25 ‘Normal Things’ that are Extremely Rude or Weird in Other Countries

There are dozens of things that are typical in one country and entirely unacceptable in another. These r/AskReddit users have got you covered...

By Toonacious

Published 3 years ago in Wow

There are dozens of things that are typical in one country and entirely unacceptable in another. These r/AskReddit users have got you covered with some of those interesting facts.

1
"Describing something good as great craic (pronounced crack)." - irishmickguard

2
"Calling your significant other a ‘silly cunt’ in a pub/bar/public setting; and no one even takes notice, let alone feel uncomfortable about hearing it." - ResinByRen

3
"Pissing on roadside It's still rude, but normal and no-one really cares" - _1Doomsday1_
4
"Three kisses here in the Netherlands. I don't like it at all. Somehow men are able to get away with shaking hands, but women are usually expected to still kiss. Even if you barely know the person" - Nomisan

5
"You've probably heard this by now, but here in Spain when we meet someone we kiss our cheeks twice" - Achecam
6
"In America people say "You're welcome anytime" kinda like a blow off, being nice thing. My dad said this to our cousins in Ireland and like a month later they made plans to stay with us for two weeks. Which was fine because we like them...but people say it to everybody!" - Purple_Dorito
7
"People apologise to each other a lot when they have nothing to apologise for, especially in public. Somebody can walk right in front of you and cut you off, but you will apologise to them." - Scallywagstv2

8
"as an American, when i “lived” in England for three months, i realized just how rude and unacceptable Brits view the act of “pointing fingers”. not that i was ever doing shit like pointing at and/or making fun of people, but just any kind of pointing even remotely in the vicinity of anyone’s direction was just a straight up no-no, regardless of context. my ex-fiancée (who was British) was constantly like “stop doing that” lmao. kinda interesting." - shuttermayfire
9
"Tipping in restaurants" - SuperOliverTwist
10
"If you want to buy "strong" alcohol (I think above 2.5%) you have two options, either go to a restaurant/bar, or if you want for home use you must buy from Systembolaget since no other store is allowed to sell it (for bars you must be 18+ but for Systembolaget you must be 20+). To me it is completely normal, but in most countries people would probably think that it is weird." - Theher0not

11
"I've been living in China for two years and I still can't bring myself to shout in a restaurant to get their attention. I'm British so I'm so used to awkwardly raising my hand and saying excuse me when the server looks in my direction. In China.. oh boy you just gotta shout and hope you're louder than the next table." - TyranM97
12
"I think that on Sunday all shops except restaurants are closed." - RythmicGear
13
"Using our lips to point on something. Somebody asking where something is? Point your lips towards that thing." - yoginiph

14
"No smiling, no small talks, no contacts with strangers unless necessary, being too direct" - CombinationJealous79
15
"Blowing your nose in public. Sniffling, on the other hand, is considered quite rude, and if you do it someone will offer you a tissue 9 times out of 10." - Erikhap
16
"rationing electricity. Not short-term like during a hurricane or an earthquake, we've had this going for years straight. My city gets 1hr of electricity, then it's lights-out for the next 5hrs. some other cities have a fair-ish 3hrs on, 3hrs off schedule." - Blitzilla

17
"I'm Irish and we tend to swear a lot in ordinary conversation. Means nothing most of the time, just a normal part of speech, but some of my non-Irish friends seemed a bit taken aback by it. Also 'slagging' someone (i.e. playfully making fun of them). A sign of affection most of the time. We're not being mean and if you can take it and give back some of the slagging you get, all the better." - ladyblithe
18
"Asking an aquantaince you are passing how they are doing with no intention of stopping to wait for the answer." - Malgaras
19
"Eating with your hands" - photophrames0304

20
"In our country, the bride’s sisters steal grooms shoes and give them back only if they’ve been paid a specific sum." - thirteenoldsweaters
21
"In my native country, when you go to a wedding, it is customary to steal the bride and you can bring her back only after you've been paid and then punished by the groom or the godfather. Really weird now that I think of it" - Emulion
22
"I was talking to a fellow foreigner in Finland. He said he went to a public sauna, because it's kind of on the list of things to do if you're in Finland. He felt slightly awkward at all the huge naked men (didn't do his homework maybe), and then one of them randomly started hitting him with a stick. A Finnish girl who was also part of the conversation immediately went "oh that's so cute! They really welcomed him!" He was like "it's not cute! I was traumatised!" - Additional_Ad_84

23
"Eating sprinkles for breakfast. I grew up in Amsterdam (Netherlands/Holland) where for breakfast I would have Hagelslag which is a Dutch type of chocolate sprinkles which would be served on bread. When I moved to America people considered it very weird and for a while I didn't know why, now I know that for Americans it is very weird because for them it's more of a dessert food." - -White_Obsidian-
24
"I grew up in Australia and migrated to Ireland about ten years ago. First thing I noticed was people in ireland really like to talk about death in every day conversation. Who died. When the mass is. The removal of the body and the anniversaries of their death. It's so normal in conversation. In aus it's rather taboo. Theres a difference in the tone of conversation when talking about death." - Stephenburnett98
25
"Actually telling people how you’re doing when they ask you how you’re doing. We don’t use a lot of polite phrases just for the sake of being polite, so when people ask “how are you”, it’s interpreted as a genuine question rather than polite smalltalk or a greeting. My grandma once asked a cashier how she was doing and she replied “Not great. I have type 2 diabetes.” (I’m from Norway)" - pasta-is-really-good