Non-Americans Are Sharing The Things About White Culture They Don't Understand

Over in r/AskLatinAmerica, a Redditor asked folks from around the world to share the things about “Anglo” — aka English-speaking — cultures that they’re perplexed by. Honestly, they were really eye-opening to see. Here are 19 of the most fascinating answers they shared, and where in the world they’re from:

1. “Putting your national flag on a bikini.”

2. “I believe this mostly applies to the US. [I don’t understand] the whole ethnic background identity thing, like, ‘I am 25% Irish, 25% German…'”

—No-Addendum6379, Paraguay

“I mean, I would like to know too, genetics is cool. But the difference is that they see it as a total identity definition, and I see it just as a fun fact.”

—puredepapitas, Chile

“Races. Everything and everyone belongs to a certain race, and that is so institutionalized that on government forms, they ask you your race. Dude, all my grandparents are from different places, IDK my race.”

—PieceBrief4567, Chile

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3. “How so many Anglo-Americans are obsessed with the concept of marriage and weddings. They seem to become infatuated with someone very easily, and after like three to four months of knowing the other person, they want to put a ring on it so fast. Like, they want to virtue signal to the rest of the world how madly in love they are, yet the US has a very high divorce rate. I’d freak out if I met a person and we dated for less than a year and they suddenly proposed to me. And don’t get me started with the whole ‘bridezilla’ thing.”

—Anonymous

4. “Wedding rings. Why do I have to burn three months of paychecks to buy a stupid stone for my gf to brag about, or else I ‘don’t love her enough’?

5. On moving out (or being booted out) of their parent’s homes as soon as they’re legal adults: “Hi son, you’re 18 today. Get out of my house, you bum, or start paying rent.”

—Weekly_Bed827, Venezuela

6. “At my first office job in Canada, people ate alone at their desks. If you went to the kitchen, you’d only hear Russian and Indian languages being spoken, because immigrants were the only ones in the 200-person office eating together. My girlfriend now works at a spot with a large Latin employee base, and it’s similar there. [I’ve noticed] Latinos tend to eat together and have fun during lunch hour, while Anglophones often sit together but mostly stay silent on their phones or even wear headphones.”

—Urik88, Argentina

“I think for Americans, it’s more ‘fast and done.’ In Latín culture (like in other places), lunch and dinner are considered times to share with peers. But it’s definitely changing here too with the rise of smartphones and social media.”

—Hyparcus, Peru

7. “The concept of loitering. They seem to care about individual freedoms, yet it is wrong to be in public places with no apparent reason.”

—OldLoomy, Cuba

“This! We don’t even have a name for that in Spanish.”

—EmergencyReal6399, Mexico

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8. “High school culture. Like proms and graduations and valedictorians, whatever the hell that means. I don’t get it.”

—rottenwytch, Mexico

“And then you have college life, living in large campuses with fraternities and sororities and rites of initiation and so forth.”

—saraseitor, Argentina

9. “Eating dinner early. You guys don’t get hungry after that?”

—Ok-Organization9073, Uruguay

“Having dinner around 6 PM seems super weird to me. In Mexico it’s around 8-9 PM, sometimes even later than that.”

—ZealousidealMark4377, Mexico

10. “The need in the USA to own your own vehicle and have your driver’s license as soon as you are 16, because public transport is shit in most of the country. I can only think of good public transport now in NYC.”

—yellowvincent, Argentina

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11. “Individualism. It’s wild to me how many people act like they don’t give a single fuck about the next person… I think most of the problems they have over there stem from individualism. Nobody gives a fuck about anyone else. No healthcare, because corporations make money. Loneliness, because nobody makes time for each other. The list goes on and on.”

—FortuneAwkward1, Dominican Republic and Bandejita, Colombia

“This is more of a ‘northern’ culture thing. I live in Central Europe, and the number of people who don’t give a crap about the next person is outstanding. Groups of people blocking sidewalks like they don’t care if you need to pass. Coming from the other direction, they don’t move one single centimeter. And that’s the tip of the iceberg. The sense of community in Latin countries is definitely one of our strengths.”—chilakiller1, Mexico

12. “That individualism even happens within families. Sometimes they can go for months without contacting their siblings or parents. I don’t believe in the ‘family first, no matter what’ thing, but the fact that this also happens with healthy families is very strange. One of my biggest cultural shocks.”

—Anonymous

13. “Food allergies seem to be weirdly common in the US for some reason. I myself have never met a person who was allergic to anything.”

—Anonymous

14. “I don’t understand the concept of nursing homes. Or just visiting your parents on holidays, maybe not seeing them for months. I can’t imagine not visiting my parents at least once a week.”

—Rikeka, Argentina

“I couldn’t understand why everyone there ends up in nursing homes until I moved to Canada. Turns out that cities in North America are so, SO car-dependent that once you can no longer drive, you are very limited. The closest grocery store might be kilometers away from their house, and walking there is probably dangerous. Thus, once you can no longer drive, it is off to a retirement community or a nursing home. “

—Urik88, Argentina

15. “I’ve never had food poisoning in my life, but I’ve found that if you ask most Americans about food poisoning, they not only have had it, but can give you a ranking with the top three worst ones.”

—Saltimbanco_volta, Brazil

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16. “Women losing their last names and taking their husband’s when getting married. What kind of medieval ‘women are property’ thinking is that?”

—puntastic_name, Chile

In Chile, where this Redditor is from, women keep their birth name.

17. “I find it super weird how common it is for family members to fall out and just not speak to each other ever again. I get that people can have toxic or abusive families, which 100% merit it, but Anglo families seem to cut contact for very minor things or even see it as a first line of response when someone feels offended or slighted. It’s completely backward to how I see the world.”

—Pfmcdu, Peru

18. “I’ve read that some American Boomers spend their last money on vacations and whatnot instead of giving their children an inheritance. I’ve never seen this here in Chile. A weakened filial connection seems weird to me.”

—Jone469, Chile

19. And finally, “Student and medical loans. No one should face poverty because they can’t afford education and or healthcare.”

—yellowvincent, Argentina

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

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