Woah. Never though of it that way, but yeahhhh

So true. The school my brother went to was founded 300+ years before the Declaration of Independence. We've churches in London built 900+ years ago and still in use today.

And then there's New Zealand, where 100 kms is a long way away and 100 years is also a very long time

That’s actually an interesting phrase, it makes sense

There ascent I guess 😂

Up shit's creek, that shit, no shit?

There is a line of spices named after the shits. They're a hilarious gift if you've got someone who cooks or grills a lot with a good sense of humor in your life.

No shit Sherlock!

That's why the phrase is "Know your shit" after all.

Don't forget "shitload" and "shit ton".

Owl plots murder

Say goodbye to your family in german

@@slimeswamps Auf Wiedersehen

So that's what The Birds was about

Owls need HUGS

Definitely not a European thing, I shuddered. Asking for a name is def American, making things too intimate and "friendly" in a wrong place and time.

I've worked in food service most of my life. I was always worried they were gonna try to follow me home, because that happened a lot, and use it (my name) to catch me off guard, because that also happened a lot. I got in the habit of using a fake name at work at places that would allow it. At least then I know where you got my name from.

Since I have a name tag on it rings a bit hollow when they do it to me.

We just want to know who to ask for service, duh. "Hey Tony, we'd like our check, please." Way more polite than, "Hey, you..."

@@LindySk8er Wtf, that's really not polite anywhere in Europe, unless you're a very regular customer. Unless you're actual friends with Tony, you don't call him by his name. I can only imagine some Russian underground or Italian mafia where people are like "Hey Tony .. bring me the check will ya." The way to properly ask is "Excuse me, waiter ... We'd like our check, please." No need to get personal in an everyday business-customer relationship, unless the business specifically wants to cater to the customer in such a direct, almost intimate way (like casinos might, for a good reason), or if people actually know each other that well. But even then, addressing workers by their names makes them unable to distance themselves professionally. So you're effectively making someone's job harder. They're not your friends, they just work there. Do you also do this in hospitals or government institutions? Or in public transport? Why not? I find this extremely nosy and needlessly tacky.

On that one always confuses me. I can never remember the conversion between British years and American grades.

@@violetskies14 That's why everyone online should just say their age in their anecdotes. I figured that out in sixth form.

​@andyjohnson4907 Okay, but problem is that I don't know what age I was in a grade! Our age is less important than our year in school, so it doesn't get remembered as, "I learned this when I was 6," it gets remembered as, "I learned this when I was in Kindergarten." Backtracking and trying to figure out what age I was is possible, but it takes a bit longer since I didn't lock my age into my memories, I locked my grade in. That's at least why I respond with my grade and not age first.

@@pamspray5254 That's a really interesting perspective. No one's ever given me that explanation before. I really appreciate it. Thanks. But, if an American is talking to a multinational audience, they should definitely take the time to translate it.

@@andyjohnson4907 Agreed. I've been working on trying to integrate age into my memory so I can communicate on a more accessible level with non-Americans. It's definitely an unexpected challenge.

And yet here in America any public facing job you'll have a name tag.

Isn't it because in America servers work for tips? So each table has one server who serves them the entire meal and they are the one who gets the tip. If you start with "hi, I'm Tom, I'll be your server today", it creates a little personal bond that incentivizes people to give more tips. Where I'm from, guests are served by whomever is closest to the table or whatever and tips (like, 5% or rounded up; nothing like the insane American amounts like 20%) are usually shared among all staff.

@@oliviawolcott8351 An electronics shop here (Austria) had (first)name tags and then they disappeared. I asked and was told that they had problems with stalking.

yeah in america it seems working as a server/waiter requires you to create some sort of "bond" with the customer, so they'll tip you. here in europe, that's really weird. you might know the server's name, but from already knowing them prior, not from asking them their name on your first time ordering something

@@MartijnPennings It's both friendlier and more honest

I find it strange that some Europeans consider their name to be private information. The very reason you have a last name at all is to identify you to others.

@@cisium1184 would you tell some random stranger online your full name if they asked? I definitely wouldn't and I don't expect many would

I think I might need to move there

A friend from Sweden said that when he was a child, his father would walk him down the stairs in their building. If his father heard people in the lobby, he would stop on the stairs (that is, out of sight of the lobby) until the people left. His father explained that he was avoiding an unnecessary conversation, and that it was always best to wait until the lobby emptied. My friend says that privacy is a precious gift, and that others should not intrude on your privacy, and that you should reciprocate by not intruding on other people’s privacy.

That sounds sad. People have names we are more then cogs. But it seems places with a history of Authoritarian governments has left there people afraid of each other.

@@juanvaldez7279 Sweden does not have a such a history though, so that theory doesn't really hold any water in this case.

@@jongustavsson5874 don't let Russia hear you say that.

After saying the country was obvious from the accent, he even said himself later in the video that many Canadians sound similar to lots of Americans, and that even Americans find it hard to tell them apart! So... Canada isn't a country apparently? 😄 (Not to mention that lots of second language speakers have an American accent, as it's one of the most common types of English that people learn. So someone with an American accent could easily be from any country!)

Also even we as British people don't know all the states, we'll know North America because of the accent in person but when they say a random state online I assume America not because I know where they're talking about but because only an American wouldn't say the country.

​@@zak3744oh for sure, I can confirm. everyone educated in every international school seems to have an American accent nowadays

@@zak3744 absolutely! My partner is Dutch and learned English quite young, so he sounds mostly American, but he has a slight something that sets him apart. He's been guessed as a few different nationalities, but mainly American. I also knew a Ukrainian who sounded even more American than him.

When we lived in Switzerland people assumed we were Brits because they can't hear the difference between American and British accents, and since there are fewer Americans living there, it was a safe guess. 🤷

That is why I don't like American customer service, nobody is that bloody happy to be at work! It reeks of insincerity, and for me as a brit, I'd be less inclined to ask for help from them as I'd be worried I'd have to appear more social than I want and expect me and them to be

Honestly, genuinely friendly. We don't want to be at work. And we'll hate our jobs. But we don't tend to hate the people. They'll be a few people that don't like the customers. And you'll notice they'll be polite but distant. Friendly is different though. Polite isn't the same. And people walking down the street, if they don't feel like saying hi to people, they'll just watch the sidewalk and not meet people's eyes. We genuinely like to interact socially and surface level with people usually.

It's called emotional work and labor - have a read of 'The Managed Heart'. It's an essential part of late capitalism.....

@@hesky10 seeing this sad ass take always makes me chuckle, cringe, and be a little depressed all at once. Imagine living such a sad life that you can't imagine people are just genuinely friendly. Hope it all gets better buddy, hang in there.

I hope you told him it was because people are genuinely friendly here? Like it will be obvious if an American isnt actually happy, happy people dont smile and ask "hey how are you", and generally act cheery if they arent, here either. It's probably just from not living on a rain drenched, permanently cloudy, dreary, miserable flavorless bland Island for your entire life, idk.

Basically same here in the US. We use time as a measure of distance. I think that's purposely hard for europeans to understand though because if they drive half an hour, they'd a strong possibility they're in another country

There are so many similarities between Aussies and Americans I've noticed in the way we do a lot of things, and our styles and that sort of stuff. I play with streetview a lot because I can't afford to travel and I noticed your towns look like ours a lot, except the cars are on the other side of the road. I love Australia, man. Would love to visit sometime.

@@bottomofastairwell If I ask someone "how far is it to point B" and I get an answer in time it annoys me, as that assumes everyone travels at the same speed.

The quote they used was from a Delawarean, and this is *freakishly* true about us. (Probably also true for folks from the even less populous states, too, like Wyoming). And for every fellow Delawarean I've met, we've found someone we know in common, even though it's been over 20 years since I've lived there.

People who are very private?

@@DeborahMaufer sure, but there seems to be an extra privacy regarding money that doesn’t exist around other topics

I agree, I was working with my coworkers some time ago how our pay is shit, and you gotta save up for ages to do anything, and I just assumed we earn about the same so I dropped a number. The shock on their faces was something else, it turned out that I earn the most out of our small team (idk why, one gal had definitely a better resume than me) and it made me think. And what I concluded is that we never know how much money to expect, and at least where I live, people undersell themselves so hard, and employers take advantage of that; we need to talk more about money to just know what is rally happening on the job market. That being said, casually asking someone how much they make still seems insane to me. Just lead a conversation in the right direction, then ask.

Yeah that was surprising to see that comment since American employers loooooove to prohibit you from talking about your pay (outside of the few states that explicitly allow you to)

Perhaps because people feel free to criticize what/how much money you spend on things when they know how much you make@@cdw2468

But you're not using time as a measure of distance! You're using time *and mode of locomotion'. Americans just use time on the assumption that you're driving everywhere. Q. How far is it? US Answer: 5 minutes Non-US Answer: 5 minutes by car

No. Look at the comment again. "walk". Americans use time for distance in all forms of travel because they are more likely to be paying attention to the time when traveling than they are the actual distance. If an American goes for a leisurely bike ride, they are more likely to go as far as they can within a certain time frame and then head back home. If they see something interesting along the way and tell their friends later, they will most likely say, "Oh, it was about 10 minutes down the path." Americans don't care how many miles away something is being shipped from. They care how much time it will take to arrive at their doorstep. Americans are just very time driven. @@drzander3378

@@drzander3378 Well, I would also say "I'm 5 minutes away". It doesnt really matter if that's by bus, train or foot, is it? Most of the time you can guess which mode of transport you'd use. I live very remotely so if I say "Wow, that's a whole 40 minutes away!" Then chances are highly likely it's by car.

@@myra0224 Of course it matters. 'You ask,because you don't know your way around. If I ask someone in NY ( for example ) where Times square is , and they just answer 5 ,10 or 20 minutes, I still don't have a clue. Is it 5 /10/20 minutes walk ? Underground ? or is it a 5 /10/20 minutes drive ? . How can you guess what mode of transport you need in a place you've never been ?

@@myra0224if you say „I’m 5 minutes away“ you are probably going to meet someone or have another reason why the time is important. I think it also depends on where you are. In a city I tend think in time needed to get somewhere (usually calculating the fastest mode of transportation at the same time) as well, while for bigger distances I think in kilometers. 🤷‍♀️

The other way might work if you're a bus driver or something.

It's like that old Soviet joke: spacetime is digging a ditch from here to 5 o'clock.

I drove a tour bus for a resort some years ago. "About 7 miles" was actually a legit answer to when I got off work.

Mostly because that is the default date setting within the system., it just adjustable in apps :)

I prefer ISO dates. YYYY-MM-DD Four digit year as I'm from the previous century, and so are some of my files.

For file names I agree. Any other time you put the day first

@@myra0224 I don't. I work in a multi-national company - to avoid any possible confusion I always use YYYY-MM-DD dates when communicating via a written medium. (Well, not always - sometimes I use the month name, but generally I use ISO 8601 form.)

The company I work for has offices in the USA and UK so we use YYYY-MM-DD or use the 3 letter month os in Feb

@@matta5749I don't think that asking for a veteran's discount makes someone a "bad one". Perhaps a little uninformed.

​@@matta5749I don't even understand the logic of that though? Even if that was a thing where you lived, then surely it would only apply to veterans of your country's military and not militaries of other countries? I mean, I'm not American and I don't know how it works but do veterans from militaries that aren't the US military get veteran's discounts? In that case then it's more understandable, but if it only applies to the US military in the US then it wouldn't make sense to think a US veteran should get it in another country... Edit: I just realised that most of this reply other than me being confused at how the veteran's discount worked was for the original poster and that I only replied to matta5749 because they're from the US and I was wondering how the veteran's discount worked in terms of whether it applies to all military veterans or only US veterans, sorry if this comment was confusing with how it was worded at times lol

​@robfortune9696 I can't say for certain because I have never encountered this exact experience before. But as somebody who worked in many different places that offered veteran discounts, I imagine that if somebody who was clearly foreign, as in had a clear accent or something like that, told me that they were a veteran and asked if they could take advantage of the veteran discount I would probably just give it to them. I probably would not even ask what Armed Forces they were a veteran of. And I've known several people from other countries who were serving in the US Armed Forces. In general I would never even ask people to prove that they were a veteran before I gave them the discount. The person who gets to decide whether you can use that discount is the customer point of contact employee who is ringing you up and none of those positions are paid well enough for them to concern themselves too much with ensuring that the finer details of that discount policy are followed and that no one is fraudulently taking advantage of that policy. In fact nowhere that I've worked that had that sort of discount even clearly stated to employees what the finer details of the policy were. So I don't think it's completely unreasonable to think that a veteran of a foreign armed forces could be given a veteran discount in the United States regardless of whether it makes a real sense or not lol

Veterans discounts are a big thing here, that and active military discounts.

The American "thank you for your service" thing and the concept of veteran isn't something that's as common in the UK. Referring to people who were in the armed forces as "veterans" as a collective term has only really started in maybe the last 10 or 15 years, an import from American English. I think the US is quite unusual for a western democracy in how militarised it is. When you see footage of baseball games and there's a flypast of military aircraft it seems a bit odd to this British person. Ex-forces in this country wouldn't generally wear baseball caps with their former army division etc. It's a small cultural difference.

It's quite normal to talk about distances in car hours pretty much everywhere where there are cars.

@@lollertoaster I've only met a few people that ever did that, and they all annoyed me to no end.

Works both ways, don't you know that?

Yes we do...and so does the whole of western Europe :)

My friend has emigrated to France and has this issue constantly he needs to learn French and everyone he meets just uses him to practice their English.

You just need to go to Paris. They're allergic to speaking English there.

Maybe when I eventually go to France, I’ll wear a shirt that says “yes I’m American, no don’t speak to me in English” 😂

What thing is a backback?

@@silviasanchez648 A bag that you wear on your back. Also called a rucksack in some places, although that tends to imply something larger.

@@gcewing Also knapsack.

@@gcewingWhoosh

*backPACK*

The stores in the US expect their employees to smile and act friendly. They sometimes even advertise how friendly they are over the intercom in the store.

@@indigobunting5041 That would be exhausting for the employees and as a customer it would drive me batty!

I would happily be thought of as a murderer if it meant random American’s didn’t start conversations with me out of nowhere. I’ve been held hostage by a chatty American far too many times.

Trust me you don't want a random American thinking that you're a murderer or otherwise dangerous. That can have bad outcomes. @@lesliellama7779

@@frolickinglionsProbably because you're not friendly.

oh yea, I remember the bloc thig too :)

What a sweet interaction

If someone wants to know how many blocks, they may be wondering how many streets they have to cross. Not all of our city or town layouts are grids, but we still all the odd shapes blocks. A block is just one street to the next. Directions like "drive three blocks and then turn right" don't really take into account that blocks could be long or short. That said, this woman was really nice, and so were you, for trying to figure it out.

Yeah, blocks only make sense when there are actual physical blocks to count. I don't think it would occur to me to try to convert a distance that I only knew in kilometres or whatever into blocks.

Laughs in Boston. Planned cities. Oh man, would that be nice

A doctor in Rome saw me with a bottle of water, and asked if I was a diabetic.

I carry a water bottle because when I'm thirsty, I want to drink, not look for something to drink. It's really not that complicated.

Exactly!

I've noticed since COVID a lot of buildings (at least in NJ) have started removing water fountains and replacing them with the water bottle refill stations. It makes sense hygienically, but still a sad loss.

Given the drive against single use plastic etc fountains make sense but I do think hygiene concerns, like that in Stroud, played a part in reducing numbers over here. Most school children here are now instructed to bring a water bottle.

When I was with my ex and lived in London he started to talk to a guy from a little shop and they talked like they've known each other for years. I asked him later on where did he know the guy from and he said: Oh, I don't know him, we first talked just minutes ago. British in London nowadays :D

It’s kind of a friendly thing to do, and most Americans I feel are generally actually interested in talking with people. (For clarity, I am from America.) Though, it can get a bit weird. I was with my dad once and we were in a hospital, because my mom had a pretty big accident. Anyways, we were in an elevator with some young-ish girls, and my dad started trying to talk to them, and I’m just like… dad, not cool.

Be polite, talk about the weather and such like, but not personal, "not too bad" is the best way to appear to give a friendly but unhelpful answer, hoping there are no more!?!

@@puellanivis "No one is friendly here it's not allowed dad"

@@Pizzatime8612 chatting with strangers in an elevator is generally perceived as too intrusive for such a confined space and time. Younger people may feel more free to do it, but older people generally avoid it. Age and gender differences can cause justifiable discomfort and elevator or not, it's best to not bother (or worry) people for no good reason.

@RadioactiveAnt7, That's not exactly right. Only if the establishment engages in 'licensable activities' in England, Wales or Scotland, but not Northern Ireland. Also while the water must be provided 'free', you can still be charged for any container they provide you with such as a glass or bottle, and you can also be charged for the service.

Not true. Only premises that are subject to a premises licence that allows for the sale of alcohol *for consumption on the premises* must provide free potable water for customers.

​@@drzander3378 Not licensable activities, just the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises.

@@breakfreak3181 No, I'm right. It isn't confined to licensed premises that serve alcohol. For example, a cinema that shows films for entertainment (not just education, information or advertising) is licensable and must provide potable water on request regardless of whether or not it serves alcohol.

this! when people say online that something is x time away from them, it'd really depend on what mode of transport how far it actually is..

That's called a "skill issue"

Sounds like they are just mad that there are people in the world who think and live differently than they do. Get over it, there are many types of people in the world. If you didn't get the answer you wanted, then ask for additional clarification.

@@LC-wv7tz oh my goodness, a youtube commenter with a brain. what a rare encounter, thank you

I'm so old I have no idea what that (drip) means

@@DeborahMaufer I only know of it because of other KZfaqrs

I detest it, makes no sense whatsoever.

Also, back-in-the-day it was slang for an unmentionable communicable disease.

Or a post-nasal thing.

As an American living in Italy I have to say that Italian loudness is somehow different from American loudness. You can usually hear the Americans on the bus and metro. A loud family dinner is great. Two people talking so that the whole bus can hear, not so much.

In the US, it's just a way to get to know you a bit. And the class system here is more informal. We don't really think about it a lot unless we're talking politics. And anyone who thinks they are better than someone else will often get dragged or thought less of. We tend to think of ourselves as all equal here in social perception.

For me, it's a way to assess some of your interests. People tend to pursue careers similar to what they like and oftentimes certain interests are paired. Like engineers liking SF&F. Does it always result in correct info? No. But it can be a meaningful data point. Maybe that high powered lawyer and the garbage man both love the same sports team. But it's highly likely that the lawyer likes reading more and of that's the lawyers main interest, he's not going to expect the garbage man to spend hours discussing literature.Highly likely isn't 100%.

As a lifelong garbage picker I've made way more money than that lawyer, and I don't have to deal with other people's heinousness. Lived off interest for 4 years, then bought commercial rental property which sustains me to this day. At least I don't have to work for a living like some lawyer.

@@SunRabbitYeah man my family was involved in recycling and waste for a long time too. My point was not about the money, but trying to compare in societies ideas of social standing.

I don't know where you live in the US, but where I've lived (and I have lived in 6 states), it's just a way to start a conversation and to get to know a person, even maybe assessing their interests, as many people pursue a career in what they like.

In Australia we definitely don't use that "if it would have" like that. "If it had been raining" is more idiomatic here. We also don't use "off of" the way the Americans do. It sounds weird.

@@tealkerberus748 probably pronounced "if'd been raining"

I'll bet 100 fake dollars that this didn't happen in Palm Beach, Broward, or Dade counties. I think the sheer volume of New York transplants make the culture in that part of the state noticeably less friendly 😂

​@namesarehardlol true, it happened in Tampa and St Augustine

'Good news' :)

Travelling by train in Europe years ago, my husband and I (Americans) were taken to be Canadian by Europeans sharing our seat compartment. We were so proud!! Usually we were instantly ID'd as Yanks. "Hey American! Double the price!"

I hope you have a maple leaf button on you the whenever you go out so people don't automatically hate you.

All you have to do is work "out and about" into the conversation. It'll separate Canadians from Americans instantly. 😄

Hahaha

IN CONTEXT it's a very important question, but it's often asked of people you just met. A very common, very American conversation might start: "Nice to meet you. What's your name?" "And what do you do?" "Oh ... how much does that pay?" I am American, and I consider that conversation opener very rude. Maybe that's because I spent 18 years "doing" the job "just a housewife" and having people sneer at me. [These days I have a well-paid professional job, and I answer the question with one of my obscure hobbies. "What do you do?" "I teach chainmail at science fiction cons."]

Because people will start expecting you to pay, whether you make more or not.

Even as a non-native English speaker, it's much easier for me to keep my English updated than the other languages I learned in school.

I saw a video showing Macron having a phone conversation with Zelensky in English. It really encapsulated the bridge nature of English to me.

I travel internationally and have lived overseas. I can't tell you how many times I've seen two people of different nationalities speaking to each other in English. It's the most useful language in the world.

I often think that most Europeans and people from other continents, (other than Australia and New Zealand) simply don't realize how far most Americans would have to travel to find an area where English isn't the language. Unless you live close to the Mexixan border, which is only four states, you have to travel hundreds if not Thousands of miles. Compare that with most places in the world.

@@teriannebeauchamp254 That is quite true. I can technically say that I am not that far from french speakers (I am in Maine, which borders Quebec), but I have not visited Canada since 1993, and only an English majority area. Heck, if i were to learn french, it would be different from the version spoken nearer to me.

But Europeans know all about geography.

Love it when Americans insist being "Irish" despite being at least 4th generation american. Drives an Irish friend up the wall every single time ;)

I did the last high school year in the US. We had a whole module about our ancestry. When I was going to school in France, that was never a topic, until we did the Romans and the teacher mentoned some names in the class, that were Italians, and we went into the meaning of our names. Mine is hilarious, but she deconstructed it, and it became sthg interesting. And then she mentioned the fact that in Spain and Portugal, they also add the mother's name, and that in Iceland etc...and that was my first exposure to feminism, and I never looked back 😀

Gotten, aargh is not an English word.

​@@robertjones3568 "gotten" is a word in English. It's fallen out of use in British English that's just linguistic snobbery, we still say "forgotten".

@@robertjones3568 Ah I just looked this up and apparently gotten is used in American English not British English but as I’m gen z (20) I’ve very much grown up with the internet and so I guess I’ve adopted some American English 🤷

Also, baseball caps, sweaters with university names and old people with very brightly colored sneakers. Does anyone outside of America seriously wear baseball caps?

@@MartijnPenningsI do wear baseball caps if I need them (but not from baseball teams). That means outside and sunny. If one of that is not valid anymore, the cap goes down. KZfaqrs inside doing videos with caps on look quite odd to me (that's the polite version). Sweat pants are OK for home, but I would never wear them going shopping or something. Only exception is a camping site or if I'm really into sports.

@@reinhard8053 Not American but my partner wears his cap automatically when he goes out, even at 10 pm when putting the bins out.

Wearing 'Khaki pants' and polo's is distinctly American.

I always forget how young America is compared to most countries.

He fakes it to play up the character

Oh please...he's so fake!

I remember as a younger Canadian, when I first heard about "oot" and "aboot", I thought that's what Americans said.

I think he mentioned in one of his vids that it’s his local thing. He’s not even from Ontario where the aboot seeming originated from.

Apparently the oot and aboot originally comes from Orkney because a lot of the original colonists were from Orkney. Like the colonising company advertised for employees in Orkney because they were hardy.

My goodness your window cleaners must be outright deprived!

My dad asks people their name when he's on the phone because he's old, and he still has that mindset that if he gets disconnected or has to call back, he can say "I spoke with Anna earlier.." and get transferred to that person instead of starting over with the new person. I've tried to explain it doesnt work like that, and even if it did, it's unlikely they would remember your issue after more than a few minutes buuuuutttttt... old, whatcha gonna do.

We say it in time because we all drive cars.

I was in Paris, on the stairs of the Pompidou museum. I head somebody speak Swiss German...one of my students in Zurich. We nearly fell, we were both laughing so hard!!

My friend was on vacation with family on Canary Islands (we are from Poland) and in the harbour someone started waving to her from a ship and turned out it was our PE teacher 😂

Quite some years back (over 40), my sister (we're Welsh) and her German husband were touring Australia. On a bus outside of Cairns, they were quietly speaking in a mix of German and English - just because - when an old guy turned around and apologized for interrupting but wanted to know if she was Welsh. By then she didn't have much of a Welsh accent anymore, so she was a bit surprised, but said yes. He said he was too, but he'd been in Australia since before the war (WWII). She asked where he was from, he said the name of a little place just outside Carmarthen. It surprised her because our dad spent a fair bit of his youth there and told him so. He asked Dad's name, she gave it, including the surname which is an uncommon one, and the old feller looked surprised and said, "What? Fred's boy!?" 😂 He knew my grandfather in particular because he used to charge these big old acid batteries that houses not on the grid (this was the 1920-30s) used for electricity. Bampa was very much "Gadget Man" and was the only person who had the equipment to do it. That may have had something to do with his job as a signalman on the Great Western Railway, but I don't know. Anyway, literally in the middle of nowhere (it was still a few hours to Cairns IIRC), she met someone who knew my grandpa so well he remembered him 40 years on! It's definitely a small world! Good luck with your studies. I'm studying Dutch with DL. I first signed up in 2014, completed the French and Dutch courses - they were much, _much_ smaller then! - and left it for a few years before returning. I did much of the French course, but they completely changed the system when I was about ¾+ through the course, and it totally screwed up my note-taking system, so I gave up and swapped languages. If you're on the paid version (I don't recommend it, btw), you can't get more coins, gems, whatever every hour, only as a prize for completing something. Even then you might just get another 15 minutes of double points. The losing a life thing can be undone by clicking on the red gem and doing a "practice" exercise - the selection at the lowest part of the "bubble". You don't have to get every exercise right, just complete a set of exercises (a typical number that you get in the main "steps"; 16-17? I don't pay too much attention) and you'll get a life back each time, up to 5. When you start a study session, click on the chest to double your points and go to that practice section, and you'll get 30 easy points for each one you complete. It's a good way to warm your brain up too! If you're not overly competitive, don't worry about the level you're on. You'll probably get through the course quicker because you'll be concentrating on moving on, rather than getting extra points. I _hate_ being so competitive! 😂😂 Enjoy it as best you can. The forums no longer exist on the app, but a bunch of past mods got together and moved everything off-site. You should be able to Google "Duolingo Forums" or something similar. You'll know automatically when you see it. Sign up using your DL info, pick your language and join in. You should get any questions answered, which is great because you'll get bugger all from DL!

@@y_fam_goeglyd I’m lucky because I was talking to my mum about it and she was so interested/inspired she decided to sign up too, also French. I have been pretty competitive with the league thing but I think it’s probably a good thing because it means I’m practicing more

Ha! We’re English, and my friend was on holiday in Australia, and bumped into someone from our school when she was on a beach there!

Right? I didn’t choose to be born here 😅

"I'm from XYZ in the states." will something like that work?

I could really confuse people by pointing to my hand since I'm from Michigan and not giving a verbal answer

Exactly!

@@tomrogue13 lol where in the mitten are you from... Lol

Thanks! :)

Second the plant tour video !!

Ooof yeah. I made a separate comment here about being disabled. I have a mix of more visible and less visible disabilities. And like you said, sometimes when you mention you're disabled and unable to work, people really do get really rude. Nothing like being told that you're a "useless leech" or a "burden on society and better off dead". Granted I see that more online but ow. So really, you can have both visible and less visible disabilities or visible disabilities and still be screwed by jerks.

This is very true. I found it really hard to socialize, always trying to steer the conversation away when meeting new people. If I was sure I'd never be back again, I'd actually make up lies. Luckily, now I live in a very friendly neighborhood, and once I'd explained my situation to a couple of people, I think word got around, and they're friendly and mostly the topic never comes up.

Yep, Uber drivers ask me this all the time (disabled + can't drive so I Uber a lot). I usually lie and make up a career, but I've started trying to just be upfront about my health issues to make it feel less taboo to talk about. It shouldn't feel shameful to talk about being disabled. I need to work on my feelings about that, and normalising it by talking about it is slowly helping.

Try not to take it as being invasive; they are probably trying to find a topic to talk about with you. Here is a little trick if you are uncomfortable, mirror the question back and get them talking about them self. If the person is judgmental, you don't want them in your life anyways.

@@CRMcGee2 how about you take a step back and realize that it doesn't matter that they didn't mean to be invasive? Impact over intent. Plus, it's tiresome to have to say no, I'm unable to work and I'm disabled. Because a lot of people actually do think terribly about disabled people, especially those of us who can't work. And it's not only people who we only see once.

I think most people who care about accents overhearing, say, a New Zealander and Australian having a conversation would be able to tell they had different regional accents from each other, but probably wouldn't be able to say which was from which country, only that they had regional accent variation. Same with Americans and Canadians.

Where are you from? If you don't mind me asking. Also out of curiousity, is using first names just considered overly familiar?

​@@jaythebarbarian195 I don't know where the first person is from, but it's the same for me (in Poland). You'd only call someone by their name if you want to catch their attention. I'm not sure why it is that way, but using someone's name in a conversation just feels really weird. I guess it might feel a bit like your honing in on someone way too much, but like I said, I'm really not sure.

What do you use instead, if you don't mind me asking?

I think it may be more of a personal thing, even as an American I basically only address someone by name if I need to get their attention or there might be actual confusion about who I'm talking to, such as in a loud group setting or maybe during a video chat with several participants. But I might be an outlier.

@@avagubbiotti4507 If you are talking to someone, you just call them 'you' - "What would you like to drink?" There's no need to add 'Jane' to the sentence.

Also, there's usually an insanely huge markup on soft drinks from a fountain. That's why a lot of places will offer free refills. So firing anyone for that would be nuts.

Sure, but on one side it also helps us know who to avoid by what we know of that state. On the other side I feel like if you don't answer with a "Oh, the state with this or that" they're offended? Idk why though

@@myra0224Yes, but life in Texas is nothing like life in Alaska. There are positives and negatives to any association, but one person knows snow and the other just doesn't.

@@charlotteinnocent8752 Say that next time someone from the US asks if someone is "Asian"

@@myra0224I hate that it's one of the most cringe worthy phrases used!

I’m American I also feel that the, what do you do for a living is nosy or it can be a put down if the person you asked doesn’t seem to have as good of job as the one who’s asking. If you want to get to know, someone a little better, you can ask other questions such as, what are your hobbies?

Always felt that question is just a way to place you on the social ladder. They want to know if they are better than you. It's just my personal experience, but maybe I'm just paranoid.

@@jes2276 I think you’re right about that at least in some cases

Usually with Canadians they tend to pronounce their o’s very differently to Americans, that’s the only way I can tell.

@@missesLMA Not middle class people from Toronto. But yeah, I know what you mean.

I'm not getting that same meaning from the comment, it’s just oddly worded.

Some of these things like leaning and having water, I feel insulted - like I'm not doing that because I'm American, there's just something very fucked up about my nervous system. I'm eating hotdogs, talking loudly to strangers and guzzling pumpkin spice because I'm American, thank you very much.

@@202cardline "guzzling pumpkin spice" lmao

Good one

In fairness, people - especially older ones - in the UK will sometimes use Fahrenheit to describe the weather when it's particularly hot.

@@drzander3378 Yep this is why the likes of the Sun will do headlines declaring that it's going to be *100 degrees!*

@@matta5749 Sorry, even assuming it’s true (and honestly, I think the word “roughly” is doing a lot of work there), I don’t see how that inherently makes it any more convenient. It mostly sounds like post hoc rationalisation.

@@TangerineTux Doesn't matter how things sound to celsius dweebs.

I’ve actually taken the train down from Edinburgh to London and came back in one day since one of my friends who didn’t live in the UK was visiting and I was very homesick and wanted to see him. It’s possible- I got the earliest and last trains out. I was exhausted, also since I’d gotten very drunk while he and I were together and I had to stumble through the London underground alone and drunk for the first time, but it’s very doable.

Americans usually don't realise how complicated transportation in Europe can be and how much is there to see in European cities. I've spent in London a whole week and was literally just sightseeing from 7.00 am to 8.00 pm., sometimes later. Americans thi9nk that each town has like one thing or two to see in one place. :D But they do get descriptions like: You can visit such and such city in a day, everything is a walking distance blah blah blah. - seen a dozen of such descriptions online. Not their fault, really.

@@callmepretzygoo Don't get me wrong, I'm sure if you push to the limits you can get several hours in, but she was thinking she'd just get like a 9am train, be there by midday and spend about 8 hours being a tourist, before getting a train that got her back in time for bed. Yeah, the UK is a lot smaller then the US, a lot smaller than most of its States, it doesn't mean you just get around it in the blink of an eye, though. US Interstate roads are made to cruise the miles away, British roads not so much...

Have known visitors to Perth, Western Australia to think they could drive to Adelaide similarly. It is over 30 hours by car. 😂

@@aussie405People from smaller countries are sometimes surprised to find out just how large bigger countries are. But people from larger countries can sometimes think that everything is close in a smaller country. I mean, I don't expect any two places in the UK to be as far apart as Toronto and Vancouver (40 hrs by car), but when I checked out the distance from London to Edinburgh, I was surprised to find out they're farther apart than Toronto and Montreal. Living just north of Toronto, I would never take a day trip to Montreal.

I've seen people say this isn't the case in europe not sure if they were including UK. It is also the standard for establishments in the US although not all of them follow this courtesy. However apparently it is illegal for a public place that has some to refuse someone water in Arizona.

Do you only move around when hiking and nowhere else? I remember going with my husband and kids to watch a golf tournament and being parched after walking a few holes. We didn't bring water and there were no water fountains, so we had to pay for very expensive water. Same thing when walking in large cities. You won't always find drinking fountains. And we don't live in a really hot country. These all happen in Canada. The one place I've been to where there's lots of outdoor walking but also water fountains is Canada's Wonderland. So I never bother with water bottles there.

@@MarieAnne.I tend to take a water bottle with me depending on what I plan to do. Anything where I stay outdoors for a longer time definitely needs one. But shopping? Nope, I‘d rather take a nice longer break, sit down in a cafe, have coffee and cake, only exception: hot days.

Why would a customer want my name anyway? I tend to assume they're going to complain and want somebody to target, or they want a more direct access to me instead of "a waiter", which could be any of my coworkers. Idk, it doesn't feel like there's any good reason. Maybe I could understand asking for it at the end, to say thank you in a more personal way (or leave a complaint if I was terrible, but this time they'd have a reason)

Yeah, I'm an American but I've always found random strangers asking me my name when I'm at work to be incredibly intrusive. We're not friends. I'll give you my name if I feel like it. I live in the UK now though, so maybe I've just always had a European mindset. 🙂

​@@MarieAnne. No of course I move around in other instances as well, but I have never found myself dehydrated when going shopping, taking a stroll through the city and such. That is my point, normal everyday movement just doesn't cause dehydration that warrants bringing water. Only experienced dehydration when outside in direct and intense heat for a prolonged time while physically active above a normal level, such as while hiking in the summer as a scout.

When I was a child it was normal if you met someone you knew who was with a stranger, to say hello, chat for a minute and part ways. Only next time you met, they might tell you, or you might have a reason to ask, who that person was. Which might be just, “That was my cousin,” or “I work with him”, and not necessarily the name. You might meet them a few more times and get a little acquainted before you ever exchanged names. Just introducing people who met by accident and giving someone’s name to a stranger was seen as rude. It was a shock to me as a teenager to move to a wealthy part of England where people would immediately ask your name, ask what you “do” - and then immediately ask “What does your father do?” Also I remember my dad coming home from work and demonstrating how these consultants brought in to socialise a bunch of Glaswegian engineers were telling them to stand opposite, hands out and hanging by their sides, to use people’s names when speaking right to their face etc. Completely unaware that every one of these things would likely be read by most of the locals as squaring up for some aggression. In my later years I have learned that in all countries where class is a thing, good working-class manners are deemed by the management class to be bad manners. They never, never consider that people lower down the social scale HAVE etiquette, only that they lack it.

...we also do that for grocery checkers, too 😂

I don't lean often (also leg problems) but I hunt for benches with my eyes, wherever I am. Walking down the street? Scanning area for anything to sit on. :D For that purpose I never wear bright clothes so Can always sit, even in a less than perfect place, line a small stone or brick wall.

Older and better-off Americans, it’s still beige trenchcoats.

I'm Northern Irish and I noticed there's a way to wear a baseball cap and not look American. You've probably seen these guys, they basically have Count Dankula's style, I've never looked at one and went "oh that looks American"

Canadians do the maple lea thing when abroad specifically to make sure they're not mistaken for Americans.

Ice at a fast food place will fill about half the volume of the cup. If your drink is something other than water, that the company has to pay for, then taking it without ice means they have to put twice as much actual drink in your cup than if they could add ice.

As a child I used to think it was weird how so many American women walk with their toes pointed out to the side, and then I saw some movie or something where a girl was actually being instructed to do it! Also, the massive arm-swinging. The difference seems to be, Europeans see walking as a form of locomotion to either get from A to B or else a kind of mobile meditation / idling, whereas Americans, especially women, see it as more like an exercise task.

@@eh1702 Guess I never noticed the toe pointing but thinking about it, I can see the arm thing for sure.