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30 Of The Good And The Bad Culture Shocks Non-Americans Experienced While In The US, As Shared In This Online Group
Isolation of nations, different climate and resources as well as other factors led to different customs in different places forming. But with globalization, we are able to know about those differences and prepare for them. However, some things are less talked about because people may not even realize that it could be different in other places, so there is always something that can surprise us.
The country that people like to talk about very often is the US. There are so many things they do differently, so visiting the country or living there might cause some culture shocks. Redditors were discussing this very topic when Miserablemermaid asked “Non-Americans of reddit, what was the biggest culture shock you experienced when you came to the US?” There were more than 30k answers given in just a day, so we collected the most interesting things redditors pointed out.
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Your sugar has very little food in it.
Seeing children of all different colors. It was beautiful.
The treatment of veterans. A lot of communication around the respect they deserve. Yet many of them are broke, homeless and in a generally bad position.
And (and I'm sure I'll be downvoted for this) unfortunately, I've seen and read about a lot of cases where veterans (and especially their spouses, for some reason) become extremely entitled. I completely agree with the quote from Bojack Horseman "Maybe some of the troops are heroes but not automatically" where he goes on to say that people can be jerks, and giving a jerk a gun and a title doesn't make them not a jerk. I respect the fact you fought for your country, but I'm not going to respect you if you're an entitled jerk. xP
Not really a shock but one thing that really surprised me was the sheer amount of flags.
It was like almost every building had an American flag. Here in Belgium, if I see a house with a national flag I assume there's some kind of sport event going on that I didn't know about.
And they "make" kids pledge their allegiance to it. Not to our country or fellow Americans, but a flag.
The toilet doors (or lack thereof). Not enough door!
Seriously, you're a wealthy enough country you don't need to leave an inch gap at the sides and a foot and a half at the top and bottom.
Could not walk anywhere, or take good public transport. Always had to take Ubers or hitch lifts.
Everything was also HUGE. Cities, buildings, regular houses, food portions. I'd say people but I did not see anybody who was hugely obese there at least.
There was an insane amount of space just...everywhere. As a European used to being crammed into every available nook, even in rural areas, the way that towns and cities just stretched out was unimaginable.
The air conditioning. Everywhere. And the literal temperature shock between the inside and the outside of any f**king building.
Everything being f**king huge. Literally. Road lanes, groceries, soda sizes. Especially distances: where i come from, 3 hours of driving are enough to cross half of the country, in the US it's just a small drive to go to see a relative or something.
Lawyer commercials and "if this happened to you, you can sue them" commercials.
Absolutely! Lawyers billboards, TV ads, subway ads, bus ads incentivating people to sue everyone for every reason is simply disgusting. Let alone those advertising in spanish as your "abogado". Simply ridiculous. Easy to understand if someone says the US Legal system is overwhelmed.
Christianity everywhere. On your money, in the school, every Sunday, churches everywhere, in your pledge, in the Boy scouts, verses at the bottom of In&Out milkshakes
This depends on where in America you are. I remember going to an area in the "bible belt" for the first time and it was also a culture shock for me lol.
I was walking down the street and there were some road workers doing something a bit ahead. When I got near them, one of them approached me and super kindly asked me to cross to the other side, halted the traffic so I could cross and wished me a nice day as I went along.
In my country they would've probably heckled at me for not crossing, and I would've told them to go f**k themselves for not signaling things properly as I walked in the middle of the street potentially getting hit by a car
Turn right on red. Beautiful.
The only reason it works is because most of the USA is built in a grid system. So you come to a 90 degree angle crossroads and you can make a right on red. It does not and cannot work on older streets where roads do not meet at a right angle, or when there are more than four roads meeting at the junction.
The importance of the College/University you go to. For me it felt like the name, you can even call it brand, of the College is more important than your actual skills and knowledge as well as the quality of education you receive. So many times, people asked me which College/University I visit and told me about their College and the College their childrens are visiting. Totally different than what I am used to in Germany, where it is mainly focused on your skills and grades not the College/University your are visiting.
That only matters for a very few colleges, and I am in a position to say that the education you get at Ivy League colleges is NOT superior to the education at other universities. It's just that it will open doors for you by other people who are part of the elite club. If it's not one of these elite colleges, it really doesn't matter where you go.
Tipping. And not just tipping, but tipping so much that the entire thing I bought (e.g. a meal) is now in an entirely higher price bracket.
Tipping is really, really important, because US laws allow for servers to be paid around $2 an hour (which is just so wrong to begin with). So not only do they need the tips to stand a chance of making a living wage, but they are also taxed on those tips because it is ASSUMED that they will get them. So if you don't tip someone, they actually lose money. It's a really bad system, but while it exists, please plan to tip in the USA.
How early everything starts. School, work. 6am wake ups. That was hard.
then you've never worked in brisbane, australia. we don't have DLS, and most people like working from 4am when it's bright and light ;)
Advertisements in between the title credits of the show and the actual show. You guys have a LOT of advertisements.
Same in the UK for any channel that isn't BBC (Itv is the worst for adverts. xD)
No sidewalks, not everywhere, but outside of major cities, you often literally can't walk between places safely
This one is a catch 22. The reason usually given for not putting in sidewalks is that "nobody walks there." Well, no, not without sidewalks they don't!
The different kinds of flavors for beverages. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of options.
Just so you guys know,I enjoyed having multiple options, until I came to the US I had no idea I liked Blue Raspberry flavored soda and I found out that I liked to mix different kinds of sodas from the fountain and make a cocktail soda occasionally.
Also, I like how you guys have a s**t ton of flavors for your alcohol. I liked a lot of them but to be honest I didn't enjoy the whipped cream flavored stuff.
When I was a kid in the 70's/80's, at the roller skating rink, we used to get suicides. A suicide was every flavor of fountain soda mixed in a cup with ice. So tasty!
Sewers turtles aren't ninja turtles
When we first arrived, and I walked up to a soda machine. We never had those, and I think I drank 10-15 refills of coke before my parents started yelling at me. UNLIMITED SODA ARE YOU KIDDING ME WTF.
Even if it was sugar free soda/pop I'd feel a bit sick after 15 refills o.o
Billboards. They are everywhere. You can go hours in the UK driving without seeing one. In Florida, I saw one every few minutes.
Ads on TV, motherf**ker, just play the show, this is painful.
Traffic, how do people drive in the US, it's so easy to get caught in traffic, it's everywhere. F**KER JUST DRIVE, ITS PAINFUL, ADD A F**KING ROUND A BOUT
7/11s are magical places though.
People pay for their own food. As someone who came from China, where everyone fights for the bill without the intention to pay, this is very refreshing.
1.No walls around houses, or burglar bars by windows.
2.HOAs, i don't get why neighbours can have any say as to how long grass should be or what colour i can/cannot paint a house.
3. People walking around with their phones in hand freely and not worried about getting robbed.
4. Not all but how many know little about anything outside of the U.S.
5. How hard they go in advertising for any and everything.
My wife is from the Philippines and also worked in Singapore for over 10 years. When she came here she had many surprises but one big one was the ability to return items that she had purchased. She had never been able to do that before.
with our consumers right in australia, as long as you are able to show proof of purchase, you can return stuff for even after 12 months of use if unsatisfactory.
How non-physical Americans are. I’m Latina and every time I meet someone new it’s considered polite to hug and kiss their cheek as a greeting. Obvi with professionals it’s a no go but like if I’m introduced to a friend of a friend I would do a very light hug and kiss, it was mind blowing to me that Americans mostly did the half hearted wave or a handshake.
People really care about their teeth like whitening and straightening.
I wouldn't say people care about their teeth per se, but the people that can afford it spend a lot of money having their teeth look "perfect".
My teeth are an embarrassment. It bothers me to no end, They always have been. Couldn't afford braces so now I'm stuck with major teeth and jaw issues because that stuff is wicked expensive. I pay attention to teeth a lot as a result and can unequivocally say we pay attention to teeth. It also is a non verbal wealth signal.
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There seems to be only one template for their teeth, everyone looks like they came off a production line. Natural teeth vary in shape.
Most people spend a lot of their life neglecting their poor poor dental health and then when they can finally afford it they go to the dentist and try to replace all the rotten teeth with big white Chiclet looking pieces
Dental health *is* health. That said, if they work, who cares if they're white enough to reflect moonlight?
There's quite a difference between good oral hygeine and cosmetic dentistry. The two aren't mutually exclusive. The long standing joke about British teeth being crooked and bad is just a modern myth. In terms of oral hygeine, they are always 4th or 5th in global rankings.
Exactly. People make out like our teeth are unhealthy just because we care more about them being actually healthy and functional than about them being blinding bright white.
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I'm still not really convinced that whitening is safe for your teeth. I kind of think that whitening them is like what happens when you put too much bleach in your mop bucket. It'll destroy what holds up to the mop fibres together.
And how do they have teeth in the first place with all that sugar? F*****g witchcraft!
You can thank celebrities for this I think, everyone wanting to look like a Hollywood movie star, pushing their "perfection" on society. People need to stop caring so much about a perfect image and stop putting celebrities on a pedestal. Brush your teeth enough to keep em healthy and your mouth from getting stinky. Good enough.
I can't speak for anyone else, but since I focus on people's mouth while they are talking, maybe to hear better (?), I do appreciate good teeth.
Same in Brazil, where the government add up fluoride to the tab water and give them to children in public schools. I love to see such white and beautiful teeths.
In fifth grade I counted the kids in my classroom of around 28 and I was 1 of 4 who didnt have braces on my teeth. (Or hadn't in recent years) kids getting braces more than 1 time started to be popular. What an excellent marketing strategy by orthodontists. Each kid getting braces twice when "needing" them in the first place is usually cosmetic
If you bleach your teeth you are supposed to avoid stuff like coffee, tea, coca-cola & red wine. But that is all I ever drink. Do you expect me to drink water? Gross 😝 😉
One could argue that there are countries where the populace doesn't care if their teeth turn brown and fall out before they're 30. Tooth brushes and toothpaste are cheap. Try them.
No, people really care about their teeth because bad oral hygiene can kill you. The cosmetic aspect is not limited to this country, at all. Inaccurate.
Drive through ATM. Very friendly people. How very obese so many Americans were. Water fountains in every public place. Heating system in every house. I was amazed by so many trees along the highways. Still am
A sign at the front door of a restaurant to remind patrons not to bring your firearms inside, to please leave them in your car
for those who are asking, I saw it in Phoenix Arizona
Most states don't allow open carry. I'm from New England, and Arizona was as much of a shock to me as it was to you.
The homeless in the US are very abrasive. I’m from Africa and am use to beggars and squatters, but the ones I came into contact with in California were so loud, obnoxious and invasive.
I'd be loud, obnoxious, and invasive if i didn't have anywhere to live, too.
The power of some toilet flushes shocked me, one was so loud it actually hurt my ears. Then I remembered the whole poo knife thing and figured it must be necessary.
That you can't have a beer with your lunch in a lot of places.
I get that they are family friendly places but where's my beer? Here you can pretty much get one at any restaurant from 11am onwards
Liquor licenses, and dry counties (and other liquor regulations) are probably two of the big reasons for that in the US.
The way in LA food came with warnings like may cause cancer, antibiotics used when buying things with meat in
California has a lot more consumer protection than the rest of the country. I remember when my family owned a scrapbooking store that an adhesive company had to redevelop a few products in the 2000s (I think) when California banned import of a bunch of chemicals and harmful stuff into the state.
There was work being done on the highway and after like every kilometer there was a dude standing with a sign telling us how long the traffic jam still is. Or was it remaining construction area in miles? Dont remember really.
The thing is... Why were there dudes? In my country we just hang those signs to iron sticks lol.
The first was on the train from.the airport into new uork.
There were well dressed people coming back from the races and they were sober. At home that would have been a heavily drunk party train.
Oh and then being able to buy 500 paracetomol at once in a pot. Wtf.
It was weird to see alcohol being sold at ordinary grocery stores. Where I live it is only sold at liquor stores.
It depends on where you live. In Utah, for example, it's only sold at state-run liquor stores.
Many things but the biggest was how difficult it was to take a left turn at an intersection. I had taken a car on rent as I could drive on my B1 and I thoroughly enjoyeed driving there but this rule baffled me.
If you don't wait for the left hand light, you will be driving through oncoming traffic, you will cause an accident and people may die. Just wait your turn.
Yippee. The same stupid list that is always posted on BP. Zzzzzzzzzzz. Try something new.
Yeah it must have been the 20th similar post in 2 months! I hope everyone complaining about Disney princesses is happy now!! I wish we could go back to that actually!! Not to mention that i haven't seen animal posts for a while and this is what we are here for!
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Tipping. Complete strangers sharing their view as you walk out of a changing room. Vicious political game playing. Bible bashing. Evangelist Tv. Trailer parks aplenty. Can't find a lettuce in the supermarket, but can find a rifle. And have to enter a separate shop to buy booze. Fireworks are illegal. Guns are not. Equally, nice to see patriotism (in moderation), friendly people, great food, awesome scenery, cheap fuel, great sport, amazing museums and galleries, affordable housing (from a Brits perspective). Good and bad everywhere. Heaven knows, we have our issues...
Ive lived in some super redneck places and Ive never seen a rifle in a supermarket for sale and not lettuce. Fireworks are restricted in SOME places due to fire dangers and dry seasons.
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I could add so much to this list. I think the things I still remember are: 1/ the overwhelming choices for every single type of food, like 50 different kinds of cereals. 2/ comparative advertising. So car company A would advertise their vehicle and tell you all the ways it was better than car company B. 3/ The outward friendliness of Americans, that just never went anywhere. It was all surface. 4/ The 1950s social world, where men and women still separated at parties and women are expected to be so pretty and men are expected to make money and pay for everything. 5/ The prevalence of the same companies and stores everywhere you go and very few small, independent shops. 6/ How cheap everything was compared to in Europe 7/ That the price on the label is not the final price. Sales tax is added when you check out!
your #5: at one point i wanted to visit all kinds of cities and take pics of the identical Walmarts and Home Depots, etc and just label them as the city name. in the end, i couldn't be arsed to do it :)
Load More Replies... Totally. My husband and I were at a dinner/burlesque type show in France. Everyone else at the table was English or French and an American couple were shown to the table and greeted us all individually and tried to start conversing. We were not very receptive, I’m sorry to say….
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Very interesting to see how other countries differ from the US. Thanks. Good read!
America bad rest of world good America Lazy America Works to much America too friendly America not friendly enough .... Try something new BP try pointing out the rest of the worlds faults .
Most if not all of these are normal in South Africa, Japan and Australia - speaking from living experience
Amazing article. I love it. Good choices & research. And wide variety of opinions. It was good as a US native to get to know about other places this way.
I'm saying this as a fat woman so everyone knows where this is going...The f**k! Spray cheese is still a thing. I'm disgusted. On the other hand, does anyone remember the cheese that came in the yellow submarine-shaped package and you squeezed it out of a star-shaped opening? Sometimes I think I hallucinated that very odd image that pops up every so often. And mustard in Lunchables in a weird squeezy tube.
Yeah, i guess you maybe didn't all know but the US is a big and multicultural place. It's entirely possible to be from one part of the US and go to at least four other places that will likely be a "culture shock". I say this as someone who has spent a day or more in around 40 of the 50 states (and solidly lived in at least five) and also been to at least 7 other countries (I know some of you EU folks are like "hah, seven countries" but realize I have easily covered more territory than the Europe and the Mediterranean nations combined). There certainly are places that match one or more parts of this list, and maybe your experience of a place is different than where you grew up, but none of these entries is either uniquely or universally part of US culture.
Just say that America is the greatest country to live in ever! Let’s go Brandon!
Why do you people think cheering for a guy named Brandon pisses us off?
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Let me be very honest... This whole idea of making a list For non americans to judge americans is a bad idea, as not every one understands why Specific "rules" are in place in usa... Specifically on the internet. Either way, the list could have been ten times better. Complaining about Loving your own country, rise of christianity in a CHRISTIAN COUNTRY. What really should have made the list is the amount of americans saying "Latinx", how far left the country has been since the 50s and 60s, the amount of Lefties who see Orange man bad as literally Hitler, yet know zero about politics and praise the O'biden bama democrat and old socialist Jew as the most important people in US History. Amount of people dismissing the founders and trying to rewrite the US constitution, so much and so forth. Why should "Latinx" have it been on the list, though? Simple, the writter is a latina. Nobody gets more annoyed at Latinx than Latinos and latinas.
Um, read the constitution, the USA is a secular country. I don't know what your thing with a particular word is but you seem to not actually know much about the USA. (Also, there's a huge difference between literally Hitler and definitely an anti-democracy fascist, maybe go read up on fascism before you start calling people names).
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Yippee. The same stupid list that is always posted on BP. Zzzzzzzzzzz. Try something new.
Yeah it must have been the 20th similar post in 2 months! I hope everyone complaining about Disney princesses is happy now!! I wish we could go back to that actually!! Not to mention that i haven't seen animal posts for a while and this is what we are here for!
Load More Replies... Tipping. Complete strangers sharing their view as you walk out of a changing room. Vicious political game playing. Bible bashing. Evangelist Tv. Trailer parks aplenty. Can't find a lettuce in the supermarket, but can find a rifle. And have to enter a separate shop to buy booze. Fireworks are illegal. Guns are not. Equally, nice to see patriotism (in moderation), friendly people, great food, awesome scenery, cheap fuel, great sport, amazing museums and galleries, affordable housing (from a Brits perspective). Good and bad everywhere. Heaven knows, we have our issues...
Ive lived in some super redneck places and Ive never seen a rifle in a supermarket for sale and not lettuce. Fireworks are restricted in SOME places due to fire dangers and dry seasons.
Load More Replies... I could add so much to this list. I think the things I still remember are: 1/ the overwhelming choices for every single type of food, like 50 different kinds of cereals. 2/ comparative advertising. So car company A would advertise their vehicle and tell you all the ways it was better than car company B. 3/ The outward friendliness of Americans, that just never went anywhere. It was all surface. 4/ The 1950s social world, where men and women still separated at parties and women are expected to be so pretty and men are expected to make money and pay for everything. 5/ The prevalence of the same companies and stores everywhere you go and very few small, independent shops. 6/ How cheap everything was compared to in Europe 7/ That the price on the label is not the final price. Sales tax is added when you check out!
your #5: at one point i wanted to visit all kinds of cities and take pics of the identical Walmarts and Home Depots, etc and just label them as the city name. in the end, i couldn't be arsed to do it :)
Load More Replies... Totally. My husband and I were at a dinner/burlesque type show in France. Everyone else at the table was English or French and an American couple were shown to the table and greeted us all individually and tried to start conversing. We were not very receptive, I’m sorry to say….
Load More Replies... Very interesting to see how other countries differ from the US. Thanks. Good read!
America bad rest of world good America Lazy America Works to much America too friendly America not friendly enough .... Try something new BP try pointing out the rest of the worlds faults .
Most if not all of these are normal in South Africa, Japan and Australia - speaking from living experience
Amazing article. I love it. Good choices & research. And wide variety of opinions. It was good as a US native to get to know about other places this way.
I'm saying this as a fat woman so everyone knows where this is going...The f**k! Spray cheese is still a thing. I'm disgusted. On the other hand, does anyone remember the cheese that came in the yellow submarine-shaped package and you squeezed it out of a star-shaped opening? Sometimes I think I hallucinated that very odd image that pops up every so often. And mustard in Lunchables in a weird squeezy tube.
Yeah, i guess you maybe didn't all know but the US is a big and multicultural place. It's entirely possible to be from one part of the US and go to at least four other places that will likely be a "culture shock". I say this as someone who has spent a day or more in around 40 of the 50 states (and solidly lived in at least five) and also been to at least 7 other countries (I know some of you EU folks are like "hah, seven countries" but realize I have easily covered more territory than the Europe and the Mediterranean nations combined). There certainly are places that match one or more parts of this list, and maybe your experience of a place is different than where you grew up, but none of these entries is either uniquely or universally part of US culture.
Just say that America is the greatest country to live in ever! Let’s go Brandon!
Why do you people think cheering for a guy named Brandon pisses us off?
Load More Replies... Let me be very honest... This whole idea of making a list For non americans to judge americans is a bad idea, as not every one understands why Specific "rules" are in place in usa... Specifically on the internet. Either way, the list could have been ten times better. Complaining about Loving your own country, rise of christianity in a CHRISTIAN COUNTRY. What really should have made the list is the amount of americans saying "Latinx", how far left the country has been since the 50s and 60s, the amount of Lefties who see Orange man bad as literally Hitler, yet know zero about politics and praise the O'biden bama democrat and old socialist Jew as the most important people in US History. Amount of people dismissing the founders and trying to rewrite the US constitution, so much and so forth. Why should "Latinx" have it been on the list, though? Simple, the writter is a latina. Nobody gets more annoyed at Latinx than Latinos and latinas.
Um, read the constitution, the USA is a secular country. I don't know what your thing with a particular word is but you seem to not actually know much about the USA. (Also, there's a huge difference between literally Hitler and definitely an anti-democracy fascist, maybe go read up on fascism before you start calling people names).
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