You might not realize it, but Americans do things that totally confuse people from other
countries.
From Americans' obsession with guns to the love of the Stars and Stripes, here are some
of the weirdest behaviors you'll find in the 50 states.
It's hard to escape the American flag.
We fly it in front of public buildings and from our private houses.
We put it on T-shirts and bikinis.
In school, each day starts with pledging allegiance to the flag.
We sing our anthem about it before every sports game.
It's everywhere.
That's not the case in other countries.
According to the National Review, if you go waving a flag around in Europe, people are
likely to think you fall on the extreme right-wing of the political spectrum.
In England, the people who display the St. George's cross tend to be football hooligans
at best and racists at worst.
Meanwhile, Der Spiegel notes that the Germans have a nearly pathological fear of displaying
their flag following World War II.
The LA Times reports that some countries, like India, discourage reproduction of their
flag for non-official reasons.
It's almost like putting it on everything in the world makes it less sacred.
Americans love guns so much it's almost a religion, and our devotion to these deadly
weapons is baffling to people in many other countries.
According to CNN, 19 countries, including Ireland, Norway, and New Zealand, don't even
normally arm their police.
Additionally, Americans own 48 percent of all the civilian guns in the entire world.
That's 4 percent of the population owning almost half the guns.
We also own more guns per person than any other country, with Yemen coming a distant
second.
Business Insider reports that our gun culture is shocking to people in places like Australia,
who enacted tight restrictions on gun ownership after a terrible mass shooting in 1996.
Love 'em or hate 'em, there are some Americans' hands you'll never pry guns from.
If you're a straight American male, you probably don't spend a lot of time affectionately touching
your straight American male friends.
Sure, there are exceptions, like when you pat them on the butt while playing sports.
"Good victory guys, good victory!
Ay, ay, come on, good game!
Slap ass!"
But in general, heterosexual male contact in America is avoided.
It wasn't always like that, though.
Men used to share beds and physical contact with their friends regularly.
But things changed.
When President George W. Bush was pictured holding hands with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah
in 2005, it became a minor scandal to the average Joe.
The New York Times responded to the incident, explaining that men holding hands in friendship
was often normal outside of the US.
The Denver Post points out that in areas of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South
America, men greeting each other with a kiss or four on the cheek is expected and polite.
In short, it doesn't seem like male friendships in the United States are that strong to people
in other countries.
"What?"
"Did we just become best friends?"
"Yup!"
"Do you wanna go do karate in the garage?"
"Yup!"
Ever since the Puritans landed here with their idea that God liked you more if you worked
really hard, Americans have thrown themselves into their jobs.
Unlike in most other Western countries, where people work so they can have enough money
to enjoy their lives, many Americans work for the sake of working.
And foreigners are appalled by it.
According to CNBC, the U.S. is the only "advanced economy" where workers aren't guaranteed any
paid vacation days.
A quarter of private sector workers get no paid time off.
Compare that to somewhere like Sweden, where they get five paid weeks off a year.
Even when Americans do get those precious vacation days, they don't take them.
Best Life found that 52 percent of U.S. workers don't use all the time off they earn, letting
705 million days of relaxation a year go to waste.
It's why burnout is a bigger problem in America than in other places.
Business Insider also noted that Americans barely take breaks during the day, and only
20 percent of them even bother to eat lunch away from their desks.
No wonder Americans are 36th in the world when it comes to job satisfaction.
"Excuse me Paul, your wife is on the phone.
It's an emergency."
"I'll get it later.
We have important work to do."
If you grew up in America, you probably railed against the injustice of the drinking age
at some point in your teens.
College is pretty inconvenient when you have to befriend someone older than you to buy
your booze for three years.
And when it comes to legal drinking ages, America is absurdly strict compared to most
of the rest of the world.
21 is pretty much the oldest you have to be to drink anywhere; more than 65 percent of
countries let people drink at or before 18.
In Antigua and Barbuda, a 10-year-old can legally have a beer next to you at a bar.
Seventeen countries have no age limit at all.
You'd think our harsh restriction would mean we're extra responsible with our drinking
in the U.S., but in fact, the opposite is true.
America has the worst rate of binge drinking in the world, and 90 percent of all alcohol
consumed by the underage is done so in a binge drinking session.
It seems that when you haven't been brought up to sip a glass of wine at dinner, alcohol
becomes something you need to drink in huge amounts, quickly.
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