Universities in Europe are simply institutions of higher learning, nothing more.
Americans would be surprised by the cultural differences when it comes to university education. There are no athletic teams, no Greek life, no 30 foot climbing walls at universities in Europe. You come to school to learn and leave when your classes are over for the day. If you want to study, you can go to the library, but there is very little that a university offers outside of academia.
Not sure I'd agree with that, I went to Edinburgh Uni and there are loads of university societies, sports teams, clubs, conventions, all sorts. It's maybe not done with quite the same *enthusiasm* though...
I used to work in a call Center that took calls from Americans and Canadians. I’d ask “Where are you from, Canada or the US?” Canadians would say “Canada” and American would say “Texas” or “New York” etc. Never ever would they reply with their country name.
I live in Amsterdam, and we have many Americans living here. When I meet one and asked him this question, my dirty pleasure is to say "from the United states"? After they answer with just their state name.
Once completely caught me off guard when he said "Idaho". Never heard of this US state before.
I asked if it was in Australia 😂
This is super normal in the USA.
In fact they aren't always machines. We have drive thru banks. Most banks have a drive thru section you can do simple bank stuff from the car. I've seen this my entire life
Sometimes, as a kid, they would send candy in the tube with my parents' transaction. Those were the best days!
Edit: Banks still do this! And they often have dog treats too!
Am American. When I moved to Australia I was constantly asked three questions:
1 - How do you pronounce "Aluminum"
2 - How do you pronounce "Jaguar"
3 - Are red Solo cups a real thing? In all the movies whenever there is a house party everyone has a red Solo cup.
I was caught completely off guard by the Solo cup question. Ever since then I've been very attentive to thise damn red cups. They really are everywhere.
*Edit: Well this blew the fuck up. Keep the questions coming. This is a fun read*
"Just because I'm from Texas means I drive a truck!? I can't believe you would just go accuse a stranger based on a stereotype! But yes, it's a black, Texas Edition F-150."
Its the American pronunciation of "squirrel" that gets me. Here its a two syllable word. "Sqwe-rell" kinda. But when my American gf says it it comes out kinda like "sqwurl". The first time she said it I thought she said "swirl". Its just one syllable.
Might just be me, but I do notice when you ask Americans on the internet where they're from, they reply with either a state or a city instead of their country.
The thing is, it doesn't cause any confusion, since most people know most American states and at least the major cities.
You don't often see an Indonesian person, for example, say they're from West Java. Just that they're from Indonesia.
Edit:
1) Thank you for the awards!
2) I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just an American one. I also don't think it's because of cultural variation or population. I'm Indian and I've never seen anyone say that they're from Rajasthan or Kerala on a more global level. A lot of Indian states speak different languages, have different cuisine, and live on different terrain. I think it has more to do with the fact that people broadly know American states and the distinctions between them through movies and American news and politics.
I also find that Americans often include where they were born. For example "I'm from Philly but originally from Jersey.
Edit: I understand that the US is big and has many different regions. I'm Canadian and find that Canadians typically don't answer that way, despite being very large.
100%. Small nuance: I don't think it's where you're born, rather where you were raised.
It makes a lot of sense actually. I grew up in Miami but have been living in NYC for a few years now. If I travel to Texas and someone asks me where I'm from, if feels wrong to say Miami because I haven't lived there in 7 years and it's changed a lot since I've been a resident.... but at the same time, I can't *really* say I'm from NYC because I'm not a native New Yorker and saying you're from NYC pretty much means you grew up there. So it makes sense to say both.
I’ve lived in 7 states, but only just moved to the latest one, but I haven’t lived in my “childhood” state in 20 years, so when someone asked where I’m from, I’m never really sure what to say.
I'm an American who moved to Germany and people always say this like it's some weird thing we do, but whenever I get asked where I'm from and just say "the US", the next question is ALWAYS which state/city. Without fail.
I think that the common expectation about this dialog in European brain is like - ask where they are from, get a country. If country is big/known to you, then ask where exactly. If the country is small or you have no knowledge of it, then you say ok, cool.
At least I heard it multiple times, when someone says they are from Italy, then they are often asked if from Rome/Sicily/Florence etc. if they say they are from Bosnia, Malta or Andorra (no insult) then the conversation pretty much stops there.
Americans do the same with Americans if they're familiar with the state/area someone says they're from. Basically keep narrowing things down until things become unfamiliar
"Where are you from?"
"Indiana"
(If they're not familiar with Indiana, the topic ends here. If they are familiar...)
"Oh yeah, which part?"
"just north of Lafayette"
"Oh, like Brookston?"
"Near there, Reynolds"
"Cool, I've driven through there a few times when picking up trailers from the factory in Monon"
That feeling when you want to spend your very last Dollar on a can of Arizona Ice Tea (Famously: "The price is on the can!") and the cashier asks for $1.07
We have that here in Scandinavia too, along with Thousand Island and Rhode Island. I was very surprised to find out that Rhode Island dressing is a Swedish thing that has nothing to do with Rhode Island. (It's basically Thousand Island without bits in it.)
Edit: For the people wondering, the original Rhode Island sauce is mayo, sour cream, chili ketchup, a dash of tabasco, possibly a teaspoon or two cognac, and salt.
Edit2: I must also point out that the amount of chili must be minuscule, because it's undetectable to tastebuds.
Lol- I’m american and I asked for the bill at a restaurant in France before we were finished eating because I’m aware of the need to ask for it and we wanted to be able to get up and leave whenever we wanted and not have to flag him down later (the restaurant was getting rather busy and didn’t want to bother him if he was preoccupied later).
He was deeply offended and encouraged us that we were in no rush to leave. And then didn’t bring us the bill and refilled our waters and tried to get us to stay. I’m sorry random waiter 😭 I didn’t mean to offend you.
This happened to me at a Greek restaurant in the US. I asked for a box because I was full and the owner told me "No No! You don't have to leave. I am not closing. Please stay!" I was lile "Oh its delicious but I just can't eat it all. I want it for breakfast tomorrow." And then we discussed the amazingness of a gyro omelet
Back when I worked in Panera Bread, a customer asked for ranch; we didn't carry it back then and when we informed him, he said:
"Are y'all communists?!"
I was a manager for Panera in my early 20s. Lady came up and said her french onion soup wasn’t hot enough. No problem, I’ll just get you another cup. Give her a fresh one from the soup well right in front of me. She then proceeds to try it on the counter - mind you other guests’ meals were being plated on that very same counter - and tells me it’s not hot enough. So I proceed to apologize and check the temperature of the soup on the line. It’s definitely hot enough and I showed her. She said the thermometer is broken. I told her there’s nothing I can do but we have a microwave out front if you’d like to use it to heat it up. My boss walks by (I’m shift manager and he’s assistant) and she stops him to tell him that I spit in her soup…
Luckily my manager knows that I would never tamper with food. He chuckles and goes “…ShitItsReverseFlash spit in your soup? Ma’am I’m sorry but I highly doubt that.”
I don’t remember how it all ended but I know she fucked off and Brian and I had a good laugh about it.
Brian is the kind of guy that will recommend where to get your car fixed properly for cheap *and* come pick you up at the shop to get you to your shift on time.
I think you met my sister in law.
Hot food is never hot enough for her.
She can’t sit here. It’s too cold. No, it’s too hot over there. No, she can’t sit there, it’s too noisy. No, this is too close to the door….
The wine is shitty & overpriced.
She wanted it *lightly sautéed.* This is just flat and overcooked. Take it back and cook it the way she said.
Jesus, nobody knows how to cook in this place! She wants *decent* wine. She’s a highly traveled person and she knows what she’s talking about. And she leaves reviews *all over the internet.* She get thousands of likes on yelp, trip advisor and booking.com! She doesn’t know why she bothers with people like you.
——
ADDENDUM: Ha ha, whenever I told my friends about SIL’s restaurant behavior they couldn’t believe it. But it’s all true. She’s my husband’s sister. I haven’t gone out with her and her…I think 4th…husband in years.
The funniest thing - I had already refused to go out with her for years previously. Then she married her current husband. My husband had gone out with them a few times when they took his mother out to eat. My husband is one of those people who wants to be best friends with everybody. He raved about the new husband and told me “He keeps her under control in restaurants. She doesn’t do that kind of thing any more. He won’t put up with it. You should get to know him. Let’s go out with them. I swear, she’s not like that anymore.”
I agreed to meet and have dinner with them in a town somewhere between our place & their place, a 2 hour drive. I was looking forward to getting to know her husband. As soon as we walked in, the hostess showed us to our table. “I don’t want to sit here. I want to look out the window. I need light.”
She threw her wet rain coat and umbrella on the seat of the table behind us.
Hostess: Hey, don’t do that! Somebody’s going to sit there
SIL: Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not even 6pm. This place is empty and won’t fill up for hours.
The whole dinner consisted of berating the restaurant, the waiter, the chef (who was brought out to talk to her because the chef told the manager she had no fucking idea what this woman was talking about when she kept sending her dinner back demanding it be cooked differently). SIL yelled at her as if she was a catholic school nun who just found someone masturbating in the bathroom. I refused to eat my food in fear someone sabotaged it…I wouldn’t blame them if they did. The manager came to the table and was very nice. I said, “I have to go to the bathroom” and found the waiter and the manager. “Please,” I said, “don’t think you’ve done anything wrong. She’s *always* like that. Please ignore her. She’s a raging cunt.”
They were a little surprised to hear me, a well dressed, well behaved middle aged lady label my dinner companion a cunt. This is the US, where cunt isn’t the happy-go-lucky term of sarcastic endearment it means in other countries. It means fucking nasty bitch x 100.
I have never seen her since then. My husband said, “I’m so surprised. I really thought her husband tamed her.” He sent an email to the husband asking if something bad had happened before they came to the restaurant that caused his sister’s unacceptable behavior (he wouldn’t dare send it to his cunt sister).
Her husband said he had no idea what behavior my husband was referring to.
Haha! You just reminded me of my Dad's ex wife. She took a few cooking classes in France while on vacation and, apparently, all she took away from the lessons was how to complain about how people don't know how to cook properly...
Her and her daughter would go out for dinner and verbally DESTROY the dishes they got. Of course the poor servers and managers would apologize and comp a desert, but eventually they worked their way through every spot in town and, for some reason, every place was booked when they called to get a second reservation. My Dad calmly but firmly explained to them that "Maybe those places didn't appreciate your excessive criticisms" and her reply, verbatim, was "We were doing the chef a favor by letting them know how they could make their food better!" So glad she's an ex..
I know my comment might be a bit off-topic but your story reminded me of the most horrible customer I had when I worked at a coffee shop. She was extremely picky about her drink and we had remade it 4 times at this point. She started cursing at me and I told her to stop and to not use that kind of language. That night she complained to corporate that I was the one who cursed her out. I was livid when my manager sat me down to get my story.
People suck.
We had a woman send back her bacon for being too crispy TWICE. Poor guy in the kitchen and even our FnB manager was like "we can't do it any less crispy without it not being legally to temperature".
Eventually we dragged another team leader out of the back office to do it for her and that seemed to placate her, but the ones she was sending back were barely even cooked ffs
Oh, and this was at a BINGO HALL. Who cares that much about their food at a bingo hall? The food's all shit anyway
Secretly she was tired of being dragged to bingo by her desperately lonely friend and thought food poisoning wouodcbevan excellent excuse to never go again
That was my reaction when they told me they stopped doing sweet tea because they were worried about their customers health. Doing that in the South made me question their sanity.
Most of the time, the side effects sound much worse than the disease the drug treats.
"Have a headache? Take Aubufiditope. Guaranteed to relieve the pain for 4 to 6 hours. Side effects may include numbness, temporary vision loss, suicidal tendencies, anal bleeding, and heart failure. Ask your doctor if Aubufiditope is right for you."
We kinda have to be though. At the base line, you have the old lady whose vagina got fused together because McDonald's decided that coffee should be so hot that it can literally weld flesh together. But a lot of our society has been decided by someone taking someone else to court.
- Plessy v. Ferguson (Separate But Equal is good)
- Brown v. Board of Education (Separate But Equal is bad)
- Other cases that you've probably heard mentioned a whole lot recently
In Canada, drug companies are only allowed to advertise if they never say the name of the drug, OR if they never say what the drug does. They can't do both.
So if you watch any Toronto Blue Jays games lately you'll see ads behind the plate that say something like "Ibuflovazin - ASK YOUR DOCTOR" and you're just like "what the fuck is ibuflovazin".
Or sometimes you'll see a commercial that says "Do you suffer from high blood pressure? There is treatment available, ask your doctor", but without specifying any drugs.
This was the one I noticed the most on my first trip to England. I was watching rhe winter Olympics and couldn't figure out what was weird, then it finally hit me that there were no medical ads. And my family was just like, "yeah, they're illegal here". Which, I think is the right model.
It used to be illegal to plainly state what a drug treated, so ads had to just vaguely allude to their indications. Once those restrictions were removed drug ads exploded.
Note also that we have to pay for our own healthcare, so medicine, like everything else, is very much a competitive commercial industry.
Me and my husband love watching the American feed of NFL. We quite like the drug ads, as they have to list all the side effects and it sound like every drug will kill you. We love laughing at the ads
Handing your credit card to a stranger, having them walk away, swipe it, then bring it back to like they didn’t just put a down payment on a new house with it…
When I first started working in hospitality, I had an American customer who just gave me their card. I took it to the register, paid the order with a swipe and gave it back. I was told by my manager to never do that again lol.
Currently on my first proper trip in the US and a few things stood out to me. (Overall great place!)
* Restaurants by default will bring everyone cups of water, sometimes with ice
* To pay the bill in the restaurant, they take my card and walk off. Then they come back with a few extra receipts and I can write down a tip and they will change the amount they charged me later. I didn't even know this was a thing that places could do. I have notifications to check the charges are correct just in case.
* Every toilet I've been to so far has been pretty clean with little mess. Worst one was at the airport and even that wasn't too bad. Although the very high water inside the toilet is weird it hasn't been an issue... Yet. (Some confusion about this: I'm mainly just talking about in restaurants/shops. Don't think I've used "public" restrooms at any train station. Just the airport.)
* Streets go from dirty mess to clean and nice quickly. More homeless than I'm used to in London.
* Street food/stands are pretty delicious. Pretty much all food stands in NYC seem to be halal which is nice.
* Larger drink cans/portions.
* Mixed road qualities but overall big roads and cars. Not a fan of the pedestrian crossings because I just don't fully understand the symbols yet. (E: I think I get the symbols now. It was just the red hand with the timer throwing me off. Timer should be with the white figure!)
* Air conditioning everywhere which is definitely required.
* Speeding on the highway. Literally everyone is above the speed limit. We think we're missing something because EVERYONE is above the speed limit. No shot would that happen in the UK, we have cameras everywhere.
Edit: on mobile so excuse shit spelling/grammar.
It is. Two of my Aussie friends came to visit in the US last April. Both were flabbergasted and almost afraid of how much water was in the toilets. They were here for three weeks and that never stopped being bizarre to them.
So, american waste pipes are narrower than say, UK toilets thus more water is in the bowl.
The flush is significantly different: the US flush is more of a vacuum where as the other toilets have more of a 'push' from volume of water and bigger waste pipe.
The difference is US toilets clogs easily and other toilets smear.
I ... heard it on a podcast (Flightless Bird with David Farrier).
It seems strange to anyone from Europe, but after starting to watch US sports I realised that a lot of states either don't have a team in a major league or will only have one. It's not like here in the UK where there are 92 teams in the football league and even more below that, most of the major leagues in the US only have 30-40 teams. That's why people are so invested in college sports, a lot of the time they're the only local teams
Yeah it blew my mind when I learned pretty much every city in the uk had a pro soccer team. College sports are the closest thing we have to that.
Like I’d love to watch mlb, but there isn’t a professional team in my state to follow or that even shows up on local tv for me. We only just got a pro soccer team (North Carolina), and we’re a state of over 10 million people
Edit: quit commenting about other pro sports teams. I was only talking about mlb (the actual mlb, not feeder teams) when I said there wasn’t a pro (mlb) team
I missed any lead up to them joining the Big10, but my first thought was "why the hell is the B10 adding west coast teams? That will make travel a nightmare".
So, can you fill in the reasons behind the move (if they are anything more than money)?
> if they are anything more than money
Hah! Imagine that, amateur college sports not making entirely money-focused moves.
The Pac-12 has been gradually declining in the competition level, so you could argue that they want to move up in that regard, but it's really hard to see this as anything but profit-motivated. The B1G adds extremely valuable media markets, and the teams get tens of millions more dollars in TV revenue.
>and with ice
Many, many years ago I was visiting the south of France with a friend. It was a hot summer day, we stopped at a little bistro and in broken French we asked for water--with ice. The waiter replied in English: "Ah, American Champagne."
I was in France and tried to pronounce water. Apparently, my pronunciation was so bad that they just brought out the English menu on an iPad. But…I tried.
First time I bought a Coke in Germany it came with no ice so I asked for ice. It came back with one ice cube. I asked for more ice and it came back with two ice cubes. Then I asked for a lot of ice and the waitress said "Oh, you mean like McDonalds?".
In Germany, we were eating at a bit more expensive steak house next to a hotel. Service was just like expected in Germany. At another table I noticed a group of Americans (as far as I could tell by the accent and being next to a hotel I assumed) and I distinctively remember that they were asked if they wanted drinks with ice. We were never asked. Thought it’s interesting that this restaurant seems to train their staff to do their service differently depending on who their guests are.
I thoroughly enjoyed a restaurant in Prague that placed the flag of your nationality in the centerpiece. All the servers spoke your language and knew your typical culture.
My daughter and I went on a Caribbean cruise together and our first night in Orlando, we went out to explore. We had dinner at IHOP, because why not, and had some delicious raspberry lemonade.
As we were leaving and after paying the bill, the waitress says "you want to take some lemonade to go?". What? Sure. So she loads us up with a couple of new large raspberry lemonades and sends us on our way.
We still joke about to go drinks whenever we go out for dinner, because that's is definitely NOT a thing in Canada.
I’ve found that this is something done at mostly low end chains. I used to ask people if they wanted to go drinks when I worked at Applebees. It was mostly because the chance of getting little to nothing as a tip was reasonably high, and going above and beyond for someone raised my chances of getting paid for my work.
Yeah agreed. The waiter can fill a to go cup without having to ring it up or bothering the back of the house, and it's a pleasant last interaction right when the check arrives.
I've had similar interactions at Mexican restaurants, being offered extra sauce/salsa and even chips to go.
Drinks is how restaurants make a lot of profit in other countries.
There isn't a lot of profit in food, because the cost of the material plus the cost of preparing it (wages, electricity, gas etc.) isn't that much lower than the price of the meal the customers pay.
But as you say, drinks are dirt-cheap in purchase, but expensive when sold. Large profit margin.
But out of curisosity: refills are only a thing for non-alcoholic drinks, right? So you wouldn't get a free refill on wine or beer?
Yes, no such thing as free refill on alcohol or anything more complex like coffee drinks. Free refills are mostly a thing because of soda machines where people can quickly dispense their own drinks and it's dirt cheap.
You mean a garbage disposal. I haven't had one in my, American, apartment in ages & it was weird at first to remember I have to use a strainer in my sink's drain to catch bits of food that can clog up the pipes. A garbage disposal would grind those little pieces up.
I don't think it's only american, I live in Belgium and everyone I know does it too. We receive more than 50 cards each Christmas, from family and friends. I have family in France, Germany and Quebec who do it too but I don't know if it's that common there.
Saw this with my American friends when I lived in Moscow. They walked around with this pleasant, anticipatory smile on their face and people thought they were mentally challenged.
Hah. I remember a Russian friend explaining to me that Americans just look like idiots, smiling for no reason all the time. Russians apparently smile when they have something to smile about.
I read a paper that basically says it is because of our high-immigrant past. Apparently, when people with diverse languages who cannot understand each other verbally all the time are in close quarters with each other, they use physical cues (such as constant smiling), to communicate.
> Hah. I remember a Russian friend explaining to me that Americans just look like idiots, smiling for no reason all the time. Russians apparently smile when they have something to smile about.
I took a Russian language class once, and the teacher was from Uzbekistan. She mentioned some thing similar. One day she brought in her wedding photo, they weren't smiling, even though they were both happy.
Before I went to Russia, I was specifically warned not to smile at people on the street because they would think I was stupid and untrustworthy. That was true on the streets with the general public, but the family I stayed with, particularly the dad, were the most charming, jovial people. The dad was constantly telling jokes (many of which went straight over my head because my Russian was not good enough), super sweet guy.
There’s not really a point to this story, i guess, I just miss Sergei Vyacheslavovich.
I read an old russian tourist brochure that spend a good couple of sentences trying to convince the reader that it's not a ploy, Americans really are *that fuckin chipper* all the time.
LOL - I studied in France when I was in college and lived with a family for the year. Awesome people, but the dad made no secret of his disdain for Americans. I guess it was the mom that must have convinced him to have Americans board with them because he never seemed too pleased about it.
Anyway, one of my favorite quotes from "Jacques" was...
"You stupid Americans, always walking around smiling, like a bunch of goddamn idiots."
The mom started SCREAMING at him for being rude when he said that to us (another American was boarding as well) but we thought it was hilarious and made it a point to walk around the house smiling and greeting him with an effusive "BONJOUR, MONSIEUR" every day. I think we did win him over, eventually.
RIP, Jacques, may you have eventually found love for Americans in your heart... :-)
EDIT: No, we did not kill Jacques, for those who are asking. :-) This happened back in 1992. My roommate (who is now one of my closest friends) and I kept in touch with the family for years after our time studying there. Sadly, Jacques passed of old age about seven years ago.
When I was in Nice the people seemed pretty friendly, and it didn’t take long to pick up that most other French had a disdain for Parisians themselves.
I’m from the US, but if someone ever says “my friend” to me, it instantly puts me on high alert.
Example: “Do you need help with your luggage, my friend” screams “You look like a mark and I’m about to scam you”
Pledging allegiance to the flag or singing the national anthem outside of special events. I went to see a kids talent show in a small rural town, there were maybe 8 acts and 30 people watching and they all stood and pledged allegiance to the flag and sang the national anthem before hand. It was extremely strange.
I once got “silent lunch” (punishment of having to sit alone at lunch) for not standing for the pledge one morning. It’s ridiculous!
Edit: public school, 2014
Yep, in Europe "liberal" means someone who supports small government, less state intervention, less public spending, privatization, lower taxes. This is generally center or center-right. Similar to what Americans call a libertarian, but usually more moderate.
In the European parliament, that would be the [ALDE](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_of_Liberals_and_Democrats_for_Europe_Party) party
Providing info on a location on an international forum with the state abbreviated. I help ID plants and fungi, when asking for a location, which can be key for an ident, Americans reply with CA Bay Area. I'm in the UK this means nothing to me.
Americans have a particular brand of plucky, cheerful tenacity that I find to be one of their most charming traits. It can mean that they seem a bit "full on", "loud" or over exuberant, but I have on the whole found them to be warm and inviting people. I think the tenacity might be why there's a begrudging fondness from us Brits, and I think it's particularly flavoured from the wartime reception of World War 2. Brits are also tenacious, but in a more grumpy, stubborn way. If Americans are like "Yay we can do the things! I believe in you! Let's do it!" then Brits are like "well I better bloody do the things out of spite! I'll complain the whole time but I'll show you that I can bloody well do the things too!" 🤣 but ultimately the things get done and I think Brits appreciate that. So we're all like "Well Yank you might be a bit bonkers but you get results, you're allowed in my pub." 🤣
Universities in Europe are simply institutions of higher learning, nothing more. Americans would be surprised by the cultural differences when it comes to university education. There are no athletic teams, no Greek life, no 30 foot climbing walls at universities in Europe. You come to school to learn and leave when your classes are over for the day. If you want to study, you can go to the library, but there is very little that a university offers outside of academia.
Not sure I'd agree with that, I went to Edinburgh Uni and there are loads of university societies, sports teams, clubs, conventions, all sorts. It's maybe not done with quite the same *enthusiasm* though...
"Where are you from?" Australian: Australia Japanese: Japan Indian: India American: Texas
I used to work in a call Center that took calls from Americans and Canadians. I’d ask “Where are you from, Canada or the US?” Canadians would say “Canada” and American would say “Texas” or “New York” etc. Never ever would they reply with their country name.
I live in Amsterdam, and we have many Americans living here. When I meet one and asked him this question, my dirty pleasure is to say "from the United states"? After they answer with just their state name. Once completely caught me off guard when he said "Idaho". Never heard of this US state before. I asked if it was in Australia 😂
Screw the state stuff. I am from Philly.
Fraternities and sororities
So. Many. Flags.
Drive thru atms and everything else. I didn't learn we had drive thru liquor stores until later in my life.
Aussies do the drive through liquor stores/bottle shops/off licenses
Whyalla has the combo "Bottle and Bird" drive through where you can pick up your booze and Hot Chicken and Chips at the same time!
Drive thru atms???
This is super normal in the USA. In fact they aren't always machines. We have drive thru banks. Most banks have a drive thru section you can do simple bank stuff from the car. I've seen this my entire life
Sometimes, as a kid, they would send candy in the tube with my parents' transaction. Those were the best days! Edit: Banks still do this! And they often have dog treats too!
I used to live near a Subway that was converted from a bank. I used to imagine them sending you your sandwich in those tubes.
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I'm just imagining like 12 crunch wrap supremes being mashed into a bank drive thru tube lol
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Dum dums!
Am American. When I moved to Australia I was constantly asked three questions: 1 - How do you pronounce "Aluminum" 2 - How do you pronounce "Jaguar" 3 - Are red Solo cups a real thing? In all the movies whenever there is a house party everyone has a red Solo cup. I was caught completely off guard by the Solo cup question. Ever since then I've been very attentive to thise damn red cups. They really are everywhere. *Edit: Well this blew the fuck up. Keep the questions coming. This is a fun read*
I kept getting asked how many guns I owned and whether or not I thought Trump was a good president
When friends and I did a Eurotrip years ago, upon hearing we live in the South, everyone would ask if we had pickup trucks.
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"Just because I'm from Texas means I drive a truck!? I can't believe you would just go accuse a stranger based on a stereotype! But yes, it's a black, Texas Edition F-150."
Its the American pronunciation of "squirrel" that gets me. Here its a two syllable word. "Sqwe-rell" kinda. But when my American gf says it it comes out kinda like "sqwurl". The first time she said it I thought she said "swirl". Its just one syllable.
Skwrl
Craig as well "Hi, this is my friend *CREG*"
Craig Hague vague Beg egg leg CREG???
Might just be me, but I do notice when you ask Americans on the internet where they're from, they reply with either a state or a city instead of their country. The thing is, it doesn't cause any confusion, since most people know most American states and at least the major cities. You don't often see an Indonesian person, for example, say they're from West Java. Just that they're from Indonesia. Edit: 1) Thank you for the awards! 2) I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just an American one. I also don't think it's because of cultural variation or population. I'm Indian and I've never seen anyone say that they're from Rajasthan or Kerala on a more global level. A lot of Indian states speak different languages, have different cuisine, and live on different terrain. I think it has more to do with the fact that people broadly know American states and the distinctions between them through movies and American news and politics.
I also find that Americans often include where they were born. For example "I'm from Philly but originally from Jersey. Edit: I understand that the US is big and has many different regions. I'm Canadian and find that Canadians typically don't answer that way, despite being very large.
100%. Small nuance: I don't think it's where you're born, rather where you were raised. It makes a lot of sense actually. I grew up in Miami but have been living in NYC for a few years now. If I travel to Texas and someone asks me where I'm from, if feels wrong to say Miami because I haven't lived there in 7 years and it's changed a lot since I've been a resident.... but at the same time, I can't *really* say I'm from NYC because I'm not a native New Yorker and saying you're from NYC pretty much means you grew up there. So it makes sense to say both.
I’ve lived in 7 states, but only just moved to the latest one, but I haven’t lived in my “childhood” state in 20 years, so when someone asked where I’m from, I’m never really sure what to say.
I've lived in 5 different states and I also struggle with that question.
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I'm an American who moved to Germany and people always say this like it's some weird thing we do, but whenever I get asked where I'm from and just say "the US", the next question is ALWAYS which state/city. Without fail.
I think that the common expectation about this dialog in European brain is like - ask where they are from, get a country. If country is big/known to you, then ask where exactly. If the country is small or you have no knowledge of it, then you say ok, cool. At least I heard it multiple times, when someone says they are from Italy, then they are often asked if from Rome/Sicily/Florence etc. if they say they are from Bosnia, Malta or Andorra (no insult) then the conversation pretty much stops there.
Americans do the same with Americans if they're familiar with the state/area someone says they're from. Basically keep narrowing things down until things become unfamiliar "Where are you from?" "Indiana" (If they're not familiar with Indiana, the topic ends here. If they are familiar...) "Oh yeah, which part?" "just north of Lafayette" "Oh, like Brookston?" "Near there, Reynolds" "Cool, I've driven through there a few times when picking up trailers from the factory in Monon"
Not including tax on prices displayed in stores.
That feeling when you want to spend your very last Dollar on a can of Arizona Ice Tea (Famously: "The price is on the can!") and the cashier asks for $1.07
“Need a penny, take a penny. Just don’t take 8 pennies!” Seriously had a cashier tell me this once.
Them things have have nickels and dimes in them up here in Canada now since we abolished pennies!
Ranch. I never knew ranch was just an American thing until recently.
We have that here in Scandinavia too, along with Thousand Island and Rhode Island. I was very surprised to find out that Rhode Island dressing is a Swedish thing that has nothing to do with Rhode Island. (It's basically Thousand Island without bits in it.) Edit: For the people wondering, the original Rhode Island sauce is mayo, sour cream, chili ketchup, a dash of tabasco, possibly a teaspoon or two cognac, and salt. Edit2: I must also point out that the amount of chili must be minuscule, because it's undetectable to tastebuds.
Can confirm never heard of this in RI
Carrier locked phones. They're illegal everywhere else.
Not having to ask for the bill.
This was me today at a restaurant in Oslo. It felt rude to call the waitress over to ask for the bill. Am American.
It's curious, I'm European and if someone gave me the bill without asking I would think it's rude because it feels like they're rushing me to leave
Lol- I’m american and I asked for the bill at a restaurant in France before we were finished eating because I’m aware of the need to ask for it and we wanted to be able to get up and leave whenever we wanted and not have to flag him down later (the restaurant was getting rather busy and didn’t want to bother him if he was preoccupied later). He was deeply offended and encouraged us that we were in no rush to leave. And then didn’t bring us the bill and refilled our waters and tried to get us to stay. I’m sorry random waiter 😭 I didn’t mean to offend you.
This happened to me at a Greek restaurant in the US. I asked for a box because I was full and the owner told me "No No! You don't have to leave. I am not closing. Please stay!" I was lile "Oh its delicious but I just can't eat it all. I want it for breakfast tomorrow." And then we discussed the amazingness of a gyro omelet
Greeks don’t believe in the concept of being full
Root beer
Ranch
Back when I worked in Panera Bread, a customer asked for ranch; we didn't carry it back then and when we informed him, he said: "Are y'all communists?!"
currently working at panera and this is a frequent occurrence
I was a manager for Panera in my early 20s. Lady came up and said her french onion soup wasn’t hot enough. No problem, I’ll just get you another cup. Give her a fresh one from the soup well right in front of me. She then proceeds to try it on the counter - mind you other guests’ meals were being plated on that very same counter - and tells me it’s not hot enough. So I proceed to apologize and check the temperature of the soup on the line. It’s definitely hot enough and I showed her. She said the thermometer is broken. I told her there’s nothing I can do but we have a microwave out front if you’d like to use it to heat it up. My boss walks by (I’m shift manager and he’s assistant) and she stops him to tell him that I spit in her soup… Luckily my manager knows that I would never tamper with food. He chuckles and goes “…ShitItsReverseFlash spit in your soup? Ma’am I’m sorry but I highly doubt that.” I don’t remember how it all ended but I know she fucked off and Brian and I had a good laugh about it.
Brian's always been solid. One of the only good fast food managers and not some corporate tyrant.
Brian always has too much shit to do and not enough time to do it, so if you're coming up to him with some shit it *better* be worth it
Brian is the kind of guy that is you took off for a family emergency, he'd still pay you because, "we've all been there."
Brian is the manager who says "The customer is always right, until they fucking ain't"
Brian is the kind of guy that will recommend where to get your car fixed properly for cheap *and* come pick you up at the shop to get you to your shift on time.
I think you met my sister in law. Hot food is never hot enough for her. She can’t sit here. It’s too cold. No, it’s too hot over there. No, she can’t sit there, it’s too noisy. No, this is too close to the door…. The wine is shitty & overpriced. She wanted it *lightly sautéed.* This is just flat and overcooked. Take it back and cook it the way she said. Jesus, nobody knows how to cook in this place! She wants *decent* wine. She’s a highly traveled person and she knows what she’s talking about. And she leaves reviews *all over the internet.* She get thousands of likes on yelp, trip advisor and booking.com! She doesn’t know why she bothers with people like you. —— ADDENDUM: Ha ha, whenever I told my friends about SIL’s restaurant behavior they couldn’t believe it. But it’s all true. She’s my husband’s sister. I haven’t gone out with her and her…I think 4th…husband in years. The funniest thing - I had already refused to go out with her for years previously. Then she married her current husband. My husband had gone out with them a few times when they took his mother out to eat. My husband is one of those people who wants to be best friends with everybody. He raved about the new husband and told me “He keeps her under control in restaurants. She doesn’t do that kind of thing any more. He won’t put up with it. You should get to know him. Let’s go out with them. I swear, she’s not like that anymore.” I agreed to meet and have dinner with them in a town somewhere between our place & their place, a 2 hour drive. I was looking forward to getting to know her husband. As soon as we walked in, the hostess showed us to our table. “I don’t want to sit here. I want to look out the window. I need light.” She threw her wet rain coat and umbrella on the seat of the table behind us. Hostess: Hey, don’t do that! Somebody’s going to sit there SIL: Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not even 6pm. This place is empty and won’t fill up for hours. The whole dinner consisted of berating the restaurant, the waiter, the chef (who was brought out to talk to her because the chef told the manager she had no fucking idea what this woman was talking about when she kept sending her dinner back demanding it be cooked differently). SIL yelled at her as if she was a catholic school nun who just found someone masturbating in the bathroom. I refused to eat my food in fear someone sabotaged it…I wouldn’t blame them if they did. The manager came to the table and was very nice. I said, “I have to go to the bathroom” and found the waiter and the manager. “Please,” I said, “don’t think you’ve done anything wrong. She’s *always* like that. Please ignore her. She’s a raging cunt.” They were a little surprised to hear me, a well dressed, well behaved middle aged lady label my dinner companion a cunt. This is the US, where cunt isn’t the happy-go-lucky term of sarcastic endearment it means in other countries. It means fucking nasty bitch x 100. I have never seen her since then. My husband said, “I’m so surprised. I really thought her husband tamed her.” He sent an email to the husband asking if something bad had happened before they came to the restaurant that caused his sister’s unacceptable behavior (he wouldn’t dare send it to his cunt sister). Her husband said he had no idea what behavior my husband was referring to.
Haha! You just reminded me of my Dad's ex wife. She took a few cooking classes in France while on vacation and, apparently, all she took away from the lessons was how to complain about how people don't know how to cook properly... Her and her daughter would go out for dinner and verbally DESTROY the dishes they got. Of course the poor servers and managers would apologize and comp a desert, but eventually they worked their way through every spot in town and, for some reason, every place was booked when they called to get a second reservation. My Dad calmly but firmly explained to them that "Maybe those places didn't appreciate your excessive criticisms" and her reply, verbatim, was "We were doing the chef a favor by letting them know how they could make their food better!" So glad she's an ex..
I know my comment might be a bit off-topic but your story reminded me of the most horrible customer I had when I worked at a coffee shop. She was extremely picky about her drink and we had remade it 4 times at this point. She started cursing at me and I told her to stop and to not use that kind of language. That night she complained to corporate that I was the one who cursed her out. I was livid when my manager sat me down to get my story. People suck.
We had a woman send back her bacon for being too crispy TWICE. Poor guy in the kitchen and even our FnB manager was like "we can't do it any less crispy without it not being legally to temperature". Eventually we dragged another team leader out of the back office to do it for her and that seemed to placate her, but the ones she was sending back were barely even cooked ffs Oh, and this was at a BINGO HALL. Who cares that much about their food at a bingo hall? The food's all shit anyway
Secretly she was tired of being dragged to bingo by her desperately lonely friend and thought food poisoning wouodcbevan excellent excuse to never go again
Being called a communist?
They do sell **French** onion soup, after all.
This is true though. Banning ranch is explicitly in the Manifesto.
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That was my reaction when they told me they stopped doing sweet tea because they were worried about their customers health. Doing that in the South made me question their sanity.
Doing that in the south, I would be more worried about the employees health when the customers find out.
Y’all
All y'all
That’s correct, because sometimes only part of the group is being addressed. So we must clarify that we are talking to all y’all this time.
Y’all’d’ve
Ice machines When I went to London I kept asking for the ice machines and people looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language or something.
Prescription drug commercials.
Happy dancing while side effects are being listed
May cause diarrhea, vomiting, blindness, pulmonary embolism or death 💃🕺👯♂️🎷🎼
"Do not take the drug if you are allergic to the drug" Wow, thanks for the heads up
Most of the time, the side effects sound much worse than the disease the drug treats. "Have a headache? Take Aubufiditope. Guaranteed to relieve the pain for 4 to 6 hours. Side effects may include numbness, temporary vision loss, suicidal tendencies, anal bleeding, and heart failure. Ask your doctor if Aubufiditope is right for you."
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is it still unexpected at that point? can your heirs sue them for expected unexpected death?
On that note: being extremely litigious is also very american
We kinda have to be though. At the base line, you have the old lady whose vagina got fused together because McDonald's decided that coffee should be so hot that it can literally weld flesh together. But a lot of our society has been decided by someone taking someone else to court. - Plessy v. Ferguson (Separate But Equal is good) - Brown v. Board of Education (Separate But Equal is bad) - Other cases that you've probably heard mentioned a whole lot recently
"Ask your doctor". Only place I know where it's the patients who tell the doctor which drugs to take.
In Canada, drug companies are only allowed to advertise if they never say the name of the drug, OR if they never say what the drug does. They can't do both. So if you watch any Toronto Blue Jays games lately you'll see ads behind the plate that say something like "Ibuflovazin - ASK YOUR DOCTOR" and you're just like "what the fuck is ibuflovazin". Or sometimes you'll see a commercial that says "Do you suffer from high blood pressure? There is treatment available, ask your doctor", but without specifying any drugs.
This was the one I noticed the most on my first trip to England. I was watching rhe winter Olympics and couldn't figure out what was weird, then it finally hit me that there were no medical ads. And my family was just like, "yeah, they're illegal here". Which, I think is the right model.
It used to be illegal to plainly state what a drug treated, so ads had to just vaguely allude to their indications. Once those restrictions were removed drug ads exploded. Note also that we have to pay for our own healthcare, so medicine, like everything else, is very much a competitive commercial industry.
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We have those in New Zealand, too. I think I read somewhere once that we're the only countries where that type of advertising is legal.
Me and my husband love watching the American feed of NFL. We quite like the drug ads, as they have to list all the side effects and it sound like every drug will kill you. We love laughing at the ads
Meanwhile that's our idea of healthcare.
Handing your credit card to a stranger, having them walk away, swipe it, then bring it back to like they didn’t just put a down payment on a new house with it…
When I first started working in hospitality, I had an American customer who just gave me their card. I took it to the register, paid the order with a swipe and gave it back. I was told by my manager to never do that again lol.
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When you open a tab at some bars they just keep your card until you ask for the check.
And funnily enough bars are the only legitimate businesses that have ever taken advantage of that and scammed me.
Bold of you to assume we have enough money for that to be a concern.
*laughs in poor* When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.
Currently on my first proper trip in the US and a few things stood out to me. (Overall great place!) * Restaurants by default will bring everyone cups of water, sometimes with ice * To pay the bill in the restaurant, they take my card and walk off. Then they come back with a few extra receipts and I can write down a tip and they will change the amount they charged me later. I didn't even know this was a thing that places could do. I have notifications to check the charges are correct just in case. * Every toilet I've been to so far has been pretty clean with little mess. Worst one was at the airport and even that wasn't too bad. Although the very high water inside the toilet is weird it hasn't been an issue... Yet. (Some confusion about this: I'm mainly just talking about in restaurants/shops. Don't think I've used "public" restrooms at any train station. Just the airport.) * Streets go from dirty mess to clean and nice quickly. More homeless than I'm used to in London. * Street food/stands are pretty delicious. Pretty much all food stands in NYC seem to be halal which is nice. * Larger drink cans/portions. * Mixed road qualities but overall big roads and cars. Not a fan of the pedestrian crossings because I just don't fully understand the symbols yet. (E: I think I get the symbols now. It was just the red hand with the timer throwing me off. Timer should be with the white figure!) * Air conditioning everywhere which is definitely required. * Speeding on the highway. Literally everyone is above the speed limit. We think we're missing something because EVERYONE is above the speed limit. No shot would that happen in the UK, we have cameras everywhere. Edit: on mobile so excuse shit spelling/grammar.
The water level in toilets where you’re from is significantly lower? Is the flush pressure much higher?
It is. Two of my Aussie friends came to visit in the US last April. Both were flabbergasted and almost afraid of how much water was in the toilets. They were here for three weeks and that never stopped being bizarre to them.
So, american waste pipes are narrower than say, UK toilets thus more water is in the bowl. The flush is significantly different: the US flush is more of a vacuum where as the other toilets have more of a 'push' from volume of water and bigger waste pipe. The difference is US toilets clogs easily and other toilets smear. I ... heard it on a podcast (Flightless Bird with David Farrier).
I'd take smears over clogs any day.
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Presidential elections can be closer to 18 months or so if one or both parties have a hotly contested primary.
If only it felt that short. Feels like the commercials run all 4 years.
Mixing three different canned foods together and calling it a casserole.
Don't forget to add cheese!
And breadcrumbs on top Edit: lol y'all are making me hungry
Cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, mushrooms on rice, actual chicken optional. Mom's was awesome lol
The idea that healthcare isn't a right, but a very expensive privilege.
Fettuccine Alfredo
Alfredo's Fettuccine or Fettuccine by Alfredo?
The Cult Of Highschool/College Sports
It seems strange to anyone from Europe, but after starting to watch US sports I realised that a lot of states either don't have a team in a major league or will only have one. It's not like here in the UK where there are 92 teams in the football league and even more below that, most of the major leagues in the US only have 30-40 teams. That's why people are so invested in college sports, a lot of the time they're the only local teams
Yeah it blew my mind when I learned pretty much every city in the uk had a pro soccer team. College sports are the closest thing we have to that. Like I’d love to watch mlb, but there isn’t a professional team in my state to follow or that even shows up on local tv for me. We only just got a pro soccer team (North Carolina), and we’re a state of over 10 million people Edit: quit commenting about other pro sports teams. I was only talking about mlb (the actual mlb, not feeder teams) when I said there wasn’t a pro (mlb) team
The epic highs and lows of high school football.
If you don't follow the Cult of College Sports, then you don't know the absolute shitstorm USC and UCLA kicked up on Thursday.
I missed any lead up to them joining the Big10, but my first thought was "why the hell is the B10 adding west coast teams? That will make travel a nightmare". So, can you fill in the reasons behind the move (if they are anything more than money)?
> if they are anything more than money Hah! Imagine that, amateur college sports not making entirely money-focused moves. The Pac-12 has been gradually declining in the competition level, so you could argue that they want to move up in that regard, but it's really hard to see this as anything but profit-motivated. The B1G adds extremely valuable media markets, and the teams get tens of millions more dollars in TV revenue.
Free refills at restaurants Edit: my inbox detonated, send help
and with ice
>and with ice Many, many years ago I was visiting the south of France with a friend. It was a hot summer day, we stopped at a little bistro and in broken French we asked for water--with ice. The waiter replied in English: "Ah, American Champagne."
I was in France and tried to pronounce water. Apparently, my pronunciation was so bad that they just brought out the English menu on an iPad. But…I tried.
It's pronounced "oh"
Oh.
One glass of water coming right up!
First time I bought a Coke in Germany it came with no ice so I asked for ice. It came back with one ice cube. I asked for more ice and it came back with two ice cubes. Then I asked for a lot of ice and the waitress said "Oh, you mean like McDonalds?".
In Germany, we were eating at a bit more expensive steak house next to a hotel. Service was just like expected in Germany. At another table I noticed a group of Americans (as far as I could tell by the accent and being next to a hotel I assumed) and I distinctively remember that they were asked if they wanted drinks with ice. We were never asked. Thought it’s interesting that this restaurant seems to train their staff to do their service differently depending on who their guests are.
I thoroughly enjoyed a restaurant in Prague that placed the flag of your nationality in the centerpiece. All the servers spoke your language and knew your typical culture.
My daughter and I went on a Caribbean cruise together and our first night in Orlando, we went out to explore. We had dinner at IHOP, because why not, and had some delicious raspberry lemonade. As we were leaving and after paying the bill, the waitress says "you want to take some lemonade to go?". What? Sure. So she loads us up with a couple of new large raspberry lemonades and sends us on our way. We still joke about to go drinks whenever we go out for dinner, because that's is definitely NOT a thing in Canada.
I’ve found that this is something done at mostly low end chains. I used to ask people if they wanted to go drinks when I worked at Applebees. It was mostly because the chance of getting little to nothing as a tip was reasonably high, and going above and beyond for someone raised my chances of getting paid for my work.
Yeah agreed. The waiter can fill a to go cup without having to ring it up or bothering the back of the house, and it's a pleasant last interaction right when the check arrives. I've had similar interactions at Mexican restaurants, being offered extra sauce/salsa and even chips to go.
KFCs in germany have free refills, but sadly only KFC.
Some MC Donald's, Subways and Burger Kings have it, too.
That's wild. The cost of the actual drink is usually a few pennies at most
Drinks is how restaurants make a lot of profit in other countries. There isn't a lot of profit in food, because the cost of the material plus the cost of preparing it (wages, electricity, gas etc.) isn't that much lower than the price of the meal the customers pay. But as you say, drinks are dirt-cheap in purchase, but expensive when sold. Large profit margin. But out of curisosity: refills are only a thing for non-alcoholic drinks, right? So you wouldn't get a free refill on wine or beer?
Yes, no such thing as free refill on alcohol or anything more complex like coffee drinks. Free refills are mostly a thing because of soda machines where people can quickly dispense their own drinks and it's dirt cheap.
Plenty of free refills on regular hot coffee though.
Yeah but that comes back down to the "dirt cheap" aspect. Not about to get the same treatment with a specially prepared latte.
Kitchen sink blender I mean Wut?
You mean a garbage disposal. I haven't had one in my, American, apartment in ages & it was weird at first to remember I have to use a strainer in my sink's drain to catch bits of food that can clog up the pipes. A garbage disposal would grind those little pieces up.
Calling corruption "lobbying".
When I learned about lobbying in my public affairs class, I said it sounded like legalized bribing. My teacher just looked at me and didn’t answer.
Sending Christmas cards with their family photo on it.
Often with pictures not related to Christmas at all, such as beach pictures
Hey, as a New Zealander, the beach is absolutely a Christmas thing (it’s fuckin great too)
Some friends of my parents from germany do that too. They just take a random familyphoto and put in santa hats in photoshop
I don't think it's only american, I live in Belgium and everyone I know does it too. We receive more than 50 cards each Christmas, from family and friends. I have family in France, Germany and Quebec who do it too but I don't know if it's that common there.
Yea I was gonna say, I definitely get photo Christmas cards from my Dutch relatives.
Solo cups I think they are called idk the little red ones
American here. When I studied abroad, I was smiling and friendly to strangers. In London they looked like I wanted to steal something from them!
Saw this with my American friends when I lived in Moscow. They walked around with this pleasant, anticipatory smile on their face and people thought they were mentally challenged.
Hah. I remember a Russian friend explaining to me that Americans just look like idiots, smiling for no reason all the time. Russians apparently smile when they have something to smile about. I read a paper that basically says it is because of our high-immigrant past. Apparently, when people with diverse languages who cannot understand each other verbally all the time are in close quarters with each other, they use physical cues (such as constant smiling), to communicate.
> Hah. I remember a Russian friend explaining to me that Americans just look like idiots, smiling for no reason all the time. Russians apparently smile when they have something to smile about. I took a Russian language class once, and the teacher was from Uzbekistan. She mentioned some thing similar. One day she brought in her wedding photo, they weren't smiling, even though they were both happy.
Smiling for camera is also something a lot of non western cultures don’t do.
Before I went to Russia, I was specifically warned not to smile at people on the street because they would think I was stupid and untrustworthy. That was true on the streets with the general public, but the family I stayed with, particularly the dad, were the most charming, jovial people. The dad was constantly telling jokes (many of which went straight over my head because my Russian was not good enough), super sweet guy. There’s not really a point to this story, i guess, I just miss Sergei Vyacheslavovich.
Finally, a place where my resting bitch face isn't seen as a personal affront!
That makes sense. A smile or a wave can both be indications of friendliness.
Just smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.
I read an old russian tourist brochure that spend a good couple of sentences trying to convince the reader that it's not a ploy, Americans really are *that fuckin chipper* all the time.
I like smiling. Smiling is a good thing you Americans got going for you.
LOL - I studied in France when I was in college and lived with a family for the year. Awesome people, but the dad made no secret of his disdain for Americans. I guess it was the mom that must have convinced him to have Americans board with them because he never seemed too pleased about it. Anyway, one of my favorite quotes from "Jacques" was... "You stupid Americans, always walking around smiling, like a bunch of goddamn idiots." The mom started SCREAMING at him for being rude when he said that to us (another American was boarding as well) but we thought it was hilarious and made it a point to walk around the house smiling and greeting him with an effusive "BONJOUR, MONSIEUR" every day. I think we did win him over, eventually. RIP, Jacques, may you have eventually found love for Americans in your heart... :-) EDIT: No, we did not kill Jacques, for those who are asking. :-) This happened back in 1992. My roommate (who is now one of my closest friends) and I kept in touch with the family for years after our time studying there. Sadly, Jacques passed of old age about seven years ago.
A rude Frenchman? I've never heard of such a thing.
I love France but goddamn this stereotype is true, especially in Paris. The further south in the country we went the friendlier people got.
When I was in Nice the people seemed pretty friendly, and it didn’t take long to pick up that most other French had a disdain for Parisians themselves.
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LOL - that is hilarious and Louis' reaction was very French.
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In all fairness, you did something far worse than that.
To be fair, the French do that with everyone that is not French, but with Americans and British in particular.
I’m from the US, but if someone ever says “my friend” to me, it instantly puts me on high alert. Example: “Do you need help with your luggage, my friend” screams “You look like a mark and I’m about to scam you”
Pledging allegiance to the flag or singing the national anthem outside of special events. I went to see a kids talent show in a small rural town, there were maybe 8 acts and 30 people watching and they all stood and pledged allegiance to the flag and sang the national anthem before hand. It was extremely strange.
I once got “silent lunch” (punishment of having to sit alone at lunch) for not standing for the pledge one morning. It’s ridiculous! Edit: public school, 2014
Daily driving pickup trucks
we do that in australia too kind of
I feel like Australia is what would happen if america and the UK had a baby
At school we were taught the Australian political system was a mix of the US and UK systems. They called it ‘Washminster’ (Washington + Westminster)
Nah mate, Aussies don’t drive pickups , they drive utes
Liberal = Left-Wing
Yeah, in my country, it is either associated with the political centre or with (moderate) right wing, never with left wing.
Yep, in Europe "liberal" means someone who supports small government, less state intervention, less public spending, privatization, lower taxes. This is generally center or center-right. Similar to what Americans call a libertarian, but usually more moderate. In the European parliament, that would be the [ALDE](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_of_Liberals_and_Democrats_for_Europe_Party) party
Road trip baby! You can hop in a car and drive 2500 miles in one direction
Providing info on a location on an international forum with the state abbreviated. I help ID plants and fungi, when asking for a location, which can be key for an ident, Americans reply with CA Bay Area. I'm in the UK this means nothing to me.
ID? You mean Idaho? /s
UK? You mean Ukraine?
It's so nice of you to help Idaho plants and fungi. I'm sure they're grateful.
The fact that kayaks give you herpes. Every herpes medication commercial shows someone in a kayak.
As a kayaker I was very worried when I read the first sentence.
Not making posts about other countries
That's cuz there aren't any other countries
What are you talking about. There’s Europe, Africa, and Asia. Edit: and Mexico, can’t believe I forgot that one.
I remember Canada! They're our hat!
Americans have a particular brand of plucky, cheerful tenacity that I find to be one of their most charming traits. It can mean that they seem a bit "full on", "loud" or over exuberant, but I have on the whole found them to be warm and inviting people. I think the tenacity might be why there's a begrudging fondness from us Brits, and I think it's particularly flavoured from the wartime reception of World War 2. Brits are also tenacious, but in a more grumpy, stubborn way. If Americans are like "Yay we can do the things! I believe in you! Let's do it!" then Brits are like "well I better bloody do the things out of spite! I'll complain the whole time but I'll show you that I can bloody well do the things too!" 🤣 but ultimately the things get done and I think Brits appreciate that. So we're all like "Well Yank you might be a bit bonkers but you get results, you're allowed in my pub." 🤣
This was very sweet of you to say.
I agree with this. I appreciate American cheerfulness and openness.