Expecting us Americans to say we're from America is like expecting a Scotsman to say he is from the UK instead of saying Scotland. US states are every bit as different as the various areas of the UK.
The state thing is because many Americans are used to interacting with other Americans, in America, and telling each other we're from the US is weird if nearly everyone you meet is also from the US. It's like saying "I have ears". If you lived in the UK, and met another person from the UK, you'd probably say "I'm from London/Midlands/York/Slough" rather than "I'm from the UK". Because they are also from the UK, and in the UK. And so are most of the people in the crowd around you. Likewise with the US: we don't go around saying "I'm from the US" and "I am also from the US". If the other person is from the US, we name the state. If they're from and we're in the same state, city or town is the default.
I was at a small tourist shop in Kenya (far from cities) and one of the employees asked where (I believe he specifically asked which US state) I was from. I answered Pennsylvania and he said "Ah, with the Amish people!" and I replied,"Why, yes!" So not everyone outside the US is completely unaware of its regions.
@@bricefleckenstein9666 Ah, yes, the Kenyan man should have then followed up with "Though there are also significant populations in Ohio (not Iowa) and Indiana!" How could he be so ignorant?
@@Grendelynden I said Iowa deliberately - I lived fairly close to the Amana Colonies there for years, and Amana the BRAND was named after that region of Iowa (as that's where it's original factory was at). I get more than a little irritated when someone is WRONG when "correcting" something I stated.
@@bricefleckenstein9666 Brands and tourist attractions don't equate to communities of people. There are certainly Amish in Iowa, but there is not a large group; there are more Amish in, say, Kentucky than in Iowa.
@@Grendelynden There are quite a few Amish in Iowa - they might center on the Amana Colonies but they've spread out over the years. Yes, the Amana BRAND eventually got sold off by it's Amish founders - but they still founded it. I seriously doubt there are more Amish in Kentucky - might be more in Indiana, definitely more in Penn, but the Amish in Indiana tend to be in the northern part of the state and have NOT migrated as far as Kentucky. Try LIVING in East-Central Iowa, instead of spewing ignorance.
As a Brit. I remember being very confused when visiting a friend in Kentucky, and seeing number plates, and people wearing sweaters with 'UK' written on them. It was several days before I realised that the 'UK' stood for 'University of Kentucky'.😄
@@koschmx Lol. I confess, I probably don't know who's on most of our notes, least of all what they did to get there. I hope you have a great time in the UK when you visit again. (Don't miss York if you can manage it.)
I live in the US, in Utah (on the west side of the country), and have a friend who went to University of Kentucky. I still get confused for a second every time I see her UK gear. 😂
Often residents of the United States are criticized for calling ourselves "Americans", when if fact it was the British who did that to make a distinction between someone from Britain or British America. In the past, "Americans" were more likely to identify with the state they were from, especially prior to the Civil War. But continued pressure from the outside has led us to call ourselves "Americans" when were are not in the U.S. Thankyou for touching on the fact that the US isn't a constant running gunfight, the British and Australians seem sure that we are armed to the teeth 24/7, and participate in gun-battles on a annual basis at minimum. Also thank you for pointing out that homicide statistics include suicides, I'm not sure most people are aware of that.
@@shamone10 Well 340 x 0 = 0, so no. Most Americans never see guns (besides police and military) AT ALL, and some people freak out when someone is open-carrying because it's so unusual.
I don't know about Mexico, but you can cross from the US to Canada and back without a passport if you have the super duper driver's license (I forget what the official name is). It's basically a driver's license but you have to supply all the same documents to get it that you would need to get a passport.
When people from the United Kingdom have told me where they're from, they often don't say "I'm from the UK." They might say Wales, or Great Britain, or Yorkshire, or Midlands, or even just a city name, London, or Bristol, etc. We're not so different after all.
When I talk to non-Americans about America and its states, I tell them to think of America as 50 different countries combined into one giant country. Each states has it's own history and culture. Many of them have their own dialects of language, and, crucially, every state has their own laws. Yes, there are laws that are universal in America, but each state also has their own unique laws that are only true for them. Living in Arizona is basically like living in a different country than Florida, or Idaho, or etc... So that's a big reason why Americans say their state.
That’s really true. During the settling of America, the country was not all inclusive from border to border and coast to coast as it is now. In fact, at the time of the original 13 colonies banded together for the revolution, Spain and France still had major settlements in America. Even when land was added later, it remained territorial until there was sufficient population and the residents voted to apply for statehood. With the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase, the Federal Government was involved in partitioning the land into essentially what became several states.
There's also governors/judges that further determine whether those "universal" federal laws actually even get enforced in their state. There's been a lot of controversy lately from hyper-conservative judges making nonsensical rulings that are just designed to be appealed up to the currently conservative-stacked Supreme Court.
@@claregale9011because there are other countries? The United States borders Canada and Mexico. The three countries make the the majority of the continent of North America. There are many others besides those three just within the continent.
when we were over there, last, we would say, "we're from Oregon, in the States" because we expected if we just said, "America" the next question would be "what part"
@@ronjones-6977 Haha... yeah, because when I go back to Arkansas to visit my family and tell people I'm from Oregon, they say, "Is that near New York?" Oy ve... So I don't expect Europeans to know where Oregon is.
As a Canadian I can tell you, we tend to say what Province we're from as well, as culture varies quite a bit from region to region. In Alberta, there's even a north/south and city to city difference to a degree
When I was a child, I asked my father why we never visited any other countries. My father, who is an American immigrant, said “Why would I go explore other countries before I was done exploring my own?” I know many will not agree with this sentiment, however it illustrates the point made in the video. It’s a big country with a lot to see.
@@garryferrington811 Umm...150 miles isn't that far. I've driven farther just to pick a relative up from the airport, and then driven back the same day.
I thought I would add that I travelled to Europe in the 1970s and did not visit my first large National Park till 2013. There is a lot to see in the US.
8:23 "Not all Americans know all the 50 states." True. There was an incident a couple years ago in Washington, DC, where a couple were applying for a marriage license. The fellow had a DC license for identification. The woman had her New Mexico drivers license for identification, but the clerk demanded to see her passport instead. It took TWO levels of supervisors before somebody convinced the clerk that New Mexico was a U.S. state.
I was visiting South Carolina once, stopped in at a gas station to grab some smokes for my wife, and when the girl was looking at my I.D. she threatened to call the cops on me because it just said "Virginia" on it, and not East Virginia or West Virginia, so obviously I was using a counterfeit license.... I live near the WV border and have a few friends from WV, so I've heard plenty of stories of the inverse, where some ignorant clerk somewhere acts like they're lying because obviously West Virginia isn't a state, considering that there's already regular Virginia.
I had a friend who lived in New Mexico for several years and was always having people tell her that they couldn't ship things she'd ordered online "out of the country." Sheesh.
As someone from the US, I can say the reason that many of us don’t have a passport & don’t travel abroad isn’t because of lack of interest. It’s all about the costs. The majority of us just cannot afford it. I’d love to, but most of the time, even traveling within the US isn’t an option because it just costs too much. That’s a rich people thing.
YES!! I was just able to go out of the country for the first time last year at age 27 to Ireland, after years of saving and an off-season deal (November). Not only is it difficult for many to afford airfare/lodging on their wages, many employers can be abusive about allowing time off. When I was 20, my first employer revoked my vacation days requested months in advance (4 days off after 3 straight years of work) mere days prior because "you're on our time, we're not on yours" LOL
@@sonozaki0000 you need to get a better job. I've never had any of my time off revoked. I was asked once if I could change it, but they didn't revoke it. One time when I requested on short notice they didn't approve it, but that's different than revocation.
Even in the U.S. the news reported on the guy who broke into Buckingham Palace at night, went into her bedroom, and talked to the Queen. Apparently, at the moment, she assumed he was a drunk member of the staff. But since this was 1982, I don't think he was Laurence. Also, if you type the search term, "man who broke into," this is the suggested search. One would think a lot of men have broken into a lot of places.
I lead with my state rather than country simply because the country is so dang big, and I'd rather make it clear that I'm not from one of the interesting places they've seen in movies or TV, just somewhere with corn, roller-coasters, and haunted houses.
Nebraska then? :D I've lived in 3 states thus far, Illinois (grew up in Chicago), Missouri, and now South Carolina. Wild to see the differences in each place.
Even telling people from other nearby states where you're from, they'll ask where that is in relation to the biggest/most well-known city. I then have to tell them, "I'm about X miles/minutes from there." They'll usually still be confused, but at least they know I'm not from the big city they're aware of.
I say I'm "From Rhode Island but originally born in Pennsylvania" because to other Americans that tells them that the smell of cow manure reminds me of my childhood and that I am no longer willing to drive more than 20 minutes unless it's really important. Saying I'm from the US would just feel like I'm being intentionally vague and obtuse, like if I met a tourist around here and they said "I'm from Europe" or "I'm from Asia" or "I'm from Africa."
Except that Europe, Asia, and Africa are all WAY, WAY, WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more diverse than the US. It's not even close, it's not even close to close to close, I can't even imagine thinking these things are comparable. Hawaii is basically culturally equivalent to Maine compared to Iceland vs Greece or Yemen vs Brunei. Ridiculous comparison, and I say this as an American.
@@HuckleberryHim You sound absolutely ridiculous. In my city I can walk 5 blocks and find completely different ethnic makeups and languages. I've moved half a dozen times and found nothing similar anywhere that I moved to, and the new locals are always in complete awe of me and unaware of anything I say that used to be normal. The fact that you compared Hawaii to Maine shows you don't know anything. Hawaii is insanely different to Maine. NY is insanely different to NC. Ridgewood is insanely different to LIC. The list goes on.
@@KonglomeratYT Yeah, I'm from NYC too, and it is by far the most diverse city on the planet, and in human history. That's not what anyone meant here by "diversity". There is still a common American culture and vibe that you get no matter where you are. There are Walmarts and pick-up trucks everywhere you go. If English isn't the main language in some place, then it's Spanish. These "recent immigrant" communities are a tiny fraction of the population compared to 60% plain jane white American (you couldn't make it more obvious this is the category you belong to), and about 30% are black or Hispanic. These are very "typical American" groups and their makeup of the population hardly varies wherever you go. This isn't the case in Europe or Asia or Africa. India alone has 500+ indigenous languages. You can go from town to town in Sweden and find practically mutually unintelligible dialects. There isn't even a single main indigenous language for almost any African country. Never in your wildest dreams will America be like that; if it is "diverse", it's diverse in a very clearly different way (recent immigration; which is great, by the way). Don't be obtuse. Just because you want to imagine that NC is "insanely different" from NY doesn't make it so. In what made-up yank fantasy are you living? They both have mega highways, the same trashy burger joints, redneck trump supporters. The finest of American culture gets exported throughout the land. The seeming contrast between Maine and Hawaii was obviously part of my intention, because simpleton American exceptionalists like you are astonished that anyone could compare them. You focus so much on these tiny minutiae of differences, while ignoring the glaringly obvious giant monolith of Americanisms that characterize them both. The only way the American states are truly diverse is in terms of ecology/geography/climate, which can't exactly be helped. Otherwise, you people are way, way, WAYY overfocused on all these supposed differences while missing the massive forest for the tiny trees.
@@KonglomeratYThis reply is just a copypaste i remember reading on a expat video a few months back. Don't waste you breath. Or it's possible that most "pickme" americans speak with simular disdain for the US and im just remembering what one of his friends parroted. 😂
@@ianz9916 Not true - the angles tried but failed to ever actually "take it over". The joining of the crowns and then the creation of the UK 100 years later was a way t end the constant wars and such. It was basically a business decision. 😄
@@Mike-xh8fl In business terms it would be economically disastrous for Scotland to leave the Union now. The SNP want the Scots to believe that this isn't the case and pro-independence media make lots of noise about the way accounting works but here are the facts. Scotland has about 5.4 million people living there, and England has about 57 million people. Broadly speaking there are 10 times as many people in England as in Scotland. The public annual grant to Scotland is about £41 billion compared to the public annual grant to England of £86 billion. Broadly speaking twice as much. It really doesn't take a maths genius to work out that, left to their own devices, this will no longer be sustainable. So you are basically right, but for how long?
@@ianz9916learn your history, man. Every time the English tried to subjugate the Scots, it lasted for a generation at most. The intensity with which the Scots ended occupations should make it very clear that they were never English subjects. They were periodically the greatest allies to each other or bitterest foes because the politics were so much more complicated than mere subjugation and overlordship. At many points, the Scottish kings were landholding peers WITHIN ENGLAND - the earldom of Huntingdon was theirs by both tradition and might of arms. And yet still, the nobility and royalty intermarried regularly. The English crown hoped to supplant the Scottish nobility with their own, but the opposite ended up happening. Scots royal blood sits the English throne to this day.
@@Levacque Get a sense of humour, it wasn't a serious comment. It was more a reaction to the 6th verse of the national anthem where it talks about crushing the rebellious Scots.
I've had people from the UK answer "where are you from" by saying "Kent" or "Aberdeen," while not referring to the city. How is that different from Americans naming their state?
(looking at the loaf claiming to be hawai'ian bread next to me) (Franz is the brand) 18g carbs, only 2g of added sugars in those carbs. Only 1g of carbs is dietary fiber. The brand I prefer (kings) has more fiber, more sugar, and about the same total carbs, and tastes considerably sweeter.
@@WilliamHostman Your body breaks down carbs into sugar. So from a weight gain perspective, there's not much difference. It's just that sugar hits your blood soon after eating, while it takes your body a day or two to break down carbs into sugar.
@@HansDelbruck53I think they meant the original makers of the style not the original people. I could be wrong though. Also, North America as you know it today is far younger than Europe, but Mexicans and Native Americans had this country for thousands of years before that.
On the "Americans introduce themselves by the state they are from" thing - Part of it is pride in your home region, but part of it is also because the US is the size of a continent, and different parts are very different from each other. If I just said "I'm from the US", I've told you almost nothing. Being more specific helps you, in my mind, understand me better.
yea it's basically like someone from Ireland saying, "I'm from Europe" and someone from Czechia saying, "I'm from Europe". Both are correct, but couldn't be further apart lol.
To answer why we don't have passports: It comes down to cost and ease of traveling. I had a friend in college who spent a year studying in Italy (she wen't on a scholarship) and she and her friends would take weekend trips all over the place for cheap. They wen't up to Scotland for a weekend, did a day trip to London to see Ewan Mcgreggor in Guys and Dolls (I was so envious at the time), even wen't to the olympics. Here, I had to scrounge and save for months just to go on a road trip to Virginia to visit George Washington's Mount Vernon. It was a 9 hr drive and ended up being a 4 day trip since we stoped by Monticello and Montpelier as well. The trip took us across 3 states and was a luxury for us. A trip, to say NYC to see a show or Chicago is not within our means, never mind a trip to Europe. Paid vacation here is also very rare. So it's not like we don't WANT to go abroad, it just that most of us can't even leave our state without breaking the bank.
I know, we're saving up to go see my nephew's graduation next year. They live 2 states & 600 miles away. My sister wants the party in another state 800 miles from here, because reasons. sigh. I don't know if we can afford a hotel room, and few feel up to handling my kid with adhd & autism
I find it difficult to comprehend how Americans do not want to change the laws on paid holidays (vacations) and sick leave and accept that they will never have decent time off for recreation. If they did that in Europe, there would be a revolution on the streets!!!! If Americans are happy with the status quo, so be it!
@@pepita46 The majority of Americans, including the majority of conservative white women, want abortion to be legal, but here we are, going back to the good old days of diy terminations
I am far from rich, I have a normal job but I have still been to over 130 countries, 8 this year alone. Off to Korea next month. You can do house swaps for free. You can spend your whole life making excuses then lie on your deathbed regretting all those things you didn't do. You only get one life. SO GET OUT THERE AND DO IT. STOP MAKING EXCUSES
On bread: It is actually really easy to buy bread in the supermarket with comparable amounts of sugar as European brands. We have a lot of options with more sugar, but we have just as many options with similar or less sugar. Edit: For clarity, I mean even the prepackaged stuff, not just the stuff at the bakery counter.
I find it odd how they'll say things like American's bread is sweet or American's cheese is processed, etc. Those kind of statements seem to be based on us having a limited variety of things, when we have a vast number of choices.
@@RogCBrand yeah they take things from American movies as being just American, American cheese to me is colby jack and pepper jack whilst stuff like Kraft Slices (which many Europeans think is American cheese all Americans use) is cheese when you're struggling.
@@RogCBrandthis is something I’ve found in talking to Europeans. They only seem to have, maybe outside the capital cities at least, only one of each thing. One bread, one beer, one cheese in the particular region. It’s difficult to explain to them that in the US we have an extremely wide variety of choices, including the imports of the world. There really is no such thing as American bread, or American beer, etc. it’s sort of like what we do with some things, like say Swiss Cheese. Typically it’s just Emmentaler. But at the actual cheese counter we can get Gruyère, or Tête de Moine, or Bleuchâtel. All Swiss cheese but we don’t call them that. Most Europeans will never see or eat actual American food. It’s just our most stereotypical big business brands that they know us by: Hershey, Budweiser, Kraft, etc.
North American wheat (I.e. summer wheat) is faster frowning and more prolific than Northern European wheat. This difference in wheat strains also means a significantly higher percentage of glutinous proteins. These proteins produce a much harder and dryer bread. One common way to soften gluten and add back moisture is with higher sugar (sucrose is hydroscopic, it holds on to and locks in moisture). The reason rye based bread doesn’t need sugar is because rye naturally has less gluten… although its grows more slowly and thus costs more. Sourdough also is produced by longer bacterial breakdown flour, which actually chops up some of the longer tight spring-like proteins of gluten.
Yep, I finally got to go to Greece last year after being on this earth for over 70 years, and was only able to do that because someone else paid for most of it. I've always had a looooong list of countries I'd love to visit, but all of them involve very long flights and many thousands of dollars. China and Australia, would you please move closeer?
I've been around the world and visited over 130 countries, cost is as much as you want to spend. I can travel and spend less than $15 a night. If you know what to do. You can also do house swaps for free. Japan last month, Korea next month. I've been to 8 countries this year alone. I'm far from rich, I'm just a savvy traveller. You can spend your whole life making excuses and lie on your deathbed wishing you'd done this or gone there. Just get on with it. LAZY IF YOU ASK ME
@@markylon $15 a day on top of plane tickets is still way too expensive for some (most) people. Not to mention how are you getting more money while away for so long? You don't work? So are you just traveling on daddy's money?
@@world_eater1315 I work hard, don't waste my money on unnecessary items or fashion. My money goes on travel, experiences and memories. How many people buy branded clothes, every gadget going and TV streaming service. How much do they spend in Starbucks? Stop buying crap and live for travel.
On the travel part. Something to add is our (american) labor laws do not Include any mandatory paid holiday, or even sick leave. So many Americans have to sacrifice going unpaid during their time away from work on top of saving money for said trip.
I'm an American in a job for about 4 years now. I'll get a max of 12 paid days off a year to cover sick leave and vacations and 2 unpaid days off a quarter. If I want to use it, I have to find someone to cover for me. And I try to keep a week of PTO ready in case of emergencies. Going abroad means taking additional time off for immunizations, passport photos, converting currency, talking to travel agents... It is just a lot easier to stay in the USA where I have a lot of options and family to visit.
@@andylaugel4241 Poor Europeans don't come to the US either, regardless of how much vacation time they get - they still can't afford it. But when a completely different country is only 20 miles away across the English Channel, it's a tad easier to manage. Or on the continent, you can literally walk across the street and be in a different country... Ultimately, you just have to want it enough. Out of college, I only got two weeks' vacation and had no money for a long time. I still managed to go to the UK and Europe a number of times in those days. Save up both money and vacation time and go. Also, you are way behind the times if you think that crossing the Atlantic requires immunizations, currency conversions (assuming you have a credit or debit card anyway), and talking to a travel agent (they barely even exist anymore). You will have to go through the hassle of getting a passport, of course, but that really isn't a big deal. A passport photo is free at your local AAA office if you are a member, and like $10 if you aren't and takes 5 minutes.
You forgot about the Little League World Series. This has youngsters from all over the world competing for the best young baseball team in the world. This competition truly is a World Series.
We don't have Little League baseball here in Ireland. Let alone World Series. We have our own sports such as Hurling (3,000+yrs old). Gaelic Football also around the same age.
@@thaisstone5192 No, they think the southern hemisphere is part of the world. The world series has young players from all over the world, and some of them could be but aparrently aren't likely from Ireland. Inclusion of Ireland isn't a required part of "from all over the world".
So does the MLB World Series. The MLB is where professional baseball players can make the most money, so the best players from all over the world come to the US to play there.
I can't speak for all Americans, obviously, but for myself, while i absolutely love to travel and have always wanted to visit Europe, I have never been able to afford it. Now I have 4 children whom I would have to bring with me since childcare is ungodly expensive and i don't have family nearby that could watch them for an extended period. Then there's the matter of time. My husband and I would have to give up pay to take vacation, and either pull the kids out of school or wait until summer break (since the only other school breaks are for holidays that we celebrate with family and friends locally). Its a big headache and financial burden we just haven't taken the time to plan out. My sister and her husband, on the other hand, make a LOT more money than us, and have the ability to work remotely. They also only have 2 children and her husband's family lives near them (across the country from us) and seem to be frequently available to house their kids if they travel without them, so they travel, and travel abroad, fairly frequently.
@thorstenjaspert9394 I haven't had the opportunity or means to do a lot of traveling. However, my grandparents lived in Southern California and I live in Northern California, and we would drive 6-8 hours each way to visit a few times each year throughout my childhood. I did get to see more of the country when my father was a truck driver. I spent a summer with him on the truck and we drove as far away as new york and back.
@@thorstenjaspert9394 From where I am in the northeast a plane ticket to Iceland is about the same price as one to California, so going to Europe is comparatively affordable. And since the Pacific is so huge, Californians are also paying more to get to Asia than I'd pay to get to Europe, traveling outside North America is more expensive there all around. So mentalities about travel at least are definitely affected by state.
Why is bread sweet? Because there was a "fat" crazy a few decades ago tso they cut back from "added fats" like butter, so to make it taste remotely edible they replaced the "fat" with sugar. Which is worse.
Erm, follow-up question: (aside from brioche) why TF were you putting BUTTER in your bread dough, and why would you think bread is inedible without it??
@@tarrynlea It makes the bread softer and more moist. Doesn't dry out as easily. Tastes better. I think this is particularly important in breads meant to be shelf stable for weeks.
Prior to Sept. 2001 US citizens didn't require a passport to take a day trip across either of its neighboring borders. I didn't need one (or afford it) prior to my trip to Japan when I was 27.
Much of the Caribbean was the same way. Additionally, before Europe designated the Schengen Area a passport was often need to visit relatives who lived ten minutes away across a country border. Possibly the same way passport ownership went up in the U.S., it probably went down in Europe. My first visit to Europe in 1998 was hit or miss what countries actually asked for a passport as we drove across borders. Our friends there who we were visiting explained the changes taking place at the time. Our visits over the last fifteen years, we produced passports only when going through airports.
@@philipmcniel4908 Or a birth certificate! My father had to take a group for work across the border to Niagara Falls the month prior to the passport rule taking effect. One person out of the 6 had his birth certificate because "this is the last time I'll be able to do this".
We barely get vacation time here either - it's kind of a miracle to even get two weeks off of work. When you only get 14 days to travel, a lot of people will spend that time seeing family and friends in other states.
As an American (also from Indiana!) we often say our state first because Americans often travel to other states (America is huge) and telling another American what state you’re from is much more useful information! So some of us have this habit deeply ingrained and forget how useless it might be to a non-American when we do leave the US.
It would be a little ridiculous and useless for people who are meeting for the first time just to say they're from the US. "I'm Sam, from the US." "I'm Mary, and I'm from the US." "I'm Tony, and I'm also from the US!" etc.
As an American I can't relate in the slightest. I barely even travel outside of a small area with many states close by, and if I do, it's not like everyone around me is asking me where I'm from. No one cares. I can't imagine how ignorant and stupid I would have to be to think that when I'm in a foreign country, people are asking me if I'm from Kentucky or Wyoming. Obviously freaking not.
@@HuckleberryHim I probably should have also mentioned that if you meet a lot of other Americans online as an American, mentioning what state you're from is pretty useful in that situation too, at least if you're actually trying to get to know people. In any case, it's ok not to relate to my comment, but I think it's going a bit too far when you call other people stupid for what may honestly be a slip-up. Besides that, some people outside of America actually do take interest in what state we're from. Obviously not everyone, but definitely some. Source: I've met many. Relax.
@@HuckleberryHim I get asked where I am from all the time, as an American. Cause I have a NYC accent, but I am in the south. Just because nobody cares about you doesn't mean that this situation doesn't exist lmao. Calm yourself, child.
@@KonglomeratYT Sheesh, somebody got triggered, lol. If you're actually in the south, you'd know that millions of American southerners speak with a "general American" accent. Just as they do in NYC. I spent most of my life in NYC, and I don't have a "New Yawk" accent at all, and have hardly ever met anyone who did. Get over yourself, lmao.
@user-li2yv5je5e trust me, we're not offended, bread nazis get our attention like the dwarf or bearded lady at a circus, or the drunk/drugged angry guy on a street corner.
@user-li2yv5je5e no, for some reason there are a ton of people who seem to make it their life mission to denounce "American" white bread. Over on Quora I found dozens of posts with hundreds of comments about bread and they all devolved into bashing American bread, even when the original bread question was not even about that. Bread Nazi was a good name to call them, what with the derogatory names and slander (and the purity and hating on people that weren't like them *cough cough*), put them on a pedestal and give them a comb mustache and cheering crowds and rows of SA brownshirts and it would have been perfect.
It’s not only American bread that is sweet. Some packaged and freshly made breads are sweet in Central America, South America, parts of Africa, Japan, and South Korea. I was surprised to recently learn the latter two had sweet breads.
Many others have commented that they say their state name because the U.S. is so large. That’s part of it. Anyone who’s never been to the U.S. but only knows about it from movies might not realize that most of American culture is nothing like Hollywood portrays it. There are so many cultural differences, accents, habits, and variety, that it’s almost as if we’re made up of different countries rather than states. I’m middle-aged now, but when I was young I visited Nassau, Bahamas and New Orleans, Louisiana the same year. I felt more like I was in a foreign country in New Orleans than I did in the Bahamas. I live in Alabama, so it was just a few hours’ drive to get to New Orleans, but it felt SO foreign.
Euros will never understand that. On a funny note. I was stationed in New Orleans and my first day there the Boatswain Mate told me I was no longer in the United States. You are in New Orleans.
If you go abroad anywhere Americans are still clearly recognized as Americans. So there must be a common culture. I am German and couldn’t tell if a person is from Wisconsin or Louisiana or California or even Canada. I could only tell they are nor from the UK by the accent. But in return an American couldn’t say if a German is from Brandenburg or Bavaria although these are totally different regions and cultures within Germany. To an outsider both are clearly german although we think we have barely anything in common with each other 😅
I'm a Gen Xer, have lived in the north east, mid-west, and south, and have visited every state except Alaska, and have never personally witnessed a gun being used in the commission of a crime ever in my entire life. I've barely ever even saw guns at all, actually, and then only the south. I did have a friend who said he was robbed at gun-point when we were college, but I wasn't present when it happened, and that's the closest I've ever gotten to a criminal use of a gun. Which is to say, there is a LOT to say about WHERE in the US you are as to whether or not you will ever see a gun, much less a gun being used to commit a crime, much less having such a crime being committed against you personally.
I live in rural PA. There's at least one gun-based robbery every year, though usually multiple in a year, where I live. Where the hell were you visiting that had no guns? I want to go to there lol. Every single person I know owns at least two guns. Most of them are, admittedly, shotguns....but so are the guns that are used for the robberies. Maybe the high rate of meth use in my area is a big contributing factor in that, though.
I've driven clean through PA from east to west many times, when visiting family in Ohio from the east coast. But I've specifically visited places like Philly, King of Prussia, Annville (Lebanon Valley College, specifically, not to attend as a student but for other reasons), Hershey, and a few other places on the east side of the state. You might think how could I visit Philly and not see a gun? Well, during the daylight hours, in areas that aren't the rough parts of town, you aren't likely to see any. Again, it all goes back to where exactly you are.
@@Raven17729rural might be the key part of your comment there. I grew up in suburban PA and didn't so much as lay eyes on a gun until I was 18. I was in college my roommate invited us to his town to go shooting at the range - and he lived in rural PA, lol.
I believe we say what state we're from because the nation is so big that each state is roughly the size of an average nation, also, our federal system makes it so our states have their own House of Representatives, Senate, and leader. So in that way, each state runs itself like an independent nation
To be completely fair, it's the same presumption to think you know where a state is that a European makes when they assume someone knows where one of the countries they're from is, considering many US states are the same size as an entire or even multiple European countries.
My mother was from England and she complained about bread all the time being too sweet and no texture...well, that's because she bough grocery store bread like Wonder. There are loads of good bread out there and most stores sell it. My suggestion to travelers is to stop purchasing Wonder and like breads when you come to the US that way you won't have a complaint.
When my kids were little, we used to call Wonder Bread "air bread", still do. We never bought it anyway because it was ridiculously expensive. Of course all store bought bread is ridiculously expensive.
@@lizlee6290 I was referring to the idea that people that CHOOSE to buy the cheapest bread are then trying to say ALL American bread is the same, based on that...
My husband and I grew up in the same city. It is (I believe) in the top 10 biggest cities in California, USA, and is pretty high up there as far as crime rate. However, I was raised solely in upper middle class neighborhoods and to this day have never witnessed gun violence first hand. My husband however did in his youth. In fact he was the lone white boy in a Mexican gang (which he joined simply to survive his neighborhood at the time), but was kicked out because he smoked meth and the gang didn't mess with hard drugs. As a young adult, he saw the road he was on (the child of addicts who abused him turned addict himself), quit drugs cold turkey, and went to truck driving school. He is now the #2 driver at his company. He hasn't done any drugs (except prescribed medication of course) in the decade we have been together. He has also quit smoking in that time and is currently even working on quitting alcohol, except for large celebrations. I am exceedingly proud of haw far he has come on willpower alone!
I think the reason people mention the state they’re from is because saying you’re from the US is like someone saying they’re from Europe. It doesn’t narrow it down a lot, and as Laurence mentioned, people probably have already guessed you’re from the US anyway. And even if someone doesn’t know all the states and where they are, I’m guessing they know it’s a state when they hear it.
I find mentioning regions to be easier. I tell people I'm from the U.S. west coast, and that narrows it down to about 2-3 possible cultural regions. If they need more than that the state and/or nearest major city narrows it down further. Though in our state's case (WA) it's easier to give the city first than explain we're not anywhere near D.C.
@@pgrmdave If I were from a country whose alphabet was made up of squiggles, I'd think it would be obvious.. also, buttcheeks; many, many buttcheeks... (seriously; google it...)
"Not everyone in America knows that." I learned that after moving to New Mexico. I had friends ask me why I moved to Mexico. I have been told by companies that they only ship to the United States and Canada, and trying to convince them that I am indeed in the United States is futile. We are the only state that has to have USA on our license plates. It astounds me.
@@HappyBeezerStudiosIf I had to guess, it’s probably because Georgia isn’t a super well known country. I never heard of Georgia (the country) growing up, but I knew about Mexico. I’ve never experienced this in real life, but I have heard that some people think that my state of Maine is part of Canada, so it isn’t just New Mexico.
As a first generation American, I have been to Europe multiple times, but to be honest, I am more interested in traveling in the United States. I think there's a little more suspense in the United States travel. When you travel Europe, you know it's going to look nice. It's nice but a little predictable. In the US, you kind of never know what you're going to get. Whether it's going to be nice, terrible, somewhere in between. Road trips in the US are so addictive, you just want to go on more.
Utter nonsense. What an ignorant American thing to say. I have been to every Country in Europe and it's anything but predictable, how can you compare Venice to Istanbul or Iceland to Paris. I've been to over 130 countries and America is probably the least cultured, the worst food and the rudest people.
@@saratemp790 Europe predictable? What the AF are you on about? Have you been to Turkey, Luxembourg, Venice, Madrid, Wales, Gran Canria? Only an ignorant American would say Europe is predictable
@@saratemp790 America is predictable every store the same, everyone speaking the same language. God awful food. Over priced, over sugared, over salted, it's the pits. I've been to so many countries and the US has to be bottom of the list
Most of these I'd answer with "Because America is really big". I remember the first time I heard a British person that they had a vacation in Spain, and thinking "wow, you got to go all the way to Spain??" well, yeah, it's like right over there. Meanwhile, Canada doesn't have much big tourist attractions to Americans other than "The better side of Niagara Falls", and Northern Mexico doesn't have much tourist attractions beyond the experience of visiting a border-town (which gets old quick), so yeah, we either splurge and go to another continent, we take a Caribbean cruise, or we stay in the US. If I could afford it, I'd go to Europe like every other year.
@@screamingseal4805 Heh, cartels don't mess with tourists unless they go to the wrong parts. Keep the yankees happy so Uncle Sam doesn't drop the hammer on their operations any more than he already does.
@@Vaeldarg Oh to be sure, that's my point. You can spend decades touring the US and not even make a dent in the things to see here. Our National Park system alone is pretty much without equal, and the state parks are excellent too.
I use the state instead of the country, because 9 times out of 10, people are usually able to figure out what country I'm from just by the name of the my home state. So I usually don't waste breath on explaining that I'm from this state in the US.
I have to specify where I'm from because of Washington. State not DC. But so many people outside and a lot even in think I'm talking DC. So when ever it comes up I just say from near Seattle even though I live over 200 miles from there and only live in Seattle a few days every month for work
I just say I'm from NY. (Actually, upstate... WAY upstate) Even though there are other cities in NY, everyone assumes I'm from New York City, so I just smile and go with it....
It's easy to find bread without added sugar in American supermarkets. In addition to sourdough and rye, which you mentioned, there are usually whole-grain breads with no sugar. Trader Joe's Organic 5-Seed Multigrain Bread has no added sugar, and 0 grams of sugar per slice. Also, a lot of supermarkets have bread from local bakeries on their shelves, and many of these breads are not sweet at all. Before 9/11, Americans didn't need passports to travel to visit Canada or Mexico. Now we do. Also, you can't get on even a domestic flight these days without either a passport or a Real ID driver's license. These are big reasons that the number of American passports has increased in recent years.
The thing I wish I could find is non-chunky 100% whole wheat added-sugar-free bread, so if anyone has any national (or Oregon-accessible) brand/product recommendations I would be grateful. All the ones I can find have large seeds, rolled oats, etc. (such as the one mentioned), and sometimes I just want something softer. Just a smooooth, whole wheat bread that *isn't sweet* for sandwiches. (Rye is delicious but not for every purpose. Sourdough is *divine* but white bread is a sometimes-food, as Cookie Monster would say.) But the American bread I'm used to was not nearly as sweet as the Japanese bread I had recently!
@@RKHageman My store brand whole wheat bread also only has 1 g of sugar, which made the comment about loads of added sugar in bread kind of strange to me.
International travel: factor in that it’s mostly accessible from the US coasts. 90% of the country would require multiple legs (drive or flights) to get international. A family of 4 would be thousands just in flights. So you compromise… want beaches? Travel to a lake area or the nearest US beach. Want mountains? Warmer weather? Cooler weather? One flight or long drive away.
I’m not sure this is entirely accurate. Nashville, Tennessee is landlocked and their airport is international so is Atlanta, Georgia but then again as we say here in the south, to get to hell you have to go through Atlanta.
Honestly, with the state thing- it's cause the state I'm from says a lot more about how I was raised and my culture to another american than just sayin I'm an american. It's more about steriotype associations. People from California are presumed to act in a diffrent way from people from Washington even if they're right next to each other, for example. When I say "I'm from Maryland" I assume people would mostly think "crab, flag, catholic, lacross, balimore" which narrows down the possibilities massively.
@@whateverwhenever8170 I do, but my associations with Baltimore are primarily the song "Good Morning, Baltimore" and, courtesy of TH-cam accent videos, the phrase "Aaron earned an iron urn."
I say my city or state first because I identify first as a Philadelphian, Pennsylvanian, or even Marylander (where I spent the first 16 years of my life). Just saying I'm American doesn't really describe the "flavor" of my origins. I think it all comes down to how we think about our own identities.
what @spaceshiplewis said. The US is huge and each state has it's own identity and culture. Someone from Texas and someone from New York are likely to have different tastes in everything from food to music. It is a succinct way to offer a nugget about our identity and background which we americans love having for the sake of making conversation.
I think the best analogy for the state thing would ironically be the national components of the UK. Would a Scottish or Welsh or Northern Irish person say they were from the UK if asked by an American, or would their natural reaction be Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland? Excluding the English because I've found English coworkers and friends interestingly more likely to reference "the UK" as home than Scottish or Welsh acquaintances. All of those countries have the same formal leader of government and speak the same primary language, but are certainly culturally distinct enough to have their own identities. Quick googling says Scotland would be the 23rd largest state by population, Wales 33rd, and North Ireland 39th, but they obviously still think of themselves as a distinct group of people more culturally representative of who they are than the entire UK of 67 million when you include England.
I think Americans say what state they come from out of habit. Like you said in the passport question, America is a big place. That said, its fairly common for us to move and end up going to living in a different state then where we grow up. As a result, when Americans meet each other "Where are you from?" is a common question used to spark a conversation with each other. I've spent a lot of time in the Philippines (my wife's home country) and when I go there I always answer "Kansas" for the first week or two out of habit because that is how I usually answer the question when asked at home. After I've been there a while I switch to saying "The United States" because I know its what they are looking for.
I tell people the state I am from instead of the country because I think people already assume I'm American when they meet me. It also feels too generic to say I'm from the USA because America is nearly the size of a continent and has a population of nearly 350 million people. As a Ohioan, I don't want people thinking I'm from the west coast lol. I also say the state because I think if I say I am from the United States, I'll get the question of which state I am from and would rather just get to that answer within one question instead of two. I traveled to California recently and much of it feels like another country compared to Ohio in the Midwest.
4:37 I've lived in the US for all 40 years of my life, and I've never experienced gun violence firsthand. I have a gun of my own in case I ever do experience it, but it's essentially an unused accessory (in public) that I never show to anyone else. There are plenty of places in the US that are safe enough to leave your doors unlocked with no fear.
Yeah the "1 in x chance" is such trash. Nearly everywhere the chance is virtually 0% and the places where it's not, you wouldn't want to be even without them
One of my grandmother’s friends lived in such a place, in the mountains of Arizona. Instead of another human wandering in through his unlocked door-neighbors stay on the porch and knock, except in emergencies-he once found a bear raiding his ‘fridge. Their paws are close enough to having thumbs that they can use doorknobs. He started locking his doors.
Most places in the US don't actually have that significantly higher crime than most other first world countries. It is higher, but not exponentially. The crime is mostly focused in tight geographic locations. Obviously, population centers have more crime, per capita, it is highest in only a few select places.
I moved to greater Los Angeles from Dublin a few years back and I feel completely safe in my neighborhood. It’s pretty close to the level of safety I felt on the north side (not the best part of Dublin but still pretty nice). But if I leave my neighborhood here it gets sketchy real fast, about as safe as I felt last time I was in El Salvador. Not like in immediate danger but knowing things could go sideways pretty fast if I didn’t mind myself.
Think the reason most people identify with the state they are from by default rather than the country is two fold. Most people they will likely interact with will also be from the US, so it kind of becomes an automatic response. Second would be scope. Functionally, the states just about serve the role of a country in their own right, often to the point of having more affect on day to day life then the the country as a whole.
As others have touched on, it's also a cultural indicator as well. Many states here are the size of small countries elsewhere, and while all being American we are all very different depending on where we are born (big surprise lol). Often it's a topic of extended conversation between Americans separated by significant distance because we're curious about what other states are like, probably because the odds of us ever visiting are quite low 😂
I remember the last time I visited the UK to go to the Eisteddfod in Cardiff in 2008, when people asked me where I was from on the maes, I just said, "LA," because I figured that was well-known enough to be sufficient. I was stupid pleased with myself though when the conversation happened in Welsh and they immediately spat out, "BLOOD-dy hell, you're an American?!"
I'm not surprised if you spoke to them in Welsh - hardly any Welsh people actually speak the language fluently and Cardiff has very few Welsh people in the first place and the ones who do speak Welsh, don't consider anyone from Cardiff Welsh either ;)
Greetings from a Brit who did live next door to the Queen (her second home, Sandringham). Never saw her, but Anne drove past in her Landrover on the scenic drive. The place has been ruined since charles inherited it. Harry held a door open for my wife in the King's Lynn multi storey car park, so he is a gentleman, despite the hatchet jobs of the press. Luckily, Prince Phillip isn't driving in the area any more- his last crash was the excuse for speed cameras on the main road. Decent bread can be found in US supermarkets (Publix is our favourite), but you have to search for it, especially if you want a smaller loaf. Not all the bread is kept in the same store aisle.
@HerzogVonMartian alot do, but it tends come as wves, for instance no kneed bread was a fad for a while back in the 2010s, and sourdough was a big fad during covid. and hell bread makes where also a huge fad for a while too back in like the 90s.
@@HerzogVonMartian We do make bread occasionally, but our consumption is so low that a commercial loaf with preservatives to make it stay fresher is often our best option.
As an American it's a little surprising seeing someone refer to the press doing hatchet jobs on Harry, cause I don't think I've seen anyone but raging nazis have a problem with him over here. Like hell yeah dude, fuck monarchies, pursue happiness.
A personal tale:, I grew up in the upper peninsula of Michigan but most of my family lived in large cities in the southern peninsula/ other states, so to just day weekend visit family was often a 4-6 hour drive one-way, if this was a Brittish affair it would be like driving from France to Germany. so when I enlisted in our military I was flown from my home state to California ( Europe equivalent to flying from Brittain to Poland) where I met people from parts of my own country that seemed like a new world, Colorado Louisiana Texas, all extremes away from where I started, and all within reach without a passport or special travel permissions, then our military sent me to Afghanistan, then Iran, and even then I still hadn't held a passport, when I finally applied for one it was so I could use Canada to get from my current home of Massachusetts to my familiar home of Michigan faster/cheaper, I've never used my passport to travel abroad only to shortcut going "home"...
I never had a passport. In my young and wandering days Americans could visit Mexico and/or Canada with just their driver's license. It was all very relaxed unless they suspected you were smuggling weed or poutine. At this point in my life I am done traveling. I have always hated flying, so I don't anymore, and there is nothing I need to see that's more than a day's drive away.
Sadly passenger ships aren't much of a thing anymore, it seems. Cruises yes, ships for actually getting from A - B not so much. There are trips I'd much rather take by ship than plane if it were realistic.
Because they haven't added any sugar, but the natural sugars found in fruit are necessarily reported on the label to give the correct information for diabetics
@@kramermccabe8601 The sugar isn't there to make it sweet, the sugar is there to preserve the fruit, the sweetness is an added bonus. If you replace the sugar with artificial sweetener you also have to use ingredients to make it gel and preserve it. If you ever look at the label of "jam" with artificial sweetener you will notice it's labelled at "Fruit Spread" rather than jam.
From the USFDA: Added sugars include sugars that are added during the processing of foods (such as sucrose or dextrose), foods packaged as sweeteners (such as table sugar), sugars from syrups and honey, and sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices. They do not include naturally occurring sugars that are found in milk, fruits, and vegetables.
Took my first trip to Europe this year. Spain and France. Very nice. Lots of history and very old buildings. Travel between countries was easy due to an excellent transit system. However, there seems to be more variety of natural landscapes in the United States and a generally more friendly attitude. There are also several very different cultures within the United States to explore. The fact that the same language is spoken throughout the states is also a plus.
Yeah being from Texas is universally known ussaly the follow up question is if you still ride horses especially if like me your from El Paso which is almost always depicted as “the Wild West” in movies
Ditto California. Hell, I usually just say los angeles, cuz it's only a few hours away and it's one of the few cities non-americans might, MIGHT be able to find on a map---like how I know where Paris and London are, but not merseyside or the massif central
I reply that I'm from Michigan because any time I've replied that I'm from the USA, I was asked about details of life in California, which I hadn't even visited the first time I went to Europe. Or I was asked about New York City, which I had only visited once. And then when I said I'd never been to those places except NYC once as a child, I was asked why I went to Europe instead of visiting everywhere in my own country first. And when I replied that it was less expensive to fly to Europe and travel by Eurorail than to fly to different States, it apparently offended people, even though it was just the truth. What I think is weird is when Canadians tell me they're from Canada. I reply with, "That's a big country. Which Province?"
Yeah I def think non-Americans over estimate the amount of sugary white sandwich bread we eat lol. Half of the brands in the bread aisle are wheat and multi grain bread. Most grocery stores also bake their own sourdough, baguettes, sandwich rolls etc
@@kc9scott hmm maybe it's the groceries stories I go to. Usually I go to HEB. Sometimes I may go to Target. Tbh they're are a little bougier than Walmart or Kroger
Also in regards to the travel bit, the US has no legal minimum required vacation time anywhere in it's labor laws and doesn't require any public holidays be taken off (a "federal holiday" is just one that federal and state governments give their employees time off on, there's no legal requirements for private sector companies to give that time off). Having 2 weeks/10 business days of PTO per year that's counted separately from sick time is considered generous on the part of thr company. Americans don't regularly do trips overseas because no one has the time to do so.
As a fellow Chicagoan who just spent three weeks in Europe, I can say that I always answered the question of where I’m from with “from The States”, with my answer to the follow up question being “a ways outside of Chicago”. Illinois never really came up. But if I had still been living in Texas, you can bet it would have. ;)
Something I just considered recently is that most Americans don't get enough time off from work to travel the long distance AND visit family (for those who move states). I have a brother who makes lots of money and could afford to travel more if he wanted to, but because our immediate family is spread over three different states (From Michigan to Texas), he uses a lot of his vacation time to visit us. I used my summer vacation time to travel to Europe this year, but that means I didn't have time to visit my parents 1.5k miles away in Pennsylvania, or my husband's family 1.1k away in Florida. I have a friend who, in addition to visiting family a few states away, often is spending her vacation time on going to friends' weddings or just visiting old university friends, those things are more valuable to her.
The sugar ,Laurence, is to feed the yeast, so it can do its thing. That's why you won't find it in sourdough. Or sprouted breads lije Ezekiel (get the flax one, the only decent one)
you will be shocked to know that cake is pretty much just cake everywhere you go. American bread being as sweet as it is is an outlier among most bread you find worldwide.
@@Catherine.Dorian. as I understand it, when can farm subsidies started back in the 1930s, it was intended to support small farmers during the Great Depression. Those subsidies never went away, so corn syrup became a cheaper alternative to sugar.
@@JW-eq3vj Yep, that was the same I heard but the issue being how bad it is for us. And it never needed to be in things like bread. They did similar things for the dairy industry which was how we ended up with a cheese vault and American cheese
When my family went to Ireland and the UK in 2015/2016, we didn't have a consistent answer. About half the time we answered “Michigan” and about half we just said “the states.” Sometimes “the states” was good enough, but I thought it was interesting how, when people asked for a more specific answer they often jumped right over “which one” and landed on “what city are you from?” instead. The funny part is that even though most often when we got to tell them we're from Michigan they didn't have any recognition whatsoever, most of the people who knew which state Michigan is also knew about the hand thing and then asked us to show where our city is. I think it's pretty rad that our weird little localism has some broader cultural reach internationally.
I would think people say what state they're from because the US is so big and culturally diverse, it feels like just saying "I'm from the US" doesn't give enough information. And while it is true that people from other countries don't necessarily know all the states, they probably do realize that "I'm from New York" is a very different answer than "I'm from Texas".
Maybe Lawrence never met the Queen, but my Dad, also an American, once met King Charles when he was Prince Charles. I live in the UK nowadays, and the mother of our across-the-street neighbor actually worked for Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral Castle. As for guns, the homicides are largely confined to gang violence, and states with strong gun control laws actually have more gun violence than ones that don't. In my home state of Washington, one in 20 people have permits to carry concealed pistols. Yet Washington's gun violence rate is fairly small outside of Seattle. It's small inside Seattle, too, but more than outside. Before moving to the UK, I lived mostly in the western US, where there are more guns, but I've never witnessed any gun violence. The only person of my acquaintance who was ever murdered was killed by someone carrying a knife.
Really, the states with strong gun control laws have those laws BECAUSE of criminal activity in those states. I'm from a state with completely unregulated open AND concealed carry. Anybody (at least anyone who can legally own a gun at all, so nearly anybody) could be carrying a gun anywhere and you would likely never know it. I have NEVER seen a person openly carrying a handgun who was not law enforcement. It's the state with the second lowest crime rate in the country, after neighboring New Hampshire. It is not at ALL unusual to see someone with a long gun in hunting season, of course. I do find it odd that the state legislature enacted unregulated carry in such a safe environment - I can't imagine many people actually do. I only know one person who did (had a permit even before the law chanced), a friend's late father. The guy was a legit OCD/paranoid type who thought the world was out to get him. And of course, he lived in the typical small Maine town where crime is just not a thing. Scary part is he had Parkinson's and was blind in one eye - the LAST person who should be touching a gun of any kind. Sadly, the only people I know who were murdered was also by knife - crazy uncle flipped out and killed the whole family when we were in the eighth grade. But the majority of homicides are between people who know each other.
I feel like saying which state you're from instead of the country is partially habit and partially that it feels more descriptive to us. When speaking to other Americans or even visitors to the US, we're going to say the state when we're asked where we're from (or the city if you live in a large/more well-known city). It's more descriptive because life between states can vary a lot, especially in regards to the weather and landscape. Of course, when I was traveling around Europe, I would usually say I'm from the US (even though they could tell lol), and then say I lived in the middle of the country unless they seemed at all familiarly with the geography. St. Louis isn't very well known by people in France (which feels a bit ironic tbh).
If you look up the definition of "state" things get immediately confusing in that you're told that the words "state" and "country" are synonyms, but since the US states aren't independent, they're "states" rather than "States"...which probably just gave you a headache, but 'gives me a headache' pretty much sums up the way the US states work. The end result, however, is that we're similar to the UK, only if Scotland, N. Ireland, Wales, and England were not actual Countries but instead were countries. The Scots, Welsh, and N. Irish would still probably identify very strongly with their country (as opposed to Country) and say things like "I'm from Scotland" rather than "I'm from the UK" because We Are Not English Thank You Very Much. I think a lot of us here actually identify with our state more than our State, especially since certain states have weird rivalries, and our politics vary so much from state to state that...well. You might as well be in a different State.
@@alisonflaxman1566depends how you define country. England is not a member of the UN. It would be accurate to call England a nation, but it’s not a fully sovereign state, though it does have some sovereignty. If England could be considered a country, so could all 50 states.
@@zacharywranovskythere are different kinds of state, though. As you mentioned. England is a nation state, because the United Kingdom was made up of three (and then four) nations. Imo, the reservations of the First Nations would be more fit to be considered countries before the states of America. But the likelihood of that ever happening is another conversation…
@@justcomments a country requires that it be an independent sovereign state though. It cannot be under the complete authority of a larger government, and must have the ability to set independent diplomatic relations with other independent countries. Native American recognized tribes do have a bit more autonomy than states, but not much, and they are still under the purview of the federal government. Legally, they are domestic dependent nations. A country does not have to have a completely unique culture to be a state either, as in the cases of North and South Korea, and China and Taiwan. It is important to note the difference between a nation and a state in this matter. England is a nation, but its not an independent state
I think I introduce where i'm from with 'state, usa' because like.. .being from the south or being from the midwest are quite different, so the state makes a difference in where i'm from. I also tend to assume that brits have identified me as north american already, yall are a bunch who get very granular about accents. as for not having passports, honestly, imagine if you didn't need a passport to go to any country within 2000 miles, and also had ~10 paid days off a year. I bet you wouldn't bother unless that job paid real well! most americans can't afford to fly abroad and aren't that interested in going to mexico or canada so why would they get a passport? I know plenty of people who would love to go abroad but simply don't have the time or money
Up until 911 there was less requirement for passports for travel in North America if you could show that you were a citizen of Canada, the USA, (and sometimes Mexico.)
Iirc that changed quite a few years after 9/11. You used to be able to have a certain kind of drivers license that worked to get you into Canada, but they ended that program several years ago.
For those of us whose families have lived in a single state for generations we strongly identify with our state. Seriously some states even declared war on one another... looking at you OH and MI :) And as others have said Europeans lead with their country and it is not actually that different just that we have been bound by our federal government since our inception and Europe has only recently created their union.
At least for most Texans, it also has a lot to do with the fact that Texas was an independent country for just under a decade (before joining the United States by treaty).
I think there are two reasons for the state thing. First, the proper way to write your address on official documents in the us is as follows (number, street, city, state, country, zip coad). Also, states around the US are kinda like their own countries. I live in Virginia, close to the North Carolina border. In Virginia, you can grow your own Marijuana and get an abortion, 30 minutes to the south in North Carolina, you cannot get an abortion unless you meet very specific criteria, and you can be sent to prison for possessing something as simple as a joint. In South Carolina, they want to impose the death penalty for woman who get an abortion. That's just a small example of how states differ from each other.
when I was young, the Canehadian and Mexican borders did not require passports, which meant, I would have to travel 3600 miles before hitting a border I needed a passport for. in fact, all the times I went into Canadia, I never so much as showed an ID.
I'd say the simple answer to why Americans lead with their state rather than the country is that this country is _big_ so saying "I'm from the USA" is about as geographically meaningful as "I'm from Europe". Culturally, as has been noted on this here channel, there are a _lot_ of regional differences. My state (California) is larger than most countries; last I checked, it would be the 7th or 8th largest economy in the world if it were its own country. (And yet entire states that have fewer people in them than my city, which isn't even the largest in its immediate area, have the same number of Senators as my state.) Even saying "I'm from California" is insufficiently specific, since Northern California (centered around the San Francisco Bay Area) and Southern California (centered around the greater Los Angeles area) are quite different, and when you leave those two metro areas you're somewhere else entirely - generally either desert or mountains - and the people there hate all of us.
Senators represent the entire state, Congresspeople represent the people. 6th grade civics. If you want to compare congressional representation California has 34 Congresspeople while the 17 least populous states combined have 33.
@@robo5013 thank you for the entirely unnecessary "6th grade civics" lesson, repeating what I said. You seem to think it's self-evidently _right_ that this is the case - that tens of millions of people get the same representation as tens of thousands - while I contend that it is not. Your argument boils down to "but that's how it _is_ ."
@@dwc1964 Not only do you not understand basic elementary civics you can't read at that level either. I came no where close to repeating what you said. The Senate does not represent the people but each State as an individual governing entity. Congress represents the people which is why your State gets 30 times the representatives than 7 other States. To any intelligent person it IS right that the Senate is set up as it is because it treats each STATE government equally. Your notion that the States should have as many representatives in the Senate as they do in Congress would make it so that most States shouldn't even bother having any at all nor would they, or their citizens, have any real voice in the Federal government. Here is another 6th grade civics lesson that you obviously didn't learn: we don't live in a democracy we live in a republic. A republic protects the rights of the minorities, such as those States whose populations are smaller than others, so that the majority cannot remove their rights as citizens such as having some form of equal representation in the government. Your example of people from northern California having different cultural values than the people from the south is the exact reason that Congress represents the people and Congressional representatives are apportioned according to population not by State. That is how a republic protects the voice of the minority because it does give voice to those who would otherwise not get one if each State received an equal number of representatives in a democracy, say two as in the Senate, as those who's values were in the minority of each State would never have their voice heard by the Federal government.
@@robo5013 unlike you, I've gone past 6th grade civics and have studied (and participated in) the history of this country. The idea that States deserve representation regardless of how many People live in them has nothing to do with protecting "minorities" - in fact, it was put in place precisely to allow the rulers of certain States to _oppress and subjugate_ minorities (specifically, enslaved Africans) without interference from those who objected to such practices, and was later used to uphold the system of Jim Crow apartheid that was put in place to maintain that hierarchy. To any intelligent person, it makes no sense for a STATE that has tens of thousands of people in it to have equal (or greater!) weight in government to a state with tens of millions, because STATES are not PEOPLE. Here's another thing you and your ilk get wrong: A democracy and a republic are not mutually exclusive. The former refers to _who_ rules; the latter refers to _how_ they rule; you can have a democracy that is not a republic (such as a constitutional monarchy) and a republic that is not a democracy (such as the ancient Greek and Roman republics), but you can also have a democratic republic, which is what the United States is (meant to be) - a republican form of government ruled by the people. Your use of my example of California having large regional variations as a reason why states with tiny populations should have the same representation as huge ones is, to put it charitably, counterintuitive. If anything, it's an argument for why California should be split into several different states, each with its own couple of Senators, so that each section can be properly represented - because it's such a huge state that it makes no sense for all those different people to have the same representation as a few tens of thousands somewhere else.
@@dwc1964 Keep continuing to show your ignorance. If you had studied civics as you claim you would know that a republic is designed to protect the rights of POLITICAL minorities, not RACIAL minorities. Also if you had any knowledge of history you would know that the ancient Greeks were democracies as opposed to the Roman republic. The US is not a democratic republic but a federal republic. You are confusing the right to vote for representatives as being a democracy but the very fact that we elect representatives is what makes us a republic, not a democracy. Maybe you should read the Constitution and discover that nowhere does the word democracy occur but it does state that the federal government will guarantee the states a REPUBLICAN form of government. Also read the Federalist Papers and you will also see that there never is a mention of a democracy but a republic. Once again the Senate represents the interests of the state as a whole while Congress represents the people. That is why California has 34 congressional representatives vs the only one that seven other states get. Your argument that CA should be split into different states is precisely what it being broken down into 34 congressional districts accomplishes. So keep arguing and displaying how ignorant you are if you want.
In my experience, when I’m telling someone where I’m from, being specific to the state helps because the country is very big and can be pretty diverse on issues of both geography and culture. Saying “I’m from Michigan” or “I’m from Wisconsin” gives you a lot of different information if you know about these places. And if you don’t, then it may give a bit more context in future interactions to what specific experiences are more localized or nation wide as you talk to this person.
I kinda doubt the passport thing has anything to do with a lack of curiosity. I think it mostly boils down to the difficulty of traveling internationally compared to domestically
A lot of the not travelling or owning a passport is also americans schedule, most Americans only get 2 weeks paid time off and unless you're really lucky that also includes sick leave so even if we wanted to travel it would really only be 14-16 days top and just kind of hope we never get sick the rest of the year
Another element of the confusion around "football," I believe, is the way the usage of the word foot has changed over the decades. We rarely say footman, or afoot, anymore. American football did not allow the forward pass until 1906. Other sports advanced the ball by throwing it, hitting it, kicking it through the air, but in football the only legal way to move it forward was for a man to carry it by foot.
That might be part of it, but I think what's more significant (and also related to the development of the forward pass) is that the "free kick" used to be a much more common play. It's now only seen after a safety, which itself is a very rare occurrence.
we say what state we’re from for more or less the same reason you might say you’re from England rather than the UK. being from Michigan, a world of cultural context separates me from the experience of a Californian, Texan, or New Yorker. those places feel “foreign” to me-people speak differently and have different customs & social expectations. and while we live in the same country, most of the laws that directly affect us are made at the state level. “i’m from Michigan” tells you more about who i am & my cultural/political background
Actually, more than 16. It’s 67 per the US Geological Survey, but Springfield, Missouri, my hometown is the largest one (Springfield, Massachusetts has the largest metro population btw)
![ละลาย (LALALYE) - DAOU PITTAYA ต้าห์อู๋ พิทยา [OFFICIAL MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wo6r9TgausI/mqdefault.jpg)
"where are you from?"
"America"
"Yes, obviously, but where in America?"
Many of us have had this conversation too many times so now we just skip it
Expecting us Americans to say we're from America is like expecting a Scotsman to say he is from the UK instead of saying Scotland. US states are every bit as different as the various areas of the UK.
@@scythelord I'd say it's closer to a Scotsman saying he's from Europe, given the scale.
The state thing is because many Americans are used to interacting with other Americans, in America, and telling each other we're from the US is weird if nearly everyone you meet is also from the US. It's like saying "I have ears". If you lived in the UK, and met another person from the UK, you'd probably say "I'm from London/Midlands/York/Slough" rather than "I'm from the UK". Because they are also from the UK, and in the UK. And so are most of the people in the crowd around you. Likewise with the US: we don't go around saying "I'm from the US" and "I am also from the US". If the other person is from the US, we name the state. If they're from and we're in the same state, city or town is the default.
My thoughts exactly. Was l looking through the comments to see whether or not I needed to comment it myself.
This
@@Hrafnskald I have ears, too!
I basically said the same thing
But also some of us don’t want to be from the US and we only identify with our state
I was at a small tourist shop in Kenya (far from cities) and one of the employees asked where (I believe he specifically asked which US state) I was from. I answered Pennsylvania and he said "Ah, with the Amish people!" and I replied,"Why, yes!"
So not everyone outside the US is completely unaware of its regions.
Which ignores the large Amish groups in Iowa and Northern Indiana, among other locations - though Pennsylvania does have a lot of them.
@@bricefleckenstein9666 Ah, yes, the Kenyan man should have then followed up with "Though there are also significant populations in Ohio (not Iowa) and Indiana!" How could he be so ignorant?
@@Grendelynden I said Iowa deliberately - I lived fairly close to the Amana Colonies there for years, and Amana the BRAND was named after that region of Iowa (as that's where it's original factory was at).
I get more than a little irritated when someone is WRONG when "correcting" something I stated.
@@bricefleckenstein9666 Brands and tourist attractions don't equate to communities of people. There are certainly Amish in Iowa, but there is not a large group; there are more Amish in, say, Kentucky than in Iowa.
@@Grendelynden There are quite a few Amish in Iowa - they might center on the Amana Colonies but they've spread out over the years.
Yes, the Amana BRAND eventually got sold off by it's Amish founders - but they still founded it.
I seriously doubt there are more Amish in Kentucky - might be more in Indiana, definitely more in Penn, but the Amish in Indiana tend to be in the northern part of the state and have NOT migrated as far as Kentucky.
Try LIVING in East-Central Iowa, instead of spewing ignorance.
As a Brit. I remember being very confused when visiting a friend in Kentucky, and seeing number plates, and people wearing sweaters with 'UK' written on them. It was several days before I realised that the 'UK' stood for 'University of Kentucky'.😄
UK does stand University of Kentucky but in this case, they were wearing those to make you feel welcome.
@@toemblem 😆
@@koschmx Lol. I confess, I probably don't know who's on most of our notes, least of all what they did to get there. I hope you have a great time in the UK when you visit again. (Don't miss York if you can manage it.)
I live in the US, in Utah (on the west side of the country), and have a friend who went to University of Kentucky. I still get confused for a second every time I see her UK gear. 😂
As to the size of America. Bill Bryson put it in a good sense of scale by saying that we have farms the size of Belgium
The King ranch in Texas is bigger than Luxembourg
The Great Lakes are about the same square area of Britain.....👽🗿👽
In California, San Bernadino County is bigger in area than the Netherlands.
Lake Superior is bigger than Scotland, Lake Michigan is bigger England, and Lake Huron could fit Wales AND Northern Ireland
OK, I'll be the one to ask: Who's Bill Bryson? A friend of yours?
Often residents of the United States are criticized for calling ourselves "Americans", when if fact it was the British who did that to make a distinction between someone from Britain or British America. In the past, "Americans" were more likely to identify with the state they were from, especially prior to the Civil War. But continued pressure from the outside has led us to call ourselves "Americans" when were are not in the U.S. Thankyou for touching on the fact that the US isn't a constant running gunfight, the British and Australians seem sure that we are armed to the teeth 24/7, and participate in gun-battles on a annual basis at minimum. Also thank you for pointing out that homicide statistics include suicides, I'm not sure most people are aware of that.
Correction: No homicide statistics include suicides. It's only "gun deaths" where people are combining suicides and homicides.
So you aren’t 340 times more likely to die in a gun-related incident in the US compared to the UK?
@@shamone10 Well 340 x 0 = 0, so no. Most Americans never see guns (besides police and military) AT ALL, and some people freak out when someone is open-carrying because it's so unusual.
@@shamone10 That might be true, but I'm more than 340 times more likely to be able to return fire, or perhaps fire first. 😃
UK has knife attacks. I guess only gun deaths matter? How about murder is murder regardless of the method. Both are equally horrific
Time was no passport was required to travel into Mexico or Canada by land. That has since changed.
Doesn't it also make it easier to be pre-checked for the TSA if you have a passport? 👽🗿👽
Or even by air. I flew to Calgary before that changed and just had to have my birth certificate with me.
@@draskuul I just needed my drivers license. Once when crossing to Canada, the customs officer just asked where I was born.
You just need an enhanced license which is like $10-$15 more so still no passport required.
I don't know about Mexico, but you can cross from the US to Canada and back without a passport if you have the super duper driver's license (I forget what the official name is). It's basically a driver's license but you have to supply all the same documents to get it that you would need to get a passport.
When people from the United Kingdom have told me where they're from, they often don't say "I'm from the UK." They might say Wales, or Great Britain, or Yorkshire, or Midlands, or even just a city name, London, or Bristol, etc. We're not so different after all.
Americans name the State before the country for the same reason. It's a semi-localism / regional pride.
Everyone more or less knows how to communicate: how to adapt what we say to the person we think is receiving it.
Thank you for not saying unalive or pew pew.
I've heard that said on other youtube channels which are poor imitations of Lost in the Pond. Cringe.
When I talk to non-Americans about America and its states, I tell them to think of America as 50 different countries combined into one giant country. Each states has it's own history and culture. Many of them have their own dialects of language, and, crucially, every state has their own laws. Yes, there are laws that are universal in America, but each state also has their own unique laws that are only true for them. Living in Arizona is basically like living in a different country than Florida, or Idaho, or etc... So that's a big reason why Americans say their state.
That’s really true. During the settling of America, the country was not all inclusive from border to border and coast to coast as it is now.
In fact, at the time of the original 13 colonies banded together for the revolution, Spain and France still had major settlements in America.
Even when land was added later, it remained territorial until there was sufficient population and the residents voted to apply for statehood.
With the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase, the Federal Government was involved in partitioning the land into essentially what became several states.
I live in Arizona, too. From San Diego California.
Why are you considered a country as a whole then and not its own continent .
There's also governors/judges that further determine whether those "universal" federal laws actually even get enforced in their state. There's been a lot of controversy lately from hyper-conservative judges making nonsensical rulings that are just designed to be appealed up to the currently conservative-stacked Supreme Court.
@@claregale9011because there are other countries? The United States borders Canada and Mexico. The three countries make the the majority of the continent of North America. There are many others besides those three just within the continent.
when we were over there, last, we would say, "we're from Oregon, in the States" because we expected if we just said, "America" the next question would be "what part"
You could always say "The state north of California."
@@ronjones-6977 Haha... yeah, because when I go back to Arkansas to visit my family and tell people I'm from Oregon, they say, "Is that near New York?" Oy ve... So I don't expect Europeans to know where Oregon is.
@@ronjones-6977Nobody from the Pacific Northwest would ever say that.
@@perceivedvelocity9914they did so there goes your theory.
@@ronjones-6977Them is fightin' words in Oregon
As a Canadian I can tell you, we tend to say what Province we're from as well, as culture varies quite a bit from region to region. In Alberta, there's even a north/south and city to city difference to a degree
When I was a child, I asked my father why we never visited any other countries. My father, who is an American immigrant, said “Why would I go explore other countries before I was done exploring my own?” I know many will not agree with this sentiment, however it illustrates the point made in the video. It’s a big country with a lot to see.
Yep, lots and lots and lots of strip malls. Or, maybe you can see something interesting if you're willing to drive one hundred and fifty miles.
@@garryferrington811 You don’t get out much, do you Garry? 😂
@@garryferrington811 You must live in a flyover state
@@garryferrington811 Umm...150 miles isn't that far. I've driven farther just to pick a relative up from the airport, and then driven back the same day.
I thought I would add that I travelled to Europe in the 1970s and did not visit my first large National Park till 2013. There is a lot to see in the US.
8:23 "Not all Americans know all the 50 states." True. There was an incident a couple years ago in Washington, DC, where a couple were applying for a marriage license. The fellow had a DC license for identification. The woman had her New Mexico drivers license for identification, but the clerk demanded to see her passport instead. It took TWO levels of supervisors before somebody convinced the clerk that New Mexico was a U.S. state.
It’s also such an issue, license plates on cars say “New Mexico, USA” on them. 🤦♂️
I was visiting South Carolina once, stopped in at a gas station to grab some smokes for my wife, and when the girl was looking at my I.D. she threatened to call the cops on me because it just said "Virginia" on it, and not East Virginia or West Virginia, so obviously I was using a counterfeit license....
I live near the WV border and have a few friends from WV, so I've heard plenty of stories of the inverse, where some ignorant clerk somewhere acts like they're lying because obviously West Virginia isn't a state, considering that there's already regular Virginia.
Never, ever, underestimate how poor the American education system can be. And how many people never leave their local area.
I had a friend who lived in New Mexico for several years and was always having people tell her that they couldn't ship things she'd ordered online "out of the country." Sheesh.
That happens from time to time. Sad, isn't it?🇺🇸
As someone from the US, I can say the reason that many of us don’t have a passport & don’t travel abroad isn’t because of lack of interest. It’s all about the costs. The majority of us just cannot afford it. I’d love to, but most of the time, even traveling within the US isn’t an option because it just costs too much. That’s a rich people thing.
Exactly. Thinking we aren’t curious sounds like a question coming from a place of privilege, never considering many of us simply can’t afford it.
YES!! I was just able to go out of the country for the first time last year at age 27 to Ireland, after years of saving and an off-season deal (November). Not only is it difficult for many to afford airfare/lodging on their wages, many employers can be abusive about allowing time off. When I was 20, my first employer revoked my vacation days requested months in advance (4 days off after 3 straight years of work) mere days prior because "you're on our time, we're not on yours" LOL
@@sonozaki0000 you need to get a better job. I've never had any of my time off revoked. I was asked once if I could change it, but they didn't revoke it. One time when I requested on short notice they didn't approve it, but that's different than revocation.
Average income = $60K
Yeah intercontinental flights aren't cheap. It's not like a French buying a train ticket for a weekend at Austria.
I'm very disappointed to hear you didn't share a flat with the queen
Even in the U.S. the news reported on the guy who broke into Buckingham Palace at night, went into her bedroom, and talked to the Queen. Apparently, at the moment, she assumed he was a drunk member of the staff. But since this was 1982, I don't think he was Laurence. Also, if you type the search term, "man who broke into," this is the suggested search. One would think a lot of men have broken into a lot of places.
But many women share the queen's flatness, unfortunately. 😢
He's lying for TH-cam, everyone knows he shared a flat with the queen
Larry is modest about it because the queen used to grind on him reverse cowgirl.
I lead with my state rather than country simply because the country is so dang big, and I'd rather make it clear that I'm not from one of the interesting places they've seen in movies or TV, just somewhere with corn, roller-coasters, and haunted houses.
Nebraska then? :D
I've lived in 3 states thus far, Illinois (grew up in Chicago), Missouri, and now South Carolina. Wild to see the differences in each place.
Same indiana here 😂
If they're from a large city some might lead with that. I'm from San Francisco, or LA, or Houston.
@@josephcote6120 I'm more likely to say Seattle than Washington because of the State vs DC confusion.
Even telling people from other nearby states where you're from, they'll ask where that is in relation to the biggest/most well-known city. I then have to tell them, "I'm about X miles/minutes from there." They'll usually still be confused, but at least they know I'm not from the big city they're aware of.
I say I'm "From Rhode Island but originally born in Pennsylvania" because to other Americans that tells them that the smell of cow manure reminds me of my childhood and that I am no longer willing to drive more than 20 minutes unless it's really important. Saying I'm from the US would just feel like I'm being intentionally vague and obtuse, like if I met a tourist around here and they said "I'm from Europe" or "I'm from Asia" or "I'm from Africa."
@@SeagraveSerpentarium I'm from San Diego but now live in the Phoenix metro area.
Except that Europe, Asia, and Africa are all WAY, WAY, WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more diverse than the US. It's not even close, it's not even close to close to close, I can't even imagine thinking these things are comparable. Hawaii is basically culturally equivalent to Maine compared to Iceland vs Greece or Yemen vs Brunei. Ridiculous comparison, and I say this as an American.
@@HuckleberryHim You sound absolutely ridiculous. In my city I can walk 5 blocks and find completely different ethnic makeups and languages. I've moved half a dozen times and found nothing similar anywhere that I moved to, and the new locals are always in complete awe of me and unaware of anything I say that used to be normal. The fact that you compared Hawaii to Maine shows you don't know anything. Hawaii is insanely different to Maine. NY is insanely different to NC. Ridgewood is insanely different to LIC. The list goes on.
@@KonglomeratYT Yeah, I'm from NYC too, and it is by far the most diverse city on the planet, and in human history. That's not what anyone meant here by "diversity". There is still a common American culture and vibe that you get no matter where you are. There are Walmarts and pick-up trucks everywhere you go. If English isn't the main language in some place, then it's Spanish. These "recent immigrant" communities are a tiny fraction of the population compared to 60% plain jane white American (you couldn't make it more obvious this is the category you belong to), and about 30% are black or Hispanic. These are very "typical American" groups and their makeup of the population hardly varies wherever you go.
This isn't the case in Europe or Asia or Africa. India alone has 500+ indigenous languages. You can go from town to town in Sweden and find practically mutually unintelligible dialects. There isn't even a single main indigenous language for almost any African country. Never in your wildest dreams will America be like that; if it is "diverse", it's diverse in a very clearly different way (recent immigration; which is great, by the way). Don't be obtuse.
Just because you want to imagine that NC is "insanely different" from NY doesn't make it so. In what made-up yank fantasy are you living? They both have mega highways, the same trashy burger joints, redneck trump supporters. The finest of American culture gets exported throughout the land. The seeming contrast between Maine and Hawaii was obviously part of my intention, because simpleton American exceptionalists like you are astonished that anyone could compare them.
You focus so much on these tiny minutiae of differences, while ignoring the glaringly obvious giant monolith of Americanisms that characterize them both. The only way the American states are truly diverse is in terms of ecology/geography/climate, which can't exactly be helped. Otherwise, you people are way, way, WAYY overfocused on all these supposed differences while missing the massive forest for the tiny trees.
@@KonglomeratYThis reply is just a copypaste i remember reading on a expat video a few months back. Don't waste you breath. Or it's possible that most "pickme" americans speak with simular disdain for the US and im just remembering what one of his friends parroted. 😂
Nobody I have met from Scotland told me they are from the UK! They proudly say Scotland.
But they are in the minority because they were subjugated by the all conquering English. 😆
@@ianz9916 Not true - the angles tried but failed to ever actually "take it over". The joining of the crowns and then the creation of the UK 100 years later was a way t end the constant wars and such. It was basically a business decision. 😄
@@Mike-xh8fl In business terms it would be economically disastrous for Scotland to leave the Union now. The SNP want the Scots to believe that this isn't the case and pro-independence media make lots of noise about the way accounting works but here are the facts. Scotland has about 5.4 million people living there, and England has about 57 million people. Broadly speaking there are 10 times as many people in England as in Scotland. The public annual grant to Scotland is about £41 billion compared to the public annual grant to England of £86 billion. Broadly speaking twice as much. It really doesn't take a maths genius to work out that, left to their own devices, this will no longer be sustainable. So you are basically right, but for how long?
@@ianz9916learn your history, man. Every time the English tried to subjugate the Scots, it lasted for a generation at most. The intensity with which the Scots ended occupations should make it very clear that they were never English subjects. They were periodically the greatest allies to each other or bitterest foes because the politics were so much more complicated than mere subjugation and overlordship. At many points, the Scottish kings were landholding peers WITHIN ENGLAND - the earldom of Huntingdon was theirs by both tradition and might of arms. And yet still, the nobility and royalty intermarried regularly. The English crown hoped to supplant the Scottish nobility with their own, but the opposite ended up happening. Scots royal blood sits the English throne to this day.
@@Levacque Get a sense of humour, it wasn't a serious comment. It was more a reaction to the 6th verse of the national anthem where it talks about crushing the rebellious Scots.
I've had people from the UK answer "where are you from" by saying "Kent" or "Aberdeen," while not referring to the city. How is that different from Americans naming their state?
On a precision level it would be lay saying upstate.
Kent is also a province, not just a city.
I'm not 100% sure on Aberdeen, but I think it's also both.
@@bricefleckenstein9666 Aberdeen is the city, Aberdeenshire is the county.
If you think American bread is too sweet, don't even bother touching Hawaiian bread. That's so sweet, it almost tastes like pure sugar.
It try does and I don’t taste the sugar on our bread at all.
(looking at the loaf claiming to be hawai'ian bread next to me) (Franz is the brand) 18g carbs, only 2g of added sugars in those carbs. Only 1g of carbs is dietary fiber. The brand I prefer (kings) has more fiber, more sugar, and about the same total carbs, and tastes considerably sweeter.
@@WilliamHostman Your body breaks down carbs into sugar. So from a weight gain perspective, there's not much difference. It's just that sugar hits your blood soon after eating, while it takes your body a day or two to break down carbs into sugar.
Hawaiian bread came from Portuguese sweet bread.
I agree. Hawaiians, bless ‘em, have the WORST diet in the world! They love their fat and sugar!!
The United Kingdom does have a land border. It's with the Republic of Ireland.
And with Spain (via Gibraltar)
@@charlesunderwood6334 Gibraltar is not part of the United Kingdom. It is a British Overseas Territory.
We say the state where we are from because we are asked that very question amongst our fellow Americans.
And many Europeans say we stand out anyway when we travel....because they copy our style and we're the originals 👽🗿👽
@@marklar7551 Originals? Europe is far older than America.
@@HansDelbruck53I think they meant the original makers of the style not the original people. I could be wrong though. Also, North America as you know it today is far younger than Europe, but Mexicans and Native Americans had this country for thousands of years before that.
@@HansDelbruck53 typical european missing the f'in point on purpose
@@alb91878 Many folks would tell you Americans have no style.
On the "Americans introduce themselves by the state they are from" thing - Part of it is pride in your home region, but part of it is also because the US is the size of a continent, and different parts are very different from each other. If I just said "I'm from the US", I've told you almost nothing. Being more specific helps you, in my mind, understand me better.
yea it's basically like someone from Ireland saying, "I'm from Europe" and someone from Czechia saying, "I'm from Europe". Both are correct, but couldn't be further apart lol.
To answer why we don't have passports: It comes down to cost and ease of traveling. I had a friend in college who spent a year studying in Italy (she wen't on a scholarship) and she and her friends would take weekend trips all over the place for cheap. They wen't up to Scotland for a weekend, did a day trip to London to see Ewan Mcgreggor in Guys and Dolls (I was so envious at the time), even wen't to the olympics. Here, I had to scrounge and save for months just to go on a road trip to Virginia to visit George Washington's Mount Vernon. It was a 9 hr drive and ended up being a 4 day trip since we stoped by Monticello and Montpelier as well. The trip took us across 3 states and was a luxury for us. A trip, to say NYC to see a show or Chicago is not within our means, never mind a trip to Europe. Paid vacation here is also very rare. So it's not like we don't WANT to go abroad, it just that most of us can't even leave our state without breaking the bank.
I know, we're saving up to go see my nephew's graduation next year. They live 2 states & 600 miles away. My sister wants the party in another state 800 miles from here, because reasons. sigh. I don't know if we can afford a hotel room, and few feel up to handling my kid with adhd & autism
A very valid point
I find it difficult to comprehend how Americans do not want to change the laws on paid holidays (vacations) and sick leave and accept that they will never have decent time off for recreation. If they did that in Europe, there would be a revolution on the streets!!!! If Americans are happy with the status quo, so be it!
@@pepita46 The majority of Americans, including the majority of conservative white women, want abortion to be legal, but here we are, going back to the good old days of diy terminations
I am far from rich, I have a normal job but I have still been to over 130 countries, 8 this year alone. Off to Korea next month. You can do house swaps for free. You can spend your whole life making excuses then lie on your deathbed regretting all those things you didn't do. You only get one life. SO GET OUT THERE AND DO IT. STOP MAKING EXCUSES
On bread: It is actually really easy to buy bread in the supermarket with comparable amounts of sugar as European brands. We have a lot of options with more sugar, but we have just as many options with similar or less sugar.
Edit: For clarity, I mean even the prepackaged stuff, not just the stuff at the bakery counter.
I find it odd how they'll say things like American's bread is sweet or American's cheese is processed, etc. Those kind of statements seem to be based on us having a limited variety of things, when we have a vast number of choices.
@@RogCBrand yeah they take things from American movies as being just American, American cheese to me is colby jack and pepper jack whilst stuff like Kraft Slices (which many Europeans think is American cheese all Americans use) is cheese when you're struggling.
@@kevinprzy4539 Fun fact: Processed cheese was first made in Europe... BEFORE Kraft got his patent.
@@RogCBrandthis is something I’ve found in talking to Europeans. They only seem to have, maybe outside the capital cities at least, only one of each thing. One bread, one beer, one cheese in the particular region. It’s difficult to explain to them that in the US we have an extremely wide variety of choices, including the imports of the world. There really is no such thing as American bread, or American beer, etc. it’s sort of like what we do with some things, like say Swiss Cheese. Typically it’s just Emmentaler. But at the actual cheese counter we can get Gruyère, or Tête de Moine, or Bleuchâtel. All Swiss cheese but we don’t call them that. Most Europeans will never see or eat actual American food. It’s just our most stereotypical big business brands that they know us by: Hershey, Budweiser, Kraft, etc.
North American wheat (I.e. summer wheat) is faster frowning and more prolific than Northern European wheat. This difference in wheat strains also means a significantly higher percentage of glutinous proteins. These proteins produce a much harder and dryer bread. One common way to soften gluten and add back moisture is with higher sugar (sucrose is hydroscopic, it holds on to and locks in moisture). The reason rye based bread doesn’t need sugar is because rye naturally has less gluten… although its grows more slowly and thus costs more. Sourdough also is produced by longer bacterial breakdown flour, which actually chops up some of the longer tight spring-like proteins of gluten.
I think cost is the biggest hurdle for international travel. At least it is for my family. A trip to Europe would be like a trip of a lifetime for me.
Yep, I finally got to go to Greece last year after being on this earth for over 70 years, and was only able to do that because someone else paid for most of it. I've always had a looooong list of countries I'd love to visit, but all of them involve very long flights and many thousands of dollars. China and Australia, would you please move closeer?
I've been around the world and visited over 130 countries, cost is as much as you want to spend. I can travel and spend less than $15 a night. If you know what to do. You can also do house swaps for free. Japan last month, Korea next month. I've been to 8 countries this year alone. I'm far from rich, I'm just a savvy traveller. You can spend your whole life making excuses and lie on your deathbed wishing you'd done this or gone there. Just get on with it. LAZY IF YOU ASK ME
@@markylon yeah and how much were your plane tickets
@@markylon $15 a day on top of plane tickets is still way too expensive for some (most) people. Not to mention how are you getting more money while away for so long? You don't work? So are you just traveling on daddy's money?
@@world_eater1315 I work hard, don't waste my money on unnecessary items or fashion. My money goes on travel, experiences and memories. How many people buy branded clothes, every gadget going and TV streaming service. How much do they spend in Starbucks? Stop buying crap and live for travel.
On the travel part. Something to add is our (american) labor laws do not Include any mandatory paid holiday, or even sick leave.
So many Americans have to sacrifice going unpaid during their time away from work on top of saving money for said trip.
I'm an American in a job for about 4 years now. I'll get a max of 12 paid days off a year to cover sick leave and vacations and 2 unpaid days off a quarter. If I want to use it, I have to find someone to cover for me. And I try to keep a week of PTO ready in case of emergencies. Going abroad means taking additional time off for immunizations, passport photos, converting currency, talking to travel agents... It is just a lot easier to stay in the USA where I have a lot of options and family to visit.
That is, even if their employer allows it 😔
@@silentsmurf Unless your employer has you on-call, it really is none of their business where you go when off the clock.
@@andylaugel4241 Poor Europeans don't come to the US either, regardless of how much vacation time they get - they still can't afford it. But when a completely different country is only 20 miles away across the English Channel, it's a tad easier to manage. Or on the continent, you can literally walk across the street and be in a different country...
Ultimately, you just have to want it enough. Out of college, I only got two weeks' vacation and had no money for a long time. I still managed to go to the UK and Europe a number of times in those days. Save up both money and vacation time and go. Also, you are way behind the times if you think that crossing the Atlantic requires immunizations, currency conversions (assuming you have a credit or debit card anyway), and talking to a travel agent (they barely even exist anymore). You will have to go through the hassle of getting a passport, of course, but that really isn't a big deal. A passport photo is free at your local AAA office if you are a member, and like $10 if you aren't and takes 5 minutes.
@@andylaugel4241 employers have to approve time off, unpaid or not. Can’t just not show up to work for a few days or weeks without consequences
You forgot about the Little League World Series. This has youngsters from all over the world competing for the best young baseball team in the world. This competition truly is a World Series.
We don't have Little League baseball here in Ireland.
Let alone World Series.
We have our own sports such as Hurling (3,000+yrs old).
Gaelic Football also around the same age.
@@gerardflynn7382But they play it in Central and South America. Plus certain parts of Asia. So what is your silly point?
@@joeysausage3437 So, you think Ireland is in the Southern Hemisphere???
@@thaisstone5192
No, they think the southern hemisphere is part of the world. The world series has young players from all over the world, and some of them could be but aparrently aren't likely from Ireland. Inclusion of Ireland isn't a required part of "from all over the world".
So does the MLB World Series. The MLB is where professional baseball players can make the most money, so the best players from all over the world come to the US to play there.
I can't speak for all Americans, obviously, but for myself, while i absolutely love to travel and have always wanted to visit Europe, I have never been able to afford it. Now I have 4 children whom I would have to bring with me since childcare is ungodly expensive and i don't have family nearby that could watch them for an extended period. Then there's the matter of time. My husband and I would have to give up pay to take vacation, and either pull the kids out of school or wait until summer break (since the only other school breaks are for holidays that we celebrate with family and friends locally). Its a big headache and financial burden we just haven't taken the time to plan out.
My sister and her husband, on the other hand, make a LOT more money than us, and have the ability to work remotely. They also only have 2 children and her husband's family lives near them (across the country from us) and seem to be frequently available to house their kids if they travel without them, so they travel, and travel abroad, fairly frequently.
How often did you travel to other us states ? Us states have the size of European countries and more. Are there different mentalities in the USA?
@thorstenjaspert9394 I haven't had the opportunity or means to do a lot of traveling. However, my grandparents lived in Southern California and I live in Northern California, and we would drive 6-8 hours each way to visit a few times each year throughout my childhood. I did get to see more of the country when my father was a truck driver. I spent a summer with him on the truck and we drove as far away as new york and back.
@@thorstenjaspert9394 From where I am in the northeast a plane ticket to Iceland is about the same price as one to California, so going to Europe is comparatively affordable. And since the Pacific is so huge, Californians are also paying more to get to Asia than I'd pay to get to Europe, traveling outside North America is more expensive there all around. So mentalities about travel at least are definitely affected by state.
Why is bread sweet? Because there was a "fat" crazy a few decades ago tso they cut back from "added fats" like butter, so to make it taste remotely edible they replaced the "fat" with sugar. Which is worse.
Erm, follow-up question: (aside from brioche) why TF were you putting BUTTER in your bread dough, and why would you think bread is inedible without it??
@@tarrynlea It makes the bread softer and more moist. Doesn't dry out as easily. Tastes better. I think this is particularly important in breads meant to be shelf stable for weeks.
I couldn’t eat it when I was there - far too sweet.
Prior to Sept. 2001 US citizens didn't require a passport to take a day trip across either of its neighboring borders.
I didn't need one (or afford it) prior to my trip to Japan when I was 27.
Good point! It used to be that you could visit Canada with only a driver's license!
Much of the Caribbean was the same way. Additionally, before Europe designated the Schengen Area a passport was often need to visit relatives who lived ten minutes away across a country border. Possibly the same way passport ownership went up in the U.S., it probably went down in Europe. My first visit to Europe in 1998 was hit or miss what countries actually asked for a passport as we drove across borders. Our friends there who we were visiting explained the changes taking place at the time. Our visits over the last fifteen years, we produced passports only when going through airports.
Excellent point! International travel got a LOT more complicated after that little incident.
@@philipmcniel4908 Or a birth certificate! My father had to take a group for work across the border to Niagara Falls the month prior to the passport rule taking effect. One person out of the 6 had his birth certificate because "this is the last time I'll be able to do this".
By the age of 27 I had visited over 120 countries.
We barely get vacation time here either - it's kind of a miracle to even get two weeks off of work. When you only get 14 days to travel, a lot of people will spend that time seeing family and friends in other states.
As an American (also from Indiana!) we often say our state first because Americans often travel to other states (America is huge) and telling another American what state you’re from is much more useful information! So some of us have this habit deeply ingrained and forget how useless it might be to a non-American when we do leave the US.
It would be a little ridiculous and useless for people who are meeting for the first time just to say they're from the US. "I'm Sam, from the US." "I'm Mary, and I'm from the US." "I'm Tony, and I'm also from the US!" etc.
As an American I can't relate in the slightest. I barely even travel outside of a small area with many states close by, and if I do, it's not like everyone around me is asking me where I'm from. No one cares. I can't imagine how ignorant and stupid I would have to be to think that when I'm in a foreign country, people are asking me if I'm from Kentucky or Wyoming. Obviously freaking not.
@@HuckleberryHim I probably should have also mentioned that if you meet a lot of other Americans online as an American, mentioning what state you're from is pretty useful in that situation too, at least if you're actually trying to get to know people.
In any case, it's ok not to relate to my comment, but I think it's going a bit too far when you call other people stupid for what may honestly be a slip-up.
Besides that, some people outside of America actually do take interest in what state we're from. Obviously not everyone, but definitely some. Source: I've met many.
Relax.
@@HuckleberryHim I get asked where I am from all the time, as an American. Cause I have a NYC accent, but I am in the south. Just because nobody cares about you doesn't mean that this situation doesn't exist lmao. Calm yourself, child.
@@KonglomeratYT Sheesh, somebody got triggered, lol. If you're actually in the south, you'd know that millions of American southerners speak with a "general American" accent. Just as they do in NYC. I spent most of my life in NYC, and I don't have a "New Yawk" accent at all, and have hardly ever met anyone who did. Get over yourself, lmao.
Not all of our bread is sweet... People, there are like 200 different breads in a store...
It makes me wonder how bland British food is if 2 or 3 grams of added sugar tastes noticeably sweet to them lol
@user-li2yv5je5e no, smart people buy the bread they prefer and can afford, stop being a snob. And yes, salt and pepper are seasonings
@user-li2yv5je5eI mean even the bread aisle has lots of stuff that isn't wonder bread.
@user-li2yv5je5e trust me, we're not offended, bread nazis get our attention like the dwarf or bearded lady at a circus, or the drunk/drugged angry guy on a street corner.
@user-li2yv5je5e no, for some reason there are a ton of people who seem to make it their life mission to denounce "American" white bread. Over on Quora I found dozens of posts with hundreds of comments about bread and they all devolved into bashing American bread, even when the original bread question was not even about that. Bread Nazi was a good name to call them, what with the derogatory names and slander (and the purity and hating on people that weren't like them *cough cough*), put them on a pedestal and give them a comb mustache and cheering crowds and rows of SA brownshirts and it would have been perfect.
It’s not only American bread that is sweet. Some packaged and freshly made breads are sweet in Central America, South America, parts of Africa, Japan, and South Korea. I was surprised to recently learn the latter two had sweet breads.
For that matter, Brioche is the French bread translated as "cake" in the famous Marie Antionette quote!
There's Portuguese sweet bread, too.
Japanese and South Korean bread is modelled after American bread
@@Ash_Wen-li To be fair, bread wasn't really a big tradition in those countries before the US occupation.
Many others have commented that they say their state name because the U.S. is so large. That’s part of it. Anyone who’s never been to the U.S. but only knows about it from movies might not realize that most of American culture is nothing like Hollywood portrays it. There are so many cultural differences, accents, habits, and variety, that it’s almost as if we’re made up of different countries rather than states. I’m middle-aged now, but when I was young I visited Nassau, Bahamas and New Orleans, Louisiana the same year. I felt more like I was in a foreign country in New Orleans than I did in the Bahamas. I live in Alabama, so it was just a few hours’ drive to get to New Orleans, but it felt SO foreign.
Euros will never understand that.
On a funny note. I was stationed in New Orleans and my first day there the Boatswain Mate told me I was no longer in the United States. You are in New Orleans.
Its funny to me that one little neighborhood in Los Angeles get blamed for so much.
If you go abroad anywhere Americans are still clearly recognized as Americans. So there must be a common culture. I am German and couldn’t tell if a person is from Wisconsin or Louisiana or California or even Canada. I could only tell they are nor from the UK by the accent.
But in return an American couldn’t say if a German is from Brandenburg or Bavaria although these are totally different regions and cultures within Germany. To an outsider both are clearly german although we think we have barely anything in common with each other 😅
Nassau? Isn't that west of Frankfurt?
I'm a Gen Xer, have lived in the north east, mid-west, and south, and have visited every state except Alaska, and have never personally witnessed a gun being used in the commission of a crime ever in my entire life. I've barely ever even saw guns at all, actually, and then only the south. I did have a friend who said he was robbed at gun-point when we were college, but I wasn't present when it happened, and that's the closest I've ever gotten to a criminal use of a gun.
Which is to say, there is a LOT to say about WHERE in the US you are as to whether or not you will ever see a gun, much less a gun being used to commit a crime, much less having such a crime being committed against you personally.
I live in rural PA. There's at least one gun-based robbery every year, though usually multiple in a year, where I live. Where the hell were you visiting that had no guns? I want to go to there lol. Every single person I know owns at least two guns. Most of them are, admittedly, shotguns....but so are the guns that are used for the robberies. Maybe the high rate of meth use in my area is a big contributing factor in that, though.
I've driven clean through PA from east to west many times, when visiting family in Ohio from the east coast. But I've specifically visited places like Philly, King of Prussia, Annville (Lebanon Valley College, specifically, not to attend as a student but for other reasons), Hershey, and a few other places on the east side of the state. You might think how could I visit Philly and not see a gun? Well, during the daylight hours, in areas that aren't the rough parts of town, you aren't likely to see any. Again, it all goes back to where exactly you are.
@@Raven17729 You nail it, drugs.
Pot does not count.
@@Raven17729rural might be the key part of your comment there. I grew up in suburban PA and didn't so much as lay eyes on a gun until I was 18. I was in college my roommate invited us to his town to go shooting at the range - and he lived in rural PA, lol.
Sheltered.
I believe we say what state we're from because the nation is so big that each state is roughly the size of an average nation, also, our federal system makes it so our states have their own House of Representatives, Senate, and leader. So in that way, each state runs itself like an independent nation
To be completely fair, it's the same presumption to think you know where a state is that a European makes when they assume someone knows where one of the countries they're from is, considering many US states are the same size as an entire or even multiple European countries.
My mother was from England and she complained about bread all the time being too sweet and no texture...well, that's because she bough grocery store bread like Wonder. There are loads of good bread out there and most stores sell it. My suggestion to travelers is to stop purchasing Wonder and like breads when you come to the US that way you won't have a complaint.
It's like, there's 100 varieties of bread, I'll by the cheapest, mass produced one... ugh, American bread is horrible...
When my kids were little, we used to call Wonder Bread "air bread", still do. We never bought it anyway because it was ridiculously expensive. Of course all store bought bread is ridiculously expensive.
@@RogCBrand Huh? All American bread? All 100 varieties?
@@lizlee6290 I was referring to the idea that people that CHOOSE to buy the cheapest bread are then trying to say ALL American bread is the same, based on that...
My husband and I grew up in the same city. It is (I believe) in the top 10 biggest cities in California, USA, and is pretty high up there as far as crime rate. However, I was raised solely in upper middle class neighborhoods and to this day have never witnessed gun violence first hand. My husband however did in his youth. In fact he was the lone white boy in a Mexican gang (which he joined simply to survive his neighborhood at the time), but was kicked out because he smoked meth and the gang didn't mess with hard drugs. As a young adult, he saw the road he was on (the child of addicts who abused him turned addict himself), quit drugs cold turkey, and went to truck driving school. He is now the #2 driver at his company. He hasn't done any drugs (except prescribed medication of course) in the decade we have been together. He has also quit smoking in that time and is currently even working on quitting alcohol, except for large celebrations. I am exceedingly proud of haw far he has come on willpower alone!
I think the reason people mention the state they’re from is because saying you’re from the US is like someone saying they’re from Europe. It doesn’t narrow it down a lot, and as Laurence mentioned, people probably have already guessed you’re from the US anyway. And even if someone doesn’t know all the states and where they are, I’m guessing they know it’s a state when they hear it.
Yeah, that's what I think. The state they're from is almost like a mini national identity.
Unless it’s the state of Georgia because then they might think you’re from the country with the same name.
@@Hyper_Drud I feel like it'd be rare to be in a conversation with someone and not know which Georgia they meant.
I find mentioning regions to be easier. I tell people I'm from the U.S. west coast, and that narrows it down to about 2-3 possible cultural regions. If they need more than that the state and/or nearest major city narrows it down further. Though in our state's case (WA) it's easier to give the city first than explain we're not anywhere near D.C.
@@pgrmdave If I were from a country whose alphabet was made up of squiggles, I'd think it would be obvious.. also, buttcheeks; many, many buttcheeks... (seriously; google it...)
"Not everyone in America knows that." I learned that after moving to New Mexico. I had friends ask me why I moved to Mexico. I have been told by companies that they only ship to the United States and Canada, and trying to convince them that I am indeed in the United States is futile. We are the only state that has to have USA on our license plates. It astounds me.
I wonder why Georgia doesn't, considering there is a country with the same name.
@@HappyBeezerStudiosIf I had to guess, it’s probably because Georgia isn’t a super well known country. I never heard of Georgia (the country) growing up, but I knew about Mexico. I’ve never experienced this in real life, but I have heard that some people think that my state of Maine is part of Canada, so it isn’t just New Mexico.
As a first generation American, I have been to Europe multiple times, but to be honest, I am more interested in traveling in the United States. I think there's a little more suspense in the United States travel. When you travel Europe, you know it's going to look nice. It's nice but a little predictable. In the US, you kind of never know what you're going to get. Whether it's going to be nice, terrible, somewhere in between. Road trips in the US are so addictive, you just want to go on more.
The US is actually really nice overall.
Utter nonsense. What an ignorant American thing to say. I have been to every Country in Europe and it's anything but predictable, how can you compare Venice to Istanbul or Iceland to Paris. I've been to over 130 countries and America is probably the least cultured, the worst food and the rudest people.
I like driving on the backroads as well.
@@saratemp790 Europe predictable? What the AF are you on about? Have you been to Turkey, Luxembourg, Venice, Madrid, Wales, Gran Canria? Only an ignorant American would say Europe is predictable
@@saratemp790 America is predictable every store the same, everyone speaking the same language. God awful food. Over priced, over sugared, over salted, it's the pits. I've been to so many countries and the US has to be bottom of the list
Most of these I'd answer with "Because America is really big".
I remember the first time I heard a British person that they had a vacation in Spain, and thinking "wow, you got to go all the way to Spain??" well, yeah, it's like right over there. Meanwhile, Canada doesn't have much big tourist attractions to Americans other than "The better side of Niagara Falls", and Northern Mexico doesn't have much tourist attractions beyond the experience of visiting a border-town (which gets old quick), so yeah, we either splurge and go to another continent, we take a Caribbean cruise, or we stay in the US. If I could afford it, I'd go to Europe like every other year.
Visiting northern Mexico is a great way to end up in the obituary
@@screamingseal4805 Heh, cartels don't mess with tourists unless they go to the wrong parts. Keep the yankees happy so Uncle Sam doesn't drop the hammer on their operations any more than he already does.
@@verdatum It helps that there are a LOT of conventions, museums, etc. for entertainment in the U.S too. Especially in Las Vegas.
@@Vaeldarg Oh to be sure, that's my point. You can spend decades touring the US and not even make a dent in the things to see here. Our National Park system alone is pretty much without equal, and the state parks are excellent too.
And yet you could fit the whole thing into less than half of Russia. 😄
Bro really hit us with that "No because shes dead" im dyin
Dude still has not run outta content after all this time, amazing.
I use the state instead of the country, because 9 times out of 10, people are usually able to figure out what country I'm from just by the name of the my home state. So I usually don't waste breath on explaining that I'm from this state in the US.
It’s easy to say I’m from New York
I have to specify where I'm from because of Washington. State not DC. But so many people outside and a lot even in think I'm talking DC. So when ever it comes up I just say from near Seattle even though I live over 200 miles from there and only live in Seattle a few days every month for work
@@TheBlindAndTheBeautiful people just say Washington State and that clarifies it
Mostly I'm commenting on youtube or a certain US based but internationally used knitting site, so noone can hear my accent. There I use State, US.
I just say I'm from NY. (Actually, upstate... WAY upstate) Even though there are other cities in NY, everyone assumes I'm from New York City, so I just smile and go with it....
It's easy to find bread without added sugar in American supermarkets. In addition to sourdough and rye, which you mentioned, there are usually whole-grain breads with no sugar. Trader Joe's Organic 5-Seed Multigrain Bread has no added sugar, and 0 grams of sugar per slice. Also, a lot of supermarkets have bread from local bakeries on their shelves, and many of these breads are not sweet at all.
Before 9/11, Americans didn't need passports to travel to visit Canada or Mexico. Now we do. Also, you can't get on even a domestic flight these days without either a passport or a Real ID driver's license. These are big reasons that the number of American passports has increased in recent years.
Ezekiel Flax. Doesn't taste great, but....
The thing I wish I could find is non-chunky 100% whole wheat added-sugar-free bread, so if anyone has any national (or Oregon-accessible) brand/product recommendations I would be grateful. All the ones I can find have large seeds, rolled oats, etc. (such as the one mentioned), and sometimes I just want something softer. Just a smooooth, whole wheat bread that *isn't sweet* for sandwiches. (Rye is delicious but not for every purpose. Sourdough is *divine* but white bread is a sometimes-food, as Cookie Monster would say.) But the American bread I'm used to was not nearly as sweet as the Japanese bread I had recently!
@@Tser. Nature’s Own 100% Whole Wheat is a national brand, and has 1 gram added sugar. Not 0, true, but less than most others.
@@RKHageman My store brand whole wheat bread also only has 1 g of sugar, which made the comment about loads of added sugar in bread kind of strange to me.
International travel: factor in that it’s mostly accessible from the US coasts. 90% of the country would require multiple legs (drive or flights) to get international. A family of 4 would be thousands just in flights. So you compromise… want beaches? Travel to a lake area or the nearest US beach. Want mountains? Warmer weather? Cooler weather? One flight or long drive away.
I’m not sure this is entirely accurate. Nashville, Tennessee is landlocked and their airport is international so is Atlanta, Georgia but then again as we say here in the south, to get to hell you have to go through Atlanta.
Honestly, with the state thing- it's cause the state I'm from says a lot more about how I was raised and my culture to another american than just sayin I'm an american.
It's more about steriotype associations. People from California are presumed to act in a diffrent way from people from Washington even if they're right next to each other, for example.
When I say "I'm from Maryland" I assume people would mostly think "crab, flag, catholic, lacross, balimore" which narrows down the possibilities massively.
@@whateverwhenever8170 I do, but my associations with Baltimore are primarily the song "Good Morning, Baltimore" and, courtesy of TH-cam accent videos, the phrase "Aaron earned an iron urn."
You do know that California and Washington are NOT right next to each other, right? They're almost as far apart as Maryland and South Carolina.
@@brianb7686 I was just going to let that go. Poor Oregon. Forgotten again.
@@pinkonesie Honor compelled me. 😉
@@brianb7686they're at least correct that we Washingtonians are NOT like Californians lol
I say my city or state first because I identify first as a Philadelphian, Pennsylvanian, or even Marylander (where I spent the first 16 years of my life). Just saying I'm American doesn't really describe the "flavor" of my origins. I think it all comes down to how we think about our own identities.
A Philadelphian, Pennsylvanian is a lot different than a Pittsburg, Pennsylvanian too.
8:09 thinking about it … when overseas I say I’m from Queensland Australia… not simply Australia, I definitely think it’s a size thing
what @spaceshiplewis said. The US is huge and each state has it's own identity and culture. Someone from Texas and someone from New York are likely to have different tastes in everything from food to music. It is a succinct way to offer a nugget about our identity and background which we americans love having for the sake of making conversation.
And then the different cultures within the states I suppose.
... I've never really thought about it, but I guess, I say what state I'm from and not what country, because saying I'm from the US seems too vague. 🤷
I think the best analogy for the state thing would ironically be the national components of the UK. Would a Scottish or Welsh or Northern Irish person say they were from the UK if asked by an American, or would their natural reaction be Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland? Excluding the English because I've found English coworkers and friends interestingly more likely to reference "the UK" as home than Scottish or Welsh acquaintances. All of those countries have the same formal leader of government and speak the same primary language, but are certainly culturally distinct enough to have their own identities.
Quick googling says Scotland would be the 23rd largest state by population, Wales 33rd, and North Ireland 39th, but they obviously still think of themselves as a distinct group of people more culturally representative of who they are than the entire UK of 67 million when you include England.
I tell people I'm from Illinois. I used to say I'm from Chicago, but so many then asked "how is it you're not full of bullet holes?" Seriously 😮
It must have gotten tiresome trying to explain things.
My mother is from Chicago, but she was born in 1928. If someone asks her if her mother sold bathtub gin during the depression, she can say yes.
I have to say near St Louis because most people assume being from Illinois means being from Chicago.
I think Americans say what state they come from out of habit. Like you said in the passport question, America is a big place. That said, its fairly common for us to move and end up going to living in a different state then where we grow up. As a result, when Americans meet each other "Where are you from?" is a common question used to spark a conversation with each other.
I've spent a lot of time in the Philippines (my wife's home country) and when I go there I always answer "Kansas" for the first week or two out of habit because that is how I usually answer the question when asked at home. After I've been there a while I switch to saying "The United States" because I know its what they are looking for.
I tell people the state I am from instead of the country because I think people already assume I'm American when they meet me. It also feels too generic to say I'm from the USA because America is nearly the size of a continent and has a population of nearly 350 million people. As a Ohioan, I don't want people thinking I'm from the west coast lol. I also say the state because I think if I say I am from the United States, I'll get the question of which state I am from and would rather just get to that answer within one question instead of two. I traveled to California recently and much of it feels like another country compared to Ohio in the Midwest.
Considering how regionally diverse things are here, I think I should do the same. Wouldn't want anything thinking I'm from the southeast.
4:37 I've lived in the US for all 40 years of my life, and I've never experienced gun violence firsthand. I have a gun of my own in case I ever do experience it, but it's essentially an unused accessory (in public) that I never show to anyone else. There are plenty of places in the US that are safe enough to leave your doors unlocked with no fear.
Yeah the "1 in x chance" is such trash. Nearly everywhere the chance is virtually 0% and the places where it's not, you wouldn't want to be even without them
One of my grandmother’s friends lived in such a place, in the mountains of Arizona. Instead of another human wandering in through his unlocked door-neighbors stay on the porch and knock, except in emergencies-he once found a bear raiding his ‘fridge. Their paws are close enough to having thumbs that they can use doorknobs. He started locking his doors.
Maybe you don't have to lock your door in small towns, but I'd advise anyone to lock them anywhere in the US.
Most places in the US don't actually have that significantly higher crime than most other first world countries. It is higher, but not exponentially. The crime is mostly focused in tight geographic locations. Obviously, population centers have more crime, per capita, it is highest in only a few select places.
I moved to greater Los Angeles from Dublin a few years back and I feel completely safe in my neighborhood. It’s pretty close to the level of safety I felt on the north side (not the best part of Dublin but still pretty nice). But if I leave my neighborhood here it gets sketchy real fast, about as safe as I felt last time I was in El Salvador. Not like in immediate danger but knowing things could go sideways pretty fast if I didn’t mind myself.
Think the reason most people identify with the state they are from by default rather than the country is two fold. Most people they will likely interact with will also be from the US, so it kind of becomes an automatic response. Second would be scope. Functionally, the states just about serve the role of a country in their own right, often to the point of having more affect on day to day life then the the country as a whole.
As others have touched on, it's also a cultural indicator as well. Many states here are the size of small countries elsewhere, and while all being American we are all very different depending on where we are born (big surprise lol). Often it's a topic of extended conversation between Americans separated by significant distance because we're curious about what other states are like, probably because the odds of us ever visiting are quite low 😂
I remember the last time I visited the UK to go to the Eisteddfod in Cardiff in 2008, when people asked me where I was from on the maes, I just said, "LA," because I figured that was well-known enough to be sufficient. I was stupid pleased with myself though when the conversation happened in Welsh and they immediately spat out, "BLOOD-dy hell, you're an American?!"
I'm not surprised if you spoke to them in Welsh - hardly any Welsh people actually speak the language fluently and Cardiff has very few Welsh people in the first place and the ones who do speak Welsh, don't consider anyone from Cardiff Welsh either ;)
@@jonevansauthor The astonished "ARRRR-glywydd MAWRRRRR"s I got were more than worth the jetlag and flight cost. 🙂
Greetings from a Brit who did live next door to the Queen (her second home, Sandringham). Never saw her, but Anne drove past in her Landrover on the scenic drive. The place has been ruined since charles inherited it.
Harry held a door open for my wife in the King's Lynn multi storey car park, so he is a gentleman, despite the hatchet jobs of the press. Luckily, Prince Phillip isn't driving in the area any more- his last crash was the excuse for speed cameras on the main road.
Decent bread can be found in US supermarkets (Publix is our favourite), but you have to search for it, especially if you want a smaller loaf. Not all the bread is kept in the same store aisle.
I dont get why people dont make their own, it's really easy.
@HerzogVonMartian alot do, but it tends come as wves, for instance no kneed bread was a fad for a while back in the 2010s, and sourdough was a big fad during covid. and hell bread makes where also a huge fad for a while too back in like the 90s.
@@HerzogVonMartian We do make bread occasionally, but our consumption is so low that a commercial loaf with preservatives to make it stay fresher is often our best option.
As an American it's a little surprising seeing someone refer to the press doing hatchet jobs on Harry, cause I don't think I've seen anyone but raging nazis have a problem with him over here. Like hell yeah dude, fuck monarchies, pursue happiness.
@@HerzogVonMartianA lot of us do.
A personal tale:, I grew up in the upper peninsula of Michigan but most of my family lived in large cities in the southern peninsula/ other states, so to just day weekend visit family was often a 4-6 hour drive one-way, if this was a Brittish affair it would be like driving from France to Germany. so when I enlisted in our military I was flown from my home state to California ( Europe equivalent to flying from Brittain to Poland) where I met people from parts of my own country that seemed like a new world, Colorado Louisiana Texas, all extremes away from where I started, and all within reach without a passport or special travel permissions, then our military sent me to Afghanistan, then Iran, and even then I still hadn't held a passport, when I finally applied for one it was so I could use Canada to get from my current home of Massachusetts to my familiar home of Michigan faster/cheaper, I've never used my passport to travel abroad only to shortcut going "home"...
I never had a passport. In my young and wandering days Americans could visit Mexico and/or Canada with just their driver's license. It was all very relaxed unless they suspected you were smuggling weed or poutine. At this point in my life I am done traveling. I have always hated flying, so I don't anymore, and there is nothing I need to see that's more than a day's drive away.
@@whateverwhenever8170we are now prisoners of our own nation
Sadly passenger ships aren't much of a thing anymore, it seems. Cruises yes, ships for actually getting from A - B not so much. There are trips I'd much rather take by ship than plane if it were realistic.
Where can one find some of this smuggled poutine? Asking for a friend.
@@BonaparteBardithion 😂😂
"smuggling poutine" LOL
What does "added sugar" mean when talking about jam? Jam is fruit and sugar, if you don't add sugar, you don't have jam, you just have fruit.
It may be a necessary ingredient in that case, but putting it on the label means quantifying the amount.
There are artificial sweetener jams with no added sugar
Because they haven't added any sugar, but the natural sugars found in fruit are necessarily reported on the label to give the correct information for diabetics
@@kramermccabe8601 The sugar isn't there to make it sweet, the sugar is there to preserve the fruit, the sweetness is an added bonus. If you replace the sugar with artificial sweetener you also have to use ingredients to make it gel and preserve it. If you ever look at the label of "jam" with artificial sweetener you will notice it's labelled at "Fruit Spread" rather than jam.
From the USFDA:
Added sugars include sugars that are added during the processing of foods (such as sucrose or dextrose), foods packaged as sweeteners (such as table sugar), sugars from syrups and honey, and sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices. They do not include naturally occurring sugars that are found in milk, fruits, and vegetables.
Took my first trip to Europe this year. Spain and France. Very nice. Lots of history and very old buildings. Travel between countries was easy due to an excellent transit system. However, there seems to be more variety of natural landscapes in the United States and a generally more friendly attitude. There are also several very different cultures within the United States to explore. The fact that the same language is spoken throughout the states is also a plus.
I am so glad you went back to the red frame glasses. It was like I was watching Bizzaro Laurence! All is right in the world again.
I lead with my state because I figure it’s obvious I’m American. Also, I’ve never met anyone who has not heard of Texas 🤠
Same
Yeah being from Texas is universally known ussaly the follow up question is if you still ride horses especially if like me your from El Paso which is almost always depicted as “the Wild West” in movies
I spent a year in Texas one weekend.
Ditto California. Hell, I usually just say los angeles, cuz it's only a few hours away and it's one of the few cities non-americans might, MIGHT be able to find on a map---like how I know where Paris and London are, but not merseyside or the massif central
I reply that I'm from Michigan because any time I've replied that I'm from the USA, I was asked about details of life in California, which I hadn't even visited the first time I went to Europe. Or I was asked about New York City, which I had only visited once. And then when I said I'd never been to those places except NYC once as a child, I was asked why I went to Europe instead of visiting everywhere in my own country first. And when I replied that it was less expensive to fly to Europe and travel by Eurorail than to fly to different States, it apparently offended people, even though it was just the truth.
What I think is weird is when Canadians tell me they're from Canada. I reply with, "That's a big country. Which Province?"
Other bread is available. I tend to buy “bread alone,” which has 4 ingredients and no sugar,
Californian here giving a shout-out to sourdough bread.
Sourdough or Ezekiel. Sourdough is my taste choice, but Ezekiel is the healthier choice
Yeah I def think non-Americans over estimate the amount of sugary white sandwich bread we eat lol. Half of the brands in the bread aisle are wheat and multi grain bread. Most grocery stores also bake their own sourdough, baguettes, sandwich rolls etc
@@t_ylr American here, and I’ve tried looking for wheat bread without so much sugar, and been unable to find any.
@@kc9scott hmm maybe it's the groceries stories I go to. Usually I go to HEB. Sometimes I may go to Target. Tbh they're are a little bougier than Walmart or Kroger
I say my state before US, because it gives people a potential geographical and/or cultural reference.
Also in regards to the travel bit, the US has no legal minimum required vacation time anywhere in it's labor laws and doesn't require any public holidays be taken off (a "federal holiday" is just one that federal and state governments give their employees time off on, there's no legal requirements for private sector companies to give that time off). Having 2 weeks/10 business days of PTO per year that's counted separately from sick time is considered generous on the part of thr company. Americans don't regularly do trips overseas because no one has the time to do so.
Hawaiian bread is the one that's actually sweet.
Hawai'i is part of the US, but it's just one small part.
As a fellow Chicagoan who just spent three weeks in Europe, I can say that I always answered the question of where I’m from with “from The States”, with my answer to the follow up question being “a ways outside of Chicago”. Illinois never really came up.
But if I had still been living in Texas, you can bet it would have. ;)
Something I just considered recently is that most Americans don't get enough time off from work to travel the long distance AND visit family (for those who move states). I have a brother who makes lots of money and could afford to travel more if he wanted to, but because our immediate family is spread over three different states (From Michigan to Texas), he uses a lot of his vacation time to visit us. I used my summer vacation time to travel to Europe this year, but that means I didn't have time to visit my parents 1.5k miles away in Pennsylvania, or my husband's family 1.1k away in Florida.
I have a friend who, in addition to visiting family a few states away, often is spending her vacation time on going to friends' weddings or just visiting old university friends, those things are more valuable to her.
The sugar ,Laurence, is to feed the yeast, so it can do its thing. That's why you won't find it in sourdough. Or sprouted breads lije Ezekiel (get the flax one, the only decent one)
Well, if they were using the right recipe, they’d put in the amount of sugar the yeast needs, and not much more than that.
When Brits say "American Bread tastes like cake", it's an insult to American bread, but let's be honest, it's also an insult to British cake.
you will be shocked to know that cake is pretty much just cake everywhere you go. American bread being as sweet as it is is an outlier among most bread you find worldwide.
Rofl
@@mistertestsubjectIsn’t it cause of the high fructose corn syrup? To support the corn industry it’s put into most of our foods and is horrific for us
@@Catherine.Dorian. as I understand it, when can farm subsidies started back in the 1930s, it was intended to support small farmers during the Great Depression. Those subsidies never went away, so corn syrup became a cheaper alternative to sugar.
@@JW-eq3vj Yep, that was the same I heard but the issue being how bad it is for us. And it never needed to be in things like bread. They did similar things for the dairy industry which was how we ended up with a cheese vault and American cheese
When my family went to Ireland and the UK in 2015/2016, we didn't have a consistent answer. About half the time we answered “Michigan” and about half we just said “the states.” Sometimes “the states” was good enough, but I thought it was interesting how, when people asked for a more specific answer they often jumped right over “which one” and landed on “what city are you from?” instead. The funny part is that even though most often when we got to tell them we're from Michigan they didn't have any recognition whatsoever, most of the people who knew which state Michigan is also knew about the hand thing and then asked us to show where our city is. I think it's pretty rad that our weird little localism has some broader cultural reach internationally.
I would think people say what state they're from because the US is so big and culturally diverse, it feels like just saying "I'm from the US" doesn't give enough information. And while it is true that people from other countries don't necessarily know all the states, they probably do realize that "I'm from New York" is a very different answer than "I'm from Texas".
Maybe Lawrence never met the Queen, but my Dad, also an American, once met King Charles when he was Prince Charles. I live in the UK nowadays, and the mother of our across-the-street neighbor actually worked for Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral Castle.
As for guns, the homicides are largely confined to gang violence, and states with strong gun control laws actually have more gun violence than ones that don't. In my home state of Washington, one in 20 people have permits to carry concealed pistols. Yet Washington's gun violence rate is fairly small outside of Seattle. It's small inside Seattle, too, but more than outside. Before moving to the UK, I lived mostly in the western US, where there are more guns, but I've never witnessed any gun violence. The only person of my acquaintance who was ever murdered was killed by someone carrying a knife.
Really, the states with strong gun control laws have those laws BECAUSE of criminal activity in those states.
I'm from a state with completely unregulated open AND concealed carry. Anybody (at least anyone who can legally own a gun at all, so nearly anybody) could be carrying a gun anywhere and you would likely never know it. I have NEVER seen a person openly carrying a handgun who was not law enforcement. It's the state with the second lowest crime rate in the country, after neighboring New Hampshire. It is not at ALL unusual to see someone with a long gun in hunting season, of course. I do find it odd that the state legislature enacted unregulated carry in such a safe environment - I can't imagine many people actually do. I only know one person who did (had a permit even before the law chanced), a friend's late father. The guy was a legit OCD/paranoid type who thought the world was out to get him. And of course, he lived in the typical small Maine town where crime is just not a thing. Scary part is he had Parkinson's and was blind in one eye - the LAST person who should be touching a gun of any kind.
Sadly, the only people I know who were murdered was also by knife - crazy uncle flipped out and killed the whole family when we were in the eighth grade. But the majority of homicides are between people who know each other.
Exactly!
Anti-gunners can't seem to wrap their head around the fact that criminals don't obey laws, including gun laws.
"States with strong gun control laws actually have more gun violence." Completely untrue, look up the statistics from an unbiased source.
I feel like saying which state you're from instead of the country is partially habit and partially that it feels more descriptive to us. When speaking to other Americans or even visitors to the US, we're going to say the state when we're asked where we're from (or the city if you live in a large/more well-known city). It's more descriptive because life between states can vary a lot, especially in regards to the weather and landscape.
Of course, when I was traveling around Europe, I would usually say I'm from the US (even though they could tell lol), and then say I lived in the middle of the country unless they seemed at all familiarly with the geography. St. Louis isn't very well known by people in France (which feels a bit ironic tbh).
If you look up the definition of "state" things get immediately confusing in that you're told that the words "state" and "country" are synonyms, but since the US states aren't independent, they're "states" rather than "States"...which probably just gave you a headache, but 'gives me a headache' pretty much sums up the way the US states work. The end result, however, is that we're similar to the UK, only if Scotland, N. Ireland, Wales, and England were not actual Countries but instead were countries. The Scots, Welsh, and N. Irish would still probably identify very strongly with their country (as opposed to Country) and say things like "I'm from Scotland" rather than "I'm from the UK" because We Are Not English Thank You Very Much. I think a lot of us here actually identify with our state more than our State, especially since certain states have weird rivalries, and our politics vary so much from state to state that...well. You might as well be in a different State.
Much for the same reason a person from Great Britain says, "Hi, I'm Laurence, Im from England."
England is a country.
@@alisonflaxman1566 So is Arkansas functionally. It has its own constitution, military yada yada.
@@alisonflaxman1566depends how you define country. England is not a member of the UN. It would be accurate to call England a nation, but it’s not a fully sovereign state, though it does have some sovereignty. If England could be considered a country, so could all 50 states.
@@zacharywranovskythere are different kinds of state, though. As you mentioned. England is a nation state, because the United Kingdom was made up of three (and then four) nations.
Imo, the reservations of the First Nations would be more fit to be considered countries before the states of America. But the likelihood of that ever happening is another conversation…
@@justcomments a country requires that it be an independent sovereign state though. It cannot be under the complete authority of a larger government, and must have the ability to set independent diplomatic relations with other independent countries. Native American recognized tribes do have a bit more autonomy than states, but not much, and they are still under the purview of the federal government. Legally, they are domestic dependent nations. A country does not have to have a completely unique culture to be a state either, as in the cases of North and South Korea, and China and Taiwan. It is important to note the difference between a nation and a state in this matter. England is a nation, but its not an independent state
I think I introduce where i'm from with 'state, usa' because like.. .being from the south or being from the midwest are quite different, so the state makes a difference in where i'm from. I also tend to assume that brits have identified me as north american already, yall are a bunch who get very granular about accents.
as for not having passports, honestly, imagine if you didn't need a passport to go to any country within 2000 miles, and also had ~10 paid days off a year. I bet you wouldn't bother unless that job paid real well! most americans can't afford to fly abroad and aren't that interested in going to mexico or canada so why would they get a passport? I know plenty of people who would love to go abroad but simply don't have the time or money
Up until 911 there was less requirement for passports for travel in North America if you could show that you were a citizen of Canada, the USA, (and sometimes Mexico.)
Iirc that changed quite a few years after 9/11. You used to be able to have a certain kind of drivers license that worked to get you into Canada, but they ended that program several years ago.
For those of us whose families have lived in a single state for generations we strongly identify with our state. Seriously some states even declared war on one another... looking at you OH and MI :) And as others have said Europeans lead with their country and it is not actually that different just that we have been bound by our federal government since our inception and Europe has only recently created their union.
At least for most Texans, it also has a lot to do with the fact that Texas was an independent country for just under a decade (before joining the United States by treaty).
I think there are two reasons for the state thing. First, the proper way to write your address on official documents in the us is as follows (number, street, city, state, country, zip coad). Also, states around the US are kinda like their own countries. I live in Virginia, close to the North Carolina border. In Virginia, you can grow your own Marijuana and get an abortion, 30 minutes to the south in North Carolina, you cannot get an abortion unless you meet very specific criteria, and you can be sent to prison for possessing something as simple as a joint. In South Carolina, they want to impose the death penalty for woman who get an abortion. That's just a small example of how states differ from each other.
when I was young, the Canehadian and Mexican borders did not require passports, which meant, I would have to travel 3600 miles before hitting a border I needed a passport for. in fact, all the times I went into Canadia, I never so much as showed an ID.
I'd say the simple answer to why Americans lead with their state rather than the country is that this country is _big_ so saying "I'm from the USA" is about as geographically meaningful as "I'm from Europe". Culturally, as has been noted on this here channel, there are a _lot_ of regional differences.
My state (California) is larger than most countries; last I checked, it would be the 7th or 8th largest economy in the world if it were its own country. (And yet entire states that have fewer people in them than my city, which isn't even the largest in its immediate area, have the same number of Senators as my state.) Even saying "I'm from California" is insufficiently specific, since Northern California (centered around the San Francisco Bay Area) and Southern California (centered around the greater Los Angeles area) are quite different, and when you leave those two metro areas you're somewhere else entirely - generally either desert or mountains - and the people there hate all of us.
Senators represent the entire state, Congresspeople represent the people. 6th grade civics. If you want to compare congressional representation California has 34 Congresspeople while the 17 least populous states combined have 33.
@@robo5013 thank you for the entirely unnecessary "6th grade civics" lesson, repeating what I said. You seem to think it's self-evidently _right_ that this is the case - that tens of millions of people get the same representation as tens of thousands - while I contend that it is not. Your argument boils down to "but that's how it _is_ ."
@@dwc1964 Not only do you not understand basic elementary civics you can't read at that level either. I came no where close to repeating what you said. The Senate does not represent the people but each State as an individual governing entity. Congress represents the people which is why your State gets 30 times the representatives than 7 other States. To any intelligent person it IS right that the Senate is set up as it is because it treats each STATE government equally. Your notion that the States should have as many representatives in the Senate as they do in Congress would make it so that most States shouldn't even bother having any at all nor would they, or their citizens, have any real voice in the Federal government. Here is another 6th grade civics lesson that you obviously didn't learn: we don't live in a democracy we live in a republic. A republic protects the rights of the minorities, such as those States whose populations are smaller than others, so that the majority cannot remove their rights as citizens such as having some form of equal representation in the government. Your example of people from northern California having different cultural values than the people from the south is the exact reason that Congress represents the people and Congressional representatives are apportioned according to population not by State. That is how a republic protects the voice of the minority because it does give voice to those who would otherwise not get one if each State received an equal number of representatives in a democracy, say two as in the Senate, as those who's values were in the minority of each State would never have their voice heard by the Federal government.
@@robo5013 unlike you, I've gone past 6th grade civics and have studied (and participated in) the history of this country.
The idea that States deserve representation regardless of how many People live in them has nothing to do with protecting "minorities" - in fact, it was put in place precisely to allow the rulers of certain States to _oppress and subjugate_ minorities (specifically, enslaved Africans) without interference from those who objected to such practices, and was later used to uphold the system of Jim Crow apartheid that was put in place to maintain that hierarchy.
To any intelligent person, it makes no sense for a STATE that has tens of thousands of people in it to have equal (or greater!) weight in government to a state with tens of millions, because STATES are not PEOPLE.
Here's another thing you and your ilk get wrong: A democracy and a republic are not mutually exclusive. The former refers to _who_ rules; the latter refers to _how_ they rule; you can have a democracy that is not a republic (such as a constitutional monarchy) and a republic that is not a democracy (such as the ancient Greek and Roman republics), but you can also have a democratic republic, which is what the United States is (meant to be) - a republican form of government ruled by the people.
Your use of my example of California having large regional variations as a reason why states with tiny populations should have the same representation as huge ones is, to put it charitably, counterintuitive. If anything, it's an argument for why California should be split into several different states, each with its own couple of Senators, so that each section can be properly represented - because it's such a huge state that it makes no sense for all those different people to have the same representation as a few tens of thousands somewhere else.
@@dwc1964 Keep continuing to show your ignorance. If you had studied civics as you claim you would know that a republic is designed to protect the rights of POLITICAL minorities, not RACIAL minorities. Also if you had any knowledge of history you would know that the ancient Greeks were democracies as opposed to the Roman republic. The US is not a democratic republic but a federal republic. You are confusing the right to vote for representatives as being a democracy but the very fact that we elect representatives is what makes us a republic, not a democracy. Maybe you should read the Constitution and discover that nowhere does the word democracy occur but it does state that the federal government will guarantee the states a REPUBLICAN form of government. Also read the Federalist Papers and you will also see that there never is a mention of a democracy but a republic.
Once again the Senate represents the interests of the state as a whole while Congress represents the people. That is why California has 34 congressional representatives vs the only one that seven other states get. Your argument that CA should be split into different states is precisely what it being broken down into 34 congressional districts accomplishes. So keep arguing and displaying how ignorant you are if you want.
In my experience, when I’m telling someone where I’m from, being specific to the state helps because the country is very big and can be pretty diverse on issues of both geography and culture. Saying “I’m from Michigan” or “I’m from Wisconsin” gives you a lot of different information if you know about these places. And if you don’t, then it may give a bit more context in future interactions to what specific experiences are more localized or nation wide as you talk to this person.
I have a six year old grandson named Laurence, great name.
Was he named after any internet sensations?
I kinda doubt the passport thing has anything to do with a lack of curiosity. I think it mostly boils down to the difficulty of traveling internationally compared to domestically
A lot of the not travelling or owning a passport is also americans schedule, most Americans only get 2 weeks paid time off and unless you're really lucky that also includes sick leave so even if we wanted to travel it would really only be 14-16 days top and just kind of hope we never get sick the rest of the year
Every single time I’ve answered, “I’m from the US.” the response is always, “Yes, but where?”. People want to know which state or region.
None of their business where I live.
Another element of the confusion around "football," I believe, is the way the usage of the word foot has changed over the decades. We rarely say footman, or afoot, anymore. American football did not allow the forward pass until 1906. Other sports advanced the ball by throwing it, hitting it, kicking it through the air, but in football the only legal way to move it forward was for a man to carry it by foot.
That might be part of it, but I think what's more significant (and also related to the development of the forward pass) is that the "free kick" used to be a much more common play. It's now only seen after a safety, which itself is a very rare occurrence.
“On foot”! That makes so much sense now.
All forms of football are played on foot, that's why they're called football. They are derived from sports played on horseback.
we say what state we’re from for more or less the same reason you might say you’re from England rather than the UK. being from Michigan, a world of cultural context separates me from the experience of a Californian, Texan, or New Yorker. those places feel “foreign” to me-people speak differently and have different customs & social expectations. and while we live in the same country, most of the laws that directly affect us are made at the state level. “i’m from Michigan” tells you more about who i am & my cultural/political background
If you want to say you're from "Springfield," for instance, you need to say the state because there are sixteen so named places in the United States.
Actually, more than 16. It’s 67 per the US Geological Survey, but Springfield, Missouri, my hometown is the largest one (Springfield, Massachusetts has the largest metro population btw)