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Have you ever been to another country and noticed something that the locals were doing and it kind of blew your mind?
Or at least made you pause and think?
I think a lot of people have had this experience and that’s one of the joys of traveling!
What’s normal in your country but considered weird in the rest of the world?
Here’s how AskReddit users answered that question.
1. I like that!
“We call a traffic light a robot in South Africa.
I really don’t know why.”
2. Taking it seriously.
“If you ever find yourself surrounded by three or more Spaniards and want to start a mini civil war, you only have to ask “With or without onion?”.
You don’t need to specify what; they’ll all know instantly what you’re talking about. In the highly unlikely event that they all were in agreement, there is a follow-up question guaranteed to succeed where the former one failed: “Raw egg, or fully cooked?” (although the degenerates who like their egg raw refer to it as being “juicy” or “Galician”).
You’ll have a massive argument going on in no time!
What can I say, we take potato omelettes very seriously.”
3. I want this!
“Going to the hardware store in Australia and leaving with a sausage sizzle.”
4. Well, how about that?!?!
“In Denmark, if you haven’t gotten married before the age of 25, you’ll get tied to a streetlight and get showered with cinnamon.
It’s common to see big orange spots on the ground around streetlights.
It’s a very old tradition and we don’t actually expect people to get married before 25, but the tradition still goes on.”
5. No shoes, no problem.
“In New Zealand it is normal to be barefoot in public.
In the mall, the supermarket, fast food places etc. It’s even normal for kids to go to primary school barefoot.
It’s recognised this is unusual and has become a point of national pride for some people.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like everyone is doing this, but it’s a noticeable minority and would be seen on a daily basis, even in winter.”
6. Happy birthday!
“We scream when we cut the birthday cake in Venezuela.
It is expected to be a blood-curdling scream, and people laugh at you and ridicule you if it wasn’t loud or scary enough.
Also, our birthday song is like 2 minutes long.”
7. Gotta be Finland.
“We sit fully naked in a wet, hot room with either friends, family or strangers and whip each other with bath brooms (basically birch branches tied together, called “vihta”s).
Simultaneously, we’re often described as stereotypically socially awkward and reserved people.”
8. Breaking for good luck!
“Throwing porcelain, ceramic pots, and other things in front of the bride to be’s house a day or two before the wedding in order to break them into shards.
It is said that these shards bring luck. Anything that breaks can be thrown, except for mirrors, as breaking a mirror brings 7 years of bad luck according to superstition.
Calling people out if they don’t maintain eye contact when clinking glasses. It is said that people who look away will have 7 years of bad s**.”
9. Waste of money.
“I’m Spanish but studied my Bachelor degree in the UK. This is more an anecdote on what is considered “strange” in my country but totally “normal” for me.
After inviting a few Uni friends to my hometown in Spain, a baffled former British friend said it was “really strange that Spanish people drank during lunchtime and dinner just for the pleasure of it rather than to get drunk”.
She thought it was a “waste of money” to drink without actually getting dr**k. She was dead serious.
That was a real cultural turning point for me.”
10. Never thought of that.
“United States here.
Ads for prescription drugs always comes to mind when this gets asked.
No reason Joe Nobody sitting on his couch watching a commercial with some dude playing with his dogs and climbing a mountain should be telling his doctor what to prescribe, whether for herpes or MS.”
11. Don’t talk to me.
“I have no idea if this is common anywhere else, but in Norway talking to anyone in the public (on buses, on streets, etc.) is avoided as much as possible, and we avoid strangers as much as we can.
If we’re on the bus, whenever a new passenger comes in, we pray to God that they don’t sit next to us, because we enjoy our privacy.
We want to sit alone and enjoy music / movie / staring out the window, knowing that the presence of another person is non-existent.”
12. Okay…
“In the Philippines, we sometimes point with our lips.
Also we put hotdogs in our Spaghetti, which is also different because ours is a bit sweeter than the traditional spaghetti.”
13. Yuck!
“Tuna Pizza.
Americans thought I was messing with them the first time I mentioned it.”
How about you?
What do you think is normal in your country but regarded as weird everywhere else?
Talk to us in the comments and let us know!
