Service in Australian restaurants is not at a lower standard than the US. We can get service immediately simply by asking for it. This way our conversations at our table aren't persistently interrupted due to wait staff reliance on tips. Otherwise a very comprehensive review for someone with less than two months experience. Please feel welcome to come back for more, I'm sure your family and new Aussie friends will welcome you with open arms.
Great and extensive list - very well done. As an Australian, going to a cafe or restaurant, I want to take take my time to enjoy the experience. Great service is wait staff who are attentive to my needs but leave me alone. It's culturally different to American expectations.
Exactly. As a West Australian can confirm. Not having to work for tips means not having to turn cartwheels for every customer that walks through the door. Just to eat. Sunday arvo you bet we're still at the local cafe even though the prices are higher, because the waitstaff are getting paid double time and that's a chill relaxed vibe I like to pay extra for. As for the rest; nice list, clearly put. Subscribed. Interested to see your other vids.
Australian diners have usually been able to do so safe in the knowledge that their wait staff are being paid a decent wage. Tipping is (and should always be) an aberrant behaviour in most circumstances. Pay should be livable. Overly attentive servers are irritating to us.
Nothing worse than being bothered every few minutes being asked do you need help with anything or do you need anything, I think though that we can at times be a little over inattentive though and when we finally are ready to order, we may need to wait or try and catch a Waiters attention, America, you only need to start looking up towards one and He/She is on their way to you :)
The waiters in the US are so polite and sucking up to you, so you will TIP them. In Australia they get paid a decent minimum wage, and tipping is not required. Catch up America and pay your people properly. Sick leave and annual leave for work is government mandated, we live to live not live to work.
@@overlordnews4075 definitely. And I've had plenty of great friendly service here in Queensland. Because the staff are being treated fairly (most of the time) they are usually in a good mood. I have definitely left a tip when I've had a great dining experience
Here in Oz, the wait staff are paid a living wage, but it appears that US wait staff are financially abused to the point that they are essentially begging for enough money to live on while employers are quite literally guilty of wage theft. Come on people. Join or form a union &, at a state or federal level, stand up for what's right. Did the employer say that a bowl of soup would cost $10 if you were paid properly? Yeah, right, call that bluff & ask them to tell you how long they would stay in business. They have bills to pay too, so closing their doors is not an option & justice would surely prevail. Wage theft, .... & they will keep doing it as long as you let them. Other countries seem to manage paying a living wage, so any blustering is pure bull****.
@@christopherdaly9718 If your income is solely based on what u get in waitering you're still pretty much on struggle street. This is why many who work in the hospitality industry are students and even backpackers and doing it to supplement their income. U also have to factor in the high cost of living in Australia and its debatable whether the minimum wage in Australia is a living wage which is a very subjective term. In America u can still get a decent home for around 100 grand for example.
How are you today? How big will my tip be? Is your meal okay? Am I going to get a good tip? Would you like some more coffee? I hope my tip will be big? Do you need anything else today? Will the tip cover my children's dinner tonight?
Absolutely agree. Extremely annoying. However, due to US companies paying very low wages, the servers rely on tips so it makes sense they provide over the top service. It reminded me of sales staff constantly asking if they can help. Fine if you need it though I would head them off with a raised hand and say no thanks, I'll ask if I need anything.
The power outlet switch. The reason we have a switch is because we have double the voltage running through our wires, to make it inactive until you need to use it. Less electric shocks, as if you get zapped by our power you'll possibly be knocked out cold or Definately feel it. Safety aspect for all and is essential all homes have the switches. Most homes also have an auto cut off switch in their power box, which if something happens electrically it'll shut off the power.
In some malls, there can be 3 different grocery stores, a department store (sometimes 2), a KMart (like the US Target) & sometimes a Target (like the US Kmart), a multi screen cinema, food court, bread shops, a number of pharmacies & specialty stores. A one stop shopping location. If you are a full-time employee, the minimum annual leave is 4wks paid leave. Some industries will have 6weeks paid leave. Plus min 10 days sick leave (some have 18 days per year) & some jobs allow you to accumulate your unused sick leave to save it up, in case you get really sick. Plus after a certain amount of service (anywhere between 5-10yrs depending on industry) you get Long Service Leave which is in addition to your annual leave. Public holidays are paid leave, in addition to your annual leave. The compulsory Superannuation is about 11% of your salary at the moment. The HECS money is from the government, so when you work you tell your employer you have a HECS debt and when you reach the income thresh-hold, they will take out a higher amount of tax from your pay to repay the debt. Having the switch on the power point means you don’t need to unplug the device. Just turn it off at the power point. Plastic bags, plastic plates, plastic cups and plastic utensils are now banned nationally. The dual flush toilets are an Australian invention. If you don’t want to use paper straws… bring your own metal or silicone straw. Australian road laws are very strict across the country. Do not speed. Our drink driving limit is 0.05 (it’s 0.08 in US). In America you have had 38 mass shootings in 23 days this year, and you had over 700 last year. Australia has very few shootings at all. And we have never had a school shooting…. Ever. Voting is seen as a responsibility of being an Australian citizen. We vote on Saturdays, and often have fund raising cake stalls & sausage sizzles (look up Democracy Sausage) available to purchase. We vote using paper and pencil or pen. You can go to any polling booth within your electorate to cast your vote & most of the time you can be in and out again in 20mins. We count the votes by hand. We use a Preferential Voting system. To win the seat you need 50% plus 1 votes. You rank the candidates in your order of preference from 1 to whatever. They will sort all the ballots according to 1st preference & then count the ballots. If no one has sufficient vote, they take the ballots of the candidate with the lowest number of votes and redistribute those ballots according to their 2nd preference. This process continues until someone has the required 50% plus 1. Some candidates will win their seat without any need for preferences. Having compulsory voting means that you cannot disenfranchise voters, EVERY CITIZEN has the right to vote. We don’t have voter suppression, as you do in the US. We don’t have gerrymanders, as you do in the US. Electorate boundaries are reviewed every 5 years by the independent Electoral commission (there is one in each state, and one at the Federal level) & the boundaries are changed if there has been a change in population… so each electorate has a similar number of voters, Australia invented the secret ballot, by the way. We also invented the 8hour day (8 hours for work, 8 hours for play, 8 hours for rest) thanks to the Stonemason’s union in 1856.
I live in Los Angeles and it feels as if we've had a shooting of 3+ people every day for the last 2-3 weeks. It's scary and makes me want to leave for Adelaide, SA yesterday instead of waiting for March for grad school
@@AlannaArgudo Adelaide is nice… the water is awful, and it’s no longer the serial killer capital of the world. But seriously, Adelaide is nice. It’s a smaller city than say Sydney or Melbourne. So the pace of life is a little slower. Just remember… the price you see on the goods, is the price you pay at the cashier. And you only need to tip for excellence of service… not to make up for poor wages. Oh, we have Costco here, but no Walmart (thank goodness). We have both Kmart & Target… but each store is like the opposite US equivalent (Aus Kmart - US Target, Aus Target - US Kamrt). If you drink coffee… Australian coffee is way better than in north America… Starbucks failed in Australia. Couldn’t compete with McCafe (pretty much inside every Maccas here… with pastries cakes etc) or even the local independent cafes. You will find the supermarkets are inside the major shopping centres (like Westfields). There can be 3, sometimes 4, different supermarkets, a number of pharmacies (chemist shops we call them), all under the one roof with a department store, hairdressers, food court, butcher shops and greengrocers.
Yeah that makes sense! In America if you want liquor you go to the gas station or pharmacy (drug store) If you need a firearm you go to a shopping store .. like Walmart. If you need medical treatment you go to your insurance company.
hahahahaha med treatments to your insurance company ,,,, and any follow ups to the "bankruptcy " courts ,,, there is something seriously wrong with that equation as humorous as that sounds to the rest of the world
And in Australia if you want to rent a house ,really any we're now you go to your parents or a car or if you get lucky a caravan park or a share house 😊, the state of Australia's rental and property price's are getting as bad as the US medical situation
@@hamishfullerton7309 You're not wrong ... and once again, the problems CAUSED by a decade of inaction & defunding by a 'Conservative' federal government. Why ANYBODY votes conservative is beyond me!!
I grew up in New Zealand, every single High school there was called a College, never a high school, trade schools had other names. In restaurants the most annoying thing imaginable is being constantly interrupted by the wait staff, if I'm there with people I'm there to interact and talk with the people I'm eating with, having constant interruptions just detracts from the experience. I want to be seated, handed the menu, 10 or 15 minutes later we might be ready to order, then when the food arrives that is the last time I want to see the staff until the meal is over and it's time to pay and leave. If there is a problem or more drinks required we can call someone over but I don't want the staff coming over without reason.
Good video. A lot of these were quite spot on. A couple of people have already pointed out the different cultural expectation regarding long, relaxed dining and not being interrupted being regarded as good service here versus overly attentive service expectations and quick table turnover in the US. With our HECS (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) debt it’s deducted once we reach the payment threshold as we only pay federal taxes, and we aren’t supposed to earn cash in hand that isn’t reported to the tax department (ATO). It’s a loan that is issued by the government directly. There is no interest applied to HECS loans, however our HECS debt is indexed annually according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - between 3.5% to 5% based on gross income. Our repayments are are then deducted as part of the taxes automatically deducted from each pay cycle, along with superannuation being paid by our employer (not a deduction from our pay, but a percentage minimum of 10.5% of the pay earned). We also have the option to “top up” super by either a percentage or a fixed amount and this is taxed at a lower rate than the rest of our pay. We have a government mandated minimum 4 weeks of annual leave and minimum of 10 days, or pro-rata equivalent for part time work. I’m fortunate that I have 6 weeks annual leave per year as I do shift work. Our family exclusively uses the dryer plus an indoor drying rack for delicates and woollens, which is unusual. That’s because we have dogs who love to tear the washing off the clothesline though 😂.
for the waiter/waitress one, the difference is created because america has a tipping culture. american wait staff have to go above and beyond to hopefully get a decent tip since their base pay is so low. that’s also why they have designated tables so that they can work the same person/s for their entire stay for their tip
In many homes, bathrooms don’t always have a toilet in them… that’s why we don’t call it a ‘bathroom’… if there isn’t a bath, it can’t be a ‘bath-room’.
Great list, you are very observant and perceptive. Just a couple of explanations. There's a difference between the type of dining you seem to have frequented, which sounds to be smaller and less formal than many other restaurant forms in Australia. In those you would see the wait staff introduce themselves, tell you the daily specials, and come back for dessert orders and drink top-ups etc. As people have mentioned, a high level of servicing is not welcome to Australians generally. Wait staff are usually careful of interrupting the flow of the meal and the conversation, although they keep an eye on the table to see if people want their assistance. In French, the verb entree means 'to enter,' the entree is the entry point for the meal. This is taken directly from the modern French meaning of the word. You get a driving licence at 17 minimum in most parts of Australia, which is usually your second-last year of school before uni, so there are fewer people with licences driving to school. Most students who live far enough away from their school get free bus/train travel, so it's cheaper to travel that way. The idea of everyone wearing a school uniform is to remove the distraction and cost of clothing choices, also helps with free transport etc. We don't have the safety issues that America does, so we don't need severe safety measures. If we start getting safety issues, security would then step up to meet them.
@@shar3882 wow, thank you, I didn’t know that. Can you drive in other states with it then? With your permission, I’ll note that in an edit on my post. Cheers.
@@Bellas1717 I just looked it up and you are right. Now you have to have held your L's for 12 months before you can get your P1 driver's licence. I was 16 when I got my P's.
I'm surprised that you learned so much in 6 weeks. 3:15 Red light / speed cameras are at higher risk intersections but I'd say it is less than 10% of intersections (maybe 5%) 4:18 Buses in the CBD (central business district) have some bus lanes and bus ways. The bus way / station under Queen street is under ground. Now they have a bus way across the Victoria bridge and along side the south east freeway. There is also a busway that goes up near the RBH (Royal Brisbane hospital) 5:10 Those electric scooters around the CBD have employees that go around with spare batteries and spare helmets. They ride scooters around carrying the spares. I once saw one of these guys with 11 helmets. By law, you are required to wear a helmet when riding those scooters although it appears 90% don't bother. If you get caught, it is over $100 fine. Those scooters are annoying. People end up riding them on the footpath scaring pedestrians / crashing or on the road and crashing them . I've dodged quite a few accidents from riders riding straight out into my path. 6:00 Waiters in the USA get most of their income from tips. Over here, the waiter gets paid a wage. Tips are not common here. 7:40 Most malls (regardless of size) will have a grocery shop (Woolworths / Coles / Aldi). This draws people to the mall because everyone needs groceries. If you didn't have this, why would people go there ? 8:48 Someone is up at Chermside shopping centre (north side of Brisbane) 9:30 Yes, less homeless here but there are still quite a few. You've just got to know where they hang out. We also have organizations that drive around (food / coffee vans) which give out a free meal / sometimes free blankets etc 11:08 We have $100,$50,$20,$10,$5 bills and $2,1,50 cent (half dollar), 20 cent, 10 cent, 5 cent coins. We used to have 2 cent and 1 cent coins many years ago. 13:20 Sales tax was an unknown surprise when I was in the USA. I went and purchased something listed as $90 and the next thing I knew the bill was over $100. But but but.. The shelf says $90 18:50 We used to have free bags but people waste bags.. i.e. Get a bag, throw it away when they get home which causes waste. The pay / bag makes you think about it a bit or re-use the bag. It is better for the environment. 19:25 Half flush is for #1 , Full flush is for #2. It saves water. 19:40 We used to have plastic straws. Paper ones are more environmentally friendly. 20:15 Hanging your clothes out to dry in the sun is more environmentally friendly. It uses no electricity, doesn't burn fuel to make the electricity and I think it dries the clothes better anyway.
In Australia our culture is more relaxed so when I went to the USA the servers seemed so stressed and hyper. We felt a bit hassled and like we were being hovered over by the server.
I'm an Australian and to be honest I've found Australian culture waaay less relaxed than many of the other countries I've visited. At least in public spaces. In Colombia there was a big party in a public park /paved area with a bottle shop just serving people and people turning up with instruments. No special occasion / permits or anything. Would have been swarmed by cops in australia. In the Usa people who are strangers just have casual interactions on the street even in big cities. In Asia (not Japan though) people were just cutting each other off on the road but nobody cared. It wasn't dangerous or anything just accepted that there is traffic and people need get where they are going. In Australia people would have a conniption.
FYI: The USA is the ONLY country in the world that has the date format of month/day/year. The vast majority of the world use day/month/year...as we do in Australia There are also some countries that use year/month/day; but the USA is an outlier with its weird format.
Many of the items you speak about are more recent in Australia. Plastic straws were only banned recently. A decade ago we did have plastic bags at supermarkets. Different states in Australia can be slightly different too depending on their state laws.
Wow, I am impressed with all that you learnt!!! I lived in the States for nearly 20 years and it took me a lot longer than 6 weeks to work out the system over there. I never did get the hang of writing down the date, or the seasons. Thank you for sharing.
You were only here for 6 weeks and only in Brisbane...I'm from Melbourne and wait staff in cafes are a little more customer friendly. In the US wait staff hang around a bit more, because they want a big tip. In Australia we don't tip unless you want to.
Thank you! Your video was wonderfully, well researched with accurate information. Thank you for taking the time to get to know about the culture here. It is a very laid-back existence but we love it. At restaurants we never really hurry to eat and run so prompt service can be annoying. I enjoy long evenings without interruptions to spend time with family and friends and an attentive server is a pest...like mozzies at a Barbie!
As an Aussie who's visited the States twice - You pretty much nailed everything. Did you see any people barefoot? It's definitely a Queensland thing and I think I saw one guy 3:45 without shoes. Most of us do have clothing dryers but we only tend to use them during wet weather - otherwise we just hang them outside.
Very well researched it’s refreshing to watch a person who has the facts rather than a vague understanding. 😂 I pictured you on your time in Australia asking a million questions and taking notes in order to make the video - your very observant ! More people should take a leaf from your book when presenting RUclips videos. Thank you.
In the 80s, children were given the choice to wear uniform or not to school, but the competition to wear the best fashion ended the uniform free option.
If you didn't see bottle shops while in Australia you must have had your yes shut. I would say that most supermarkets have a bottle shop either attached or close to the entrance, and then there are larger bottle shops that are separate, many time they are drive through.
Great video! I live south of Brisbane just over the border in New South Wales. I love Brisbane as a city. I hope you had a fun time while you were here.
Social Security Number is slightly different, they are allocated their SSN at birth. We only get a CRN if you have contact with Centrelink and are getting a payment.
Most of what you said is correct ,but ice water is definately a thing here. And also I have 2 cars , one has indicators on left and wipers on right , the other car has the opposite , I still hit the wiper when I mean to indicate sometimes lol
As a dual citizen who has lived in Oz for 24 years, I thought you got most of it pretty accurate, especially for only being here for six weeks. BTW, power point (outlet) switch is a safety thing because we have 220v. They used to say that TIPS stood for To Insure Prompt Service. Tipping has grown in OZ over the last 20 years, especially in upper end restaurants. Attitudes towards making money and success (tall poppy syndrome) are a couple of the things you'd discover if you were here longer.
There is a lot more cuisine full stop in Australia. Also Entree is a French word and actually means the small course in a 3 course meal so actually makes sense that it’s the first course. 😃
The purpose of the two-hour limit at the mall parking lot is to stop people form just using it as a work carpark all day. If you are there to shop, the mall is more than happy to have you park there for free.
1. Appertiser (appertizer in American English) - taster food/pre-meal 2. Entree - first course of meal 3. Main course - second course of meal 4. Dessert - third course of meal
I’ll just add a few points that haven’t come up in the comments so far. 1. Unless things have changed lately, I’m not sure if foreign visitors have realised that the word “mate” is usually not used between males and females, only males. 2. Before we changed to decimal currency in 1966 we used to have both pennies and halfpennies. We have a famous rare coin, the 1930 penny, which is now worth around $40,000! There are photos of them online. Since then we’ve had one and two cent copper coins but these were phased out a few years ago. 3. Sweater and jumper are the same thing but a sweatshirt is a different clothing item. In Australia some call it a Sloppy Joe. If it has a hood we call it a hoodie. It’s always a casual item, often associated with sport and made from cotton with a light fleece lining.
@R Fairlie, females being called mate is becoming rather more common. Perhaps more from female to female, but I (male) certainly call of my best female friends "mate" sometimes. Like many things said in comments sections, on any video of differences in Australia, many of them apply only to a State or in a region, NOT to all of Australia
The 1 cent & 2 cent coins were Phased out in 1993, (so it’s been 30 years now!) if I remember correctly. I remember buses no longer accepting these coins in 1992 , as a child. I also recall that some of the 1 & 2 cent coins were melted down to make the Bronze medals for the 2000 olympics in Sydney.
@@paulsz6194 Thanks for that. I was being very loose with my memory of when those coins were phased out. Time passes quickly! I didn’t know about them being recycled into Olympic bronze medals. What a good idea!
The double flush Toilet system was created in Australia by Bruce Thompson, in 1980. Because Australia is the driest populated Continent, it was devised as a way of preserving water. As wages are good in Australia, giving tip's in Restaurants is a choice & not an expectation. Most Aussie's still tip at certain Restaurants anyway, if we like the service or server.
Great video! One aspect which I’m not sure has been mentioned is the word college. That word is also commonly used in the British sense to refer to residential colleges which are attached to universities. So someone may attend the University of Queensland but they may also reside at St John’s College :) The students who live at residential colleges are a minority of university students.
the waiters don't need grovel to your every need in Australia hopping for a tip so he/she can pay rent. The serving staff get pais $25 or more per hour Maccas workers get paid $22.50 per hour We work to live, not live to work
@Rodney 1984 yeah I came from yesterday from outta space and was dropped here 🙄 whatever..... i was talking about how we used to have plastic straws everywhere and now you don’t see them much because of the environmental push against plastic.
That was great and all from a 6 week visit. Not all states are the same with everything and you are probably the sort of person that would notice those differences so I hope that you visit a different part of Australia 🇦🇺 and do another video.
Where blinkers and wipers are on a car depends on the brand, so there are some cars that have their blinker on the left and some on the right. It depends on the country the car was manufactured in.
There are still ticketed parking lots in Aus it depends on where you go, a good description of differences though, ambulances are not free but if you pay a small insurance fee of $60 a year they are. Tipping is an optional thing here for good service, the electric turn on and off switches were originally designed for safety but have the extra benefit of saving power if turned off. Using a dryer uses up a lot of power, if you want to save money with your electricity bill don't use a dryer.
Yes, we do benifit from laws that protect lives. Speed cameras, random breath testing, bicycle helmets, gun restrictions. Yes we don't waste water, electricity. Solar power panels are very common here on houses. We don't like littering or excessive consumerism. We have a respectful connection with our wildlife and it's no hardship to shun plastics to help our planet. Qld is home to world heritage listed rainforest (Daintree) and the Great Barrier Reef. Walmart never came here, apparently they weren't happy that they'd have to pay staff a liveable wage. Peace out.💕
Mate our housing and rental situation is abominable and as bad as US health system, for a rich low population country like Australia not good enough, Young and old people with out home ownership can become homeless very quickly with out rich parents and high paying job. Making out like we're some rule driven utopia that does everything correctly is a total joke and for all our environmental regulations on plastics and solar our vegetation clearing rates , pesticides use and cancer and heart disease rates are nothing to brag about and some of the worst in oecd world figures don't lie
lol the library is true until a set time. im studying at uni in perth, at 10pm security will come around to check your id to make sure you are studying there. as people do just come into the study areas to work (cos nice)
As an Aussie i can confirm that everything you said is 100% correct, you are also the only American i have ever heard pronounce Australia correctly, stay beautiful :)
Interestingly, the differences are generally because the USA does most things in a different way to the majority of the world! I have lived in 3 countries, and visited many more, and a lot of the Australian things you mention are common to the majority of western countries, at least.
You did really well. I live on a beach in Queensland and our power company pays for an ambulance if we need one anywhere in the world. We don’t pay for power, we have our own plus batteries for night time. The power company sends us a cheques to buy our excess power. I feel like I should pay for their ambulance, not really, they always think up a new thing they don’t do so our power cheques get smaller. Universities here were free. We just paid for our youngest daughter and 4 years cost $6,000.00 so it stays affordable for all. She was only 16 when she went to Uni and in Victoria you cannot drive until you are 18. She was issued with a parking space for two and a half years before she could use it. She had to catch a bus,a train, a tram and another bus to get to Uni and yes, our kids would rather stay home if they can. You also get more points on your score to get into Uni if it is local. Like my Nephew got a perfect 500 which is the highest score you could get. He chose local and the Uni didn’t know what to do with the extra points over 500. Education here is at a very high standard and that is why Canada, America and England keep taking our Nurses, Doctors and Teachers. Did you feel you weren’t safe to walk around here? We don’t have guns and we rarely need security. Everyone here must earn a living wage, if they can’t the Government makes it up to what is needed. It is because everyone over 18 must vote that we can remove all of our Government if they get it wrong. It took many Unions and strikes to get what we have and this generation takes it for granted. My youngest daughter is single and lives alone in Melbourne. She has two University degrees but works in retail because it pays more and she likes to travel the world for 4 months every year. She always works public holidays like Boxing Day because her pay is $65.00 an hour plus commission and bonuses. Working 10 hours makes her happy on those days. She has unlimited paid sick leave that she never uses. I think she has 12 weeks paid holidays waiting to be used plus 16 weeks paid long service leave and she can take those anytime and they have to let her. Next January she is going to Iceland to see the Aurora Borealis and to Ireland because she was sick the first time she went there. All single use plastics are banned here. If someone has to pay 15 cents for a plastic bag it is one that breaks down and turns to dust in a year. I take my own metal straw out with me.I hate the paper ones and that is all we had when I was a child but they were much better back then. Did you notice how clean our Country is? We do not want our ocean’s polluted with rubbish or plastics. The giant sea turtles breed on my beach. A female always comes back to the beach she was hatched on to lay her eggs. Some come in with terrible injuries from nets, lines and plastics. Our beach is patrolled by volunteers 24/7 and they have been doing it for 25 years. If a Mama comes in injured, after she lays her eggs she is taken to be helped and when she is healed they set her free. She will have a tiny little antenna on her back so they know where she is and if she is still moving. Each year she comes home she gets a new battery. Those volunteers have taken three types of giant turtles off the endangered list. Yes, we really do care about our environment and it is just the way we think now. I hope you had fun and loved it here. I don’t love Brisbane so I don’t go there but many do. I just remember driving through it when I was young and thinking I never want to be here again. I do go around it to visit my family.
The wages for retail in Australia don't average 65 and hour in Australia, unless she was selling very high end stuff regularly with big commissions, the housing and rent situation,counter acts all benefits one gets from reasonable wages and cheap medical, don't mean to be negative but compared to 30 years ago the younger generation will have a lower standard of living unless they fix the housing situation
We did for a very limited time have quarter coins released but most people don't remember. Our first 50 cent coin was round and made of silver back in 1966 but from 1967 they made them out of an alloy and added multiple sides. My brother works at a checkout at a major supermarket chain and earns about $25 per hour , gets 4 weeks paid holiday per year and if he doesn't use them all they add up to build over time. Plenty of sick leave paid of course and he has about 6 months of paid sickpay. Most of our doctors bulk bill the government so patients get either free service or if the have to pay they can claim back a significant amount. Our toilets don't fill right up with water. They only fill up a few inches. Not wet behinds lol
My American daughter-in-law, a Teacher, arrived here in Sydney early this month...Got a job as a Food Server. She couldn't believe 24AUD/hr.plus. benefits. She'll start as a teacher on the next school terms
When I want to school, uniforms were voluntary at state run primary schools. Uniforms were compulsory at High schools, but they were quite basic and they were happy as long as you wore the school colors, even if that was a plain white shirt. Its only been in the last decade or 2 that state schools have adopted compulsory informs like they are trying to keep an image. The funny thing is, the area where I grew up was a lower social economic area and the local high school was called "Belmont high" schools and there uniform was a just plan red shirt. One day, it was renamed " Belmont City College" and they upgraded their informs to look more fancy. They were trying to portray the image of a private school.
So in australia you get your Lerner permit at 16 years old but you can only drive with a licenced driver in the passenger seat. You then have to accumulate 100 hours driving AND hold your learners (L's) for 2 years so you are out of school before you can drive.
Thanks for the video. I hope you had a great time in Brisbane. I love visiting America but am always happy to get home to Australia. A lot of the laws and things you discussed in your video are Australian wide not just in Queensland. If you have a chance to visit again you should consider travelling to other states. There is a lot to offer tourists all across Australia.
@@mrmhozer No, more - I studied Tourism and airline booking procedures. A family member did her BA in Architecture before moving to Auckland to do her Master at another one. There is or was a great range of things you can study.
If your referring to youth allowance 17:40 it comes fortnightly payments is barely enough to pay for stuff and is directly sent to you. After you prove to them on why you need it
I'm coming late to the party but ive just come across your channel and felt the need to comment , every thing you said and you were correct in the vast amount of your comparisons, only reinforces my gratitude for becoming an Australian citizen and am allowed to live in this wondrous country , having visited America and 5o+ other countries only adds to my conviction that we Aussie's may not live in the best country in the world but we are miles in front of whoever is in 2nd place .
Tafe is the trady school, college is a private school. Uni is Higher education industry then both of them. Most of these facts are Qld only, it's still a great list, just note that Australia is huge each state and territory is very different
3:23 Most people don't know how to speed responsibly. The fair lane is the middle of the road and gives you the best and all options if trouble arises If you go fast get into the middle of the road and do it properly. If you are doing it wrong own the road it is the right way to do it.
You have really got a great understanding of Australia….in only 6 weeks…well done! One thing though (and this is huge), our lack of security is because we all feel safe and have no compelling reason not to. We do have shootings, but they are rare (and usually not mass ones)…owning a gun is very rare. And here is the big thing with guns: owning guns is mostly illegal, and so, non-criminals don’t own them…most gun crimes occur criminal to criminal…eg. Drug dealer to drug user etc, so what that means in Australia that so long as you are not a criminal, you are unlikely to know anyone who owns a gun and wants to shoot you! Another great thing is that our police are trained to protect us, they do not expect us to have guns, so they do not treat us like we are dangerous, they treat us with respect and they care for us….it attracts great people to this profession, their job is to look after people. We do lock our cars and houses these days, but we don’t worry too much if we forgot. There is crime, but it is not something that many of us are faced with in our daily lives. I feel safe everywhere I go, never think twice about walking anywhere alone at any time of day or night….and I can not even imagine being worried about that. I have a holiday to US booked for November (I have been there several times, and loved it, but not felt as safe as home) I am worried about going. Today it is 24th Jan 2023, and already there have been over 33 mass shootings in USA (and a huge number of other gun crimes). Is that safer than Ukraine with the war from Russia going on? I honestly do not understand America’s okayness with guns, it is the reason it is not safe there!
I know,...it is so sad. I visited the USA in 1971, 1973 and 1976, and felt safe in most places, but a bit wary in bus depots and some cities down South because I wasn't used to so many black people. Most of them were fine, but now and again I felt a bit intimidated by them, especially if there was a group and I happened to look at them😳. I don't think I would like to go over there now. O
Bottle-o is NSW only. We usually call them Dan's after Dan Murphy, a very common liquor shop. School kids usually walk or take the bus.The dual flush is an Australian invention, because we don't usually have full water storages because rain is not reliable.
The blinkers for cars - depends on the origin of the car. EU cars tend to have wipers on right, blinkers left. Japanese cars tend to be the opposite. Just a heads up on that.
HECs student loans interest are controlled/subsidised by federal government. So your interest on the loan is always pegged to inflation - usually very low (2 % ish per year) However was 4% due to inflation rate of 2022. Average student loan debt in Australia is 24k vs about 37k in US in 2022. I’m sure compound interest a big component of the difference not just higher tuition fees.
You also only start paying it back once your income reaches a certain threshold, and even then it’s only a percentage of your income - so you never really have a payment per says.
A sweat shirt is different to a jumper, we have sweat shirts too. We call a thong a G string. A bathroom is a room in a house where you bathe eg. toilet, bath, shower etc. although a lot of houses have a separate toilet. Toilet is just a toilet eg. Like in shopping centres, train stations etc. Restaurants are different depending on which one you go to, servers do come and ask if everything is ok and ask if you need anything else and also some do bring the bill to the table it just depends.
The calendar date thing is interesting. Using a reverse day month year format allows you to numerically organise files without confusion. Why Americans put the month first is still giving me a headache.
We don't have free plastic bags any more. This is to cut down on plastic in the trash. By having to pay for bags...makes people more conscious about the environment. So we remember to bring our reusable bags..less plastic getting into Our Oceans. We also try not to put any plastic like lunch wrap etc into the trash. Collection sites for household plastics. We also have a special bin for recycling e.g... glass.. cardboard..tin cans..heavy plastic...these are all recyclable.
I started a new job at the end of last year, I get 20 days paid holiday, on top of 12 public holidays, plus 10 days paid sick pay each year. The holiday and sick pay is accumulative so I I'm not ill it will carry over, and after 5 years I get an extra week of holiday each year (that's 25 days).
Tap water is free in restaurants, but if you order a brand name bottled water, you pay for that. Some parking stations in shopping centres have sensors in each parking space so instead of doing the drive around looking for a parking spot, empty spaces have an overhead light in green. Red lights mean there is no space. At my shopping centre which is one that takes a photo of my number plate that you spoke of, we are allowed 3 hours free parking, but as a senior, I register my car’s number plate with the centre and I automatically get 4 hours free. If a see a movie at the cinema in the centre, I get additional hour by scanning the bar code on my movie ticket at the boom gate, so I can see a movie, have a meal and do some shopping. I’m a retired school teacher and I did see quite a few senior students on their red Ps driving to school, however most schools don’t have provision for student parking. Some schools don’t even have enough parking for staff.
Hon, our power here in Australia is 240V, from memory the power in America (I was there for a year) was only 120 V. So if you get zapped by electricity here, you don't survive, which is why its law to have built in cut off switches (overload RCD'S ) in every house Australia wide - you mess with the power in Australia without being a registered electrician, it's serious jail time here. In the USA you all do it, it's crazy lol
This was a well put together list. Re the electric scooters, the companies who own them hire people to change the batteries. I have watched them do this. Their locations are tracked, presumably by GPS. Where I live we do pay for ambulances unless we have a private health insurance or are age pensioners /health care concession card holders. I think this is the same across all the states and territories.
The reason you don't see many students driving to school is because getting a licence in Queensland (or Australia) is very hard and graduated. You can only apply for a Learners "L Plate" when you are 16 and then you must be always accompanied by a fully licenced driver. You have a Learners for at least a year. Learner drivers under 25 years of age must gain 100 hours of certified supervised driving experience recorded in a learner logbook or logbook app before being eligible to apply for a provisional licence which can get very expensive using a driving instructor. P1 Plate which must be displayed. Then you go for a P2 plate. You have quite severe restrictions when on P Plates. Zero alcohol. You can only have one passenger (to minimise distractions) and even they can't use a phone while you are driving. And even our used cars have to have a roadworthy certificate when you buy them so a student can't just buy any old bomb.
Hilarious to hear you say - 'like they actually manually hang every single piece of clothing out ' - as though it was such a preposterous thing to do 😂 (BTW, we do have dryers - we just only use them if it's rainy or we're in a hurry).
You can get free iced water if you ask for it but it's understandable being in a new place and not knowing. Whilst here did you see the free undercover stainless steel bbq's available in parks and some beaches?
HECS is funded by the government so it’s easier to deduct it straight from pay through a tax. If you do make lump sum payments you get a bonus. So if you pay a lump sum of $5000 you are credited $6250 on your debt. Also our student debts are no where near USA.
9:54 Employers don't contribute toward your superannuation. They are required to divert a percentage of your gross (pre-tax) salary to your nominated fund.
Service in Australian restaurants is not at a lower standard than the US. We can get service immediately simply by asking for it. This way our conversations at our table aren't persistently interrupted due to wait staff reliance on tips.
Otherwise a very comprehensive review for someone with less than two months experience. Please feel welcome to come back for more, I'm sure your family and new Aussie friends will welcome you with open arms.
Great and extensive list - very well done. As an Australian, going to a cafe or restaurant, I want to take take my time to enjoy the experience. Great service is wait staff who are attentive to my needs but leave me alone. It's culturally different to American expectations.
Exactly. As a West Australian can confirm. Not having to work for tips means not having to turn cartwheels for every customer that walks through the door. Just to eat. Sunday arvo you bet we're still at the local cafe even though the prices are higher, because the waitstaff are getting paid double time and that's a chill relaxed vibe I like to pay extra for.
As for the rest; nice list, clearly put. Subscribed. Interested to see your other vids.
Agree. I have been America and I hated the service it was too intrusive.
I always get ice water
Australian diners have usually been able to do so safe in the knowledge that their wait staff are being paid a decent wage. Tipping is (and should always be) an aberrant behaviour in most circumstances. Pay should be livable.
Overly attentive servers are irritating to us.
Nothing worse than being bothered every few minutes being asked do you need help with anything or do you need anything, I think though that we can at times be a little over inattentive though and when we finally are ready to order, we may need to wait or try and catch a Waiters attention, America, you only need to start looking up towards one and He/She is on their way to you :)
This was the most comprehensive and generally accurate video of this type that I’ve seen.
Reminds me how glad I am to be Australian
Exactly.
We have logic here.
The waiters in the US are so polite and sucking up to you, so you will TIP them. In Australia they get paid a decent minimum wage, and tipping is not required. Catch up America and pay your people properly. Sick leave and annual leave for work is government mandated, we live to live not live to work.
I definetly prefer eating out in Aus. Because I know if the servers are nice in Aus it means they are genuinely nice, not doing it for tips.
@@overlordnews4075 definitely. And I've had plenty of great friendly service here in Queensland. Because the staff are being treated fairly (most of the time) they are usually in a good mood. I have definitely left a tip when I've had a great dining experience
We still see tipping as an option in Australia, but never required
Here in Oz, the wait staff are paid a living wage, but it appears that US wait staff are financially abused to the point that they are essentially begging for enough money to live on while employers are quite literally guilty of wage theft.
Come on people. Join or form a union &, at a state or federal level, stand up for what's right.
Did the employer say that a bowl of soup would cost $10 if you were paid properly? Yeah, right, call that bluff & ask them to tell you how long they would stay in business. They have bills to pay too, so closing their doors is not an option & justice would surely prevail.
Wage theft, .... & they will keep doing it as long as you let them. Other countries seem to manage paying a living wage, so any blustering is pure bull****.
@@christopherdaly9718 If your income is solely based on what u get in waitering you're still pretty much on struggle street. This is why many who work in the hospitality industry are students and even backpackers and doing it to supplement their income. U also have to factor in the high cost of living in Australia and its debatable whether the minimum wage in Australia is a living wage which is a very subjective term. In America u can still get a decent home for around 100 grand for example.
I am grateful Australian servers are not like in the US, I don’t like being bothered every 5 minutes by a waiter.
I agree, if servers in the USA depend on tips then sincerity is nul .
And you don't have to tip if you don't want to, because the waiting staff are payed a decent wage!!
How are you today? How big will my tip be? Is your meal okay? Am I going to get a good tip? Would you like some more coffee? I hope my tip will be big? Do you need anything else today? Will the tip cover my children's dinner tonight?
Ya but there’s nothing worse than being forgotten about. I rather the waiter come to often then never at all
Absolutely agree. Extremely annoying. However, due to US companies paying very low wages, the servers rely on tips so it makes sense they provide over the top service. It reminded me of sales staff constantly asking if they can help. Fine if you need it though I would head them off with a raised hand and say no thanks, I'll ask if I need anything.
The power outlet switch. The reason we have a switch is because we have double the voltage running through our wires, to make it inactive until you need to use it. Less electric shocks, as if you get zapped by our power you'll possibly be knocked out cold or Definately feel it. Safety aspect for all and is essential all homes have the switches. Most homes also have an auto cut off switch in their power box, which if something happens electrically it'll shut off the power.
We also save on power usage . All those appliances on stand by chew up energy .
In some malls, there can be 3 different grocery stores, a department store (sometimes 2), a KMart (like the US Target) & sometimes a Target (like the US Kmart), a multi screen cinema, food court, bread shops, a number of pharmacies & specialty stores. A one stop shopping location. If you are a full-time employee, the minimum annual leave is 4wks paid leave. Some industries will have 6weeks paid leave. Plus min 10 days sick leave (some have 18 days per year) & some jobs allow you to accumulate your unused sick leave to save it up, in case you get really sick. Plus after a certain amount of service (anywhere between 5-10yrs depending on industry) you get Long Service Leave which is in addition to your annual leave. Public holidays are paid leave, in addition to your annual leave. The compulsory Superannuation is about 11% of your salary at the moment.
The HECS money is from the government, so when you work you tell your employer you have a HECS debt and when you reach the income thresh-hold, they will take out a higher amount of tax from your pay to repay the debt. Having the switch on the power point means you don’t need to unplug the device. Just turn it off at the power point. Plastic bags, plastic plates, plastic cups and plastic utensils are now banned nationally. The dual flush toilets are an Australian invention. If you don’t want to use paper straws… bring your own metal or silicone straw.
Australian road laws are very strict across the country. Do not speed. Our drink driving limit is 0.05 (it’s 0.08 in US). In America you have had 38 mass shootings in 23 days this year, and you had over 700 last year. Australia has very few shootings at all. And we have never had a school shooting…. Ever.
Voting is seen as a responsibility of being an Australian citizen. We vote on Saturdays, and often have fund raising cake stalls & sausage sizzles (look up Democracy Sausage) available to purchase. We vote using paper and pencil or pen. You can go to any polling booth within your electorate to cast your vote & most of the time you can be in and out again in 20mins. We count the votes by hand. We use a Preferential Voting system. To win the seat you need 50% plus 1 votes. You rank the candidates in your order of preference from 1 to whatever. They will sort all the ballots according to 1st preference & then count the ballots. If no one has sufficient vote, they take the ballots of the candidate with the lowest number of votes and redistribute those ballots according to their 2nd preference. This process continues until someone has the required 50% plus 1. Some candidates will win their seat without any need for preferences. Having compulsory voting means that you cannot disenfranchise voters, EVERY CITIZEN has the right to vote. We don’t have voter suppression, as you do in the US. We don’t have gerrymanders, as you do in the US. Electorate boundaries are reviewed every 5 years by the independent Electoral commission (there is one in each state, and one at the Federal level) & the boundaries are changed if there has been a change in population… so each electorate has a similar number of voters, Australia invented the secret ballot, by the way. We also invented the 8hour day (8 hours for work, 8 hours for play, 8 hours for rest) thanks to the Stonemason’s union in 1856.
I live in Los Angeles and it feels as if we've had a shooting of 3+ people every day for the last 2-3 weeks. It's scary and makes me want to leave for Adelaide, SA yesterday instead of waiting for March for grad school
@@AlannaArgudo Adelaide is nice… the water is awful, and it’s no longer the serial killer capital of the world. But seriously, Adelaide is nice. It’s a smaller city than say Sydney or Melbourne. So the pace of life is a little slower. Just remember… the price you see on the goods, is the price you pay at the cashier. And you only need to tip for excellence of service… not to make up for poor wages. Oh, we have Costco here, but no Walmart (thank goodness). We have both Kmart & Target… but each store is like the opposite US equivalent (Aus Kmart - US Target, Aus Target - US Kamrt). If you drink coffee… Australian coffee is way better than in north America… Starbucks failed in Australia. Couldn’t compete with McCafe (pretty much inside every Maccas here… with pastries cakes etc) or even the local independent cafes. You will find the supermarkets are inside the major shopping centres (like Westfields). There can be 3, sometimes 4, different supermarkets, a number of pharmacies (chemist shops we call them), all under the one roof with a department store, hairdressers, food court, butcher shops and greengrocers.
Yeah that makes sense!
In America if you want liquor you go to the gas station or pharmacy (drug store)
If you need a firearm you go to a shopping store .. like Walmart.
If you need medical treatment you go to your insurance company.
hahahahaha med treatments to your insurance company ,,,, and any follow ups to the "bankruptcy " courts ,,, there is something seriously wrong with that equation as humorous as that sounds to the rest of the world
And in Australia if you want to rent a house ,really any we're now you go to your parents or a car or if you get lucky a caravan park or a share house 😊, the state of Australia's rental and property price's are getting as bad as the US medical situation
@@hamishfullerton7309 You're not wrong ... and once again, the problems CAUSED by a decade of inaction & defunding by a 'Conservative' federal government.
Why ANYBODY votes conservative is beyond me!!
@@davidhuett3579 very true 👍
I grew up in New Zealand, every single High school there was called a College, never a high school, trade schools had other names. In restaurants the most annoying thing imaginable is being constantly interrupted by the wait staff, if I'm there with people I'm there to interact and talk with the people I'm eating with, having constant interruptions just detracts from the experience. I want to be seated, handed the menu, 10 or 15 minutes later we might be ready to order, then when the food arrives that is the last time I want to see the staff until the meal is over and it's time to pay and leave. If there is a problem or more drinks required we can call someone over but I don't want the staff coming over without reason.
Good video. A lot of these were quite spot on. A couple of people have already pointed out the different cultural expectation regarding long, relaxed dining and not being interrupted being regarded as good service here versus overly attentive service expectations and quick table turnover in the US.
With our HECS (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) debt it’s deducted once we reach the payment threshold as we only pay federal taxes, and we aren’t supposed to earn cash in hand that isn’t reported to the tax department (ATO). It’s a loan that is issued by the government directly. There is no interest applied to HECS loans, however our HECS debt is indexed annually according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - between 3.5% to 5% based on gross income.
Our repayments are are then deducted as part of the taxes automatically deducted from each pay cycle, along with superannuation being paid by our employer (not a deduction from our pay, but a percentage minimum of 10.5% of the pay earned). We also have the option to “top up” super by either a percentage or a fixed amount and this is taxed at a lower rate than the rest of our pay.
We have a government mandated minimum 4 weeks of annual leave and minimum of 10 days, or pro-rata equivalent for part time work. I’m fortunate that I have 6 weeks annual leave per year as I do shift work.
Our family exclusively uses the dryer plus an indoor drying rack for delicates and woollens, which is unusual. That’s because we have dogs who love to tear the washing off the clothesline though 😂.
for the waiter/waitress one, the difference is created because america has a tipping culture. american wait staff have to go above and beyond to hopefully get a decent tip since their base pay is so low. that’s also why they have designated tables so that they can work the same person/s for their entire stay for their tip
In many homes, bathrooms don’t always have a toilet in them… that’s why we don’t call it a ‘bathroom’… if there isn’t a bath, it can’t be a ‘bath-room’.
Great list, you are very observant and perceptive. Just a couple of explanations. There's a difference between the type of dining you seem to have frequented, which sounds to be smaller and less formal than many other restaurant forms in Australia. In those you would see the wait staff introduce themselves, tell you the daily specials, and come back for dessert orders and drink top-ups etc. As people have mentioned, a high level of servicing is not welcome to Australians generally. Wait staff are usually careful of interrupting the flow of the meal and the conversation, although they keep an eye on the table to see if people want their assistance. In French, the verb entree means 'to enter,' the entree is the entry point for the meal. This is taken directly from the modern French meaning of the word. You get a driving licence at 17 minimum in most parts of Australia, which is usually your second-last year of school before uni, so there are fewer people with licences driving to school. Most students who live far enough away from their school get free bus/train travel, so it's cheaper to travel that way. The idea of everyone wearing a school uniform is to remove the distraction and cost of clothing choices, also helps with free transport etc. We don't have the safety issues that America does, so we don't need severe safety measures. If we start getting safety issues, security would then step up to meet them.
In South Australia - you can get your driving licence at 16yo👍
@@shar3882 wow, thank you, I didn’t know that. Can you drive in other states with it then? With your permission, I’ll note that in an edit on my post. Cheers.
@@Bellas1717 Yes I believe so. Once you have an SA Driver's Licence you can drive in any Australian state/territory.
@@Bellas1717 I just looked it up and you are right. Now you have to have held your L's for 12 months before you
can get your P1 driver's licence. I was 16 when I got my P's.
@@shar3882 it’s very refreshing to have such a courteous discussion. Thank you, I’m sure you are an amazing driver. Cheers.
I'm surprised that you learned so much in 6 weeks.
3:15 Red light / speed cameras are at higher risk intersections but I'd say it is less than 10% of intersections (maybe 5%)
4:18 Buses in the CBD (central business district) have some bus lanes and bus ways. The bus way / station under Queen street is under ground. Now they have a bus way across the Victoria bridge and along side the south east freeway. There is also a busway that goes up near the RBH (Royal Brisbane hospital)
5:10 Those electric scooters around the CBD have employees that go around with spare batteries and spare helmets. They ride scooters around carrying the spares. I once saw one of these guys with 11 helmets. By law, you are required to wear a helmet when riding those scooters although it appears 90% don't bother. If you get caught, it is over $100 fine. Those scooters are annoying. People end up riding them on the footpath scaring pedestrians / crashing or on the road and crashing them . I've dodged quite a few accidents from riders riding straight out into my path.
6:00 Waiters in the USA get most of their income from tips. Over here, the waiter gets paid a wage. Tips are not common here.
7:40 Most malls (regardless of size) will have a grocery shop (Woolworths / Coles / Aldi). This draws people to the mall because everyone needs groceries. If you didn't have this, why would people go there ?
8:48 Someone is up at Chermside shopping centre (north side of Brisbane)
9:30 Yes, less homeless here but there are still quite a few. You've just got to know where they hang out. We also have organizations that drive around (food / coffee vans) which give out a free meal / sometimes free blankets etc
11:08 We have $100,$50,$20,$10,$5 bills and $2,1,50 cent (half dollar), 20 cent, 10 cent, 5 cent coins. We used to have 2 cent and 1 cent coins many years ago.
13:20 Sales tax was an unknown surprise when I was in the USA. I went and purchased something listed as $90 and the next thing I knew the bill was over $100. But but but.. The shelf says $90
18:50 We used to have free bags but people waste bags.. i.e. Get a bag, throw it away when they get home which causes waste. The pay / bag makes you think about it a bit or re-use the bag. It is better for the environment.
19:25 Half flush is for #1 , Full flush is for #2. It saves water.
19:40 We used to have plastic straws. Paper ones are more environmentally friendly.
20:15 Hanging your clothes out to dry in the sun is more environmentally friendly. It uses no electricity, doesn't burn fuel to make the electricity and I think it dries the clothes better anyway.
In Australia our culture is more relaxed so when I went to the USA the servers seemed so stressed and hyper. We felt a bit hassled and like we were being hovered over by the server.
I'm an Australian and to be honest I've found Australian culture waaay less relaxed than many of the other countries I've visited. At least in public spaces. In Colombia there was a big party in a public park /paved area with a bottle shop just serving people and people turning up with instruments. No special occasion / permits or anything. Would have been swarmed by cops in australia. In the Usa people who are strangers just have casual interactions on the street even in big cities. In Asia (not Japan though) people were just cutting each other off on the road but nobody cared. It wasn't dangerous or anything just accepted that there is traffic and people need get where they are going. In Australia people would have a conniption.
Not with driving rules, there uneasy and very strict about alot of thing's
FYI: The USA is the ONLY country in the world that has the date format of month/day/year. The vast majority of the world use day/month/year...as we do in Australia There are also some countries that use year/month/day; but the USA is an outlier with its weird format.
Many of the items you speak about are more recent in Australia. Plastic straws were only banned recently. A decade ago we did have plastic bags at supermarkets. Different states in Australia can be slightly different too depending on their state laws.
I know it's an environmental initiative here in Australia to ban plastic straws, but "fair dinkum" these paper straws are awful to use.
@@mrmhozer
Giant plastic lid? - cool.
Giant plastic cup? - fine.
Small thin plastic straws? - God Forbid!
@@Denidrakes69 agree its crazy
Wow, I am impressed with all that you learnt!!! I lived in the States for nearly 20 years and it took me a lot longer than 6 weeks to work out the system over there. I never did get the hang of writing down the date, or the seasons. Thank you for sharing.
Tip for the straws, just pull it up so it's not sitting in the drink while you aren't drinking 😉
You were only here for 6 weeks and only in Brisbane...I'm from Melbourne and wait staff in cafes are a little more customer friendly. In the US wait staff hang around a bit more, because they want a big tip.
In Australia we don't tip unless you want to.
Thank you! Your video was wonderfully, well researched with accurate information. Thank you for taking the time to get to know about the culture here. It is a very laid-back existence but we love it. At restaurants we never really hurry to eat and run so prompt service can be annoying. I enjoy long evenings without interruptions to spend time with family and friends and an attentive server is a pest...like mozzies at a Barbie!
As an Aussie who's visited the States twice - You pretty much nailed everything. Did you see any people barefoot? It's definitely a Queensland thing and I think I saw one guy 3:45 without shoes. Most of us do have clothing dryers but we only tend to use them during wet weather - otherwise we just hang them outside.
I didn’t notice that in the video until now! I didn’t see anyone barefoot in person
Your observation skills are very good.Did you notice the plastic money notes or eat a meat pie while in Oz?
@@petermcculloch4933yeah, I did both, the meat pies are so good
Yeah Brizzy gal here. I probably used the dryer only if my school uniform or work clothes are still wet like an hour before I have to go.
Spot on with the dryer situation. Sometimes even if it's forecast rain I'll still hang them up, you get another rinse.
Very well researched it’s refreshing to watch a person who has the facts rather than a vague understanding.
😂 I pictured you on your time in Australia asking a million questions and taking notes in order to make the video - your very observant !
More people should take a leaf from your book when presenting RUclips videos.
Thank you.
In the 80s, children were given the choice to wear uniform or not to school, but the competition to wear the best fashion ended the uniform free option.
Not where I was. I was in high school 79-84 in NSW.
If you didn't see bottle shops while in Australia you must have had your yes shut. I would say that most supermarkets have a bottle shop either attached or close to the entrance, and then there are larger bottle shops that are separate, many time they are drive through.
Great video! I live south of Brisbane just over the border in New South Wales. I love Brisbane as a city. I hope you had a fun time while you were here.
We don’t use the term Gas stations , because it’s a liquid (Petroleum) , not a gas. Gas is something we use to cook with.
So much and correct information. Best I've seen.
As an Aussie, I thought your assessment was amazing, considering your short time here.
Actually our Social Security No . Is a CRN- Customer Reference Number and a TFN is a Tax File Number for the ATO - Australian Taxation Office
Social Security Number is slightly different, they are allocated their SSN at birth. We only get a CRN if you have contact with Centrelink and are getting a payment.
Most of what you said is correct ,but ice water is definately a thing here.
And also I have 2 cars , one has indicators on left and wipers on right , the other car has the opposite , I still hit the wiper when I mean to indicate sometimes lol
As a dual citizen who has lived in Oz for 24 years, I thought you got most of it pretty accurate, especially for only being here for six weeks.
BTW, power point (outlet) switch is a safety thing because we have 220v.
They used to say that TIPS stood for To Insure Prompt Service. Tipping has grown in OZ over the last 20 years, especially in upper end restaurants.
Attitudes towards making money and success (tall poppy syndrome) are a couple of the things you'd discover if you were here longer.
There is a lot more cuisine full stop in Australia. Also Entree is a French word and actually means the small course in a 3 course meal so actually makes sense that it’s the first course. 😃
The purpose of the two-hour limit at the mall parking lot is to stop people form just using it as a work carpark all day. If you are there to shop, the mall is more than happy to have you park there for free.
1. Appertiser (appertizer in American English) - taster food/pre-meal
2. Entree - first course of meal
3. Main course - second course of meal
4. Dessert - third course of meal
I’ll just add a few points that haven’t come up in the comments so far. 1. Unless things have changed lately, I’m not sure if foreign visitors have realised that the word “mate” is usually not used between males and females, only males. 2. Before we changed to decimal currency in 1966 we used to have both pennies and halfpennies. We have a famous rare coin, the 1930 penny, which is now worth around $40,000! There are photos of them online. Since then we’ve had one and two cent copper coins but these were phased out a few years ago. 3. Sweater and jumper are the same thing but a sweatshirt is a different clothing item. In Australia some call it a Sloppy Joe. If it has a hood we call it a hoodie. It’s always a casual item, often associated with sport and made from cotton with a light fleece lining.
@R Fairlie, females being called mate is becoming rather more common. Perhaps more from female to female, but I (male) certainly call of my best female friends "mate" sometimes.
Like many things said in comments sections, on any video of differences in Australia, many of them apply only to a State or in a region, NOT to all of Australia
Men, women, other all mates
@@profonde3460 Well said, agree about the mate thing with the Sheilas
The 1 cent & 2 cent coins were Phased out in 1993, (so it’s been 30 years now!) if I remember correctly. I remember buses no longer accepting these coins in 1992 , as a child. I also recall that some of the 1 & 2 cent coins were melted down to make the Bronze medals for the 2000 olympics in Sydney.
@@paulsz6194 Thanks for that. I was being very loose with my memory of when those coins were phased out. Time passes quickly! I didn’t know about them being recycled into Olympic bronze medals. What a good idea!
The double flush Toilet system was created in Australia by Bruce Thompson, in 1980. Because Australia is the driest populated Continent, it was devised as a way of preserving water. As wages are good in Australia, giving tip's in Restaurants is a choice & not an expectation. Most Aussie's still tip at certain Restaurants anyway, if we like the service or server.
Great video! One aspect which I’m not sure has been mentioned is the word college. That word is also commonly used in the British sense to refer to residential colleges which are attached to universities. So someone may attend the University of Queensland but they may also reside at St John’s College :)
The students who live at residential colleges are a minority of university students.
the waiters don't need grovel to your every need in Australia hopping for a tip so he/she can pay rent. The serving staff get pais $25 or more per hour
Maccas workers get paid $22.50 per hour
We work to live, not live to work
We used to have plastic straws but environmentally we tried to get rid of them. We have dryers but only use them when it’s raining...
@Rodney 1984 yeah I came from yesterday from outta space and was dropped here 🙄 whatever..... i was talking about how we used to have plastic straws everywhere and now you don’t see them much because of the environmental push against plastic.
That was great and all from a 6 week visit. Not all states are the same with everything and you are probably the sort of person that would notice those differences so I hope that you visit a different part of Australia 🇦🇺 and do another video.
Ambulance isn’t free in Victoria anyway. We pay a very small modest fee for annual membership- like $100 p/a for a family.
Uh, yes it it is.
It's called You pay for it with your taxes, dumbness.
Brilliant video. Good information without the click bate. Thanks so much.
Where blinkers and wipers are on a car depends on the brand, so there are some cars that have their blinker on the left and some on the right. It depends on the country the car was manufactured in.
There are still ticketed parking lots in Aus it depends on where you go, a good description of differences though, ambulances are not free but if you pay a small insurance fee of $60 a year they are. Tipping is an optional thing here for good service, the electric turn on and off switches were originally designed for safety but have the extra benefit of saving power if turned off. Using a dryer uses up a lot of power, if you want to save money with your electricity bill don't use a dryer.
Yes, we do benifit from laws that protect lives. Speed cameras, random breath testing, bicycle helmets, gun restrictions. Yes we don't waste water, electricity. Solar power panels are very common here on houses. We don't like littering or excessive consumerism. We have a respectful connection with our wildlife and it's no hardship to shun plastics to help our planet. Qld is home to world heritage listed rainforest (Daintree) and the Great Barrier Reef. Walmart never came here, apparently they weren't happy that they'd have to pay staff a liveable wage. Peace out.💕
The perfect WEF prison.
Mate our housing and rental situation is abominable and as bad as US health system, for a rich low population country like Australia not good enough, Young and old people with out home ownership can become homeless very quickly with out rich parents and high paying job. Making out like we're some rule driven utopia that does everything correctly is a total joke and for all our environmental regulations on plastics and solar our vegetation clearing rates , pesticides use and cancer and heart disease rates are nothing to brag about and some of the worst in oecd world figures don't lie
lol the library is true until a set time. im studying at uni in perth, at 10pm security will come around to check your id to make sure you are studying there. as people do just come into the study areas to work (cos nice)
As an Aussie i can confirm that everything you said is 100% correct, you are also the only American i have ever heard pronounce Australia correctly, stay beautiful :)
You can drink the water from the tap in Australia and not get sick
Interestingly, the differences are generally because the USA does most things in a different way to the majority of the world! I have lived in 3 countries, and visited many more, and a lot of the Australian things you mention are common to the majority of western countries, at least.
You did really well. I live on a beach in Queensland and our power company pays for an ambulance if we need one anywhere in the world. We don’t pay for power, we have our own plus batteries for night time. The power company sends us a cheques to buy our excess power. I feel like I should pay for their ambulance, not really, they always think up a new thing they don’t do so our power cheques get smaller.
Universities here were free. We just paid for our youngest daughter and 4 years cost $6,000.00 so it stays affordable for all. She was only 16 when she went to Uni and in Victoria you cannot drive until you are 18. She was issued with a parking space for two and a half years before she could use it. She had to catch a bus,a train, a tram and another bus to get to Uni and yes, our kids would rather stay home if they can. You also get more points on your score to get into Uni if it is local. Like my Nephew got a perfect 500 which is the highest score you could get. He chose local and the Uni didn’t know what to do with the extra points over 500. Education here is at a very high standard and that is why Canada, America and England keep taking our Nurses, Doctors and Teachers.
Did you feel you weren’t safe to walk around here? We don’t have guns and we rarely need security.
Everyone here must earn a living wage, if they can’t the Government makes it up to what is needed. It is because everyone over 18 must vote that we can remove all of our Government if they get it wrong. It took many Unions and strikes to get what we have and this generation takes it for granted. My youngest daughter is single and lives alone in Melbourne. She has two University degrees but works in retail because it pays more and she likes to travel the world for 4 months every year. She always works public holidays like Boxing Day because her pay is $65.00 an hour plus commission and bonuses. Working 10 hours makes her happy on those days. She has unlimited paid sick leave that she never uses. I think she has 12 weeks paid holidays waiting to be used plus 16 weeks paid long service leave and she can take those anytime and they have to let her. Next January she is going to Iceland to see the Aurora Borealis and to Ireland because she was sick the first time she went there.
All single use plastics are banned here. If someone has to pay 15 cents for a plastic bag it is one that breaks down and turns to dust in a year. I take my own metal straw out with me.I hate the paper ones and that is all we had when I was a child but they were much better back then. Did you notice how clean our Country is? We do not want our ocean’s polluted with rubbish or plastics. The giant sea turtles breed on my beach. A female always comes back to the beach she was hatched on to lay her eggs. Some come in with terrible injuries from nets, lines and plastics. Our beach is patrolled by volunteers 24/7 and they have been doing it for 25 years. If a Mama comes in injured, after she lays her eggs she is taken to be helped and when she is healed they set her free. She will have a tiny little antenna on her back so they know where she is and if she is still moving. Each year she comes home she gets a new battery. Those volunteers have taken three types of giant turtles off the endangered list. Yes, we really do care about our environment and it is just the way we think now.
I hope you had fun and loved it here. I don’t love Brisbane so I don’t go there but many do. I just remember driving through it when I was young and thinking I never want to be here again. I do go around it to visit my family.
The wages for retail in Australia don't average 65 and hour in Australia, unless she was selling very high end stuff regularly with big commissions, the housing and rent situation,counter acts all benefits one gets from reasonable wages and cheap medical, don't mean to be negative but compared to 30 years ago the younger generation will have a lower standard of living unless they fix the housing situation
We did for a very limited time have quarter coins released but most people don't remember. Our first 50 cent coin was round and made of silver back in 1966 but from 1967 they made them out of an alloy and added multiple sides.
My brother works at a checkout at a major supermarket chain and earns about $25 per hour , gets 4 weeks paid holiday per year and if he doesn't use them all they add up to build over time. Plenty of sick leave paid of course and he has about 6 months of paid sickpay.
Most of our doctors bulk bill the government so patients get either free service or if the have to pay they can claim back a significant amount.
Our toilets don't fill right up with water. They only fill up a few inches. Not wet behinds lol
My American daughter-in-law, a Teacher, arrived here in Sydney early this month...Got a job as a Food Server. She couldn't believe 24AUD/hr.plus. benefits. She'll start as a teacher on the next school terms
When I want to school, uniforms were voluntary at state run primary schools. Uniforms were compulsory at High schools, but they were quite basic and they were happy as long as you wore the school colors, even if that was a plain white shirt. Its only been in the last decade or 2 that state schools have adopted compulsory informs like they are trying to keep an image. The funny thing is, the area where I grew up was a lower social economic area and the local high school was called "Belmont high" schools and there uniform was a just plan red shirt. One day, it was renamed " Belmont City College" and they upgraded their informs to look more fancy. They were trying to portray the image of a private school.
Bathroom is where you go to have a shower, take a bath or wash your hands. Most houses have there toilet separate from their bathroom.
So in australia you get your Lerner permit at 16 years old but you can only drive with a licenced driver in the passenger seat. You then have to accumulate 100 hours driving AND hold your learners (L's) for 2 years so you are out of school before you can drive.
Actually depends on the state.
@Jess Bellis i looked up every state, apparently Canberra you can get ls at 15years and 9 months same as qld rest are same at 16
Thanks for the video. I hope you had a great time in Brisbane. I love visiting America but am always happy to get home to Australia. A lot of the laws and things you discussed in your video are Australian wide not just in Queensland. If you have a chance to visit again you should consider travelling to other states. There is a lot to offer tourists all across Australia.
College is more used for schools that go to y12. Community college is more likely to be called TAFE or a Technical school
Same in Aotearoa, except TAFE would be Polytech
@@Tsass0 So Polytech only teach about poly products and trades like Plumbers (PVC, pipes) Drainers (UPVC, pipes) etc?
@@mrmhozer No, more - I studied Tourism and airline booking procedures. A family member did her BA in Architecture before moving to Auckland to do her Master at another one. There is or was a great range of things you can study.
@@Tsass0 oh ok. I see
Very impressive and comprehensive in just six weeks. Be sure to return to our friendly shores again.
Stay safe and best wishes to you and your family.
Well done, & without notes. A natural! I hope that you enjoyed your stay. Vive la difference!
Thank you for showing Queensland, Brisbane.
If your referring to youth allowance 17:40 it comes fortnightly payments is barely enough to pay for stuff and is directly sent to you. After you prove to them on why you need it
Thanks for the plastic fact I'm go to America and get some free plastic bags 😂
Very thorough observations, well done 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
22:40 Looks like you need to come back here. You just scratched the surface. Good to see you and great video
It is also important to have a good credit score here in Australia.
I'm coming late to the party but ive just come across your channel and felt the need to comment , every thing you said and you were correct in the vast amount of your comparisons, only reinforces my gratitude for becoming an Australian citizen and am allowed to live in this wondrous country , having visited America and 5o+ other countries only adds to my conviction that we Aussie's may not live in the best country in the world but we are miles in front of whoever is in 2nd place .
What a great little video. Well done young Lady! I hope you enjoyed your visit to our country and I hope you will visit again.
2:22 You can also call it the Loo or the Bog.
We in Australia do not have to vote legally we have to turn up to get name mark off the electrod roll
Seriously.. what a compendium on all things Australian. A truly exhaustive update on my country.. when's your 1st edition coming into print..🤣👍
Tafe is the trady school, college is a private school. Uni is Higher education industry then both of them. Most of these facts are Qld only, it's still a great list, just note that Australia is huge each state and territory is very different
3:23 Most people don't know how to speed responsibly. The fair lane is the middle of the road and gives you the best and all options if trouble arises If you go fast get into the middle of the road and do it properly. If you are doing it wrong own the road it is the right way to do it.
You have really got a great understanding of Australia….in only 6 weeks…well done! One thing though (and this is huge), our lack of security is because we all feel safe and have no compelling reason not to. We do have shootings, but they are rare (and usually not mass ones)…owning a gun is very rare. And here is the big thing with guns: owning guns is mostly illegal, and so, non-criminals don’t own them…most gun crimes occur criminal to criminal…eg. Drug dealer to drug user etc, so what that means in Australia that so long as you are not a criminal, you are unlikely to know anyone who owns a gun and wants to shoot you!
Another great thing is that our police are trained to protect us, they do not expect us to have guns, so they do not treat us like we are dangerous, they treat us with respect and they care for us….it attracts great people to this profession, their job is to look after people.
We do lock our cars and houses these days, but we don’t worry too much if we forgot.
There is crime, but it is not something that many of us are faced with in our daily lives. I feel safe everywhere I go, never think twice about walking anywhere alone at any time of day or night….and I can not even imagine being worried about that.
I have a holiday to US booked for November (I have been there several times, and loved it, but not felt as safe as home) I am worried about going. Today it is 24th Jan 2023, and already there have been over 33 mass shootings in USA (and a huge number of other gun crimes). Is that safer than Ukraine with the war from Russia going on? I honestly do not understand America’s okayness with guns, it is the reason it is not safe there!
I know,...it is so sad. I visited the USA in 1971, 1973 and 1976, and felt safe in most places, but a bit wary in bus depots and some cities down South because I wasn't used to so many black people. Most of them were fine, but now and again I felt a bit intimidated by them, especially if there was a group and I happened to look at them😳. I don't think I would like to go over there now.
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Bottle-o is NSW only. We usually call them Dan's after Dan Murphy, a very common liquor shop. School kids usually walk or take the bus.The dual flush is an Australian invention, because we don't usually have full water storages because rain is not reliable.
@Rodney 1984 Not in Victoria. We usually call it bottle shop or Dan Murphy.
The blinkers for cars - depends on the origin of the car. EU cars tend to have wipers on right, blinkers left. Japanese cars tend to be the opposite. Just a heads up on that.
As an Australian who lived in North America for 15 years, you made me miss the USA and Canada.
HECs student loans interest are controlled/subsidised by federal government. So your interest on the loan is always pegged to inflation - usually very low (2 % ish per year) However was 4% due to inflation rate of 2022. Average student loan debt in Australia is 24k vs about 37k in US in 2022. I’m sure compound interest a big component of the difference not just higher tuition fees.
You also only start paying it back once your income reaches a certain threshold, and even then it’s only a percentage of your income - so you never really have a payment per says.
A sweat shirt is different to a jumper, we have sweat shirts too. We call a thong a G string. A bathroom is a room in a house where you bathe eg. toilet, bath, shower etc. although a lot of houses have a separate toilet. Toilet is just a toilet eg. Like in shopping centres, train stations etc. Restaurants are different depending on which one you go to, servers do come and ask if everything is ok and ask if you need anything else and also some do bring the bill to the table it just depends.
19:37 a few years ago we had plastic straws
Like 4 and more years ago we mostly had plastic straws and they where slowly phased out
The switches on our power points in Australia are more for safety and isolation so if a child jams a knife in the power point or soothing like that
The calendar date thing is interesting. Using a reverse day month year format allows you to numerically organise files without confusion. Why Americans put the month first is still giving me a headache.
We don't have free plastic bags any more. This is to cut down on plastic in the trash. By having to pay for bags...makes people more conscious about the environment. So we remember to bring our reusable bags..less plastic getting into Our Oceans. We also try not to put any plastic like lunch wrap etc into the trash.
Collection sites for household plastics. We also have a special bin for recycling e.g... glass.. cardboard..tin cans..heavy plastic...these are all recyclable.
I started a new job at the end of last year, I get 20 days paid holiday, on top of 12 public holidays, plus 10 days paid sick pay each year. The holiday and sick pay is accumulative so I I'm not ill it will carry over, and after 5 years I get an extra week of holiday each year (that's 25 days).
great video mate keep up the top work, we don't like paper straws either from Rockhampton Central Queensland
before we went metric, we used the imperial system. our mile was the same as yours, but our gallon was different
Day-month-year makes sense.
It goes small to big.
It's logical.
Where the buses go _only_ are called *bus lanes* due to better town planing etc.
With the date thing if you ask someone "what's the date today" you don't say 'January 22", you'd say "the 22nd" as the month is a given.
True! Never thought of that🙂
Every where in the world: day, month, year -
Tap water is free in restaurants, but if you order a brand name bottled water, you pay for that. Some parking stations in shopping centres have sensors in each parking space so instead of doing the drive around looking for a parking spot, empty spaces have an overhead light in green. Red lights mean there is no space. At my shopping centre which is one that takes a photo of my number plate that you spoke of, we are allowed 3 hours free parking, but as a senior, I register my car’s number plate with the centre and I automatically get 4 hours free. If a see a movie at the cinema in the centre, I get additional hour by scanning the bar code on my movie ticket at the boom gate, so I can see a movie, have a meal and do some shopping.
I’m a retired school teacher and I did see quite a few senior students on their red Ps driving to school, however most schools don’t have provision for student parking. Some schools don’t even have enough parking for staff.
Come back soon but go further North or West from Brisbane. A lot more to see you would have missed by hanging round the 'big city'😊
Hon, our power here in Australia is 240V, from memory the power in America (I was there for a year) was only 120 V. So if you get zapped by electricity here, you don't survive, which is why its law to have built in cut off switches (overload RCD'S ) in every house Australia wide - you mess with the power in Australia without being a registered electrician, it's serious jail time here. In the USA you all do it, it's crazy lol
@Rodney 1984 NO ????? What are you on about Rod
This was a well put together list. Re the electric scooters, the companies who own them hire people to change the batteries. I have watched them do this. Their locations are tracked, presumably by GPS. Where I live we do pay for ambulances unless we have a private health insurance or are age pensioners /health care concession card holders. I think this is the same across all the states and territories.
The reason you don't see many students driving to school is because getting a licence in Queensland (or Australia) is very hard and graduated. You can only apply for a Learners "L Plate" when you are 16 and then you must be always accompanied by a fully licenced driver. You have a Learners for at least a year. Learner drivers under 25 years of age must gain 100 hours of certified supervised driving experience recorded in a learner logbook or logbook app before being eligible to apply for a provisional licence which can get very expensive using a driving instructor. P1 Plate which must be displayed. Then you go for a P2 plate. You have quite severe restrictions when on P Plates. Zero alcohol. You can only have one passenger (to minimise distractions) and even they can't use a phone while you are driving. And even our used cars have to have a roadworthy certificate when you buy them so a student can't just buy any old bomb.
Hilarious to hear you say - 'like they actually manually hang every single piece of clothing out ' - as though it was such a preposterous thing to do 😂 (BTW, we do have dryers - we just only use them if it's rainy or we're in a hurry).
Just so you know asking about your credit score reduces your credit score in Australia.
You can get free iced water if you ask for it but it's understandable being in a new place and not knowing. Whilst here did you see the free undercover stainless steel bbq's available in parks and some beaches?
HECS is funded by the government so it’s easier to deduct it straight from pay through a tax. If you do make lump sum payments you get a bonus. So if you pay a lump sum of $5000 you are credited $6250 on your debt. Also our student debts are no where near USA.
This is funny a bottle o is any liquor store so I’m sure you saw one 😂😂 you did really well as an Aussie I’m impressed..
also don't forget the drive through attached to the pubs are also called bottleo's
9:54 Employers don't contribute toward your superannuation. They are required to divert a percentage of your gross (pre-tax) salary to your nominated fund.