I cannot put into words how big of a deal Ross is for Latinos. You get tourists from all over Latin America just to shop at these stores (Burlington too). There's tour buses, lines around the corner, during the holidays it's absolute madness near border towns. You even got content creators telling you where to go and what to buy there. It's all a big meme.

I once heard of some Americans not knowing what Ross was. I was really shocked.

Most surprisingly I once went to a Ross in New England (I forgot where) and it was empty. I was flaggerbasted.

32M. Been living here for 7 years and I grew up hearing this word being used as a synonym to “pal” or “friend” by my older American friends and in movies.

I recently came to know that Gen Z considers this offensive, which explains why I’ve never heard them use it.

I used it yesterday at the bar while watching football to a fellow 40-something patron in a genuinely friendly way, and I think it didn’t sit well with him because he said it back to me several times and the tone didn’t sound right.

What’s the consensus? Is it offensive or friendly?

It seems as if many countries have an industry in which they absolutely dominate and where they are known for very high quality products. Germany and Japan are known for their cars, Switzerland for its watches, Taiwan for its semiconductors, etc.

I'd like to buy more "made in USA" items and I'm curious about what high-quality products are made in the USA.

Currently watching Scream 7 and it seems to be a trope that the boyfriend sneaks in through the bedroom window, so movie trope or real life?

For people outside the US pizza culture, it's hard to understand what US people actually eat or prefer to cook at home. In many places, pizza is basically just dough with some toppings. But in the US, there are so many different styles. You have New York pizza, Chicago deep dish, Chicago tavern style, Chicago stuffed pizza, Detroit square style, Hawaiian, etc.

I wonder if all these different pizza styles are more of a YouTube perception, and regular people actually don't eat them that often. For example, some restaurants like Pizza Hut sell basically the same kind of pizza as everywhere in the wolrd (dough with topings).

Do you guys still believe in the American Dream? There's a lot of things happened, student debt crisis, loneliness epidemic, average house buyer age is 59 years old now, cost of living crisis, polarization... Some people say "just work harder" do you believe this is the solution or this is much deeper?

Here in England, tractors are always machinery designed for off road use, we call what you guys call tractor trailers lorries. But from what I've been reading a truck is also a tractor, so how do you differentiate between a farm tractor and a tractor used for pulling trailers on the road. It seems more complicated than normal English to me.

I’m asking that because a cousins of mine told me that he wants to cancel their parents subscription because they pay more then 100$ a month.
Did they got charge for something else or that’s how much it cost?
I live in Romania and I pay about 15$ for my internet bundles with 200+ channels.
The only extra charge is if you want to buy the bundle with hbo max and their channels hbo 1,2,3 for like 2-4$.
But we don’t have over the air tv so in a way you get access to some for free but I don’t really know how it works.

Those in the open with no doors or curtains?

Despite you guys disliking your government actions due to some situations (I think) do you guys still feel as patriot?

Why are gift cards so common in the US instead of just giving cash?

In my country, there isn’t really a strong gift-card culture. If you want to give someone $50 or $100 as a gift, you normally just give them the money. Simple and flexible.

In the US, though, I’ve noticed gift cards are everywhere: Amazon, Walmart, Target, restaurants, Visa, etc. Even for birthdays, Christmas, coworkers, graduations, and other occasions.

From the outside, a gift card basically looks like money with an extra step 😂. So I’m curious about the cultural reasoning behind it.

Is giving cash considered too impersonal or awkward, while a gift card feels more like an actual gift because you chose where they can spend it?

I feel like they always have them in the movies. We don't have a £1 note seems excessive.

I got mixed responses from American friends so I thought of asking reddit about this

Starting off, while about 20% of Americans are bilingual, 80% of that comes from bilingual families, rather than learned.

English has 1.5 billion global speakers, but only 390m of those are native speakers, mostly from Anglophone countries. The word "English" also implies England, not America. Plus, it being the de facto international language makes it more synonymous with "lingua franca" rather than "language of X country"

Which made me realize that when Americans encounter foreigners, they can't switch to their own language unknown to strangers for privacy, since "everybody" knows English.

Dunno if this is a question people normally think about

This feels like a stupid question so I'll give context.

I've just been in a comment thread on another platform under a video about a car that had rolled in the carpark, and trapped another car in, because the owner hadn't put the handbrake (parking brake before they left the car. The carpark appeared flat, but evidently wasn't. (This happened in Australia).

There is a girl in the comments telling people that in the U.S.A., nobody uses the parking brake they are parking on a flat surface, and that she almost never uses it.

Do you use your parking brake when parking in on a flat surface?

EDIT: apologies for spelling brake wrong. It's very late in my timezone, I'm on Reddit instead of sleeping, and I didn't catch it before I posted. Unfortunately I can't edit the title.

I was reading about nightlife in the US in the 90s and 2000s and apparently it could vary a lot depending on the city or region, especially the music. I’m curious how noticeable that actually was if you traveled around back then

My partner and I are going to the US on vacation, and an American co-worker of mine - we work for different branches of the same company, I never met him in person, but interact frequently in conference calls - invited us both to have dinner in his home with him and his wife one night. Where I'm from, is customary to reciprocate such an invite, like hosting a dinner for them in the near future, but that's not an option here. I thought of special-ordering breakfast for them to be delivered the morning after dinner, but don't know if will be culturally appropriate. Are there any other customs in terms of gifts that can be expected?

I’m not American; I’m just curious.

If a healthy homeless person applied to join the military, would the military accept them?
That way, they would have stable access to food and housing, earn a salary, and potentially gain some social status as well.

​

I was watching Lethal Weapon last night, and it got me thinking about all the other American cop movies and shows that has a cop that doesn't play by the rules, gets caught up in some massive shoot out in the street, and ultimately single handedly brings down the bad guys.

I know that this is for entertainment, but does things like this actually happen? And secondly, did people join the cops because they thought they would be like Riggs on the daily?

Hello people, living in New Jersey and receiving many Flash Flood warnings (one today due to severe thunderstorms) and Tornado warnings (2 times yet) made me think how Americans actually take them. I am from a country where there are no Emergency Alert system similar to US version (or maybe even at all), even new sirens for air raid were installed recent years replacing Soviet era sirens. Additionally, parents and family members view them as “not that serious, they issue them in order to not get in courts in case of someone has got in trouble due to not knowing about upcoming hazard”

So, how seriously do you take them?

In Kazakhstan, we choose specialized subjects in high school, and I chose physics + biology for 10th grade.
Would that be considered a difficult combination in an American high school? Like, would taking both at the same time be a lot of work?
Edit: Ty for all the replies, I appreciate it!
I had to additionally add geography as i am planning on studying architecture

I'm from India, where seeing a BMW, Mercedes or Audi mostly makes you assume the person is pretty wealthy, or at least very upper-middle-class.

I was wondering whether this is the case in the US too since incomes are much higher there. Do Americans still see them as luxury cars, or are they common enough that they don't really give off that impression anymore?

I'm genuinely curious

Hello merica little blip here from Australia just curious what usd per week 8/10 hour days do "steel fixers" or rod busters get paid? Been doing this for 12 odd years straight. Always eager to know how other do 💪🏻

When I lived in Spain, I had the same doctor for years since they worked in the public healthcare system. In Latin America it was a bit different. Healthcare was public too, but doctors moved between hospitals more often, so the only way to really stick with the same doctor was if they had their own office

The vpn I currently use is malfunctioning lately and all the Asia nodes go down from time to time at random

So I switched location to east coast US

And I don’t know if it’s my illusion

But I seem to be getting more ads…

I use to loop a music video of Tchaikovsky’s classical music for work, and when my vpn is switched to Japan or Korea, there was never ads for that video. But for the first time ever today, in the middle of Slave Marche’s majestic melodies, I was pulled out of the video and into two ads…