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

I went to a country where the men all seemed to spit and internally make some sort of phlegm making sound which made me feel sick every time I heard it. In buses, in bars, in the street. It was rank. Obviously not all men but it was noticeable to be unusual for me.

Oh - this was another strange one I found in USA - mediums/psychics seemed to advertise a lot in streets etc - something you'd never see in UK!

@redsquirrelfan

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

My grandfather was born in Luxembourg and had a French father and German mother.

They always opened Christmas presents on Christmas Eve - celebrated it then.

@WhatWouldPhyllisCraneDo

Why are kinder eggs banned in America but not guns? (Or is that a myth?) Surely guns have killed far far more people?

Something to do with the toy being inside the chocolate (choking hazard?)

@Gwenhwyfar

"As an Irish person where the usual turnaround is 3 days it seems bizarrely long! But again this is based on reading MN."

This just depends on availability of burial/cremation places I think. They are over-subscribed in London so can take a long time. It's not the same all over the UK.

I was going to post this, and I'm not Irish, but why is it so slow? Why is it weeks and weeks? Where I live, it's generally within a week. I bet nobody pops up to say that it was less than a fortnight even pre Covid. It's just odd.

Italians - you live in a beautiful, historic and much visited part of the world. Why do you tolerate all the graffiti?

@MrsKoala, my sister who’s lived in Massachusetts for decades now, says that the general view there of anyone who hangs washing on a line to dry, is that they are either mad or poverty-stricken. And very likely both

The people are so ignorant.

That makes me laugh

Guns are ok.... children shooting other children or themselves by accident is sad but an acceptable risk to keep guns, but kinder eggs with their small choking hazard are where they draw the line

@NorbertMeubles

I went to a country where the men all seemed to spit and internally make some sort of phlegm making sound which made me feel sick every time I heard it. In buses, in bars, in the street. It was rank. Obviously not all men but it was noticeable to be unusual for me.

Which country, Norbert? I wish to avoid it.

@Morgan12

So many comments about UK kids meal and bedtimes.

I'm not hungry at 5 or sleepy at 8. But my kids are. I'm not sure there is a solution to that?

Snacks? Bigger lunch.

@StepOutOfLine

To the UK (or, in fairness, Mumsnetters)

What's with the pride at having a dirty house and only washing your bedding and cleaning your bog about once a fortnight?

Would you get a bit of loo roll and wipe poo off your arm/knee/face and think that was adequate? Hopefully not, so why do you find bidets so hilarious?

Why do you think the sky will fall in if your child isn't in bed by 6pm and has had 4 naps?

I don't think there is 'pride' in a dirty house, there is however pride in only doing your fair share and not being 'the woman who cleans' at home. I do notice with my European friends, Polish in particular, that there seems to me what I would consider a more 'old fashioned' approach to the home where the women do all the cleaning but also moan that their husbands don't help. Clearly not all mumsnetters have husbands who do their share, but mumsnetters prefer not to cover for them.

America - why are there males named Randy? That means sexually aroused where I’m from.
The Monkees pop group wanted to call one of their singles "Randy Scouse Git" (They'd been watching Till Death Us Do Part) When the English meaning of randy was explained to them, they changed the title to "Alternate Title". (Though as Davy Jones was English, he should have known)

@OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow

I remember learning this carol in Australia wadechambers.medium.com/an-australian-carol-for-christmas-day-4f9b4f1babfa . I’ve got various wonderfully tacky decorations with galahs in Santa hats and Santa in shorts and Hawaiian shirts. My dd is currently living in Holland and discovered that if they say 2.30 they mean 1.30. So rather than half past the hour they mean half TO the hour. Good thing she’s not had a date at half past the hour!

not exactly.

2:30 is, well, 2:30.

but half 2 means half and hour before 2, not half an hour after.

Britain. I don't understand your garden centres.
They are crazy.
In my country we go to buy plants and garden supplies at the garden centre. In the UK, you seem to go for meals, soft play, there are farm shops, indoor furniture, cosmetics, household items, and quite a bit of clothing. It's a whole other world for me!

Some countries clap when pilots put the plane down on runways (always found very odd, who else do we clap for doing their job correctly?

Yes, for an uneventful flight it’s extremely odd. Add in the cringe factor with internal flights where you always get one or two from other countries where it seems to be done, start clapping and the rest of the plane sits there looking at them thinking they are idiots and it stops really quickly.

I have been on flights that have been really hairy, including malfunctioning landing gear etc where we all ended up okay, THEN we ALL clap the pilots and crew on landing. To be honest I think it probably means more to them that way than a forced routine clap.

@BNEQLD

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...

Re the drop bears, yes. That’s why you need to be careful under eucalyptus (gum) trees, just in case one drops.

…the fact that mountains in Europe run East/West and in the US they run North/South…

Now I’ve heard it all!

Funnily enough, that's very roughly true. If you look at google maps you will see the Alps lying in an arc E -W through Europe and moving on to Asia the Himalayas roughly trend E-W. In N and S America the Rockies and Andes trend N - S. Whether that is the cause of the flora and fauna being less varied in Eurasia because of the Ice ages, I wouldn't like to say, although it's said that global warming by causing alpine plants to have to retreat higher up the mountains may cause them to die out.

@ChangeyNameyTimey

Italy

• Why are you so bad at saying foreign names? Making up a fake name / word for every foreigner you know is not cute and funny.

Sweden

• Why do you so strongly oppose any kind of parenting? Adults should make decisions for their children and parents having at least some control of their children is a good thing.

Germany

• Why does your toilet have a shelf?

Apparently the shelf in the toilet is something to do with checking for worms?

@JaneJeffer

UK funerals are weird to me too. I see threads asking things like should I go to see my father at the chapel of rest and so many people say not to!

My question is why people in the UK have a separate dinner for the children and then put them to bed really early?

I'm British and am baffled too as to why so many kids are put to bed so early. I think the parents just want them out of the way.Breaks my heart in Summer and my kids are out playing until 7pm and next door's kids are watching from their bedroom window. Then patents moan when they're up at the crack of dawn.

I don't like the UK system where the duvet cover is right next to your body

But you can have a top sheet under a duvet.

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.

But having an NHS doesn't stop you having private insurance.

1. Sugar in or with savoury foods - especially white bread (yuk) or maple syrup with bacon . I just don't get it. I've tried it. I love bacon. I love fluffy pancakes. I love maple syrup. But put the bacon on the pancakes and it's a waste of perfectly good food.

1. Why do the British drive on the wrong side of the road to almost the whole of the rest of the world? Surely, at some point in the years between the wars, when cars were getting really common, someone could have thought "hmmm, well those Frenchies seem to be doing it differently, and we've just got back from 4 years on the continent, so we may as well switch".

1. The imperial measurements system. I am British, and therefore bi-lingual (I am 5'3" and 59kg, I drive 8 miles to work but put 50litres of petrol in my car, and I make a victoria sponge with 2 oz of flour/sugar/butter to 1 egg, which I bake at 180degrees centigrade). But the imperial system makes literally no sense at all. 16 oz in a pound but 14 pounds in a stone? So I do not understand why Britain insists on keeping miles and the US insists on keeping it all. Change. It's not that bloody hard!

1. Countries where the bank notes are all the same colour and size and made of paper. I am so glad the UK has switched to plastic, about 30 years late to the party, but got there in the end.

On US healthcare - the bit that I find insane is not the lack of free at the point of service, state funded healthcare for all, but the consequences of the system, particularly re drugs and big pharma.
Advertising prescription drugs (because your advert is clearly a good substitute for seven years of medical training) and the fact that drugs cost so much more than in Europe.

Brit here who has previously lived in the US. Great things about both places but by comparison some things about US houses we could really do to transplant over here!

The lack of mixer taps has a good historical reason (I've C&Pd this from another site).

'Older British homes often have storage tanks in their attics that feed water heaters. Under certain conditions, those tanks could be contaminated – for instance, by the intrusion of a rat – and tainted hot water that flows into a mixer tap might get sucked into a cold-water pipe leading back to the public water supply, endangering the whole neighborhood. So regulations forbid mixing of hot and cold water streams inside a tap unless the tank meets strict standards or protective valves are installed'.

As to UK homes:

I've never, ever seen a laundry chute in a UK home. I have a deep-seated irrational longing for one.

Separate laundry rooms in the basement or elsewhere are a great idea. I also don't think laundry belongs in the kitchen!

Flyscreened windows and doors. I loathe wasps and don't like to see bees getting trapped in the house. Why don't we have these?

No front porches with swings: we have conservatories and/or patios at the back. I guess we must like our privacy. But porches with swings are lovely!

Cupboard space. PPs are right on that one. There's never enough in UK homes.

Small bathrooms.

On the positive side, I can still buy chocolate and cheese that doesn't taste of soap!

In Switzerland, underground car parks are so narrow on the way in and out. Just why?

But having an NHS doesn't stop you having private insurance.

Of course, but if you tell Americans that they'd have to get private insurance on top of the NHS to get the same kind of care, they're not going to think the NHS way is better than what they already have. (Which was the original question, why don't Americans want an NHS)

Personally I think the French approach is the best and Americans would go for that, but you never hear about it in the US (or in the UK it seems!)