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30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World

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What is normal, anyway? Just think about it: in some countries, women are supposed to cover themselves from head to toe. In others, bikinis are pretty sufficient. And baskets? People carry them in their arms or on the head. Very rarely is there one right way to do anything. It's all relative.

Recently, we at Bored Panda stumbled upon two posts on Reddit by u/ojlol2 and u/monitonik that essentially ask the same thing: what's typical and common in your country but is considered weird in others?

To say they went viral would be an understatement. As of this article, the two questions have received a combined total of 53,000 comments, including plenty of eye-opening answers that are bound to expand your understanding of the world. Here are the ones that interested us the most.

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World 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.

Koras , Charlotte May Report

Final score:

372points

One of the people who kick-started this discussion, u/monitonik, is known in real life as Monika Mazunaite, and she got interested in the topic when she was simply sitting in her room, browsing YouTube. "I was looking for something to watch and ended up scrolling through YouTube shorts, finding myself in a r/AskReddit wormhole, listening to different questions and answers," Monika told Bored Panda.

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"Eventually, I got inspiration from other Redditors' questions, and the question I posted popped into my head randomly. My brain generated it in an instant and I didn't think it would get as much attention as it did. So I'm very happy with everyone's input!"

After going through the answers, she learned that people from all over the world have so many different traditions, they often don't even realize how unique their cultures are. "It was all really interesting. I think that countries in Asia and in Oceania have the most unique customs, such as going to the shops barefoot!"

#2

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World 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.

NorqMarash , Tim Samuel Report

Final score:

319points

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#3

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World I teach in Japan, but grew up in America. The other day my students asked me wide-eyed if Americans really wear their shoes inside. I told them yes and that sometimes my dad would cross his legs like this while we sat on the sofa and I could touch the bottom of his shoes. They were super grossed out. “Eew, why would you wear shoes inside! That’s so dirty!” These kids are 2nd graders so it starts pretty young.

coffeecatmint , cottonbro Report

Final score:

265points

However, there are concerns that the efficiency and appeal of wireless communications, electronic commerce, popular culture, and international travel — globalization — have been making the human experience essentially the same wherever you look at it. But although homogenizing influences do exist, this is probably an overstatement and we're far, far away from creating anything akin to a single world culture.

What we do see is the emergence of global subcultures. Arguments have been put forth that a rudimentary version of world culture is taking shape among certain individuals who share similar values, aspirations, or lifestyles. The result, according to these comments, is a collection of elite groups whose unifying ideals transcend geographical limitations.

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According to The Clash of Civilizations (1998) by political scientist Samuel Huntington, the "Davos" culture is a perfect example of this phenomenon. It comprises of an elite group of highly educated people who operate in the rarefied domains of international finance, media, and diplomacy, and these insiders share common beliefs about individualism, democracy, and market economics. They are said to follow a recognizable lifestyle, are instantly identifiable anywhere in the world, and feel more comfortable in each other's presence than they are among their less sophisticated compatriots.

But supporters of globalization argue that it has the potential to make this world a better place to live in and solve some of the deep-seated problems like unemployment and poverty. I wonder, can we have the best of both worlds?

#4

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Scottish here. We deep-fry our pizzas. No even sorry. Tasty wee bastards.

MustardTigerPOW , Wikimedia.Commons Report

Final score:

256points

#5

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World United States.
The cracks that are just wide enough to be able to see in and out of public restroom stalls. I’ve heard it’s thought of as weird since many other countries enjoy the luxury of privacy.

B1yPhon3 , 36021787982 Report

Final score:

249points

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#6

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Norway.
Leaving your baby alone outside for their nap, even if it rains or snows.

e_ph , Marcin Jozwiak Report

Final score:

246points

#7

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World US.
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.

seanzorio , Karolina Grabowska Report

Final score:

240points

#8

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World India.
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.

boss_bj , Roman Kraft Report

Final score:

221points

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#9

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World 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?

SyrusDrake , Edmond Dantès Report

Final score:

219points

#10

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World UK.
Whole restaurants cheering when a plate or glass is smashed. 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”

owen-sksk , cottonbro Report

Final score:

209points

#11

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Poland.
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.

himit , Wikimedia.Commons Report

Final score:

201points

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#12

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Moldova.
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

SergiuNegara , Breakingpic Report

Final score:

198points

#13

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World There's this sport in Finland called eukonkanto, where men participate in running a specific distance, all while carrying their wife or girlfriend. Winner gets their woman's weight in beer.

VenenoG , Steve Jurvetson Report

Final score:

190points

#14

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World South Africa.
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.

Claidheamhmor , https://www.pexels.com/photo/silver-security-camera-207574/ Report

Final score:

189points

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#15

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Germany.
Legal drinking age of beer and wine is 16

Pablomablo1 , BENCE BOROS Report

Final score:

186points

#16

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World In Japan, there are public toilets in a few places where after urinating, you can opt to view a general health assessment report.

Family-456 , Buchen WANG Report

Final score:

184points

#17

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Latin America.
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!

jvcscasio , shep45612 Report

Final score:

177points

#18

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World UK.
A teeny tiny nation with atleast 50 different accents.

sereneskys , mentatdgt Report

Final score:

171points

#19

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World NZ, going to the shops without shoes

Taneatua , mhrezaa Report

Final score:

167points

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#20

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World US.
Cheese in a spray can

lukeyellow , Wikimedia Commons Report

Final score:

161points

#21

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Canada.
No fences between houses. It's almost considered rude to put up a fence.

tandoori_taco_cat , Snapwire Report

Final score:

158points

#22

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Finland.
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.

SinisterCheese , HUUM Report

Final score:

140points

#23

US.
Pharmaceutical commercials

Pharmaceutical commercials Report

Final score:

140points

#24

UK.
Walking all over the countryside along ancient footpaths (as well as bridleways and byways, and a lot of disused railway tracks that have been designated as footpaths). These paths often go across privately owned land; the landowners are required by law to keep the paths clear, and if they put up a fence to provide a gate.

If you're walking with a dog, you're expected to keep it under control around livestock and when the path crosses a road, but otherwise it's just accepted that dogs are going to run around sniffing everything.

BillybobThistleton Report

Final score:

140points

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#25

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World China.
Boiled Coca Cola with lemon and ginger.

Duraxyll , Robyn Lee Report

Final score:

134points

#26

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World South America.
Having dinner late.
Usually around 9 pm.

sorude27 , Jason Leung Report

Final score:

130points

#27

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World 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.

Toffelhunter , Pixabay Report

Final score:

126points

#28

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Saudi Arabia.
Until recently, no women drivers.

eromab , Dids Report

Final score:

124points

#29

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Australia.
Putting cable ties, branches, fake eyes etc on helmets, buckets and hats in spring time to scare away the birds. Magpies are vicious bastards

LostBetweenthePages , Wikimedia.Commons Report

Final score:

112points

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#30

30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries, But Not In The Rest Of The World Bavaria.
Drinking beer before 12 o‘clock and seeing it as part of the culture

pflanzensindgeil , Hana Mara Report

Final score:

106points

Note: this post originally had 49 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Justinas Keturka

I'm the Visual Editor at Bored Panda, responsible for ensuring that everything our audience sees is top-notch and well-researched. What I love most about my job? Discovering new things about the world and immersing myself in exceptional photography and art.

I'm the Visual Editor at Bored Panda, responsible for ensuring that everything our audience sees is top-notch and well-researched. What I love most about my job? Discovering new things about the world and immersing myself in exceptional photography and art.

What do you think ?

Q B F T 3 years ago

Well done whoever compiled this list. About half of the posts towards the end don't mention the country. Some you can guess, but the "copy and paste without even reading" energy is strong here

25points

Vicky Z 3 years ago

The posts lately are made very lazily! Most of them are copy paste and i wonder what is the point of having authors for each post if they don't check them?

6points

Load More Replies...

Q B F T 3 years ago

I did a couple of pieces of clickbait writing (not for BP, for a Japanese company) and it was all about just getting some content out there that people would click on written in a way that would attract clicks (for advertising, where the money comes from) and had good SEO - what the content actually was - not important. And it's paid so little that you really can't afford to spend much time actually thinking about it. I imagine BP is similar, the brief to the authors is: grab some content people will click on. And the rate per post is probably so low that if they spend longer than 20 minutes on it, it's not worth doing. I think you can tell this if you ever look at the author's writing between the posts (which no one ever reads - just scrolling to the next image) - it's like colour-by-numbers writing; almost feels like it was written by a chatbot/algorithm - and definitely never saw a second draft. Gonna add another comment to conclude.

4points

tuzdayschild 3 years ago

Y'all want some cheese with all this whine.

1point

Immortal Emperor Paradox 3 years ago

I guess that's why earlier I sensed a disturbance in the force.

1point

Kristin Ingersoll 3 years ago

Gave up because so many people decided to make it a guessing game. Would have been interesting if people had included the countries.

11points

Pixie 3 years ago

They edited the countries in now, if you're still interested :)

1point

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Jo Choto 3 years ago

I wish there was a more detailed comparison list we could do. I think it would really help us all to know more about other people's cultures.

4points

Q B F T 3 years ago

Lists like these are skin deep. I don't think they'll help us understand other cultures. Though to get a bit more pseudo-philosophical - can you ever understand other cultures? Can you understand your own culture? What is culture? Does it even exist? Etc.

4points

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Q B F T 3 years ago

Well done whoever compiled this list. About half of the posts towards the end don't mention the country. Some you can guess, but the "copy and paste without even reading" energy is strong here

25points

Vicky Z 3 years ago

The posts lately are made very lazily! Most of them are copy paste and i wonder what is the point of having authors for each post if they don't check them?

6points

Load More Replies...

Q B F T 3 years ago

I did a couple of pieces of clickbait writing (not for BP, for a Japanese company) and it was all about just getting some content out there that people would click on written in a way that would attract clicks (for advertising, where the money comes from) and had good SEO - what the content actually was - not important. And it's paid so little that you really can't afford to spend much time actually thinking about it. I imagine BP is similar, the brief to the authors is: grab some content people will click on. And the rate per post is probably so low that if they spend longer than 20 minutes on it, it's not worth doing. I think you can tell this if you ever look at the author's writing between the posts (which no one ever reads - just scrolling to the next image) - it's like colour-by-numbers writing; almost feels like it was written by a chatbot/algorithm - and definitely never saw a second draft. Gonna add another comment to conclude.

4points

tuzdayschild 3 years ago

Y'all want some cheese with all this whine.

1point

Immortal Emperor Paradox 3 years ago

I guess that's why earlier I sensed a disturbance in the force.

1point

Kristin Ingersoll 3 years ago

Gave up because so many people decided to make it a guessing game. Would have been interesting if people had included the countries.

11points

Pixie 3 years ago

They edited the countries in now, if you're still interested :)

1point

Load More Replies...

Jo Choto 3 years ago

I wish there was a more detailed comparison list we could do. I think it would really help us all to know more about other people's cultures.

4points

Q B F T 3 years ago

Lists like these are skin deep. I don't think they'll help us understand other cultures. Though to get a bit more pseudo-philosophical - can you ever understand other cultures? Can you understand your own culture? What is culture? Does it even exist? Etc.

4points

Load More Replies...

Load More Comments

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