Imperial units
Coming from Germany, units like miles, gallons, and pounds do not resonate in me as kilometers, liters and kilograms do. I have never walked a "mile", drunk a "gallon" or gained/lost a "pound", so I don't know what that feels like.
I have walked many kilometers, drunk many liters and gained/lost many kilograms, so I sure know what that feels like. The worst is probably speed, as in "Miles per Hour". When I go 40 mp/h, my inner situational awareness is at 40 km/h.
One empirical unit in the examples here is far larger than it's metric counterpart. Could it somehow be, that this is linked to the infamous obesity problem in the US? Used to it or not, gaining 3 pounds rather than 3 kilograms is probably less drastic psychologically, than it actually is...
Tipping system
I purposely call this a system, as it is extremely systematic how with virtually any bill, the tipping is part of the process. You are offered options of how many percent you want to tipp. Having lived in Japan for almost a decade, I "want" to tipp 0%, and having grown up in Germany and having received tipp there myself, my inner definition of "tipp" is a little extra money, which a customer grants directly to service personnel to express their recognition of particularly good service. Being polite to the customer is the pre-condition, going beyond the line of duty is what is worth the tipp. But in the US, the service is mostly neither particularly good (being polite to the customer seems to be tipp worth)
nor does the tipp go directly to the service personnel, if you pay tipp by credit card. I even suspect, that there is a "management cut" on tipps received, which may explain why suggested tipp percentages in an expensive restaurant are considerably higher than in a normal restaurant. This, by my definition, bypassses the entire purpose of tipping, because you want to give the gratuity directly, as in solely, to an individual who did a good job, rather than financing the management, which cannot be judged by one meal alone and supposedly is already included in the price for the meal anyway. I would tipp the management, if I had a means of gauging whether an establishment is particularly well managed.
Starters and Entrées
Having majored at French in high school, I happened to know that "Entrée" has the same meaning as "Starter" in English, so having starters and entrées on the menu is irritating to me. What is the difference?!
Given the size of portions in the US in general, I found that a starter is something of an appetizer by my inner German standards and Entrée the main course. So usually an Entrée alone in the US is usually more than enough for me to get full, whereas in Germany I would just be getting started...