English Listening Practice: Living in the U.K. and the U.S. (with Subtitles) - Can You Understand?

(upbeat music)

- [Jack] 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 key words

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 too.

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 US

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 US

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% in the past 20 years,

and soft drinks have increased in size by 52%.

And I remember one of the first times I visited the US,

my family night 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 phrasal verb.

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 superstores.

Now in the US 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 store.

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 that European equivalence.

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 US drive SUVs,

which are cars that 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 the 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 doubled in size,

the average house size in America

is twice as big as the average house size in the UK.

Again, twice as big,

it's a massive difference.

And also the style of housing is different too.

So, in the US, 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, big 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 meal times are quite similar.

So people tend to eat breakfast,

lunch and dinner around the same time.

But I think that people

in the US eat out more

than people in the UK.

So this means that people in the US

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

(laughing)

People don't tend to go into the beer garden.

Or use the beer gardens in the winter,

or even sometimes in summer

because the weather is so bad.

But in the US,

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 UK in a recent lesson,

and I'll leave the 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,

pour in the tea,

and then serve it to everyone.

And some people like to have it with milk,

some might have it with sugar,

which I never never understand

because I don't like the taste of sugar and tea.

But anyway, in the US,

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 started 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 they don't seem as friendly

when they first meet you.

But in the US people like to make small talk,

they like to say hi, 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 realize how friendly people are.

People tend to be more patriotic in the US 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 the standouts of 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 if England during 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 they're more self deprecating

which means they like to joke about themselves

and make fun of themselves.

Whereas in the US is 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 US 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 US.

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 in the UK really love their holiday time.

They talk about their holidays,

they book it in advance,

and then they go on holiday

maybe two to three times a year.

Whereas in the US,

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 US,

it's a little bit more common.

So people will approach somebody else,

ask 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 aren't as outgoing.

And they aren't as direct as Americans.

Air conditioning is a fun difference

because in the UK only 0.5% of homes are conditioned.

Whereas in the US 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 AC 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 this channel,

then please like and share this video

and also subscribe and turn on the notification bell.

And in the description you're going

to find a link so that you can get my

"5-Step plan For English Fluency" book for free.

So go 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.

(upbeat music)