Part of the fun of traveling is experiencing different cultures around the world.
Seeing the different ways people live their lives is a fascinating social study and can make one wonder why certain customs are so vastly from ours.
However, there are some customs that might be perceived as especially peculiar and unimaginable.
Curious to hear about different perspectives, Redditor dunjabgd asked strangers online:
"What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?"
Unusual For Americans
These Redditors found they were definitely not in Kansas anymore.
Leave Me In Peace
"I have no idea if this is common anywhere else, but in Norway talking to anyone in the public (on buses, on streets, etc.) is avoided as much as possible, and we avoid strangers as much as we can."
"If we're on the bus, whenever a new passenger comes in, we pray to God that they don't sit next to us, because we enjoy our privacy. We want to sit alone and enjoy music / movie / staring out the window, knowing that the presence of another person is non-existent."
"So to speak, norwegians were always prepared for battling [the virus]."
The Signal
"We call a traffic light a robot. I really don't know why."
" South Africa, right?"
"Yes!"
Communal Whipping
"We sit fully naked in a wet, hot room with either friends, family or strangers and whip each other with bath brooms (basically birch branches tied together, called 'vihta's)."
"Simultaneously, we're often described as stereotypically socially awkward and reserved people."
Customs And Traditions
In Australia, Denmark, Venezuela, and Italy, respectively, there is nothing unusual about the following:
Stop By For Tools, Walk Out With Lunch
"Going to a hardware store and leaving with a sausage sizzle."
"Australia. Sausage sizzle!"
Marriage Deadline
"In Denmark, if you haven't gotten married before the age of 25, you'll get tied to a streetlight and get showered with cinnamon. It's common to see big orange spots on the ground around streetlights. It's a very old tradition and we don't actually expect people to get married before 25, but the tradition still goes on."
An Italian Greeting
"Kissing the cheeks as a way to salute between men. It's pretty common here, but when I've done it in America while visiting a friend of mine some other people asked us if we were gay."
"EDIT: they didn't came to our face saying 'Hey buddy you're gay?', they simply misunderstood and told this friend of my they didn't know he was not straight. It was nothing disrispectful."
Wild Enthusiasm
"We scream when we cut the birthday cake in Venezuela. It is expected to be a blood-curdling scream, and people laugh at you and ridicule you if it wasn't loud or scary enough. Also, our birthday song is like 2 minutes long."
How You Like It
"If you ever find yourself surrounded by three or more Spaniards and want to start a mini civil war, you only have to ask 'With or without onion?'. You don't need to specify what; they'll all know instantly what you're talking about. In the highly unlikely event that they all were in agreement, there is a follow-up question guaranteed to succeed where the former one failed: 'Raw egg, or fully cooked?' (although the degenerates who like their egg raw refer to it as being 'juicy' or 'Galician'). You'll have a massive argument going on in no time!"
"What can I say, we take potato omelette very seriously."
Cultural Dishes On Steroids
"We make over exaggerated versions of every international dish. Hot dogs? Put every sauce and French fry possible. Pizza? The sky is the limit and every topic is available even fish, even shrimp even Doritos. Sushi? Put cheese, mayo, and sometimes even guava in it!"
Appearances
People don't bat an eye when seeing the following while out in public.
Playground Backdrop
"children playing on a playground while artillery fires not even half a mile away from them. Ukraine."
Traveling With Rifles
"In Switzerland: Carrying your military rifle with you. You get the sig 550 when being conscripted in the army and you take it home, in your own property. Now, there 2 different cases: When you're going to or coming from the military base, you also have your whole gear with you and you're in uniform, so no one is suspicious."
"But, there's the 2. case: We have mandatory shooting here ('obligatorisches' aka 'schiesswesen ausser dienst'), so you go to the shooting range: Many young guys don't have a car, so it's legal to transport these guns just with the train etc. without wearing your uniform."
"There were actually some alerts to the police, made by tourists, which thought there was a criminal or active shooter on the way, the military did made a response to the press later and said, that was legal (that was the case of a radio moderator which had his gun with him as he was going to work in morning and to the shooting range on afternoon, he was ride his bicycle and had his rifle on him)"
"Today, the soldiers don't carry ammo with them, but in my time, that was before 2007, we had the "taschenmunition" (emergency ammo), which was a sealed package with 50x 5.56mm NATO rounds."
"Maybe, this is not weird for US-redditors, but for many countries in the world with strict gun laws. Like in germany, a weapon have to be separated into parts, separated from ammo and always to be in a locked suitcase according to the law."
Lose The Shoes
"In New Zealand it is normal to be barefoot in public. In the mall, the supermarket, fast food places etc. It's even normal for kids to go to primary school barefoot. It's recognised this is unusual and has become a point of national pride for some people."
"Don't get me wrong, it's not like everyone is doing this, but it's a noticeable minority and would be seen on a daily basis, even in winter."
Oral Hygiene
"I found out that brushing my teeth in a public bathroom was strange outside of Brazil."
"Edit: It's nice to see all the other countries that also have this habit. We are the toothbrush international league now."
The chaotic rush hour of New York subways is hardly a surprising phenomena.
A train arrives, and commuters on crowded platforms ensure they get on the train by pushing past those trying to exit before the inevitable "stand clear of the closing doors" announcement.
What I thought was "weird" was that strap hangers in Tokyo all waited in lines at train stations – often without visible markings on the ground on platforms – so they could board the train in the order in which they arrived.
Civility on the subway? So weird.
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