Transcript of AE 1011 - 10 Things Americans Hate About Australia

All right, guys. So, I am back again, reacting to a video here, "10 Things Americans hate about Australia" from Tristan Coon's YouTube channel. Let's just get straight into it.

All, Tristan here and today I'm going to be going over 10 things that Americans, or at least this American hates about Australia.

This is probably going to be a pretty controversial video. I looked at the downvotes here, and it looks like three quarters of them are downvotes. At least, he clarified there, I guess that it is what Americans hate about Australia, or at least this American. So, at least he's talking about himself, I guess mostly. But let's see. Let's see what he lists off.

You know, "hates" a little bit of a strong word, but I would say these are things that I dislike, frustrate or annoy me about Australia. Number one is the sun. So, yes, even though the same sun you see in Australia is the same sun you see in America, the sun here is different.

There is actually a hole in the ozone layer of the atmosphere above Australia, so the sun here is much more strong and it burns you way more quickly than it will anywhere in...

One thing to point out here, I find it really interesting. Americans I've noticed more recently seem to be using phrases like "more strong" instead of "stronger", right. So, it's almost like more big instead of bigger. I hear this all the time. And I mean, I don't know if Australians do it, but I definitely hear Americans do this where there's obviously an option, like stronger instead of more strong. It's really interesting.

But let's hear what he has to say about the sun.

I don't burn easily, if I go into the sun here for 30 minutes to an hour, like I'm going to be pink. It's something I can't really explain, but the sun here just feels so much different. Like, you know, if you go outside on a nice, beautiful, like seventy-degree day. You walk out into the sun, and it just feels warm, it just feels like, so great.

You don't get that same feeling of warmth here in Australia, like you get it, but it's accompanied with the sting. So...

Okay, so there's a few things to talk about here. He's a hundred percent, right. You know, at least we did have a hole in the ozone layer. We probably still do, but it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be. The ozone over the top of Australia has been building up over the years since we stopped using, I think it's CFCs, the chemical that were inside of spray bottles, like deodorant and spray paint.

But yeah, in summer, we as a general collective group will not go out in the sun without sunscreen, without a hat. We know that the sun is both going to burn us and, too, it's going to give us skin cancer if we do this often enough from a young age. So, Australians tend to be very careful about the sun and warn other people.

The stereotype that I like to tell people about is if you go to Bondi during the start of summer and you have a look around, if you see anyone who's majorly, majorly sunburnt, it's almost worth your time betting 50 bucks that that person is going to be from Great Britain or from Ireland or from Scotland. They're going to be from probably overseas, but almost definitely British. No offence to my Brit friends.

But yeah, you guys end up learning that lesson the hard way the first time. Lobsters, we call them. Lobsters.

Extra strong stinging sun is the first thing that I do not like about Australia.

I should mention, too, that we will go outside and enjoy the sunlight without sunscreen, or at least some people and without protection, but usually during the colder months. One because the sun's going to make you feel warmer during those colder months, but also, it's going to be less intense. You're not going to get sunburnt, right, because the sun's lower in the sky.

Now the next thing is more of just a minor inconvenience, but that is you cannot pay for gas at the pump. You actually have to walk...

Gas at the pump. Okay, so he's talking about paying for petrol at the servo, the service station or the petrol station and the fact that you can't pay for the petrol at the pump, I guess he calls it. But- Well, we call it the pump? I'm not sure what we call it, but the place where you obviously take the petrol and put it into your car. I guess that's the petrol pump.

I'm pretty sure that there are places in Australia where you can just use your credit card. There aren't people who are going to pump your gas or pump your petrol, put petrol in your car. We don't have that, like in other places, but I'm pretty sure there are places that you can use your card to just pay right there, right, tap and go. But yeah, generally we go into the service station, into the servo and pay and buy food there as well.

...Inside the gas station to pay for gas. This is annoying for two reasons, as one, I don't want to go all the way into the gas station to pay, like just takes extra time. And two, there's often a line of other people who are paying for their gas or just buying stuff from the gas station. So, you have to wait in line to pay for your gas. I don't understand why you just can't pay at the pump like you do in America.

It's- I have heard that there are a couple of gas stations in Australia where you can do that, but it's like, I don't know, I've never seen it...

I'm pretty sure there are a whole bunch. Let's have a look. Yeah. So, I'm on like the BP website here, and it says, BP me lets you pay for fuel contactless from comfort of your car, right. So, you can just pay there. You can even use an app to do it. You can use Visa, MasterCard, American Express and PayPal. So, you know, I'm not sure what he's talking about. Let's have a look, see if we can find some images.

Yeah, so here's a service station. Obviously, it is at the pump here, and it looks like you can just tap and pay. What does it say here? Please wait one minute after hanging up the pump, after the minute has passed, go to payment terminal, insert card and get your receipt. So, I think that this is going to be a common thing that you can pay for fuel at. Yeah. These are all Australian pumps by the look of it.

So, obviously he hasn't been looking hard enough. Yeah, there we go. There's another one, right here. Don't know. Whingeing about something that doesn't exist. Since I've been here, and if they do have them, then they're just really rare. Oh, it's also...

Apparently not rare, just didn't look hard enough.

...For some reason, gas is like, a lot more expensive here...

Yeah, gas is expensive. Petrol is more expensive here because we're in Australia, right. We're not pumping, we're not pulling the fuel up out of the ground here. We have to get it shipped all the way over here. Whereas the US, I think, again, I haven't looked into this, so maybe I'm just talking garbage. But they have cheaper fuel, probably because they have better deals, but they also probably pull it out of the ground in the U.S., as well.

Next one. Oh, this really frustrates me sometimes, and that is you cannot turn on red here. So, in America, you can turn right on at a stoplight. Well, they drive on the left side of the road here, so it'd be like turning left here. Well, you're not allowed to do that. Nothing is more frustrating than being stuck at a red light, knowing that you are perfectly safe to turn left. There are no cars, but you're not able to do it.

This seems like a no-brainer to me. We have a green arrow that's going to point left if you can turn at a red light in Australia. So, I think what he's talking about here is the fact that in America, I believe, I've never driven in America, so I don't know.

But I believe that when there's a red light, the rules dictate that you are allowed to turn, I guess that's, yeah, left. Maybe it's right in the US, when there's a red light and it's safe to do so. In Australia, we have arrows that just will go green when it's red to go straight through, so you can still turn. So, I think that seems like a non-argument.

Number four is something that doesn't bother me one bit because I don't drink sodas, but it would really piss a lot of Americans off, and that is that there are no free refills.

Yes, there are. Yes, there are. Go to Subway. Go to Subway. I'm pretty sure if you go to some of those takeaway restaurants, like KFC and Subway, I think, I mean, again, it's been a while, but I remember doing this in the past. I haven't been to KFC or McDonald's in a long time, so maybe they don't have this anymore. But there used to be free refills, and he's talking about when he says soda, he's talking about fizzy drinks in Australia.

So, Coke, Pepsi, Fanta. But, you know, to be fair, to give the devil his due. The idea of free refills isn't very popular here, and I think a big part of it will be that a lot of places don't sell the kind of soft drink that you would get that's made from a syrup.

So, in America, from what I understand at a lot of these sorts of restaurants and takeaway places like Macca's and KFC, the soft drink is going to be made from combining a syrup and the carbonated water when you go and get the drink, whereas in Australia, I think by and large, we don't like that. We like to have the stuff out of a bottle, out of a can.

So, it's much more popular to go to a restaurant in Australia, a takeaway place in Australia and have to buy a can or a bottle. You're not going to just get an empty cup that you take to a machine and then it combines the syrup and the carbonated water. I'm sure that that would work here if people wanted it. I have a feeling that it doesn't work here because no one wants it.

As a bartender, so at a restaurant, I worked at a soft drink would cost $4.50, which is equal to about three U.S. dollars. On top of that, like once you put ice in it, it was so small, like it was probably less than half a can of soda that actually went in it. And there were kids who would get like two or three soft drinks over their meal and just right there that would cost the same amount as their meal.

So, all you Americans out there who like your refills, be thankful that you're in America because there's pretty much nowhere else in the world that does free refills like we do.

Well, maybe. The interesting thing here to talk about, too, is portion size. I think a lot of Americans, when they come to Australia, the same way that Australians, when they go to America, get shocked because the portions, the meal sizes, the burgers, the chip sizes, the drink sizes are much smaller. You know, you can get large, but I think what an American would expect when they buy a large in Australia wouldn't compare to what they're used to.

And we don't have that whole super-size me kind of thing, you know, from that movie 'super size me' where they had the ability to get like, I think it was like a pound or two of chips and like a gallon of coke at a drive thru. Not a gallon, but you know what I mean, like a large, large, large beverage. Australia doesn't really have that. We don't tend to have these massive portions at takeaway restaurants, at least in comparison.

So, that was something when I went to the U.S., I was shocked with because I'd go in and get a large thinking it was the same as in Australia. And you're like, holy crap, that is a lot of food that I'm not going to finish.

Alright, now, this one really gets me, this is- Of all the things I dislike about Australia, this one, like I really hate. Like this is a true hate about Australia.

I really hope that this is a good one. I hope it's something that I can agree with. I hope it's not just a, he mentions Vegemite, but let's see.

And that is that they have speed cameras everywhere, like you cannot speed here in Australia. Now, you can argue, you know, that like speed cameras keep people safe like, you know, you shouldn't be...

You can speed in Australia, you're just more likely to get caught. The speed cameras don't stop you from driving over the limit and breaking the law, they'll just give you a fine when you do that, right. So, it seems like, again, a straw man, a non-argument.

...Speeding anyways. But I guarantee you if you drive, there's not a single person out there who has never sped in their life. And the speeding cameras here aren't like, police in the U.S. are like, they're not going to get you for going four miles over the speed limit. Like, you know, once you're getting close to ten, that's when you get a ticket.

Here, if you're going three kilometres over the speed limit, which is equal to about two miles per hour, you're going to get a ticket.

I think there's leeway. So, I'm pretty sure that the average person who uses cruise control on the highway or the freeway in Australia is going to set it to about 103 kilometres an hour. One, because cars tend to have their speedometers set below what they're actually doing, at least that's what I've noticed when I've been using a GPS to track my speed. Assuming the GPS is correct.

The speedometer is always showing that I'm going faster than the GPS is, and the same with those things that check your speed on the freeway or the highway, they usually show that you're actually going slower than your speedometer. So, a lot of people will set it to about 103.

From what I understand, you need to be going over the speed limit, so if you were doing 104 or 105 in a 100 zone, you may get, you know, blasted by a camera and you get a fine. The thing that you guys might find interesting, and I've noticed this in recent years, is that there are a lot more cars now parked on the sides of roads and you will see cameras set up in the back of these cars facing you.

And I always show these to my wife, we'll be driving it along and there'll just be this new-ish SUV or four-wheel drive sitting on the side of the road in some random spot where you would never expect anyone to be parking their car, and you'll see that the back is just full of cameras. And so, you know that you're about to get pinged, you're about to get a speeding ticket if you go over the speed limit.

And what they do is they just take a photo of you, of the car and obviously get the number plate and boom you're done. The other thing that we'll do that you'll notice here is that people will flash their lights when they know these cars or they drive past these cars on the sides of the road, they will flash their lights to oncoming traffic to show there's a speed camera parked on the side of the road ahead.

So, if you ever see people flashing their lights like that and you're driving the opposite direction to them, often it's because they've just passed, you know, maybe a kilometre or so back, they've passed a speeding camera.

And I just don't think that's reasonable. To me it seems like a little bit of an overstep from the government to just be like mailing tickets because they got you on camera. Like, I don't know, I don't like the feeling of being like surveyed everywhere and having cameras all around me.

You're just saying you want to get away with breaking the law, pretty much, you know. I mean, they have security cameras inside of shops because they don't want people to steal from the shops. Would you make the same complaint saying, you know, I don't think it's fair that they have cameras here because everyone steals, you know, and I don't think, they shouldn't be policing you?

I think this is again, just a silly argument. Don't speed. If you don't want to get a ticket, don't speed, right. And if you really do want to speed, know that you are likely to get a ticket.

The reason the Australian government has gone crazy, or at least state governments and the police in particular have gone crazy with trying to crack down on speeding is because we're sick of having so many horrific accidents where children die in cars, where cars hit, you know, people going on a holiday and five people die in that car accident that could have been prevented.

That's why the Australian government is sick of, you know, the whole speeding culture in Australia. Again, it's a little bit different. I think the reason he's probably more annoyed about this sort of thing is because Americans come from this mentality of preserving their freedoms and having the right to do, you know, xyz.

Whereas Australians, I think we do have that sense to some degree, but quite often we're willing to give up a little bit of freedom for the safety or the well-being of the group, okay. Anyway, that's my take on it. Let me know if you differ in the comments.

And that's just like one thing that I don't really agree with here, especially with those speed limits here already being low. That's like another annoying thing, as the speed limits here are lower than they are in the states. So, if you're going to have slow speed limits and then you're going to get people in trouble with cameras for going two miles per hour over, like, I don't know, to me, that just seems a little too strict.

I feel like that's First World problems. Really? Like, is that really something that you're complaining about? Just get a plane, man.

...Don't like about Australia is the Wi-Fi here as a whole, is just kind of shitty. Like, it's not complete crap, but it's definitely much worse on average than it is in the U.S. If you go to a typical free Wi-Fi like cafe, restaurant, I don't know, typical- Any typical free Wi-Fi it's going to be lower quality than what you'd find in the U.S...

It's not the Wi-Fi, dude. It's the fact that our internet here sucks. Our government tried to roll out the NBN a few years ago, you know, it's been rolled out everywhere and there are places where it's great and there are places where it is absolutely abhorrent. I think if you look up online, Australia's internet is probably at the bottom of the list. Let's have a look. Yeah, here we go.

So, Australia's internet speed ranks 61st in the world. Thailand is better than us. Jesus, we've got Andorra, Liechtenstein, Barbados, Qatar, Slovakia, Trinidad and Tobago, Vietnam, Kuwait and Malta. They all have faster internet speeds than Australia. The average speed here is 58.83 Megabits per second, with an upload speed of 21.44, it is slow. It is slow, as can be. But what can you do? What can you do?

I mean, I have fibre to the house and my average download is 40 megabits a second and again it goes up and down. Some days I get one, it's ridiculous, but it's not the Wi-Fi.

Even if you are paying for your own internet and you're paying for the fastest Wi-Fi that you can get, you're still going to have really slow upload speeds. You have to pay extra on top of, like whatever you get to have a fast upload speed. As someone who uploads YouTube videos, it usually takes for like a 10-minute YouTube video, around like 20 to 30 minutes for it to upload. That's unlike my fast internet back home in the US.

Here, if I'm trying to upload about a 10-minute YouTube video, it's going to take probably between five and a half to seven hours to upload. I don't know why their upload speeds are so...

Jesus Christ, how big are your videos, dude? Five and a half to seven hours. That doesn't sound normal, something's afoot there. That sounds very weird. So, I think you just have really slow internet, even in terms of the rest of Australia. Because here and I've got slow net, it'll take, you know, 10, 20, 30 minutes to upload a video to YouTube. It's not that long. I mean, unless they're 20 gigabytes, but compress your videos.

...And I don't know why you have to pay extra for them, but it gets really frustrating. Like literally, if I just want to attach like a picture to an email, it's going to take like 20 to 30 seconds for it to load to the email. Where like in the U.S., like it's going to happen within like less than five.

And ironically, Australians are kind of proud of the fact that they invented the internet, is what they say, like an Australian guy invented the internet. So, I don't know why...

Did we? I don't think- I think he's talking about Wi-Fi; I don't think he's talking about the internet. Okay, so Bob Kahn is from America, and Vint Cerf is also from America. So, I don't know what this guy is smoking. I have a feeling he's talking about WiFi, not the internet. So, he's confusing these two things. Because I'm pretty sure, yeah, what did it say here?

It's part to becoming the Wi-Fi inventor started when a CSIRO astrophysicist, John O'Sullivan, blah blah blah. Okay, yeah. So, I'm pretty sure John O'Sullivan, where is he from? There you go. University of Sydney, Australia. He is 74 years old. So, he's talking about Wi-Fi, he's not talking about the internet. The internet is American, Wi-Fi was Australian. And damn right, we're bloody proud of the Wi-Fi. I think we also- Did we invent Bluetooth?

We definitely did not. Anyway, so yeah, Australia invented Wi-Fi. Go us. Woo. Put us on the map Wi-Fi.

You invented the internet; your internet is still so bad. Next one isn't too big of a deal, but it does get a little annoying, and that is, you pretty much always have to pay extra for like any condiments sauces you want. And it's usually like quite expensive for some sauce, like you're going to be paying between like fifty cents and two dollars for a little bit of sauce.

Sauce. You mean- What the hell? Sauce is spelled with a C, isn't it? Yeah. What's sauce with an S? That's not a thing, is it? An obsolete form of sauce. There you go. Interesting. Low blow. Low blow.

So, yeah, for something that's usually free and included in your meal, that definitely frustrates me.

Man, of course, takeaway shops worked that out a long time ago. If you go to a fish and chip shop, if you go to a burger place and you see sauce in a little container, dear God, do not buy it. It's going to be 1, 2, 3 dollars to get that tiny amount of sauce. Otherwise, you'll get little sachets or packets that are like 50 cents or so. It's just the business is trying to make a bit more money. Right.

So, my trick is usually, go to fish and chip shops, buy the fish and chips you want. Whilst you're waiting, go to Coles or Woolworths and buy a bottle of sauce for two bucks and then come back. Okay, it's not that difficult, just BYO sauce.

And this one is another one that really frustrates me because this is...

Condiments, that's what you're worried about. That's what you're worried about. That's on the list of top 10 things Americans hate about Australians. Well, about Australia.

Another thing that I think is just like, kind of like an overstep of the government. And that is that they mandate, like it is illegal to ride a bike here without wearing a helmet. Obviously, it's smart to wear a helmet. No one's doubting that. But I think I should be able to choose whether I wear a helmet or not, like I'm an adult, I think most adults should be able to make decisions like that.

This is like the speeding question. It's up to you if you wear a helmet, you can be fined for not wearing a helmet. But if you really don't want to wear a helmet, you can decide not to wear a helmet and wear the repercussions. I think the main thing is that we don't want people dying from accidents that are otherwise preventable.

The same thing with seatbelts, and it would be interesting if he said, you know, in America, I get really frustrated with the government mandating that everyone has to wear seatbelts when they're driving their cars. It is one of those things, I'm not a big bike rider or a motorcycle, motorbike rider. I don't worry too much about helmets, but, you know, maybe this guy is worried his hair will get flattened if he has to wear a helmet.

Additionally, this helmet rule doesn't apply for like skateboarding, like scootering, longboarding like anything like that. It only applies to bikes. Skateboards...

It's because skateboards and that aren't vehicles on the road, technically, I would imagine, again, I haven't looked this up. But I would imagine that people don't skateboard on the road, at least, you know, not generally. And the same thing with little scooters, they don't do it on the road, they're on the footpaths.

And anyone who's not a moron whilst they are skateboarding is going to be wearing a helmet, especially if they're at the skate park, because it's pretty easy to fall over and smash your head open on the concrete.

Boards are so much more deadly and so much more dangerous than a bike, but you don't need a helmet for...

Cyclist deaths per year, this looks like it's 2020. There was a sharp increase by the looks of it, but they had 48 cyclists died on Australian roads, compared to 34 the year before. I wonder how many skateboard deaths we have. Okay, in 2012, we have 43,000 people dying of circulatory conditions, so heart disease. 4 people passed away from ice skating, skiing, roller skating or skateboarding.

So, anyway, I think the point is that it is by the looks of it at least 10 times more dangerous to be riding a bike on the road than skateboarding. Sorry to be that guy.

I know more people than I can count on one hand that have gone into a coma or have died from skateboarding, from hitting their head. If you include concussions, I know more people than I could count on two hands that have gotten either a concussion, coma or died from a skateboard. But a bike, I don't know anyone, like if you're mountain biking and going on hard trails, you're most likely smart enough...

Hey, look, there's a kid in the background with his helmet on.

...To put on a helmet and like you can think for yourself, or if you're just going to go for a stroll around your neighbourhood, you're probably not going to put a helmet on. But that's your choice to make, so, I don't know. I get a little frustrated by that, but that is just another thing...

Something to point out here is, I don't know anyone, I couldn't count on either of my hands that has ever been fined for not wearing a helmet, and I know plenty of people who don't wear helmets. Again, the police are probably going to pull you over and say, dude, what are you doing? Go get a helmet and put it on.

...American. I hate about Australia. I really need to stop using the word hate so much. I don't hate Australia for these things, like I frickin' love Australia. Like, why do you think I'm here? These are just some ways that I think Australia can improve. How about that? That's a better way to say it.

So, you're pretty much just saying Australia can improve by becoming America.

Alright. Anyways, next one. Tobacco and cigarettes here are so highly taxed, like insanely- It's going to be like, depending on where you're at, what you're getting, it's going to be like two to three times more to get tobacco and cigarettes here than it is back in the U.S. I don't smoke cigarettes, but if you do, a pack of cigarettes here cost between 20 and 35 U.S. dollars, like just to give you an idea for how expensive it is.

I'm not a smoker, and yeah, that's the deal. They get taxed to hell. And if you want to smoke, though, you can still smoke, it's just a massive waste of money. You know, again, in my personal opinion, but it's not against the law. You can smoke if you wish to, the same with alcohol.

Alcohol is expensive, gets taxed, but the tax money goes back into services for the Australia- Goes back into the health care system, so hopefully it ends up being more money than is required to deal with the diseases that we get from cigarettes and alcohol. Final thing. The final thing, guys. You made it this far.

This last one. So, I was struggling, I only had like eight things that I hated or disliked about Australia, and I reached out to some Australian friends, and I just said- I asked them one question, I said, What's something you hate about Australia? And they both...

So, the video should probably be titled "Nine Things That Americans Hate About Australia, and one thing Australians Hate About Australia".

...Responded to me with the exact same thing, and that is the damn flies here. The flies, the bugs, whatever you want to call them, like they are so pesky and annoying here, like the bugs in general, just kind of like, you know, getting in your face, they're annoying. But the flies are aggressive, like they are, ugh, I can't even...

This one I 100% agree with him on. It is fricking brutal, and it's usually worse the further away from cities and suburbia you go. The further into the outback you go, especially when it's dry, it is just insanely brutal. The flies will come all over your face looking for liquid, looking for sweat to suck up and hydrate themselves. And yeah, they just- They are shameless. They will get right up in your face.

...Explain them, like they just attack you. When you try to hit them off your face, like they just come back, they buzz right around here and you cannot get rid of them, like, ugh. I wish I could explain the flies here, but they are just- A different animal than flies in America. They will not leave you alone. They run into you. They hit you, like they bite you. I forgot that.

Yeah, they can- Some of the flies here, there's different types of flies. Some of them can bite you and leave you like itching.

He's talking about march flies. These are often at beaches. If you go to beaches and you see those large flies, I think they've got like stripes on their abdomen. They can often bite and suck blood or take a little bit of flesh out, and that's what they eat and it's just brutal. Brutal. I guess that's it, guys. Let's have a look at some of the comments. What do we got here? So, Lincoln, top comment here.

10 Things Australians Hate About America: one, Americans. 10 Things Americans Hate About America; Americans and worst of all, ones that think they know what they talk about. Yeah, too funny. I think that based on the downvotes for this video, a lot of these comments are just going to be hanging crap on him. Wearing helmets saves so many lives, so once again, I'm so sorry that we try to keep as many people alive as we can.

He literally hates everything that was put in place to keep us safe. Australians hate bicycle riders, we tend to run them over, hence the need for helmets. "Speed cameras are everywhere" in quotes. Is Australia the only country with speed cameras? Apparently speeding is legal. The reason for our speed limits being slower is safety. As an Australian, I think you've made some good points my son, oh, that's interesting.

Doesn't name which one. And then someone said, who hurt you? Everyone being butthurt. He loves Australia, he lives here. He's just pointing out a few personal dislikes, probably to help anyone else who's thinking of moving here. Look, I mean, to finish up Australia is not the best country in the world. You know, it's probably close. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's okay. It's okay.

But it has its pros and cons like anywhere, you just have to get used to it, you know, we don't have guns. I mean, another big thing Americans probably hate is the fact that we don't have guns here, at least not many. You can't- You're not going to just see people walking around with guns. So, anyway, this video has been long enough. I hope you guys got a little bit out of it. I hope you had a laugh.

And let me know in the comments below if there are things you hate about Australia, maybe I'll have to grab those comments and turn that into a video. Anyway, I'm Pete, this is Aussie English. Don't forget to check out this video, guys, where I also review Tristan's dirtiest Aussie slang words. I think you'll enjoy that one. See ya!