Brits baffled by 'weird' US habits in chaotic debate

A chaotic Reddit discussion has got people from both sides of the Atlantic talking about and reacting to some of the 'habits' people living in America have compared to Europe.

It all started when user Raphael_Olbert kicked off the discussion on the social media site with the seemingly innocent question 'what is usual in America, but isn't in Europe?'

This opened the floodgates with seemingly nothing (and I mean absolutely nothing) off the table including some great reactions to them from Brits.

One of the most upvoted comments was about garbage disposals - it's a device fitted to the the waste pipe of a kitchen sink which grinds up waste and is common in America.

There are some brilliant comments on this, including 'I think a lot of Brits would have less fingers if we had them here' and 'my friend calls it the "noisy sink"'.

Standing cashiers is something that got a lot of people talking too, with comments including 'for god's sake, let those poor people sit down' and 'there's a ridiculous idea in the US that if you sit down on the job, you're being lazy'.

Similar to that, waiters taking credit cards made one European 'angry' as they thought he had walked off with it as they are used to paying with their card in front of the cashier.

Another top voted comment, which will certainly raise eyebrows, is 'circumcised men' - reaction to that one is probably best not repeated here...

One bemoaned the amount of ice that's served in drinks in America, with people saying 'was just in Paris and the ice situation is straight up depressing' and 'in Europe consumer rights regulations require the customer to be informed the volume and actually receive what's ordered'.

Another user posted 'driving long distances for things not related to travel', with comments on that including 'yup, I drove over 100 miles running errands for myself and my mom' and 'I live in Europe and to me if it’s 30 minutes by car it's considered long distance travel'.

Drug adverts 'creeped' a European out when they went to America, saying 'didn't think you could ask your doctor for drugs but there it was'.

Other comments on that include 'in my American experience, asking for a certain brand of drug gets you looks too' and 'doctors can say no still too so even as an American I don't understand it'.

The amount of water in toilets in America got people talking too, with people saying 'this SHOCKED me when I was in America' and one brilliant comment saying 'I was getting a connecting flight in the USA, I was banging for a s**te and must of went to six different toilets thinking they were all blocked'.

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.