Americans Share 30 Things They Didn’t Realize Were American Until They Went Abroad

It's always interesting to travel around the world and experience different cultures and traditions that may differ from what you believe to be the "norm". And even though most of the time these cultural differences spark nothing more but a delightful surprise, there are some characteristics that are difficult for people to wrap their heads around.

Have you ever thought that there are things that only your country does but seems that everybody else doesn't really understand it at all? Well, according to this askredit thread, those living in America definitely have this problem. After getting asked "What is something you didn't realize was typical American stereotype until you went abroad?", people flooded the post with an endless list of customs that only in America are considered to be normal. From garbage disposals and free public bathrooms to extreme portion sizes, there are some strictly American things.

Scroll down to read these answers and funny stereotypes, and don't forget to share your delightful cultural differences in the comments!

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The prices abroad don't add tax after the fact. You pay what the price shows. No need to figure the tax. Dumb that we do that here.

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Final score:

247points

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Perry Swift 5 years ago

Yeah, that's a total pain in the a**e when you visit the states.

113points

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Being "friendly" to an extent. I checked in at a hostel and walked into the lounge area where people from all over the world were just chilling. I kinda introduced myself to the whole room, and someone goes, "you're from the states, yeah?" And I'm like, "yeah howd you know?" They said, "only an American will walk into a room of strangers and introduce themselves to everybody."

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Final score:

209points

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Christina Sersif 5 years ago

I don't see how that's a bad thing....?

127points

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When I went to Australia I found out very quickly that no one down there "roots" for a team - they "go for" a team. So when I said I root for the Red Sox I got a lot of weird looks

(Rooting means fucking in Australian)

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Final score:

197points

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Schrödinger's Dog 5 years ago

Oops...

76points

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Sugar. When I visited Japan, even some of their sweetest desserts pale in comparison to how much sugar is in American food.

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Final score:

190points

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M O'Connell 5 years ago

I absolutely hate how sweet things are here. EVERYTHING could do with at least 50% less.

143points

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How fat we are. Like, I know we are when compared to the rest of the world. But it made me realize what I think is fat in the US, is grossly obese in Europe. And what's not-fit, but not-fat in the US, is fat is Europe.

There are some hamhogs over there but my god, returning home was an eye opener.

At least we don't smoke as much, I guess.

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Final score:

189points

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TC 5 years ago

Sorry to agree with you.

70points

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The stereotype about us being loud is true. I never thought of myself as being loud until I went abroad and would hang up the phone after speaking in what I thought was appropriate volume to find everyone around me was staring at me, and realized how much more quiet they were lol whoops

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Final score:

171points

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María Hermida 5 years ago

Everything is relative. Come to Spain and you will start to think that, in comparison, you are as quiet as a mouse. It doesn't matter how loud you are, the average Spaniard is even louder. The level of tolerance to noise here is unbelievable.

98points

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Measuring walking/driving distance in blocks.

It's the unit of measure I use most frequently when giving directions - the restaurant is 3 blocks away, go south one block and then two blocks west, I live six blocks from the grocery store...

It wasn't until I studied abroad in England and got a complete blank look when I asked someone how many blocks away the library was that I realized using "block" as a measurement only makes sense in cities that were largely pre-planned and built on grid system. AKA: not many places outside the US.

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Eunice Probert 5 years ago

You have to remember that many town in Europe are actually quite ancient, far older than the USA.

108points

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Red plastic cups for parties. So much so that people outside US use them as an accessory to American themed parties.

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151points

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M O'Connell 5 years ago

I would be so uncomfortable at an "American-Themed" party. I'm American, but I have absolutely no idea what the expectations would be.

80points

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Ok, so, this one is probably pretty obvious, and looking back on it it’s really embarrassing. My family took a European vacation when I was 17. For some reason, we decided to get KFC in the UK. (Because ‘Murica.)

My friend who came with us went with me to order and pick up our order. We ordered a family size bucket of chicken, and they asked us what kinds of side dishes we wanted. We said “Biscuits.” And the employees looked at us with the strangest look.

UK KFC: “You want . . . biscuits with your chicken?” Me: “Yes. Biscuits.” UK KFC: “We don’t sell those.” Me: “What do you mean you don’t sell biscuits. What are your sides?” UK KFC: “Chips?” Me: “You mean French fries? Ok fine. That’ll do.”

I was worldly enough to know that “chips” meant “French fries”, but “biscuits” in the UK are cookies. My fat ass tried to order fried chicken and cookies. I am positive someone over in the UK is still telling this story at parties as an example of how disgusting Americans are.

Also on this same trip my father asked why our waitress kept saying “cheese”, when she was saying “cheers”. We really left a good impression across the pond.

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Final score:

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Dani 5 years ago

Haha! This reminds me of a time when my family was visiting relatives in Japan and because we were from America, my great-aunt decided to take us to an "American restaurant." I loved it because their interpretation of American food was about equivalent in accuracy to our interpretation of Japanese and Chinese cuisine.

60points

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#10

Small avocados.

Went to puerto rico. Was like, ‘yo ill have like 6 of those stuffed avocados’. Buddy was like, ‘yo gringo, i think you underestimate the size of our avocados here. Just have one and ill being you more if you want after’.

I had half of one. It was like a football.

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146points

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Bored Fox 5 years ago

Small avocados are available in most European countries too.

44points

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#11

Here in the States, pregnancy announcements/reveals/baby showers are mainstream but it's generally a BIG no-no to bring it up in Kenya. My mom found out the hard way. Essentially, asking someone when the baby is due is the equivalent of asking the person "when did you and your husband fuck?" which is considered EXTREMELY rude. The lady my mom asked was gracious about it but said "If we were not such good friends I would have slapped you!"

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Final score:

144points

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Crouching_Penn_Hidden_Teller@yahoo.com 5 years ago

A guy from Pakistan I had just met asked me why I wasn't married. I told him in the US that's a rude question. His immediate response was to ask me again!

83points

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#12

Garbage disposals in sinks.

When I moved to the UK, my flatmates asked how in movies people would stick their hands in the sink drain and it be ripped apart. I told them about garbage disposals and they were very weirded out.

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Final score:

137points

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Blakkur Sverrir 5 years ago

In most parts of Germany they are forbidden. The reason is that the scraps would feed the rat population under ground

87points

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#13

Having your drink constantly refilled at restaurants. I just wanna drink a ton of water alright?

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136points

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Julia Christina Eneroth 5 years ago

Here in Sweden many restaurants let customers get a bottle of water to the table. Then we can chose ourselves when we want to refill.

8points

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#14

Buying stuff and the cashier putting your items in a plastic or paper bag. Went to Germany, and found it strange they don't bag your items. Everyone just brings their own bag or dumps their stuff in a back pack.

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128points

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Eunice Probert 5 years ago

That's because we're trying to save the planet, one unused plastic bag at a time. Having to pay 10p for plastic bags in supermarkets cut bag use by 80% in Wales in one year.

288points

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#15

Root beer is apparently disgusting and an offense to most of the worlds palate.

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127points

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diane a 5 years ago

Yep - tastes like Germolene ointment smells

62points

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#16

I moved to England from Texas about six years ago. One of the major things that I noticed was that smiling and being friendly towards strangers was considered bizarre. This is a bit true in any metropolitan area, but especially in the UK. In Texas I was used to smiling at people, asking for directions if I needed them, and being friendly towards strangers. I learned very quickly that smiling at someone on the tube, or asking someone for directions on the street immediately makes someone think you’re trying to scam/rob them or you’re crazy.

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Final score:

126points

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Daric Apai (Darquestar1) 5 years ago

Smiles and friendly talk is one thing Americans should share with others.

140points

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#17

Ranch flavor Doritos in the Netherlands are called "Cool American" flavor.

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121points

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Daric Apai (Darquestar1) 5 years ago

Hahaha.. the only time 'muricans are cool overseas.

59points

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#18

Keeping AC on 100% of the time in the summer.

Visited Madrid for about a month to see the exchange student we housed, and found that they typically only turn on AC at Night to sleep or when it reaches a damned 105 deg F.

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Final score:

118points

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anisub 5 years ago

in Switzerland no one has an ac in their house but our houses are also better built than your wood houses haha^^ that's something i don't get, you have these hurricanes and storms and everything but your houses are so poorly built..

114points

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#19

Massively wide roads/lanes. The whole of Ireland made me feel claustrophobic, but when I got back home the roads felt like way too much wasted space.

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112points

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Pollypocket81 5 years ago

But... its a beautiful country :)

42points

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#20

Going out to a restaurant. In America, you are seated ASAP, and then they bring you drinks, appetizers, entree, desert and then check as quick as they possibly can (if it's good service) for a total time of 45 minutes to an hour and a halfish. Staying past this time is seen as a bit rude. In Europe, going out to eat seemed to be more of an event that you slowly enjoyed for a longer period of time. First, they you bring you drinks and an appetizer for the first hour. Then the second hour is the entree and desert. Then it's more drinks for another half hour or so. I don't know if it's because we were American but it seemed like the wait staff everywhere we went was annoyed that we were rushing them, when we just thought it was bad service and didn't understand the routine.

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Final score:

108points

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Monika Soffronow 5 years ago

Sorry, but Europe is not a country. There are 50 countries if you include the ones that are partly in Europe, partly in Asia so talking about the customs of eating out in Europe mean nothing at all unless you include where you actually were. Different countries, different languages, different cuisines, different cultures and different customs.

15points

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#21

Road trips...at least just jumping in the car and driving a few hours without giving it much thought. I live in a large western state and it seems at least every other weekend my family and I were in the car traveling for a few hours to see some site, go into Mexico or another state.

I have relatives in Switzerland and they were going to drive us to the Frankfurt airport and I was blown away how big of a deal it was to them. My uncle had the car inspected, shopped around for gas, and printed off travel and weather reports. All for a trip my dad would have said "hey lets do this this weekend, in the car kids!"

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Final score:

102points

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Bruce Robb 5 years ago

In the US, 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long distance.

174points

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#22

Having plenty of *FREE* bathrooms around for the public to use.

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Final score:

101points

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Eunice Probert 5 years ago (edited)

Oh good lord yes. If a county council tries to close one, there is a heck of a protest. We demand plenty of public loos.

57points

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#23

I doubt this is restricted to America in any way, but when I studied abroad in the UK, the lack of public drinking laws was a bit of a culture shock. Being able to walk outside with a bottle of beer was very freeing

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93points

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Bored Fox 5 years ago

If anyone visits Finland the alcohol laws here are very confusing - also for us Finns. You can visit a store that is open 24hours but you can't buy alcohol drinks between 9 pm and 9 am. If you want alcohol drinks that have over 5,5% volume of alcohol (like vodka that often has 40%) then you have to buy them from a separate store called Alko that is not open 24/7 and is often closed on sundays and holidays. It is also not a good idea to drink alcohol on a public place because police may confiscate your drinks. Also alcohol is really expensive here so many Finnish people buy alcohol from Estonia or Russia. But at least you can buy alcohol and visit bars when you are 18 years old.

39points

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#24

I was struck by the extent to which nobody talks to strangers in northern Europe ... Even in big cities in the US, people will talk to each other sometimes in line, on the subway, etc. Not deep conversations, but it isn't weird to make casual conversation.

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Final score:

93points

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C Bragg 5 years ago

Maybe I was born in the wrong country, I hate small talk and I don't smile at strangers.

100points

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#25

How large grocery stores are here. My wife is not american and we lived in China and were in HK all the time... they had large international stores that were great and she didnt really grasp the size of american grocery stores till our first week in the USA and there's 150 feet of cereals on one aisle

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Final score:

93points

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Daric Apai (Darquestar1) 5 years ago

You could house, clothe and feed a small village in some American superstores.

70points

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#26

S’mores. I was in New Zealand having a bonfire on the beach and someone went and grabbed a bag of marshmallows and then everyone just ate them??! By themselves?! And someone from Sweden asked me if s’mores were a real thing or only on tv. I was flabbergasted.

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Final score:

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Christina Sersif 5 years ago

I hope you introduce it to them and changed their lives.

80points

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#27

My British friend makes fun of me for how much cheese I use in my cooking.

Doesn't stop her from inhaling my potato casseroles, but there you go.

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Final score:

92points

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KarmaQueen 5 years ago

My husband would be in heaven. He always says "the more cheese the better."

25points

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#28

I am not American but visit the U.S alot and I tell you,almost all Americans has this habit of giving the 'half smile look' to anyone,that is not just normal anywhere else

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KarmaQueen 5 years ago

Not sure what this means? Half smile look when confronting someone as they walk past you, to be nice?

25points

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#29

24 hour stores.

It's weird not being able to buy random sh*t at 4am...

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79points

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Noez 🇸🇪 5 years ago

Makes no sense... We have lots of 24 hour stores over here?

34points

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#30

At a buffet in Germany, I had to pay for ketchup

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68points

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Bored Fox 5 years ago (edited)

That's strange. Here in Finland ketchup and mustard are usually free part of the buffet food.

42points

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What do you think ?

Martha Meyer 5 years ago

The amount of people calling the entire rest of the world "over there" made me roll my eyes.

23points

sunnyrei82 5 years ago

#46 Thinking TACO BELL is Mexican food.

20points

Janine B. 5 years ago

As if Chinese food outside China was Chinese. lol Or any other food. It's hilarious what some people consider to be German food. On the other hand, most of us Germans don't know Americans eat their popcorn salted. Because in 95% of all cases we have sweet popcorn. So if we see a movie starring people eating popcorn, we always consider it to be sweet. :o)

7points

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Shawn Ruester 5 years ago

heh, I'm from the states and never have thought Taco bell as Mexican. It's an attempted american translation of some Mexican dishes (however most of the ones around where I live are ran and staffed by Latinos if that's not irony).

5points

Kaisu Rei 5 years ago

There's a very funny video on YouTube with actual Mexican people trying Taco Bell food

3points

Carol Emory 5 years ago

#47 That tipping your wait staff is optional. In most European countries, gratuity is already added to the bill. But check the country you are visiting ahead of time. In some countries, it is unacceptable to tip the waitstaff because it sends a message to the owner saying that you don't think they are capable of paying their staff a fair wage.

2points

Noez 🇸🇪 5 years ago (edited)

A lot of these are odd generalisations most likely regarding a specific individual from a European nation, but somehow that get to represent all of Europe. Others are just dumb. Most of them are just 'murican.

11points

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Americans Share 30 Things They Didn’t Realize Were American Until They Went Abroad

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