Just want to add that there are things I mention that other cultures might relate to or have as well, but I’m from the US so that is my frame of reference.

As an Australian living in the US, I found the same cultural things were confusing at first. One that I would add was that healthcare is not covered my the US government for citizens and residents and people can go bankrupt if they get sick or injured. Whereas, most other first world countries have some kind of basic universal healthcare and can just go to the doctor if they are sick or injured with no out of pocket expenses.

I’m from the U.S. and I’m confused as to why these things are this way 🤷🏽‍♀️ Lovely video! 😊

a thing that really surprised me in the USA was the lack of sidewalks outside of the downtown areas of cities. spent some time in the suburbs and I had to walk on grass and the road to get to the nearest shop, would've been an easier walk with a sidewalk hahaha

The gun stuff confuses me too, Iceland. I'm from the US and it is disheartening. If it makes you feel better, most people actually want tighter restrictions, but politicians are worried about losing the money from the gun lobby, so they do nothing.

#1: Yeah, it's very confusing for my Icelandic family when they speak English. They will either say cousin to everything or uncle/aunt, depending on which one they're trying to remember they're supposed to use. And the idea of getting them to say niece or nephew is just out of the question. Though, they will say something that is similar to "my sister's son" etc. #2: As an Icelander it was very confusing coming to the US & realizing how little Americans understood about their government. Like, the less Americans know, the more passionate they seem to be about what they don't know. #3: When I moved back to Iceland I was quickly reminded how Icelanders don't coddle their children because they teach them basic survival skills early in life... something American tourists seem not to have. #4: Whenever my Icelandic family brings this one up & mention that NY & NJ have some of the lowest death by gun rates in the country because they have some of the strictest gun control laws. Individual states are not necessarily representative of others. This is difficult for Icelanders to wrap their heads around because they live in one country not 50 countries with their own laws. #5: Whenever my Icelandic family comes here they get so nervous about tipping. It's cute.

I’m so glad you mentioned gun culture. My friends in Norway are just amazed that we continue to allow mass shootings to take place without meaningful reform. Sadly, the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings took place while I was in Bergen and the Norwegians were so worried about us.

That thing about kinship terminology was surprising to me. I speak Swedish, another North Germanic language, but much less conservative than Icelandic. However, we have retained kinship terminology that Latin has, but most other Indo-European languages in Europe have discarded over the centuries. We have 2 different words for Aunt, depending on whether she is the sister of your father or mother. We have 4 distinct words for great-grandmother, and likewise with great-grandfather. Whereas English has 2 words for the children of your siblings - nephew and niece - we have 7 distinct words. BTW, none of those 7 words are exact translations for either nephew or niece. And so on and so forth.

While I am more seasoned now, as an Icelander I used to worry about tipping when traveling in countries where tipping is expected. My main worry was doing a boo-boo by tipping too little so I tended to be liberal with the tips. I still do, just to be on the safe side. My most embarrassing tipping experience was actually the reverse: I was a domestic airline pilot and on one occasion, on returning from a sight-seeing flight with a bunch of American tourists over the Holuhraun eruption, and elderly lady hung back when we were disembarking. With stars in her eyes she thanked me profusely for the flight and pressed a $100 bill in my hand! I was a bit flustered (my first and only tip received, and a generous one at that), but I decided not to possibly embarrass her by declining the tip, this flight had evidently been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for her.

My sister & I were in Iceland back in May of this year. We tipped because the areas we stayed had plenty of non-native Icelander servers who travelled back & forth to work for at least an hour. We figured something extra for their days off hard work would be nice.

Very informative video. I’ve been to Iceland a few times and absolutely love the Icelandic People and their beautiful country. Not tipping was a difficult one for me, felt like I wasn’t recognizing their superior service in restaurants. Thanks for sharing all of the information.

Great video. I live in Cambodia and have also lived in Thailand, and Laos after leaving the US in 2013. I teach English here and was constantly "assisting" and correcting students who call pretty much everyone their brother/sister, or uncle/aunt whether they are related or not. I found this when I lived in Hawai'i too. I don't offer the relationship label in English now unless someone asks. I am older so I get called uncle, father or grandfather and I know that is a show of respect and connection. They want to call their classmates and football mates brother and sister, that's fine by me! I think it's a much better way of relating to the World. I learned about differences in tipping going with a Korean friend to a Korean restaurant in Hawai'i. He warned me against tipping especially in restaurants that don't usually cater to Western tourists because it can easily be seen as an insult--like you're considering them to be a prostitute or someone who can't take care of themselves. So what it pretty much comes down to is that many people around the World are seeing that workers in the US aren't paid a livable wage, that many of us take stupid risks and don't use common sense even to the point of putting our lives in danger, that our political system isn't democratic or representative, and that we are very violent and don't use guns to hunt, but look for guns and ammo that can pierce any shield and kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. I pretty much see the situation in our country of origin the same way.

To me, one of the biggest things to get used to is "home canning"... We're used to other (older?) preserving methods

I always enjoy your videos and sweaters. You're gorgeous and I love your hair. Are their salons for maintaining your dreads there? Your kitchen is very nice. Thanks for the informative video as always.

Very interesting. I can see how the relationship names can get confusing 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Still watching your videos! Thank you for teaching us about cultural differences during this tumultuous times in the U.S.

Yeah Brooklyn!! Hey Jewells, love your walk-thru shots of your home, and backdrop of your kitchen. Very nice

It’s funny you brought up that issue about tipping. The first time I visited Iceland five years ago, I told a bartender at Bravo about an online article I read that claimed that if you tip servers in Iceland they will be offended. He looked at me incredulously and said “Oh no no, we gratefully accept tips. Yes siree, here’s my tip jar right here. Feel free to contribute any time!” Also, regarding gun violence in America, you wouldn’t think they’d be so perplexed by it based on some of the Icelandic gangster films their movie producers have made over the years, such as Svartur Á Leik, and Reykjavík-Rotterdam.

I am Canadian and I have a friend who was born in Uganda. She calls me sister.. I am not her sister or a nun. I am white and she is not. So we say “ I am her sister from another mother “ & it is kind of nice that you are close enough friends to be sisters. The big thing in Uganda is you can raise your sister’s child, (blood sister), when she came to Canada to study. She always referred to her niece as her daughter. Same if s nephew came he would be her son? That is one thing I learned about people from Uganda 🇺🇬.

I agree with all of these as an icelander with a lot of american friends, great video

The thing you say about frændi/frænka is really interesting. In Norwegian we have a word "frende", which I guess means the same thing, but it's super old fashioned and rarely used anymore. Also, in some parts of Norway, they still say "faster" (father's sister), "morbror" (mother's brother), etc. I've never given it much thought until this! And, yes, only two parties are a head scratchers for Norwegians as well. As well as the danger signs/rope fences, poor American gun laws, and tipping. 🙂 Seems like Icelandics are a lot like Norwegians! Shouldn't be a huge surprise, knowing where Icelanders came from originally. 😉

I enjoyed this video very informative regarding the subject matter.

I am from italy and all the things you mentioned confuse us as well. especially the gun violence. Tipping is the same, the tip is automatically included in the bill.

Awesome outro! Is that going to be the ending scene going forward? The nature scene is so beautiful and matches the soundtrack perfectly

My gurl and my jaM is back! Although I am a generous tipper (when the occasion calls), but it must be great not to feel pressured to support someone's wages simply becuz they aren't being adequately paid by their employer.

We also have a pirate party in Sweden😅 not so successful tho but it is an option to vote on haha

Five? FIVE?!! ONLY FIVE?!! Heck... I was born in the USA... I come up with FIFTEEN in the first 20 seconds of thinking about this-!

I married a Swede, so I've run into similar cultural confusions when spending time there. I like the warmth and friendliness with strangers that's more common in the US, but if I had to pick between the two I would definitely go with Sweden. But in a sense we compromised by moving to Scotland lol.

The gun thing is complicated. Every state has its own laws. In my state we have some of the weakest gun laws but have only had 1 mass shooting since we've become a state. Everyone I know owns a gun, but we don't have a lot of shootings. We do have guns for protection, when we say that it usually means protection from nature. We have moose, grizzly bears, mountain lions, and wolves. In my state, we don't need strict gun laws because we don't have problems with killing people. When it comes to gun laws, I don't think a lot of people care because guns aren't even in the top 10 leading causes of death in the US.

I'm from the U.S and the thing with gun violence has been out if hand for a while. Sadly I thought it was a worldwide thing for a while. And I didn't know that Icelandic people don't refer to their aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins as such. It also appears to me that Iceland uses what we call "military time" after 1 p.m. I looked at things online in Iceland. I saw where the hours a place was open was l07:30-19:00. But I'm enjoying learning things like that.

In the USA, on the black market, stolen guns are plentiful, and the laws don't apply to folks dealing in the Black market. Until the manufacturing of guns stops (which will never happen because of the potential of wars that Govt's must always prepare for in case of an invasion and police control of our neighborhoods) you'll never get criminals to give up their guns despite changes in the laws. It will take 1000+ years for all guns to disappear as relics of the past once the manufacturing of guns disappears.

I live in USA and Tipping others is normal for me now after 13 years BUT I run a small business and when people want to tip me for that service I provide them, then I tell them please don't because that makes me uncomfortable hehe and I'm from Iceland and we don't tip there😄 I will never get used to that.

As hospitality specialist I must let you know, it hasn't benn 10 or 15 % since I was in middle school. I'm 38. The minimum is 20% in 2023. And I'm not in a major city. A suburb of one. Once you get into a city it 25% or more. Just a little tid bit. Stay beautiful.

It would be nice if we Americans further embraced the multi-party system.

I feel the same way and I’m American 🤷🏽‍♀️.

The relative names would really be confusing for me! I would have to learn the names so i could understand haha but in another sense, my mothers brother instead of uncle on my mothers side is easier to say

Þetta með frændi og frænka er alveg rétt hjá þér :). Sambandi við vopn í Bandaríkjunum við stundum skiljum það ekki því eins og þú segir við notum þau aðallega skotvopn í að veiða rjúpur, gæsir og endur einhvers staðar langt upp á heiði. Einnig með pólitíkina, við skiljum stundum ekkki af hverju eru ekki fleiri stjórnmálaflokkar í Bandaríkjunum en þannig er það bara, tveir flokkar.

The US gun violence and tips culture are head scratchers for many nations around the world observing/going to the US The fact that Icelanders use an umbrella term for male/female family members instead of being more specific is also weird to me. Somehow i NEED to know if the fraendi is an uncle, a cousin, a nephew or what! Even if if doesn't change anything in the story being told and i don't know the person talked about, i expect that level of details :D

I'm just curious if in Denmark, the familial relations are addressed the same way. I know in Italy and Spain, and Mexico, they do address aunt/uncle/cousin, etc. Since Iceland's roots are Danish, I wonder if that is where they got that from. Also, isn't Iceland the seat of the longest running government? Remember doing a report decades ago that it was established in something like the 900s. That is wild to me - as an American, where things are not even 250 years old yet.

I went from being Republican to Libertarian. But I'm still curious about Icelandic politics

Yes and I lived in Halifax Nova Scotia for many years and even with the numerous signs at Peggy’s Cove warning of danger of rogue waves and do not go down on the black rocks. (they are wet), despite all this people tourists disobey and do it anyway sometime ending in an unnecessary death.

2. - 5. confuses Germans too.

I would LOVE to have you teach me Icelandic. Can You help?

what do you do for work?

Is it cold in Iceland now? You have lopi sweater on and it is wool and it is summer.

"It's not as if there aren't Icelanders who do stupid things..." Uh. You mean "There haven't been TEN MILLION idiots doing stupid things." The sheer size and population count undermines 'common sense' in Big USA vs. Tiny nations. Andorra... Luxemborg... Iceland... it's also a matter of The Driving Culture where a driver in Dallas-FtWorth or Los Angeles might complete 500 commute miles a week.

I hate that people here in the US continue to feed into this "two party system". This is our own fault! Excuse me while my head explodes! Lol! Before anyone says anything, I'm not fussing or getting mad at anyone in particular. I'm especially not fussing at the the woman in the video, obviously. It's just frustrating in general that's its been this way for sooo long and I don't see it changing any time soon.

I don't understand the USA and I never have. For the life of me I do not understand a population that just sits back and complains about all the Mass shootings. Yet the outcry to do something about the problem is very short-lived. The Americans will put much more effort into their sports and praise of their sport's hero's, than they will in stopping gun violence. So as far as I am concerned America's problems are not just with their evil and corrupt Politicians. The problems of Mass shootings and on and on problems are also with the American people themselves, for sitting back and not demanding more from their own society. I'm sorry to be so blunt but sometimes it takes tough love to make a point, when people refuse to look at themselves in a mirror. I am happy for you Miss that you have made it to Iceland. You seem to be a level headed American, and I hope that the USA can fix itself. In all honesty though the USA just doesn't seem to care about its own people, and I simply can't respect a country with such distasteful behaviour.

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