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Non-Americans who have been to the US.. What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] No1@aussie.zone 23 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Seems to have deliberately taken the opposite path of anything British:

Drive on the wrong side of the road
The light and power switches are upside down
Weights & measures. Imperial? Ha!
Screw your English dictionary. Ima put z's everywhere, drop the letter u and randomly pronounce words like buoy so you think there's an animal in the water over there

It kinda makes me laugh to think about it as just anti-British 🤣

[–] Zron@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

we invented the modern car, y’all are driving on the wrong side of the road
a switch is a switch, if you don’t like the direction it goes, just flip it over and put the cover back on, half the switches in my house go one way, and the other go the opposite way, some of them are even sideways.
y’all sank the ship that had the US copy of the metric standard on it, and also invented the imperial system in the first place.
if you look at the entomology, the US largely uses the original English pronunciation of things, it’s the British who have slowly changed their pronunciation over the centuries. We did have a guy who intentionally changed a bunch of the spelling, you are right about that.

[–] No1@aussie.zone 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

y’all

I'm not British. I just inherited mostly their system.

TBH, i laugh about both.

Eg the english language is a joke. Laugh? Larf? Laff?.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

We did have a guy who intentionally changed a bunch of the spelling, you are right about that.

But one day if we are brave we'll get rid of the u in a lot of British words like color and armor. But by god we will keep the British u in the word glamour!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqfVE-fykk

[–] Kacarott@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago

we invented the modern car

I'm not saying that the left is the correct side to drive on, but you do realise that roads and "driving" (with horses) have existed well before the modern car right?

In fact the US used to drive on the left, until large freight wagons started preferring the right due to where the dude holding the horse whip was sitting.

[–] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does up=off for British light switches? That's unhinged

Also, never gonna apologize for omitting pointless, silent letters from words. If the English wanted to maintain control of their language, they shouldn't have colonized half the world.

[–] No1@aussie.zone 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Does up=off for British light switches? That’s unhinged

It's sensible. It stops the electrons from falling out!

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Upside down power switches, I did not know that, and I've even been to Great Britain briefly.

Not sure how I feel about that, the direction of gravity turns our switches off and they turn your switches on?

[–] logging_strict@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

yeah but America employs all the UK actors to teach us how to behave and think.

If British customs haven't rubbed off on America, can we not say the UK actors have not done a great job at promoting the UK?