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Moving to a new country can come with a whole mix of emotions—from the nervousness of starting over and figuring out a new routine to the excitement of discovering a completely different way of life. It can be overwhelming at first, but along the way, you’re bound to encounter things that surprise you, confuse you, or even make you laugh.
For instance, when someone online asked immigrants and expats in the US to share their funniest “Coming to America” stories, the answers ranged from wholesome culture shocks to moments of complete confusion. From enormous portion sizes and unexpected Halloween traditions to everyday American habits that newcomers never saw coming, these stories offer a fun look at the country through fresh eyes. Keep reading to see what surprised them the most.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My dad came to the US 6 months before the rest of us to rent an apartment, buy a car, etc. When he picked us up at the airport when he arrived, he pulled me aside and confidently said, "They don't pronounce it 'tiger' here... I learned it's pronounced 'tigger' in America." I believed him until I started school. Turns out he had overheard some winnie the pooh and thought that's how Americans pronounced it.
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#2
Friend of mine came here from Nepal. They can't have beef over there, plus he grew up dirt poor in a dirt poor country; his family pooled their money to send him to college here.
He landed in Newark Airport, the first of his family to come to America, and the very first thing he did was go to McDonald's and have a Big Mac.
#3
When my family moved here from the Soviet Union we were so amazed at the selection in the grocery store that we walked around with a video camera, recording all the fruit. We still have this tape, which adequately documents just how excited we were about pineapples.
Lee Gilliland 7 hours ago
Ne of my guilty pleasures is taking those visiting for the first time to an all-inclusive grocery store.
America is often called the “land of opportunity,” and whether you picture its massive cities, road trips, Hollywood, or the famous friendliness of its people, there are plenty of things the country is known for. But the US is also full of little details that can be surprisingly easy to overlook. Take the American flag, for example. We see it everywhere, from government buildings and front porches to sports stadiums and roadside stores. It feels like such a familiar symbol that we rarely stop to wonder where it came from. But the flag has actually gone through quite a few changes before becoming the version we recognize today.
#4
From Nigeria, lived in Norway before coming to the US. I saw tv shows featuring Texas accents and I thought the East Texas Accent was just a comedic take of the TX accent.
Went to college in Texas and i remember being introduced to an East Texan who shook my hand and spoke in that same accent I thought was a joke.
It was all I could do to keep my face straight but I was screaming in my head " Oh my Lord, they actually talk like that!!"
Another culture shock were the number of drink options in a gas station. I was used to being given a drink or at best 5 choices.
Stopped at a 7 eleven and got a medium coke, the lady handed me a large cup and pointed at a fountain that had easily 10 soft drink choices. I took from each one and walked out Happy. My drink was horrible but I didn't care. It tasted like America.
WindySwede 6 hours ago
Written 14y ago, I wounder how the last sentence would be written today..?
#5
Some family friends had immigrated from the Philippines to the UK to the US
Bringing them to Sam's Club was humourous. One of them asked for a slice of pizza and got one of those huge slices
"Uh ma'am I only asked for one slice not the whole pizza"
"Hon, that is one slice".
#6
Not me, but a good friend of mine: he kept hearing about “ice cream sandwiches” but never actually saw one in person. He decided to try one on his own by putting ice cream between two pieces of Wonder bread.
He didn’t care for it.
You probably know the basics: the first official US flag, adopted in 1777, featured 13 stars and 13 stripes representing the original 13 colonies. But as more states joined the country, the flag kept changing, with stars added to reflect the growing union. In total, there have been 27 official versions of the flag. The current design, featuring 50 stars and 13 stripes, has been in use since 1959, after Alaska and Hawaii joined the United States. Interestingly, the design is widely credited to 17-year-old student Robert G. Heft, who submitted it as a school project. His teacher gave him a B-, promising to reconsider the grade if Congress adopted the design. Congress eventually did, and Heft reportedly got his A.
#7
My father was out smoking when we just moved here and the mailman came by they talked a bit, when the mailman left he said he see you later. My dad stayed outside for about 45 min thinking he'll come back.
#8
When I moved to the US from southeast Asia, I used to think Goldfish crackers were made out of actual goldfish.
Lee Gilliland 7 hours ago
Oh, trust me, when they first came out, they appealed to our parents' generation because in their childhood eating real goldfish was a thing and we freaked.
#9
In Chile, we called tape (like scotch tape) just scotch. So I went up to a teacher in sixth grade and asked her for scotch. She gave me the look of disapproval.
Roman Arendt 7 hours ago
She should have opened her desk drawer, take two glasses and a bottle out and say: "Finally! I don't have to drink alone here anymore."
And the American flag didn't stop evolving once the official design was settled. In Kit Hinrichs' book Long May She Wave: A Graphic History of the American Flag, the Stars and Stripes is explored as much more than a national emblem. Hinrichs drew from his private collection of thousands of flag-related artifacts to show how Americans have reimagined the symbol over more than two centuries. The flag has appeared on Civil War banners, political posters, quilts, folk art, advertisements, and everyday packaging. These different versions show just how deeply the symbol has been woven into American life. In other words, the flag may have a standardized design, but Americans have certainly found countless creative ways to make it their own.
#10
I came to the US as a preschooler, right before Halloween.
I was thoroughly convinced that in America, kids dress up and trick or treat every single night. No amount of explanations from my parents could dissuade me.
#11
A friend of mine is first gen. Her parents are Vietnamese and neither can read English. She said her dad went to goodwill when he first came to the US to get American clothes. Apparently he bought a bunch of Hooters shirts because he liked the owl design. Was showing up to work and picking his kids up from school in hooters shirts for months before anyone told him what Hooters was.
#12
I moved to the US (California to be exact) in 1985 from Africa, but I also spent six years living in the Philippines. I only knew of one way to eat avocado, which was mashed up with sugar, evaporated milk, and some ice. It was a yummy dessert where I grew up. One day, my family and I went to a lunch gathering in California, and there on the table was a big bowl of mashed up avocado. I dug in and put a spoonful of avocado in my mouth. And that, kids, is how I first learned of the glory of guacamole.
Lee Gilliland 7 hours ago
I am reminded of one of Michael Crain's lines in California Suite, "the front lawn put through a blender".
With a population of more than 349 million people, it probably won't come as a surprise that the US is linguistically diverse. But here's a number that might: around 430 languages are spoken across the country. English is by far the most widely spoken, followed by languages including Spanish, Chinese, and Tagalog. Until March 2025, the US government had not designated an official language at the federal level; that changed when President Donald Trump declared English the country's official language. Of those hundreds of languages, around 177 are Indigenous languages, spoken by communities whose histories in what is now the United States long predate European colonization. The US government also recognizes more than 570 federally recognized Indigenous tribes, each with its own histories, cultures, and traditions.
#13
A really good one for two Vietnamese friends of ours. They wanted to do an adventurous road trip down in Texas and accidentally crossed the border on a dirt road into Mexico. They did not have passports and crossed illegally though unknowingly.
One guy was able to get his passport and got let back in. The other guy was unable to get his. He got deported back to Vietnam and his student visa canceled. So he had to fly back to Vietnam from Mexico. He was not allowed to fly through US airports. So he had to go the long way to Vietnam, bus to Mexico City, flight to Japan, then on to Hanoi. Then he had to completely redo his visa and finally come back to the US after getting a new passport in Vietnam.
#14
I came here 4 months ago and everything has been a shock in one way or another, im from a third world country, and we know a thing or two about america but u have to experience it.
-Choosing your own shower temperature!
-Everyone is so polite and good manners are everywhere, any religion or race you are everyone seems to say thank you and your welcome, or ask me how i am or how is my day!
-how easy you can buy stuff online and they arrive so fast!
-buildings and bridges are so...amazing, like the infrastructure is good, it makes you thing "wow, mankind DID THIS"
-big celebrations!
-how people can go out look gay,wasted,weird etc and no one bats an eye
is a great change and there are so many stuff to say, theres ofc some really bad ones but, so far the goods are better than the bads.
and the biggest of them all, FAST INTERNET!
editted words*
eddit: thanks for the gold :) never actually thought i would get gold lol.
i guess i live in a spot with a lot of isp so the competition is hard, but i have double the speed i used to have paying half what i did back then, not everything is easy and sometimes i really feel like going back, but it is a great opportunity few people have, to come here, to improve my life and education.
thanks for your kind words guys, United States really is a great country, it has its downs but is still great, no matter what other people say, be proud of it!
#15
I came to America when I was already 1 so doesn't really apply to me, but when my cousins from London visited, they found it amusing how strangers would just talk to each other. Standing in line at the gas station and the random guy behind you asks if you've ever tasted the bag of chips you're holding or someone randomly yelling how they liked my One Piece shirt I was wearing. It got to a point where they'd like point someone out and ask us to just go make conversation.
Now, let's move from languages to cows, because America apparently has some fascinating numbers in that department too. Montana is famous for its wide-open landscapes and cattle ranching, but here's the fun part: the state's cattle population is roughly twice its human population. Montana has around one million people but more than two million cattle roaming its ranches and pastures. Cattle ranching has long played an important role in the state's economy and identity. However, despite Montana's strong ranching culture, much of the beef consumed in the US comes from elsewhere, with imports from countries such as Brazil helping meet demand. Suddenly, those endless Montana fields make a little more sense.
#16
A lady arrived here in the fall. She is from the Philippines. Her American husband comes home from work to a pile of brush. She was bored and thought the trees in the yard were sick. "No sweetie. Trees here drop their leaves in the fall. They'll grow back in the spring.".
#17
My spouse is an immigrant from Thailand and has witnessed a few coups. We were watching January 6 unfold on the news and the nonchalant way they asked ‘oh, is it a coup?’ was both hilarious and terrifying.
#18
My friend moved here from Vietnam when he was about 6. He was staying at his cousin's house and saw his first ever 2L bottle of coke. He had heard that portion sizes were bigger in the US so he assumed that it was a single serving and tried to drink it all in one sitting.
From millions of people and millions of cows, let's go to a place where there is just one person. Monowi, Nebraska, is famous for being one of the smallest incorporated communities in the United States—and its entire population is just one resident. Elsie Eiler, now in her 90s, is the town's sole inhabitant and has taken on several roles, including mayor, librarian, and tavern owner. Because Monowi remains incorporated, it still technically has a local government, which means Elsie even holds annual elections. The process is wonderfully simple: she posts a public notice, casts her vote, and then re-elects herself. Talk about having an uncontested election.
#19
Moved from South America to NJ my freshman year of HS.
How "accurate" t.v shows/movies portrayed H.S life (to an extent). I know we give non-Americans a hard time about questions regarding the accuracy of movies but a lot of them are true to an extent. Examples: Cliques during lunch time. The table of Asians, the table of African-Americans, the quirkiness of thespians, personal and gym lockers, yellow school buses, cheesy homeroom announcements and the Pledge of Allegiance, etc.
How much pop culture and consumerism dominates conversations/relationships. Growing up in S.America it was there, but I wouldn't say it defined the friendships I had. It's hard to describe but in the U.S I found it a lot more difficult to form friendships unless you shared common interests in pop culture/consumerism.
You have no "life" unless you have a car or access to a car (in the suburbs).
I grew up in a Football (soccer) mad continent so that sport was everything. But there are countless options in the U.S and I got hooked into all of them. Including College Football. Wish I didn't care about sports... but I care way too much now.
#20
When my Dad first came here from Vietnam back in 1975, they believed that they would never see their native foods ever again. These foods included local favorites but most importantly rice. They thought they would never see rice again.
I can't even imagine my dad and his family when they saw rice in a supermarket, he said they literally bought out the entire store's supply of rice.
TL;DR - Asians love rice.
#21
When my husband first moved to the U.S. from a Latin American country, he was seeing a sign at a crosswalk near the place he lived. The sign said "PED XING".
He thought it was Chinese, and he couldn't figure out why some of our signs were written in Chinese.
And then there's pizza, an American obsession that deserves its own category. The US goes through roughly three billion pizzas a year, which works out to more than eight million pizzas every single day. To put that into perspective, that's about one pizza for every 41 people each day. And if numbers aren't quite doing it for you, imagine more than 100 acres of pizza being consumed across the country every day. That's an absolutely enormous amount of dough, cheese, sauce, and toppings. Italy may have given the world pizza, but Americans have certainly taken their love for it to another level. At this point, ordering a pizza might almost count as participating in a national tradition.
#22
My married friends are refugees from Kosovo. They arrived in the US while the wife was pregnant. One of the first cities they stopped in when they arrived in Michigan was a city called Albion. When their daughter was born, they named her Albiona.
#23
My mother (who went back to school after having kids) had a friend in college who had come to the US from Argentina to attend a university. We went to a beach party with a large group of students, bonfire and everything. He looked on in horror as we children lit marshmallows on fire and then ate them. She told me he took a marshmallow and was examining it very closely.
#24
I don’t live in the US anymore but I did for a while during my childhood. Coming from Canada, a lot of the language and pronunciations we use are different. One of these is the letter ‘Z’. Americans say ‘zee’ and Canadians say ‘zed.’
I remember learning basic algebra in a mathematics class, and there was a question about “solve for *z*” that I needed help with. I went up to my teacher’s desk for help and said ‘What formula should I use to solve for zed?’
It took way longer than it should have for her to figure out what I meant!
WindySwede 6 hours ago
"What is Zed to you?" ___ "D**n, its not the brain eating tic" (or how it was). Atleast then he drinks chocolate milk.
Of course, America is enormous, so trying to squeeze everything interesting about the country into a single list is practically impossible. It is the fourth-largest country in the world by land area and the third-largest by population, spanning everything from enormous cities and sprawling suburbs to tiny towns, remote wilderness, deserts, mountains, forests, and coastlines. That sheer size means there are countless regional quirks, traditions, foods, accents, and everyday habits that can seem completely ordinary to locals but fascinating to someone seeing them for the first time. And that's probably what makes the US so interesting: there is always another surprising fact hiding around the corner.
#25
Hey this is a story I always tell. So I moved from Singapore to the US! Well, actually from Singapore to Fargo ND in December 97. If you don't know but one of the worst winters in history for Fargo was 97/98. There wasn't Amazon or anything so my dad couldn't find winter coats in Singapore. It was roughly 32 below zero and I was in a sweater. First thing I told dad was "I don't like America, it's cold".
#26
My grandfather came to the US through Miami in 1960, then took a bus up to Nee York. He always says it was wild that he could use the white-only bathrooms but people living in this country their whole lives here couldn't.
#27
My parents had some friends who escaped from the former Czechoslovakia on foot with their two small children, ages 2 & 4.
They told the 4-year-old when they get to America, he will get to have a bicycle.
After a long arduous journey, they were here several months, but he was utterly unconvinced they had arrived in America.
Nothing they did or said could persuade him they had made it to the US. Finally, he said “you said when we get to America, I will get a bicycle.”
They went right out and bought him a little bike, and that did the trick.
Coming back to today's collection, that's exactly what makes these posts so much fun. Something that feels completely normal to an American can leave an immigrant or expat thinking, “Wait, seriously?” From unusual traditions and giant food portions to tiny towns and everyday cultural quirks, moving to another country often means discovering just how different “normal” can be. And sometimes, those little surprises become the stories people remember long after they've settled in. So, Pandas, which of these facts surprised you the most? And if you've ever visited or moved to the US, what was the first thing that made you think, “Well, that's definitely different”?
#28
My mom came from Mexico in the mid 1970s.
She remembers going to Taco Bell for Tacos and not being impressed.
#29
A neighbor tells the story of going to the store with her young children and when she's ready to pay the cashier asks 'paper or plastic?'. She was so nervous she clearly thought they were asking for immigration papers and she didn't have them with her so she started crying and even put her hands together -- thinking she'd be handcuffed.
Geoffrey Scott 42 minutes ago
Our Danish exchange student: Waitress asked if she wanted "soup or salad" at the restaurant we were at. Some midwesterners speak rapidly.."I don't know, how big is it?"
#30
My cousin married a woman from Mexico. After trying and loving broccoli for the first time, she would always ask my cousin for “those little trees”.
Elladine DesIsles 7 hours ago (edited)
We always called broccoli trees when my kids were little. And of course, snowy trees (cauliflower).
#31
I have a friend. He came from a refugee camp and is Hmong. They are THE most honest culture I've ever met. He is also a very hard worker and literally did TWO shifts at a factory for about 15 years. 7-3 then 3-11. I met him because he didn't speak English but was trying to cash a check at a bank and didn't understand he needed a account.
When he first came here he was trying call in and say he was sick. He truly was because the dude would never lie about it. So he told me told me he was "freaking lazy". Come to find out he was trying to tell his boss he was sick and his boss explained he was actually "freaking lazy".
I have maybe 100 stories from him and his extended family were done dirty when they came.
One story -- his cousin saved up money for a car. Went to the dealership - gave cash and they told him to pick it up tomorrow. He didn't understand getting a receipt. He came back the next day and they said the guy didn't work there anymore. 10K saved and gone.
#32
When my mom came to the US from Pakistan, she saw a hockey stick in my dad's closet. In Pakistan, hockey means field hockey.
Mom: What’s that?
Dad: Oh a coworker gave that to me. It’s a hockey stick
Mom: That is not a hockey stick, I used to play hockey but I’ve never seen that before
Dad: It’s an ice hockey stick
Mom: Oh. What’s ice hockey?
Ace 1 hour ago
Yes, and? It's still pretty much only in North America that the word "hockey" used on its own would be immediately assumed to be Ice Hockey. The latter is quite a big sport where I live but is still always referred to as "hockey sur glace" (and German/Italian/Romansch equivalents) and I don't think they even play the field variety here.
#33
Came to the US in 2001. Judging by the commercials on TV I thought the entire country had heartburn.
Ace 1 hour ago
I used to nearly always have heartburn on trips to the US, often in back-to-back or all-day meetings and workshops where catering was brought in several times per day, including fizzy soft drinks. Only once I realised that it was the high fructose corn syrup those drinks contained that caused it, and therefore stopped drinking them, did I stop suffering.
#34
Years ago, a family moved from Viet Nam to our town and were visiting our church. A church member told of the family seeing what they thought was a fried chicken dinner at the grocery store and buying it for the family. It was a large can of Crisco with fried chicken on the label.
#35
Me: Hello I want to get my driver's license
DMV: Sure, we need insurance
Me: Oh, I don't have it, I'll get it and come back
....
Me: Hello I want to get insurance for my car
Insurance: Sure, we need your driver's license
….
I have never dealt with something like this, thankfully the guy from the insurance company was very helpful and explained that what I needed was proof of insurance, get my license and then call back for the rest
Another one that I was baffled, you have to pay for air for your tires!! Where I'm from is free.
#36
Had a short stay in the US while my mum was looking at places to possibly do a degree. My dad had this sly grin on his face while exiting the plane and I wondered what for. As soon as he stepped on American soil he shouted ‘I ARRIVE IN AMERICAS AIRPORT WITH CLOTHINGS, US DOLLARS AND A JAR OF GYPSEY TEARS TO PROTECT ME FROM AIDS’
Mum went mental, we got strange looks and I was eight years old and confused. Didn’t realise he quoted Borat until later in life.
#37
My sister and I have a friend from Australia. The first time she came here she had gone to a restaurant with my sister. Our Aussie buddy was in the bathroom and my sister took all the forks off their table and the tables around them and replaced them with a butterknife from other tables. When our friend came back she asked my sister why there weren't any forks. My sister convinced her that in our part of the country we ate with 2 knives, and our friend bought it when she saw the other tables were set the same. The waiter didn't notice right away so he took their order and brought them both their salads. When the waiter saw our friend trying to eat a piece of lettuce from her caesar salad by holding it between 2 butterknives he asked her "Would you like me to get you a fork?" Our friend got really offended because she thought she wasn't doing it properly and told him "I don't need a fork! I can do this well enough, thank you!".
#38
Friends from Ireland came over to Morristown NJ. They kept seeing all these “blind” people with guide dogs all over the place so they refused to drink the water. Morristown NJ is the headquarters of The Seeing Eye which is a charity that trains and provides guide dogs to seeing impaired people. What our friends saw was these dogs being trained.
Elladine DesIsles 7 hours ago
Can anyone explain the link between visual impairment, service animals, and potable water? I'm bafffled. Were they expecting American tap water to make them go blind?
#39
My husband arrived in Massachusetts in 1993. You probably don’t remember, but the winter of 93-94 was incredibly snowy in New England. Dude was all, “W*F, nobody told me about this?” and went out and bought some serious winter clothing. Thirty years later, he still has most of it (the jacket finally fell apart about 10 years ago,) because he uses it about two times a year, max.
#40
There is a old story about a relative coming to the us for the first time, struggling hard, not having anything to drink for a day, seeing a sign for 7up and calling it "zuup" and they served him a salty split pea soup.
#41
An acquaintance of mine from Ireland was working at a call center in the US for a while. She was blown away by the number of people who, when asked for their name, only gave their first name (not sure if this is a US thing or a human thing).
The issue came when she would ask for their "surname" or "family name" and got crickets in return - she didn't know that it's more commonly referred to as a "last name" here, and was very frustrated lol.
#42
So my nickname is "Nuni" when I was young I had no idea that was a nickname I thought that was my name. So when we crossed the border they asked me my name. I replied with Nuni. My parents was sitting bricks and kept on telling bearder control that that wasn't my name and I started to fight with my parents saying that was my name. It's funnier when my mom explains it lol.
#43
My friend moved to Pittsburgh from China. On her first night in America, she was woken up in the middle of the night by a GIANT bug on her pillow, and thought that was a very normal thing that happened to every American every night for a long time.
#44
I was opening a bank account, and the cashier said to print my name while handing over a pen with the agreement. In my mind, I was like how the hell am I supposed to print with this? Oh, you meant sign my name!
#45
My family and I immigrated from south america in the early 90s. I had a cousin who was born in America and was nonverbal. We all called him Wassa-Mara. All the kids had nicknames, some of them basic (ie. Flaco, bebe, etc.) & some nonsensical (think sounds like “tatata” or “pupis”) so we didn’t give it too much thought.
Until, 25 yrs later, I put it together that Wassa-Mara was in fact “ What’s the matter” in a heavy accent. They literally called him whats the matter because he wouldn’t speak. Can’t make that up.
WindySwede 5 hours ago
Came to think of Wassa-wassa scene from Inside Man (2006). Now I felt old...
#46
This could be apocryphal, but it is shared in my family regardless.
Part of my family came to California from Spain by way of Hawaii and ended up at Angel Island. When they were allowed on the mainland in San Francisco, allegedly a car drove by yelling at them, "TAXI! TAXI!" To which my gg-grandfather replied, "Taxis? I already paid my taxis!"
I have no idea of that exchange happened, but it is part of family canon now.
#47
My mother’s parents were from Poland, naturally spoke Polish ,as did the children. At the age of two, my mom was hospitalized, hospital had to search for polish speaking nurse at which time my grandparents were told very firmly, “ you’re in America now, learn how to speak English “.
Elladine DesIsles 7 hours ago
There is no time or place for "You're in America, speak English", but to parents of a hospitalized toddler is about as inappropriate as it could get.
#48
We hosted exchange students for years. One fellow was Arabic and Muslim so we were very careful not to serve pork, or if we did, tell me so he wouldn’t eat it. Months later my mother served baked beans and none of us thought to call it anything else. He ate a serving and said it was delicious and asked how she made it. Ruh Roh.
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