10 Things That Will SHOCK You In The USA

hey guys what's up Stefanie the English coach here from EnglishFullTime.com

in this video we are going to talk about 10 things that will shock you about the

USA now some of you have never been to the USA before but others of you live

here and I am from the USA so all of this stuff is completely normal to me

but when I talk with my friends and people that I know that traveled and

visited the USA for the first time they go oh my gosh Stephanie I experienced so

much culture shock there were so many things that were different from where

I'm from so that's what I want to talk to you guys about in this video today

now a lot of this stuff is actually going to be about observations that my

husband made because he is from Argentina originally and when he came to

the USA for the first time four years ago he made some really interesting and

funny observations so I want to share that with you guys and in another video

I'll tell you about some of the observations I made in Argentina about

how that country and culture was different from what I knew in the USA

okay now before we get started I just want to let you guys know that you can

also find me on Instagram Facebook and on my website of course so I will

include the links in the description and I hope you join me there as well okay

let's get into it number one of 10 things that will shock you in the USA

toilet paper I know this sounds really silly and crazy but when my husband came

here one of the first places we went was to my sister's house and I remember he

came out of the bathroom and he was like oh my gosh the toilet paper was so soft

it was like a blanket and I was just looking at him like okay like to me that

was just normal and then I thought about it and I was like yeah you know when we

were in Argentina the toilet paper wasn't as thick I guess okay but in the

u.s. we actually have a couple words for the kind of toilet paper that we use

because a lot of it is really soft I mean depending on how much money you

spend on your toilet paper or what brand you get or what quality you want you can

get like really cheap thin toilet paper or you can get the other kind that's so

thick and it's like a blanket okay so the kind that's like a blanket

we call it quilted okay a quilt is a type of blanket you can google a

picture of that if you want to see what quilts look like but basically they call

it quilted toilet paper or they might call it something like two-ply two-ply

just means that there are actually two pieces of paper that are put together to

make that toilet paper extra soft okay all right the next thing

that will probably shock you about the USA is that the food here is extremely

sweet now this is not a good thing in my opinion because it just means that

there's a ton of sugar and unnatural products used in our food to sweeten the

food but again my husband made this observation when he came here he made a

sandwich he bit into his sandwich and he was just like whoa why is this bread

sweet like it almost tasted like dessert to him or something but it was actually

marketed as regular sandwich bread right and you'd you don't really normally

think of bread that you use for sandwiches as being sweet but anyhow

that's one of the problems he has with the bread here is that it's completely

sweet and you'll just notice that in all kinds of food too it's not just bread

it's also meat it's also the sauce we put on our food dishes there just there

is just so much sugar in the food and also there's a lot of obesity in the USA

so that's not even on the list but that's another thing that might shock

you when you come here and you see the size of people okay the next thing that

will probably shocked you about the USA is that the cars here there's such a

variety okay you can go down the street and see a Corvette here a really unique

car there okay I just full disclaimer I'm not a car person I don't know the

name of names of cars I'm like a Corvette a Mustang but the way I talk

about cars I'm like oh that's a cute blue car that's a really awesome red car

the way I distinguish cars is if it's a van or a pickup or a like four-door car

a sports car that's kind of like my terminology for cars is limited but if

you're a person that's really into cars you're gonna love driving down the

freeway and seeing all the different cars that are here okay cuz there's just

such a huge variety and I remember when I went to Argentina and I was like okay

so there's like five kinds of cars here I mean there's more

than that but because I was so used to seeing such a wide variety here in the

USA when I went to Argentina it just seemed like everything was all the same

okay so I don't mean any offense by that obviously these are just observation

next number five in the USA you can do almost anything over the phone you can

make an appointment book an appointment you know call a store and make a request

put an order in ask about something or send an email but it's more common to

just book things online like you can get a pizza delivered to your door just by

requesting one online you don't even have to call anymore but the reason why

I'm saying this is because in so many countries that I've traveled to if you

want to talk with a banker or something like that you actually have to go to the

bank stand in line wait your turn ask your

question talk to the person about it get the information that you need and then

you go home in the u.s. we just don't want to waste any time going anywhere

and asking questions when we can just you know use the technology that we have

to get the information that we need okay number six the next thing that might

shock you about the USA is that a lot of the bathrooms here are automated I mean

everything is automated the toilet flushes on its own you have to put your

hand under the soap dispenser and it will pop out a little bit of soap for

you then you wash your hands and then you put your hands under the faucet and

then the water comes on automatically and then you can either put your hands

in a drying machine what are these called hand dryers okay you can put your

hands in one of those or under one and it's all automated it's like you don't

have to touch anything and maybe that just represents that in

our culture were germaphobes I don't know or maybe people are just you know

trying to be more hygienic but this is really interesting although it can be

frustrating when something's not working because you're like what's wrong with

the Machine you're putting your hand in you're putting it out you're putting it

in you're putting it out and then as soon as you take it out then the soap

Falls but it doesn't fall on your hand so it can be really frustrating and I

guess I'm gonna have to talk a lot about ren in this video

my husband because he's just the one that you know shared all these

observations with me and gave me these funny stories but the first time he used

a bathroom like that and realized that he could just wave his hand in front of

one of the machines that would roll out the paper towel for him to dry his hands

he was just like whoa it's so cool now I know there are plenty of countries

around the world that are also you know advanced in this department but plenty

of them aren't okay so some of you guys might find this very interesting and if

you visit the USA and it's not like this in your country then you'll probably

find it shocking okay number seven something else that will shock you about

the USA is our measuring system our system frustrates so many people around

the world because we measure length in stuff like feet and inches and then we

use Fahrenheit and it's just so confusing because the rest of the world

is using the metric system which it's a great system you know you base it on the

number ten everything's really easy to understand and in the u.s. we're still

stuck on this other system if you grow up with our system it's perfect it makes

sense it's great and for us when we travel to your country and you're on the

metric system we're like no I don't understand but the same thing happens to

you when you come over here and you're just like okay it's gonna be 80 degrees

today what was that hot is that cold what does 80 degrees even feel like

right because you're used to maybe 40 degrees Celsius being really hot anyways

number eight another thing that will probably shock you about the USA is just

the sheer amount of multicultural people that we have living here there are just

so many people living here from all over the world and in fact this is one of the

reasons why you can live in the USA and almost never have to speak English

because there are subcultures that have formed within the community

for Russian speakers for Spanish speakers for Chinese speakers and there

are stores that are owned by people of these nationalities and you can go to

these stores and you can buy you know the Russian food that you're used to

buying where you live or the Mexican food or whatever it is and you can talk

with them in your language and you can do so many things

without needing English also if you ever make calls on an automated phone system

they might ask you oh do you want this call in a different language if you want

it in Spanish press 2 if you want it in this language press this or whatever so

we have just a lot of people here living from so many different cultures and some

of my students they say hey Stephanie I'm going to the USA but I'm gonna try

my best to avoid Brazilians because I'm with it I'm going there to practice

English or I'm gonna try to avoid Spanish speakers French speakers

whatever it is because I don't want to speak my language I'm going to the USA

to practice English since there are so many people here from different cultures

if someone sees that you're here trying to speak English and practice but they

can hear your accent and they're like oh they speak Spanish so do I

they might just speak to you in Spanish because it's easier and you might get

frustrated and go no I don't want to speak Spanish I'm here to practice my

English so anyhow if that happens just you know stick with English and say no

it's okay I'm here to practice my English and they'll change back for you

okay number 9 traffic laws in the USA are very strict when I say very strict I

mean you better know what the laws are before you start driving on the streets

so you don't get a ticket okay you have to stop fully at the stop sign wait

three seconds before you start going you can't tailgate people you can't drive

too closely you can't roll up slowly to a stoplight just because it's red and

you're trying to save momentum in your car I mean that's what my husband does

and I'm like no just drive up to the stoplight stop okay wait and then when

it's green then you can go he's like but if that's not fuel efficient I'm like

hey you know what we can't we can you just have to follow the rules you just

have to drive how people drive here and I know in other countries because I've

been to plenty of them that people drive differently all over the world some of

you guys drive really crazy okay but in the u.s. just take it slowly

be calm there will be that crazy guy every now and then that'll cut you off

or whatever but don't give him the middle finger unless you want to

practice your curse words in English you know but just take it slowly know that

the traffic laws here are really strict and just read up on what they are before

you come okay the last thing that will probably shock you in the USA

is that everything is big things are just big here I mean the country itself

is pretty big right it's pretty enormous the people we already talked about it

we've got our obesity problem so some of us are big also cars are bigger the

lanes that the cars drive in the roads are bigger food portions are enormous

they're like offensive practically you go out somewhere for lunch and they give

you enough food for like three people everything is just really big in the USA

from the cars the lanes the houses the people the the land itself you'll just

notice that quantities and portions are large so anyhow what I want to know from

you guys now is have you ever been to the USA and if you have how was it

different from your country how are things done differently how are the

people different what did you like what did you not like okay feel free to share

your experiences also if you've been living here for a while then think back

to when you first came what did you find shocking because by now you're probably

used to everything all right so let's have an awesome discussion about this in

the comments I look forward to reading what you guys have to say and if you

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that's it you guys and I'll see you soon bye