30 Weird Things Europeans Do From The Perspective Of An American, As Shared In This Online Community

True. My grandmother was Polish and could speak so many languages! Likely because she married a British soldier who was then stationed all over the world. My biggest shock was when the pair of us were hunting for bargains at a jewellery stall and she started talking to the Middle Eastern seller in Arabic!

In European schools, especially after primary school, students are expected to learn 1or 2 foreign languages. In France, my kids, who are French and American, chose English (easy grade) but also German. High school in Europe is not like in the USA, and after middle school, you get matched with a high school that reflects your interests and proficiencies, so it's not uncommon if you're good at and interested in learning foreign languages,to be placed in a high school that will offer Greek, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, etc. And this is high school - university is where you can learn to be a master translator.

if every State in the US had it's own distinct language we could do that too.

I wish I had grown up in a country where English was the national language. Then I would not have had to learn foreign languages, because with English you can get anywhere

Maybe not speak better than you do, but for sure we understand English grammar well, because we were thought that when we were old enough to understand the differences. For exmpl. "you're" is an abbreviation of "you are" and "my", "your", "his", "our", "their", ... are possessive adjectives, followed by a noun, but in short: meaning possession.

We have mandated "vacation" or holiday time (annual leave) built into our contracts. I'm in UK...I get 36 days a year annual leave. Every single year. Only 5 are bank holidays, the remainder are of our choosing

Dude, that’s not weird,,,,

6 weeks of paid vacation, plus unlimited sick days, plus days off for sick relative, plus all bank holidays and 2 weeks off paid for Christmas. Germany is a good place to be.

My English friends were visiting me here in America. My SiL was talking about her new job and how great it was she got 3 weeks vaca. They were like "THREE"!!? I said, 'yeah isn't that great? I only get 2". ... lol. they about fell on the floor. (they get like 6)

It's the law!

The walkability if a city in the U.S. is largely determined by whether or not the car existed when the main infrastructure of the city was developed. Alot of the coastal city infrastructures predate the car so they are walkable while the further inland you go the less walkable most cities become because they were mostly developed after the car so built around the car. There are of course some exceptions.

Your cities would be walkable and rideable except for public policy decisions. Much the same in the UK. There are growing steps to change that in the uk, but they are meeting resistance. I mean who wants clean air, freedom for kids, and zero road violence?🤷‍♂️

100% False, depends what city and where in the US, my city is walkable or you can use 36 subway and 235 bus lines for anything of distance. I dont own a car and it all works fine

Not in New York City!

some residential areas in America don't even have sidewalks ! THAT IS WEIRD MY FRIENDS !

Same thing in Sweden.

I'd like to think it's vaguely common in England. Just good old fashioned common courtesy.

IDK what this person is talking about. This is standard for everywhere I've been in the US in public transit. If an older person or pregnant woman walks onto a bus or train you can see half of the eyes of all the men pop up to see if they are the one who will be offering his seat (yes, women too, but it tends to be men predominantly). The US is F****d up, but that stereotype that Americans are almost too polite holds true.

Where do you live? It happens pretty regularly in my American city. It's rare to see a senior standing up on public trans here unless they choose to, it's super crowded so no one can move to offer a seat, or the seats are already occupied by those who need/should have them. We have a decent public trans system and a large, mobile senior population so it happens regularly.

Train so clean it looks like it's from a video game and not real life. (Though I did right BART in the San Francisco area in the early days and it was still new and super clean)

Aww, this is cute. The Germans gave America hamburgers. The Americans gave Germany Cheetos. It's like The Gift of the Magi.

Considering the US has bacon flavored anything, this doesn't seem improbable.

Never seen that anywhere in Europe.

In the Netherlands we have this bright yellow Mad Sauce, a so called "American Fries Sauce". But I found out Americans have never heard of it, and the American way of eating fries is with ketchup. I really wonder why someone labeled this sauce as American... very funny! I really like it though, it has the consistency of mayonnaise, and the taste is garlicky and a bit sweet. The Dutch McDonald's restaurants also sell something like it, but they just call it fries sauce, and I find their version the yummiest!

What? where? I've never seen any.

Where in Europe???

"i lived in europe" LOOL. which one of the 40+ countries my guy, which one. cause they are all different.

I buy for longevity. 11 year old Carhartts that have just now worn through the first layer of material at the knee. I also buy things 5 or 6 at a time so I have 5 red Carhartt henleys, 3 pairs of green pants, 3 pairs of khaki, etc. And a pair of LL Bean flannel lined pants that are older than our marriage but still in as good a shape as when they were new (minus a few glue stains).

there was a time in the USA when wearing nice T SHIRT and jeans was just as classy ! don't know how it is now ? being well dressed is self respect and showing respect to others, no matter what you're wearing !

This has to be in northern Italy or somewhere like that, definitely not every country

In most of the UK it's like that too. Either outside the door or a pull switch. It's for safety reasons so you don't tough it with wet hands and electrocute yourself