As an Australian who's travelled to the USA a fair few times in their lifetime — I've got to say, I learn something new every time I visit.
So when I found this Reddit thread asking Australians to share the biggest culture shocks they experienced on their travels to the land of the free — and related so much with the responses — I knew I had to share.
1. "The size of the meals. My girlfriend at the time and I travelled and only ever ordered a main to share. Plenty of food, often with leftovers to box up."
—u/BJavocado
2. "There was so much food for so little money, like to a bad degree. I was in Vegas and woke up about 3pm looking for breakfast. I found a place that had all-day breakfast options for about $4 each itemised, so I got some bacon and scrambled eggs and potato gems."
"They came out as three big oval shaped plates the size you would put a big roast chicken on. Each plate had close to 1/2kg of food piled on to them. ACTUAL piles. Since then, any time I'm in the US when ordering I kinda ask about the portion size and make sure it is normal person size. I had a 'soda' at a cinema in New York and asked for the smallest size — it was f'king HUGE! Bigger than the biggest we have! I said to them I just wanted a small drink, not a spa!"
—u/evilspyboy
3. "The taxes. We're so used to having the GST included in the price, so it was super disorienting for everything to be one price on the shelf and another price at the register."
4. "Despite having exposure to US English through TV and movies, there are terms and expressions used every day that baffled me. One was 'will call'. You'd book an event online and it'd say, 'Thanks for your purchase, your tickets are will call'. What does that mean?? Give me my ticket!"
"As it turns out, it's a term for what we'd say, "We've reserved your tickets at the box office. Pick them up from there." Incredibly minor, but was very confusing for us as tourists."
—u/per08
5. "White bread was so sweet, it tasted like cake. Cheese was fisher-price orange for some reason?"
—u/senefen
6. "On the topic of things being unnecessarily sweet, milk. It's like having a dessert drink for breakfast."
—u/Wyndrarch
7. "Dangerous neighbourhoods that you'd never dream of going to being just one city block away from the downtown shopping or business district. And homeless people standing around burning barrels of trash — I didn't think that was a real thing, just a trope seen on TV."
8. "Not really a culture shock, but I got really confused on how halal food was like an actual type of food in NYC. The little halal food stand everywhere, before that I just thought normal food was just certified as halal."
—u/lolben1
9. "Dropped ‘cunt’ loudly-ish at an NBA game and every yank within earshot turned in shock at me. Bloke in front of me asked where I was from and I said Australia. He said ‘can’t say that word here, dude’. I watched my language the rest of that particular trip."
—u/HIV_P0SITIVE
10. "Tipping. Huge meals. Donuts as a breakfast food. Much more sugar and fat in supermarket foods — even Special K had a teaspoon more sugar per serving there. That it’s normal to live where it’s snowy and freezing for months on end. That people don’t travel much. That a lot of people have no clue half the world has summer when you have winter. That your banking system is pretty behind the times — internet banking/tap and go, etc. And that you call a main course an entrée. That REALLY confused me, lol."
11. "Wine doesn't list the alcohol percentage on the bottle, which is very confusing. A surprising amount of people were very amused by our habit of saying 'cheers' instead of 'thanks' in many situations. All the tampons came with applicators — I could only find one brand that didn't. I just found this unusual (and terrible for the environment!)."
12. "One that I wasn't expecting to throw me and did was the imperial system. I get the major stuff (I know a mile is 1.6km, a yard is near enough to a metre for estimation purposes — and feet and inches make sense too), but stuff like fahrenheit for the temperature, pounds and ounces for weights and measures just made absolutely no sense at all."
13. "Food servers and till operators were always REALLY polite, but nearly all customers seem to be jerks and kind of conditioned not to acknowledge them as people. I always felt like people were incredibly surprised and super grateful whenever I was kind and polite."
—u/showmanic
14. "If you’re a ciswoman — if you know you know. The fact that they didn’t have those little deposit 'pink' bins next to every single toilet like back home in Australia."
—u/warnergreen
15. "How big everyone’s cars are...the whole place seems supersized."
—u/HollyBethQ
16. "The incredibly specific and numerous drug ads. Like we'll have generic stuff like hay fever and cold medication advertised, but not prescription meds. I don't think I've ever had a drug ad tell me to ask my doctor about it in Australia. And my god, the list of incredibly long side effects rattled off."
—u/kekabillie
17. "How rude the TSA agents were was the most surprising. My travel companion put his laptop on the conveyer for the x-ray then took a slight step back to take off his belt and got screamed at by the TSA agent (for being too far away from his laptop). And I do mean screamed — everyone looked at him."
—u/MeltingDog
18. "Paying for fuel before you fill up."
—u/busdriver888
19. "People drive everywhere. Hardly see anyone walking, even their dogs (especially in the suburbs)."
20. "How bad the coffee can be, right off the bat. Got to where we'd pause at the entrance listening for the thunk-thunk of used grounds being tossed."
21. "When driving, I didn't notice any random breath tests or drug test stations. They have no double demerit times like Christmas and Easter. You have to be way over the speed limit to get pulled over — not just a couple of kms."
22. "The state of the roads and footpaths, the abandoned buildings just left to rot, the homeless, the poverty out in the small country towns, the amount of American flags, the size of food portions, the low prices of alcohol and cigarettes and the general lack of knowledge of the world outside of their state. On the plus side, it's a beautiful country with great people and a million things to see and do."
—u/sandgroper07
23. "The patriotism and military fetishism. I mean, I was kind of expecting lots of flags and shit, but fucking hell, it was way worse than I ever imagined. I am pretty sure that every single house in Chicago has at least three flags out the front and every car has two 'support our troops' stickers."
—u/choodi64
24. "Seeing a cop with two batons on his belt and a gun. Then seeing his mate with a rifle, just standing there at a busy intersection looking real angry."
—u/SeriousPan
25. "The fact they have little envelopes in hotel rooms to tip the hotel housekeeping, or there is a tip jar at the free buffet breakfast — I mean these things are meant to be included in your hotel price."
—u/Iceman_001
26. "My mum says the looks she got when she asked people where to go to the toilet was one of the oddest things she experienced over there."
27. "That even plastic disposable cutlery is called silverware."
—u/Wyndrarch
28. "The overall friendliness and speaking to strangers. I've lost track of the number of times random people who sat next to me on the bus started a conversation."
—u/goater10
29. And finally, "Homelessness. Honestly, the scale and mental health of these people just made me sad. They take drugs to escape the misery as the system chooses to keep them that way. It’s just a sad existence."
What shocked you the most when you travelled to the USA? Let us know in the comments below!
Note: Responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.