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People Break Down The Things That Are Normal In Their Country But Weird In Another

People Break Down The Things That Are Normal In Their Country But Weird In Another
Angela Compagnone on Unsplash

Traveling beyond our border countries is a great way to experience different cultures.


While there are many things we have in common with people from around the world, there are as equally–if not more–customs and protocols that can be jarring.

Curious to hear from those who've seen how those in other parts of the world live, Redditor ElizaPaukova asked:

"Which is normal in your country, but strange in another?"Want to "know" more?

People's interactions with animals depend on where they live.

What's Hopping?

"Getting your car smashed in by a kangaroo one day, then having your suspension wrecked by a wombat two weeks later."

– QuantumTopology

Foul Fellows

"Being terrified of common neighbourhood birds every spring."

– Pseudonymico

Arach-NO

"Spiders the size of softballs that live in your house and are good at getting rid of bugs."

– I_hate_people69

A Tame Transport

"Bagged milk and riding a moose to the store."

– kotaska-

These foreign concepts may take a while getting used to.

Unattended Little Ones

"leaving babies outside!"

"It is common to put babies to sleep in a stroller and leave them in the garden or balcony, even outside a café (if you can sit next to the door or windows, so you can see the stroller)."

– PossiblyTrustworthy

They Tell Us When To Go

"Calling traffic lights 'robots.'"

– Upset-Sea6029

What's In A Name

"We call randoms mate and our mates c*nts."

– Skydome12

Effective Meds

"Custom meds. I recently found out that in most countries, you can't just go into a pharmacy / drug store with a prescription and have the pharmacist prepare a set of pills / ointment / cream for you."

"I used to have severe dandruff problems, went into a pharmacy and asked for something. The pharmacist asked how severe / for how long / what kind of shampoo I have and how greasy my hair is and told me to come back two days later. She handed me a container with a cream-like substance in it which just had a handwritten label on with saying '[My name] - Dandruff Shampoo'. I paid the equivalent of $4 and was told to use it twice a week for no longer than a month."

"Never had any problems with dandruff since. I made a post about it in r/tifu about how I'd been neglecting my dandruff problems for years while it had such an easy fix and people kept PMing me about the brand of the drug. Everyone was incredulous that the pharmacist made the shampoo for me, and I found out that this isn't the norm in a lot of countries."

– Corvus_Manufaktura

Bottoms Up

"Bringing the leftover alcohol you brought to a party home. I live in Norway and a beer is anywhere from £3 to £5. Hard liquor is atleast £40 per litre, but for something that doesn't taste like hand sanitizer it's around £50-60."

– jespersolost

Birthday Ritual

"Celebrating birthdays while sitting in a big circle in the living room, eating small blocks of cheese, little sausages and pickles, then going home on your bicycle."

– Vonne_F

Varying states of undress do not phase certain people in other countries.

Barefootin'

"Doing P.E barefoot, I'm from South Africa and moved to Scotland 3 years ago as I left the changing room they were like 'you forgot your shoes my guy' and I was like 'oh yeah, you guys wear shoes for p.e?' And the guy said 'Uhm of course' then I realised they were indoors majority of the time which was f'king bonkers to me because p.e in South Africa is done on the grass, outside and stuff and shoes were optional unless you were doing a sport or something."

"I mean even during sports events some people do that sh*t barefoot like long jump or high jump or even running and I feel like I run faster barefoot than with shoes so if I did a race I would always go 'alright well I'm up time to get my shoes off.'"

–jaknuggetf'k

Comfy In The Buff

"Nudity among strangers."
"I'm Finnish."
"#sauna"

– LupusCutis

Shoe-Free Zone

"Walking around bare foot, or in your pyjamas."

– Genderless_mystery

Not tipping will still be very confusing to me when traveling abroad.

I caught myself leaving a tip for the excellent service at a restaurant in Japan, and remembering the country–and most other parts of the world–do not accept tips.

Yet, their service was exceptional compared to that of the servers at some establishments in the US–where service is incentivized with the promise of a tip. Go figure.

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