People Online Listed 30 Things Americans Are Familiar With, But Europeans Can’t Relate To
While both the US and Europe are mostly considered Western cultures, and they are deemed neighbors from across the pond, there are still some substantial differences between the two that people just can’t stop pointing out because they are curious and they want to partake in this cultural learning experience.
Reddit user u/Dependent-End5909 turned to r/AskReddit with the question what is something Americans have which Europeans don't have? Over 21,000 comments later, the post went viral with nearly 22,000 upvotes and over 60 Reddit awards.
110-volt outlets, huge refrigerators and garbage disposals were just some of the many great things Reddit pointed out, so strap up and start scrolling to see the best answers found in the post. And while you’re at it, vote, comment and give us some examples of things.
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Ulf67 said:
The Grand Canyon
dimacq replied:
Oh yes!!!! And I’d say the whole system of National Parks is just amazing! Open 24/7 (unless some weather or gov’t shutdown), maps available, trails laid out, camping spots designated… It’s the most treasured and inderappreciated thing in the US, IMO.
The Grand Canyon is so big that it only looks like a canyon in certain places. I prefer narrower canyons (Walnut Canyon is also in Arizona and is less crowded).
Space. I love spending time in Europe, but man, it is amazing to come home and have hundreds of thousands of square miles of just open country to explore, hike, ride, camp, etc...
A lot of it isn't even in national or state parks (which are also amazing).
"Refrigerators the size of my flat." - every European who has seen my moderately-sized refrigerator
No-Dark-9414 said:
Florida Man
Ilmara said:
Europe has Polish Man and Russian Man.
Mourning doves. They're cute and chubby, and their boo-hoo-hoo songs sound like wooden flutes.
Mourning doves are rural areas' pigeons, but much, much nicer to have around. They are monogamous and mate for life, and their call is lovely.
Ranch.
Like why is it so good, why don’t we have it. And can we please exchange boris Johnston for a bottle. He’s be good in your circus
Trek1973 said:
Good Mexican food
burningfirelily replied:
Man so im a Mexican who wants to move to a European country but my biggest fear is losing access to ingredients to make my food and also having to endure whatever the heck people in those countries believe is "authentic" Mexican food.
Legal right turn on red, I don't always agree with Jeremy Clarkson but in this instance he's correct that's it's one of the US's greatest contributions to society.
Drive in EVERYTHING! Drive in Starbucks, I’ve head Drive in Banks, that’s so crazy to me
Drive-in liquor stores, pharmacies, food.....I'd trade in all those drive-ins in for drive-in movies. Wish they would come back everywhere like it used to be!
Root beer is a popular beverage in the United States. Visitors from Europe frequently comment on how "strange" it tastes.
The road splits in two. It's a beloved American ritual that foreigners are unfamiliar with. Imgur
I tried it once. It tasted like cough medicine that had been carbonated. No thanks.
zephyr1004 said:
We have a high drinking age at 21.
UnilateralWithdrawal replied:
Europe is definitely more laid back. I’ve been to manufacturing plants in Germany where beer is sold out of vending machines.
I do wonder sometimes if having a high drinking age or even maybe just having an age restriction at all possibly does more harm than good. Not saying we should be giving our children shots or anything but just making it such a taboo and not really discussed thing in family life outside of don't do it. When people finally can drink whether legally or through just having the means we typically overdo it and don't have a good sense of how to moderate (or want).
Pancakes with maple syrup.
...date German, and she is super confused why there is so much sugar in the American breakfast. Go to the U.K. and there is none...go to Amsterdam where pancakes are practically the national specialty, and they are mostly savory!
Garbage disposal units are installed beneath the kitchen sink.
I had one, once in Melbourne, I turned it on to play around with it, but never used it. I can just walk and scrape my plate into a regular bin just fine 😆
Automatic ice dispensers in your fridges. It's such an American thing you only find it on fridges that are labelled "American style"
AC. Been back a forth a lot, AC.
I live in Florida and without AC you could die of heat stroke. It’s not throughout the entire country though. When I went to Carmel (near Monterey) they didn’t have AC. As a Florida girl I was shocked.
And now, areas in the Pacific NW are finding that AC is more important than it used to be.
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It might come as a surprise but New York is on the same latitude as Barcelona and Istanbul. Florida is on the same lattitude as Saudi Arabia. AC is not a luxury, it's an absolute necessity in most of the United States.
Huh? I live in the Med. Literally everyone has an AC. We’d frazzle in the summer without them. They are very common in Southern Europe.
I live in Portugal and while I have an AC unit (and it´s used once or twice a year or during heat waves) I barely know anyone who does. It´s not that common in private homes but really old houses used to be built with stones, have tick walls and be comfortable even during heat waves. Since the 70s/80s to the 00s they made awfully insulated houses and they had to impose certain rules and regulations to construction to make sure they started to take insulation serious again.
Load More Replies... older houses in Europe have thick stone walls and it's stay cool inside. my house which is only ten years old has a pretty good insulation, all I need is a fan and sometimes I've got to turn it off because it gets too cool ! lol. perigord-6...6d0fda.jpg 
Thick or not if you get heat waves like 45° degrees you need AC! It's not about houses it's about where exactly in Europe you are
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Gotta give the Americans that one, especially with how Hot the UK now gets in summer. xD thing is, AC is crazy expensive over here, and a pain to install.
Have you looked into a ductless system? The actual AC unit hangs on the wall inside your home, and is connected to the compressor outside by a quite small hole. You can pretty much install them yourself, if you're handy.
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Window mounted AC I enjoyed ironing in front of it when the temperature was 100+ Fahrenheit and the humidity at 98
Yes in the southern states it is essential but I also lived in Northern Michigan and California where we did not have AC
How shocked you will be iw told that here in northern latitudes the main use for AC unit is heating in the wintertime ;)
I lived in London in 1991. They were having a heat wave- it was 86 oubtside in like July. The people in my building thought I was crazy for sitting outside all day a d BBQing. I'm from Texas . In July it's usually about 95-100 with HIGH humidity. They don't need AC. We had it at work or in stores. It rarely gets hot enough to need it.
When I lived in California we rarely, if ever, used the AC. But now living in North Carolina with super humid summers we use it all the time.
Live in SF Bay area, as soon as central CA heats up in the summer, Carl the fog rolls in and our summers are in the 60's, so most places nearby don't have AC. Every so often the fog fails us, and it gets in the 90's and people freak out, we love our fog. Tourists not so much, you can always tell who they are, in tank tops and shorts and turning blue with the cold.
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I've worked commercial hvac installation in California. It's VERY needed as the summers hover around 105°-f(40°-c). Houses with fireplace rarely use them. Mostly fireplaces are a status mantle to show off the individual accomplishments. Homes in Beach towns rarely have ac though. That's more of a Mediterranean feel
I move furniture cross country, and a couple years ago (2018 I think), I was loading a household in Mission Veijo. It was 117 that day. I had 4 guys on the job that day, and we had to alternate who was in the trailer loading, as it was 15 degrees hotter in the trailer. Talk a bout a brutal day.
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The whole of southern spain is full of those things. Not the north, as winter is always coming
Wait they literally don't have AC in Europe? What the heck???
This is not juse an US thing. I'm in the tropics where temperatures can be in the mid 30s Celsius and with the humidity always around 80%, you'll literally bake.
Considering the problem of global warming, AC is a blessing for those who have it, but it does contribute to problems causing warming. I remember no AC life in cars and homes and I also remember not being able to sleep at night due to the heat and hanging my head out the car window like a dog!
You don't need an AC in much of Europe at all. In Germany, houses are often well isolated and climate is mild. Even in hot summers, you open the windows at night to let some fresh air in and close the shutters during the day to keep the heat out. Five days in Yucatán and I got a sore throat from all the AC in restaurants, the hotel, buses because I'm absolutely not used to it.
Americans can afford luxuries because we are allowed to prosper without crippling taxes and inflated utility costs.
Live in Florida or Arizona for a year without, then make your superior holier-than-thou comments!
I have grown up in Colorado and we had "swamp coolers" that added cool humidity to the air. But over the last 20 years or so our humidity and temperature have increased to a point that they are no longer beneficial.
OkAnteater9569 said:
At home or somewhere else, they have screens on their windows.
blackwe11_ninja replied:
You mean mosquito screens? We have them too. In my city you would have to be insane not to have one.
Just found this out on another post: our own graves. Apparently graves are often dug up and reused in Europe and Australia. They’re owned by the government and will not always be yours. The only reason why we don’t do the same is because we are a younger country and we haven’t run out of room to bury people yet.
I worked for a US firm (I’m From the UK). There are many differences, but the one that used to cause so many problems was the term “Fortnight” - not commonly used in that part of the US, so they used “Bi Weekly” for the same thing. Except in the UK that means twice a week
I always find myself finding everything cheaper in america online stores than in european stores. Especially with hardware, woodworking, light machinery.
As many pointed out, USA don't include sales tax in the price. But then again as others pointed out, its only 6% whilst mine is 25% on all goods at home. So USA prices are still comparatively low even when included American 6% tax. It would only be worth to order tho if I actually lived in USA tho because of import duties.
PixieBaronicsi said:
College sports
Oneinchwalrus replied:
This one I'll give you. Universities play each other in sports, but nowhere to the scale in America. For football (soccer), most players can be in clubs' academies from the age of 5/6, finish school at 16 and then just go straight into reserve/first team squads, whereas in America they play sports in school, university, then get picked up by clubs
However, the bad thing is that college sports raise millions in profits, but amateur sportspeople don't get any of it.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Why are they trying to spread jelly on the peanut butter like a sociopath.
Bigger portions/sizes. As an example I think a small or regular pb jar is probably considered large in European countries.
Perfect conditions for road trips. Nice roads, no border control, gas stations, sights, motels. Its perfect.
24 Countries With Better Infrastructure Than America (https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-with-better-infrastructure-2013-3?IR=T ) While the U.S. benefits greatly from the sheer size of its economy, excellent universities, flexible labor markets, and innovative businesses, it's falling behind on the overall quality of infrastructure. The U.S. ranked 25 in this category, falling behind countries like Saudi Arabia, Spain, and South Korea. France ranks 1st for quality of roads and 4th for quality of railroads. It ranks in the top 30 for all categories and fourth for overall infrastructure. Source: World Economic Forum
As a middle (or east?) European who was in the US 16 years ago, amazing sweets selection! Please send Twizzlers to Slovakia!
AioliEnvironmental58 said:
Outlets with 110 volts
-Reddit_Account- replied:
We have 220v outlets as well, but they’re usually reserved for applications that actually need it like dishwashers and washing machines.
Next time you clean behind your washing machine, look at the plug - it’s a much different one from the one you usually see on walls. That’s a 220v plug.
On your breaker box you’ll also notice that the breaker switches for those appliances are twice as thick.
either 220 or 240, I forget the exact number. Point is, you have plugs that have twice the potential of normal US wall plugs.
Note: this post originally had 36 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
My experience of Americans (over 22 years and citizenship) is that they tend to think that everything they have is "the best" and that nobody else has it. I have been told the following things are exclusively American and don't exist anywhere else in the world: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, best education system, best social life, best income, best medicine. I find these arguments are generally made by people who have never been outside North America. Nothing you say will convince them otherwise.
*snort* most of America's stuff was made somewhere else lol
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I bit of research could have been done on this, very few of these are actually unique to the US, many are available all over, if they're unusual then it's through choice more often than not - especially the food related ones
My favorite american expression is "As American as apple pie." I think it perfectly summarizes american mentality given the fact that apples are not even indigenous to the Americas and people in Europe had been making apple pies for thousands of years.
As Irish as potatoes, then? As Italian as tomato sauces? both used for *thousands of years* before Europeans got them, but they're seen as iconic even in Europe, of European nations, to which the plants are not indigenous? .... We inherited the mindset from our European ancestors, as you can see.
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it's at least not a "here's what sucks" article, but really there have been sooooooo many of these. is the internet really this out of content?
My takeaway, which is from someone who *has* traveled outside North America: People from abroad have ideas of what is "American" that can be just as false as any ideas about any country held by an American. Assuming beer is "just German" is just as silly as thinking maple syrup is only Canadian, for example. And yet... People fall into these stereotype traps anyway.
You are right, but I always thought maple trees that give mape syrup only grow in Canada and some of the Northern parts of the US?
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Several decades ago, a relative from France worked in San Francisco for two years. His two favourite aspects: big breakfasts and calling his bosses by their first names. His ex-wife did not adapt. She brought her biases and left a year later, biases and lack of English intact. Too bad. I'm happy for their kids, though. Both learned English and one now works as a medical translator.
That's sad, SanFran is one of those places that has a good reputation outside USA for being more openminded and cultured etc.
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I wish Goldfish Crackers were more available in Ireland. They’re my favourite.
Was made by an American? Because most of the things are available in any country lol
Gonna get downvoted but America and Europe arn’t the only continents on Earth...
I've heard lemonade is hard to find in Europe (maybe just the UK?). Apparently you get Sprite if you ask for a lemonade over there.
forgot school shootings and morons that argue against gun control even after school shootings
but heaven help you if you bring a waterbottle or nail file onto the plane... omg. Potential terrorist. But ignore billybob McHickson over here with his AR15.
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I'm surprised nobody mentioned orange juice! I lived most of my life in Florida (US), though spent most summers based in the Netherlands while also travelling throughout all "western Europe", and some countries in " eastern Europe", and I've never tasted any orange juice outside the US that I'd even consider drinkable! The joy of a glass of 100% Florida orange juice is just amazing, whether you juice the oranges yourself or get it from any of the ubiquitous breakfast restaurants around the state that juice on site or even right at your table! I can deal with the lack of spicy foods in Europe (specifically Tex-Mex or Caribbean) because there is so much other good food available, but no good OJ?! The horror!
I've been told it's the opposite for apple juice. I wonder why we can't all agree to make good juices. lol
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Then there's leaving a tip at a restaurant. Also, I was suprised my niece & nephew who live in Scandanavia had never heard of or seen red hot dogs or fireflies/lightning bugs.
How are we the only ones that have hummingbirds? They are magistic as fk.
aN ArTiClE CoMpArInG ThE UsA To eUrOpE??? wHaT A UnIqUe aNd tOtAlLy oRiGiNaL AnD NoT AnNoYiNgLy rEpEtAtIvE IdEa! /s
My experience of Americans (over 22 years and citizenship) is that they tend to think that everything they have is "the best" and that nobody else has it. I have been told the following things are exclusively American and don't exist anywhere else in the world: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, best education system, best social life, best income, best medicine. I find these arguments are generally made by people who have never been outside North America. Nothing you say will convince them otherwise.
*snort* most of America's stuff was made somewhere else lol
Load More Replies... I bit of research could have been done on this, very few of these are actually unique to the US, many are available all over, if they're unusual then it's through choice more often than not - especially the food related ones
My favorite american expression is "As American as apple pie." I think it perfectly summarizes american mentality given the fact that apples are not even indigenous to the Americas and people in Europe had been making apple pies for thousands of years.
As Irish as potatoes, then? As Italian as tomato sauces? both used for *thousands of years* before Europeans got them, but they're seen as iconic even in Europe, of European nations, to which the plants are not indigenous? .... We inherited the mindset from our European ancestors, as you can see.
Load More Replies... it's at least not a "here's what sucks" article, but really there have been sooooooo many of these. is the internet really this out of content?
My takeaway, which is from someone who *has* traveled outside North America: People from abroad have ideas of what is "American" that can be just as false as any ideas about any country held by an American. Assuming beer is "just German" is just as silly as thinking maple syrup is only Canadian, for example. And yet... People fall into these stereotype traps anyway.
You are right, but I always thought maple trees that give mape syrup only grow in Canada and some of the Northern parts of the US?
Load More Replies... Several decades ago, a relative from France worked in San Francisco for two years. His two favourite aspects: big breakfasts and calling his bosses by their first names. His ex-wife did not adapt. She brought her biases and left a year later, biases and lack of English intact. Too bad. I'm happy for their kids, though. Both learned English and one now works as a medical translator.
That's sad, SanFran is one of those places that has a good reputation outside USA for being more openminded and cultured etc.
Load More Replies... I wish Goldfish Crackers were more available in Ireland. They’re my favourite.
Was made by an American? Because most of the things are available in any country lol
Gonna get downvoted but America and Europe arn’t the only continents on Earth...
I've heard lemonade is hard to find in Europe (maybe just the UK?). Apparently you get Sprite if you ask for a lemonade over there.
forgot school shootings and morons that argue against gun control even after school shootings
but heaven help you if you bring a waterbottle or nail file onto the plane... omg. Potential terrorist. But ignore billybob McHickson over here with his AR15.
Load More Replies... I'm surprised nobody mentioned orange juice! I lived most of my life in Florida (US), though spent most summers based in the Netherlands while also travelling throughout all "western Europe", and some countries in " eastern Europe", and I've never tasted any orange juice outside the US that I'd even consider drinkable! The joy of a glass of 100% Florida orange juice is just amazing, whether you juice the oranges yourself or get it from any of the ubiquitous breakfast restaurants around the state that juice on site or even right at your table! I can deal with the lack of spicy foods in Europe (specifically Tex-Mex or Caribbean) because there is so much other good food available, but no good OJ?! The horror!
I've been told it's the opposite for apple juice. I wonder why we can't all agree to make good juices. lol
Load More Replies... Then there's leaving a tip at a restaurant. Also, I was suprised my niece & nephew who live in Scandanavia had never heard of or seen red hot dogs or fireflies/lightning bugs.
How are we the only ones that have hummingbirds? They are magistic as fk.
aN ArTiClE CoMpArInG ThE UsA To eUrOpE??? wHaT A UnIqUe aNd tOtAlLy oRiGiNaL AnD NoT AnNoYiNgLy rEpEtAtIvE IdEa! /s
