What’s something that people make fun of Americans for, that is also normal to do in other countries?

28 comments

1. Wearing shoe’s inside of houses.

2. Obesity. The US isn’t even in the top 10.

3. Building timber/wood framed homes. Certain Europeans love to make fun of Americans for this, especially on Reddit, with all sorts of wild and ignorant claims about how dumb we are for this, etc. while totally ignoring Canada, a good bit of the Nordics, Japan, etc.

   Also student debt. People love to shit on the US for this saying we have a shit system, but the US is in the top 5-6 (depending year) of the world for tertiary degree attainment per capita alongside UK, South Korea, Israel, Japan, and Canada. Looking at tuition and student debt rates, guess who else has large numbers? UK, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Israel. All are in the top 6-7 in the world for that too. So while some student debt stuff isn’t great, what’s about those systems too that tend to have better outcomes for educating a larger percentage of the population post compulsory that the rest of the world struggles to compete with?

4. As Bill Burr said at Royal Albert Hall “ya know, you guys are pretty fat too.”

5. Being ignorant of other countries and cultures.

6. Racism. They make it sound like it’s a US exclusive issue. Everyone does it, China, India, Europe…by God especially Europe. Bring the Roma into it and you get “but you don’t get it, they deserve it! You just haven’t met them!”

7. I always joke that Canada has much of the same quirks as the US, but joins in the bashing with the Europeans.

8. Being ignorant of other cultures.

   I’ve had some pretty mean stuff said to me by users of this subreddit but I’ve also heard some absolutely brain dead takes from foreign people.

   Such as how AIDS was created by White guys having daily sex with gorillas in Africa.

9. Being car-centric. I’m no fan of car-centrism, but Canada and Australia are the same way for the same reasons yet they seem to consistently fly under the radar with it…

10. Ethnocentrism.

    We’re all in our own little echo-chambers.

11. I always thought using hamburgers in an insult is pretty weird. Like salty soccer fans saying Messi is going to the Burger league. Like, it’s a fucking sandwich – how’s that a sick burn?

    And I’ve yet to go to a country that doesn’t love hamburgers. There’s always some local burger spot people rave about. I’m not talking McDonalds or fast food burgers – I’m talking about places emulating a hole in the wall or a hipster burger joint. They’re popular because they’re good.

12. What ISN’T something people make fun of us for that happens in other countries? That’s a much shorter list.

13. Using drywall. Every modern country uses it to some extent, people on reddit act like it’s only Americans.

14. Obesity. The rest of the world is quickly catching up.

15. Go see how metric the UK is.

16. Brits calling Americans fat.

17. Acting like the US is the only country where soccer is not the #1 sport

18. Being loud and obnoxious. I’m not saying us Americans are quiet people, but the Spanish and Italians make us look like church mice.

19. Isn’t that… something we should be asking non-America rather than vice versa? Lol. Idk what all’s normal in other countries or not ¯_(ツ)_/¯

20. Unhealthy habits like smoking and excessive drinking. Many of them are worse than us, especially with smokng.

21. Calling teachers by last name.

    I’ve seen several comments on videos where students call teachers by their first name where the redditors act like this is some kind “backwards American thing” and that the teachers were getting mad for no reason.

    Apparently, teachers aren’t considered authority figures where those well-informed redditors are from.

    But based on what I’ve seen in Ask Europe, most European countries insist on calling teachers by last name or some other title. It’s only in Nordic countries where everyone is on a first name basis.

22. Referring to football as “soccer” or just not referring to it as anything similar to “football”. It was originally invented by the British and there’s a bunch of Commonwealth countries that call it soccer as well. Canada officially calls it soccer because they have a version of “football” that is basically the same as American Football, just a few differences. Hell, even Australia’s national team is known as “the Socceroos”. Japan literally calls it “sakka”. Yet, it’s always us that gets shit on for calling it soccer. Like, I know everyone else calls it “football” or some variation of the word. I’m Hispanic. I know we call it “futbol”. But because I grew up here, whenever I hear “football” I can’t help but instantly think of the NFL. It’s mad annoying how everyone goes for us the moment the word “soccer” is mentioned

23. I’m gonna go with not speaking other languages. English is what I was taught. I know one other language pretty well and am starting my third. Japanese is what I’m learning now. I can read Japanese in Romaji but am still learning Kanji. If I get through this my next is Hebrew as I’ve found out my great grandmother was Jewish.

24. Being patriotic

25. Displaying our flag in public places.

    This is one of those things that everyone does, you just don’t notice it in your own country—but when you’re abroad it sticks out like a sore thumb.

26. High fructose corn syrup.

    In Europe it is labeled as glucose fructose syrup (GFS.)

27. Brits complaining about US foreign policy.

    I don’t like it either but bro have you looked at your country’s history? We’re merely catching up

28. Tip, tipping is really common in dozens of countries.