I wish it was illegal in the US. I don't want to see ads for prescriptions especially when it's for people's weird conditions like having extremely itchy eyes or whatever. Not to sound like a jerk or anything but who wants to see that?
I hardly ever watch live TV anymore, but last week on a road trip, I caught a Vraylar ad. I used to take it for bipolar disorder but had to go off it because the restlessness was awful.
The ad said something along the lines of "helps with symptoms without \[something\], \[something else\], or weight gain."
10 seconds later: "Side effects include \[...\] and weight gain."
Like DUDE... make up your mind! I never gained weight while on it, but don't say it doesn't cause something and then say it could cause it anyway.
Drug ads hide behind the First Ammendment. The company's believe they need to inform you about a potential choice and the only way you can be aware of it is to advertise. I'd like to see a class action consumer suit go after the drug companies and fight to have them stopped because once we've seen the ad and are aware of the choice,we make a choice not to buy the drug and choose not to see the ad. I'd also like government to clamp down on the ads as well since those costs get pushed to the patient, causing our drug prices to continue to rise.
> Drug ads hide behind the First Amendment.
There’s plenty of other ad categories that are restricted or regulated - what makes prescription drugs special?
You are correct, ads in themselves, are just the same. As a matter of fact, you'd see cigarettes advertised still if they didnt explicitly have a judgment against them for other things. Their ads just got rolled into that. However, if we all really wanted to (and could afford it) we could flip the first ammendment against advertisers for the same reason.....we are aware of the choice , no remove it from our sight.
My absolute favorite is the list of possible side effects that the rattle through at the end.
Saw a Super Bowl ad for a drug to help with hot flashes. One of the listed side effects at the end was hot flashes...
My fav is one from a decade or so ago that said in the rapid fire small print read warnings one side effects was "anal bleeding"..
Whew. Good to know when the medicine was just for something like headaches or allergies.
Other favs are the risk of death... as general side effect. 🙃
More recently, I’ve seen a commercial that lists “infection of the perineum” (so, taint rot) as a potential side effect. I’ll take my chances with diabetes, thanks…
My favorite disclaimer is for some breast cancer drug for post-menopausal women.
"Do not take (whateveritis) if you are pregnant or may become pregnant."
Its for ***post-menopausal*** women!
Because pharma and insurance companies are in the pockets of most politicians at this point. the reason drug costs and medical care are completely busted.
That still feels weird to me, and I work in a pharmacy. Like… you still gotta see a doctor, and going in saying “hey, I saw this on tv, hook me up!” doesn’t really work… they’re gonna use their judgement and give you what they decide
Over-the-counter medication being sold in large quantities, like huge bottles of pain relievers or vitamins, is typical in the U.S. but unusual elsewhere.
Yes! And those pharmaceutical ads that say ‘ask your doctor to prescribe you blah blah’.
If I started telling my Dr what drugs I wanted, he’d call me a drug hound & enrol me in rehab. Drs tell us what drugs we need, not the other way around.
Meh it just depends on the drugs you’re asking for. If you go in asking about a heart med and you have heart issues, I don’t see why your dr would think you’re a drug seeker. If you go in asking for a controlled substance tho, that’s a different story
When new drugs come out, doctors aren’t always on top of learning tons about them and proactively recommending them to patients. It can be helpful for patients with chronic conditions to read up and ask their doctor “there’s this new drug that’s highly effective for my condition, would it be worth trying?”
This is true in most rich countries, not just the US. If you don’t have any unusual or chronic conditions, you may not realize this, but it’s probably similar in your country.
Damn I can easily go into my doctor's office and ask about medications. I have a lot of health problems but if I research something and think it might help they're usually willing to give it a shot. My doctor loves that I do my own research.
It’s great when your entire household takes generic Zyrtec on the daily. Buy the big bottle from Sam’s and it cost the same amount as a small bottle of Zyrtec but with 50x the pills
That is weird. In the UK we are only allowed to buy 2 boxes of 16 ibuprofen or paracetamol at a time from the supermarket, you can get mire if you go to a pharmacy and ask.
It was bought in as law I think because supermarkets sold them for about 20p a box people were buying loads and were overdosing on them and stuff.
The problem with overdosing on paracetamol (called acetoaminophen in the US), is that death from liver failure occurs three weeks later when the person trying to commit suicide has usually changed their mind. Apart from stomach wash-outs and a liver transplant there's not much treatment.
In Nicaragua, our tour guide warned us not to ask for ice if they didn’t offer any because it’s going to be made with tap water. If you don’t have a strong stomach like a local, you really don’t want to drink tap water there
The only place I had trouble getting ice was England, and I tried hard grocery stores and everything. I finally meet up with my friend Paul who I had met in Thailand who lived there. I said I’ve searched your entire country and can’t find ice, I asked everyone. He said, “don’t do that, you’re going to get arrested, if you want ice I’ll get it for you “. I said for my drinks. And he goes “oh you mean frozen water no problem “. He took a plastic grocery bag filled it with water and put in freezer then a couple hours later to an ice pick and hacked away at it. I’m pretty sure the other ice he was talking about would’ve been less a hassle.
And free refills. I was so happy to be back in the US and go to a restaurant where I could get my drink refilled like 3 times earlier this year, just because I felt like I was always watching how much I was drinking so I wasn’t going to run out when we traveled abroad.
The prevalence of drive-thru services for everything from coffee to banking is uniquely American. In most places, you would need to go inside to receive these services.
Thanks UK. They started it and then changed their minds. Just like every other strange unit Americans use. Also, the UK still uses the stupid units too, they just don't want to admit it.
A quote from Good Omens:
NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps to understand the antique finances of the Witchfinder Army if you know the original British monetary system:
Two farthings = One Ha'penny. Two ha'pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). Once Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea.
The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.
*Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett*
They also discovered aluminum. Then once everyone else got used to the name decided “it really should rhyme with the others” and changes it to Aluminium.
It's to see feet under the door...but a simple occupied/not occupied slider would suffice....heck even a working lock would be nice. Most public stalls ya have to hold the door
I think they’re talking about the gaps between the door and the partition. I’ve definitely been in public toilets where the gap is almost an inch wide.
Advertisements for prescription medications are everywhere in the U.S., including on TV, which is illegal or considered unethical in most other parts of the world.
The high school prom is a significant event in the U.S., often with a lot of emphasis and celebration, unlike many other countries where it may be a more subdued affair or not celebrated at all.
in slovakia we have a ribbon ball which is only for the graduating class, happens in november/december and the students are given a [green ribbon](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstuzkovanaex.sk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F01%2Ffotka-maturitne-stuzky-slucka-vankus-stuzkova.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=430c78a7809e7febba226f0dd415e7fdce24552a68756201999bfa321b3759a9&ipo=images) with their name (that they can pin to their lapel or wherever they want) to signify their last semester in high school.
if you walk around the city in january you can see a lot of those ribbons on young people's jackets.
Yeah it's just an extravagant school dance in most places.
Some places are that crazy though. But it's the same places where high school football games are big deals.
It depends on the city, size of the school, wealth of the school, and parental involvement.
Those schools with a large budget will put on an enormous party with fountains, ice sculptures, and all kinds of food/desserts. They can get extremely expensive real quick and not bat an eye at the cost. It is mostly catered and decorated by professional companies. There is still student involvement and parental support, but the majority is done by hiring it out.
Schools with no budget, or a very small budget, tend to be more community supported, so there are a lot of parents/teachers there that decorate, setup the food, serve, clean up, and tear down after it is over.
Some communities make it a huge event, some would rather it go away because of the drunk driving/pregnancies that happen every year.
So, really, it just depends on the community and school. I would suppose it is the same way in other countries.
Prom and “Homecoming” school dances are actually very important, at least from the perspective of the students. Now of course it doesn’t matter to every kid, but from my experience the depiction of it in media matches how much of a deal is made in real life
I live in a European country and our medical care isn’t free. €70 just to see a GP, €25 for a prescription renewal. Then whatever the medication costs on top of that. 🙃
Not as expensive as the US but definitely not limited to the US.
Most European countries have a completely free Healthcare when you work for an employer or have a very low income. Ireland is probably one of the exceptions where NOT everything is free
So true. I'd much rather have to indulge some passing chit chat, than have people practically stepping on my heels. Chit chat is passing and usually well-meaning, but the lack of physical, personal space awareness \*is\* literally intrusive.
(Tbf, there are people in the U.S. who don't respect other people's physical space as well. Generally speaking though, it doesn't often happen. Point is, I'll take conversation over invasion of personal space any day.)
To be fair, people tip elsewhere in the world too, but it's in recognition for someone going above and beyond as opposed to being a standard part of the paying process.
UK here. Tipping is a thing but we have the option of doing it if we want to. We aren’t shamed into doing it because the restaurant industry somehow convinced everyone that it’s up to us to pay the staff and not the people who employ them.
Tipping culture is deeply ingrained in the U.S. service industry, whereas in many other countries, tipping is not expected or is included in the bill as a service charge.
Arby's doing it's part, L/M/S/K drinks went from 40/30/21/16oz to 30/21/16oz. Fries did the same, everything shifted to a size smaller....for the same or higher prices. Meat is expensive.
Visited US last year on a business trip and my colleague ordered a large drink at a fastfood restaurant. That shit was like 1,5L or something. I ordered the small one and I still think it was larger than a large one in Finland. Then again, I made the mistake of ordering a large coffee later on and there must’ve been a whole pot in the takeaway ”cup.”
The part about the coffee gave me a good laugh. We *do* enjoy a good sized beverage. I guess it makes us feel like we're getting our money's worth 🤷♂️.
You'd actually be surprised by the amount of soda that goes in a huge cup like that because it's filled with ice. I always read that a huge 32 ounce cup filled with ice actually means that about one can of soda fills the cup up.
I wouldn't say 'everywhere else's but generally speaking:
The gun culture.
It's a huge thing that, to all the people I've talked to (Europeans, latinos, some Asians), is very strange and we don't really get it.
The practice of voting for judges to state courts and judges effectively being vote-seeking politicians themselves.
I cant even imagine what a judge election looks like in the US, do the judge-candidates just try to out promise each other on longer and longer sentences for criminals? Do liberal judges in their campaign say they'll be soft on personal drug possession so people vote for them? And conservative judges promise to lock citizens up for minor crimes? Would love someone to explain how these judge elections go down, its such a weird concept to many outside the US.
Not all states have elected judges and prosecutors. In CT we don’t, I always kind of wished we did until I researched the other side. It still sucks to know a judge can just fffff people over consistently and have no repercussions. Get paid very well to ruin lives in many cases.
Yeah I remember about 10 years back there was a case of a judge in Texas who for years took bribes off a private prison company to lock people up with extra long sentences so the prison company made more money from the State for housing more prisoners for longer sentences than normally would be given. That case blew my mind, just the thought of prisoners locked up for years longer than normal all so a private company could fill all their cells and make more profits from it.
Now that case could have happened whether judges are elected or not. But it just struck me that when judges are not independent and have to behave like politicians to get elected then you're probably more likely to get shady characters pursing such a job.
I live in a state where this happens and no, they don't really do anything, which makes it kind of weird when you vote for them because often there is Zero information about them.
Recently some have been slightly more proactive and will reply to questions from voting information groups and sites that are unaligned but even then most don't actually campaign for their office
Getting an Uber to the hospital because ambulance rides are hella expensive and even some insurances don't cover them. Can you imagine? Having a job and having insurance and doing everything you're supposed to do, and then one day you need an ambulance and your health insurance company sends you a bill because your employer picked the cheap health insurance for the company.
I still have no idea why we do it, like how does 12 inches equal 1 foot, three feet equals a yard, I have no idea how many yards equals a mile, but poof! 5280 feet equals a mile!
In all of my science and math classes we literally use metric because my teachers where like “We’re going to to use the system that actually makes sense rather than whatever Imperial is.”
Baby showers and elaborate gender reveal parties are significant events in the U.S. In many other places, these kinds of celebrations are either unheard of or much less extravagant.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but gender reveal parties only recently became trendy. I had never heard of this being a thing until I was invited to one a couple of years removed from when I graduated high school (the party was roughly 10 years ago, Id guess) and when I went, I was still confused about what was happening and never heard of them after until a couple years ago when it suddenly was all over social media.
It's mostly selection bias. The vast majorities of pregnancies don't have a gender reveal or it's something super simple like cutting into a cake and the inside is dyed blue or pink.
The whole, "We started a forest fire or knocked out power for half the city," almost never happens , so when it does it makes the news.
My favorite was a drive through liquor store/gun shop.
[no I didn’t hallucinate that](https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/02/19/double-shot-liquor-guns-drive/)
And yes it was in Texas
Yeah, as old mate above me has alluded to, drive through bottle-o's are all over Australia. Most will serve you at your car's window, so no getting out, unless you want to browse. My local learned the sound of my housemate's engine, so they'd be ready to go with her booze before we even pulled up.
If you owe a lot of money from a procedure or whatever, sometimes you'll keep getting harassed to pay it. There's been times when my family was too poor or didn't have enough money to pay for something, at least all at once so they kept making payments even though they were really small. It's all we could do. It's astonishing how they'll keep harassing you about it. They can't send you to collections if you keep paying even if it's not much you're giving them. I think that's part of what pisses them off. They shouldn't be like that though.
> sometimes you'll keep getting harassed to pay it.
And many times you're expected to prepay for a procedure before they'll even let you schedule it. Both my husband and I had to prepay for our colonoscopies ($1400 each) before the hospital would let us schedule them, and the same for my MRI ($1100).
It's fairly common for people to greet each other with a smile and a "How are you?" In many other cultures, this level of friendliness with strangers might be considered unusual, when I lived in Japan this was a huge no no.
My exact reaction when a waitress asked me that while I was en route to the bathroom in England. When I got back to the table I told my husband I must have drank too much already if the waitress is asking if I am okay, haha. Realized years later it's just their "how are you"
Honest question, what’s up with Europeans/non Americans and cheese whiz? It’s not common here at all, and there are plenty of arguably grosser novelty foods that are actually common
Easy Cheese is awesome and I buy it all the time. It's actually pretty expensive, at least now it is, at $6 a can! I love it on celery and Ritz crackers, especially drawing hearts and shapes with it.
I agree. I've only seen cheese whiz once in my life and it was a gag gift for a friend. And there are pickled pigs lips for sale in gas stations all over the country..,
We installed bidets in our of our bathrooms a few years back. When we have friends come to visit, they often ask us about the cost/installation process. I think we’ve converted 4-5 homes to bidets at this point.
I live in the US… take your mf shoes off. Ugh I don’t get it either. I also don’t wear clothing I wore outside during my daily life on my bed or sofa. I won’t sit down before changing.
The sale of guns and gun ownership is much more common and legally supported in the U.S. than in most other countries, where gun laws are much stricter.
TV ads for prescription drugs. They don’t have those basically anywhere else.
Its illegal basically everywhere except the US and New Zealand.
I wish it was illegal in the US. I don't want to see ads for prescriptions especially when it's for people's weird conditions like having extremely itchy eyes or whatever. Not to sound like a jerk or anything but who wants to see that?
I hardly ever watch live TV anymore, but last week on a road trip, I caught a Vraylar ad. I used to take it for bipolar disorder but had to go off it because the restlessness was awful. The ad said something along the lines of "helps with symptoms without \[something\], \[something else\], or weight gain." 10 seconds later: "Side effects include \[...\] and weight gain." Like DUDE... make up your mind! I never gained weight while on it, but don't say it doesn't cause something and then say it could cause it anyway.
Drug ads hide behind the First Ammendment. The company's believe they need to inform you about a potential choice and the only way you can be aware of it is to advertise. I'd like to see a class action consumer suit go after the drug companies and fight to have them stopped because once we've seen the ad and are aware of the choice,we make a choice not to buy the drug and choose not to see the ad. I'd also like government to clamp down on the ads as well since those costs get pushed to the patient, causing our drug prices to continue to rise.
> Drug ads hide behind the First Amendment. There’s plenty of other ad categories that are restricted or regulated - what makes prescription drugs special?
Money makes them special.
You are correct, ads in themselves, are just the same. As a matter of fact, you'd see cigarettes advertised still if they didnt explicitly have a judgment against them for other things. Their ads just got rolled into that. However, if we all really wanted to (and could afford it) we could flip the first ammendment against advertisers for the same reason.....we are aware of the choice , no remove it from our sight.
How will they get you to think you have it if they don't tell you the symptoms that you're gonna manifest?
I saw one for people who do not produce enough tears and the side effects sounded worse than the condition.
My absolute favorite is the list of possible side effects that the rattle through at the end. Saw a Super Bowl ad for a drug to help with hot flashes. One of the listed side effects at the end was hot flashes...
*DO NOT TAKE CYMBALTA IF YOU ARE ALLERGIC TO CYMBALTA*
Or any of their active ingredients!
My fav is one from a decade or so ago that said in the rapid fire small print read warnings one side effects was "anal bleeding".. Whew. Good to know when the medicine was just for something like headaches or allergies. Other favs are the risk of death... as general side effect. 🙃
More recently, I’ve seen a commercial that lists “infection of the perineum” (so, taint rot) as a potential side effect. I’ll take my chances with diabetes, thanks…
First thing I thought of. Makes me shudder every time.
That's gotta be the Jiardance commercial. I never fail to laugh at that shit.
My favorite is the Wygovy ad where everybody is still fat.
My favorite disclaimer is for some breast cancer drug for post-menopausal women. "Do not take (whateveritis) if you are pregnant or may become pregnant." Its for ***post-menopausal*** women!
If they invented an immortality pill, a side effect would be death.
Those commercials used to be illegal in USA before as well
It was snuck into a massive omnibus bill in the middle of the night by the NJ pharma Senators. Not sure why it hasn’t been revisited.
Because pharma and insurance companies are in the pockets of most politicians at this point. the reason drug costs and medical care are completely busted.
In addition, what ad dependent news network or publication is going to highlight this. It’s not in their interest.
Yeah but how am I supposed to know the name of the drugs to specifically ask for when I go to a doctor? Checkmate, buddy!
Exactly. I'm not gonna rely on my doctors years of training and experience and education when I have a 30 second advertisement to go off of.
This guy gets it!
Ask the doc to watch the ad , duh
That still feels weird to me, and I work in a pharmacy. Like… you still gotta see a doctor, and going in saying “hey, I saw this on tv, hook me up!” doesn’t really work… they’re gonna use their judgement and give you what they decide
Don't forget we'll still need a Prior Auth from insurance!
Over-the-counter medication being sold in large quantities, like huge bottles of pain relievers or vitamins, is typical in the U.S. but unusual elsewhere.
Costco is life
I can buy a 90 count Zyrtec for $42, 90 count Equate (Walmart brand) cetirizine for $17, or 365 count Kirkland cetirizine for $12.
300 ct loratidine for $10 checking in.
We Americans love to get a good deal.
"You know, maybe I do need a [pallet of chocolate-covered pretzels](https://youtu.be/d9t5LqHcboI)."
Yes! And those pharmaceutical ads that say ‘ask your doctor to prescribe you blah blah’. If I started telling my Dr what drugs I wanted, he’d call me a drug hound & enrol me in rehab. Drs tell us what drugs we need, not the other way around.
Meh it just depends on the drugs you’re asking for. If you go in asking about a heart med and you have heart issues, I don’t see why your dr would think you’re a drug seeker. If you go in asking for a controlled substance tho, that’s a different story
When new drugs come out, doctors aren’t always on top of learning tons about them and proactively recommending them to patients. It can be helpful for patients with chronic conditions to read up and ask their doctor “there’s this new drug that’s highly effective for my condition, would it be worth trying?” This is true in most rich countries, not just the US. If you don’t have any unusual or chronic conditions, you may not realize this, but it’s probably similar in your country.
Damn I can easily go into my doctor's office and ask about medications. I have a lot of health problems but if I research something and think it might help they're usually willing to give it a shot. My doctor loves that I do my own research.
It’s great when your entire household takes generic Zyrtec on the daily. Buy the big bottle from Sam’s and it cost the same amount as a small bottle of Zyrtec but with 50x the pills
That is weird. In the UK we are only allowed to buy 2 boxes of 16 ibuprofen or paracetamol at a time from the supermarket, you can get mire if you go to a pharmacy and ask. It was bought in as law I think because supermarkets sold them for about 20p a box people were buying loads and were overdosing on them and stuff.
That’s crazy they have to regulate aspirin or it will be abused to the point of OD
The problem with overdosing on paracetamol (called acetoaminophen in the US), is that death from liver failure occurs three weeks later when the person trying to commit suicide has usually changed their mind. Apart from stomach wash-outs and a liver transplant there's not much treatment.
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In Nicaragua, our tour guide warned us not to ask for ice if they didn’t offer any because it’s going to be made with tap water. If you don’t have a strong stomach like a local, you really don’t want to drink tap water there
That was my big mistake in Mexico City. Whoops.
Last time I was in Mexico, I didn’t drink anything that wasn’t from a sealed bottle. Too risky.
The only place I had trouble getting ice was England, and I tried hard grocery stores and everything. I finally meet up with my friend Paul who I had met in Thailand who lived there. I said I’ve searched your entire country and can’t find ice, I asked everyone. He said, “don’t do that, you’re going to get arrested, if you want ice I’ll get it for you “. I said for my drinks. And he goes “oh you mean frozen water no problem “. He took a plastic grocery bag filled it with water and put in freezer then a couple hours later to an ice pick and hacked away at it. I’m pretty sure the other ice he was talking about would’ve been less a hassle.
Good looking out on his part though. He was ready to go get it for you.
I’m with the Americans on this one, I love ice in drinks :)
I’ll have a little liquid with my ice please.
Just enough to make the ice float
We also get free refills so the volume of beverage don't matter
And free refills. I was so happy to be back in the US and go to a restaurant where I could get my drink refilled like 3 times earlier this year, just because I felt like I was always watching how much I was drinking so I wasn’t going to run out when we traveled abroad.
The prevalence of drive-thru services for everything from coffee to banking is uniquely American. In most places, you would need to go inside to receive these services.
I almost never use drive through but when I had a baby and she fell asleep I loved them.
Displayed prices not including tax.
Yes. That’s illegal in the UK
And Australia.
And New Zealand
And my axe!
Canada doesn’t display the post-tax price either.
Well they're just as nuts then! ;D
It's not just on nuts, it's on every price
Thanks Dad
Half the answers in this post are things that also apply to Canada lol.
MMDDYYYY format
YYYYMMDD is the way. It sorts alphabetically.
ISO 8601
ISO 8601 fan club president right here
Thanks UK. They started it and then changed their minds. Just like every other strange unit Americans use. Also, the UK still uses the stupid units too, they just don't want to admit it.
There were a lot of news bits from when the UK switched to decimalized currency. A lot of people were complaining that it was "too complicated".
A quote from Good Omens: NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps to understand the antique finances of the Witchfinder Army if you know the original British monetary system: Two farthings = One Ha'penny. Two ha'pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). Once Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea. The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated. *Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett*
And they called it "soccer" before the Americans did. But now get mad at the Americans for not calling it football.
They also discovered aluminum. Then once everyone else got used to the name decided “it really should rhyme with the others” and changes it to Aluminium.
Big ole gaps in the toilet door 👀
It's to see feet under the door...but a simple occupied/not occupied slider would suffice....heck even a working lock would be nice. Most public stalls ya have to hold the door
I think they’re talking about the gaps between the door and the partition. I’ve definitely been in public toilets where the gap is almost an inch wide.
Advertisements for prescription medications are everywhere in the U.S., including on TV, which is illegal or considered unethical in most other parts of the world.
The high school prom is a significant event in the U.S., often with a lot of emphasis and celebration, unlike many other countries where it may be a more subdued affair or not celebrated at all.
in slovakia we have a ribbon ball which is only for the graduating class, happens in november/december and the students are given a [green ribbon](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstuzkovanaex.sk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F01%2Ffotka-maturitne-stuzky-slucka-vankus-stuzkova.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=430c78a7809e7febba226f0dd415e7fdce24552a68756201999bfa321b3759a9&ipo=images) with their name (that they can pin to their lapel or wherever they want) to signify their last semester in high school. if you walk around the city in january you can see a lot of those ribbons on young people's jackets.
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Yeah it's just an extravagant school dance in most places. Some places are that crazy though. But it's the same places where high school football games are big deals.
It depends on the city, size of the school, wealth of the school, and parental involvement. Those schools with a large budget will put on an enormous party with fountains, ice sculptures, and all kinds of food/desserts. They can get extremely expensive real quick and not bat an eye at the cost. It is mostly catered and decorated by professional companies. There is still student involvement and parental support, but the majority is done by hiring it out. Schools with no budget, or a very small budget, tend to be more community supported, so there are a lot of parents/teachers there that decorate, setup the food, serve, clean up, and tear down after it is over. Some communities make it a huge event, some would rather it go away because of the drunk driving/pregnancies that happen every year. So, really, it just depends on the community and school. I would suppose it is the same way in other countries.
Prom and “Homecoming” school dances are actually very important, at least from the perspective of the students. Now of course it doesn’t matter to every kid, but from my experience the depiction of it in media matches how much of a deal is made in real life
Paying for an ambulance
ANY medical care!!!!
I live in a European country and our medical care isn’t free. €70 just to see a GP, €25 for a prescription renewal. Then whatever the medication costs on top of that. 🙃 Not as expensive as the US but definitely not limited to the US.
Most European countries have a completely free Healthcare when you work for an employer or have a very low income. Ireland is probably one of the exceptions where NOT everything is free
Not paying to use the bathroom
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But at least we give personal space. In other countries, I've had people standing right on my heels! It's like back the hell off man!
So true. I'd much rather have to indulge some passing chit chat, than have people practically stepping on my heels. Chit chat is passing and usually well-meaning, but the lack of physical, personal space awareness \*is\* literally intrusive. (Tbf, there are people in the U.S. who don't respect other people's physical space as well. Generally speaking though, it doesn't often happen. Point is, I'll take conversation over invasion of personal space any day.)
This dependd on what part you're from. I'm from nyc and there's no way I'm talking to random people and I'm happy about that.
I’ve had strangers in every country I’ve been to strike up a conversation with me
Tipping.
To be fair, people tip elsewhere in the world too, but it's in recognition for someone going above and beyond as opposed to being a standard part of the paying process.
If they know you are American in Thailand sometimes they will flat out ask for a tip
more everyone acting like you HAVE TO tip. Where i live, noone expects the tip, but it's still an option.
They‘re not just acting like it, the people working there literally survive only on tips. They get little to no regular pay from their employers.
god damn, this sounds awful.
And how bullshit is that? Pay People a living wage Ffs
UK here. Tipping is a thing but we have the option of doing it if we want to. We aren’t shamed into doing it because the restaurant industry somehow convinced everyone that it’s up to us to pay the staff and not the people who employ them.
It’s very much expected to tip in Germany if the waiter did a good job
Also in Canada
Probably ranch
The dressing or the land?
The dressing
Tipping culture is deeply ingrained in the U.S. service industry, whereas in many other countries, tipping is not expected or is included in the bill as a service charge.
I don't like that some places started doing mandatory/automatic tips. Like Subway.
Portion sizes
Highly agree with this one, whenever I’m out getting fast food I HAVE to get a small drink bc it’s already so big
Arby's doing it's part, L/M/S/K drinks went from 40/30/21/16oz to 30/21/16oz. Fries did the same, everything shifted to a size smaller....for the same or higher prices. Meat is expensive.
Visited US last year on a business trip and my colleague ordered a large drink at a fastfood restaurant. That shit was like 1,5L or something. I ordered the small one and I still think it was larger than a large one in Finland. Then again, I made the mistake of ordering a large coffee later on and there must’ve been a whole pot in the takeaway ”cup.”
The part about the coffee gave me a good laugh. We *do* enjoy a good sized beverage. I guess it makes us feel like we're getting our money's worth 🤷♂️.
You'd actually be surprised by the amount of soda that goes in a huge cup like that because it's filled with ice. I always read that a huge 32 ounce cup filled with ice actually means that about one can of soda fills the cup up.
Lately smalls are like extra smalls and medium is a large, large is xl.
Peanut butter as a common food staple is very American. In many other countries, it’s not nearly as prevalent or popular.
Was looking for this before posting Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. Didn’t know for many years that is a mostly American idea.
Those other countries are missing out
I wouldn't say 'everywhere else's but generally speaking: The gun culture. It's a huge thing that, to all the people I've talked to (Europeans, latinos, some Asians), is very strange and we don't really get it.
The practice of voting for judges to state courts and judges effectively being vote-seeking politicians themselves. I cant even imagine what a judge election looks like in the US, do the judge-candidates just try to out promise each other on longer and longer sentences for criminals? Do liberal judges in their campaign say they'll be soft on personal drug possession so people vote for them? And conservative judges promise to lock citizens up for minor crimes? Would love someone to explain how these judge elections go down, its such a weird concept to many outside the US.
Not all states have elected judges and prosecutors. In CT we don’t, I always kind of wished we did until I researched the other side. It still sucks to know a judge can just fffff people over consistently and have no repercussions. Get paid very well to ruin lives in many cases.
Yeah I remember about 10 years back there was a case of a judge in Texas who for years took bribes off a private prison company to lock people up with extra long sentences so the prison company made more money from the State for housing more prisoners for longer sentences than normally would be given. That case blew my mind, just the thought of prisoners locked up for years longer than normal all so a private company could fill all their cells and make more profits from it. Now that case could have happened whether judges are elected or not. But it just struck me that when judges are not independent and have to behave like politicians to get elected then you're probably more likely to get shady characters pursing such a job.
I live in a state where this happens and no, they don't really do anything, which makes it kind of weird when you vote for them because often there is Zero information about them. Recently some have been slightly more proactive and will reply to questions from voting information groups and sites that are unaligned but even then most don't actually campaign for their office
Getting an Uber to the hospital because ambulance rides are hella expensive and even some insurances don't cover them. Can you imagine? Having a job and having insurance and doing everything you're supposed to do, and then one day you need an ambulance and your health insurance company sends you a bill because your employer picked the cheap health insurance for the company.
and then you're bankrupted by a single incident
Using Imperial measurements
I still have no idea why we do it, like how does 12 inches equal 1 foot, three feet equals a yard, I have no idea how many yards equals a mile, but poof! 5280 feet equals a mile!
Change is hard, it seems
In all of my science and math classes we literally use metric because my teachers where like “We’re going to to use the system that actually makes sense rather than whatever Imperial is.”
Five tomatoes = 5280 I read it somewhere as being a mnemonic for remembering the number of feet in a mile.
And what if you say tomato?
And then the US gallon and pint is smaller than the Imperial equivelents
Hey it's not weird in Libya
Libya Schmibya
See also Fahrenheit
Baby showers and elaborate gender reveal parties are significant events in the U.S. In many other places, these kinds of celebrations are either unheard of or much less extravagant.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but gender reveal parties only recently became trendy. I had never heard of this being a thing until I was invited to one a couple of years removed from when I graduated high school (the party was roughly 10 years ago, Id guess) and when I went, I was still confused about what was happening and never heard of them after until a couple years ago when it suddenly was all over social media.
These are a rarity in the US as well 99% of them are just a cake and a confetti popper or something
It's mostly selection bias. The vast majorities of pregnancies don't have a gender reveal or it's something super simple like cutting into a cake and the inside is dyed blue or pink. The whole, "We started a forest fire or knocked out power for half the city," almost never happens , so when it does it makes the news.
Drive through .. everything aside from fast food. Like who thought a drive through liquor store was a good idea?
My favorite was a drive through liquor store/gun shop. [no I didn’t hallucinate that](https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/02/19/double-shot-liquor-guns-drive/) And yes it was in Texas
Drive thru banks and post boxes really blew my mind at first.
Oh I'd love that! Parking & queuing for banks & post offices is crazy here, too hard for those with mobility issues
You should see the drive-thru Bottle-o's (colloquial nickname for liquor stores) in Darwin, Northern Territory of Australia. They're massive
While bottle-o is a decent Aussie name for them, you really missed out on gluggie-crashie.
Yeah, as old mate above me has alluded to, drive through bottle-o's are all over Australia. Most will serve you at your car's window, so no getting out, unless you want to browse. My local learned the sound of my housemate's engine, so they'd be ready to go with her booze before we even pulled up.
The way sports are taken so serious in school
You should see how seriously South Africans take high school rugby
Italy would like a word.
Going bankrupt if you get sick
If you owe a lot of money from a procedure or whatever, sometimes you'll keep getting harassed to pay it. There's been times when my family was too poor or didn't have enough money to pay for something, at least all at once so they kept making payments even though they were really small. It's all we could do. It's astonishing how they'll keep harassing you about it. They can't send you to collections if you keep paying even if it's not much you're giving them. I think that's part of what pisses them off. They shouldn't be like that though.
> sometimes you'll keep getting harassed to pay it. And many times you're expected to prepay for a procedure before they'll even let you schedule it. Both my husband and I had to prepay for our colonoscopies ($1400 each) before the hospital would let us schedule them, and the same for my MRI ($1100).
My wife is pregnant and that's a real doozy in itself! I can't believe we still don't get paid maternity leave
It's fairly common for people to greet each other with a smile and a "How are you?" In many other cultures, this level of friendliness with strangers might be considered unusual, when I lived in Japan this was a huge no no.
Idk, I have a British friend who greets me with "you alright?" and that was a little startling at first. Like, yeah? I'm fine? Do I seem not alright?
My exact reaction when a waitress asked me that while I was en route to the bathroom in England. When I got back to the table I told my husband I must have drank too much already if the waitress is asking if I am okay, haha. Realized years later it's just their "how are you"
No one actually wants to know though
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Yeah, no that’s weird here too.
Honest question, what’s up with Europeans/non Americans and cheese whiz? It’s not common here at all, and there are plenty of arguably grosser novelty foods that are actually common
It was used often in older sitcoms which were popular in my country, I always thought it was actually common (and kinda wanted to try it :D )
Easy Cheese is awesome and I buy it all the time. It's actually pretty expensive, at least now it is, at $6 a can! I love it on celery and Ritz crackers, especially drawing hearts and shapes with it.
I agree. I've only seen cheese whiz once in my life and it was a gag gift for a friend. And there are pickled pigs lips for sale in gas stations all over the country..,
Pickled pig lips?! What? I've never seen these before in my 31 years in Merica. What sort of packaging do they come in? Have you ever tried them?
I think they mean feet.
Maybe the traveler was in the deep south. Can definitely see something like that in an independent grocer or convenience store.
Say what you will, but for me it’s been beyond the best way to get my cat and dogs to take medications.
Pretty common in Sweden too
Saying the Pledge of Allegiance every day in school.
Wearing shoes inside your home.
Dying from not being able to afford healthcare.
no bidet
I’m starting to see them more and more in people’s homes. I think it’s catching on.
We installed bidets in our of our bathrooms a few years back. When we have friends come to visit, they often ask us about the cost/installation process. I think we’ve converted 4-5 homes to bidets at this point.
Not common in the UK or Canada either.
Texas
Wearing shoes inside the house is quite common in the U.S., but in many other countries, it's considered unhygienic or disrespectful.
I live in the US… take your mf shoes off. Ugh I don’t get it either. I also don’t wear clothing I wore outside during my daily life on my bed or sofa. I won’t sit down before changing.
School shootings
Driving everywhere
Buying guns for your guns so your guns can protect themselves from other guns' guns.
Having the nation’s flag on your house
right turn on red
Right on red is a thing in 99% of Canada.
All of my European relatives flip out when they visit and see people turning right on red.
We aren't crossing incoming traffic. What's the issue?
In Europe, a red light is a red light. You cannot pass it, no exceptions.
Apparently its not allowed in NYC… i didnt know that… nobody warned me beforehand.. there arent signs.. But fuck did people let me know…
Pledging allegiance to a flag at school every day. What is that about?
The sale of guns and gun ownership is much more common and legally supported in the U.S. than in most other countries, where gun laws are much stricter.
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And the correct answer: YYYY-MM-DD
International standard: YYYY-MM-DD
Child beauty pageants