We often hear stories of cultural shocks non-Americans experience when coming to live the American dream. From the little vacation time Americans have to the vast distances between places, extreme portion sizes, bulk shopping, healthcare system… and the list goes on and on, and on.
So in order to even out the karma and give a tribute to the wholesome side of our beloved country that sometimes gets an undeserved amount of criticism from outsiders, we're gonna look at the positive things non-Americans found about the US.
Think of our incredible communication skills, the amount of nature, the scale and the grandeur, drinking fountains everywhere... Get ready for a wholesome dose and be sure to leave a comment on what you find fascinating and admirable about America below this article!
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If you guys want you can go to pretty much any climate without a passport. You have tropical, desert, ocean side, lake side, mountains etc etc.
The actual people.
Government is f**ked. media is d**ked all to hell. inequality is staggering, but most American people I've met have been helpful, compassionate, fun, and kind individuals.
Yeah, that’s always wonders me too; looking from outside one could believe they have to all be idiots. Then I know many American people pretty well and they are all decent humans
The Smithsonian Museums. Very cool and very fun to walk around and see. And they're free.
Americans always know how to get a conversation going! "Hey, where are you from?" And then they are genuinely interested in hearing the answer even if perhaps they've never heard of that place. They are great at small talk, and friendly (doesn't matter if it is "fake" sometimes, e.g. the waitress, it is still a skill to be that friendly and welcoming, in my opinion). They make people feel like a million bucks.
The scale and grandeur. I'm used to nature being small, but everything in America is bigger - bigger storms, bigger mountains, bigger horizons. Even the sky seems more. People in America are casually dealing with everything from alligators to bears, pitching tents on the sides of cliffs and walking their dogs through literal wilderness, I genuinely feel like a hobbit watching Aragorn saunter through Middle Earth like it's nothing while I've never been beyond the end of farmer Maggot's farm before. I love it.
New Zealander here, I visited America at the begin of 2020, and the sheer size and scale of your country was truly overwhelming. Like, travelling across the country side, and visiting national parts was just, wow (also love the LOtR's reference!!!)
I always hear complaints about the portion sizes, which is fair, they're big. But we gotta give America credit how socially acceptable it is to take the leftover food home. As a frugal Dutch person, this mesmerises me and I'm very sad this is not as acceptable here.
The amount of nature. Mountains, forests, valleys, deserts, water falls etc
Where i live we got a few hills and theres no place anywhere in the country that is completely untouched or so far from a civilization that you cant hear traffic etc
Something Americans are definitely not known for, the food. Yeah yeah the US eats a TON of garbage, but there are also certain regional foods that are just amazing. Tex-Mex in the south, Southern soul food. Maine lobster, shrimp rolls, fried clams and clam strips. Grouper sandwiches. Hell I would drive to Virginia beach just for the softshell crab
A lot of Non-Americans think all you eat are hotdogs and twinkies, but some of the best food I've had has been in the US and most of it was regional dishes you can't get anywhere else
It's like each state is a whole different country and I'd like to visit them all.
I've been to 47 of them. There are many wonderful places... and a few states that... quite frankly.... well.... you might as well just fly over.
The water drinks are served with ice at restaurants.
I remember my first trip to England. I had to specifically order ice with every single drink and I would get two little ice cubes. So I would routinely order two glasses full of ice with every order I had. Nothing better than an ice cold drink on a hot summer day no matter where you are
How madly diverse it is. Admittedly I’ve only seen it on tv but the fact that the Bronx and Texas are the same country is mind boggling.
The ability to drive from winter to summer in 24 hours... Or less!
Way less than 24 hours. Southern California here: skiing at Big Bear then three hours later surfing in Huntington Beach. Yeah is awesome and why I moved out here.
That a lot of Americans are pretty chill, open, and kind people. You wanna just talk about nothing? You can do that. You have mental health issues? People aren't gonna judge. There's a problem going on and you wanna talk about it? You can do that.
In my family's culture, you must always keep to yourself if something's bothering you, always tell white lies, put up this facade of your life being rainbows and unicorns, and mental illness/disabilities/neuro divergence is frowned upon and shows you're weak. It's so suffocating.
Not all of the U.S. is open and chill, but the population is huge. There's room here to find your people, find your community.
The variety of groceries!
I want sugar free? Boom...everything. Oh there's something we have at home but here's 30 varieties of it! Special dietary restrictions? Don't have to order it...here's the stuff at the local target!
I'm in Canada and although there's a decent selection of these things, it's much better in the USA, cheaper too.
The arts. Jazz, rhythm and blues, the early rock and roll that inspired the British Invasion. The authors. The films.
Drinking fountains everywhere. And nearly all public toilets are free.
NASA is America’s best PR.
Sure they could really use triple the budget to seriously get things done, but what they do is admired globally.
I freakin love the energy most Americans give off. You guys are like extraverted extraverts. If I was introduced to a handful of people from around the world, I could tell you which was the American even with a blindfold, because they'd be the only one to instantly say hello and start chatting when I walk into the room as a stranger. Your talking to strangers energy is almost more than our talking to 20-year-old friends energy.
No thanks. I'm a major introvert and this would scare me so much.
Southern cuisine, from BBQ all the way to Creole type stuff... You guys know how to eat down there.
I'm from Portugal and living in US right now. One thing that really impressed me when I got here was how green the US was, and how many trees they have.
The power and quality of their film and TV industry. They can make dreams and fantasies come to life.
Jurassic Park to me as a child was like all my dreams had come true.
New York City. Hot Dogs. Your Friendliness. Hollywood. Yellowstone. Baseball. Ford GT. Road trips. Coke. NASA. Southern BBQ. Burgers. Yosemite. Your infectious love of the outrageous. Jaws. Your love of English accents ;). Harrison Ford. Rock and freakin roll. Nike. Magic Mountain. Pamela Andersen. Red Vines. The Video games / animation industries. Dr Pepper. Maine Lobster Rolls. Skateboarding. Ralph Lauren. The Sopranos. Jack FM. Baskin Robbins. Car park cookouts. Wake boarding. Ruby’s Diner. Long Island (Iced Tea). Eddie Murphy. Technological innovation. Soul. Southern California. Star Wars. Bronco jeeps. Key Lime Pie.
As opposed as I've been to most of the American military's involvement in the conflicts of the past 20ish years, as a Canadian I have to acknowledge that being your neighbour has made Canada significantly safer.
We don't need to spend as much on defense because America, our closest ally, outspends everyone else 20 fold.
The naive optimism. Even if people are disappointed with the way America is going, they still seem to have hope in an American ideal to strive towards.
As a Brit living in America I’m gonna have to go with;
- Not even having to ask for water at restaurants it just comes out!
- Giant Sodas cost like $1
- Almost everywhere has a bathroom that’s open to the public (in the suburbs)
Entrepreneurial spirit
In a lot of countries, including my own, failing at a business you started is seen very negatively, to the point most people will never try, as opposed to the USA where a business failing is seen as a normal part of the process and you just keep trying, taking the lessons you learned forward
Their landscapes f**king slap. Oh, and air-condition is just a thing.
I live in the southern United States. I can't fathom a car or house being sold around here without air conditioning. It just wouldn't happen.
Each state has it's own unique culture so everytime you go to different parts of the U.S., there's always something new to explore
I know right! I love to travel but have never left the United States. I have seven brothers and sisters. All from the same parents. We were military and moved all the time so wherever we were when we turned 18 that was where we settled. I have a sister in Washington state, a sister in Missouri, a brother in North Carolina, a brother in Texas, A sister and myself in Mississippi and a sister in Wisconsin. The range of accents at our every 5 years family reunions are fascinating.
I like how you guys can be very opinionated and are passionate and critical about ideas, even though those ideas may be straight terrible, but just having the freedom to voice your opinion and criticise the government, corporations or each other etc without fear of retribution is one of the hallmarks of a free society...alongside your history of being pioneers on some of the greatest advancements in the 21st century....which is why despite the U.S. hasn't always looked great in recent history, my admiration still remains. I still feel like you guys are still behind in certain areas like education and healthcare, which is puzzling given your resources.
I had the realization the other day that we Americans are uniquely irate when our elected officials pass legislation designed to keep us alive. It's bizarre. Somehow, we think universal healthcare will strip away all of our freedoms and prevent anyone from ever seeing a doctor. Obamacare though is widely supported now, even though it was highly partisan when it first went into effect.
King’s Hawaiian Sweet Rolls.
I like the 'You can be anything you want' mentality. In the Netherlands people generally tend to question whether what you're doing is sensible, rather than saying: Yeah, you go for it man! Maybe that's just my experience with my country though.
It's a double-edged sword. There is a significant number of Americans who followed their hearts and chased their dreams and ended up struggling. There are some wonderful success stories but I think not enough people understand the risk. There really is value in being sensible, also.
The freedom to criticize it and still not be thrown in jail!
No,really you guys make fun of politicians and the government all the time !Hell,they are shows for just that purpose,where I live you will be killed/jailed for it.
This is something kind of small, but I quite like the way people use 'Sir' and 'Ma'am'. No one really uses those where I'm from unless in very formal situations, so to me it sounds really respectful and polite. I would SWOON if a good-looking American guy said 'Yes, Ma'am' to me lol
This may sound ridiculous considering it has a lot of flaws, but the justice/legal system.
Here en South America corruption is so bad that we rarely see any kind of justice even for obvious crimes; let alone a good investigation, just collecting basic evidence has to be called a miracle.
I've always admired the American sense of rugged individualism.
I've met a number of Americans and they all seem to have it to one degree or another. In its best form, it shows up as a kind of honesty that comes from supreme self-confidence and self awareness. It also includes selflessness, a kind of "I've got all my stuff together, so I can help you out, friend." These are the folks that worked together to tame the wild frontier, as it were. Even though he wasn't born American, I see Arnold Schwartzenegger as the ultimate American. Tom Hanks is another great example most people know.
At its worst... you get Karen.
I like how open-minded the people are and how much they seem to enjoy varied interests. I've found in my country, we tend to be pretty judgmental of anything we aren't used to seeing, and most people have basically the same hobbies.
I love how spread the infrastructure is across the country. Literally massive multinational companies are head quartered in so many smaller cities. Manufacturing can occur in even more towns.
Here in Australia our population is so concentrated in our 3 biggest cities, it's difficult for big business to survive elsewhere. So they move to the big cities and perpetuate the problem. Half our population is in those 3 cities.
As an American I was shocked to find out that there is a super successful guy who works in bio-engineering and he lives right by Yellowstone National Park. Runs a multi million dollar industry right out of his tiny little building. He said he values the open space and the lack of traffic and congestion..who can blame him!
Freedom of speech. You can make jokes about the president and not worry that FBI is going to show up at your doorstep. Life is very different in developing countries.
I met this woman she was talking on her phone as she had parked her car and I heard her accent she was from the deep South I’m from California and we were in California. When she finish talking on the phone I asked her where she was from and I asked her if she liked it here. She said her and her husband moved here from Louisiana and then from Texas. She said her husband came home from the first week at work and he was all excited and she asked him why and he said honey we can talk about anything here nobody pulls a gun on you because they don’t agree with you. Some places in America are more touchy than others about some subjects.
Immigrant here. Opportunities. As long as you have the desire to work, you’ll find work. You’ll find a way to make a decent living even if the pay isn’t always great by first world standards. From where I’m from, opportunities like that aren’t available. You can be the hardest working person in the world and all you’d be able to do is hustle for pennies just to get by.
Among other things the "You are innocent before proven" culture & related laws.
Yes, it's not always applied, but still exists.
Baseball...it is just, such a beautiful sport
I love going to baseball games especially after they added taco stands
The feel of a small town with mom and pop shops and just a certain vibe. The convenience stores
I love mom-and-pops! Unfortunately, 7-Elevens and Quik-Stops are putting a lot of them out of business.
That services just work. Living in a third world country makes you sad when you compare the efficiency of the services available in your country with those of first world countries such as the United States or Canada, the fact of being able to do almost everything over the Internet without having to go to a stupid government office to wait hours because of the inefficiency of the people who work there is just... horrible, being able to have access to a credit with a social security number is another thing that I admire, in my country you need to go through an odyssey to be able to get acces to a credit.
The absolute juggernaut that is the American softpower.
Doesn't matter if what I'm lookin at is shit or not, if it's American, people are going to talk about it. Sport, food, various social media trends, a huge part of the western culture is influenced by America nowadays.
It's like South Korea in a sense, for all the horrifying things that happen in the K-Pop industry, every new MV of a famous band is directly put on top of the charts.
You do make some pretty rad music, and you also gave us Breaking Bad, so that's a plus.
From Chile.
Your job field in certain areas. As a student coursing a Master's in Economics, I've browsed job opportunities here and I see only a few, mostly academia related. But when watching USA job offers I see plenty of opportunities for my career and many others!
Also, the research job openings also are quite high, which is very cool for economists.
The people are friendly and helpful. Maybe not as much in the cities, but people are definitely a lot more willing to chat or lend a hand if they see you in trouble.
I spent most of my life in San Francisco, and any time I saw someone struggling with a map, I always went up and asked if I could help. SF is a small city physically, but the hills and wind always seemed to catch people off guard...especially how cold it is, especially in the summer.
The ranch dressing aisle at the grocery store. I sent my Australian friend some Hidden Valley ranch, and she flipped her actual sh** over it and put it on basically everything. I was so proud of her.
The post-secondary education system.
I attended University of California for bachelor and master degree in Computer Science. The professors welcome me correcting them and proposing better solutions. I feel empowered and motivated. In my home country in South East Asia, the professors would repeat from text books and refuse to accept corrections or any solutions different from ones in the textbook.
That in most places you can get any type of cuisine you want and it’s within 15 minutes of your home
Right near my house are Persian Greek Mexican Italian French and BBQ restaurant and that's just within 10 minutes within 20 minutes there's Indian Japanese Polish Irish English and multiple diners
I was in Tampa Florida two years ago . I was impressed with the drive through aspects of everyday life. I’ve seen Drive through Restaurants but never before Drive through Pharmacies - Drive through Banking - Drive through Oil change for your car.
How much you get into holidays. Halloween, Christmas etc. I’d love to go to a nice little suburb and trick o treat!
You have the movies, Jazz, etc too. I’d love to see a real American diner one day.
I’ve been to SF on a quick lay over and loved the few hours I had there.
We are the only country who let one sect of people convince us to take a day off to drink and party. Those people were once ostracized in this country and now they have made us all a member of their clan for a day. If you haven’t guessed it’s St. Patrick’s Day and it’s the Irish. And we are all in now
Disney world, how hot/cold it can get quick and all different time zones I'm in England we don't have different time zones
I live in the San Francisco Bay area of California and I had a friend who wanted to see the sun go down by the Golden Gate Bridge. We were at a friends house and it was about mid 70s nice and warm, light breeze, t shirt weather. No big deal. The Golden Gate bridge, a 15 minute drive away. I told him he was going to need a sweatshirt he told me “hey I’m from Colorado I can handle this, I don’t need a sweatshirt” So I threw an extra thick sweatshirt in the backseat of the car and off we went. He stepped out of the car and his T-shirt and shorts and within three minutes his lips were blue and his chin was quivering he came running back to the car and said he was freezing to death. Yep, the humidity and the wind at 56° will make it seem like you have no clothes on, even if you are wearing three layers. In Colorado you can run around in 40° weather with blue jeans and a T-shirt on because there’s no humidity. Lesson learned
That you can buy a used car for cheap, even if you work minimum wage. In my country even as a college graduate and a full-time emergency room nurse I can barely pay for my 150cc motorcycle, let alone a car.
The United states tends to recognize, reward, and encourage excellence better than any other country or culture I can think of.
Americans, as individuals and as a nation do not apologize for winning or being the best. They will heap glory on it and gloat without reservation or hesitation. And if they think someone else is better than them, they will work their ass off to become better.
This comment is from a Canadian.
I'm amazed by the people who manage to survive in Florida, and similarly hot places. I've seen a picture of a girl standing next to this table that displayed the temperature, the post titled "it's just the beginning of summer" or "it isn't even summer yet", or something similar. I started sweating just seeing the number. I don't know how you guys do it, but hats off, I would literally die.
We die too. Over 100 people died in Oregon a couple weeks ago because of a heatwave that hit 115F. A lot is just what your community is built for. In hotter climates, homes and businesses have air conditioning, and people are more likely to drive than in more temperate climates.
Just the fact that everything starts in the USA nowadays, seriously, everything begins there, every next big company, every big next invention.
And the High School sports fields, you lucky bastards
cheap walmart ice cream buckets. they're absolutely freakin delicious.
I ate a whole one on a hot day (I live in Florida). I regretted instantly.
The variety of options. I'm happy to live on my island but it means a lot of beauty and skincare isn't as available, and what is is more expensive than the drugstore america gets. And shipping it is expensive too. I think it would be overwhelming though.
I'm a musician. I love the "make it Big" or go home mentality of live shows in US. Hope to play in one of those soon.
It’s hard to put into words but like…advancement ?? Seems like most apps/inventions/advancements start in the USA
As a cdn I’ve realized that proximity shows us what we are missing but that or proximity typically gets us access almost right away as expansion outside USA borders takes place
verbal Communication skills. When people are interviewed on tv they can really explain in detail what happened and it is easily understood. It’s like everyone has a communication major.
in Australia we generally are really bad at this.
for example - interviewing eye witness to shark attack in Australia “yeah nah it was pretty bad”
we talk weird stuff over here too - I think it was their language first, we just changed it. you talk strange to some people ya' know. We [US] are not the default language.
Everyone has a story to tell.
The Patriotism - men sacrifing their lives for a newly formed country that is free from their oppressors, the men that died to keep the flag from falling at Fort Henry, the men that went to Mexico to grow their country, the men on both sides that died for their country and ideology in the civil war, the men that went to Europe to fight with their original oppressors each time, the men and women that went to Afghanistan and Iraq after singing the Anthem at the debris of the Twin Towers. Millions upon millions of men and women that laid rest their lives for the American expirement to continue, knowing that they are apart of something much bigger than themselves, liberty, justice and honor for all, for a European when I think of America I don't think of fat racists shooting guns and eating burgers, I think of the white house, Lady Liberty, Mount rushmore, the New York Skyline, the 50 stars, all to be what I believe are symbols of American prosperity. One country under god, Indivisable, which unfortunately seems to be the trend over there at the moment, I hope the Republicans can forget about trump and move onto work with Pres Biden. I see America outliving myself for centuries to come. Oh say cant you see? By the dawns early light.
Thank you so much for recognizing military women. We are so often forgotten.
Big block engine swaps
I hope that people eventually realize that it is FAR more fun to drive a slow car fast than constantly fight with a fast one to drive it slowly. Think classic Mini, or MG Midget. You can tear around full-throttle like you're a racecar driver, yet still largely be within the speed limits.
Chael P. Sonnen, the American Gangster from the mean streets of West Linn, Oregon!
Also your Taco Bells are amazing, much better than the Canadian locations
thank you BP! This has maybe been one of the most requested posts out there and it delivered! Love to see more of this kind (maybe other countries, too?)
As an Iranian-American I’m USA all the way! You couldn’t drag me out of this place! Too many positives.
To me, there's too much division in our country rn. So I like to think of ALL American citizens, as just Americans. Regardless of if you're from Africa, Iran, or California, if you're an American citizen, you're an American. We should be 1 big team, all supporting each other, not several separate teams, playing against each other. ❤️🇺🇸
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thank you BP! This has maybe been one of the most requested posts out there and it delivered! Love to see more of this kind (maybe other countries, too?)
As an Iranian-American I’m USA all the way! You couldn’t drag me out of this place! Too many positives.
To me, there's too much division in our country rn. So I like to think of ALL American citizens, as just Americans. Regardless of if you're from Africa, Iran, or California, if you're an American citizen, you're an American. We should be 1 big team, all supporting each other, not several separate teams, playing against each other. ❤️🇺🇸
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