Skip To Content

    63 Things Basically Every American Accepts As Completely Normal But Are Actually Very, Very Strange

    "If the Pledge of Allegiance isn't brainwashing, I don't know what is."

    Here in the United States, a lot of people think the way WE do things is the way the rest of the world does things. Obviously, that ain't the case. Over the past few years, people on Reddit have shared the things they really can't quite understand about Americans and, of course, it's juicy.

    Here are the best responses:

    1. "The obsession with high school. I have friends who say their best years were spent in high school, and I think that's really, really sad."

    scene from clueless

    2. "People have lunch at their desks. And usually it's just a snack. Where I come from, lunch is the most complete meal of the day."

    3. "Having an average of only 10 days of annual leave. And then sometimes even being looked down on for taking it."

    4. "Why kids have a social pressure to leave their parents' homes at 18."

    5. "Homecoming. Who the heck is coming home?"

    6. "Complete strangers asking me how I'm doing."

    men speaking

    7. "There's so much water in your toilet bowls...you could go for a swim in there."

    8. "You have a whole aisle in your supermarkets dedicated to just cereal."

    cereal aisle

    9. "The huge number of flags everywhere."

    lots of american flags

    10. "The fact that swearing is such a big deal and you bleep out everything is so weird."

    Person saying, "I'm not doing the curse words cause of my upbringing"

    11. "Big glasses of water WITH ICE at restaurants."

    water

    12. "How American towns and cities are generally designed so that you have to drive everywhere."

    13. "Processed cheese. There are so many delicious cheeses that are actual cheese. Why eat the gross fake stuff?"

    An up close photo of mac 'n' cheese.

    14. "The more credit you take the better for your credit score. Here in Germany, your credit score will suffer the more credit you take. Even if you pay it back on time."

    15. "What I will never be able to understand is this: How can it be completely normal for you people for Amazon to leave the package on your doorstep???"

    16. "Just the general weird attitude about alcohol. I was carded to get into a bar in the US when I was 29 years old...meanwhile I'd been drinking in pubs in England for 13 years without having to show ID."

    Friends drinking beer at a bar.

    17. "Walmart. I went to buy a SIM card and some groceries, but I also discovered that I could also buy pet fish, car parts and shoes...all in one building?!?!"

    People shopping in a Walmart.

    18. "The portion sizes. A meal in a restaurant back home will usually leave me fairly full, but I felt as if I had to be rolled out of everywhere I ate in the US."

    woman eating 3 burgers

    19. "I went to pay with a credit card in a restaurant and the waiter just took it and walked off."

    20. "Drink sizes! Whoa."

    women drinking coffee

    21. "Paying for an ambulance."

    ambulance

    22. "Your news. It’s over-sensationalized. I couldn’t believe it when I visited. Every news program seems much less like news and more like reality TV."

    news

    23. "You can buy milk in gallon-sized containers."

    woman searching for milk

    24. "Americans are nice and will stop to talk to strangers."

    25. "Red Solo cups are not just a Hollywood prop."

    red solo cups

    26. "You can get into university just by being good at sports."

    football players

    27. "How desensitized they are to violence on TV and movies."

    man holding a knife

    28. "That you can get fired just like that and have no income."

    29. "The Pledge of Allegiance."

    saying the pledge

    30. "The idolization of politicians."

    politician with a halo

    31. "Tipping. I had zero clue about tipping/how to tip, and I got a lot of dirty looks during my first solo trip there. I felt like shit after finding out."

    bad tip

    32. "Yellow school buses are actually a thing in America. I honestly thought it was just a cartoon thing, but nope!"

    yellow school bus

    33. "There are security guards in the school halls, and some schools even have metal detectors at the entrance like the TSA at airports."

    kids go thru security

    34. "You have those angry sinks* that chop shit."

    garbage disposal

    35. "On Halloween, masked people come to your house and knock on your door asking for candy. Mostly it's just packs of kids, but sometimes whole families."

    kids on halloween

    36. "The minimal number of paid days off you get from work."

    37. "Identifying as your heritage instead of your nationality. Americans will say that they’re Italian, German, Polish, etc., when they don’t speak the language and have no real connection to those countries anymore. In other parts of the world, people just identify with the country they were born in or have lived in for a significant amount of time, regardless of their ancestry."

    38. "Attack ads against political opponents, and ads for law firms or lawyers. These kinds of ads are illegal and considered unethical in our country."

    attack ad

    39. "American kids eat straight sugar."

    eating sugar

    40. "Talking really loudly in public places. Default volume of most Americans seems to be about 10 decibels higher than that of every other country's inhabitants."

    guy talking loud

    41. "The honking...I thought it was a movie stereotype, and then I went to New York."

    42. "Your country is huge! I got off the plane and asked the cab guy how far the hotel was and he said about 30 miles. I almost had a heart attack."

    long road

    43. "Free soft drink refills in restaurants."

    44. "Higher education can cost upward of $50,000 per year."

    money

    45. "Huge gaps in the sides and bottoms of toilet stalls that people can see through."

    toilet gap

    46. "The TV ads for prescription medication always get me."

    woman holding a pill

    47. "That you guys don't include taxes in your prices? I went to a convenience store to get a drink and was very confused when the price labeled was different at checkout."

    holding a receipt

    48. "Having massive student debt."

    student debt

    49. "In many US states, some criminals can't vote, even while on parole."

    voting booths

    50. "The drinking age being 21."

    beers

    51. "Expensive required textbooks that you HAVE to buy to take a university class."

    52. "There was a 24-hour pharmacy across the street from our apartment. Nothing shocking there, except that it ALSO sold booze and cigarettes. What the actual fuck, like..."

    cvs

    53. "Wearing outdoor shoes inside the house."

    shoes on the couch

    54. "Saying, 'How are you doing?' or 'How's it going?', etc. just means 'hello.' I've noticed non-Americans tend to think this is an invitation for them to share their life troubles while most Americans just use it as a greeting."

    guys talking

    55. "The size of your SUVs and trucks."

    big truck

    56. "The size of rats and the amount of cockroaches. I saw a roadkill cockroach the size of a tennis ball at the Grand Canyon. I have lived in Berlin for years, and I have yet to see any rat that comes close to New York rats."

    57. "The extreme variety between the states."

    state border

    58. "The coupons. I was visiting a friend of mine who is from the States, and she bought a book of coupons. The discounts you could get were ridiculously fantastic!"

    woman using coupons

    59. "Putting a ton of sugar in products like bread."

    sugary foods

    60. "When traveling to another part of the world, an American will ALWAYS say the city and/or state they’re from, not the country. We’ll be at a hostel and someone will ask where everyone’s from: 'Denmark, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Canada ... Sacramento, California.'”

    shaking hands

    61. "Not owning kettles and microwaving water for coffee/tea."

    microwaving cup

    62. "The fear of clowns. This is pretty much anecdotal but the fear of clowns seems to be a VERY American thing yet with other countries the reaction goes from 'meh' to 'I guess they're scary?'"

    scary clown

    63. "Chanting 'USA!' for no apparent reason."

    people chanting

    Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.