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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

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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.

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#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

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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

Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's based on the way we talk. We say June, 5th 2023. We can also say the 5th of June 2023 but that's more words. But we don't because that's five words vs. three words. That's where it comes from. Look English is a hot mess of a language and American English is even worse.

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fogharty
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

YYYY-MM-DD works well for naming date-sensitive files, though. That way they sort in the correct chronological order on the computer.

Ren Karlej
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am probably missing something here but I never quite understand that one. Computer systems autofile things based on date anyway. So you can call it what you want as well and search based on the name or the computer date (or contents etc). Why would you add the date to the file name when it's added as part of the file anyway? Sorry, it's probably a dumb question (and worded really badly) and I'll slap my own forehead now to save time.

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Brenda Spagnola-Wilson
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I lived in London in 1990-1991. After learning how they write dates, I couldn't understand why the US didn't. It makes so much more sense

Byron Bright
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I prefer the DD-MM-YYYY date format myself, as well as 24 hour time, because I can count past 12.

Glass Ghost
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah and so can most people. There isn't ignorance in living by normal time. I'm not some kind of army General. Quick and easy.

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Candy Cane
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

American here, but where I'm from we say "Its December 4th, 2022" not "Its the 4th of December, 2022". I think that's where the format comes from, to match the way we actually say it.

Gina Babe
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

American here and I think it's dumb. Why say the month so much?

Brett Hughes
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why? America: secondary, tertiary, primary or secondary, third, first ???. Besides, for computer files, I name them with dates as YYMMDD, then any revisions are all in chronological order when sorted by name.

Dill
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Which the computer knows anyway as they are programmed to have that knowledge.

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Lyn Mason
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only thing I like about the date format is when used as the start of a document name, computer system stores in date order.

Tom De Paul
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Really? When were you born? October 31, 1961. Hence 10/31/1961. Perfectly logical.

Celtic Pirate Queen
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, I worked for a company that was Canadian owned. We threw the warehouse manager a birthday party on July 12th. His birthday was December 7th.

Dawnieangel76
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why put the day number first? The same numbered days are in nearly every month. The month is clarified before the day.

MikeMaxis
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It can be confusing to see the EU date setup as it could make one think if the order is backwards or not.

Steven Meyer
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Whatever you’re familiar with what you think is best, if you live in Europe, and you want the year first, and that’s normal for you, most people in the US don’t think that way.

Stannous Flouride
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Though illogical, it has given the rest of the world two important holidays: Marijuana Day April 20th: 4.20 and Pi Day for math geeks March 14th: 3.14 (which is both Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking's birthday). Also, though not numerical Star Wars Day, May the Fourth puts the month first.

Jessica J.
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it's about words. You can say March first, Nineteen-Eighty-Seven, or on the first day of March in Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. Maybe it had to do with the cost of parchment, ink, and quills. My guess is it was about saving money and time.

BasedWang12.7
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

this one just makes sense to me though. It's how you would speak it

Let’s Go Brandon
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Like several other comments have pointed out, it’s based on how we talk. I can understand why it can be confusing to non-Americans though.

axle f
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

as an american can i say, me too. i didnt get it when we learned it in gradeschool, never got anything like a sensible explanation. but as a way out-numbered kid? you go along with it. its still dumb

JayWantsACat
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Its weird that Americans are saying MM-DD-YY 'makes no sense'. It literally matches how we verbalize dates. That may not be the original reason for the format but it pretty obviously makes sense as to why we're using it.

Unnamed Hooman
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I do that, bc it makes sense to be like “oh it’s December 4th” sometimes I forget which one I use then I remember my birthday, 6/26

Kyle Drury
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

American here. I totally get the logic of: shortest-to-longest, but it makes sense “conversationally…” If you were to remember an event, you might remember that it was in March… then maybe the middle, like the 15th. Um.. Then the year…? F**k I just realized you’d probable home in on the year first. So longest-to-shortest makes sense. Or the opposite. Nevermind. Americana be wrong.

James Peters
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

While I agree that it is logical to order day month and year in order of most specific to leased specific, it is even more important to realize that the exact same information is being expressed either way.

Hypoxia Smurf
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We need a large industry of date-format changers, to adapt to varied realities, right?

Liz Downing
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's just the way we say things. We would say December 3rd, rather than 3rd December.

Limey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Didn’t see this in the comments but the US military does it DD MM YY

marianne eliza
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like to know the month first. In my mind's eye I immediately think of what kind of weather. June 3rd? Nice. December 3rd? Not so much.

Dill
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Depends where you live. For some it's not that varied. Though don't quite understand what you get from it. Doesn't alter what is actually going on outside.

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Solidhog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If your working with computer files named with the date then it makes sense because it puts them in order of date by month.

Dilly Millandry
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe for your organisation but for mine that wouldn't be very helpful at all. I would need to know more precisely the very recent contacts within a month so would need the day first. Secondary information would be location. Though I just ask my computer to provide the data how I want it. It is all very sortable if you are using most decent software these days.

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Two_rolling_black_eyes
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You should always go from smallest to largest DDMMMYYYY if spelling the month or largest to smallest YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS if using just numbers. Both allow the easiest sorts and time calculations and minimize confusion.

Glass Ghost
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Honestly it's what I was raised using and I like it. I don't see the big deal honestly

K. David Ladage
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The only proper date format, according to this American, is YYYY/MM/DD

Levi Owens
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When you say a date out loud, do you say "December 3rd, 2022", or do you say "3rd December, 2022"? First one sounds better to me, and that's why Americans do MM-DD-YYYY. Seems reasonable, right?

Lynne Walker
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It wasn't until I was working age that I realized that YYYY-MM-DD made more sense.

Jordi Sharpe
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The company I work for is Canadian and we use that system. Now, it's a company based in Montreal, so maybe its just the French being French. /j

RyanRyanRyan
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

everyone needs to use ISO format. universally understood, or ready to. YYYY-M,-DD. That's what we use in computer programming.

Mir Adwari
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Right, so it's programmed in and doesn't require any further thought - can call the files what we like.

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Don't you wish you knew
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just makes the most sense (but not if I grew up in another country) 😏😉

John Barber
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If anyone is confused by this they are obviously too stupid to know what the date is anyway.

Ryan Smith
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you write MMDDYYYY (US style), the dates will arrange in order numerically and chronologically -- much easier to arrange computer files, etc. in chronological order than if you use European style. Then again, Bored Panda will never admit that the US does anything sensibly, so i didn't expect anyone to point this out.

Dill
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Computers will arrange things in anyway you want, that's the beauty of their programming. If your organisation needed data ordered by month, ask the computer! No need to rely on file names for that. Unless all you are actually saying is that it just looks pleasing to you to have them in month order first. Honestly, as long as a file name tells the user and organisations what it is, the idea that you need the date in a particular order for file sorting seems rather lacking in understanding as to what computers can do.

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Holly Benedict
Community Member
1 year ago

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I have this conversation with my bf from Germany at least once every other month. Mm/DD/yyyy makes sense not just from the way we say the date out loud but when you read a calendar you flip to the month first then look for the day. Imagine if you tired to read a calendar by the day first. Madness.

Scott Crosby
Community Member
1 year ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Because it matches the order in which we say the date? Why? Because the format was traditional in England, whence it was brought to America. Some traditional UK organisations still use this format. So, the others changed it? As my mother always said, "Just because your friend jumps off a bridge, it doesn't mean you should do it, too!"

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#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

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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.

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#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

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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.

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#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

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#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

#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

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#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

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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.

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#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

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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.

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#14

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

FlyBuy3 , Giorgio Trovato Report

#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

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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.

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#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

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#18

Corn syrup

__Piggy___Smalls__ Report

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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.

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#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

#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

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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

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#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

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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!

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#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

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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!

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#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

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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.

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#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

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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.

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#29

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

Back2Bach , Mathias Reding Report

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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

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#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

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#31

30 Things Americans Seem To Like, But The Rest Of The World Not So Much Free soda refills at dine-in places

Lostarchitorture , Francesca Hotchin Report

#32

Corn dogs?

RScribster Report

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Couldnt_find_a_decent_name
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

OMG I LOVE CORN DOGS! I used to consider them a luxury because I only ever got to eat them at my grandparents house.

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#33

Marching bands. If you’d played the flute in a marching band at my school you would have gotten pelters but in the US you can become a state hero.

Fuzzie_Lee Report