Discovering the quirks of American customs

25 American Cultural Norms / Customs

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Summary

In the video, Courtney from Wonder in English dives into 25 cultural norms that are unique to the United States. These include peculiar dining practices such as tipping, separate checks, and large portion sizes. The video also highlights American tendencies in daily life like eating on the go, being individualistic, and the use of unique date formats and measurement systems. Moreover, it touches on more social aspects like the tradition of tailgating, college partying norms, and communal activities like trick-or-treating on Halloween. Throughout the video, Courtney reflects on these practices with humor and insight, comparing them with other cultures and allowing viewers to appreciate the uniqueness of these American customs.

Highlights

Tipping in the US is more norm than nicety. Servers often rely on these tips due to lower wages in the industry 🤑
Portion sizes in America can be overwhelmingly large, often leading to leftovers 🍔
Americans typically ask for separate checks when dining out, avoiding the European-style bill splitting 🍽️
Drive-thru culture reflects America's fast-paced lifestyle, with many opting to eat on the go 🚗
Halloween trick-or-treating is a beloved tradition where kids dress up and collect candy from neighbors 🎃

Key Takeaways

Tipping is a big deal in America 🤑
Prepare for big portion sizes when dining out in the US 🍔
Separate checks are a go-to when eating out with friends 🍽️
Drive-thru meals are commonplace 🚗
Trick-or-treating is a fun Halloween tradition 🎃

Overview

Courtney kicks off the video by exploring some well-known dining customs in America, such as the unusual practice of tipping due to low server wages. She also talks about the unique choice most diners make to ask for separate checks and the American love for large portion sizes, which often results in leftovers. Together, these norms paint a picture of a dining culture that values individualism and convenience.

Moving beyond the dining table, Courtney highlights the fast-food culture in the United States, where drive-thrus are popular due to the fast-paced nature of American lifestyles. She shares her observations on how Americans are accustomed to eating on the go, in stark contrast to countries where meal times are moments of pause and togetherness. This part of the video resonates with anyone familiar with the hustle and bustle of American daily life.

In the more social arena, the video delves into quirky American traditions, such as tailgating at football games and the cherished custom of trick-or-treating during Halloween. Courtney's anecdotes about these events reveal how deeply ingrained these celebratory practices are in American life, offering a glimpse into the communal and festive spirit that often characterizes American gatherings.

Chapters

00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to American Cultural Norms The chapter introduces the concept of cultural norms, particularly focusing on the United States. It begins with Courtney, the speaker, who has considerable travel experience, explaining what cultural norms are – behaviors that may be considered normal in one culture but strange in another. She highlights that the focus will be on 25 cultural norms typical in the United States that might be perceived as unusual in other countries.
00:30 - 02:30: Dining Etiquette: Tipping and Separate Checks This chapter discusses dining etiquette, particularly focusing on tipping norms and the practice of asking for separate checks in restaurants. It highlights the differences in tipping expectations, particularly in the United States where tipping is a significant part of a server's income.
02:30 - 04:30: Drinking Habits: Free Refills and Large Portions This chapter highlights the impact of low hourly wages for waitstaff in the U.S., often as low as $3 per hour, which is significantly below the minimum wage of at least $8 per hour in many areas. This situation underscores the cultural expectation for customers to tip generously, typically between 15% and 20%, to supplement waitstaff income and ensure they can afford basic living expenses. It reflects a broader discussion about drinking habits, implying that the cultural norms around tipping and consumption in settings with large portions and free refills influence financial and social interactions.
04:30 - 06:00: Dining Habits and Eating On-the-Go This chapter discusses the differences in dining habits between the United States and Europe, focusing specifically on how bills are handled in group dining situations. In many European countries, everyone splits the bill equally, regardless of what each person ordered. This can be challenging for individuals on a budget or those trying to save money, as they may end up paying more than their fair share if someone else orders an expensive meal. In contrast, in the United States, it is common for each person to receive a separate check, allowing for more individual financial control.
06:00 - 07:00: Cooking Convenience: Food Box Services This chapter discusses the dining etiquette and payment practices among groups of people, particularly when dining out. It highlights that while in some cases, couples might pay for each other's meals, it is more usual for individuals to only pay for what they personally consumed. Splitting the bill equally is less common. Additionally, a cultural note is mentioned about the preference for serving lots of ice in drinks at restaurants.
07:00 - 09:00: Tax and Measurement Differences This chapter discusses the cultural and business practices related to beverage serving sizes and the impact on health, particularly focusing on the availability of free refills for non-alcoholic drinks. It highlights how this practice, especially with sugary sodas, can contribute to weight gain due to high sugar consumption from continuously refilled large-size glasses. It contrasts this with alcoholic beverages, where free refills are not a common practice.
09:00 - 15:30: Social Customs and Celebrations The chapter titled "Social Customs and Celebrations" discusses cultural norms in the United States related to eating habits. It highlights the tendency of people to consume large portion sizes and emphasizes a preference for quantity over quality. Additionally, it touches upon how excessive consumption, such as drinking too many calories, is a common aspect during social gatherings and celebrations.
15:30 - 19:00: Education and Employment Norms The chapter discusses cultural norms around food portion sizes and leftovers, particularly in Texas. It highlights the practice of taking leftovers home due to large portion sizes, a common request for 'doggie bags' or 'to-go' boxes to avoid waste.
19:00 - 26:00: Consumer Habits and Advertising This chapter discusses typical consumer behaviors in the United States, particularly focusing on dining habits. It highlights the practice of eating out where leftover food often serves as the next day's meal, effectively making a single meal purchase cover two meals. Another cultural habit noted is eating on the go, which includes scenarios like using drive-throughs to get food while driving or eating while walking, especially in big cities. These habits illustrate the convenience and fast-paced lifestyle prevalent in American consumer culture.
26:00 - 32:00: Leisure and Convenience in the United States This chapter explores the cultural differences in how meals are viewed and eaten in the United States compared to other cultures. In many cultures, food is honored and shared with family and friends, often involving a break from work to eat at home. In contrast, in the United States, it's common to eat at one's desk or while walking, reflecting a more convenience-oriented approach to meals rather than viewing them as special events.
32:00 - 37:00: High School Cultural Elements The chapter titled 'High School Cultural Elements' explores the notion of meals, particularly lunch and breakfast, in the context of a busy lifestyle. It highlights that these meals are often consumed on the go due to hectic schedules. The narrative reveals that this busyness leads to limited time for cooking or grocery shopping, prompting a reliance on eating out or using food box services as alternatives to traditional meal preparations.
37:00 - 38:00: Conclusion and Additional Resources Discusses the convenience of home delivery meal kits, which provide portioned ingredients and recipes for easy home cooking. Highlights the benefit of receiving fresh groceries directly to your doorstep each week, simplifying meal preparation.

25 American Cultural Norms / Customs Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 hey guys it's Courtney back from winter in English from wandering English comm and I'm here to give you guys an interesting lesson about 25 cultural norms in the United States so what do I mean by cultural norm well I mean things that Americans do that are probably a little bit weird in other countries I've traveled a lot so I have a good idea of what's normal and also what doesn't really happen in other countries at
00:30 - 01:00 least not as much as it does here in the United States so let's get started so the first few norms that I have for you guys are actually involved in restaurants and eating out I'm sure the most common one that you guys know is tipping so here the in the United States I think waitresses and waiters get paid
01:00 - 01:30 only a few dollars an hour normally minimum wage is at least $8 an hour here but waitresses can get like $3 an hour something crazy low in order to make up for this people who go to restaurants will tip the waiter a normal range to tip is 15 to 20 percent I like to always tip 20% because the person needs money so that they can eat and live another thing that we like to do in
01:30 - 02:00 the United States is separate checks so when the bill comes sometimes in Europe everyone pays together and it doesn't really matter if you're on a budget it doesn't matter if you're trying to save money because if somebody else in your group actually has a much more expensive meal you have to pay the same amount as everyone else everything is combined into one check and you all split it equally in that group however in the United States a lot of times even with a
02:00 - 02:30 big group of people everyone will pay for their own meals sometimes couples pay for each other that's a different story normally either one person will a or a few people will pay for each other but it's not common for people to really just split it down the middle people will normally only want to pay for what they had and what they ate another thing at restaurants is that we like to give lots of ice and that we
02:30 - 03:00 offer free refills so we normally have really big glass sizes and then on top of that if you drink all of it we'll we'll give you a refill for free but that's not something that we do with alcoholic drinks not normally anyway but this gives an opportunity for people to gain a ton of weight because people oftentimes drink sodas which have tons of sugar and then you can keep refilling that soda one after another and then
03:00 - 03:30 people might drink way too much too many calories another thing that can help people gain weight is the fact that our portion sizes the food size in the United States is massive so this is another cultural norm we like to have quantity quantity not always over quality meaning that we like more not better that's not always true but we definitely like more always especially
03:30 - 04:00 states like Texas where they say everything is bigger in Texas something else that we do is we ask for all of our leftovers to go so because we have such big portion sizes a lot of times if you're a small person you can't eat all of that food so what happens to it well we don't want to waste it so we take that leftover food home with us so we ask to doggie baguette or a to-go box so
04:00 - 04:30 this is super common in the United States you go out to eat and then you have food for the next day so really when you pay for a meal out it's like you're paying for two meals another norm that I never noticed that someone actually told me about and I could agree with is that we like to eat food on the go so we will go through a drive-through in our car and we'll eat food in the car or if you're in a big city maybe you'll eat a sandwich while you're walking down the street and other
04:30 - 05:00 cultures this is very strange because food is honored and you go home for an hour during your workday and maybe you even eat with family and friends in the United States it's really normal to eat at your desk it's also equally normal to eat while you're walking it's not that strange so the honor of eating food the honor of that practice is not really there we love food but we don't necessarily always make it an event especially for
05:00 - 05:30 meals like lunch and breakfast which are not as important and are normally you know eaten on the go because we're so busy talking about being busy we are really overworked here sometimes not everybody but some of us here have really hectic schedules and are always running around and sometimes we don't really have the time to go grocery shopping or to cook for ourselves so besides eating out something that we do is we like food box services so each
05:30 - 06:00 week they will deliver a big box of a ton of ingredients and it's all portioned out and the recipe is right there and all you have to do is cook that meal right then so every week you're basically getting your groceries delivered to your house but already in recipe form so it's a really convenient way to cook from home and eat fresh food
06:00 - 06:30 but not have to go out and do the grocery shopping and plan all the recipes yourself so while I was living outside of the United States something that I thoroughly enjoyed was the fact that tax is included when you're making a purchase in with anything outside of the US so in Europe when I saw that this mouse was twenty five dollars at the store I knew it would be twenty five dollars well not dollars but maybe euros
06:30 - 07:00 in the United States tax is not included so the tax you have to estimate in your head when you're going to checkout to make sure you have enough money to pay for something it's really silly so that $25 Mouse will have maybe 7 cents for every dollar as tax so you have to calculate 7 or 8 cents depending on the state that you're in tax differs by state then you have to multiply that
07:00 - 07:30 by 25 and come up with a rough estimate of how much you think it's going to cost when you go to buy it so it's really silly I heard that we did this so that people have an idea of how much the product cost versus how much is going to tax but honestly I don't think people care and I think it would be more useful to include the tax in the final price so that people know how much something is rather than how much is going to tax another thing that we do that's come up
07:30 - 08:00 a lot through my work is we write the date a little bit different than the rest of the world so we like to write the month then the day and then the year whereas other cultures like to write the day first because that's the thing that's changing more often that makes a lot of sense and for whatever reason we just like to do things differently when it comes to numbers we have different systems we use feet instead of the metric system and you know what works fine for us but it's a little bit
08:00 - 08:30 strange to be completely out of sync with the rest of the world so I wouldn't mind if we switched over to a metric system one thing that comes up when I'm talking to foreigners is they'll ask me wait so do Americans really have prom or our colleges really like that our parties at colleges really like that do you guys actually drink out of those Red Solo cups and the answer to that is all of that is yes all of that is true
08:30 - 09:00 so the movies can be a little bit exaggerated but for the most part it's pretty accurate and yes we do drink out of the Red Solo cups for whatever reason whenever we have a party and we're drinking alcohol we use these specific cups I don't know why we do that and so they've become affiliated with with drinks that you mix yourself especially alcoholic drinks the 11th norm is that we're very individualistic and we like to have a lot of personal
09:00 - 09:30 space so people are very independent they like to be their own person and reliant on themselves so for example at 18 will normally move out of our parents home and go to college so it's not super normal to be living at your home when you're older whereas in European countries and in places like South and Central America and even North America like Mexico it is very normal to live at home even if you're 30 years old whereas in the
09:30 - 10:00 United States I'm 25 right now and I moved back home and it's honestly a little bit weird for this culture it's a little bit strange not that people don't do it but it's just not the norm and again we really like to have personal space so if someone is standing close to me that would honestly make me feel a little bit uncomfortable I noticed that when I was in Spain there was less personal space and that definitely took some getting used to people just felt
10:00 - 10:30 very comfortable being really close to you and touching you a little bit more than I was used to but I kind of enjoyed it after a while I think it's something that you can adapt to so the next one I've already mentioned and that's the fact that we move out when we're 18 years old and another norm that I've really encountered after leaving the United States was the fact that we smile and we talk to strangers so that is very very common you will smile and talk to
10:30 - 11:00 strangers pretty much every day and maybe not so much in really big cities where people are a little bit more hostile and and just unhappy like maybe New York City not everyone is like smiling and talking to each other but it's definitely more common in the United States than any other country that I've been to I remember I was walking down the street in Spain one year and I smiled at this couple and they looked at me and started laughing because they thought it was
11:00 - 11:30 weird that I smiled at them just randomly and awkwardly like yeah so I think that we're trying to be friendly and really open with people but it might be actually very strange in other countries it might have the opposite effect like people might trust you less because you're always happy and smiling at them rather than being genuine with how you feel in the moment and again I said that we like to talk to strangers a
11:30 - 12:00 lot so if you notice on planes a lot of times Americans will strike up conversations with people next to them especially on like long international flights especially older people people are just really open to having conversations when you check out at the grocery store and someone is ringing up your food and they're putting it in the bag and giving it to you they normally will start a conversation with you they'll ask you you know how your day is going and it would kind of be rude if they didn't ask you how you were even
12:00 - 12:30 though I don't think that people really genuinely want a response or an answer and this ties in to the next one and that's the fact that we like to be very indirect we like to beat around the bush and not address serious issues to someone's face so we like to be very cordial and friendly like we're smiling we're asking how you are and whatnot and in that same sense because we like
12:30 - 13:00 everything to be you know status quo and happy and good we never want to really come at you and address issues very directly so for example in the United States you would never say oh you look like you gained weight I mean maybe you would but that's really mean it's not socially acceptable here whereas in other countries it's normal to be saying like hey fatty or hey you gain weight and it's totally okay here in the United
13:00 - 13:30 States that's a no-no you want to maybe address the issue by by being very indirect so maybe you say hey I you know I've been feeling like I haven't been eating as healthy lately do you want to eat healthy with me and kind of you know getting to that same point like you need to change your eating habits in order to lose weight but not actually telling them you're fat you need to lose weight so that's how Americans like to do it we like to deal
13:30 - 14:00 with the issues in a weird roundabout way without going directly towards the issue itself another one that I love and I think is super funny is that we have a ton of cereals so if you go down to a grocery store here in the US you will see that a whole aisle is dedicated just to cereals all these different kinds of cereals and they're super good they're normally like very sugary and fun to eat and really really bad for you but
14:00 - 14:30 apparently that's what we like to eat and almost everyone eats cereal for breakfast I mean we also eat other things but cereal is just really commonly enjoyed here in the United States so something that I mentioned earlier that people asked me about was whether or not college parties were real and they are real and something that we do that's kind of considered a party but not really is a tailgate a tailgate is when you go to a football game and you
14:30 - 15:00 drive your car there and you park in a parking lot and you actually drink out of the back of your car so maybe you'll open up your trunk and you'll have beer in your trunk and everybody hangs out by their cars and they set up chairs and they sit and they drink and then they go to the football game later on we like to go and just drink by our cars in the parking lot it's kind of a weird thing now that I'm thinking about it
15:00 - 15:30 but you should google it Google tailgate and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about something that I really don't like about American culture is that we take out loans to go to school so college here is super super expensive and if you want to go get a university degree which is pretty much required know a then you need to go and pay a ton of money and normally people don't have that kind of money on them so what do
15:30 - 16:00 they do they go to the bank and they get a loan specifically for education and the loan is not as expensive the interest rate is not as bad and you have more time to pay it off because it's for education but still you end up owing a ton of extra money because you had to borrow it from a bank another thing that I don't like in the United States is that we advertise to children I think that this is so wrong so we'll have commercials specifically directed
16:00 - 16:30 towards kids and we want them to start liking a product very early on in life so that they get attached to it or kind of like addicted to it so that they want that product for the rest of their life so I really am NOT a fan of this I think that advertising should only be to adults and adults decide what to buy their children I don't think that kids themselves should be influenced through
16:30 - 17:00 the media that way continuing on with all the norms that I don't like another one is the fact that we only get two weeks of paid vacation per year when you're working for a job I had a little bit more time with my job because I had holidays off than the two weeks paid leave and then sick leave I could also use so if I got a cold well then I'd be out of luck if I use it on my vacation but in Europe you guys get you know one
17:00 - 17:30 month at least so I definitely think that the United States should start heading in that direction more companies now are offering actually a limited vacation time some of the hip companies in New York places like but my friend is working at called gear Patrol you can take vacation when you want but in reality I mean people are not taking that much vacation in those kinds of scenarios anyway I'm not sure exactly why they offer it I think it's I think it's something that's positive about the
17:30 - 18:00 company that makes really quality people want to work there and another thing that I really dislike is that taxes in the United States are very difficult to do on your own so it's hard to know how much you owe the government based off of how much you've earned for whatever reason they make it extremely complicated and actually there's companies here in the United States that help people do their taxes
18:00 - 18:30 and so we pay them you know 40 bucks 100 bucks and that company or that program and that software will do our taxes for us because it's too complicated to do on our own well guess what that company that's helping us do our taxes they are actually lobbying meaning paying the government to keep making taxes so complex that ordinary people can't do it themselves that way we have to pay the
18:30 - 19:00 companies to do it for us so we're helpless so the companies have a lot of incentive for the taxes to be complicated because in that way we have to take care of everything through them we are relying on them their services and we're paying them money so it's pretty messed up on a happier note something really fun that we do in the United States is called trick or treating so if you go trick or treating this is something that you do on Halloween you dress up as a kid in a
19:00 - 19:30 costume so for example I could dress up like a dog or a cat and then I will get a little basket a little bag and I will go from house to house and I'll ring the doorbell and I'll say trick-or-treat and then they'll come out they'll open the door come out and then talk to you and drop a handful of candy in your bag then you go to the next house and so the parents will take their children dress up in their costumes go from house to house and collect a bunch of candy and at the end of the night you go back home
19:30 - 20:00 and you're with your brothers and your sisters and you're looking at the candy that you got comparing the candy maybe making some trades I'll have that Snickers you can have my Reese's and then you just pig out and eat all of your candy at night it's for fun that's called trick-or-treating a norm that I noticed after living in Australia and New Zealand was that we have a ton of water in our toilets so whenever we flush the toilet it takes a long time and there's just an
20:00 - 20:30 unnecessary amount of water in Australia they have just the right amount it's not that much so I don't really know why we use that much water seems like a waste to me a great thing about the United States that I definitely definitely miss as I travel and live abroad is the fact that our his stores are open very late so a grocery store here is normally open till at least nine o'clock at least nine o'clock
20:30 - 21:00 usually later than that we have stores that are open 24 hours a day like Walmart and we have convenience stores that are open 24 hours a day you can basically get anything that you need whenever you want so we have food that's operating 24 hours for example Taco Bell their drive-thru that's 24 hours I think McDonald's too so it's not good things but if you're really really hungry if you're desperate you can go at
21:00 - 21:30 any time of the day or the night to get what you need and speaking of convenience we also like to get things very quickly and without much effort so we like to use Amazon specifically Amazon Prime to purchase everything at least in my family we buy a lot on Amazon Amazon is a website where you can purchase pretty much anything you can think of it's at a decent price normally cheaper than the
21:30 - 22:00 stores and it arrives in your house in two days when you pay for prime so prime is an annual membership and then you get free two-day shipping for the whole year once you buy that membership so obviously we do that because we use Prime all the time it's extremely extremely useful I love Amazon okay so the very last thing I want to talk about is high school and the fact that we have yearbooks so a yearbook is basically a book
22:00 - 22:30 with all of the pictures of the students in your grade and maybe you have some pictures of people doing sports or doing activities like art and you know some stories maybe in there I'm not sure things like that are in the yearbook and what we do in the United States is when you graduate a year when you are finishing up one year of school and then graduating to the next year you always sign your classmates and your friends
22:30 - 23:00 yearbooks so everyone will go around and give each other their yearbooks and at the back there are blank pages and you write a message to that person so I could read my yearbook now and my high school friends will have written really long nice messages to me at least my close friends will have long messages and people that I don't know that well might just sign their name or say you know have a great summer love Courtney so it's super fun because we can look
23:00 - 23:30 back on the things that people said to us and there's even some funny videos on YouTube of people buying random people's yearbooks on eBay and then reading their messages and looking at their photos and stuff so it's kind of a funny cultural thing that we do in the United States okay so those are the 25 cultural norms that I'm going to share with you guys today and if you guys want more listening practice advanced listening practice I suggest checking out wonder in English comm
23:30 - 24:00 because I have an advanced English podcast there it's really interesting we cover a ton of different topics so you will learn vocabulary in all sorts of fields and all sorts of topics and then you guys can have lots of conversations thank you guys so much don't forget to Like comment subscribe and most importantly please hit that notification bell have a lovely day bye [Music]