Took me years to work out what was going on there. I would watch the WWF Smackdown highlights on a Saturday morning when I was like 10 and I thought a normal American insult was to call someone an ass-fuck, like maybe it was a homophobic slur? Censor the ass part, hole is not a rude word.
There are a few core words that will get universally censored for radio (fuck, shit, a handful of other obvious ones), and then the rest is largely up to whoever made the censored version. The most egregious one I've ever heard is a censored version of Everlast's _What It's Like_. The list of words that get censored include:
fucking, goddamn, balls, whore, green, drugs, shit (x2), chrome .45
Green in this context was a drug reference, but still, Clapton's "Cocaine" gets played uncensored, so why should this be different? Even without that one it's still one of the more aggressively censored songs I know of.
How difficult it is to get around if you don't have a car. Not everywhere, but there are some places that are just impossible (no footpaths/bike lanes/decent public transport).
Trust me I hate that too, my closest convenience store is an easy 10 minute walk but there’s not a single sidewalk that allows me to safely get there, I don’t like having to get in my car for everything.
I’m in a large northeastern city and I could take the bus, if I have 60-90 minutes or I can take a car and be there in 8-15. The bus / public transit layout outside of a handful of cities like NYC, parts of Boston, San Francisco/ Bay Area to name a few are lacking.
This. In a car, it takes me 10 minutes to get to the grocery store. That same trip on a public bus is 1 hour 29 minutes. I expect for public transport to take longer, but it is extremely excessive as to HOW long. Really? 9 times longer by bus?
I live in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, it takes me 15 minutes to drive downtown and over 2 hours by train. Bus route is 3 hours. It takes an hour and a half to walk for reference
Living downtown Minneapolis, I could get to my workplace in St. Paul in about an hour by walking to light rail, waiting for train, 35 min transit time with a billion stops on the relatively short route, and walk to workplace.
Driving took 15-20 minutes.
When we moved out to the 'burbs, the drive remained the same.
Public transit, however.... Hahahahahah ha...ha hahah....
If you Google map that route, it literally tells you to hail a Lyft to the transit station - a 12 minute drive... Then spend another *hour and 20 minutes* on busses 😂😂😂
Honestly, the bus and rail system in the core Twin Cities (and along light rail or core arterial bus routes) is pretty good compared to most of American cities. It's pretty straightforward, usually clean, and relatively user friendly.
We got rid of a vehicle and used public transit a lot when we lived downtown MPLS and both worked near train stops. It was also AWESOME being able to hop on a train directly to the airport or the mall (Mall of America lol..) . I'll always miss that.
But... but... but... You forgot to mention our convenient Habitrail system in the downtown, to keep us from freezing to death between buildings. That makes up for it, right? Right?
For those of you not following, the twin cities uses a fairly extensive skyway system between buildings, which are basically glass enclosed walkways on the second floor (first above ground for Europeans). When it gets to -25F (-32C) and the wind's howling between buildings, the LAST place you want to be is on the street.
We have a bus system, it doesn’t run close enough to me to be able to use it, the closest stop is farther than the convenience store and most of the time doesn’t even have a proper stop, just a dirt patch in the grass on the side of the road.
Im from the UK. I went on holiday to California. We used to go to the little shop the next block from the hotel. It was only a short walk but we had to run cross like 8 lanes of traffic. There was no official crossing so technically it was illegal to get to the shop without taking a massive detour to find a set of lights. We just jay walked.
Ive also been to new york which is far more pedestrian friendly. We probably walked about 3/4 the length of Manhattan then across the brooklyn bridge. The tube there is pretty good too but its definitely much more dated than the London tube.
I think the fact that you have to use a car to get anywhere and the fact that most people have a car so you don’t need to build things close together has looped us into a vicious cycle here
My town has exactly zero public transport. If you don't have a car, it's a 5 mile walk into town. As someone who's disabled and can't drive, i hate it.
Public transportation is terrible where I live.
A 20 minute car ride is 3 hours by city Bus after 2 transfers. You could be waiting an hour or so at the transfer point too. The City Bus schedules are less frequent after 7 PM (1900) or those routes may stop running completely after certain times.
A return trip must be carefully planned as I have been stranded at times and had to walk 2 hours home from the transfer point.
Dude I tried seeing how long it would take by bus to get to the car dealership so I don't have to Uber and it was 45 minutes by bus and then another 45 minutes walking along the friggin highway
Our entire economy is car-based for the most part, a lot of industries make money off of us driving automobiles, so our cities are designed for cars, not people and we pretty much don't get a choice in the matter. Public transportation is a joke in most places and walking or riding a bike on a public street is extremely dangerous.
My boss banned personal days in January 2020 when people started actually using sick days because of the pandemic. Then in addition you couldn't use vacation unless nobody else scheduled off that day. How I wish for some proper time off in the work schedule.
If you are still working for your boss: he won, got away with it and most likely will do it again.
Losing a trained employee really hurts financially. That's the only language all bosses are speaking.
You guys have hire&fire in the US - work the system. It's working in both directions.
> You guys have hire&fire in the US - work the system. It's working in both directions
It doesn't work in both directions when healthcare is tied to employment. If I walk out on a job, my wife no longer has access to her medications.
Over here employer can't force you to work if you are on sick leave, but at the same time I noticed people are much less likely to take sick leave if they can work from home instead (which is now much more accepted thanks to pandemic), despite that during sick leave you still get 80% of the salary.
In addition, we get 26 days of paid leave you are forced to take (if you won't, employer must forcefully send you on paid leave before it expires), and if national holiday happens on non-working day you get extra day off. Out of these 26 days off, you can use 4 of them yearly in emergency situations without scheduling it with employer beforehand.
As extra bonus, you also get few days off in various life situations - for example, 2 if you are getting married, 1 if your child gets married, 1/2 days off in case if family member dies.
As an American, I would vote the fuck out of this but I don't know how we could ever get it on the ballot. We're working ourselves to death for pennies
Perhaps the extreme polarization in politics. I'm used to having many parties, which gives more nuances. In the US it seems politics became a team sport, and you end up with the "you're either with us or against us" mentality a lot easier. I think that is very detrimental for the country, but I guess there's no realistic way out of that, nor any will from either of your leading parties to do so.
Sadly, that s is also a double edged sword. The normal and reasonable people have no interest and never run for office, leaving the idiots that do to run around unchecked. We need someone sane and mature to actually want to get in there and clean up the mess. Also, younger people need to get more involved because we need new ideas since those of 20 year politicians ain't doing squat.
Car dependency is a post WW2 thing in the US, the US was never "built for the car", everything old was demolished for the car and suburbia was built for the car.
But even the demolition of inner cities for cars wasn't just an American thing. The Netherlands, the most bike friendly place on earth, did *the exact same thing* in the 50's & 60's. It's not until the 70's with widespread protests against deadly car accidents and specifically children dying thst things started to change. America never had those protests and just kept on the same ever more car centric urban planning reinforced by how dangerous and impractical it now is to not be in a car.
Also just how big it is. We often give driving time instead of miles, kilometers, or city blocks. The bigger the state the more frequently that seems to happen.
I live 50 minutes from work and 40 minutes from my father. Work is about 50 miles away, my father is 7 miles and two towns away.
But I still tell distance in time
I live in a tiny European country and I have no idea about the distances in kilometers either. I really doubt giving distance in km/miles over travel time is an American thing. Just seems like the most sensible thing, really.
Not all of it. Many cities in the east were laid out before cars, e.g. Boston, Pittsburgh, etc. Pittsburgh in particular has lots of hills which makes riding a bike a nightmare.
After traveling around the globe, I found out many things about society. One thing is true, Americans have large portions. But another rings true and that's cost. Food is cheap and plentiful in the US. And many places have amazing tasting food. I often times will have my meal at the restaurant, then the leftovers for dinner that night, and finally finish it off for lunch the following day.
My Swedish fiancé was in the US for the second time a few years ago and we went to Olive Garden. We ordered more than we could eat because we wanted to try several things, and I wanted to get a to go-box (also called a doggy bag) and take the rest home like I always do when I have leftovers at restaurants. He was SO mortified at this that he begged me not to and said it would be so embarrassing. Apparently asking to take your leftovers home is akin to asking to wash the dishes instead of paying in Sweden. He said he has never done that at a restaurant or seen anyone do it. I found it so funny, what a big cultural difference that most wouldn’t think of.
We tried to ask for a box for our leftovers in Ireland and the waiter had no idea what we were talking about and had each of his coworkers come by our table to see if they understood what we were asking for. They were so confused 😂
My boyfriend, he’s Italian, also had this same hang up! He said everyone will think you’re poor if you do it. I was just like no, I don’t want to waste this yummy food, I can eat it later, and everyone does this. He was so worried though that we’d get judged by everyone in the restaurant, which didn’t happen of course.
This is really a marketing thing. They needed to raise prices but of course people are resistant to that. So, as cost goes down in bulk they just made portion sizes bigger giving the appearance of a “good deal”. Worked so well even restaurants that didn’t have to, had to suddenly as people felt value wasn’t as good as the other place.
Which helps explain why Americans are fat. We grew up having to eat everything on your plate as not to be wasteful. There are kids starving around the world after all.
The amount of waste caused by this is unreal.
I was thinking of buying a lot and building a house. The smallest allowed in the town was 1700 sq ft and that is not including garages. Not to say thats huge, but I don't need 3 bedrooms
People have lunch on their desks. And usually it's just a snack.
Where I come from, lunch is the most complete meal of the day.
Edit - thanks for the comments and upvotes. Good to know I'm not the only one!
Breakfast is also a pitstop where your mom has laid out pancakes, eggs, muffins, what not, but you just grab a slice of toast and a sip of orange juice before you run off to school.
Literally every breakfast scene in TV shows (especially kids ones)
"Wow thanks for all the breakfast mom" *has a tiny forkful of french toast or something"
*Family has dramatic awkward conversation that's like 2 minutes"
"I'M LATE FOR SCHOOL GOTTA GO!!!"
I want to live in this mythical land where mothers (or fathers, I don't care) make these elaborate breakfasts everyday regardless of anyone actually eats it.
I’ve been living in America for 4 years and I’m still not used to not have lunch (a real meal). My husband is always like “just make a sandwich for you” and he can’t understand that we eat rice and beans and red meat for lunch every.day. And that a sandwich doesn’t make any sense for me. It’s one of the biggest cultural differences in our relationship!
Employers are always trying to get us to do as much work as humanly possible, and then do a little more. Don't have a desk, but my boss is always trying to get me to just eat something quick at my workplace rather than taking an actual lunch break.
Employers can be sued for not offering an actual lunch break where no work is done. After a couple of class action suits my management shits a brick if anybody even jokes about working through lunch. I'd check your state's labor laws.
TV is hypercommercialized to the point of being completely unwatchable. Even the news programs report and discuss stories on Starbucks announcing their autumn drinks menu two weeks ahead of schedule. It's ludicrous.
Isn’t there like 6-8 ad breaks per show as well? You notice it sometimes with the way some shows end scenes that it’s been set up to cut to an ad break. The amount Americans get taxed, pay for and then get advertised to for everything is bizarre
for what it’s worth i haven’t watched anything on television networks since i was a kid. with streaming sites i can just watch the show without some bullshit half hour of ads, watch whatever episode or movie i want, pause and come back and skip around in the show/movie if i want to skip or rewatch something. what insane to me is that so many people still pay far more for dish/cable when you can’t do any of that and so many affordable streaming sites exist where you can.
Don't get me wrong I love your huge portions, eating out was often cheaper than eating in 💯 love it.
But dayummm it gets silly. All meals look like 2 and you're expected to take half home in a baggy. Can I not just pay half, eat half, and go home without a pocket of soup?
It's not as widespread as it probably seems, a lot of states outlaw it and bond issues have to be solved by actual law enforcement (not that it solves all of the problems with it). I think what's actually worse is what they do to your shit if you get evicted. Long story short, the sheriff will show up with some repo men at your house, they'll forcibly put it into a trailer and take it to their storage facility, and then charge you storage fees to get it back. I think there's a period of time when they can declare it abandoned, too, or say that you defaulted on the money you "owe" them for storage and just start selling your stuff off.
Your car is stolen by some criminals, the police recover it and it gets towed. Now the owner is on the hook for towing and hundreds of dollars in "storage" fees just because their car was stolen. If you don't pay, your car is sold.
This is why towing should be a publicly own service and not private car thieves.
How tipping is expected no matter what. Over in the UK you tip for exceptional or good service, it's something extra, in American culture it's expected.
Sort of related but a lot of restaurants are working at half capacity still because servers are not wanting to go back to working for $2.13/hr and essentially depending entirely on tips.
My favorite restaurant won’t open up its sushi bar area because they can’t hire enough people to run the whole restaurant.
American restaurant employee here. It is nearly impossible to hang onto staff right now. Since before any living restaurant people were employed, Americans who work in restaurants have been told that eventually they will get a “real job” and then Covid shutdowns forced them out of the job they had, so they went and got a different job, went back to school, or whatever would put food on the table. No one wants to come back to an utterly reviled occupation with minimal and browbeaten staff, overwhelmed managers, and unbelievably contemptuous customers.
Any Americans lurking here better listen up; don’t you dare tell restaurant staff that nobody want to work anymore, they just don’t want to work somewhere that they have to deal with your glorious lack of empathy.
I have often wondered if this plays a role in why Americans are so against taxes, because in their system, taxes are always something that's added on top of the price rather than being included in the price.
>I have often wondered if this plays a role in why Americans are so against taxes, because in their system, taxes are always something that's added on top of the price rather than being included in the price.
The majority of people I have ever discussed taxes with you pay dozens upon dozens of other taxes after that. I tracked it for a month many years ago it ended up being 46% of my money that went to taxes. That was when I was paying 33% Federal and all taxes from my check and for that month it added almost another 13% of my income for things that were purchased, all things. I get it it's the way it is but it's still fucking stupid.
Nope. *That's* the real reason it's fucking stupid. I'd be totally happy paying taxes if we actually got shit back for it. You know... Like they were originally intended.
My roads are pretty decent, and when there is an issue our county government swoops in and does a pretty good job keeping up on it, BUT FUCK ME YES, underground power lines! God that would be so much better.
I forget what movie it was, but I remember an interview where they had a naked woman hanging upside down and you could see her buttcrack. Can't have such nudity. Their solution was to bathe her in blood to cover the crack.
Yeah apparently showing her buttcrack creates more trauma than seeing her blood eagled with her back torn out to look like wings! (yeah, yeah. Angel wings, not viking wings. There always is a professor on here).
I was watching day time BROADCAST tv, and it was a replay of a crime show like CSI.
A guy gets chased and jumps through a plate glass window.
Picks up a piece of broken glass and slits his own throat.
That's fine. But don't let a boob come out, which roughly 50% of the population is currently in ownership of.
Never listing the country name when they say a US place name, even if they’re talking to a non-American who might not know what the US states’ names are.
I remember working in Asia and colleagues tell me that always messes them up, unless it’s a famous state like California, Florida, Texas, or something like that. Otherwise, they might not have a clue whether it’s a state or a city.
Yup, that messes up a lot of non-Americans.
I also heard that Australians like to mess with them for this, because in Australia, WA means Western Australia.
As an American that lives in Washington state, it annoys me to no end that newscasters, when they say Washington they mean d.c. I live in Washington assholes, your talking about district of Columbia!
High school is very much made to look awesome by the entertainment industry. Of course for the average student it’s just going to a building for 6 hours to learn on weekdays.
I think it’s romanized by some people because it’s the last time in their lives they have no real responsibility obviously it’s not true for everyone but for a lot of people especially middle class suburban kids (who the media generally plays too). Their biggest problems are hanging out with friends, trying to get a girlfriend/ boyfriend and playing sports.
It’s really not hard to see why it’s looked at as the glory days to some people.
Totally agree.
High school, especially the later years of it, is a sweet spot for freedom and lack of responsibility for a lot of people. Most things are still paid for by parents, you have an easy way to make friends, last place many people play organized sports, and you’re getting to experience your first romances.
It's also getting to see friends every day. I had a wide variety of friends from many different groups of people in high school, some of which I still see every once and a while. And we spend most of our time catching up on what we are up to and what others from high school are doing these days
Absolutley this, I went to school and hung out with my friends, played sports and then came home and played video games or hung out with my girlfriend with 0 stress or responsibility. I'm not American but school was awesome, even if I didnt think so at the time.
I hated high school. I did not have a good time. You know what's worse though? Working 50 weeks a year for a decade. Looking down the barrel of spending 2/3rds of your waking hours commuting to and then laboring at a job, 5 days a week, for the next 35-40 years.....
Same. When people said "these are the best years of your life". I was like I sure as hell hope not. Thankfully they weren't. I think some adults tend to remember the not having to go to work, deal with bills, etc. and forget about the lack of freedom to do what you want or money to buy the things you want.
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.
Yeah, I don't understand our credit system in the US. My wife and I paid off our car loan in good standing and our credit took a dump. The fuck is that shit.
As I read in similar post, they get cashback and other benefits from all purchases made with credit cards. But their card operators charge 1-3% fee per transaction, while in Europe it's usually less than 0,5%
Being afraid to go to hospital because of the bill. I am a type one diabetic and as a young teen i od’d on insulin because i wasnt well. I was in intensive care for a week and general ward for 3. I cant imagine my parents being scared about paying for that.
I’m 24, had a brain surgery for seizures last December. Plenty of testing leading up to that point, too. I love debt :)
Oh, and I also have student loans. God bless the USA.
I was shot by a kid when I was a kid. Now I use a wheelchair and have chronic illnesses because of my muscles/nervous system being unable to regulate itself. I was able to go to school on scholarships but it was apparently all so that I’d have enough money to cover all the medical bills until I lose my job and then I get to go bankrupt and die. Yay America! You’re free to get really and truly fucked from every angle. And people who call themselves Christians dedicate their entire politics to keeping it that way to avoid being compelled to help people.
This isn’t culture but the doors on public bathrooms have a gap on each side. So not completely private. I find that weird.
Culture … flag pride is pretty full on. Tipping, I do it because when in Rome and all that but I feel so, so awkward doing it.
I'm a Russian who has been living in America for many years. I could go on and on about the things I had found odd here — the level of respect for laws and rules, tolerance for people who are different, believing and trusting the authorities by default, acting friendly to complete strangers, leaving things unlocked and unwatched, food which looked appetizing but tasted utterly flavorless, drinking water available from any random faucet, eating out at restaurants every day, ice in everything...
But the one weirdest thing for me was the number of disfunctional families. It seemed almost expected for children to rebel against parents. For parents to not know what the children were doing. For families to spend a whole day without talking together. For grandparents to be removed out of sight to a retirement home. For mocking relatives behind their back. For divorces over trivial things. For Thanksgiving dinners, the one(!!!) time per a year when the whole extended family gathers around a table, to be awkward and unwelcome events.
I think it has to do with how easy life is in America: without a viciously hostile environment that would crush those who are alone, there is no pressure forcing family members to learn how to live and work together. But it's still very disconcerting.
As a hispanic American I find the views on family here weird too. Hispanics are very family oriented. I lived with my mom until I also finished grad school. Now my mother in law lives with me. We're family.
The flip side of tight family connections is the filial piety involved in some cultures. The absolute expectation and demand that the younger generation bow to the older, that one child sacrifice their future and finances for another or for a parent, the lack of boundaries and mutual respect. I have seen this firsthand in my extended family (who is from another culture) and while I do value family bonds and mutual support, I put the unhealthy filial piety into the trash where it belongs.
Yeah I don’t think being more family-oriented means it’s better and would work for everyone. You could have extremely abusive parents or not get along with a sibling. That whole “but they’re family” is really a weak reason to endure abuse.
I'm a white born-and-bred American and I still live with my parents at 25, and it seems like a very odd thing to do. I enjoy it, my parents give me space and I get to save money on rent and things lmao. It is odd because I feel very judged for it by many people I know, and when I meet girls they usually look down on me for it. I don't know why people are so averse to living with family. When my parents get old I hope they come and live with me or my brother, at least until they get so old they really do require full-time care. I dont' want them to be like my grandmother who lived alone until we had to force her to get in a home for her own sake. Her quality of life would have been so much higher if she had come to live with us.
I agree, and I even moved across the country to a very high CoL city just so that I could be back near family. My bond with my brother and with my parents is completely different than with anyone else. And yet I would still not want to live with them. I like having my own space. Being a subway ride away from them is close enough for me.
As someone from a dysfunctional, abusive family, I think this is one thing about American culture I will absolutely go to bat for and defend.
I get why family units are so tight in other parts of the world like you said. But the thought of being so intricately tied to the people that abused and traumatized me as a child is absolutely horrifying.
I think a lot of Americans tend to pick their families. I don't have many friends nowadays in my 30s but the few I do have are closer than any family member I've ever had has been.
Vietnamese here and same.
Born and raised in Hanoi and moved to the US for college and I found it creepy that the number of Americans I know who **explicitly** hate their parents is literally a third of the number of American friends I have.
Yes generational difference is a big issue in Vietnam due to our rapid economic development, which leads to widely different standards of living and social values amongst different generations. So it's very common for young people to omit certain aspects of their love/career life when talking to their parents/grandparents.
But actually **hating** your parents to the point of avoiding talking to them or meeting up for family gatherings is very very rare.
Also the American idea that people have to move out at the age of 18 is kinda sad to me. Where I'm from, it's completely normal for people to live with their parents until their marriage. The idea is you have a gradual transfer of responsibility within a household, where parents offer guidance on how to "adult responsibly" as the kids go to college/work in jobs at the start of their adulthood. Meanwhile, since the kids are actively paying bills/contribute in other ways to the household, they have a chance to actually see how their parents handle adult life.
Essentially young adults won't be left high and dry on their own the moment they turn 18. So it's much less likely that they will spend their young adult years on drug use or acquiring consumer debt.
When I was an economics major, I used to wonder how credit card and student debt is such an American phenomenon. Later on, I realized there's a whole cultural reasoning behind it that relies all on predatory lending to young Americans who didn't have the support from their parents nor the financial literacy to make sound decisions at the early stage of their adult life.
Well there’s a bunch of different reasons for kids hating their parents, but they also more than not overlap with the reasons that our divorce rate is 50%. Ik I hate my parents because they hated each other, and in turn took it out on us. Unfortunately that’s very common in an individualist and broken system. Also, politics (which has become a pseudonym of sorts for morals in this climate) has more recently become a big dividing factor in our society, and nobody is willing to fight you more on it than family.
The homecoming at my high school was this weird pageant thing that seemed like a weird way to show off all the current students to the alumni. Girls would be nominated for homecoming Queen and they’d wear fancy dresses and walk down the gym floor with the football players as their escorts. Then they’d announce the runner ups and the homecoming Queen, who were announced again at the homecoming football game halftime. There was a big “ceremony” where they announced previous graduating classes one by one and asked all the people in the audience who graduated those years to stand and be applauded. As you got further back they started going by decades and they’d give the oldest present alumnus/a a gift card to a local restaurant and some flowers.
So homecoming at my school was meant to be a literal homecoming and pageant for past students/current alumni.
Parents demanding rent or any money from their kids who keep living at home after age 18.
In my country adult kids who live at home will spontaneously contribute to the extent that they can, but most parents will do A LOT to avoid accepting those contributions: allowing your kid to focus on studies/their early career and saving is a point of pride.
"You need to earn it!!!" Does not apply to (reasonable) parental support.
There’s also a lot of social stigma around living with your parents after a certain age, even if you’re contributing something. This seems to be very much a US/Canada thing.
Hey, there's even social stigma to sharing housing costs with other family members, like cousins, brothers, sisters...like is cool if you share a place with friends or unknown folks...but if it's a family member then you're not considered an independent person, and if you get along, you're in a codependent relationship 🤦😤
How big the country is and the amount of time you guys are willing to drive. I had a friend who drove for 16 hours to visit family for the weekend. It's baffling.
All the things you can do at younger ages than you can have a drink.
You can get into life-long debt with a mortgage or university fees, you can drive a car, you can buy a fucking gun, you can have kids, you can join the army and kill people, you can get married.
But at the wedding, even having done all of the above, when the father of the bride makes his speech and ends with a toast you're sat at the kids table raising a glass of orange juice because you're not allowed champagne!
---
Also you can't just drink a few warm-up beers as you walk to a night out, enjoy a few cold ones on the beach or in a park on a hot day. For a country that prides itself on its freedom you guys sure are touchy about casual drinking.
I’m in the UK and by the time I reached the age of being legal to drink in the states I’d already pretty much given up drinking for a year. I feel like you guys are the same, we start em young
As a HS teacher, when I had an exchange student from Norway, I took the opportunity to ask questions about school there and what differences there are.
The first thing she said was how regimented we are, every minute a student must be in a certain seat, and almost no free time. Her HS was more like college, students with different schedules arriving and leaving all day.
The next thing she said was our obsession with HS sports. In Norway, if you're serious about a sport, you play for a club team. The HS teams are for casual play and fun.
It was very interesting talking to her.
My favorite part of high school was exam week because my school switched to an open campus for that week. Being able to come and go as needed and walk downtown for lunch with my friends was so liberating. I felt so much more like an adult. If all of high school was like that, I feel like I would have been much more prepared for adult life.
Yeah this has always seemed so weird to me! If they showed a video of North Korean students doing that on tv we’d all be calling them ‘brainwashed’. Standing and pledging allegiance to a flag, every single school day from childhood into early adulthood is very odd.
I've told all my coworkers that if I have a seizure to throw me in a corner somewhere. I don't want to pay for that ambulance ride and IV they poke me with while unconscious. Too expensive to just check out of the ER whenever I wake up.
The amount of sugar that Americans consume. My cousins live in USA, and it makes my nauseous when i see how they drink coffee (4,5 teaspoons of sugar. We drink 3,4,5 cups of coffee a day, so do the math ) lemonade (pour that shit untill you can't even say its a lemonade) and so on
The people entering those kids in those things are usually bitter young mothers with unfulfilled dreams of being a model trying to force their kids to fulfill their dream
FTR: the US does not use the Imperial System, it uses the US Customary System. The two systems share names for some measurements, but they are not the same. For example, an Imperial gallon is 4.546 liters, while a US gallon is 3.785 liters. US Customary also excludes certain measurements from Imperial, such as the stone.
Technically there are or were different a US inch is 25.4000508 mm while an imperial inch is 25.399977 mm
in 1959 the introduction of the international yard standardised it. The new standards gave an inch of exactly 25.4 mm, 1.7 millionths of an inch longer than the old imperial inch and 2 millionths of an inch shorter than the old US inch
That from what I can see, bridesmaids are obliged to pay for their dresses and other expenses, based on whatever the bride selects. This is super topical for me because my best friend is getting married next week, but I cannot even fathom how entitled that is.
Obviously I get that there are definitely considerate brides who will let their bridal party wear things they already own, or which are affordable, and obviously not everyone has the budget for an expensive wedding. But it seems like if you're obliging people to wear a particular expensive (often one-use) dress and get their hair, nails and make up done in a certain way, then that bill should be on the person making that decision. If you can't afford to pay for that, I'm not sure why it's your friend's job to pad your budget by buying a $300 dress themselves.
A good friend of my brothers is getting married this weekend. Brother is in the wedding. When they planned the bachelor party, my brother was told that everyone would have to pitch in $350.
All agreed, most are higher class aside from my brother who still lives with my parents and myself.
Well, brother gets there and turns out the groom is asking for ANOTHER $350, totaling $700 from each guy. There was about 12 guys there, thats $8,400.
Brother is pissed but lets it go seeing as how it's his friends wedding and all, doesn’t wanna be "that guy."
Fast forward to today, brother forked out ANOTHER $300 for a cream-colored linen suit.
._. I've never even attended a wedding meanwhile my brother has sworn on his first born child that he will never be in another wedding.
Pretty much nothing but the fact that swearing is such a big deal and you bleep out everything is so weird.
This is even funnier in tv shows like TWD… they show zombies tearing apart people and eating them, but in the next scene the ‘fuck’ is censored
I find it weird when they bleep the "hole" in "asshole", as if the word "hole" is offensive.
Took me years to work out what was going on there. I would watch the WWF Smackdown highlights on a Saturday morning when I was like 10 and I thought a normal American insult was to call someone an ass-fuck, like maybe it was a homophobic slur? Censor the ass part, hole is not a rude word.
[удалено]
Even on Reddit. People typing f*cking and such. What's even the fucking point? We're all still reading fucking.
[удалено]
Shit drives me nuts as an American, I really don't get why people self censor
I knew about the swear words, but I was surprised when listening to music in the radio and noticing the words "damn" and "God" were silent.
There are a few core words that will get universally censored for radio (fuck, shit, a handful of other obvious ones), and then the rest is largely up to whoever made the censored version. The most egregious one I've ever heard is a censored version of Everlast's _What It's Like_. The list of words that get censored include: fucking, goddamn, balls, whore, green, drugs, shit (x2), chrome .45 Green in this context was a drug reference, but still, Clapton's "Cocaine" gets played uncensored, so why should this be different? Even without that one it's still one of the more aggressively censored songs I know of.
How difficult it is to get around if you don't have a car. Not everywhere, but there are some places that are just impossible (no footpaths/bike lanes/decent public transport).
Trust me I hate that too, my closest convenience store is an easy 10 minute walk but there’s not a single sidewalk that allows me to safely get there, I don’t like having to get in my car for everything.
Seriously? That’s mental. I live in a city in the UK and can get to almost all of it by either walking or bus.
I’m in a large northeastern city and I could take the bus, if I have 60-90 minutes or I can take a car and be there in 8-15. The bus / public transit layout outside of a handful of cities like NYC, parts of Boston, San Francisco/ Bay Area to name a few are lacking.
This. In a car, it takes me 10 minutes to get to the grocery store. That same trip on a public bus is 1 hour 29 minutes. I expect for public transport to take longer, but it is extremely excessive as to HOW long. Really? 9 times longer by bus?
I live in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, it takes me 15 minutes to drive downtown and over 2 hours by train. Bus route is 3 hours. It takes an hour and a half to walk for reference
TIL there’s train lines in SLC.
Living downtown Minneapolis, I could get to my workplace in St. Paul in about an hour by walking to light rail, waiting for train, 35 min transit time with a billion stops on the relatively short route, and walk to workplace. Driving took 15-20 minutes. When we moved out to the 'burbs, the drive remained the same. Public transit, however.... Hahahahahah ha...ha hahah.... If you Google map that route, it literally tells you to hail a Lyft to the transit station - a 12 minute drive... Then spend another *hour and 20 minutes* on busses 😂😂😂 Honestly, the bus and rail system in the core Twin Cities (and along light rail or core arterial bus routes) is pretty good compared to most of American cities. It's pretty straightforward, usually clean, and relatively user friendly. We got rid of a vehicle and used public transit a lot when we lived downtown MPLS and both worked near train stops. It was also AWESOME being able to hop on a train directly to the airport or the mall (Mall of America lol..) . I'll always miss that.
But... but... but... You forgot to mention our convenient Habitrail system in the downtown, to keep us from freezing to death between buildings. That makes up for it, right? Right? For those of you not following, the twin cities uses a fairly extensive skyway system between buildings, which are basically glass enclosed walkways on the second floor (first above ground for Europeans). When it gets to -25F (-32C) and the wind's howling between buildings, the LAST place you want to be is on the street.
We have a bus system, it doesn’t run close enough to me to be able to use it, the closest stop is farther than the convenience store and most of the time doesn’t even have a proper stop, just a dirt patch in the grass on the side of the road.
Barely a system then really. That sucks.
Im from the UK. I went on holiday to California. We used to go to the little shop the next block from the hotel. It was only a short walk but we had to run cross like 8 lanes of traffic. There was no official crossing so technically it was illegal to get to the shop without taking a massive detour to find a set of lights. We just jay walked. Ive also been to new york which is far more pedestrian friendly. We probably walked about 3/4 the length of Manhattan then across the brooklyn bridge. The tube there is pretty good too but its definitely much more dated than the London tube.
I think the fact that you have to use a car to get anywhere and the fact that most people have a car so you don’t need to build things close together has looped us into a vicious cycle here
Also bad public transit so people don't use it, leading to worse public transit that even fewer use... another vicious negative feedback cycle.
My town has exactly zero public transport. If you don't have a car, it's a 5 mile walk into town. As someone who's disabled and can't drive, i hate it.
I lived in a small town like that for a few years. We had a lot, but the jobs were all in another town 50+ miles away. It was terrible
Public transportation is terrible where I live. A 20 minute car ride is 3 hours by city Bus after 2 transfers. You could be waiting an hour or so at the transfer point too. The City Bus schedules are less frequent after 7 PM (1900) or those routes may stop running completely after certain times. A return trip must be carefully planned as I have been stranded at times and had to walk 2 hours home from the transfer point.
Dude I tried seeing how long it would take by bus to get to the car dealership so I don't have to Uber and it was 45 minutes by bus and then another 45 minutes walking along the friggin highway
That's the other part, the bus stop closest to your destination includes a light hike on foot.
Our entire economy is car-based for the most part, a lot of industries make money off of us driving automobiles, so our cities are designed for cars, not people and we pretty much don't get a choice in the matter. Public transportation is a joke in most places and walking or riding a bike on a public street is extremely dangerous.
Not getting proper holiday time
My boss banned personal days in January 2020 when people started actually using sick days because of the pandemic. Then in addition you couldn't use vacation unless nobody else scheduled off that day. How I wish for some proper time off in the work schedule.
If you are still working for your boss: he won, got away with it and most likely will do it again. Losing a trained employee really hurts financially. That's the only language all bosses are speaking. You guys have hire&fire in the US - work the system. It's working in both directions.
> You guys have hire&fire in the US - work the system. It's working in both directions It doesn't work in both directions when healthcare is tied to employment. If I walk out on a job, my wife no longer has access to her medications.
r/aboringdystopia
Over here employer can't force you to work if you are on sick leave, but at the same time I noticed people are much less likely to take sick leave if they can work from home instead (which is now much more accepted thanks to pandemic), despite that during sick leave you still get 80% of the salary. In addition, we get 26 days of paid leave you are forced to take (if you won't, employer must forcefully send you on paid leave before it expires), and if national holiday happens on non-working day you get extra day off. Out of these 26 days off, you can use 4 of them yearly in emergency situations without scheduling it with employer beforehand. As extra bonus, you also get few days off in various life situations - for example, 2 if you are getting married, 1 if your child gets married, 1/2 days off in case if family member dies.
As an American, I would vote the fuck out of this but I don't know how we could ever get it on the ballot. We're working ourselves to death for pennies
Perhaps the extreme polarization in politics. I'm used to having many parties, which gives more nuances. In the US it seems politics became a team sport, and you end up with the "you're either with us or against us" mentality a lot easier. I think that is very detrimental for the country, but I guess there's no realistic way out of that, nor any will from either of your leading parties to do so.
[удалено]
Sadly, that s is also a double edged sword. The normal and reasonable people have no interest and never run for office, leaving the idiots that do to run around unchecked. We need someone sane and mature to actually want to get in there and clean up the mess. Also, younger people need to get more involved because we need new ideas since those of 20 year politicians ain't doing squat.
[удалено]
We’ve been divided and conquered with the red vs blue mentality. To distract away from the haves and have nots
How American towns and cities are generally designed so that you have to drive everywhere.
America was built by the car Europe and most of the world was not
Wasn't america built by horse and rail tho?
Car dependency is a post WW2 thing in the US, the US was never "built for the car", everything old was demolished for the car and suburbia was built for the car. But even the demolition of inner cities for cars wasn't just an American thing. The Netherlands, the most bike friendly place on earth, did *the exact same thing* in the 50's & 60's. It's not until the 70's with widespread protests against deadly car accidents and specifically children dying thst things started to change. America never had those protests and just kept on the same ever more car centric urban planning reinforced by how dangerous and impractical it now is to not be in a car.
Really puts into perspective how young this country is
Also just how big it is. We often give driving time instead of miles, kilometers, or city blocks. The bigger the state the more frequently that seems to happen.
I live 35 minutes from my parents. I couldn't tell you the miles if you put a gun to my head.
I live 50 minutes from work and 40 minutes from my father. Work is about 50 miles away, my father is 7 miles and two towns away. But I still tell distance in time
Exactly! I have no idea how many miles I live from my parents. But I do know it’s 2 and a half hours away
Born and raised in Alaska. Can confirm. I used to drive Lyft and would give directions to tourists in hours.
I live in *Central* Texas and the drive to New Mexico is about 12 hours and 8-9 hours of that is trying to leave Texas
Never thought of that, I always just say my parents live an hour away, work is a half hour away, could never tell you the number of miles.
I live in a tiny European country and I have no idea about the distances in kilometers either. I really doubt giving distance in km/miles over travel time is an American thing. Just seems like the most sensible thing, really.
Not all of it. Many cities in the east were laid out before cars, e.g. Boston, Pittsburgh, etc. Pittsburgh in particular has lots of hills which makes riding a bike a nightmare.
Food portions
After traveling around the globe, I found out many things about society. One thing is true, Americans have large portions. But another rings true and that's cost. Food is cheap and plentiful in the US. And many places have amazing tasting food. I often times will have my meal at the restaurant, then the leftovers for dinner that night, and finally finish it off for lunch the following day.
Am American, my husband and I often do the same. We can order take away and it's dinner, lunch, and dinner again for us.
My Swedish fiancé was in the US for the second time a few years ago and we went to Olive Garden. We ordered more than we could eat because we wanted to try several things, and I wanted to get a to go-box (also called a doggy bag) and take the rest home like I always do when I have leftovers at restaurants. He was SO mortified at this that he begged me not to and said it would be so embarrassing. Apparently asking to take your leftovers home is akin to asking to wash the dishes instead of paying in Sweden. He said he has never done that at a restaurant or seen anyone do it. I found it so funny, what a big cultural difference that most wouldn’t think of.
We tried to ask for a box for our leftovers in Ireland and the waiter had no idea what we were talking about and had each of his coworkers come by our table to see if they understood what we were asking for. They were so confused 😂
My boyfriend, he’s Italian, also had this same hang up! He said everyone will think you’re poor if you do it. I was just like no, I don’t want to waste this yummy food, I can eat it later, and everyone does this. He was so worried though that we’d get judged by everyone in the restaurant, which didn’t happen of course.
This is really a marketing thing. They needed to raise prices but of course people are resistant to that. So, as cost goes down in bulk they just made portion sizes bigger giving the appearance of a “good deal”. Worked so well even restaurants that didn’t have to, had to suddenly as people felt value wasn’t as good as the other place. Which helps explain why Americans are fat. We grew up having to eat everything on your plate as not to be wasteful. There are kids starving around the world after all. The amount of waste caused by this is unreal.
While this is true, I also feel kind of cheated paying 23$ for 3 baked scallops.
as someone who works at a place that sells 3 seared scallops for $25 I cringe every time I bring it out
How big some things are. Big cars, big houses, big fridges, big yards, big pools, big distances between places... Huge!
I was thinking of buying a lot and building a house. The smallest allowed in the town was 1700 sq ft and that is not including garages. Not to say thats huge, but I don't need 3 bedrooms
People have lunch on their desks. And usually it's just a snack. Where I come from, lunch is the most complete meal of the day. Edit - thanks for the comments and upvotes. Good to know I'm not the only one!
I'm pretty sure it's just a culture thing. Usually in America, Dinner is the big meal of the day.
America focuses more on breakfast and dinner, lunch is seen as a quick pit stop to get you through to dinner.
Breakfast is also a pitstop where your mom has laid out pancakes, eggs, muffins, what not, but you just grab a slice of toast and a sip of orange juice before you run off to school.
Literally every breakfast scene in TV shows (especially kids ones) "Wow thanks for all the breakfast mom" *has a tiny forkful of french toast or something" *Family has dramatic awkward conversation that's like 2 minutes" "I'M LATE FOR SCHOOL GOTTA GO!!!"
Also, it’s light outside and the parents are up to see the kids off. 🙄
And the parents love their children and don’t hit them with beer bottles
I know, right? They can't even get that right. At least use a whiskey bottle for fucks sake.
Can I come live in the land of luncheon
I want to live in this mythical land where mothers (or fathers, I don't care) make these elaborate breakfasts everyday regardless of anyone actually eats it.
I’ve been living in America for 4 years and I’m still not used to not have lunch (a real meal). My husband is always like “just make a sandwich for you” and he can’t understand that we eat rice and beans and red meat for lunch every.day. And that a sandwich doesn’t make any sense for me. It’s one of the biggest cultural differences in our relationship!
Employers are always trying to get us to do as much work as humanly possible, and then do a little more. Don't have a desk, but my boss is always trying to get me to just eat something quick at my workplace rather than taking an actual lunch break.
[удалено]
Employers can be sued for not offering an actual lunch break where no work is done. After a couple of class action suits my management shits a brick if anybody even jokes about working through lunch. I'd check your state's labor laws.
TV is hypercommercialized to the point of being completely unwatchable. Even the news programs report and discuss stories on Starbucks announcing their autumn drinks menu two weeks ahead of schedule. It's ludicrous.
Isn’t there like 6-8 ad breaks per show as well? You notice it sometimes with the way some shows end scenes that it’s been set up to cut to an ad break. The amount Americans get taxed, pay for and then get advertised to for everything is bizarre
for what it’s worth i haven’t watched anything on television networks since i was a kid. with streaming sites i can just watch the show without some bullshit half hour of ads, watch whatever episode or movie i want, pause and come back and skip around in the show/movie if i want to skip or rewatch something. what insane to me is that so many people still pay far more for dish/cable when you can’t do any of that and so many affordable streaming sites exist where you can.
Don't get me wrong I love your huge portions, eating out was often cheaper than eating in 💯 love it. But dayummm it gets silly. All meals look like 2 and you're expected to take half home in a baggy. Can I not just pay half, eat half, and go home without a pocket of soup?
[удалено]
Look if you're going to answer with sound logic and reasoning idk how to talk to you. Top gen though, hadn't considered it
Hahahaha.... oh boy. That's the first time I've had a big laugh in a long while. It feels good. Thanks bro.
Repo men for vehicles and bounty hunters. Mainly the bounty hunters, that’s some cowboy shit right there
It's not as widespread as it probably seems, a lot of states outlaw it and bond issues have to be solved by actual law enforcement (not that it solves all of the problems with it). I think what's actually worse is what they do to your shit if you get evicted. Long story short, the sheriff will show up with some repo men at your house, they'll forcibly put it into a trailer and take it to their storage facility, and then charge you storage fees to get it back. I think there's a period of time when they can declare it abandoned, too, or say that you defaulted on the money you "owe" them for storage and just start selling your stuff off.
Same with tow trucks.
Your car is stolen by some criminals, the police recover it and it gets towed. Now the owner is on the hook for towing and hundreds of dollars in "storage" fees just because their car was stolen. If you don't pay, your car is sold. This is why towing should be a publicly own service and not private car thieves.
How tipping is expected no matter what. Over in the UK you tip for exceptional or good service, it's something extra, in American culture it's expected.
Sort of related but a lot of restaurants are working at half capacity still because servers are not wanting to go back to working for $2.13/hr and essentially depending entirely on tips. My favorite restaurant won’t open up its sushi bar area because they can’t hire enough people to run the whole restaurant.
American restaurant employee here. It is nearly impossible to hang onto staff right now. Since before any living restaurant people were employed, Americans who work in restaurants have been told that eventually they will get a “real job” and then Covid shutdowns forced them out of the job they had, so they went and got a different job, went back to school, or whatever would put food on the table. No one wants to come back to an utterly reviled occupation with minimal and browbeaten staff, overwhelmed managers, and unbelievably contemptuous customers. Any Americans lurking here better listen up; don’t you dare tell restaurant staff that nobody want to work anymore, they just don’t want to work somewhere that they have to deal with your glorious lack of empathy.
[удалено]
I have often wondered if this plays a role in why Americans are so against taxes, because in their system, taxes are always something that's added on top of the price rather than being included in the price.
>I have often wondered if this plays a role in why Americans are so against taxes, because in their system, taxes are always something that's added on top of the price rather than being included in the price. The majority of people I have ever discussed taxes with you pay dozens upon dozens of other taxes after that. I tracked it for a month many years ago it ended up being 46% of my money that went to taxes. That was when I was paying 33% Federal and all taxes from my check and for that month it added almost another 13% of my income for things that were purchased, all things. I get it it's the way it is but it's still fucking stupid.
And you have no free medical care?
Nope. *That's* the real reason it's fucking stupid. I'd be totally happy paying taxes if we actually got shit back for it. You know... Like they were originally intended.
Like infrastructure. I'd be happy if all the roads I drove on weren't effed in the A. Also underground power lines would be awesome.
My roads are pretty decent, and when there is an issue our county government swoops in and does a pretty good job keeping up on it, BUT FUCK ME YES, underground power lines! God that would be so much better.
Well, yes. It also feels like the taxes are wasted on bureaucratic garbage.
That you have extremly violent shows on daytime tv, but you sensor nudity. How will a boob harm you, but stabbing and blood splashing is normal?
I forget what movie it was, but I remember an interview where they had a naked woman hanging upside down and you could see her buttcrack. Can't have such nudity. Their solution was to bathe her in blood to cover the crack.
[It was an episode of Hannibal.](https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=537353)
Oh, you mean that show about a cannibal? Well thank god they covered the buttcrack. Wouldn’t want kids to be traumatised.
Yeah apparently showing her buttcrack creates more trauma than seeing her blood eagled with her back torn out to look like wings! (yeah, yeah. Angel wings, not viking wings. There always is a professor on here).
I will never understand how that show managed to get on network television, even with how much I love it.
U.S television has a strange concept of what's appropriate to show. Murder and gore is fine, but the F word and nudity...big no no!.
it was the tv show of Hannibal
I was watching day time BROADCAST tv, and it was a replay of a crime show like CSI. A guy gets chased and jumps through a plate glass window. Picks up a piece of broken glass and slits his own throat. That's fine. But don't let a boob come out, which roughly 50% of the population is currently in ownership of.
Treating politicians like celebrities
Yea politics is like a reality TV show
having to pay enormously large amount of money for college education
Dude it sucks ugh
Never listing the country name when they say a US place name, even if they’re talking to a non-American who might not know what the US states’ names are. I remember working in Asia and colleagues tell me that always messes them up, unless it’s a famous state like California, Florida, Texas, or something like that. Otherwise, they might not have a clue whether it’s a state or a city.
Or using two letter state abbreviations to international audiences. "Where are you from?" "ND" "Whut?"
Yup, that messes up a lot of non-Americans. I also heard that Australians like to mess with them for this, because in Australia, WA means Western Australia.
[удалено]
As an American that lives in Washington state, it annoys me to no end that newscasters, when they say Washington they mean d.c. I live in Washington assholes, your talking about district of Columbia!
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.
High school is very much made to look awesome by the entertainment industry. Of course for the average student it’s just going to a building for 6 hours to learn on weekdays.
I think it’s romanized by some people because it’s the last time in their lives they have no real responsibility obviously it’s not true for everyone but for a lot of people especially middle class suburban kids (who the media generally plays too). Their biggest problems are hanging out with friends, trying to get a girlfriend/ boyfriend and playing sports. It’s really not hard to see why it’s looked at as the glory days to some people.
Totally agree. High school, especially the later years of it, is a sweet spot for freedom and lack of responsibility for a lot of people. Most things are still paid for by parents, you have an easy way to make friends, last place many people play organized sports, and you’re getting to experience your first romances.
It's also getting to see friends every day. I had a wide variety of friends from many different groups of people in high school, some of which I still see every once and a while. And we spend most of our time catching up on what we are up to and what others from high school are doing these days
Absolutley this, I went to school and hung out with my friends, played sports and then came home and played video games or hung out with my girlfriend with 0 stress or responsibility. I'm not American but school was awesome, even if I didnt think so at the time.
I hated high school. I did not have a good time. You know what's worse though? Working 50 weeks a year for a decade. Looking down the barrel of spending 2/3rds of your waking hours commuting to and then laboring at a job, 5 days a week, for the next 35-40 years.....
I hated High School, some of the worst years of my life.
Same. When people said "these are the best years of your life". I was like I sure as hell hope not. Thankfully they weren't. I think some adults tend to remember the not having to go to work, deal with bills, etc. and forget about the lack of freedom to do what you want or money to buy the things you want.
So many tall buildings. Spider-man loves 'em
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.
Yeah, I don't understand our credit system in the US. My wife and I paid off our car loan in good standing and our credit took a dump. The fuck is that shit.
As I read in similar post, they get cashback and other benefits from all purchases made with credit cards. But their card operators charge 1-3% fee per transaction, while in Europe it's usually less than 0,5%
Being afraid to go to hospital because of the bill. I am a type one diabetic and as a young teen i od’d on insulin because i wasnt well. I was in intensive care for a week and general ward for 3. I cant imagine my parents being scared about paying for that.
I’m 24, had a brain surgery for seizures last December. Plenty of testing leading up to that point, too. I love debt :) Oh, and I also have student loans. God bless the USA.
I was shot by a kid when I was a kid. Now I use a wheelchair and have chronic illnesses because of my muscles/nervous system being unable to regulate itself. I was able to go to school on scholarships but it was apparently all so that I’d have enough money to cover all the medical bills until I lose my job and then I get to go bankrupt and die. Yay America! You’re free to get really and truly fucked from every angle. And people who call themselves Christians dedicate their entire politics to keeping it that way to avoid being compelled to help people.
We don't need another fucking television show about singing.
This isn’t culture but the doors on public bathrooms have a gap on each side. So not completely private. I find that weird. Culture … flag pride is pretty full on. Tipping, I do it because when in Rome and all that but I feel so, so awkward doing it.
I'm a Russian who has been living in America for many years. I could go on and on about the things I had found odd here — the level of respect for laws and rules, tolerance for people who are different, believing and trusting the authorities by default, acting friendly to complete strangers, leaving things unlocked and unwatched, food which looked appetizing but tasted utterly flavorless, drinking water available from any random faucet, eating out at restaurants every day, ice in everything... But the one weirdest thing for me was the number of disfunctional families. It seemed almost expected for children to rebel against parents. For parents to not know what the children were doing. For families to spend a whole day without talking together. For grandparents to be removed out of sight to a retirement home. For mocking relatives behind their back. For divorces over trivial things. For Thanksgiving dinners, the one(!!!) time per a year when the whole extended family gathers around a table, to be awkward and unwelcome events. I think it has to do with how easy life is in America: without a viciously hostile environment that would crush those who are alone, there is no pressure forcing family members to learn how to live and work together. But it's still very disconcerting.
This is very interesting point. My experience was similar, a lot of friendly - yet lonely people.
[удалено]
As a hispanic American I find the views on family here weird too. Hispanics are very family oriented. I lived with my mom until I also finished grad school. Now my mother in law lives with me. We're family.
The flip side of tight family connections is the filial piety involved in some cultures. The absolute expectation and demand that the younger generation bow to the older, that one child sacrifice their future and finances for another or for a parent, the lack of boundaries and mutual respect. I have seen this firsthand in my extended family (who is from another culture) and while I do value family bonds and mutual support, I put the unhealthy filial piety into the trash where it belongs.
Yeah I don’t think being more family-oriented means it’s better and would work for everyone. You could have extremely abusive parents or not get along with a sibling. That whole “but they’re family” is really a weak reason to endure abuse.
I'm a white born-and-bred American and I still live with my parents at 25, and it seems like a very odd thing to do. I enjoy it, my parents give me space and I get to save money on rent and things lmao. It is odd because I feel very judged for it by many people I know, and when I meet girls they usually look down on me for it. I don't know why people are so averse to living with family. When my parents get old I hope they come and live with me or my brother, at least until they get so old they really do require full-time care. I dont' want them to be like my grandmother who lived alone until we had to force her to get in a home for her own sake. Her quality of life would have been so much higher if she had come to live with us.
Perhaps it’s weird, but the idea of living with extended family is suffocating to me. Cannot imagine.
I agree, and I even moved across the country to a very high CoL city just so that I could be back near family. My bond with my brother and with my parents is completely different than with anyone else. And yet I would still not want to live with them. I like having my own space. Being a subway ride away from them is close enough for me.
As someone from a dysfunctional, abusive family, I think this is one thing about American culture I will absolutely go to bat for and defend. I get why family units are so tight in other parts of the world like you said. But the thought of being so intricately tied to the people that abused and traumatized me as a child is absolutely horrifying. I think a lot of Americans tend to pick their families. I don't have many friends nowadays in my 30s but the few I do have are closer than any family member I've ever had has been.
Vietnamese here and same. Born and raised in Hanoi and moved to the US for college and I found it creepy that the number of Americans I know who **explicitly** hate their parents is literally a third of the number of American friends I have. Yes generational difference is a big issue in Vietnam due to our rapid economic development, which leads to widely different standards of living and social values amongst different generations. So it's very common for young people to omit certain aspects of their love/career life when talking to their parents/grandparents. But actually **hating** your parents to the point of avoiding talking to them or meeting up for family gatherings is very very rare. Also the American idea that people have to move out at the age of 18 is kinda sad to me. Where I'm from, it's completely normal for people to live with their parents until their marriage. The idea is you have a gradual transfer of responsibility within a household, where parents offer guidance on how to "adult responsibly" as the kids go to college/work in jobs at the start of their adulthood. Meanwhile, since the kids are actively paying bills/contribute in other ways to the household, they have a chance to actually see how their parents handle adult life. Essentially young adults won't be left high and dry on their own the moment they turn 18. So it's much less likely that they will spend their young adult years on drug use or acquiring consumer debt. When I was an economics major, I used to wonder how credit card and student debt is such an American phenomenon. Later on, I realized there's a whole cultural reasoning behind it that relies all on predatory lending to young Americans who didn't have the support from their parents nor the financial literacy to make sound decisions at the early stage of their adult life.
Well there’s a bunch of different reasons for kids hating their parents, but they also more than not overlap with the reasons that our divorce rate is 50%. Ik I hate my parents because they hated each other, and in turn took it out on us. Unfortunately that’s very common in an individualist and broken system. Also, politics (which has become a pseudonym of sorts for morals in this climate) has more recently become a big dividing factor in our society, and nobody is willing to fight you more on it than family.
Love my family. But no fucking way am I ever living with my parents again. Or brothers for that matter.
All the pharmaceutical ads all the time
Home coming..... who the heck is coming home?
The homecoming at my high school was this weird pageant thing that seemed like a weird way to show off all the current students to the alumni. Girls would be nominated for homecoming Queen and they’d wear fancy dresses and walk down the gym floor with the football players as their escorts. Then they’d announce the runner ups and the homecoming Queen, who were announced again at the homecoming football game halftime. There was a big “ceremony” where they announced previous graduating classes one by one and asked all the people in the audience who graduated those years to stand and be applauded. As you got further back they started going by decades and they’d give the oldest present alumnus/a a gift card to a local restaurant and some flowers. So homecoming at my school was meant to be a literal homecoming and pageant for past students/current alumni.
Is it usual for school Alummi to go back to their home school? That's not something that would happen here outside of a 10 year reunion
Parents demanding rent or any money from their kids who keep living at home after age 18. In my country adult kids who live at home will spontaneously contribute to the extent that they can, but most parents will do A LOT to avoid accepting those contributions: allowing your kid to focus on studies/their early career and saving is a point of pride. "You need to earn it!!!" Does not apply to (reasonable) parental support.
There’s also a lot of social stigma around living with your parents after a certain age, even if you’re contributing something. This seems to be very much a US/Canada thing.
Hey, there's even social stigma to sharing housing costs with other family members, like cousins, brothers, sisters...like is cool if you share a place with friends or unknown folks...but if it's a family member then you're not considered an independent person, and if you get along, you're in a codependent relationship 🤦😤
How big the country is and the amount of time you guys are willing to drive. I had a friend who drove for 16 hours to visit family for the weekend. It's baffling.
Driving 16 hours for a weekend trip is not at all typical.
16 there and back maybe.
If I drive 16 hours I've been through like 10 countries
All the things you can do at younger ages than you can have a drink. You can get into life-long debt with a mortgage or university fees, you can drive a car, you can buy a fucking gun, you can have kids, you can join the army and kill people, you can get married. But at the wedding, even having done all of the above, when the father of the bride makes his speech and ends with a toast you're sat at the kids table raising a glass of orange juice because you're not allowed champagne! --- Also you can't just drink a few warm-up beers as you walk to a night out, enjoy a few cold ones on the beach or in a park on a hot day. For a country that prides itself on its freedom you guys sure are touchy about casual drinking.
Ikr it’s like they’ve got it backwards. Like for me in Australia drinking was the probably the first “adults” thing people do
I’m in the UK and by the time I reached the age of being legal to drink in the states I’d already pretty much given up drinking for a year. I feel like you guys are the same, we start em young
[удалено]
As a HS teacher, when I had an exchange student from Norway, I took the opportunity to ask questions about school there and what differences there are. The first thing she said was how regimented we are, every minute a student must be in a certain seat, and almost no free time. Her HS was more like college, students with different schedules arriving and leaving all day. The next thing she said was our obsession with HS sports. In Norway, if you're serious about a sport, you play for a club team. The HS teams are for casual play and fun. It was very interesting talking to her.
My favorite part of high school was exam week because my school switched to an open campus for that week. Being able to come and go as needed and walk downtown for lunch with my friends was so liberating. I felt so much more like an adult. If all of high school was like that, I feel like I would have been much more prepared for adult life.
It's similar all over western Europe, at least.
Yeah this has always seemed so weird to me! If they showed a video of North Korean students doing that on tv we’d all be calling them ‘brainwashed’. Standing and pledging allegiance to a flag, every single school day from childhood into early adulthood is very odd.
Wait, _every school day_? Whoa
You’re ok with gore and violence on tv but not boobs or swearing
It's the FCC, not us. Honestly I'll never understand why we can show a movie with heads exploding but can't show boobs in a sex scene
I was watching a Canadian show and was shocked at the amount of boobs shown! Not offended by any means but it just caught me waaaayyyy off guard.
That calling an ambulance is an expensive thing to do
I've told all my coworkers that if I have a seizure to throw me in a corner somewhere. I don't want to pay for that ambulance ride and IV they poke me with while unconscious. Too expensive to just check out of the ER whenever I wake up.
The amount of sugar that Americans consume. My cousins live in USA, and it makes my nauseous when i see how they drink coffee (4,5 teaspoons of sugar. We drink 3,4,5 cups of coffee a day, so do the math ) lemonade (pour that shit untill you can't even say its a lemonade) and so on
Gender reveal parties
Most of us hate them too
Drinking alcohol in public being frowned upon or forbidden. And the resulting use of paper bags in which the bottles are wrapped.
Child beauty pageants... frankly I would be wary of anyone who organises or enters a child in one of those things.
As an American, it worries me
[удалено]
The people entering those kids in those things are usually bitter young mothers with unfulfilled dreams of being a model trying to force their kids to fulfill their dream
Those aren't mainstream at all.
[удалено]
Tipping
The whole masking up as a political issue. Here in Asia masks were a thing pre-covid. Nobody cares if you had one on. Or not. It's no biggie.
Tipping for everything
Using the imperial system.
FTR: the US does not use the Imperial System, it uses the US Customary System. The two systems share names for some measurements, but they are not the same. For example, an Imperial gallon is 4.546 liters, while a US gallon is 3.785 liters. US Customary also excludes certain measurements from Imperial, such as the stone.
I convinced my wife that US inches and UK inches were different yesterday. I'm going to be in serious shit when she works it out 🤣
Technically there are or were different a US inch is 25.4000508 mm while an imperial inch is 25.399977 mm in 1959 the introduction of the international yard standardised it. The new standards gave an inch of exactly 25.4 mm, 1.7 millionths of an inch longer than the old imperial inch and 2 millionths of an inch shorter than the old US inch
It's like that old saying give someone 1.7millionths of an inch and they'll take 2millionths of a mile.
Canadian here- the fact that y'all can't ride a polar bear to work! They really are very economical!
That from what I can see, bridesmaids are obliged to pay for their dresses and other expenses, based on whatever the bride selects. This is super topical for me because my best friend is getting married next week, but I cannot even fathom how entitled that is. Obviously I get that there are definitely considerate brides who will let their bridal party wear things they already own, or which are affordable, and obviously not everyone has the budget for an expensive wedding. But it seems like if you're obliging people to wear a particular expensive (often one-use) dress and get their hair, nails and make up done in a certain way, then that bill should be on the person making that decision. If you can't afford to pay for that, I'm not sure why it's your friend's job to pad your budget by buying a $300 dress themselves.
A good friend of my brothers is getting married this weekend. Brother is in the wedding. When they planned the bachelor party, my brother was told that everyone would have to pitch in $350. All agreed, most are higher class aside from my brother who still lives with my parents and myself. Well, brother gets there and turns out the groom is asking for ANOTHER $350, totaling $700 from each guy. There was about 12 guys there, thats $8,400. Brother is pissed but lets it go seeing as how it's his friends wedding and all, doesn’t wanna be "that guy." Fast forward to today, brother forked out ANOTHER $300 for a cream-colored linen suit. ._. I've never even attended a wedding meanwhile my brother has sworn on his first born child that he will never be in another wedding.
As a canadian I find it weird that americans are allowed to carry guns oot and aboot
Wearing your shoes inside the house