B1 English Listening Practice - American Culture – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.hey everybody welcome to this b1 english listening practice video you can use this video to practice your listening and comprehension as i speak before we start remember to download the listening time podcast and become a member at patreon.comlisteningtime to receive my listening practice seminars sound training videos and extra podcast episodes and remember that if you become a listening time family member you'll also receive my advanced podcast episodes ok today i'm going to talk about american culture i could probably talk for hours and hours about this topic but i'll try to cover a few main cultural elements and then i'll probably do a part two to this video so let's just jump right in the u.s has what most people would probably consider the most popular culture in the world this is due to the fact that the us exports its culture to other countries via the internet entertainment and other means and the fact that english is now the most important language for business and travel has also contributed to this so a lot of you probably already know quite a bit about american culture but let's go ahead and talk about a few cultural elements one of the most important aspects of american culture is our commitment to freedom one of the most important values in the us if not the most important is personal liberty at the very core of the us constitution and the declaration of independence is the idea that each individual has the right to live freely and the government only exists to protect this right so what does this mean exactly it means that individual people can live and act how they want as long as they don't infringe upon the rights of others in the u.s we stress the individual more than the collective this is different from most countries where there's more stress on the common good of society in these places the government often has a bigger influence in people's lives okay the next cultural element i want to talk about is politeness when many foreigners visit the us they notice that while it may not be the friendliest country in the world americans tend to be very polite for example we have a tendency to say things in a pretty indirect way to sound nicer so if we're at a restaurant instead of asking the waiter where's the restroom most of us would probably say could you tell me where the restroom is these types of indirect questions sound more polite so we prefer them in certain situations if someone asks something very directly many americans might even feel that that person's being a little rude this is indicative of how much politeness is valued in the u.s all right one other cultural element that i want to discuss is the entrepreneurship in the u.s this obviously exists in every country but the entrepreneurial spirit is especially widespread in the us many people dream of owning their own business or creating something new a lot of my students in other countries tell me that only a small minority of people in their country want to become an entrepreneur most people would probably prefer to work as an employee and a good company with good benefits of course many americans want this too but there are also many people that want to start something on their own there's something about creating a business from scratch that's really appealing and inspiring to many people and some people simply value independence more than comfort i'm definitely this type of person considering that i've never worked a full-time job as an employee even though i've never received benefits like paid vacation days i still prefer this style of work i love the freedom and excitement that comes with working independently and as an entrepreneur so you could definitely say that i have this entrepreneurial spirit in me okay that's all for today i'll probably make a part 2 to this video to talk about some more cultural elements in the us before you go make sure to download the listening time podcast and become a member at patreon.com listeningtime to receive my listening practice seminars sound training videos and bonus podcast episodes and remember that if you become a listening time family member you'll receive my advanced podcast episodes also subscribe to the channel click on the bell and follow us on instagram i'll see you next time [Music]