10 Things Americans Do That Confuse The Rest Of The World!

Things that US citizens do that confuse everybody else! Watch this video to find out all of the weird things that Americans do and the strange American customs that are just plain confusing and the things Americans do that Europeans don’t!


8. Ice In Drinks

Anybody who has traveled outside of the United States knows that in many places getting a significant amount of ice in your drinks is considered odd. For instance, an article by Alina Simone on The New York Times website talks about her Ukrainian roots. She writes, “...I was raised on room-temperature beverages and always associated ice with a raft of great American stuff...My own grandmother would cringe from a glass of ice water…”. She further discusses that most older Russian people don’t put ice in their drinks either for various reasons, including diluting drinks, sensitive teeth, and tradition. But, we serve a lot of ice in nearly everything that isn’t hot tea, coffee, or chocolate. In fact, most of the time, you have to specifically ask for them to leave the ice out if you don’t want it. But, there’s a good reason that US citizens opt for ice almost every time they order a drink. Americans used to harvest ice during the winter and store it through the summer months in a covered well; it was a challenging task performed with saws and axes. A ton could cost hundreds of dollars. In the 1800s, Frederic Tudor of Boston, Massachusetts began an ice-harvesting business. Tudor was off to a rocky start at first, but he soon discovered new insulation techniques that kept the ice frozen for longer periods of time. He was able to ship it to the Caribbean, where people used it to preserve their medicine and food. The demand for ice in America grew as well. Tudor even began suggesting that people use it to cool their drinks… that’s one smart guy. Soon enough, US citizens grew accustomed to chilled beverages, and ice became an essential part of everyday life. Frederic earned the nickname “Ice King,” and his legacy lives on… In the US, anyway.

7. Month Day Year

Another thing people do in the United States that confuses the rest of the world is writing our dates in a “month/day/year” format instead of writing them in order from the smallest to largest units. Most people don’t even have a legitimate answer for this besides, “it’s what we’ve always done.” However, if you think about it, it makes sense to some degree. A simple explanation is that we write the date how we say it. For example, we would say “September 25th, 2018” instead of “the 25th of September, 2018.” Except for the case of Independence Day, which we also call the Fourth of July… another confusing thing to add to the list. However, another argument is that we write and say the month before the day to go from general to specific, and since the year is often assumed, it is stated last if at all. In many cases, the month is the most important piece of information because it allows for an approximation. For example, if somebody asked when Madden 19 came out, and you said “August” right before a loud horn blocked out the rest of what you were saying… they would still know an approximate date. However, if you started the sentence with “10th” before the horn sounded… well, they still wouldn’t have a clue when it was released. Look, we might be grasping at straws here, but we’re still trying to make sense of these things ourselves.

[thegoodvibesgemini]

" Yes the pun was intended"💀 Great video!

[kellie]

I didn't know the word 'soccer' actually came from england. These are confusing but America is also the most entertaining country on the planet and that's coming from a Brit. Great video, thanks.

[DLRudder]

For those moments you're interrupted by a horn.

[misty]

Where I'm from I think it was in the 70's (very young) the drinking age and drivers licence were 21 of age. When they change the age for both, my sisters and friends cheered especially for the drivers to age 16. Then few years later we had to be 19 and Quebec 18 (or vice versa) for drinking.
I can't believe I'm going to this, they should bring the drinking age back to 21. Just saying (think it would be safer for all).

[thevannmann]

That's not the Australian flag and that's not how you say Cambridge.

[randomcrow]

Every where ask for tips not literally every where I’m hearing dr offices are now

[krystallovesclassics]

Lowering the drinking age would be catastrophic we may never recover, If anything we should raise the voting and military service age to 21. There are no benefits to lowering the drinking age.

[gregwilks]

That woman's voice is so irritating it could give an aspirin a headache