Things I Noticed as An American in Ireland

what is up there YouTube Austin Sweeney here for those of you who don't know I am from Seattle Washington but currently I am staying in Ireland and while I was here I decided to make a list of some things that I've noticed while being in Ireland as an American and from an American perspective so take a little take a look and let me know what you think and hopefully I don't offend too many people thanks so to start off I would say that with the Irish they do have a different way of talking thing we do yes we both speak English but as opposed to American versus Irish English speaking language the Irish definitely win in the Battle of more creativity in the way they speak in fact I would say the Irish have a corn they have a whole cornucopia of different ways to use the English language that I'm sure most Americans have not even heard of and maybe that is why some people think the Irish are just always you know out and about really happy-go-lucky great conversationalist number one when the Irish people tell a story they say your man so as we're in the United States we would say okay so this guy walks into a bar the Irish would say okay so your man walks into a bar and I remember the first time I heard this I thought okay well is it your man or my man okay it's your man oh wait no it's my man that's walking into a bar okay why do I have a man why do I care where he goes it was a little confusing at first but again it's just another way of saying it number two Irish will say what's the craic and what they mean by that is just what's up number three it's not trash it's rubbish and you'll be corrected by every Irish person you mean Irish people will not hesitate if you're saying something the wrong way so it doesn't matter if you call it soccer over here it's football now will they understand what you say of course are they gonna make fun of you for it yes but not as much as maybe the French people would when you try to learn their language and before you wear pants don't you well not over in Ireland if you were to walk up to a girl guys and say oh I like your pants you're talking about our underwear so you're gonna be a pervert if you do that just don't do it pants are what goes on underneath I've just refrained from using the word pants in my language number five I just thought that only leprechauns and just Irish people lived in Ireland there's obviously more than just Irish people living in Ireland that was corrected almost instantly not everyone speaks with the heavy Irish accent but there are differences in the Irish people still from every county from Northern Ireland to the west coast to the east coast south there's different dialects and I'd say the hardest for most people to understand is probably up north unfortunately but then again it's also not all of Ireland is all of Ireland the whole country there's the Republic of Ireland which if you talk about Ireland that's probably what people would assume you're talking about and then there's the northern part of Ireland which is still technically part of the UK which I didn't know about that either but a word of advice for my fellow Americans visiting Ireland I would say if you're in the Republic of Ireland just don't talk about the north and if you're in the north part of Ireland just don't talk about the south number six contrary to popular belief not Irish people are are are you know all like hey top of the morning hey let's go grab a pint aye hey let's go do this never say top of the morning no Irish person says it don't talk about leprechauns it's stupid it's weird you know that being said most Irish people are laid-back and chill I compare it to the Pacific Northwest where I'm from you know near that Seattle area yeah they're chill they're laid-back but it's okay because they're still actually great conversationalist you know and I and I call it small talk but it's really more than that a lot of them can get into really deep conversation with you you know not after much you know initial startup and that's not actually something I was expecting I was expecting a lot of them to be super extroverted it's different you know because there's different personality types all within Ireland so yeah there's totally are really outgoing Irish people but I would say in large part what I've noticed is most Irish people are generally reserved but very witty though very witty you know and they may not say as much but what they do say can be really funny number seven or I think Irish people love to take piss I don't think they use that phrase but what it means is they love to joke around with you and it's just their way of getting to know whether or not they're gonna like you or not is how much they can make fun of you and again there's there's no harm in this it's not in a mean way and Americans might take this personally but don't because it's it's not meant to be that what I've done is I've come part metallized it into three categories level one is if the Irish makes fun of you and then you just laugh at it and agree that it is funny that's level one if you can take it and it's okay level two is if they make fun of you and then you kind of give it back and rebuttal and you also make fun of them so if they say like hey wow you woke up really ugly today you could say like oh did you take a look at yourself like I don't know something like that level three is if they make fun of you and then you also make fun of yourself because to the Irish that self-deprecating humour is the most hilarious to them apparently and it actually shows that you have even more confidence in yourself if you're able to make fun of yourself in a joking way number eight probably is a cup up a cuppa means a cup of tea and Irish people love their cup of tea and their biscuits they actually do have a bit of coffee so you know if you're coming from Seattle like I did and you really want your coffee which which I don't because I don't drink coffee but if you do want it they have it you know they also offer coffee with their teeth I think it's really cool when you have people over and you can offer them tea and biscuits and you can sit down and have maybe a small chat this is something I really want to bring back home to Washington and try to make it a thing the next one is that Irish people don't like America more just our country and what we represent they don't really like they don't like how involved we are and everything else you know because we just are a bigger country but Irish people do like certain Americans so if you can come across as chill or you know if you want to be the only exception to an Irish person you can be that I know it's probably the same for every other country you know there's just a few bad apples that ruin the stereotype for everyone else so maybe and I'd say in majority it's probably people from Texas and like the East Coast that Irish people equivalent to you know an American per se like a cowboy or like someone with a really strong East East Coast accent who's just really rambunctious really in your face really after it I'd say it's the bad apples from those areas that most Irish people and most people from you Europe equivalent to America one of the last ones the Irish culture is huge into sports and athletics I mean everyone's doing different sports something I didn't even know about before I came to Ireland was Gaelic sports so there's Gaelic football and there's hurling to describe and I will describe it very poorly so right now I just like to apologize and everyone in Ireland even if I went super in-depth for this most of this video is for my American friends back home or just other people not in Ireland so again if I don't describe it correctly I am sorry but you can roast me about it later at the pub there's there's Gaelic football which is where it's kind of like set up like a soccer field a bigger soccer field and then behind the soccer goals are these posts like field goals and it's basically your goal to get the ball through either the posts for one point and then you could score in the goal pass the goalie for for two points and the way you get around the field is you have the ball and every couple steps you have to bounce it off your foot or you can just bounce it off the ground to yourself and you can pass it by kicking it or throwing it and yeah a lot of Irish people are into it every year they have the All Ireland you know Gaelic football championship that all the counties all the different counties of Ireland compete for and super cool and I think it's something that I wish we had back in the States there's also hurling which is kind of like field hockey but they play the ball more above waist high that kind of bounce it in the in the air to themselves a little bit like lacrosse I guess but you know they can smack it and it's the same kind of scoring system you can score through the the field goal post or you can score on the goal pass the keeper but yeah there's also a final four that that all the counties compete for and it's really cool and I think it's amazing that the whole country is united around these sports and they kind of have something that's their own I don't know if it's played in any other countries but I didn't know about it until I came here but that kind of brings me to my next point is that Ireland this is my plea to you you guys should take on ice hockey because I think you would really like it one it involves drinking you want to do a beer league and two it involves fighting you can actually fight and it's part of the rules in hockey you might get a penalty for it but you can still do it and then number three you're on ice and you can skate I don't know how many Irish people can skate but I mean it just sounds like a really good time so consider it people of Ireland ice hockey I want it to happen I think it could be a lot of fun so to end this video I would say my biggest piece of advice to all Americans or just anyone else not in Ireland who's visiting Ireland is just chill out you know just don't take life too seriously take a page out of the Irish person's book and just be willing to joke around with each and every other person be willing to not be super uptight just relax because yeah wow I didn't even take a breath through this whole thing thank you goodbye [Music]

Channel: Sweeneytv

Views: 787,685

Rating: 4.749835 out of 5

Keywords: Things that an american notices in ireland, an american perspective on ireland, an american thinks about ireland, irish people try, an american notices ireland, ireland, americans try irish food, americans in anime, living in ireland, american in ireland, dating in ireland, ireland stereotypes, irish stereotypes, funny things irish do, dating around the world, Ireland - The Don'ts of Visiting Ireland, what do americans thnk of ireland, irish americans try to, sweeneytv

Id: pssNEDh0p5g

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 02 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/DirtyJizzyBollocks]

'Irish people don't like America as a country and what it represents' Flashes images of the flag raising at Iwo Jima and Martin Luther King Jr.

.... That's not exactly what we would be thinking about, bud.

[u/jamiemollaghan124]

I always say how shite it is living in Ireland but get this enormous sense of pride when anybody talks about it in this way!

Really nice video

[u/LetsTalkAboutVex]

You're able to correctly pronounce Ireland as "Ire-land" and Gaelic as "Gael-ick" instead of "Eyer Land" and "Gay El Lick" so you pass the litmus test we use for Americans visiting here

Just on the "What Irish people think of us" part, I would phrase it more that generally Irish people are cool with Americans, we're just not in love with hawkish American foreign policy. As you said in the video, We're a small neutral country while you're a massive country with a habit of intervention so we have radically different politics, so that naturally leads to a bit of a cultural clash.

Irish people like to bitch to Americans about American politics, but we know you the individual aren't responsible for it, it's just we sorta want to expand Americans world views a bit, because your media tends to give you a domestic rather than an international one. Irish news media is much more internationally minded, so again when we interact this can lead to a bit of a culture clash. And then on top of that, Irish people are generally more "liberal" than Americans.

Anyway, glad you're enjoying your time here and seeing things you like enough to want to bring them home.

[u/Tig21]

Think he missed the part when describing hurling that it’s lacrosse mixed with murder

[u/RavenandLotus]

I would love to see an Irish hockey team. They’d win everything.

As an American visiting Ireland (hopefully living there), I agree that the Irish definitely have a skill that most Americans lack— they know the difference between a person and a country. If Americans are against a country, then often they’re totally against that country’s people and don’t care about getting to know someone as an Individual. The Irish, however, will actually get to know you before passing judgement the vast majority of times. Especially if you’re humble and can laugh at yourself. I found them to be very patient and understanding when I did or said something “American,” especially since I made the effort to learn the Irish way.

[u/IrishJavaNerd]

Pretty decent video.

Some things weren't quite right IMO (but obviously you couldn't possibly get it all right); I believe any confrontation you get into for mentioning Northern Ireland in Ireland isn't serious, we love to joke about it, you'll see that kind of banter all the time on the sub. The other way around, I'm not sure.

I'm pretty sure indoor hockey (no ice) is already pretty popular here, especially for women.

[u/DarthTempus]

Good stuff, we'll keep you

[u/Made_up_quote]

Hmm, I definitely don't agree with 'they don't like America' point. It's just Republicans that we don't like but you'll find most of the EU feels the same. Civilians walking around with holstered guns in Public just isn't normal and never will be in the 21st century.

[u/desertsail912]

I was born in Ireland but grew up in the US and I've spent a lot of time in Ireland visiting my relatives and a lot of your observations are pretty spot on IMHO. A few other things you might pass onto your yank friends who visit Ireland: the buying a round of drinks thing, don't wear white socks, and unless it's lashing, generally just ignore the rain :)