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I worked fast food while in college in France and oh man. One night I was closing the restaurant and the whole team was chilling in the lobby eating some leftovers and having a pop before we went home. It was all ethnically French or Breton people and myself and I guess they thought I was cool because one guy brought up the Roma. The conversation pretty quickly turned into something that would make a 1920s Klansman blush. I got up, told them that was gross and left and nobody ever brought it up around me again but man that was impressive. I grew up in the middle of nowhere so I've heard some racist shit but god damn.
These are tame and also pretty common observations: far more robust smoking culture, more attention paid to appearance (even if just leaving the house/apartment for quick trips), adjusting to a much wider variety of things being closed on Sundays, the panhandlers in Paris were far more aggressive than anything I currently see in NYC (though I hear this is common of other major European cities too), much cheaper for smoked salmon (which I love) and quality cheese and wine. The last part may just be unique to France, where I lived and studied for 4 months, but I certainly appreciated it lol.
The only real moment of culture shock I've had in Europe was getting scolded by a shopkeeper for not having exact change in Italy.
That confused the fuck out of me. Why is it my job to have exact change? You're the one running the shop! It wasn't even a lot of change, I just needed like 3 Euro back on a 20. Take it up with your ATMs for only giving 20s. Someone has to break the bills.
National pride is vastly different.
I think PART (not entirely) of the reason why many people in Europe have an issue with Americans is because we are generally very proud to be Americans. That tends to maybe rub people differently because it comes across as being obnoxious or entitled. I noticed that in most European countries, there wasn't the same sense of national pride. They're just members of their country and that's sort of just it. Irish people just from Ireland and that's that. French people are French, and that's just who they are. Once in a while you get people are very proud to be who they are, but for the most part it's nowhere near the fervor or near the number of people that you see with Americans.
Italians were by far the most proud of their nationality and heritage, at least with what I saw. I would say that maybe Scotland and Poland were next most.
I also tend to think that part of why many Europeans dislike Americans has to do with Europeans not really having a lot of pride in their own countries and sort of transferring that to others in sort of a "if I'm not that proud of my country, you shouldn't be proud of yours either" way.
I just got back from a week in Norway. The absolute biggest thing is just how much it is a top down society. Here, we trust the individual, there, it is the other way around. An example of this would be driving. You have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to get a license, and then, the driving laws are all based around exactly following the rules the government sets. They do this thing called priority to the right. This would never work here, because rightfully, you cannot assume everyone will follow the rules for a variety of reasons. There, you WILL follow the rules, because the government has said so. This means they can "trust" (really more like beat into you) that when you blow through a right turn, the other person WILL stop, because the government has decreed that to be the traffic law.
Other things were No A/C, massive smoking, stupid low speed limits, middle aged men not being able to put together any kind of outfit etc etc.
The absolute biggest thing was social interaction. Here in the U.S., its no problem to mention the weather, or traffic, or whatever little small talk about whats going on. In Norway, if you don't know a person, you literally do not exist to them. I was hiking close behind a couple of people up a mountain, and we were the only ones there. I must have been within 20 feet of them for 30 minutes and not once did they acknowledge my existence or even hit me with a Hei, even though we changed places multiple times. It is extremely socially isolating, and made me realize that when Euros say we're "loud and obnoxious", they actually mean any social interaction at all, because their baseline is below zero.
Forgot to mention, also a ton of US vehicles. saw dozens of OBS chevies, new Raptors, Exploders were cop cars, a late 70s C3 Vette, a 67 Cuda, the list goes on.
I think the only shock I had in Europe was opening up those windows. You know the ones that open from the top, the bottom, and the sides. They're really cool but I'll admit the first time I tried to get one open I thought I broke it!
Europe is different from the US but generally not in very interesting ways. Like grocery bags for free or having to pay for them is pretty minor.
I'm not sure why Europeans are often so fixated on these mild differences. like yeah, it's a different country. people do things differently.
edit: the only thing that really shocked me in Europe was how much people smoke, and at least in the Balkans, how incredibly socially accepted open racism against the Roma is. Like, suggesting that the Roma are human beings who deserve to be treated well is a scandalous suggestion.
edit 2: and the number of swastikas I've seen graffitied on buildings. in 2016 i went to Athens and on my first day I saw a swastika graffiti and was like "yep I'm back in Europe."
edit 3: the most interesting cultural differences to me in Europe were not really shocking. One is city planning. I really like European city planning. much denser and more walkable than in the US in general. The other aspect is how many countries in Europe are....i guess ethnostates. Like, most people are from that country, their ancestors are from that country, from time immemorial. Of course there are exceptions, every country has minority populations, but by and large most people have the same background. One of my dearest friends is from a small town in France, which I've visited a couple times. In her town, there is ONE CHURCH - the Catholic church. Pretty much everyone in town is French and (at least nominally) Catholic. I am from a very non-religious part of the US and a town that size in my area would have like ten churches because different groups would have brought their faiths with them to the US.
There are over 40 countries in Europe, so the main thing is to stop referring to them all as a single entity.
That being said, the levels of smoking and how public it is some places (recently France and Spain) always astounds me.
In this instance it works because the topic is about various countries within Europe soo..do you tell people the same when people ask basic travel questions about the Asia and South America to multiple people? Or are you going to let people specify where they went like most are already doing anyway?
I am surprised by how small homes are, and how most Europeans have fewer “luxury” items —ac, full-sized fridge, for example. Not a criticism.
I’m also always impressed with how much more they walk in their everyday life.
What I've been seeing so far/my fellows told me (as europeans)
KEY TBO Told by others (only).
* Restaurants – Free water, refills and condiments: here there are no such things. (Expect when you order coffee at a bar).
* Pay for public bathrooms: That's how it works: you need to pay 0.5/1€ to pee...but the bathroom is always clean, functional, empty, perfumed.
* No leashes on dogs (TBO).
* Dogs allowed everywhere (TBO).
* Drinking age and ID checks: you know what I'm talking about.
* Name days: everyday is a day for feast of (a certain) saint (today's Italy nameday is S. Paolino da Nola Flavio).
* Nudity: here is quite common. Both for males and females.
Its illegal in most US cities to take dogs into the indoor parts of resteraunts and grocery stores (except for seeing eye dogs etc). In germany I saw people do this.
* Free education: I've heard that you can't go to college (or university? /s) for less thant 35k.
* Paying for grocery bags: this fucking plastic bag, that after paying, getting out of the supermarket...they just drop and you need to entry again and buy other bag...
* Use of British English: since Uk & Ireland are in Europe territory, that makes a huge influence. Since you are NES, you can notice/understand this better then me as NNES.
* Don’t rush you or bother you in restaurants: I can't image the waiter saying to me "Hurry up! We need to free and clean your table!".
* Portable credit card machine in restaurants: here it's reality.
* Paying with cash most places: I can't imagine hang out with just my phone in Europe (o a small physical wallet if I need to make big purchases).
* Tip/tax: we do not do that here.
1. False. You can absolutely go for cheaper. College costs vary wildly based off your personal income, academic ability, and school you go to. A private out of state student pays much more than a public in state student.
2. Do Europeans not have grocery bags?
3. Fair*ish*
4. I have never been rushed like that in my life.
5. Yeah it’s kinda weird that they have a portable machine lol.
6. Are you saying the US uses cash or that Europe uses cash?
7. Tips are fair, we tip too much. Taxes you absolutely have.
absolutely no waiter has ever said to a customer "hurry up! we need to clear your table!" that is not a thing at all. if anything, they say "here's your check for whenever you're ready. no rush. need a refill?"
our restaurants move at a faster pace & our waiters are very attentive - they come to you, you don't need to ask for them.
it's probably weird if you're used to a slower pace of service, but it's absolutely not rude, like your characterization. the US is known for good customer service & I think our waiters and bartenders are some of the best examples of it. they want to give good, attentive service (as American customers expect) so they get a good tip.
* Some places have no A/C: I can personally guarantee and confirm you tha this (unfortunately is true :( .
* So many coins: in Europe coins with fixed value have unique shape.
* You are addicted to acronyms & slangs.
* Maternity leave (TBO).
* Public Transportation: much easier that in US (I heard you have little 2 Zero public railway/bus system.
* FroYo/gelato: I'm biased, so you know what I'm rooting for.
* Personal space: we get closer when speaking, on bus, on the sidewalk.
1. True.
2. Yeah we don’t use coins as often.
3. I guarantee you that you have slang, you just don’t realize you have slang.
4. Just because it’s not government mandated does not mean it doesn’t exist.
5. Depends on area. Chicago, New York Washington, etc. have very well funded and functioning public transport.
6. Wait this is a divide? They’re two totally different things!
7. Eh kind of.
the MOST IMPORTANT ones
Cultural norms (or shocks):
* Ownership of Property: if you enter without my permission, I can shoot you. Period.
* Guns Carrying : U.S. laws allow people to carry guns without any permission or restriction. In Europe you can't normally.
* Healthcare: US, there is no such public health program. Anyone who has any health issues has to (heavily) pay to get treatment.
* Language: for you, there is just one language, that is english. You are monolingual. At least, we are bilingual (tongue + international (engish)).
* Dates and Time System: God, I always lose my mind when dealing with us date&time system (not only when solving physics problems).
* Measure System: same as above. Why so many unit of measurement?
* Sports: one, if not the smallest difference felt during the comparison.
* Ownership of Property: if you enter without my permission, I can shoot you. Period.
No. This depends on state, and most states require you warn the person. Some states require they be attacking you and you retreat, and you can't shoot them unless you are backed into a corner. Most states don't allow lethal force for tresspassing onto property only for tresspassing into homes.
* Guns Carrying : U.S. laws allow people to carry guns without any permission or restriction. Europe you can't normally.
About half of the states have this. The other half require a license of some sor. https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/resources/terminology/types-of-concealed-carry-licensurepermitting-policies/unrestricted/
* Healthcare: US, there is no such public health program. Anyone who has any health issues has to (heavily) pay to get treatment.
This is untrue. The US is roughly 50% socialized. Old people, the disabled, veterans, foster kids, and the very poor have government paid for health care.
* Language: for you, there is just one language, tha is english. You are monolingual. At least, we are bilingual (tongue + international (engish)).
This sort of true. Only 1/5 Americans are bilingual or polylingual according to the US census bureau. Our government documents etc are usually avaliable in multiple languages depending on area and what the document covers. We don't have a national language (not in the sense european countries do), instead each state has its own state languages (some more than one).
* Dates and Time System: God, I always lose my mind when dealing with us date&time system (not only when solving physics problems).
We use the same system of time as most of europe. We use the same system of dates, except we write month, day, year instead of day, month, year. We use 12 hour time like most of europe, except for our military which uses 24 hour time like some countries in europe.
* Measure System: same as above. Why so many unit of measurement?
Because they have different uses.
* Sports: one, if not the smallest difference felt during the comparison.
Really? to me this was one of the biggest.
There's a lot of misconceptions across all of your posts. Some are accurate (water/non alcoholic drink refills are free at most restaurants, there are no paid bathrooms, etc), some are not (guns and healthcare).
To note:
* You are able to defend yourself. Not all states support the same threshold for use of force on your property though. What you're thinking of is Castle Doctrine, which varies heavily from state to state. Yeah, some states allow for crazy behavior, but cold blooded murder will be treated like cold blooded murder in most instances.
* Again, on gun ownership, plenty of restrictions. That varies from state to state and even county to county. But it's pretty crazy in Europe too: The pocket knife in carrying right now would get me jailed in England.
* If you want an idea of what healthcare looks like in the US, look up the Affordable Care Act. Pretty much every American is expected to have some level of healthcare. Are all insurances the same? No, but that's a huge topic that varies from state to state.
* America is so diverse this language statement doesn't make sense. Across 10 of my friends we can cover 12. languages
* Date: Meh, my German friend will call 34 "four and thirty" (translated)
* Measurement: Blame the English. They left their Imperial system, which was on us for not changing off of. Just like "Soccer": That's what they brought it over here as, but then started calling it football and act all weird when we just go "Whatever. We already started calling this other sport football so we're not gonna change the name"
First one is off. You can't just shoot people on your property. If someone is breaking into your house, then you can use a gun to defend yourself, that whole stand your ground idea is basically the idea that you can use such a reason as a valid defense, but its not 100%. If someone is on your property, you can't just shoot them. Like if someone walks up to your front door or in your driveway. You hear about it happening in the news, but the people who do it usually get prosecuted.
[https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/01/us/new-york-wrong-driveway-shooting-sentencing/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/01/us/new-york-wrong-driveway-shooting-sentencing/index.html)
This was a fairly high profile case where a guy shot a woman who was on his driveway after making a mistake. He got 25 years to life.
Carrying a gun in public is highly situational and is state by state and depending where you are will absolutely bring on the police. Concealed carry permits for most people are difficult to get.
There is public healthcare, but its different. How most Americans receive their healthcare is from insurance that is purchased by their employer there are a bunch of subsidies and tax codes that enable this. Its not perfect, there are gaps in the system. Private pay can often result in absurdly expensive costs, but these costs also make the news. There are doctors offices where you pay for service and the service has rather reasonable rates. People over the age of 65 have something called Medicare which is our public system. Many politicians want to reduce the age to 0 so everyone has it.
Our country operates on one language, but we speak others. We have very large immigrant populations. The number of Americans who speak Spanish at home is just a bit lower than the entire population of Spain. Greater Los Angeles has more Spanish speakers than Madrid and Barcelona combined.
1. This is the worst take on your list. Most places you need to be threatening or having broken into the property to defend yourself, you can’t just shoot someone for being in your yard.
2. Depends wildly based off of state.
3. Medicare and Medicaid exist, but for the general population there is not public healthcare.
4. Yeah but why would we learn another language if most times we interact with a foreign entity there’s going to be English options?
5. I know dates are different, Americans say it as it is spoken, but we all use 24 hour days as far as I know.
6. Money. It’s cheaper and easier to keep it than to adjust. When you’re 25% of the global economy people will adapt to you. Pretty similar situation to English.
7. Do you mean promotion and relegation versus fixed leagues?
The United States actually isn't as monolingual as people assume it is - about 23% of the country is bilingual, compared to the average of 25% in EU countries. [Here's a little infographic](https://www.americathebilingual.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bilingual-chart-with-US.png) that pulled data from the EU and US censuses.
Gosh. where do I even start?
First off, gun laws vary widely by state. You can't just shoot someone for being on your property in most places "period," even in the most red-est of red states. In almost all states, you have to prove that your life in is danger in order to use a fireman on your own property. Carry laws also vary widely depending on where you are. Compare laws in our two largest and well-known states, Texas and California. You'll see how widely different they can be.
[Also, did you know about half of all healthcare in the US is paid for by the government? ](https://kffhealthnews.org/morning-breakout/government-now-pays-for-nearly-50-percent-of-health-care-spending-an-increase-driven-by-baby-boomers-shifting-into-medicare/)Due to medicaid (for the poor), medicare (for the elderly and disabled), and the VA (for the veterans), we have multiple public healthcare programs. You probably won't hear that on reddit though. The US healthcare system is a private-public model like you see in Switzerland. That being said, I has many, many flaws especially regarding price control, but please don't just think we let every person die on the street if they can't pay for medical care. Every healthcare system has flaws, and we are no exception.
As for language, yes, are de facto language is English. We don't have an official language though like so may European countries do. But if you think everyone here speaks English, then you haven't visited many places in my hometown of LA.
I do agree, we should just move to the metric system. Many Americans are actually familiar with the metric system like myself bc I work in healthcare. Yes, the massive US healthcare system works entirely in the metric system. Did I just blow your mind?
>Ownership of Property: if you enter without my permission, I can shoot you. Period.
This depends on the state and is very complicated.
>Guns Carrying : U.S. laws allow people to carry guns without any permission or restriction. Europe you can't normally.
That depends on the state, both in Europe and in the US. The Czechs have very similar laws to most US states in this regard and actually had a higher rate of concealed-carry permit ownership until 2010, for example.
>Language: for you, there is just one language, tha is english. You are monolingual. At least, we are bilingual (tongue + international (engish)).
Living in France this is extremely funny. Most French people, especially those over 30, struggle to put together a simple sentence in spoken English.
>Dates and Time System: God, I always lose my mind when dealing with us date&time system (not only when solving physics problems).
It's really not that different.
>Measure System: same as above. Why so many unit of measurement?
Judging from your other comments you're Italian. You guys also had a lot of different units. Imagine if you hadn't adopted metric.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian\_units\_of\_measurement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_units_of_measurement)
>Sports: one, if not the smallest difference felt during the comparison.
I think it's actually a fairly big difference. I'd take children to a game at any major US sports league. I'd never take a child to most major soccer or rugby matches in Europe.
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The racism I saw in Europe was atrocious.
I worked fast food while in college in France and oh man. One night I was closing the restaurant and the whole team was chilling in the lobby eating some leftovers and having a pop before we went home. It was all ethnically French or Breton people and myself and I guess they thought I was cool because one guy brought up the Roma. The conversation pretty quickly turned into something that would make a 1920s Klansman blush. I got up, told them that was gross and left and nobody ever brought it up around me again but man that was impressive. I grew up in the middle of nowhere so I've heard some racist shit but god damn.
So much smoking
Yes! Everyone in Paris smokes.
It’s honestly the worst part of visiting European countries.
as someone who had to quit smoking it sucks.
Lots of graffiti in Europe.
These are tame and also pretty common observations: far more robust smoking culture, more attention paid to appearance (even if just leaving the house/apartment for quick trips), adjusting to a much wider variety of things being closed on Sundays, the panhandlers in Paris were far more aggressive than anything I currently see in NYC (though I hear this is common of other major European cities too), much cheaper for smoked salmon (which I love) and quality cheese and wine. The last part may just be unique to France, where I lived and studied for 4 months, but I certainly appreciated it lol.
Okay, for everyone else, quit beating this poster up because he didn't know stuff about the US or had pre-conceived ideas.
The only real moment of culture shock I've had in Europe was getting scolded by a shopkeeper for not having exact change in Italy. That confused the fuck out of me. Why is it my job to have exact change? You're the one running the shop! It wasn't even a lot of change, I just needed like 3 Euro back on a 20. Take it up with your ATMs for only giving 20s. Someone has to break the bills.
National pride is vastly different. I think PART (not entirely) of the reason why many people in Europe have an issue with Americans is because we are generally very proud to be Americans. That tends to maybe rub people differently because it comes across as being obnoxious or entitled. I noticed that in most European countries, there wasn't the same sense of national pride. They're just members of their country and that's sort of just it. Irish people just from Ireland and that's that. French people are French, and that's just who they are. Once in a while you get people are very proud to be who they are, but for the most part it's nowhere near the fervor or near the number of people that you see with Americans. Italians were by far the most proud of their nationality and heritage, at least with what I saw. I would say that maybe Scotland and Poland were next most. I also tend to think that part of why many Europeans dislike Americans has to do with Europeans not really having a lot of pride in their own countries and sort of transferring that to others in sort of a "if I'm not that proud of my country, you shouldn't be proud of yours either" way.
I’ve only visited the UK, Iceland, and Norway. I guess I was surprised how similar they are to the US. At least from a tourists perspective, that is.
I just got back from a week in Norway. The absolute biggest thing is just how much it is a top down society. Here, we trust the individual, there, it is the other way around. An example of this would be driving. You have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to get a license, and then, the driving laws are all based around exactly following the rules the government sets. They do this thing called priority to the right. This would never work here, because rightfully, you cannot assume everyone will follow the rules for a variety of reasons. There, you WILL follow the rules, because the government has said so. This means they can "trust" (really more like beat into you) that when you blow through a right turn, the other person WILL stop, because the government has decreed that to be the traffic law. Other things were No A/C, massive smoking, stupid low speed limits, middle aged men not being able to put together any kind of outfit etc etc. The absolute biggest thing was social interaction. Here in the U.S., its no problem to mention the weather, or traffic, or whatever little small talk about whats going on. In Norway, if you don't know a person, you literally do not exist to them. I was hiking close behind a couple of people up a mountain, and we were the only ones there. I must have been within 20 feet of them for 30 minutes and not once did they acknowledge my existence or even hit me with a Hei, even though we changed places multiple times. It is extremely socially isolating, and made me realize that when Euros say we're "loud and obnoxious", they actually mean any social interaction at all, because their baseline is below zero.
Forgot to mention, also a ton of US vehicles. saw dozens of OBS chevies, new Raptors, Exploders were cop cars, a late 70s C3 Vette, a 67 Cuda, the list goes on.
I think the only shock I had in Europe was opening up those windows. You know the ones that open from the top, the bottom, and the sides. They're really cool but I'll admit the first time I tried to get one open I thought I broke it!
I’m in Europe right now. A lot of European dress like they got their clothing from Express in 2008. Especially millennial men.
It was a long time ago, so maybe things have changed, but EVERYBODY smoked. Y’all need to quit that shit.
Europe is different from the US but generally not in very interesting ways. Like grocery bags for free or having to pay for them is pretty minor. I'm not sure why Europeans are often so fixated on these mild differences. like yeah, it's a different country. people do things differently. edit: the only thing that really shocked me in Europe was how much people smoke, and at least in the Balkans, how incredibly socially accepted open racism against the Roma is. Like, suggesting that the Roma are human beings who deserve to be treated well is a scandalous suggestion. edit 2: and the number of swastikas I've seen graffitied on buildings. in 2016 i went to Athens and on my first day I saw a swastika graffiti and was like "yep I'm back in Europe." edit 3: the most interesting cultural differences to me in Europe were not really shocking. One is city planning. I really like European city planning. much denser and more walkable than in the US in general. The other aspect is how many countries in Europe are....i guess ethnostates. Like, most people are from that country, their ancestors are from that country, from time immemorial. Of course there are exceptions, every country has minority populations, but by and large most people have the same background. One of my dearest friends is from a small town in France, which I've visited a couple times. In her town, there is ONE CHURCH - the Catholic church. Pretty much everyone in town is French and (at least nominally) Catholic. I am from a very non-religious part of the US and a town that size in my area would have like ten churches because different groups would have brought their faiths with them to the US.
Half of history is Europe being mad that someone is different to them.
lol, thanks for the laugh!
There are over 40 countries in Europe, so the main thing is to stop referring to them all as a single entity. That being said, the levels of smoking and how public it is some places (recently France and Spain) always astounds me.
In this instance it works because the topic is about various countries within Europe soo..do you tell people the same when people ask basic travel questions about the Asia and South America to multiple people? Or are you going to let people specify where they went like most are already doing anyway?
I am surprised by how small homes are, and how most Europeans have fewer “luxury” items —ac, full-sized fridge, for example. Not a criticism. I’m also always impressed with how much more they walk in their everyday life.
What I've been seeing so far/my fellows told me (as europeans) KEY TBO Told by others (only). * Restaurants – Free water, refills and condiments: here there are no such things. (Expect when you order coffee at a bar). * Pay for public bathrooms: That's how it works: you need to pay 0.5/1€ to pee...but the bathroom is always clean, functional, empty, perfumed. * No leashes on dogs (TBO). * Dogs allowed everywhere (TBO). * Drinking age and ID checks: you know what I'm talking about. * Name days: everyday is a day for feast of (a certain) saint (today's Italy nameday is S. Paolino da Nola Flavio). * Nudity: here is quite common. Both for males and females.
With the exceptions of the dog ones (which I have no clue what you mean) these are mostly true
Its illegal in most US cities to take dogs into the indoor parts of resteraunts and grocery stores (except for seeing eye dogs etc). In germany I saw people do this.
Ah okay, he means the US *doesn’t* allow dogs everywhere.
* Free education: I've heard that you can't go to college (or university? /s) for less thant 35k. * Paying for grocery bags: this fucking plastic bag, that after paying, getting out of the supermarket...they just drop and you need to entry again and buy other bag... * Use of British English: since Uk & Ireland are in Europe territory, that makes a huge influence. Since you are NES, you can notice/understand this better then me as NNES. * Don’t rush you or bother you in restaurants: I can't image the waiter saying to me "Hurry up! We need to free and clean your table!". * Portable credit card machine in restaurants: here it's reality. * Paying with cash most places: I can't imagine hang out with just my phone in Europe (o a small physical wallet if I need to make big purchases). * Tip/tax: we do not do that here.
1. False. You can absolutely go for cheaper. College costs vary wildly based off your personal income, academic ability, and school you go to. A private out of state student pays much more than a public in state student. 2. Do Europeans not have grocery bags? 3. Fair*ish* 4. I have never been rushed like that in my life. 5. Yeah it’s kinda weird that they have a portable machine lol. 6. Are you saying the US uses cash or that Europe uses cash? 7. Tips are fair, we tip too much. Taxes you absolutely have.
Tbh we are losing the grocery bags where I live too
absolutely no waiter has ever said to a customer "hurry up! we need to clear your table!" that is not a thing at all. if anything, they say "here's your check for whenever you're ready. no rush. need a refill?" our restaurants move at a faster pace & our waiters are very attentive - they come to you, you don't need to ask for them. it's probably weird if you're used to a slower pace of service, but it's absolutely not rude, like your characterization. the US is known for good customer service & I think our waiters and bartenders are some of the best examples of it. they want to give good, attentive service (as American customers expect) so they get a good tip.
The paying for grocery bags thing is new. It's meant to encourage people to bring their own reusable bags.
* Some places have no A/C: I can personally guarantee and confirm you tha this (unfortunately is true :( . * So many coins: in Europe coins with fixed value have unique shape. * You are addicted to acronyms & slangs. * Maternity leave (TBO). * Public Transportation: much easier that in US (I heard you have little 2 Zero public railway/bus system. * FroYo/gelato: I'm biased, so you know what I'm rooting for. * Personal space: we get closer when speaking, on bus, on the sidewalk.
Every language has slang.
1. True. 2. Yeah we don’t use coins as often. 3. I guarantee you that you have slang, you just don’t realize you have slang. 4. Just because it’s not government mandated does not mean it doesn’t exist. 5. Depends on area. Chicago, New York Washington, etc. have very well funded and functioning public transport. 6. Wait this is a divide? They’re two totally different things! 7. Eh kind of.
the MOST IMPORTANT ones Cultural norms (or shocks): * Ownership of Property: if you enter without my permission, I can shoot you. Period. * Guns Carrying : U.S. laws allow people to carry guns without any permission or restriction. In Europe you can't normally. * Healthcare: US, there is no such public health program. Anyone who has any health issues has to (heavily) pay to get treatment. * Language: for you, there is just one language, that is english. You are monolingual. At least, we are bilingual (tongue + international (engish)). * Dates and Time System: God, I always lose my mind when dealing with us date&time system (not only when solving physics problems). * Measure System: same as above. Why so many unit of measurement? * Sports: one, if not the smallest difference felt during the comparison.
* Ownership of Property: if you enter without my permission, I can shoot you. Period. No. This depends on state, and most states require you warn the person. Some states require they be attacking you and you retreat, and you can't shoot them unless you are backed into a corner. Most states don't allow lethal force for tresspassing onto property only for tresspassing into homes. * Guns Carrying : U.S. laws allow people to carry guns without any permission or restriction. Europe you can't normally. About half of the states have this. The other half require a license of some sor. https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/resources/terminology/types-of-concealed-carry-licensurepermitting-policies/unrestricted/ * Healthcare: US, there is no such public health program. Anyone who has any health issues has to (heavily) pay to get treatment. This is untrue. The US is roughly 50% socialized. Old people, the disabled, veterans, foster kids, and the very poor have government paid for health care. * Language: for you, there is just one language, tha is english. You are monolingual. At least, we are bilingual (tongue + international (engish)). This sort of true. Only 1/5 Americans are bilingual or polylingual according to the US census bureau. Our government documents etc are usually avaliable in multiple languages depending on area and what the document covers. We don't have a national language (not in the sense european countries do), instead each state has its own state languages (some more than one). * Dates and Time System: God, I always lose my mind when dealing with us date&time system (not only when solving physics problems). We use the same system of time as most of europe. We use the same system of dates, except we write month, day, year instead of day, month, year. We use 12 hour time like most of europe, except for our military which uses 24 hour time like some countries in europe. * Measure System: same as above. Why so many unit of measurement? Because they have different uses. * Sports: one, if not the smallest difference felt during the comparison. Really? to me this was one of the biggest.
There's a lot of misconceptions across all of your posts. Some are accurate (water/non alcoholic drink refills are free at most restaurants, there are no paid bathrooms, etc), some are not (guns and healthcare). To note: * You are able to defend yourself. Not all states support the same threshold for use of force on your property though. What you're thinking of is Castle Doctrine, which varies heavily from state to state. Yeah, some states allow for crazy behavior, but cold blooded murder will be treated like cold blooded murder in most instances. * Again, on gun ownership, plenty of restrictions. That varies from state to state and even county to county. But it's pretty crazy in Europe too: The pocket knife in carrying right now would get me jailed in England. * If you want an idea of what healthcare looks like in the US, look up the Affordable Care Act. Pretty much every American is expected to have some level of healthcare. Are all insurances the same? No, but that's a huge topic that varies from state to state. * America is so diverse this language statement doesn't make sense. Across 10 of my friends we can cover 12. languages * Date: Meh, my German friend will call 34 "four and thirty" (translated) * Measurement: Blame the English. They left their Imperial system, which was on us for not changing off of. Just like "Soccer": That's what they brought it over here as, but then started calling it football and act all weird when we just go "Whatever. We already started calling this other sport football so we're not gonna change the name"
First one is off. You can't just shoot people on your property. If someone is breaking into your house, then you can use a gun to defend yourself, that whole stand your ground idea is basically the idea that you can use such a reason as a valid defense, but its not 100%. If someone is on your property, you can't just shoot them. Like if someone walks up to your front door or in your driveway. You hear about it happening in the news, but the people who do it usually get prosecuted. [https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/01/us/new-york-wrong-driveway-shooting-sentencing/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/01/us/new-york-wrong-driveway-shooting-sentencing/index.html) This was a fairly high profile case where a guy shot a woman who was on his driveway after making a mistake. He got 25 years to life. Carrying a gun in public is highly situational and is state by state and depending where you are will absolutely bring on the police. Concealed carry permits for most people are difficult to get. There is public healthcare, but its different. How most Americans receive their healthcare is from insurance that is purchased by their employer there are a bunch of subsidies and tax codes that enable this. Its not perfect, there are gaps in the system. Private pay can often result in absurdly expensive costs, but these costs also make the news. There are doctors offices where you pay for service and the service has rather reasonable rates. People over the age of 65 have something called Medicare which is our public system. Many politicians want to reduce the age to 0 so everyone has it. Our country operates on one language, but we speak others. We have very large immigrant populations. The number of Americans who speak Spanish at home is just a bit lower than the entire population of Spain. Greater Los Angeles has more Spanish speakers than Madrid and Barcelona combined.
1. This is the worst take on your list. Most places you need to be threatening or having broken into the property to defend yourself, you can’t just shoot someone for being in your yard. 2. Depends wildly based off of state. 3. Medicare and Medicaid exist, but for the general population there is not public healthcare. 4. Yeah but why would we learn another language if most times we interact with a foreign entity there’s going to be English options? 5. I know dates are different, Americans say it as it is spoken, but we all use 24 hour days as far as I know. 6. Money. It’s cheaper and easier to keep it than to adjust. When you’re 25% of the global economy people will adapt to you. Pretty similar situation to English. 7. Do you mean promotion and relegation versus fixed leagues?
The United States actually isn't as monolingual as people assume it is - about 23% of the country is bilingual, compared to the average of 25% in EU countries. [Here's a little infographic](https://www.americathebilingual.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bilingual-chart-with-US.png) that pulled data from the EU and US censuses.
Gosh. where do I even start? First off, gun laws vary widely by state. You can't just shoot someone for being on your property in most places "period," even in the most red-est of red states. In almost all states, you have to prove that your life in is danger in order to use a fireman on your own property. Carry laws also vary widely depending on where you are. Compare laws in our two largest and well-known states, Texas and California. You'll see how widely different they can be. [Also, did you know about half of all healthcare in the US is paid for by the government? ](https://kffhealthnews.org/morning-breakout/government-now-pays-for-nearly-50-percent-of-health-care-spending-an-increase-driven-by-baby-boomers-shifting-into-medicare/)Due to medicaid (for the poor), medicare (for the elderly and disabled), and the VA (for the veterans), we have multiple public healthcare programs. You probably won't hear that on reddit though. The US healthcare system is a private-public model like you see in Switzerland. That being said, I has many, many flaws especially regarding price control, but please don't just think we let every person die on the street if they can't pay for medical care. Every healthcare system has flaws, and we are no exception. As for language, yes, are de facto language is English. We don't have an official language though like so may European countries do. But if you think everyone here speaks English, then you haven't visited many places in my hometown of LA. I do agree, we should just move to the metric system. Many Americans are actually familiar with the metric system like myself bc I work in healthcare. Yes, the massive US healthcare system works entirely in the metric system. Did I just blow your mind?
>Ownership of Property: if you enter without my permission, I can shoot you. Period. This depends on the state and is very complicated. >Guns Carrying : U.S. laws allow people to carry guns without any permission or restriction. Europe you can't normally. That depends on the state, both in Europe and in the US. The Czechs have very similar laws to most US states in this regard and actually had a higher rate of concealed-carry permit ownership until 2010, for example. >Language: for you, there is just one language, tha is english. You are monolingual. At least, we are bilingual (tongue + international (engish)). Living in France this is extremely funny. Most French people, especially those over 30, struggle to put together a simple sentence in spoken English. >Dates and Time System: God, I always lose my mind when dealing with us date&time system (not only when solving physics problems). It's really not that different. >Measure System: same as above. Why so many unit of measurement? Judging from your other comments you're Italian. You guys also had a lot of different units. Imagine if you hadn't adopted metric. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian\_units\_of\_measurement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_units_of_measurement) >Sports: one, if not the smallest difference felt during the comparison. I think it's actually a fairly big difference. I'd take children to a game at any major US sports league. I'd never take a child to most major soccer or rugby matches in Europe.