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I too would also like to see an episode about 10 lies Americans believe about Europe or Ireland or The U.K. I think it would be very interesting from my perspective as I am from and live in America. I found this episode to be very interesting too. A lot of the things you mentioned I was like welllll, at first, but then you went on to explain and that made me think a bit more about it and I understood how it could look that way from another person's perspective which I really enjoyed! 😀 Looking forward to watching the next one you make Diane! BTW, you did an excellent job on this one too! 😉
You are absolutely correct about the lawsuit thing. That literally happens every day all day. There's a woman currently trying to sue a man for $10,000 for a bad date.
The actual statistics on firearms are: 70% of americans know how to use, have easy access to, and regally use firearms, in some form. It is also believed 80% of American women own firearms, well only 60% of men own firearms, based on known sales. In the Us you are no more than 100 yards from a firearm when in any town, though you will very rarely see one. It is no where near the way hollywood and the media portray it.
Yeah it would take forever to get to work on an alligator....Except for the 2 weeks they hibernate every other January nothing beats the Florida Mosquito for fast, efficient, timely transportation.
Also, please don’t confuse California with the rest of the USA. The US is vast, with many different States and sub-cultures. Laws and customs can vary extensively from place to place.
Good point! I was born and raised in San Jose CA. Haven't lived there since I was 15. Now a days, I think they should require a visa and passport to go into or out of CA! Lol. The only problem I see is, the way that state is going, If you get in, they won't let you out! LOL.
This right here. Comparing the US to one of its states is like confusing the entire EU with one of its memberstates. For example, thinking what goes on and how things are in California also happen in say, Georgia would be like saying that what goes on in Greece also goes on in Ireland. The cultures and customs, and even secondary language can be quite different.
Also don’t forget how different states can be in themselves. I live in Northern California and I have extremely different views and (county laws) than southern cal.
not just california. big cities in california. there are a lot more regular people in california outside of the densely populated areas than people from other states think
Don't compare Central California with Southern California and the Bay Area. Geographically, most of the state is inland and largely rural. The Central Valley produces a great share of the nation's produce.
After spending 2 years in Europe it was eye opening. From Auto racing to dating the perception (seriously misguided or just a need to make themselves feel better.) Europeans had of Americans is almost comical. I was in the stands at an F1 race in Europe and a few individuals made it a point to speak bad about me in their language thinking I did not understand them. I waited until the race was over and we were heading out the gate when I told them how much I enjoyed sitting with them in their language during the race. The shock on their face was priceless.
I dated a lot of Swedish girls back in the 80s and had a decent command of the language. Some Swedish girls, a bit later, were making comments about me. I turned to them and spoke Swedish. It's amazing how red a face can get.
Alot of Europeans have a sort of inferiority complex towards the US it seems. I also find it funny how alot of Progressives, Europeans or otherwise have adopted this sort of cultural relativism where you're not necessarily suppose to judge or criticize other cultures you don't live in or understand but somehow most Europeans seem to think the US is suppose to be just like them and if it's not it's weird, sad, disgusting etc.
I was cleaning my gun during my breakfast while watching your video. Some of the things on the list shocked me so much I spit out the bite of Big Mac I had just taken, prompting my boss to fire me. You’ll be hearing from my lawyer!
@Sturmdrache some people like them the same way one might like cars. Guns can be quite interesting if you're into history or mechanical engineering. There is alot that goes into gun culture on its own.
@@Lewis-jn8ry Thank You . BTW I have 18 guns now . I bought a Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun because I carried one when I was in the Navy . It's just a personal history item for me .
No, not all American's carry guns... but a BUNCH of us do. There are more civilian owned guns than military guns. This is why a non-nuclear invasion of the United States would never work. If other countries could somehow get past our military defenses and cross our borders (which would never happen), they would never make any real progress because the civilian population is too heavily armed. I know, this is such a weird subject LOL!!!! I'm only saying this because a British couple did a reaction video to "what would happen if the world went to war with the US." It was very informative and the British couple was so charming and fun.
I’d say the biggest myth about America is that we’re a singular culture. We aren’t. We are extremely diverse culturally and geographically. Thus where you go in America determines what thinks you were told rightly or wrongly on for many things.
My kids live in Colorado and Ohio, I live in Pennsylvania. (Born and bred in PA). Even Ohio is different than Pennsylvania. Colorado might just as well be ANOTHER country compared to Pennsylvania. The US is THAT diverse!
I talked to a German visiting the US and he was surprised that most of us don't absolutely worship David Hasselhoff. I said, let's ask these teens over here. We did. Not one heard of him, Baywatch, Knight Rider, etc. Not one. I said "dude, it's only a German thing".
Lol, it is, and he's be the thing in Germany for a LONG time, I chuckle every time I hear about this. Then again Romestain has a maybe small but quite cult following here.
I have a friend from Italy and she was absolutely shocked when she learned that, number one, we don't have pizza with french fries on it, and number two, not every house has white picket fences
I had pizza with french fries on it once i think it was Giant Pizza in CT, I know they have pizza with mac and cheese on it, and a pizza with sliced loaded baked potato on it so french fries on pizza is almost a veggie pizza.
I grew up in California, and when I was 21 I moved to Germany. I stayed there for the next 15 years. I spend nearly 5 years learning the language. Learned it fast, too. Why? Because I had to answer 50,000 questions from locals wherever I lived and worked about stuff just like this.
@@beachesandhose2374 I don't have experience there. But I did know of neighborhoods in other cities where it could/did happen, and told him exactly that--that it depends on where you are and whether or not ypu "belong" to that neighborhood (in which case, you know how to carry yourself, what (not) to wear).
@@beachesandhose2374 NYC, Oakland, Chicago, Houston, LA yes it happens but crime is worldwide - London had a guy stabbed over his exclusive limited edition shoe a few years ago.
@@LindaC616 Right? I used to have to explain to Turks, Kurds, Serbs and Greeks in Frankfurt why I wasn't rich, running the World, and oppressing minorities in my spare time while painting rooms or X-raying baggage for a living
the truth is that the woman had a hot beverage in her lap with the lid off while riding in a car. blame the high temp of the coffee on it all you want, but it wont take away the stupidity of having it in her lap in the first place
I'm from Wyoming. When I travel around my own country, people are often more curious about my Wyoming driver's license than a European passport. Most Americans encounter far more Europeans than Wyomingites. I remember a gas station attendant in Orlando telling me that she encounters a lot of French, German, and British citizens, but she had never encountered someone from Wyoming at her job. Her job was close to Disney world, universal studios and other theme parks. PS: in Wyoming the majority of us do have pew pews though. The percentage of gun ownership varies wildly by region and State.
Utahn here! Love your state. Have crossed it many times as a trucker on I80 (I don't love it as much in the winter to be honest). It's a place I could easily live. And yes, we have plenty of pew pews too.
@@pattieodonnell723 that's how the Senate works. The House is based on population, but to prevent the big states overrunning the small ones they made the Senate not determined by population.
The "traditional breakfast" was originally called a "Farmers Breakfast" and is somewhat true. The breakfast was large because it would often be the only thing eaten until the farmer came in for the evening meal. It was often a simple porridge unless the farmer was well to do.
I think lumberjacks also ate large traditional breakfasts for the same reason farmers did. They also needed a lot of calories right away in the morning because they did hard physical work outside all day which burns a lot more calories than most jobs today.
On the deodorant thing, spray on deoderants were outlawed for a while in the late 70s because of the fluorocarbons. It was a while before they could be reformulated and a lot of people who had switched to stick or roll ons stayed with them
God, I couldn’t stand spray deodorant because of a cold blast hitting my armpits and the the occasional mishap of it getting near my face. I asked my mom to get me a stick of deodorant or roll-on. Preferred the stick.
The reason the prices of goods varies so much in the US is because the country itself is the like the size of the continent of Europe.. so prices vary drastically for many reasons.
@@jean-paulaudette9246 Yep, and to that shipping act (Jones Act, IIRC), anything coming from the mainland US has to be shipped on US-flagged transport ships... and there aren't many of those and they are more expensive than other shipping lines to boot, so HI gets hit even harder due to that.
Plus there's a lot of gouging at touristy places such as truck stops and travel centers... go to the grocery store down the street and pay 70% less for the same bottle of water.
@@Bohemiahotrodandcustom the difference from truck stop to grocery store is way bigger than the differences in state sales tax, unless maybe if you compare a state with a soda tax to a state without.
On the "I quit"/"You're fired" topic... A number of (most) US states are "right-to-work" states, which generally means that anyone can quit/be fired for any reason not explicitly illegal
@@eq1373 apologies, that is correct. Seems that my particular state just happens to be both. The "right-to-work" part has to do with labor union membership (employers can't require membership/deny employment due to membership in any union... But they can fire you for an unrelated reason without specifying what it is)
I laughed at the deodorant bit. It brought memories back of my mom spraying on her deodorant and hairspray in the morning. I think a lot of people stopped using spray on deodorant because of the ozone layer. It seems my generation was constantly being told to use the stick/roll-on deodorant to save our planet.
I think you're right about this. I'm a stick man myself, but mostly because I thought spray deodorant was messy. It does exist, but I don't think it's very popular.
There's actually a massive difference between employment in the US and Europe. We frequently have "at-will" employment, which actually does mean you can quit or be fired on the spot. It's rarely as stupidly dramatic as the clips shown here (rather, think about Office Space- quietly firing people on a Friday). Yes, contracts exist, but not for a large portion of hourly and per annum employees.
There are other factors that differ by type of job and region. For example, in some professions it is expected that either employer or employee is supposed to give two weeks notice, whereas in construction an employee giving two weeks notice is likely going to result in being fired on the spot. Then there are layoffs where there is an expectation of being rehired as soon as business picks back up, but which frequently results in workers going elsewhere before that can happen - especially as one never knows whether it will be two weeks, three weeks, two months, or never that business picks up.
At-will employment benefits the employer for the first 4 months. They can fire you @ anytime for any reason including no reason @ all. Afterwards the employee can receive unemployment benefits.
@@alanlight7740 It's worth noting, however, that the "two weeks notice" is customary and is not legally required, unless it is a part of one's hiring contract. More challenging is non-compete riders, which have begun to filter down from executive levels to the wage earners.
I'm told that Irish people drink a lot - probably not true. Also, that English have bad teeth, also likely not true. I'm sure Movies like Austin Powers perpetuate that belief. I traveled most of Europe while in the service, but never got to see the U.K., but hope to someday.
You’ve done a fine job revealing the fact that one should be very cautious formulating impressions of other cultures based on movie industry hokum and, even worse, news media nit wits who wildly exaggerate anything and everything.
You ever just have to brake it down to a German online that Texas is the Size of Germany, California has a Bigger Economy than Germany and not far off from it's Population either, and that's just Two of 50 State's, Territories and even (mostly) Sovereign Indian Nations within US, and proceeding to explain all our different cultures within that Vast Area larger than Europe and mind them many Americans know the Countries their Ancestors to Parents came from while I go over a list of my nationalities, and scuff off the idea I'm supposed to know the constantly changing smaller Eastern European States or I as an American don't know Geography, when Americans know of allot more Nations in Europe that most of US come from Multiple Nations there (even allot of Brown people have ancestry in a place or two over there) oppose to how little Europe knows of our 50 State's, Territories, Indian Nations, not to mention the Rest of the Continent. I think they make their maps the funny way over there, and hid all the Globes, and they don't understand how small Europe is, at the same time, shocked at the list of European Nations (& Lebanon) that my ancestors come from, and how in fact that leads Americans to have done far more Research on European Countries to other Nations, than their European Counterparts have into the Americas! So who's the Rude one's not knowing Geography?!? Me for not knowing all the small Counties in Eastern Europe and no clue what Liechtenstein is... Or the Germ- mons for thinking all Americans live in the Bible Belt/ Tornado Ally which is less far than Germany to France or Poland from New York City or Hollywood! They are always shocked when they figure out how big the place is... Sometimes I have to mind them when I was outside the Greater Boston Area that in an hour drive circle of me, there's more of a Population than your whole Nation, and within that area we have more than your whole Nation has to offer (and I was including Boston, only an hour away at Night, 3 hours with Road Work going on, which was often going on). We had an small airforce base next to US, sublet of a bigger network, and they barely had jets there, but there often daily rounds, had more Combat Power than some Europe States! And I lived in a town of 5,000... On 3.5 acres (now 1.65 acres my own on a Pennisula) while they live crammed together on a 1/16th of Acre, or live in an apartment... As they mock our wood houses. And I know allot of shitty wooded houses around me, sitting on 20 acres on the Ocean, so you can keep your Rock Houses now Concrete Houses Europe!
You ever hear of these European Tourists that think the US is so small they going to start in NYC in the Morning, be at DC by Lunch, Miami Beach for Drinks for Dinner, hit the Beach, be off to Las Vegas play some Cards and Spin the Wheel, have a few more drinks, and by last call be in Hollywood by last Call smashing nasties with a Star, because of course everyone is a Star in Hollywood and fly out the next morning, while there whole world comes crashing down and they show up, realize that would take all week just stock on a plane or airport the whole time, and they are too broke for that as an None American European! And their Broke Arse Euro!!!
The most important thing to keep in mind is that many of our states are the size of countries. Culture varies drastically across. To the point where our accents are so far apart you could mistake them for different languages.
Very good point. Even most Americans don't fully realize how big this country is. I've traveled this country VERY THOROUGHLY testing railroad tracks for the last 30 years. It is hard to fully appreciate just how varied this country is until you are put in all the places people don't typically go on vacation. (And all the places they do.)
When I was a kid about 12(65 now) we went from Ohio to W. Virginia to pick up my sister's kids from her in laws. I remember most of the way my mom kept asking my dad "What did she/he say? I went to a public school where there was diversity, but it didn't occur to me that they sounded different(I think my brain just adjusted). Now I can't keep up with my kids or their kids or TV speech, because it's too fast(age thing)
And Ireland wouldn't even be a big state - in size and population, the entire island of Ireland (NI and ROI) is about the same as the state of Indiana.
"To the point where our accents are so far apart you could mistake them for different languages" Quit fucking bullshitting lmao. It's always Americans who never traveled outside of their country who say shit like this
Another thing to consider in the whole "Americans are rich" thing is that...taking a European vacation if you live in the US is EXPENSIVE. Therefore, a large percentage of actual Americans that Europeans might have had a chance to meet will, in fact, be wealthier than average.
As an American who has traveled the country the culture and views you will be exposed to are vastly different depending on what part of the country you find yourself in.
The overwhelmingly vast majority of employment in the US is considered "at will" which means that you can quit at any time and you can also be fired at any time for any reason aside from a handful of discriminatory protections. You also have no repercussions against getting fired unless you can prove it was a discriminatory move which is very hard to do court because even if it was discriminatory firing all they have to do is think of one other reason and that's what they report.
You *can* get fired (or quit) for no reason in the vast majority of American jobs, but employers would be extremely stupid to regularly fire people for no reason. Hiring new people tends to be quite expensive and losing employee knowledge is also rather expensive in most industries other than unskilled labor. As such, employers who actually want to stay in business don't fire people for no reason. Additionally, if a company develops a reputation for doing that, good employees will be less likely to go there, which means that they will pay more for future employees and/or get worse ones. Similarly, one can quit an at-will job for no reason any time they want with or without notice. But most people like to have incomes and also don't want to develop a reputation for quitting for no reason at the drop of a hat (making it harder to get good jobs in the future) and, so, will not quit for no reason.
@@vbscript2 Not what stops them... It's the Unemployment Insurance that gets them. As the Federal Government charges them outrageous amounts. If you fire someone without cause....Which is easy to do. Just dispute it. 99.9% of the time the Employer loses...Then they charge back the amount to the Employer account.....
@@victorhopper6774 What the f#$k did I just say? You must have got off the Short Bus. To not read what I posted... And it's not a damn tax.. It's insurance the Employer has to pay...
I heard someone say one time that Americans say “ excuse me “ for everything. Canadians say “ sorry “. I read in a news article from international hotel workers that Americans ranked 2nd behind Japanese for guests that they preferred. These are two things that I heard over the years.
The rental agency i used that rented cars in Slovakia loved American clients. They had the fewest reported dents and accidents per 100 customers. The worst were locals and Italians were a distant second.
I never pretend to be a Canadian in Europe. If some Europeans and Brits want to stay stupidly Ignorant because I’m American then that’s their arrogant problem.
Growing up in America, watching families have full course breakfasts on school days with everyone sitting at the table at the same time, all dressed and ready and not at all rushed was very confusing as an American child as well. "How early did everyone get up!?"
I always thought the same thing! When I would see cereal commercials and shit like that with the whole family eating a big breakfast together. Either, "Geez, do these people wake up at 4 a.m.?" Or, "Geez, do these people not have to start work and school until 10:30?" Such absurdity...
On tv/movies they'd sit for a second take a bite of toast, throw it on the plate and say I'm late bye! Leaving an entire breakfast on the plate for mom to throw away. So not real life! Drove me nuts as a starving kid in America.
Lol! Same. As an American, when watching movies involving teens, I could not grasp how in the world the writer, director, producer, etc. did not understand that there are literally not enough hours in a day for any person to eat a huge and unhurried breakfast, work a shift at their part time job in the morning before school, go to school for a full day, do whatever after school activities they choose (sports or band and homework) and participate in whatever adventure the movie revolves around.
My mother cooked a full breakfast every morning, biscuts from scratch, eggs, bacon, grits and coffee. Before she went to work and we went to school. I tried to do the same but my family wouldn't get up and eat. So now it's a Boost to drink and out the door for all of us.
I remember visiting London and the cab driver who took me to my hotel simply would not believe that I didn’t own a gun nor had I ever seen a gun fired. He was convinced that there were shoot outs on American streets frequently and accused me of lying to make America look good.
I guess he'd be happier to talk with me as I own a number of firearms, have shot them a lot, was a municipal police officer in a town next to Detroit (and saw gunfights and their results), not to mention having been in the military and in two wars. He'd also be happy to hear that every adult in my immediate family carries a concealed firearm daily and my five-year old granddaughter can recite the firearms safety rules perfectly.
Speak for yourself, I use one gun I use to scratch my butt with, another for brushing my teeth with, right now I'm using 3 different guns to type on my keyboard. And how could you have never seen a gun fired and not have a gun? What do you do when you get challenged to a duel? What do you do when you need to get something off the top shelf in a grocery store?
If it isn't gang violence, there are only a few hundred gun murders every year and they are all in the news across the whole country for a week. The media has always been nonsense.
Something I think Europeans should keep in perspective too is we aren't really monocultured. We have a shared core value system(ideally). The land area this nation covers is vast and the way of life can be as varied as it is traveling across Europe itself.
I guess that is problematic for many Europeans as that is how the U.S likes to present itself. As one country. However that country is the size of Europe, bigger than the E.U. I would be curious how Americans perceive the E.U. Do you hear more about single countries doing things, like Germany or France, or do your news say Europeans or the E.U? Because I could imagine it is similar for us both, if you hear in the news that the U.S did something, you might think "The government did, my state has nothing to do with that", while E.U citizens often think the same when hearing about something the E.U did: "Hmm, the E.U decides, but my country...". The only time I can imagine any European citizen talking about the E.U is when they passed a new law or directive. Otherwise everyone just talks about their own country or region. I think the U.S is ahead of us in that they actually really consider themselves at least in their thinking much more as a country/collective than a lot of the E.U does. That is probably also why the E.U doesn't really get anything rolling too much, because most people think they are citizens of their country, not of the E.U. Europeans yes, but E.U citizens not really. Hard to explain, kinda as if Americans would feel they are Northern Americans and citizens of their state, but would not feel as much as U.S citizens in their identity.
We are one nation with a common language, currency and history, a union of like States all having a shared Destiny. 1923 version amended 1954 to include God "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
@@denidale4701 In the US we definitely hear about and think of individual European countries as their own entities more often than the EU as a whole. About the only headlines I can recall seeing about the EU in general rather than individual member countries are when a country is in the process of joining or leaving or if there is some kind of trade deal that is being negotiated between the US and EU as a whole rather than an individual country, or if the EU is deliberating on some kind of policy change or law that would substantially affect the US. The original vision for the US was to be more like how the EU is: a loose federation of similar but mostly-autonomous states with a common currency. That vision has been continually perverted and ignored in the years since the side that championed that vision was defeated in a civil war. Now in practice we're more like a unitary nation than a loose federation of 50 separate entities, but vestiges of this still exist and can be difficult for Europeans to understand when they hear about drastic differences in the laws of one US state versus another, or that Florida or Mississippi or Georgia are bucking the Feds on something (a common example is passing state laws that forbid any law enforcement officer from enforcing certain federal laws that have been deemed or are under litigation to determine if they are or are not unconstitutional.) Can you imagine Nottinghamshire just telling London to piss off? Or Bavaria telling Berlin that no, actually, we aren't going to do what you tell us? Well, US states do that to the federal government on a regular basis. The more independent origin of our states also goes a long way towards explaining some of the geographic tribalism we have in the US. People from Georgia have pretty strong (and negative) opinions of New York, and the feeling is mutual. Most of the country dislikes California and the generally pretentious, arrogant people from there. Pretty much everyone shits on Mississippi (dead last in most major metrics like education, average income, etc). Americans might (but not necessarily) feel the stereotypical, flag-waving strong national identity that everyone always thinks of, but we also have regional identities and state identities that are often stronger than our national one. I know a *large* number of Texans who would love to secede again. If Florida did, I wouldn't think twice about shedding my 'American' label. The "United States" are not nearly so 'united' as people think.
Diane…the breakfast thing. Funny story. I grew up eating a bowl of cold cereal with milk for breakfast. Then spent weekends in Jr. & Sr. High school with my grandpa, who was from Ireland. EVERY breakfast with Pop was cereal, toast, a hard boiled egg, bangers, tea and Irish soda bread w raisins in it. GOD I loved that man😁☘️🇺🇸🇮🇪.
My husband is not from America and we have been together for many years. He still thinks ‘we’re in America, if something is wrong we should threaten to sue’. Trying to explain that things don’t work that way has been difficult.
If you believed that teenagers were a bigger part of every day life from TV shows, you would also have to believe teens in America are actually 30-35 years old. I love your content, keep up the great job.
I got a laugh about the breakfast part. When I visited Ireland decades ago, every B&B gave “the traditional Irish breakfast” which must come from some time long ago when people ate 1 meal a day and worked on farms or something. No one on our trip ate it after the second day because it was just too huge and like you said, it made everyone want to take a nap!
Irish breakfasts are pretty good but i don't know how can anybody eat that black pudding. Eesh! Also strange to have baked beans with their breakfast but that's actually pretty good. And Boxty - yummm! But give me a bit of bacon, couple eggs with toast and I'm set.
I dated a woman from Helsinki. She was absolutely shocked to find out that things like medicare, medicaid, unemployment, EBT cards, the entire array of welfare benefits exist. She was always told that if you come to America and you don't have a job, you will starve in the streets. That literally, you work from the day you're able to until the day you die. The best part of the whole charade, her mother was governor of one of the States in Finland. She thought that it was nothing but brainwashing to keep people in the country because everybody who has any way out leaves because of the high tax rate.
Finland also has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. But anyways glad she actually visited the US so she won’t be stuck on her assumptions about the US.
I think it's a safe bet Diane was somewhat heart broken to learn the truth about American breakfast habits. Though to be fair, a good percentage of our cereals do contain enough sugar to make waffles and pancakes potentially the lower carb breakfast option.
@@DianeJennings Diane, if you make it back to the US again it would be worth checking out a restaurant chain called Denny's. Be sure to get the Grand Slam breakfast (available 24 hours a day)
@@josephcote6120 International House of Pancakes would also be a good one to try, if she wants sweets for breakfast. Tell her NOT to go Waffle House, though! lol
@@josephcote6120 I may be a bit biased but I would vote for a visit to Cracker Barrel for chain breakfasts. They're objectively very good with usually good service too. Plus the little country shop in the front is kinda cute too. Denny's and IHOP while iconic is just going to be disappointing.
Until the 1950's. no one in media cared what teenagers thought, but after the great depression, when the economy was swinging and teens had their own money to spend on whatever they wanted instead of getting jobs to help out with family needs, there was a shift in media attention. I think the first example of this was the film, "Rebel Without A Cause" starring James Dean. It was marketed to teens, written for them and about them, but it had no rock and roll music. It is often cited as being "the" movie for its' generation, yet it didn't even get a proper soundtrack for the generation that it was meant to personify. The trend of focusing on the "young dollar" has continued ever since, however, with better, more representative music selections for films such as "The Breakfast Club."
There is also a lot of change and drama in a teenager's life that make good stories. The transition from childhood to adulthood is also a major architype in storytelling. Small kids look at stories about teens and think, "Wow, that is so cool. I want to have that freedom and do all that" Teens look at stories about teens and think, "I can relate to what he feels and wish I could do that too" Adults look at stories about teens and think, "Yeah, I remember that cringe. LOL"
@@alienlife7754 I think the majority of people likely only heard the Simply Red song anyway. This was prior to movies loading up soundtracks with legit big name bands/musicians. IIRC it was Last Action Hero that started that trend. The movie mostly bombed but the soundtrack sold well.
You're correct, when it comes to disposable income items, movie tickets, chain restaurants, clothing stores. They have made a push toward a younger audience. Successfully. Car dealerships not so much, mortgage brokers nah not really advertising a lot to teens. So it really depends on what you're looking at and what you're buying and as a foreigner consuming our media from the outside yeah it must seem like that's all we do. But then again this year's Sundance film festival winners probably aren't getting a lot of play on British television. They have to accommodate their own peoples adult movies, ones that would relate to them better. But with kids they have less cultural influence and so kids movies will go all over the English world. So again from the outside perspective it looks like Americans only make stuff for kids and teens. Other industries that started only doing things for kids like video games for example have gone the other way more recently and realize that hey older people can enjoy that stuff too. Saying that American pop culture industry strictly chases the young dollar is also a misrepresentation.
Rebel without a cause was filmed before Rock n Roll was a thing, and it took another 40 years for mainstream Hollywood producers to get it right (or even close). Music in soundtracks is determined by the age of the producers, not the target market.
As an American, I get tired of seeing celebrity news on the mainstream news. I really don't care what the celebrities do. I'm convinced that the media wants us to want to care about celebrities. I'm sure there's some conspiracy there somewhere.
I was stationed in Germany for 2 tours and when I got over there initially at least it was "different" but not in a really weird way. I learned GI German there. Thanks.
One of my favorite food cross-culture surprises happened on my first trip to Britain: I noticed on the menu that there were muffins & "American Muffins." After a moment I gathered that what in the US we call "English Muffins", in England are known as muffins; the same is true for American Muffins as well, of course.
Oh, I thought you were going to say that it was just like french fries, where each country blames the food's existence on the other. (the french word for "french fries" is "frites Americain", meaning "american fries")
@@medexamtoolscom We actually call them French Fries because the potatoes are frenched (cut into long strips). It's just a culinary technique; instead of slicing the potatoes and frying them you french them and fry them.
@@steve41557 Traditionally, a "French kiss" involved kissing on each cheek, the English kiss only on one. Not sure if they differentiated between tongue/no tongue.
You should read the American book of The Millionaire Next Door. There are lots of people here in America who do not live on credit. I remember living in England for 2 years and I invited my daughter's friend down the street for dinner she came over and was determined that we were going to have hamburgers and she was excited about it. I didn't want to disappoint her but I did not have hamburgers on the menu so I packed everybody in the car and we went to the nearest McDonald's so that she could have a hamburger. She was very happy we were glad she visited. Also I had some German people visit me when I lived in America in my twenties and they were all excited because we had two refrigerators full size American refrigerators that is so she thought we were rich
I remember when I lived in (South) Korea I spent most of my time talking about American culture instead of teaching English. One thing that I always got asked was whether I knew different celebrities. I never figured out if they thought all Americans personally knew celebrities or if it was a language barrier when they really wanted to know if I knew who a celebrity was or was a fan of the celebrity. I eventually gave up and told them I knew every celebrity they asked me about.
Our media did not always focus a lot on celebrities. I started following the news back in the summer of 1982. They covered geostrategic, geo-economic, geopolitical, national, and other topics. The real news. Over the past few years, I've shifted more to going directly to the source of the news and getting the whole story. If you were to ask me anything having to do with celebrities, I'll be like the "interviewees" in Mark Dice's TH-cam interview on the street videos. I'd draw a blank stare.
I was on vacation in Jamaica a few years ago with bunch of friends and we are from the Chicago area, we met a family from the UK and they told us that they were surprised that we were so friendly! We chilled with them for a week!
Fun video! As an American who lived in France for 10 years, I was confronted with many of these same ideas and others. But then, when in the US, I was always having to refute the lies that Americans believed about France.
As a filmmaker in America, I'd like to weigh in on the deodorant issue. I think the main reason roll-ons are used in film and television is because the scene requires many, many takes. The "roll-on" can be completely fake and not put anything on the actor's underarm, but a spray is going to spray something. Then that something is either going to build up on them or it's going to have to be cleaned off before the next take of that action. It will also tend to accumulate in the air of the studio or location. I've never done a scene with anyone putting on deodorant, but if I did it would be roll-on.
There's also the connotation that if you use spray deodorant, you're kind of a douchebag. It goes back to how popular Axe and its knock offs got in the early 2000s with young men thinking that this spray would magically make them attractive to women. So, when I do see it in a movie or TV show, it is almost used as a shorthand joke for guy who is trying way too hard to impress women.
Some of these things were once true but are now outdated: The "American Breakfast" was a thing for a long time because up until after WWII, most Americans lived in rural areas and had to do farm work. People who didn't had been eating lighter breakfasts. Others are due to the entertainment industry not knowing other industries: People being suddenly fired is/was apparently a thing in the entertainment industry and writers assumed it worked the same way in other industries. Same thing happens in the US to a degree too: Most movies are written out in California so when movie writers need to talk about the law it's usually based in California law. Americans see the those movies and think any laws the movie mentions must laws all over and not just in California. Cue lots of confusion about some laws
Also, many parents in the 1950s remember growing up in the Depression and then the food rationing of WWII, so that when they had the opportunity to buy lots of food for their kids--they did it. Remember the breakfast scene in "Pleasantville."
I've never heard even one of these lies/misconceptions. Let's be honest, the mere idea that there would be no variation of characters/lifestyle in a 330 M population is utterly ridiculous.
I don't know that all of these things are actually taught in other countries. Most are probably just perceptions that naturally form whenever you see a limited view of something (like a Hollywood movie or new media segment). You probably have perceptions of countries too that you probably don't even realize exist. It's natural.
I've been to the Philippines and most everything the locals know and assume about America and Americans. They learn from either the news which can be one sided or plain awful. Or movies and sitcoms. If everything you've learned about Japan was from a new channel you couldn't understand or anime. You would be shocked on your first visit.
I lived in Germany for a few years in my youth. I don't recall ever being this gullible about another culture or having some grand revelation that Germans were just normal people. That was kind of a given.
4:38 I'd say the most common deoderant type now is stick deoderant (kind of a white waxy substance that you rub in your pits). I'm not sure I've seen roll-on (a container of liquid with a ball at the top that spreads the liquid in the pits) for decades. And yes, we have spray but I've never used it.
This does tend to be the most efficient type if you're going to put it on while wearing a short sleeved shirt. If you wanted to spray it on you'd have to disrobe first.
@@dalemoore8582 ah, the ozone is healing because we stopped using the chemicals that were destroying it. If we went back to using those same chemicals the problem would begin again. Thankfully, they found other propellants that were also effective, so we could go back to sprays just not those sprays. We solved the acid rain problem also. Sadly, the climate problem has been heavily lobbied against, so that one remains a catastrophe, and not a success story.
That woman that sued mcdonalds for the hot coffee had it dumped in her lap at a drive thru window. previous to that mcdonalds coffee was near the boiling point. so yes she was severly burned when that happened. i knew the lawyer that handled the case.
That is not even remotely what took place, either your friend the lawyer lied to you or you misunderstood. She was given the coffee and she put it between her legs to hold it then drove and the coffee splashed on her legs. McDonald's actually had their coffee slightly cooler than the usual stuff you get at a restaurant.
@@christophertaylor9100 if you do a little research you will learn that McDonalds had their coffee a lot hotter. They did that so that when someone ordered coffee on the way to work it would still be super warm when they were ready to drink it. Also, the woman had third degree burns that required surgery. You can't get that with coffee that is slightly cooler than most restaurants serve it.
3:21 This is the one that I could most agree is a myth. Not only do most Americans (including myself) not pay too much attention celebrities, most of us actually don't care at all about their personal lives, and are even critical when people treat them like they're super special and need to be treated super differently. Don't get me wrong, some of them are super cool people, but most of them are sort of viewed as normal people with an above average talent in something.
Given how full of themselves they've gotten and how they seem to have gotten this idea that they can tell the rest of us how to live, what to believe and even how to vote like we are idiot children who can't function without their guidance, I really couldn't give a damn about the majority of them anymore. Most of them are total douchebags who don't even live in the same reality we all do.
@@bugstomper123 You underestimate the sad, lonely older generations who have nothing better in their lives than to follow people they think have more interesting lives and more money than them. They follow them obsessively and gossip about them like they are old friends, but most "celebrities" have no moral compass, a huge ego and would just step over their fans if they were dying in the street as they go to their next movie interview or spa appointment without giving it a second thought.
@@bugstomper123 I somewhat agree with on that, but I know a boatload of teenagers that couldn't care less about celebrities.(including myself, I'm a teenager as well)
3:09 actually, 49/50 states are at will employment. Yes, contracts exist for some employment but by and large you can be fired or you can quit with little to no repercussions. If you're on good terms with you employer, it si customary to give 2 weeks notice, but it's not necessary and the employer could just tell you to go home and not come back.
Yes, if you want a letter of recommendation from your employer it's good to give two weeks notice and "Your services are no longer required" is all they have to say. At least in California if you are being let go for no good reason the will use those words exactly to stay within the law.
There are always repercussions... it just depends on what they are. For example, future employers seldom want to hear that you quit a previous job without a fantastic reason and particularly without notice. Why would they want to put themselves in that same position? They don't. But it works the other way too, where disgruntled employees can sue or get media attention to the 'abuses' of an employer, even when the suit won't win or the employer had the legal right to do so. Many companies with deep pockets will even pay out such suits to save themselves the expense and public relations trouble from fighting them. Likewise, any employer who fires someone will probably have to replace them, and for all but the lowest of jobs this is not a trivial consideration. And as with the other side of the equation, no employee is going to be happy interviewing for someone who spontaneously liquidated their predecessor. So while it may seem like there is no 'safety net' to prevent capricious firings, there are actually quite a few social checks in place.
Yes, you can blame most of those misconceptions on Hollywood and the news media. It is one of the reason many people now here in the USA no longer put much faith in it. Not necessarily that they are lying, but horribly skewed.
Haha my Brazilian friend asked me one time if pancakes were a normal daily breakfast for us. She had assumed that because it is a normal special-occasion breakfast, so she often got pancakes when she was invited to people's houses.
It depends on where. For us growing up, Pancakes were a staple (and waffles for my kids). This is because they were, and, are dirt cheap to make. Cheaper than cereal and you can doctor them up with what you have.
My entire adult life I had nothing more than a cup of coffee for breakfast. I found that eating breakfast made me sleepy before lunch! I found out I wasn’t unusual, a lot of people skip breakfast. Anyone remember Supertramp, Breakfast in America? That was exactly what that song was about.
Even though I'm technically from America, Hawaii. Going to the continental US for the first time was definitely a culture shock. I completely understand what you mean about believing stuff about some people in America that turns out to be not true.
@@Dakotako We do have a lot of hot babes and fat dudes, but not a lot of cooking on the beach. For Luaus we normally cook pigs underground. You ain't lived till you had some kalua pig.
About the spray-on deodorant: I think it was shown in the media a lot less when awareness was raised that a widely used spray propellant (chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs) were believed to be harming the Earth's ozone layer. At that time, advertising for roll-on deodorant increased. (In the store aisles here in America, I see a lot more of the stick deodorant, with some roll-on or spray deodorant available.)
I'd like to correct the "I quit" and "You're fired" portion. That does happen, quite often. Most states, when they hire an employee, sign a contract, but it is stipulated that employment is 'at will' meaning that they can release you or you can quit for any reason at any time. There are actions you can take if you're fired unlawfully, but those are rare and hard to prove.
What is often depicted as the "traditional American breakfast" is really better termed as a "farmer's breakfast". Those huge, high-calorie breakfasts were important for farmers and other people who did 12+ hours of hard labor every day (miners and such), and started very early in the morning. For most Americans, eating a breakfast like that is more of a weekend or "special occasion" than a daily event.
THIS. I use to eat a large hearty breakfast full of sausage and eggs etc every day. I then went to work at a VERY labor intensive job for 10 to 14 hours. I don't break my back to make a living now, thankfully. And I now eat very little at breakfast.
For the breakfast thing, the big breakfast is usually only on weekends. On weekdays, my breakfast is usually just a peach or an orange. My friend doesn't eat breakfast at all on weekdays. The pancakes and muffins and waffles and sausages are usually just on weekends when you have the time to enjoy a big breakfast.
I laughed out loud at the roll on deodorant and “America themed breakfast” everyday! 🤣. I just imagined setting the table with American flags and red, white and blue placemats with mounds of fatty breakfast foods! 🤣🤣🤣
I have a job where I have to deal with a lot of travelers and one of the most strangest and oddest compliments I get from foreigners to us Americans is how polite we are. I've heard it from many people from many places. But they say we are courteous or outgoing or not afraid of conversations a strangers or sparking up a conversation with a stranger opening the door for a stranger giving a seat up. We're just nicer they say. And we always say thank you for everything very often.
This is true any time I've traveled also. The myth of the "ugly American" is just that. A handful of Karens, usually caught on video, being rude in other countries, but overwhelmingly any rudeness I've encountered is few and far between and from locals that don't like foreigners or maybe don't like Americans. I think it's another one of those myths perpetuated by people whose ideology lends itself to shitting on America or Americans. So they want to believe it even though it's really not true.
Americans just have too many good opportunities available to them and live far enough away from their neighbors that we only suffer if we choose. We're usually pretty carefree.
@@bobjohnson1633 I have to agree but I think you're over exaggerating it with Americans I think a lot of foreigners failed to realize that we're made up of 50 states most of our states could easily be a whole country in Europe maybe two states for every country in Europe hell the Ukraine is it even as big as Texas and it's the bread basket of Europe. I think foreigners just really don't comprehend the scale of America and the diverse cultures within it no not talking about foreign cultures invading I'm talking about actually Americana diversified between 50 individual states. But your sentiment doesn't quite hold up cuz I can state New York City as being one of the prime grounds along with other major cities in the US they feel the same way they overt their eyes they ignore people they give them their space even when they're all packed in like sardines. Washington DC reminded me of that. No one likes to be stared at no one likes to be conversed with they want a moment of silence and contemplation throughout the chaos that they're forced to constantly live in. I'm from Oklahoma and Texas and I get it I've traveled a bit and I like to people watch and as I stayed with my job I see a lot of foreigners. My point being if you can find a mindset that's from a Western country you'll find a similar mindset in one of the 50 states in America maybe it might be only in a city or two might be in a whole state might be a whole entire coastal area America is just too diversified and broken up by its geology and ecology as well as in its history. There's enough space for cultures and people to be themselves. But I don't agree with all the illegal immigration it's just slave labor with a nice name on it. Democrats only see them as easy votes which is f****** hilarious when you consider how many illegals are voting Republican now who knew coming from a s*** country makes you realize how right the Republicans are right now in history they might not always be f*** maybe 5 10 15 years they will become the assholes again but right now in history the left are the biggest assholes especially the rich left.
I've heard from several different sources across the world that Americans are generally loud speaking & outgoing, direct and efficient with low tolerance for time wasting or being inconvenienced (eg waiting in line/cuing), and notably high in consideration for others. Apparently, the consideration we view as just basic respect here is not as universal around the world. I find that interesting, because Americans also also know for being really independent (a good and bad thing), so I would expect that to translate into a _lack_ of consideration, "out of my way, I'm doing my own thing." Instead, it seems to have done the opposite and resulted in a mutual consideration of "hey, we are all doing our own things here, so consider our effects on others as we do that and it will be a nicer place for everyone." The way Germans cut in and take line positions in check out stands at grocery stores would be considered very rude here. There is an unspoken social honor system. You'd probably have all the people around scowling at the person, even from different lines. They'd think lesser of that person, that they were selfish and entitled. Often, no one would say anything, just out of the desire to not create a scene. But we are also direct, so it wouldn't be uncommon to hear disgust "hey!...", or on occasion have someone (usually a man) step up and insist they go to the back of the line. But if someone was come up and say, "I'm in a really big hurry, do you mind if I cut in line/go before you?" Most of the time Americans would happily let them past. (Don't try this at the DMV though...)
Clarification about the woman and the coffee- She was sueing for medical bills only, but the court decided to award her more. ❤️ There are definitely people who abuse the legal system, but she wasn't one of them.
@@cheezy_tater yes because there were no cup holders and he grandson or whatever had gone inside to correct something. Regardless the coffee was way too hot. I would need to look it up again but I believe there was an issue with the lids not being secure either. It's a very sad case when you look into it. her original law suit was reasonable. Its falls into gross negligence and negligence. Yes you expect coffee to be hot and burn but at most maybe some redness and minor pain that goest away. You dont expect boiling liquid that requires surgery. She didn't sue over spilling normal temp coffee in herself. Which is what the internet seems to think. I know you know this but ugh it drives me nuts and need more people to see this
Yeah, my mother got a coffee there once. She stirred some cream into it then realized she needed more napkins so we girls just dug into our food while she went to get them. When she came back she asked something like "Why would one of you need my coffee stirrer?" And we're looking at each other thinking "what is she on about"? Neither of us had taken it. Then it dawned on her that the coffee had been so hot it melted the stirrer!
Funny thing about "everyone in America having 'pew pews'" is that many people actually do and are even carrying them on their person-- you just don't know it, because they don't advertise it. This is a regional thing though and much more common in some areas than others. 🙂
From a psychological perspective, it's interesting how much people's expectations of a culture come directly from the TV and movie industry. It makes sense, but it's also a very warped and "cherry picked" picture that is shown in media of a given society. It's even true internally within the US. I've met plenty of people from other states who have come to California (where I've lived all my life) and expected the whole state to be like Hollywood or even Los Angeles. Yet most of California is actually made up of rural areas with desert, forests, mountains, and a whole lot of agricultural farmland.
Same thing in New York State, the enormous state that is mostly rural but is ALWAYS compared to this one mega city with over ten million people. But I guess that's just how the world sees us; ironically that's also how a lot of other states in the US see us. Playing hockey in western NY, people from out of state ask me where to go to get the best New York Pizza? Dominos has some pretty good deals...
Case in point about movies and the world's reality. Think to yourself, what sound does a frog make? Around the world people will say "Ribbit! Ribbit!" In the real world, frogs make all sorts of noises from croaks to deep almost dog bark sounds. There is one species of frog in the world that makes the "Ribbit" sound. It's a frog that is native to the Hollywood Hills in California and the foley people in old movies used it's sound for swamps, rivers...whatever in a movie that needed a frog noise. Now, almost everywhere around the world people think that is the sound of a frog.
I have tutored several English as a Second Language recent arrivals to America who had sadly believed everything they'd seen on TV about our allegedly rich glamorous lifestyle here in America! And now they were very surprised and disappointed.
I watch these men in Pakistan on utube and they give them different American foods to try. When you see their homes. Now I know why they think we are all rich.. to them we really are.. even our poor usually have more and larger home. They aren't starving ppl there but the choices we have are much more then they could dream of having. Their homes are 2 rooms...I was a bit taken aback at home small an area they live in.
Another misconception i'm just tired of getting from Europeans is that Americans don't know geography. We know enough about whats relevant to us, sure if you point an average American to a map of Europe they might be able to name three or four places, but if you point an average European to a map of the United States, the only States i've seen them consistently get right is Texas and Florida, they don't usually even get Hawaii right.
I'd like to believe most Americans would do pretty well in Western Europe but their knowledge would likely fall apart a bit as they moved east. I haven't done this survey but I have a hard time believing many people would miss the UK (Though they might only know it as England), France, Spain, Germany, Italy, or Russia. They might conceivably miss the order of the Nordic countries. Smaller countries and even more so those further East would probably have a higher miss-rate.
@@ZIbroweed yeah, I mean, I have been to Ireland. I still suck at European geography. To be fair, however...I am bad at ALL geography. Maybe it's because I am bad with names. Great with faces. Terrible with names. Even names of objects. But yeah...they beat the states into our heads in school. Not so much with other countries. 🤷♂️
@@firghteningtruth7173 You couldn't identify the 6 I mentioned as most recognizable? If so, that legitimately surprises me. I figured everyone's learned about the Roman Empire as the roots of European culture so pretty much everyone knows where Italy is. The Greek empire is far enough back that fewer will know Greece. Then England, France and Spain all played key roles in colonizing the "New World" which is kind-of the beginning of the history of the US. Finally Germany, Russia, France and England were all central to the narrative about WWII which is probably the longest studied war excepting maybe the civil war for Americans. Italy's role seemed to focus more on Africa which was probably one of the less studied theaters of that war. Countries like Poland also played important roles but any country that entered the Soviet block and then had to break back off became a bit more forgettable since they disappeared from the maps for a while (no offense to those countries. It's just how people work). So that's how I arrived at those 6 I suppose and any American who couldn't point to them, I'd say is missing out on important parts of their own history.
@@firghteningtruth7173 FYI I'm also very bad at names, but I'm good at remembering stories. That's why history is the catalyst for my remembering a lot of geography. There are stories that a lot of these countries belong to and the countries are just characters in those stories.
@@ZIbroweed no, but, basically ANYTHING beyond that and I am lost. Further, I could tell you where like 2 south american countries are, and maybe 8 african countries, off the top of my head. It was taught, maybe 1 time, in hs. I was probably sleep deprived after vice city came out the night before. 🤣 I just remember them BEATING the states into us, for multiple years. And, honestly, the only wars explained in-depth are american wars before like ww1. I live in Texas, so I had like 3 or 4 "Texas history" classes. 1 or 2 in grade school, then middle school then High School. It's kinda silly. I remember there was like...1, 12 page chapter on on slavery all the way to the emancipation proclamation. 🤣 I am pretty sure I read a story about the Alamo at least once per year, even into college. 🤣 There are plusses to being from here, though. Good BBQ, VERY polite people, low taxes. Beef and oil are cheaper here than anywhere else... I mean, AMAZING BBQ. And pretty much 1/4 of the people you know have a "secret ribs/brisket recipe." ...omg. I just went on a Texas rant after... My bad. It's been beaten into my head. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I appreciate the clarification on the McDonald's coffee lawsuit. McDonald's went on such a smear campaign against that lady that I believed for years that suit was frivolous. The reality was horrifying, and I'm glad McDonald's doesn't serve boiling coffee in flimsy containers out the drive thru window anymore. And yes, the firearm debate goes back to a sloppily-written constitutional amendment.
That was not sloppily written. It was in debate for over a decade before it was ratified in 1791. You don't like it because it allows more than what the media you consume wants.
@@perrytilton5221 the Constitution was ratified in 1789, so the length of that amendment debate is in itself debatable. Still, if the amendment itself was more concisely written to clarify how right to ownership, militia service, and regulation all tie together, there'd be little debate today. For example, we don't see people arguing over what the 3rd, 18th or any number of other amendments mean like we do the 2nd.
@@dexterinzo It is perfectly clear. It is specific in what it allows, which is all forms of armor and weapons to be owned and/or wore at any time. Not only is it clear, it specifies why it was included in the US Constitution, and is the only amendment that says "shall not be infringed," which is a polite way of the government being told, "Keep your f***ing hands off of our weapons and armor." Why, might you ask? Because they didn't want their families to be ruled by government dictators and communism.
When I was stationed in Japan, April 80 to 81, I always got asked what kind of car I had in America. The people I met seemed to think that all American's drove really big fancy cars.
Cars where huge before the gas crisis of the mid-late 70s. Look how big the cars where before and after the gas crisis. It's gonna happen again too. Cars are going to get smaller now with the new inflated gas prices!
One of the department heads in my squadron had his Buick with swiveling bucket seats in Japan in 81-82. I rode in it through the drive through at McDonalds and everyone was gawking. Talk about reinforcing a stereotype
I sometimes wonder how much I - an American who has always lived mostly in the midwest - have wild misconceptions about other regions in my own country, thanks to movies and TV. I've visited California once, and I have relatives in Florida, and visited Austin, Texas once as well. Other than that, though, I don't really spend much time traveling through different parts of America. I think I probably am WAY off about a lot of things.
What gets me is I grew up in California but I've spent time in Connecticut, Texas, Arkansas and Nevada and they are all very different from each other. But wherever I went people automatically assumed I surfed and probably had several stories about meeting celebrities in the grocery store. I'm from the Mojave Desert. I can't surf. I am a desert dweller and you couldn't pay me to go in the ocean on a surfboard. I have met a celebrity, amusingly enough in Arkansas I worked at a radio station and Willie Nelson came with his two big tour busses and played live on the air taking requests for an hour and a half. He was as real as you would think. Just a regular guy that smelled like bomb weed. LOL
Growing up Texan, I cannot tell you how many people from out of state are surprised that Houston isn't a desert (it's more a swamp, really), that very few of us own horses, and that big belt buckles and boots are really just for the rodeo. Also, given that "Houston, we have a problem" is such a well known phrase, you'd not believe how many people are surprised NASA's Johnson Space Center is in Houston.
Yes, tv. When a bad guy gets shot, he grabs his chest and falls over sidewise. Machine guns that run out in 3-4 seconds actually never run out, and the wild west, being safer than a current US suburb we're super violent with roaming gangs.
My "ex" was a trial lawyer & I managed her law office. Driving home late from the office, I stopped at the supermarket to pickup some fresh bagels, etc. As I was pushing my cart down the aisle, I noticed a couple of well dressed men in dark suites walking by & looking down each aisle. I didn't think anything of it until I was heading to the check-out register & saw George H. W. Bush (41st Pres.) pushing a cart around the corner followed by the men in black (secret Service). I knew that he & his wife lived near by but I never thought that I would see him or any Pres. or ex-Pres. shopping for groceries. Talk about your celebrity! As for "pew pews", 25 states have passed "Constitutional Carry" laws. My state is one. Most people in my state own "pew pews". The county where I live has had 1 homicide in the past 25 yrs. I only carried when I worked as a P.I. for the law firm, traveled or made a cash transactions over $1,000.
Seeing celebrities is an odd thing - when I was in California working, me or my guys didn't see anyone when we were working in Hollywood and that area... we did see a few in Burbank and we ran straight into a film crew when we were up north near Eureka... making the movies is not glamorous at all, it's a job. The whole pew pew thing is a real oddity to me - growing up in the dead center of the country - they are around, and a lot of people had for hunting... every pickup truck had rifle or shotgun or both hanging up in the back window - but no one ever shot anyone... there was no need. Pretty much the same here today - you take away the 10 largest cities of the USA, and the violent crime rate drops to practically zero... so weird, almost like people need a lot of space around them to just chill...
A lot of Japanese anime is centralized around high-school aged characters for the same reason. Not because high-school is a large part of society (japan is mostly old people) but because most people have had the common experience of going through high-school.
Just to clarify, these are the realities for all of us here in the US: - We always greet each other with a heartfelt "howdy, partner!" Always. Even here in MN. - Each day (during certain timeframes) is spent seeking out and acquiring hot dogs.
Howdy, short for "how do you do," is a perfectly common greeting. We don't usually say "I reckon," but if you say both commonly, you sound like a 49er or 1850s cowboy
Hot dogs lathered with cornbread, on a stick, and deep fried. What's more amazing is how many foods we can put on a stick and deep fry....the wierder the better....
Yeah the breakfast thing is more of a "special occasion". 95% of the time I skip breakfast and when I don't its usually just a bacon & egg biscuit from a fast-food place (usually Bojangles). The big "sausage, eggs, grits, pancakes, & toast breakfasts are only eaten very occasionally or after a night out drinking (because Waffle House is always open).
Yeah, but think about how misleading our breakfast cereal commercials are, "It's a healthy part of this nutritious breakfast!" as the camera pans over eggs, bacon, buttered toast, a bowl of cereal, an extra glass of milk, and one of orange juice. Growing up, all I ever had was a bowl of cereal, and by high school, I'd even given that up in favor of a few extra minutes of sleep.
Ya.. I'm not even a fan of pancakes... waffles are OK but 99% of the time if I'm even eating breakfast it's eggs over easy (BTW.. That's odd to Europeans... they get eggs fried or nothing... LOL) We have like 1000 ways to order eggs) bacon and toast.
Eggs, bacon, toast, and milk is healthy for you. Cakes, sugar cereal, and surgery juice are all horrible. Eat a giant breakfast every day and anybody will get fat and sick.
When my kids still lived at home we would have a large breakfast with all the extras either on Saturday or Sunday morning. The rest of the week it was either cereal or a couple of eggs with toast.
Yep, the coffee sue thing is real, I know her granddaughter. This poor lady had to have skin grafts on her nether regions because the coffee was so incredibly hot, it caused her skin to slough off. Truly life threatening, and I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.🤢
@@pgrmdave The Jury awarded her the money, and rightfully so. Mcdonalds wanted to give her like 3 grand to pay for it all out of court when she had like 20k in hospital bills.
@@brandondavis7777 That was an unfortunate incident, but I've always wondered, did she think the coffee was not hot, and who spilled it? plus, how did they know it was too hot after the fact? at any rate, it's a perfect example of someone makes a mistake and everyone else pays for it.
I've felt horrible ever since I really learn what happened to her. I saw a report of her injuries, and pictures of them. I was one of the people that judged her, and when I learned the extent of her injuries, I was horrified. I can not believe that they would give you coffee so hot that it causes 3rd degree burns. I've spilled coffee on myself quite a few times (I'm a klutz), and I'll get scalded, and be sore for a few days. That's about it though. Her burns were horrible.
@@bigworm380gaming3 This was before McDonalds would give out drink holders, or even before there was regularly cup holders in cars. The point is, she was only asking for them to pay her medical bills. They refused. McDonalds then took the opportunity to talk horribly about her, and make her out to be a gold digging moron. That was not the case. She had 3rd degree burns on the inside of her thighs and her groin area. Her burns were horrific, and it was proven that the coffee they served was hotter than the company put out as a "max temperature."
Television, the movies, mainstream news, and commercial ads have very little in common with reality. My family eats fast food maybe twice a month, for example. Foods vary a lot because of regional preferences as well.
When Diane went to America, she got a surprise Some of the things she had learned were simply lies Like that all American houses are super-size And for every meal we eat burgers and fries She thought we couldn’t buy spray-on to deodorize But now she has a fun list to make everyone wise
"You came to make a fortune cause the streets are lined with gold, you believed exaggerations and the stories you were told, but soon you came to realize all isn't at it seems, you're working like a devil just to hold on to your dreams." The Prodigals - Alright Son
10:19 As a young American growing up in America, I thought the same thing when I was young. I got it from watching movies when the actors would have lines like: I am calling my lawyer. You'll be hearing from my lawyer. Don't talk to me, talk to my lawyer..... As I got older I asked my parents who our family lawyer was and they said we didn't have one, which surprised me. It made me feel like our family was vulnerable to all the other families that had lawyers. After discussing this further with my parents, I was set straight on what was in the movies and what was real.
Regarding “porridge” (8:42) in American breakfasts, the only ones of us eating it are bears who live in houses and face home invasion by local schoolgirls. The rest of us eat “oatmeal.” 😉
Thanks, Diane for doing this video. It is important that folks in Europe understand that most of us are not the "Ugly American" stereotype! This said, I do enjoy the freedom of owning my share of "pew-pews!"
I remember when I realized that the US is highly litigious (I'm American). I was visiting Norway several years ago, and my group and I saw a flimsy barrier with a warning sign that basically said, 'If you go beyond this point, you're taking your life in your hands.' We were hiking up to see a glacier, so you can imagine the danger. It was then I realized that in a US National Park, they would _never_ be content with such a flimsy barrier, because if anything went wrong, the suing wouldn't stop for years.
Sadly what probably keeps us Americans from sue more people is how much it cost to retain a lawyer. The other is how long does it take for a simple court case to get through the system let alone the more complex ones.
Yup.. my son was also shocked at this. Also there's no one TO save you in these other places.. whereas here we bring out everything and everyone we have even if we think they couldn't be alive any longer.. but we do try to save life when we can.
As a generalization, I think it's pretty safe to say that a lot of the USA's extremes are to be found on the coast, and, the closer you get to the middle of the country, the further you get from the stereotypes--but the stereotypes are fueled by the media, which are, in the main, HQed on the coasts. I'm from West Texas but I've never owned a pew-pew and have ridden a horse once. Didn't like it.
LOL Texas IS a stereotype. It's like California, a lot of what you hear about it has a grain of truth to it but it's so huge it is not necessarily true EVERYWHERE in the state.
I'd consider you the odd one tbh. Every individual I have personally known from Texas has owned at minimum 5 pew pews. Virtually everyone I know owns 1 or are with someone that does. You'd be surprised how many unassuming little old ladies have them in purses too.
I'm also from Texas. Heck ppl in the US have misconceptions about Texans. Friends were shocked that I do not own a horse or live on a ranch, they literally thought everyone in Texas lives a rural lifestyle.
@@jdraven0890 I started school at a place that was so old, there was still an outhouse about fifty feet away (a two-seater, I guess in case you needed company or encouragement). Hanging in the principal's office were several B & W photos of the olden days, when students and teachers rode horses and mules to school. The mules outnumber the cars by a pretty wide margin. I have been around mules, and I like them, but I am not so old that I ever rode one to school. I walked, because we were classy and far too sophisticated for something so pedestrian as mule-riding. I have ridden bulls and roped calves, in a purely amateur rodeo ring, and let me tell you: for little critters, calves are amazingly strong and heavy. You can do the extrapolation to figure out what it's like to ride a bull. The most terrifying experience of my life, but also the greatest. It's like occupying every imaginable dimension simultaneously. Riding a horse, though--that's kind of boring. What's the point? I can walk. Having a new perspective is nice, because suddenly your eyeballs are ten feet above the ground and you can spot a rattlesnake before it has time to strike, but other than that, I don't get the whole horse culture thang. Guess I'm missing something.
@@jdraven0890 BTW, I used to live in Vermont (which I loved). When they found out I was from West Texas, people I worked with--referring to Vermont winters--laughed and said "Oh, God! You're gonna die." But I was always perfectly cozy in Vermont; people don't realize that it gets mighty cold after sundown in the desert, especially up in the mountains (where I am). The most miserably cold I've ever been was in Canyon, Texas--bone-shattering cold, and windy as all heck. The Panhandle is, generally (and strictly IMO), the worst place on Earth and the least compatible with human life. It's so flat and barren, if you stand on a beer can and try real hard, you can see the back of your own head--which reminds me of my ex-wife, but she's from Beaumont, 800 miles away and beyond the Piney Curtain.
The quitting/being fired one is actually true, at least in the Midwest where I live. I see it and have to deal with it every day. Employment is at will... for both parties.
When my family was in Ireland, we had Irish breakfast everyday - it was definitely way more food than my family eats for actual breakfast (morning meal) in America (my family normally skips breakfast altogether, but sometimes have breakfast foods for lunch). But the Irish breakfasts were good, it allowed us to go be tourists all day and not have to worry about lunch, still being full from breakfast. Lol. Also, side note: both your bread and butter taste way better in Ireland! Haha
When I was on vacation to Ireland and England, I was staying at Jury's Inn Christchurch Dublin and had dinner at The Bull and Castle. One of the best steak dinners I ever had. Tried the English breakfast while in London. I thought it was very bland. Still can't figure why the baked beans. Served cold too.
I have a question which some one might be able to answer. I've been to Ireland a few times and stayed at some of the same B&Bs. One thing I did not understand was Irish bacon. It was incredibly salty and thick and gave me the bloody scours after eating it. Now I do not know if the Irish eat the stuff for brekky themselves? I'm wondering if I was served bacon because people in Ireland heard that Americans eat bacon for brekky and they were just trying to serve what they thought I was used to eating? American bacon is thinner sliced than rashers, and rashers are something I'd use sparingly to flavor baked beans.
@@Balor1 I don't know. The bacon we had in Ireland was closer to what we Americans call Canadian bacon (and put on pizza). I don't even know if Canadians eat bacon like that. Lol.
3:07 it absolutely does work like that for most Americans. Look into "at will" employment. Unless protected by a union, most employees can be fired for anything or nothing.
Thank you for thinking of our under arm hygiene. The only time I have thought of another country’s armpits was that time I was dating a girl from Romania. Apparently razors haven’t made it to Eastern Europe.
Several of those, like celebrity obsession is more of a "we used to be" than we really aren't. Things have changed in recent times; some for the better, and some for the worse.
I may be wrong, but, I think that you can, actually, say "gun" on TH-cam. Calling them "pew-pews " tends to confuse us. We don't know what you're talking about when you say that. We call them "guns. "
Thank you for dispelling some of the stereotypes people have about Americans. 🥰 I look forward to hearing which stereotypes I may have about Europeans that arent true. ❤️
I worked in England for about a month back in 2006. Our local contact decided we would like to stay at some country Inn designed for newlyweds. The first morning I was offered the Typical English Breakfast. I was so horrified at the smell, presentation, and sketchiness of it that I ate cornflakes the entire rest of the time I was there. For dinner, we were lucky to find a small restaurant run by two Indian brothers. The food was excellent. I think I had chicken prepared in 10 distinctive ways.
One thing on American breakfast - that largely came from a time when it was the first and primary meal of the day for farmers. You'd want a lot of carbs and proteins first thing in the morning if you were spending the day outside doing manual labor. It actually stretches back long before America was even a settled by Europeans, but it's rooted in that farming lifestyle.
Speaking of “everybody suing everyone” my brother was just in an accident that was caused by the managers son and another employee. They “jumped” him and pushed him into the huge window, accidentally breaking it. He had to get stitches and staples in his head, and if he wasn’t pulled away by the managers son, he’d probably be dead right now. Long story short, instead of suing the company and getting a lot of people fired, they got him a fantastic deal on one of the best cars they sold. Sometimes it pays to sue, sometimes you get a car and don’t ruin everyone’s lives lol.
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I'd like a "lies that Americans believe about Ireland" if you haven't done one already :)
I too would also like to see an episode about 10 lies Americans believe about Europe or Ireland or The U.K.
I think it would be very interesting from my perspective as I am from and live in America.
I found this episode to be very interesting too.
A lot of the things you mentioned I was like welllll, at first, but then you went on to explain and that made me think a bit more about it and I understood how it could look that way from another person's perspective which I really enjoyed! 😀
Looking forward to watching the next one you make Diane!
BTW, you did an excellent job on this one too! 😉
You are absolutely correct about the lawsuit thing. That literally happens every day all day. There's a woman currently trying to sue a man for $10,000 for a bad date.
This game is addicting btw I’ve had it for years now .
The actual statistics on firearms are:
70% of americans know how to use, have easy access to, and regally use firearms, in some form.
It is also believed 80% of American women own firearms, well only 60% of men own firearms, based on known sales.
In the Us you are no more than 100 yards from a firearm when in any town, though you will very rarely see one. It is no where near the way hollywood and the media portray it.
As a local Floridian, I always get mad when people think we ride alligators to work. That's not true. We only ride them during specific ceremonies.
🤣
🤣😂
I thought you only ride alligators at Halloween....for the effect 😜
Yeah it would take forever to get to work on an alligator....Except for the 2 weeks they hibernate every other January nothing beats the Florida Mosquito for fast, efficient, timely transportation.
Most Floridians are alligators at Christmas and Easter only.
Also, please don’t confuse California with the rest of the USA. The US is vast, with many different States and sub-cultures. Laws and customs can vary extensively from place to place.
Good point! I was born and raised in San Jose CA. Haven't lived there since I was 15. Now a days, I think they should require a visa and passport to go into or out of CA! Lol. The only problem I see is, the way that state is going, If you get in, they won't let you out! LOL.
This right here. Comparing the US to one of its states is like confusing the entire EU with one of its memberstates. For example, thinking what goes on and how things are in California also happen in say, Georgia would be like saying that what goes on in Greece also goes on in Ireland. The cultures and customs, and even secondary language can be quite different.
Also don’t forget how different states can be in themselves. I live in Northern California and I have extremely different views and (county laws) than southern cal.
not just california. big cities in california. there are a lot more regular people in california outside of the densely populated areas than people from other states think
Don't compare Central California with Southern California and the Bay Area. Geographically, most of the state is inland and largely rural. The Central Valley produces a great share of the nation's produce.
Best part of American breakfasts is that we made it acceptable to eat breakfast food at any time of day (or night).
I LUV breakfast for Supper........
Usually, cause in the mornings I don't have enough time to clean up after cooking.....
Yaaaas!
Its literally 3 am and I’m eating a bowl of cereal in my bed while binging TH-cam. In America this is considered the epitome of class. 😎
Yeah, right. I don't think I have ever once seen anywhere in the UK advertising 'all-day breakfast'.
I just had second breakfast.
After spending 2 years in Europe it was eye opening. From Auto racing to dating the perception (seriously misguided or just a need to make themselves feel better.) Europeans had of Americans is almost comical. I was in the stands at an F1 race in Europe and a few individuals made it a point to speak bad about me in their language thinking I did not understand them. I waited until the race was over and we were heading out the gate when I told them how much I enjoyed sitting with them in their language during the race. The shock on their face was priceless.
I dated a lot of Swedish girls back in the 80s and had a decent command of the language. Some Swedish girls, a bit later, were making comments about me. I turned to them and spoke Swedish. It's amazing how red a face can get.
People are people, they all do it, specially the ones who are ignorant and look down on others. I'm every culture, in every country
Alot of Europeans have a sort of inferiority complex towards the US it seems. I also find it funny how alot of Progressives, Europeans or otherwise have adopted this sort of cultural relativism where you're not necessarily suppose to judge or criticize other cultures you don't live in or understand but somehow most Europeans seem to think the US is suppose to be just like them and if it's not it's weird, sad, disgusting etc.
I used to do that when I was stationed in Germany. It was very useful to get women's views of how cute (or not) they thought I was:) .
Makes you wonder why we left in the first place.
I was cleaning my gun during my breakfast while watching your video. Some of the things on the list shocked me so much I spit out the bite of Big Mac I had just taken, prompting my boss to fire me. You’ll be hearing from my lawyer!
The 17 guns in my collection haven't killed anyone . I pray that I never have to fire a shot at a human being .
@@victorwaddell6530 At which point you have to wonder, why do you have them? XD
@Sturmdrache some people like them the same way one might like cars. Guns can be quite interesting if you're into history or mechanical engineering. There is alot that goes into gun culture on its own.
@@Lewis-jn8ry Thank You . BTW I have 18 guns now . I bought a Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun because I carried one when I was in the Navy . It's just a personal history item for me .
No, not all American's carry guns... but a BUNCH of us do. There are more civilian owned guns than military guns. This is why a non-nuclear invasion of the United States would never work. If other countries could somehow get past our military defenses and cross our borders (which would never happen), they would never make any real progress because the civilian population is too heavily armed. I know, this is such a weird subject LOL!!!! I'm only saying this because a British couple did a reaction video to "what would happen if the world went to war with the US." It was very informative and the British couple was so charming and fun.
I’d say the biggest myth about America is that we’re a singular culture. We aren’t. We are extremely diverse culturally and geographically. Thus where you go in America determines what thinks you were told rightly or wrongly on for many things.
My kids live in Colorado and Ohio, I live in Pennsylvania. (Born and bred in PA). Even Ohio is different than Pennsylvania. Colorado might just as well be ANOTHER country compared to Pennsylvania. The US is THAT diverse!
what culture are we talking about ?🙄😏
@@epicfunniest6230 did you just copy paste an unrelated comment?
@@epicfunniest6230 did you just copy paste an unrelated comment?
This comment got 49 likes? Really?
I talked to a German visiting the US and he was surprised that most of us don't absolutely worship David Hasselhoff. I said, let's ask these teens over here. We did. Not one heard of him, Baywatch, Knight Rider, etc. Not one. I said "dude, it's only a German thing".
Lol, it is, and he's be the thing in Germany for a LONG time, I chuckle every time I hear about this. Then again Romestain has a maybe small but quite cult following here.
@@unclejim1528 do you mean "rammstein"
@@leonrussell9607 Dang it, I googled it to get it right and still didn't, yes what you said, you must be one of them cult followers.
That's what I've always said. Those Germans love David hasselhoff.
As an American - David Hasselhoff is 😝😂😆. Yeah, a German thing for sure since the 80s.
I have a friend from Italy and she was absolutely shocked when she learned that, number one, we don't have pizza with french fries on it, and number two, not every house has white picket fences
Somebody probably should put french fries on pizza though.. that sounds pretty epic.
@@Robby_C Something to try on my next cheeseburger pizza. [cheddar and jack cheese, burger, bacon, sliced tomatoes}
Girl must have been disappointed.
@@Robby_C Yep. That sounds pretty tasty. Even better if you deep-fry it.
I had pizza with french fries on it once i think it was Giant Pizza in CT, I know they have pizza with mac and cheese on it, and a pizza with sliced loaded baked potato on it so french fries on pizza is almost a veggie pizza.
I grew up in California, and when I was 21 I moved to Germany. I stayed there for the next 15 years. I spend nearly 5 years learning the language. Learned it fast, too. Why? Because I had to answer 50,000 questions from locals wherever I lived and worked about stuff just like this.
"Is it true people kill each other over sneakers?"
-Dutch guy on the train in Spain, 1995
@@LindaC616 in Compton, probably
@@beachesandhose2374 I don't have experience there. But I did know of neighborhoods in other cities where it could/did happen, and told him exactly that--that it depends on where you are and whether or not ypu "belong" to that neighborhood (in which case, you know how to carry yourself, what (not) to wear).
@@beachesandhose2374 NYC, Oakland, Chicago, Houston, LA yes it happens but crime is worldwide - London had a guy stabbed over his exclusive limited edition shoe a few years ago.
@@LindaC616 Right? I used to have to explain to Turks, Kurds, Serbs and Greeks in Frankfurt why I wasn't rich, running the World, and oppressing minorities in my spare time while painting rooms or X-raying baggage for a living
Diane, you are one of the few people on the internet that has brought up the McDonald's coffee case and actually knows the truth about it.
🥰
I was unreasonably excited by your knowledge.
I remember we discussed that case in one of my college classes, lol.
the truth is that the woman had a hot beverage in her lap with the lid off while riding in a car. blame the high temp of the coffee on it all you want, but it wont take away the stupidity of having it in her lap in the first place
@@1369Stiles she wasn't riding in a car. The car was parked. She was in the passenger seat because her grandson had driven her there.
I'm from Wyoming. When I travel around my own country, people are often more curious about my Wyoming driver's license than a European passport. Most Americans encounter far more Europeans than Wyomingites. I remember a gas station attendant in Orlando telling me that she encounters a lot of French, German, and British citizens, but she had never encountered someone from Wyoming at her job. Her job was close to Disney world, universal studios and other theme parks.
PS: in Wyoming the majority of us do have pew pews though. The percentage of gun ownership varies wildly by region and State.
Idaho too!
On "Garfield and Friends" I was told that Wyoming didn't exist because nobody has ever met someone from Wyoming.
Utahn here! Love your state. Have crossed it many times as a trucker on I80 (I don't love it as much in the winter to be honest). It's a place I could easily live. And yes, we have plenty of pew pews too.
It's amazing there are so few of you - less than a million - and yet you get two Senators.
@@pattieodonnell723 that's how the Senate works. The House is based on population, but to prevent the big states overrunning the small ones they made the Senate not determined by population.
The "traditional breakfast" was originally called a "Farmers Breakfast" and is somewhat true. The breakfast was large because it would often be the only thing eaten until the farmer came in for the evening meal. It was often a simple porridge unless the farmer was well to do.
I think lumberjacks also ate large traditional breakfasts for the same reason farmers did. They also needed a lot of calories right away in the morning because they did hard physical work outside all day which burns a lot more calories than most jobs today.
As an American.. this list definitely made me chuckle 🤣! The misconception about us is just so blown out of proportion!!
Totally! Goes both ways too
As Americans do with everyone else lol
Wait, both ways? No way I’m calling my lawyer! Right after I finish this breakfast and cleaning all my guns and counting all my money……….😊
@@MrKcp3 🤣😂👍🏻
I loved this video! I don't eat fast food, but really enjoy large gatherings, where there is food for everyone.
On the deodorant thing, spray on deoderants were outlawed for a while in the late 70s because of the fluorocarbons. It was a while before they could be reformulated and a lot of people who had switched to stick or roll ons stayed with them
Oh wow! That actually makes so much sense!
God, I couldn’t stand spray deodorant because of a cold blast hitting my armpits and the the occasional mishap of it getting near my face. I asked my mom to get me a stick of deodorant or roll-on. Preferred the stick.
And now I’m curious whether Ireland has stick deodorant because I haven’t used roll-on since the early 90s
yeah, i didn’t know sprays are available. i really missed the aerosol lol
The sprays I've used just make me itch like crazy.
The reason the prices of goods varies so much in the US is because the country itself is the like the size of the continent of Europe.. so prices vary drastically for many reasons.
Right? Poor Hawaii...just about EVERYthing has to be shipped overseas.
@@jean-paulaudette9246 Yep, and to that shipping act (Jones Act, IIRC), anything coming from the mainland US has to be shipped on US-flagged transport ships... and there aren't many of those and they are more expensive than other shipping lines to boot, so HI gets hit even harder due to that.
Plus there's a lot of gouging at touristy places such as truck stops and travel centers... go to the grocery store down the street and pay 70% less for the same bottle of water.
Each state has different tax rates, a Pepsi in California will be priced differently to a Pepsi in texas or Washington.
@@Bohemiahotrodandcustom the difference from truck stop to grocery store is way bigger than the differences in state sales tax, unless maybe if you compare a state with a soda tax to a state without.
On the "I quit"/"You're fired" topic... A number of (most) US states are "right-to-work" states, which generally means that anyone can quit/be fired for any reason not explicitly illegal
Yeah but it still doesn't go down that way, the way portrayed on tv
That is not what "right to work" laws are.
You're confusing that with at will employment.
@@eq1373 apologies, that is correct. Seems that my particular state just happens to be both. The "right-to-work" part has to do with labor union membership (employers can't require membership/deny employment due to membership in any union... But they can fire you for an unrelated reason without specifying what it is)
@@Jake9066 it used to be called "At Will" labor.
There are almost always employment contracts and often union agreements that have to be honored. Even in right-to-work states.
I laughed at the deodorant bit. It brought memories back of my mom spraying on her deodorant and hairspray in the morning. I think a lot of people stopped using spray on deodorant because of the ozone layer. It seems my generation was constantly being told to use the stick/roll-on deodorant to save our planet.
I think you're right about this. I'm a stick man myself, but mostly because I thought spray deodorant was messy. It does exist, but I don't think it's very popular.
I had the exact same thought... the ozone layer scare is a big part of it.
This. I think aerosol products in general are just unpopular now because of that, even though the propellant has been changed.
As an older person in the crowd, spray deodorant was cold. It came out of the can cold. Not fun.
You get more product and even coverage with the roll-on type vs using a can deodorant spray.
There's actually a massive difference between employment in the US and Europe. We frequently have "at-will" employment, which actually does mean you can quit or be fired on the spot. It's rarely as stupidly dramatic as the clips shown here (rather, think about Office Space- quietly firing people on a Friday). Yes, contracts exist, but not for a large portion of hourly and per annum employees.
This is true. Just because you’re an at-will employee doesn’t mean you get fired randomly.
There are other factors that differ by type of job and region. For example, in some professions it is expected that either employer or employee is supposed to give two weeks notice, whereas in construction an employee giving two weeks notice is likely going to result in being fired on the spot. Then there are layoffs where there is an expectation of being rehired as soon as business picks back up, but which frequently results in workers going elsewhere before that can happen - especially as one never knows whether it will be two weeks, three weeks, two months, or never that business picks up.
At-will employment benefits the employer for the first 4 months. They can fire you @ anytime for any reason including no reason @ all. Afterwards the employee can receive unemployment benefits.
@@alanlight7740 It's worth noting, however, that the "two weeks notice" is customary and is not legally required, unless it is a part of one's hiring contract. More challenging is non-compete riders, which have begun to filter down from executive levels to the wage earners.
I'm told that Irish people drink a lot - probably not true. Also, that English have bad teeth, also likely not true. I'm sure Movies like Austin Powers perpetuate that belief. I traveled most of Europe while in the service, but never got to see the U.K., but hope to someday.
You’ve done a fine job revealing the fact that one should be very cautious formulating impressions of other cultures based on movie industry hokum and, even worse, news media nit wits who wildly exaggerate anything and everything.
This! 👆
You ever just have to brake it down to a German online that Texas is the Size of Germany, California has a Bigger Economy than Germany and not far off from it's Population either, and that's just Two of 50 State's, Territories and even (mostly) Sovereign Indian Nations within US, and proceeding to explain all our different cultures within that Vast Area larger than Europe and mind them many Americans know the Countries their Ancestors to Parents came from while I go over a list of my nationalities, and scuff off the idea I'm supposed to know the constantly changing smaller Eastern European States or I as an American don't know Geography, when Americans know of allot more Nations in Europe that most of US come from Multiple Nations there (even allot of Brown people have ancestry in a place or two over there) oppose to how little Europe knows of our 50 State's, Territories, Indian Nations, not to mention the Rest of the Continent. I think they make their maps the funny way over there, and hid all the Globes, and they don't understand how small Europe is, at the same time, shocked at the list of European Nations (& Lebanon) that my ancestors come from, and how in fact that leads Americans to have done far more Research on European Countries to other Nations, than their European Counterparts have into the Americas! So who's the Rude one's not knowing Geography?!? Me for not knowing all the small Counties in Eastern Europe and no clue what Liechtenstein is... Or the Germ- mons for thinking all Americans live in the Bible Belt/ Tornado Ally which is less far than Germany to France or Poland from New York City or Hollywood! They are always shocked when they figure out how big the place is... Sometimes I have to mind them when I was outside the Greater Boston Area that in an hour drive circle of me, there's more of a Population than your whole Nation, and within that area we have more than your whole Nation has to offer (and I was including Boston, only an hour away at Night, 3 hours with Road Work going on, which was often going on). We had an small airforce base next to US, sublet of a bigger network, and they barely had jets there, but there often daily rounds, had more Combat Power than some Europe States! And I lived in a town of 5,000... On 3.5 acres (now 1.65 acres my own on a Pennisula) while they live crammed together on a 1/16th of Acre, or live in an apartment... As they mock our wood houses. And I know allot of shitty wooded houses around me, sitting on 20 acres on the Ocean, so you can keep your Rock Houses now Concrete Houses Europe!
You ever hear of these European Tourists that think the US is so small they going to start in NYC in the Morning, be at DC by Lunch, Miami Beach for Drinks for Dinner, hit the Beach, be off to Las Vegas play some Cards and Spin the Wheel, have a few more drinks, and by last call be in Hollywood by last Call smashing nasties with a Star, because of course everyone is a Star in Hollywood and fly out the next morning, while there whole world comes crashing down and they show up, realize that would take all week just stock on a plane or airport the whole time, and they are too broke for that as an None American European! And their Broke Arse Euro!!!
With the Exclusion of Ross-shire split into Easter Ross and Wester Ross inspiring the Books and Show the Game of Thrones, Europe is Trash!
So true! Hollywood and news media have got to be the worst when it comes to portraying reality!!!
The most important thing to keep in mind is that many of our states are the size of countries. Culture varies drastically across. To the point where our accents are so far apart you could mistake them for different languages.
Very good point. Even most Americans don't fully realize how big this country is. I've traveled this country VERY THOROUGHLY testing railroad tracks for the last 30 years.
It is hard to fully appreciate just how varied this country is until you are put in all the places people don't typically go on vacation. (And all the places they do.)
When I was a kid about 12(65 now) we went from Ohio to W. Virginia to pick up my sister's kids from her in laws. I remember most of the way my mom kept asking my dad "What did she/he say? I went to a public school where there was diversity, but it didn't occur to me that they sounded different(I think my brain just adjusted). Now I can't keep up with my kids or their kids or TV speech, because it's too fast(age thing)
ehhh i dont think its that different but i think some sound funny lmao
And Ireland wouldn't even be a big state - in size and population, the entire island of Ireland (NI and ROI) is about the same as the state of Indiana.
"To the point where our accents are so far apart you could mistake them for different languages" Quit fucking bullshitting lmao. It's always Americans who never traveled outside of their country who say shit like this
Another thing to consider in the whole "Americans are rich" thing is that...taking a European vacation if you live in the US is EXPENSIVE. Therefore, a large percentage of actual Americans that Europeans might have had a chance to meet will, in fact, be wealthier than average.
Exactly! There are “fat cats” in every nation…
I'm poor and I've been to Europe many times. Maybe that's why I'm poor.
Vacations are always expensive.
As an American who has traveled the country the culture and views you will be exposed to are vastly different depending on what part of the country you find yourself in.
The overwhelmingly vast majority of employment in the US is considered "at will" which means that you can quit at any time and you can also be fired at any time for any reason aside from a handful of discriminatory protections. You also have no repercussions against getting fired unless you can prove it was a discriminatory move which is very hard to do court because even if it was discriminatory firing all they have to do is think of one other reason and that's what they report.
You *can* get fired (or quit) for no reason in the vast majority of American jobs, but employers would be extremely stupid to regularly fire people for no reason. Hiring new people tends to be quite expensive and losing employee knowledge is also rather expensive in most industries other than unskilled labor. As such, employers who actually want to stay in business don't fire people for no reason. Additionally, if a company develops a reputation for doing that, good employees will be less likely to go there, which means that they will pay more for future employees and/or get worse ones.
Similarly, one can quit an at-will job for no reason any time they want with or without notice. But most people like to have incomes and also don't want to develop a reputation for quitting for no reason at the drop of a hat (making it harder to get good jobs in the future) and, so, will not quit for no reason.
@@vbscript2 Not what stops them... It's the Unemployment Insurance that gets them. As the Federal Government charges them outrageous amounts. If you fire someone without cause....Which is easy to do. Just dispute it. 99.9% of the time the Employer loses...Then they charge back the amount to the Employer account.....
@@WizzRacing nonsense state unemployment tax is way higher.
@@victorhopper6774 What the f#$k did I just say? You must have got off the Short Bus. To not read what I posted...
And it's not a damn tax.. It's insurance the Employer has to pay...
@@WizzRacing dumbass unemployment tax is a government run fund. in most states and the fed it is a % of payroll. i wrote those checks for years.
I heard someone say one time that Americans say “ excuse me “ for everything. Canadians say “ sorry “. I read in a news article from international hotel workers that Americans ranked 2nd behind Japanese for guests that they preferred. These are two things that I heard over the years.
The rental agency i used that rented cars in Slovakia loved American clients. They had the fewest reported dents and accidents per 100 customers. The worst were locals and Italians were a distant second.
I never pretend to be a Canadian in Europe. If some Europeans and Brits want to stay stupidly Ignorant because I’m American then that’s their arrogant problem.
Growing up in America, watching families have full course breakfasts on school days with everyone sitting at the table at the same time, all dressed and ready and not at all rushed was very confusing as an American child as well. "How early did everyone get up!?"
I always thought the same thing! When I would see cereal commercials and shit like that with the whole family eating a big breakfast together. Either, "Geez, do these people wake up at 4 a.m.?" Or, "Geez, do these people not have to start work and school until 10:30?" Such absurdity...
Lol. We went to school without breakfast. No time
On tv/movies they'd sit for a second take a bite of toast, throw it on the plate and say I'm late bye! Leaving an entire breakfast on the plate for mom to throw away. So not real life! Drove me nuts as a starving kid in America.
Lol! Same. As an American, when watching movies involving teens, I could not grasp how in the world the writer, director, producer, etc. did not understand that there are literally not enough hours in a day for any person to eat a huge and unhurried breakfast, work a shift at their part time job in the morning before school, go to school for a full day, do whatever after school activities they choose (sports or band and homework) and participate in whatever adventure the movie revolves around.
My mother cooked a full breakfast every morning, biscuts from scratch, eggs, bacon, grits and coffee. Before she went to work and we went to school. I tried to do the same but my family wouldn't get up and eat. So now it's a Boost to drink and out the door for all of us.
I remember visiting London and the cab driver who took me to my hotel simply would not believe that I didn’t own a gun nor had I ever seen a gun fired. He was convinced that there were shoot outs on American streets frequently and accused me of lying to make America look good.
I guess he'd be happier to talk with me as I own a number of firearms, have shot them a lot, was a municipal police officer in a town next to Detroit (and saw gunfights and their results), not to mention having been in the military and in two wars. He'd also be happy to hear that every adult in my immediate family carries a concealed firearm daily and my five-year old granddaughter can recite the firearms safety rules perfectly.
Speak for yourself, I use one gun I use to scratch my butt with, another for brushing my teeth with, right now I'm using 3 different guns to type on my keyboard. And how could you have never seen a gun fired and not have a gun? What do you do when you get challenged to a duel? What do you do when you need to get something off the top shelf in a grocery store?
If it isn't gang violence, there are only a few hundred gun murders every year and they are all in the news across the whole country for a week. The media has always been nonsense.
Never seen a gun fired outside range or hunting grounds.
The cab driver was, and probably still is, an ass.
Something I think Europeans should keep in perspective too is we aren't really monocultured. We have a shared core value system(ideally). The land area this nation covers is vast and the way of life can be as varied as it is traveling across Europe itself.
I guess that is problematic for many Europeans as that is how the U.S likes to present itself. As one country. However that country is the size of Europe, bigger than the E.U.
I would be curious how Americans perceive the E.U. Do you hear more about single countries doing things, like Germany or France, or do your news say Europeans or the E.U?
Because I could imagine it is similar for us both, if you hear in the news that the U.S did something, you might think "The government did, my state has nothing to do with that", while E.U citizens often think the same when hearing about something the E.U did: "Hmm, the E.U decides, but my country...".
The only time I can imagine any European citizen talking about the E.U is when they passed a new law or directive. Otherwise everyone just talks about their own country or region.
I think the U.S is ahead of us in that they actually really consider themselves at least in their thinking much more as a country/collective than a lot of the E.U does. That is probably also why the E.U doesn't really get anything rolling too much, because most people think they are citizens of their country, not of the E.U. Europeans yes, but E.U citizens not really. Hard to explain, kinda as if Americans would feel they are Northern Americans and citizens of their state, but would not feel as much as U.S citizens in their identity.
We are one nation with a common language, currency and history, a union of like States all having a shared Destiny.
1923 version amended 1954 to include God
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
What is that core value system?
@@jacksnyder7318 A shared destiny?? What does that even mean lmao
@@denidale4701 In the US we definitely hear about and think of individual European countries as their own entities more often than the EU as a whole. About the only headlines I can recall seeing about the EU in general rather than individual member countries are when a country is in the process of joining or leaving or if there is some kind of trade deal that is being negotiated between the US and EU as a whole rather than an individual country, or if the EU is deliberating on some kind of policy change or law that would substantially affect the US.
The original vision for the US was to be more like how the EU is: a loose federation of similar but mostly-autonomous states with a common currency.
That vision has been continually perverted and ignored in the years since the side that championed that vision was defeated in a civil war. Now in practice we're more like a unitary nation than a loose federation of 50 separate entities, but vestiges of this still exist and can be difficult for Europeans to understand when they hear about drastic differences in the laws of one US state versus another, or that Florida or Mississippi or Georgia are bucking the Feds on something (a common example is passing state laws that forbid any law enforcement officer from enforcing certain federal laws that have been deemed or are under litigation to determine if they are or are not unconstitutional.) Can you imagine Nottinghamshire just telling London to piss off? Or Bavaria telling Berlin that no, actually, we aren't going to do what you tell us? Well, US states do that to the federal government on a regular basis.
The more independent origin of our states also goes a long way towards explaining some of the geographic tribalism we have in the US. People from Georgia have pretty strong (and negative) opinions of New York, and the feeling is mutual. Most of the country dislikes California and the generally pretentious, arrogant people from there. Pretty much everyone shits on Mississippi (dead last in most major metrics like education, average income, etc). Americans might (but not necessarily) feel the stereotypical, flag-waving strong national identity that everyone always thinks of, but we also have regional identities and state identities that are often stronger than our national one. I know a *large* number of Texans who would love to secede again. If Florida did, I wouldn't think twice about shedding my 'American' label.
The "United States" are not nearly so 'united' as people think.
Diane…the breakfast thing. Funny story. I grew up eating a bowl of cold cereal with milk for breakfast. Then spent weekends in Jr. & Sr. High school with my grandpa, who was from Ireland. EVERY breakfast with Pop was cereal, toast, a hard boiled egg, bangers, tea and Irish soda bread w raisins in it. GOD
I loved that man😁☘️🇺🇸🇮🇪.
My husband is not from America and we have been together for many years. He still thinks ‘we’re in America, if something is wrong we should threaten to sue’. Trying to explain that things don’t work that way has been difficult.
If you believed that teenagers were a bigger part of every day life from TV shows, you would also have to believe teens in America are actually 30-35 years old. I love your content, keep up the great job.
I got a laugh about the breakfast part. When I visited Ireland decades ago, every B&B gave “the traditional Irish breakfast” which must come from some time long ago when people ate 1 meal a day and worked on farms or something. No one on our trip ate it after the second day because it was just too huge and like you said, it made everyone want to take a nap!
Irish breakfasts are pretty good but i don't know how can anybody eat that black pudding. Eesh! Also strange to have baked beans with their breakfast but that's actually pretty good. And Boxty - yummm! But give me a bit of bacon, couple eggs with toast and I'm set.
I dated a woman from Helsinki. She was absolutely shocked to find out that things like medicare, medicaid, unemployment, EBT cards, the entire array of welfare benefits exist.
She was always told that if you come to America and you don't have a job, you will starve in the streets. That literally, you work from the day you're able to until the day you die.
The best part of the whole charade, her mother was governor of one of the States in Finland. She thought that it was nothing but brainwashing to keep people in the country because everybody who has any way out leaves because of the high tax rate.
Finland also has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. But anyways glad she actually visited the US so she won’t be stuck on her assumptions about the US.
@@arlenec3983Finland is also one of the happiest countries in the world.
To say nothing of the fact that people save for retirement. We have a lot of middle class people who retire as millionaires.
I think it's a safe bet Diane was somewhat heart broken to learn the truth about American breakfast habits. Though to be fair, a good percentage of our cereals do contain enough sugar to make waffles and pancakes potentially the lower carb breakfast option.
I'd eat it every single day if i could Walter! Did you check your patreon DM's recently?
@@DianeJennings Diane, if you make it back to the US again it would be worth checking out a restaurant chain called Denny's. Be sure to get the Grand Slam breakfast (available 24 hours a day)
@@josephcote6120 International House of Pancakes would also be a good one to try, if she wants sweets for breakfast. Tell her NOT to go Waffle House, though! lol
@@josephcote6120 I may be a bit biased but I would vote for a visit to Cracker Barrel for chain breakfasts. They're objectively very good with usually good service too. Plus the little country shop in the front is kinda cute too. Denny's and IHOP while iconic is just going to be disappointing.
@@ironwolf9876 Cracker Barrell has a very racist reputation for anyone who isn't straight or white. They don't deserve your money.
Until the 1950's. no one in media cared what teenagers thought, but after the great depression, when the economy was swinging and teens had their own money to spend on whatever they wanted instead of getting jobs to help out with family needs, there was a shift in media attention. I think the first example of this was the film, "Rebel Without A Cause" starring James Dean. It was marketed to teens, written for them and about them, but it had no rock and roll music. It is often cited as being "the" movie for its' generation, yet it didn't even get a proper soundtrack for the generation that it was meant to personify. The trend of focusing on the "young dollar" has continued ever since, however, with better, more representative music selections for films such as "The Breakfast Club."
There is also a lot of change and drama in a teenager's life that make good stories. The transition from childhood to adulthood is also a major architype in storytelling.
Small kids look at stories about teens and think, "Wow, that is so cool. I want to have that freedom and do all that"
Teens look at stories about teens and think, "I can relate to what he feels and wish I could do that too"
Adults look at stories about teens and think, "Yeah, I remember that cringe. LOL"
@@alienlife7754 I think the majority of people likely only heard the Simply Red song anyway. This was prior to movies loading up soundtracks with legit big name bands/musicians. IIRC it was Last Action Hero that started that trend. The movie mostly bombed but the soundtrack sold well.
The commercialization of teenagerdom has been a very negative development of the recent past (and present).
You're correct, when it comes to disposable income items, movie tickets, chain restaurants, clothing stores. They have made a push toward a younger audience. Successfully. Car dealerships not so much, mortgage brokers nah not really advertising a lot to teens. So it really depends on what you're looking at and what you're buying and as a foreigner consuming our media from the outside yeah it must seem like that's all we do. But then again this year's Sundance film festival winners probably aren't getting a lot of play on British television. They have to accommodate their own peoples adult movies, ones that would relate to them better. But with kids they have less cultural influence and so kids movies will go all over the English world. So again from the outside perspective it looks like Americans only make stuff for kids and teens. Other industries that started only doing things for kids like video games for example have gone the other way more recently and realize that hey older people can enjoy that stuff too. Saying that American pop culture industry strictly chases the young dollar is also a misrepresentation.
Rebel without a cause was filmed before Rock n Roll was a thing, and it took another 40 years for mainstream Hollywood producers to get it right (or even close). Music in soundtracks is determined by the age of the producers, not the target market.
As an American, I get tired of seeing celebrity news on the mainstream news. I really don't care what the celebrities do. I'm convinced that the media wants us to want to care about celebrities. I'm sure there's some conspiracy there somewhere.
I was stationed in Germany for 2 tours and when I got over there initially at least it was "different" but not in a really weird way. I learned GI German there. Thanks.
One of my favorite food cross-culture surprises happened on my first trip to Britain: I noticed on the menu that there were muffins & "American Muffins." After a moment I gathered that what in the US we call "English Muffins", in England are known as muffins; the same is true for American Muffins as well, of course.
Also "Cool ranch" in other countries is "American flavor". lol Which yeah, no hate. ^_^
Oh, I thought you were going to say that it was just like french fries, where each country blames the food's existence on the other. (the french word for "french fries" is "frites Americain", meaning "american fries")
@@medexamtoolscom We actually call them French Fries because the potatoes are frenched (cut into long strips). It's just a culinary technique; instead of slicing the potatoes and frying them you french them and fry them.
Curious what the French call a "French Kiss"? I think they call French Fries "pomme frites"
@@steve41557 Traditionally, a "French kiss" involved kissing on each cheek, the English kiss only on one. Not sure if they differentiated between tongue/no tongue.
You should read the American book of The Millionaire Next Door. There are lots of people here in America who do not live on credit. I remember living in England for 2 years and I invited my daughter's friend down the street for dinner she came over and was determined that we were going to have hamburgers and she was excited about it. I didn't want to disappoint her but I did not have hamburgers on the menu so I packed everybody in the car and we went to the nearest McDonald's so that she could have a hamburger. She was very happy we were glad she visited. Also I had some German people visit me when I lived in America in my twenties and they were all excited because we had two refrigerators full size American refrigerators that is so she thought we were rich
I remember when I lived in (South) Korea I spent most of my time talking about American culture instead of teaching English. One thing that I always got asked was whether I knew different celebrities. I never figured out if they thought all Americans personally knew celebrities or if it was a language barrier when they really wanted to know if I knew who a celebrity was or was a fan of the celebrity. I eventually gave up and told them I knew every celebrity they asked me about.
@@denellelloyd1280 da fuq?
Yaah, you really did both sides a great service, bullshitting them like that. Nice job.
Our media did not always focus a lot on celebrities. I started following the news back in the summer of 1982. They covered geostrategic, geo-economic, geopolitical, national, and other topics. The real news. Over the past few years, I've shifted more to going directly to the source of the news and getting the whole story. If you were to ask me anything having to do with celebrities, I'll be like the "interviewees" in Mark Dice's TH-cam interview on the street videos. I'd draw a blank stare.
I was on vacation in Jamaica a few years ago with bunch of friends and we are from the Chicago area, we met a family from the UK and they told us that they were surprised that we were so friendly! We chilled with them for a week!
Fun video! As an American who lived in France for 10 years, I was confronted with many of these same ideas and others. But then, when in the US, I was always having to refute the lies that Americans believed about France.
As a filmmaker in America, I'd like to weigh in on the deodorant issue. I think the main reason roll-ons are used in film and television is because the scene requires many, many takes. The "roll-on" can be completely fake and not put anything on the actor's underarm, but a spray is going to spray something. Then that something is either going to build up on them or it's going to have to be cleaned off before the next take of that action. It will also tend to accumulate in the air of the studio or location. I've never done a scene with anyone putting on deodorant, but if I did it would be roll-on.
Also, aerosol use has gone way down in America as an environmental issue as well as a personal health one.
There's also the connotation that if you use spray deodorant, you're kind of a douchebag. It goes back to how popular Axe and its knock offs got in the early 2000s with young men thinking that this spray would magically make them attractive to women. So, when I do see it in a movie or TV show, it is almost used as a shorthand joke for guy who is trying way too hard to impress women.
@@TeodorSpiridon In the Philippines Axe is still very popular to spray on before you leave the house and it does smell good still
Some of these things were once true but are now outdated: The "American Breakfast" was a thing for a long time because up until after WWII, most Americans lived in rural areas and had to do farm work. People who didn't had been eating lighter breakfasts.
Others are due to the entertainment industry not knowing other industries: People being suddenly fired is/was apparently a thing in the entertainment industry and writers assumed it worked the same way in other industries.
Same thing happens in the US to a degree too: Most movies are written out in California so when movie writers need to talk about the law it's usually based in California law. Americans see the those movies and think any laws the movie mentions must laws all over and not just in California. Cue lots of confusion about some laws
Also, many parents in the 1950s remember growing up in the Depression and then the food rationing of WWII, so that when they had the opportunity to buy lots of food for their kids--they did it. Remember the breakfast scene in "Pleasantville."
I've never heard even one of these lies/misconceptions.
Let's be honest, the mere idea that there would be no variation of characters/lifestyle in a 330 M population is utterly ridiculous.
Yes but that doesn’t stop even Americans from assuming we are uniform across the continent.
I don't know that all of these things are actually taught in other countries. Most are probably just perceptions that naturally form whenever you see a limited view of something (like a Hollywood movie or new media segment). You probably have perceptions of countries too that you probably don't even realize exist. It's natural.
I've been to the Philippines and most everything the locals know and assume about America and Americans. They learn from either the news which can be one sided or plain awful.
Or movies and sitcoms.
If everything you've learned about Japan was from a new channel you couldn't understand or anime.
You would be shocked on your first visit.
I lived in Germany for a few years in my youth. I don't recall ever being this gullible about another culture or having some grand revelation that Germans were just normal people. That was kind of a given.
4:38 I'd say the most common deoderant type now is stick deoderant (kind of a white waxy substance that you rub in your pits). I'm not sure I've seen roll-on (a container of liquid with a ball at the top that spreads the liquid in the pits) for decades. And yes, we have spray but I've never used it.
I haven’t used a spray deodorant since I was a teen. Not sure why I stopped.
@@dalemoore8582 the greenhouse gas stole the ozone's spotlight, lol! 😜 But no worries we're all gonna die in 12 years according to Gretal
This does tend to be the most efficient type if you're going to put it on while wearing a short sleeved shirt. If you wanted to spray it on you'd have to disrobe first.
@@dalemoore8582 ah, the ozone is healing because we stopped using the chemicals that were destroying it. If we went back to using those same chemicals the problem would begin again. Thankfully, they found other propellants that were also effective, so we could go back to sprays just not those sprays. We solved the acid rain problem also. Sadly, the climate problem has been heavily lobbied against, so that one remains a catastrophe, and not a success story.
That woman that sued mcdonalds for the hot coffee had it dumped in her lap at a drive thru window. previous to that mcdonalds coffee was near the boiling point. so yes she was severly burned when that happened. i knew the lawyer that handled the case.
That is not even remotely what took place, either your friend the lawyer lied to you or you misunderstood. She was given the coffee and she put it between her legs to hold it then drove and the coffee splashed on her legs. McDonald's actually had their coffee slightly cooler than the usual stuff you get at a restaurant.
@@christophertaylor9100 she had to get skin grafts.
@@Redbikemaster doesn't mean McDonald's was to blame
@@christophertaylor9100 you said they had it slightly cooler than others. If she needed skin grafts, that's probably not true.
@@christophertaylor9100 if you do a little research you will learn that McDonalds had their coffee a lot hotter. They did that so that when someone ordered coffee on the way to work it would still be super warm when they were ready to drink it. Also, the woman had third degree burns that required surgery. You can't get that with coffee that is slightly cooler than most restaurants serve it.
3:21 This is the one that I could most agree is a myth. Not only do most Americans (including myself) not pay too much attention celebrities, most of us actually don't care at all about their personal lives, and are even critical when people treat them like they're super special and need to be treated super differently. Don't get me wrong, some of them are super cool people, but most of them are sort of viewed as normal people with an above average talent in something.
Given how full of themselves they've gotten and how they seem to have gotten this idea that they can tell the rest of us how to live, what to believe and even how to vote like we are idiot children who can't function without their guidance, I really couldn't give a damn about the majority of them anymore. Most of them are total douchebags who don't even live in the same reality we all do.
Same, I didn't know who Kim Kardashian was until I was a Freshman in high school.
I think this is mostly an age thing. Celebrities would seem way more important to a teenager for example
@@bugstomper123 You underestimate the sad, lonely older generations who have nothing better in their lives than to follow people they think have more interesting lives and more money than them. They follow them obsessively and gossip about them like they are old friends, but most "celebrities" have no moral compass, a huge ego and would just step over their fans if they were dying in the street as they go to their next movie interview or spa appointment without giving it a second thought.
@@bugstomper123 I somewhat agree with on that, but I know a boatload of teenagers that couldn't care less about celebrities.(including myself, I'm a teenager as well)
3:09 actually, 49/50 states are at will employment. Yes, contracts exist for some employment but by and large you can be fired or you can quit with little to no repercussions. If you're on good terms with you employer, it si customary to give 2 weeks notice, but it's not necessary and the employer could just tell you to go home and not come back.
What’s the 50th that isn’t?
@@TheAndrewJohnBennett strangely, I think it's Montana
Yes, if you want a letter of recommendation from your employer it's good to give two weeks notice and "Your services are no longer required" is all they have to say. At least in California if you are being let go for no good reason the will use those words exactly to stay within the law.
There are always repercussions... it just depends on what they are. For example, future employers seldom want to hear that you quit a previous job without a fantastic reason and particularly without notice. Why would they want to put themselves in that same position? They don't. But it works the other way too, where disgruntled employees can sue or get media attention to the 'abuses' of an employer, even when the suit won't win or the employer had the legal right to do so. Many companies with deep pockets will even pay out such suits to save themselves the expense and public relations trouble from fighting them. Likewise, any employer who fires someone will probably have to replace them, and for all but the lowest of jobs this is not a trivial consideration. And as with the other side of the equation, no employee is going to be happy interviewing for someone who spontaneously liquidated their predecessor. So while it may seem like there is no 'safety net' to prevent capricious firings, there are actually quite a few social checks in place.
@@HerculesBallsInc it varies by state.
Its refreshing that you have gone back to doing these lists. Missed them. 🙂
Yes, you can blame most of those misconceptions on Hollywood and the news media. It is one of the reason many people now here in the USA no longer put much faith in it. Not necessarily that they are lying, but horribly skewed.
No. They’re actually lying.
@@docbailey3265 and they're not even good at it
A lot of lies and a lot of opinions. Real news is supposed to be facts only.
Haha my Brazilian friend asked me one time if pancakes were a normal daily breakfast for us. She had assumed that because it is a normal special-occasion breakfast, so she often got pancakes when she was invited to people's houses.
That's so true, the only time we do “Big Breakfast” is on holidays and for visitors.
It depends on where. For us growing up,
Pancakes were a staple (and waffles for my kids). This is because they were, and, are dirt cheap to make. Cheaper than cereal and you can doctor them up with what you have.
My entire adult life I had nothing more than a cup of coffee for breakfast. I found that eating breakfast made me sleepy before lunch! I found out I wasn’t unusual, a lot of people skip breakfast. Anyone remember Supertramp, Breakfast in America? That was exactly what that song was about.
You know that now you are obligated to have pancakes for breakfast whenever your friend is over... right? You must, drive your friend nuts.
Yeah, my breakfast is usually a cup of coffee and a Clif Bar… I can’t imagine making and eating pancakes every day.
Even though I'm technically from America, Hawaii. Going to the continental US for the first time was definitely a culture shock. I completely understand what you mean about believing stuff about some people in America that turns out to be not true.
Like what?
I’ve never been to Hawaii but if you tell me it isn’t full of hot babes and fat dudes cooking whole pigs on the beach, I’ll be sad.
@@Dakotako you just killed me, lmao! I'm thinking hot surfer dudes big waves and Kona coffee everywhere! 🤙🏼🏄
What island are you from?
@@Dakotako We do have a lot of hot babes and fat dudes, but not a lot of cooking on the beach. For Luaus we normally cook pigs underground. You ain't lived till you had some kalua pig.
I definitely vote for a video about lies ( maybe stereotypes is nicer ) Americans believe about Europe .
Like they are always naked!!! Lol
Yes, no doubt I don't really know anything about Europeans 😅
@@NFTeve Isn't that just Germans on vacation?
Is tea as big of a thing as movies make it
She has one, mentioned it before the ad.
About the spray-on deodorant: I think it was shown in the media a lot less when awareness was raised that a widely used spray propellant (chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs) were believed to be harming the Earth's ozone layer. At that time, advertising for roll-on deodorant increased. (In the store aisles here in America, I see a lot more of the stick deodorant, with some roll-on or spray deodorant available.)
I'd like to correct the "I quit" and "You're fired" portion. That does happen, quite often. Most states, when they hire an employee, sign a contract, but it is stipulated that employment is 'at will' meaning that they can release you or you can quit for any reason at any time. There are actions you can take if you're fired unlawfully, but those are rare and hard to prove.
I think I just realized I look forward to Fridays more for Diane (and Chewie of course) rather than the start of the weekend. 😲
Aww thats so nice!
@@DianeJennings You are great Diane thanks for all you do. Still can't believe all the attention you lavish on us.
What is often depicted as the "traditional American breakfast" is really better termed as a "farmer's breakfast". Those huge, high-calorie breakfasts were important for farmers and other people who did 12+ hours of hard labor every day (miners and such), and started very early in the morning. For most Americans, eating a breakfast like that is more of a weekend or "special occasion" than a daily event.
THIS. I use to eat a large hearty breakfast full of sausage and eggs etc every day. I then went to work at a VERY labor intensive job for 10 to 14 hours. I don't break my back to make a living now, thankfully. And I now eat very little at breakfast.
For the breakfast thing, the big breakfast is usually only on weekends. On weekdays, my breakfast is usually just a peach or an orange. My friend doesn't eat breakfast at all on weekdays. The pancakes and muffins and waffles and sausages are usually just on weekends when you have the time to enjoy a big breakfast.
I laughed out loud at the roll on deodorant and “America themed breakfast” everyday! 🤣. I just imagined setting the table with American flags and red, white and blue placemats with mounds of fatty breakfast foods! 🤣🤣🤣
While "The Stars and Stripes Forever" plays on loop on the background! 😂
@@Seamus_McSeamus 🤣🤣🤣🤣
The sad part is most of the fatty breakfast choices is the cereals, juices, pop tarts, muffins, etc..
@@kentvandevender9731 True, people mistake fat content for fatty, even though the fattiest breakfasts are the high carb ones.
Yum! Yum Yum!
I have a job where I have to deal with a lot of travelers and one of the most strangest and oddest compliments I get from foreigners to us Americans is how polite we are.
I've heard it from many people from many places. But they say we are courteous or outgoing or not afraid of conversations a strangers or sparking up a conversation with a stranger opening the door for a stranger giving a seat up. We're just nicer they say. And we always say thank you for everything very often.
This is true any time I've traveled also. The myth of the "ugly American" is just that. A handful of Karens, usually caught on video, being rude in other countries, but overwhelmingly any rudeness I've encountered is few and far between and from locals that don't like foreigners or maybe don't like Americans. I think it's another one of those myths perpetuated by people whose ideology lends itself to shitting on America or Americans. So they want to believe it even though it's really not true.
Americans just have too many good opportunities available to them and live far enough away from their neighbors that we only suffer if we choose. We're usually pretty carefree.
@@bobjohnson1633 I have to agree but I think you're over exaggerating it with Americans I think a lot of foreigners failed to realize that we're made up of 50 states most of our states could easily be a whole country in Europe maybe two states for every country in Europe hell the Ukraine is it even as big as Texas and it's the bread basket of Europe.
I think foreigners just really don't comprehend the scale of America and the diverse cultures within it no not talking about foreign cultures invading I'm talking about actually Americana diversified between 50 individual states.
But your sentiment doesn't quite hold up cuz I can state New York City as being one of the prime grounds along with other major cities in the US they feel the same way they overt their eyes they ignore people they give them their space even when they're all packed in like sardines.
Washington DC reminded me of that.
No one likes to be stared at no one likes to be conversed with they want a moment of silence and contemplation throughout the chaos that they're forced to constantly live in.
I'm from Oklahoma and Texas and I get it I've traveled a bit and I like to people watch and as I stayed with my job I see a lot of foreigners.
My point being if you can find a mindset that's from a Western country you'll find a similar mindset in one of the 50 states in America maybe it might be only in a city or two might be in a whole state might be a whole entire coastal area America is just too diversified and broken up by its geology and ecology as well as in its history. There's enough space for cultures and people to be themselves.
But I don't agree with all the illegal immigration it's just slave labor with a nice name on it. Democrats only see them as easy votes which is f****** hilarious when you consider how many illegals are voting Republican now who knew coming from a s*** country makes you realize how right the Republicans are right now in history they might not always be f*** maybe 5 10 15 years they will become the assholes again but right now in history the left are the biggest assholes especially the rich left.
I can't say I've met all the Americans, but I can say I've met a handful that were great. And far more that were pure asshats
I've heard from several different sources across the world that Americans are generally loud speaking & outgoing, direct and efficient with low tolerance for time wasting or being inconvenienced (eg waiting in line/cuing), and notably high in consideration for others.
Apparently, the consideration we view as just basic respect here is not as universal around the world.
I find that interesting, because Americans also also know for being really independent (a good and bad thing), so I would expect that to translate into a _lack_ of consideration, "out of my way, I'm doing my own thing." Instead, it seems to have done the opposite and resulted in a mutual consideration of "hey, we are all doing our own things here, so consider our effects on others as we do that and it will be a nicer place for everyone."
The way Germans cut in and take line positions in check out stands at grocery stores would be considered very rude here. There is an unspoken social honor system. You'd probably have all the people around scowling at the person, even from different lines. They'd think lesser of that person, that they were selfish and entitled.
Often, no one would say anything, just out of the desire to not create a scene. But we are also direct, so it wouldn't be uncommon to hear disgust "hey!...", or on occasion have someone (usually a man) step up and insist they go to the back of the line.
But if someone was come up and say, "I'm in a really big hurry, do you mind if I cut in line/go before you?" Most of the time Americans would happily let them past. (Don't try this at the DMV though...)
Clarification about the woman and the coffee- She was sueing for medical bills only, but the court decided to award her more. ❤️
There are definitely people who abuse the legal system, but she wasn't one of them.
yeah she got like third degree burns it was pretty bad
@@markbollinger1343 to make matters worse, I think it was in her lap. 😬
@@cheezy_tater yes because there were no cup holders and he grandson or whatever had gone inside to correct something. Regardless the coffee was way too hot. I would need to look it up again but I believe there was an issue with the lids not being secure either.
It's a very sad case when you look into it. her original law suit was reasonable. Its falls into gross negligence and negligence. Yes you expect coffee to be hot and burn but at most maybe some redness and minor pain that goest away. You dont expect boiling liquid that requires surgery. She didn't sue over spilling normal temp coffee in herself. Which is what the internet seems to think. I know you know this but ugh it drives me nuts and need more people to see this
Yeah, it was so hot that the burns fused her girl parts together!
Yeah, my mother got a coffee there once. She stirred some cream into it then realized she needed more napkins so we girls just dug into our food while she went to get them. When she came back she asked something like "Why would one of you need my coffee stirrer?" And we're looking at each other thinking "what is she on about"? Neither of us had taken it. Then it dawned on her that the coffee had been so hot it melted the stirrer!
Funny thing about "everyone in America having 'pew pews'" is that many people actually do and are even carrying them on their person-- you just don't know it, because they don't advertise it. This is a regional thing though and much more common in some areas than others. 🙂
Carrying one right now actually. 🤫 Most of my friends do too. We're in a very gun friendly state and it's liberating.
@@Redbikemaster Is this some sort of firearm? I've never heard this term.
@@thomasschellberg8213 it's a joking term to reference firearms, yeah.
@@Redbikemaster Thanks for the info.
@@thomasschellberg8213 no problem!
From a psychological perspective, it's interesting how much people's expectations of a culture come directly from the TV and movie industry. It makes sense, but it's also a very warped and "cherry picked" picture that is shown in media of a given society. It's even true internally within the US. I've met plenty of people from other states who have come to California (where I've lived all my life) and expected the whole state to be like Hollywood or even Los Angeles. Yet most of California is actually made up of rural areas with desert, forests, mountains, and a whole lot of agricultural farmland.
Aye, the subject of guns come to mind when I read this.
Same thing in New York State, the enormous state that is mostly rural but is ALWAYS compared to this one mega city with over ten million people. But I guess that's just how the world sees us; ironically that's also how a lot of other states in the US see us. Playing hockey in western NY, people from out of state ask me where to go to get the best New York Pizza? Dominos has some pretty good deals...
@@merikano2985 I liked this video a lot.
I am a lifelong Texan and virtually any Southern of Texas accent you hear on TV or in the movies is complete BS.
Case in point about movies and the world's reality. Think to yourself, what sound does a frog make? Around the world people will say "Ribbit! Ribbit!" In the real world, frogs make all sorts of noises from croaks to deep almost dog bark sounds. There is one species of frog in the world that makes the "Ribbit" sound. It's a frog that is native to the Hollywood Hills in California and the foley people in old movies used it's sound for swamps, rivers...whatever in a movie that needed a frog noise. Now, almost everywhere around the world people think that is the sound of a frog.
I have tutored several English as a Second Language recent arrivals to America who had sadly believed everything they'd seen on TV about our allegedly rich glamorous lifestyle here in America! And now they were very surprised and disappointed.
I watch these men in Pakistan on utube and they give them different American foods to try.
When you see their homes. Now I know why they think we are all rich.. to them we really are.. even our poor usually have more and larger home.
They aren't starving ppl there but the choices we have are much more then they could dream of having.
Their homes are 2 rooms...I was a bit taken aback at home small an area they live in.
Another misconception i'm just tired of getting from Europeans is that Americans don't know geography. We know enough about whats relevant to us, sure if you point an average American to a map of Europe they might be able to name three or four places, but if you point an average European to a map of the United States, the only States i've seen them consistently get right is Texas and Florida, they don't usually even get Hawaii right.
I'd like to believe most Americans would do pretty well in Western Europe but their knowledge would likely fall apart a bit as they moved east. I haven't done this survey but I have a hard time believing many people would miss the UK (Though they might only know it as England), France, Spain, Germany, Italy, or Russia. They might conceivably miss the order of the Nordic countries. Smaller countries and even more so those further East would probably have a higher miss-rate.
@@ZIbroweed yeah, I mean, I have been to Ireland. I still suck at European geography. To be fair, however...I am bad at ALL geography. Maybe it's because I am bad with names. Great with faces. Terrible with names. Even names of objects.
But yeah...they beat the states into our heads in school. Not so much with other countries. 🤷♂️
@@firghteningtruth7173 You couldn't identify the 6 I mentioned as most recognizable? If so, that legitimately surprises me. I figured everyone's learned about the Roman Empire as the roots of European culture so pretty much everyone knows where Italy is. The Greek empire is far enough back that fewer will know Greece. Then England, France and Spain all played key roles in colonizing the "New World" which is kind-of the beginning of the history of the US. Finally Germany, Russia, France and England were all central to the narrative about WWII which is probably the longest studied war excepting maybe the civil war for Americans. Italy's role seemed to focus more on Africa which was probably one of the less studied theaters of that war. Countries like Poland also played important roles but any country that entered the Soviet block and then had to break back off became a bit more forgettable since they disappeared from the maps for a while (no offense to those countries. It's just how people work). So that's how I arrived at those 6 I suppose and any American who couldn't point to them, I'd say is missing out on important parts of their own history.
@@firghteningtruth7173 FYI I'm also very bad at names, but I'm good at remembering stories. That's why history is the catalyst for my remembering a lot of geography. There are stories that a lot of these countries belong to and the countries are just characters in those stories.
@@ZIbroweed no, but, basically ANYTHING beyond that and I am lost. Further, I could tell you where like 2 south american countries are, and maybe 8 african countries, off the top of my head.
It was taught, maybe 1 time, in hs. I was probably sleep deprived after vice city came out the night before. 🤣
I just remember them BEATING the states into us, for multiple years. And, honestly, the only wars explained in-depth are american wars before like ww1. I live in Texas, so I had like 3 or 4 "Texas history" classes. 1 or 2 in grade school, then middle school then High School.
It's kinda silly. I remember there was like...1, 12 page chapter on on slavery all the way to the emancipation proclamation. 🤣
I am pretty sure I read a story about the Alamo at least once per year, even into college. 🤣
There are plusses to being from here, though. Good BBQ, VERY polite people, low taxes. Beef and oil are cheaper here than anywhere else...
I mean, AMAZING BBQ. And pretty much 1/4 of the people you know have a "secret ribs/brisket recipe."
...omg. I just went on a Texas rant after...
My bad. It's been beaten into my head. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I appreciate the clarification on the McDonald's coffee lawsuit. McDonald's went on such a smear campaign against that lady that I believed for years that suit was frivolous. The reality was horrifying, and I'm glad McDonald's doesn't serve boiling coffee in flimsy containers out the drive thru window anymore.
And yes, the firearm debate goes back to a sloppily-written constitutional amendment.
That was not sloppily written. It was in debate for over a decade before it was ratified in 1791. You don't like it because it allows more than what the media you consume wants.
@@perrytilton5221 the Constitution was ratified in 1789, so the length of that amendment debate is in itself debatable. Still, if the amendment itself was more concisely written to clarify how right to ownership, militia service, and regulation all tie together, there'd be little debate today. For example, we don't see people arguing over what the 3rd, 18th or any number of other amendments mean like we do the 2nd.
@@dexterinzo It is perfectly clear. It is specific in what it allows, which is all forms of armor and weapons to be owned and/or wore at any time. Not only is it clear, it specifies why it was included in the US Constitution, and is the only amendment that says "shall not be infringed," which is a polite way of the government being told, "Keep your f***ing hands off of our weapons and armor."
Why, might you ask? Because they didn't want their families to be ruled by government dictators and communism.
@@perrytilton5221 it's not clear. Thus all the disagreement and debate.
When I was stationed in Japan, April 80 to 81, I always got asked what kind of car I had in America. The people I met seemed to think that all American's drove really big fancy cars.
Cars where huge before the gas crisis of the mid-late 70s. Look how big the cars where before and after the gas crisis. It's gonna happen again too. Cars are going to get smaller now with the new inflated gas prices!
One of the department heads in my squadron had his Buick with swiveling bucket seats in Japan in 81-82. I rode in it through the drive through at McDonalds and everyone was gawking. Talk about reinforcing a stereotype
Lived in Tokyo from May 2013 - April 2015. Got asked a lot of questions not too different than this too.
When irony is, a whole lot of us are driving Japanese makes.
@@robertbeisert3315 Jetta. Irony continues.
I sometimes wonder how much I - an American who has always lived mostly in the midwest - have wild misconceptions about other regions in my own country, thanks to movies and TV. I've visited California once, and I have relatives in Florida, and visited Austin, Texas once as well. Other than that, though, I don't really spend much time traveling through different parts of America. I think I probably am WAY off about a lot of things.
What gets me is I grew up in California but I've spent time in Connecticut, Texas, Arkansas and Nevada and they are all very different from each other.
But wherever I went people automatically assumed I surfed and probably had several stories about meeting celebrities in the grocery store.
I'm from the Mojave Desert. I can't surf.
I am a desert dweller and you couldn't pay me to go in the ocean on a surfboard.
I have met a celebrity, amusingly enough in Arkansas I worked at a radio station and Willie Nelson came with his two big tour busses and played live on the air taking requests for an hour and a half. He was as real as you would think. Just a regular guy that smelled like bomb weed. LOL
Growing up Texan, I cannot tell you how many people from out of state are surprised that Houston isn't a desert (it's more a swamp, really), that very few of us own horses, and that big belt buckles and boots are really just for the rodeo.
Also, given that "Houston, we have a problem" is such a well known phrase, you'd not believe how many people are surprised NASA's Johnson Space Center is in Houston.
Austin is not Texas. Like the US in general there is no “cross section”. California and New York are the same.
@@dmpyron2 Came to say the same...
Yes, tv. When a bad guy gets shot, he grabs his chest and falls over sidewise. Machine guns that run out in 3-4 seconds actually never run out, and the wild west, being safer than a current US suburb we're super violent with roaming gangs.
My "ex" was a trial lawyer & I managed her law office. Driving home late from the office, I stopped at the supermarket to pickup some fresh bagels, etc. As I was pushing my cart down the aisle, I noticed a couple of well dressed men in dark suites walking by & looking down each aisle. I didn't think anything of it until I was heading to the check-out register & saw George H. W. Bush (41st Pres.) pushing a cart around the corner followed by the men in black (secret Service). I knew that he & his wife lived near by but I never thought that I would see him or any Pres. or ex-Pres. shopping for groceries. Talk about your celebrity! As for "pew pews", 25 states have passed "Constitutional Carry" laws. My state is one. Most people in my state own "pew pews". The county where I live has had 1 homicide in the past 25 yrs. I only carried when I worked as a P.I. for the law firm, traveled or made a cash transactions over $1,000.
Seeing celebrities is an odd thing - when I was in California working, me or my guys didn't see anyone when we were working in Hollywood and that area... we did see a few in Burbank and we ran straight into a film crew when we were up north near Eureka... making the movies is not glamorous at all, it's a job.
The whole pew pew thing is a real oddity to me - growing up in the dead center of the country - they are around, and a lot of people had for hunting... every pickup truck had rifle or shotgun or both hanging up in the back window - but no one ever shot anyone... there was no need. Pretty much the same here today - you take away the 10 largest cities of the USA, and the violent crime rate drops to practically zero... so weird, almost like people need a lot of space around them to just chill...
@@CaptainSeamus In Texas, it used to be an oddity to see a pickup truck WITHOUT a gun rack in the back window!
@@duanelavely5481 here in Kansas too...
@@duanelavely5481 why it's not anymore?
You saw a multi multi millionaire pushing a shopping cart in a supermarket? That's funny.
A lot of Japanese anime is centralized around high-school aged characters for the same reason. Not because high-school is a large part of society (japan is mostly old people) but because most people have had the common experience of going through high-school.
Just to clarify, these are the realities for all of us here in the US:
- We always greet each other with a heartfelt "howdy, partner!" Always. Even here in MN.
- Each day (during certain timeframes) is spent seeking out and acquiring hot dogs.
Howdy, short for "how do you do," is a perfectly common greeting. We don't usually say "I reckon," but if you say both commonly, you sound like a 49er or 1850s cowboy
Hot dogs lathered with cornbread, on a stick, and deep fried.
What's more amazing is how many foods we can put on a stick and deep fry....the wierder the better....
Yeah the breakfast thing is more of a "special occasion". 95% of the time I skip breakfast and when I don't its usually just a bacon & egg biscuit from a fast-food place (usually Bojangles).
The big "sausage, eggs, grits, pancakes, & toast breakfasts are only eaten very occasionally or after a night out drinking (because Waffle House is always open).
Yeah, but think about how misleading our breakfast cereal commercials are, "It's a healthy part of this nutritious breakfast!" as the camera pans over eggs, bacon, buttered toast, a bowl of cereal, an extra glass of milk, and one of orange juice. Growing up, all I ever had was a bowl of cereal, and by high school, I'd even given that up in favor of a few extra minutes of sleep.
I wish there was a waffle house near me. Closest one is an hour away. I've made the trip. Sober of course.
Ya.. I'm not even a fan of pancakes... waffles are OK but 99% of the time if I'm even eating breakfast it's eggs over easy (BTW.. That's odd to Europeans... they get eggs fried or nothing... LOL) We have like 1000 ways to order eggs) bacon and toast.
Eggs, bacon, toast, and milk is healthy for you. Cakes, sugar cereal, and surgery juice are all horrible. Eat a giant breakfast every day and anybody will get fat and sick.
When my kids still lived at home we would have a large breakfast with all the extras either on Saturday or Sunday morning. The rest of the week it was either cereal or a couple of eggs with toast.
Yeah. That kind of meal takes time we'd rather stay in bed just a little longer.
Like millions of kids in America, my average breakfast was a big bowl of nothing.
Yep, the coffee sue thing is real, I know her granddaughter. This poor lady had to have skin grafts on her nether regions because the coffee was so incredibly hot, it caused her skin to slough off. Truly life threatening, and I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.🤢
And she only sued after asking them to cover the few thousands dollars it cost for her hospital bills and having them refuse to give anything.
@@pgrmdave The Jury awarded her the money, and rightfully so. Mcdonalds wanted to give her like 3 grand to pay for it all out of court when she had like 20k in hospital bills.
@@brandondavis7777 That was an unfortunate incident, but I've always wondered, did she think the coffee was not hot, and who spilled it? plus, how did they know it was too hot after the fact?
at any rate, it's a perfect example of someone makes a mistake and everyone else pays for it.
I've felt horrible ever since I really learn what happened to her. I saw a report of her injuries, and pictures of them. I was one of the people that judged her, and when I learned the extent of her injuries, I was horrified. I can not believe that they would give you coffee so hot that it causes 3rd degree burns. I've spilled coffee on myself quite a few times (I'm a klutz), and I'll get scalded, and be sore for a few days. That's about it though. Her burns were horrible.
@@bigworm380gaming3 This was before McDonalds would give out drink holders, or even before there was regularly cup holders in cars. The point is, she was only asking for them to pay her medical bills. They refused. McDonalds then took the opportunity to talk horribly about her, and make her out to be a gold digging moron. That was not the case. She had 3rd degree burns on the inside of her thighs and her groin area. Her burns were horrific, and it was proven that the coffee they served was hotter than the company put out as a "max temperature."
Television, the movies, mainstream news, and commercial ads have very little in common with reality. My family eats fast food maybe twice a month, for example. Foods vary a lot because of regional preferences as well.
When Diane went to America, she got a surprise
Some of the things she had learned were simply lies
Like that all American houses are super-size
And for every meal we eat burgers and fries
She thought we couldn’t buy spray-on to deodorize
But now she has a fun list to make everyone wise
We don't use spray on because it is popularly associated with college hooligans that wear way too much
"You came to make a fortune cause the streets are lined with gold,
you believed exaggerations and the stories you were told,
but soon you came to realize all isn't at it seems,
you're working like a devil just to hold on to your dreams."
The Prodigals - Alright Son
@@bobjohnson1633 I just don’t use spray on because I don’t like the way it makes my armpits feel!
Myths (some) Americans believe about Europe: "All Europeans speak English"
10:19 As a young American growing up in America, I thought the same thing when I was young.
I got it from watching movies when the actors would have lines like:
I am calling my lawyer.
You'll be hearing from my lawyer.
Don't talk to me, talk to my lawyer.....
As I got older I asked my parents who our family lawyer was and they said we didn't have one, which surprised me.
It made me feel like our family was vulnerable to all the other families that had lawyers.
After discussing this further with my parents, I was set straight on what was in the movies and what was real.
I had a similar experience growing up. Those movies made it seem like everyone has a lawyer.
Regarding “porridge” (8:42) in American breakfasts, the only ones of us eating it are bears who live in houses and face home invasion by local schoolgirls. The rest of us eat “oatmeal.” 😉
Thanks, Diane for doing this video. It is important that folks in Europe understand that most of us are not the "Ugly American" stereotype!
This said, I do enjoy the freedom of owning my share of "pew-pews!"
I’m an American and I totally fit the stereotype of the stereotype of always quitting/getting fired from jobs.
I remember when I realized that the US is highly litigious (I'm American). I was visiting Norway several years ago, and my group and I saw a flimsy barrier with a warning sign that basically said, 'If you go beyond this point, you're taking your life in your hands.' We were hiking up to see a glacier, so you can imagine the danger. It was then I realized that in a US National Park, they would _never_ be content with such a flimsy barrier, because if anything went wrong, the suing wouldn't stop for years.
Sadly what probably keeps us Americans from sue more people is how much it cost to retain a lawyer. The other is how long does it take for a simple court case to get through the system let alone the more complex ones.
Yup.. my son was also shocked at this.
Also there's no one TO save you in these other places.. whereas here we bring out everything and everyone we have even if we think they couldn't be alive any longer.. but we do try to save life when we can.
To be honest Prom and Homecoming ARE big deals for High School students here.
As a generalization, I think it's pretty safe to say that a lot of the USA's extremes are to be found on the coast, and, the closer you get to the middle of the country, the further you get from the stereotypes--but the stereotypes are fueled by the media, which are, in the main, HQed on the coasts.
I'm from West Texas but I've never owned a pew-pew and have ridden a horse once. Didn't like it.
LOL Texas IS a stereotype. It's like California, a lot of what you hear about it has a grain of truth to it but it's so huge it is not necessarily true EVERYWHERE in the state.
I'd consider you the odd one tbh. Every individual I have personally known from Texas has owned at minimum 5 pew pews. Virtually everyone I know owns 1 or are with someone that does. You'd be surprised how many unassuming little old ladies have them in purses too.
I'm also from Texas. Heck ppl in the US have misconceptions about Texans. Friends were shocked that I do not own a horse or live on a ranch, they literally thought everyone in Texas lives a rural lifestyle.
@@jdraven0890 I started school at a place that was so old, there was still an outhouse about fifty feet away (a two-seater, I guess in case you needed company or encouragement). Hanging in the principal's office were several B & W photos of the olden days, when students and teachers rode horses and mules to school. The mules outnumber the cars by a pretty wide margin.
I have been around mules, and I like them, but I am not so old that I ever rode one to school. I walked, because we were classy and far too sophisticated for something so pedestrian as mule-riding.
I have ridden bulls and roped calves, in a purely amateur rodeo ring, and let me tell you: for little critters, calves are amazingly strong and heavy. You can do the extrapolation to figure out what it's like to ride a bull. The most terrifying experience of my life, but also the greatest. It's like occupying every imaginable dimension simultaneously.
Riding a horse, though--that's kind of boring. What's the point? I can walk. Having a new perspective is nice, because suddenly your eyeballs are ten feet above the ground and you can spot a rattlesnake before it has time to strike, but other than that, I don't get the whole horse culture thang. Guess I'm missing something.
@@jdraven0890 BTW, I used to live in Vermont (which I loved). When they found out I was from West Texas, people I worked with--referring to Vermont winters--laughed and said "Oh, God! You're gonna die." But I was always perfectly cozy in Vermont; people don't realize that it gets mighty cold after sundown in the desert, especially up in the mountains (where I am).
The most miserably cold I've ever been was in Canyon, Texas--bone-shattering cold, and windy as all heck. The Panhandle is, generally (and strictly IMO), the worst place on Earth and the least compatible with human life.
It's so flat and barren, if you stand on a beer can and try real hard, you can see the back of your own head--which reminds me of my ex-wife, but she's from Beaumont, 800 miles away and beyond the Piney Curtain.
The quitting/being fired one is actually true, at least in the Midwest where I live. I see it and have to deal with it every day. Employment is at will... for both parties.
Came here to say this.
Same here in Louisiana
When my family was in Ireland, we had Irish breakfast everyday - it was definitely way more food than my family eats for actual breakfast (morning meal) in America (my family normally skips breakfast altogether, but sometimes have breakfast foods for lunch). But the Irish breakfasts were good, it allowed us to go be tourists all day and not have to worry about lunch, still being full from breakfast. Lol.
Also, side note: both your bread and butter taste way better in Ireland! Haha
They do!
When I was on vacation to Ireland and England, I was staying at Jury's Inn Christchurch Dublin and had dinner at The Bull and Castle. One of the best steak dinners I ever had. Tried the English breakfast while in London. I thought it was very bland. Still can't figure why the baked beans. Served cold too.
I have a question which some one might be able to answer. I've been to Ireland a few times and stayed at some of the same B&Bs. One thing I did not understand was Irish bacon. It was incredibly salty and thick and gave me the bloody scours after eating it. Now I do not know if the Irish eat the stuff for brekky themselves? I'm wondering if I was served bacon because people in Ireland heard that Americans eat bacon for brekky and they were just trying to serve what they thought I was used to eating? American bacon is thinner sliced than rashers, and rashers are something I'd use sparingly to flavor baked beans.
@@Balor1 I don't know. The bacon we had in Ireland was closer to what we Americans call Canadian bacon (and put on pizza). I don't even know if Canadians eat bacon like that. Lol.
@@claddagh143 Thanks! In the future I know I'd avoid the bacon. The black pudding is ok (and yes, it's made from pigs blood).
3:07 it absolutely does work like that for most Americans. Look into "at will" employment. Unless protected by a union, most employees can be fired for anything or nothing.
Thank you for thinking of our under arm hygiene. The only time I have thought of another country’s armpits was that time I was dating a girl from Romania. Apparently razors haven’t made it to Eastern Europe.
Several of those, like celebrity obsession is more of a "we used to be" than we really aren't. Things have changed in recent times; some for the better, and some for the worse.
I love your channel. I just hope that this video helps people everywhere to stop getting their assumptions from Tv/movies.
OMG! I love Irish breakfast!! When I visited Ireland I had Irish breakfast every day for two weeks and felt fine. 😋
Yes - we want the opposite list, too!
Yippee! My niece helped me write it
@@DianeJennings Can't wait - if I predict the episode, we have far more in common than not... :)
I may be wrong, but, I think that you can, actually, say "gun" on TH-cam. Calling them "pew-pews " tends to confuse us. We don't know what you're talking about when you say that. We call them "guns. "
Lol don’t judge the US from it’s TV shows and movies. The clichéd drama is certainly not a reflection of the country as a whole. Love the video 😊
Thank you for dispelling some of the stereotypes people have about Americans. 🥰
I look forward to hearing which stereotypes I may have about Europeans that arent true. ❤️
Good list. I'm from the South, and it gets me how many people "up North" think we all have "out houses" !
I worked in England for about a month back in 2006. Our local contact decided we would like to stay at some country Inn designed for newlyweds. The first morning I was offered the Typical English Breakfast. I was so horrified at the smell, presentation, and sketchiness of it that I ate cornflakes the entire rest of the time I was there. For dinner, we were lucky to find a small restaurant run by two Indian brothers. The food was excellent. I think I had chicken prepared in 10 distinctive ways.
One thing on American breakfast - that largely came from a time when it was the first and primary meal of the day for farmers. You'd want a lot of carbs and proteins first thing in the morning if you were spending the day outside doing manual labor. It actually stretches back long before America was even a settled by Europeans, but it's rooted in that farming lifestyle.
Speaking of “everybody suing everyone” my brother was just in an accident that was caused by the managers son and another employee. They “jumped” him and pushed him into the huge window, accidentally breaking it. He had to get stitches and staples in his head, and if he wasn’t pulled away by the managers son, he’d probably be dead right now. Long story short, instead of suing the company and getting a lot of people fired, they got him a fantastic deal on one of the best cars they sold. Sometimes it pays to sue, sometimes you get a car and don’t ruin everyone’s lives lol.