Things that baffle you about another country

[Soubriquet]

America:-

Why are the gaps in the toilet doors so wide? Do you really enjoy an audience?

Why can’t tax be included in the price? If I want to buy something for a dollar it should be a dollar! Not dollar plus tax!

Australia:-

Still weird that you have Christmas in summer.

Wonder if they have different Christmas songs there.

Can’t see walking in a winter land being a big hit.

More like hiding from a hot heatwave

Things our American family find weird-NHS , they just don’t trust that it works. They cannot understand how something that costs SO much there, even with good insurance, can be free here. Because of the whole anti Obama care campaign from insurance companies and opponents there at the time many are convinced by the lies told at the time about the NHS

But they're right, it's not free! We all pay taxes to pay for it, the government spends a gazillion pounds running it. You should explain to them the difference between free and free at point of service.

I personally had much better healthcare as a waitress in the US than I do now in the UK. Other people would be better off in the UK. There are winners and losers in both systems. As a previous poster noted, the US has all sorts of problems that give it worse outcomes overall, eg gun deaths, a huge meth and opioid problem, racism in maternity care etc

Americans will never accept an NHS system if it means they can't get a GP appointment within a few days, or physio within a week, or a biopsy or ultrasound right away. Or have to wait a year for a hernia or cateract operation. That's not propaganda, that's how it is for lots of Brits.

The American sales tax thing makes no sense anymore. Chain stores will almost always have computerised accounts systems so local taxes are not an issue, and they'll print out price labels for their own store, so it'd be easy to print a big 'this is how much it will actually cost when you get to the checkout' price. Maybe there is a legal obligation to provide the pretax price, or the store simply wants to say 'hey we are only charging you this much - it'll cost you more because of those greedy state tax people'?

Either way dual pricing on the ticket would solve it

Thanks for the ... errr ... information, @Prokupatuscrakedatus

Fascinating!!!

@kale99

India's rape festival why would someone think that's a good idea

Indians also have 'Eve Teasing'. Apparently it's common in a lot of South Asian countries. Why do I know this? A few years ago I was at an aqua aerobics class in a part of London known for having lots of Bangladeshi people.

Into the class I noticed (pool was roped in half) - the men that were there tried to get as close to the rope to touch the women and also copied the instructor (but in a comedy way).

After the class, the men also tried to get close to you in the showers in the pool where you could rinse off.

I complained to the manager of the complex (it was similar to a Better one) and they did next to nothing. So I didn't return.

An Indian friend of mine told me this was quite common and normal and expected and she didn't like it but that certain types of men believed it was their 'right' so carried on doing it.

Oh, and the thing that puzzles me about Brits is why do so many of them struggle with basic spelling? Especially plurals.

Why do so many native English speakers think you can make plurals by adding an apostrophe and an "s" onto the end of a word?

@Triffid1

Non English person here. etiquette of weddings and funerals is weird for me too. 2 tier wedding system - odd. Invite only funerals - so odd that anyone who wants to pay respects or support bereaved can't just turn up.

British queuing. On one hand, I love that people don't push and shove but the insistence on a single file queue no matter what the space constraints are (eg double file queue could work or snake queue or whatever), never ceases to astound me.

My biggest one is the US though - they can drive at 16, sign up for the military at 18, they have a disturbingly high level of child marriage, you can vote at 18 but.... you can't have a drink until you're 21? WTAF?

I remember when they raised the drinking age, it was mostly to reduce the number of drink driving deaths, which have in fact gone down.

Kids still drink though and arguably it's much less safer because they tend to binge drink at parties instead.

@PerseverancePays

Why are houses in England built with so little cupboard space, and no cupboard by the front door for coats and shoes? Drives me mad. When we used to go to the States everyone had a basement the same size as the footprint of their house. That would make such a Difference to our poky little houses !

Blame UK building regulations. Our tiny jerry built houses are a disgrace.

How is a washing up bowl in any way different to the sink (in anegative way)? It isn't, is the answer.
Either you wash up properly or you don't, it doesn't make any difference if you use a bowl or the sink.

Sales tax - this confused me - in New York, Philadelphia etc there are different rates of sales tax and a certain one in Philly for clothes.

Where my friends live in Delaware there's 0% sales tax in everything so lots of people go there to buy electrical goods.

Kettles in USA - yep no as I found out to my cost when I stayed there and had to boil water in a pan on the stove.

Candy/chocolate - what the Americans pass for sweets/chocolate is way different to UK as we've found since Kraft bought and ruined Cadburys. I even went to Hershey's Chocolate World and it's still all vile. We did also visit Herr's Crisp Factory (Pennsylvania) - they were quite nice.

Someone asked why people have handguns. We have them for snakes. Snakes love to hang around the woodpile and compost pile and working with a long gun in hand isn't feasible.

We have snakes. In fact 21 of the top 25 poisonous snakes live here. We don’t all have handguns though, in fact virtually none of us do and we don’t shoot them. Actually it’s illegal to kill, injure or relocate them here. Having said that there’s been the odd one here and there given the chop with a sharp spade if they have gone to attack otherwise you use common sense when dealing with things like woodpiles, compost heaps, long grass and bush. Amazingly without the handguns we all seem to get by with snake bites being an extremely rare event.

That would be like us justifying we all need automatic rifles in case we go for a swim and come across a shark.

"How is a washing up bowl in any way different to the sink (in anegative way)? It isn't, is the answer.
Either you wash up properly or you don't, it doesn't make any difference if you use a bowl or the sink."

I also don't get this. How is a bowl "disgusting" or any dirtier than the sink?? At least with a bowl, you can change the water more easily by just throwing it down the sink.

My husband washes dishes under the hot tap and it never gets things clean because they're not soaking in the water first.

But they're right, it's not free! We all pay taxes to pay for it, the government spends a gazillion pounds running it. You should explain to them the difference between free and free at point of service

IT IS free, in any sense that matters to the individual. Most people don't pay nearly as much in taxes as they take out, not even close. So no, the majority have not in any real sense contributed to the NHS. They get treated, for free.
Americans pay their taxes too and pay health insurance and still have massive bills.
So, in a comparitive sense, it absolutely is free.

@GreenlandTheMovie

Oh, and the thing that puzzles me about Brits is why do so many of them struggle with basic spelling? Especially plurals.

Why do so many native English speakers think you can make plurals by adding an apostrophe and an "s" onto the end of a word?

I don't struggle with basic spelling or plurals. Mother was a teacher (taught primary and English).

But, grammar wasn't taught much in my 70's primary school and 80's high school. Don't know why.

@GreenlandTheMovie

Oh, and the thing that puzzles me about Brits is why do so many of them struggle with basic spelling? Especially plurals.

Why do so many native English speakers think you can make plurals by adding an apostrophe and an "s" onto the end of a word?

In the late 70s I had grammar drilled into me at primary school. And it has been the case for about the last ten years that kids have had to do a SPAG test on leaving primary school. But in the middle, it was thought uncool to expect kids to learn grammar as it affected their creativity. Hence why you have uni graduates who think "impact" is a verb and don't know the difference between their and there or between its and it's.

It should get better now with better grammar teaching at school, but unfortunately Twitterspeak is getting in the way: for example excited for instead of excited about.

I agree with the questions about opening Christmas presents on 24th. I think that would ruin Christmas Day for me.

It is hot from may to September. I don't know why everyone thinks it's only hot 'a few weeks of the year

No, it's warm(ish) during that time. It's hot for about one week. You really don't need aircon in the UK, and I am not a hot weather person. About 20 degrees is perfect for me.

@VegemiteIsToasty

UK - why do some of you think squirrels are pests? They are cute and adorable and have a fluffy tail.

They are all of those things, but are also very destructive. If they get into your loft they will chew wires and pipes. They caused floods in my MIL's house twice!

Are electricity bills much lower in the US hence the constant use of tumble driers?
If I used mine for every load of washing I do, I'd have horrendous bills - and that's only with 2 of us in the house

@SushiSoozie

How is a washing up bowl in any way different to the sink (in anegative way)? It isn't, is the answer. Either you wash up properly or you don't, it doesn't make any difference if you use a bowl or the sink.

I wasn’t going to get drawn into a washing up bowl discussion, but you’re right. Scrape the plates, wash up, rinse dishes briefly under running water or in half sink, put in drying rack, clean and rinse washing up bowl and sink, done, all nice and clean and far less water than filling the whole sink. Very useful if you don’t have a combi boiler and use a kettle to save on electricity. I was taught to also completely dry the sink and draining board with a cloth afterwards, but that was a very long time ago.

A positive galaxy of American kettles for anyone who still thinks they don't have them (other retailers are available ): www.walmart.com/browse/home/electric-kettles/4044_90548_90546_1115307_2211902

And yes, the window meshes are great, but what I really want is an American screen porch ... bliss!!

Same thoughts about Christmas in summer

I think electricity is prob cheaper though it's a while since I was there. They have huge opencast coal mines, oil and gas on tap, and vast windfarms. We import much of our energy. add to that a cheap immigrant labour force and you can see why the US is wealthy compared to elsewhere.

@Soubriquet

Poland...

Why is it traditional to celebrate Christmas on the 24th?

Not just in Poland. Belgium and some parts of France too

@Harrykanesrightsock

Air con in American restaurants set at 16 degrees in the Summer . If I ate in a Uk restaurant that cold I would complain and ask them to put the heat on.

Went on a Caribbean cruise with a friend. First thing she bought was a cardigan as the aircon was so fierce (American ship)

As an Aussie, I found paying for public toilets in London and elsewhere baffling! Brighton...beach? Really? I can’t get my head around people flocking to a stony pebble beach as a holiday. The Sunshine Coast is much more like it. And London in a heatwave, just about every park is a sea of varying shades of pale, paler and palest trying to tan! That’s a laugh. For some reason, the sun here burns you to a crisp after half an hour in 31 degrees and high humidity. And yet, three quarters of the way around, and on the opposite side of the world, the sun seems to have bugger all strength in it.

And why is it that most western visitors seems to think Australia is Sydney and Melbourne (and bloody Byron Bay!!) Queensland is much more civilised (sort of).

Oh, and watch out for the drop bears. They look exactly like a koala. That’s why they’re dangerous. Can’t tell them apart...