1. South Africa – Being middle-class with a property having a 6′ wall, electric fencing linked to an alarm, automated gate and garage doors (with security clamps over the gate motor to prevent theft of the motor), security gates over every door, burglar bars, and a house alarm system with infra-red sensors linked to armed response with a reaction time of under 3-4 minutes.
2. Everyone rags on the US for using imperial, but can we talk for a second about how weird we are here in the UK for using both inconsistently?
You buy a pint of milk or beer, but a litre of coke and 25ml of whiskey
People know how many miles to the gallon their cars get, but you buy fuel at pence per litre.
You watch the weather forecast and the temperature is in Celsius but the wind speed is in miles per hour
Most people can tell you their weight in kilograms, and their height in feet, and if they can’t give you kilograms they can probably give you stone instead, which is even older than pounds, which nobody uses as a unit of measurement, probably because of the confusion between lbs and £…
It’s a glorious mess.
3. Slovakia – Easter is when gangs of boys roam the countryside, pouring water over girls and beating them (gently) with sticks. The girls then have to thank them for it.
4. India – We have matrimonial ads in newspapers and sites to find grooms and brides which I think don’t happen in western countries and they find it strange. The ads are mostly published by parents. It’s like tinder supervised by parents.
5. A short while ago they stopped selling alcohol after 10pm. At some stores you couldn’t even get non-alcoholic beer. What’s weird tho is that wine is not considered alcoholic drink so you can buy it anytime. Welcome to Moldova
6. Finland – Strangers sitting totally naked skin to skin in a steamy room heated to +80 to +100C… and us having competitions on who can last the longest in there.
7. The cracks that are just wide enough to be able to see in and out of public restroom stalls. (United States)
8. Men holding hands in public as a display of friendship is normal in Afghanistan but super weird in the west.
9. In my country you bike everywhere. Cars aren’t used much. For longer distances you mostly use train and public transport.
10. Having a garbage can in the bathroom for used toilet paper. A lot of countries don’t have the sewerage infrastructure to handle paper in the pipes. They wipe and put it in the bin…
11. Direct democracy in Switzerland. It often baffles me when I read what the government can pull off in other countries without ever involving the population. Like…yea, you get to elect representatives but it often seems to me that those people then elect someone who elects someone who elects someone…is it really still democracy if you’re about five steps removed from the actual decisions?
12. Where I’m from the answer is guns. Lots of guns. You shoot guns at 9 years old with your buddy at an old washing machine. They are a way of life, and I suppose death for a lot of people. I understand why people support owning guns, they grew up with them and see them as normal. You tell people from other countries about shooting guns at 9 and they look at you funny.
13. No fences between houses. It’s almost considered rude to put up a fence. Canada.
14. Leaving your baby alone outside for their nap, even if it rains or snows. Norway.
15. Putting broken glass bottles on the walls around your house so burglars cant jump it and rob you. Latin America.
16. Scottish here. We deep-fry our pizzas. No even sorry. Tasty wee bastards.
17. In Japan, there are public toilets in a few places where after urinating, you can opt to view a general health assessment report.
18. I teach in Japan, but grew up in America. The other day my students asked me wide-eyed if Americans really wear their shoes inside. I told them yes and that sometimes my dad would cross his legs like this while we sat on the sofa and I could touch the bottom of his shoes. They were super grossed out. “Eew, why would you wear shoes inside! That’s so dirty!” These kids are 2nd graders so it starts pretty young.
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