Nate
Americans love to do things their own way. As does the rest of the world. However, some of the things we Americans enjoy are being looked at as strange by other countries.
That’s not to say American football isn’t entertaining and our Chinese food isn’t delicious. It’s just confusing if you’ve never lived here.
One Redditor decided to ask people online to share similar things Americans enjoy, but the rest of the world finds strange, and here are some of the top responses.
1. College Sports
College sports. Particularly football and basketball.
The rest of the world loves soccer, but nobody gives a hoot about it at the university level.
— Scrappy_Larue
2. Root Beer and Ranch Dressing
Root beer and ranch dressing. I brought some to Germany and had my friends try it and they said the root beer tasted like medicine. They politely tasted the dressing with aa celery and said “hmmm, interesting” but the look on their faces was that it was terrible ha.
— nargleflargle
3. The MM-DD-YYYY Date Format
What’s even more confusing is some regulated manufacturing industries in the US use DD-MM-YYYY and I had a job with one for awhile. If both nums are below 12 I’m lost.
Now I just do 24NOV2022 as my format so there’s no confusion lol
— TempMailProfile
4. “Small Size” Beverages Are Actually Large
My sister is visiting the US from Europe and sent me a picture of a small coke and asked “why is it so big?” I could see old glory flapping in the wind, boys.
— botaxel499
5. SUVs
Crossovers and big SUVs. It would be so nice if we could get some of the smaller economical cars that other markets around the world get.
— WritingSad442
6. Cheerleaders
Cheerleading is also popular in Japan- albeit due to American influence.
— KrystalGhost
7. Bankruptcy Laws
Bankruptcy laws. It’s a major reason why America has historically had some of the highest rates of small business growth and entrepreneurship. America is one of the most forgiving countries when it comes to personal and corporate bankruptcy (student loans notwithstanding).
Comparatively, European countries are much more pro-creditor which severely hampers any sort of investment that’s even somewhat risky.
— liebe_rootBete
8. Imperial Units
Imperial units
(edit: Fahrenheit, as well as celsius, are good for certain scenarios so ill omit the former)— Kirby_zzz
9. Food Coloring
This used to be much more prevalent in the US, but food coloring. When I moved from Japan to the US, I was surprised at how colorful their foods were.
These days Americans are now keener to organic natural stuff so I see it less but it took me a while to realize that blue raspberry is not a real thing.
— AwesomeAsian
10. 24-Hour Stores
24-hour stores. I was in Chicago working with a colleague from Switzerland who suddenly realized around midnight that he needed a network cable to configure a mobile router for a job the next morning.
I told him that I’d meet him in the hotel lobby to drive him out to Walmart.
He was happily surprised, as he had forgotten about the US’s famous chain of Walmart stores.
— LongRodVonHugendonk
11. Flags
Flags. So many American flags everywhere.
— botaxel499
12. Handicap Accessability
Handicap accessibility. Old buildings/towns in Europe are nice if both your legs work.
— justmyfakename
13. Bumper Stickers
Sometimes I get the impression people put their entire political philosophy in the space of a bumper sticker.
— assortednut
14. Peanut Butter And Jelly
It doesn’t help that outside the US “jelly” often means gelatin dessert like Jello. Some folks who hear “pb & jelly” are therefore duly horrified
— 11thNite
15. Delis
God damn delis. At least out of all the places I’ve traveled to the US by far has the best delis. I don’t know if I can live somewhere without a great Jewish or Italian deli.
— FlyBuy3
16. Garbage Disposals
Garbage Disposals
Just shove that turkey carcass in the disposal and run some warm water behind it
— facobi8356
17. Free Public Restrooms
Free public restrooms. I know they’re gross but they are nice to have.
— celtic1888
18. Public Opinions
Opinion signs outside their houses. Like “in this house we support…”. I find it weird and unusual.
— vebidib774
19. “Chinese Food”
Americanized Chinese food. No one has us beat in that category.,
— botaxel499
20. Blind Optimism
I’d like to say optimism, even if it’s blind sometimes. The CAN DO attitude is extremely strong. I would also put belligerence up there for better or worse. That “Get the fuck out of my face, I’m not paying for / doing that” attitude. Whether you actually can or not, the American culture makes you feel like you can really do anything. Again, it’s a double-edged sword but you’ll seldom find an American who’s just going to lay down and take someone’s shit or heed someone who says (to your aspirations) “You can’t”.
Edit: I have no political inclination in this post. I mean on the day-to-day. Yes, our work environments can be shit. Yes, we have many issues. But we try. Damn it we try and try and try to make things work in the day-to-day. We bust our asses working however we can – it’s not always fun but we can at least get up and try.
— facobi8356
21. American Football
That’s my theory about American sports: the sports with the most breaks, timeouts, etc (advertising opportunities) have driven into popularity by media companies, as opposed to those which are continuous action such as soccer/football.
…and if there is continuous action (eg NASCAR), then advertisements are unavoidably plastered everywhere.
— EarthSmart3573
22. Chicken and Waffles
Waffles with chicken
— glori-hallelujah
23. Driving Everywhere
Driving everywhere. Anywhere you go, you go in a car.
But I suspect for many, other options are so rare they don’t think about them even if they do exist.
— MXXIV666
24. Casseroles
My mother [British] thought casseroles were weird and disgusting. Once her British friend came to visit, and asked that we not go to a restaurant “where all the food is mixed together in an awful jumble.”
I love most casseroles.
— MazW
25. Pharmaceutical Commercials
Commercials about pharmaceutical pills. “Ask your doctor about taking XYZ… side effects can include (everything). Wild!
— Live_Ad_455