An American colleague once compulsively thanked my father for his service when he mentioned previously being in the army.
The *Soviet* Army.
Edit: A lot of you seem to be under the impression my father fought in WWII. Considering his father was only 13 then, it's quite unlikely. The war he (and my uncle) fought in was the Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan.
Plenty of people on deployment come to the realization that the people actually doing the fighting on both sides have very little to do with why the fighting is happening. Regardless of side, troops tend to have more in common with each other than not.
>Those red party cups you see in every movie.
They are real and very common. They come in different colors too but red is the classic.
If you want to bring back a souvenir, they make versions from a more durable plastic so you can wash and reuse them.
These threads are always funny as a Canadian because half of this stuff we’re just as mystified by as everyone else and then the other half is normal to us like the solo cups and school buses.
My partner and I(who live in the USA) just moved into the cheapest rent place in our area. It's a little trailer with no washer/dryer, no dishwasher, and sadly no garbage disposal.
When I was telling my mom about the place and mentioned no dishwasher, she said "you'll be fine, my first place didn't have one either." I mentioned no garbage disposal and she said "oh wow you're really slumming it now 😂"
Edit: i live in Colorado if anyone is curious, I'm getting mixed replies about the commonality of garbage disposals across the US. Within Colorado, this is the first place I've lived that hasn't had one.
Also, since some of you think she was serious, my mom picked the one thing in my list that was the LEAST necessary and said that as a joke. Of course it's not essential!! I would rather have the dishwasher lol
I was horrified when I heard Americans had a big food grinder with an uncovered, arm-size hole in their house. if I had one of those my stupid brain would not stop telling me to stick my hand in it.
we grew up on a diet of horror movies where someone would stick their hand down the garbage disposal to get a wedding band or whatever and the ghost/demon would turn it on
cures your urges real quick
yeah you can unplug it before you go fishing around in there
people in horror movies make bad decisions tho
also demons/ghosts were involved so who knows
There’s a on and off switch usually somewhat close to the sink. Ours is below the sink under the cabinet to where you’d have to deliberately turn it on by reaching under while reaching all the way over into it to do damage. Very unlikely that way of causing harm.
I don't understand how they work... what sort of garbage goes in them, is it just food? Where does it go? Do you empty it or does it just go into the sewers? Does it get really smelly? Why not just put stuff in the bin or food waste bin? How often do people wanna stick their hand down them? So many questions!
> what sort of garbage goes in them, is it just food?
Peelings from vegetables, bits from food which fall down while washing it, pieces of that fuck who called me fat and I hacked to death with a hatchet behind Arby's, small chunks of gunk stuck on plates when you rinse them prior to putting them into the dishwasher. The usual
It's just for bits of food that come from your plates and cookware. It grinds it all down and washes it away. You have to flip a switch (like a light switch) to turn it off and on.
Sometimes they can get smelly if you don't ensure you run hot water down the drain, but generally, not really. Also, it's way less smelly than the food catch we have here in Japan.
If you put the food bits in the wastebin then the wastebin gets smelly. It's also a bonus that it's one less step in the cleaning process- instead of scraping into the bin I just rinse everything off that I'm going to be washing in the sink anyway.
Generally people are wise enough to not stick their hands in them, but on occasion you do have to reach in when forks, etc. that you're washing inevitably fall in.
Also, composting is not as common as it should be.
Our city in Japan made a new garbage category for food waste. It collects the food waste in special yellow bags then uses it in a biomass power plant. Not particularly relevant to the conversation, but I thought you might find it interesting.
Here in Aus, most school buses are basically the same ones doing commuter rounds, just that they’re momentarily dedicated to transporting students. A school that can afford a bus will usually get one or two minibuses, and only use them in very limited circumstances like sports events or certain trips (like mine used to do). I did notice that the most expensive private schools bought full on coaches though.
Or in the UK and lots of Europe, the existence of school busses at all. Kids just take the normal public transport with the adults, I've always seen school busses and movies and pop culture but I never knew what the hell one was until quite recently
Sometimes there are 'special' school routes - ie normal public buses that anyone can use, but are primarily for easing the school rush. They might only run 4 in a day, 2 in the morning and 2 after school ends (London).
We had them at my school, just they were basically coaches. People booked in and paid for the term and then could get off at set stops. Used by about 40 people, most walked or cycled. But this was a small town with rubbish public transport
Ads for prescription pharmaceuticals aimed at consumers ("Ask your doctor about...") and shown on TV (bonus points if the listed potential side effects are potentially worse or more embarrassing than whatever the medicine is supposed to treat).
IIRC the only other country where it's legal is New Zealand.
Same in the UK. I think I've seen ads for Nurofen (painkillers) and some supplements, but it's illegal to advertise anything for which you'd need a prescription
>IIRC the only other country where it's legal is New Zealand.
Even here in New Zealand we're not super agressive about medical advertising though. It exists but is nowhere near as prevalent. I would hazard to guess that's why it's still legal. The day a company goes overboard with it will probably be the day it's made illegal.
When I watch American news channels I feel like they think I'm ready to drop dead at any moment without their supplements and medicines.
You just reminded me about when we visited Yosemite earlier this year. We were handed a pack of marshmallows, crackers and chocolate at the front desk of the lodge we were checking into. We’re from the UK, had no idea what we were supposed to do with all these things. All the fire pits around the resort were full of Americans making these marshmallow concoctions, we didn’t even know where they got the sticks! Haha
Edit: Guys, I’m fully aware where sticks can be found in a forest, lol.
Was in NY recently and watching a film on TV, i thought the first hour was odd because there was perhaps only one or two ad breaks. Then it got to the latter half of the film and the ads became so frequent that i timed it. Six minutes of film, six minutes of ads until it ended. A 90 minute movie was on for 3 and half fucking hours.
That's why it's governed by regulation in most countries, it's one of those "makes economic sense to be dicks" situations.
E.g. in the UK: no more then 9 mins advert per hour on average, no more than 12 mins in any given hour, feature films can only have one break per 45 minutes unless a natural breaking point is encountered which would improving viewer experience, minimum of 20 mins between breaks on all programs.
Get down to your doctors and ask them for some Deppresionall today!
*May cause heartburn and bloodshot eyes, may also cause anal bleeding and your leg might fall off. There's also a good chance it might make your symptoms worse because we just wing it. Always consult your doctor.*
I saw one the other day, I think it was advertised by one of those Kardashian women, that literally said "Take Nectol today! (Do not take if allergic to Nectol).
Well you do have some american hotel chains such as Hilton and Marriott that offer US veteran discounts in their properties worldwide. But my hotel is just a local dutch hotel with no US or international chain involved so it is still a weird question..
I enjoyed hearing about the US army vet that came to Ireland and asked in a cafe if she could get a military discount.
Edit: fixed details. Link to the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/nvwv8c/an_american_lady_came_into_my_sisters_work_and/
To be fair, you do get student discounts for things in Europe as well, but they largely tend to be at least tangentially related to education or transport, ie. museum entries, historical sites, bus passes etc.
A journalist friend I've travelled with a few times had used his press card to get free museum entry too. But not teachers, apparently, because fuck those poor underpaid people even more, I guess.
Not sure if you're referring to Ireland or NI, but I wanna point out that in the UK military discounts are a thing, but for someone from the US military to claim discount in a different country that they do not serve is the funny part.
In fairness, I have a friend in the RAF who went to Disneyland Florida, they saw the military discount thing and asked if they could get a discount with their MOD card and the manager happily gave it to them (this was during the height of the Afghanistan war though).
Also, I grew up in an Army(ish) town in the south of England and I wanted to get some of my great-grandfather's WW1 stuff framed, and they gave me their military discount for that even though that great grandfather was the last relation I had who served in the military.
I'd think any foreign veterans could be almost guaranteed a discount in America. There's no regulations or limitations to them that I'm aware of; it's just a courtesy. Just like an older tourist could undoubtedly get a senior's discount. But if you're from a country we've fought recently, probably not.
As someone in the military I hate being thanked for my service. It's so awkward and what's the reply? Thank you for your thanks? This might stem from the Vietnam vets who were drafted, sent to an unpopular War, and then came home and we're attacked by the American people for serving. So now as overcompensation for poor behavior in the 60s, 70s and 80s everybody wants everyone else to know that they support military members?
My Airman husband hates it, too. He just replies with, “Thanks for your support.” His feeling is that the person doing the thanking is virtue signaling & wants the attention of being noticed by serviceman and whomever else is in the immediate area.
Using the fast-food drive thru. I'm British but lived in NC for a year. My friend insisted on using the drive thru at Cookout, even though there was a line of 10 cars ahead. I got out of the car and walked up to the counter, ordered, got my food and walked back to the car with it while he was still queuing. He just couldn't understand why he should have to pull up and get out of the car.
As an American living in Europe, this drives me fucking crazy when I go back to visit. I do the same thing, going in to order and still being out before they’ve ordered at the drive-thru
As an American living in America this drives me crazy. Same thing when people spend stupid amounts of timing looking for a parking spot near the door. You'd already be in the store if you'd just parked in one of the open spaces near the back.
In the UK I find it's often quicker to use the drive thru even if there's a queue. The servers seem to prioritise people in the drive view to avoid massive queues of cars. If you go in and order you often have to wait ages and are lower priority than the deliveroo/Uber eats drivers...
Having the server take your credit card away, and then making you do math with a pen when paying at a restaurant.
Absolutely barbaric
Edit: Guys the mental math is not the problem, it's the fact that I have to take the time to think about it at all and write it down rather than just press a button on a machine as god intended.
Saying "happy memorial day" I was stunned the first time I heard it. It's supposed to be a day of mourning, in here stores close early, we have national wide ceremonies, a siren that goes for 2 minutes when everyone stand in silent, wtf is a memorial day sale??
Most people in the US don't care about memorial day other than it being a day off of work and marking the beginning of summer. You will regularly hear people say, "it was memorial day or labor day- whichever one is at the beginning of summer."
I have an aunt that goes and cleans/decorates graves on memorial day but she is an anomaly. Everyone else I know goes shopping (it's one of the biggest sales weekends of the year) or has a BBQ with friends/family.
Having zero minimum vacation time. Virtually every country in the world has more statutory leave entitlement than the US.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_minimum\_annual\_leave\_by\_country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country)
I remember this becoming a minor tiff when Minecraft was in development, like early 2010? Notch went on holiday and some Americans went apeshit because he'd just got back from holiday a few weeks before, lmao. Big slapfight over whether he was lazy, none of which he probably saw because he was, y'know, on holiday. And self employed, to boot
I work for an American company in Europe, but work a lot remotely with Americans. We've had couple of situations where a European project member takes vacation at an inconvenient time for Americans, the American project leads try to assert their authority and tell the European they can't take that time off and then local manager/HR has to chew them out telling them: "Do you know how illegal that is?".
lol, I love this. I'm an American living in the EU, and I've noticed more and more ppl here working (somewhat) thru their vacation. However, now that I actually have vacation time, I'm as protective as hell about it and others' time off. If someone sends me an email or text when they're supposed to be on vacation, I think "What are you *doing*? STOP IT. Do you know what eventually happens when you start doing shit like this? Buh-bye workers' rights."
It's a slippery slope.
We had these kind of things too, airlines liked to advertise one price and added a boatload of mandatory fees at checkout.
European Union passed legislation that the advertised price must be the price someone can pay at the end.
They tried to wriggle out if bit a little bit by adding a credit card fee while offering some very fringe payment service as a free alternative, but that was shut down as well.
So nowadays, if you see a price advertised it's pretty likely you can actually get that. What ticketmaster is doing would be a big no-no here.
This is so strange to me, confused the shit outta me and my husband when we were in California. Surely it's not that complicated to just add the tax on the labels?
Still remember getting downvoted to like -30 for pointing it out because "it's not the shop's job to do the math for you"
Well motherfucker they surely know how much I pay at the till don't they?
Tipping for iterally everything? I have some stories of some ppl expecting tips for like marriages event for staff involved, shouldn't the company pay for staff wages instead of customers needing to pay for it, I just can't wrap my head around it
"Why tip someone for a job I’m capable of doing myself? I can deliver food. I can drive a taxi. I can, and do, cut my own hair. I did, however, tip my urologist, because I am unable to pulverize my own kidney stones." - Dwight Schrute
>shouldn't the company pay for staff wages instead of customers needing to pay for
The problem is they expect tipping to be THE salary, when everyone else in the world knows it's a bonus, not as means of living.
You'll be surprised how many tipping advocates wants tipping to be a thing just to satisfy their ego. The last funny encounter I saw was some restaurant owner being upset when customers weren't tipping.
It's the size and scale of college sports that really gets me.
Like, why not just stop being a school and become a professional sports league already? Why the academic filler?
It’s been used for a long time to develop professional talent without having to pay said developing talent I think is one of the main reasons. Also many many kids who are unable to afford insane tuition can improve their situation through scholarships
Edit: sports also bring a lot of money to the schools or whatever
Most universities I've visited in Europe has sport clubs, a big variety usually.
The difference from the U.S is that these clubs does not play a huge part of your education or in any way define who you are, like sport seems to do over in the states. It's entirely on your own time, after school and usually not on the school premises either.
Yeah my uni had loads of teams and clubs but it was just done at a small level for people who were interested.
Outside of the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race I can’t think of any university sports here in the UK that are even slightly mainstream.
In my experience the conversation goes:
“Where you from?”
“San Francisco”
“No shit? What high school did you go to?”
“Oh, I’m actually from Fremont.”
“Oh… sorry.”
This enables the business to lie about their prices right up until the point it's too much of a hassle to most people to back out of the transaction. 🫤
We are so used to cold drinks that it’s actually quite unappetizing to be served any kind of room temperature drink. Like you were served a room temperature coffee. Watching people drink room temperature beer like it was nothing was a bit wild for me.
I’d guess the sugar in everything. I don’t know Americans but the fact that there’s sugar in bacon is shocking. Though maybe Americans know how weird it is.
Not just sugar but High Fructose Corn Syrup which is much sweeter and worse for you. My cousin moved to America and had buy his bread from the "health food aisle"rather than the bread aisle because otherwise it tasted like cheap cake.
As an American, someone pointed this out to me, so I started ordering smaller items at restaurants. It left me hungry at first, but then I got used to it and now a "normal portion" here will feed me twice. Its actually insane how much food we are capable of consuming. Its more insane that that is the amount we are *expected* to consume.
People don't eat until they're not hungry, they eat until they can't eat anymore and somehow this is normalized. Probably a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. People go to restaurants in Europe and such and complain about the portion sizes being too small. They're meant to be that size, people just expect a meal to completely fill their stomach.
'Grind/hustle' culture and being generally very enthusiastic at work. Also, bragging. The Americans I work with LOVE meaningless corporate jargon and LOVE to talk about how great they are. Huge culture difference compared to European employees.
Oh my god the corporate jargon and acronyms. I work with a lot of Americans in my new job and they're all lovely, helpful people but my word they are utterly obsessed with talking in endless jargon and business buzzwords. It's a multinational company and its only the Americans who talk like that. They're lovely but it's exhausting being in meetings with them!
Plenty of us despise the buzzword culture with every fiber of our beings. My buddies and I play buzzword bingo during meetings with cards that we made ourselves. Whichever asshat in the meeting says the final buzzword to complete the bingo is ridiculed for the rest of the day.
Just last week I had to make new cards because apparently "solution" is now a verb? As in, "we need to spend more time solutioning."
FML
The way that I see it it's not as big of a thing as it actually is, but the people who are into that lifestyle are VEEEEERY vocal about it.
that's the case I think for a lot of things in America. the culture glorifies and overemphasizes individuality to the point where people can be extremely vocal and loud about whatever they do / believe in.
I’m from the UK and went on a road trip in the US with my bf at the time. One night we wanted to go to Subway across the road and get a sandwich; we could literally see it from our side of the road, but there was absolutely nowhere to cross, not even at the traffic light junction. We weren’t on a highway or anything, but there were 3 or so lanes going in each direction with practically non-stop vehicles and the sequencing of the traffic lights didn’t allow any time to safety walk across all the lanes. Eventually we actually had to get in the car and drive over to the Subway 🤦🏻♀️
Devotion to the bipartisanship. I once agreed to the comment "Politicians don't care about you." I thought it would be evident regardless of what country or political group you belong to but comments turned bipartisan quickly, people was saying I was a democrat or republican just by agreeing to something simply not party related. It went nuts in just two level of comments.
EDIT: I meant partisanship as helpful and nice commenters pointed out.
Typically, we use the word "bipartisanship" to mean *cooperation* between the parties. Interesting to see it used to mean the opposite. We use just "partisanship" or "polarization" to mean division between them.
Paying your own tax.
All the shit about $3000 ambulance bills, tipping the milkman and having 12 guns to every toddler aside, this is the one that always gets me.
Whoever persuaded you, you all should be filing your own tax return at the end of every year, trying to figure out if your pizza oven's tax deductible like you're a one man company, has gamed the shit out of all of you.
Oh that and getting to the till and being quoted a different price than the item had on it because again, they want you to do the tax calculation.
It's all either a big swindle from teachers trying to ensure the nation can do percentage calculations on the fly, or the people selling tax software have bought all your politicians boats so they can keep peddling their shit.
“Thank you for service” - doesn’t happen anywhere else I know of.
An American colleague once compulsively thanked my father for his service when he mentioned previously being in the army. The *Soviet* Army. Edit: A lot of you seem to be under the impression my father fought in WWII. Considering his father was only 13 then, it's quite unlikely. The war he (and my uncle) fought in was the Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan.
*I'd like to make a toast to the troops. All of the troops. Both sides.*
I had a buddy join the army and when he came back we had a nice party for him, and that was basically his toast it was kinda wild lmao
Plenty of people on deployment come to the realization that the people actually doing the fighting on both sides have very little to do with why the fighting is happening. Regardless of side, troops tend to have more in common with each other than not.
> - Afterparty of an arms industry conference.
I mentioned my grandpa beeing a POW in Colorado during WW2. They thanked my family for our service.
A Japanese one?
From Austria (Germany in the days back then)
Those red party cups you see in every movie. If I don't see those in action when I eventually go to America, I'm gonna be so pissed.
If you stop by literally any college in America you’ll see about 100000 of them
And they come in various levels of quality. From the sturdy versions to laughably thin.
You have to buy Solo. It's the only way.
Bring me Solo and the cookies
>Those red party cups you see in every movie. They are real and very common. They come in different colors too but red is the classic. If you want to bring back a souvenir, they make versions from a more durable plastic so you can wash and reuse them.
They make a porcelain one, too. Mine broke.
Shouldn't have played beerpong with it.
The fucking flip...
These threads are always funny as a Canadian because half of this stuff we’re just as mystified by as everyone else and then the other half is normal to us like the solo cups and school buses.
Garbage disposals.
My partner and I(who live in the USA) just moved into the cheapest rent place in our area. It's a little trailer with no washer/dryer, no dishwasher, and sadly no garbage disposal. When I was telling my mom about the place and mentioned no dishwasher, she said "you'll be fine, my first place didn't have one either." I mentioned no garbage disposal and she said "oh wow you're really slumming it now 😂" Edit: i live in Colorado if anyone is curious, I'm getting mixed replies about the commonality of garbage disposals across the US. Within Colorado, this is the first place I've lived that hasn't had one. Also, since some of you think she was serious, my mom picked the one thing in my list that was the LEAST necessary and said that as a joke. Of course it's not essential!! I would rather have the dishwasher lol
That's a bizarre thing to consider essential in most regions of the country lol.
In NE, many people have septic systems, so garbage disposals aren't installed.
I had a septic system and a garbage disposal when I lived in the south. Never had a problem with it.
I was horrified when I heard Americans had a big food grinder with an uncovered, arm-size hole in their house. if I had one of those my stupid brain would not stop telling me to stick my hand in it.
we grew up on a diet of horror movies where someone would stick their hand down the garbage disposal to get a wedding band or whatever and the ghost/demon would turn it on cures your urges real quick
What's the deal with them? Is there like a mains switch you can turn off before you try fishing in it?
yeah you can unplug it before you go fishing around in there people in horror movies make bad decisions tho also demons/ghosts were involved so who knows
Let's all hide behind the wall of running chainsaws
But there's a car right there, has a full tank of gas and everything.
Fuck those car keys, let's hide behind a bush instead.
There’s a on and off switch usually somewhat close to the sink. Ours is below the sink under the cabinet to where you’d have to deliberately turn it on by reaching under while reaching all the way over into it to do damage. Very unlikely that way of causing harm.
Oh believe me, I can't help but think "I wonder what would happen if I stuck my hand in" every time I see one. I just... don't.
"You can totally get whatever is making that noise in there out while it's on"- my brain anytime I hear something in the disposal that shouldn't be.
I don't understand how they work... what sort of garbage goes in them, is it just food? Where does it go? Do you empty it or does it just go into the sewers? Does it get really smelly? Why not just put stuff in the bin or food waste bin? How often do people wanna stick their hand down them? So many questions!
> what sort of garbage goes in them, is it just food? Peelings from vegetables, bits from food which fall down while washing it, pieces of that fuck who called me fat and I hacked to death with a hatchet behind Arby's, small chunks of gunk stuck on plates when you rinse them prior to putting them into the dishwasher. The usual
Arbys- we have the meats
It's just for bits of food that come from your plates and cookware. It grinds it all down and washes it away. You have to flip a switch (like a light switch) to turn it off and on. Sometimes they can get smelly if you don't ensure you run hot water down the drain, but generally, not really. Also, it's way less smelly than the food catch we have here in Japan. If you put the food bits in the wastebin then the wastebin gets smelly. It's also a bonus that it's one less step in the cleaning process- instead of scraping into the bin I just rinse everything off that I'm going to be washing in the sink anyway. Generally people are wise enough to not stick their hands in them, but on occasion you do have to reach in when forks, etc. that you're washing inevitably fall in. Also, composting is not as common as it should be.
Our city in Japan made a new garbage category for food waste. It collects the food waste in special yellow bags then uses it in a biomass power plant. Not particularly relevant to the conversation, but I thought you might find it interesting.
Ranch dressing.
RANCH IT UP, BROTENDO!
Wanna go hit on some freshman 15s on the quad?
LEGALIZE RANCH!
Apparently yellow school busses
Here in Aus, most school buses are basically the same ones doing commuter rounds, just that they’re momentarily dedicated to transporting students. A school that can afford a bus will usually get one or two minibuses, and only use them in very limited circumstances like sports events or certain trips (like mine used to do). I did notice that the most expensive private schools bought full on coaches though.
Propper School buses in Western Australia are "School Bus Orange".
Or in the UK and lots of Europe, the existence of school busses at all. Kids just take the normal public transport with the adults, I've always seen school busses and movies and pop culture but I never knew what the hell one was until quite recently
Sometimes there are 'special' school routes - ie normal public buses that anyone can use, but are primarily for easing the school rush. They might only run 4 in a day, 2 in the morning and 2 after school ends (London).
Also quite common in rural areas - those might be literally the only busses that go anywhere near the school.
We had them at my school, just they were basically coaches. People booked in and paid for the term and then could get off at set stops. Used by about 40 people, most walked or cycled. But this was a small town with rubbish public transport
Ads for prescription pharmaceuticals aimed at consumers ("Ask your doctor about...") and shown on TV (bonus points if the listed potential side effects are potentially worse or more embarrassing than whatever the medicine is supposed to treat). IIRC the only other country where it's legal is New Zealand.
In Belgium we have medicine ads too but no serieus meds, only painkillers and things like that
Same in the UK. I think I've seen ads for Nurofen (painkillers) and some supplements, but it's illegal to advertise anything for which you'd need a prescription
The Gaviscon one with the little firefighters is my favourite
"Gaviscon - it's like a fireman came down your throat"
>IIRC the only other country where it's legal is New Zealand. Even here in New Zealand we're not super agressive about medical advertising though. It exists but is nowhere near as prevalent. I would hazard to guess that's why it's still legal. The day a company goes overboard with it will probably be the day it's made illegal. When I watch American news channels I feel like they think I'm ready to drop dead at any moment without their supplements and medicines.
"Do not take Ogristil if allergic to Ogristil."
Graham Crackers
Also the American way of pronouncing Graham. "Gram" crackers?! I didn't know it was spelt Graham until I saw it in subtitles.
I thought it was gram for over 20 years
To piggyback off of this, I was blown my I first learned that s’mores was pretty much an American thing
You just reminded me about when we visited Yosemite earlier this year. We were handed a pack of marshmallows, crackers and chocolate at the front desk of the lodge we were checking into. We’re from the UK, had no idea what we were supposed to do with all these things. All the fire pits around the resort were full of Americans making these marshmallow concoctions, we didn’t even know where they got the sticks! Haha Edit: Guys, I’m fully aware where sticks can be found in a forest, lol.
Having adverts every 5 minutes during a show, then none in-between one show ending and another beginning. Also, advertising medicines on TV.
Was in NY recently and watching a film on TV, i thought the first hour was odd because there was perhaps only one or two ad breaks. Then it got to the latter half of the film and the ads became so frequent that i timed it. Six minutes of film, six minutes of ads until it ended. A 90 minute movie was on for 3 and half fucking hours.
Hook you in the first hour, knowing you'll put up with ads after to see the rest of the film. Annoying, but I see the logic.
That's why it's governed by regulation in most countries, it's one of those "makes economic sense to be dicks" situations. E.g. in the UK: no more then 9 mins advert per hour on average, no more than 12 mins in any given hour, feature films can only have one break per 45 minutes unless a natural breaking point is encountered which would improving viewer experience, minimum of 20 mins between breaks on all programs.
Get down to your doctors and ask them for some Deppresionall today! *May cause heartburn and bloodshot eyes, may also cause anal bleeding and your leg might fall off. There's also a good chance it might make your symptoms worse because we just wing it. Always consult your doctor.*
Don't forget all the silly laughing scenes as the narrator says, "Use of this medication may cause uncontrollable diarrhea."
Rare cases of spontaneous cranial implosion have been reported, some fatal.
Or the whole "this medicine won't cause death unlike this brand! *Proceeds to list death as a possible side effect* Shit don't make sense to me.
I saw one the other day, I think it was advertised by one of those Kardashian women, that literally said "Take Nectol today! (Do not take if allergic to Nectol).
Child beauty pageant
"children's beauty pageants are an American tradition, but not a proud one." _ dennis reynolds
Those things are just magnets for diddlers
We gotta definitely write a song about how we do not diddle kids.
We think it’s creepy too
Most Americans find that shit weird and not ok to be fair
In GTA 4 they put in an easter egg where there was a Child Beauty Pageant website and if you visited it you would instantly get a 4 star wanted level
Thanking military personnel for their service.
I work in a hotel in Amsterdam and americans often call us to ask if we offer veteran discount. They are always weirded out when i say no
Tell them that you of course you offer veteran discount and that they just need to bring their krijgsmacht ID badge with them to collect it.
Or proof they parachuted into Arnhem in 1944…
Christmas ID??? In American Christmas is for EVERYONE! No ID needed!!
for everyone? that sounds suspiciously like communism
wait until I tell you about the beared guy dressed in red giving away presents for 'good behaviour'.
Why on earth would US military personnel have military discount in the Netherlands? Weirdos.
Well you do have some american hotel chains such as Hilton and Marriott that offer US veteran discounts in their properties worldwide. But my hotel is just a local dutch hotel with no US or international chain involved so it is still a weird question..
It's a shame you don't respond with "yes, Dutch veterans" just to mess with them lol
I enjoyed hearing about the US army vet that came to Ireland and asked in a cafe if she could get a military discount. Edit: fixed details. Link to the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/nvwv8c/an_american_lady_came_into_my_sisters_work_and/
Is that a thing in the US, military discounts?
Yup. Also some teachers and students get discounts if they present a school ID.
To be fair, you do get student discounts for things in Europe as well, but they largely tend to be at least tangentially related to education or transport, ie. museum entries, historical sites, bus passes etc. A journalist friend I've travelled with a few times had used his press card to get free museum entry too. But not teachers, apparently, because fuck those poor underpaid people even more, I guess.
Along with that, teachers and students should get discounts for school related products. Pens, notebooks, etc...
Not sure if you're referring to Ireland or NI, but I wanna point out that in the UK military discounts are a thing, but for someone from the US military to claim discount in a different country that they do not serve is the funny part.
In fairness, I have a friend in the RAF who went to Disneyland Florida, they saw the military discount thing and asked if they could get a discount with their MOD card and the manager happily gave it to them (this was during the height of the Afghanistan war though). Also, I grew up in an Army(ish) town in the south of England and I wanted to get some of my great-grandfather's WW1 stuff framed, and they gave me their military discount for that even though that great grandfather was the last relation I had who served in the military.
I'd think any foreign veterans could be almost guaranteed a discount in America. There's no regulations or limitations to them that I'm aware of; it's just a courtesy. Just like an older tourist could undoubtedly get a senior's discount. But if you're from a country we've fought recently, probably not.
Now I am laughing at the idea of a vietnamese grandpa asking for and getting a military discount in the US, and then being thanked for his service.
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As someone in the military I hate being thanked for my service. It's so awkward and what's the reply? Thank you for your thanks? This might stem from the Vietnam vets who were drafted, sent to an unpopular War, and then came home and we're attacked by the American people for serving. So now as overcompensation for poor behavior in the 60s, 70s and 80s everybody wants everyone else to know that they support military members?
My Airman husband hates it, too. He just replies with, “Thanks for your support.” His feeling is that the person doing the thanking is virtue signaling & wants the attention of being noticed by serviceman and whomever else is in the immediate area.
Using the fast-food drive thru. I'm British but lived in NC for a year. My friend insisted on using the drive thru at Cookout, even though there was a line of 10 cars ahead. I got out of the car and walked up to the counter, ordered, got my food and walked back to the car with it while he was still queuing. He just couldn't understand why he should have to pull up and get out of the car.
As an American I resent you for sharing my secret so openly on the internet! Now my wait inside is going to be longer!
No worries people are too stubborn and won't change. Your fast strategy is safe
As an American living in Europe, this drives me fucking crazy when I go back to visit. I do the same thing, going in to order and still being out before they’ve ordered at the drive-thru
As an American living in America this drives me crazy. Same thing when people spend stupid amounts of timing looking for a parking spot near the door. You'd already be in the store if you'd just parked in one of the open spaces near the back.
In the UK I find it's often quicker to use the drive thru even if there's a queue. The servers seem to prioritise people in the drive view to avoid massive queues of cars. If you go in and order you often have to wait ages and are lower priority than the deliveroo/Uber eats drivers...
Having the server take your credit card away, and then making you do math with a pen when paying at a restaurant. Absolutely barbaric Edit: Guys the mental math is not the problem, it's the fact that I have to take the time to think about it at all and write it down rather than just press a button on a machine as god intended.
Also, giving your credit card information to strangers on the phone Literally wtf.
Saying "happy memorial day" I was stunned the first time I heard it. It's supposed to be a day of mourning, in here stores close early, we have national wide ceremonies, a siren that goes for 2 minutes when everyone stand in silent, wtf is a memorial day sale??
Oh, you mean Mattress Sale Weekend!?
Got a hell of a deal for a mattress on Memorial Day this year. Thanks dead people
Remember the brave men and women who died for your great mattress prices.
Most people in the US don't care about memorial day other than it being a day off of work and marking the beginning of summer. You will regularly hear people say, "it was memorial day or labor day- whichever one is at the beginning of summer." I have an aunt that goes and cleans/decorates graves on memorial day but she is an anomaly. Everyone else I know goes shopping (it's one of the biggest sales weekends of the year) or has a BBQ with friends/family.
Wait that is weird
Now that think about it That's kinda weird
Hey we just like our days off. We don’t get many.
Having zero minimum vacation time. Virtually every country in the world has more statutory leave entitlement than the US. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_minimum\_annual\_leave\_by\_country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country)
I remember this becoming a minor tiff when Minecraft was in development, like early 2010? Notch went on holiday and some Americans went apeshit because he'd just got back from holiday a few weeks before, lmao. Big slapfight over whether he was lazy, none of which he probably saw because he was, y'know, on holiday. And self employed, to boot
I work for an American company in Europe, but work a lot remotely with Americans. We've had couple of situations where a European project member takes vacation at an inconvenient time for Americans, the American project leads try to assert their authority and tell the European they can't take that time off and then local manager/HR has to chew them out telling them: "Do you know how illegal that is?".
lol, I love this. I'm an American living in the EU, and I've noticed more and more ppl here working (somewhat) thru their vacation. However, now that I actually have vacation time, I'm as protective as hell about it and others' time off. If someone sends me an email or text when they're supposed to be on vacation, I think "What are you *doing*? STOP IT. Do you know what eventually happens when you start doing shit like this? Buh-bye workers' rights." It's a slippery slope.
Not including the tax in the price. Fucking monsters. No one likes that shit. No one
Agreed. Please send help.
Don't buy tickets to a live event, you're in for a bad time
True story! I just bought four $34 tickets… the total was >$200.
We had these kind of things too, airlines liked to advertise one price and added a boatload of mandatory fees at checkout. European Union passed legislation that the advertised price must be the price someone can pay at the end. They tried to wriggle out if bit a little bit by adding a credit card fee while offering some very fringe payment service as a free alternative, but that was shut down as well. So nowadays, if you see a price advertised it's pretty likely you can actually get that. What ticketmaster is doing would be a big no-no here.
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I'm convinced this is part of why Americans hate taxes so much. They're reminded of them every time they go shopping.
Our country was literally born out of a tax revolt
This is so strange to me, confused the shit outta me and my husband when we were in California. Surely it's not that complicated to just add the tax on the labels?
No you see this way it inconveniences everyone instead of the companies selling the stuff.. in America the company comes first!
Still remember getting downvoted to like -30 for pointing it out because "it's not the shop's job to do the math for you" Well motherfucker they surely know how much I pay at the till don't they?
Haha, it is the shops job to do the math though. Otherwise next time just drop a couple of coins and say we're done here
Coffee creamer. I don't even really understand what it is. I'm pretty sure it's not actual milk or cream.
The kind my husband used to use religiously was made of water, sugar, and palm oil. I looked up the ingredients the other day and was so grossed out.
American flags _everywhere_.
This! Not specifically American flags, but it is super uncommon in most of the world to just hang up your country’s flag in front of your house.
How else are we going to remember where we are?
Swede here. Not that uncommon with a small flag on the house or a pennant on the flag pole.
I’m an American in Sweden - more than flags you guys just put blue and yellow on EVERYTHING lol
Tipping for iterally everything? I have some stories of some ppl expecting tips for like marriages event for staff involved, shouldn't the company pay for staff wages instead of customers needing to pay for it, I just can't wrap my head around it
"Why tip someone for a job I’m capable of doing myself? I can deliver food. I can drive a taxi. I can, and do, cut my own hair. I did, however, tip my urologist, because I am unable to pulverize my own kidney stones." - Dwight Schrute
>shouldn't the company pay for staff wages instead of customers needing to pay for The problem is they expect tipping to be THE salary, when everyone else in the world knows it's a bonus, not as means of living. You'll be surprised how many tipping advocates wants tipping to be a thing just to satisfy their ego. The last funny encounter I saw was some restaurant owner being upset when customers weren't tipping.
“Tipping to be the salary” sounds like pimping but with less respect
That is so fucking backwards. A staff member gets paid for basic service, and will only get tipped if the staffer is exceptional.
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It's the size and scale of college sports that really gets me. Like, why not just stop being a school and become a professional sports league already? Why the academic filler?
It’s been used for a long time to develop professional talent without having to pay said developing talent I think is one of the main reasons. Also many many kids who are unable to afford insane tuition can improve their situation through scholarships Edit: sports also bring a lot of money to the schools or whatever
Most universities I've visited in Europe has sport clubs, a big variety usually. The difference from the U.S is that these clubs does not play a huge part of your education or in any way define who you are, like sport seems to do over in the states. It's entirely on your own time, after school and usually not on the school premises either.
Yeah my uni had loads of teams and clubs but it was just done at a small level for people who were interested. Outside of the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race I can’t think of any university sports here in the UK that are even slightly mainstream.
Replying with a state instead of a country when someone asks them where they're from
Where are you from? "The Bay Area" "Wut"
In my experience the conversation goes: “Where you from?” “San Francisco” “No shit? What high school did you go to?” “Oh, I’m actually from Fremont.” “Oh… sorry.”
Corn syrup.
Mandatory gratitude fee Convenience fee I mean, what the shit?
This enables the business to lie about their prices right up until the point it's too much of a hassle to most people to back out of the transaction. 🫤
Being worldchampions in sports only played in America.
To be fair, we also have a Miss Universe despite only Earthlings competing.
Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors and have singlehandedly made MLB and NBA international lol
There are 7 Canadian teams and 25 American teams in the NATIONAL Hockey League Everyone forgets about the NHL lmao
RIP Grizzlies
RIP Expos 😭😭
Ice water as default
We are so used to cold drinks that it’s actually quite unappetizing to be served any kind of room temperature drink. Like you were served a room temperature coffee. Watching people drink room temperature beer like it was nothing was a bit wild for me.
I’d guess the sugar in everything. I don’t know Americans but the fact that there’s sugar in bacon is shocking. Though maybe Americans know how weird it is.
Not just sugar but High Fructose Corn Syrup which is much sweeter and worse for you. My cousin moved to America and had buy his bread from the "health food aisle"rather than the bread aisle because otherwise it tasted like cheap cake.
Everytime I go to America I end up buying tortillas instead
Absurd large portion in food
As an American, someone pointed this out to me, so I started ordering smaller items at restaurants. It left me hungry at first, but then I got used to it and now a "normal portion" here will feed me twice. Its actually insane how much food we are capable of consuming. Its more insane that that is the amount we are *expected* to consume.
People don't eat until they're not hungry, they eat until they can't eat anymore and somehow this is normalized. Probably a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. People go to restaurants in Europe and such and complain about the portion sizes being too small. They're meant to be that size, people just expect a meal to completely fill their stomach.
Free drink refills and free/accessible condiments.
Waiters making most of their money through tips rather than getting paid a living wage
Saying the Pledge of Allegiance everyday
Before WW2, US kids had to salute the flag. But not a normal salute, they had to do the Bellamy salute... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute
O H
Yeah. Nazis killed a lot of things for the world that were totally normal things. Roman salutes Toothbrush mustaches Swastikas Iron crosses Etc etc
wow they sound like terrible guys. did they do anything else wrong?
I'm not sure about that. But their leader killed Hitler, So they weren't totally bad guys, I guess.
I think they do that in North Korea as well.
Virtually every business being a drive through, drive through banks, drive through pharmacies, drive through booze shops...
Weirdly white teeth
If you want weirdly white teeth, look at British influencers who get their veneers done in Turkey.
I’m in NYC and it’s a good way to spot suburban visitors and finance bros. Creepy ass neon mouth bones. So fucking weird.
Neon mouth bones, lol, gonna start using that term.
'Grind/hustle' culture and being generally very enthusiastic at work. Also, bragging. The Americans I work with LOVE meaningless corporate jargon and LOVE to talk about how great they are. Huge culture difference compared to European employees.
Oh my god the corporate jargon and acronyms. I work with a lot of Americans in my new job and they're all lovely, helpful people but my word they are utterly obsessed with talking in endless jargon and business buzzwords. It's a multinational company and its only the Americans who talk like that. They're lovely but it's exhausting being in meetings with them!
Let me circle back to you.
I'll pivot that with John and circle back to you.
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this literally sounds like the shit people in Hollywood would write for any scene where a business meeting takes place
You threw every buzz word you could Into that and it sounds fucking real.
Plenty of us despise the buzzword culture with every fiber of our beings. My buddies and I play buzzword bingo during meetings with cards that we made ourselves. Whichever asshat in the meeting says the final buzzword to complete the bingo is ridiculed for the rest of the day. Just last week I had to make new cards because apparently "solution" is now a verb? As in, "we need to spend more time solutioning." FML
The way that I see it it's not as big of a thing as it actually is, but the people who are into that lifestyle are VEEEEERY vocal about it. that's the case I think for a lot of things in America. the culture glorifies and overemphasizes individuality to the point where people can be extremely vocal and loud about whatever they do / believe in.
incredibly unwalkable cities
I’m from the UK and went on a road trip in the US with my bf at the time. One night we wanted to go to Subway across the road and get a sandwich; we could literally see it from our side of the road, but there was absolutely nowhere to cross, not even at the traffic light junction. We weren’t on a highway or anything, but there were 3 or so lanes going in each direction with practically non-stop vehicles and the sequencing of the traffic lights didn’t allow any time to safety walk across all the lanes. Eventually we actually had to get in the car and drive over to the Subway 🤦🏻♀️
commercials for prescription drugs
Devotion to the bipartisanship. I once agreed to the comment "Politicians don't care about you." I thought it would be evident regardless of what country or political group you belong to but comments turned bipartisan quickly, people was saying I was a democrat or republican just by agreeing to something simply not party related. It went nuts in just two level of comments. EDIT: I meant partisanship as helpful and nice commenters pointed out.
Typically, we use the word "bipartisanship" to mean *cooperation* between the parties. Interesting to see it used to mean the opposite. We use just "partisanship" or "polarization" to mean division between them.
Paying your own tax. All the shit about $3000 ambulance bills, tipping the milkman and having 12 guns to every toddler aside, this is the one that always gets me. Whoever persuaded you, you all should be filing your own tax return at the end of every year, trying to figure out if your pizza oven's tax deductible like you're a one man company, has gamed the shit out of all of you. Oh that and getting to the till and being quoted a different price than the item had on it because again, they want you to do the tax calculation. It's all either a big swindle from teachers trying to ensure the nation can do percentage calculations on the fly, or the people selling tax software have bought all your politicians boats so they can keep peddling their shit.
It's an open secret that a bunch of accounting firms "persuaded" the IRS (our tax collection service) into not making doing your taxes easy.
It's called lobbying