It's easy for Americans who haven't traveled outside the country to assume citizens in other parts of the world have access to the same amenities offered in the US.
But people who were not born in the States know very well how what a world of difference life in North America is compared to where they've come from.
Curious to hear of the things most Americans take for granted as citizens of the US, Redditor CapitalBread6959 asked:
"Fellow Non-Americans, what is something quite common in the U.S. that is completely unheard of in your own country?"
Americans do drinking differently.
Bottoms Up
"My German friend visited us in college. First party he goes 'THEY DO EXIST!!' and held up our pack of red solo cups. Haha"
– mulljackson
Cup Overruneth
"Free drink refills."
– internetsss
H2O Required
"Every single place with a bar is legally obliged to provide free tap water on demand in England. Most restaurants will give you a pint of tap water with food for free (you do have to specify tap otherwise you get stung with some fancy expensive shite!) Admittedly the measures of alcohol are small here, though, compared to other places."
– anon
Some industries have laxed work protocols compared to in other countries.
Bee-Lining It For Home
"Health care workers going home after work still in scrubs. And washing them at home."
– orebro1234
Work Clothes Stay At Work
"This!! It's so weird to me. Here it's literally forbidden to leave hospital grounds in your work clothes. I would hate having to bring them home and possibly carry some resistant hospital bacteria there with me. Plus you never know how well other people wash theirs, I like it done professionally at the hospital."
– pauliaomi
Making Sense Of It All
"Many moons ago, I did an IT internship at a hospital's service desk and being the intern, was always the one who had to run out and physically check things."
"When I had to go in to work on something in an operating room, I had to put on a full body tyvek suit, gloves, mask, coverings for my shoes, etc."
"Which made sense to me. Except the OR nurses who worked there wood just breeze in and out all day long, wearing the same scrubs they wore commuting to work on the bus."
"That DIDN'T make sense to me."
– caribou16
Meanwhile, over at school...
Dances Don't Happen Everywhere
"Homecoming, Sadie Hawkins, Winter Formal, Prom..."
"We have none of this, the closest thing is the graduation itself."
– badeksha
American Educators
"Teachers buying school stuff so they can teach."
– comicsnerd
The way certain things work in the US definitely raised eyebrows.
Feeding The Sink
"This thing were the kitchen sink has teeth."
– PoetPont
Going Nowhere Fast
"As a Dutchy, driving a car and turning right on a red light. That messed with my head. If you do that here you are gonna hit at least 5 cyclists."
– CowabungaNL
My Japanese cousin always comments on how Americans are friendly and are more open to striking up a conversation as opposed to citizens in Japan, where they prefer to keep to themselves and be captivated by their smartphones out in public.
As an introvert and one who can't stand small talk, I actually loved being left alone whenever I was in Japan riding the subway and walking about the city. Nothing against engaging with other people, but I found the quiet and my personal space being respected to be very calming.
There are so many places to travel to and see in America.
That's one of our mottos.... "See America first!"
But as majestic as this land is, there are places to avoid; thanks to high crime rates, broken down cities, bad weather... to name a few.
So a list of the least popular places could be helpful.
People only have so much travel time in life.
You want to make it count.
Redditor jhffmn21 wanted everyone to detail which parts of America may not be worth the visit and why. So they asked:
"Americans of Reddit, what is the worst big city in the USA and why?"
I could skip a few places, but I'll be kind and stay quiet.
Hadestown
Over It Rose GIF by HULUGiphy"Bakersfield or Fresno pretty sure the devil has part time vacation homes in both of them."
Ok-Trash-798
"Fresno's unofficial motto being 'At least we're not Bakersfield.'"
Kongo204
Wild
"I passed Camden NJ on a way to a concert - and we stopped at a light and a cop drove up and literally told us 'just run the reds and go do not stop' and as we turned you would just see groups of ppl on corners waiting for a stopped car. It was wild."
MarsReject
"I live an hour from Philly and had to explain this to my wife several times about Camden. She didn't believe me until I ran a red there in front of a cop and nothing happened. She didn't understand then how dangerous Camden can be."
StoryAccomplished938
Back to 55
"East St.Louis, stopped once for gas. Didn’t think I was going to make it back on 55."
Nature_Goulet
"Was both prepared and a bit saddened to see East St. Louis at the top. It really is that bad and there’s no debating it. Crazy amounts of crime, decrepit businesses, broken down neighborhoods. It’s rare to have a night without sirens and gunshots. Would rather take my chances in most war zones than in East St. Louis and I’m a native."
cbb88christian
Mr Trash Wheel
"I haven’t been to every city in the US. But Baltimore could use a little cleaning up since we’re on the subject."
carcinoma_kid
"Awh! Basically one of the only things I know about Baltimore is that it's the home of Mr Trash Wheel and family (the pride of the Baltimore harbor??) and I imagined it as a trash free oasis protected by the Trash Wheel clan... Bummer, I need to get out more."
julez007
"I think every city has great parts. But in my opinion worst parts of Baltimore is pretty... out there."
StewofPuppies
Bodyguard Needed
conan obrien bodyguard GIF by Team CocoGiphy"Springfield."
canadianzonkey**ck
"I did a wine tasting event in Springfield, when it was over the bar owner insisted on walking me to my car, which I could see from the venue, I told him it wasn't really necessary and he just looked me dead in the face and said 'this is Springfield, yes, it is very necessary.'"
RUfuqingkiddingme
Places you can't walk to your car? That's a no.
So Bland
Over It Wow GIF by The Comeback HBOGiphy"The worst cities are the most boring cities- the most devoid of personality. So I'm going to say Jacksonville, Florida."
seanofkelley
Poor Places
"Jackson, Mississippi. Very high murder rate, low education, failing infrastructure."
"EDIT: yes I know Jackson isn't a very big city. It just sticks out as being in bad shape."
Cute-King5456
"Jackson was eye opening for me. Where I’m from being ‘poor’ means you don’t have a car or the latest phone and your apartment has roaches. In Jackson if you’re poor you don’t have shoes or running water. It’s like a banana republic that can’t grow bananas."
scumbagstaceysEx
Different Sizes
"I hesitate to answer this because the worst cities in America aren’t big cities. It’s medium and small sized cities that have been hit the hardest by economic changes."
"Places like Gary, IN; Pontiac, MI; Bridgeport, CT; and Lowell, MA. Industrial cities that lost all their jobs and experienced depopulation and rising crime."
"But I don’t know, maybe Hartford. There’s just nothing there. It’s insurance companies and street gangs. That’s it."
simplepleashures
So Hot!
"In my opinion, of the ones I've been to... Miami."
"Anywhere outside of the nightlife scene is absolutely dangerous."
"For example, Wynwood, the art district, is LITERALLY in the middle of one of the worst possible neighborhoods. You enter or exit Wynwood from the wrong direction, don't stop and wait at red lights."
EmployeeRadiant
What Happened?
Is Awesome New York GIF by FriendsGiphy"Charleston WV, used to be so vibrant and bustling was supposed to become NYC in the mountains is now a dead zone with a struggling infrastructure and an economy that can't keep itself afloat add on the homeless problem which makes all of downtown look like a giant skid row."
_elbon_22
That's a long list of travel... to skip.
Inflation rose again this month.
Things are getting out of control when it comes to charging the customer.
So what do we do?
Cut back of course.
Sacrifice... spend the same for less.
At least for now.
Redditor ubewankenubi wanted to chat about how we spend and all the risks involved.
So they asked:
"What have you given up because of inflation?"
I've tried giving up vegetables. I'll only pay so much for corn.
$20
Pay Day Money GIF by MOST EXPENSIVESTGiphy"Ordering any kind of takeout. $20 for one person for a mediocre meal. No thanks."
dinoroo
Ridiculous
"Chicken wings."
nineelevenairways
"This has been my big one as well. Wings at restaurants are well over a dollar each. Some places are closing in on two dollars. I like wings, but I can literally buy steak at those prices."
CrayZ_Squirrel
"I went to the grocery store and a pack of chicken wings was $24!!!! Ridiculous, needless to say I got the drumsticks instead."
klb1204
8 Months
"I haven’t purchased anything relevant to any of my hobbies in around 8 months."
chungoglungus
"I run a local club for my hobby and the first half of the meeting was people sharing what new things they bought and tried (or haven't yet tried). Now the time set aside for that is halved and most people get up and talk about what they 'rediscovered' in their stash."
Many-Conclusion2217
In the Freeze
"I've started tossing out significantly less food. I'm lucky that I've been able to afford a chest freezer before inflation hit, and it's been a life saver. Any leftover scrap just goes in there. It's mostly for proteins for me as well. Normally I'd just go beach fishing and take at most two or three flounders, turbots, plaice or sole home at the end of the day, but now the entire catch is ending up in the freezer. Great fish to have in stock."
UnoriginalUse
Go for Water
See Ya Peace GIF by PepsiGiphy"Quite a few branded products like Pepsi. Also don’t eat out out much these days."
isham66
"Seriously. Soda prices have jumped so much, i hate buying it but we have a Coke problem in the house lol."
Get_off_critter
There is no issue with generic for most things anyaway, even soda.
Passions
Music Video Popcorn GIF by Chris MannGiphy"My husband and I have given up our expensive hobbies and date nights so we can still afford to pay for our kids extra curricular activities. We would live on rice and beans before we made them give up their passions. We had a date night at home last night while they were with their friends. Frozen pizzas and Netflix in sweat pants. It was still fun to us."
bmy89
paycheck to paycheck
"Just when I started to live comfortably, inflation hit hard and now I’m back to scraping by paycheck to paycheck because, like always, my pay doesn’t keep up with inflation."
Shinagami091
"Exactly that, I moved out from my parent's house nearly a year ago, and at first I had a lot of leftover money to buy new furnitures and even a 3 grand computer that I built myself."
"But since a few months now inflation went right into my a** and my groceries went from costing me like 50$ a week to 100$ a week. It's absolutely demential these days, and I can barely live now."
Craftspirit
For Fun
"Slowly but surely giving up little side purchases and funsies. It's just now getting to me how expensive essentials have become. My depression specifically makes it difficult for me to meal prep and cook for myself and with both groceries and takeout rising in price I've just been eating less overall."
peachpinkjedi
Choppy
"My hair. I just cannot afford the splurge on the amount of products it needs to be healthy. Chopped it all off."
escapefromallreality
"Been cutting my families hair for years now. My husband, lucky likes wearing it short. My kid is in college, and really doesn't care. And I just hack mine to shoulder length now and then. Normally a salon appointment would be $90- tip included. It was hard before all this. Now? I just can't pay that."
LowkeyPony
Life
Joe Biden Jobs GIF by GIPHY NewsGiphy"Moving out of my parents. Even if I get a job in my field with my degree I just received, in my area there's no entry level jobs that would permit me affording an apartment, barely scraping by with a roommate as well. Jobs out of state or across the country don't seem to be hiring either."
Neurotic_Neurologist
Well this is depressing. We need some hope.
Which dropped luxuries would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.
When you go to the food court in any of the fast-disappearing malls across America, you may find cuisine from many parts of the world.
Italy is epitomized by its delicious food staples, pizza, and pasta. Let's head to Sbarro's.
Craving Chinese food? Panda Express and other similar knock-offs using stereotypical names have got you covered.
But what is the taste of America? Is any food, distinctly American? Even hot dogs are a cultural import from Germany, as are hamburgers.
Maybe those tailgate party staples are distinctly American after they've been popularized in the heartland.
Expanding on the notion of the flavor of America, Redditor SalmonSoup15 asked:
"If American was a flavor, what would it taste like?"
Likening the flavor of America to condiments was the first thing that came to Reddtors' minds.
The Very Definition
"It IS a flavor: it’s how ranch gets named in some European countries."
– ToBePacific
"I was in the Caribbean when I found out Cool Ranch Doritos are called Cool American in some countries."
– BeTooLive
What's In It?
"Ranch dressing is an American salad dressing usually made from buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion, mustard, herbs, and spices mixed into a sauce based on mayonnaise or another oil emulsion. Sour cream and yogurt are sometimes used in addition to, or as a substitute for, buttermilk and mayonnaise. The dried version on chips is delicious."
– BreakfastTequila
The German Interpretation
"In Germany, American dressing is Thousand islands."
– BonScoppinger
Effect On Buffalo
"Buffalo is appalled to learn this."
"Edit: This comment was about blue cheese vs ranch. Go search "ranch" on any buffalo-related subreddit (r/buffalo, r/buffalobills)."
– fatloui
Let's Not Forget...
"BBQ"
–Senator_Chickpea
"With beer, whiskey and cigars!! Murica!"
– IrishWhiskey556
What U.S. teenagers haven't participated in this atrocious soda trend?
The Everything Elixir
"You know when you used to mix every drink at the soda machine as a kid?"
"Like that."
– juspassinby12
Washingtonians Call It:
"WA state here."
"We called them 'Graveyards.'"
– anon
It Does Sound Toxic
"We called them 'suicides'"
"Edit: love hearing all the different names. I wonder if it's a geography/generational thing? I grew up in the Midwest in the 80s."
– greenvillain
Candy You Can Drink
"We called it skittles soda."
– suckmytoes27
The taste of America wasn't necessarily thought of as anything that would be beneficial to our health.
The Ingredients Found In All American Junk Food
"Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, milk solids, ascorbic acid, xanthum gum, red dye #5, MSG, marshmallow fluff, and hollow point bullets."
– GlitchyMcGlitchFace
Vegetable Oil Jacuzzi
"Deep fried."
– billybobjimmyjoe
"That deep fried bar and grill taste. Where it's good dipped in ranch, but after a basket of any deep fried food... it just tastes and feels heavy. Like way too much of whatever it is."
– zXster
Interestingly, having grown up in Los Angeles–where authentic Mexican food was in abundance–I associate the flavor of America with chili con carne in chili colorado sauce.
Additionally because of my Japanese heritage, I also associate teriyaki sauce–which my dad marinated chicken skewers in for our backyard BBQs–with 'Murica.
My American flavors are a kaleidoscopic mish-mash of different cultures. Because aren't we supposed to be a melting pot anyway? Or so I've thought.
Citizens can tout patriotism all day long, but that doesn't mean there are things about their country they're secretly ashamed of.
When comparing their homelands to other parts of the world, it's clear that there is always something that can be improved upon.
But how much power do people actually have to make significant changes to deep-rooted brutal policies and customs in various countries?
Curious to hear examples of these, Redditor UtTeR_cArNaGe asked:
"What do you find most embarrassing about your country?"
Corruption abounds.
Notorious Autocrat
"The most embarrassing thing about my country is that we allowed Putin to run it for twenty years. Ridiculous."
– the_amateon
Under Incompetent Rule
"Corruption in Croatia. On all levels. And they blame war, which ended 27 years ago, for a bad situation. Truth is, politic parties (left, middle, right, all of them) hired incompetent people to work high position jobs (and all other jobs), so with their incompetence they are destroying everything, from economy to will for living."
– oriontrail
South Of The Border
"The fact that drug traffickers basically own the country, having 8 of the most dangerous Citys on the World. Be only known for southpark jokes."
"The previous president bought a mansion that cost 800 years of minimum wage."
"Oh, And also because one guy of our country extinguished the eternal flame under the triumphal arch in Paris, with his pee..."
"It's not that hard to find out what country it is ;)"
– trestristestigresy
Blame It On Colonization
"I come from India."
"The corruption is just aweful. We tend to blame things on colonisation but we aren’t evolving as people. Politics is the dirtiest thing in our country and fixing it could help with a lot of things."
– mrs_robpatt
The statistics are horrendous.
Caring About Our Veterans
"How everyone is all 'Support Our Troops!!' but as soon as they get home, no one gives a sh*t about them. Think about how much money is spent on the military and think about many veterans have severe mental health issues and/or live on the street when they get out."
"Also, many in the military don’t join for pride of country. They join because they’re targeted, recruiters going into schools and making all these empty promises."
– Odd_Sky7089
Treatment Of Children
"That children are being killed for the arguments and view points of previous generations. Yet no one can seem to understand that it is no one's land if the children in both sides are being killed before they can even grow up to inhabit it. Palestine."
– Mona_Moans
All About Perspective
"The fact that we're so focused on our differences with each other that we're not willing to look at how much we actually have in common with one another."
– TarheelTiger87
Immature Politicians
"That our politicians behave like children in kindergarden? 'Oh there was an illegal trade of 100.000.000€? I haven’t heard about it yet' 'What? I’m supposed to be the bad guy here? Look how bad the others are!' and this repeats every year. No content in their speeches besides ranting about each other."
– blanklikemybank
Highest Percentage Of Inflation
"You think 8% inflation is a lot? How about %60 and growing bigger inlation? That's what my country is facing. F'k anyone who's responsible for that f'k-up."
– yzrIsou
These Redditors discussed the unfair treatment of women in their countries.
Gender Disparity
"The fierce opposition to gender equality. We fall far behind our neighbors just in terms of legislation. I am a second class citizen in my own country and I get to live every day of my life knowing that the majority of people around me want it to remain that way."
– PonderingMyOptions
The majority of the complaints were about corruption.
Unsurprisingly we are not alone in that regard.
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