. USA you are missing half the wonder of bacon!!
The entire healthcare system is a scam. From the moment you sit down in a doctors office and fill huge contracts, signing your life away with every doctors visit. They’ll do anything to squeeze an extra penny from you and genuinely do not care about getting you better. A healthy person means less money for them.

The country itself I think is the best in the world. I always looked forward to road tripping around the US, but it’s so much better and more fun and wild than I ever imagined. The landscape totally changes every few hours. It’s amazing.

Workers have no rights or freedoms compared to Europe. In fact, Americans have much fewer rights and “freedoms” than most Europeans. Americans are so brainwashed into thinking they live in the best place in the world that they never think to look outside of it to see how much better other countries have it.

Iced coffee and iced tea blew my mind when I first came here. You mean ICE in COFFEE? That sounds DISGUSTING! Nope, it’s fabulous. Most laws aren’t “hard” laws. Everything is weirdly open for interpretation, and the more money you have the more open for interpretation those laws are. Shots are bigger here!! More booze is good. Unfortunately in NY a beer at a bar is normally at least $7 plus tax plus $1 tip per beer. In NYC it’s normally at least $9 plus. Cocktails are $15 plus tax tip etc.

Gas/petrol is really cheap compared to Europe (even though Americans complain about it. Even I complain about it after living here a few years) Electric outlets run at lower voltages. Never looked into why but they do. There are so many crazy / mentally ill / unstable people who are undiagnosed here. Prob because nobody can afford to see a doctor.

The mix of cultures and ethnicities and food and music and art is truly magical. It makes America great. Americans aren’t taught real history. They only get told a couple completely whitewashed stories but don’t actually learn anything real about their history. They also have to salute a flag and sing the national anthem every day in school. Damn propaganda shit.

Then they teach their kids only how to pass a test, not how to think critically. And they get unlimited re-do’s until they pass. And most of the tome being their phones and use them during tests. Teachers don’t have any power to stop them.

99% of Americans don’t understand taxes. Only the elite rich do. It keeps the richest areas rich and exclusive while making shitty areas shittier every year and the people in them poorer. I love America and would like to live here for the rest of my life because of the beautiful country, weather and culture. But the country is designed to only serve the rich while sucking the lower 90% dry, making them believe they’re working for an American dream which no longer exists.

/Mundane_Business/

Oh boy. This is a long one. Swede here. As Bohemian Rhapsody put it; Puritans in public, perverts in private. It seems like a lot of Americans are concerned with appearance and nudity. As a European I think it is strange how you cover up small children on the beach or what moral panic is caused by a short skirt.

Europeans in general are a lot more relaxed when it comes to sex and nudity. Also, please, it is 2021. How can you guys not provide decent sexual education? Besides from the "Don't have sex. Because you'll get pregnant. And die." The amount of misconceptions about STI and pregnancies is weird.
I also find it peculiar how vastly different American culture can be between states. How it range from very progressive to super conservative. On one hand there's California and on another the Bible Belt states. One thing I like, but find a bit strange is how friendly Americans are in general. In Scandinavia there isn't really a culture expectation to having to be friendly and nice to everyone. Regardless of if you like them or not. Stopping to help a stranger doesn't seem to be weird in America and it is a nice mentality to have. Having "Hi, how are you," as a greeting Is equal parts nice as confusing.

Another thing that is abnormal is just how loud you guys are. Like honestly, Americans are easy to spot abroad. You just have to listen to whoever is speaking the loudest in a restaurant. That's the American family. It doesn't seem to be such a thing as an inside voice. I also find it kind of weird how Americans really have been raised on the belief of "We're the greatest country!" and a center of the universe kind of mentality.

And how much Americans voice that. How you guys won the world wars and saved us helpless europeans etc. And the lack of basic geographical knowledge outside of America! The capital of Europe is somehow Paris, and Europe in general is usually France, England or Italy. That Africa is a country as opposed to a continent and that Asia, asides from China (Scary communist), Japan (Anime) and Korea (Either K-pop or North Korea) is pretty much the same.

Sadly I've even seen Karens outraged because a polish elderly person didn't speak English, or that a shop in London wouldn't accept American dollars. Then there's also minor things, like going here with travel checks of all things. Something that hasn't really been used in Europe since the 90's. I was speaking to an American nurse once.

The cultural difference between Sweden and America, as she put it was that all Americans are raised to believe that they're exceptional. Whatever or not they are is irrelevant. Swedes on the other hand are raised to believe that they're nothing special (See, law of Jante.). Even if someone is exceptional, they're told to keep their heads down and not stand out. The sheer confidence of Americans is something to behold.

And I'm not really here to debate politics but there seems to be an irrational fear of socialism or leftist reforms. Which I can understand somehow if you were brought up during the Cold War and told to fear the Russian bear. However ignoring all the goods things, like a decent parental leave or getting health care without emptying the savings account is just strange. It is also rather abnormal how minimum wage is still an accepted thing.

A job that literally can't support a person today and how someone like a waiter is supposed to survive on tips. The tipping culture is also strange. I'm happy to tip if the service and food was good, but I'm not a fan of how it is sometimes a mandatory service charge.

Then there's also all the conspiracy theories. Flat earth, anti-vaxx, etc. Thankfully these people are in minority but I just don't get how anyone could come to believe those things. Like, where's the common sense?m And finally. All the fast food. And the sizes. I've had the privilege to visit both USA and Japan. A large drink in Japan is still smaller than a small drink in the US. Why have you normalized having such big servings?

/6ofcrowns/

Americans PAY FOR HEALTHCARE! They have the most expensive healthcare in the world - because they don't have a healthcare system, but a healthcare industry which focuses not on care but on maximizing profit.
They also pay for Healthcare Insurance. Healthcare insurance is so expensive that people cannot really afford it unless subsidized by an employer. Even with health insurance, Americans still pay for doctor visits. Also, the insurance has deductibles, and limits.

The insurance companies hire armies of people whose job focuses on finding ways to not pay benefits to their beneficiaries, thus refusing treatment, often life-saving treatment. Their salaries are paid by the insurance companies, and the insurance companies are paid by their beneficiaries, so basically, when you pay your health insurance you paid the salary to the person who will do their absolute best to refuse your benefits when you need them.

Getting into an accident and needing medical care or getting sick and needing hospitalization is potentially a bankruptcy-causing event. 2/3 of bankruptcies are medical debt-related. Hospitals and doctors are incentivized by money first and foremost. Hospitals provide as little care as possible for as much profit as possible, and do not disclose their prices.

You can get charged thousands of dollars for a trivial visit to the emergency room. You can get charged thousands of dollars if you go for a surgery, and let's say the anesthesiologist is not covered by your insurance. More often than not, this comes as a complete surprise.

Americans think all of this is normal, are subjected to vicious anti-tax-supported-healthcare propaganda and fight tooth and nail against replacing the healthcare industry with a healthcare system.

I see how and why they are manipulated into it, I see the absolutely brutal, inhumane, cruel exploitation going on, and it absolutely breaks my heart. Shocking, indeed.

The narrative of "Tax-supported/free healthcare is bad and we should give our taxes to the Pentagon instead" is heavily enforced by propaganda - sockpuppet accounts pop-up anywhere healthcare is mentioned and try to frame it as somehow "socialist", a vague word Americans are trained to fear because of decades of cold-war propaganda.

Healthcare and education make a strong nation so I imagine the Chinese and Russian agitprop bots also chime in. I know, your government spending your taxes on helping you instead of stealing them is totally unacceptable.

/obviousoctopus/

Nobody walks. Nice day out and the only place you might see people walking is dedicated parks. What's wrong with a stroll through the neighborhood? You get looked at like you're too poor to afford a car or up to something shady. Sometimes all I want is a walk around the block without having to drive to a park gee.
Speaking of parks and nice weather. As a German it's incomprehensible how it's not okay to have a beer outside on the grass. I mean that's like the definition of freedom for some and yet nope not allowed. Feel free to bring your gun though no biggie.

Again from a German perspective bread is insane. Like I don't hate American bread even though its doughy and sweet but it is really hard to find alternatives. Wegmans seems to be the only place where you have a chance to get a non-sweet dense and crusty bread. And yes this goes for most other countries as well. Even some European countries have a hard time with bread choices.,Tipping is annoying. Not the general concept but that it's mandatory and has a minimum. Just pay your workers properly.

TV commercials are a bit over the top both in frequency and in intensity. Although Asia wins when it comes to intensity. The US is a big country and gets a decent amount of visitors. Yet somehow every time some shop clerk looks at a drivers license or passport from a foreign country to check age etc it's code red.

4 out of 5 times the manager gets called to double check. Sometimes a visa is requested (yes it happened) and when I say I don't need a visa it's code double red. Funny. Your houses are crazy. I mean I get it it's cheaper to build with wood and such but damn in some areas it's really not a good idea. Also noise travels.

Last one: Imperial measurements ... I mean fine sure have them whatever. But don't ever tell me that metric is more complicated. It's not. "Wait how many cups are in a quart? Which quart are we talking about? Should we go by spoons instead?" or "I need 12/16th of an inch here". Seriously at least check out metric maybe you don't hate it as much as you think.
Last last one: Your power outlets suck. Sorry but they do. They just don't hold. Every time you slightly move the cable it disconnects again because they are so damn loose. Why??? The three prong ones are slightly better than two slit ones.

Yea ofc I've seen nicely designed areas too. New and old. Old like Chicago, Philly, NY is good because they were build before the designed for cars era and some very new ones are getting better again too. But especially those between 60th and 2010th are awful.
But the fact that people look at you funny if you walk around in a residential neighborhood (with sidewalks!) and you don't have a dog still remains. Again, different in bigger cities of course.

/user/nexe/

As a Canadian who now splits my time between Canada and the USA: Portion sizes. Holy mother of God, the portions are insane!
The abundance of chain restaurants and fast food and how frequently they are used when there are so many small, culturally diverse restaurants run by ethnic people. I was blown away when I was introduced to Ethiopian food and decided from that day forward I never want to eat at a chain restaurant again.
Guns. The first time I saw someone just casually walking around with a gun tucked into the back of their pants I was horrified. Like you know America has a gun problem but growing up somewhere where it would be absolutely alarming to see someone carrying a gun in public—I wasn’t prepared for it and I felt very uncomfortable. My partner laughs at me but, I constantly pay attention to our surroundings when we are in public spaces in America and refuse to be in public without shoes that I can run in.
Convenience. Anything and everything you want is readily available to you at any time of the day. You can even hit up a pharmacy at 3am and buy some booze with your cold medicine if you feel like really fucking yourself up!
Healthcare/Medication. Canadians love to say Americans have much better access to doctors & that their ERs aren’t nuts but that has not been my experience. There are more urgent care centers available that helps not having to clog up the ER with urgent but not emergency situations but the wait time in an ER is not speedy. Also, the urine sample collection in American ERs is a super weird experience.
Lastly, I was shocked to find out that you cannot get things like Activated Charcoal tablets from the pharmacy or OTC muscle relaxers. I paid a doctor $150 to tell me I probably just had a pulled muscle, walk me out to the pharmacy shelves and hand me some Icy Hot. I was like wait...you don’t have muscle relaxer pills?!?!
The non-legalization of THC products. As a chronic pain sufferer who uses a CBD:THC combo to help stave off the worst of my pain, it absolutely SUCKS not being able to bring my meds with me or be able to legally obtain and consume any when I am there. In Canada I can choose from a handful of dispensaries in my neighborhood and all I need is government ID.
Criminalization of sex work and alongside it, the bizarre fetish for pushing Christianity. ”Jesus Saves” billboards all over the place. Religion being used to prop up crazy political policies & just how aggressively stanced some people are about using “God” to excuse or celebrate things.
Two party politics and the blind dedication from seemingly birth to death for one party over the other. I have never experienced a Canadian who consistently voted for the same political party and who isn’t critical of politicians, even ones they voted for. (We aren’t without our own extremists but it is nothing like what you see south of the border).
/LeahMarieChamp/

I only visited NYC (so, forgive me), but the high buildings were nothing like what I’ve ever seen before. It was hilarious to see how small the metro stations were, but how tall the buildings were.
Transport and fat: Public transportation was pretty filthy, and I saw more obese and morbidly obese people than I ever had seen before in my life. Literally, before I visited NYC, I think I only once or twice saw a morbidly obese person, despite me being pretty travellishy. Now... I almost needed a third hand, after that visit. The amount of homeless and poor people also saddened me. The socio-economic gap was visible.

Food.: What I found disgusting is how sweet the bread was. So sweet that it was more like sugar, but sugared with sugar. Even our cakes don’t taste that sweet. Blugh. I ended up eating bagels instead and taking the smallest portions.

Positive... On a more positive note, Central Park was beautiful and pretty big. I haven’t visited any national parks, but from what I know the US does that stuff much better than European countries typically do. I also loved the high buildings’ view, pretty nifty actually. At home I would prefer a historical neighbourhood, but this was interesting too. What I liked as well, were the walking spaces. The pavement at NYC was much wider than what we have here. Around 2/3 more.

Surprise and Elections: This surprised me as well; there was almost zero about the elections (I went 3 days before Election Day in 2016). A Bernie van “I told you so”, a sticker on a traffic light “Vote Hillary”, and a blackboard at a terrace restaurant having a fun “Have a nice voting meal!” message.

Oh, and a “MAGA!” badge/sticker near Trump Tower. But other than that, nothing. That was refreshing. Our campaigns don’t last long (1 month), but we are bombarded with posters everywhere.

I visited the Trump Tower as well, but it was too much bling bling to me. The MAGA hat also cost $20 (€18.3 back then). Way too expensive and I’m not that right. I did buy a copy of the US constitution at the 9/11 museum, though, out of interest.

Edit: oh, and to add: the security controls. I thought that once I landed, I could walk in. But oh no, JFK airport being arsy. Had to wait in a row for two and a half hours whilst being disallowed from going to the toilet, and seeing the Americans just go by. Also had to put in a finger print and a declaration that I wasn’t a terrorist. I seriously would have refused... if that had not hampered my ability to visit it. Bah.
The 9/11 museum also had quite some propaganda, it seemed a bit focused around “heroic battle” instead of being a memorial to the tragedy itself (the two gaps brought that message much better imo). There also were security checks at the museum. Understandable, but the fact that you had to get checked as if you were on an airport again... bah.

/Taalnazi/

This is going to be a long one. The sheer commercialization of EVERYTHING. I mean the entirety of Times Square is nothing but ads.
Buying huge trucks and SUVs for individual use. Parking lots the size of airports. Gas stations the size of airports (Buccee’s) People trying to convert you to Christianity (I live in Texas) People being really entitled and complaining about insignificant stuff on the internet like it’s a life or death issue.
Okay a controversial one. Before coming to the US, I had a basic idea about racism in the US. However, I used to think that white people were the only racist ones. That belief changed when I started living here. I realized that people from any race can be racist, be it white, black, hispanic, or asian.
How most people don’t have any savings AT ALL and live paycheck to paycheck, and then blame their lack of savings on the government and inflation of prices on everything. Granted it is expensive to live in the US, but it is quite easy to save money too.
Another controversial one. Donald Trump won! I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that lived in a country where that guy ruled for 4 years. Fear of the police. Police can shoot you, kill you, harass you, and do anything they want, and still walk away scott free. This is just plain scary to me.
GUNS. GUNS. GUNS. I’m scared of most people I see outside and I avoid confrontation at all costs. I live in Texas, and people aren’t hesitant to shoot even if you honk at them. Healthcare. It’s unbelievable how expensive it is. It’s a basic human right, but no one cares. It’s scary.
Education. I loved that primary schooling was free in the US. I hated that universities were so expensive. I totally understand not wanting to go to college and pursuing other careers in this country. In my country, it is unthinkable to not go to college, at least for an undergraduate degree. Continuing from 13, it pleasantly surprised me that you don’t need to be well educated to be rich in this country. In my country, it is usually quite hard for the uneducated to be rich.
The prices of non-essential items. I’ve become a shopaholic after moving to this country. Non-essential items are so cheap. One can get premium designer wear for dirt cheap prices, buy luxury cars at 1/3rd the price than in my country, and buy electronics at comically low prices. Continuing from 15 and encapsulating 12 and 13, it is shocking how expensive the essential stuff is. House, insurance, healthcare, education, food, etc.
The amazing road network and road conditions almost everywhere in the US. It’s the best in the world. The awful public transportation network all across the country. Only NYC has an acceptable one. Chicago is average. The rest of the country sucks when it comes to this.

/abiromu/

I lived in the US for nearly 6 years, and my first wife was an American. I would say I have experienced a lot of the US, including visiting all 50 states.
Things that surprised me about the US: Food and drink portions are gigantic. Swiss are famous for the love of cheese and putting cheese on and in things, but America takes that to another level...even if the cheese is less good tasting. They think they have Swiss cheese, but what they call Swiss like a really shit version of Ementaller cheese. They are surprised that we have like 400+ kinds of cheese, none of which we call Swiss.
Americans are very aggressive drivers. Courtesy for fellow motorists seems to not exist. Everyone everywhere goes considerably over the posted speed limit, even when police are present. I never figured out what the rush was or the reason for the "me first" attitude when driving. Perfectly friendly people turn into raving lunatics behind the wheel.
People wear shoes inside their homes. So strange. Coffee is a crime against humanity. I think of it as brown colored breakfast water. Don't get me started on chocolate and cheese American breakfast is massive. Delicious, but too much food.
Restaurants are always focused on rushing people in and out rather than the enjoyment of the guests. The country is vast and covers many different climates and biomes, yet it is also shockingly the same. One can be at the Wal-Mart in Juneau Alaska or Portland Maine and see the same products. The plazas contain the same stores, with only some regional variation. It is really weird how similar the feel of it all is...even when the people and landscape are different.
Americans have weird race issues. People who live in the same town, have kids in the same school, like the same sports teams, and work in the same company can see themselves as more aligned with me as a white Swiss person than their neighbors that are black or hispanic. I never quite understood what drove the divide, as it seems to exist even with people who never seemed to be particularly racist to me.
Time is a relative thing there. Swiss arrive when they are scheduled to do so. We wait outside for a party that starts at 7 pm, so we ring the door bell at 7. Not 8, or 6:45, precisely 7. We would rather stand outside in the rain than be early, or worse yet, late. We schedule everything, often a year in advance, and with great details. Americans see to just sort of "do stuff when they are ready". It is a big adjustment.
In general, low price seems to be favored over high quality. A Swiss will spend 100 USD on a shovel and pass it on to his children, an American will buy a 10 USD shovel a dozen times in his life. Americans are shockingly open and friendly. It is terrifying at first. The generally are lovely, but I can see why they think we are cold. It took me years to understand things like small talk between strangers. Many times when I first arrived I thought people might be mentally ill, cult members, or trying to set me up for a crime. lol.
Weird customs about flags, patriotism, and such seem odd to an outsider. Swiss people like flags, and they are not uncommon, but we seem to have much less formality around rules and such for them. Why is tax not included in prices? Why is it withheld from pay checks and not just collected in bulk once a year? Why do you buy cars from a lot filled with cars and not order them from the factory? The same for furniture.
Anyway, that is 15, and I could go on for days. In general, I liked living there. I don't want to give the impression of just complaining. It was a positive time for me, although I was also happy to move back home to Switzerland.

/Tballz9/

The pledge of allegiance in schools is straight out of North Korea. Calling your parents 'sir' or 'ma'am' would be creepy and authoritarian here. Bathroom attendants? Fuck off. The insane cost of healthcare. Here in Australia, it's 1.5% of your income (or less/none if you're poor), which covers unlimited GP and public hospital treatment, most prescriptions are around the $10 mark (or $2 for pensioners), and I think there's an annual cap of like $2k beyond which they're free.
Guns here are for farmers and organised crime only. Nobody has one; not junkies, not road-ragers, not abusive spouses. They aren't in people's bedrooms or cars, they aren't lying around like ballpoint pens and you can't just go buy one. Nobody here fears getting shot, because to even get your hands on one, you have to be rich and well-connected and you're not going to blow that on some shitty random act of violence.
Your breakfast cereal oh my god. Marshmallows are not a fucking breakfast food. You don't have electric kettles or eggcups, you absolute weirdos. Disgusting weak burnt stewed filter coffee, and don't get me started on the grey sadness you call tea.
Treating your politicians like they're better than you, or even worthy of respect. Here we think of them like real-estate agents who've worked out how to fiddle their expense accounts. Speaking of real-estate agents: what's with the bizarre uniform jackets? Here it's generic office-worker garb, only with a slight air of rat about it. And renting apartments... from the building? What? Here the individual units are purchased individually by residents or investors, who then rent them out independently through agents.
You've made an actual civic religion out of your government. Your constitution is its scripture, your flag its holy icon, the whitehouse its temple - and people are every bit as weird and fundamentalist about it as any church. (see also: sovereign citizens lol)
All the goddamn fonts on all your products are wrong. Useless volume measures in your recipes. Yeah, I'm going to try and mash cold butter into a measuring cup, sure. That's going to happen. Imperial weights and measures, and fahrenheit temperatures: lol
None of your roadsigns or business signs, etc, ever tell you where you are. I play a bunch of geoguessr, and it's so incredibly frustrating. Here in .au, every other business is named after the local area and it makes life vastly easier.
Nobody here cares if they see nipples on the beach; it's a beach ffs. And nobody cares if they see nipples on TV; haven't you ever been to a beach? College fraternities: what the actual fuck Cutting bits off baby genitals: again what the fuck is wrong with you.
Your insane work culture, which hilariously is coming back to bite you in the arse. Paying sweatshop wages, no mandated annual or even sick leave, even taking the leave you do get being treated as disloyalty, treating your workers like farm animals... Bonecrusher handshakes, constant high-beams eye contact, Mister Anderson, it all comes off as insecure, frankly. Walmart greeters
The number of people who think it's absolutely fine, and an opportunity (if not an outright duty) to kill anyone in the commission of a crime, no matter how minor - and the number of people who think it's right and good for police to brutally takedown, beat, tase or even shoot people for failing to comply with 'legal orders'. Acting like Australian wildlife is particularly dangerous when you live in a country that has bears and mountain lions and fucking moose.
/BelleOfTheBall411/

Irish/Romanian British person here, Just a few things off the top of my head:

Healthcare - enough said. It's just so sad, but what I don't get is that there are some people that are very vehemently against the idea of free, universal healthcare. Yes, the NHS isn't completely free as its tax funded - but what we pay in tax for the NHS is nothing compared to how much Americans pay (not to mention in a lump sum!) for their healthcare. Not to mention how what we have as prescription medications/drugs are just casually advertised on tv over there. It's crazy.
The need to have to drive - perhaps in the cities this isn't as much as a problem, with better public transport services available, but I feel in other smaller places in America - if you don't drive, you're not getting anywhere, and even if you can get somewhere by walking distance, there may not always be a path/sidewalk.

Being outgoing - this doesn't apply to every American, I know, just as it doesn't mean every European is antisocial (though the stereotypes do have some truth, especially so for north europe) but in general, American's are a lot more outgoing and loud than Brits and other Europeans (save for our football matches... then a lot of us get loud. I don't care for football but many do here of course) but Americans will share their life story with a stranger so it seems. Brits are social, sure. But we don't overshare, and we aren't as loud.

American "Football" - besides the US and I think Canada, do other countries even play it? I think generally "Soccer" (or football to the rest of the world) is played everywhere, maybe rugby. But it's strange to me when America goes off with its superbowl and how its such a huge event, or even with smaller matches theres the pre-game tailgating and such. It's strange to me. xP

Patriotism - yea, being proud of your country is just fine, but Americans seem to take it to a whole new level. You generally won't see, for example in the UK, flags flying everywhere unless its the world cup or Euro's football (soccer) etc. And the whole "land of the free" thing when, to many other nations, you really actually aren't all that free.

"Prudishness" - obviously not true of every American or every American show, but one stereotype that Europe/Britain may have against America is off the white picket fence families, the ones who would near faint at cursing or sexual innuendo or nudity etc on tv or in conversation. Meanwhile in the UK, calling someone a bellend, a wanker or a cunt, is often just cheery banter between friends. Swearing and even to some extent, nudity, can be seen in tv shows here too, after the 9pm watershed, almost anything goes. Though of course, other than what I see on Netflix etc, I can't say for sure what US tv is really like. (though us Brits have the better comedy ;) )

High School Cliques - not sure if this is real, or just what you see on TV, but cliques in schools, like the nerds, the jocks, the goth kids etc all hang out with each other as opposed to mingling. Sure you have the popular groups and somewhat outcasts in UK schools, but not to the extent that you at least see in US high school drama. (also, school/college "patriotism" is also a thing, like you buy jackets/jerseys with your school or school teams logos etc on it? doesn't really happen here at all!)
Also THE GAPS IN YOUR TOILET STALLS WTF?!

/RoseTheOdd/

The system is fucked. I can tell you that the “rules” don’t make sense. I had a family member that had unused, unopened insulin that the Dr’s office just told them to throw away. Their Dr (thankfully) said fuck them, I’m going to take it and give it to people who need it and can’t afford it.

In most states you can’t LEGALLY carry a handgun until 21, but there are places where you can. I think non-Americans (and some Americans) are lead to believe that anyone can just walk in to the corner store and buy a gun, that is simply not true.

It’s also worth noting that a vast majority of shootings are done by people who can’t legally own guns, that obtain them illegally. We are guaranteed the right to bear arms by the 2nd Amendment to our constitution and we aren’t going to let it go. There is A LOT more to it, but this is getting long enough already.

I’m not sure why portion sizes are so big, we like to eat I guess. But no one is forcing anyone to eat fast food. You also don’t have to get the whole kit and caboodle, sometimes a single burger is just fine.

Cooking at home is totally an option! I do it 95% of the time, but I also have a friend that eats out most days. To each their own I suppose. I also think people in big cities eat out more often, which doesn’t make sense to me because their rent is like $2,000 for an apartment the size of my living room. But again, to each their own.

It’s pretty shitty to lump all white Americans together here... you’d unlikely do that with another race. I don’t think most Americans have an issue with foreigners coming to the US (I know I don’t), but it should be done legally. You can’t just stroll in to let’s say Canada, or Australia, or where you’re from (not sure where that is). It can’t be a free for all... we have to have some rules. Also based on this thread... I’m starting to wonder who’d actually want to come here...

Public school lunches probably vary by location, mine weren’t too bad. We are very good about providing free or reduced (price) lunches to kids, at least where I’m from. You have to consider that sometimes, those kids may only be getting 1-2 meals a day and it’s at school.

Sad, but true unfortunately. I like tootsie rolls, but I don’t go to the store and seek them out. Another to each their own, I guess.
We are a proud bunch I suppose. It may be a shithole but it’s our shithole. All joking aside, the US has it’s pros and cons. All you see in this thread is the cons, there are so many great things that can be said about the US too.

/BigDickDeer/

How you have to share a room with some complete rando when you go to college. It’s a crapshoot. My university had us take this giant personality quiz that was mostly random questions about music, movies, and art, and they spit it through an algorithm and it matched us up PERFECTLY.

I got put with a brilliant match Freshman year, I took care of him while he was pledging his frat and when he became President I got to go to every single event without even being Greek. 10/10, would do again.
or those asking: so there’s a series of social clubs in US colleges and universities. the clubs are called “fraternities” and “sororities,” they’re divided by gender. But since all these social clubs use greek letters to identify themselves (“Alpha Delta Pi” was the third best sorority, “Delta Delta Delta” nicknamed “triDelt” was the best when I was in school, for example), it’s called the “Greek system.”

These clubs are essentially the basis of social life and structured social status for most of the hot rich party kids at school. To get in, you have to “pledge” the fraternity (etc) as a freshman, which often involves EXTREME hazing, drinking until you puke every night, being ‘publicly humiliated’ by having to wear fairy wings to class, having to carry the seniors’ books, etc.

For girls, it’s different — a common bizarre test would involve going to a place with a huge buffet of food, and being automatically eliminated if you eat any of it. (American Frats and sororities are often known as being extremely elitist and problematic, especially in terms of sex, but that’s a totally different can of worms.)

Anyway, once you get in, not only do these frats or sororities offer amazing potential job opportunities due to their alumni network, the parties that frats throw are NUTS. (Sororities aren’t allowed to throw house parties, only formal off-campus events for the sorority girls and their dates; these events are sort of like mild frat parties at a restaurant or club where you have to dress up. Again, can of worms.)

Like, whatever you’ve seen in the movies, these parties are 10x the bacchanal. That’s sort of the whole point. For frat parties, for example, they’ll spend $50k to hire some huge name-brand DJ, the frat party house throwing the event is fully decked out and swimming in glitter and alcohol, and any girl can go.

But the guys allowed to attend are limited to being in the frat and therefore “on the list,” which means it’s almost impossible to attend if you’re not either in the frat yourself or friends with the frat leaders (which, again, is morally sketchy, and I now understand why my dad totally forbid me to EVER join one myself). Plus there are tons of other events: spring break in Cabo, five-star restaurants, etc. It’s quite nuts and VERY American.
Luckily, my freshman year roommate was one of the most upstanding guys I’ve ever met, and he got elected as president pretty quickly and ran a completely clean house — not creepy or awful at all — so I got the advantage of getting to go to all of these luxe frat events without having to pay the $6000 frat fee per year or spend a semester puking my guts out during hazing. And it was all because of some algorithm-driven questionnaire I took as a high school senior.

/Nice-Violinist-6395/

I’ve been going through this thread since this morning. Some of what I’ve read like politics and other things I agree wholeheartedly. Other things I don’t agree with y’all about. But that’s a whole other topic. I will come on here with a story.
To the Dutch family who visited The Volunteer State (Tennessee) a few months back, thank you for allowing me to explain that those who wear cowboy boots, and hats on occasion, are not racist. Let me explain. I was getting some bbq after a day of trail riding. I was still in my boots and yes, my Stetson hat, I walk into my local bbq joint (which I’m about to go to again, I’m hungry) and order my food. 

There’s a family a couple tables over just looking at me with some very concerned faces. Finally I got up and walked over, asked politely “hey y’all, is there something wrong?” To which the son, I believe, just flat out asked “are you racist or something?” I chuckled a little. Me? A Filipino-American raised in Tennessee? Of course they didn’t know I was Filipino.

I laughed and said “racist? What gave that impression?” The daughter said “you’re wearing cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. We saw what those police officers on horseback did to those migrants at the southern border. Why are you of all people, wearing those things?”

It clicked in my mind what they were talking about. It was that incident on the Rio Grande I believe that someone caught a still of a Border Patrol agent on horseback trying to grab one of the immigrants from his horse, which by the way, that horse looked like a fantastic cuttin’ horse, judging by the angle.

Anyway, I sat down with them and explained that the media drastically warped the hell out of that incident by equating the BP Agents on horseback to “racist cowboys” and using “whips” which were the reins trying to steer the horse away from danger. There was never any “racist intentions” in trying to maintain order. The media took that picture of the agent leaning down from his horse and ran with it.

Moving on from that, I explained that just because someone is wearing boots and a hat, that absolutely does not mean they are racist. “I got black friends, I got Hispanic friends, and I got white friends who all wear boots and hats. None of us hold ill will towards each other.

If anything, it’s the stereotype of the racist white southerner that’s to blame for your conception of cowboys. Here’s a tip of information, 25% of the cowboys on range during the West were black. Now granted that is a somewhat low percentage, but there were black cowboys out there on the range.”
I like to think that was being said came from a Filipino American, I hoped I changed their perception and their thoughts on us. We are not all like what you think we are.

/smithsonian2021/

Disclaimer: I only visited the US two times for two months and stayed around Chicago. I know the US is huge and I only checked out a tiny spot. Black People Areas. Chinese People Area. indian People Areas. People Areas in general. I never saw such a division in origins in another country. A developed non-metric country. Truly bizarre stuff in this day and age and going into the future.
You find the strangest versions of Christianity over there. Also the amount of followers the churches have. The way pastors pronounce "Jesus" and "God". How evident it is that Church is about making money. Also how evident it is that the average person either doesn’t acknowledge or doesn’t realize that simple fact. 

Acceptance of not knowing basic things. Where I live a lack of general knowledge is awkward and people give you the look. However, I had the feeling that it is perfectly fine and generally accepted where I was. You just fill the gab during your conversation in a very casual manner without noticing it. And then people give you the look if you have general knowledge. It’s a fun reversal.

The way you structure your homes. I like it. The idea of moving all your clothes / etc to a single room is just awesome. We put the same stuff in closets distributed over the whole flat. I also don't know anyone in my area with such awesome studies as in the US.

The way how casual the government gets blamed for everything unrelated to it. A teacher screwed up at your kids school and misbehaved? Blame the government! But that was probably specific to the stratum my family is part of. Granted, I hear it enough in popular discourse to think it’s probably not limited in any way actually.

Shop assistant and waiters are so damn friendly. You just want to punch them in their face. It is so surreal and artificial. Also having someone to pack your bag. The way everone is super-friendly as long as they gets what they want. But say "no" one time and people start to shout in no-time.

The amount of poor people and the lack of redistribution of wealth. There is not a single slum in my city but I saw plenty of them in Chicago. The way everyone starts to whisper when they refer to black people. You probably don't hear that someone is saying something racist but you recognize it anyway.
The rather dilapidated state of public buildings and infrastructure. It's nothing near any third-world country I've visited, but things were more dirty and run-down than I expected. The state of things was more like something you would expect to encounter in some Eastern European countries
Guns. Everywhere are guns. I never saw a private gun before I was 20 in my own country but dozen in the USA. The way how proud you guys are at your country and your military. A solider is not a hero. Just a guy who is willing to kill for money / get killed for it.

[redacted]

Went first time as an adult to attend a huge tech conference. I hadn't that much of a cultural shock since I already know a lot of American culture from literature and movies, but there where a few things I found amusing, disturbing or just strange
Visited Los Angeles autumn 2008, stayed in a hotel in downtown LA. The rather dilapidated state of public buildings and infrastructure. It's nothing near any third-world country I've visited, but things were more dirty and run-down than I expected. The state of things was more like something you would expect to encounter in some Eastern European countries
I had to wait a bit since my co-worker was held up in immigration, and while I waited I was pestered by lots of people asking about donations to different charities in the arrival hall. I'm no stranger to that, but personally I found them way too aggressive.
in addition I find it a bit weird that I as a foreigner and non-resident am asked to support some local charity in a city I have no connections to. I'd rather give my money to some junkie at home instead of a strange pastor claiming to collect money on behalf of people I know nothing about.
The vastness of the place. I knew Los Angeles was a big city, but I was in no way prepared for the urban sprawl The number of homeless people. I literally had a guy staring at me through the restaurant window while I ate supper.
Some of them just seemed to be really out of it, others seemed disturbingly coherent. I am used to homeless people, but they tend to be junkies or drunks, not people with mental illness or just unemployed. That said, the widespread and very clear mental illness is very disturbing but I suppose it’s a common enough trend in many places. But still...
The number of people employed to do basic services. Doormen, bell hops, hostesses, servers, and such. Restaurants, service desks and hotels seemed overstaffed. Which is nice, but... Doesn’t make a lot of sense. Seems to be an easy way to keep people in low paying jobs instead of providing them with basic needs.
The level of tipping. I get it, some professions live by tips alone. But that means that I pay for the service, and frankly sometimes it feels completely uneccesary. The need to do math at 2 AM in the morning while drunk to settle the bill. I don't want to stiff anybody for their earnings, but sales tax really adds to the confusion
The friendlyness of everybody. People talking to me, even though they're strangers. Which is very nice and cool, but sometimes annoying (especially if I'm hung over). This isn’t entire true for every region and every situation but it’s rare enough where I’m from that it a massive shock at first. 

/Skaftetryne77/

Drug advertising on TV. All. The. Time. I wish there was some way to stop it. It's just all kinds of wrong, imo. Coming from somewhere where you don’t have it at all is extremely disturbing when you see it and feel like a sales pitch to stay alive. It’s hard to explain, but imagine never, ever seeing it.
Massive food portions. The good side of that is that when I go out to eat (LOL, COVID) get delivery, I typically get two meals for the price of one. The bad side is that people who grew up here seem to eat the whole thing by default. I perceive that to be a major part of why obesity is such a problem here.

Doctors call me by my first name and are typically affable, friendly people. Back in my country of birth, it's always "Mr. AllG0nePeteT0ng" and much, much more formal. That’s something of a minor thing but sort of lends itself to the whole way the system is structured for healthcare. Almost like these doctors aren’t serving you. Also hard to explain.

Notwithstanding the above nicety: healthcare. It's a disaster. No need to get into detail on this one; you already know. And if you don't then you'll find out soon enough (and so will your bank account), if/when you ever have a serious issue that needs medical attention.

"Excuse me" is different here and it took some getting used to. Where I'm from it's a request to get out of the way (or to get someone's attention for some other reason). Here it's something you say after you're already in the process of getting by someone.

Anything government-related is far more officious and far less human and typically miserable to have to deal with. The exception, ironically, has been passport control when reentering the country in the US passport line: more often than not, the person behind the desk actually smiles and sometimes even says, "Welcome back." That's really nice.

But, however officious and however less human government service provisioning can be, it generally works pretty damn well. It makes me sad when I see so many people expressing the view that "government" is essentially code for "can't do anything right" when that isn't remotely the case in my experience. It's never perfect, obviously, but holy shit some of you need to spend some time in, say, a former Soviet country if you want to see government failing. You don't know how lucky you are in this respect, seriously!
In my experience, the average American in the vast majority of the country is decent and welcoming to foreign strangers and will often go out of their way to help if requested. (NYC not so much, but not because they're bad people at all. 

They just have stuff to do and places to be.) IRL America is so unlike Reddit's view of America that it's pretty funny, really. A lot of you really don't seem to know how awesome your country is in a ton of ways.

[redacted]

Everyone talks about their feelings. I'd seen this happen on American films and television shows, but assumed it was a device to move the plot forward. I did think people actually did it. In Ireland, when someone asks how you're doing, you could just have been shot in the gut, you still answer "I'm fine, and yourself?" In America, you ask a stranger how they're doing and they start talking about their job, and their health, and their hopes for the future. It's nice. Weird, but nice.
Food portion sizes. First night in New York, we went to McDonalds. When in Rome and all that. I ordered a meal. I thought the cashier asked "Do you want super sauce with that?" I said, sure, why not, sounds delicious. Turned out I'd just agreed to purchase a super size meal. This was before the Morgan Spurlock movie, so I wasn't aware such a thing existed. It was obscene. The fries alone would have fed an Irish family. (And Irish people have BIG families!) I could have worn the drink cup as a hat. (And Irish people have BIG heads!)

Insularity. Outside of the major cities, people seem pretty insular and ignorant about the outside world. One guy asked me where I'd been in the world. I mentioned places in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. I asked if he'd travelled himself. He hadn't, but said his brother had been to New York once. (I'd been in New York the previous day.)

People love to talk about their ethnicity. This is how every single interaction I had with an American went. "Do you have, like, an accent or something?" Yes, I'm from Ireland. "Wow, I'm Irish too!" To be fair, there were some places, like Massachusetts, where there were legit Irish communities.

With Lyons tea and Tayto crisps and hurley sticks on the walls. But 99.9% of the people who told me they were Irish were no more Irish than the man in the moon. It got to the stage where I would try and handle small interactions in shops and things in a fake American accent just to avoid having that conversation.

I remembering ordering Subway and pulling it off the whole way through the order until I said "gherkin" instead of pickle. Everyone present, staff, customers, turned around and started asking me where I was from. Don't get me wrong, they were warm and friendly and genuinely curious. It was just tiring to go through the same thing over and over.

Higher standard of living. Don't get me wrong. A lot of Americans think all of the outside world is like Ethiopia or something. It isn't. But the standard of living in America, is definitely higher. I remember once outside a 7-Eleven, a bum came up asking me for change. In Ireland, you'd give this guy maybe 50c or a euro. I reached for my wallet to give him a dollar or something and he said "Twenty or thirty bucks, whatever you can spare." (!!)

Choice. Again, don't get me wrong. We have all of the same consumer goods you have in Ireland. Just not so many varieties. In Ireland, there are probably - I'm spitballing - thirty or forty varieties of breakfast cereal for sale in the supermarket. (And no, that doesn't include Lucky Charms. They're not Irish, they're not for sale in Ireland, I have no idea what they are or why Americans keep mentioning them in conversations with me.) In America, there's like ten thousand varieties of breakfast cereal, ten thousand varieties of soft drink, ten thousand varieties of ice tea etc. etc. etc.
Race relations. Again, most of what I knew about America was from television. And most American TV shows ignore race. You've got a black and white people as friends and coworkers and race seems almost an irrelevance. And that's how I assumed things were. Spend one day in the country, you realise that couldn't be more wrong. I worked for a while as an air conditioning repair man in Ocean City, Maryland and I could write a book about the racism I witnessed there. A blot on your otherwise fine country.

[redacted]

Free refills. I was at a Chili's in Florida, and they offered us refills for the road. I'm from Canada, so not that far away from the US. I've never once been offered a refill from a sit-down restaurant "for the road". Like, you take your drink, go back to the counter after you’re done with your meal, and get a refill of it to go along your way after having already paid. Wild stuff.

Refills at the table, sure, but never as I was leaving haha. Also, pretty much everywhere is rural here, outside of the major cities, which aren't even that large compared to the US. The major cities are just absolutely massive and hard to comprehend the scale of. Particularly the really major ones you think of.

We never get any fun flavours for pop (soda) here. It's typically Cola, Diet Cola, Root Beer, Orange, Lemon-lime, maybe Iced Tea. I thought it was amazing that I could get Cherry Cola or or Dr. Pepper/Pibb down there at a fountain.

That was cool. We now can get Cherry Coke at Burger King in Canada, so that's nice. Although they seem to be slowly disappearing and reappearing in places in the US as well so that’s not that different.

Random Observation: Pizza Hut tastes way better in the US than it does here in Canada. I don’t know if its ingredients, water quality that affects the dough, or some other thing. But the change is noticeable. Actually the Pizza Huts up here vary wildly from place to place too so there isn’t any consistency like down there. Not that Pizza Hut is the paragon of quality.

(Second observation...the place I live in Canada has what we call Garlic Fingers, which are basically pizza dough covered in garlic butter with oregano and topped with mozzarella cheese, cut into about 4" long x 1" wide strips. I didn't realize that this wasn't a thing outside of Atlantic Canada. I asked for some at American Pizza Hut once and they were like...WTF is that.)

Your variety of restaurants is also way more than we have. We don't have Chili's in Canada, at least nowhere near where I live. Particularly the big cities have not only every place you can think of but multiple ones in the same area or within traveling distance at least. Particularly in a place like NYC but that’s obvious. 

Cheesy Bread/Crazy Bread/Cheesy Garlic Bread/Cheesy Breadsticks/Garlic Knots/etc., respectfully, are NOT the same thing as Garlic Fingers.. All of those are some form of breadstick topped with parmesan and spices. I've looked at photos of all of them, and have even eaten some of them before, and they're not the same. The closest thing I've found visually was Papa John's Cheese sticks.
Also, I didn't JUST eat at Chili's and Pizza Hut when I was in the US. I was there for three months, I ate at a lot of different places. I just noticed that things were different at those two.

/Jimm__y/

Traffic. I don’t think, unless you’ve seen it in person, most people understand how much of a free-for-all traffic is in a place like India. It’s difficult to even describe the sheer scale of the awfulness. But I’ll try anyway I suppose.
Vehicles use their horns to communicate. Side mirrors are often missing. Cars and trucks and buses and minibuses share space with auto rickshaws, cycle rickshaws, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, pushcarts, pedestrians, and, yes, bullock carts and draft animals. Making a protected left (right, actually, since it’s left-hand drive) is an exercise in how to seize the opportunity. Outside of major cities, traffic lights are nonexistent or ignored.

You have no idea what traffic is like in developing nations. You could be on Broadway or Fifth in New York City on the hottest day of the year with every third person being a beggar or pushcart peddler, with traffic moving two feet every ten minutes, and it would. Not. Fucking. Compare. Americans have no idea how orderly their traffic is, and how nice their roads are compared to developing nations.
This is not to say infrastructure can’t and shouldn’t be improved. But we make marvels in this country, and we need to stop taking them for granted. We are also an incredibly orderly and courteous people, and we need to give ourselves some credit for that too.

You get used to it, I even miss it sometimes - the chaos/liveliness (not of Delhi or Mumbai, but Bangalore, which is a lot more relaxed), not the traffic and the shitty roads. All that said, while these things toughen you up, it is objectively not good for anyone and is a serious problem we need to solve. We are here because Indians can be incompetent and lazy (I can say it!).

I did an internship in grad school in India. When I got back to the US my fridge was empty and I walked to the grocery store. I could have cried at how quiet and peaceful it was just walking down the street. I don't know how Indians aren't just constantly losing their minds at how chaotic it is.

Successfully navigating traffic in India for 3 months gave me back my faith in the Divine. There is no other possible reason that I survived that. I still am struck dumb by the families on small motorcycles. Dad driving, mom on back. Three tiny kids hanging on, everyone balancing something.

I think there’s also a mentality that develops. In Singapore, they struggle with the legacy of British queing culture and the more Asian/ neighboring front of the line as front of the line culture.
Some buissness would carefully mark off a queue and say “Q Here” and you’d have the neatest line. Other times, my Western dumbass self would be in the back of the cue as local after local got served with no change in the line. God forbid you did that at the airport or government building though, there queuing was religion.

/DaisyWheels/

Dangerous neighbourhoods that you'd never dream of going to being just one city block away from the downtown shopping/business district (eg, Tenderloin in SF). Homeless people standing around burning barrels of trash, didn't think that was a real thing, but just a trope seen on TV.
Having you own waiter (or pair of waiters) shared between just 2 or 3 other tables in a restuarant, and if the slightest thing goes wrong they apologise profusely.

Free drink refills being the norm at sit-down restaurants, ordering one drink and having it constantly refilled without even being asked. In Australia, a very small number of restaurants have this, but it's self-serve only, and generally fast-food sort of places.

People standing out on the streets in Las Vegas forcefully trying to get all the men in the group to take business cards advertising strip shows and sex workers. EVEN when the men are obviously walking with their wives and children on a family vacation.

I recall a HUGE contrast in the city's attitude to tourists between San Francisco and Las Vegas. In SF, everything was set up to make tourist's experience super easy and good value. Eg, got a book of coupons for free travel on public transport in SF, significant discounts to attractions etc, information booths where things were explained clearly and truthfully.

And then in Vegas, every interaction with tourism operators was just another opportunity to be scammed. We bought tickets for a matinee show at one of the casinos, touted as being the best place to get cheap tickets. But there a huge extra fee on top of the ticket price, and then a convenience fee for the whole transaction, and then various taxes on top of all that, and it would have been cheaper just to buy them direct at the hotel.

And set up right in the lobby of the hotel we were staying at was a desk pretending to be "tourist information", we chatted for a while saying what attractions we wanted to see in LV, and they drew us up a "discounted" plan in which we had to all attend a marketing presentation at one of the new hotels to buy time-shares, and if we didn't show up our tickets to all the other things would be invalidated. It was going to be HOURS and HOURS at that stupid thing, luckily I read the fine print before we actually handed over any money.
This was all in 2010, it was the first time I had seen that obnoxious thing where as you enter a tourist attraction, you HAVE TO get your photo taken in front of some fake-looking backdrop of the place, then while you do the tour they print them all out and display them, hoping that you'll buy the photo for $25 or something. 

At one museum I refused, and the security guard wouldn't let me through to the next section. It's since become a thing at Australian tourist attractions too, although they usually let you go through if you don't want to be photographed. So the culture shock, I guess, was just how much Americans take the enforcement of "the rules" whereas in Australia things are more laid back.

/HalfManHalfCyborg/

Nothing was particularly shocking as we are familiar with US culture so it was generally the smaller things that caught us off guard, such as:
Flying domestically was such as headache. Americans bring sooo much carry-on luggage with them, there was never any space available by the time we got on, even if we were halfway in the line to board. In general, flights within US were some of the worst I've been on. They were always at maximum capacity, luggage crammed wherever it fits, and just a general chaotic feeling throughout. Going through the airport security too. Always so slow and the TSA agents were so abrupt and rude. And I always had to take my shoes off, it was so annoying.
We noticed a lot more power tripping of people in authoritive positions, always so rude and unhelpful. We had a horribly stressful time driving over the border from Canada to USA. They went through all of our luggage and the dogs alerted on a container we had that used to have weed in it (there was nothing left, we threw the remainder out, but I guess the scent was still there). They made us feel like criminals, talking about huge fines and jail time and making it out like we were smuggling drugs into the state (the container was completely empty, there was nothing to smoke or touch, not even a stem). 

At the end of it all, I was shaking and near tears from fear, they told us we could go and I would have been so relieved. Except they then gave us back the fucking empty container they'd made such a big deal about to take with us. I couldn't fucking believe that. If they had confiscated it then let us in, that's one thing. But they spent an hour treating us like drug mules only to contradict their whole tactic by casually returning it like it was no big deal. It felt like some fucking game. And then next time we checked our luggage, they'd thrown everything on top of a carton of eggs which broke and leaked over everything, which must seemed petty.
Tipping while using card was weird. I hate tipping but I wasn't surprised by it, but whenever we paid by card, they would charge it and then present us the receipt to write the tip amount and sign. We thought it was strange that they would put the payment through first and return the card, and then you add the tip afterwards. We didn't understand how that even works and went back and looked through our transactions one day and realised that none of our tips seemed to have been processed at all, but we didn't understand what we had done wrong. 

We felt terrible about that so we made an effort to carry cash for tips from then on. Tipping in general was endlessly frustrating, as was the overeliance on table service. We tended to sit right at the bar because we found it easier than dealing with a waiter but in general it made us miss our home pubs where nobody bothers you at all and there's none of that uncomfortable fake friendliness.

Paying for petrol before you filled up rather than after was very confusing. We found it weird to have to guess how much it would take to fill up our tank. Wine doesn't list the alcohol percentage on the bottle. Very confusing. A surprising amount of people were very amused by our habit of saying "cheers" instead of "thanks" in many situations.

-While road tripping, we could not get over the size of the RVs people were driving around. They're huuuuuge!! Yet when we looked into renting a camper van, which is very common to do for travelling Australia, we found the options to be very limited.

The coffee is so bad. All the tampons came with applicators, I could only find 1 brand that didn't. I just found this unusual (and terrible for the environment!) Hostels were a lot less common in certain places and therefore more expensive. However, I grew quite fond of American motels, there was something very charming about them.

/SecondRain123/

We stopped by LA for a week on our honeymoon and there were a few scenarios we experienced that made us very grateful to call elsewhere home. I would like to note that although LA had some extremely negative moments, we also met some very kind people. Additionally, we visited a few other states, and Hawaii is now our preferred holiday spot mostly credited to the welcoming people.
During the tourist mandated trip to Hollywood Boulevard we stopped by MacDonald's to experience the genuine American menu. Upon approaching the counter to order I noticed there were coins all over there ground, working in retail previously I assumed that a cashier had dropped their float at the end of a shift so my wife and I politely started to pick up the coins and hand them over to the cashier.
The cashier chuckled and told us that they were robbed at gunpoint about 20 seconds prior to us entering the store, and the coins were dropped by the thieves when the registers were opened.
First of all we were completely underprepared and overwhelmed by the volume of homeless people and shanty towns. Don't get me wrong, we unfortunately have individuals down under that experience or are currently impacted by homelessness, but the volume in LA was next level in comparison.
This was a strange concept coming from a country with strict gun control and very little gun related crime. The weirder part for us was how second nature it appeared to be for the staff, as they all seemed to return to business as usual as if it was a regular annoyance to their shift. At this time of my life I was a retail executive in Australia. If an incident like this occured, we would be likely closing the store, and providing paid leave and grirf counciling to the effected staff.

Strangely when LAPD turned up, the two officers were just there to get lunch and were unaware of the robbery that took place beforehand.

On my last day in LA I witnessed a man roughly in his mid 20's shaking dawn and harrassing a female street vendor. The street vendor begged me to help, as the man was becoming very aggressive. As I was a visitor to the country, I thought it best to seek the aid of a police officer rather then getting directly involved, luckily I had recently passed one directing traffic about 60-80 metres down the road.

I approached the officer diagonally from his front, hands visible, open and slightly raised. "Excuse me officer" I said calmly and loudly at roughly 6 metres away. The officer immediately gripped his sidearm and began to remove the weapon from his holster, stopped halfway and asked "you're Australian?", "Yes mate" I replied cautiously, "oh, what's going on?" The officer asked as he seated his weapon back into the holster.
I informed the officer of the situation occuring down the road, wished him well and hurried back to my hotel room. "You will not believe what just happened..." I said to my wife as I entered the room.

/Ghost403/

Despite having exposure to US English through, obviously TV & Movies, there are terms and expressions used every day that baffled me. One was "will call". You'd book an event online and it'd say, "Thanks for your purchase, your tickets are will call". What does that mean?? Give me my ticket!
As it turns out, it's a term for what we'd say, "We've reserved your tickets at the box office. Pick them up from there." Incredibly minor, but was very confusing for us as tourists. For such an advanced economy, cash is still king. Despite being legal tender, trying to pay with $50 and $100 notes is often declined. Pennies are simply absurd.

Fun fact about US $100 bills: the reason they have the shiny strip on them now is to stop forgeries. So, North Korea was one of the best forgers of US money in the world. This is how they did it: they'd send a guy to the US to get as many $1 bills as possible.

They'd bring them back to North Korea where the ones would be bleached, then $100 bills would be printed on the blank ones, increasing the value 100x. The reason they did this is because North Korean won is basically worthless and leaves a paper trail, so when North Korea wants to make international transactions for military equipment, they like to use forged USD.
The reason their forgeries were so effective was because they bypassed tons of security measures. US dollars have teeny tiny red and blue threads in the paper which you can see if you look very closely. They also have watermarks on them. 

By printing on authentic $1 paper stock, the forged $100s had the threads and watermarks and were therefore extremely difficult to point out as forgeries. Hence, the shiny strips that the US now puts on 100s which are not present on 1s.
The more serious shock was seeing people suffering homelessness and profound mental illness absolutely everywhere. Australia has its own issues, but there's nowhere in Australia that are no-go zones with hundreds of people living on the footpath in tents or who are burning rubbish in drums to survive winter.
Tipping culture was sometimes the kind of obnoxious type that you'd normally expect while travelling in SE Asia: you'd go outside your hotel to hail a taxi (which I can do by myself, thank you very much) and the hotel porter would rush out to open the door or handle your luggage. 

Even after politely declining their offer, they still got angry that I refused to tip them.

https://www.reddit.com/user/per08/

Disclaimer: when I point out stuff I’m not saying it is wrong or dumb. It’s just different, and so it sticks out to me.
One: the captivating need to “go against the grain” or “fight the status quo”. Look at most Hollywood movies, it’s almost always about people breaking the rules one way or another. Look at all the action movie heroes. They’re always the silent, lone wolf type that “doesn’t take orders from anybody”.

It’s very fascinating. As someone from a collective culture, I always wonder: if everybody goes against the grain and makes their own rules, wouldn’t that mean nobody is? Like, if you wanna fight society there needs to be enough people to make up said society in the first place. You know what I mean?

Why is “society” such a fearsome enemy anyway? Are we to believe that any and every societal norm is inherently... I don’t know, evil? Just because something is a collective belief doesn’t mean it’s restrictive, no?

Don’t you find a sense of comfort in societal expectations like being courteous to your neighbors and stuff? Idk, I’m not trying to convince anyone to change their minds. I’m just thinking out loud.

Two: describing “confidence” as being loud, stubborn and self-serving. I just thought about this again as I was watching Dr. Phil on YouTube today lmao. Seriously though.

As long as someone fiercely and passionately hangs on to their convictions, almost regardless of everything else, you’ll find an American praising their confidence. Which... is fair enough, I guess?

But it feels weird to me to attach a positive adjective to someone who literally said “I’m willing to go through anything and anyone to get what I want”. That, to me, is just pure selfishness. But ehh that’s just me. All in all though, I find Americans to be warm, passionate people. Coming from communities where people say things like “this is all I’m meant to be”, I admire how there’s this fiery passion to reach your personal goals implanted in every person.

I love how their culture reinforces individuality, pushing the idea that everyone can be whatever they want to be. Sure, it’s not that simple in practice, but I personally consider it a breath of fresh air. Been here almost 8 years now. Probably would never stop finding new things that are endlessly weird to me, but I’m totally having a blast.

/forponderings/

My first minute in NYC, 1992.. Dude comes up to me @ the airport: "I'll help you with your luggage" 'Hmm OK'(I'm from Australia you see) "Five dollars plz" 'i only have a $20' "no worries man, I'll go and get change....................................." 'Guess he's not coming back :('
YES 30 YEARS LATER I'M STILL WONDERING WHERE THAT GUY WENT FOR CHANGE. WELCOME TO NYC SUCKER LMAO

But yeah, the above AND arguing with someone at a hot dog stand because I wanted tomato sauce & they only had ketchup.. 15 minutes of arguing I realised that ketchup IS TOMATO SAUCE ROFL.. Should have been in a Seinfeld episode.

Portion sizes. Tipping.. (WTF I already paid! You want MORE for doing your job? Oh, you only make $5 an hour (#facepalm) Shoes: Thinking Bo Jackson's @ around $180US (plz correct my memory if I'm wrong) were cheap (compared to AUS)... Then nearly getting robbed for them on a daily basis, and people stopping in the street to point them out.. Cool & weird all at once.

The BRONX...wow just wow. I went there to buy my new turntables & records whilst staying in a Brownstone with new friends I met @ the hostel on Amsterdam. (being a DJ with an interest in Hip Hop history).. Walking past a jeep with more speakers than seats playing OPP at full volume, looking around & realising I was the ONLY WHITE PERSON on the street. I bought my turntables, got set upon by a homeless dude for being white & wearing a Knicks t-shirt, then came home on the subway & didn't get rolled.. What a day.!

Push button public phones! Wow, the tech! Dr Pepper! OMG I'd never had such a good drink haha. Only being able to use Travellers Cheques while we were on holiday... Remember those? How times have changed! Pizza slices. Shops that only sold cookies. I lived on those 2 food groups for a MONTH! HEAVEN! I still remember buying a 'Sicilian', that one slice was enough to feed 2 Australians LMAO.

Block parties.. I still have photos of the one in our street, where true to hip hop songs of the '70s+' 80s the DJ actually took power from the street lights.. It was insane and amazing all @ once! the street was unofficially blocked off all day & night but no one complained..After all my listening to every old-school hip hop record, it actually happened in my street..

Block parties... Never forget that! Gang Bangs & Racial Discrimination... Going to watch the premiere of Nightmare on Elm Street in 3D (can't remember the cinema)..Remember Jungle Fever was still showing everywhere & my gf @ the time was Fijian/Jamaican so we constantly heard remarks such as: 'jungle fever' etc etc lol. Hearing shots outside...we continue inside & before we can sit down, so many shots: turned out to be gangs fighting lol it was a free for all towards the exits not sure if anyone in the cinema was hit. . Chalk one up to: the real NYC experience hehe
Going to the top of the World Trade Centre, outside... Yes, outside on the roof. .They were so tall that because of the earth's curve, the tops were further apart than the bottom (true fact!).
If you read this far, THANK YOU. Apologies for the long post, never intended to write a short story but it all came flooding back haha! It's all true, it was all fun, I'd do it again EXACTLY like that. And to the original poster, THANK YOU! Writing this reminded me about how amazing that trip was :)

/FelxDaHack/

So in early 2019 me and my friends went on a trip through parts of the US (LA-Vegas-San Diego) to celebrate one of my friends 30'th birthday. We flew to LA and had lunch there before driving to Vegas in a rental. We stopped at in-and-out as I'd been hearing real good things about it but left kind of disapointed as the fries tasted like cardboard. Burger was fine though.
First thing I noticed when we got to Vegas and went for dinner was the size of the food portions. Everyone ordered something they wanted off the menu and non of us finished it 'cause there was so much food so after that we decided to pair up and split meals. 

Even the drinks were nuts, I had a cherry pepsi and got the biggest jug I'd seen. To top it off the waitress assured me that they had a drink fountain and I could get refills if I wanted. I drank about half of the jug.

Second thing I noticed were the religious/law billboards EVERYWHERE along the highway. I didn't see them when driving to Vegas 'cause it was dark but during our drive to the grand canyon they were real noticable.

Third thing was candy. Maybe I'm spoiled on scandinavian candy but the only american sweet I liked were sourpatch kids. Everything else was somewhere between subpar to gross. Americans bake a mean cheesecake though, good lord I could go for one right now.

Fourth thing is how surprisingly nice everyone I talked to were. The internet kind of gave off the impression Americans would be grumpier and less accepting of tourists but everyone from public transport to uberdrivers to people on the street was super nice and welcoming.

Speaking of uberdrivers, the first uberdriver we ordered couldn't get to our location (or rather, went around two laps before finding the way in to the hotel) and this guy rolls up in a rundown sedan and me and my friends give eachother a look like "are we really getting in this?" and well, I take the bullet for the team and seat myself in the front seat.

I think the driver was like half mexican or hispanic of some kind and the second thing he asks after where we were from is if we want drugs which I found both hillarious and kind of terrifying, haha. Nice dude though.

Overall I left America with a better impression than when I entered. Maybe it was a west coast thing but I could see myself visitng San Diego again.

/SleepyCV/