People Break Down The Things That Are Normal In Their Country But Weird In Another
Traveling beyond our border countries is a great way to experience different cultures.
While there are many things we have in common with people from around the world, there are as equally–if not more–customs and protocols that can be jarring.
Curious to hear from those who've seen how those in other parts of the world live, Redditor ElizaPaukova asked:
"Which is normal in your country, but strange in another?"Want to "know" more?
People's interactions with animals depend on where they live.
What's Hopping?
"Getting your car smashed in by a kangaroo one day, then having your suspension wrecked by a wombat two weeks later."
– QuantumTopology
Foul Fellows
"Being terrified of common neighbourhood birds every spring."
– Pseudonymico
Arach-NO
"Spiders the size of softballs that live in your house and are good at getting rid of bugs."
– I_hate_people69
A Tame Transport
"Bagged milk and riding a moose to the store."
– kotaska-
These foreign concepts may take a while getting used to.
Unattended Little Ones
"leaving babies outside!"
"It is common to put babies to sleep in a stroller and leave them in the garden or balcony, even outside a café (if you can sit next to the door or windows, so you can see the stroller)."
– PossiblyTrustworthy
They Tell Us When To Go
"Calling traffic lights 'robots.'"
– Upset-Sea6029
What's In A Name
"We call randoms mate and our mates c*nts."
– Skydome12
Effective Meds
"Custom meds. I recently found out that in most countries, you can't just go into a pharmacy / drug store with a prescription and have the pharmacist prepare a set of pills / ointment / cream for you."
"I used to have severe dandruff problems, went into a pharmacy and asked for something. The pharmacist asked how severe / for how long / what kind of shampoo I have and how greasy my hair is and told me to come back two days later. She handed me a container with a cream-like substance in it which just had a handwritten label on with saying '[My name] - Dandruff Shampoo'. I paid the equivalent of $4 and was told to use it twice a week for no longer than a month."
"Never had any problems with dandruff since. I made a post about it in r/tifu about how I'd been neglecting my dandruff problems for years while it had such an easy fix and people kept PMing me about the brand of the drug. Everyone was incredulous that the pharmacist made the shampoo for me, and I found out that this isn't the norm in a lot of countries."
– Corvus_Manufaktura
Bottoms Up
"Bringing the leftover alcohol you brought to a party home. I live in Norway and a beer is anywhere from £3 to £5. Hard liquor is atleast £40 per litre, but for something that doesn't taste like hand sanitizer it's around £50-60."
– jespersolost
Birthday Ritual
"Celebrating birthdays while sitting in a big circle in the living room, eating small blocks of cheese, little sausages and pickles, then going home on your bicycle."
– Vonne_F
Varying states of undress do not phase certain people in other countries.
Barefootin'
"Doing P.E barefoot, I'm from South Africa and moved to Scotland 3 years ago as I left the changing room they were like 'you forgot your shoes my guy' and I was like 'oh yeah, you guys wear shoes for p.e?' And the guy said 'Uhm of course' then I realised they were indoors majority of the time which was f'king bonkers to me because p.e in South Africa is done on the grass, outside and stuff and shoes were optional unless you were doing a sport or something."
"I mean even during sports events some people do that sh*t barefoot like long jump or high jump or even running and I feel like I run faster barefoot than with shoes so if I did a race I would always go 'alright well I'm up time to get my shoes off.'"
–jaknuggetf'k
Comfy In The Buff
"Nudity among strangers."
"I'm Finnish."
"#sauna"
– LupusCutis
Shoe-Free Zone
"Walking around bare foot, or in your pyjamas."
– Genderless_mystery
Not tipping will still be very confusing to me when traveling abroad.
I caught myself leaving a tip for the excellent service at a restaurant in Japan, and remembering the country–and most other parts of the world–do not accept tips.
Yet, their service was exceptional compared to that of the servers at some establishments in the US–where service is incentivized with the promise of a tip. Go figure.
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Not everything is a good idea and not every invention should be placed on the market.
But you'll never know what can be a success without seeing if people like it.
It may sound like a billion dollar idea but in the end, you may take a loss.
Redditor istrx13 wanted to discuss the products that went nowhere, so they asked:
"What product was supposed to be the next big thing but wound up failing miserably?"
Life is all hit or miss.
Especially when inventing.
Transport Revolution
"The Segway was once touted as a revolutionary transportation device, but ultimately failed to live up to its hype due to its high cost, limited practicality, and safety concerns."
fulfillmen25
Drunk Fried Chicken GIF by Ethan BarnowskyGiphyShattered
"Google Glass."
doublebankshot
"I dropped I think it was $1400 on it back then, and when I got them it was immediately obvious that they were going to be a huge disappointment; everything from UI to battery life to comfort to photo quality was so bad that my first impression was that they felt almost like a joke product rather than an actual product manufactured by a tech company, not even an early developer version."
ds445
A great idea...
"Zune was supposed to be the death of Apple's monopoly on MP3 players."
HoopOnPoop
"Zune actually wasn't a bad piece of hardware. It was just that by the time it came out, iPod was already entrenched. It was around the same price, so it couldn't undercut Apple on pricing. ZunePass was actually a pretty great idea, years before Spotify."
Wulfbak
"My favorite thing about Zune is that it featured what was actually a pretty cool and interesting design feature wherein a user could send a song to another Zune user for free, but Microsoft chose the single worst possible name for this feature, calling it 'squirting.' Zune kids back in the day had to be like 'Ayyy bro that song is fire, squirt that at me.'"
HostileSkittles
Fly High
"Hoverboards. I think their primary problem was their lack of ability to hover. Also 300 ish dollars for something that goes as fast as... legs is just dumb."
IceClimbers_Main
"Their main downfall was the many, many cheap and dangerous clones from china. When the OG hoverboards were too expensive for most, the big Chinese companies saw a hole to get into the market making them for pennies on the dollar by removing safety devices, using cheaper batteries, lower gauge wire, etc. It was for the worst."
ptthree420
Entertainment Options
"Curved TVs… oh and 3D TVs we’re a thing for a while too!"
Sherlockssocks
"I own a curved 3D TV. I've probably used the 3D less than a hundred times. I think if they'd pushed the spilt screen gaming thing a bit more they would have sold more."
Signal-Morning7669
Shake Your Rump Television GIF by Beastie BoysGiphyThose curved TVs freak me out.
I just liked my DVD
"Laser discs...? I think they were called. Picture a DVD the size of a record."
Drawn-Otterix
"Laserdiscs were successful, they're just an obsolete format now."
Born_Anteater_3495
digital audio spinning GIF by Feliks Tomasz KonczakowskiGiphyCleansed
"Olestra/Olean. It was going to transform all junk food into low fat. Instead, it transformed lower GI tracts."
1800sMan
"OMG this! Around 1998 I worked for a huge ad agency on Madison Ave in NYC that had the Pringles account. They were pushing that Olestra trash at the time and obvi it was to be part of the campaign we were creating. One day I grab a can and start munching away."
"Well 15 minutes later I feel like I’ve swallowed a hand grenade and start racing to the bathroom where I proceed to destroy the bathroom for a good half hour. It just would not stop. I swear I saw a demon that day while emptying my poor bowels. Never ever again with that Olestra garbage."
bruh_wut69
Guess What?
"Oh man this is really specific to my career field in childcare."
"Smart diapers. Yep, diapers that will inform you on your app when your child uses them. I don’t know anyone who seriously considered getting these. But I remember seeing ads on my social media for them. Guess what? No one wanted them."
Onlyfansnanny
"As a law student, my son worked on getting the patent and prototype on these a little over ten years ago. At the time, however, they were being marketed to nursing homes. IDK whatever happened with that."
Ok-Bee1579
The Mess
"Meta."
SuperScario
"I finally decided to look up what meta was on Youtube a few months ago and I swear I thought I was watching some Nintendo wii game or something. My jaw hit the floor when I realized that's what meta actually looked like, billions of dollars for a Nintendo looking world, what a f**king dumpster fire."
twister55555
Bute Sized
"Quibi."
chyna094e
"Part of it was the worst timing imaginable. The service was meant to be 'bite sized' entertainment, something you could watch in 5 minutes while standing in a queue or maybe a couple segments on a public transit ride."
"They launched the first week of April 2020. Remember all the queues you were standing in and public transit rides you took then? Yeah, the same as everyone else - NONE because 95% of the population was stuck at home for 6 months!"
alinroc
Minis...
"Spore. It was hyped as a game that went from spark of life to galactic conquest. It's just a bunch of mini games."
rosanymphae
College Hoops Sport GIF by NCAA March MadnessGiphyI missed the spore phenomenon.
Oh well.
When in public with your significant other, we all try to play nice, but people don't always know who is and who is not together.
So their is no reason to incite a brawl if someone flirts with your person.
But it can be difficult to sit back and watch.
Is there a calm etiquette for these situations?
Redditor Hot_Wine_2004 wanted to hear from the guys out there, so they asked:
"Men of reddit, what would be your response to a guy who suddenly starts flirting with your girl?"
I've always let a partner handle their own flirts.
Just like I do.
Thanks
"Had a guy buy our margaritas when my GF ordered them for us at the counter. I thanked him from across the restaurant, free margaritas taste better."
whiskeyriver0987
Episode 2 Margarita GIF by FriendsGiphySweet
"I’d step in and say something. Not because I feel I need to or because my wife can’t handle herself, but because I know her and she likes the feeling of being looked after. I know this because she’s told me."
Psycle_Sammy
"That’s very sweet. Just because you can stand strong doesn’t mean you should always have to. It’s good to know you have backup whether that’s your friends or your husband."
mickbubbles
Give Move Guy
"My wife had a guy offer to buy her drink and when she said she was married he said something to the effect of 'Then let me buy the lucky man his drink instead.' Which I thought was a great way to handle it, and gets you a bar friend most of the time since the guy gets a free drink, and if he is jealous or protective will respond better because he didn't buy her a drink after all."
WurthWhile
I Get It
"Nothing, She is beautiful and I get it. When she shoots them down and they keep trying is when I would step in because its harassments at that point and that is a problem."
To_Fight_The_Night
"Exactly. I had a customer invite my wife on a helicopter ride the other day, totally trying to chat her up. When he asked what she did there she just pointed at me and said 'I’m just hanging out, I’m married to him.' You could see him deflate like a balloon."
Nippon-Gakki
"Yep. My wife's a grown adult and can handle her own."
Kiss my Wife
"I looked at the dude and said 'sorry dude you are not my sister's type' then I immediately kiss my wife. We are both blonde so people think we are related all the time lol."
sled-gang
Let Me Go Love GIF by 3 Doors DownGiphyKeeping it in the family is healthy.
Hey Stud
"Ask him if he’s down for a 3 way to make him uncomfortable."
Smellmyhand
"Plot twist - dude is bi and is totally down for that."
RandomJPG6
Ice Cream Summer GIF by MochimochilandGiphyShe Got It
"I once let my girlfriend handle a situation on her own, and the thing I learned in the process is that it takes a woman a lot more work to deter an aggressive guy."
"As soon as I stepped in, Handsy McNoboundaries apologized to me. Not the stranger whose a** he touched and complimented. She absolutely could handle the situation on her own, and my first impulse was not to treat her like a possession some other guy was touching. But on some level it feels I was condoning the behaviour."
ClusterMakeLove
Trust
"My wife constantly gets hit on.I don't care if men hit on her. I trust her completely and have since the start she has never given me a reason not to trust her."
"When we used to goto the bar together she would get hit on. Guy's would offer to buy her drinks, she would always tell them my drink of choice."
"After she gets the drinks she would thank them walk away then hand the drink to me."
"If people don't respect her boundaries that's where I step in. We have never had any bad experiences with men hitting on her. Normally once they see her with me they basically just walk away."
Islefive
They Get the Idea
"It depends on the situation. Most the time I think good luck man, hope she doesn’t embarrass you. I know she’s coming home with me at the end of the day."
"If the guy is obviously creepy and making her uncomfortable, I typically step in and make sure he gets the point."
"I’m not a small guy so they usually get the idea."
"I don’t really care for confrontation or violence, but with that said, I won’t tolerate someone harassing my wife or making her uncomfortable."
assa9sks
Beautiful
"My wife is gorgeous in my eyes, but she is incredibly hard on herself. After kids, antidepressants, and being 20 years older than she was when we started dating she doesn’t always see that she’s the most beautiful person for me. Someone else gonna start talking her up and wants to get in her pants? I’d just tell her I told you so."
fuqaduck
beautiful happy endings GIFGiphyThe ladies got it handled and so do the men apparently.
The audience must be engaged from the start. Filmmakers have the challenge of quickly trying to win over moviegoers in the hopes that they'll remain invested in the succession of events about to unfold.
Some films fail to deliver on their promise of wowing audiences with a misleading or clumsy opening–while others brilliantly pull it off.
Strangers online discussed some of their favorite films when Redditor ah-screw-it asked:
"What movie has the greatest opening of all time?"
These cinematic masterpieces impressed audiences from the get-go.
Epic Pan
"Contact."
"Starting at Earth, then panning out of the solar system, then the galaxy, then out to the edge of the universe, all while listening to older and older radio transmissions. Genius."
– Midnight-Ran
The Dystopian Thriller
"Children of mens opening scene is definitely up there."
– Ahhhsnowmen88
"Whole film is a work of art."
– nutmeggerking
"Goodfellas"
"As far back as I remember, I always wanted to be a gangster"
– geobass76
"People looked at me differently and they knew I was with somebody. At thirteen, I was making more money than most of the grown-ups in the neighborhood. I mean, I had more money than I could spend. I had it all. One day the kids from the neighborhood carried my mother's groceries all the way home. You know why? It was out of respect."
– MR_NIKAPOPOLOS
Oh, the horror!
There's nothing like a serious jolt to kick-start an action or horror flick.
Killer Opening
"Scream 1996 - I was startled."
– RavenGirls
"What really sold the opening at the time was the fact they really played up Drew Barrymore as starting in the film. So much so that she’s the main draw on the poster. The entire theater was shocked."
– Cheese_booger
From "Inglorious Bastards"
"Au revoir Shoshana!"
– fearthebeard037
"Tarantino said he kept Waltz out of all the rehearsals so that the reactions from the cast on film would be genuine."
"And one point when he asks one of the daughters to get him some milk, he grabs her wrist is a friendly way. Waltz later said that his character had the ulterior motives of checking her pulse to see if she was nervous. The subtly of his character was as terrifying as anything."
– UnfairMicrowave
Master of Shock Value
"Tarantino openings are, by and large, some of the most iconic there have ever been."
– throwdownhardstyle
The establishing shots in these iconic movie classics raised the bar for the next generation of film directors.
Trippy And Mind-Bending
"The Matrix."
– Living_Murphys_Law
"Screenwriter guy: We're gonna start the movie with some cops trying to arrest this lady Trinity and she's gonna kick all their butts."
"Producer guy: How is she gonna do that?"
"Screenwriter guy: In such a way that movies are gonna try to imitate for a full decade."
– Wilma_Tonguefit
Iconic Archaeologist
"Raiders of the Lost Ark!!"
"No contest. It’s movie magic defined."
– canadianleroy
Spielberg's War Film
"Saving Private Ryan."
– astragalblack
"I knew a few survivors from ww2. One of them was a medic in the first wave of Omaha beach. He didn’t speak often about the war but he said the movie was pretty darn close to being what it was really like."
– EnderOfHope
A Gangster Genre Landmark
"The Godfather. That opening scene with Brando, the cat, the music. Just perfection!."
– REAIMY
Don't underestimate cartoons.
"It's The Circle Of Life"
"Lion king"
– wetlettuce42
"Using that opening as the movie's official trailer was absolutely brilliant. When that trailer dropped, it was an event. Every kid was counting down the days for when it came out, we all knew that movie was going to be life-changing."
– QuarantineTitans
When Reality And Toons Collided
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit was classic!"
– prince-pauper
"The transition from cartoon to the real world cartoon kitchen was so well done."
– Spongedanfozpants
Disney films in the 90s did a fantastic job setting up their opening shots.
I have to give props to 1991's Beauty and the Beast for its brilliant prologue–owing its effectiveness in part to Alan Menken's haunting musical underscore.
The stained glass art depiction of how the spiteful prince came to be forever transformed by a curse with the narrator concluding the introduction with, "for who could ever learn to love a beast"–before introducing our heroine in the musical number "Belle"–remains a powerful opener preceding Lion King's "Circle of Life" in 1994.
No matter how happy we are with our lives, most of us can think of at least one thing that we wish we could have done differently.
Even if that just means starting to do the same things a little bit sooner.
Feeling reflective, Redditor AbortiveBases1 asked:
"What's something you wish you started doing sooner?"
Letting People Go
"Learning that just because someone is your friend for a long time doesn't mean you have to deal with their toxicity or narcissistic behavior."
"You can leave those friendships. It sucks at first but it's worse staying friends with people like that."
- SadStone2265
Getting Divorced
"My mom and dad got divorced in 2022 when my siblings and I were all between the ages of 27 and 31."
"We couldn't be happier. It could (and should) have happened way earlier, like 10 to 15 years earlier. Our childhood definitely suffered for it."
"I have no complaints about my mom, she's the best lady ever, but things would've been a lot more pleasant at home if they divorced then."
- doomed_danny
Creative Outlet
"Making things."
"I 3D print, do woodwork, and do home renovations. It’s made me more self-confident (I now usually believe I can do anything), more creative, and changed the way my brain works."
"I can’t imagine what kind of person I’d be today if I had been doing this all throughout my 20s."
- AirZurk
Sugar Intake
"Weaning myself off sugar."
- CouldMurderACarvery
The Perfect Partner
"My wife. She's the granddaughter of a friend of my aunt, so I could have met her a lot sooner, but we only met when I was 29."
"The way we clicked together and got lost in conversation with each other... I only wish it had started sooner."
- netheroth
"You can't guarantee that you would have clicked earlier."
"It was the same with my wife, I had met a bunch of her close friends over the years through friends and vice versa. There are pictures of us at the same events when we were 17, 18, and 20, but we just never met. Ships passing in the night."
"We met finally at 29 and realized we had all the things in common and clicked immediately and are happily married with a beautiful two-year-old."
"Looking back, had we met at 17, I don't think we would have gotten together. We both had a lot of growing to do before we were right for each other."
- sirhcdobo
Ditch the Hustle
"Focusing on friends instead of the grind."
"I worked two jobs through the 2010s. As a freelance digital artist at night, I made a lot of 'friends' through conventions, online chat groups, and social media."
"However, the pandemic hit, and the conventions closed. Freelance business dried up. Our clients disappeared. With my evenings more open, I focused more intently on ascending in my day job, and now only have one or two contacts left from my digital art years."
"They're all I have left. And we don't even talk that much."
"I'm working on rebuilding a friends circle, trying to reconnect with everyone who still remembers me, lives close enough, and didn't die years ago unbeknownst."
"It's an awkward process, trying to again find similar interests now that everyone has a wife, kids, and home to take care of, while I seem to have dropped out of a time portal from 2003."
- QuarantineTitans
Understanding Mental Health
"My wife."
"But seriously, endorphins."
"And understanding the importance of endorphins on mental health."
"Even a small amount of physical activity has a major improvement on my mental health, energy, and moods."
- ksozay
Work History
"I wish I'd started working sooner."
"My mom sent me money for food and essentials while I was in college because she said a job would just distract me from getting good grades. Unfortunately, she simply forgot to send the money, a lot."
- stellathewizard
Home Yoga Sessions
"At-home yoga. It's free AND my back doesn't hurt anymore!"
- mekkimegz
Prioritizing Sleep
"Enforcing my own bedtime. My mood is 1,000% better on days when I get enough sleep."
- lights_camera_pizza
The Value of Therapy
"Therapy. Seriously, if you are considering seeing a therapist, then just do it."
- Avjycjc8ttghu478
Exercise Routine
"Two-a-day workouts. Once you figure out intensity pacing and treating one as a 'light' workout, it’s not hard."
"Getting up at 5:30 most days isn’t awesome, but I get 14, 45-min hits of exercise almost every week, and I’ve never had as much energy, positivity, and overall health. Plus, weight management-wise, I can eat d**n near anything I want to. I had a 'mostly' clean diet before, so I wasn’t going bonkers. But it makes eating pretty enjoyable."
- superstarrrr99
Better Self-Talk
"Replacing self-depreciative jokes with sarcastic compliments on myself."
"For example, instead of saying, 'My hair looks like something died in it,' say, 'I was born a queen. Look how great I look on a bad hair day too!'"
"Fake it till you make it kinda works. Eventually, I'm not feeling as insecure about myself as I used to."
- saagarammm
Sentimental Photos
"Taking pictures with my husband and kids. I hate the way I look in pictures so usually, I’m the one behind the camera. It wasn’t until last year that I read a post here on Reddit that made me change my way of thinking."
"It said something along the lines of, kids don't see wrinkles, extra fat, or bad hair. You know, all the things we nitpick about ourselves. They just see Mom."
- Dazzling-Nature-6380
The Next Phase
"Retirement. Did it at 68 but was enjoying running my own publishing business, so I stayed on."
"Now in retirement, I’m having a blast doing so many things I never previously had time for that I wish I’d taken the plunge at 60, or earlier. (Let that be a lesson to all you young ‘uns out there.)"
- SkepticalSenior9133
While it's so easy to regret things in our lives, sometimes it's important to think about the things we're doing right.
Sometimes we'll be so proud of what we're doing, we'll only regret not getting a jump on it sooner.