# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/161 "2015-05-14T09:16:06Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > That’s true for any country where the head of government is selected on the basis of a result in multiple geographic divisions. Who else does this? Not saying they don’t, just can’t offhand think of places. Most places I know of tally the national total or use a Parliamentary system even when they’re a federation, like Germany or South Africa. Switzerland’s president _is_ elected by the executive, but is actually a first-amongst-equals position, not anything like the US. I can’t think of another country that does the “vote for some people who do nothing but vote for the President” thing, _especially_ with the disproportionate representation for underpopulated states aspect of it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/162 "2015-05-14T09:29:53Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > In a first-past-the-post parliamentary system the Prime Minister isn’t even directly voted for. He, or she, is simply a Member of Parliament running for election in one riding only, and the party winning the election can have as little as 30% of the popular vote and still form a government. But do you know who he’ll be for any particular party? Or is it possible for the party to get in and yet their choice candidate loses their own seat (I realise usually the chosen one would have the safest seat)? Must they then choose a different MP? We don’t vote for individual MPs, we vote for parties which then get proportional numbers of seats they can allocate to their list. There isn’t such a thing as “my” MP anymore, so the chosen guy will get it (note that he isn’t _necessarily_ the party leader). FPTP _is_ crazy too, but crazy in a different way from the EC. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/163 "2015-05-14T09:34:57Z")
I’d like to add one common perception that I think is unfair: that most Americans have never been outside their own country. Although this is true, it is understandable - you have pretty much every holiday-type place you’d want to visit inside the US already, because it’s huge and has mountains and warm beaches and big cities and wild areas etc, and also US workers get a lot less time off work so flying outside the country is less of an option. That’s another one: that the US gives FAR too little paid holiday time. It’s mandatory in Europe, varying of course but always in existence even for minimum wage jobs. What holiday leave you have is sometimes actually “allowed sick days” which people then use as holidays - they’re separate things here. Even mimimum wage jobs have sick leave as well as paid holidays. You don’t even have mandatory paid maternity leave! And people defend this system to the hilt. > [@Acsenray](#): > > Having been to England, France, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, and India, I don’t have the perception that they have fewer advertisements. It’s not the billboards and the like, but TV. British-made TV shows tend to be about 53 minutes long if the show time is an hour, American ones are usually more like 41 or 42 minutes, except for HBO which goes up to 51 or 52 minutes, same as UK commercial channels (I subtitle TV shows so know how long the actual show is). Even when a British commercial channel stretches an American show out to an hour the ad breaks are differently spaced: an ad break between shows, then one at fifteen, thirty and forty-five minutes, roughly. The ad breaks are longer, giving you time to go to the toilet or whatever. Sometimes if an American show is shown early in the day, when there are fewer willing advertisers, it doesn’t run for a full half hour or hour. Not prologue, ad break, a few minutes, ad break, several more minutes, ad break, a few minutes, ad break, etc. It’s so disjointed that it’s horrible to watch (except HBO). I guess you get used to it though. ---
**Author:** ![Arch\_Trout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Arch\_Trout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arch_Trout)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/164 "2015-05-14T11:20:18Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I’d like to add one common perception that I think is unfair: that most Americans have never been outside their own country. Although this is true, it is understandable - you have pretty much every holiday-type place you’d want to visit inside the US already, because it’s huge and has mountains and warm beaches and big cities and wild areas etc, and also US workers get a lot less time off work so flying outside the country is less of an option. > > That’s another one: that the US gives FAR too little paid holiday time. It’s mandatory in Europe, varying of course but always in existence even for minimum wage jobs. What holiday leave you have is sometimes actually “allowed sick days” which people then use as holidays - they’re separate things here. Even mimimum wage jobs have sick leave as well as paid holidays. You don’t even have mandatory paid maternity leave! And people defend this system to the hilt. > > It’s not the billboards and the like, but TV. British-made TV shows tend to be about 53 minutes long if the show time is an hour, American ones are usually more like 41 or 42 minutes, except for HBO which goes up to 51 or 52 minutes, same as UK commercial channels (I subtitle TV shows so know how long the actual show is). > > Even when a British commercial channel stretches an American show out to an hour the ad breaks are differently spaced: an ad break between shows, then one at fifteen, thirty and forty-five minutes, roughly. The ad breaks are longer, giving you time to go to the toilet or whatever. Sometimes if an American show is shown early in the day, when there are fewer willing advertisers, it doesn’t run for a full half hour or hour. > > Not prologue, ad break, a few minutes, ad break, several more minutes, ad break, a few minutes, ad break, etc. It’s so disjointed that it’s horrible to watch (except HBO). I guess you get used to it though. On that topic, that’s the one thing that baffled me the first time I was in America. I was watching the Simpsons and it seemed to come to a happy conculsion but there was an ad break so I presumed there was more to come. Then after the ad break it came back to the Simpsons to…run the credits for the show, then another ad break 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/165 "2015-05-14T12:05:42Z")
American’s obsession with maintaining constant eye contact during a conversation. To me as a European, this comes off as if they were trying to establish dominance, even though I know that it’s just considered the polite thing to do in American culture. The normal behaviour in Europe is that you look at the other person while you’re listening, and look away when it’s your turn to talk. You only look into your interlocutor’s eyes when you want to flirt, press a point, or assert dominance. ---
**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 14, 2015, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/166 "2015-05-14T12:39:33Z")
I had no idea. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/167 "2015-05-14T12:55:44Z")
I just hump their legs. ---
**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 14, 2015, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/168 "2015-05-14T13:14:58Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > But do you know who he’ll be for any particular party? Or is it possible for the party to get in and yet their choice candidate loses their own seat (I realise usually the chosen one would have the safest seat)? Must they then choose a different MP? > > We don’t vote for individual MPs, we vote for parties which then get proportional numbers of seats they can allocate to their list. There isn’t such a thing as “my” MP anymore, so the chosen guy will get it (note that he isn’t _necessarily_ the party leader). > > FPTP _is_ crazy too, but crazy in a different way from the EC. Proportional representation has been talked about in Canada, but I don’t think voters have the stomach for it. When I vote for my MP, I want my MP to represent me in parliament. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/169 "2015-05-14T13:16:51Z")
Fwiw, I don’t know how the extraordinary levels of personal and institutional racism haven’t been addressed in a modern society. No where is perfect but FFS … is the social segregation actually worse than in the 60s? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/170 "2015-05-14T13:27:12Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > 🙂 > > 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. You’d prefer a nice juicy bug, or some compost? Understandable, given your name. > [@Senegoid](#): > > Wait. Maytag is the name of a cheese? Or the name of a vacuum cleaner? Yes. The cheese was first made by two grandsons of the founder of the Maytag company, whose last name was also Maytag. The Maytag Dairy Farm where they make the cheese is owned by descendants of the founder of the Maytag company. The cheese is named after the owners of the farm where it is made, like Montgomery’s cheddar. The Maytag company is now owned by Whirlpoo. The Maytag company makes home appliances, including vacuum cleaners and washing machines. ---
**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 14, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/171 "2015-05-14T13:37:12Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > Fwiw, I don’t know how the extraordinary levels of personal and institutional racism haven’t been addressed in a modern society. > > No where is perfect but FFS … is the social segregation actually worse than in the 60s? No. And the US could do much better, but there are far more racist modern societies than ours. Japan, for one. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/172 "2015-05-14T13:45:42Z")
Anne Neville writes: \> . . . Whirlpoo . . . Insert your own joke here. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/173 "2015-05-14T13:51:34Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > Fwiw, I don’t know how the extraordinary levels of personal and institutional racism haven’t been addressed in a modern society. > > No where is perfect but FFS … is the social segregation actually worse than in the 60s? No, it’s not worse than it was in the '60s, no way. And it’s probably better here than in a lot of other comparable countries. The biggest issue right now is that because things are far better than they were 50 years ago, there’s a huge group of people who want to pretend that it’s been solved. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/174 "2015-05-14T13:52:35Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Anne Neville writes: > > \> . . . Whirlpoo . . . > > Insert your own joke here. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/175 "2015-05-14T14:00:02Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > IIf 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. Uh what? Yeah, if you want stale bread, buy a piece of bread and let it go stale. If you want to have one of best breads ever invented, get a fresh baguette and eat it fresh. > [@Ispolkom](#): > > Real artisanal American cheese is also great. I’d compare Hook’s five-year cheddar to an artisanal English cheddar any day. Okay so I’d never heard of Hook’s so when I saw this post I found s place that has it and I went down to try it. It’s very good cheese. It’s still not in the category of Keen’s or Montgomery’s though. By that I don’t mean that it isn’t in the same quality class, but rather that it’s still not the same kind of cheese. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/176 "2015-05-14T14:50:48Z")
Full disclosure: I’m an American who’s lived in the UK for 20 years so I see both sides. On cheese: it’s been a very long time since I bought any cheese in the US but I remember on a few choices, Kraft slices, Velveeta, blocks of something called ‘cheddar’ and ‘swiss’ and pre-grated Parmesan in a cardboard can. In my local Sainsbury’s there’s a whole aisle devoted to cheese. I read recently that there are over 700 different named varieties of cheese produced in Britain now. On chocolate: There is a BBC series currently running on factory food production and once recent episode was on chocolate. They took some standard chocolate from Britain, America, and some other country, melted and shaped them into identical looking pieces and taste tested them on people. All the Brits could instantly identify the Kit-Kat chocolate, and found the American version terrible. A few Americans also took part and could instantly identify the Hersheys and thought it was the best. On cars: Europeans wonder why America builds such shit cars. They’re simply too big and too thirsty. When I moved here I was a defender of American cars but after having owned a few European ones I see they’re right. It seems American engineers just have no subtlety. Instead of designing a clever suspension, an engine with a good power to weight ratio, and carefully matching the two they grab a suspension design that hasn’t changed since the 30’s, drop in a big lazy V-8 and call it good. They can’t be arsed to make it clever so they just make it big. On beer: Full credit to American brewers for kick starting the micro-brew and craft beer revolution. American micros are credited with reviving some lost or fading styles from Britain and other countries. But there is a problem with subtlety again. If some alcohol is good, then doubling it will be great! If some hops is good, then four times as much will be fantastic! It’s not clever, it’s just big. And a pet peeve of mine is the misuse of the word ‘Imperial’. Imperial Stout was brewed in London in the 18th century for export to the court of Catherine II of Russia, hence ‘Imperial’. It was a bit stronger than other stouts of the day. These days American brewers slap the word ‘Imperial’ onto anything that is stronger than normal for its style. A Maytag factoid for you - Fritz Maytag of the washing machine family bought and rescued the Anchor Steam Brewery in 1965. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/177 "2015-05-14T14:57:21Z")
> [@Essured](#): > > I agree with **Alessan**. I think the last I read about 90% of the land area in NSW was covered by volunteer fire fighters, while 10% was by the paid (metro) force. The volunteer fireys are pretty well trained, have continual ongoing training and a wealth of experience - they aren’t “less than” the paid force by any stretch. They just tend to focus more on different things. The volunteers are found in more rural areas generally, so while they do learn about house fires, a lot of their experience is around bush fire, hazard reduction burning and unfortunately, first repsonder to vehicle accidents; while the paid force tend to do more house and factory fire fighting. I will comment that my husband was [trained](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8qjq1z5tdg) by the Navy to do firefighting [and watching the firefighting trainer kick up their burn is amazing, they used diesel fuel at one trainer and it would just absolutely belch clouds of heavy black smoke to duplicate conditions on a deployed vessel.] He was also crosstrained as an EMT. He also has done the volunteer deal and is far from the only ex/retired military guy volunteering so there are actually a reasonable number of well trained volunteers around the country. [What, you never heard the old joke about sailors taking their oar and walking inland until someone asks them what it is and settling there? 😃 Actually a fairly large number of military volunteered to get ‘off the farm’ historically. I think in mrAru’s last ship at least three quarters of the guys in his division were from the midwest and from small towns.] ---
**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 14, 2015, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/178 "2015-05-14T15:04:34Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I just hump their legs. Whew! I thought I was the only one. > [@kferr](#): > > … I read recently that there are over 700 different named varieties of cheese produced in Britain now… “How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?” - Charles de Gaulle ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/179 "2015-05-14T15:18:09Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > … > Corn is awesome… > [@Shalmanese](#): > > Also, a lot of Americans are surprised foreigners find eating corn on the cob to be disgusting. Corn seems like such an innocuous foodstuff to have strong feelings about. > [@BobLibDem](#): > > Or maybe a-maize-ing. We’re all ears. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918/180 "2015-05-14T15:44:50Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > As for the WNBA, NO ONE watches or cares. 😕:dubious::(:mad: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perceptions-about-usa-from-non-americans-that-americans-might-be-surprised-to-learn/719918.md?page=10)