For most non-Americans, Hollywood and the media are the main frame of reference for life in the United States. And because they haven’t experienced life on the ground up close, they develop stereotypes based on what they’ve seen. 

But after visiting the country and immersing in the culture, the preconceptions are typically either broken or reinforced. These people were left in shock and amazement, as they share their stories in a recent Reddit thread. 

If you’ve gone through anything similar after a trip to the US of A, feel free to share it in the comments below!

#1

The first time I visited the rural parts of the southeastern states, I was shocked at how many churches I saw. I thought that was just a US movie thing. I even stopped measuring my driving speed in km/h and started measuring in churches/h.

© Photo: buckyhermit

#2

Not so much of a stereotype but more so an effect. Growing up as a kid (not in US) I watched movies shot in New York and there would be steam coming out of the manholes in the street in dark scenes, think Batman. I always thought that the steam was a movie effect till I visited New York last January and the steam coming out of the manholes is definitely real. My jaw kinda dropped at seeing it and then I felt like an idiot.

© Photo: Kloppite16

#3

My nephew came over from Germany and was shocked the buses were actually yellow. He enjoyed the American experience though.

© Photo: maxpoontang

#4

Towns in the middle of nowhere, downtown is one long strip road – a couple of fast food places, a grocery story, a petrol station, a bar with no windows and four churches.

© Photo: Lumpyproletarian

#5

That Americans are very friendly. I have lived in the US now for 19 years and I can happily say that this is very true. As a brown immigrant, overwhelmingly, I have been treated very well here and people have always been very friendly.

© Photo: kinetic_honda

#6

People actually going to see a high school or college sport game. In my country no one except the parents of the team players would bother to go watch an extracurricular sports game.

© Photo: pseudo__gamer

#7

Portion sizes. I got a *very* affordable plate of teriyaki that was really 2.5x the size you’d get for the same price in Canada. I got halfway through and was stuffed.

© Photo: satinsateensaltine

#8

My host sister from Germany – the high school cheerleaders.

She thought it was just a cheesy movie trope, or an exaggeration. She was absolutely exasperated that it was a real, genuine sport and a genuinely normal thing to see a school sporting events, let alone professional events.

© Photo: TCsnowdream

#9

The massive gap between the bathroom stall door and the frame. You’re just sitting there making direct eye contact with people washing their hands.

© Photo: vidavimor

#10

Specific to the south, namely Texas: my wife was mildly shocked that people actually wear cowboy hats and boots. Not ironically, not part of a costume, just everyday attire.

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#11

DMVs. I always thought it was a TV joke. It’s not. It’s awful.

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#12

They really do have very loud personal phone conversations while walking down the street.

Accepting of differences – at least in NYC. I didn’t realise quite how much rudeness towards autistic people was part of my everyday life until I visited somewhere where it isn’t.

© Photo: GreenTeam898989

#13

For me it was just how big the grocery stores are. I had heard the joke from the cold war era of some USSR child going to the US and being enamoured by the grocery stores.

I come from Australia, we are a first world country, our stores are decently sized and have a good variety. But, heck, I went to a Wegmans with a model train in it running through the store, a sitdown restaurant, and so much variety I felt like I was from some impoverished backwater.

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#14

The real shock was how much space everything takes, so now I factor in drive time between stops instead of distance when I plan trips there.

© Photo: Emergency_Price7029

#15

Not me but my cousin visiting from Mexico. She was surprised by the SHEER amount of American flags. She had challenged herself to count all the American flags she saw and gave up when we passed a car dealership that had like over 50 lol.

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#16

The size of the roads and trucks. Everything feels like it was scaled up by 150% compared to Europe or Asia.

© Photo: Then_Sir7372

#17

I spent almost a month in a Denver suburb without ever seeing a bus. Public transportation really does suck.

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#18

Old school diners. Did a road trip from New York to Connecticut and stopped at this classic diner in upstate New York with the tables, long sit down counter right out of the movies.

© Photo: cruiserman_80

#19

How genuinely friendly strangers are. I expected the whole “Americans will talk to anyone” thing to be exaggerated, but people actually started conversations with me like we’d known each other for years.

© Photo: Busy-Highlight-2880

#20

I’d heard about American hospitality, but it’s nuts how friendly the vast majority of the people I met were. You’re good hosts and have an amazing country to show off

Edit. I’ve drank several beers. Guess what I’m saying doesn’t actually answer the question.

© Photo: mean_as_custard

#21

The big red cups you see in college / house parties in movies.

© Photo: kodakgold200

#22

I say this as a half-Japanese, half-white American man living in Houston, TX:

Football down here is a religion for some. And yes, majority of the school funding did go into building the monolith stadium for a high school team. The movies and shows downplay it slightly.

© Photo: Cheetodude625

#23

The obesity. The Target parking lot was full of very big people. I live in a city (Toronto) and the difference was stark.

© Photo: Impressive-Potato

#24

New York drivers really are using their horns all the dang time.

(And I’m an American from the west coast).

© Photo: wexlermendelssohn

#25

Garbage disposals in kitchen sinks.

© Photo: whotakemycake

#26

How prudish most people are. Outside certain enclaves, people in the USA (not all America) are in fact extremely prudish.

© Photo: Redditing_aimlessly

#27

The homeless people.

I have never seen so many homeless people in my live. And that was during the 90s. Can’t imagine what the situation is nowadays.

© Photo: Widukind272

#28

How big the country is, there are parts that are still properly wild. Europe has been shaped by humans for thousands of years, there are signs of occupancy *everywhere*. You would struggle to find a significant area that doesn’t have sign of humans having lived there at some point. All the land you see, even the equivalent of national parks are re-wilded to some extent. The US has large areas where there’s little to no sign of humans now, or for extended periods of time.

The drive from LA to Vegas was illuminating, long stretches of MAMBA (Miles And Miles of Bugger-All). Other than the road, there’s nothing out there. Internal flights are also interesting, in some cases, there just seems to be cities in the middle of nowhere just because there needs to be *something* there after so much empty space.

© Photo: Salty_Paroxysm

#29

The go-getter attitude. I work with americans on and off on projects, had a US based boss for a year, and I was used to the yeehaw approach to new projects in the “what could possibly go wrong” approach, but jesus H, I had take a lot of meetings, town halls, like really a campaign level operation to convince a large and very diverse group of people from various subsidiaries that did not really talk to each other much because they were all merged or bought out in short period, we needed to convince them to unify their IT systems as much as possible and consolidate 180 datacenter locations into ..4. We went there, all eastern europeans, where the mindset is “don’t try..and you still be dissapointed”, chiseled into you from kindergarten, and now you sit in front of literal strangers, they don’t know you, they don’t know fully understand where are you coming from, oh yeah, we heard the majority shareholder is now XY, but what… oh, you want us to get rid of this 30 year old Windows NT that does payroll for this 30mil revenue company? HELL YEAH. nobody touched it since Fred retired and Fred retired during Clinton era.

We did crazy stuff for years, we did stuff even Microsoft told us they never tried live and actually had two Azure guys join us for a weekend to observe, we would never be able to do it in Europe or Asia. I waited 8 months for few permits in Munich building and had to go there 3 times to waste time speaking to Detlef who was scared to touch anything

when inevitably things go south the EU team was looking for a wobbly chair and 6ft of rope, and Ken just called and said “so what’s the plan D”…after plans ABC failed.

does the american kids learn 40 different success stories about famous inventors and businessmen? because you guys seem to spill it on demand “don’t worry, John H. Whatshisname burned down his garage 495 times before got the recipe for peanut butter right”.

© Photo: grumpypantaloon

#30

The American west, [west of Kansas] features slot machines at every gas station. The opportunities to gamble are incredible!

© Photo: Most_Quality_1987

#31

Not sure if stereotype, but went to watch a baseball game, and was amazed at how much stuff is going on around the game. The crowd seemed almost disinterested in the game, eating hot dogs, drinking budweiser, etc, but eventually, when the game reached the point where it was going to be decided who won, then suddenly everyone fell silent at once and suddenly the game was super-interesting.

#32

The fact that you really do need a car to do pretty much anything.

#33

My cousin was visiting for my son’s graduation. She got to see snipers on the roof and was excited about it because it was “ A real American experience”.

#34

The weird advertisements on the radio like in GTA. Went to the US for 2 weeks as a kid and there were weird ads on the radio in the car every day.

#35

Kentucky. Yes they really are that dumb.

#36

Altoona style pizza is an arrestable offense.

#37

Fights at Waffle House.

#38

Outlets. Outlets EVERYWHERE.

#39

That fat people actually exists with those invalid scooters, they were everywhere in Orlando Florida.

#40

LOL.
I’m American and my British cousin visited me once. We went to a pizza place and I ordered a couple meatball hoagies. Pretty standard.
She was mindblown. She had never seen a sandwich that big except on American TV shows and she though those were jokes. She truly had no idea that a 12″ sandwich is a perfectly normal thing here.

#41

According to my German friend:

American Patriotism. Nationalism to this degree is basically unheard of over there, and my friend did not realize just how prevalent our patriot ideals are.

#42

The whole “bless your heart” thing about the South. I moved from UK to Tennessee 13 years ago and the people here are the least judgmental, most honest and good people I’ve ever met. The politics is insane and racism is real and sometimes shocking, so, I fully understand that not everyone’s experience would mirror mine, but I’ve travelled the world and I’m yet to find better people than Americans.

#43

High school and college. It truly is like in the tv shows. The frat parties as well.

#44

Sugary food.. sure, we all know about the milkshakes, sodas, massive bags of candy (which are all true) but man EVERYTHING here is full of unnecessary sugar. Yoghurt, pasta sauce, breads, coffee etc. Took me some time to figure out why everything tasted odd to my European taste buds.

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