ADVERTISEMENT

Our cultural differences are what make us unique, and they’re what bond us with others alike. What we see as ordinary always depends on people, place, and context and surely it will differ from one person to another.

That becomes super obvious when we leave the comfort of our home behind our back and go on vacation. Ask travelers how often they've been in uncomfortable social situations, had weird conversations, and found themselves strangers in a foreign land, and they will tell numerous stories.

Now this Ask Reddit thread has recently gained a lot of attention, amassing a whopping 28.3k comments and 27.8k upvotes. “What things do Americans like and the rest of the world not so much?” someone asked and people started sharing their own experiences, impressions and stories that show us once again just how relative things can be.

#1

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Tipping culture.

It's crazy how much people defend an absolutely terrible system.

chewwydraper , Sam Dan Truong Report

Add photo comments
POST
sandra_monk avatar
Sandra Monk
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tipping. A way to continue slavery and make it legal to pay staff below the minimum wage.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#2

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much MM-DD-YYYY Date format 😅

javapyscript , Leeloo Thefirst Report

Add photo comments
POST
lilysyrjanen avatar
lilylynx
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've never understood this, because doesn't it make sense that it would go shortest, middle, longest edit: longest to shortest makes a lot of sense as well

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#3

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Commercials about pharmaceutical pills. "Ask your doctor about taking xyz... side affects can include (everything).
Wild!

Live_Ad_455 , Melany @ tuinfosalud.com Report

Add photo comments
POST
jojothecatlady01 avatar
JoJo Anisko
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is not "liked by Americans"; the pharmaceutical companies pay to air the commercials.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#4

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Opinion signs outside their houses. Like "in this house we support...". I find it weird and unusual.

BittenOnion Report

Add photo comments
POST
happyhirts avatar
Mad Dragon
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We have a “Love is Love” sign in our yard, but only because a few houses down from us has a sign that’s pretty much the opposite meaning.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#5

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much College sports. Particularly football and basketball.

The rest of the world loves soccer, but nobody gives a hoot about it at the university level.

Scrappy_Larue , football wife Report

#6

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Flags. So many American flags everywhere.

justmyfakename , Pramod Kotipalli Report

#7

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Walking inside the house with shoes on.

ignviliam , Sladjana Karvounis Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#8

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Threatening to press charges on people....

And being suspicious of everyone.

agingercow , Icons8 Team Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#9

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much imperial units
(edit: fahrenheit aswell as celsius are good for certain scenarios so ill omit the former)

Kirby_zzz , Ag PIC Report

#10

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much ICE. Filled till the brim before you pour any drink.

locoliga , Truong Dat Report

#11

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Cheerleaders

liebe_rootBete , Rajiv Perera Report

Add photo comments
POST
amystruthers avatar
Don't you wish you knew
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's definitely a sport and takes a lot of athleticism. People train from an early age to be on cheer squads.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#12

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Driving everywhere. Anywhere you go, you go in a car.


But I suspect for many, other options are so rare they don't think about them even if they do exist.

MXXIV666 , Aleksandr Popov Report

Add photo comments
POST
april_caron avatar
April Caron
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Soooo accurate! I work 50 minutes away from where I live (41 miles). Public transit isn’t an option. Even for close shopping… it’s not an option. The nearest bus line is 4 miles away.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#14

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Peanut butter and jelly

FlyBuy3 , Giorgio Trovato Report

Add photo comments
POST
happyhirts avatar
Mad Dragon
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A lot of us were fed this as kids, so it tends to be a comfort food now.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#15

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Root beer and ranch dressing. I brought some to Germany and had my friends try it and they said the root beer tasted like medicine. They politely tasted the dressing with a celery and said "hmmm, interesting" but the look on their faces was that it was terrible ha.

nargleflargle , American Heritage Chocolate Report

#16

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Garbage Disposals

Just shove that turkey carcass in the disposal and run some warm water behind it

celtic1888 , Max Vakhtbovych Report

Add photo comments
POST
emmelinehirt avatar
Sad Panda
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can’t put bones, meat, eggshells, or very fibrous fruits and veggies into the disposal. You can break the disposal or damage sewer lines.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#17

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much God damn delis. At least out of all the places I’ve traveled to the US by far has the best delis. I don’t know if I can live somewhere without a great Jewish or Italian deli.

facobi8356 , Kyle Mackie Report

#18

Corn syrup

__Piggy___Smalls__ Report

Add photo comments
POST
susanreidsmith avatar
Susan Reid Smith
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is a time and place for it like pecan pies and cheap pancake syrup. But not every where all the time.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#19

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Waffles with chicken

glori-hallelujah , Tim Toomey Report

#20

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much This used to be much more prevalent in the US but food coloring. When I moved from Japan to the US, I was surprised at how colorful their foods were.

These days Americans are now more keen to organic natural stuff so I see it less but it took me a while to realize that blue raspberry is not a real thing.

AwesomeAsian , Viktor Talashuk Report

Add photo comments
POST
spaggie1 avatar
Brenda Spagnola-Wilson
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They made them blue so they wouldn't be confused with the red ones (cherry or strawberry)

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#21

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much My mother [British] thought casseroles were weird and disgusting. Once her British friend came to visit, and asked that we not go to a restaurant "where all the food is mixed together in an awful jumble."

I love most casseroles.

MazW , sheri silver Report

Add photo comments
POST
sofacushionfort avatar
sofacushionfort
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Since casseroles were originally French, maybe she was just cherishing the ancient enmity

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#22

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much My sister is visiting the US from Europe and sent me a picture of a small coke and asked "why is it so big?" I could see old glory flapping in the wind, boys.

botaxel499 , Pixabay Report

#23

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Biscuits and gravy

WayneH2O , Ray Shrewsberry Report

Add photo comments
POST
mariedahme avatar
Marie Dahme
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And you’ll get a bunch of different variations of somebody’s granny made it only a certain way…so that’s how you know it’s authentic! Bacon grease? Sausage? Strong black coffee? Just never say you made it from a powdered mix!

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#24

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Free public restrooms. I know they're gross but they are nice to have.

vebidib774 , Sung Jin Cho Report

Add photo comments
POST
amystruthers avatar
Don't you wish you knew
Community Member
1 year ago

Was gonna comment but changed my mind so I'll just say Have a great day pandas wherever you are!

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#25

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much

Handicap accessiblity. Old buildings/towns in Europe are nice, if both your legs work.

botaxel499 , AbsolutVision Report

#26

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much
24 hour stores. I was in Chicago working with a colleague from Switzerland who suddenly realized around midnight that he needed a network cable to configure a mobile router for a job the next morning.

I told him that I'd meet him in the hotel lobby to drive him out to Walmart.

He was happily surprised, as he had forgotten about the US's famous chain of Walmart stores.

botaxel499 , Caique Morais Report

Add photo comments
POST
ameliabrown_1 avatar
Amy
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

24-hour Walmarts are not a thing anymore since covid, at least where I live.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#27

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much

Bankruptcy laws. It's a major reason why America has historically had some of the highest rates of small business growth and entrepreneurship. America is one of the most forgiving countries when it comes to personal and corporate bankruptcy (student loans notwithstanding).

Comparatively, European countries are much more pro-creditor which severely hampers any sort of investment that's even somewhat risky.

facobi8356 , Scott Graham Report

#28

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much
Americanized Chinese food. No one has us beat in that category.,

botaxel499 , Drew Taylor Report

Add photo comments
POST
wolfwolf avatar
Wolf Wolf
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I might get downvoted, but... Kind of wish people would stop complaining about "Americanized" Chinese food. Lots of dishes were invented by Chinese-Americans way back in the early 1900s because of the war. It may not be authentic Chinese food, but it is authentic Chinese-American food.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#29

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Bumper stickers

Back2Bach , Mathias Reding Report

Add photo comments
POST
jameskramer avatar
James016
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

See a fair few in the uk but we are more of a “baby on board” sticker nation

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#30

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much I'd like to say optimism, even if it's blind sometimes. The CAN DO attitude is extremely strong. I would also put belligerence up there for better or worse. That "Get the f**k out of my face, I'm not paying for / doing that" attitude. Whether you actually can or not, the American culture makes you feel like you can really do anything. Again, it's a double edged sword but you'll seldom find an American who's just going to lay down and take someone's s**t or heed someone who says (to your aspirations) "You can't".

facobi8356 , Brooke Cagle Report

Note: this post originally had 33 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda