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Wear shoes indoors.
Drive everywhere. Look at the gridlock in London or Paris.
Eat fast food
Ah, as a fellow immigrant in Japan, perhaps you will sympathize with me, but the idea that “only Americans” cover everything in mayo and deep fry everything is *laughable.* Hell, I didn’t even *know* you could deep-fry food at home until I came to Japan, and people here put mayonnaise in places most Americans would find unholy.
Canada also does not include the tax in retail prices.
Talk loudly. As someone who has spent significant time living in California and in Europe I can 100% confirm that Asian tourists are louder than Americans.
Use feet and inches etc.
Make houses using timber.
Only ones to Have an overweight population on average.
Have the most overweight population.
The list goes on.
I’m Canadian, and we do a lot of the same things Americans get crapped on for. Mostly for the same reasons. We have lots of land, so we use it. We don’t live all squished together if we don’t have to, and it’s not a big deal to drive ten minutes to the grocery store because who wants to live next to all that traffic. We have screens on our windows, air conditioning, Yards with grass and zoning for residential only. We have a tipping culture, and large fridges so we can shop once a week, not forage every day. We don’t get half the crap the U.S. does for the same things, because we’re smaller, and I truly believe the Eurotrash hatred of the U.S. is mostly jealousy. Their governments are authoritarian, and keep the people poor and controlled by constant handouts. I’m not an American, and I’m really sorry if I’ve broken the rules here, but I really felt the need to say something. Please remove my post with my apologies for the intrusion if it’s inappropriate.
There was a guy yesterday who asked why Americans form social groups.
Play/watch baseball.
Almost one third of Major League Baseball players are from outside the US.
Ahhh yes! One of my favorite debates!
Anyway here are a few:
1. That only Americans have guns:
Not True, we may have the highest gun ownership rate in the world, but we aren’t the only ones who like guns, The Czechs are known for gun ownership too! The Swiss, The Serbians, The Iraqis, The Nordics (Specifically they have a lot of Hunters), and of course the people of New Caledonia (A French Territory).
2. That we are the fattest country in the world:
Not true, we don’t have the highest rate of obesity, I’m not denying it’s high, but what people don’t look at is percentage rate. The country with the highest obesity rate is actually Nauru. But we are looking domestically in the United States, the State with the highest obesity rate is West Virginia, and the state with the lowest is Colorado.
Here is the source for the obesity rate around the world:
https://obesity.procon.org/global-obesity-levels/
3. That we all wear sportswear casually in public:
We are not the only ones, A lot of countries in Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe do this too, In Russia for example, it is common for people to wear tracksuits due to how the weather can be unpredictable.
honestly a lot of stuff that Europeans don’t get about us is is shared with Latin Americans
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deep veneration of flag/historical figures/country/singing the anthem everywhere/ being really loud/ being willing to talk to strangers /hyphenated-citizens (even tho to a lesser extent)
Make small talk.
It’s not like someone starting a new job in say, Amsterdam, will refuse to speak to their new coworkers except to talk to them about work or pose deep, philosophical questions about the nature of life and death. Chatting about favorite TV shows and weekend plans isn’t a uniquely American phenomenon.
One that’s always bothered me for some reason is people acting like we’re idiots for using measurements in terms of everyday objects (e.g. football fields, city blocks). Meanwhile, [this website](https://sizeofbelgium.com/) showcases news sources, many of them foreign (ranging from the UK to Thailand), measuring area in Belgiums.
Suburbs. I’ve been to the burbs in Berlin, Wurtzburg and Greece.
All just as mundane as US suburban life.
Racism. A lot of people seem to think racism is a uniquely American problem. In reality, racism in America is the little league. You wanna see real racism go to Europe, and if you really wanna see racism, go to Asia.
“Soccer” and miles per hour
The metric system. Yes, we use it. No, it’s not our primary standard. Yes, we understand it’s a good idea.
I lived through our first attempt to change it in the 70s and most people were as confounded about why it didn’t happen then as now.
Just today I saw someone basically claiming that only American soda has violently colored artificial dyes (fanta specifically)
Consume junk food and don’t have natural food
When I was studying abroad in Australia I had a “friend” who liked to make blanket statements about Americans. My favorite was when he pointed out a girl in the dining hall wearing all Nike clothing along with Beats headphones and asked me why Americans always wear the same brand.
>!She was Australian.!<
Be bigoted towards minorities.
Fahrenheit. A few other countries use it too!
Use fanny packs.
I’ve seen quite a few people mention how you can spot the American tourists in Europe by their fanny packs, but in both European countries I lived in there were far more locals that wore fanny packs than tourists from any country.
Wear sneakers/tennis shoes out casually. I saw them all over Germany and Italy. I also saw Europeans wearing souvenir tee-shirts, something else I’ve been told Europeans don’t do.
“Americans have the worst work-life balance and basically have no vacation time.” This one always comes up in those godawful Buzzfeed clickbait articles on this topic and it’s the most Eurocentric-ass comment I’ve ever heard in my life. People who say this clearly have absolutely zero knowledge of East Asian workplace culture, where 10+ hour workdays are common and holidays are virtually non-existent. Hell, even our immediate neighbors to the south in Mexico work considerably more hours per week on average than we do.
That American food is so unhealthy and Americans eat so unhealthily. We definitely do have an issue with portion sizes and fast food. Though fast food is slowly becoming just as expensive as going out to eat…
That’s interesting, because in Japan I definitely ate a hell of a lot more fried food than I do here. Okonomiyaki, tempura, katsudon, etc. Yes, grilled fish with a small side of rice and vegetables is healthy. However, that’s not really the majority of the food you’re going to find a restaurant or going to want to order in a restaurant in Japan.
Those egg salad sandwiches, and nikiman from the convenience store aren’t exactly prime examples of healthy food, but it’s only Americans that eat unhealthily.
Someone asked why there was a Barbie movie and toys when there was a rather infamous Nazi whose last name was Barbie.
That eventually devolved into the OP saying no one should use names from infamous fascists and that only we did that.
I then proceeded to remind him that there were a lot of Josephs running around even though that name has two Nazis to it, both of whom were way more infamous than (Googles it again because I forgot the guy’s name) Klaus Barbie.
I’ve heard that “Americans always wear white socks.” It’s a little bizarre, because I never wear white socks and I’ve seen plenty of Brits wearing them.
“Only Americans have mass shootings and rampant gun violence.”
Yeah, it seems everyone forgets about South America where gun violence is much worse.
One other thing I hear that’s not really an “only Americans do that” but more of “America is the worst offender” is the slavery. The USA is no where near the being the worse offender when it comes to slavery. This isn’t excusing the history of slavery in the USA but by far the USA is no where near the worst when it comes to slavery.
Only Americans think they are the greatest country in the world.
So long as I’m not in the water, I’m standing on a country that does that
Ill still never forget the time an OP went on a tangent about how American women are super self conscious and get plastic surgery all the time and yadda yadda. Breast implants was one of his points of focus.
Turned out his country had a higher rate of cosmetic surgery.