It's not surprising that each country is different, with various beliefs and rules, but what is always eye-opening is what one country will deem a basic necessity, another will deem an expensive, even allusive, luxury.
Americans in particular are often perplexed by the luxuries that Europeans are able to enjoy on a daily basis, which Americans would not be able to have without paying a premium.
Redditor Specialist-Metal-458 asked:
"Americans, what do Europeans have every day that you see as a luxury?"
Required Vacation Time
"My husband (we’re Canadian) did his post-doc in Finland; when he was signing his contract, they said, 'You’ll get six weeks paid vacation and you HAVE to take it.'"
"He was shocked. He had friends elsewhere doing post-docs who were doing 14-hour work days, six to seven days per week, and with no vacation, let alone PAID vacation."
"One of the years when he was nearing the end of his cycle, HR reached out and in a panic said, 'You have 3.5 days that you HAVE to use,' unbeknownst to us. So, we booked a trip for an extended weekend away."
"I miss that. And it’s something we both negotiate when starting new jobs; rather take a bit of a lower salary with more vacation time."
- ahope1985
Paid-Paid Vacation
"Six weeks vacation, extra pay just for vacation (at least in Germany), government healthcare."
- Royal_Acanthisitta51
"Wait. Is that paid... paid vacation??"
- a**lly_ExpressUrself
"Yes, lots of companies give half a month extra pay for vacation each year. Some also give half a month's extra pay for Christmas. It's like, 'Here's some extra money for you to have a nice vacation or a nice holiday.' It's quite common for larger companies."
- DnDVex
"I am an American who is now living in Sweden and a Swedish citizen, and I will never NOT be amazed that I have the legal right to four continuous weeks of paid vacation during the summer. THE LEGAL RIGHT."
"Literally amazing."
- ingenfara
Affordable Drinks
"This is only really true for Southern Europe, but cheap wine by the glass, cheap coffee, and pastries."
"Cafes in the US are marketed as very trendy and if you want a pastry and a coffee, you should be ready to pay eight to ten dollars. In most of Italy, Portugal, and Spain, you can get coffee and a croissant for three euros (approximately three dollars)."
- kulkdaddy47
Particularly Affordable Wine
"Where I live in Spain, the standard price for a glass of wine in a cafe or every day (non-fancy, equivalent of a diner) restaurant is 80c - €1. In a restaurant, I’ll usually order a half liter for about €4 (That’s 2/3 bottle of wine)."
"Soda and bottled water are more expensive. Soda is usually €1.20-1.60."
- KimchiMaker
"At Denver International Airport last month, I paid $23 for a glass of wine that I know would cost about $7 per bottle at Costco. Probably €4 per bottle in Italy. It was like getting robbed in broad daylight without a gun, but I get really nervous before flying."
- Missmoneysterling
Slower Living
"Time! I spent time abroad in Italy for school, and there was just so much less of a 'rush' everywhere. Oftentimes the latest person to my classes were professors. Everyone really took their time and I didn't really feel the bustle of constantly 'going' somewhere when I was there."
"I mean, dang, the village my apartment was located in shut down for a few hours in the afternoon so the shopkeepers could go have lunch. It was wild."
- SpaceMush
University-Bound
"Affordable universities… our daughter is going to university in Scotland. Our US friends always respond with shock at the 'luxury' of going overseas for school until I tell them it’s half of the cost of an equivalent US college. That includes travel expenses."
- Crafty-Arachnid6824
Accessible Public Transportation
"This blew me away traveling in Europe. It doesn’t matter where you are, even if it’s some middle-of-nowhere farm town, you’re never far from a train station, and you can just hop a train and go anywhere you want."
"I would love to have that here, but noooo, we only have rail links between some major cities, and since I live in a more rural area, I have to drive four or more hours everywhere. In Europe, all I had to do was drive 20 minutes to a train station and then just chill on the train for a few hours. It was great!"
- SirTophamFat
Well-Balanced Work
"An American friend of ours was gobsmacked that I have a well-paid, head of department level job, don't work unpaid overtime, and get 33 days paid holiday a year, with eight days of public holiday on top."
- Major_Twain
Extensive Travel
"They can travel between different countries in Europe without spending days driving or flying."
- WhimsicalGrenade
"And without border controls or checkups! I can just sit in a car here in Germany and drive to France and all the other EU countries, just realizing I’m in another country because of the traffic signs."
"Once I sat in a Train and slept in, after like 30 minutes I woke up, got off the Train, and realized I’m in Enschede, Netherlands. (Living in NRW, so pretty close to the border). I was like Hm, okay, I've got 50€ in my pocket, so I decided to visit a coffee shop and walk a bit through the City until the next Train in the right direction arrived. Like I’d do in every other City while traveling by train."
- DisguisedAccount
Publicly Acceptable
"Being able to walk around town with a beer is awesome."
"Public transportation in non-huge cities is also awesome."
- ooo-ooo-oooyea
Bathroom Conditions
"Bathroom stalls that actually go to the floor. I don’t need to know what shoes the guy taking a s**t next to me has on."
- maxncheese67
"Don't forget the intentional gaps on the doors."
- jensbert
E. All of the Above.
"Healthcare. Life work balance. Walkable communities. Great train service."
- zunzarella
Legitimate Sick Days
"I recently read a post about an American residential doctor who couldn't afford to take a vacation because they had to spend it on sick days."
"Not going to lie, my brain short-circuited at that a bit. Was a doctor supposed to come sick to a hospital full of other sick people to avoid personal financial penalties?"
- HQMorganstern
Paid Parental Leave
"Paid parental leave. I had used all of my leave with my first kid, so when I had another kid a year and a half later, I was back on my feet teaching in under six weeks."
"Dogs get better treatment than working mothers."
- ElegantGoose
The Need of a Car
"Not having to use a car every single time that you leave your house... For a lot of people, you have to go drive somewhere to safely take a walk... This place can be a h**l, and it is numbing."
- _aelius
It's All About Perspective
"As a European, I'm amazed how you guys (Americans) are looking at certain things I consider basic needs as luxuries."
- FridgeParade
As the final Redditor pointed out, it's terrible to think that Americans see what others view as basic necessities as a luxury that they can only dream of having.
A recent forum on Reddit demonstrated that "shocking" is in the eye of the beholder.
Particularly, the thread asked users to focus on the rituals and practices practiced in cultures all around the world. Redditors came to enlighten others with some far-out practices--usually involving pain inflicted on the vulnerable--that many cultures still deem ethical and significant.
Of course, priorities and ethics change with time and geography, so plenty of horrified commentary made its way into those explanations.
desi_londoner asked, "Which human culture or practice has shocked you the most?"
Many Redditors chose to focus on the plight of women and girls.
All too often, it seems, the female body is the expendable battleground on which religious ritual, male ecstasy, and societal greed rests.
A Well-Known Issue
"In high school I did a project on Somalia and read about the process of female circumcision (aka genital mutilation) and how when it was time to consummate the marriage sometimes they'd need to carve it open with a knife so the man could fit."
"Makes me feel uneasy just thinking about it."
-- Content_red
How Is This Happening So Much?
"Child brides.wtf." -- Ultraviolethead
"Literally makes me sob every time I read stories about them. Being forced into a marriage before you can even really think for yourself. :( -- Dolphinkush
Even Televised
"Beauty Pageants for Kids. Seems so creepy" -- Naweezy
"Idk how they're legal?? They seem quite manipulated by their parents at such a young age it's honestly sad..." -- thevibesaretrash
"In the same vein."
"This weird fixation on "barely legal" or just really young girls as some 'pinnacle of beauty' "
"As a dude in his mid twenties, the idea of dating an 18 year old, sort of grosses me out to be honest. I don't understand how there's a bunch of 50 year old men, drooling over 18 year olds. They're basically children." -- anooblol
Rites of passage are also a commons site of shocking physical abuse.
Often imposed on young boys as they enter puberty, these rituals are still a heavy blow dealt to a largely powerless, vulnerable person.
Bullets For Manhood
"I always thought insemination rituals were bizarre af."
"Took a cultural anthropology course in college that briefly touched of different insemination rituals—usually semen is rubbed on skin or ingested by coming-of-age boys as a ritual to become men."
"Some cultures have other bizarre rites of passage—one comes to mind, in the Amazon there's a group that engages in pain rituals with bullet ants."
And I Just Wanted to Get On the Right Bus
"Spartans sending small boys out to hunt, kill and terrorize slaves. The most skilled boys from military training (which began at age 7) went out into the wilderness armed with a knife as low as age 12"
"they were expected to sleep during the day and hunt and murder slaves on their farms at night"
Lastly, there were rituals that actually involved the killing of another human being.
However the culture in question justify the act, Redditors can't believe it happens.
"Severed From Live Victims"
"Muti murders or medicine murders. In several African countries, people believe that medicine made from human body parts is especially effective. From The New York Times:"
"Muti murders, especially of children, remain disturbingly common; South Africa's police investigate an average of about one a month [...]"
"The killings follow a pattern. A client approaches a healer, who orders a third person to collect body parts. A hand in a shop's doorway supposedly attracts customers; genitals allegedly enhance virility or fertility; fat from a stomach is prescribed to ensure a good harvest."
"Lore says parts severed from live victims are most potent because their screams awaken supernatural powers. Parts from children are considered especially strong."
-- Aqquila89
Difficult to Wrap One's Head Around
"I've watched a fair amount of documentaries about honour killings and it disgusts me that people could value their perceived 'reputation' more than their own blood relatives."
"The fact that they can kill (and usually in very brutal fashion) their own daughters/nieces/sisters/cousins in order to protect their fragile ego and supposed 'honour' is just sickening to me."
"What makes it even worse is that they are supposedly trying to preserve their honour by committing one of the most dishonourable acts one can commit. Anyone who partakes in such a heinous practice is worse than scum and deserves the harshest possible punishment."
Wanted: Leopardmen
"The Leopardmen of Guyana select a victim and then kill them by stuffing various herbs deep into every one of their orifices. After the family buries the person, the Leopardmen come and dig up the corpse and rebury it in a place convenient for them."
"They leave it to rot a while and then come back with long reeds that the poke into the ground and into the corpse to drink the juice produced by the rotting body. They believe this gives them special powers, like shapeshifting."
"They usually eventually get really sick and die young. The populace have carved special wood clubs with spikes to kill Leopardmen with."
-- paracelsus53
Of course, it is very important to avoid superimposing our own system of ethics and cultural priorities onto another culture, especially societies so much older than ours.
And yet, it's clearly difficult for people to hold back their shocked impressions.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
We have been socialized to be a certain way without thinking about the reasons behind them.
But when you really think about the logic behind certain behaviors or protocols, they don't seem to make much sense.
For instance, some people believe that a morning person is somehow more morally superior – yet there is no evidence to suggest that is true. It's just a longheld assumption that needs to go by way of the Dodo.
Curious to hear about people's opinions, Redditor stocdave asked:
"Which cultural norms have been around for FAR too long?"
Corporate Culture
There are some cultural norms at the office that employees can stand to get rid of.
Salary Status
"At least in the US, not talking about how much you make. Your bosses can't fire you for it but everyone thinks they can."
We Are Gathered Here Today For Nothing In Particular
"Meetings that clearly could have been an email."
"I've had meeting invites where the description of what the meeting was about was enough to not need to have the meeting. Like wtf did you not read what you typed?"
"It usually winds up being a way to blindside people with something."
Nobody's Beeswax
"Having to explain why you're taking a day off. Never made sense to me."
"Whenever I told my scheduler I needed a day off, they always asked me 'why' and I always answered 'it doesn't matter why, I'm using my time off for this.'"
"When I became the scheduler, I always stopped people when they started going into detail why they need their time off. I don't care if you're gonna go sit on the couch for a day or steal the Declaration of Independence, if you ask for time off, I'm gonna try to make it happen."
Meeting A Quota
"The 40 hour work week."
"Even worse when you feel like 10 hours of those 40 are just pure waste, the meeting about the meeting."
World Of Retail
Consumers and store employees alike have their share of frustrations.
Short Life Expectancy
"Big ticket items like cars and appliances arent expected to last longer than 3-7 years."
– KenJyi30
"For appliances I've learned just buy the bare bones ones without lots of fancy stuff. They tend to last way longer and are usually cheaper."
– Poctah
Unpopular Store Policy
"That the customer is always right."
"As somebody who does customer service for a very large Bank I 100% agree with this statement. The level of entitlement and the victimhood mentality is absolutely astonishing."
Looking Productive
"The idea in service jobs that you have to stand and look busy your entire shift because sitting down makes you look lazy."
Making A Point
"Going to work when you're sick to 'prove you're a hard worker'. All you've proven is that you don't care about your coworkers."
"No One Told Me!"
"Bank customer service is especially vile. Like for the people who work. 'No one told me!' Is so f'king common when you tell them they're negative by dreads of dollars because they kept swiping their card even though they had only $100 at the start of their weekend."
"The other day I had to tell a customer that because he had signed up for debit card advance and kept swiping his card he went waaaay into the negative. 'But they didn't tell me I had that!' Really? Because there's paperwork with your damn signature on it saying you wanted DCA."
Keeping Up With Appearances
These Redditors are beside themselves about certain things regarding one's aesthetics.
Fashion Flaw
"Chicks not having pockets. I'm over here right now with a full water bottle, a phone, a map, earbuds, and a swiss army knife, and every woman that I meet has barely enough room to put their hands in their pockets. They are missing out big time."
A Certain Sacrifice
"Long hair is unprofessional, specifically on men. As a dude in my twenties about to enter the workforce, I hate the idea that I will definitely have to cut my luxurious locks because apparently I can't both have long hair AND be competent at my job."
– LosJoye
Some Clothing Is Optional
"That a man can go walking around without a shirt on regardless of the size of his breasts meanwhile women cannot in a lot of places. Not that I want to, but damn it I want the opportunity if I feel like it."
Horrible Stigma
"The idea that autism eather means that you are a dumbass or the smartest person alive. At school nobody I've told about it has reasonable expectations. Always eather babying me when I do bad on a test or thinking I'm the next fucking Steven hawlking when I get a ten."
– Truegr
It Ain't Always Nasty
"Being weirded out by sex/thinking it's taboo. Or thinking everything with the human body is sexual. I think if we were honest about sex, there'd be less teenage pregnancy going on."
"There'd still be some, but I imagine there'd be less."
Growing up as an Asian American, I always found it to be demoralizing to bow to anyone. Yet I couldn't escape it for fear of being judged by my own community if I didn't bow out of respect.
As my rebellious phase dissipated as I grew older, I believe bowing is not a social norm that bothers me as much as it used to. It's a cultural gesture I find to be humbling and refined.
Not to mention – in the age of the pandemic – I much prefer slightly lowering my head to rubbing elbows on the street in lieu of shaking hands.
But that's just me.