These 30+ Hilarious Cartoons Perfectly Sum Up Our Cultural Differences When Traveling

It’s safe to say that Germany does not have the best weather year-round. In fact, during the Winter months (and Autumn and Spring months), it rains… a lot. You can also expect a lot of snow and below-freezing temperatures.

However, during the Summer months, things take a drastic turn for the better. With that being said, most Germans take the Summer holidays as an opportunity to leave their country and travel elsewhere.

When comparing first-world countries to second- and third-world countries, one of the biggest differences has to be the everyday issues that citizens face. This cartoon perfectly sums up how first-world issues pale in comparison to those of poorer, less established countries.

While we agree that having a home country starting with a letter lower down on the alphabet is inconvenient, having to scroll on your laptop simply isn’t that big of a deal. Think about how rough Zimbabwe has it… They’re last on the alphabet, and they’re a third-world country.

Rice is a staple meal in Asia. In fact, it is widely considered to be the national dish of the region. For this reason, it only makes sense that rice is sold in relatively large quantities… Compared to other parts of the world.

When an Asian visits Europe, for example, they’ll probably have to buy at least five bags of rice in order to make up one bag of rice sold in Asia. We must admit that Europe definitely has the smallest portion sizes we’ve ever seen.

If you’ve ever been to a Scandinavian country, you would know that the people have some very pedantic traditions. For example, simple gestures are considered to mean much more than they would in other parts of the world.

Some Scandinavians would consider it rude to be offered food when entering someone’s home. This is because, in their minds, it suggests that they cannot supply their own food. On the other hand, in Latin America, it’s considered rude to turn down food. This makes it seem as though you do not appreciate your host’s cooking.

If you’ve ever visited Taiwan, you probably know about the whole ‘Fur Elise’ garbage truck debacle. Simply put, all garbage trucks play this Beethoven classic when collecting garbage, as it reminds residents to put out their trash if they have yet to do so.

This might seem like an odd song choice for a lot of foreigners. However, it has kind of just become a tradition for the Taiwanese people. It’s kind of hilarious how arguably one of the most famous songs ever written can be described as ‘trash music,’ though…

Italian food is widely considered to be the best food in the world. The Italians are known for having invented staple meals such as pizza and a whole range of delicious pastas. It’s safe to say that Italians are passionate about their food, which is why they can get a little bit pedantic about certain things.

For example, putting ketchup on spaghetti is a big no-no. We aren’t quite sure why tomato-based sauce can be used, but ketchup is considered an abomination. Who are we to argue, though?

We could all use a good laugh, right? We have included a panel of random jokes that we personally love and think that you will, too!

Our favorite has to be the boomerang one, as it fits in perfectly with our theme of cultural differences. The boomerang is a traditional Australian toy that supposedly returns to the owner after being thrown. We aren’t sure if it actually works, but it definitely sounds kind of dangerous!

If you are looking to meet some of the nicest people in the world, we highly recommend visiting the Arab World. This includes the countries of North Africa and the Middle East. If you ever visit these areas, you will be welcomed with unprecedented hospitality.

As this cartoon shows, the people of this region will do just about anything in order to make you feel welcome and at home. Just be careful what you compliment, as you may very well end up leaving the country with a whole lot more than you came with.

This part of the world is a great place to visit for many reasons. It offers a unique history, plenty of stunning locations, and great food. However, the people definitely make it one of our top holiday destinations, although we have never personally been offered a home before.

It’s safe to say that traveling is hardly ever a smooth experience. We always run into some sort of mishap or inconvenience along the way. This could be something minor, such as having a flight slightly delayed, or major, such as losing a very important piece of luggage.

Either way, we should always try to remain calm when traveling because things won’t always go to plan. It’s all a part of the journey, after all. However, from our experience, it’s usually the simplest things that can set a person off when traveling.

For example, have you ever been sitting behind someone on a plane, and they suddenly recline their chair all the way back? We won’t say that this is enough to completely ruin a trip, but it can definitely damper the mood.

We were all told some sort of children’s tales when we were younger. In America, and most English-speaking countries for that matter, we have the Tooth Fairy. It’s become a tradition for kids to put their baby teeth under their pillows before going to bed, and the next morning, the tooth is replaced with money.

In Italy, the tradition is pretty similar, except they have a Tooth Ant instead of a fairy. Argentina has a tradition of putting the tooth in a glass of water and, again, having it replaced with money.

In Thailand, however, it’s tradition to throw the tooth on top of the roof. The kids don’t get money or anything, but this is supposed to bring good luck. We don’t know about you, but this sounds like a bit of a raw deal to us, considering kids everywhere else pocket a few coins when they lose a tooth.

The metric system is by far the most commonly used measurement system in the world. However, for some unknown reason, the USA insists on using the Imperial system, which makes it very confusing for everyone involved when traveling to different countries.

As this cartoon shows, people who use the metric system take every opportunity to explain to Americans why the imperial system makes no sense. We understand that it would be simpler to use metric, but when you’ve grown up surrounded by imperial measurements, it’s kind of hard to change things up.

Let’s be honest, though — with technology at our disposal almost every second of every day, it’s easy enough to convert measurements between the two systems.

Various countries use different plug outlets to make things as complicated as possible for travelers. This adds another thing to the list of ‘things to think about’ before setting off on your next overseas adventure.

For example, if you are a European traveling to America, you will need to buy a whole new adaptor in order to charge and use your electronics. The same goes for Australia, as they have their own unique outlets.

If you travel often, you’ll probably accumulate a whole collection of adaptors over the years. Just make sure that you remember which one is for which country! The Australian one is easy: Just look out for the adaptor that looks like the Ghostface mask from Scream.

If you plan on traveling to a new country with your dad, make sure you research when Father’s Day is in that specific area. You may think that it falls on the same day everywhere in the world (similar to Christmas or Halloween). However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

In America, Father’s Day falls at the end of June. However, in Germany, it’s celebrated on the 26th of May. On the other hand, if you live in Denmark, Father’s Day is on the 5th of June every year. Luxembourg is the outlier. For some reason, they celebrate the public holiday in October.

As you can see, there are so many different things to consider before heading off on your next international adventure. Traveling isn’t always just about packing your bags, booking a ticket, and exploring.

For some reason, things always seem to move so slowly when we are in a rush. When traveling, we’re always hyper-aware of the time, as we have places to be at specific times. This is just one of the main reasons why people find traveling so stressful.

However, there is nothing more stressful than having your fate be in someone else’s hands when in a rush. For example, you may think you have enough time to order a coffee or a quick snack while at the airport, but as soon as you do, you usually realize you are the only person in a rush.

It sometimes seems that everybody at the airport is on a mission to get things done as slowly as possible. Take our advice — if you are unsure whether or not you have enough time between flights to order a coffee, rather leave it.

Everybody knows how draining it feels to wake up when you have no enthusiasm for the day ahead. Kids have no energy when waking up for school, and adults have no energy when waking up for work.

However, things change drastically when we have something to look forward to. We don’t know about you, but we actually struggle to sleep the night before a big trip or holiday because we’re just so excited!

Suddenly, instead of struggling to wake up in the morning, we wake up with more energy than ever before. If only we could go on holiday every day…

Languages are extremely difficult to learn — especially English. If you have a Spanish friend who makes a few mistakes every now and again, you may want to think twice about correcting them because it can be extremely annoying to be proven wrong all the time.

As the cartoon explains, false friends is a term used to describe a word in Spanish that sounds like it should mean something similar in English but doesn’t. For example, the word ‘exito’ sounds like it should mean ‘exit,’ whereas it actually means ‘success.’

There are actually quite a few of these false friends, which is why English is especially difficult for native Spanish speakers to learn. Instead of constantly correcting them, rather appreciate the fact that they put in the effort to learn a whole new language in the first place.

As we’ve already discussed, languages can be extremely tricky to learn. In our opinion, French has to be one of the most difficult languages out there, as the accent is so unique and distinctive. Some of the words are hard enough to read, never mind pronounce.

With that being said, French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, which means that it’s taught in a lot of high schools. We don’t know about you, but French was definitely our worst subject when we were in school.

In all honesty, we don’t blame the kid in this cartoon for using an internet translator to finish his essay. However, the fact that it’s actually in Spanish is pretty hilarious. He should at least be able to tell the difference between the two languages…

Everybody loves hotel stays. It doesn’t truly feel like a vacation if you aren’t staying at a hotel. However, we would be lying if we said there weren’t a few things about hotels that simply never make sense. Take the thermostat, for example.

It seems that no matter what temperature you set the thermostat to, the hotel room ends up being either too hot or too cold—even when you adjust it by a single tick. We’ve learned to simply open the window if it’s too hot because fiddling with the thermostat is never worth the risk.

If you find a hotel that has a thermostat that actually does a good job, consider yourself lucky. They’re very few and far between — even at those fancy, five-star resorts that cost a small fortune to stay at!

Countries around the world have different sayings for the exact same situations. Take the expression ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too,’ for example. To English speakers, this saying actually makes no sense because you can, in fact, have your cake while you’re eating it.

However, in Italian, their equivalent saying is ‘You want the wine barrel full and the wife drunk’, which makes a lot more sense to us! In Albanian, they say, ‘You want to take a swim and not get wet.’ The Ukrainian version of this idiom is ‘you can’t sit on two chairs.’

Considering that English is the world’s international language, it sure is difficult to learn because many of its sayings simply make no sense. Don’t even get us started with the exceptions and slang terms!

Even though every country in the world has something unique and beautiful to offer, some places simply aren’t safe enough for tourists to visit. Unfortunately, Somalia is one of these countries, as it is rife with violent crime, kidnapping, and piracy.

This cartoon makes light of a sad situation. By the way, the two characters are casually discussing countries that they would never visit; you would never think that one man is actually a kidnapper while the other is the victim.

It’s safe to say that he won’t be going back to Somalia. Take our advice: If you are planning a trip to this divided African nation, take your family to one of the more popular tourist destinations — like Italy or something.

During the Summer, Winter seems like quite a nice escape from the suffocating heat and humidity. On the other hand, during the Winter months, all we can think about are those warm, sunny Summer days where we can wear shorts and vests to work on our tan.

We’re never quite happy, are we? However, the truth is that even though some destinations are great to visit during the Winter, such as Chamonix in France or other popular skiing resorts, there is one simple reason for most of our laziness during this season.

It’s too cold to do anything! There’s nothing worse than having to drag yourself out of a warm and cozy bed when it’s freezing outside. For this reason, it’s much easier to just stay indoors, cuddle up with a warm blanket, and watch a ton of movies.

At some point in life, we all have to make the most out of a bad situation. In this cartoon, this poor family appears to have been evicted from their apartment. However, they seem to be looking on the bright side and considering all of the new opportunities that may be coming their way.

It’s quite funny to see just how different our priorities are. The mother is looking forward to new opportunities, while the father clearly just wants to set off on a new adventure. The child, on the other hand, is only thinking about candy, which is kind of relatable.

Even the cat has its own hopes and dreams! As you would expect, all the cat wants to do is sleep. However, now that they have to travel in order to find a new home, the whole world is its oyster. Imagine all of the sleeping possibilities!

In today’s world, nothing is free. However, there is one group of people who actually have access to free accommodation… they just have to give up a few other luxuries, such as their freedom and clear criminal record.

Yep, we’re talking about prisoners. In this hilarious cartoon, one character finds out that the guy he’s talking to has technically ‘been’ to Asia, as he spent two years in prison in Malacca. However, seeing as though he didn’t pay rent, he hadn’t technically ‘lived’ there.

We don’t know about you, but we’d also back away slowly if we ever met anyone who had spent two years in a prison in Asia. He must have done something pretty serious to warrant so much jail time!

They say that our dreams are simply a reflection of our deepest, innermost thoughts. For example, if you’re stressed about an exam or work presentation that’s coming up, you are more likely to dream about it.

Additionally, they say that if you dream in a foreign language, you have officially become fluent in it. However, learning a language is incredibly difficult. The hardest part has to be standing in front of a fluent person and having the confidence to start talking.

What if you pronounce something wrong, and they start laughing at you? It’s not hard to believe that anxiety language dreams are a real thing, as building up the courage to put what you’ve learned into practice can be rather daunting.

If you are looking for one of the nicest bunch of people in the world, we highly recommend New Zealand. Not only is this Pacific country known for its stunning beaches, green landscapes, and beautiful mountain ranges, but they also happen to be some of the calmest and most polite folk around.

However, if you really want to annoy a New Zealander, simply compare them to the Australians. We aren’t quite sure why this is so offensive to them… Then again, we aren’t from New Zealand or Australia, so what do we know?

It’s actually quite easy to tell the difference between the New Zealand and Australian accents once you can pick up on the small changes in pitch. However, if you aren’t sure, rather don’t refer to their nationality — just to be safe!

Anybody who has ever tried to learn a new language knows what this feels like… One of the hardest parts of the process is trying to fit in some sort of real-life practice. In fact, they say that the only way to become fluent in a language is to actually visit a country that speaks it.

That way, you will get to hear other people speaking it often and, more importantly, practice speaking it for yourself. However, when fluent speakers hear that you are foreign, they often start speaking to you in English because they think that it would be easier for you.

This defeats the entire purpose of why you’re learning the new language in the first place! If they can speak English and you can speak English, what’s the point of spending so much time on a language that you’re never going to get to speak?

Flying can take a massive toll on the body. To make it easier for ourselves, we usually bring a whole lot of comfort aids on board with us, including ear plugs, an eye mask, and a face mask.

To be honest, though, with all of these comfort aids, it’s almost like we completely disconnect ourselves from our surroundings. As this cartoon suggests, we may as well place a trash can over our heads!

At least we might get some peace and quiet this way. Better yet, nobody would try to talk to us throughout the duration of the flight because, well, who wants to speak to someone with a trash can on their head?

Different languages have different pronunciations. For example, a word in English might seem incredibly strange and difficult to pronounce to a French person and vice versa. In fact, to French people, the word ‘squirrel’ is notoriously difficult to pronounce.

In French, squirrel is translated to ‘ecureuil,’ which is also one of the hardest words to pronounce for English people. It’s kind of strange that the same word is so difficult to pronounce in two different languages.

According to this artist, it’s not funny enough to be the punchline of the comic, though, so he decided to slowly transform the characters into squirrels themselves.

Most people love a good, scary story. There’s nothing better than sitting around a campfire under the night sky, all huddled up and cozy, sharing made-up (or possibly even real) stories. This cartoon is based on a legendary tale of American cuisine.

Judging by their expressions in the second frame, you would think he is sharing some gory details about some terrifying story. However, he’s actually just describing the s’more, one of the most popular American desserts.

If you’ve never tried s’mores, we can’t recommend them enough. A layer of melted marshmallow and chocolate amongst two toasted graham crackers — just thinking about it is starting to make our mouths water.

If you are from America (or anywhere else other than Europe, really), the concept of a siesta is probably completely foreign to you. Just imagine: every single afternoon, around midday, you get to take a few hours off of work to simply relax and recharge.

To us, it sounds like the perfect idea. Just imagine how much more productive you would actually be after having some time to reset after a busy morning. We don’t know about you, but we often struggle with afternoon laziness.

Even the most essential of workers take their afternoons off — including the police! What can we say… Everybody deserves some time off to enjoy the finer things in life. We just hope that they have somebody else on standby in case of an emergency.

It always seems as though family photos taken on vacation are the worst possible photos ever. It could be something to do with the lighting or just the bad cameraman themself… Either way, we’ve taken our fair share of terrible holiday photos over the years.

As this cartoon eludes to, family photos usually just involve the family members standing awkwardly in front of a backdrop. More so, the photo always seems to be taken with everybody facing directly into the sun. Unfortunately, this leads to a whole lot of awkward squinting.

Our personal favorite vacation photos have to be selfies. The cameraman awkwardly stands with only half of his head in the photo. Then, everybody else cramps together in the background to try and squeeze into the frame. Priceless.

Ah, yes, another frustrating part of learning a new language. If you’ve ever sat down with a language learning book, you would know that it sometimes feels like it takes forever to actually get going.

The first few chapters always seem to be completely useless. Just like the cartoon suggests, why do you need to know airport terms when learning a language? Everybody at the airport speaks different languages, so it doesn’t help whatsoever!

The next thing that you learn about is how to introduce yourself. By the end of the first couple of months of learning the language, you will confidently be able to say your name and that you don’t speak the language in question.

Coffee is a highly controversial drink. Some people can’t live without it, while others simply can’t stand it. Whichever side you are on, there’s no denying that it’s one of the most widely drunk beverages in the world.

Every country seems to have its own unique variation of the drink. Just take Vietnam, for example. They are known for a whole lot of things. We must say that their coffee is highly rated as one of the best in the world, though.

This is because the drink is made using condensed milk. If you’ve never tried condensed milk, we highly recommend it. Mix it with coffee, and you have the perfect combination of sweet, bitter, and delicious.

If you’re an English person who has ever spent more than a few weeks in a foreign country, you would know just how relieved you feel when you hear another English speaker.

It can be incredibly difficult to go months on end without being able to speak to someone who speaks the same language as you. In fact, a lot of Europeans actually get annoyed when someone tries to speak English to them.

It’s also easy to take for granted the simple pleasures that come with speaking the same language as everyone around you. Imagine not being able to eavesdrop on everybody else’s conversations!?

Even the smallest things are done differently in different countries. Take, for example, the floor numbering system in the USA and Europe.

In America, the first floor is actually the ground floor, the second floor is labeled as the first floor, and so on. However, in Europe, the ground floor is simply ‘floor 0’ and so on.

This makes it kind of complicated when trying to find which floor your hotel room is actually on! In our opinion, the ground actually is a floor, so it does make sense to be labeled as the ‘first floor.’

Back in the day, people tried just about everything in order to avoid jet lag. There’s nothing worse than spending a day or so traveling, only to be man-down from exhaustion for the next few days.

No matter what we did, however, jet lag would always find a way to creep up on us. No amount of coffee can keep you awake when you’re sleep-deprived!

Nowadays, people seem to simply accept that the first few days after long travel will mostly consist of sleep and adjusting to the new time zone. There’s so much to see and do, but exploring is never fun when you’re exhausted.

We don’t know about you, but airplane toilets always scared us when we were younger. Even as adults, we still aren’t quite sure how they work.

Where does everything go? It seems to us that everything just gets sucked out into the atmosphere. This may be why these toilets are so intimidating for so many people.

Rest assured, there is probably an extremely reasonable explanation behind the loud noise that the toilet makes once you press that ‘flush’ button. We hope so, anyway…

Spicy food isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. However, in some parts of the world, spicy food is a staple part of every meal. And we are not joking when we say that. If you’ve ever watched a wildly stereotypical movie involving countries like India, you’ll know what we mean.

Places like Indonesia and Thailand are known for their insanely spicy cuisine. If you ever visit these parts of the world, we highly recommend carrying a carton of milk around with you. Believe us when we say that you will end up needing it when eating out.

Don’t worry, though. Even some of the locals struggle with how spicy the food is. You will rarely see someone not sweating from how much their mouth burns while eating a meal. Yes, it’s that bad!

A couple of years back, the UK came up with Brexit, which basically signified their exit from the European Union. Considering the fact that the UK island is literally only a few kilometers from the mainland continent of Europe, this was a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people.

In fact, as the cartoon explains, Britain is literally on the same continental shelf, meaning that it technically is a part of the European continent, regardless of any laws. We hate to break it to the guy in this cartoon, but his feelings have nothing to do with the geography of Britain.

However, if the Brits feel as though they don’t have the same cultural standards as other Europeans, they should definitely follow in the US’s footsteps and make the legal drinking age 21. We’d like to see how that goes down amongst the general public.

We couldn’t help but include this cartoon because it’s honestly hilarious (if you love dad jokes, that is)! We know we do, which is why this one gets us.

The one character starts by introducing his friend, who has a keen eye for off-the-beaten-path travel. However, he warns that he can be quite nosy. In fact, he mentions a whole lot of nose-related facts about the guy, which seems kind of strange at first.

However, once the new character comes into the picture, it’s easy to see why he described him as ‘nosy.’ His nose is unavoidably massive! We’d still like to ask him about his travel adventures, though…