"I'm Sure This Surprises Outsiders": 27 Things About Daily Life In The US That Non-Americans Often Get Wrong

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23-03-2025

There are a lot of perceptions of American culture and daily life by people who don't live in the US, especially these days. And while some may be true, others are just myths. So when redditor Khrime asked Americans to share the aspects of daily life in the States that the rest of the world doesn't know about, a lot of folks chimed in with their views on what it's actually like living here. Here's what they had to say.
1. "We actually have access to farmer's markets, where people sell produce out of the back of their trucks."
— JimBones31
"During the warm half of the year, we go weekly and grab some local fruit, veggies, and baked items. Believe it or not, a lot of communities have street vendors selling prepared foods, too. With a bit of legwork, not everything is Walmart and Costco here."
— Bogmanbob
2. "Most American housing (including apartments) is much more spacious both inside and outside than in many other places."
3. "When I had European friends visit for the first time, we took them out to a chain restaurant. They were shocked at the end of the meal when the server brought out to-go boxes. They had finished their entire meal (of huge portions) without realizing we sort of expected to have too much food and take the extra home."
— Due_Tomorrow7768
"Yeah, people hate on with our huge portion sizes, but I basically plan on restaurant meals being at least two meals with leftovers. It's an advantage to me; I have lunch or dinner for the next day."
— snuffleupagus7
4. "This is more dispelling a myth, but the vast majority of people in the US use regular (non-disposable) plates for their daily meals. For some reason, a lot of people are convinced we use disposable plates regularly. In real life, disposable plates are generally reserved for large parties or cookouts."
— clekas
"This is a good one! I haven't purchased disposable plates in years. We are extremely busy, have three very active children, and are on the go a lot, but loading the dishwasher each night isn't a big deal."
— basicbritttttt
5. "Honestly, our lives are kind of boring. The vast majority of working Americans wake up, make coffee or some sort of energy source, drive 10–30 minutes to work, work for 8–10 hours, and go home to have leisure time. Some nights, I'll keep to myself and take care of chores and groceries or watch sports. Others, I'll meet up with some friends for drinks/video games or go on a date with my soon-to-be wife."
— msflagship
6. "How much wilderness there is outside of urban centers. Hell, in more rural areas, it's just fields surrounded by trees for miles upon miles. We build out urban centers because we have the space."
— friendlylifecherry
"I think the rest of the world doesn't realize how ecologically diverse America is. If I remember right, we have nearly, if not every, ecological zone in our country."
— TheChivalrousWalrus
7. "I feel unfathomably rude if I don't acknowledge a stranger passing me on the street or through a door with at least a half-hearted smile. I also feel rude if I don't hold the door open for people, and I judge a little if they don't hold a door."
— Gertrude_D
8. "Our stores are open for much longer hours than is typical for Europe."
— TillPsychological351
"I lived in France, and when I came back home, my stepdad told me he was going to the grocery, and I said, 'But it's Sunday,' and he stared at me like I had five heads."
— BaseballNo916
9. "I think the biggest thing is that all 50 states are so different from each other. Outsiders/people from other countries think if you're an American, then you're like what flashed across the TV that day. One state will have lotteries and gambling and liquor sales 24/7. Another state thinks all that is a sin and limits or denies access to all of those things."
— Whitestealth74
10. "This may not be that surprising, but as an American, when I travel to other countries, I realize people don't drink coffee on the go the way we do here. It's very common for Americans in major cities to walk around with a to-go coffee in their hands while they commute to work or walk around to do errands. In the suburbs, people tend to have coffee in their cars."
11. "How much variety there is in our diets. We regularly get questions about a 'typical' American meal that presupposes a homogeneity that simply doesn't exist."
— royalhawk345
12. "We have Amber Alerts. This surprised a friend of mine from another country. If there is a missing child or an abduction nearby, they will issue an Amber Alert. It goes to cell phones, TVs, and radio stations. It will just be broadcast as an emergency message, and they aren't usually expected. They just buzz your phone. Basically, the goal is to get the community involved. They will usually come with a description of the missing person, the perpetrator, or a vehicle to look out for."
13. "I lived in Europe in the '90s while serving in the military. It always caught me off guard that, based mostly on TV shows from the US, they seemed to think that all Americans are filthy rich. In truth, most people I met there lived a much more comfortable lifestyle than I ever had. I think it would surprise most outsiders how much the average American struggles to just get by financially from day to day."
— smpenn
14. "I guess a surprise would be how fast we go on highways. We go up to five mph over the speed limit in the right lane and up to 15 mph over in the left."
— msflagship
"I'm sure the routine speeding surprises outsiders. Speed cameras and automated citations are commonplace in most other countries I've driven in. You just don't speed over there unless you want to pay a fine. But here, not speeding results in being tailgated or passed constantly. Enforcement is lax."
— TacohTuesday
15. "My husband is German, and I met him when we lived in the US. The biggest shock for him (and the other German expat friends I made through him) was people saying, 'We should hang out sometime,' but not meaning it because they didn't want to schedule a time right then and there. They also complained about people asking, 'How are you?' and not actually wanting to know or not meaning it because you're just supposed to say 'good' and ask how they are."
— napalmtree13
16. "The weather is vastly different in all areas of the country, and the Northeast gets COLD. I always assumed that most of Europe had the same cold winters and extremely hot summers as the Northeast, but they don't! The winters are more like southern Finland's, and the summers are like southern France. It's wild how vastly different climates can be."
— zng120
"I live in Nebraska, and my friends in the UK are fascinated by the extreme differences between my winter lows and summer highs. Most of the US is just bonkers with the range we experience in a given year."
— None
17. "We don't consider driving three to four hours to do something/see someone to be far. Today after work, I'm driving an hour to spend a few hours at a con, then driving an hour home. Next weekend, I'm driving three and a half hours for a weekend getaway with friends, driving back, and going straight to work. I drive five hours to get to my tattoo artist. Oh, and all of those things are still in my state."
— ABelleWriter
18. "If you live in a larger city, you can order almost anything and have it delivered to your house within an hour."
— Ready-Possibility374
"I thought it was wild when a friend ordered alcohol at 2 a.m. delivered to her apartment in San Francisco. That's not a thing at all where I live."
— Figgler
19. "Americans are generally really nice, welcoming, and tolerant people. Whatever you see online about America that shows the opposite is not true for the vast majority of interactions in everyday life. For example, most people are not willing to turn away their friends and family because of their politics. Things stay civil for the most part, and we love our neighbors regardless of their opinions. Of course, this has lessened to a degree over the last decade. But again, the majority of people are civil and nice to each other."
— Uncle_Chael
20. "We eat a lot of bread and meat. According to my Korean friends, this is strange and novel. They loved how much meat we could get for less money than in Korea — but they were baffled at the bread thing. A friend once asked me, 'Is it true that Americans eat bread with every meal?' I said no at first and then thought about it. American-style breakfasts include things like toast, pancakes, waffles, bagels, pastries, donuts, biscuits, and muffins. All bread. The most common lunch food is sandwiches. Bread. Dinners are often served with a roll of biscuits or on a bun like a burger or BBQ. Even our desserts are essentially sugar bread — cake, cupcakes, etc. I told them it may be analogous to how they generally ate rice with every meal."
21. "I live in suburban Texas. We spend a lot of time driving. We drive 20 minutes each way for daycare drop-off every day. The gym is another 15 minutes away on the days we go. Our church is about 20 minutes away. I spent about an hour driving each day. My husband does as well. At least twice a year, we drive six hours each way to visit my parents."
— tom_sawyer_mom
22. "When we talk about our babies, there is a 50/50 chance we're discussing a pet."
23. "How empty the Western US is. Draw a line running north to south from about one degree of longitude west of the North Dakota/Minnesota state line — 80 PERCENT of the US population lives east of this line. Now draw another (curvier) line that runs along the spine of the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Mountain ranges in the Western US. Another 15 PERCENT of the American population lives west of this line, between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean (and most of those people are in California). This means that the vast, middle portion of America — nearly 50 percent of the lower 48 United States — has about five percent of the population."
— UJMRider1961
24. "Many of us have entirely separate rooms that are just called 'laundry rooms' instead of having the laundry in the kitchen."
25. "Americans know more about the metric system than we're given credit for. If I use my food scale, I prefer to do it in grams. Everyone has a sense of one and two liters because of soda bottles. My science classes always did every measurement in metric."
— tivofanatico
26. "We really don't eat more processed food than other places. I visited a handful of European countries a few years ago, and my diet wasn't much different, aside from the fact that many of the dishes I had while traveling in Europe didn't have many vegetables. There was just as much processed food in grocery stores there as you would see here in the States. We also don't worship fast food like McDonald's. I might have McDonald's a few times a year, and I think that's pretty typical (at least among my friends and family)."
— ilikebison
"You see a lot of people who went on long vacations to European countries talking about eating similar foods to America but losing weight. Using it as proof American food is garbage and neglecting the three miles a day they walked."
— PersonalitySmall593
27. "I've had friends from Germany remark with surprise at how orderly everyone takes turns at the many four-way stop intersections nearby. They seemed surprised that everyone doesn't just try to drive through at the same time. We all learn the priority rules when getting our license, and, for the most part, everyone follows them without much thought."
— No-Donut-8692