5 Unshakable Habits I've Picked Up Living in America

tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes yep hello i'm laurence and i'm on a quest to uncover all of the memos that britain and america lost in the pond and one of those memos pertains to habits specifically habits that i've picked up since moving to america and just to clear up any confusion this is not a video about how i ran away to a convent and became a nun that's a separate video no this is a video about little things i do habitually every day that i didn't do when i lived in britain and because a long-standing habit of uncle toby is to hammer away on his keyboard right after my videos i want to preempt him by insisting that this video does not include habits like leaving socks around the house because quite frankly i've done that my entire life plus that's universal and i know that because men do it throughout the entire universe the entries in this video were heavily inspired by american culture and so with that in mind here are five unshakable habits i picked up after moving to america i'm gonna let you in on a little secret when i lived in britain i never once drunk a cup of coffee except for when i was one and a half years old and that was bad for everybody especially my parents now i don't want to get carried away and suggest that we don't have coffee in britain we do it's just that when i lived there there were two factors at play number one tea was more popular and number two per capita americans drink way more coffee than the british it should be noted of course that the united states is by no means top of worldwide coffee consumption after all people in nordic countries drink three times as much which frankly is absurd nonetheless even though coffee consumption has actually increased in britain since i left presumably because people need it as a coping mechanism coffee is still more prevalent in the united states and i really started drinking coffee because all of my work colleagues were doing and i didn't want to feel left out before i knew it i couldn't stop and that might sound to like an addiction as opposed to a habit but here's where the habitual nature of coffee drinking comes in i've made it a habit to drink coffee as soon as i wake up and i need that just to compete with my cat because when i wake up at 5 a.m usually in zombie-like fashion i'm always struck by how he's up and about like it's nothing here i am accidentally pouring coffee into my cereal and he's already had breakfast cleaned himself three times and fought off an imaginary mouse but coffee isn't the only thing i picked up in the workplace like any other country in the world america has languages within languages and one of those languages is corporate speak and arguably no country on earth is more fluent in this language than the united states itself oh sorry about that looks like i accidentally muted myself what i was saying is can you hear me what i was saying is i got another email today from martin saying we need to touch base about those sows and i still don't know what an sow is to me an sow is a female pig and as somebody who worked in american office environments for the better part of seven years i've picked up this lingo through osmosis so you'll hear these phrases that you'll never hear outside of the office environment such as can we circle back let's touch base can we get our docs in a row you know unless you work for a veterinary service or the parks department you're not going to be doing anything with dogs much less getting them in a row i know this is just an idiom but at the end of the day docs are just going to do their own thing so it's better for your productivity if you leave them alone same goes for cbt because i know now that it stands for computer-based training but previously it meant cognitive behavioral therapy so we just need to spell things out to those of you who've never lived with a cat i feel both deeply sorry and envious but if that is you there's probably one thing you don't know about indoor cats they're constantly trying to escape why do you always do this when i have to go down get the mail i want you to get off my hand he's trying to turn my hand so that the hand turns the doorknob he's he's so smart in america they're much less likely to be successful because on the whole americans prefer to keep their cats indoors in britain sometimes it feels like there are more cats on the street than dog feces all that to say when i moved to the united states i thought nothing of letting the cat out of the flap but then i saw something weird i watched as a cat got run over by a truck and it just happened that behind that truck was a police officer and he stopped his car got out of it saw me and my wife frozen in horror like this and he just picked the cat up by the tail and dumped it by the side of the road and in that moment i had an epiphany if one of my cats got flattened by a truck i wouldn't want them to have such a demeaning burial or to be flattened by a truck i mean let's be clear and so now every time i leave the house i have to make sure the cats aren't following me they're indoor cats they're not going anywhere they're staying put there's actually just the one cat these days the other one died of kidney failure not a prius you'll be kidnapped by cyclists do you want that he's got out he got out i i didn't mean for that i'm come back in when i lived in britain i had a habit of forming communication with other people in a way that didn't put them out so i'd go out of my way to say things in a manner that couldn't be perceived as confrontational tagging statements with questions like would you mind if i or would it be possible too and after years of living in america i've learned to get straight to the point my is not withstanding hello yes i'd like to order a delivery please i'd like a six inch on italian bread teriyaki chicken with american cheese toasted well my i mean my wife gave me the number i is it right okay well i'll i'll let her know thank you sorry about that yep bye yeah that was the chicago public library and it doesn't mean i've become rude or anything like that because the americans that i speak to in this manner speak to me in the same manner and also being direct doesn't mean you shouldn't use phrases like please or thank you or bless your little cotton socks it just means getting straight to the point no that's fine and then could i just add green peppers onions and tomatoes and that's it tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes yep and while we're on the subject of placing orders that brings us on directly to our final entry to americans tipping might seem like an odd entry to have on a list of habits but for me it had to become a habit because growing up in britain you're not expected to tip the bar staff or the waiter in america because those workers rely on those tips for income it is inconceivably rude not to tip and how do i know that because i accidentally did that once i was on a business trip in westminster colorado and i decided to stay up late one night and just have a couple of drinks at the bar i struck up a conversation with the barman who had an interest in british culture perhaps owing to the fact that westminster colorado shares its name with westminster london but that's not important right now what's important is we stayed up for about two hours talking until i was the last customer in the bar he went into the back to do whatever bar staff do in the back and i took that as my cue to leave and as i was on the flight back to indianapolis the next day it hit me i never tipped him and i still feel really bad about that so if you're watching barman from the doubletree in westminster colorado this video is dedicated to you no you've been great so one last thing when i put a tip on the receipt does that go to the delivery person or does that go to you goes to the delivery person so if could i send you a check you personally for save you know 20 of this because well people think that i'm some sort of youtube sensation right it's not not my words and i don't want to be seen to lack generosity yeah i mean it's you've got to put back a little bit you know and i just feel it's the least i could do because you've been excellent one habit that i'm really proud of is being thankful to my patrons who make these videos possible if you would like to become a patron of lost in the pond and support the work that i do you can do so at patreon.com lost in the pond until the next time we touch base goodbye right what's your android i mean i suppose it's public knowledge if this went to you would it be would it be received in the form of a gift and therefore a complicated matter with your manager you are the manager that's perfect [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Lost in the Pond

Views: 516,075

Keywords: Finding America, Laurence Brown, America, habits, bad habits, good habits, morning habits, good habits for success

Id: b3y76ZfvpIw

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2020