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16 Customs That Are Normal in One Country, but Strange Anywhere Else

Like every person has their specific little quirks, so do the countries all over the world have small but interesting differences that let you know where you are without having to check a map.

It’s fun to hear what people foreign to you consider normal, especially when it’s definitely something that would be considered strange in your neck of the woods – and these 16 people are ready to dish!

16. A glorious mess is one of the best ways to describe England.

Everyone rags on the US for using imperial, but can we talk for a second about how weird we are here in the UK for using both inconsistently?

You buy a pint of milk or beer, but a litre of coke and 25ml of whiskey

People know how many miles to the gallon their cars get, but you buy fuel at pence per litre.

You watch the weather forecast and the temperature is in Celsius but the wind speed is in miles per hour

Most people can tell you their weight in kilograms, and their height in feet, and if they can’t give you kilograms they can probably give you stone instead, which is even older than pounds, which nobody uses as a unit of measurement, probably because of the confusion between lbs and £…

It’s a glorious mess.

15. Any shelf-stable milk, if you’re from the States.

Bagged Milk.

I know it’s normal in some places but not here in the UK

14. Bidets should definitely catch on, y’all.

Washing your butthole after taking a crap

13. You don’t want to be the one to get up first.

Strangers sitting totally naked skin to skin in a steamy room heated to +80 to +100C… and us having competitions on who can last the longest in there.

12. I would 100% be down to try this.

Putting chips in our burgers

11. Honestly it might be less exhausting.

We have matrimonial ads in newspapers and sites to find grooms and brides which I think don’t happen in western countries and they find it strange.

The ads are mostly published by parents.

It’s like tinder supervised by parents.

10. Aussies have the right idea about a lot of stuff.

Drinking beer before 12 o‘clock and seeing it as part of the culture

9. She’s from Slovakia.

In my friend’s country, Easter is when gangs of boys roam the countryside, pouring water over girls and beating them (gently) with sticks.

The girls then have to thank them for it.

I thought that was pretty weird.

8. Life in South Africa seems so foreign.

Being middle-class with a property having a 6′ wall, electric fencing linked to an alarm, automated gate and garage doors (with security clamps over the gate motor to prevent theft of the motor), security gates over every door, burglar bars, and a house alarm system with infra-red sensors linked to armed response with a reaction time of under 3-4 minutes.

7. Idk guys I kind of miss living with my parents. They’re cool.

In the Philippines, it would be people living with their parents. Everybody I know whose parents’ homes are in the city choose to live there. With the relatively low wage to cost-of-living ratio, it is not unusual for married couples to share houses with their in-laws.

I work remote and I still live with my parents and pay zero rent. Of course, I pay all the bills, feed them and do all the home repairs and chores.

6. Amsterdam is home to more bikes than people. Fact.

In my country you bike everywhere. Cars aren’t used much. For longer distances you mostly use train and public transport. Also being 6 foot is normal

5. It’s always easy to misstep when it comes to race.

Calling mixed race people coloureds.

Im from south africa and im coloured but when i went on holiday in Spain, coloured is a derogatory term but in south africa its completely normal.

4. Proof that Dutch parents are magic.

Sprinkles on buttered bread is made by fairies and is perfect for kids parties.

And anything negative said about said treat is sacrilegious.

3. This is definitely something the world should catch onto, because it’s delicious.

Eating biscuits and gravy.

I traveled to the UK and told them that biscuits and gravy is a very common breakfast food and as you would expect they were highly confused (biscuit=cookie across the pond) why we would take something sweet and cover it in gravy.

And also was confused that the gravy we use has sausage in it and is white.

2. Poutine is literally the best of the best Canada has to offer.

Cheese curds and gravy over fries.

1. Kids might not be so into it if it was legal younger.

Legal drinking age of beer and wine is 16

I really love learning specifics like this about other cultures, don’t you?

If you’ve got something similar to share in the comments, please do!