[Music]
hello this is jack from tofluency.com
and welcome to this english lesson where
i'm going to talk about some key
differences between the culture in the
USA and the culture in the UK and be
sure to check out the description
because I'm going to leave keywords and
phrases for you so this lesson is going
to be informative it's going to give you
some really good listening practice and
you're going to learn some new words and
phrases - now the first phrase is I've
been living in the US since 2011 and
this is true and I'm using the present
perfect continuous to talk about
something that happened in the past and
continues to the present so I've been
living in the US since 2011 so today
we're going to talk about differences
between houses food cars air
conditioning some stats for you as well
and because I am from the UK but now I
live in America I have some interesting
thoughts about the differences in
culture and we're also going to talk
about people too so let's get started
here's an expression that explains one
of the biggest differences between the
UK and the US and it's this go big or go
home go big or go home now this
expression means if you're going to do
something you might as well make it big
you might as well do it in a big way and
this explains something about the u.s.
because everything is bigger in the USA
everything is bigger in the USA and we
can talk about this in terms of food and
shopping and cars and houses and there's
an article in the description for you to
read after this lesson if you want
further practice but I'm just going to
use this and read a few statistics so
let's start with food and my experience
of this is that portion sizes are much
bigger in the u.s. than they are in the
UK and this is true of fast food places
and also just general restaurants now it
says here that hamburgers have grown by
23 percent in the past 20 years and soft
drinks have increased in size by 52
percent and I remember one of the first
times I visited the u.s. my family and I
got a sandwich we all got a sandwich and
I just couldn't believe the size of this
sandwich it was massive and they had to
put a toothpick in it to stop it from
falling apart that's a great phrase of
it so they had to put a toothpick in it
to stop it from falling apart so that it
would stay together and there was so
much meat and lettuce and lots of
mayonnaise on this sandwich and a great
way to explain this is portion size so
portion size means the amount of food
you get on your plate when you order in
a restaurant or even if you're cooking
at home so portion sizes in the US are
much bigger than they are in the UK next
on the list in terms of how everything
is bigger is supermarkets or super
stores now in the u.s. stores like
Walmart and Target are huge and they
sell everything that you would ever need
so they have groceries they have food
they have clothes sporting goods home
stuff just anything you need is in this
big start and it takes forever to get
around the entire store because they are
so big and it says here that US stores
are on average twice the size of their
European equivalents so stores in the US
on average are twice as big than they
are in Europe and the UK cars are also
much bigger too so a lot of people in
the u.s. drive SUVs which are cars
are big and can fit quite a lot of
people in there and also you'll find a
lot of people drive pickup trucks which
are useful for when you need to put
equipment in the back of the truck
now in the UK it's more common to see
cars like minis and just small cars in
general and I think that it's a big
reason for this is that the roads in the
UK are quite narrow and they're windy
whereas in the US when you're on the
road you have a lot of space lanes are
bigger and generally speaking the roads
are wider the next one is houses now
speaking of things that are double in
size the average house size in America
is twice as big as the average house
size in the UK again twice as big is is
a massive difference and also the style
of housing is different too so in the
u.s. a lot of people live in houses
which are detached especially in the
suburbs so they have a lot of space
around the house they have big yards bit
gardens and they are single housing
units whereas in the UK it's more common
to see semi-detached housing which means
two houses that are together there's no
gap between and also terraced housing
which just means a row of houses without
any space in between let's talk a little
bit more about food now because what I
find is that mealtimes are quite similar
so people tend to eat breakfast lunch
and dinner around the same time but I
think that people in the u.s. eat out
more than people in the UK so this means
that people in the u.s. go to
restaurants more often than people in
the UK but on the other hand people in
the UK tend to go to pubs more often
than people in the US and a big
difference here is that a lot of pubs in
the UK or most pubs are inside because
of the weather so people go to
socialize inside a pub which has a nice
setting it's usually quite comfortable
there's sports on and people meet up
with their friends inside pubs now there
are beer gardens but people don't tend
to go into the beer gardens or use the
beer gardens in the winter or even
sometimes in summer because the weather
is so bad but in the u.s. what I find is
there are a lot of breweries that make
beer and people go to these breweries to
meet their friends but there's a lot of
outdoor space so usually they're in big
fields so children go to these places
too and the parents will have a beer
maybe they'll have something to eat and
the children will play outside in the
field now my wife and I talked about
food differences in the US and the UK in
a recent lesson and I'll leave a link to
that but I just want to add that
breakfast is different so people in the
US tend to eat things like pancakes and
muffins and pastries for breakfast
whereas in the UK things are different
where people tend to have toast and eggs
and bacon which is the full English
breakfast now something in common is
that people will have cereal and milk or
children especially but breakfast is one
of those meals that tends to really
differ between the two countries
and before we talk about people I just
want to talk about tea and coffee
because people in the UK drink a lot of
tea as you probably know now a good
example of this is when I was working in
an office environment there were about
seven of us in this office and we would
all take it in turns to brew up which
means to make tea for everybody so when
it was my turn I would go to the tea
station get everyone's tea mug pouring
the tea and then serve it to everyone
and some people like to have it
milk some like to have it with sugar
which I never never understand because I
don't like the taste of sugar and tea
but anyway in the u.s. it's more common
to get a coffee or to grab a coffee and
this is becoming more prevalent in the
UK so more people are drinking coffee in
the UK than they used to but growing up
nobody really drank coffee in the UK
people had instant coffee but it's not
the best tasting coffee and I personally
start drinking more coffee when I moved
to Spain because it's everywhere and
it's incredibly delicious but then when
I moved to the US I continued drinking
coffee and don't drink as much tea these
days let's talk about people now and the
differences between people in the US and
the UK British people don't like to make
small talk with strangers so if you are
out and about or at one of these
breweries or a pub in the UK it's not as
common for people to make small talk
with you
which means that not they don't seem as
friendly when they first meet you but in
the u.s. people like to make small talk
they like to say hey when you pass them
on the street or if you sit next to
somebody or go near somebody in a
restaurant or at the park then generally
speaking you will have a conversation
with them but in the UK people are a
little bit more reserved and they aren't
as outgoing when it comes to this having
said that people in the UK are very
friendly and if you make small talk with
them in a friendly way then they're
likely to respond in a good way and once
you get to know people then you realise
how friendly people are people tend to
be more patriotic in the u.s. too and
you'll notice this when you drive around
neighborhoods and see people flying the
American flag outside of their house so
people have an American flag on a stand
outside their house whereas in the UK
people don't really do this unless
there's some type of special event like
a royal wedding or
or if England are in the World Cup
Finals for example then people will fly
the English flag and this is also
evident when it comes to holidays so
people in the US really celebrate their
national holidays especially
Independence Day which celebrates the
independence from the UK in during the
Revolutionary War so people will have
American flags everywhere
they'll have fireworks they'll celebrate
this day by having barbecues and
drinking and just spending time with
their family and friends because it's in
summer usually the weather's great so
people do this outside in terms of humor
people in the UK tend to be more
sarcastic and their humor seems to be
drier and the more self-deprecating
which means they like to joke about
themselves and make fun of themselves
whereas in the US it's a little bit more
direct and a little bit more
in-your-face a good example of this is
the difference between the UK office and
also the American office so if you ever
watched these TV shows you might notice
the difference between humor styles
let's go through some more differences
now quite quickly so alcohol is a big
one where the drinking age in the UK is
18 and the drinking age in the u.s. is
21 and Brits on average do drink more
than people in the US but it's not a
massive difference the cost of tuition
is a lot more in the u.s. so people tend
to be more debt when they leave
University but salaries are higher too
so people who go through medical school
for example and then become a doctor
they'll pay more to go through
university but their salaries will be a
lot higher there's also a big difference
when it comes to vacation time now
companies in the UK offer
I think 28 days paid leave paid vacation
time whereas in the US companies tend to
give around 10 days so people knew Kay
really loved their holiday time they
talk about their holiday
days they booked it in advance and then
they go on holiday maybe two to three
times a year whereas in the u.s. it's
not as common due to the limited time
off although it's been a long time since
I last dated somebody there is a
difference between dating because in the
UK it's not as common to go up to
somebody and ask them for their number
or to approach strangers in public and
ask for dates whereas in the u.s. it's a
little bit more common so people will
approach somebody else asked them for
their number ask them if they want to go
on a date but I think this plays into
the fact that British people on is
outgoing and they aren't as direct as
Americans my condition is a fun
difference because in the UK only not
0.5% of homes are conditioned whereas in
the u.s. 87% of homes are
air-conditioned and what's what I find
strange is when it is really hot in the
summer in the US and you go into a store
or go to the cinema it's freezing inside
so they crank the AC which means they
have the a/c on really cool and there's
a big difference so you're outside in
shorts and t-shirt and you go into a
store and it's just too cold so those
are some differences between the UK and
the US like I said before be sure to
check the description because I'm going
to leave the key words and phrases from
this lesson there and if you are new to
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check it out okay thank you so much for
watching this please continue learning
with me by clicking on another video on
your screen and I will speak to you soon
okay
bye bye