Transcript of AE 1013 - Normal Things in the US & Europe That Scare Australians

Not being able to make eye contact with people through the cracks in the bathroom stall door. Why do you Americans do this to yourselves? What? Having your kitchen and laundry combined so that the machines are in the same room. That's really weird. Being expected to know another language other than English. Wow, that would never happen in Australia. They would expect you to know English.

English mother***er, do you speak it?

But I can't imagine them expecting you to know another language unless you went to an area where there was a large community of people, say Italians or Greeks or Vietnamese people, and you went into a store that usually just services that community. Sometimes you'll meet people there who don't even speak English.

So, maybe in that situation they may be like, well, we assume you're not going to try and speak English with us because we speak Vietnamese here.

You are not from around here, are you?

But other than that, no, that'd be very weird. But I can imagine in Europe that happens everywhere. Unions. Just watched 'Cloud Nine' on Netflix, and if someone tried to bust a union in my country, it would make national news and gather massive support. Yeah, so there are lots of unions here in Australia, too. Again, I'm not sure if that would be America or Europe. So, unions are effectively groups that take care of workers' rights in Australia.

So, you'll have like the teacher's union or the workers union at Worksites, Tradies Union, and they look after those workers. I think it would be the same thing in Australia if you tried to bust up a union here and get rid of it, and get rid of unions altogether, people would riot.

And that's not going to happen.

I think you would have a lot of people in the streets protesting. Songs with swear words being broadcasted on the radio or swear words not being covered with a beep tone on TV.

Oh, [beep].

It's always felt weird to me that Americans are all about being free and freedom of speech, but then again, they are scared of some stupid words. Yeah, it's pretty funny. I find that amusing, too, and it happened in Australia when I was growing up. There would be certain restrictions with what type of TV could be shown at what times, and it would be the same for radio.

And so, if it was during a certain period of time like, say, 9am to 7pm in that window, there's probably a restriction and it has to be PG, meaning parental guidance. So, they're not going to have swearing, they're not going to have sex scenes or they're not going to have people talking about adult themes like drugs.

We need to protect the children.

The swear words in music would always be beeped out, but if you're watching late at night or early in the morning, it wouldn't be. The weird thing was that you could always tell what the swear word was for you would hear, f-beep.

***ing sucks.

And so, I always found it kind of redundant. It's like you might as well just mute the whole thing. Guys, I am very aware of the ***ing stupid fact that I have to beep out every ***ing swear word, because ***ing YouTube will demonetise me. Automatically receiving a voting ballot in the mail and getting paid time off to go voting. Jesus, this is Europe.

I can't imagine doing that. I kind- I can imagine getting the voting ballot, that'll happen in Australia, right. That'll- You'll get that in the mail or at least instructions on how to vote, but I can't imagine being paid to go and vote.

I'm rich, bitch!

I don't think that would happen here. Putting mayonnaise on french fries instead of ketchup.

Why would you do that?

Firstly, ketchup. So, this is American. Ketchup, we would never say "ketchup". We would say tomato sauce. Or if you're really Australian, "dead horse". But yeah, it's becoming more and more common to see aioli, which I think is what garlic and mayonnaise being offered at places where you get burgers and chips and everything for you to have the chips dipped in.

So, it's becoming less and less of a weird thing. When I was growing up, it was not something you would have ever seen anywhere. Maybe tartar sauce at a fish and chip place, but not mayonnaise. When I was studying architecture in Prague, the dorms that turned into a hostel in the summer had co-ed showers with private stalls. Everyone took their shower in the stall and then tailed off in the common area together.

Yeah, so I guess the thing here is having toilets where men and women can both go. There are places in Australia where you'll have unisex facilities, so that means that either sex can go and use them. I always found it weird that we kind of have these separated, I guess we probably do it for the sake of children.

But at the same time, it's kind of like, once you have your own family and you live at home with a group of people, everyone uses the bathroom together. It's not really a weird thing. So, I always found it a bit strange that we don't have more unisex facilities, especially if they're all stalls that you can use privately. What are you going to see if they're not change rooms, they're just toilets? Don't find it that weird.

[pooing and screams of disgust]

Letting kids go to school or walk around the neighbourhood by themselves without supervision. A Dutch family moved to the US and their kids went to school on their bikes like they always do. After a while, the police showed up on their doorstep and child protective services. That's weird. That's very weird. In Australia it's pretty common for kids to just walk to school or to ride their bikes to school. There's no issue here.

Will, somebody please call Child Protective Services.

I think people are a lot less Liberal than they used to be, so when my dad was a kid, the age of eight, he was probably out and about in the streets without supervision. For us, it's probably more like once you get to about 12 years old, unless you're going to school. And usually when you're going to school at a younger age, you know, under 12, you're probably going to be with other kids or maybe walking with other family members.

But any time you're going to and from school, there's other people in the street doing the same thing. So, it's kind of pretty safe. Taking the bus, there is so much stigma around public transport in the US, especially buses. And in Europe it's just a totally normal way to get around because no one wants to deal with driving and parking in a big city.

Yeah, in the big cities in Australia, this would be pretty normal getting a bus or getting a train or a tram if you've got them in your city. But when you go out into the more rural areas, it's definitely a little more dodgy. You're going to come across a lot of interesting characters on the bus because generally they're going to be people who don't have the kind of income to be able to purchase a car and drive the car where they want to go.

Or because of certain substances they may be unable to drive a car. So, they'll be young kids or students. But then you're going to get if they're 30, 40, 50 years old, they're going to be probably a little on the strange side quite often.

Bus wankers! Where did that come from? I don't know, it just felt right.

I mean, I've heard a lot of stories. My wife uses the bus sometimes and she's just like, geez, there are some rare units on the bus. Apparently having your laundry machines in the kitchen, I think it would be great, but Americans appear to be horrified by the thought on real estate social media groups. Yeah, that's weird. Having your kitchen and laundry combined so that the machines are in the same room, that's really weird.

You just said...

You would have your washing machine and or your dryer in a laundry, a different room in Australia, and you'll have your dishwasher and everything in the kitchen and never the two shall meet. They'll be separated well and truly. So, that would be a bit of a shock, I think, unless you were living in, say, a one-bedroom apartment or something, or a studio apartment where it's all the same room and there's no space.

So, you make sure, you know, you have all the machines in the same place. But if it's a normal house, you're never going to see that in Australia. Not being able to make eye contact with people through the cracks in the bathroom stall door. Why do you Americans do this to yourselves? What? Not being able to make eye contact with people through the cracks in the bathroom stall door.

That's creepy.

Yeah, I'm not sure what they're asking, to be honest. Are they thinking it's weird because you can't do it or they're thinking it's weird because you can do it? Yeah, I'm not sure about that. Making eye contact through the stall door in the bathroom. I think you would generally just leave people alone. If they go into the toilet, just leave them alone.

Thanks for joining me, guys. I hope you enjoyed this video. Check out this one if you want to learn about culture shock in Australia, and I'll see you next time. Bye.