Top 10 Things Europeans Find Strange About America

[Skanky Vamp]

literal psychopaths.

Unrelated to texting but I read a recent study that correlated black coffee drinkers to psychopaths. By black coffee drinkers of course I mean coffee drinkers who prefer their beverage without sugar or cream, not like... nevermind. The report shows that the bitter taste performances are positively associated with sadism and psychopathy traits.

 

[nightshade]

I haven't been to America in a few years, but the amount of people that drove while on their phones was crazy, it's illegal here to use a phone while driving.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Has thanksgiving happened? It isn't that I'd want to celebrate it but I was wondering that if it occurs because the Native Americans gave food to the Puritans, what then do the Native Americans celebrate and with what?

 

[Athena]

I found the lack of chip and pin in America strange, because we've had it here for years so signing for a card purchase is a thing of the past, but whenever I've visited the States I've had to sign receipts. It's bizarre.

That and having to pay for petrol (aka gas) before you fill up. Here most petrol stations are "pay at pump" or you just pay after you fill up. How do you know how much petrol you need to fill the tank?

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

That and having to pay for petrol (aka gas) before you fill up. Here most petrol stations are "pay at pump" or you just pay after you fill up. How do you know how much petrol you need to fill the tank?

I drove from coast to coast, and there was like a different deal each time. Like, I had to go into the counter and ask how stuff is done at this particular pet-- gas station, and they act like I am the only person who'd ever had to ask. And then you can go back and get them to adjust the price for you. I ended up always over-paying for the least amount of hassle.

 

[thetopher]

Apparently Americans will put anything on a pizza. Broccoli! Broccoli on a pizza? Kale? Insanity! Insanity so it is.

 

[Taake]

Apparently Americans will put anything on a pizza. Broccoli! Broccoli on a pizza? Kale? Insanity! Insanity so it is.

I hear pickles is the new trend! Pickle pizza, either you hate or love it. I won't judge though, banana-curry pizza is our contribution to pizza history.

Also, broccoli and kale go great on pizza, but then, I'll put kale on just about Everything.

 

[Last Watcher]

Why is BBC always going in like every country?? I could be in Italy or France or Germany and I will always find like 3 BBC channels. Don’t Italy or France or Germany have their own big news conglomerate?

I used to work for an Airline & we needed to keep an eye on world news in case something happened that meant we needed to divert a flight (Earthquake, flood, Terror attack, etc).
We had a big screen TV in the office that had 3 different news channels on split screen going 24 hour a day. These were CNN world service (or whatever they call it), The BBC News 24, and Al Jazeera 24.
Of these......
CNN was fine as long as you understood that 'World' only meant the landmass commonly known as the U.S.A! Anything that happens on those strange lumps of rock outside America's borders was only really covered if it might effect America in some way......or was sensational enough to make a good 'Headline'.

The BBC, was normally the first one to break a News story as it has a vast network of international reporters that feed into it. But it could be accused of being a tad biased at times & often suffered from making the truly horrific seem somewhat mundane with its typical British understatement.

Al Jazeera was normally a lot slower on the uptake of a story, but we found often gave the most balanced viewpoint & tended not to censor the full horror of the World we live in today.


As for the non-News-y stuff...….two words Dr Who!

Plus no one makes 'Costume Dramas' like us Brits......apparently 😉

…...or Comedy shows....

….or Wildlife Docs.....

😀

 

[Mrs Gordo]

The chip is becoming pretty common practice here but it took our retailers longer to get there for some reason.

It's been a long time since I didn't pay at the pump for gas. But it's true that I'd you are paying with cash you need to pay first. I guess we are a dishonest punch and if you allow people to pump Willy Molly without paying they will get slot of pump and runs. It's only on rare occasions when the machine is busted or it's a small town with an old school gas pump that I still have to go pay inside with my credit card.

 

[Mrs Gordo]

OMG this new phone is driving me nuts. I cannot type on it! I'm sorry. I swear I speak English....lol

 

[EarthLogic]

I guess we are a dishonest punch and if you allow people to pump Willy Molly without paying they will get slot of pump and runs.

OMG this new phone is driving me nuts. I cannot type on it! I'm sorry. I swear I speak English....lol

LOL. Honestly, at first I thought you were slipping into some kind of local Texan slang!

And actually the more I read it the more I'm starting to love that sentence. I think I'm gonna put it on my profile. 😉

 

[nightshade]

When I was driving in Minnesota I had no clue in the beginning about how to pay for it, some I went in and paid first, some I had to fill up and then pay and one time someone came and fill it up for me!

 

[Skanky Vamp]

one time someone came and fill it up for me!

Did you tip them?

 

[ILLYRIAN]

I always found that to be unhuman, having to tip a person, why don't the Americans get themselves a Prime Minister who actually cares enough about Americans to give them a decent wage. Mind you I saw a thread that said of slavery being abolished, bullshit. A person having to work for no money that is akin to slavery, so how is what an intern does get described?

 

[AnthonyCordova]

Interesting thread! I would add to this discussion the point that an outsider's experience of America to a certain extent depends on where you visit. Regional differences matter in some cases (for instance with how nice people are). Spending a week in Seattle versus a week in South Carolina will yield very different experiences on some of the points people discussed above. New York City is a wonderful place to visit, but as I have told other visitors in the past, If all you ever saw of America was NYC I don't think you would get a true sense for American culture and society in general, because I don't think NYC is illustrative of America as a whole. It's a very specific experience.

Now, having said that, if I had to suggest one place in America where you could get the broadest possible experience of America as a whole in one place, I would probably suggest Chicago: it is a large cosmopolitan city, so it is representative of the large urban American experience in general, it has strong working class roots and still has a working class ethos that permeates the city (which some places in America don't have yet some do), it simultaneously has lots of diversity (for example the Albany Park area has something like 84 different nations represented in its citizens) but at the same time there are a lot of "white" people too (the generic mid-western type which in my mind is the closest thing to the default type of person most common in our country), it has a lot of what is typical of suburban sprawl (new suburbs with the generic white picket fence feeling to older suburbs with the brick and mortar type of home), the economy has a very broad spectrum of all things typical of America, etc. I also feel that Chicago displays both the best and worst of Americans on a singular, one-on-one level too (people are nice and polite in the more common ways but they are also used to a very fast paced and aggressive city lifestyle, so you also get to experience the many rude things Americans typically do in such places).

On the other hand, I can think of many things that occur in Chicago that don't occur in other places, so I guess there really is no substitute for visiting lots of different places here if one wants to have the comprehensive and complete American experience.

 

[AnthonyCordova]

Apparently Americans will put anything on a pizza. Broccoli! Broccoli on a pizza? Kale? Insanity! Insanity so it is.

i wouldn't say those are exactly common toppings people put on pizza here, so take heart! Most of what I see are the traditional types of toppings. Broccoli and Kale on a pizza are considered weird here too, don't worry

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I found the lack of chip and pin in America strange, because we've had it here for years so signing for a card purchase is a thing of the past, but whenever I've visited the States I've had to sign receipts. It's bizarre.

That and having to pay for petrol (aka gas) before you fill up. Here most petrol stations are "pay at pump" or you just pay after you fill up. How do you know how much petrol you need to fill the tank?

We finally got the chip things a while back. As far as the gasoline thing goes, here in Denver and most other places it used to be a common thing to pump and then pay back in the past, but I think the problem was that too many people would do what is called a "pump and dash", where they would pump gas and just leave without paying, so that privilege was revoked everywhere (paying after pumping). But most people just pay at the pump now (you put your card in and then pump as much as you need, and only after that are you charged for whatever you got). Rural areas might be different, but I think all of the more urban places are the same.

 

[nightshade]

Did you tip them?

I doubt it! I never understood why everyone needs to be tipped, waiting staff sure, but it seems like everybody expects to be tipped.

@AnthonyCordova I've been to Chicago, wasn't there long so didn't see a huge amount, but thought it was an easy city to navigate.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I doubt it! I never understood why everyone needs to be tipped, waiting staff sure, but it seems like everybody expects to be tipped.

I even tip the people that wash my car and deliver my groceries.

We don't have full service stations here anymore but just thinking on a day like today when it's -7°C might be nice.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

One of the reasons why I hate the tipping fallacy is what percentage of Americans are ignored by the tip debacle. The restaurant that waiters get tips at does everyone who works at the restaurant get a portion of the tip. And what about newspapers and I hate to think the amount of the tip to the real estate agents when a house is bought.
What about those people on sub standard wages in the US (for arguments sake the fast food industry) how can they afford to tip?
And what about the intern, they don't get paid so how can they tip?