03-08-2025
25 Things That Shocked Foreign Visitors To America
One of the best things about travel is that it opens your eyes to how people from different parts of the world live. On the flip side, if you have ever wondered about what non-Americans thought of American culture and its unique quirks, it gets covered in r/AskReddit when someone asked, "Non-Americans of Reddit, what's something that absolutely shocked you when you first visited the US?" The reverse culture shock was real. Here's what people had to say:
"One British boyfriend of mine was flabbergasted at the size of my parents' bathroom sink."
—YourMothersButtox
"As someone who grew up in the UK and moved to the US, the distance between places was the biggest thing to get my head around."
"The cars, which looked normal on TV, were twice as big as normal cars back home."
—bartvanh
"The accommodations provided for physically disabled people in public transit and public places. I felt genuinely happy that there is a country that takes its protections seriously. You would not want to catch yourself in a disabled state in my country."
"The listed price in stores not being what you pay. So, coupled with my unfamiliarity with US coinage, I bought everything with notes and ended up weighed down with pocketfuls of loose change at the end of each day."
—akiralx26
"All the ingredients in medications on TV, and advertising medication on TV."
"The gaps around the stall doors in public restrooms took some getting used to!"
—BareBonesTek"We hate it, too."—pandorumriver24
"So many cereal options."
"Portion size. You get a TON of food at a restaurant."
"How straight and white people's teeth were!!!"
—Fit_Acanthaceae6191
"I've been living in the US for a year. One thing I am absolutely livid about is that you have to pay to find out how much tax you owe. You can do the calculations yourself, but I wasn't confident enough to do it, so I did what most Americans do and used a proxy to file my taxes, and I had to pay $50. Like, this is insane. How the IRS doesn't just tell you how much you owe is baffling to me. This felt like a scam."
"In France, your taxes are already filed automatically because the equivalent of the IRS knows your employment status, along with how much you make, and your family situation. You just have to verify that everything is in order, and you can add deductions if needed. It took me 20 minutes to file taxes in France, while it took me two days to check things ten times and review all the checklists on what I needed to send and to whom."—Matrozi"American here, and we hate it as well. The best part? They know what we owe, and if we do our taxes wrong, we get in trouble, pay penalties, or worse. TELL US THE NUMBER, AND WE WILL TAKE CARE OF IT."—sginsc"It's actually on purpose. H&R Block and Intuit are paying lobbyists to intentionally make it more difficult. Source."—get_off_my_lawn_n0w
"How sweet all the food is, particularly food that shouldn't be sweet, like bread."
"Advertisement. Shitty advertisements absolutely everywhere."
"Personal injury lawyer ads."
"Everybody asking how I am doing, straight after the, 'Hi.''
—Important-Sir-3956"Kinda like the British, 'You alright?'"—The_GREAT_Gremlin
"The accents. In Canada, there are a few regional accents, but not that many. In the US, there were SO MANY."
"Homeless people. I know every city in every developed country has some to some degree, but my god, all the cities I visited in the US had homeless people on every other block. Most of them sadly appeared like they had serious mental health issues. Everyone else was walking by like it was normal."
"The contrast between rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods — the outright poverty in some areas of the richest country in the world."
"That pregnant women work until the end and that there's no postnatal paid leave."
"Open carry. I'm accustomed to only seeing law enforcement officers with weapons holstered."
"Flags and political signs in people's yards. On bumper stickers, in shops and cafés. This was outside of election season and it felt like everyone needed to let you know if they were a DEMOCRAT or a TRUMP supporter."
"In Ireland, you could know someone all your life and never know who they vote for. Only a complete weirdo would put political slogans in their garden. It's considered crass to fly a flag outside of St Patrick's Day or a football match."—Tukki101
"We were driving towards the Grand Canyon in the middle of nowhere with no buildings around, and suddenly, there was a fireworks shop next door to a preschool."
"Drive through everything. The funniest one was a burger place we went to. You were supposed to park, order next to the speaker, and then eat in your car. We parked and tried to go inside, and the guy was like, 'Wtf, are you doing?'"
"How big and beautiful your country is. Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Yosemite are stunning. I drove to Arizona, Utah, and California, and it was just amazing. New Orleans was out-the-gate exciting. Beverly Hills Cop did not prepare me for your national parks."
—MischaJDF"Outside of the cities, how beautiful the countryside is — the diversity of mountains, forests, deserts, and lakes. It is a very beautiful, big, and diverse landscape."—Stevebwrw
And finally, "Americans aren't actually as much the assholes as propaganda media constantly portrays."
Are these takeaways surprising? Let us know in the comments!
