Welcome to the Listening Time podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 111 of the Listening Time podcast.
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All right, in today's episode, we're going to continue with the topic of American culture.
I already did one episode about this.
And now we're going to do a part two to talk about a few more elements of American culture.
So I'm sure this will be interesting for you.
Almost everyone I talk to is interested in learning more about American culture.
So I think this will be another good one.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, let's talk more about American culture.
So one element I wanted to talk about is that Americans tend to value their space.
What do I mean about this?
Well, I would say that most Americans don't like to be too close to other people, physically speaking okay.
So, for example, when I lived in Mexico, it was very common for people to get very close to each other in tight spaces.
And I remember when I used to take the bus in Mexico, there were times where I was squished in between people.
In English, when we say that you squish something, this means that you like press against it.
So, for example, you might squish a bug right with your foot or something, so it means you step on it and you press it down into the ground.
So when I rode the bus, especially during rush hour, it was common for people to be really squished together And nobody thought that this was strange.
It was really normal.
People didn't even think that much about it.
But in the US, I think people would care more about this.
They would protest more about being in situations like this.
They wouldn't really like that.
And I'm not saying that people in Mexico like that, but they're more accepting of this, maybe to be closer to other people.
And they accept that in different situations.
Whereas in the US, people want to have more distance between themselves and others.
And you can even see this when you look at people's houses in the US.
Because most people, if they own a home, they have a front yard and a backyard.
Your front yard is the space in front of your house, with your driveway, and maybe you have a lawn or other things like that.
In english, the word lawn refers to a little space of grass, and so a lot of people have this in their front yard.
They have a lawn, and your backyard is the space behind your house, so people might also have grass there or a swimming pool or a patio or different things, and then people also have side yards, so there's a side space around the sides of their house that separate the different houses from each other.
So a lot of houses have a front yard, a backyard and side yards and this separates the different houses and gives people more space.
However, in many other countries, there isn't that much space between most houses.
So maybe wherever you live, that might be seen as a luxury to have a front yard and a backyard and side yards and have space between the houses.
That might not be a normal thing.
Maybe it is, and maybe it's not, depending on where you live.
But in the U.S., a lot of people really value this.
They want to have more space between themselves and their neighbors.
And if you look at the house itself, you can also see this when looking at bedrooms.
So in the US, it's very common for children to have their own bedroom.
So one brother will be in one bedroom and the other brother or sister will be in another bedroom, and maybe a third kid might be in their own bedroom.
Of course it depends on how many children people have, but it's very common for children to have their own bedroom.
I would even say that it's more common.
That's the thing that the average family tends to do, to have each child in their own room.
However, in many other countries, children share a room with maybe another sibling or maybe two other siblings.
So that's very common around the world.
However, in the US, it's less common.
Each kid has their own space.
So that means that people have to have bigger houses with more space if they want to do that.
So, of course, there are some limits to that.
Maybe you need to upscale and find a bigger house if you need more bedrooms when you have more kids.
By the way, the word upscale in English means that you move to something that is bigger or nicer than what you have now.
So people might need to upscale to have more space for more kids.
But to be honest, I kind of like the way that it's done in other countries, where kids can share a room if necessary.
That's maybe what I'll do if I have multiple kids in the future.
So that's something that I might do. do that's different from the average American.
But as you can see, many Americans tend to value their space.
They want to have more space for themselves, their house, their children, etc.
The next topic I want to talk about is sports.
So this is a big element.
In most cultures, and specifically in the US, sports tend to be very dramatic.
That's what I want to focus on here.
What do I mean by dramatic?
Well, Many Americans prefer sports that are high scoring.
They want to watch sports where people score a lot of points and they're constantly scoring, and they don't tend to like to watch a game where there isn't a lot of scoring happening.
Okay.
So this is one of the reasons why sports like basketball and football I'm referring to American football here this is one of the reasons why those sports tend to be very exciting in many Americans' eyes.
Even if they're not necessarily fans of those sports, they can still watch them and maybe get excited just because there's a lot of scoring.
However, in sports like baseball, the scoring is much less.
And so some people complain about baseball not being as fun or interesting.
Of course, baseball is still a huge sport in the US, but I often hear people talk about the fact that they don't like baseball as much as other sports because there isn't as much action, And this is also why a lot of people don't like soccer in the US, because there's a lot less scoring.
So, as you can see, people like this dramatic element of a lot of scoring, a lot of high intensity action, and people always want a winner.
I think that most Americans would be a little bit disappointed to see a tie game in any sport.
In English, when we say that there's a tie, this means that the two teams are equal in score at the end of the game, and so nobody wins or loses.
So most Americans really dislike this.
They always want a winner.
And so there are some sports that allow for ties in the U.S.
And I think the NFL, our football league, also allows for ties in certain situations.
But people hate this.
Whenever there's a tie, people complain about how it's possible to have a tie in an American sport like football.
People are not happy about that.
So people want the drama of having a winner and a loser and they don't like when a game ends without that drama and the two teams tie.
So they dislike that.
And people like to watch comebacks in sports.
A comeback is is when one team is losing and then they come back and start to do well, and then they win the game.
So people really like this in sports.
They like to see amazing comebacks, and that's usually hard to achieve in a lot of sports, really.
If you're falling behind the other team, The other team is dominating you.
It's hard to come back and win.
But in many American sports, this is possible.
And it happens a lot, actually.
And people really like this.
They love watching comebacks.
So in short, you can see that Americans really like dramatic sports.
They like sports that are really high intensity, high scoring sports.
And there's a lot of drama.
There are comebacks, things like that.
So that's another element of American culture.
Next, I want to talk a little bit about creativity, because that's another element of American culture.
I think that in the US, creativity is highly encouraged.
The word encourage is means that you motivate people to do something.
If I say I encourage you to try it, I'm saying that I want you to do this and I want to give you the motivation to do that.
So people are encouraged to be creative.
For example, in school, children do a lot of creative activities.
And I think as time goes by, there's probably more and more of this in schools.
So there are a lot of creative things in classes, creative activities, And people are encouraged to be creative outside of school as well.
So there are a lot of groups and clubs and activities that are outside of school, outside the classroom, that allow students to be creative in different ways.
That's really common in the U.S., And people are often encouraged to stand out from the crowd.
In English, this phrase means that you are different from the other people and you do something exceptional, something extra or better or different than what the average person does.
So people often want to stand out from the crowd and feel like they are doing something unique or something different, something that is noteworthy, that other people don't do or haven't done.
And people might find new ways to do things, which might lead to innovation in different ways.
So all of that is encouraged.
And I think that this also plays a role in the entrepreneurial spirit in the US because, as you probably know, There are many entrepreneurs in the US.
And I think that one reason for this is that creativity is encouraged.
If someone talks about wanting to be an entrepreneur and maybe they want to create something, maybe they have an idea that in mind, a project in mind, people tend to encourage you to do this.
They tend to respond positively when you tell them about this.
However, I've talked to students in other countries that tell me that people will try to discourage them from doing things like this.
If they talk about wanting to create something new, create a business, a product or something like that, their circle of family members or friends might actually discourage them and tell them that they shouldn't do that, they shouldn't try to succeed in that way and they should play it safe and just get a normal job with security, for example.
In English, when we say that you play it safe, this just means that you do the safe thing.
You choose the safe option.
So that's something that is very common in many countries.
However, in the US, a lot of people tend to respond positively when you tell them about your idea, your creative idea, your entrepreneurial idea.
People like to hear about this and they probably encourage you and tell you that they wish you the best with this endeavor.
In English we can use the word endeavor to talk about some difficult task, maybe some difficult thing that someone has to do that is challenging.
That's an endeavor.
So people are more encouraging in the US when it comes to this, because I think that creativity is highly valued here.
And some people might even say that there's too much creativity here.
A lot of people might say that we need to focus a little bit more on on things that aren't in the creative world, and that students should focus on hard skills and they should choose college majors that are more practical and less creative, because many people go to college and they choose a major that is very creative and it's fun for them to learn, but it doesn't help them get a job, for example.
So some people might say that there's too much creativity in the US, so that might also be a negative thing in some sense.
And lastly, I just wanted to talk a little bit about going to people's houses.
This is another interesting cultural element that's very different in different countries.
I would say that this element of American culture is more formal than in other cultures.
For example, there are more rules.
Like if someone invites you to their house or maybe it's a party at their house you're not supposed to bring other people that weren't invited.
But in other countries, that's normal.
I know that in some countries, if someone invites you to their party, you can bring another person without asking another person who wasn't invited.
And that's pretty common in a lot of places.
But you definitely don't do this in the US.
Right.
You don't bring people that weren't invited.
That's something that is kind of against the rules, so to say.
And you don't just show up at people's houses unannounced.
So in other countries it might be really common to just show up at your cousin's house or show up at your friend's house and just expect them to be there and expect to be able to go inside and spend hours there.
That's something that most Americans don't do.
We schedule this in advance.
The other person has to know that we're gonna come over and spend time at their house before we actually do it.
We don't just show up at their house usually.
And another thing is that we don't overstay our welcome.
That phrase means that you stay longer than the other person wants you to stay.
So it's important, if you go to someone's house, that you leave before it gets too late, because people usually want to get ready for bed or get their kids ready for their next day of school or finish some work or something like that.
And because of that, We try to leave before we inconvenience the host.
We don't want to overstay our welcome and stay too late at night and then the host is kind of hoping that we leave and waiting for us to leave.
We want to avoid that situation.
So we tend to volunteer to leave before it gets too late.
That's really common in the US.
So those are some things related to going to people's houses.
Why don't we stop there?
I hope this episode was interesting for you.
And I hope you learned a little bit more about American culture.
Remember that you can become a Listening Time family member to receive my advanced episodes so you can practice with real English and these will help you understand people when they speak at normal speed.
And you can also purchase my e-book if you're a Spanish or a Portuguese speaker and you can practice reading fiction in English.
All right, thank you for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
