Cultural Differences between North America & England

Hello. My name is Emma; and this is my friend, Benjamin. Benjamin is another

engVid teacher who makes a lot of different lessons on different English

topics. So, today, is a special lesson, where we are going to be talking about

where we're from, and some of the cultural differences we've noticed.

Between North America and the UK.

Okay. So, Benjamin, can you tell us where you're from?

Of course? I'm from the southwest of the UK, from a county called Devon, next to

Cornwall. You've been to the UK and you've visited London, and...?

Bath. I've visited all over the UK. And while I was there, I noticed a lot of

differences between our cultures.

Now, Bath, as you said, was one of the words we had in the other video we've

made where we were looking at the differences in how we speak. So, in

British English, especially in RP, it's often Bath. But in other accents of the

UK, that's something totally different, but that's something we explore in that

other video. But it's great that you've been over to the UK, and I'm certainly

really enjoying being in Canada; it's a fantastic place to visit.

So, how long have you been here for?

I've been here for just under a week.

Okay. And have you ever been to the United States before?

I have, yes. I'd love to go to New York; I've never been there. I've been to Los

Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego. I've got a friend who has a horse ranch out

in New Mexico, so, I've spent some time out there with him.

Okay. And the reason I'm asking Benjamin this is because we're looking at the

general... or what is generally similar in North America, because there are

differences between Canada and the United States. But there are a lot of

similarities between Canada and the United States, so I'm going to talk

about what happens in North America in terms of culture. And we can also talk

about how it's different from British culture.

Of course.

Okay. So, let's look at some points on how our cultures might differ a little

bit. Let's start with small talk. In the UK, what kinds of things do you talk

about when you meet somebody for the first time?

Well, my wife would probably tell me that I'm terrible at small talk, but

I'll try and answer that question. I think it depends who you're with and

where you're with, and what stage in your life you're at; whether you've got

children or whether you're fresh out of university — you're going to have

different interests, according to that stage that you're at in your life. But I

think there are going to be similarities that... I mean, it's a gender stereotype

that guys like talking about sports, but certainly quite a few do. Of course,

there are cosmopolitan and cultured people who like talking about the arts,

and people who are more interested in talking about the countryside. So, I

think it just depends on the person and what their interests are.

Okay. From a North American perspective, like you're saying, it also differs, but

I would say some of the major things people talk with strangers or

acquaintances about is work is a very common topic, the weather, sports. And I

would say TV shows; we often ask people: "What shows are you following?" or "What

movies have you seen lately?"

Well, we love to talk about the weather. In the UK, the weather is constantly

changing, and often the weather forecasts are wildly inaccurate. So, you

know... and one of the things we're going to talk about, here, is positivity

versus grumbling and moaning. And the weather is a constant source of... of

moaning. It's either too hot or it's too cold; it's never the right weather.

Okay. So, that's interesting. If you visit either North America or the UK,

the weather is a great topic for talking to strangers about; it's perfect for

small talk.

Yeah, that, and asking how to get somewhere. There's a fantastic book,

written by Bill Bryson, called: "Notes from a Small Island" in which he tours

around the whole of the UK and he talks about how you can spend hours talking to

someone about how to get from A to B, and which road, and the B324 is going to

be slightly slower at this time of day; and yeah, we love talking about roads.

That's so funny, because I would imagine just with GPS or Google Maps, like,

those conversations might be shorter now.

Yes, but, you know, it's all... British people can be stereotyped as "liking to

moan" and the slow traffic is certainly a source for grumbling and complaining.

Okay. So, let's talk about maybe some other things we might talk about. I

mentioned that North Americans often talk about work. One of the first

questions we ask somebody is: "What do you do?" You know: "Tell me about your

job. Tell me about your work." Is this the same in the UK?

I think that would come across as being quite upfront. I think we'd want to get

into that conversation more sort of gently. Yeah, of course, if you're

meeting someone, that will come out, but it just has to be sort of approached in

a kind of gentle manner, I would say. Certainly, some of my friends prefer not

to talk about work when they're out socializing. So, no, it's not generally

the first question you would ask; it would be more like: "Where are you

from?" Which, you know, I would say...

Okay. So, maybe that's one difference. We talk a lot about work in North

America. Actually, another question about that: Can you talk about salaries

and how much money you make?

Definitely not. No, absolutely not.

Okay. You cannot talk about that in North America, either. We never ask each

other: "How much money do you make?" That would be inappropriate.

Yeah. I mean, I'd say even with sort of brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws, it

would be slightly invasive.

And I would agree to that from a North American perspective. Okay. So, we've

talked a bit about small talk. One other thing I wanted to ask about work is:

I've heard that people in the UK get a lot more vacation days. So, in North

America, the norm is two weeks of vacation. Some people get a little bit

more; they might get three weeks. But, in general, it's two or three weeks. Is

this the same in the UK?

Six weeks in the UK. Yeah, we love our holidays. People take time off... I

mean, that's... that's standard; that's not for everyone. Some people certainly

have a lot less than that. And if you're working as a freelancer, then obviously,

the notion of "holiday" is... doesn't really exist, because you only get paid

when you're working. So... but I would say, generally speaking, we have more

holiday. People like to have a summer holiday; maybe they take their kids

somewhere. I mean, there are also great holidays that can be taken in the UK. If

you want to go camping or beach holidays. Where I'm from, in the

southwest, is a quite a traditional place to go on holiday. And we've got

great surfing up in the north coast of Devon, some lovely walking on Dartmoor,

two national parks. You know, there are... You can stay in the UK on

holiday. But if you really want some sun, then people hop on a plane and go

down into Southern Europe.

Okay. So, maybe that might be another difference is what is common for

vacations. In Canada, as well as in the United States, camping is very popular.

We often go camping, you know, where we set up a tent, we have like the fire

going, we look at the stars...

Grizzly bears.

Grizzly bears are a thing, for sure. Lots of wildlife. But because Canada and

the United States are both very large countries, it's not so common to go to,

like, Germany, or Italy, or France, or to other countries just because it's

very costly. So, you might get these vacations, but they're not so frequent,

I would say.

Yeah, it's... I was speaking to the cameraman yesterday, and he was telling

me about sometimes he goes off with like a friend and they sort of drag boats

behind them and have their sort of food on their back. And I think there's

definitely a really great exploration of the wilderness out here in Canada. And

my aunt and uncle have caught a train from Toronto out to Vancouver, and your

railway is famed as being particularly beautiful. Lots of people in the UK

would like to come to Canada; it's on a lot of people's bucket list as being a

great place to go.

And it's the same with... a lot of Canadians would like to go to Britain, I

think, because it's so nice to see the culture, see a lot of the historical

buildings. It's quite different, in many different ways.

What did you think of Bath when you went there?

So, I went to a small city, called Bath, Bath. I... I would pronounce it as Bath.

I loved it. It was just so beautiful. It reminded me of a Jane Austen novel.

Like, I felt like I was traveling back in time.

Well, there is the Jane Austen Museum there, and I think she wrote some of her

novels in Bath.

Yeah. I actually visited that museum.

Yeah.

And I'm a big Jane Austen fan, so, you know, it was amazing.

Yeah. There are some lovely places to visit in the UK. I think being a bit

biased, I'm from the southwest — you've got Bath, Bristol, Exeter — really

attractive towns. A lot of people make the mistake of just going to London, and

London's much more expensive than the rest of the city... the rest of the

country. And, yes, there are some fantastic things to do in London; we've

got amazing world-class museums that are mainly free to get into. Right? It's

reasonably easy to get around the city; excellent transport network, the West

Bend — but there's more outside of the city. So, if you're going to the UK, hop

on a train and go to places, like York, or... I don't know. If you want to see

the alternative scene, go down to Brighton. There's lots to see.

Wow. So, we've talked about vacations now, and it sounds like there's a lot to

do in England; there's a lot to do in Canada and the United States. One of the

other differences I would say between North American culture and British

culture is the sports people watch and follow. Would you say that's correct?

Yes. Ice hockey hasn't really caught on back home. I love cricket. Not everyone

loves cricket back home. Football is the main sport. And I've actually made a

video on football culture on my engVid channel.

Before you go any further, I should also mention that what Benjamin means by

"football" is different from my understanding of football. When we're

talking about Benjamin's idea of...

You understand it as "soccer".

We talk about it as "soccer". And we have American football, which is...

You throw the ball, and have helmets and things.

So, you're saying that soccer-football is...?

Yeah, it's number one. Yeah. From sort of middle of August through to May; then

it's a huge, long season. But, yeah, football is very popular.

Whereas basketball, baseball, hockey, and American football, I would say, are

more popular in North America. I don't really know anyone who follows cricket

or rugby.

Yeah.

So, I think those sports are less common here.

Hopefully England are about to win the World Cup final in rugby. I might be

eating my words in a few days' time, but we'll see.

Okay. So, what about...? This is another difference I've heard about, and I

noticed when I went and visited the UK, is there seems to be a difference

between pub culture and coffee culture. And what I mean by that is: in Canada

and the United States, we often go for coffee, coffee, or you know, coffee

shops, cafes — they're very popular and a lot of our socialising is spent in

coffee shops. What about in the UK?

I think it varies, depending on where you are. Certainly, you can find cafes,

like a traditional quiet, no nonsense, no frills cafe where you can go in and

get a great breakfast and a good old cup of tea. Of course, we have the chains of

coffee shops that are pretty much all over the world — they are there. There

are also independent coffee shops where you can get excellent cakes and

different hot drinks, but are they seen as a place where people go and sit in

front of a laptop? Perhaps. If you did... that's not so accepted in pubs,

which are seen as being a social place, particularly in the evenings or during

the weekends. And it's a place where you can go and watch sports, if it's a

sports pub and there's a big screen. And there's music in pubs and pub quizzes.

So, I think pubs have been an important part of different communities across the

UK, particularly in rural ones where there aren't that many different places

you can go to, perhaps, and they'll be... I remember when I was working in a

pub when I was 18 years old, really deep into the Devon countryside, and there

was an auction of homegrown vegetables to celebrate Harvest Festival. And then

the local vicar came in and we all sang... what was it? "We Plow the Fields

and Scatter". So, it was really... it was just very sort of... just a good

atmosphere; good, local atmosphere. Not all pubs are like that; some are not so

nice to go to, but you got to pick the right one.

And so like in North America, usually when we're talking about pubs, we use

the word "bar" — there's a bit of a difference. But in general, people here

at night, they might go to bars to drink and to hang out with their friends, but

it's more of a party scene or maybe to watch sports. Whereas a pub sounds like

it's actually more for the community or for families, or...

Yeah, it just depends. And certainly there'll be nights in the year where

it's geared up for celebration, like New Year's Eve. One of the trends that we've

been having in the pubs back in the UK is that they're going much more into the

gastronomic side of things, providing quite high-level food service, that

traditionally is just a place where you went to go and have a pint, but now it's

a place where you go and have a two-course meal and maybe more inclusive

of families.

Okay. And in terms of in North America, sometimes people go for drinks after

work. But it's not like, you know, so common; it depends on the job you're

doing, it depends on the industry. Some people might go, but a lot of people

after work are tired, and they won't go to a bar. In the UK, do most people go

to the pub after work?

No, I wouldn't say so. I'd say that it's pretty similar. And it also depends on

the life that you're living, you know, if you've got a dog back home that you

need to go and walk, then you don't go to the pub — you go and walk the dog; if

you've got a young family to look after, then it would be very selfish to sort of

go off to the pub for the whole evening. So, it depends on your individual

responsibilities. For a lot of people, going to the pub is kind of a special

event; like, you know, it's nice to go and meet people. Obviously, some people

go more habitually, but it's not the norm.

Okay. Okay, so that's interesting. So, maybe that was a bit of a stereotype I

might have had a very British pop culture.

We don't live there.

(laughs) Okay. Because that's the stereotype I had.

Although, sometimes, they are very cozy places. If they've got, like, a nice,

open fire — they can be a lovely place to go in the winter. Or certainly some

of the country pubs I've been to, like, if I'm playing a game of cricket, and

then you have a lunch in the pub before you go and play cricket, you know, it's

just part of... part of life.

Okay. So, one thing I really noticed about British culture is it seems more

acceptable to... I think you used the word "wincing"...

"To moan", "grumble".

"Moan", "grumble". Whereas, here, it sounds like... Or in North America, we

tend to have to show a very optimistic, positive approach to things. So, like,

if somebody asked me: "How you're doing?" you'll usually say: "Oh, you

know, everything's wonderful." Or you try to look at the bright side. There's

a pressure to always seem positive on things. Do you find that's the same in

the UK?

I think certainly in a work context, you have to be reasonably upbeat. Like, no

one wants to work with someone who is totally miserable the whole time,

because they sort of pull the energy down. But I don't think we have quite

the same culture of perhaps self-help that is prevalent in North America.

Maybe it's something to do with the weather that we're maybe slightly more

naturally pessimistic. I don't know.

And I find that actually quite refreshing. That's one of the reasons

why I love meeting people from England. I like that culture where you can, you

know, jokingly moan and groan about the weather or work or...

And I think it depends on different... where you are in the UK. The County of

Yorkshire, up in the northeast, is... they have a particular reputation for

calling a spade a spade; of saying things how they are. And I actually

studied up there and I found the people... I just enjoyed their honesty.

Okay. So, the next point is a very big point, I would say, between our cultures

and that is the culture of tipping. So, when you go to a restaurant in England,

do you leave a tip?

Yeah, your mentor, yes. Makes it sound like I don't. Don't go to restaurants

that often, to be honest. But I think the standard rule is ten to fifteen

percent. But it's not sort of hugely in people's awareness. Like, yeah, you're

meant to give something to the people who work in restaurants, but I don't

think it's as big a percentage as it is here.

Here, in North America, it's between 15% and 25%. In Canada, usually people tip

about 15%. But in the United States, it can be higher, like 20 or 25%. But it is

a big part of the meal; you often have people pull out their calculators and

try to figure out exactly the 15%. Or just, you know, do the math to make sure

that they're leaving an appropriate tip.

Do you think it makes the service better?

No. Even if the service is terrible, people still probably will tip.

Right?

So, I think that is a big difference. And I think we also tip more workers. We

don't just tip in restaurants; we tip hairdressers, taxi cab drivers, you

know, bartenders. So, there's a lot of different people we... we tip here.

With taxis, I mean, a lot of it is done on Uber these days, and they can ask you

afterwards, on that app, if you want to... to tip. If you get a Black Cab in

London, I think it's quite standard to leave a small tip, but it's not kind of

a set in stone how much you're meant to be giving. Yeah, if you go to a

hairdresser, then, again, it's polite to give some sort of tip, but you're not

going to have a percentage in your head: "I must give this."

Okay. So that, I guess, is one of the differences, whether or not... you know,

we almost have an agreed-upon percentage.

An unwritten rule.

An unwritten rule — that's a good way to describe it. We talked a little bit

earlier, Benjamin and I, about education, and we found that the

education systems of our countries are quite different. Specifically, we were

talking about high school. I often hear British people talk about A-Levels, and

that has always been very confusing for me, because we don't have A-Levels in

North America.

What do you call the sort of 1718, the examination at that point?

So, in North America, we... in high school, there tends to be four years.

The first year is called the freshman year, second year is sophomore, then

there is junior, and then senior. In the United States, at the... during the

senior year, students will write a test called the SAT; in Canada, we do not

have this test. But the results of that test, in the United States, decides

where you might be accepted for university; in Canada, it's all based on

your grades.

Sure.

What about in the UK?

Yeah. I mean, the grades are absolutely essential to getting into the university

of your choice, if you're deciding to do that. Some people do choose to leave

education at the age of 16 to go and do vocational training, i.e.

apprenticeships. But the main public exams are GCSE, where you typically

study around nine subjects. The core ones are English, maths, sciences. Some

people do individual sciences; some do them kind of lumped together. Most

people do a modern language... a modern language. It's typical to have to choose

between geography and history, and then do a humanity subject or an art subject.

And then after you finished GCSE, which is age, roughly about 15, you then sort

of narrow it down to about three subjects. And depending on how the

school's sort of timetabling is worked out, you can basically choose whatever

you're most interested in, as I say, about three subjects that you will study

for two years.

Okay. So, that is very different. And so based on this test, does that decide

what you can do for your A-Levels?

So, yeah. I mean, the GCSE results come out in August, and you're going to be

starting the A-Level course in September, so it does... Your GCSE

results could impact on whether you get to continue at a certain school or not,

but you will have already decided what course you're looking to do at A-Level

before you get the result.

Gotcha. One other question I had about education was I sometimes hear about

grammar schools.

Yep.

What are those?

So, a grammar school is a selective entry school, so the school can choose

which students study there, but they are part of the government education. So,

they are funded by the government; maintained by the government. Some

people think we should have more grammar schools; some people think we should

have less. But yeah, they are kind of top government-maintained schools.

Okay. So, this is a dumb question, but why the name: "grammar schools"? Like,

is grammar a huge topic at them?

To be perfectly honest, I don't know the answer to that question, Emma. What I

would say, though, is that there's lots of league tables in the UK. So, based on

sort of exam results, and looking at how much progress students make, and we have

a government-approved inspection body, called Ofsted, that gives gradings all

the way from sort of nurseries up to secondary-school level. So, it's quite

easy to read the inspection reports on schools to see how good they are. And

there's... they're easily... either classified as, like: totally inadequate,

requires improvement, good, or outstanding. And the outstanding schools

will advertise that on their websites. And some of those top schools can be

quite difficult to get into, and parents make agonizing decisions on where to

live, often based on the schools and what's called "the catchment area",

which basically means where you have to live to go to those schools.

Okay. Okay, interesting. So, yeah, so there are quite a few differences

between the educational systems. And thank you for answering that question,

because I've been wondering about these grammar schools for quite a while now.

I'll have to look that up for you.

Okay. So, we've covered education. Holidays and weekends. What do people in

the UK usually do for holidays and on the weekend?

Wow. Let's talk about holidays first. I think it depends on the family, and you

know, financially, what they're able to do, and whether they prefer taking a

holiday in the summer or Easter because school holidays — there's at least two

weeks in the Easter holiday, or at least two weeks at Christmas where some people

go away then, but there's the longer holiday in the summer; the school

holiday is six weeks long. I mean, it just depends, like, people... a lot of

people go to France; there's gorgeous places in Brittany; and my... some of my

family go to France every year, and really take pride in practicing their

French and speaking to local people. But, you know, it just depends. There

are... there are holidays you can have in the UK; you can fly to anywhere in

Europe within two to three hours maximum, so, you know, Barcelona, where

I lived for a while, is easily accessible. You've got the Greek

Islands, which are a fantastic place to go on a summer holiday. It just depends

on what's affordable and the preference of that family.

Okay. So, I guess it's similar. We have a lot of people who go to the Caribbean

for holidays or to Mexico — those are very common destinations for North

Americans. Because, I guess, they're closer and the airfare is usually

cheaper. But what about on the weekends? What do people in the UK tend to do on

the weekends? And I know this is a big question, but maybe some of the common

activities.

I mean, I can only sort of answer for our family, like, I've got little

nephews and nieces, and they're sort of doing sports clubs, learning tennis,

going swimming, playing in the local teams. And then they also do music. So,

sometimes they'll go off on like a sort of music camp and play in some sort of

concert at the end of that.

We've got a dog so we end up doing quite a lot of walks in the countryside.

Meeting up with, you know, I've got a young family, so going to children's

birthday parties and that kind of thing. It depends on people's interests, if

they're into the great outdoors, whether they go canoeing, trekking up Mount

Snowdon, or whether they prefer being at home and doing some gardening, or

whether they're young and students — they like going out and there's a lot of

variety.

One of the things that's very common in North America is brunch. A lot of people

do Sunday brunch on the weekend, where you meet up with your friends, and you

have... it's not quite breakfast, it's not quite lunch; it's the meal in

between, so it usually happens around 11am, and it's called "brunch". So, a

lot of people will find different brunch venues, and they will eat together, and

just talk about their life.

But that's going out to, like, a cafe, rather than having it in a person's

home.

Yes. So, usually it happens at a restaurant. And so, many restaurants

here will advertise their brunch specials, which usually the food is

different than other meals.

Okay. In the UK, the traditional Sunday meal is the Sunday roast, which is

typically if you eat meat, you know, you could have roast chicken, roast beef,

roast lamb served with potatoes, carrots — some people don't like brussel sprouts

— parsnips, you know, other kind of root vegetables with gravy. And then a

pudding, like, apple crumble is a very sort of British dish. So, yeah, it's

a... it's a slightly later meal. But what I do like about, you know, Sundays

in Europe is the kind of... some of the shops have, like, reduced opening times

and it just feels like a quieter day.

Whereas here, actually, most stores are open on Sundays.

Okay.

Until maybe five pm, six pm.

Yeah. In the UK, it's still about four pm in the supermarkets.

Okay. And... Oh, sorry. I just realized what I meant by "holidays" here. I

didn't actually mean travel holidays; I actually meant holidays we celebrate,

like Halloween.

Well, Halloween's big here, isn't it? I mean, I caught the bus here this

evening, and I must have seen, like, a billion pumpkins; and some of them are

absolutely huge. And the way that you guys have decorated some of your porches

is really creative. You showed me a picture the other day of somewhere in

your neighborhood, what was it that you seen?

So, there was a house that was decorated with, like, a medical scene of a surgery

happening that had gone wrong. So, you had a doctor with, you know, a bunch of

blood on... on him and just... it was a really ghastly scene of what could go

wrong in a hospital. But it was, like, somebody's Halloween decoration.

Like, outside their house. Yeah, it's cool. So, Halloween is huge here. What

are the other big festivals?

I would say Christmas is huge, New Year's. We also have Canadian

Thanksgiving in Canada. In the United States, there's American Thanksgiving.

In the US, American Thanksgiving is a huge holiday; whereas in Canada, it's...

it's a smaller scale holiday, but Thanksgiving is a popular holiday in

both countries. And, otherwise, I guess Easter is popular. You know, the Fourth

of July is popular in the United States. In Canada, we have Canada Day, which is

July First, so they're around the same time.

Okay.

What about in the UK?

Christmas, everyone loves Christmas, particularly if it snows. If it snows at

Christmas, then everyone's very happy. Well, most people are. What do we have?

Well, the Irish like celebrating Saint Patrick's Day. A lot of Guinness is

consumed then. But we don't really celebrate the saints like they do in

Spain, for example. New Year, people enjoy; they call it "Hogmanay" up in

Scotland. Easter it's... it is not a huge, hugely celebrated. But people will

typically, you know, you'll get a few days off and people will go to family

and have lunch then. We don't have the sort of independent thing at the

beginning of July. So, I think maybe it's... a lot of it is oriented about

the... around the sporting calendar. For example, we've got Wimbledon Fortnight

at June. And, you know, the different kind of sporting events sometimes give a

bit of a shape to the year.

Okay. Okay, so, again, different countries, different holidays it looks

like. So, we've covered a lot of... well, some similarities, but many

differences between our cultures today. So, I just wanted to thank Benjamin for

joining me today. It's been a pleasure having you. And I wanted to invite you

to take a quiz based on what you've heard in this video. Just... we're going

to cover some of the major differences between British culture and North

American culture. So, you can take this quiz at www.engvid.com. I also would

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Did I leave anything out, Benjamin?

I think you covered everything very well, Emma.

All right. Well, thank you, again, for coming and visiting. And, until next

time, take care.