# Perceptions about USA from non-Americans that Americans might be surprised to learn **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918 "2015-05-13T06:28:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/121 "2015-05-13T19:51:40Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > I read somewhere that the British think 100 miles is a long way and the Americans think 100 years is a long time. And a perfect lawn is easy. Start with some good grass and roll it every day for 500 years. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/122 "2015-05-13T20:05:37Z")
We should establish a distance measure called a “league”, which would be 5Km, or about 3.1 miles, that might give us a handy way to transition. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/123 "2015-05-13T20:14:53Z")
Furlongs per fortnight. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/124 "2015-05-13T20:17:02Z")
yeah, let us not get started on that ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/125 "2015-05-13T20:23:11Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > They’re professional, but it’s not a sport! The hell it isn’t! ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/126 "2015-05-13T20:56:41Z")
'Fess up, furriners. Our political system is nucking futz, isn’t it? It’s ok, some of us won’t take offense. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/127 "2015-05-13T21:07:01Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > May I also recommend Maytag Blue Cheese, made right here in the USA, which is out of this world? > > [http://www.maytagdairyfarms.com/aspx/welcome.aspx](http://www.maytagdairyfarms.com/aspx/welcome.aspx) Wait. Maytag is the name of a cheese? Or the name of a vacuum cleaner? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/128 "2015-05-13T21:07:36Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > 'Fess up, furriners. Our political system is nucking futz, isn’t it? It’s ok, some of us won’t take offense. Meh, I don’t mind your political system all that much. I wish it didn’t take so damned long to elect a president: although it is somewhat entertaining at times. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/129 "2015-05-13T21:09:24Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Wait. Maytag is the name of a cheese? Or the name of a vacuum cleaner? Maytag is a washing machine, silly! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/130 "2015-05-13T21:17:04Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Meh, I don’t mind your political system all that much. I wish it didn’t take so damned long to elect a president: although it is somewhat entertaining at times. We do it for the entertainment because things start to suck right after the election. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/131 "2015-05-13T21:18:36Z")
Some non-Americans think we’re shallow because we constantly go around asking “How are you?” while clearly giving absolutely not one tiny shit about the response. > [@racepug](#): > > No argument from me on this. None whatsoever. Apologies to any employees of Mars/M&M or Hershey’s that are reading this but “Merkan” “choklit” just doesn’t compare to the best stuff from other places. I mean, it’s not even a competition. It’s beyond unfair to compare mass-market from one place to “the best stuff from other places.” For your post to make any sense, you’d have to be saying that Mars/M&M/Hershey’s are “the best stuff” from America … and I hope to all hell you ain’t sayin’ _that_. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/132 "2015-05-13T21:33:23Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > We do it for the entertainment because things start to suck right after the election. 🙂 All this talk of cheese and chocolate. Perhaps I never not been exposed to a quality product, but I cannot be terribly excited by either. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/133 "2015-05-13T21:34:29Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > It’s beyond unfair to compare mass-market from one place to “the best stuff from other places.” For your post to make any sense, you’d have to be saying that Mars/M&M/Hershey’s are “the best stuff” from America … and I hope to all hell you ain’t sayin’ _that_. It seems there is a lot of that going on. “Your Bud Lite sucks compared to our best beer”. “Your yellow cheddar sucks compared to our farmland hand made cheese”. Maybe folks from outside the US don’t realize we have things other than the mainstream, mass-market products. Do bland, generic products not exist outside the US? Or is everything small-batch, hand-crafted and exquisite once you escape the bounds of bland ole USA? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/134 "2015-05-13T21:58:22Z")
I just had a Russell Stover dark chocolate orange cream. It’s hard to imagine anything better than that, but perhaps it can be done. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/135 "2015-05-13T21:58:23Z")
> [@Missy2U](#): > > Maytag is a washing machine, silly! 😉 Same family, different business. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/136 "2015-05-13T22:01:00Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > May I also recommend Maytag Blue Cheese, made right here in the USA, which is out of this world? > > [http://www.maytagdairyfarms.com/aspx/welcome.aspx](http://www.maytagdairyfarms.com/aspx/welcome.aspx) I thought the USA was part of this world. 😕 > [@wguy123](#): > > It seems there is a lot of that going on. “Your Bud Lite sucks compared to our best beer”. “Your yellow cheddar sucks compared to our farmland hand made cheese”. Maybe folks from outside the US don’t realize we have things other than the mainstream, mass-market products. Do bland, generic products not exist outside the US? Or is everything small-batch, hand-crafted and exquisite once you escape the bounds of bland ole USA? Bland, generic products exist. They’re generally just not _as_ bland and _as_ generic. Tesco’s (the major UK supermarket chain) own-brand cheddar is better than, say, Kraft cheddar. Carlsberg (it’s Danish) is the closest thing the UK has to a Budweiser equivalent (that is, a mass-market watery pilsner) and it’s 100 times better than Bud Light. You can say the same thing about almost every mass-market watery pilsner or lager in Europe. Stella is better. Amstel is better. Kronenbourg is immeasurably better. It’s not because Anheuser-Busch doesn’t know how to brew beer. Their World Select was fantastic stuff (and it’s now been discontinued, which is annoying.) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/137 "2015-05-13T22:26:04Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I thought the USA was part of this world. 😕 We are understandably trying to keep that quiet. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Carlsberg (it’s Danish) is the closest thing the UK has to a Budweiser equivalent (that is, a mass-market watery pilsner) and it’s 100 times better than Bud Light. After the first half dozen, who gives a damn? Aside from that, we seem to be bickering about which Junior High School football team is best. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/138 "2015-05-13T22:26:43Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > If you want rock hard bread that disintegrates into crumbs when you try to eat it and so hard it tears up the flesh on the roof of your mouth, great - just buy a loaf of french bread and leave on the counter for a few days until it becomes what we consider only suitable for feeding the pigeons and squirrels. You’re not supposed to leave a baguette on the counter for days. You don’t buy it until you want to eat it, and you don’t eat it unless you just bought it. If it’s old and stale it gets recycled into breadcrumbs or pain perdu or croutons or panade or any one of the other hundred uses for stale bread. If you want to eat bread today you go to the bakery and buy bread today. And I love, love, love the idea from that anti-metric link from above that you can divide a foot by half, thirds, fourths, or sixths, but if you wanted to divide a meter by thirds it would be impossible. Nope, no such thing as 1/3 of a meter, because you can’t express metric in fractions I guess, so you’d have to say 0.333333333333… meters and you’d never get to stop writing down threes. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/139 "2015-05-13T22:36:35Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > And I love, love, love the idea from that anti-metric link from above that you can divide a foot by half, thirds, fourths, or sixths, but if you wanted to divide a meter by thirds it would be impossible. Nope, no such thing as 1/3 of a meter, because you can’t express metric in fractions I guess, so you’d have to say 0.333333333333… meters and you’d never get to stop writing down threes. Eh, three hundred thirty three millimeters is close enough. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/140 "2015-05-14T02:52:20Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Chip and pin, obviously. Or Apple Pay. Unfortunately, no. We’ll be chip and _sign_ for the foreseeable future. From what I read somewhere recently the reason is that “we didn’t think the consumer could learn two new things at the same time.” 😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918.md?page=8)