Hello everyone! Welcome to E-com Monthly Intro to American culture.
I'm Heather.
And I'm Marcellus.
And it's June, which means the summer is coming.
And, in America, that means it's time for barbecue season.
Wooooo-hoo! Barbecue, barbecue.
Now, Marcellus, are you a big barbecuer at home?
Yes, I am. I love barbecueing at home and I can't wait 'til the weather gets warm
and I can pull out the barbecue set and get the coals all hot and invite friends over.
Yeah, so, I don't know about you, but when I first came to Japan and I went to my first Japanese barbecue,
I was really shocked at how different it was from American barbecue.
Yeah, I was really shocked too.
Yeah, I, I love Japanese barbecue, but it's just not the same, right?
Yeah. You know, in America, we tend to make a huge,
well, a lot of people, not everyone,
tends to make a huge deal out of the barbecue experience.
And the foods are different.
Yeah, like, I think American barbecue, what you typically find, would be: hamburgers,
with the bread, right, hamburger sandwich, hamburger, or hotdogs,
maybe some veggie burgers for the vegetarians, ummm, maybe...
Also steaks.
Yeah, big steak.
Chicken, chicken, like, chicken legs, or whole breasts, you know what I mean?
Yeah, that kind of stuff.
Yeah and for the side items, maybe we'll have potato salad, some potato chips, fruit salad, things like that.
That's right. And then, a lot of times, people love to have competitions
about who can make the best tasting barbecue sauce.
Mmmm, barbecue sauce.
That's right. Barbecue sauce is very important to the barbecue.
It's not a barbecue without good barbecue sauce.
That's right and in the southern states of America, barbecue has another meaning.
And that's kind of a pulled, shredded pork and it has a different barbecue sauce.
So, if you go to maybe Georgia or North Carolina, and you say,
"I want barbecue," as a noun, that means the southern barbecue shredded pork.
But, if you want to say, "I want to barbecue," as a verb, that means to have the hamburger, hotdog experience.
To do the barbecue, right?
That's right.
Yeah, so, it's really confusing, but I think anywhere in the world, we love barbecues.
That's right and, just like Japan, though, barbecue is a great time, and a great excuse,
for friends to get together, to have a good time, outside, when it's warm and enjoy the sunshine.
That's right. So, well, are you ready?
Let's begin!
Alright, this month's culture talk is about credit card culture in America.
Now, there are three key words that we want you to pay attention to.
The first one is: debit.
The next one is: bill.
And then the third one is: interest. Okay, now, debit, bill and interest.
Now, when we talk about debit, what is it that we mean exactly?
I think debit, in regards to credit card, well, credit card you're making charges
and maybe at the end of the month, you have to pay them.
But, on the other hand, a debit is you're using the card,
but the money comes out of your bank account at that time.
So, it's almost the same as cash, but maybe, safer or easier.
You don't have to count your change like that.
Just swipe your card and it comes from your bank, similar to like a Suica,
can have your money on there and you can just use it at the convenience store, right?
That's right.
So, the main difference is credit is you're purchasing items before actually paying for them.
But, with a debit card, you're paying for them by having the money taken from your bank account as you pay,
rather than handing cash directly to the cashier.
A very convenient system, I think.
The other key word we have is bill.
And one of the differences between credit and debit is that with a credit card,
you receive a bill every month and you're obligated to, which means you have to,
pay that bill when it's due or pay a percentage of the bill when it's due. It's your choice.
Now, if you pay the whole bill, then what happens is your debt is finished, you have no more money to pay,
but if you only pay a portion of the bill, then what happens is you have to pay interest as well.
Mmm, interest, it's a terrible word.
Absolutely.
Yeah, the interest has gotten many people in trouble, right?
So, you buy something, let's say it costs one hundred dollars, and, at the end of the month, you can't pay it.
So, it carries over to the next month and you have to pay more.
Maybe your interest is 10%, so after two months, you have to pay one hundred and ten dollars.
That's right.
So the interest makes the money you owe go higher and higher.
Yeah, and recently, the credit cards have been doing some very mean things...
Uh-huh. Be careful.
Raising, raising your interest level.
So maybe originally, your interest level was maybe 5%, very easy,
and all of a sudden, the credit card changed to 15% or 20% and some people just can't pay the bills.
That's right. So, if you stay in America for a long time and if you get a credit card,
make sure that you understand what your contract says and make sure that you don't get a credit card
that does what Heather just described, which is to suddenly change the interest rate,
because what could happen is you could find yourself is deep credit debt.
That's right. And the debt, that's a very scary place to be with credit card debt.
That's right.
Now, we talked about scary things, but there's also benefits to having credit cards as well.
In America, you can pay for everything with a credit card.
You can pay for potato chips at the convenience store.
You can get gasoline. You can pay the taxi with a credit card. You can buy groceries with a credit card.
In some cases, there are people who never carry cash and they only ever carry their credit cards.
That's right. And, and, I think there are many benefits to this, assuming you're careful and responsible.
You can experience many good things by using a credit card.
One is, some credit cards, you can get percent of the money back, maybe 1%.
You can earn money from using your credit card or you can earn miles with your favorite airline.
That's right.
And another is that it's very easy. It's easy to use.
You don't have to count the money and it's safe.
So, if someone takes your wallet, they can't spend it right away.
That's right.
You call the credit card company and you cancel the card and you're safe.
So, be careful, use your credit card wisely and enjoy your stay in America.
Alright everyone, that's all we have for today.
I hope you're not getting too depressed by the horrible weather outside.
Maybe it's raining and you don't want to go anywhere, but, look on the bright side,
it gives you lots of extra time for studying English.
That's right.
So, work hard and we'll see you next time.
Bye-bye!