r/AskAmericans • u/Dry_Rope_3662 • 4d ago
Foreign Poster Americans, what's something about everyday life in the US that people from other countries completely misunderstand?
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
Most of us are living boring, normal, contended lives and spend our time with family and friends, working, doing hobbies, etc.
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u/FeatherlyFly 4d ago
Movies and TV and social media are entertainment. They're selling stories, and what people mostly want to buy is drama, not normality.
So you're not going to see the hours upon hours of uneventful daily life, you're going to see the 2 minutes of something exciting, carefully edited to make it even more attention grabbing than a similar scene in real life would be.
This is just as true in your home country..
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u/marvelguy1975 4d ago
We are not dodging bullets from mass shootings every day when we leave the house.
Not everyone is packing a gun ether.
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u/Meizas 4d ago
You'd be surprised how many people are concealed carrying at any given time around you. I lived in a red state and it came up quite often and the amount of people who were at any given moment always shocked me. Now I live in a blue state, and it's not quite as many, but still way more than I would ever guess.
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u/marvelguy1975 4d ago
Well some people think its the wild west here. Its not
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u/Meizas 4d ago
That's fair, hahaha. I'd put the number vaguely at more than you think, less than you hope 😅
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u/marvelguy1975 4d ago
It does matter what state you are in. Im in a heavy blue state where they make it very hard and expensive to buy a gun and to get a carry permit.
Definitely not like florida or texas.
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u/WulfTheSaxon U.S.A 4d ago
That just because something isn’t mandated at the national level doesn’t mean that it isn’t common, either because it’s mandated at the state or local level or because it’s just done voluntarily.
For example, there’s no requirement that employees get holidays off work, but almost everybody gets the biggest ones anyway.
Think of the US more like the EU, where most laws aren’t supposed to be at the top level, and things make a lot more sense.
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u/OkieBobbie Oklahoma 4d ago
Most of us do not eat, sleep, and breathe politics, just the noisiest ones. The majority of us just want to live and let live and be left the fuck alone.
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u/Emilia963 North Dakota 4d ago
Most of us live comfortably and content and happy
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u/AmbivalentDisaster1 U.S.A 4d ago
The homes and apartments you usually see on TV are not average homes. (I’m looking at you, Carrie Bradshaw)
https://giphy.com/gifs/Ck6zcZ8bSf9QY
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 4d ago
They think we live in a third world shit hole because some self hating american idiot pretends like he is living in gaza
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u/blueredgr33n 4d ago
To be fair, I don't think that's an outsider looking in opinion. But it's certainly closer to the truth from those inside who venture out into the world. America is beautiful, it's rich, and has all the promise and possibility, but instead...
Maternal mortality. Childhood hunger. Abysmal education. Gun violence. For profit prisons. Underwhelming transportation system. We don't take care of elderly people, unless there's a Medicare procedural billing opportunity. Workers rights. Journalism is under attack. Our food is poisoning us. Ever increasingly corrupt government. Free & fair elections are now very questionable. Basic utilities like Internet, postal services, clean water, electricity are not equally accessible. And those are just the top line bullet points everybody agrees on.
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 4d ago
All of these happen everywhere and to give off the impression that America is like this is incredibly disingenuous. All of your points can be debunked.
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u/Gay_commie_fucker Florida 3d ago
The size of things at the grocery store. non Americans frequently see the huge package of food that are common in our stores and are horrified by the idea that we eat that much. The reality is that, wile we probably do eat bigger portions than a lot of the world, our groceries aren’t huge because we eat that much more. We just shop much less frequently. My parents used to shop every two week. Most people only shop weekly. We just buy bigger portions and go to the store way less. It’s also very common here for people to buy in bulk to save money. If you see someone buying 10 pounds of ground beef, chances are they’re going to freeze it in little one pound portions, to thaw whenever they need meat. I freeze massive amounts of fresh pasta that I buy in bulk, all portioned out so that I can easily cook just a small amount for dinner. It’s usually way more economical to shop like this here, especially for families.
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u/ByThorsBicep 3d ago
To piggyback off of this - food at restaurants is more often than not taken home for leftovers if the portion is really large.
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u/PersonalitySmall593 4d ago
That we genuinely don't care what they think of us. I love answering questions asked in good faith as much as I love asking them. But, I am really bumfuzzled sometimes at the weird and petty things people from other countries hurl thinking its going to shame us. Good example I recently found out about: Apparently Belgium beat the US in the World Cup and afterwards they were filmed in their locker room making fun of one of Trump's dances, the comments were also full of people Tanking them for winning against the US. All I could think is..."Do they really think this...bothers us?" Soccer is the third most popular sport in the US pushed there only because three of the largest states hold the majority of soccer fans (Florida, Texas and Florida). So a good many Americans weren't too distraught over losing and even people who support Trump make fun of his dancing.
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u/urnotdownfooo California 4d ago
Half of us truly don’t understand how anyone can support our president. I work with some incredibly intelligent people that not only support him, but genuinely believe in him and will die on that hill. Boggles my fucking mind.
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u/ToomintheEllimist Iowa 4d ago
Cars. We all hate our reliance on cars too. But most of us don't have a way out of our reliance on cars.
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u/WarMinister23 4d ago
Yeah like I would love if my region had a light rail system but it'd be impossible to buy up all the land that has homes on it to build the tracks
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u/SevenSixOne 4d ago edited 4d ago
Exactly, most of our city planning and development was done on the scale of cars. That means that most of our cities and suburbs are a sprawling mess, and in a lot of places it would be a 30+ minute walk to get to the nearest place that could accommodate a bus stop or train station or whatever without demolishing the existing buildings and infrastructure.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
We all hate our reliance on cars
While I am all for expanding public transportation options, I really like my car(s).
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u/uses_for_mooses Missouri 4d ago
I like my car. And I’m not alone.
I love the US’s interstate highway system, and road trips.
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u/ayebrade69 Kentucky 4d ago
I prefer being able to go wherever I want, whenever I want, no matter how far away it is, without having to rely on someone else to get me there
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 4d ago
Speak for yourself. Car culture is big here. Most of us prefer one over getting on a bus.
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u/Then_Supermarket18 4d ago
I don't know where you live but traffic sucks and my commute is going to kill me some day
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 4d ago
What's your point? You can run into traffic on a bus
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u/Achilles-Foot 4d ago
yeah but thats only because almost no one rides busses, if even 10% of us rode the bus to work then traffic would reduce massively. but 10% of us can't even do that because even in major cities the bus service is limited and inconsistent
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 4d ago
Not true. Go to Chicago or NYC.
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u/Achilles-Foot 4d ago
I have been to chicago lol, it was amazing. you probably couldn't enjoy it because you were in your car the whole time. that being said chicago is not a well designed city at all. but it still a million times better than atlanta where I am from. If you can't understand how much more efficient 100 people in a subway car is compared to 100 cars on the road then i don't know what to tell you. I went to a concert in chicago and it was beautiful, you walked in and you walked out and that was it. no fucking massive disgusting sea of parking.
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 4d ago
If you were in a car the whole time then that's because you chose to be in one.
Sorry I don't want to be on a crowded bus to make car haters happy.
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u/Achilles-Foot 4d ago
I understand not wanting to be on a crowded bus but the beauty of high density development is that you can wake up walk outside and be a 5-10 min walk from bars, restaraunts, clubs, parks, activities, versus in atlanta because there are barely busses and barely a train, the only way to cope with the traffic is to make gigantic freeways, and every buisness is required to have a parking lot. because of this everything becomes so far apart so instead of being able to have parks, bars, shops, activities, and houses, all right next to eachother, instead you end up having every single thing being a couple of miles (atleast) apart. doesn't that bother you a little bit?
and if you aren't the big city type, have you ever been to a small little historic downtown? isn't it great how when you don't need parking lots everything becomes so close together and it becomes so easy to have a great day because you don't have to spend it getting around? And it is also so visually appealing, and so quiet.
And don't you remember how much life sucked as a teen here in the US? with no car you literally couldn't get around. You either got lucky and had friends near you or you didn't and just had to stay home all day. we should atleast have some transport so that kids can live life.
not even touching on the fact that they are ridiculously dangerous. everyone knows someone who has died in a car accident, everyone had some kid in their highschool who did as well. this should be the main point really but its not because people don't care about that stuff for some reason
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
And don't you remember how much life sucked as a teen here in the US? with no car you literally couldn't get around.
I had a bicycle and then a car.
It was awesome.
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 4d ago
It sounds to me like you just hate Atlanta and want to move. Banning cars is a ridiculous solution when you can just move somewhere else with more public transit.
Life as a teen was fine. I had social media, I had a bike, I played co-op with my friends, and we talked on the phone. If you blame not having public transit for your shitty teenage years, your life would have sucked regardless.
Buses can have accidents, trains can have accidents.
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u/Then_Supermarket18 4d ago
We'd have less of an obesity problem if more people rode bikes. Just saying
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u/Then_Supermarket18 4d ago
Driving in traffic sucks
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 4d ago
Being on a crowded bus sucks
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u/noyouactnormal 3d ago
You might not say that if your city's bus system was more efficient. When I lived in one part of town where the busses ran frequently, I never drove. Then I moved to a different part of the city where, for some reason, the city didn't invest in as many stops and routes. The bus was a HUGE hassle, so we bought a second car.
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 3d ago
My city actually is. There's a time and place for everything. The mode of transportation I prefer depends on what I'm doing
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u/machagogo New Jersey 4d ago
This really is not true. Grew up in NYC, still live in NY metro. Hate taking public transport. Know MANY people who feel the same and have the same history
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u/Meizas 4d ago
NYC is an anomaly here
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
What does that have to do with their comment?
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u/Meizas 4d ago
Everything? I'm saying NYC isn't like most places in the US.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
I'm saying NYC isn't like most places in the US.
They never claimed it was. In fact they are acknowledging as much by saying even in NYC they didn't prefer public transportation.
Thus, your comment is irrelevant based on that comment and the interaction.
You are arguing a point they never made.
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u/Meizas 3d ago
You clearly don't understand my point, and I don't care to argue with some random Redditor who wasn't even the original comment I replied to.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 3d ago
You clearly don't understand my point
Because none of what you are saying is making sense.
This ain't on me bro. This is a you problem.
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u/noyouactnormal 3d ago
Hear, hear! I hate having to drive a car. I miss when I used to live in a place with an efficient bus system, where everything was close, and where I could often walk/bike to where I needed to be. I hate car reliance.
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u/ExperienceStrange407 2d ago
How mundane it is. We get up got work, eat, come home enjoy a couple hours at home. Get up again the next day and do the same.
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u/OrganicSympathy9533 3d ago
Everyone here isn't very rich though we take earning more seriously.
We do know that our healthcare system sucks but we still love our country.
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u/Achilles-Foot 4d ago
I think alot of europeans think we are stupid because we don't know alot about the world but If you lived here you would understand that we have practically no exposure to the rest of the world so it makes sense that we don't know about it.
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u/machagogo New Jersey 4d ago
The average American knows as much about "the world" as the average European. They just "know" more about the US because they watch out movies and TV, they aren't learning it in school. Ask them about Grenada, or what is going on on the Island of Hispaniola and they will give you a blank stare.
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u/Metal_Man_22 U.S.A 4d ago
Also we know more about the Americas they know more about Europe. They think an American is dumb when you can’t tell them where Austria is, but the majority of them can’t point out Paraguay on a map.
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u/Achilles-Foot 4d ago
yeah I was wondering about this because my mom is hungarian and her georgraphy or general world knowledge is not any better than mine
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
You're repeatedly telling on yourself in your comments.
Speak for yourself, not the rest of us.
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u/Achilles-Foot 4d ago
i'm not sure how but this sub has cultivated such a shitty user base bruh
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
The irony here is palpable.
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u/Achilles-Foot 4d ago
look dude OP's question bassically asked us to speak for everyone so thats what I did. theres no way I can know the average thoughts of the average american, let alone the average thoughts of the average european. so I just used my best guess and tried to go based off of my anecdotal irl and online experience. And you never explained yourself or even argued a point you just insulted me and called it a day. so fuck you bassically
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
And you never explained yourself or even argued a point you just insulted me and called it a day
Where did I insult you, exactly? I said you were guilty of the thing you are accusing others of, nothing more.
so fuck you bassically
Dude...are you like 14 years old or something? What is your problem.
Go touch grass.
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u/Achilles-Foot 4d ago
maybe you have to dumb it down for me i don't think i can get your big thoughts into my little brain
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
Be real with me...are you 14 years old?
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u/Achilles-Foot 4d ago
no GhostOfJamesStrang I am almost 20 and I just really like talking with you I wish we could keep talking this shit really like stimulates my brain I'm trying really hard to watch a show or read a book or something useful but I can't because I just keep waiting for that little notification bell to have a red 1 on it and I really hope you reply because I could just argue all fucking day lowkenuienly
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 4d ago
I am almost 20
Well, at least you can blame some of this on being a teenager.
The rest of this comment is utterly cringey.
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u/WarMinister23 4d ago
Many of us agree that our healthcare is too expensive and don't appreciate arrogant foreigners who think they're making some grand statement by asking us why it costs so much as if we're too stupid to notice on our own