In today's video, I'm going to tell you 10 things you should never do in the
United States. What is going on YouTube. Greetings from my apartment here in
Valencia Spain I've been traveling the world full-time for almost 12 months now
and one of my favorite things to do before I get to a new country is to
research the things to do but also research the things not to do I think
it's just as important to know what not to do as it is to know what to do in a
country so in today's video I'm gonna switch it up a little bit and tell you
what not to do in my country of the United States let me preface this by
saying the United States is a huge country and culturally it can be very
different depending on what part of the country you're in Hawaii is way
different than Texas Texas is way different than California California is
way different than New York and so on and so on but there are some things that
apply basically throughout the country so those are the things that I'm gonna
talk about today okay number one never visit just New York or Disneyworld any
time someone tells me they've been in the United States it's usually one or
two places they've either been to New York or they've been the Disney World or
Disneyland the United States is so much more than that it's so big and diverse
you have a zillion lakes in a place like Minnesota you have the Rocky Mountains
in Colorado you have a Patagonia type place in Montana
you have amazing tropical beaches in a place like Hawaii you have awesome
tex-mex food down in Texas and you have the most amazing forests and wildlife in
a place like Washington State I know you want to see New York and Disneyworld and
I definitely think you should but if you're gonna plan a trip to United
States add another location and go see something different and they'll show you
how really diverse and beautiful this country is outside of those two popular
destinations okay the next one on the list is a little bit more serious never
get out of your car when you're stopped by the police in many parts of the world
it is customary to get out of your car when the police stop you that is not the
case the United States and you definitely don't want to do this
sometimes our police officers can be a little bit on edge and getting out of
the car is the wrong thing to do so make sure you don't do that in the United
States just stay in your car and wait for the police officer to approach your
window the third thing on the list is never
forget to tip this is something that comes up a lot in my other never do this
videos and it's usually the other side of it because in a lot of countries it's
not customary to tip servers and other countries don't rely on tips for their
income they're paid a higher wage so it's not a big deal but in the United
States servers rely on their tips to pay the bills normally you should tip
somewhere between fifteen and twenty five percent when you go to a restaurant
when you take a cab when you go get your nails done things like that next thing
on the list is never get too close in the u.s. we really like our personal
space when I was in the military I actually lived in Italy for two years I
moved there in 1998 and I had never lived outside of the United States
before I had a little bit of culture shock in Italy Italians don't really
have a sense of personal space when you meet an Italian and greet them even if
you just met them usually you kiss each other on the cheek that's something in
the u.s. that we just don't do also in most other countries it's perfectly
acceptable to get right up on somebody in a line or push or try to go around
them in the u.s. we have like a very orderly system and we don't like people
too close to us and we don't get too close to somebody else yeah just make
sure you respect people's space unless they invite you in their space okay the
next one is a little bit political but never say you like or you dislike Trump
we're just so so politically divided right now in the United States it's just
best to steer clear of that discussion so when you're talking about just
visiting in a place you don't really have to get involved in the political
rhetoric that goes on okay the next one is a real sticking point with me and one
of the things that I really don't like about the United States never think you
can rely on public transportation other than a few cities like New York and DC
the public transportation systems and United
are not very good if you're in smaller towns or rural areas it's basically
non-existent we are very much a car culture in the United States and that's
kind of how we get around we don't really have a good nationwide train
system and the ones we have they're not very fast so you can't transit from city
to city by train and expect to get there in a reasonable time you're going to
have to either drive or hop on a plane that's just how it is the United States
I know it sucks so just be prepared to not use public transportation okay the
next one never call soccer football football is a completely different thing
in the United States than it is in the rest of the world it does not matter
that your football is the most popular sport in the world in the United States
American football is the most popular sport and we just call it football you
can try but you're never gonna convince an American that soccer is better than
American football someone like Ronaldo could walk around the United States and
most people would not recognize him next never expect Americans to be able to
speak any other language than English unfortunately it's just not something we
prioritize I'm also definitely guilty of this because of the influence of u.s.
pop culture and tourism almost everywhere I've been I've been able to
get by with English for better or worse we don't really need to speak another
language so we haven't made it a priority in the United States I know
this is a little bit of a generalization and I have some friends that are
bilingual but for the most part Americans tend to speak only English
number nine never expect our pharmacies to just sell pharmaceutical stuff in
most other countries pharmacies only have pharmaceutical stuff in the United
States pharmacies are more like general stores they have a little bit of
everything in both CVS's Walgreens Rite Aid's you can buy your pharmaceutical
stuff you can also buy food you can buy toys
you can even buy beach equipment our pharmacies aren't just pharmacies
another little side note it's really hard to get a drug to market in the
United States so things that are commonly available at pharmacies
throughout the world might not be available in US pharmacies so just be
aware that when you travel to the United States rule number ten never drink if
you are under 21 years of age most of the rest of the world has a much lower
drinking age than the United States in Vietnam you can drink it any age in the
u.s. drinking laws are very very strict so make sure if you're under 21 that
you're not trying to buy or drinking alcohol another side note is never drink
in public most cities and states have strict open container laws which means
if you're walking around with alcohol and it's open you can be ticketed or
fined okay so those are my things to never do in the United States do you
have anything to add if you do make sure you put it down in the comments if you
disagree with some of the things I said make sure you also comment hit the
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like this and see you next week