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17 Things Americans Won’t Realize Until They Travel Abroad

The standard percentage for a tip is super high.
The standard percentage for a tip is super high.

It’s very odd to live in a country that promotes itself as being the best in the world. Many Americans seem to suffer from a sort of geographical and cultural solipsism because of this, even if it looks like it has been slightly subject to change in the past years.  But for a European to come and visit, there are a lot of shocks in mentality, food and a lot of everyday things that people would never think are unusual until they’re confronted with them.

(Source: Ebaum’s World)

  • MURICA!~

    Creepy that we repeat the pledge of allegiance? MURICA!

  • D B M

    I have been a lot of places. There are a lot of places where there are flags everywhere.

  • patrick

    you can totally tell a european wrote this. the grammar is barely correct in some slides.

  • Mark Daniel Johansen

    Do Americans know less about foreign countries than the people of most other countries? I don’t know. But if so, you can see one very obvious reason why by looking at a globe: To get from the middle of the United States to Mexico or Canada is a trip of over 1000 miles. To get from the U.S. to any other country is several thousand miles. A European can drive across ten countries in the time it takes an American to travel halfway across his own.

  • Mark Daniel Johansen

    “It’s very odd to live in a country that promotes itself as being the best in the world.” Really? How sad. Aren’t the people of your country proud of their nation? Don’t you promote yourselves as the best place in the world? If not, that’s too bad. I think everyone should think that his country is the greatest in the world, that his kids are the smartest, his wife is the most beautiful, etc. Not be arrogant about it or run others down, but to be proud and happy for what’s yours.

  • Mark Daniel Johansen

    “There are advertisements for prescription drugs. In Europe the doctor tells the patient what drugs to take–not the other way around.” That’s because Americans have these two weird ideas working together here: 1. Individualism. I want to be in control of my own life. Of course I respect the expertise of the doctor, but I’m not going to trust him blindly. I want to know what he’s doing to me and why. And 2. Freedom. We don’t like the idea that the government will tell someone that he’s not allowed to advertise his own product, or tell consumers that they are not allowed to hear about a product directly from the manufacturer rather than through a government-approved middleman, who will tell us what the government thinks we are capable of handling.

  • James

    Price tags don’t have tax in the US either!

  • Justin

    This post is saying things that exist in America, but not in other places. They’re saying price tags show tax in other countries.

  • asd

    douche

  • PassingBy

    Aerosol cheese is sad & gross. Also loaded with incredibly unhealthy crap so skip this super junk food. Does anyone actually need to hear preaching about why to avoid this so-called food?

  • PassingBy

    “Americans are really loud. But friendly” Hopefully they will perform this anticipated behavior when really nervous. Probably expecting to be robbed or to score drugs or prostitutes. Hugs, A fellow American

  • Don Lockwood

    I think this should be titled “Things Europeans might be surprised to know about the United States”
    And , yes, we are still the best in the world, thank you.

  • Nicola Colohan

    I live in Ireland and I used to live in England. When we buy anything here the price what we pay includes the tax. We have what is called V.A.T or Value Added Tax. The VAT is added to the price on the item you are buying this can be anything from 13% -23% depending on what you are buying. You will get a breakdown of the price of your goods on your receipt and two prices, the one before and the one after tax has been added. But the price on the item(s) will always be the price AFTER the tax has been added.

  • Averyfoto

    It is creepy. Blind patriotism is how the Nazis took control of Germany and the bulk of Americans are already brain dead and brainwashed, we don’t need a Christianized pledge of blind allegiance to repeat daily to add to it.

  • Averyfoto

    Dude, Americans know less about everything than other countries. We know fat and we know stupid, that’s about all.

  • Dreeba

    Rest of the World: take drugs prescribed by a trained medical professional.
    America: take drugs you’ve been persuaded to get by advertising, and then believe this is freedom.

  • Mr Smith

    Think what yo want but such attitude IS arrogant, and is the road to dangerous nationalism.

  • Marvin K.

    What does the standard of punctuation in your post inform us of you?

  • K.T.

    Bombing and invading countries is an unusual concept of being ‘friendly’.

  • Micky

    You’re explanation is wrong. For example, if you were correct then Australians & NZ’ers would be even more insular than Americans, but instead they are amongst the most travelled in the Developed World.

  • Jocasta

    Posted by a victim of brainwashing.

  • Mark Daniel Johansen

    If you believe that “the experts” are always right and so if a government-approved expert said so there is no need for you to think for yourself, well, that’s too bad I guess. Personally, when it comes to something like how I care for my own body, I’d like to have the choice, and not have it dictated to me by someone sanctioned by the government.

  • Mark Daniel Johansen

    So you think that your home country is a terrible place to live and you are ashamed of it? How sad.

  • Mark Daniel Johansen

    Funny how many Americans are anxious to run down their own country as arrogant. If this many Americans hate their own country, how can it possibly be arrogant? Sounds to me like America is one of the most self-deprecating countries in the world. You don’t hear French people blasting France for being arrogant.

  • Mark Daniel Johansen

    (a) It’s 4200 miles from St Louis to London, 4500 miles to Rabat (Morocco), 6400 miles to Tokyo. It’s 2400 miles from Perth Australia to Singapore, 1900 miles to Jakarta, 2500 miles to Port Moresby, 1700 miles to Dili (East Timor), etc. Yes, Australia is isolated from the rest of the world, but not as much as the U.S. (b) Surely you cannot dispute my basic premise: that it is easier for a European to travel to a foreign country than for an American to do so, given elementary geography. The fact that there are other foreign countries that are relatively isolated doesn’t change that fact. (c) In any case, I said “one reason”, not “the only possible reason and the total explanation”.

  • 666efg

    dont worry, on reddit a lot of euros said they love how Americans are so patriotic because in their country people are assholes and couldn’t care less about their country