Last week, we did a roundup from the Reddit thread "Non-American Redditors, what do you find most alluring about America?" The answers were super interesting, so we decided to ask people from our international BuzzFeed offices what they thought was "weird/confusing/interesting" about America. Here are their answers.
1. The toilets/stalls:
"The huge gaps on your toilet doors in the stalls. Also, the doors are so much shorter in America, and don't go all the way to the floor — weird!" —Dean Nye, BuzzFeed Australia
2. The ability to become famous:
"I just love how in the U.S., it doesn't matter if you are a girl of Armenian descent or a country singer from Nashville, you have the opportunity to become a worldwide pop culture sensation." —Gustavo Serrano, BuzzFeed México
3. Unicorn stuff:
"America's obsession with unicorns (aka rainbow colored food, drinks, etc. that look instagram pretty but not quite sure if they actually taste good) is weird." — Eimi Yamamitsu, BuzzFeed Japan
4. Alcohol purchasing:
"You can't buy alcohol in the supermarket [in some states], and it's so annoying! You have to hit two stores for your dinner party instead of one — just put them behind lock in the supermarket if you want to discourage people from drinking too much." —Cecile Dehesdin, BuzzFeed France
5. Prices that don't include the tax:
"I haven't been to the U.S., but a lot of my Indian friends staying there find it strange that the prices listed on items are generally without taxes. So then when you're checking out those products, you realize how much you're actually spending on it." —Aishwarya Katkade, BuzzFeed India
6. Scooters:
"The fact that people really use Razor Scooters to go to work!" —Gabriel Sukita, BuzzFeed Brasil
7. The tipping — too much math!
"I personally don't understand tipping at restaurants. SO MUCH MATH! In India, we generally have a service charge amount added to the billed amount." —Aishwarya Katkade, BuzzFeed India
8. The tipping — not a thing!
"Tips. Here we don't tip much. You normally just leave the spare coins — and sometimes not even that — and it is not considered rude at all." —Guillermo Del Palacio, BuzzFeed Madrid
9. The snacks:
"The diversity of snacks and products at markets. It's so hard to choose! Cereals, for example, there are 800 different types, brands and flavors." —Manoela Costa, BuzzFeed Brasil
10. Being late on credit card chips:
"Why did it take SO long for chip cards to happen? And now tap-and-go (contactless payment) — in the UK most places you pay contactless, and all of Europe had chip cards way before the US did." —Izzy Francke, born in Germany, raised in the UK
11. The veggies:
"Ok, America! What's the deal with every damn fruit and vegetable sold in tiny pieces, pre-cut, already washed and packed in plastic? What's wrong with washing and cutting your food yourself? Why do people even buy these things? They're expensive AF." —Victor Stepanov, BuzzFeed Russia
12. Getting ID-ed, even when you're clearly of age:
"I'm from Tokyo and 39 years old. I still need ID to buy beer or hit a bar in US. Will I need it when I'm 64?" —Daisuke Furuta, BuzzFeed Japan
13. Cool bread:
"You don't normally eat bread. Like cool bread, not the sliced kind." —Guillermo Del Palacio, BuzzFeed Madrid
14. The money:
"WHY THE HELL is all your money the same color/size and basically indistinguishable?" —Lauren Strapagiel, BuzzFeed Canada
15. The president:
"Trump. Why?" —Rebecca Hendin, BuzzFeed UK
16. Not being able to drink in the streets:
"You can't drink beer on street with naked bottles. Why? NYC has lots of cool streets. It's simply a waste of lovely nights." —Daichi Ito, BuzzFeed Japan
17. The straws:
"Why do all your straws have a minimum diameter of a thumb?" —Philipp Jahner, BuzzFeed Germany
18. Wasting stuff:
"You people waste lots of napkins, straws, etc. And you throw them away, even though they are new and clean." —Rafael Cabrera, BuzzFeed México
19. Yoga with goats:
"Why are you guys doing yoga with goats instead of eating them? They're delicious." —Anup Kaphle, BuzzFeed UK
20. Breastfeeding being taboo:
"I grew up in the Middle East and India, and something that confuses both Asians and Arabs about America is the taboo about breastfeeding. In Asia, it's normal (expected even) to breastfeed anywhere between 1.5 (at least) to 3 years (at most), but that's still considered an incredibly long time in America where babies stop weaning from their moms at 6-8 months. American friends have told me they think it's 'weird' and 'creepy' if a child breastfeeds after one year of age but my friends (and I) think they're unnecessarily sexualizing a normal biological process." —Nahim Perwad, BuzzFeed India
21. The metric system:
"Your measurement systems. It's not just the fact that you don't use the metric, it's that they don't make sense at all. Like, whose feet are we talking about? And why ON EARTH would you divide a foot on inches, and not on toes? Makes no sense." —Guillermo Del Palacio, BuzzFeed Madrid
Responses edited for length and clarity