Similarities and Differences Between #Russia and the #USA

all right I am Dorking it up a little bit with a headset because I cannot find my um microphones got two different microphones and I can't find either one of them a very nice portable set and a very nice uh set that I use for interviews and of course I can't find either one of them I'm walking down the stairs of this old apartment complex it's not quite a Cru chapka but it is pretty old I think it was built in the 1980s uh interesting features uh garbage garbage shoots um those I have seen in America but they usually don't function um here they are they're fully functional um another feature uh interesting stuff exchange uh if somebody's throwing away jars or things that might be useful to other people they will leave them by the garbage disposal for anyone for anyone to use yeah very cool feature anyway yeah this is the outside of this complex um I don't feel bad showing it to you because I'm about to move um funny thing about this complex is uh if you've ever seen the movie uh the irony of Fate uh you will know that uh that's a long-standing joke in in uh Russian society that all the apartment complexes look like each other uh well this apartment this apartment complex looks almost exactly like that one uh right there and when I was uh when I was going to um meet uh my girlfriend now fiance uh I rang the rang the doorbell uh and she said where are you and I said well I'm at your apartment complex I'm ringing the doorbell you're not ringing my doorbell turns out I was ringing the doorbell in that apartment complex which looks exactly identical uh instead of instead of this one so wild uh wild times in Russia um so yeah uh Russia life in Russia part two I was asked to talk about some of the differences between America and Russia um I'll start by talking the similar the similarities uh really uh there are a lot of similarities um if you are American and you are conservative uh you will find a home here uh because most Russians are very conservative uh and conservativism runs the gamut here from uh supporters of Putin to people who are very much anti-putin so it doesn't follow uh political lines clearly here um so yeah almost almost everybody's conservative uh if you are a southerner especially you will definitely identify with u with Russian uh thought and culture uh it's just the more you talk the more you talk to Russians uh you have to talk to Russians in person though uh you have to really uh or online but you have to talk to real Russians real everyday everyday people on the street and not just folks you talk to online uh social media unfortunately is not Adept at capturing uh the truth of how Russians think uh you just have to get on the streets and literally just like just talk to people um not literally on the streets uh that is an aspect of Russian culture is they're not quite as open uh and friendly as as us Americans uh Americans I think I think we're often too friendly and we just talked we talked to everybody and that that can be a uh that can be a strong thing that is something that Russians admire about our culture is that we will literally talk to anybody on the street uh so Russians that go to America they love it because everybody will talk to them and they get plenty of English conversation practice literally walking down the street um we are eager to talk to everybody and that that openness is something that um that Russians like about us um it's uh here you're encouraged to get to know people better uh you have Russians tend to not have a lot of a lot of um friends uh they have a small group of close friends and that's about it and I totally identify with that because that's exactly how I think I have a close group of core friends and that's about it I've got my family most of them back in the States and uh and that's about it uh I don't collect a lot of uh fake friends on social media I mean I do have quite a few uh I do have quite a few followers and a few people I'm on all the social media platforms but I don't consider those real friends they're just people I'm not even really distantly connected to they're just it's just noise really uh but if I've met you in real life and we have a relationship uh then you're going to get to know the real me and that's something I appreciate Uh Russian culture I greatly appreciate Russian culture because of that uh let's see other similarities uh you will find all of the Creature Comforts in America uh in Russia uh especially if you're in an urban area like uh like Moscow or odino which is a suburb near Moscow um you've got all the creature Creature Comforts um back there was a 24-hour Shawarma shop pretty cool how often have you wanted to grab Shawarma at uh at 2 a.m. and you didn't have a place where you could get Shawarma well now you do here it is yeah 24-hour kebabs pretty darn cool uh difficult to find Mex Mexican food here uh TMX basically doesn't exist here um but I I have found some some small Mexican places and I'm going to be checking those out um that is one thing I really miss about America is the easy availability of Mexican food or passable Mexican food such as in the area of Taco Bell I mean everybody's there's a Taco Bell in every corner in America um here it's very difficult to find Mexican food very difficult to find barbecue here good standard Southern barbecue doesn't exist I would love to have some Brunswick's stew right about now Brunswick's stew is amazing and uh I haven't had any since I left Georgia that's all right um let's see um of course there's apartments uh apartments in the cities uh there tend to be a lot of apartments around around the Moscow area uh we are in the Suburban area and nimes people want people not wanting things in their backyard nimi stands for not in my backyard uh when you get out to the suburbs in America um apartment complexes become less commonplace because people move to the suburbs because they don't want apartment complexes around them um here I don't think I think that's probably yeah that's a condemned apartment uh complex that's probably going down and be replaced by another uh segment of odenberg odenberg is a very nice complex here but the apartments are crazy expensive they're uh 10 I think they start at 10 or 11 million Rubles and uh by comparison uh that's where houses start uh right around 6 7 8 9 million Rubles are where houses start um good houses so anyway let's see so apartment culture here uh there are a lot of apartments and that's good uh because there are there tend to be a lot more affordable apartments here um if you can't afford an apartment the government will give you an apartment uh there are no homeless people here haven't seen one yet it is actually illegal to be homeless here because the government will the government will provide for you if you are homeless on the streets the policeman will ask you why you were on the streets and you say well I didn't uh I don't want to stay in that free apartment you gave me they say well you're going to stay in a free apartment tonight in jail and then uh we're going to take you back to your free apartment tomorrow uh because you're a drunk and you shouldn't be on the streets that's uh that's how it works the homeless situation in Russia is absolutely amazing there aren't any homeless people there literally are no homeless people here um and that's the thing one of the reasons why I left the United States is because we treat homeless people like garbage we say that because we worship the almighty dollar that if you don't make lots of the almighty dollar that you have to sleep on the streets with the garbage we publicly confess on Sunday mornings that Christians that human beings are made in the image of God we confess that every Sunday morning in most churches or things things saying that they're churches uh yet we have no problems with letting people sleep on the streets why the American government just approved a61 billion dollar billion with a B you have no idea how much how much a billion dollars is until you look up um graphics on how much a billion dollars really is uh a billion and a trillion dollars look it up it's fascinating they they visualize you can visualize a $100 bill and they put it on a they put it on pallets to show this is a million dollars this is a billion dollars this is a trillion dollars it's a lot of money if we devoted just a fraction of that $61 billion spending bill that supposedly went to the Ukraine it didn't go to the Ukraine guys it went to Washington DC Pockets politicians it goes to it goes to zalinski until they until they suicide him in his in his uh cronies you know it doesn't go to uh it doesn't go to the Ukraine they'll send they'll send the Ukraine more uh more defective uh American Military Hardware which will end up in in a museum uh here in Moscow they're literally showing off all of the equipment uh that we that uh the Russians defeated on the uh on the Battleground they're showing it off in Moscow they've got an exhibition of like 50 tanks and uh other military equipment uh yeah America we are the laughing stock of the entire world of the entire world uh the Western World Isn't laughing at us because uh they're still afraid of us uh but they won't be afraid of us for long when they see how weak we really are yes we are still a nuclear superpower but for how long you know it's just it's just crazy uh I left one of the reasons I left America was because I was I was sick of the American government running my life uh we do not live Americans do not live in a representative democracy anymore guys you don't you don't you live in an oligarchy you live where the rich men north of Richmond uh control your lives day after day and you put up with it you say well we'll get him next time we'll get him in two years we'll get him in four years we'll get a republic repan Congress or we'll get a democrat congress and we're going to take control yeah right guys they've been saying that since I was born was in my in my childhood in the 1980s they always said we'll get him next year so we had decent presidents and we had crappy presidents and it was often very difficult to tell who was a decent or who was a crappy president until decades afterwards when we found out all the Shady stuff they did I mean look at the clintons look at the bushes look at the if you dare if you're not worshiping at the feet of the Obamas it's just absolutely crazy we set these people up like they're Saints we worship them and it's they're they're politicians politicians in every country and every time have always been the scum of the earth Guys these are not good people even Trump he has his good side and his bad and his bad side uh guys just wake up wake up your America doesn't exist anymore I was born in 1978 uh I grew up through I grew up through the ' 80s I remember America when America was cool in the 80s and 90s uh that was when America was cool it was it was great to be there the the economy was thriving Republicans and Democrats could be friends imagine that yeah a Republican and a Democrat could sit next to each other one voted for Reagan one voted for dakus and they would they could have a beer together they their kids play their kids play together they can be best friends in modern America politics has become a religion and we put up with that crap and I don't want to I don't want to I want to stop you right there before you say well what about Putin what about Putin what about Putin I'm not talking about Putin look the Russian government has its problems but largely they've leave the citizenship alone they have very low taxes here I think the maximum is like 6% when did that happen in America it doesn't happen in America corporate tax when they say when they say they're cutting the rate to 15% people oh thank you thank you you're doing such a favor 6% guys that's the maximum taxes you'll pay here it's amazing um yeah government just leaves people alone uh they set they set new laws and people either pay attention to them or they don't uh that's just how it works here uh and Society still functions look no homeless people not a one if you look in the backgrounds of my videos you won't see people sleeping on the uh sleeping on the streets you will see an occasional panhandler I had a panhandler in my in my uh video the other day but I just sayi and he and he went away I I know what he wanted he wanted money but he didn't want to he couldn't give his Spiel to me because he didn't know how to give a in uh in English anyway uh but yeah homeless people don't exist here because we don't treat people like trash here uh we treat people like human beings give them a place to live give them meals give them a job it's not that hard and don't pay the government to do it because the government are already criminals they're already criminals you are you are purposely hiring the criminals that you supposedly elected did uh and you give you're giving them more money and you're thinking that they're going to make things better ain't going to happen guys if things were going to get better they would have gotten better a long time ago but they didn't I remember in the 1980s things were better a family could a mother could stay home with the children now things are worse you've got you've got both parents working and they can't even make ends meat huh well in Russia the economy functions it actually works guys it's amazing uh so families can families can stay together uh the husband the husband goes off goes off to work the wife stays home with the home with the children when the children get to school they um uh they go to uh she goes to she goes to work jobs are not difficult to find here um they're difficult to find if you don't know Russian um but the job market is uh is doing pretty well uh lots of IT jobs available guys lots of it jobs but you have to know Russian and you have to be uh you have to get a work visa uh getting a work visa can be challenging um but there are ways to do it um it's all about networking really there are a lot of expats over here uh there's a thriving uh American and uh European xat community and uh really you can find if you don't know something you can find somebody who knows it uh really cool uh feature about Uh Russian Society about the expat Community here uh expats are great always willing to help and a lot of the expats like um Tim Kirby and Father Joseph um they have little Community set up around them uh so that you can get information from uh people around them uh you know I I'm a member of the u a father Joseph's group and it's great because most of them are Orthodox Christians and but I can get a lot of information from them um this is the uh uh stadium that is the uh it's fun to say the I did a video on that the other day it's a short anyway um what was I going to say uh changes difference differences uh differences similarities okay uh there are differences uh big big big difference is their language oh I can't speak Russian H help help help help okay calm down guys calm down the the main thing is to just know somebody before you come uh connect with like-minded uh like-minded expats before you come um you're going to need to know where to go what where to go what to do and if you don't know the Russian language it's fine it really is fine uh you hang out with uh hang out with people who do know the Russian language um oh my gosh I can't read the signs well all the all the traffic signs for example these use international uh International symbols um and learning cilc uh is a breeze you can learn that in two hours or three hours uh there are multiple series on how to learn uh celic in two hours it's very easy um a lot of the letters overlap app some letters are similar but are pronounced differently and you just memorize the memorize the new ones not very hard and you can be reading reading the language in no time uh much easier than in um uh much easier than say Chinese or Japanese uh let's see similar and difference well difference is uh there's a lot of grocery stores around and a lot of pharmacies around that's fville uh there's a pharmacy there and I guarantee you there's at least two or three more pharmacies on this on this block um why is that there are a lot of grocery stores and a lot of pharmacies and that's that means you have a lot of choice um if you go out for medicine at uh at midnight um you're going to find a pharmacy in your town open uh I remember when they made some of the 24-hour Walgreens uh 24 hours and people were all excited about that but later it was became impossible to find a 24-hour Walgreens um and the pharmacy was not open at midnight uh here you can find uh you can find 24-hour pharmacies uh you have a lot of choice um Medical Care is also very cheap here guys uh anyway pharmacies um there's a lot of competition Ines so that that helps them keep the prices low uh I think the maximum I've ever spent for a medicine and this was a big bag of medicine for two people uh was about $37 us I think it was about 3700 rubles um I'm on a medicine right now which costs 2,000 rubles a month uh which is not bad about 20 bucks us and uh yeah so uh Medical Care is outstandingly cheap here guys especially if you if you work remote and you're on a uh American salary uh you are going to live like a king here in Russia uh the IT jobs here pay about a tenth of what they do in the United States um but the economy functions here uh so people can actually live on that salary the economy functions here guys it's amazing uh let's see what else uh similarities and differences uh Russia is very walkable uh people walk everywhere uh you can literally get Everywhere by walking or you can or you can get on the or you can take the metro the Moscow Metro is amazing St Petersburg Metro is also amazing not quite as beautiful but it's still amazing um very efficient very clean most of the stations in the Moscow Metro look like they're museums just it's just a fact it's amazing oh what else um people walk here I'm getting walk right now walk to vus Toko grab me a burger um actually you know what I'm going to go to the Burger King where's the Burger King oh that's a difference there the Burger Kings here are absolutely amazing uh Burger King in the states is okay um I always kind of feel sick after I atat Burger King in the states or McDonald's in the states um but uh McDonald's AKA vus Toka vus Toka is a company that bought up all of the McDonald's and they serve the same exact same stuff they just call it different things but the ingredients are different guys I don't know if they don't load them full of Sneed oils or what uh but it's absolutely amazing I don't feel sick after I eat vus Toka I don't eat vusa itka because I'm not I'm under no illusions that it is Health Food you know fast food will never be health healthy food look at this a car full they got all these Power Wheels for rent here amazing you don't need to Shell out a bunch of money for Power Wheels just Fork over I don't know maybe 100 rubles and you can rent one for a few hours probably it's amazing uh yeah just people it's a it's a chilly day outside and people are but people are still enjoying the uh still enjoying the fall weather yeah this is sort of a fall day but even though it's spring uh differences climate is a big difference uh Russia is not cold all the time uh having said that Russian winter is nothing to laugh at uh it was uh I was laughing at it out of enjoyment because I was enjoying having snow so much um check uh I will post a map listing what places in Russia are like which places in America and you'll sort of give get an idea what the climate is General generally here uh in r in Moscow uh the climate is approximately the same as New York New Jersey Etc uh just up there in the north um obviously the attitude of the people is completely different um but the climate is going to be approximately the same so you have very cold Winters uh and you will have uh mild Springs and Summers um down south in Sochi um it's going to be a little more a little more hot and he hum sort of like uh my American South as I'm told um so pay attention to the to the weather um it will be a shock to you if you're coming from a southern a Southern Climate um it was a shock to me when we first got snow in November uh in the South we get one good snow every 10 years and that's about it um you and snow in the south in Georgia is a brief dusting and it all pretty much melts by midday and so you're left with a fun memory and a bunch of dirty snowmen on the road um but life gets back to normal pretty quickly um in Russia life goes on and people uh uh people learn to cope with the snow uh and it's just uh it's just very very interesting seeing the society Society function uh but it functions better than it dolphin does in the and places in the in the North in America uh because we actually maintain the infrastructure here the government maintains the infrastructure here guys imagine that you're paying them to do something and they're actually doing it yeah it's it's absolutely amazing yeah they have a worldclass transit system um I would say probably better than world class uh world class transit system world class uh infrastructure and it just keeps getting better um they keep they keep making improvements in Moscow if you come to Moscow you're going to be amazed you're going to think you're in an episode of the Jetson almost that's a very old reference oh well uh you're going to think you've you've entered the future uh because it's just very very cool very futuristic uh City where did my camera do that anyway um yeah very very cool uh very very cool place uh yeah life life works here okay I know what's going on with my autot tracking function um life just works here guys um it's amazing and youve got friends to help you um a lot of people um don't want to try a foreign country uh they don't want to try living in a foreign country because they think they're they're it's expensive and uh people are going to abandon me I'll be left alone blah blah blah all right the United States government uh will help you if you get in trouble um but you're not going to get in trouble here guys very very very few people uh ever get in trouble unless they're unless they're trying to make trouble um it ended up on the news a Canadian family uh that I that I know uh they had a little bit of trouble that their bank account got frozen uh because one of the ways you get money here is uh is through cryptocurrency and they froze the bank account because it was suddenly receiving large sums of money from unknown sources which sounds suspicious um but the Western news media went went ape and they said oh Russia is such a dangerous place it's so dangerous no it's not dangerous they got it they got the they got the call out they got their their account unfrozen they're doing they're doing fine uh the economy just functions here guys uh it's a high trust Society um now don't go bringing your low Trust Society uh problems with you um I got to say if you are a liberal do not come to Russia period uh if you are LGBT do not come to Russia don't bring that stuff here they will ship you out of the country uh we don't want your kind here and we don't want your we don't want your values here uh but if you're conservative uh by all means come to Russia you will love it it's absolutely amazing uh the Russian language is not difficult to pick up um it's it's a challenging Language by any means but if you have the right methods such as Russian made easy or Russian accelerator I'm giving them a plug because I use their products not because they pay me uh if you have a a good system in place to learn Russian uh it's very it's not that bad uh and then just and then you can hire a you can hire a native uh when you get here uh you can hire a native right now I've got I know two good uh actually three uh good uh Russian teachers that can teach you online they can actually teach you online from the comfort of your home wherever you are right now uh so whoa okay I guess my uh all right I think my stabilization function went crazy anyway I am at Toka I'm going to grab something and then run back real quick uh vus Toka is right here and I was going to go to Burger King but I don't have time time anyway um I'm going to grab me a big hit and I'm going to run back to teach my next English class take it easy and I will talk to you later

Channel: Russia: The American Dream

Views: 15,909

Keywords: Russia, Travel, Immigration, Escaping the West

Id: k6adodm31Xc

Length: 30min 6sec (1806 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024