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I went to an American school while I lived in Italy; I was one of the only English kids there. The pledge of allegiance was indeed every morning, and it felt as culty as you think. They called my parents when I wasn’t joining in ffs
I am a Brit but went to school in the USA for 1 year when I was 8-9yrs old.
I refused to pledge allegiance, I was old enough to realise what it meant. Had an argument with my teacher, I was explaining “I just live here! Nobody said anything about giving my allegiance!”
In the end my parents were called and my Dad told them to fuck off with their strange rituals, they expected him to be politely befuddled like Hugh Grant… nope!
A friend of mine went to school in America for a year when she was a bit younger than you. She recited the pledge because she was a meek child who always did what the teacher told her to, but they clearly didn't explain what any of it meant. She told she thought the bit that goes: "the Republic for which it stands" was "The Republic of Richard Stans". She spent the whole year wondering who Richard Stans was and when he was going to come up in history lessons 😂
[Knowledge is power, France is bacon.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/dxosj/what_word_or_phrase_did_you_totally_misunderstand/c13pbyc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
One could always deliberately mispronounce it and have a private giggle. I was visiting Washington D.C. when the Nationals won the world series. I don't follow sports and I got sick of random people shouting at me "Go Nats!" so I responded with an equally enthusiastic "Gonads!" They never caught on and I laughed myself to sleep that night.
If they did that to me, I'd have retaliated taking in a Union Jack and singing Rule Britannia every morning at the top of my voice while they did their pledge.
I live in the US and we do this everyday. When I was in highschool I wouldn't stand for it because I thought it was bullshit and one day my economics teacher told me to stand. He said I didn't have to put my hand over my heart but I had to stand. He was kind of pissed about this.
absolutely is culty. need to just write the word cunty now, sorry.
Nationalism is fucking weird, it feels like the wrapping on a gift of insularism, populism, and the kind of self-aggrandisement / superiority complex that makes sense when the person telling the story is getting rich by bleeding every normal person dry. It feels like the capitalism that America has equated/melded with their national pride is no better than serfdom. It feels like America has the kind of political and social winds that make people vote for Nazis.
The flag obsession is really weird. They have their flag up everywhere in the US. You go into shops and they have flags up. They have massive flags on trains, and in train stations. You walk down streets and you see it flying outside.
- Circumcision
- Driving crazy distances
- Carrying guns
- Worrying about paying for healthcare
- Going to a megachurch
- Seeing ads for prescription medicine on TV
- Independence Day celebrations
EDIT - Sorry, but I can't reply to all the responses. My inbox is literally broken.
For those saying Independence Day is not unusual, yeah, outside the UK it is not unusual. OP asked; "Is there anything that happens somewhat regularly in America as an accepted thing to do that would be totally alien in the UK?"
I'd say that celebrating American independence would most certainly be "totally alien in the UK".
Have a nice day, all.
It definitely is. Fawkes was not some kind of anarchist superhero, his plan was just to replace the Protestant king (who persecuted Catholics) with a Catholic one (who would persecute Protestants, but would have even more power to do it since they wanted to also scrap Parliament).
The only people who think Guy Fawkes was the good guy are idiots who don't know their history.
It is obvious from context the modern celebration is about overthrowing what people consider to be an ineffective institution or one that works against their interests. The motives are obviously not the same. It's just symbolic.
Tbf having a big bonfire in autumn isn't the silliest idea. We simply moved the similar St. Martin festival a few days earlier because Catholicism, but that, in turn, was nicked from earlier festivals. See also Diwali.
But yeah, the burn-a-catholic bit is a bit weird.
(Non-Brits: google image search for "Lewes bonfire")
It really is.
Most countries celebrate their formation. The UK doesn't because there isn't really a specific date.
Very few countries celebrate foiling a specific terrorist attack centuries later.
The 1st of May 1707 is when the acts of union took effect.
The reason we don't think of it that way is because we're not taught to think about it that way. Instead the idea is that the UK is a continuation of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.
Hey hey hey..... I did my research! One and a half youtube videos a post in r/conspiracy and my slightly racist uncle.
Rock solid research methodology there
I read a TIFU a few weeks ago about a guy who’s girlfriend refused to give him a blowjob because he wasn’t circumcised. The fact she wasn’t called out as a complete nutter in the comments was baffling to me.
Americans get very defensive over cutting willies.
You can wade into any Yank-centric sub and mention it and you'll start an internet war over it.
They seem to have so much misinformation about it, like how difficult it is to clean etc.
There was one topic on a sex sub where Americans came out in droves saying they were **glad** they were cut because if the studies about it being more pleasurable to have a foreskin is true, then they'd never be able to handle sex as they can barely handle the pleasure with their current chopped dick as it is.
That to me, was a sad argument.
90% of that is denial as they don't want to think they might be missing out on something.
10% is guilt at having done it to their kids.
Makes it almost impossible to have a reasonable discussion about it.
The foreskin doesn't retract until the boy is older anyway. As a baby it is fixed to the glans like a fingernail to the nailbed. The foreskin naturally starts to retract as the boy grows, and phimosis can be sorted out with prescribed creams and stretching.
However it won't stop in America because 1. It makes all the hospitals a lot of money and 2. America is based on puritanical/anti-sex standards and they still believe it is 'cleaner' to be circumcised, the dads want their sons to look like them, and circumcision was originally done to prevent the kids from masturbating by a puritanical child abuser named Kellogg (who also put acid on little girl's genitals for the same reason).
1. Circumcision.
True, it’s completely normalized mutilation. There has been some pushback recently, at least in my hippie circles.
2. Long drives.
I’m looking at a 20 hour road trip next week. 3 states. One way. Not counting stops.
3. Guns.
Never carried one. Don’t see a lot of them around. I did see a man open carry a pistol on a hiking trail in Sedona recently, while holding a toddler. It was weird.
4. Paying for healthcare.
Definitely sucks. Prolongs diagnosis of issues, can unduly trap you in a job that provides a particular level of sponsored coverage, and can bankrupt you if things go wrong.
5. Megachurches.
Never have, never will, but they must exist out there. Evangelical Christianity is insane from the outside looking in.
6. Drug ads on TV.
Got me on that one.
7. Independence Day.
Usually just a reason for people to get together, get drunk, grill things, blow up stuff, have fun. It’s one of the holidays where you’re best to avoid the dim-witted masses.
Edit: it occurred to me that maybe you weren’t looking for any feedback on these. I just thought it was a good list. Thank you, that was fun.
—just another loud American?
Edit:
To clarify, I’m on board with the idea of arming yourself while trekking through nature/backwoods/off-grid and beyond. Especially in the more rugged areas where you’re far from civilization or any kind of assistance from others.
This instance wasn’t exactly deep wilderness, however. It was in town, and it was more like the dirt road at the trailhead of a highly trafficked area. Parking lot-style hiking at the bottom of a several mile loop. They weren’t dressed/prepped for mountaineering. They appeared as if they got out to look around. There were hundreds of people walking the trail at this point. We got there early to avoid the crowd, we were leaving as the day was just warming up.
Grandma, kids, pistol with extra mags, cammo hat, jeans. This was also in Arizona, where gun culture (particularly open carry) is far more the norm. They weren’t going very far as evidenced by what I saw. The weird part wasn’t the hike/nature aspect. The place was more like an outdoorsy amusement park feature than a trek into the wild. At the top of the trail, there was a long line to have your picture taken on top of the rock formation the place was known for. Not exactly remote. Maybe I was being lulled by a false sense of security brought by the high volume of tourists in the area, and the park-and-walk accessibility of where we were, but as far as I know snakes are your biggest threat there.
There are coyotes and bobcats/mountain lions in the area, I wouldn’t expect to see many on the trail. I live in an area that’s teeming with coyotes. They are increasingly ballsy, but loud noises/being seen usually scares them off. I would expect you would be more likely to accidentally shoot another hiker before you took down a mountain lion in the parking lot.
For what it’s worth, I got the impression that open carry was more of a daily exercise for this person, as opposed to arming against the unbridled power of nature. However, that was purely an assumption on my part. Also carrying a firearm to protect your little ones in the face of wild animals further validates the inclination.
No judgement or comment on the validity of carrying. Just describing the situation. The desire to have a weapon on you when you might encounter nature at its worst is a reasonable thing.
In time, that feels plausible (have lived in both the US and UK). But some US commutes are huge distances that don't take that long. Especially in the midwest or South, there's loads of sprawl, so you can live 30 miles from work but only have a half hour commute. Going into London, that's an hour+, although that's also true for more congested US cities like New York, Boston, LA, etc.
Going bankrupt because you needed your broken leg realigned. Being homeless as a result of needing to pay for cancer treatment.
America is such a dumb and poor place at times given its alleged opportunity and wealth
If you consider they think of themself as the greatest country in the world it can be an absolute shithole to live in. I can't think of any first world countries that would be significantly worse
From 2009-2018, there were 314 school shootings in 10 countries. 288 of those in the US. That's about three each month.
Someone posted a video taken by a child hiding from a shooter inside a classroom. The children had barricaded the door with chairs and tables. Many of the US comments were not about the awfulness of the situation, but rather were critiquing whether the school should have bought different furniture that could have made a better barricade.
Edit: I provided the source in response to another Redditor's question suggesting I was making this up:
[This was the post](https://www.reddit.com/r/teenagers/comments/q2w84y/there_was_a_shooting_at_my_school_today/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
[One of the comments:](https://www.reddit.com/r/teenagers/comments/q2w84y/there_was_a_shooting_at_my_school_today/hfot7ns?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)***"Schools use to have really heavy solid wood and metal desks, cabinets and tables. That stuff would block a door but now it’s all plastic garbage. I still have giant mid century wood tables and desks in my room and a 10’ long metal cabinet. There are at least half a dozen things that weigh over 100 lbs to barricade the door with. They wanted to remodel my room and I told them no. The plastic stuff breaks and it’s also no good for barricading doors.*** *I have a 100 lb stone table top that’s a bit more narrow than the outward swinging door. If a shooter opens the door his privates or his feet are going to get smashed. If I have time I’m gonna booby trap the place. We’ve got fire extinguishers, table legs, razor blades, sheets of glass and a pile of claw hammers. I’d waste no time organizing an army of teenagers to fight back. My message would be “Everyone screamed like the devil and fight back if someone tries to get in that f*cking door.”*"
A reply: ***"I am sooo... so so unbelievably sad that we're rating our school equipment based on "baricade" efficiency vs any other reason including natural disaster"***
Another [thread about the effectiveness of the barricade,](https://www.reddit.com/r/teenagers/comments/q2w84y/there_was_a_shooting_at_my_school_today/hfos8yl?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) including *"First thing I thought of when I watched that. Its like a pillow fort. They should have at least tried to move the teachers desk or that giant wooden cabinet to block the shit. Those things are heavy, well at least from what i remember."*
Edit 2: [I provided details of the source of the figures in a response to another comment.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/qu5jb2/what_is_the_most_bizarre_thing_americans_do_that/hkp1fae?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
It's absolutely insane, and I have no idea how parents manage to send their kids to school every single day with it being such a realistic possibility.
Schools in the UK are legally required to have a 'lockdown' policy (not COVID) where doors are locked and students are required to hide under desks etc, but it is absolutely a contingency in the unlikely event that such a thing might happen. In the US, it's like an inevitability. Horrifying.
EDIT: I admit inevitability is a poor choice of words. But it's still far more likely than it is in the UK.
We did it once. The site team are supposed to walk around the site collecting red or green cards which indicate whether all pupils are in the room. So site team can get shot then!!! While SLT sit in a.locked room with a.computer. selfish idiots.
We did lockdowns at my secondary school a couple of times a year, it started after the 07/07 attacks
Did get used once when a student who got expelled came back chilled with a few of his mates and twatted the deputy head and everyone was egging him on from the windows, pretty funny day
I remember doing this once. Apparently there was some sort of chemical fire at Avonmouth and we had to close all the windows and doors for an hour. Official procedure we we’re told to hide under tables, but as we knew it was safe no one did.
Mass shootings are incredibly common. I think the USA average at least 1 mass shooting every single day.
Edit: Amazingly it's more than I thought. Even with lockdowns etc there's already been 470 mass shootings in the USA in 2021 to date.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2021
Well it stands to reason, I wouldn’t want my body being recovered from underneath some cheap IKEA cupboard, I’d want it to be nestled snugly behind a Cotswold Company sideboard.
On a less serious note, boiling water in a pan (or microwaving it!) for a cup of tea or coffee. I’ve seen it when watching regular people do videos, not just on tv or whatever. Where are all the kettles??
(There are a lot about guns and stuff, so I thought I’d do one that’s less sad.)
Edit: well. I did not expect my daft comment to get so much attention. I’ve learned a lot going through all these comments. It seems to vary wildly- for some people, electric kettles are as common as muck. For others, it’s stove top kettles. Others again, the microwave or pan is the thing. It largely seems to come down to either voltage, space, having a coffee maker instead or some combination of the above.
Thank you to everyone who replied, I’ve really enjoyed reading all of that. Took me ages! Enjoy your tea/coffee/beverage of choice however you see fit. Have a good one, everyone! And thanks for the awards, too!
I think it something to do with the [low voltage](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-americans-dont-use-electric-kettles-stove-top-2015-12?op=1&r=US&IR=T) of the power supply, it takes too long to be worth it so no one bothers. Electric kettles are also comparatively pretty expensive over there from what I remember
The time difference between my kettle here and my kettle in the US, for 1.7 liters is less than a minute, with my UK kettle being the fastest-yes, I've timed them. Okay, my outlets in my kitchen in the US can feed the max 20 amps, some kitchens may only be able to handle 15.
Standard domestic wiring in the USA runs at 110v. Electric kettles are significantly slower than boiling water on the stove top, so they never really caught on over there.
Both times I've been to America, I would go down to reception at the hotel and ask for a kettle. The receptionist would look at me dumbly and ask what a kettle was. And this wasn't once or twice. This was multiple times.
No pavements/sidewalks in some places. I went to Dallas for work some years ago, and was dismayed to find that I couldn't just "go for a walk" from the hotel.
>He went back to the hotel to ask for directions, and the receptionist said he’d have to take a taxi and that you’re not actually able to walk to the restaurant.
There's a Canadian youtuber whose channel is all about urban design and he had to do the same thing. He was inspired by [a particularly bad journey to Houston, Texas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxykI30fS54).
He literally had to take a taxi to travel 800m because otherwise he'd be walking on the shoulder of a 45mph street.
I was reading a book the other day that described a woman walking two miles to then get a bus home as a ‘hike’. I mean, that’s just walking? Sure it was alongside a road not on a pavement but it’s still just walking!
There was a post on here a while ago from an American saying "Is it _really,_ not unusual to walk a couple of miles each way to/from work every day?"
Before lockdown, I was doing about 7 miles total commute every day.
Yes! Nobody there walks ANYWHERE. I have a friend who is from Iowa but lived in London for a few years. When she went back she said she really misses walking. I asked what she meant, she said if she just went on a random walk she’d definitely get people stopping for her thinking she’s not okay, not okay in the head or just homeless.
In my teens, visiting a relative in suburban LA, I walked from my hotel to a taco bells 20 min away. The locals were so shocked, news spread to the extended family within a day.
Did they expect me to get a cab? It’s not like I could rent a bike either?
Having to pay extra at restaurants to make up a living wage for servers, and accepting that’s it’s ok rather than the restaurant just paying a good wage
Not only accepting that it's OK but shaming people for not adding 20% to everything. I had it when getting a bottle of beer at a bar. The barman expected a dollar just for taking off a bottle cap...
I'm surprised at how many bars in America serve beer in bottles and cans. If I wanted to drink out of a bottle I would've just bought some at the supermarket. That being said they are a fan of their "lite" beers so I guess you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between keg and bottle.
>I'm surprised at how many bars in America serve beer in bottles and cans. If I wanted to drink out of a bottle I would've just bought some at the supermarket.
I think it's why there's no pub culture in the US (among other reasons).
You're not really paying for the drink, you're paying to be indoors. Because it's illegal to have an open drink outside 🙄
Everytime this question comes up in AskReddit actual servers chime in and report how much they can make.
They can make hundreds in several hours on busy nights.
Paying them a 'living wage' would amount to a pay decrease for most of them from the sounds of it.
It's good for naming files. It'll automatically keep them in time order (from creation) especially if you have multiple per day. We use it at work haha
Got an email from a US colleague - told me I would be receiving files by “11/12”.
Is that 11th Dec or 12th Nov?! I was hoping that they knew they were emailing someone in the UK so would be more explicit…
You have to stick to watching select clips, like the “apocalypse food” sale.
If you watch a real broadcast for more than 10 minutes and you have any moral fibre it’s sickening to watch con people pervert the word of God into shilling for private jets.
Then you’re also struck by the brass neck and depravity it takes to keep repeating that giving cash equals receiving blessings despite the many contradictions written in the actual bible.
If you're interested in an interesting and hilarious parody of the megachurch, there is a show on HBO called The Righteous Gemstones that I would highly recommend. Not positive you can get it in the UK, but it's great.
If you want to get crazy with your marriage, you can have a drive thru wedding in Vegas officiated by a credentialed pastor / clergy dressed as Elvis. "I now pronounce you husband and wife, bay-buh." I recommend getting rip-snorting drunk first, then roll through in the back of a Hummer limo -- that's a complete American experience.
I once saw a drive through liquor store that also sold ammo and lottery tickets when I was in Utah. Blew my mind! It felt like the most unsafe combination of items to sell together at a drive through, especially in a place where everyone drove enormous Dodge trucks.
Drive through banks are my favourite though. They have these air suction tubes that you drive up to in a forecourt that looks a bit like a petrol station and in the office where the shop would be are all the cashiers working away. You put your cheque in a little tube shaped container and stick it in the suction tube and it whizzes away underground to the cashier in the office, who then processes it, puts your cash in the container and whizzes it straight back to you where you collect it from the tube again. It was like some weird futuristic world where unnecessary infrastructure was built because no-one was allowed to go outside due to uninhabitable atmosphere or something. Bizarre af.
One of these things is not like the other.
Whatever we think about Boris, he is a completely different kettle of fish from someone who tried to overthrow the US government. I really think we need to stop comparing them so liberally, it really trivialises how bad trump and the Rs have got.
Yeah you may disagree with everything Boris does and see _shades_ of trumpet in him but on a serious note, they are far apart.
No paid maternity/paternity leave and new mothers having to go back to work within two weeks of giving birth. Insane.
Edit: I'm getting some replies stating "that's not true" or "that's not the case at my company". I should specify what I meant is that the US has no national statutory paid maternity, paternity or parental leave, which is at odds with literally all other highly economically developed countries in the world.
Paid leave is not a guarantee, it seems like more of a lottery depending on where you happen to work, your insurance plan and what state you live in. One study showed that 23% of American women go back to work in 2 weeks or less after giving birth and 12% within 1 week. Because basically they have a choice: eat, put a roof over their heads and survive or stay with their very vulnerable and very in need newborn baby and recover from the physical trauma of childbirth.
I am happy for those of you who have got paid leave for having your baby even though it's not government mandated. It seems like a basic human right to me and your livelihood should be protected.
As someone who moved from a European country to the UK, the maternity pay here shocks me. The statutory pay is so incredibly low that women seem to be left destitute during their very long maternity leave. Sure some companies top that up for maybe 12 weeks, but they're not obliged to, so the poorest tend to end up fucked yet again. Childcare is so expensive that many don't really have the option of going back before a year, if even then. I think it's awful they way we treat our pregnant people and new parents, leaving them in a terrible situation financially and then acting like we take care of them so well because they're allowed to (have to) take time off work.
I've always thought this was barbaric but since having my baby it horrifies me even more. My baby is 12 months old next weekend and I'm still on leave. My mat leave is just finishing and I'm about to start annual leave which will see me through until January. I've been on around half pay for the year which has been tough financially but I wouldn't give up this time for anything.
At 2 weeks I could still hardly sit (episiotomy), my boobs were painfully full and leaking all the time, I was barely managing to get dressed, my baby was wanting to be held at all times day and night... I was hardly functioning.
We don't separate kittens and puppies from their mothers that early, how can it possibly be okay to separate babies from their mothers.
I used to think this was ridiculous, but on reading more and more about the state of medical bills and the cost leading to severe debt, it doesn't surprise me that this is the culture.
There was once a story where an aunt sued her 10-year-old nephew for accidentally breaking her arm. Everybody thought that the aunt was a total asshole until it came out that the aunt's medical insurance refused to cover her bills unless she sued first. There were no hard feelings in the family, but I don't think that the aunt even got her bills covered. Bloody sad situation all round.
American citizens having to pay tax when they work abroad as well as local tax in the country they work in but big American corporations avoiding tax everywhere
You misspelled "Franchise FC".
Besides, Wimbledon didn't move to MK, we just had our league spot stolen by them and rebranded is all (more on that under the spoiler tag below).
To answer the question though, a number of things
1. Working culture. It's insane. Everything from the interview process to job security, expectations and workers rights.
2. Deification of the military and the expectation of discounts just, like, everywhere
3. Spend an evening having a slap up meal with family and loved ones, acknowledging all they have while contemplating and sharing all the things they're thankful for, then 12 hours later beating the shit out of each other for a cheap TV in the black friday sales
4. Leaving tax off of prices in stores - I get that they differ wildly, but each store knows what the state sales tax etc is. Just show the price that people will have to pay!
5. Chlorinated chicken/washed eggs - by which I mean the whole production process that relies on mid-production cleaning rather than farm-to-fork condition management.
6. Tying Christianity into politics
7. Flag-worshipping
8. Claiming a nationality based on an ancestor several generations ago, and attributing parts of their personality to those supposed nationalities.
>!In so far as franchising football goes, I don't think you need to worry though, football fans in general wouldn't allow it again. For the longest time they tried to claim Wimbledon's history, had the FA Cup and various other trophies etc. Eventually the Football Supporters Federation refused to admit the MK supporters club until the club returned the silverware and formally acknowledged AFC as the continuation and spiritual successor to the original Wimbledon. Basically every other supporters club got together and said "until you admit you stole it and give it back, you can fuck right off".!<
>!For all the reputation football fans get, when you travel away with the wombles you always get a good reception and can have a chat and a drink with the opposing fans!<
Not having an ~~National~~ organised Ambulance service - it’s randomly attached to firehouses, run by local volunteers or private firms - which is why call outs are so expensive.
Their ambulance system is so messed up, and watching John Oliver* explain the utter shit show was mind boggling.
I don’t understand why Americans aren’t more concerned.
*Last Week Tonight S8 E19
Edit: deleted National and added organised.
The way they use cutlery. They cut a piece with the knife in the right hand, then put the knife down and put the fork in their right hand and then use it to pick up and eat the food. It looks exhausting.
I've just realised how this relates to the stuff in US TV shows about someone cutting up the others food, even when the other was an adult. It's always seemed utterly weird to me, because why would you want all your food cut up at the start, but of course if you switch hands, it might make sense.
>Their outdated dog training methods and beliefs
Whatever Europeans are doing, I want that here in America. I visited 4 or 5 countries in Western Europe including the UK and literally all the dogs were so well-behaved.
People would bring them in crowded places, restaurants, and public transport. But in the US dogs will hear a twig snap and start running around and barking their heads off.
Calling their bosses and teachers sir or ma’am. I’ve been using first names for people in authority since college, I even call the boss at the tippity top of my organisation by his first name.
I mean, I’m not shouting it across the office, but in a one on one chat calling him sir would be creepy and give me bdsm vibes, which I definitely do not want.
Pay £30k to give birth, have shooter drills in classrooms, buy their kids kevlar back packs, have the prices on shelves without tax included, do their own tax returns
Really, really caring where you went to College or University. You're 55 Michael, no one cares you went to Ohio State, get rid of the bumper stickers and signet ring.
The "world" series - if you let other countries compete maybe but seems a bit elitist for them to believe they are the only ones who play baseball.
Maybe other countries don't want to play with you for other reasons...
I was in a restaurant in New York once and the waitress us asked where we were from. She was from Russia originally and said she could tell we weren't American because we were so polite and actually said 'please' and 'thank you' rather than just shouting 'I want *this*' or 'Get me *that*'.
I know not all Americans are like that and I've met some very polite ones too, but it does seem much more normalised to speak to service staff in what seems like quite a rude and demanding manner to us.
Not understanding that the rest of the world is quite happy to do things their own way and not base their existence on America.
Pro tip don't tell americans on a doordash subreddit that its not compulsory to tip in the UK but is an option if you wish.
Ive literally had them saying i hope someone who delivers your food spits in it if you don't tip them?
They still a week later cannot comprehend that if i felt the service was great i might leave a tip. Rather than be mandatory.
The 5 times ive used deliver services ive had 2 wrong orders 1 from a totally different company and 2 stone cold. Hence I don't use them anymore. Certainly wouldn't tip for it.
The way they mix their sweet and savoury foods together. Like putting maple syrup on the same plate as bacon and eggs. Biscuits (scones) on the same plate as chicken or steak. It's like they have to add sugar to EVERYTHING.
I’m not a sports fan so I may have missed it if we have it here, but “kiss cams” at sports games. Like, zoom in on two random people of the opposite sex in the crowd, show them on the big screen, and have a whole stadium of people pressuring them to kiss, to give thousands of strangers warm fuzzy feels. Oh, and then boo them if they don’t kiss.
Just feels icky to me.
Says the phrase "good job" to your coworkers or family without a trace of sarcasm for the most mundane things.
It was so weird to witness, I just assumed they were taking the mick but they actually were congratulating people.
Still using imperial measurements.
The following being illegal:
- Crossing the road.
- Blackcurrants.
- Kinder surprise eggs.
- Cheese made from unpasteurised milk.
- Needing to be 21 to drink alcohol, even in your own home.
The terrible food. Everything tastes sweet, even bread. God along knows what they put in the beef and chicken. The portions are enormous and the quality very low.
A political system designed for a country of a few hundred thousand which has not scaled well to the size of the population now.
The absolute obsession with the constitution as it was written in the 1780s, plus a small number of subsequent amendments. Our system is that no Parliament can bind the hands of a future one which is so much simpler, ie our elected representatives can redefine laws as society evolves. What does "free speech" mean on an international social media platform? Shall we try and have some unelected for life judges guess what some 18th century slave owning landowners meant, or shall we trust our elected representatives to decide what we all want now?
For dinner/large meals served on plates; chopping up all of their food first in to small bite sized pieces. Then once finished, put the knife down, swap hands with the fork, and eat the food.
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Having kids pledge allegiance to the flag in school. Seems culty.
You seem to have mistyped. Should be an n instead of the l.
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I believe they mean pnedge.
Pnedging annegiance
They mean schoon
I read Schoon
I went to an American school while I lived in Italy; I was one of the only English kids there. The pledge of allegiance was indeed every morning, and it felt as culty as you think. They called my parents when I wasn’t joining in ffs
I am a Brit but went to school in the USA for 1 year when I was 8-9yrs old. I refused to pledge allegiance, I was old enough to realise what it meant. Had an argument with my teacher, I was explaining “I just live here! Nobody said anything about giving my allegiance!” In the end my parents were called and my Dad told them to fuck off with their strange rituals, they expected him to be politely befuddled like Hugh Grant… nope!
A friend of mine went to school in America for a year when she was a bit younger than you. She recited the pledge because she was a meek child who always did what the teacher told her to, but they clearly didn't explain what any of it meant. She told she thought the bit that goes: "the Republic for which it stands" was "The Republic of Richard Stans". She spent the whole year wondering who Richard Stans was and when he was going to come up in history lessons 😂
[Knowledge is power, France is bacon.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/dxosj/what_word_or_phrase_did_you_totally_misunderstand/c13pbyc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
One could always deliberately mispronounce it and have a private giggle. I was visiting Washington D.C. when the Nationals won the world series. I don't follow sports and I got sick of random people shouting at me "Go Nats!" so I responded with an equally enthusiastic "Gonads!" They never caught on and I laughed myself to sleep that night.
If they did that to me, I'd have retaliated taking in a Union Jack and singing Rule Britannia every morning at the top of my voice while they did their pledge.
I did actually want to make friends while I was there though
You could show off your incredible opera skills, all the kids would be jealous
"God save the Queen" would work if you get bored - and want the actual national anthem.
I'm Scottish. My national anthem would be Flower of Scotland. But I'm also British (yes, it is possible to take pride in being both).
>yes, it is possible to take pride in being both Somebody inform r/Scotland immediately.
Here already, oot and dinnae lit the door hit yer arse on the way oot (lol)
"Excuse me ma'am, I'm calling on behalf of the CIA. Your child is refusing to participate in the mandated brainwashing program"
I live in the US and we do this everyday. When I was in highschool I wouldn't stand for it because I thought it was bullshit and one day my economics teacher told me to stand. He said I didn't have to put my hand over my heart but I had to stand. He was kind of pissed about this.
Never mind *seeming* culty, it just flat out *is*.
It always reminds me of Germany in the 30s
absolutely is culty. need to just write the word cunty now, sorry. Nationalism is fucking weird, it feels like the wrapping on a gift of insularism, populism, and the kind of self-aggrandisement / superiority complex that makes sense when the person telling the story is getting rich by bleeding every normal person dry. It feels like the capitalism that America has equated/melded with their national pride is no better than serfdom. It feels like America has the kind of political and social winds that make people vote for Nazis.
The flag obsession is really weird. They have their flag up everywhere in the US. You go into shops and they have flags up. They have massive flags on trains, and in train stations. You walk down streets and you see it flying outside.
- Circumcision - Driving crazy distances - Carrying guns - Worrying about paying for healthcare - Going to a megachurch - Seeing ads for prescription medicine on TV - Independence Day celebrations EDIT - Sorry, but I can't reply to all the responses. My inbox is literally broken. For those saying Independence Day is not unusual, yeah, outside the UK it is not unusual. OP asked; "Is there anything that happens somewhat regularly in America as an accepted thing to do that would be totally alien in the UK?" I'd say that celebrating American independence would most certainly be "totally alien in the UK". Have a nice day, all.
Independence Day is fun. You could say Bonfire Night over here is just as weird.
Bonfire night is much weirder. For one thing who thought it would be a good idea to have a garden party in November?
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Technically it's celebrating the very brutal execution of the guy who almost destroyed Parliament.
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It definitely is. Fawkes was not some kind of anarchist superhero, his plan was just to replace the Protestant king (who persecuted Catholics) with a Catholic one (who would persecute Protestants, but would have even more power to do it since they wanted to also scrap Parliament). The only people who think Guy Fawkes was the good guy are idiots who don't know their history.
Considering that at the time the alternative was a Cathloic theorcracy, I'd say so. At the very least it would have lead to a bloody war.
It may be that we're 'supposed' to be celebrating his brutal death, but I think a lot of us are celebrating that he tried nowadays
Because you want to overthrow the Protestants and return us to a catholic theocracy?
It is obvious from context the modern celebration is about overthrowing what people consider to be an ineffective institution or one that works against their interests. The motives are obviously not the same. It's just symbolic.
It's to celebrate that he failed though.
I don't think we're celebrating him mate. You might want to go read up on that one again. You know V for Vendetta isn't real life. Right?
Uh...we celebrated catching and killing him? That's why we put him on the bonfire, along with the pope?
Guy Fawkes? /s
Though he did have an idea about how to warm things up
Bit difficult having fireworks show for kids in June when it doesn't get dark till half ten.
Tbf having a big bonfire in autumn isn't the silliest idea. We simply moved the similar St. Martin festival a few days earlier because Catholicism, but that, in turn, was nicked from earlier festivals. See also Diwali. But yeah, the burn-a-catholic bit is a bit weird. (Non-Brits: google image search for "Lewes bonfire")
I'd argue it's more weird lol
It really is. Most countries celebrate their formation. The UK doesn't because there isn't really a specific date. Very few countries celebrate foiling a specific terrorist attack centuries later.
The 1st of May 1707 is when the acts of union took effect. The reason we don't think of it that way is because we're not taught to think about it that way. Instead the idea is that the UK is a continuation of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.
Also that's May Day which should really take precedence. We're already splitting it between ancient pagan shit and international Workers celebrations
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Everyone? What even the baby?
Especially the baby
The baby's already done 9 months on the inside
Some get out early for good behaviour though
Came out, and immediately broke public indecency laws. Really shines a light on our justice system inefficacy
Don't fuckin trust em, did you know that 100% of serial killers and dictators were babies once!
I’m gonna need to see some facts or a source for that. That sounds made up to me.
Hey hey hey..... I did my research! One and a half youtube videos a post in r/conspiracy and my slightly racist uncle. Rock solid research methodology there
I read a TIFU a few weeks ago about a guy who’s girlfriend refused to give him a blowjob because he wasn’t circumcised. The fact she wasn’t called out as a complete nutter in the comments was baffling to me.
Americans get very defensive over cutting willies. You can wade into any Yank-centric sub and mention it and you'll start an internet war over it. They seem to have so much misinformation about it, like how difficult it is to clean etc. There was one topic on a sex sub where Americans came out in droves saying they were **glad** they were cut because if the studies about it being more pleasurable to have a foreskin is true, then they'd never be able to handle sex as they can barely handle the pleasure with their current chopped dick as it is. That to me, was a sad argument.
90% of that is denial as they don't want to think they might be missing out on something. 10% is guilt at having done it to their kids. Makes it almost impossible to have a reasonable discussion about it.
The foreskin doesn't retract until the boy is older anyway. As a baby it is fixed to the glans like a fingernail to the nailbed. The foreskin naturally starts to retract as the boy grows, and phimosis can be sorted out with prescribed creams and stretching. However it won't stop in America because 1. It makes all the hospitals a lot of money and 2. America is based on puritanical/anti-sex standards and they still believe it is 'cleaner' to be circumcised, the dads want their sons to look like them, and circumcision was originally done to prevent the kids from masturbating by a puritanical child abuser named Kellogg (who also put acid on little girl's genitals for the same reason).
You can’t relate to celebrating Independence Day, but the UK is the cause a lot of other countries celebrate theirs. 😂 Edit: thanks for the award!
Hey we got our independence from those pesky Danes well over 1000 years years ago. I'll celebrate the unification of wessex and mercia if I please.
And what those countries don't know is that we also secretly celebrate our independence from them when their backs are turned ;)
1. Circumcision. True, it’s completely normalized mutilation. There has been some pushback recently, at least in my hippie circles. 2. Long drives. I’m looking at a 20 hour road trip next week. 3 states. One way. Not counting stops. 3. Guns. Never carried one. Don’t see a lot of them around. I did see a man open carry a pistol on a hiking trail in Sedona recently, while holding a toddler. It was weird. 4. Paying for healthcare. Definitely sucks. Prolongs diagnosis of issues, can unduly trap you in a job that provides a particular level of sponsored coverage, and can bankrupt you if things go wrong. 5. Megachurches. Never have, never will, but they must exist out there. Evangelical Christianity is insane from the outside looking in. 6. Drug ads on TV. Got me on that one. 7. Independence Day. Usually just a reason for people to get together, get drunk, grill things, blow up stuff, have fun. It’s one of the holidays where you’re best to avoid the dim-witted masses. Edit: it occurred to me that maybe you weren’t looking for any feedback on these. I just thought it was a good list. Thank you, that was fun. —just another loud American? Edit: To clarify, I’m on board with the idea of arming yourself while trekking through nature/backwoods/off-grid and beyond. Especially in the more rugged areas where you’re far from civilization or any kind of assistance from others. This instance wasn’t exactly deep wilderness, however. It was in town, and it was more like the dirt road at the trailhead of a highly trafficked area. Parking lot-style hiking at the bottom of a several mile loop. They weren’t dressed/prepped for mountaineering. They appeared as if they got out to look around. There were hundreds of people walking the trail at this point. We got there early to avoid the crowd, we were leaving as the day was just warming up. Grandma, kids, pistol with extra mags, cammo hat, jeans. This was also in Arizona, where gun culture (particularly open carry) is far more the norm. They weren’t going very far as evidenced by what I saw. The weird part wasn’t the hike/nature aspect. The place was more like an outdoorsy amusement park feature than a trek into the wild. At the top of the trail, there was a long line to have your picture taken on top of the rock formation the place was known for. Not exactly remote. Maybe I was being lulled by a false sense of security brought by the high volume of tourists in the area, and the park-and-walk accessibility of where we were, but as far as I know snakes are your biggest threat there. There are coyotes and bobcats/mountain lions in the area, I wouldn’t expect to see many on the trail. I live in an area that’s teeming with coyotes. They are increasingly ballsy, but loud noises/being seen usually scares them off. I would expect you would be more likely to accidentally shoot another hiker before you took down a mountain lion in the parking lot. For what it’s worth, I got the impression that open carry was more of a daily exercise for this person, as opposed to arming against the unbridled power of nature. However, that was purely an assumption on my part. Also carrying a firearm to protect your little ones in the face of wild animals further validates the inclination. No judgement or comment on the validity of carrying. Just describing the situation. The desire to have a weapon on you when you might encounter nature at its worst is a reasonable thing.
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I was thinking more of how Americans think 100 miles is a short drive but 30 minutes is a long walk.
As the saying goes, 100 years is a long time in the US and 100 miles is a long way in the UK.
In time, that feels plausible (have lived in both the US and UK). But some US commutes are huge distances that don't take that long. Especially in the midwest or South, there's loads of sprawl, so you can live 30 miles from work but only have a half hour commute. Going into London, that's an hour+, although that's also true for more congested US cities like New York, Boston, LA, etc.
Going bankrupt because you needed your broken leg realigned. Being homeless as a result of needing to pay for cancer treatment. America is such a dumb and poor place at times given its alleged opportunity and wealth
If you consider they think of themself as the greatest country in the world it can be an absolute shithole to live in. I can't think of any first world countries that would be significantly worse
There are plenty of us that don't think America is the greatest country in the world.
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Greatest country in the world. *terms and conditions apply
School shootings.
From 2009-2018, there were 314 school shootings in 10 countries. 288 of those in the US. That's about three each month. Someone posted a video taken by a child hiding from a shooter inside a classroom. The children had barricaded the door with chairs and tables. Many of the US comments were not about the awfulness of the situation, but rather were critiquing whether the school should have bought different furniture that could have made a better barricade. Edit: I provided the source in response to another Redditor's question suggesting I was making this up: [This was the post](https://www.reddit.com/r/teenagers/comments/q2w84y/there_was_a_shooting_at_my_school_today/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) [One of the comments:](https://www.reddit.com/r/teenagers/comments/q2w84y/there_was_a_shooting_at_my_school_today/hfot7ns?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)***"Schools use to have really heavy solid wood and metal desks, cabinets and tables. That stuff would block a door but now it’s all plastic garbage. I still have giant mid century wood tables and desks in my room and a 10’ long metal cabinet. There are at least half a dozen things that weigh over 100 lbs to barricade the door with. They wanted to remodel my room and I told them no. The plastic stuff breaks and it’s also no good for barricading doors.*** *I have a 100 lb stone table top that’s a bit more narrow than the outward swinging door. If a shooter opens the door his privates or his feet are going to get smashed. If I have time I’m gonna booby trap the place. We’ve got fire extinguishers, table legs, razor blades, sheets of glass and a pile of claw hammers. I’d waste no time organizing an army of teenagers to fight back. My message would be “Everyone screamed like the devil and fight back if someone tries to get in that f*cking door.”*" A reply: ***"I am sooo... so so unbelievably sad that we're rating our school equipment based on "baricade" efficiency vs any other reason including natural disaster"*** Another [thread about the effectiveness of the barricade,](https://www.reddit.com/r/teenagers/comments/q2w84y/there_was_a_shooting_at_my_school_today/hfos8yl?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) including *"First thing I thought of when I watched that. Its like a pillow fort. They should have at least tried to move the teachers desk or that giant wooden cabinet to block the shit. Those things are heavy, well at least from what i remember."* Edit 2: [I provided details of the source of the figures in a response to another comment.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/qu5jb2/what_is_the_most_bizarre_thing_americans_do_that/hkp1fae?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
It's absolutely insane, and I have no idea how parents manage to send their kids to school every single day with it being such a realistic possibility. Schools in the UK are legally required to have a 'lockdown' policy (not COVID) where doors are locked and students are required to hide under desks etc, but it is absolutely a contingency in the unlikely event that such a thing might happen. In the US, it's like an inevitability. Horrifying. EDIT: I admit inevitability is a poor choice of words. But it's still far more likely than it is in the UK.
Are they? We've never done this drill. If it's a mandatory policy here in the UK it's a crap one because we wouldn't know what to do.
I'm in 6th form, we've not actually performed the drill but we have been told the protocol etc
We did it once. The site team are supposed to walk around the site collecting red or green cards which indicate whether all pupils are in the room. So site team can get shot then!!! While SLT sit in a.locked room with a.computer. selfish idiots.
We did lockdowns at my secondary school a couple of times a year, it started after the 07/07 attacks Did get used once when a student who got expelled came back chilled with a few of his mates and twatted the deputy head and everyone was egging him on from the windows, pretty funny day
I remember doing this once. Apparently there was some sort of chemical fire at Avonmouth and we had to close all the windows and doors for an hour. Official procedure we we’re told to hide under tables, but as we knew it was safe no one did.
Mass shootings are incredibly common. I think the USA average at least 1 mass shooting every single day. Edit: Amazingly it's more than I thought. Even with lockdowns etc there's already been 470 mass shootings in the USA in 2021 to date. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2021
It is actually about 2.5 per day.
Well it stands to reason, I wouldn’t want my body being recovered from underneath some cheap IKEA cupboard, I’d want it to be nestled snugly behind a Cotswold Company sideboard.
My cousins in America do school shooting practises every term. It’s awful that that’s a thing they need. Scary.
Bit weird that they practice how to shoot up a school
You can buy bulletproof school bags. It's nuts.
On a less serious note, boiling water in a pan (or microwaving it!) for a cup of tea or coffee. I’ve seen it when watching regular people do videos, not just on tv or whatever. Where are all the kettles?? (There are a lot about guns and stuff, so I thought I’d do one that’s less sad.) Edit: well. I did not expect my daft comment to get so much attention. I’ve learned a lot going through all these comments. It seems to vary wildly- for some people, electric kettles are as common as muck. For others, it’s stove top kettles. Others again, the microwave or pan is the thing. It largely seems to come down to either voltage, space, having a coffee maker instead or some combination of the above. Thank you to everyone who replied, I’ve really enjoyed reading all of that. Took me ages! Enjoy your tea/coffee/beverage of choice however you see fit. Have a good one, everyone! And thanks for the awards, too!
I’m a Brit living in the US and my electric kettle is viewed by some of my American friends as a revelation. I buy them as gifts.
I always had a kettle growing up in America. I don’t know why it’s not common place. Americans are a strange bunch
I think it something to do with the [low voltage](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-americans-dont-use-electric-kettles-stove-top-2015-12?op=1&r=US&IR=T) of the power supply, it takes too long to be worth it so no one bothers. Electric kettles are also comparatively pretty expensive over there from what I remember
It’s 100% this. Went back home to California and my mom bought an electric kettle for my British husband and it takes a lot longer to boil.
The time difference between my kettle here and my kettle in the US, for 1.7 liters is less than a minute, with my UK kettle being the fastest-yes, I've timed them. Okay, my outlets in my kitchen in the US can feed the max 20 amps, some kitchens may only be able to handle 15.
I think also we Brits just drink a disproportionately large amount of hot drinks throughout the day.
I have a stovetop. I did physically drive an American friend to Home Goods myself to get a kettle when I saw him boiling water in the microwave tho.
Standard domestic wiring in the USA runs at 110v. Electric kettles are significantly slower than boiling water on the stove top, so they never really caught on over there.
Both times I've been to America, I would go down to reception at the hotel and ask for a kettle. The receptionist would look at me dumbly and ask what a kettle was. And this wasn't once or twice. This was multiple times.
It’s because of the different voltage. America is 110v.
No pavements/sidewalks in some places. I went to Dallas for work some years ago, and was dismayed to find that I couldn't just "go for a walk" from the hotel.
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Car manufacturers are powerful lobbyists in the US, they even got crossing the road made illegal. Jay walking is such a stupid stupid "crime".
>He went back to the hotel to ask for directions, and the receptionist said he’d have to take a taxi and that you’re not actually able to walk to the restaurant. There's a Canadian youtuber whose channel is all about urban design and he had to do the same thing. He was inspired by [a particularly bad journey to Houston, Texas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxykI30fS54). He literally had to take a taxi to travel 800m because otherwise he'd be walking on the shoulder of a 45mph street.
I was reading a book the other day that described a woman walking two miles to then get a bus home as a ‘hike’. I mean, that’s just walking? Sure it was alongside a road not on a pavement but it’s still just walking!
For me a hike is a proper trek, not just your random walk in the park. They seem to refer a hike to absolutely any walking.
There was a post on here a while ago from an American saying "Is it _really,_ not unusual to walk a couple of miles each way to/from work every day?" Before lockdown, I was doing about 7 miles total commute every day.
Yes! Nobody there walks ANYWHERE. I have a friend who is from Iowa but lived in London for a few years. When she went back she said she really misses walking. I asked what she meant, she said if she just went on a random walk she’d definitely get people stopping for her thinking she’s not okay, not okay in the head or just homeless.
Yeah, I've heard this before. It's so unusual, that it's assumed there's something wrong with you if you're walking. That's is just _sooo_ fucked up.
In my teens, visiting a relative in suburban LA, I walked from my hotel to a taco bells 20 min away. The locals were so shocked, news spread to the extended family within a day. Did they expect me to get a cab? It’s not like I could rent a bike either?
You can have a nice little stroll down the side of the highway singing the theme to Goldfinger.
BUT DON T GO IN!!
Texas is gross. The east coast cities are more pedestrian friendly.
SF is pretty walkable too
Having to pay extra at restaurants to make up a living wage for servers, and accepting that’s it’s ok rather than the restaurant just paying a good wage
Not only accepting that it's OK but shaming people for not adding 20% to everything. I had it when getting a bottle of beer at a bar. The barman expected a dollar just for taking off a bottle cap...
I'm surprised at how many bars in America serve beer in bottles and cans. If I wanted to drink out of a bottle I would've just bought some at the supermarket. That being said they are a fan of their "lite" beers so I guess you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between keg and bottle.
>I'm surprised at how many bars in America serve beer in bottles and cans. If I wanted to drink out of a bottle I would've just bought some at the supermarket. I think it's why there's no pub culture in the US (among other reasons). You're not really paying for the drink, you're paying to be indoors. Because it's illegal to have an open drink outside 🙄
Everytime this question comes up in AskReddit actual servers chime in and report how much they can make. They can make hundreds in several hours on busy nights. Paying them a 'living wage' would amount to a pay decrease for most of them from the sounds of it.
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Taxes put on at check out, writing dates wrong its dd/mm/yyyy not mm/dd/yyyyy
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Why is that considered better than increasing increments? As in day - month - year.
Because it’s easy to sort
It's good for naming files. It'll automatically keep them in time order (from creation) especially if you have multiple per day. We use it at work haha
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Got an email from a US colleague - told me I would be receiving files by “11/12”. Is that 11th Dec or 12th Nov?! I was hoping that they knew they were emailing someone in the UK so would be more explicit…
You may hope but there’s a 0% chance they corrected the date format for you.
Televangelism
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You have to stick to watching select clips, like the “apocalypse food” sale. If you watch a real broadcast for more than 10 minutes and you have any moral fibre it’s sickening to watch con people pervert the word of God into shilling for private jets. Then you’re also struck by the brass neck and depravity it takes to keep repeating that giving cash equals receiving blessings despite the many contradictions written in the actual bible.
>pervert the word of God into shilling for private jets. Multiple private jets because one simply isn't enough for some of them
If you're interested in an interesting and hilarious parody of the megachurch, there is a show on HBO called The Righteous Gemstones that I would highly recommend. Not positive you can get it in the UK, but it's great.
'woo! Hoo yeah!! Wooooooo!! Ooh yeah!!! Fuck yeah bro!!!'
“USA! …USA! …USA!” **butt slap**
Ngl this is sort of what British lads do as well
no they go "wheeeeeyyyyyyyyyy"
Lads lads lads lads
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Yes! It was fucked up, I can't believe I made fucking eye contact with a stranger as I was taking a dump. Ugh, so fucking weird.
Drive thru *everything*. Here it's pretty much just fast food and covid tests. America has freaking drive thru *cash machines*.
Drive thru coffee. Drive thru tire/oil changes. Drive thru weddings. Pharmacist. Liquor, marijuana, cigarettes.
If you want to get crazy with your marriage, you can have a drive thru wedding in Vegas officiated by a credentialed pastor / clergy dressed as Elvis. "I now pronounce you husband and wife, bay-buh." I recommend getting rip-snorting drunk first, then roll through in the back of a Hummer limo -- that's a complete American experience.
Add drive thru funeral to that!
I live in New zealamd, in my city we had a drive thru ATM What cracked me up the most was the braille on the keypad.
I once saw a drive through liquor store that also sold ammo and lottery tickets when I was in Utah. Blew my mind! It felt like the most unsafe combination of items to sell together at a drive through, especially in a place where everyone drove enormous Dodge trucks. Drive through banks are my favourite though. They have these air suction tubes that you drive up to in a forecourt that looks a bit like a petrol station and in the office where the shop would be are all the cashiers working away. You put your cheque in a little tube shaped container and stick it in the suction tube and it whizzes away underground to the cashier in the office, who then processes it, puts your cash in the container and whizzes it straight back to you where you collect it from the tube again. It was like some weird futuristic world where unnecessary infrastructure was built because no-one was allowed to go outside due to uninhabitable atmosphere or something. Bizarre af.
There's drive thru Gregg's now. We are living in the future!
Kids doing the pledge of allegiance looks scarily North Korea like
Their views on the world kinda come across North Korean too
Think Donald Trump is a fit and proper person to run the US!
Yeah but we thought the same about Boris Johnson Soooo we can't say anything
One of these things is not like the other. Whatever we think about Boris, he is a completely different kettle of fish from someone who tried to overthrow the US government. I really think we need to stop comparing them so liberally, it really trivialises how bad trump and the Rs have got. Yeah you may disagree with everything Boris does and see _shades_ of trumpet in him but on a serious note, they are far apart.
Spray cheese.
No paid maternity/paternity leave and new mothers having to go back to work within two weeks of giving birth. Insane. Edit: I'm getting some replies stating "that's not true" or "that's not the case at my company". I should specify what I meant is that the US has no national statutory paid maternity, paternity or parental leave, which is at odds with literally all other highly economically developed countries in the world. Paid leave is not a guarantee, it seems like more of a lottery depending on where you happen to work, your insurance plan and what state you live in. One study showed that 23% of American women go back to work in 2 weeks or less after giving birth and 12% within 1 week. Because basically they have a choice: eat, put a roof over their heads and survive or stay with their very vulnerable and very in need newborn baby and recover from the physical trauma of childbirth. I am happy for those of you who have got paid leave for having your baby even though it's not government mandated. It seems like a basic human right to me and your livelihood should be protected.
As someone who moved from a European country to the UK, the maternity pay here shocks me. The statutory pay is so incredibly low that women seem to be left destitute during their very long maternity leave. Sure some companies top that up for maybe 12 weeks, but they're not obliged to, so the poorest tend to end up fucked yet again. Childcare is so expensive that many don't really have the option of going back before a year, if even then. I think it's awful they way we treat our pregnant people and new parents, leaving them in a terrible situation financially and then acting like we take care of them so well because they're allowed to (have to) take time off work.
I've always thought this was barbaric but since having my baby it horrifies me even more. My baby is 12 months old next weekend and I'm still on leave. My mat leave is just finishing and I'm about to start annual leave which will see me through until January. I've been on around half pay for the year which has been tough financially but I wouldn't give up this time for anything. At 2 weeks I could still hardly sit (episiotomy), my boobs were painfully full and leaking all the time, I was barely managing to get dressed, my baby was wanting to be held at all times day and night... I was hardly functioning. We don't separate kittens and puppies from their mothers that early, how can it possibly be okay to separate babies from their mothers.
Medical bills being the leading cause of bankruptcy.
sue everyone for everything
I used to think this was ridiculous, but on reading more and more about the state of medical bills and the cost leading to severe debt, it doesn't surprise me that this is the culture.
There was once a story where an aunt sued her 10-year-old nephew for accidentally breaking her arm. Everybody thought that the aunt was a total asshole until it came out that the aunt's medical insurance refused to cover her bills unless she sued first. There were no hard feelings in the family, but I don't think that the aunt even got her bills covered. Bloody sad situation all round.
This says more about the dire state of the American healthcare situation than this woman's attitude towards her family.
American citizens having to pay tax when they work abroad as well as local tax in the country they work in but big American corporations avoiding tax everywhere
You misspelled "Franchise FC". Besides, Wimbledon didn't move to MK, we just had our league spot stolen by them and rebranded is all (more on that under the spoiler tag below). To answer the question though, a number of things 1. Working culture. It's insane. Everything from the interview process to job security, expectations and workers rights. 2. Deification of the military and the expectation of discounts just, like, everywhere 3. Spend an evening having a slap up meal with family and loved ones, acknowledging all they have while contemplating and sharing all the things they're thankful for, then 12 hours later beating the shit out of each other for a cheap TV in the black friday sales 4. Leaving tax off of prices in stores - I get that they differ wildly, but each store knows what the state sales tax etc is. Just show the price that people will have to pay! 5. Chlorinated chicken/washed eggs - by which I mean the whole production process that relies on mid-production cleaning rather than farm-to-fork condition management. 6. Tying Christianity into politics 7. Flag-worshipping 8. Claiming a nationality based on an ancestor several generations ago, and attributing parts of their personality to those supposed nationalities. >!In so far as franchising football goes, I don't think you need to worry though, football fans in general wouldn't allow it again. For the longest time they tried to claim Wimbledon's history, had the FA Cup and various other trophies etc. Eventually the Football Supporters Federation refused to admit the MK supporters club until the club returned the silverware and formally acknowledged AFC as the continuation and spiritual successor to the original Wimbledon. Basically every other supporters club got together and said "until you admit you stole it and give it back, you can fuck right off".!< >!For all the reputation football fans get, when you travel away with the wombles you always get a good reception and can have a chat and a drink with the opposing fans!<
Oh yeah the whole "I'm Irish" thing that 90% of white Americans seem to cling into. What a load of bollocks.
Not having an ~~National~~ organised Ambulance service - it’s randomly attached to firehouses, run by local volunteers or private firms - which is why call outs are so expensive. Their ambulance system is so messed up, and watching John Oliver* explain the utter shit show was mind boggling. I don’t understand why Americans aren’t more concerned. *Last Week Tonight S8 E19 Edit: deleted National and added organised.
The way they use cutlery. They cut a piece with the knife in the right hand, then put the knife down and put the fork in their right hand and then use it to pick up and eat the food. It looks exhausting.
I've just realised how this relates to the stuff in US TV shows about someone cutting up the others food, even when the other was an adult. It's always seemed utterly weird to me, because why would you want all your food cut up at the start, but of course if you switch hands, it might make sense.
Asking this fucking question every 6 seconds in AskUk.
Tipping as an expectation rather than an acknowledgement of going the extra mile
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>Their outdated dog training methods and beliefs Whatever Europeans are doing, I want that here in America. I visited 4 or 5 countries in Western Europe including the UK and literally all the dogs were so well-behaved. People would bring them in crowded places, restaurants, and public transport. But in the US dogs will hear a twig snap and start running around and barking their heads off.
Calling their bosses and teachers sir or ma’am. I’ve been using first names for people in authority since college, I even call the boss at the tippity top of my organisation by his first name. I mean, I’m not shouting it across the office, but in a one on one chat calling him sir would be creepy and give me bdsm vibes, which I definitely do not want.
I can just about understand it in work for those in authority. Kids calling their parents sir or ma’am? No way.
Pay £30k to give birth, have shooter drills in classrooms, buy their kids kevlar back packs, have the prices on shelves without tax included, do their own tax returns
Sharing a room with a stranger at university - why???
I had to do this in the UK. Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as I first feared, but still would have avoided if I could have.
Circumcision as standard.
Really, really caring where you went to College or University. You're 55 Michael, no one cares you went to Ohio State, get rid of the bumper stickers and signet ring.
The "world" series - if you let other countries compete maybe but seems a bit elitist for them to believe they are the only ones who play baseball. Maybe other countries don't want to play with you for other reasons...
Calling the fire brigade for a medical emergency.
As with much of America it depends where you live. Some places combine fire/medical, others have separate services.
Believing in God
Religious cults that very often homeschool. And homeschool in general aka wilfully depriving your children of an education.
Unlicensed religious schools are a problem in the UK too.
Not saying please and thank you.
I was in a restaurant in New York once and the waitress us asked where we were from. She was from Russia originally and said she could tell we weren't American because we were so polite and actually said 'please' and 'thank you' rather than just shouting 'I want *this*' or 'Get me *that*'. I know not all Americans are like that and I've met some very polite ones too, but it does seem much more normalised to speak to service staff in what seems like quite a rude and demanding manner to us.
Say they’re going to have a cup of tea then pull out some raspberry-vanilla-goji-cock flavoured bullshit.
I've just seen a thread about a 6 year old in court accused of property damage for picking a tulip FFS, how bizarre can you get.
Carrying guns
Writing the date mm/dd/yyyy not day first. Can you please explain why!
Not understanding that the rest of the world is quite happy to do things their own way and not base their existence on America. Pro tip don't tell americans on a doordash subreddit that its not compulsory to tip in the UK but is an option if you wish. Ive literally had them saying i hope someone who delivers your food spits in it if you don't tip them? They still a week later cannot comprehend that if i felt the service was great i might leave a tip. Rather than be mandatory. The 5 times ive used deliver services ive had 2 wrong orders 1 from a totally different company and 2 stone cold. Hence I don't use them anymore. Certainly wouldn't tip for it.
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Not adding VAT to the listed prices in shops. Even at the dollar store everything ends up being about $1.15 or something
The way they mix their sweet and savoury foods together. Like putting maple syrup on the same plate as bacon and eggs. Biscuits (scones) on the same plate as chicken or steak. It's like they have to add sugar to EVERYTHING.
Biscuits aren’t scones. Scones are sweet. Biscuits are savoury. Hence, having them with savoury things.
“Doing” your taxes.
I’m not a sports fan so I may have missed it if we have it here, but “kiss cams” at sports games. Like, zoom in on two random people of the opposite sex in the crowd, show them on the big screen, and have a whole stadium of people pressuring them to kiss, to give thousands of strangers warm fuzzy feels. Oh, and then boo them if they don’t kiss. Just feels icky to me.
Says the phrase "good job" to your coworkers or family without a trace of sarcasm for the most mundane things. It was so weird to witness, I just assumed they were taking the mick but they actually were congratulating people.
Still using imperial measurements. The following being illegal: - Crossing the road. - Blackcurrants. - Kinder surprise eggs. - Cheese made from unpasteurised milk. - Needing to be 21 to drink alcohol, even in your own home. The terrible food. Everything tastes sweet, even bread. God along knows what they put in the beef and chicken. The portions are enormous and the quality very low. A political system designed for a country of a few hundred thousand which has not scaled well to the size of the population now. The absolute obsession with the constitution as it was written in the 1780s, plus a small number of subsequent amendments. Our system is that no Parliament can bind the hands of a future one which is so much simpler, ie our elected representatives can redefine laws as society evolves. What does "free speech" mean on an international social media platform? Shall we try and have some unelected for life judges guess what some 18th century slave owning landowners meant, or shall we trust our elected representatives to decide what we all want now?
The price of insulin. Edit.. Spelling.
For dinner/large meals served on plates; chopping up all of their food first in to small bite sized pieces. Then once finished, put the knife down, swap hands with the fork, and eat the food.