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30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States

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While it might depend on who you ask, the truth is that life in the US is truly very different from everywhere else, for better or worse. However, even though this seems like it should be common sense, many travelers arrive in America and immediately realize that there is a whole lot going on that they maybe didn’t expect.
Someone asked “Non-Americans, what is something quite common in the U.S. that is completely unheard of in your own country?” and people shared their best examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to comment your own stories and experiences below.

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#1

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States * employers firing people on the spot
* having a limited number of days for sick leave
* unpaid maternity / sickness leave
* "tipping culture".

Ok_Opportunity4475 , Lukas/Pexels Report

Final score:

79points

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#2

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States People getting bankrupted because of medical emergencies.

VokThee , Nicola Barts/Pexels Report

Final score:

79points

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#3

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Advertising medications on TV.

Dumbest thing I've ever heard of.

crackpotJeffrey , Pixabay/Pexels Report

Final score:

76points

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#4

Open carry firearms. Like, I get it, I have a gun licence and go to the gun range and have a good time. But like, folks walking around openly with huge-a*s guns as though they're Walmart Mercenaries is seriously f****d.

el_pobbster Report

Final score:

76points

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#5

Having Kids say the pledge of Allegiance in School.

Last time my Country had something like that.....well lets just say it didnt end wel for anyone involved.

platzandersonne Report

Final score:

76points

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#6

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Displaying prices without taxes. It threw me off when I first went to buy a bottle of coke a day after I arrived.

AJ787-9 , Michael Burrows/Pexels Report

Final score:

70points

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#7

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Homeowners Association.

Igotthebugthewire , Michael Tuszynski/Pexels Report

Final score:

62points

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#8

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Getting into University by being good at sports. I was chatting to an American guy online and he told me he went to college on a "Lacrosse Scholarship". I'm like, seriously? You got to go to college for being good at f*****g lacrosse?

Johhnymaddog316 , Pixabay/Pexels Report

Final score:

56points

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#9

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Medical debt.

Rega_lazar , Karolina Kaboompics/Pexels Report

Final score:

54points

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#10

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Not sure if it's been said. Americans with disabilities act is amazing. Wheel chair ramps everywhere and ease of access.

LazyBid3572 , Ann H/Pexels Report

Final score:

50points

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#11

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Tipping culture.

James-And547 , cottonbro studio/Pexels Report

Final score:

46points

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#12

Overwork culture. Why would someone choose to work 80 hours a week? I get it, double the money, but what are you going to do with the money if you have just enough free time left to sleep and you die at 65?
Of course someone doesn't have a choice and needs extra hours or multiple jobs, but from afar I still see an undeniable cultural push to a life dedicated to working, with those who choose something else regarded as lesser parts of the society.
Career too. It feels like you *must* always strive to be something more, no peace, no rest, no point where you can be happy where you are.

pinninghilo Report

Final score:

46points

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#13

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Neighbourhoods without grocery stores.

anon , David McBee/Pexels Report

Final score:

43points

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#14

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States As a Dutchy, driving a car and turning right on a red light. That messed with my head. If you do that here you are gonna hit at least 5 cyclists.

CowabungaNL , Jack Gittoes/Pexels Report

Final score:

42points

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#15

Being worried about calling an ambulance. Or just medical bills in general. I cant imagine not being able to afford getting cancer treatment if needed for example.

Final score:

42points

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#16

Just how one-sided the employer/employee relationship is there.

Chopper3 Report

Final score:

40points

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#17

As the neighbours from the North, having a milkshake that’s worth your entire calorie intake for the day sounds insane.

Ainstee101 Report

Final score:

38points

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#18

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Where I from you need to put an euro in a shopping cart in order to use it, when you you return it, it gives back the coin. I think this doesn't happen in the US right?

Also that they take your credit card to pay in the restaurant, in Europe you always have the card with you when you pay.

burber_king , Efrem Efre/Pexels Report

Final score:

37points

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#19

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Feet, yards, gallons, etc.

Delicious-Elk1605 , Pixabay/Pexels Report

Final score:

37points

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#20

Drive thru banks and pharmacies. My partner is American and was astonished that I thought that was so weird. We simply do not have enough space for that sort of thing in the UK.

Final score:

37points

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#21

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States My German friend visited us in college. First party he goes "THEY DO EXIST!!" and held up our pack of red solo cups. Haha.

mulljackson , Burst/Pexels Report

Final score:

36points

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#22

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States The tax system - having to do a return every year (ours is done for us unless you run your own business or are a contractor). Also having to pay tax when you live overseas.

HiJane72 , Nataliya Vaitkevich/Pexels Report

Final score:

36points

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#23

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States People caring about college sports.

Like people will actually show up to watch without being related to or friends with anyone playing?

There are actual stadiums with cheerleaders and marching bands?

Academic scholarships for being good at a sport?

Student athletes being handed passing grades even if they fail so that they can keep playing?

The only remotely comparable thing I can think of is my country is the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race.

Edit: I'm going to say this now even though its too late and I already slept while the American were awake and started replying. I don't think the hype and love of college/high school sports is inherently *bad* (except the grades thing). Its just something uniquely American and therefore my answer for the question posed by this post.

ttnl35 , football wife/Pexels Report

Final score:

36points

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#24

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States This thing were the kitchen sink has teeth.

PoetPont , Henry Kobutra/Unsplash Report

Final score:

35points

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#25

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Houses with small fences and little to no extra security

As a Latin american, our houses have either big gates and fences with spikes or concrete walls with barbed wire on top in order to stop burglars from entering. You can say it was quite a shock to me when I first visited the US and saw suburbs filled with houses with cars parked on the street and small wooden fences that anyone could jump over.

Blacksmith_99 , Josh Hild/Pexels Report

Final score:

35points

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#26

Freshman sophomore junior senior... Have to translate this in my head every time.

starfished1 Report

Final score:

32points

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#27

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Long commutes.

Here in the Netherlands a lot of companies only hire within a 30 minute radius, maybe an hour if they really need you.

I once applied to a job around 100 minutes away and was rejected purely because of travel time. If the travel time was a problem for me I wouldn’t’ve applied.

kaida_notadude , Rishiraj Parmar/Pexels Report

Final score:

31points

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#28

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Free drink refills.

internetsss , cottonbro studio/Pexels Report

Final score:

28points

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#29

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Homecoming, Sadie Hawkins, Winter Formal, Prom...

We have none of this, the closest thing is the graduation itself.

badeksha , Alejandro Peralta/Pexels Report

Final score:

28points

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#30

So, I only heard this like a year ago. But apparently it seems that most of American men are circumcised. Which sounds bizarre to me.

VulturicAcid Report

Final score:

26points

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#31

Good mexican food. in my experience, it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world (except for mexico itself, obviously).

glwillia Report

Final score:

20points

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#32

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Visited US about a dozen times, pretty much all around.
- random people smiling at you and engaging in small talk. They seem genuine about it and not acting out of some rule
- handling large crowds of people extremely well. Guys repeating ”this way sir/maam” endlessly actually puts people in the correct lane or place
- cash culture. I last visited a few months before the pandemic started so YMMV now, but at least then you just had to have cash money for lots of things. I still have a couple hundred dollars in a desk drawer somewhere for when I next visit. I have not had my own country’s currency in physical form for at least 6-7 years or as far as I can remember
- security guards inside establishments during opening hours
- jaywalking being a thing (I mean crossing the street at a place without a pedestrian crossing being looked upon negatively)
- incredible courtesy everywhere except NYC for cars and people using them. You can literally drive right up to most things and have generous parking for any size of car

Edit: one more thing I had to add which I just remembered. All signs and other things being written out in words, i.e. ”Left turn only” or such. Same in cars, buttons have the thing written in text. It’s pretty much symbols everywhere else around the world. First couple of times driving felt so difficult when nothing I saw was intuitively what I was expecting to see at that situation but rather I had to look and really process each thing separately.

wuoma , fauxels/Pexels Report

Final score:

19points

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#33

Intense car culture to the point where you can't live without one. None of my parents even know how to drive, we use public transport ( subway, bus etc) and eventually either uber or taxis if really needed (like going to the airport etc).

directordenial11 Report

Final score:

19points

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#34

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Health care workers going home after work still in scrubs. And washing them at home.

orebro1234 , Jonathan Borba/Pexels Report

Final score:

17points

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#35

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Iced tap water on your table immediately. Such an amazing thing!

c19isdeadly , Ron Lach/Pexels Report

Final score:

17points

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#36

Toilet doors with massive gaps in them so you can easily see people taking a dump.

Hutcho12 Report

Final score:

15points

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#37

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Driving at 16.

anon , Gustavo Fring/Pexels Report

Final score:

14points

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#38

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Peanut butter jelly sandwiches. Never seen one ever.

Neihlon , Nima Naseri/Unsplash Report

Final score:

13points

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#39

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States (Fake) Grape flavored stuff.
Over here, the purple gummies are black currant.

whezzan , Ana Vieira/Pexels Report

Final score:

12points

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#40

Spray cheese.

mustardmayonaiseman Report

Final score:

12points

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#41

In my country basically every backyard has a greenhouse or garden.

Regnars8ithink Report

Final score:

9points

#42

Lawyer advertising everywhere.

Ayvi_Lau Report

Final score:

9points

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#43

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States The "college experience".

cheynnr20 , Pixabay/Pexels Report

Final score:

6points

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#44

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States The way you talk online about getting you wisdom teeth removed... do they sedate you? d**g you?

I got local anesthesia and got told to keep ice on it and take ibuprofen (or paracetamol, i don't remember) at home if it hurt too much.

(based on the online jokes about it, maybe it's not true i don't know, you tell me lol).

tootiredstudent , Pavel Danilyuk/Pexels Report

Final score:

6points

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#45

English muffins.

I come from England.

Final score:

6points

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#46

Twinkies.

Xander_Mumbles Report

Final score:

6points

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#47

Home depot.

EddieEddle Report

Final score:

5points

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#48

Signs. Signs everywhere. As in ”Branded” neighborhoods/communities. American residential neighborhoods will throw up a huge sign like ”Spring Creek Estates” or whatever, really announcing the name with a big logo instead of being low key.

Final score:

3points

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#49

30 People Share “American Things” They’d Never Heard About Until They Visited The States Those disposable red cups for drinking alcohol at parties or gatherings.

GinjaWhinger , cottonbro studio/Pexels Report

Final score:

2points

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#50

Freedom of speech. In my country (Belgium) the government can prosecute you for speech it considers to be politically incorrect or -phobic. In the USA you can be honest about how you feel and think. In my country you have to pretend to like things you don't like or you get fined/jailed.

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Final score:

-2points

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Justin Sandberg

I am a writer at Bored Panda. Despite being born in the US, I ended up spending most of my life in Europe, from Latvia, Austria, and Georgia to finally settling in Lithuania. At Bored Panda, you’ll find me covering topics ranging from the cat meme of the day to red flags in the workplace and really anything else. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, beating other people at board games, cooking, good books, and bad films.

I am a writer at Bored Panda. Despite being born in the US, I ended up spending most of my life in Europe, from Latvia, Austria, and Georgia to finally settling in Lithuania. At Bored Panda, you’ll find me covering topics ranging from the cat meme of the day to red flags in the workplace and really anything else. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, beating other people at board games, cooking, good books, and bad films.

This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

What do you think ?

Justin Tyme 2 months ago

Wow, Bored Panda. What took so long? It has been at least a day since your last US vs. the World post.

18points

Justin Tyme 2 months ago

I see the title has been changed. I don't remember exactly what it was originally. It was something like "Things in America that could make the rest of the world die from shock".

4points

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ConstantlyJon 2 months ago

While I enjoy commenting on these, it's all very tired. Shoot these kinds of posts into the sun, please.

5points

Auntriarch 2 months ago

Can we please downvote this post to oblivion?

5points

Multa Nocte 2 months ago (edited)

As a person who doesn't live in the US, this is becoming annoying.

7points

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Doofnuts 2 months ago

Good or bad (I think we try to be good) we are just Americans; this is how we roll.

1point

Gavin Johnson 2 months ago

Easy to shoot shots at the single biggest influence on culture globally, it’s almost like every other country is a utopia that have little or no faults so we (the rest of the world) think it’s open season on the U.S. It’s sad. I have worked with and know plenty of Americans, and on the whole they are just like I am, making their way and as you say, trying to be good folk. Yeah we differ on some stuff, yeah we disagree on some stuff but who doesn’t? I could write a BP article on some of the bizarre and ridiculous rules and cultures my own country has but it just wouldn’t appeal to the rest of the world. Heard the one about the British Museum stealing significant artefacts from around the globe?

0points

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Georgy 1 week ago

What is classed as cheese.

0points

Jess Smith 2 months ago

As an American I'd like to apologize to the rest of the world. We're not all idiotic racist xenophobes. Just 40 percent of us.

0points

Forrest Hobbs 2 months ago

Riddle me this: every USAian I've met - including those on my single trip to the states - has come across as intelligent, decent, and reasonable. And then we have the crazies who get on the news - the raving mad politicians, the ones who actually want a rapist former TV host back in the White House, and the neo-Nazis marching through Springfield, Ohio with guns and swastika banners, of whom the local police chief said they were just a quiet peaceful demonstration. My English mind cannot resolve the contradictions. Can you unravel the riddle?

0points

Load More Replies...

Another Panda 2 months ago (edited)

As a US citizen, I really think we need to take a lot of this to heart. We are currently very dysfunctional as a society, especially a society designed from the outset by its founders to be all about the welfare and freedom of its people. That's why we rebelled against British rule - because the people in the colonies felt their welfare and human rights were not important.

0points

Forrest Hobbs 2 months ago

The problem with that rendering of US history is that it ignores the fact that the founders of the USA considered that the welfare and human rights of their slaves and the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas were utterly irrelevant. Likewise, they considered women as little more than chattels who certainly could not be allowed any sort of political power. In reality, the wealthy white men who founded the the USA were concerned purely with the power and prosperity of their own class, and objected to anything which got in the way of their privileges. The whole point of the original US constitution was that white men should have wealth, welfare, and liberty - at least, those white men who were already wealthy enough to own land, as in their idealist view of ancient Greece. Everyone else just had to do what they were told. In many ways, the USA as originally constituted was a throwback.

1point

Load More Replies...

Justin Tyme 2 months ago

Wow, Bored Panda. What took so long? It has been at least a day since your last US vs. the World post.

18points

Justin Tyme 2 months ago

I see the title has been changed. I don't remember exactly what it was originally. It was something like "Things in America that could make the rest of the world die from shock".

4points

Load More Replies...

ConstantlyJon 2 months ago

While I enjoy commenting on these, it's all very tired. Shoot these kinds of posts into the sun, please.

5points

Auntriarch 2 months ago

Can we please downvote this post to oblivion?

5points

Multa Nocte 2 months ago (edited)

As a person who doesn't live in the US, this is becoming annoying.

7points

Load More Replies...

Doofnuts 2 months ago

Good or bad (I think we try to be good) we are just Americans; this is how we roll.

1point

Gavin Johnson 2 months ago

Easy to shoot shots at the single biggest influence on culture globally, it’s almost like every other country is a utopia that have little or no faults so we (the rest of the world) think it’s open season on the U.S. It’s sad. I have worked with and know plenty of Americans, and on the whole they are just like I am, making their way and as you say, trying to be good folk. Yeah we differ on some stuff, yeah we disagree on some stuff but who doesn’t? I could write a BP article on some of the bizarre and ridiculous rules and cultures my own country has but it just wouldn’t appeal to the rest of the world. Heard the one about the British Museum stealing significant artefacts from around the globe?

0points

Load More Replies...

Georgy 1 week ago

What is classed as cheese.

0points

Jess Smith 2 months ago

As an American I'd like to apologize to the rest of the world. We're not all idiotic racist xenophobes. Just 40 percent of us.

0points

Forrest Hobbs 2 months ago

Riddle me this: every USAian I've met - including those on my single trip to the states - has come across as intelligent, decent, and reasonable. And then we have the crazies who get on the news - the raving mad politicians, the ones who actually want a rapist former TV host back in the White House, and the neo-Nazis marching through Springfield, Ohio with guns and swastika banners, of whom the local police chief said they were just a quiet peaceful demonstration. My English mind cannot resolve the contradictions. Can you unravel the riddle?

0points

Load More Replies...

Another Panda 2 months ago (edited)

As a US citizen, I really think we need to take a lot of this to heart. We are currently very dysfunctional as a society, especially a society designed from the outset by its founders to be all about the welfare and freedom of its people. That's why we rebelled against British rule - because the people in the colonies felt their welfare and human rights were not important.

0points

Forrest Hobbs 2 months ago

The problem with that rendering of US history is that it ignores the fact that the founders of the USA considered that the welfare and human rights of their slaves and the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas were utterly irrelevant. Likewise, they considered women as little more than chattels who certainly could not be allowed any sort of political power. In reality, the wealthy white men who founded the the USA were concerned purely with the power and prosperity of their own class, and objected to anything which got in the way of their privileges. The whole point of the original US constitution was that white men should have wealth, welfare, and liberty - at least, those white men who were already wealthy enough to own land, as in their idealist view of ancient Greece. Everyone else just had to do what they were told. In many ways, the USA as originally constituted was a throwback.

1point

Load More Replies...

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