5 Weird Things Americans Do That the Rest of the World Side Eye
America is a whole other realm of weirdness sometimes. If you’ve ever travelled to the States, you’ll know as a foreigner there it’s a completely new land and they do things very differently.
From gun control to portion size, Americans have some pretty strong opinions on how to live correctly and they aren’t shy about voicing them either. We put together a few bizarre things Americans do that just aren’t normal to the rest of the world.
Ordering Food
In American restaurants, if you want to order a main meal you have to ask the waiter for an entrée. Entrée in French literally means ”entrance”, hence why it’s meant to be at the start of the meal but in America the first dish is called an appetiser [or appetizer to them!].
They also never get charged for ordering water in restaurants whereas a lot of European restaurants charge you a pretty penny for fancy bottled water when ordering ”just a water please.”
The Wrong Lemonade
So in most other countries, when ordering a nice, crisp lemonade you’d expect a Sprite or a 7Up style fizzy drink, but not in America. Americans class lemonade as a still drink packed full of sugar and real lemons – not a hint of fizz in sight. They also encourage small children to sell their homemade ‘old style’ lemonade on stands for a bit of extra pocket money.
Flags, Flags, Flags
Americans are obsessed with being American. The constant patriotic chant of America hangs in the air. Not really, but the sheer amount of American flags that hang off houses and adorn shirts in Walmart is a bit crazy. It’s pretty normal to have a giant flag flying outside your house. One things clear though, Americans are one of the most patriotic countries we’ve seen.
Inside Shoes
Wearing shoes inside the house is a big NO in so many countries but Americans don’t seem to mind bringing the outside dirt inside. They don’t tend to remove their shoes before stepping inside someone else’s home and it’s not standard practise to ask them to remove them either. Just watch any American film, shoes always remain on!
They Can’t Get Dates Right
This is such a weird one but Americans literally put the month before the day when writing out important dates. Their standard format is MM/DD/YYYY instead of the much more sensible and widely used DD/MM/YYYY. It makes no sense at all. Day, month, year is the obvious way in which dates should be written and spoken but someone somewhere decided to make it all backwards.
Final Thoughts
America is a quirky country. From making it legal to carry weapons to supersizing everything – they definitely have their own way of living. They feel a bit like a first world oddity. A spectacle to watch from afar. What do you think? Is America a bit of a wacky science experiment?
Comment any other weird points you have about America that just aren’t normal to the rest of the world.
