19 People Shared Things That Are Pretty Normal in Their Country but Might Be Considered Weird in the Rest of the World

There are more than 200 countries in the world and the residents of each region have their own customs and traditions, as well as simple everyday habits that differ them from other nationalities. It’s always interesting to study these differences and find out about the ordinary things that can perplex the inhabitants of all other countries.

We at Bright Side read a Reddit thread where people talk about things that are considered normal in their motherlands but that can totally confuse foreigners. And we decided to show you the most interesting ones.

• There are tea ladies on all the streets in Sudan. This is a literal translation, and I guess the best interpretation in English would be a tea saleswoman? Wherever you go, wherever you turn, whatever time of day it is, there’s a woman selling tea (and other hot drinks) nearby. © tinysnark / Reddit

• In China, a lot of bathrooms don’t have toilet paper because they don’t want people to steal it. You have to bring your own. © _day-z / Reddit

• We scream when we cut the birthday cake in Venezuela. It is expected to be a blood-curdling scream, and people laugh at you and ridicule you if it wasn’t loud or scary enough. Also, our birthday song is like 2 minutes long. © Sadlycoris / Reddit

• Kissing cheeks as a way to say hello between men in Italy. It’s pretty common here, but when I’ve done it in America while visiting a friend of mine, some people were confused. © ImmondoVianello / Reddit

• In France, the number of kisses and which cheek you begin with all depend on which part of the country you are living in. It’s so awkward when you meet someone and you don’t do it the same... © forestotterqueen / Reddit

• I found out that brushing my teeth in a public bathroom was strange outside of Brazil. © sormatador / Reddit

• Wearing socks with sandals. You guessed it, I’m Czech. © Spirit_Ghoststar / Reddit

• Germany. Throwing porcelain, ceramic pots, and other things in front of the bride-to-be’s house a day or 2 before the wedding in order to break them into shards. It is said that these shards bring luck. Anything that breaks can be thrown, except for mirrors, since breaking a mirror brings 7 years of bad luck according to superstition. © TheBassMeister / Reddit

• In the Netherlands, when you go to a birthday you don’t just congratulate the person who’s having their birthday, but you congratulate everyone at the party on that person’s birthday. It can take a while to congratulate everyone... © Jealous-Proof5505 / Reddit

• My Indian/Hindu friend told me that I can’t clip my nails inside the house. It has to be done outside so I had to go out onto the balcony. © littleadventures / Reddit

• I live in the UK and I find it so weird that 80% of the houses have carpet on their bathroom floors. © MageLocusta / Reddit

• In South Africa, we call a traffic light a robot. I really don’t know why. © nervous_Journal08 / Reddit

• Touching the feet of our elders is very common in India, I doubt if it’s practiced anywhere else. © viren0311 / Reddit

• Indian Edition: Arriving unannounced at someone’s place and staying for like a month. © EmotionSenior9999 / Reddit

• In Mexico, it is more offensive to say no when you are invited to hang out and you don’t want to do so, than saying that you will try and just not showing up. © elav92 / Reddit

• In Australia, we give spiders cute names when they move into our house and regularly thank them for eating all the bugs. © LikeASpectre / Reddit

• I live in Italy. After completing a driver’s license exam and receiving a license, you are classified as a novice driver and limited to driving only small cars for the first year. Even if you have had other national driver’s licenses and have been driving large cars for years. My wife recently took the Italian exams as her prior license (U.S.) was not transferable and now we have to sell our car as she is no longer qualified to drive it. © tomorrow509 / Reddit

• South Koreans are always older than you. We grow one year older when the year passes. And we also consider a baby 1-year-old when they are born. © Erica_Plays_Roblox / Reddit

• I live in Great Britain. Recently a woman from New Zealand started to work with our company. Everyone is horrified because she walks into the office without shoes, barefoot, which is considered normal in her motherland. © PmMeLowCarbRecipes / Reddit

Tell us about when you came across cultural differences when meeting foreigners.