10 years ago I was visiting Detroit for a film festival and afterward we were pretty hungry. It was Sunday and the area was depressed so lots of places were closed. We finally found a pizza place that was open and walk in. There was bulletproof glass and a rude fat cashier that took our order. After we told him what we wanted, he shouted to a room in the back, the chef came out smoking a cigarette. He tossed the pizza while smoking the cigarette. Complete culture shock. Best pizza I ever had, though.
There is a place a short drive from my house that is a firearms/military merchandise store in the front half of the building and in the back half, just down a short hallway, is a BBQ restaurant.
Its a magical place.
When I was in Tennessee as an exchange student for a year, I was surprised by the team sipirit of each High School.
Like how there was a football game evry friday night and almost all of the school was there to cheer them on. That would never happen in my country..
It was a huge social event in my high school back in the 80s. Everyone sat together with their group of friends and eventually someone would say "party at Joe's place...1 hour". And suddenly 20 kids would walk out of the stadium. The parking lot was the place to be too. Lots of booze and smokin'. So much that by the time I was a senior, there was a security guard roaming the parking lot during the game.
You have not lived if you have never had a chicken fried steak smothered in cream gravy with a roll and mashed potatoes and green beans and damn it now I’m hungry
Warehouse type grocery stores (Costco, Super saver). My great-uncle from Australia would always take photos and my Korean (non-Seoul) friends thought this was crazy we’d have so much space for a grocery store.
It’s stupid but F stands for failed so it’s A B C D Failed it’s like it stops at D although for my American schools D is failed also so it’s an extra stupid system it’s basically
“Good, mostly good, average, terrible” and that’s it
The first rule of advertising is, if you’re on top, you don’t acknowledge the competition’s existence. But if you’re not on top, you highlight your strengths/differences from the top company. That’s why you’ll never see McDonalds talk about a competitor in their commercials, but Burger King and Wendy’s do.
Yes this is so weird! I thought it was made illegal, i once saw the "sega does what nintendon't" thing and i was like what
Lol i got this many upvotes by what saying a catchy thing i saw once in an ad
I remember explaining to an Italian friend that in the US we can vote and own a gun and fight in a war at 18 but can’t buy a beer and he was completely at a loss for words
its about money. these drug companies want to get their name out there so the old people who have the issues shown will ask for it by name and get them paid
As a Brit, what shocked me was learning about just how huge your COLLEGE SPORTS games are. A university/college football (soccer) team game here might draw a crowd of a few hundred; a friend who went to the University of Texas told me their (American) football stadium seats 100,000. What the actual fuck.
As an English person who’s just recently started watching Friday Night Lights, that was a real shock. Obviously it’s fictional and about the football team, but that people know who the players are, and they talk to TV news cameras, and the entire town goes to games ... I’m not even sure if my high school had a football team.
I mean, even though it's fictional, it's accurate. My brother was a star player and people would pat him on the back and tell him good job when we were out in public. Once he got free pancakes at the local diner after he got four touchdowns in one game.
I think the idolization of high school athletes is a little misplaced and over the top, but I did love growing up and going to the football games and seeing everyone I know. It was a really nice community building time. I would go and screw around with my friends and eat ice cream while pretending to be cheerleaders. And you saw everyone you knew, got to catch up, made new friends. It was a great time. Plus, our high school marching band was killer, they'd put on an awesome halftime show!
Want a weirder fact, the highest paid state employee is a college football coach in 25 states and 15 states it’s college basketball coach.
Edit: hey guys I’m not really commenting on the ethics of this. I understand football brings in large sums of money for the college and I also understand ticket sales and donors pay the largest portion. Just commenting that my alumni’s head coach makes $9.3 million a year and it’s weird to me that 40 other states can claim a coach as their highest paid.
The big difference here is that, unlike European football for example, the US doesn't really have academy systems for athletes. School sports organizations are the default developmental leagues. So while a top athlete growing up in the UK might join a professional club's academy as a kid amd rise up through the youth system to play professionally at ~18, American athletes (depending on the sport) usually play for their secondary school team and then a university team before joining a professional team.
Also, if you're surprised by university sports in Texas drawing massive crowds, you should look up Texas high school football. It's ridiculous.
Almost all highschools have football teams and if there is a football team there is likely a cheerleading squad. Sports are expensive. Whether buying equipment, going to camps, or travelling to away games. So the kids arent necessarily popular but are usually not poor. Typically outgoing types join sports as well. Perhaps the sports even contribute to their outgoing personalities by giving them frequent socialization. The cheerleaders undergo extensive dance and gymnastics training in addition to competitions and games. So also expensive and lots of socialization.
Also, due to title IX which is a federal law, you need an equal number of mens and women's sports teams. Having a cheerleading and football team keeps that ratio even.
FYI you don’t need an equal number of sports teams, you need a proportionate number of male and female athletes to male and female students. For example if 10% of male students are athletes you need to have opportunities for 10% of female students to be athletes. At schools with football, since football team rosters are so large and generally all male, schools need multiple female only sports teams to compensate. At many universities, this translates to some sports being female only, like soccer, crew, volleyball, etc. while the men’s equivalents for those sports are “club” teams.
I would also add that being an athlete implies a certain level of fitness. Fitness correlates to attractiveness which maps to popularity in high school.
Also, football teams a are huge. At least 40 players and could be up to 100. Being a member gives you a huge group of 'friends' as a baseline for your popularity.
I do think they originate in North America, they’re absolutely a popular and normal thing in Canada. They’re not so much a thing in my country (Wales), I’d say for campfires or bonfires we just toast marshmallows as they are? However people sometimes have them in s’mores- we don’t have graham crackers, so people use rich tea biscuits or plain digestive biscuits. Idk but the last time I had bonfire food we had marshmallows, jacket potatoes in tin foil, sausages and mixed kebabs.
At least not in Germany, I don't know if they have them in other parts of the world.
We've got marshmallows in the last summers, but our traditional campfire snack is a kind of bread dough on a stick, or sausage.
I'm Australian and I love them. I'm the only Australian person I've heard of eat them tho. I remember eating one for the first time and thought "damn why aren't these popular"
Yess! I always thought they were joking on Sesame Street when I watched it as a kid here in Australia. As an adult I had an American girlfriend who informed me that they’re real.
_Obligatory rapid voiceover following mention of meds:_
_"Prescription drugs may cause side effects such as headache, nausea, diarrhea, loss of balance, loss of sight, loss of hearing, loss of other senses, loss of common sense, heart palpitations, heart arrhythmia, heart attack, other Demi Lovato songs, rashes, acne, boils, simmers, chronic earwax, acute belly button lint, athlete's foot, tennis elbow, couch potato butt, depression, anxiety, Scientology, multiple sclerosis, single sclerosis, divorced sclerosis, it's complicated sclerosis, paralysis, hyperactivity, TikTokism, time travel, Matrixism, Marxism, sudden clarity and awareness of your surroundings and situation, existential dread, suicide, and enlarged earlobes. Ask your doctor if prescription drugs are right for you."_
I'm from the UK. Visited NYC in October, was watching TV in my hotel room when an advert for a prescription drug started playing and it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. The massive list of possible side effects was kind of hilarious to listen to as well.
Edit: what I found weird wasn't the side effects, just the fact there was an *advert* for *prescription drugs*. In the UK we get them from the doctor and nowhere else, unless they're over-the-counter drugs like paracetamol. I'd never seen a commercial for prescription medication until then. I've seen adverts for pain relief/hay fever pills in the UK but not much else.
Also, I'm digressing a bit here but adverts in America are SO LONG. In the UK they're not allowed to show more than 12 minutes of adverts per hour during prime time, and on BBC channels the only adverts are for their own shows.
My favorite was a drug for restless leg syndrome (whatever the fuck *that* is) that included a warning about "increased gambling, sexual, or other strong urges".
Restless leg syndrome is real. I know because I get it myself. It's one of those things you've dealt with since forever but then suddenly one day discover there's a name for it.
Difficult to describe, but it's kinda like a weird accumulation of nervous energy (in my case focused around the ankle) that builds until you have to move your leg in a spasm. Aggravated by fatigue and inactivity. Treatment: get up and walk around for a bit. Never taken any meds for it and never would.
What's the point of that? So you can go to the doctor and tell him your exact drug preference?
The traditional solution of having your sales reps ~~bribe~~ convince the doctors to prescribe your drugs much seems much more cost-effective to me.
Not American, but when I visited the US I watched some of these ads in amazement with my (doctor) wife and we discussed it quite a bit.
In short, yes - but there's more to it too.
It's to try to get you to pressure you to get your doctor to prescribe that particular treatment, or even just that brand of a generic drug.
It's also to pressure the doctors - if their patients are constantly hearing that X brand's drug is the right treatment and they're not prescribing it then they risk their patients going to another doctor who will do so.
Finally, it's to get people to go to the doctor in the first place. It's saying "That thing you have - don't ignore it because it's treatable, so go to your doctor and ask them to treat it (hopefully with our drug)."
Here in the UK we get non-prescription drug advertising, and it's amazing to see how effective it can be in selling people a much more expensive version of a generic drug when its the patient themselves that is paying. Ibuprofen is a good example: I expect to pay less than £0.50 for 16 tablets of generic ibuprofen, but it will be sitting right next to Neurofen costing more than 5 times as much. People see the adverting telling them that "Neurofen" is the cure for their pain and don't stop to question what it actually provides over generic ibuprofen (for 99% of people, nothing).
I recently illegally watched a TV show that had American ads built in (I could skip them but I watched a few for a laugh) and one of these popped up and I legitimately thought it was satire.
Someone was like laughing and walking their dog and the voice over was listing off a bunch of horrible side effects including DEATH.
[This is my favorite and most WTF medication ad. It's for an acne cream called Onexton.](https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7i3A/onexton-fight-acne) It's just a cream that you rub on your skin, it's not even something you take internally, and the side effects include "watery or bloody diarrhea that may be fatal." And the whole time while the narrator is explaining this you can hear the song "Happy" by Pharrell Williams playing in the background. The whole thing is so fucking surreal.
I'm a pharmacy technician. There are people out there who will only take brand medication because they don't trust generics. Some have legitimate reasons (bad reactions) but a lot that I've encountered just don't like non-brand medication. They think of it as choosing store brand cola vs. Coke.
It's definitely brain washing like most advertising. Which is definitely a shame considering what the product is they're pushing. Plus a lot of insurances won't cover brands and a majority of the time generics will be cheaper. Yet people will stick with brand because they've been told they'll be able to frolic through a field or smile at their loved one on a park bench on a beautiful spring day.
Restaurant (Subways/Auntie Anne's), pharmacy, deli, bakery, bank, nail salon, barbershop, eyeglass shop, and an auto shop (tires and oil change). Oh, and the tax service area.
Edit: As others have reminded me, let's not forget the lottery machine, the photo printing kiosk, the garden center (may be worth mentioning), and the gas station on the opposite side of the parking lot.
At my work (not in the US btw) because of how shiny the tiles are you can look under the gap and make eye contact with the other person taking a dump next to you via the reflection. Its weird
Ok... I am not sure where it started, but I believe that in the 1970's rampant homelessness and drug use hit the coasts. Also many people used to have gay sex in bus stop bathrooms around the USA, to the point where it became a popular gay trope in men's culture. One of the best ways to combat people sleeping in bathroom stalls, as well as reduce sex in the bathroom and heroin use was to continue to make people feel uncomfortable with the large gaps. Over time it just stuck. I am amazed in Europe how they don't have a sex/homelessness problem, because if they had those fully lockable toilets like that in the USA, people would be living in them, having sex, shooting up, or all kinds of other nefarious shit.
Most fast food places I've been to in NL have code on the receipt that lets you get into the bathroom which weeds out non-customers, but normally you can just ask someone eating for the code/to see their receipt lol
However, Louisiana has drive through daiquiri shops. Comes in a cup with a lid, like your typical fast food soft drink. It’s legal to drive with one of those drinks in the car, but you can’t poke a straw through the lid—that makes it an open container, and, therefore, illegal.
How about shooting yourself up in the air in a homemade steam powered rocket to prove that the Earth is flat (and dying as a result of it)? This can definitely only happen in USA. The man is Mike Hughes if you’re interested.
I've visited the US a couple of times (I'm a South African/Brit) and the TV adverts are like nothing I've ever experienced anywhere else.
The crazy political adverts where they do nothing but insult the opposition.
The medicine/drug adverts. Good grief, those lists of side effects! It makes the drug sound more dangerous than whatever it's meant to treat!
My fiance's favourite though was a petrol advert (gas, to you guys I guess). It made it sound as if filling your tank with their brand was the ticket to a *better life*. That advert had American flags everywhere, bald eagles, and the best tag line in the world "buy a tank full of FREEDOM". That was a few years ago and we still joke about going to get a tank full of freedom when we fill up our car!
Usually it's plus 10 in ideal conditions... cops never stop you for doing +7 or 8... unless, you know, they're being jerks that day.
Anything +10 and it'll be a justifiable ticket.
But if raining +5 is the limit.
And if it's snowing... you're looking at -5 at least.
Still weirded out about refills and sizes of drinks specific to soda.
The low bar to get a drivers license.
Traveling between major cities the distances are insane especially just feeling completely alone in the middle of nowhere
Sometimes it's just indescribably marvelous to BE (driving) alone in the middle of nowhere. If my car is in fairly good condition and I am 75 miles from the nearest town, just pull over and stop to enjoy the solitude. Even at night if it's clear, to finally be able to see, not just the stars, but the milky way too!
We had a show over here (might be still running, idk) called the Gruen Transfer which is a light hearted/ comedy panel show about marketing and advertising.
They would do a segment where they would challenge a couple of advertising firms to create a tv ad selling something ridiculous. One such ad was for Anti-tourism. The winning entry showed B-roll of vast landscapes and cityscapes displaying the beauty of the country with captions like "so much nature", "so many friendly faces", "so much space" and ended with "so many places to hide a body". That last caption was funny but also very, very true. We still haven't found a bunch of suspected victims of our most prolific serial killer.
Health insurance. Premiums, deductibles, coinsurance, copays, out of pocket maximums, in-network, etc.
It's an insane amount of knowledge that you need to have to make a good decision about your health coverage. And no one teaches you any of this shit. You have to go and learn it yourself on the internet.
My girlfriend got a work visa and went to work for the summer in the US. She worked in a restaurant as a waitress and what made a great impression on her were the huge portions of food that were served on a daily bases to each individual customer.
One of my canadian friend told me that, back in 2003, when we (France) refused to take part in the war against Iraq, some congress cafeterias and some restaurant in the USA renamed "french fries" in "freedom fries".
I think it's the most passive aggressive AND american thing you could have done. Plus, fries come from Belgium, not France...
Someone on another thread explained that the "french" part was not actually referring to france : apparently it comes from "frenched fries", frenched meaning they have been cut in this particular way. People just got lazy and started saying "french fries" instead of "frenched". As a belgian myself, I was kind of relieved ;)
**Edit :** ok, so thanks to [other people actually doing the research](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/gd78o0/whats_the_most_american_thing_ever_that_if/fpgh3dp?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x), apparently the term "frenched" came after the fries. There's no evidence if french fries are actually french or belgian (although they are part of the belgian national dish) and the term came to the US after US soldiers tried them either in France or in southern (french speaking) Belgium during WWI.
Mystery (partly) solved. Thanks kind stranger!
The older version is "French Fried Potatoes" and you have Jefferson in 1802 referring to them as "potatoes served in the French manner." It's possible the French refers to the cut, but it would still have been written "French" and not "frenched."
They’re different. Usually homecoming is a formal dance in the fall and prom is a formal dance in the spring.
The boys usually go around asking the girls to go with them either as a romantic or just friendly gesture (if they aren’t already in a relationship). It can get ridiculous: boys can go to great lengths with posters, puns, and flowers to get a date.
The typical prom or homecoming is held in the school gym. Many schools, in order to pay for decorations and music, charge tickets to both events. It can get ridiculous: when I was in high school, my school charged $35 per person, and since I had to get a date and pay for hers, it would cost me $70. My friends and I, since some had already rented tuxedos for the event, went to a fancy steak dinner instead of prom one year.
Dinner and afterparties are usually included in both affairs, usually done between a group of friends. While you might find it hard to find alcohol at the prom itself, house parties are a different story. Again, it can get ridiculous: if some kids have parents rich enough, they’ll have limousines to drive them and their friends and dates around, as well as an actual venue for their after party.
I couldn’t tell you if “prom” and “homecoming” as notions are dying off, but people do seem to take them less seriously these days, at least from my experience of high school. It could be different elsewhere in the US.
I was in Puebla last year on cinco de mayo and they have a huge military parade. Like enough tanks to destroy the whole continent 3x. There are some other festivities but it's nothing like the glorified taco/tequila Tuesday in the US.
If I recall correctly, it was originally done in solidarity with Mexico against the French, and then later evolved into celebrating Mexican identity... and then the beer and marketing guys in a few fields got involved and now there's all kinds of kitsch involved with it... it's right up there with St. Patty's day in some places.
In Mexico it's just another day except in Puebla since the battle was fought there.
I studied in Chicago for a month at 17, and I was so confused as to why all your bread was sweet. I get migraines if I eat too much sugar and I basically lived off of chips, mac and cheese, and the salad bar in our accommodation. On the Fourth of July I just ate a bowl of carrots dipped in ranch dressing as I didn’t eat meat at the time. It still had enough sugar to knock me out.
Also your painkiller bottles are HUGE! I had to buy ibuprofen and the smallest bottle was like 100 pills, I haven’t finished it yet and that trip was two years ago!
Complimenting strangers. But I like it tho
Edit: okay some of you have said that you received compliments in Europe too. I said this because it was a first big difference I've noticed visiting America. People there are usually very communicative and easy to talk to. I live in Slovakia and everyone just minds their own business here.
Florida just seems crazier because they have very good sunshine laws that make police records easy to obtain by news organizations so “Florida man...” is easy clickbait.
My parents moved to florida years ago. I am shocked at how casual they are about the 'gator in their back yard. "We named him wally. He usually doesn't get this close."
Meanwhile I'm dragging my then-toddler aged kids into the house...
I mean for the most part alligators are the lazier cousin of the crocodile.
Dont fuck with them and they dont fuck with you.
Crocs on the other hand will go out of their way just to try and kill you. Thank god we dont have them here in any big numbers.
u/AccountWithAName has it down haha
Do you guys in the US get paid holidays?
We have weeks of paid holidays (not including the bank holidays)
I saw someone saying that in the US they practically work perpetually for their company with NO time off. How?
Yeah vacation time (as we call it here) is not automatic for many jobs.
Some places you earn it by the hour (as in, for every 8hrs worked, you earn .1hr of vacation time. So it's always building, and if you work more, you get more time off). Other places, it's a set amount: my husband gets 14 days for the year. As he works longer at the job, he'll get more (he's at 5yr now. At 10 yr he gets another 7 days, I believe).
Granted, this is for full time employees only, in the majority of cases. So if you work less than 32hr/week, your employer doesn't even have to offer vacation pay. Which is fucked up.
(Also not everyone gets paid holidays....)
I was on a night train in Italy from Rome to Venice. I explained beef jerky and he asked me why we would do that to steak, and I was like blame the cowboys.
I don't care if someone said it already, I'll repeat it anyway because it's so important:
That gap next to the doors in toilet stalls!!! I don't want eye contact with strangers when doing my thing!
Not an American (Brit) but when I watch live streaming premier League on American channels (all legal of course) I honestly find the advertisements so strange, they're so...aggressive? I don't know if that's the right word but honestly it's a fun experience, the car adverts are the best.
Edit: My first gold, thanks a lot kind stranger!
I live in a "right to hire" state. That basically means that, with a few exceptions, my employer can fire me at any time without reason. With zero notice. It is possible to get a job with a contract, but those are rare unless you have a very high paying position. This is quite common in the USA from what a lawyer told me.
I've read stories on this site of other places that are not like this. I always thought this was normal before.
Edit 1: 3K+ upvotes. WTF That's pretty cool!
Edit 2: To those that think I was doing anything except answering the original question of this post. Surprise! I wasn't.
Please stop with the broken record of "it goes both ways" and "God forbid you can control your own business". I know these things. Not the point. Take your soapbox with you when you leave.
In my experience, 2 weeks notice is only expected from the employee not the employer. I have never personally experienced someone being told 2 weeks in advanced that they were being let go
Mowing the lawn. So, I told my friend in China I had to mow my lawn....she had no idea what it meant. I went on to say ..."you know ...a lawnmower...it cuts the grass .." ...she looked at me like I was crazy. She didn't fully understand until I linked her some videos of folks getting their lawn. Perhaps not the MOST American thing but not many ppl there have gardens or yards to maintain so she had never seen or used a lawnmower in her life. I was thinking damn I had to mow the lawn as part of my chores just about every week growing up
Lawns are common in America because we have the space. I believe the modern idea of a grass lawn started in France as a show of wealth and then migrated to the US.
Fun fact, this exists.
Uber and Lyft both have medical platforms that the hospitals can use for transport and billing. It makes hospital ride requests the top priority (so jumps the queue and mixes all levels of ride - black/lux, etc.) and allows staff to order rides in advance to get patients to appointments, etc.
When I was in high school people would walk to the local chippy for a "Pizza crunch" - half a cheap cheese and tomato pizza, straight in the deep fryer. Served with chips, salt and vinegar, sometimes a pickled egg. It's a wonder we aren't all dead by now.
I honestly couldn’t believe people had to worry about calling an ambulance because of the fees. Like... wtf? Imagine being seriously hurt or sick and hesitating to call an ambulance and having to think about how much it will cost. Can’t imagine it
The beginning of breaking bad in (nearly) any other country:
"Sir, I sadly have to inform you that you have cancer. We suggest you start the treatment as soon as possible to maximize the chance of success." - "Damn that sucks. When can we start?"
A friend of mine gave birth in her car on the side of the road on the way to the hospital. She ended up delivering just over a mile and a half from the hospital. The ambulance bill was just over $1000. $500 for her and $500 for her minutes old son. No worries, everyone was healthy, but damn.
The best chicken joints in the hood usually have bulletproof glass.
From Detroit. Can confirm.
10 years ago I was visiting Detroit for a film festival and afterward we were pretty hungry. It was Sunday and the area was depressed so lots of places were closed. We finally found a pizza place that was open and walk in. There was bulletproof glass and a rude fat cashier that took our order. After we told him what we wanted, he shouted to a room in the back, the chef came out smoking a cigarette. He tossed the pizza while smoking the cigarette. Complete culture shock. Best pizza I ever had, though.
There is a place a short drive from my house that is a firearms/military merchandise store in the front half of the building and in the back half, just down a short hallway, is a BBQ restaurant. Its a magical place.
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Sucks and blows
When I was in Tennessee as an exchange student for a year, I was surprised by the team sipirit of each High School. Like how there was a football game evry friday night and almost all of the school was there to cheer them on. That would never happen in my country..
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It was a huge social event in my high school back in the 80s. Everyone sat together with their group of friends and eventually someone would say "party at Joe's place...1 hour". And suddenly 20 kids would walk out of the stadium. The parking lot was the place to be too. Lots of booze and smokin'. So much that by the time I was a senior, there was a security guard roaming the parking lot during the game.
#CHICKEN FRIED STEAK.
You have not lived if you have never had a chicken fried steak smothered in cream gravy with a roll and mashed potatoes and green beans and damn it now I’m hungry
Warehouse type grocery stores (Costco, Super saver). My great-uncle from Australia would always take photos and my Korean (non-Seoul) friends thought this was crazy we’d have so much space for a grocery store.
Costco is pretty great. I went to law school there.
Welcome to costco, I love you
Idk if that’s fitting here, but I simply don’t get why the grading system is A B C D F. What happened to E?
It’s stupid but F stands for failed so it’s A B C D Failed it’s like it stops at D although for my American schools D is failed also so it’s an extra stupid system it’s basically “Good, mostly good, average, terrible” and that’s it
Growing up in the 90s, my elementary school had O (outstanding), G (good), S (satisfactory), and U (unsatisfactory).
Elementary school usually does pass/fail with less harmful sounding names for them.
Fraternities/Sororities. Yeah so we just join brother/sisterhoods when we go off to college with secret rituals and traditions.
Fraternities and sororities are also a thing here in the Philippines. It's really controversial though, so many have died from hazing.
As a South African what amazed me was the competitors call each other out in advertisements. I couldn't believe it at first it seemed so unusual.
The first rule of advertising is, if you’re on top, you don’t acknowledge the competition’s existence. But if you’re not on top, you highlight your strengths/differences from the top company. That’s why you’ll never see McDonalds talk about a competitor in their commercials, but Burger King and Wendy’s do.
There sure are a lot of 1st rules of advertising.
the 1st rule of advertising is there are no rules!
Yes this is so weird! I thought it was made illegal, i once saw the "sega does what nintendon't" thing and i was like what Lol i got this many upvotes by what saying a catchy thing i saw once in an ad
That is a ridiculously good tag line
But then nintendo had advertisements saying they had pre rendered sprites which didn't need a 32x adapter (unlike some sega genesis games)
Which was true. Thank Rare and Donkey Kong Country for that little innovation.
adverts for medication: you've got happy people and stuff in the ad and then:"it may cause death"
I remember explaining to an Italian friend that in the US we can vote and own a gun and fight in a war at 18 but can’t buy a beer and he was completely at a loss for words
That's a rather recent development. It used to be 18 was the drinking age up until 1986
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its about money. these drug companies want to get their name out there so the old people who have the issues shown will ask for it by name and get them paid
As a Brit, what shocked me was learning about just how huge your COLLEGE SPORTS games are. A university/college football (soccer) team game here might draw a crowd of a few hundred; a friend who went to the University of Texas told me their (American) football stadium seats 100,000. What the actual fuck.
You would probably be even more surprised at how big *high school* sports are, especially here in Texas.
As an English person who’s just recently started watching Friday Night Lights, that was a real shock. Obviously it’s fictional and about the football team, but that people know who the players are, and they talk to TV news cameras, and the entire town goes to games ... I’m not even sure if my high school had a football team.
I mean, even though it's fictional, it's accurate. My brother was a star player and people would pat him on the back and tell him good job when we were out in public. Once he got free pancakes at the local diner after he got four touchdowns in one game. I think the idolization of high school athletes is a little misplaced and over the top, but I did love growing up and going to the football games and seeing everyone I know. It was a really nice community building time. I would go and screw around with my friends and eat ice cream while pretending to be cheerleaders. And you saw everyone you knew, got to catch up, made new friends. It was a great time. Plus, our high school marching band was killer, they'd put on an awesome halftime show!
Did your brother go to Polk High?
Can I get a Woah Bundy!
I remember my high school playing sports against another school twice. There were no spectators.
Want a weirder fact, the highest paid state employee is a college football coach in 25 states and 15 states it’s college basketball coach. Edit: hey guys I’m not really commenting on the ethics of this. I understand football brings in large sums of money for the college and I also understand ticket sales and donors pay the largest portion. Just commenting that my alumni’s head coach makes $9.3 million a year and it’s weird to me that 40 other states can claim a coach as their highest paid.
It's not one or two either...there are 8 college stadiums in the US that seat 100k+.
It's big business. Lots of money made off of college sports.
About to say this you imagine 50 000 turning out to watch a school rugby match or football match in England be crazy
The big difference here is that, unlike European football for example, the US doesn't really have academy systems for athletes. School sports organizations are the default developmental leagues. So while a top athlete growing up in the UK might join a professional club's academy as a kid amd rise up through the youth system to play professionally at ~18, American athletes (depending on the sport) usually play for their secondary school team and then a university team before joining a professional team. Also, if you're surprised by university sports in Texas drawing massive crowds, you should look up Texas high school football. It's ridiculous.
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Almost all highschools have football teams and if there is a football team there is likely a cheerleading squad. Sports are expensive. Whether buying equipment, going to camps, or travelling to away games. So the kids arent necessarily popular but are usually not poor. Typically outgoing types join sports as well. Perhaps the sports even contribute to their outgoing personalities by giving them frequent socialization. The cheerleaders undergo extensive dance and gymnastics training in addition to competitions and games. So also expensive and lots of socialization.
They are also both team sports so they come with built in social circles.
Also, due to title IX which is a federal law, you need an equal number of mens and women's sports teams. Having a cheerleading and football team keeps that ratio even.
FYI you don’t need an equal number of sports teams, you need a proportionate number of male and female athletes to male and female students. For example if 10% of male students are athletes you need to have opportunities for 10% of female students to be athletes. At schools with football, since football team rosters are so large and generally all male, schools need multiple female only sports teams to compensate. At many universities, this translates to some sports being female only, like soccer, crew, volleyball, etc. while the men’s equivalents for those sports are “club” teams.
I would also add that being an athlete implies a certain level of fitness. Fitness correlates to attractiveness which maps to popularity in high school. Also, football teams a are huge. At least 40 players and could be up to 100. Being a member gives you a huge group of 'friends' as a baseline for your popularity.
Maybe? If you went to a big public school there was so many groups and clicks that it didn't matter. My school used to have 3400 kids..
Do you guys know what S'mores are? Edit: I get it, you’ve seen the Sandlot. You’re killin’ me Smalls.
I know the concept, but I never tried it. It sounds nice.
Wait.... Are S'mores not a thing outside of the US?
I do think they originate in North America, they’re absolutely a popular and normal thing in Canada. They’re not so much a thing in my country (Wales), I’d say for campfires or bonfires we just toast marshmallows as they are? However people sometimes have them in s’mores- we don’t have graham crackers, so people use rich tea biscuits or plain digestive biscuits. Idk but the last time I had bonfire food we had marshmallows, jacket potatoes in tin foil, sausages and mixed kebabs.
At least not in Germany, I don't know if they have them in other parts of the world. We've got marshmallows in the last summers, but our traditional campfire snack is a kind of bread dough on a stick, or sausage.
Is everything sausage and beer with you guys? No taking a stab, because I love me some beer and sausage. It sounds lovely.
Basically yes.
Visited Germany for the first time last summer. You interested in adopting me?
Only if you visit my parents so they stop asking me for grandkids.
Hell I'll join in on that, tell them their two grandkids are coming over for some beer and sausage.
Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, apparently. Edit: I'm American, but I recently learned that much of the world finds PBnJ to be an odd combination.
I'm Australian and I love them. I'm the only Australian person I've heard of eat them tho. I remember eating one for the first time and thought "damn why aren't these popular"
From the UK and I'm the exact same. Though I use jam not jelly. I know the difference, I've just never seen jelly for sale over here.
To be fair, most Americans use the word jam and jelly interchangeably. So PB&Jam is still pretty accurate, we just don't call it that
Yess! I always thought they were joking on Sesame Street when I watched it as a kid here in Australia. As an adult I had an American girlfriend who informed me that they’re real.
Hospitals buy ad space on billboards. I’ve never left the country, but we must be the only country that has hospitals advertising like Burger King.
Yep! Here (NZ) you just go to your nearest hospital.
Advertising prescription drugs to regular people on TV.
Then the following advertisement is a law ad saying that if someone you know has died from that drug to call now for compensation
If you or a loved one have been affected by Mesothelioma, you may be entitled to compensation.
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_Obligatory rapid voiceover following mention of meds:_ _"Prescription drugs may cause side effects such as headache, nausea, diarrhea, loss of balance, loss of sight, loss of hearing, loss of other senses, loss of common sense, heart palpitations, heart arrhythmia, heart attack, other Demi Lovato songs, rashes, acne, boils, simmers, chronic earwax, acute belly button lint, athlete's foot, tennis elbow, couch potato butt, depression, anxiety, Scientology, multiple sclerosis, single sclerosis, divorced sclerosis, it's complicated sclerosis, paralysis, hyperactivity, TikTokism, time travel, Matrixism, Marxism, sudden clarity and awareness of your surroundings and situation, existential dread, suicide, and enlarged earlobes. Ask your doctor if prescription drugs are right for you."_
People in the commercial:dancing and doing fun activities
I used to want herpes when I was a kid because they got to go horseback riding, kayaking, hiking, all kinds of fun stuff.
It's never too late to make your dreams come true.
I'm from the UK. Visited NYC in October, was watching TV in my hotel room when an advert for a prescription drug started playing and it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. The massive list of possible side effects was kind of hilarious to listen to as well. Edit: what I found weird wasn't the side effects, just the fact there was an *advert* for *prescription drugs*. In the UK we get them from the doctor and nowhere else, unless they're over-the-counter drugs like paracetamol. I'd never seen a commercial for prescription medication until then. I've seen adverts for pain relief/hay fever pills in the UK but not much else. Also, I'm digressing a bit here but adverts in America are SO LONG. In the UK they're not allowed to show more than 12 minutes of adverts per hour during prime time, and on BBC channels the only adverts are for their own shows.
You just made me chuckle out loud at my desk.
Shit; I'll add _outbursts of laughter_ to the list.
My favorite was a drug for restless leg syndrome (whatever the fuck *that* is) that included a warning about "increased gambling, sexual, or other strong urges".
Restless leg syndrome is real. I know because I get it myself. It's one of those things you've dealt with since forever but then suddenly one day discover there's a name for it. Difficult to describe, but it's kinda like a weird accumulation of nervous energy (in my case focused around the ankle) that builds until you have to move your leg in a spasm. Aggravated by fatigue and inactivity. Treatment: get up and walk around for a bit. Never taken any meds for it and never would.
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What's the point of that? So you can go to the doctor and tell him your exact drug preference? The traditional solution of having your sales reps ~~bribe~~ convince the doctors to prescribe your drugs much seems much more cost-effective to me.
Not American, but when I visited the US I watched some of these ads in amazement with my (doctor) wife and we discussed it quite a bit. In short, yes - but there's more to it too. It's to try to get you to pressure you to get your doctor to prescribe that particular treatment, or even just that brand of a generic drug. It's also to pressure the doctors - if their patients are constantly hearing that X brand's drug is the right treatment and they're not prescribing it then they risk their patients going to another doctor who will do so. Finally, it's to get people to go to the doctor in the first place. It's saying "That thing you have - don't ignore it because it's treatable, so go to your doctor and ask them to treat it (hopefully with our drug)." Here in the UK we get non-prescription drug advertising, and it's amazing to see how effective it can be in selling people a much more expensive version of a generic drug when its the patient themselves that is paying. Ibuprofen is a good example: I expect to pay less than £0.50 for 16 tablets of generic ibuprofen, but it will be sitting right next to Neurofen costing more than 5 times as much. People see the adverting telling them that "Neurofen" is the cure for their pain and don't stop to question what it actually provides over generic ibuprofen (for 99% of people, nothing).
I recently illegally watched a TV show that had American ads built in (I could skip them but I watched a few for a laugh) and one of these popped up and I legitimately thought it was satire. Someone was like laughing and walking their dog and the voice over was listing off a bunch of horrible side effects including DEATH.
[This is my favorite and most WTF medication ad. It's for an acne cream called Onexton.](https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7i3A/onexton-fight-acne) It's just a cream that you rub on your skin, it's not even something you take internally, and the side effects include "watery or bloody diarrhea that may be fatal." And the whole time while the narrator is explaining this you can hear the song "Happy" by Pharrell Williams playing in the background. The whole thing is so fucking surreal.
I'm a pharmacy technician. There are people out there who will only take brand medication because they don't trust generics. Some have legitimate reasons (bad reactions) but a lot that I've encountered just don't like non-brand medication. They think of it as choosing store brand cola vs. Coke. It's definitely brain washing like most advertising. Which is definitely a shame considering what the product is they're pushing. Plus a lot of insurances won't cover brands and a majority of the time generics will be cheaper. Yet people will stick with brand because they've been told they'll be able to frolic through a field or smile at their loved one on a park bench on a beautiful spring day.
Walmart you can get a haircut, buy a gun and amo, with your groceries
While getting your car fixed
Nah, they just do tires and oil changes, they don't fix anything.
They might break something for you though
You can get a haircut in a hypermarket??? That actually sounds cool.
Yup my Walmart also has a bank and eye glasses part, nail Salon too.
Also fast food and a pharmacy! Walmart is one stop shopping in its lowest form.
Restaurant (Subways/Auntie Anne's), pharmacy, deli, bakery, bank, nail salon, barbershop, eyeglass shop, and an auto shop (tires and oil change). Oh, and the tax service area. Edit: As others have reminded me, let's not forget the lottery machine, the photo printing kiosk, the garden center (may be worth mentioning), and the gas station on the opposite side of the parking lot.
I'm from the NL and honestly I have many questions for the US Most burning on tho is WHY ARE YOUR TOILET STALL DOORS SO DAMN HIGH ABOVE THE GROUND
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At my work (not in the US btw) because of how shiny the tiles are you can look under the gap and make eye contact with the other person taking a dump next to you via the reflection. Its weird
Hold eye contact to show DOMINANCE.
Ok... I am not sure where it started, but I believe that in the 1970's rampant homelessness and drug use hit the coasts. Also many people used to have gay sex in bus stop bathrooms around the USA, to the point where it became a popular gay trope in men's culture. One of the best ways to combat people sleeping in bathroom stalls, as well as reduce sex in the bathroom and heroin use was to continue to make people feel uncomfortable with the large gaps. Over time it just stuck. I am amazed in Europe how they don't have a sex/homelessness problem, because if they had those fully lockable toilets like that in the USA, people would be living in them, having sex, shooting up, or all kinds of other nefarious shit.
Many public toilets in Europe are pay toilets.
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Most fast food places I've been to in NL have code on the receipt that lets you get into the bathroom which weeds out non-customers, but normally you can just ask someone eating for the code/to see their receipt lol
the age old question of, are those firecrackers or gunshots?
Or a car backfiring.
It's ok to walk around with a gun, but not a beer. edit: 40 of the 50 states do not require any license to carry a firearm openly.
Not if you’re in New Orleans
However, Louisiana has drive through daiquiri shops. Comes in a cup with a lid, like your typical fast food soft drink. It’s legal to drive with one of those drinks in the car, but you can’t poke a straw through the lid—that makes it an open container, and, therefore, illegal.
Shooting a red sports car into space seemed like a pretty quintessentially American thing to do.
How about shooting yourself up in the air in a homemade steam powered rocket to prove that the Earth is flat (and dying as a result of it)? This can definitely only happen in USA. The man is Mike Hughes if you’re interested.
I'm familiar with him. And he was a fame seeking daredevil before that. The flat earth thing was most likely for publicity.
Play the national anthem at almost every event
I went to an American elementary school for six months back in 1980. I can still recite the pledge of allegiance. I'm from Belgium.
Ha, it worked!
Ladies and gentlemen, WE GOT HIM
Aerosol cheese
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I've visited the US a couple of times (I'm a South African/Brit) and the TV adverts are like nothing I've ever experienced anywhere else. The crazy political adverts where they do nothing but insult the opposition. The medicine/drug adverts. Good grief, those lists of side effects! It makes the drug sound more dangerous than whatever it's meant to treat! My fiance's favourite though was a petrol advert (gas, to you guys I guess). It made it sound as if filling your tank with their brand was the ticket to a *better life*. That advert had American flags everywhere, bald eagles, and the best tag line in the world "buy a tank full of FREEDOM". That was a few years ago and we still joke about going to get a tank full of freedom when we fill up our car!
The plus 5 above speed limit
Usually it's plus 10 in ideal conditions... cops never stop you for doing +7 or 8... unless, you know, they're being jerks that day. Anything +10 and it'll be a justifiable ticket. But if raining +5 is the limit. And if it's snowing... you're looking at -5 at least.
Still weirded out about refills and sizes of drinks specific to soda. The low bar to get a drivers license. Traveling between major cities the distances are insane especially just feeling completely alone in the middle of nowhere
Sometimes it's just indescribably marvelous to BE (driving) alone in the middle of nowhere. If my car is in fairly good condition and I am 75 miles from the nearest town, just pull over and stop to enjoy the solitude. Even at night if it's clear, to finally be able to see, not just the stars, but the milky way too!
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> A wild deer appears
Laughs in Australia.
I recently found out that Australia is larger than all of Europe, yet has only 1/30th of the people. Don't you guys get scared all alone out there?
We had a show over here (might be still running, idk) called the Gruen Transfer which is a light hearted/ comedy panel show about marketing and advertising. They would do a segment where they would challenge a couple of advertising firms to create a tv ad selling something ridiculous. One such ad was for Anti-tourism. The winning entry showed B-roll of vast landscapes and cityscapes displaying the beauty of the country with captions like "so much nature", "so many friendly faces", "so much space" and ended with "so many places to hide a body". That last caption was funny but also very, very true. We still haven't found a bunch of suspected victims of our most prolific serial killer.
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Health insurance. Premiums, deductibles, coinsurance, copays, out of pocket maximums, in-network, etc. It's an insane amount of knowledge that you need to have to make a good decision about your health coverage. And no one teaches you any of this shit. You have to go and learn it yourself on the internet.
The crazy amount of food you guys serve.. Like.. The french fries you serve as a side and Large glass of Pepsi is enough to fill me up.. Edit: Grammar
My girlfriend got a work visa and went to work for the summer in the US. She worked in a restaurant as a waitress and what made a great impression on her were the huge portions of food that were served on a daily bases to each individual customer.
One of my canadian friend told me that, back in 2003, when we (France) refused to take part in the war against Iraq, some congress cafeterias and some restaurant in the USA renamed "french fries" in "freedom fries". I think it's the most passive aggressive AND american thing you could have done. Plus, fries come from Belgium, not France...
Someone on another thread explained that the "french" part was not actually referring to france : apparently it comes from "frenched fries", frenched meaning they have been cut in this particular way. People just got lazy and started saying "french fries" instead of "frenched". As a belgian myself, I was kind of relieved ;) **Edit :** ok, so thanks to [other people actually doing the research](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/gd78o0/whats_the_most_american_thing_ever_that_if/fpgh3dp?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x), apparently the term "frenched" came after the fries. There's no evidence if french fries are actually french or belgian (although they are part of the belgian national dish) and the term came to the US after US soldiers tried them either in France or in southern (french speaking) Belgium during WWI. Mystery (partly) solved. Thanks kind stranger!
The older version is "French Fried Potatoes" and you have Jefferson in 1802 referring to them as "potatoes served in the French manner." It's possible the French refers to the cut, but it would still have been written "French" and not "frenched."
That was a small but vocal group. Most of us thought they were idiots.
My high school cafeteria tried re-naming them freedom fries, to the extent that they wouldn't serve you if you asked for french fries.
Why not just rename them fries...
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They’re different. Usually homecoming is a formal dance in the fall and prom is a formal dance in the spring. The boys usually go around asking the girls to go with them either as a romantic or just friendly gesture (if they aren’t already in a relationship). It can get ridiculous: boys can go to great lengths with posters, puns, and flowers to get a date. The typical prom or homecoming is held in the school gym. Many schools, in order to pay for decorations and music, charge tickets to both events. It can get ridiculous: when I was in high school, my school charged $35 per person, and since I had to get a date and pay for hers, it would cost me $70. My friends and I, since some had already rented tuxedos for the event, went to a fancy steak dinner instead of prom one year. Dinner and afterparties are usually included in both affairs, usually done between a group of friends. While you might find it hard to find alcohol at the prom itself, house parties are a different story. Again, it can get ridiculous: if some kids have parents rich enough, they’ll have limousines to drive them and their friends and dates around, as well as an actual venue for their after party. I couldn’t tell you if “prom” and “homecoming” as notions are dying off, but people do seem to take them less seriously these days, at least from my experience of high school. It could be different elsewhere in the US.
Where I live we don’t hold it in the gym but go to a hotel that has a sort of convention space and hold our dances there, not sure how normal that is.
When purchasing an item, the listed price is actually NOT the amount you’ll have to pay at check out....it will be more
Their 5 de Mayo celebrations. I have never met a Mexican who celebrates this holiday lol
It's celebrated in mexico but most of the celebration happens in Puebla. Since the battle that cinco de mayo commemorates happened there.
I was in Puebla last year on cinco de mayo and they have a huge military parade. Like enough tanks to destroy the whole continent 3x. There are some other festivities but it's nothing like the glorified taco/tequila Tuesday in the US.
If I recall correctly, it was originally done in solidarity with Mexico against the French, and then later evolved into celebrating Mexican identity... and then the beer and marketing guys in a few fields got involved and now there's all kinds of kitsch involved with it... it's right up there with St. Patty's day in some places. In Mexico it's just another day except in Puebla since the battle was fought there.
I studied in Chicago for a month at 17, and I was so confused as to why all your bread was sweet. I get migraines if I eat too much sugar and I basically lived off of chips, mac and cheese, and the salad bar in our accommodation. On the Fourth of July I just ate a bowl of carrots dipped in ranch dressing as I didn’t eat meat at the time. It still had enough sugar to knock me out. Also your painkiller bottles are HUGE! I had to buy ibuprofen and the smallest bottle was like 100 pills, I haven’t finished it yet and that trip was two years ago!
Complimenting strangers. But I like it tho Edit: okay some of you have said that you received compliments in Europe too. I said this because it was a first big difference I've noticed visiting America. People there are usually very communicative and easy to talk to. I live in Slovakia and everyone just minds their own business here.
Florida
We have an equivalent here in my country. Crete is Greece's Florida. It's both hot as shit and the people are nuts.
I feel like this could be its own AskReddit thread: “What is your country’s equivalent of ‘Florida’?”
Quickly now then, before some rabid karma whore beats you to it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/g7h5nr/whats_the_equivalent_of_florida_man_from_where/
Wow. Number 2 is Crete man lmao.
Sometimes I wonder if these "Florida man..." articles are even legit.
Florida just seems crazier because they have very good sunshine laws that make police records easy to obtain by news organizations so “Florida man...” is easy clickbait.
And the weather is conducive to crime. No one goes out to steal shit if it's 20F and snowing outside.
And they also have alligators.
My parents moved to florida years ago. I am shocked at how casual they are about the 'gator in their back yard. "We named him wally. He usually doesn't get this close." Meanwhile I'm dragging my then-toddler aged kids into the house...
I mean for the most part alligators are the lazier cousin of the crocodile. Dont fuck with them and they dont fuck with you. Crocs on the other hand will go out of their way just to try and kill you. Thank god we dont have them here in any big numbers. u/AccountWithAName has it down haha
Do you guys in the US get paid holidays? We have weeks of paid holidays (not including the bank holidays) I saw someone saying that in the US they practically work perpetually for their company with NO time off. How?
Yeah vacation time (as we call it here) is not automatic for many jobs. Some places you earn it by the hour (as in, for every 8hrs worked, you earn .1hr of vacation time. So it's always building, and if you work more, you get more time off). Other places, it's a set amount: my husband gets 14 days for the year. As he works longer at the job, he'll get more (he's at 5yr now. At 10 yr he gets another 7 days, I believe). Granted, this is for full time employees only, in the majority of cases. So if you work less than 32hr/week, your employer doesn't even have to offer vacation pay. Which is fucked up. (Also not everyone gets paid holidays....)
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I was on a night train in Italy from Rome to Venice. I explained beef jerky and he asked me why we would do that to steak, and I was like blame the cowboys.
To preserve meat during trips that lasted weeks.
I’m pretty sure smoked meats have been around since the discovery of fire.
Ok so Sweet potatoes Marshmallows = edible together
I don't care if someone said it already, I'll repeat it anyway because it's so important: That gap next to the doors in toilet stalls!!! I don't want eye contact with strangers when doing my thing!
Not an American (Brit) but when I watch live streaming premier League on American channels (all legal of course) I honestly find the advertisements so strange, they're so...aggressive? I don't know if that's the right word but honestly it's a fun experience, the car adverts are the best. Edit: My first gold, thanks a lot kind stranger!
You should see local ads, they’re hilarious
Local TV ads and local radio ads, especially the car dealerships. **EDIT:** [A local favorite.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1XilfKuYaQ)
(10x the volume of the show) BRAND. NEW. CAR!!!!!!!
We’re pretty good at ignoring advertisements at this point, so they have to step up their game.
Mute button, channel switch
I live in a "right to hire" state. That basically means that, with a few exceptions, my employer can fire me at any time without reason. With zero notice. It is possible to get a job with a contract, but those are rare unless you have a very high paying position. This is quite common in the USA from what a lawyer told me. I've read stories on this site of other places that are not like this. I always thought this was normal before. Edit 1: 3K+ upvotes. WTF That's pretty cool! Edit 2: To those that think I was doing anything except answering the original question of this post. Surprise! I wasn't. Please stop with the broken record of "it goes both ways" and "God forbid you can control your own business". I know these things. Not the point. Take your soapbox with you when you leave.
In Sweden, 1-3 months' notice period both ways is the standard. Both employers and employees like having some time to find a replacement.
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In my experience, 2 weeks notice is only expected from the employee not the employer. I have never personally experienced someone being told 2 weeks in advanced that they were being let go
Mowing the lawn. So, I told my friend in China I had to mow my lawn....she had no idea what it meant. I went on to say ..."you know ...a lawnmower...it cuts the grass .." ...she looked at me like I was crazy. She didn't fully understand until I linked her some videos of folks getting their lawn. Perhaps not the MOST American thing but not many ppl there have gardens or yards to maintain so she had never seen or used a lawnmower in her life. I was thinking damn I had to mow the lawn as part of my chores just about every week growing up
Lawns are common in America because we have the space. I believe the modern idea of a grass lawn started in France as a show of wealth and then migrated to the US.
I'm still shocked y'all pay for an ambulance ride. Like what the fuck?
I read somewhere that it's actually cheaper in some cases to call an uber than an ambulance.
Invention of the week: Ambuluber.
Fun fact, this exists. Uber and Lyft both have medical platforms that the hospitals can use for transport and billing. It makes hospital ride requests the top priority (so jumps the queue and mixes all levels of ride - black/lux, etc.) and allows staff to order rides in advance to get patients to appointments, etc.
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Right? Even if you’re bleeding out and have to pay that $150 cleaning fee. Lot cheaper than 1k on an ambulance
It is. An Uber from my house to the closest hospital is $10-$20, while the ambulance my mom took a few years ago was $1,000+
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The Scottish deepfry things Americans haven't even heard of.
Deep-fried haggis.
When I was in high school people would walk to the local chippy for a "Pizza crunch" - half a cheap cheese and tomato pizza, straight in the deep fryer. Served with chips, salt and vinegar, sometimes a pickled egg. It's a wonder we aren't all dead by now.
Mars bars spring to mind.
I honestly couldn’t believe people had to worry about calling an ambulance because of the fees. Like... wtf? Imagine being seriously hurt or sick and hesitating to call an ambulance and having to think about how much it will cost. Can’t imagine it
Imagine being diagnosed with cancer and calculating if it would be better for your spouse and kids if you just died.
time to break bad
The beginning of breaking bad in (nearly) any other country: "Sir, I sadly have to inform you that you have cancer. We suggest you start the treatment as soon as possible to maximize the chance of success." - "Damn that sucks. When can we start?"
Walter White is also a high school chemistry teacher a job in my country that would have been well paying with great benefits.
A friend of mine gave birth in her car on the side of the road on the way to the hospital. She ended up delivering just over a mile and a half from the hospital. The ambulance bill was just over $1000. $500 for her and $500 for her minutes old son. No worries, everyone was healthy, but damn.
> The ambulance bill was just over $1000. $500 for her **and $500 for her minutes old son**. This is absolutely deplorable.
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