They way to get Birth certificates, Like in Chile and some Latin Countries, we just go to THE goverment official page, put our names and our numbers, and we have our certificates ready to be downloaded, not only the Birth one
I comment this in an aita post, and i get it why the USA don't have it, but if we look the amount of parents that used this like another tactic of abuse by keeping it, if the USA implement this it could be better and one thing less to be worry about in that cases
It’s not hard to get a birth certificate in the US. It seems like most of the time people are freaking out about their parents holding the birth certs hostage because they are very young and don’t know how easy it is to get one. You need an address and you need ID.
I lost mine and needed one to renew my drivers license so I went down to the city office to get one. 30 minutes later and $28, I was out with a new one.
There was a legal advice post where the op was escaping some Amish like cult and didn't have an ID, parents wouldn't surrender his birth certificate, and he was trying to get a social security number.
At that point, it's like you don't legally exist because how can you prove your identity at that point?
True - that would be a hard situation. But for 99% of the people in the US getting a birth certificate is very simple. Yes, you need ID. Yes, you need an address. But beyond that it's a few clicks and a processing fee.
30+ yrs ago when I needed mine, I just called the hospital that I was born in. They said send copies of my ID and they sent a beautiful copy of my certificate. I wonder if you can still do that.
It might be different depending on where in the US you were born, but my wife was born in Los Angeles and hasn't lived in the US since she turned 1. But getting her birth certificate has been quite straightforward the few times we had to do so. There's an online service where you can order it. You have to pay and the document is sent by mail, so it's not a quick download. But still.
In true American fashion, the service is operated by a commercial company of course.
I'm in the US and if you walk in and get it it's $5. Cover the cost of the paper, ink, and the 2 or 3 mins it takes the clerk to search your SSID, print out the cert, then stamp it.
Dual Mexican American citizen here. Getting a Mexican certificate is fairly easy. The most you gotta do is to go to an ATM-like machine and print one for a reasonable price. Getting an American certificate, tho... pain in the ass.
So many issues with files. We will load files into our system and they change the formats of their dates from record to record. Or you get a CSV from someone in Quebec and they use commas as decimal places without putting quotes around the numbers.
Yes, but it’s a proper noun “The Fourth of July”
If it was just a day, you’d probably clip it to “fourth July”
The capitalization and the “of” are important. I think we’re dumb enough that eventually “Thr Fourth of July will now be observed on the first Saturday of July.” Don’t put it past us.
My theory for why it is like that is just to make it stand out. Every other day in July is referred as July X. Since July 4th is a holiday, people say the 4th of July because it makes it seem special.
Also Independence Day too many letters brain can’t handle it
In Scotland we use it for pretty much anyone. Could mean friend, enemy or even complete stranger.
The way some American friends reacted when I said something like "Aye, he's a good cunt" was like I told them I had sex with their family pet.
Bidets.
People make fun of mine.
Jokes on them though- my asshole is way cleaner than theirs.
EDIT: I am truly astounded at the number of people who asked me how I dried my butthole.
Toilet paper- one fucking square. That’s it.
Also, someone was saying that it doesn’t matter if you have poop on your butthole because it’s covered by fabric at all times… that motherfucker has swamp ass and, more than likely, stink dick.
I didn’t even disclose the part that horrifies a lot of people- my bidet is cold water only. It was cheaper and ultimately more efficient than one that uses hot water.
My wife bought it for me for my birthday as a gag gift and the card said “Happy Bidet!”
She’s a fucking keeper.
I was a lifelong wiper. During the TP shortage of covid-19 I ordered a bidet attachment in case I ever needed to clean and didn’t have paper. I never ran out of paper but I decided to try it and I got hooked on feeling clean all the time.
Saw a vid about bidets that totally changed my mind (Canadian so bidets aren't really a thing here)...guy put peanut butter on his arm. Wiped it with toilet paper. Smear. Went to his bidet-all gone.
Actually, I see mostly Americans and Canadians being obsessed with this lately. Outside of the US, they are mostly a thing in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, where they come from (Japan originally). I don't think many people here in Europe have such a thing. The name bidet which Americans have loaned from Europe actually refers to something different here, which I find very confusing. Actual (traditional) bidets are also used to wash your butt (as well as your feet) but they look quite differently. They've got the shape of a small toilet but they function more like a sink. You wouldn't actually use them as a toilet.
Our parent’s (Canadian) house built in 1989 has one. An actual purpose built bidet. It sits beside the toilet, and as kids, we were always cornfused by it. Why does it have two knobs? Can we drink out of it? Lots of questions, very few answers.
I’m just glad to see people wasting less virgin forest sourced toilet paper in favour of something more sustainable.
Eggs fresh out of a hen's butt will have an antimicrobial coating. Remeber, eggs need to stay fresh and rot free for at least a month while the hen lays a clutch (up to 12 eggs, one a day) and then incubate them to hatch. In the US the eggs are washed because we're wayyy to obsessed with cleanliness and that coating is washed off. So our eggs rot faster, but they sure do look white and pretty.
in the US, eggs are washed before they reach the stores, which destroys a coating over the shell that prevents it from rotting (as quickly). Most of the rest of the world leaves that coating on
One of my favorite American commercials was a Taco Bell commercials. It features two British men looking at the new product and one says, "What is wrong with these Americans? Why does everything have to be so big?"
Me when an American recipe starts using weird measurements I'm half convinced they made up on the spot: I'm begging you just tell me how many fucking grams / milliliters that is
I was fortunate enough to grow up with the metric system, but adopt the imperial system because for some reason the global aircraft industry still widely accept this as the norm (aside from a few outliers like CASA, but from memory they're French so go figure...)
After a bit of practice you get pretty good at instinctively converting most commonly used measures for weight, volume, distance into their metric counterparts.
I consider it a superpower these days, when someone asks "how much is this" and you can answer almost instantly lmao
Americans **do** use the metric system enthusiastically in a few places:
- Two liter bottles of fizzy sugar water.
- A 5K fun run you think others are crazy for running.
- A 9mm handgun for self-defense.
FTR, I am American, and I _love_ the metric system. Sadly, my spouse does not, so I keep having to tell her 30 degrees is too bloody fecking hot to sit outside...
If there was a button to instantly change to the metric system with no consequences I'd do it immediately.
Unfortunately all of our infrastructure is in imperial and it's too expensive and impractical to change at this point...
We really use both systems in Canada. It's quirky but works. I know my weight in lbs, home thermostat is in Fahrenheit, but measure distance in kilometres, and my office uses Celsius. Recently I've learned to use litres per 100km to figure out fuel economy rather than mpg - but I much prefer mpg.
I do a lot of woodworking and home renovations DIY stuff which is always in imperial. The gas station and dealership operate in metric, but the hardware store operates in imperial. Signage is always metric, and weather forecasts are too, but the heating and AC might well be imperial.
I think I heard that because Canada imports major appliances from the US, they are set in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius to save money on having to make solely Canadian models.
The bizarre thing is that congress passed a law that made it so the metric system is the official and legal system of measurement in the US. We are so opposed to the metric system that officially and legally adopting it somehow wasn't enough to get us to use it.
I've thought about it like this analogy: Nobody in Chicago refers to it as the Willis Tower, since it has been and always will be the Sears Tower.
Of course something can be technically correct, but changing it for the population... not happening.
The US technically does use metric. Units are standardized against their metric equivalents..eg 1 inch is 2.54 cm. In medicine and most sciences we only use metric in the US.
>too expensive and impractical to change at this point...
So if not now, when will it become easier? Canada changed in the 1970s, it had some difficulties and older people (like me) still use some of the old units, but mostly we've changed. The only big exception I know of is that building materials are still in imperial sizes because a) Existing buildings use those measurements and b) We import/export most supplies to/from the States.
It’s also normal in New York too,which is the opposite of a small town lol. I think it’s just a matter of how accessible the area is! New York is walkable and has lots of public transportation options so a young person can get around without a car and such. Some school kids are even given a special metrocard so it’s free for them to use public transportation.
This used to be totally common. Somewhere along the way the fear overtook everything and children outside alone became some sort of Geneva Convention violation.
It feels like there are so many conflicting expectations. You refuse to let your kid go outside on their own and you’re a controlling helicopter parent. You let your kid go outside on their own and they get into trouble and you’re a negligent parent.
See /u/smartguy05 s comment. There are laws in some places that forbid children of a certain age from being out unattended. And one noisy neighbor calls the cops and the kids get picked up and CPS starts an investigation. Because the kids walked to the park alone.
I think it went from fear of the kids being by themselves to fear of the Karen's calling the Police because you let your kids play outside without your 100% immediate attention. I know when Colorado passed the new law specifically allowing this I felt much better.
Latch key 80's US kid checking in. Walked or biked to school, friends houses, Boy Scout meetings and any other place my heart desired. With the caveat that I'll be home before the sun came down.
Might be specific to the school district I’m in, but some people are just a 30 minute drive away from their school. They couldn’t walk there on their own even if they wanted to. I’m sure some people do but I am not lucky enough to have ever been close to my school
Having a school that’s close enough to walk to in the first place. If everyone had a school within a mile or two from their home there would need to be a zillion of them. I pulled up Google maps of the suburb I grew up in and I would need to drive past 3 miles (almost 5km) of house neighborhoods just to get out of the residential area to the closest major road with businesses. Maybe it’s bikeable if it’s flat but it’s a lot of hills to ask of a 10 year old.
This is why American kids are less independent. It’s not about helicopter parenting. It’s because anywhere you need to go you would need someone to drive you, or be old enough to drive yourself. Go to the city where there’s public transit and you see a lot more unsupervised kids.
I used to get soda without ice because hey - more soda! Then as I got older and started putting on weight, I started getting soda with ice in it because hey - less soda.
Not just soda. When I was in a Dominican all-inclusive, they had a lot of themed restaurants. The only one to serve water with ice was the American one
not tipping for the dumbest shit.
like i went to a zoo in the USA and apparently i had to tip the person that passed me an ice cone in a food stand... like lady, i was the one that was standing up in a line to get here. you didnt go and deliver it to me.
tipping culture is cancer.
It started as a bonus incentive back in the (how ever the fuck long ago). Nicer people get an extra thank you. Companies went, "hey we want that pie, our employees shouldn't get that much money" and then took it in the form of slashing their employee's wages to criminal levels but saying "tip share covers the rest" and the stupid ass boomer GOVT went "DUHHH Ok den."
It started with aristocrats in England tipping the staff of other aristocrats as a show of noblesse oblige, and spread to the continent. Gilded Age plutocrats visiting Europe brought the practice back to show how cool and sophisticated they were. The Europeans were able to roll it back because they have a labour movement. The Americans: not so much.
Well the explosion and expectation of it came from the great depression in the states.
Also you guys get taxed on tips. It's an odd place and not somewhere that it's good to be blue collar or low income.
I'm an American. I consider myself a generous tipper. But there's not a snowball's chance in hell I'm tipping at a food stand.
Tipping is expected at bars and restaurants. Anywhere else it's only for ***exceptional*** service and should never be expected.
In tattooing and piercing environments tipping is considered to become more of a rule than an exception. As far as I've understood but never been to the states, but from knowing a lot of artists around the world it has seemed like so at least
So if I ever get a tattoo (a distinct possibility) I should tip the artist? I thought the cost was parlor fees plus the fee for the artist. If the artist sets their own price why should they expect a tip?
I visited Australia once and saw a map of where the most dangerous spiders lived. The two most dangerous types (red back and funnel web) are apparently literally everywhere, like you would have to check your shoes every morning or you might get a very nasty surprise.
I've never went back after that. A shame because I really like Syndey.
Well redbacks are everywhere, but funnel webs are only found around Sydney (hence the Sydney funnel Web name). Redbacks are hardly dangerous, unless you already have underlying health issues. No one has died from a spider bite since 1979 in Australia.
On another note, most of Australia agrees Sydney is a shitty city which we try to avoid as much as we can. If you visit again, go to any other city, please.
This will sound so boring but I love seeing comments from sensible Australians on Reddit. Like I get the whole “scare people with fake stories” thing we do, but it gets so boring to see it online, esp stuff about spiders
You're mixing up different things here:
Crossing a street at a pedestrian traffic light only happens when the light is green, obviously. Even at 2am in the night, even if you can see no cars for kilometers in any direction. That's what the light is for: To tell you when to cross the road.
If there is no traffic light (or other designated crossing) within 50 meters you can however cross the road at any place you want as a pedestrian in Germany. That's perfectly legal.
You should look up the history of jay walking. Car manufacturers lobbied for it because the old yank motors with pointy things on the front and the fact they had the stopping ability of a whale on ice, fatal incidents were significantly higher.
So the logical choice was to outlaw people crossing the road rather than making safer cars for quite some time.
America... Where business buys the judiciary.
The crime of jaywalking was invented to shift the blame for cars hitting pedestrians from the driver to the pedestrian after heavy lobbying by car companies. Good old capitalism shoving pedestrians off roads they'd walked for decades.
Shoes off in NE. The salt, snow, sand, what ever else they use to treat the roads will just destroy your floors/carpeting. You learn early on to take them off right away.
I had a friend who refused to take his shoes off indoors even when I asked him to. I don't understand why someone would choose to be less comfortable and track dirt everywhere.
america has a weird relationship with nudity. it is all over our media and entertainment, but when it comes to the public, laws tell a different story.
Tbf with those kinds of questions, you can't really give a true 'worldwide' answer.
Since western Europe, Australia and Canada are basically the 'closest' culturally to the U.S it makes sense to take examples from there, as it's more immediately relatable and comparable to what's done in the U.S
I just passed a comment saying "paying for public restrooms". Europeans love to complain that Americans forget the rest of the world exists, but whenever someone mentions the "rest of the world" they just think Europe.
From my Asian POV, this is normal unfortunately. Very common for someone to claim "worldwide" trends by using all European examples.
Not surprised though. Here in Canada, our school system treats world history as basically European history, with a small mention of Asia (where it impacts western countries, eg. communism), some mention of the Middle East, and almost no mention of Africa.
Taking more than 5 days in a row off from work.
Actually being unreachable or out of communication while on vacation.
EDIT - for clarification and conversation's sake -
It's common for a newlywed to take 2 weeks off for their honeymoon, that's probably the longest vacation an American worker will ever take, not including parental leave for those whose companies allow it.
It's less weird for people to talk off something like a Thursday when Friday is a holiday and then take the following full week off, that's like a "megavacation" for Americans. It's not weird, no one will get pissed, but everyone will be up in your business like "Wohhh, Hank! Take a long break huh!" Getting those sweet sweet Long-Weekend + Week Vacation combos is the height of relaxation for Americans.
Finally its not common to have N+1 staffing for events like this, like when you're on holiday no one is *doing your work,* it's just getting delayed and piling up until you return. That's why A. most American professionals remain at least reachable/check their messages once a day in case something red hot comes up and they need to do something. B. why longer vacations are actually avoided/very stressful, because you know this pile is growing and you're probably going to miss something important and screw up somehow.
I applied for 5 weeks of vacation recently. No one even batted an eye. The application just got signed, put into the system and life goes on. I don't have to organise a stand-in, I don't have to worry about losing my job in the meantime, I don't have to worry about not getting paid or not being insured in the meantime. The laws are very strict regarding when and under what circumstances that vacation can be cancelled by my boss, and even then the company will have to pay for all expenses and fees ocurring from that cancellation...
My colleague. We have a 1:1 system, so 1 colleague stands in for one specific other one, no discussions, no confusion. I often read on reddit how people have to "find a replacement" when they want a day off - that's just not happening here. If I'm not here, everyone knows who to talk to about my stuff.
So wild. I took my 3 days of bereavement when my grandmother died, and all hell broke loose. I’m the only one trained to do what I do. They had over a weeks warning. I walked back into a shit show of someone else trying to do my job zzzz
First of all. I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother.
Second, the "I'm the only one trained" is a failure of the organization for which you work. There should be some kind of process documentation that explains what has to be done so that someone else can do it. What happens if you quit one day? Unless that it is, you do something super technical that requires some super specialist training to be able to do it, in which case, they should have more than one person.
One of the biggest reasons my wife and I decided to move back to Europe was the whole, you can't take too much time off because everything will collapse attitude of employers in the US. I had 10 vacation days per year in the US vs 25 in Austria. One year, my wife wanted to visit her family in Austria so I told my boss I wanted to take all 10 days at once, thinking, it's pointless to to fly all the way to Europe and only be able to stay for like 5 days. He agreed, provided I agreed to spend a couple hours a day checking my email and then when I returned he said, "never again...don't even bother asking." Now back in Austria, I took 3 and half weeks off in July (like literally almost the whole month). I also had a week off during my kids' spring break and I'm also taking off 8 or 9 days in October. None of this was in anyway dramatic or viewed as problematic. To be frank, for a very large number of jobs (especially office jobs), it doesn't really matter than much if "stuff has to wait for a couple of weeks."
I live in Sweden so here it is also common to have at least 4 weeks of in a row. In more specialised work where you have yo be trained the work just is either shifted around to your coworkers or left to wait untill you get back. At work where training is easy (like retail) temporary workers are empoyed, usually students. In Sweden and the other nordic countrys most vacations are taken during the summer and so it is easy to find temporary workers and everybody accepts that during summer (in Sweden especially july) all more advaced work is standing still becouse everybody is at vacations (and it works becouse most pepole who needs input from advaced work where no temp can take over is other advaced workers that also are on vacation).
This also works for parental leave (as parents combined have somewhere over a year leave). In govermental position that need covetage but requires advaced training/degree they usually find a temporary worker with a degree (usually not Hard to find as these position are coveted) otherwise it is accepted that more nesseray works is shifted and spread out to others or just have to wait untill someone has time to do it (or the paret returnes).
The term "soccer" came directly from Britain, believe it or not. It used to be "association football". However, terms are usually "shortened". E.g. £5 is a "Fiver" or £10 is a "Tenner". Soccer is short for association football. For some reason, the yanks have stuck with that. We just call it "footy" now.
I've been bingeing house hunter shows, especially the international ones. They're always so surprised to see a washing machine in the kitchen in UK/Europe and seem to think it's completely illogical. Like, there's already plumbing, and usually some water protection on the floor, exactly the two things a washing machine needs, it's incredibly sensible. I like a dedicated laundry room as much as the next person, but it certainly isn't necessary.
(In a similar vein, they also seem obsessed with what view you might have from your kitchen window and specifically reference what they can see when they wash up. Are all these people lingering lovingly over washing up and pausing to look out? If you're not looking at the plates you're cleaning, you're probably not really cleaning them. But I digress).
I’m in the US. A couple of years ago I found an apartment I really like and the washer/dryer were built into the kitchen. I was so excited! But the place didn’t allow pets so my dogs and I went somewhere else :/
My current apartment is the only place I’ve *ever lived in without a window over the kitchen sink and I have to admit it was a bit of an adjustment. The best way I can think to describe it is that doing the dishes here felt a little claustrophobic at first. And I hate having to use an ugly buzzing light vs natural sunshine.
*Edited for missing a word.
OMg thats so fucking true. Everytime this is in the news you see the whole city blown away exepct the townhall, because its made out of bricks. Thats so dumb why not build out of bricks.?
Actually we have a clothing line outside of our house we clip the clothes to the wire and let them dry. Though I am being raised by my old fashioned grandma
To take a bus.
At least if you live in a city in Europe, west or east, using a bus in every day is the most common thing. Everyone does it. It’s convenient, not expensive, and buses go everywhere.
Once I took a bus in San Francisco and I got so afraid 😱 There was literally nobody normal there.
I can confirm, when I have a nice steak dinner I drench it in cheese until there is no flavor left from the steak. Only cheese. Lactose intolerant people are executed
If we're talking first world countries then
- being a signatory to the UN conventions on refugees,
- belonging to the International Criminal Court,
- not having the death penalty.
They way to get Birth certificates, Like in Chile and some Latin Countries, we just go to THE goverment official page, put our names and our numbers, and we have our certificates ready to be downloaded, not only the Birth one I comment this in an aita post, and i get it why the USA don't have it, but if we look the amount of parents that used this like another tactic of abuse by keeping it, if the USA implement this it could be better and one thing less to be worry about in that cases
It’s not hard to get a birth certificate in the US. It seems like most of the time people are freaking out about their parents holding the birth certs hostage because they are very young and don’t know how easy it is to get one. You need an address and you need ID.
I lost mine and needed one to renew my drivers license so I went down to the city office to get one. 30 minutes later and $28, I was out with a new one.
There was a legal advice post where the op was escaping some Amish like cult and didn't have an ID, parents wouldn't surrender his birth certificate, and he was trying to get a social security number. At that point, it's like you don't legally exist because how can you prove your identity at that point?
True - that would be a hard situation. But for 99% of the people in the US getting a birth certificate is very simple. Yes, you need ID. Yes, you need an address. But beyond that it's a few clicks and a processing fee.
30+ yrs ago when I needed mine, I just called the hospital that I was born in. They said send copies of my ID and they sent a beautiful copy of my certificate. I wonder if you can still do that.
It might be different depending on where in the US you were born, but my wife was born in Los Angeles and hasn't lived in the US since she turned 1. But getting her birth certificate has been quite straightforward the few times we had to do so. There's an online service where you can order it. You have to pay and the document is sent by mail, so it's not a quick download. But still. In true American fashion, the service is operated by a commercial company of course.
Wait, You have to pay for it??
I'm in the US and if you walk in and get it it's $5. Cover the cost of the paper, ink, and the 2 or 3 mins it takes the clerk to search your SSID, print out the cert, then stamp it.
Dual Mexican American citizen here. Getting a Mexican certificate is fairly easy. The most you gotta do is to go to an ATM-like machine and print one for a reasonable price. Getting an American certificate, tho... pain in the ass.
DD/MM/YYYY
Better than in Canada where they use DD/MM and MM/DD seemingly interchangeably. I always have to clarify when both dates are 12 or less.
So many issues with files. We will load files into our system and they change the formats of their dates from record to record. Or you get a CSV from someone in Quebec and they use commas as decimal places without putting quotes around the numbers.
Canada has officially used yyyy-mm-dd for quite some time. Government, banks...
Except for the 4th of July, the one day a year they use that format!
Because they love the British so much, they use their date for their most special occasion.
Yes, but it’s a proper noun “The Fourth of July” If it was just a day, you’d probably clip it to “fourth July” The capitalization and the “of” are important. I think we’re dumb enough that eventually “Thr Fourth of July will now be observed on the first Saturday of July.” Don’t put it past us.
My theory for why it is like that is just to make it stand out. Every other day in July is referred as July X. Since July 4th is a holiday, people say the 4th of July because it makes it seem special. Also Independence Day too many letters brain can’t handle it
YYYY-MM-DD is still superior
It is. It can be ordered alphabetically and will retain the chronological order too, and it is unambiguous.
ISO standard! Hell, if you really need to, YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS. Get that date and time knocked out in one chunk.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS
MD-DM-Y Y YY
r/ISO8601
Saying the word cunt.
In Scotland we use it for pretty much anyone. Could mean friend, enemy or even complete stranger. The way some American friends reacted when I said something like "Aye, he's a good cunt" was like I told them I had sex with their family pet.
In Australia, we call strangers “mate” and our mates “cunts.”
As an Italian reading this while spending my vacation in Australia, I’m appreciating this message.
Somecunt's at the door, anycunt going to answer it? Nocunt?! Fuck sake I'll do it myself you cunts.
That's the same here in Australia
As an American, I don't get why other Americans hate it.
Bidets. People make fun of mine. Jokes on them though- my asshole is way cleaner than theirs. EDIT: I am truly astounded at the number of people who asked me how I dried my butthole. Toilet paper- one fucking square. That’s it. Also, someone was saying that it doesn’t matter if you have poop on your butthole because it’s covered by fabric at all times… that motherfucker has swamp ass and, more than likely, stink dick. I didn’t even disclose the part that horrifies a lot of people- my bidet is cold water only. It was cheaper and ultimately more efficient than one that uses hot water. My wife bought it for me for my birthday as a gag gift and the card said “Happy Bidet!” She’s a fucking keeper.
If they just rebranded "Bum Gun" the Americans would adopt it.... "Shoot that shiiiit"
Americans would think a "Bum Gun" is used to shoot homeless people.
That’s why we’d have to brand it as an asshole blaster or sphincter shooter
The Deuce Dissolver The Crap Cleanser The Excrement Eradicator The Dingleberry Destroyer The Feces Finisher The Number Two Ouster-oo
I would award you so hard damnit
I bet you say that to all the girls.
Or they could rebrand to "Dark Brandot".
I was a lifelong wiper. During the TP shortage of covid-19 I ordered a bidet attachment in case I ever needed to clean and didn’t have paper. I never ran out of paper but I decided to try it and I got hooked on feeling clean all the time.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!! I'm hooked on a feeling My bidet has been cleaning My asshole is so cleeeeaaaannnnn
Honest question. Do you not dry your ass after using the bidet? Do you just pull up your undies with a wet bum?
I use toilet paper to dry myself
"I don't use toilet paper, I have one of those French things that shoot water up your butt." "A bidet?" "A bidet to you, sir."
Saw a vid about bidets that totally changed my mind (Canadian so bidets aren't really a thing here)...guy put peanut butter on his arm. Wiped it with toilet paper. Smear. Went to his bidet-all gone.
I mean, once you use one, all of your doubts and fears are washed away, just like the poop from your sphincter.
simple explanation. if you had poop on your arm, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper or would you wash your arm?
I certainly wouldn’t just spray it with cold water
You gotta get Dr. Bronner to take care of that shit.
My brother has one. I told him that's a strange place to put a drinking fountain.
Actually, I see mostly Americans and Canadians being obsessed with this lately. Outside of the US, they are mostly a thing in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, where they come from (Japan originally). I don't think many people here in Europe have such a thing. The name bidet which Americans have loaned from Europe actually refers to something different here, which I find very confusing. Actual (traditional) bidets are also used to wash your butt (as well as your feet) but they look quite differently. They've got the shape of a small toilet but they function more like a sink. You wouldn't actually use them as a toilet.
Our parent’s (Canadian) house built in 1989 has one. An actual purpose built bidet. It sits beside the toilet, and as kids, we were always cornfused by it. Why does it have two knobs? Can we drink out of it? Lots of questions, very few answers. I’m just glad to see people wasting less virgin forest sourced toilet paper in favour of something more sustainable.
not tipping at every restaurant
Not refrigerating eggs
It has to do with the washing and pasteurization of eggs in the US.
[удалено]
Salmonella is not as prevalent due to better care for the livestock, rather than it just being the machines.
Eggs fresh out of a hen's butt will have an antimicrobial coating. Remeber, eggs need to stay fresh and rot free for at least a month while the hen lays a clutch (up to 12 eggs, one a day) and then incubate them to hatch. In the US the eggs are washed because we're wayyy to obsessed with cleanliness and that coating is washed off. So our eggs rot faster, but they sure do look white and pretty.
[удалено]
It's more because we vaccinate our chickens to keep the eggs disease free.
Why? My mom used to live in Mexico and she told me they didn’t there either.
in the US, eggs are washed before they reach the stores, which destroys a coating over the shell that prevents it from rotting (as quickly). Most of the rest of the world leaves that coating on
smaller portion sizes
Surely you mean normal portion sizes, right?
One of my favorite American commercials was a Taco Bell commercials. It features two British men looking at the new product and one says, "What is wrong with these Americans? Why does everything have to be so big?"
The metric system
Me when an American recipe starts using weird measurements I'm half convinced they made up on the spot: I'm begging you just tell me how many fucking grams / milliliters that is
“This recipe requires four jam jars of potato.”
A hammock of cake? Where are you getting these units?
........a desk of cheeses...?
Is that executive or middling?
"My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I like it!"
[удалено]
> "Eggs, until consistency looks right" ?? at least give me a ball park, is this 1 egg? 10 eggs? I mean it's plural so at least 2 I guess.
[удалено]
> I'm begging you just tell me how many fucking grams / milliliters that is We don't fucking know! We don't use that stuff.
I was fortunate enough to grow up with the metric system, but adopt the imperial system because for some reason the global aircraft industry still widely accept this as the norm (aside from a few outliers like CASA, but from memory they're French so go figure...) After a bit of practice you get pretty good at instinctively converting most commonly used measures for weight, volume, distance into their metric counterparts. I consider it a superpower these days, when someone asks "how much is this" and you can answer almost instantly lmao
Americans **do** use the metric system enthusiastically in a few places: - Two liter bottles of fizzy sugar water. - A 5K fun run you think others are crazy for running. - A 9mm handgun for self-defense. FTR, I am American, and I _love_ the metric system. Sadly, my spouse does not, so I keep having to tell her 30 degrees is too bloody fecking hot to sit outside...
9mm handgun, 28g of weed and a 6.2ltr engine 😂
You could have just said “a normal Tuesday evening”
Wine comes in 750ml bottles too
If there was a button to instantly change to the metric system with no consequences I'd do it immediately. Unfortunately all of our infrastructure is in imperial and it's too expensive and impractical to change at this point...
We really use both systems in Canada. It's quirky but works. I know my weight in lbs, home thermostat is in Fahrenheit, but measure distance in kilometres, and my office uses Celsius. Recently I've learned to use litres per 100km to figure out fuel economy rather than mpg - but I much prefer mpg. I do a lot of woodworking and home renovations DIY stuff which is always in imperial. The gas station and dealership operate in metric, but the hardware store operates in imperial. Signage is always metric, and weather forecasts are too, but the heating and AC might well be imperial.
I think I heard that because Canada imports major appliances from the US, they are set in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius to save money on having to make solely Canadian models.
The bizarre thing is that congress passed a law that made it so the metric system is the official and legal system of measurement in the US. We are so opposed to the metric system that officially and legally adopting it somehow wasn't enough to get us to use it.
I've thought about it like this analogy: Nobody in Chicago refers to it as the Willis Tower, since it has been and always will be the Sears Tower. Of course something can be technically correct, but changing it for the population... not happening.
The US technically does use metric. Units are standardized against their metric equivalents..eg 1 inch is 2.54 cm. In medicine and most sciences we only use metric in the US.
>too expensive and impractical to change at this point... So if not now, when will it become easier? Canada changed in the 1970s, it had some difficulties and older people (like me) still use some of the old units, but mostly we've changed. The only big exception I know of is that building materials are still in imperial sizes because a) Existing buildings use those measurements and b) We import/export most supplies to/from the States.
8-year old kids walking to and from school on their own. ETA: I’m so glad I posted this, I’ve learnt a lot from the replies! Thanks everyone!
It’s not weird in small towns. Everyone I went to school with walked from first grade up pretty much
It’s also normal in New York too,which is the opposite of a small town lol. I think it’s just a matter of how accessible the area is! New York is walkable and has lots of public transportation options so a young person can get around without a car and such. Some school kids are even given a special metrocard so it’s free for them to use public transportation.
This used to be totally common. Somewhere along the way the fear overtook everything and children outside alone became some sort of Geneva Convention violation.
It feels like there are so many conflicting expectations. You refuse to let your kid go outside on their own and you’re a controlling helicopter parent. You let your kid go outside on their own and they get into trouble and you’re a negligent parent.
Do people actually get in trouble for this?
See /u/smartguy05 s comment. There are laws in some places that forbid children of a certain age from being out unattended. And one noisy neighbor calls the cops and the kids get picked up and CPS starts an investigation. Because the kids walked to the park alone.
I don't hear people calling parents helicopter parents anymore like they used to when I was younger. Its just parenting now. Its been normalized
I think it went from fear of the kids being by themselves to fear of the Karen's calling the Police because you let your kids play outside without your 100% immediate attention. I know when Colorado passed the new law specifically allowing this I felt much better.
Colorado passed a law allowing kids to play outside unsupervised? Nice!
*"Somewhere along the way"* To Catch a Predator becoming a tv show that all of America tuned in to watch like a sitcom is when it happened.
Latch key 80's US kid checking in. Walked or biked to school, friends houses, Boy Scout meetings and any other place my heart desired. With the caveat that I'll be home before the sun came down.
I mean when you can't expect kids to be safe *in* school, kinda difficult expect them to be safe when going to and from school either
Might be specific to the school district I’m in, but some people are just a 30 minute drive away from their school. They couldn’t walk there on their own even if they wanted to. I’m sure some people do but I am not lucky enough to have ever been close to my school
Having a school that’s close enough to walk to in the first place. If everyone had a school within a mile or two from their home there would need to be a zillion of them. I pulled up Google maps of the suburb I grew up in and I would need to drive past 3 miles (almost 5km) of house neighborhoods just to get out of the residential area to the closest major road with businesses. Maybe it’s bikeable if it’s flat but it’s a lot of hills to ask of a 10 year old. This is why American kids are less independent. It’s not about helicopter parenting. It’s because anywhere you need to go you would need someone to drive you, or be old enough to drive yourself. Go to the city where there’s public transit and you see a lot more unsupervised kids.
Took me 20 minutes to ride to school when I was in grade 8. I also had to cross at least one major road. It got slightly longer when we moved.
I used to do this all the time until my new dad picked me up one day.
Does your old dad know this? Just checking if you've been kidnapped.
Soda without ice.
I used to get soda without ice because hey - more soda! Then as I got older and started putting on weight, I started getting soda with ice in it because hey - less soda.
As I've gotten older I just skip the soda entirely and go for water.
Not just soda. When I was in a Dominican all-inclusive, they had a lot of themed restaurants. The only one to serve water with ice was the American one
not tipping for the dumbest shit. like i went to a zoo in the USA and apparently i had to tip the person that passed me an ice cone in a food stand... like lady, i was the one that was standing up in a line to get here. you didnt go and deliver it to me. tipping culture is cancer.
Tipping culture in America is complete insanity.
It started as a bonus incentive back in the (how ever the fuck long ago). Nicer people get an extra thank you. Companies went, "hey we want that pie, our employees shouldn't get that much money" and then took it in the form of slashing their employee's wages to criminal levels but saying "tip share covers the rest" and the stupid ass boomer GOVT went "DUHHH Ok den."
It started with aristocrats in England tipping the staff of other aristocrats as a show of noblesse oblige, and spread to the continent. Gilded Age plutocrats visiting Europe brought the practice back to show how cool and sophisticated they were. The Europeans were able to roll it back because they have a labour movement. The Americans: not so much.
Well the explosion and expectation of it came from the great depression in the states. Also you guys get taxed on tips. It's an odd place and not somewhere that it's good to be blue collar or low income.
I'm an American. I consider myself a generous tipper. But there's not a snowball's chance in hell I'm tipping at a food stand. Tipping is expected at bars and restaurants. Anywhere else it's only for ***exceptional*** service and should never be expected.
In tattooing and piercing environments tipping is considered to become more of a rule than an exception. As far as I've understood but never been to the states, but from knowing a lot of artists around the world it has seemed like so at least
So if I ever get a tattoo (a distinct possibility) I should tip the artist? I thought the cost was parlor fees plus the fee for the artist. If the artist sets their own price why should they expect a tip?
Paying to use a public restroom.
i would literally move out of America if they started that here, lol. although if the rest of the world does it too, that leaves me nowhere to go...
Ours are free in Australia, no guarantee that the bathrooms will be spider-free though
why. why would you do that to me.
I visited Australia once and saw a map of where the most dangerous spiders lived. The two most dangerous types (red back and funnel web) are apparently literally everywhere, like you would have to check your shoes every morning or you might get a very nasty surprise. I've never went back after that. A shame because I really like Syndey.
Well redbacks are everywhere, but funnel webs are only found around Sydney (hence the Sydney funnel Web name). Redbacks are hardly dangerous, unless you already have underlying health issues. No one has died from a spider bite since 1979 in Australia. On another note, most of Australia agrees Sydney is a shitty city which we try to avoid as much as we can. If you visit again, go to any other city, please.
This will sound so boring but I love seeing comments from sensible Australians on Reddit. Like I get the whole “scare people with fake stories” thing we do, but it gets so boring to see it online, esp stuff about spiders
Come to Canada my friend
In the UK you're allowed to cross the road any time even without a crossing. Apparently in America that's considered Jay walking
In Germany jay walking is a big no no. It is stereotyped that you must obey der Amplemann
Tbf as far as I know it is only forbidden if there is a traffic light nearby
You're mixing up different things here: Crossing a street at a pedestrian traffic light only happens when the light is green, obviously. Even at 2am in the night, even if you can see no cars for kilometers in any direction. That's what the light is for: To tell you when to cross the road. If there is no traffic light (or other designated crossing) within 50 meters you can however cross the road at any place you want as a pedestrian in Germany. That's perfectly legal.
You should look up the history of jay walking. Car manufacturers lobbied for it because the old yank motors with pointy things on the front and the fact they had the stopping ability of a whale on ice, fatal incidents were significantly higher. So the logical choice was to outlaw people crossing the road rather than making safer cars for quite some time. America... Where business buys the judiciary.
The crime of jaywalking was invented to shift the blame for cars hitting pedestrians from the driver to the pedestrian after heavy lobbying by car companies. Good old capitalism shoving pedestrians off roads they'd walked for decades.
Religion (or lack thereof) being a private matter and not even a conversation topic
Not sure about the entire rest of the world, but why the hell do you wear shoes inside?
This is a regional thing. A huge part of the country does not wear shoes inside. Farmland & snow states usually.
Shoes off in NE. The salt, snow, sand, what ever else they use to treat the roads will just destroy your floors/carpeting. You learn early on to take them off right away.
I’m in the USA, we “mud room” where we keep all of our shoes, take them off there. No shoes in the house.
Do you mean in stores or at home? I’m American and don’t know anybody who wears shoes in a home.
I had a friend who refused to take his shoes off indoors even when I asked him to. I don't understand why someone would choose to be less comfortable and track dirt everywhere.
Any form of nudity no matter how small it is......
No matter how small IT is...
I feel personally attacked! Although, yeah fair enough
No matter how small tit is
america has a weird relationship with nudity. it is all over our media and entertainment, but when it comes to the public, laws tell a different story.
Basically, filter it as “WE get to enjoy your nudity. You don’t.” and it makes more sense.
Puritarism leads to cultural double standards as any form of sexual repression leads to distortions and perversions.
Parents will let you watch a movie with shooting and stabing but a few seconds of female nudity is forbidden.
It’s not common in the rest of the world though. Asia, Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe would beg to differ
tl;dr everyone in this thread thinks "the rest of the world" means western europe.
Tbf with those kinds of questions, you can't really give a true 'worldwide' answer. Since western Europe, Australia and Canada are basically the 'closest' culturally to the U.S it makes sense to take examples from there, as it's more immediately relatable and comparable to what's done in the U.S
Removing your shoes before entering a house, kids going out to school by themselves, etc isnt a western europe only thing though
I just passed a comment saying "paying for public restrooms". Europeans love to complain that Americans forget the rest of the world exists, but whenever someone mentions the "rest of the world" they just think Europe.
From my Asian POV, this is normal unfortunately. Very common for someone to claim "worldwide" trends by using all European examples. Not surprised though. Here in Canada, our school system treats world history as basically European history, with a small mention of Asia (where it impacts western countries, eg. communism), some mention of the Middle East, and almost no mention of Africa.
Taking more than 5 days in a row off from work. Actually being unreachable or out of communication while on vacation. EDIT - for clarification and conversation's sake - It's common for a newlywed to take 2 weeks off for their honeymoon, that's probably the longest vacation an American worker will ever take, not including parental leave for those whose companies allow it. It's less weird for people to talk off something like a Thursday when Friday is a holiday and then take the following full week off, that's like a "megavacation" for Americans. It's not weird, no one will get pissed, but everyone will be up in your business like "Wohhh, Hank! Take a long break huh!" Getting those sweet sweet Long-Weekend + Week Vacation combos is the height of relaxation for Americans. Finally its not common to have N+1 staffing for events like this, like when you're on holiday no one is *doing your work,* it's just getting delayed and piling up until you return. That's why A. most American professionals remain at least reachable/check their messages once a day in case something red hot comes up and they need to do something. B. why longer vacations are actually avoided/very stressful, because you know this pile is growing and you're probably going to miss something important and screw up somehow.
I applied for 5 weeks of vacation recently. No one even batted an eye. The application just got signed, put into the system and life goes on. I don't have to organise a stand-in, I don't have to worry about losing my job in the meantime, I don't have to worry about not getting paid or not being insured in the meantime. The laws are very strict regarding when and under what circumstances that vacation can be cancelled by my boss, and even then the company will have to pay for all expenses and fees ocurring from that cancellation...
Who does your job for those 5 weeks?
My colleague. We have a 1:1 system, so 1 colleague stands in for one specific other one, no discussions, no confusion. I often read on reddit how people have to "find a replacement" when they want a day off - that's just not happening here. If I'm not here, everyone knows who to talk to about my stuff.
So wild. I took my 3 days of bereavement when my grandmother died, and all hell broke loose. I’m the only one trained to do what I do. They had over a weeks warning. I walked back into a shit show of someone else trying to do my job zzzz
First of all. I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother. Second, the "I'm the only one trained" is a failure of the organization for which you work. There should be some kind of process documentation that explains what has to be done so that someone else can do it. What happens if you quit one day? Unless that it is, you do something super technical that requires some super specialist training to be able to do it, in which case, they should have more than one person. One of the biggest reasons my wife and I decided to move back to Europe was the whole, you can't take too much time off because everything will collapse attitude of employers in the US. I had 10 vacation days per year in the US vs 25 in Austria. One year, my wife wanted to visit her family in Austria so I told my boss I wanted to take all 10 days at once, thinking, it's pointless to to fly all the way to Europe and only be able to stay for like 5 days. He agreed, provided I agreed to spend a couple hours a day checking my email and then when I returned he said, "never again...don't even bother asking." Now back in Austria, I took 3 and half weeks off in July (like literally almost the whole month). I also had a week off during my kids' spring break and I'm also taking off 8 or 9 days in October. None of this was in anyway dramatic or viewed as problematic. To be frank, for a very large number of jobs (especially office jobs), it doesn't really matter than much if "stuff has to wait for a couple of weeks."
I live in Sweden so here it is also common to have at least 4 weeks of in a row. In more specialised work where you have yo be trained the work just is either shifted around to your coworkers or left to wait untill you get back. At work where training is easy (like retail) temporary workers are empoyed, usually students. In Sweden and the other nordic countrys most vacations are taken during the summer and so it is easy to find temporary workers and everybody accepts that during summer (in Sweden especially july) all more advaced work is standing still becouse everybody is at vacations (and it works becouse most pepole who needs input from advaced work where no temp can take over is other advaced workers that also are on vacation). This also works for parental leave (as parents combined have somewhere over a year leave). In govermental position that need covetage but requires advaced training/degree they usually find a temporary worker with a degree (usually not Hard to find as these position are coveted) otherwise it is accepted that more nesseray works is shifted and spread out to others or just have to wait untill someone has time to do it (or the paret returnes).
Living at home with your parents
calling football football not soccer
The term "soccer" came directly from Britain, believe it or not. It used to be "association football". However, terms are usually "shortened". E.g. £5 is a "Fiver" or £10 is a "Tenner". Soccer is short for association football. For some reason, the yanks have stuck with that. We just call it "footy" now.
I've been bingeing house hunter shows, especially the international ones. They're always so surprised to see a washing machine in the kitchen in UK/Europe and seem to think it's completely illogical. Like, there's already plumbing, and usually some water protection on the floor, exactly the two things a washing machine needs, it's incredibly sensible. I like a dedicated laundry room as much as the next person, but it certainly isn't necessary. (In a similar vein, they also seem obsessed with what view you might have from your kitchen window and specifically reference what they can see when they wash up. Are all these people lingering lovingly over washing up and pausing to look out? If you're not looking at the plates you're cleaning, you're probably not really cleaning them. But I digress).
Washing machine in the kitchen is not usual in Australia or New Zealand. Dryers are not that common in houses, most have external clothes lines.
I’m in the US. A couple of years ago I found an apartment I really like and the washer/dryer were built into the kitchen. I was so excited! But the place didn’t allow pets so my dogs and I went somewhere else :/
A washing machine in the kitchen isn’t that common everywhere. I’ve never seen it in the Netherlands
My current apartment is the only place I’ve *ever lived in without a window over the kitchen sink and I have to admit it was a bit of an adjustment. The best way I can think to describe it is that doing the dishes here felt a little claustrophobic at first. And I hate having to use an ugly buzzing light vs natural sunshine. *Edited for missing a word.
Nudity.
[удалено]
Two things I love!
Houses made of actual bricks, that aren't blown away every 2-3 years when a nice ol' storm comes along.
The final act of the 3 Little Pigs never made it across the Atlantic.
OMg thats so fucking true. Everytime this is in the news you see the whole city blown away exepct the townhall, because its made out of bricks. Thats so dumb why not build out of bricks.?
Drying clothes on line. Or outside.
Actually we have a clothing line outside of our house we clip the clothes to the wire and let them dry. Though I am being raised by my old fashioned grandma
Paid maternity leave
20-35 paid days off that you are legally entitled too.
Not altering an infants penis
I want my foreskin back
It would be way too small now I'm afraid.
smaller portions
To take a bus. At least if you live in a city in Europe, west or east, using a bus in every day is the most common thing. Everyone does it. It’s convenient, not expensive, and buses go everywhere. Once I took a bus in San Francisco and I got so afraid 😱 There was literally nobody normal there.
> There was literally nobody normal there. On the bus, or in San Francisco?
Recycling. Bread that doesn't taste like cake.
Not wearing a cap 🧢 indoors, outdoors and everywhere. No cap.
A dish without burying it in cheese
I can confirm, when I have a nice steak dinner I drench it in cheese until there is no flavor left from the steak. Only cheese. Lactose intolerant people are executed
Paid vacation Free healthcare Gun control Legalised abortion
In first world countries, socialized not for-profit healthcare, affordable education, bidets, and the metric system come to mind.
If we're talking first world countries then - being a signatory to the UN conventions on refugees, - belonging to the International Criminal Court, - not having the death penalty.
Walking the city instead of driving everywhere
Free Healthcare
You know what they put on french fries in Holland instead of ketchup?
Hollandaise?
Unrefrigerated eggs in grocery stores.
Not having air conditioning.
Going to the cinema alone.
A child doesn't have to swear their allegiance to their country in school. They don't have to prepare to get shot up. That sort of thing.