The word “weird” has come a long way since its origins in Old English.
It was first related to destiny, or the “power to control one’s fate”, and later was
tied up with the supernatural.
From there it started meaning odd or uncanny.
And odd and uncanny is what we’ll talk about today when looking at folks in the good old
USA.
Every nation has some kind of collective idiosyncrasy, such as those Brits that certainly talk about
the weather a lot, or those Japanese that created cuddle cafes where lonely businessmen
can repose in the warm embrace of a stranger by the hour or for the whole night.
Male friends in some countries kiss when they say hello, women in other countries hide their
faces, and this can seem weird for those who don’t understand it.
Today let’s look at just one country in particular, in this episode of the Infographics
Show, Weird Things Americans Do.
A Bucket of Coffee please Ok, so maybe it’s not only Americans that
do this, but we reckon Americans excel at it.
In a story by British author Julian Barnes in the book “Lemon Table”, one elderly
British woman points out how waiters in some restaurants habitually keep filling up her
coffee.
It’s quite nice in fact, but in Britain such service would cost you a small fortune.
And Americans seem to drink coffee by the gallon.
Go to France or Italy, and in many cafes you’ll find your cup of coffee isn’t cheap and
comes in a tiny cup or glass.
Americans are mass consumers of coffee, and we doubt any country can match it.
U.S. comedian Bill Hicks made a joke about Americans and their coffee habit before he
died.
The joke goes, he asked for a coffee in one restaurant and the waiter said, “You want
the 32-ounce or the large?”
How big is the large asked Hicks, and the waiter replied, “You'll wanna pull your
car around back.
I'll start the pump.”
The Beast of the Feast So, you probably already know this, and you
don’t need to have visited the USA to have heard about it, but visitors often remark
on how damned big portions are there.
We’ve talked about this before, but not the real beast eaters.
You see, in the states, all over the place, you’ve got those ‘eat this ridiculously
large, heart-stopping, gut-busting meal in 30 minutes and you get it for free’.
Godzilla would struggle to walk out of that deal without begrudgingly pulling out his
wallet- yet there are names on the plaque on the wall.
But why would anyone literally make themselves sick and pay for it?
Only an American could explain.
The question was asked on Quora about this, and most people said food is cheap, and big
portions sell to the majority of people in everyday restaurants.
But we like this answer, which kind of flips it: “Your question might well be turned
around to ask why are portions in the rest of the world so small?
The United States has a good food supply and people expect value for their money.”
Knights everywhere You won’t find this happening all over the
place in the states, but you will likely be called Sir or for a woman ma’am at some
point in your trip.
It’s very polite and visitors will have nothing against it, but being called Sir will
feel strange for most.
Perhaps if you are in the armed forces, it might work.
Even calling cops sir seems weird to outsiders.
For most people, you have to be knighted to be called Sir, although admittedly some school
kids in the UK might call their teacher Sir.
For Americans, it’s a sign of respect, for anyone else, it’s over the top.
You’ll find it’s more common in the south of the U.S.
Smokes and Drugs This is weird to just about anyone outside
of the USA- the fact that at some pharmacies or drugs stores, you can buy cigarettes.
While many pharmacies in the U.S. stopped doing this, you can still find it.
It does seem rather odd that the place selling you things to improve your health would be
selling you those cancerous sticks of tobacco.
In 2014, CVS Pharmacies in the U.S. stopped doing this, stating, “We came to the decision
that cigarettes and providing health care just don’t go together in the same setting.”
Hmm, took a while to figure that out.
Beer everywhere While you must be 21 to buy beer in the United
States, you can get it in some surprising places.
One such place is the aforementioned pharmacy, but you can add to that..you find beer sold
in vending machines, at some clothing stores, some coffee shops, at some Drive Throughs,
and even some special hospitals will have beer for sale.
These admittedly are rare.
Accident Lawyers If you’ve watched the show Breaking Bad,
you’ll know there’s a lawyer who will make sure you get paid for an accident you
had, or even didn’t quite have.
In the U.S., you can see signs for these sometimes-sleazy guys on TV, or even see their shiny white
teeth on giant advertising boards.
This used to be weird in the UK, but over the last few years, the Brits are also getting
in on accident claims, and their TVs are also full of nice people saying, “Did you have
an accident?
Do you know you could get compensated for that…call this number…?”
Drug dealers on TV The last thing you need when all you really
need is some exercise and clean living is someone on TV telling you can buy a possibly
addictive, happy drug that can solve all your problems.
These commercials might have calming music, birds flying over rainbows, people skipping
and dancing through the park, and then someone saying a wonder drug made that happen.
The original Zoloft (anti-depression drug) ad, told you, “You just shouldn’t have
to feel this way.”
Maybe not, but to many Europeans, pushing it on TV seems a bit too much..
Drinking Games Now for something a bit more fun, but still
related to drugs.
If you visit America, and certainly if you are young, you might get caught up in any
number of drinking games they have over there.
Beer Pong, that’s got to be American.
Or what about Truth or Dare – works better when alcohol has oiled the inhibitions.
Or Quarters – no cursing, no first names, no right hand accepting…no chance of staying
sober.
There’s even Drink-A-Palooza, an actual board game for drinking.
In most other countries drinking isn’t always that much fun.
What happens in America, stays in America Ok, so many of those videos out there on YouTube
showing the glaring ignorance of some Americans about the rest of the world were made by Americans,
so we don’t feel like we are picking on Americans too much here.
But it’s not only just world history that some folks from the USA might not have read
up on.
We heard a story about a guy that asked an American friend when travelling in Europe
what accent she thought she had.
She replied, “I don’t have one.”
She thought she spoke pure English.
Another tale we heard was of a young man from West Virginia who met some Brits while travelling
in Israel.
He asked the Brits how the highways were in England.
The Brits, jokingly, replied that they didn’t have cars and still used the horse and cart.
The guy replied, “Wow.”
When the question was asked on Quora why some, and we say some, Americans don’t know much
about the world, the answers were mostly related to the education system focusing only on the
U.S., and the country already being so big and diverse.
The American writer and intellectual Noam Chomsky wrote that the reason why Americans
know so much about sports but so little about world affairs is because that’s just the
way the system was set up for most people.
Is it weird?
You’ll find it everywhere, but those videos we see do seem to make some Americans seem
quite ignorant of the world outside America.
Let’s just say if you can’t get close to pointing where North Korea is on a map
but hate the country, there is a problem.
Peeping Tom Ok, let’s stop being so harsh now.
We’ll turn to something amusing and ask why in the USA, some toilet stalls have such
big gaps between the doors and the outer piece of the stall, so people can virtually watch
you do your private business.
Many Americans have asked this online.
Foreigners ask this a lot, too.
One guy on Twitter writes, “When ur sitting on the toilet and u make eye contact with
someone through the little crack in the door.”
A woman asks, “What's the point of a toilet stall door when there is a 2-inch gap on each
side?”
Most answers we can find were related to safety, to know someone is in there, to get you out
quickly, and making it easier to clean.
There’s a huge debate on TripAdvisor about the topic, but no one seems to know the answer.
How Are You This could be said to be similar in other
countries, but when an American asks “How are you?”
they are not usually looking for an answer.
It’s just a way of saying hello.
An extensive reply about your ingrown toenail, your setback with Bitcoin, and the fact your
father didn’t give you enough attention as a kid, is probably not what your interlocutor
was wanting or expecting.
You can just answer with, “Hey.”
The Real Home of Football Ok, as we’ve just had the World Cup of a
game called football, we might as well go ahead and say that the rest of the world thinks
America is weird for calling its strange stop-and-start game, football.
But we should tell you that it was the Brits that first called the game soccer, which is
a diminutive of the words “Association Football.”
The word ‘soc’ came from association and the Guardian tells us Brits back then loved
to put an -er at the end of words.
Later the Americans naturally called it soccer just as the Brits did.
Then the Brits decided the word soccer sounded too American and let it go.
Now, the Brits and Europeans had been playing this football thing since medieval times,
and it was called football back then too.
But there were many types of football, including rugby.
That’s why the word soccer became a thing.
Americans just took the word football for their own game just as Europeans had done.
But to be honest, American football is much closer to rugby, so it’s still a bit weird.
But just let’s finish with saying, if any Brit or European gives you a hard time about
calling the game soccer just tell them what we told you.
They started it.
You have no defense though for calling a game played mostly with the hands, football.
So, can you add to this list?
Have you visited America and found some things weird?
Are you American and disagree with what we said?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called American Things Europeans Find Weird.
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!