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Brits share the most ‘bizarre’ things Americans do that seem unbelievable across the pond

Our friends across the pond offer some outside perspective on our habits, from the pledge of allegiance to spray cheese.

By

Annie Reneau

By

Upworthy Staff

united states, united kingdom, british, pledge of allegiance
From an outside perspective, the pledge of allegiance seems "culty." – Photo credit: U.S. National Archives

You know how you were raised in a household where things were done a certain way, and then at some point, you went to other people’s houses and saw that other people’s families lived completely differently and it sort of blew your mind? Different rules, different standards, different consequences, different habits—all of which were considered normal to them? Some of those differences may have made you thank the heavens for your parents, or they may have made you realize your own family had some issues you didn’t recognize.

The same thing happens when you are born and raised in a specific culture. Your sense of what’s normal is molded by it—so much so that you may never even think to question whether certain things are actually rather bizarre.

That’s why it’s nice to have some outside perspective sometimes.

A Reddit user asked “What is the most bizarre thing Americans do that feels unbelievable by British standards?” and the answers are eye-opening.

Pledging allegiance to the flag

The first response was “Having kids pledge allegiance to the flag in school. Seems culty.”

Most adult Americans were trained as young children to place our hands over our hearts, face the flag and recite the pledge every morning at school. Every single morning. Swearing our allegiance to our country and its flag, out loud, in unison.

“I went to an American school while I lived in Italy; I was one of the only English kids there. The pledge of allegiance was indeed every morning, and it felt as culty as you think. They called my parents when I wasn’t joining in ffs,” wrote one commenter.

“Never mind seeming culty, it just flat out is,” wrote another.

And another: “As an expat, I can confirm that having to pledge allegiance to the American flag was definitely one of the weirdest things that contributed to the culture shock.”

Let’s be real. If we saw children from any country deemed unsavory to American sensibilities (let’s say Russia, China, North Korea, for example) being required to stand in unison and recite a pledge of allegiance to their country’s flag every single morning, we’d consider it brainwashing.

There’s a reason that first comment got more than 5,500 upvotes.

The way we do healthcare

The comment “Going bankrupt because you needed your broken leg realigned. Being homeless as a result of needing to pay for cancer treatment” garnered 2,000 likes because the U.S. approach to healthcare is genuinely bizarre.

Everything Americans accept about healthcare is asinine: the for-profit health insurance industry, the fact that health insurance is tied to employment (but not all employment, because that would make too much sense, apparently), the fact that we pay way more for healthcare than other wealthy nations and yet have worse health outcomes, the fact that virtually no one understands how their health insurance works because it’s so complicated, the fact that medical bankruptcy is a thing, etc.

And on top of that, the fact that there is a baffling number of Americans who actually defend this system when all evidence points to the superiority of universal healthcare is absolutely mind-blowing.

How we don’t do guaranteed paid parental leave

“No paid maternity/paternity leave and new mothers having to go back to work within two weeks of giving birth. Insane,” wrote one commenter.

After Americans tried to say this wasn’t true because their company offers paid leave, the commenter clarified that the U.S. doesn’t require paid leave. It’s up to the discretion of companies, which is, indeed, insane.

“I’ve always thought this was barbaric but since having my baby it horrifies me even more,” someone wrote in response. “My baby is 12 months old next weekend and I’m still on leave. My mat leave is just finishing and I’m about to start annual leave which will see me through until January. I’ve been on around half pay for the year which has been tough financially but I wouldn’t give up this time for anything.

“At 2 weeks I could still hardly sit (episiotomy), my boobs were painfully full and leaking all the time, I was barely managing to get dressed, my baby was wanting to be held at all times day and night… I was hardly functioning.

“We don’t separate kittens and puppies from their mothers that early, how can it possibly be okay to separate babies from their mothers.”

School shootings and the active shooter drills that go along with them

Well, yeah. Not exactly a point of pride.

It’s not that other countries never ever have school shootings, but the U.S. is in a league of our own here.

“My cousins in America do school shooting practises every term,” wrote one commenter. “It’s awful that that’s a thing they need. Scary.”

“You can buy bulletproof school bags,” wrote another. “It’s nuts.”

To be fair, most Americans would agree that school shootings and active shooter drills are bizarre. We just can’t agree on what to do about it.

Our lack of electric kettles, apparently

One commenter wrote:

“On a less serious note, boiling water in a pan (or microwaving it!) for a cup of tea or coffee. I’ve seen it when watching regular people do videos, not just on tv or whatever. Where are all the kettles??(There are a lot about guns and stuff, so I thought I’d do one that’s less sad.)”

Others chimed in:

“I’m a Brit living in the US and my electric kettle is viewed by some of my American friends as a revelation. I buy them as gifts.”

“Both times I’ve been to America, I would go down to reception at the hotel and ask for a kettle. The receptionist would look at me dumbly and ask what a kettle was. And this wasn’t once or twice. This was multiple times.”

Some people explained some reasons for kettles being rare-but-not-unheard-of, ranging from the voltage being different in the U.S. to the fact that microwaving water is quick and easy. But there’s also this:

“British/American living in the US… No one I know really drinks tea with enough regularity to warrant a kettle, specially living in tiny apartments with limited kitchen space. Coffee makers are a lot more common because coffee is more popular than tea that I’ve seen.”

This is the truth. (And I do know a lot of people with electric kettles, but it apparently varies from region to region.)

We don’t walk when we can drive

Several commenters pointed to Americans’ resistance to walking anywhere that’s farther than a block or two, as well as our lack of sidewalks and walkways to even make it possible:

“No pavements/sidewalks in some places. I went to Dallas for work some years ago, and was dismayed to find that I couldn’t just ‘go for a walk’ from the hotel.”

“Yes! Nobody there walks ANYWHERE. I have a friend who is from Iowa but lived in London for a few years. When she went back she said she really misses walking. I asked what she meant, she said if she just went on a random walk she’d definitely get people stopping for her thinking she’s not okay, not okay in the head or just homeless.”

“I was reading a book the other day that described a woman walking two miles to then get a bus home as a ‘hike’. I mean, that’s just walking? Sure it was alongside a road not on a pavement but it’s still just walking!”

“Yep, that’s really weird. I went to an IT conference in Orlando back in the late 1990’s. The hotel was only about a kilometre from the conference centre, so obvs we walked as the weather was nice. Not only was it tricky due to the lack of any footpath, people thought we were mad. Also you can’t just cross the road where you want to.”

Sorry, Brits. Our land is big and our gas is cheap compared to yours. And also, you know we’re notorious for our unhealthy habits.

Sales tax tacked on at the end of a purchase

“Taxes put on at check out,” wrote one commenter.

Wait, what? This isn’t normal?

Apparently not.

“The taxes infuriate me,” wrote one commenter. “I was in Canada last week and they do the same thing. I kept thinking I was being overcharged until I remembered that advertised prices don’t include taxes, and that you’re expected to tip for pretty much everything.”

“I only found out about the tax thing recently and it f*cking blew my mind,” wrote another. “How tf do you know how much cash you’ll need? Americans must be really good at mental arithmetic if they have to add tax every time they add something to their basket.”

Spoiler: We’re not all that good at mental arithmetic. We just know we need about 10% more money than what a thing actually costs.

Agreed, though. It’s weird and annoying.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, by any means. Other “bizarre” American habits include circumcision (just the messenger—please don’t send me hate mail), televangelism, prescription drug commercials and spray cheese.

Definitely some food for thought as we consider what’s “normal” and what’s not. Different or even “bizarre” isn’t necessarily bad, but we could certainly do some national soul-searching with some of the things on this list.

(And hey, British friends—the way you say “aluminum” is weird. So there.)


This article originally appeared on 11.18.21

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    Brit shares the one-word ‘dead giveaway’ that American actors can’t do in an English accent

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    @benedicttown

    The one word American actors aways get wrong when doing an English accent

    ♬ original sound – Benedict Townsend

    What word do American actors always get wrong when they do British accents?

    “There is one word that is a dead giveaway that an English character in a movie or a TV show is being played by an American. One word that always trips them up. And once you notice it, you can’t stop noticing it,” Townsend says. “You would see this lot in ‘Game of Thrones’ and the word that would always trip them up was ‘daughter.’”

    Townsend adds that when British people say “daughter,” they pronounce it like the word “door” or “door-tah.” Meanwhile, Americans, even when they are putting on a British accent, say it like “dah-ter.”

    “So, top tip if you are an actor trying to do an English accent, daughter like a door. Like you’re opening a door,” Townsend says.

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    Some American commenters returned the favor by sharing the word that British actors never get right when using American accents: “Anything.”

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    “The dead giveaway for English people playing Americans: ‘Anything.’ Brits always say ‘EH-nuh-thin,’” marliemagill added. “I can always tell an actor is English playing an American when they say ‘anything.’ English people always say it like ‘enny-thin,’” mkmason wrote.

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    To get a better idea of the big difference in how “caught” and “cot” are pronounced in the U.S., you can take a look at the educational video below, produced for a college course on linguistics.

    American actors owe Townsend a debt of gratitude for pointing out the one thing that even the best can’t seem to get right. For some actors, it could mean the difference between a great performance and one that has people scratching their heads. He should also give the commenters a tip of the cap for sharing the big word that British people have trouble with when doing an American accent. Now, if we could just get through to Ewan McGregor and tell him that even though he is fantastic in so many films, his American accent still needs a lot of work.

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    Carlos Whittaker got a text that sent him sprinting into the yard like a ten-year-old.

    Adam Albright-Hanna

    It was a Tuesday morning, and author and speaker Carlos Whittaker had just done something most married people have done a hundred times: dropped his wife off at the airport at 6:30 AM and driven home. By 7:30, he was on the porch with his coffee, already thinking about the day.

    Then his phone buzzed. “I’m flying over you right now.”

    What his home security camera captured next is the part that got the internet. Whittaker ran into the yard, phone in one hand, waving at the sky with everything he had, jumping, looking up, trying to make himself visible from 30,000 feet. The video, which he shared on Instagram, has the slightly blurry, slightly absurd quality of security footage, and that’s exactly what makes it land. He’s not performing for the camera. He didn’t know the camera was there.

    Watching it back, Whittaker said he felt a flicker of embarrassment at first. “A grown man, running around like a 10-year-old.” But that feeling passed quickly. “That little boy is still in there,” he wrote. “And he’s not a problem. He’s a gift.”

    A small child holds a stick while staring up at the sky
    An awe-struck boy looks up at the sky. Photo credit: Canva

    The reaction he describes, that sudden, unguarded surge of wanting to connect with someone you love across an impossible distance, turns out to have real backing in psychology. Research published in Scientific Reports found that deliberate experiences of awe are linked to meaningful improvements in mental health, including reductions in stress and depressive symptoms and increases in overall wellbeing. The instinct Whittaker followed without thinking, running toward wonder instead of away from it, is something researchers say most adults suppress.

    “We spend so much of our lives trying to act like we have it all together that we forget how to feel wonder in the small things,” he wrote. “Wonder isn’t childish. It’s sacred.”

    A main raises his arms in triumph while a plane flies overhead.
    An airplane flies over an excited man. Photo credit: Canva

    The comments filled up fast with people who recognized themselves in the video. One wrote that her 19-year-old son is in aviation school and flies past the family home sometimes. “We all run out just like that,” she said, “and watch with awe as my baby flies through the air.” Another described texting a friend every time she drives past her office, both of them waving even though neither can see the other. “Little things like that are the best.”

    The plane was gone in seconds. His wife couldn’t see him. None of that was the point.

    This article originally appeared earlier this year.

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  • His neighbor’s kid kept parking illegally in front of his driveway. After 20 inches of snow, he found the perfect response.
    An illegally parked car buried in snow – Photo credit: Canva
    ,

    His neighbor’s kid kept parking illegally in front of his driveway. After 20 inches of snow, he found the perfect response.

    A Boston homeowner decided the snowblower pointed in one direction as well as another.

    Adam Albright-Hanna

    After a 20-inch snowstorm hit Boston, a homeowner (u/merrymisandrist) found himself doing what he always had to do when his neighbor’s teenage kid parked illegally next to his driveway: figure it out himself.

    The problem had been going on for a while. The kid would park in a no-parking zone right at the end of the driveway, which wasn’t just inconvenient, it caused the neighborhood snow removal truck to skip the driveway entirely during storms. The homeowner had talked to the kid about it directly, politely, more than once. Nothing changed. So when about 20 inches fell one Sunday and the plow truck bypassed his driveway again because of the illegally parked car, he grabbed his snowblower and made a decision.

    At first, he wrote on Reddit, it was almost accidental, the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and some snow landed on the car naturally. Then he decided to stop fighting the wind. “I then said ‘screw it’ and just had the chute directed at their car at all times,” he wrote. By the time he finished clearing the street around his driveway, the car was buried. Driver’s side, passenger’s side, all the way up to the sidewalk. The plow coming back through the other way added to the effect.

    AITAH for snowing in my neighbors illegally parked car?
    byu/MerryMisandrist inAITAH

    The next morning, he went out for some cleanup and found the kid trying to shovel his way out. When the kid asked to borrow the snowblower, the answer was no. The kid’s mother came over later, threatening damage to the homeowner’s belongings. He told her to call the police and closed the door.

    “I know she’s not going to call them,” he wrote, “as they were parked illegally, and they would probably give the kid a big fine for both the parking and being there in a storm.”

    Two cars buried underneath snow parked on the street.
    Parked car completely buried in snow. Photo credit: Canva

    He wasn’t wrong to anticipate that dynamic. Boston has some of the most charged parking politics in the country, especially after a storm. The city officially permits residents to reserve shoveled street spots for up to 48 hours after a snow emergency ends, and as NPR reported in January, locals take that tradition seriously, sometimes very seriously. Parking in a spot someone worked to clear is considered, by a significant portion of the city, a matter of honor and consequence. Blocking a neighbor’s driveway outright is a different category entirely, and under Massachusetts law, it’s ticketable.

    Reddit was largely on his side. “Maybe a little bit of a jerk for blowing the snow directly on the car,” one commenter acknowledged, “but it was also the car that caused you to be blocked in to begin with.”

    This article originally appeared earlier this year.

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