30 People Expose The Things Their Country Finds Normal But The Rest Of The World Doesn’t
What’s normal for you and me might not be normal for someone we know who lives abroad. Or their neighbor. One of the harsh truths of life is that reality isn’t always as objective as we might think it is.
In a viral thread, Redditors shared the best examples of what’s completely normal for people from their country and absolutely weird for foreigners. We’ve compiled some of the best answers that we hope will make you smile and laugh.
Scroll down and upvote your favorite things that are normal for some people, but are unusual for the rest of the world. If you enjoyed this list, why not share it with your friends? And be sure to let everyone know in the comments if you’ve got any of your own stories about what’s normal for your country, but that you realize to be strange when you go abroad.
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Going bankrupt from medical debt. (USA)
We don't just find it weird, we find it sad and we're worried about if you're okay.
Everyone rags on the US for using imperial, but can we talk for a second about how weird we are here in the UK for using both inconsistently?
You buy a pint of milk or beer, but a litre of coke and 25ml of whiskey
People know how many miles to the gallon their cars get, but you buy fuel at pence per litre.
You watch the weather forecast and the temperature is in Celsius but the wind speed is in miles per hour
Most people can tell you their weight in kilograms, and their height in feet, and if they can't give you kilograms they can probably give you stone instead, which is even older than pounds, which nobody uses as a unit of measurement, probably because of the confusion between lbs and £...
It's a glorious mess.
upset? have a cup of tea
happy? cup of tea
bored? cup of tea
literally any feeling? cup of tea
edit: yes, I’m from the UK, tea is our answer to all of life’s problems.
Reddit user Ojlol2’s thread on the ‘Ask Reddit’ subreddit got more than 63,000 upvotes in a day, as well as over 48,000 comments. Wow, now that’s a lot of people wanting to share their experience about how normality can differ from nation to nation.
From bizarre actions to eyebrow-raising phrases, there will always be things that seem out of place, as long as different countries, cultures, and ethnicities exist. And it’s a wonderful thing because a shift in your perspective can lead to more creativity and a more objective understanding of yourself.
Unsuccessfully helping your dad look for one of his missing thongs and then watching him squeeze into one of your mum's so he can go out into the back yard and get the laundry. I'm told the rest of you (incorrectly) call them flip flops. (Australia)
I was picturing the dad squeezing into tiny thong underwear. Quite the mental image!
Eating with our hands.
In 1969 (the same year the man landed on the moon), Miss Gloria Diaz coveted the Philippines' first Miss Universe Crown. During the preliminary Q&A, she was asked "Is it true that you Filipinos use your hand when you eat?" To which she replied "Why? Do you use your feet?" and went her way to winning the crown. (Phillipines)
The United States of America is one of the most powerful countries on Planet Earth, but it doesn’t mean that everything its citizens do is the norm across the world. Some things are minor differences. While some take you aback, make you stop, and keep you awake at night thinking about the cosmos, Multiverse theory, and humankind as a whole.
Bears on motorcycles driving on roads, drinking vodka and playing balalaikas.
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Hahaha! Gotcha. What I said was untrue. Russia doesn't have roads.
Putting broken glass bottles on the walls around your house so burglars cant jump it and rob you. I moved to Canada and they don't even have walls around the houses! (Brazil)
Having a reality tv star as president (USA)
Or an actor as president? Or a non-American actor as governor? Americans must think that people in the public eye are automatically qualified to run things...
For example, one thing that is really odd is how Americans write today’s date by starting with the month, then writing down the day, and ending with the year. Most countries in the world start with the day or end with it. While we’re on the subject, how is it that the US still uses the Imperial System? It seems like the American War of Independence didn’t get rid of all of Britain’s influence over the colonies.
In my high school (US) we had a group of australian students come to live a day in the life of an american high school. They all thought it was so bizarre and cult-ish that every morning we had to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag with our hands over our hearts. I couldn't agree more that it is, indeed, bizarre and cult-ish.
Direct democracy in Switzerland. It often baffles me when I read what the government can pull off in other countries without ever involving the population. Like...yea, you get to elect representatives but it often seems to me that those people then elect someone who elects someone who elects someone...is it really still democracy if you're about five steps removed from the actual decisions? (Switzerland)
Men holding hands in public as a display of friendship is normal in Afghanistan but super weird in the west.
Constantly tipping everyone, no matter how well they did their jobs, also causes a lot of people to shrug and give Americans peculiar looks. Japan’s a real wonderland in that regard: there’s almost no tipping.
In my country you bike everywhere. Cars aren't used much. For longer distances you mostly use train and public transport. Also being 6 foot is normal (The Netherlands)
I have two to share since I'm half and I get to see those every year. Dead. We celebrate dead and we have parades about dead. We laugh about dead. Dead is our friend. In Mexico we treat dead with love and fun.
Also in Japan we celebrate kanamara Matsuri. Wich is basically a parade about fertility with dicks everywhere. Small dicks. Giant dicks. Dicks as food.
This means during Kanamara Matsuri you can tell someone to go eat a dick without sounding suspicious.
Small talk in Poland actually is quite sincere. If someone asks you what's up, you tell them exactly that it's s**tty etc.
Whole restaurants cheering when a plate or glass is smashed (UK). Once was in a Canadian bar/restaurant on holiday and a waiter dropped a tray of glasses, the local looked horrified when i was out of my seat screaming “wheyyyyyy”
Leaving your baby alone outside for their nap, even if it rains or snows. (Norway)
Lithuanian there, was sleeping in balcony straight out of hospital (born at the end of November), this is also very common in Estonia
Being middle-class with a property having a 6' wall, electric fencing linked to an alarm, automated gate and garage doors (with security clamps over the gate motor to prevent theft of the motor), security gates over every door, burglar bars, and a house alarm system with infra-red sensors linked to armed response with a reaction time of under 3-4 minutes. (South Africa)
This was something I found very hard to adjust to when I moved to South Africa from the UK. I went from if you forget to close a window or lock a door odds were you would be fine. ~To nope nope nope, you do that and you're probably coming home to an empty house if lacking said security features.
We have no sun here. Around this time of year everyone start asking each other "You been taking vitamin D?". It doesn't matter if you're talking about feeling sad, dealing with the flu, or missing limbs... you been taking vitamin D bro? (Canada)
It depends on where you are in Canada obviously. We have plenty of sun here on the West coast.
To get money back when you bring empty plastic bottles to the supermarket. In Germany its called Pfand. Each bottles makes 25 cents.
On Valentine's day, men don't give any gifts. Only women give gifts, they only give it to men, it's always chocolate, and they get it for all the men in their lives, including coworkers. Then there is a day on the 14th of March where the men reciprocate. The gifts are only from men to women this time, and are chocolate or jewelry or nice clothes, and the amount spent is directly related to the amount of chocolate received. (Japan)
Eating most of the organs of an animal, I had some people look at me in disgust when I told them how tasty the brain and the heart of an animal are (Romania)
that's the main problem with today's western culture-when thinking of a chicken you get chicken breast or a leg rather than a chicken medley. post-CCCP countries (romania, bulgaria, poland, lithuania, the whole eastern block and the balkans), much like still asian and african cultures, utilized not so long ago the whole animal and did not waste any parts, hence the brain (stir fried), gut soup, bone soup, blood sausage, lard with bread, cow tounges and many other delish dishes.
I think tips are a thing in other countries, but in America you have to tip almost everywhere you eat or you get hardly judged by everyone. And if the tip isn’t big enough, they judge you too. It’s so dumb.
In civilised countries employees are paid a proper wage and their tips are an extra for them. Tips are considered a token of appreciation on how well the server did. Bad service means no or very small tip. In America servers rely on their tips to get a decent income.
People are always shocked at in my country: 1) our “public” restroom stalls are constructed in such a way that you can pretty much see what a person is doing in there thanks to a constant crack between the door and its frame... 2) I say “public” in quotes because most of our so-called public restrooms are in private businesses who don’t let our surprisingly very large number of homeless use and since there is no actual fully public restroom to use, said homeless often piss and sometimes even s**t in our streets. Oh- and we have a higher percentage of our population in jail than literally every single nation on earth. (USA)
A lot of people refer to the US as "Backwardistan" or "Dumbfvckistan" since the tangerine toddler took office.
Strangers sitting totally naked skin to skin in a steamy room heated to +80 to +100C... and us having competitions on who can last the longest in there. (Finland)
Some 50 years ago this was unthinkable in Austria but today it's common for strangers to sit naked in a sauna, except for the skin-to-skin part. Even the slightest touching is totally inappropriate.
In my friend's country, Easter is when gangs of boys roam the countryside, pouring water over girls and beating them (gently) with sticks. The girls then have to thank them for it. I thought that was pretty weird. (Slovakia)
Putting cable ties, branches, fake eyes etc on helmets, buckets and hats in spring time to scare away the birds. Magpies are vicious bastards (Australia)
I'm 30+ and I've never been swooped. In fact I used to take refuge from the school bullies underneath the magpie trees because the birds would swoop the bullies but not me.
Calling a Traffic Light a Robot (South Africa)
...and a gas station a garage, and a pick-up truck a bakkie.
We have matrimonial ads in newspapers and sites to find grooms and brides which I think don't happen in western countries and they find it strange. The ads are mostly published by parents. It's like tinder supervised by parents. (India)
Scottish here. We deep-fry our pizzas. No even sorry. Tasty wee bastards.
South Korean oddities:
Straight dudes wearing makeup
16 year old girls getting eyelid surgery as a gift from their parents
Everyone driving new cars around for as long as possible with blue protective sponges on their doors that automakers everywhere else in the world take off immediately after shipping
all electric fans have timers on them, because everyone believes that if you fall asleep with one blowing on you, you'll die
expecting to receive a free portion of pickle slices on the side when you order pizza
in the netherlands we learn biking around our 4th birthday, seriously how are there still people 16+ who can't ride a bicycle!
Taxes. We have this weird system where the government really kind of knows what we should pay, but they offer us an opportunity to guess and maybe pay the right thing, but if we don't pay the right thing, we get penalized. I remember listening to a podcast where people all over the world were super confused about how the US does taxes. Most other places the government sends you a bill, and you pay it, and you're done.
A teeny tiny nation with atleast 50 different accents. (UK)
Sprinkles on buttered bread is made by fairies and is perfect for kids parties. And anything negative said about said treat is sacrilegious. (Australia)
If there's no Fairy Bread you are well within your rights to take back your prezzie and go home.
American coinage doesn't have numbers on it. If you see a 1 Euro coin...it has a 1 on it. Seems reasonable enough. In America, just words. Seems like a mean troll on foreigners that can't read our coins. I know the dead presidents on the coins so it doesn't bother me; but if I went to another country and they insisted upon making me read to use their money I would probably be pissed off
It's funny, I never actually noticed that -- nearly 6 decades and NOW I learn! I mean our coins do look completely different from one another in size or color (except that one goof with a dollar coin that looked nearly identical to a quarter) but I never noticed the lack of a number!
I'm from the USA and my girlfriend is from Singapore. The amount of pumpkin s**t we consume practically frightens her. (USA)
In university we thump the tables to "applaud" our professors. Instead of actually applauding. Or doing nothing.
During my exchange semester everyone not from Germany was looking at me confused why I did this. (Germany)
The Swedish holiday of midsummer, where people dress up in plain white clothes and flower crowns to sing together and dance in a circle around what's called the midsummer pole. Every foreigner I've ever talked to about the holiday said it seems like a giant cult.
For some extra weirdness, the pole is supposed to look like the the male genitalia, and the holiday started as a celebration of fertility.
Variant of may pole dancing first seen, at least in the British Isles, between AD 1350. May day or midsummer, still about fertility.
Golden gay time. (It is an ice cream in Australia)
i proposed to my girlfriend by giving her one of these and inside was the ring best choice ive ever made!
Marrying someone without knowing them and only seeing their face once the marriage is agreed on. (Saudi Arabia)
Drinking beer before 12 o‘clock and seeing it as part of the culture (Germany)
Walking around barefoot (New Zealand)
Calling mixed race people coloureds. Im from south africa and im coloured but when i went on holiday in Spain, coloured is a derogatory term but in south africa its completely normal.
As far as I know, "colored" (de color) is the politically correct word. The one you cannot mention is "black".
The cracks that are just wide enough to be able to see in and out of public restroom stalls. (United States) I’ve heard it’s thought of as weird since many other countries enjoy the luxury of privacy.
Washing your butthole after taking a crap (Italy)
A friend of mine described it like this: "If I threw some dog sh*t on your arm, would you just take some paper and wipe it off until the paper comes off reasonably clean?" - and that makes sense, doesn't it? I'm German (and we normally only wipe our butts), but since I've been in some countries where you actually wash your buttocks after having a dump, I kept doing it here, too. It's somewhat more complicated though, as I don't have a bum gun (that's what they called them in Thailand, a little shower head attached to the toilet), but with a little creativity, you can work it out.
Vegemite (Australia)
Where I'm from the answer is guns. Lots of guns. You shoot guns at 9 years old with your buddy at an old washing machine. They are a way of life, and I suppose death for a lot of people. I understand why people support owning guns, they grew up with them and see them as normal. You tell people from other countries about shooting guns at 9 and they look at you funny. (USA)
Living with your parents is praised a lot ,but getting your own place or moving with your SO is still looked weird at as an act (Romania)
In Bulgaria it's normal to live with your parents until you get marrieid or in a serious relationship. After that it's weird to live with your parents, if you can afford otherwise.
Selling bullet proof backpacks for little kids to wear to school... (USA)
Making a human-sized doll stuffed with hay, and burning it at 12AM on January 1st. The doll is called “Old Year”, and burning it symbolizes the year ending.
Country: Colombia
We have something similar in Poland - a human-sized hay doll is called Marzanna, which is the name of a pagan death goddess and is drowned at the end of the winter. Kindergarten kids usually take part in making the doll and then throwing it into the river. Which is creepy af of course. But nobody thinks about it as a kid.
Pouring loads of cinnamon on people when they turn 25 and are unmarried. Moving on to pepper if you turn 30 and are unmarried! (Denmark)
Deep fried mars bar Edit: I’m from New Zealand, for those asking. These are usually sold in fish n chip shops.
In my country, we address people by calling uncle, auntie, brother, sister or if it is a senior citizen we would called them mother father or grandmother or grandfather. Its very strange to us address specially people who are elder to you by name. (Sri Lanka)
Boiled Coca Cola with lemon and ginger (Hong Kong)
Circumcising your sons seems to still be pretty common here. 13 years ago when my sons were born we had to dig in our heels as it was something that was pretty commonplace. Not sure if it's still like that, but historically...ya...we like to snippity snip snip our little dudes. (USA)
Until recently, no women drivers. (Saudi Arabia)
Before the Ayatollah was elected, and a religious group was out in to power in the '70's women were pretty much free. After the Ayatollah, no women could drive without a male relative with them, women were just recently allowed to attend a soccer game (in a separate section) and they're starting to get schooling in higher education. I hope someday they get back the freedoms that were taken from them. Of course, being in the US right now, I think we're going to be facing the same problems if the Orange Devil, his evil minions and his devil spawn continue to be in charge.
Mandatory 2 years and 8 months of military service for men (2 years for women) Absolutely normal for us, pretty much all fit teenagers serve. (Israel)
If you work in an office here in Germany and open two windows to get a cool draft, a coworker will close them angrily in the next few minutes, yelling angrily "Es zieht". A lot of Germans wrongly believe that a draft will give them all kind of sicknesses from a stiff neck to a common cold. There is of course no scientific proof that a draft is harmful. (Germany)
Eating biscuits and gravy. I traveled to the UK and told them that biscuits and gravy is a very common breakfast food and as you would expect they were highly confused (biscuit=cookie across the pond) why we would take something sweet and cover it in gravy. And also was confused that the gravy we use has sausage in it and is white. (USA)
You'd probably confuse many English speaking countries with that stuff. Biscuit means cooked twice which is how biscuits used to be cooked. Cookie... just a type of biscuit.
Blood pudding and fermented fish (Sweden)
When somebody of our relatives die, we keep the body in the house for 3 days(somebody always have to stay near it), and only after that we bury the body. I’m from Moldova.
I am from the US and while this isn't a US tradition, it is the tradition in my family because that was the how the wake was done before my grandparents came to this country. Any person older than 11 can be assigned to be a watcher and we watch in shift for 72 continuous hours. Then the body is removed the house and we can have a sort of religious service and burial or cremation. Also, when someone we know and respect dies, we plant something - like a tree or a bush.
Back home we put an effigy of a man on a pile of wood and burn it Wicker Man style whilst eating toffee and holding sparklers. Remember, remember, the 5th of November. Live in the US these days. Having a baby, getting 6 weeks of short term disability leave and going back to work. 8 weeks if you had a c-section. Who cares about mother/baby bonding, am I right?! You then get your medical bill and it's all wrong so you have to fight with your insurance to have claims covered. But wait, your anesthesiologist claim was processed before your maternity stay claim therefore it isn't covered and you have a copay you weren't expecting. That's another call to get them to process the claims in the correct order. And all of this if you are lucky enough to have insurance. (UK)
Odd thing about Guy Fawkes, he was'nt the mastermind beind the gunpowder plot. He was the patsy that took the blame.
Having a coffee after basically every meal.. I'm from Portugal, and here, everybody has a cup of coffee after lunch/dinner (here coffee is very cheap btw, ranging from 0.50€ up to 1.00€). I thought it was a very common thing worldwide, until some years ago, when I traveled to Spain and discovered it's more of a portuguese thing after all...
A short while ago they stopped selling alcohol after 10pm. At some stores you couldn't even get non-alcoholic beer. What's weird tho is that wine is not considered alcoholic drink so you can buy it anytime. Welcome to Moldova ;) (Moldova)
Its also forbidden in Turkey after 10pm, but all alcoholic beverages. But a lot of places still sell them.
I don't know why but teenagers from my place ( Vietnam ) like to put hot sauce on everything, like pizzas, chips ( French Fries ), spaghetti, rice, cakes, hamburgers, anything you can think of ...
Drinking until we fall into a fence? (Denmark)
We don't discriminate here in Britain we fall into anything that looks at us ..... Bushes, fences, cars and even imaginary stuff! I fell onto two people having sex in a field three o'clock in the morning! I presume he was British as we both apologised and carried on awkwardly!!!!!!
Separate gender buildings / libraries / professors / teachers / management / technicians / and even janitors in every single school / university. (Saudi Arabia)
Bagged Milk. I know it's normal in some places but not here in the UK
Going into the sauna naked while sharing the sauna with the other sex(es).
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Edit: It's about Germany but we always welcome the Finnish, origin of a welcome invention. As this got somewhat hijacked about Finnish sauna culture, German sauna culture is very easy:
1. In public saunas usually everyone is naked. If you feel uncomfortable, you can wrap a towel around your waist and/or chest. Between sittings you'd usually wear a robe.
2. Most public saunas have half a day or more during the week reserved to female only. Check their website for details on that, if you are interested.
3. Be prepared that it will get crowded in the sauna when infusions are scheduled.
4. I don't know a public sauna where swimsuits are allowed. If there are pools, you'd swim naked but you can wear swimsuits there if you want to.
5. As long as you are in the sauna, you don't want to get too romantic with your spouse or whoever you are with. There is a difference between nudity and promiscuity. There are special clubs reserved for that.
6. In hotels you will often find a small sauna. Unwritten law is, the first to enter the sauna decides if it's fine to be naked. But in hotel saunas it's way more common to wear a towel than in public saunas.
7. Private saunas of course are up to the owners and/or users. Do what you are comfortable with - naked or towel. (Germany)
Men wear skirts even when it’s poring outside, which is all the time. (Scotland)
Yeah, actually go to Scotland and see how this isn't often the case.
It's getting better in other parts of the world, but: consuming weed without fear of any real repercussion. (Belgium)
I'm really wondering how long it'll still take us Germans to allow it. It's an open secret that a lot of people do it anyways, and nobody really cares. Over at my old place, we had two policewomen living on ground floor, yet still we'd sit in the yard smoking pot without them caring.
My ex wife is South African and from a fairly affluent family. Without exception, their security is as described in one of the previous threads. The crime is UNBELIEVABLE! Together with a completely corrupt (and largely racist) police force, it's a tough place to live.
Yes it is all true. A wealthy friend of mine had laser sensors in their gargen and rather thick bars guarding the doors and windows. This did not help at all as the criminals still made their way into their house with no problem. I have been a victim of crime more times that I can remember, we don't even bother going to the police because they are extremely useless and couldn't care less
We eat fertilized duck eggs. (Balut) (The Philippines)
Calling them all chips, not crisps, hot chips or anything else. Just chips, except you wedges you can have a different name. (Australia)
We eat the animals on our national emblem. One of them is actually super good for you! (Australia)
A properly functioning train system (The Netherlands)
It's not that unusual. You find a properly working train system in other countries too.
Paying for small things with 50 franc notes.
In Switzerland its the norm, in Ireland or the UK, it constitutes a war crime.
Feet and Inches! (USA)
In the Philippines, it would be people living with their parents. Everybody I know whose parents' homes are in the city choose to live there. With the relatively low wage to cost-of-living ratio, it is not unusual for married couples to share houses with their in-laws.
I work remote and I still live with my parents and pay zero rent. Of course, I pay all the bills, feed them and do all the home repairs and chores.
I left home when I was 19, and every time I visit my parents for longer than a weekend (say, a week around christmas time, for example), I'm happy when I get back to my own appartment and away from them. I like my parents, they're nice people, but they're somewhat stressful as well.
Having a garbage can in the bathroom for used toilet paper.
In Germany we eat minced raw pork. Our health and safety standards are pretty high, so it's a perfectly safe thing to do.
Chicken fried steak. It's not chicken. (USA)
So much damn water in the toilets. (USA)
Having a slice a bread with cheese and a glass of milk for lunch (Dutch)
Praising the body of a dictator is 100% normal. (Spain)
free health care in Australia!