Beyond the expected generosity with tips and the considerable cost of healthcare, travelers from overseas often encounter other aspects of American life, even basic conveniences, that can be quite surprising.
Medical bankruptcy
It’s shocking to many foreign visitors that in one of the wealthiest countries on earth, a medical emergency can bankrupt you.
In much of Europe, Canada, Australia, and East Asia, healthcare is seen as a public service, not a benefit tied to a job or insurance plans. Receiving a five-figure bill for having taken an ambulance ride, or skipping doctors appointments out of fear of cost sound like dystopian nightmares to outsiders.
Looking into which hospitals accept your insurance before getting treatment just feels inherently off.
Missing inches
For Americans, gaps in bathroom stall doors, or the way they don’t quite touch the floor, are just part of the everyday experience.
But many visitors from Europe and Asia who encounter them are shocked by how little privacy they afford.
The most apparent justification for the incomplete stall construction boils down to ease of cleaning. It’s much easier to mop floor when there aren’t any doors in the way.
What’s surprising is how unnatural it feels to foreigners once they see it. Who would have guessed a quick trip to the loo could make you feel so exposed?
Elected judges
Foreign visitors to the United States often express shock when they learn that Americans in many states actually elect their judges.
Most nations appoint judges via professional commissions or government agencies. In America, however, judicial candidates can campaign for office, raise funds and even star in their own campaign ads.
For a lot of people overseas, campaigning for roles that require a neutral stance just doesn’t sit right. Foreign visitors often see courts as political institutions that should stand above elections rather than participate in them. And this campaigning makes them question the true independence of the judiciary.
Sold names
Elsewhere across the globe, locals treat their train station or sports stadium as an institution, proudly named after its neighborhood’s history, city name, or famous resident.
American buildings sell off everything public to corporations however they can, cramming citizens into “the Google Bus” to board trains at “Salesforce Transit Center” or catch games at “Levi’s Stadium.”
The extreme commercialization of corporate name brands on basic public venues makes the country feel completely soulless and overtly transactional to foreigners.
For people visiting from other countries, this overwhelming commercialization sends a clear message: nothing in American public life is too important to avoid a corporate logo.
School shooting drills
Did you know American kids practice active-shooter drills at school? To most foreigners, this will come as horrifying news.
Kids in Japan, Germany, Australia, Sweden, etc. may practice fire drills or earthquake drills. But active shooter drills? The thought of children practicing how to react to gun violence in their classrooms is unthinkable.
This routine nature of the drills deeply unsettles a lot of people from abroad. How can a country view school shootings as tragedies and teach their children to accept that another will happen at some point?
Commercial cures
Sit down to watch your favorite American primetime television show. You’ll find yourself staring at fewer episodes and more commercials for prescription drugs.
Watch closely. You’ll see cheerful images of smiling children, couples walking through ponds, and feel-good music drowning out a sped-up narrator rattling off a litany of side effects that could potentially wreak more havoc on your body than the condition you’re seeking to treat.
If you’re reading this from anywhere other than the United States, you may be thinking something along the lines of those commercials are strange. You’re right. The US and New Zealand are the only developed countries that allow pharmaceutical drug companies to market prescription medications directly to consumers. Most countries have restrictions in place that only allow pharmaceutical companies to market their products to physicians.
Priority passes
International travelers often find it peculiar how US airport security lines are set up with distinct tiers for citizens.
While airports abroad operate security checkpoints as an equal public safety line that is solely determined by the risk you pose and when you arrive, American citizens can pay private companies like Clear or TSA PreCheck to skip the line.
It feels wrong, frankly, for visitors to see affluent Americans paying their way past folks with kids and weary travelers in a mandatory government screening.
Anyone from outside the US senses immediately that no matter how many checks and balances there are, egalitarianism among American institutions can always be sold out if you’re rich enough.
Missing paths
Tourists trying to walk ten minutes from their suburban hotel to dinner may find themselves at the mercy of streets with no sidewalks at all.
Suburban America’s design prioritizes vehicles entirely, forcing pedestrians into hazardous situations along busy highway shoulders.
Sidewalks and public walkways are considered a basic human entitlement in most countries’ city planning initiatives. From an outsider’s perspective, it’s inexcusably careless when a wealthy community lacks safe pedestrian access to a grocery store.
Tent cities and homelessness
Drive around Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Portland and you’ll find tents right outside some high-end apartment buildings, next to glass skyscrapers, and near crowded shopping centers.
The juxtaposition between these two vastly different worlds isn’t just shocking for visitors; it’s hard for many foreigners to even believe they’re in the richest country in the world.
Homelessness can be found in just about every nation. But America has some of the largest cities with noticeable concentrations of homelessness.
For foreigners who know nothing about American poverty, it can be hard to believe there are people living on the streets considering how wealthy and technologically advanced the country is.
The real price
Entering a store in America, you will never know how much something costs just by reading the price-tag. Once state, county, and city taxes are added at the register, your $9.99 book suddenly costs $12-15 dollars.
US stores won’t put the total price up on the shelf because tax rates change from city-to-city. To people from countries with Value Added Tax (VAT), this system feels deceitful.
Savory sweetness
When purchasing something as simple as a loaf of sandwich bread or a bottle of tomato sauce from an American grocery store, foreigners are consistently shocked by how sweet the product tastes.
Because the United States heavily subsidizes the crop of high-fructose corn syrup, processed sugars are often injected into everyday savory foods that shouldn’t taste sweet.
Tourists from countries with stricter food additive policies are often surprised to find American bread has more in common with a cinnamon roll or cake than an actual loaf of bread.
Gun culture
You will be surprised by how common guns are in day-to-day American life.
Reports of mass shootings dominate the news. We’re seeing an increase in laws that permit carrying firearms openly. You’ll find gun shops practically everywhere, even in the most ordinary shopping centers.
Guns are tightly controlled in most developed countries, and the average person never has reason to encounter one except as part of a police officer’s uniform. It can seem peculiar how much gun ownership sparks debate in American politics and features so prominently in conversations about liberty.
Twenty-one rule
While America rigidly enforces the drinking age of 21 at restaurants and stores, many countries introduce their adolescents to wine or spirits naturally at dinner parties years before they’re considered a legal adult.
Coming to a nation where 18-year-olds can get married, vote, take out extremely expensive interest student loans, and handle military firearms, yet will be imprisoned if they order a microbrew, feels utterly ridiculous.
Polarization everywhere
It’s quite startling for visitors to see just how pervasive politics feels in the U.S.
News channels, Facebook feeds, offices, and even dinner tables can become wars based on differences in opinion.
While political divisions are common globally, what truly astonishes visitors is the way Americans tend to label themselves by their political party. And the country often gives the distinct impression of being in constant campaign mode.
Time off
One thing that shocks many foreign workers is how little vacation American workers sometimes have.
Many other countries mandate by law several weeks of paid vacation per year. The United States does not have any federal mandate for paid vacation. Policies around time off will vary by employer.
Many American employees with accrued vacation time struggle with feelings of guilt or worry about appearing less dedicated if they take too much.
Working through sickness, checking work email on vacation, and answering emails while on your honeymoon are stories that Americans may brag about as showing devotion to their job. To many foreigners, these actions are viewed as red flags that you have a poor work-life balance.
