While visiting my favorite Ask an American forum, I encountered the question, “What aspect of the good ol’ U.S.A. do you think foreigners take too seriously?” Here are the top-voted responses.
1. American Movies
The number one voted response is American movies. One user shared, “They overly scrutinize our films. Rather than being accepted as entertainment, they view them as potentially accurate depictions of Americans.”
“Someone recently asked if we have window screens because they’re not shown in film scenes as people crawl through windows. Do Americans not say anything before hanging up the phone? Do Americans make large breakfasts to not eat any of them before heading out the door?”
2. Believing Crazy Things From TikTok or YouTube Is Commonplace
Another stated, “Believing that whatever outrageous thing they see on TikTok or YouTube is commonplace and not getting views because it’s so strange.” “Yeah,” another agreed. “I met people who thought we all got veneer teeth to look better because people on TikTok were doing it. No.”
3. Sales Tax
“Sales tax. Foreigners make it sound like it’s some complex calculation everyone has to do. But, on the contrary, it’s easy math,” one noted. A second suggested, “Watching foreigners complain about sales tax not being listed on sticker prices is endlessly amusing. Just add 10% on top of the listed price or your total cost, and you will be golden.”
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4. Yee-Haw Culture
“Their knowledge of our culture,” said another. “The U.S. is portrayed as a simple culture or even non-culture, leading to wildly ignorant perspectives.”
“We are a multi-ethnic super state with the third highest population and most globally integrated society: the yee-haw hick stereotype is one we produced as an internal criticism of other subculture groups within a narrow context.”
5. Houses Made of Wood
“Houses made from wood. I’ve heard people in real life and on the internet ask why Americans in tornado-prone regions don’t build with stone or brick instead of wood,” one stated. “Yep,” another agreed. They can’t comprehend that it doesn’t matter. Tornados will destroy anything, bricks included.”
6. Tipping
Someone volunteered, “Treating tipping as an insurmountable cultural difference,” one replied. “More than once, I’ve seen people brag about not having to tip because their servers are paid reasonable wages.”
“However, when I look up those countries’ average server wages, they almost always translate to the twelve to fourteen US dollar range. So we have very different understandings of reasonable.”
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7. Our Obesity Problem
“Our obesity problem,” one suggested. “Yes, many people in the U.S. are fat, but many are in great shape too. Gyms are full of people. There are always people jogging and biking in the morning, plenty of people playing rec sports, etc. Also, Europeans are catching up with obesity, too.”
8. Guns
“Honestly, anything to do with guns,” stated one. “Yes, we have issues with them, but I think people outside the U.S. blow them too far out of proportion. I’ve lived in the U.S. all my life, and I don’t think I saw someone carrying a gun ‘out in the wild’ until I was 20, and I spent a lot of time in rural Massachusetts and New Hampshire.”
After people from the South argued about open carry, the O.P. responded, “Not everyone in the U.S. carries guns everywhere. There are plenty of areas in the U.S. where you might go your whole life and not see a gun. Then there are others where it is commonplace.”
9. Healthcare
Someone replied, “To hear it elsewhere, we are all dying in the streets because we can’t go see the doctor cause it costs a million dollars to get healthcare.”
However, another argued, “That works both ways. We (Brits, and probably anywhere else with universal healthcare) get a lot of Americans thinking that everyone over here dies while waiting months or years for basic surgery.”
“On both sides, you only hear the horror stories, not the thousands of uneventful surgeries, so people end up with an unbalanced perception.”
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10. New York and Disneyland
One user admitted, “I find it odd that foreigners like New York and Disneyland but don’t like America. It is America. It’s like saying you love Paris but hate France.” Another added, “What they mean is – I like this place because it fits my preconceived stereotypes about America.”
Finally, a third argued, “To be fair, in many ways, Paris can be its entity compared to the rest of France. Also, it’s not like many Americans don’t hate Washington, D.C. but love other parts of the country. Some do.”
We hope you enjoyed this Reddit discussion about things foreigners take a little too seriously regarding the good ole U.S.A. This article is inspired by the internet and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Savoteur.
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