
Europeans have been sharing what they find weird about America – 17 intercontinental culture shocks
Ah, America. The land of the free, the home of the brave. Or, if you’re European, the place where things can be a bit strange.
That’s because even though American culture is pretty familiar to most Europeans thanks to film and TV, the country still contains some startlingly different ways of life. And we know that thanks to this question posed by trappedslider over on r/AskReddit.
‘What’s something about the US that is totally normal to a US citizen, that Europeans can’t seem to wrap their heads around?’
Here are some of the most notable culture shocks…
1.
‘Prescription drug ads.’
-fixit858
2.
‘My husband (German) gets shocked every time we go to the US when we drive through a suburb and very few houses have fences or bushes around their homes. He always comments on the lack, saying, “Everything’s so open. I don’t understand why no one has hedges.” ♀️’
-EndoftheLineEditing
3.
‘To me, the fact that the tax isnt included in the price in a gorcery store. The price i see shall be the price i pay. I ain’t doing extra math.’
-SueTheDepressedFairy
4.
‘Half-ton pickup trucks as daily drivers.’
-GoonyBirb
5.
‘How few vacation days the average worker has/uses. In most of Europe the minimum is 25 days’
-TheFriendlyAmazon
6.
‘The absolute emptiness of wilderness areas. We were on a week hike and ran into a Frenchman hiking the other way who had been living on a packet of soy beans for the three days since he began his hike.
‘Based on his European hiking experiences, he had planned to buy food when passing through villages or by farms throughout each day. He was like, “Where are the farmers? Where are the sheep? Where are the villages?”
We let him know that in the US, when the trails ran though wilderness, national parks, national forests, or even state parks that there was nothing there. He could go days without happening across civilization.
‘We fed him a good meal and gave him enough supplies to get him the few days to the next place to get supplies, so it turned out okay for him. He simply couldn’t comprehend the vast emptiness of it all.’
-benthom
7.
‘My partner lived in London. Whenever he’d visit, the garbage disposal would freak him out lol. He’d flip the switch to see what it would do and then jump back when it turned on.
‘Also he was horrified that I didn’t own a kettle.’
-Enticing_Venom
8.
‘Wearing pajamas to the grocery store or pharmacy.’
-MsMoreCowbell828