To name a few:
Calling yourself Americans, after the entire dual continent. There are two continents and many other countries in the Americas, you know… [I know you know. And, what are you supposed to call yourselves, ‘USAians’? ‘Americans’ makes more sense and is easier to roll off the tongue. But it’s weird.]
Holding the door open for me. Smiling at me on the street. Those are sure signs of a swindler, but it’s the norm in the USA. [I am not suggesting USA folks are swindlers, only that those actions are what swindlers in much of the world use. USA people are generally super nice and a genuine pleasure to be around.]
Turning right on red light. Red means stop. It’s weird and confusing.
Edit: I added a third thing.
Edit2 in []
Calling yourself Americans, after the entire dual continent
But we never use “America” to refer to North and South America collectively. You can say “the Americas”, or just “North and South America”. And there’s no adjective that means “of the Americas”; you can say “North or South American”. But just “American” unambiguously means “of the USA”.
I’ve always wondered if disagreement over this comes from the fact that in some parts of the world, North and South America are considered to be one continent just called “America”, whereas we consider them to be two separate continents. And we don’t have a word for the pair of continents, any more than we have a word for Europe and Africa together. (I mean we do have “Eurasia”, which kind of pokes a hole in the hypothesis, but maybe that’s a special case because a brief glance at a map makes it clear it’s pure fantasy to count those as separate continents.)
Yeah, I always wonder how often there’s a need to refer to inhabitants of two continents together as a single entity. Like, if you say someone is South American or North American, that is never confused with being someone specifically from the US. When would those terms be insufficient?
The technical term is 𝕌𝕊𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕒𝕟 just so you know
With regards to right on red. It (legally at least) requires that you must first stop at the light. So if you are turning right the idea is that you are supposed to first check for active traffic and treat it as if it is a stop sign. If someone ahead of you is waiting to turn right and then goes. Then you are supposed to pull up and then stop again before turning. Though in practice a lot of people will at best treat it more like a yield sign and just roll through without stopping. In super low traffic times or places where traffic is a non-issue (like a rural road where as you pull up to the light you can clearly see open roads without anyone) then this isn’t really an issue aside from learning bad habits. Though heavy traffic places are much more of an issue.
You can even turn left on a red if it’s from or into a one-way street. I think that is state specific though
Aww c’mon, I was gonna deliver this in a much more conspiratorial tone!
From OR onto?
I’m just imagining someone making a left from a one-way onto a two-way, and it seems like it would be a very bad idea in that situation?
Don’t you mean “from AND into”?
It’s pretty much everywhere except for NYC and Montreal Island.
Regarding the red stoplight:
In Germany we have a rule that you may turn right if theres a sign permitting you to do so. In that case the traffic light is to be treated like a STOP-sign.Functionally the same but inverted in the states, there are signs that tell you when it’s NOT allowed. Just a matter of which is more efficient, signing when it’s allowed or signing when it’s not.
I’d prefer the need to look for the sign instead of hoping nobody ripped it off.
The A in USA stands for “America”
We are far from the only people that refer to us as Americans.
Very true. I added context as you commented. I’m not putting you down for it. It’s the term that makes most sense. It’s just weird. Not wrong or dumb or stupid or anything else insulting. It’s just a weird term to use, even though it’s the one that makes most sense. I honestly meant no disrespect or offense. I actually like USA and its people (I mean, there are crazies everywhere, but they don’t define the rest of you). I genuinely apologize if I offended you. Seriously, mate, I meant no offense at all.
Edit: clarity
No problems at all, I just see this opinion a lot and think its weird when people think we’re the only ones that say it, when it seems pretty common for other nationalities to do it too.
It is very common. Actually, I don’t think I’ve heard it as anything else. It’s still weird to me hahaha
No replies on the holding the door and smiling being the sign of a swindler? That actually sounds like you live in an exceptionally hostile place. I’m swedish, as in people not exactly known for showing a lot of warmth to each other in public, and I always hold the door, and smile at people very often. The smiling part might be somewhat unusual here in Sweden too, but not unusual as in bad or a sign of a swindler. Most people seem to appreciate these behaviors. Either that or I’m absolutely delusional and everyone secretly views me as a swindler ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
based on knowledge of the US : many things that other places take for granted or fight to preserve, you guys struggle to obtain.
based on my trip : fucking nothing, I visited new york and stayed at a run down, pre paid hotel. I ate food from stores or carry out. I can’t exactly critique the healthcare system, tipping culture, driving culture when I had access to a fairly modern public transport system, didn’t need medical assistance and didn’t need to tip 50 people just to eat one thing.
EDIT: it’s like asking tourists in antalya at the beach what they think of turkey, they’re fucking tourists, they aren’t affected by the dictator and his bullshit
I was just in Göcek and Ankara and I had some wildly interesting interactions with locals when they asked me how I liked Turkey.
“I like it, very beautiful country, lovely people, great food.”
“So you’d move here?”
“Uh… perhaps not”
“So you don’t like Turkey”
👀
lol
those fuckers have some nerve asking you that shit, when we have so much brain drain that most high streets are basically completely catering to elderly people with hearing aid and similar stores on each one, because all the working age people leave to live abroad.
No shit rich foreigners don’t want to move to turkey.
source : part of the brain drain for both turkey and the UK. fuck them countries.
My girlfriend and her sister are also in the brain drain. Definitely a sad state of affairs, so many of her friends and friends family’s have been either political prisoners, or had ongoing court cases, etc.
I’ve been trying to learn Turkish so we can move her family over here too and I can actually chat with them, but I fear they’ll need to work on their English so they can get around.
many of her friends and friends family’s have been either political prisoners, or had ongoing court cases, etc.
wow. I’m assuming the people asking you “wanna move to Turkey?” aren’t aware of this.
Best of luck to your gf’s family , gurbet recognise gurbet.
Teşekkürler!
I hope where you are now is more stable.
Canadian, so it’s not all that different, but why. can. I. buy. liquor. in. a. PHARMACY?
Don’t know if this is just a California thing, but it was weird as fuck. What’s even weirder, in light of this, is they didn’t go whole hog and sell cigarettes too. 'Cause helf.
Side story: Went into a Dollar General and bought a can of Sapporo. Ok, not so weird, it’s functionally a super basic grocery store with a bunch of other cheap goods. Guy at the counter said, “Oh yeah, they make this beer in some place very far away”. Looked at the can - I’m pretty sure he meant Japan, not Guelph, ON Canada.
He wasn’t wrong but I did chuckle.
Electric kettles (or hot water jugs depending on where you are) are just not a thing there. Apparently it has something to do with your 110v AC system. They don’t boil as fast, and so never really took off. Just a little factoid that blew my mind, considering how commonplace they are everywhere else.
I got this electric kettle and it heats up really quick. It shows the exact temperature on a screen too.
https://fellowproducts.com/products/stagg-ekg-electric-pour-over-kettle
LOL, we has 2 and have never used them. One is at camp, where we have a gennie, and we sold the other at the flea market.
The only hot drinks we make are coffe and we have 3 machines for that. If we need hot water to cook, we heat it on the stove top. I just can’t see why we would want one. Am I missing out?
They’re faster than the stovetop by a lot over here, so if you’re boiling a lot of water multiple times a day (for tea, coffee, ramen, and whatever else) they’re super convenient.
If you’re not making many hot drinks (or have better machines for that) I’m not sure how much use they are.
As for cooking, I know for myself, when I make something like rice, I boil the water in kettle first, and it definitely saves me a couple minutes. A few minutes doesn’t sound like much, but it all adds up. Another commenter says that they’re actually not that much slower over there, so it might be worth timing one compared to stove top?
A lot of things are faster than me.
In my defense, my left leg hasn’t been as good since I took a tumble off my bike into a gutter outside of Fuzhou a few years back.
They’re significantly faster than boiling water on the stove here in the US too.
I have an electric kettle because I’m a tea drinker. Not gonna lie though, it did take a while before I realized I could just generally boil water in the thing. One day, looking directly at the kettle while I filled a pot with water, the dusty light bulb in my head finally lit up. 😅
My wife is from the Philippines. You can be damned sure we have a rice cooker. :)
Jo Koy has a bit where you can always find the dark kitchen in a Filipino house. Aim for the red light on the rice cooker. Also, that video taught me to cook rice. My wife was laughing her ass off because it’s perfectly true.
I mean, they sell them at Costco, I’d hardly call that unknown. They’re less common because most people just don’t need them.
It’s not that much slower. Our 20a outlets give 2,400w, while yours gove 3000w. And, it’s still faster than a stovetop kettle. Its more that we don’t make hot tea very regularly, while drip coffee was the dominant hot drink for so long.
TIL
I had to leave my 3k beast kettle in the UK as it would blow the circuit here in Oz. Everyone has a kettle here though as they still have the Brit DNA and lowkey love tea with their cricket.
We aren’t big tea drinkers, so we only need hot water for food preparation.
The coffee machines make their hot water for coffee. If you don’t use a coffee machine to make coffee, you might use an electric kettle or the microwave if you are derrainged.
They are available now. This was in WaMart
https://i.imgur.com/d5ae1Po.jpg
Some of them even plug in!
But yes, kettles and toasters take forever.
Yeah, I have an electric kettle but I don’t personally know any other American who owns one. People are weirdly interested in it when they visit me.
They do exist here, just not very common. But in my family at least, every person has one in their kitchen. We are big tea drinkers though. I use mine a lot to heat broth for Ramen.
The fear of naked (intact) female bodies, i.e. censoring of even the slightest nudity, when at the same time, it’s totally fine to have minors play computer games where they can dissect other humans in great bloody detail.
Oh, and chocolate that tastes like somebody barfed into it during manufacturing.
Guns. Paying for being medically treated / not having a proper healtcare system. Weird relationship to Socialism.
I only stopped there for transit on a flight to Mexico. Just before boarding my flight I was told that I need a visa for the US, which is extremely weird because normally airports have transit zones where you don’t need any visa. But apparently the US is special, so you actually have to enter the country before going right back into the airport. This nonsense made me miss my flight.
Also I remember in the airport there was a security guard doing nothing but shouting nonstop that it’s not allowed to carry water. Why not simply put up a sign?
Americans don’t read.
We read, just not posted signs without a skull on it or something cool like that.
If it is important they would put it on a hat.
I’d also say sign fatigue (plus general fatigue) is a thing. When you go to an airport security line there’s like these giant signboards stood up like the 200 Commandments, each with a mix of pictures and walls of text of for things you’re not allowed to bring on a plane. Or some things you can check and not carry on or you can carry on and not check. And you’re also expected to know all of that while you are in transit, stressed, and maybe also sleep deprived.
Too many signs to properly pay attention to them all.
Am American, don’t know what this says
We weren’t elected to read.
W.r.t. water bottles, I think it’s because people don’t look at or think about the signs that are often posted. A loud person yelling specifically at you is much more likely to make someone stop and ask themselves if they have a water bottle.
I’m definitely not defending it, but that’s my take on the matter. The whole water bottle thing is just security theater anyways.
Or you guys like to be shouted at. There is no other country that does this.
You’ve been here. So you’ve witnessed first hand our lack of social cohesion. We’re not a civilized people. We’re barely above feral and deeply ensconced in tribalism. Capitalists did a great job gaslighting this country into this situation where we’re aware of their abuse but somehow still manage to blame one another instead of the abuser. The Business Plot didn’t fail, it bided its time and rolled out slowly and surreptitiously.
Canadian ex-infantry checking in with an exception to that assertion.
I definitely haven’t been shouted at in any of the European airports I’ve been in (from memory, KEF, HEL, AMS, MAD, BCN, NCE, and BER, so not super representative of the continent), so to me, it seems like an American phenomenon. I haven’t been to Canada enough to know what it’s like there. It’s also somewhat recent. I’ve been flying for 25ish years now, and I feel like the yelling has only been happening for the past, I dunno, 5-7 years?
As others have said, I don’t think it’s that we like being shouted at. We just have a large number of people who are, uh, “ruggedly individual,” to put it in nice terms. Those people don’t really think about others enough, so you have to yell at them to get them to pay attention to the world around them. I’m the type of person that looks up the rules before I leave and makes sure I have all of my shit out of my pockets before I even enter the security line to ensure I don’t reduce the efficiency of the security checkpoint. I often feel a bit exasperated with the people who don’t think about others in those situations.
As a means of dealing with it, I’ve found that smiling, making eye contact, and nodding at the TSA agent doing the yelling makes them less likely to yell at me while simultaneously making me feel a bit less frustrated—expressing nice feelings and trying to show some common humanity with the people I’m interacting with makes it harder for me to feel angry. Not saying that’d work for everyone, but it’s helpful for me.
Just before boarding my flight I was told that I need a visa for the US […] This nonsense made me miss my flight.
I WOULD HAVE FUCKING LEFT IF YOU’D LET ME ASSHOLE
Not like that, they didn’t let me board my flight from Europe to Texas. Even though I had a connecting flight to Mexico few hours later. Why can’t they have a visa free transit zone like every other country in the world?
I only stopped there for transit on a flight to Mexico. Just before boarding my flight I was told that I need a visa for the US, which is extremely weird because normally airports have transit zones where you don’t need any visa. But apparently the US is special, so you actually have to enter the country before going right back into the airport. This nonsense made me miss my flight.
Not like that, they didn’t let me board my flight from Europe to Texas. Even though I had a connecting flight to Mexico few hours later.
I am no longer on your side. if your journey is :
European country X -> Somewhere in the US -> Texas -> Mexico
Then of course you’re going through security controls, etc etc. You’re going from the international processing and flights part of the airport to the domestic flights part of the airport, which is the zone where any asshole in that country can travel in, so you’re properly entering the US. Of course you need proper clearance and visas and all that.
I initially assumed your journey was
Non US country-> Somewhere in the US -> Mexico
which you’d be completely right
No domestic flight, just Europe -> Texas -> Mexico.
i’m back your side fuck that airport
Because fuck you, that’s why.
Also, freedoms or something, I dunno.
Because fuck you, that’s why.
America in a nutshell.
So they can rob noncitizens using asset forfeiture laws. Never travel in or through the US if you need to transport large sums of money or valuables.
Actually, the better advice is never travel in or through the US. I wish that were an option for me.
A couple of times I’ve travelled Air NZ route that goes London-Auckland via LAX. The plane has to stop to refuel I guess. All the passengers are forced to queue up to be fingerprinted and have their eyeballs scanned, while a security guard walks up and down screaming “STAY IN THE LINE!” Then they’re herded into a lounge barely big enough to hold everyone (first class passengers have their own little pen next to the toilets). Apologetic air crew distribute apples, crisps and bottles of water. For hours. Through a glass wall is a view of the rest of the airport: shops, cafes, bars, space to stroll. But hey, at least you get to not miss your flight, and the US is safe from Kiwi tourists.
I don’t know if they still do this, I avoid the route.
LAX is also just the worst fucking airport. I remember feeling shocked the first time I flew to LAX. I thought that a city like LA would have a nice, efficient airport, given how much traffic that airport gets and how much money LA has. It’s been 10 years since I was last there, but I wouldn’t be surprised if LAX was just as dingy and disorganized now.
I’m sure the whole security theater bullshit would occur no matter what airport you flew through, and I don’t know if the experience would have been any nicer anywhere else. I just don’t like that airport, I’m in a bad mood, and I want to complain about things on the internet.
did london via LAX as well. This was my only experience of the US:
Arrive LAX and do the whole enter the US customs, the agent asks if anyone has had access to my baggage to which I answered “everyone here with security access”. The shit head was not impressed and let me know.
The US doesn’t do sanitized transport because there’s not really a need in most airports. The vast majority of passengers are Americans or coming into America. It’s also self reinforced, because once others learn they stop doing layovers in the US. It might make sense for a few large airports like Atlanta, JFK, and LAX.
China did that to me too, except I didn’t miss my flight. After getting off the plane they made us go through immigration and when they asked how long I was staying I said about 3 hours. Stamped my passport with a 1 day visa haha
The brown paper-bag thing with alcohol in public. I mean, everybody and their dog knows what’s in there, right?
And the fact that people ask if you need help if you decide to NOT take the car but instead walk the 5 minutes to somewhere.
Everyone does know. I can’t speak for all states/counties/cities/etc, but the brown bag thing is mostly a legal grey area for allowing folks to drink in public. Most of the time drinking isn’t legal to just do while walking around and can be given fines by cops. However this can be problematic for additional resources being redirected from more important crimes. So as long as the cops don’t see a label or the whole bottle/can, then they can ignore it as “it could be anything.”
For example, in the summer people in my state like to go tubing down sections of rivers. While tubing you can have coolers and stuff, however open drinking of beer or other such drinks isn’t legal. So if cops were to be watching the river and clearly see the labels it can mean that they order you to get out and hand them over and/or be fined. But everyone makes sure to put their cans/bottles in foam cozies, and therefore it is a low-key unofficial understanding that as long as you aren’t smashed and/or causing lots of problems everything is good. The same also applies to other places like lakes and the beach (at least in my state). But if you are super drunk and/or being an asshole, then the cops will use that as probable cause to actually search the bag/cozies and all that.
I cannot even begin to imagine not having the Freedom©®™ to crack open a bottle of wine for a picnic
That’s insane
We have had many of these by-laws here in NZ over the last 20 years.
It is slightly as there was/is laws about being drunk and disorderly, just use these and let me have a glass of wine with a picnoc with family and friends
Tubing down the Delaware with my water bottle full of beer 😎
As someone that sold liquor for a while, if the bag is dropped and the bottle shatters, the brown paper holds up a bit better when you’re cleaning that shit up compared to the thin plastic that rips when you breathe on it,
Well I’ve just read every comment on this thread and I’m relieved to realize that our recitation of our National Pledge of Allegience at every opportunity is in-fact seen as totally normal.
The flags on the cars.
A problem with this question is that the US is such a big and diverse place, that you could have this same question posed to Americans only, asking about their experience visiting other parts of the US.
The amount of sugar in any food of yours! It’s incredibly sickening and I’m not sure how you deal with that.
Sizes for clothes, drinks and fries are all bigger than in Brazil. A medium size shirt in the US is easily as big as a large in Brazil. For drinks I would usually groan every time I forgot to buy a small drink since I literally can’t drink a medium soda in the US in less than an hour and I hate wasting food.
The firearm culture, and how normalised it is.
I went into a Walgreens in Chicago, and waited in line behind two other people. There was a cashier free but the person in front of the line was waiting to be called. The guy behind the person in front politely said, “ma’am, the cashier is free” ‘I’m waiting to be called” was the response.
So the guy behind her just walked past her, and she pushed him and said, “Careful buddy, you’ll get shot for doing something like that”
I was taken aback at how quickly a simple discourtesy escalated to shooting someone. It just blew my mind that shooting someone over queue jumping was verbalised, and seemingly normal to each other.
Thats mostly just Chicago to be real
You got down voted but Chicago is just a weird place. When someone feels the need to make a website with a comical spin on the violence then something is very wrong. They have a Shot-in-the-Ass-O-Meter and Shot-in-the-Junk-O-Meter which are at 96 and 31 for the year so far.
Edit:Had to fix link…
Yeah, that is definitely not normal. Never heard anyone say anything like that (western US)
That’s not gun culture per se, but gang culture. Gun “culture” in the US is something that trends far more right wing in general, and tends to be mostly white, mostly (nominally) christian.
I can’t speak to other cities, but the south side and west side of Chicago (esp. around Garfield Park, Douglas Park, and all of Austin) have a serious gang problem. If you aren’t willing and able to engage in violence at the slightest perceived provocation, then you tend to be victimized. The net result is that someone that jumps a line can end up getting a beat down, or killed. (And, BTW, the gang problem is a result of a century of institutionalized racism, combined with a few decades when CPD was exceptionally effective at jailing gang leaders; instead of just two or three major gangs in Chicago, you have hundreds of small ones, all constantly fighting over tiny patches of turf.)
I get what you mean, but this was in the central loop, in a business district, between a white woman in her 50’s and a black man in his 30’s. Very much gun culture by your definition.
Gang culture I can somewhat understand, but this was just wild to me.
Not saying it’s right or wrong… not my circus. But at a chemist?
I think that most people that have lived in Chicago for a while are pretty aware that, due to this kind of culture of violence, that kind of action in Chicago carries a degree of risk that wouldn’t be present in many other places. So I don’t think that it would be that out of line to make that kind of comment in general. It’s just kind of pervasive.
I would be much more surprised to hear that kind of statement in, say, Phoenix, AZ, where you almost certainly have far, far more people carrying concealed firearms legally, but don’t seem to see the same kind of gang/violence problems.
Sounds like someone was just being hyperbolic?
Where I’m from, the hyperbole would go “You’ll get punched.”
Around me, the threat would be “That’s how you get fucked up,” leaving the level of violence ambiguous.
Well yeah… That’s America for you
I’ve never seen an interaction like that and I’ve lived in this country 40 years
That is not a normal interaction anywhere that I’ve been in the States and not in Chicago. Despite what the press says Chicago is a very beautiful and relatively safe city. The people tend to be pretty civil for the most part.
Btw, it’s illegal to kill someone for checks notes cutting you in line. Had he wanted to waste the next three hours he could have reported her and if the cops decided to do their job it is a crime (communicating threats and assault for the push). I don’t think that criminal acts gun owners aren’t allowed to do are really part of the “culture” just because criminals sometimes do crime, like, people steal but theft isn’t part of “shopping culture,” y’know?
First thing I (another Canadian) noticed when we switched from the car to a shuttle to the airport (crossed the border by car to take a flight to Florida) was that there were multiple people on that shuttle that were at least as big as the most obese person I’d ever seen in person up to that point.
Even though our cultures overlap quite a bit, there’s something different in that aspect.
