We Were Stunned by These 10 US vs. Australia Culture Shocks

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Hey guys, today we're going to be reacting to Differences between Australia and the US. and the US are very similar, but they're also very different. After growing up in the US and moving to Australia, I was shocked with how many differences there are between the two countries. After living in Australia for almost 2 years now, I've gathered a full list of differences that I'm going to share with you today.

[00:00:19]Some of these will be a little controversial, so leave a comment down below on your thoughts and what you think about the differences between the two countries. Now, let's jump into 10 differences that I've noticed between Australia and the US.

[00:00:30]Difference number one, this is about the different cities in Australia and America. Even when you look at the size of the two countries, they're actually quite similar, but they differ a lot in population. In Australia, the population is 26.2 million, but in America, the population is 333.3 million people. Now, these are stats from 2022, but they're quite accurate in showing the size between the two countries. Even the state of California has more people in it than all of Australia.

[00:00:55]Because of this, Australia is very condensed into its cities, and the rest of Australia, the rural parts, is all just quite empty. And a way that you can really visualize this is looking at light pollution from the two countries.

[00:01:06]If you look at the US, you can see a ton of light coming out of it, spreading from the East Coast, there's a little bit of gap in the middle, and then all the way over to the West Coast as well.

[00:01:14]But, if you look in Australia, everything is just so condensed in those cities, and everywhere else just looks quite empty. Difference number two, public holidays. In America, the public holidays are very I mean, they have a lot of desert, so for us too, it's the same thing. Like, wherever there's like mountains or deserts, it was dark.

[00:01:31]So, it's like No, it is what it is.

[00:01:34]That's just how the terrain is. Can't change that. government focus, where it'll be like MLK Jr. Day, or Independence Day, or George Washington's birthday, for example. But, in Australia, the public holidays are a little bit We celebrate Washington's birthday.

[00:01:51]I don't know when that is.

[00:01:53]George Washington?

[00:01:55]I don't think so. I don't know. Let's Google. I want to sign.

[00:02:01]I don't know if you I don't think we celebrate I think he's like maybe a Capricorn.

[00:02:06]There's no holiday in July and January is a holiday.

[00:02:17]February 22nd, is that a holiday?

[00:02:19]February 22nd? So he's like a Pisces.

[00:02:26]A holiday?

[00:02:31]I guess it is. Oh, it's called President's Day. So that's it. Oh, that's what it is.

[00:02:36]I didn't know it was his birthday. Me neither. Huh. Cool.

[00:02:41]a bit more sports-centered. For example, recently we just had the AFL Grand Final off. We also have the Melbourne Cup coming up, which is a bunch of horse races, and we really get the day off for that, which is crazy. For you Americans watching, that's like having Super Bowl as a holiday. I recently just filmed the video on my perspective from the AFL Grand Final, so feel free to watch that if you're curious.

[00:03:03]Must be a big difference. Difference number three.

[00:03:06]I thought it was on the weekend though, though.

[00:03:10]But maybe they'll take like Mondays off or Fridays off.

[00:03:14]>> Mhm. is student debt. You might have heard some horror stories of Americans in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. The school system over there is quite expensive for universities, and it just keeps increasing. So if you're permanently living in Australia and you go to university, your university tends to be on the cheaper side when we compare it to US dollars. However, if you're a student coming from overseas, you do have to pay out of country tuition, which tends to be a lot more, and that's where Australian universities get a lot of their money from is from international students. Now, one thing I found out which is quite interesting about So basically, if you're an international student studying in Australia, you rich.

[00:03:51]how student debt is paid back. In America, when you get your student debt, it's a loan through a third party. However, in Australia, your student debt is paid through HECS. HECS, from what I understand, is like a government loan, and how you end up paying it off is actually it comes out of your paycheck directly. In your paycheck breakdown, where you have things like superannuation or the American equivalent 401k, maybe you have your other taxes coming out. But, if you were a student and you had student debt, your HECS would be paid out from your direct pay. Cuz in America, you have to set up everything and make sure you're paying your student debt on time, where in Australia it's all quite automatic.

[00:04:25]So, I find it's quite a smart way for Australia to make sure people are paying back their student loans. I still have some student debt over in America, and it's so saddening. I wish it just came out of my paycheck, but no, I have to go send money over every single time.

[00:04:38]Difference number four is voting. So, in America, it's completely up to you if you want to vote or not. In Australia, it's completely up to you.

[00:04:45]They charge you.

[00:04:47]Oh.

[00:04:48]Cuz we do have that. You just income-driven repayment plan.

[00:04:53]I think what she's talking about is the way it's taken, like income-driven, you have to go and set up the direct deposit yourself.

[00:04:59]Versus there is the I guess the employer withholds it.

[00:05:04]Yeah, but how much? I'm wondering.

[00:05:05]That's the thing.

[00:05:06]Well, I don't know. Probably similar to what income-driven is here. Like it has to be reasonable, so like you still have money to, you know, live your life.

[00:05:14]Can't be like, oh, deduct everything back to pay that back the loan. be though, because voting is mandatory. So, because I'm an Australian citizen, when I came in, I had to vote. Otherwise, I would receive a fine in the mail saying, you have to pay because you didn't vote.

[00:05:28]Cuz in America, there's a big emphasis on having the right to vote, and not everyone exercises that. But, it was quite surprising, because in Australia, you have to vote, otherwise you get fined.

[00:05:38]Hi everyone. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of Sandy Hook Promise.

[00:05:42]On December 14th, 2012, Number You want everybody to vote? Mhm.

[00:05:49]But That's argued. People say, do you?

[00:05:54]In theory cuz then you know when not everybody votes, we get what we got here in the states. So cuz people don't show up to vote.

[00:06:03]So Mhm. I don't know. Number five, ordering drinks. Okay, I want everyone to close their eyes and imagine that you're going out to the store. It's really I guess I would say this, if you can like vote online nowadays or like maybe mail-in ballot >> Mhm. then it's not that hard to do. But if you have to physically go in person, wait in line then I don't like being fined for that.

[00:06:29]Mhm.

[00:06:30]Cuz that that's a little ridiculous. But if they make voting easy easier than well, I guess here you can vote in mail-in too, but like >> Here is easy too. Yeah, but if it's not like physically you have to go, wait in line, spend like two hours there to vote then it's like, okay, I guess I can see it. hot day, you're super thirsty and you go up to Maccas, that's McDonald's for you Americans, and you go up to the person taking your order and you say, I would like a lemonade. What do you think you're getting? Are you thinking that you're going to get a lemon juice, sugar, and water drink? Are you thinking of Sprite? In America, you'd be thinking that you would be getting the former, but in Australia, you'd actually be getting Sprite and that's what they call lemonade. I was quite surprised because when I ordered a lemonade, I was expecting the lemon juice one, but no, I got Sprite.

[00:07:11]And I'm sure a lot of Australians do that when they head over to America and they ask for lemonade. Number six is playing sports in university. In American university, sports is a very big part of the culture. Think about football games or basketball games or attending a track and field event.

[00:07:25]Everything is very sports-centric. Even a lot of the fashion that I see now is related to American culture. There is just a big culture in America around sports, but then specifically at university, there is a large portion based on sports. So, I was actually a college athlete in America. I played soccer over there. It's quite interesting because when you're a student athlete, you get given extra kind of perks. For example, you get to pick your classes earlier than other NARPs. NARPs is non-athletic regular person. That's [laughter] what we would call non-athletes at school. And even though the university say that you're not supposed to get extra perks, sometimes you find that there are little things that you get given. Obviously, there's lots that you have to sacrifice at the same time when you play sports in college, but there is still a bit of help from the university to make sure that's an easier process for you. And choosing classes is one of them. But one fun thing about playing sports in college is that you can actually get a sports scholarship. So, I got a partial scholarship when I was there. So, I have some student debt, but a lot of it was paid off through the scholarship. But in Australia, you don't actually get scholarships to go to school for sports, which I found quite interesting. It's mainly just academic and financial help that you would get in terms of a scholarship. So, in Australia, Yeah, same in Europe. Like sports is really you don't get nothing for sports.

[00:08:33]Like if you want to play, yeah, sure, but you would never get a scholarship for it.

[00:08:37]>> So, how do you attract people to want to play for you?

[00:08:40]You don't. That's not the attraction.

[00:08:42]The attraction is the education.

[00:08:44]Sports is not the attraction. Sports is extracurricular activities if you want to.

[00:08:48]But it's not like there's no attraction as sports.

[00:08:52]Yeah, if you were really good at a sport, you're normally doing it outside of school. Yes, they do have teams where you can play like soccer or you can play basketball with other people from your school, but it's not super closely organized with the school and it's more recreational. It's not a professional team that's supported by the university.

[00:09:08]Number seven, how we store eggs. This is kind of a funny one because when I was in America, every time I'd be looking for eggs, you know, you go to the refrigerated section. But I was shocked when I came to Australia and I was looking for eggs and I was going around the store, loops and loops, just looking everywhere, just all in the refrigerated section. And I was like, "Do Australians not have eggs? What is this? I cannot find a single place to find eggs." And then I finally asked a worker where the eggs and she's like, "Oh, they're down in aisle three." And I'm like, "There's no refrigerators there. That's so weird, but whatever, I'll trust her." And I walk over to the aisle three and I find that the eggs are just stored on the shelf and it maybe feel like an idiot because of course eggs are shelf stable like they come out of a chicken on the ground, you know what I mean? There are other stores that I've been to in Australia that do have their eggs in a refrigerated section but I just found it so interesting because I would never think that a grocery store would do that. I know it makes eggs last longer if you do refrigerate them but I just kind of found it was quite surprising.

[00:10:00]Number eight coffee culture and brunch culture. In America it's quite normal for you to like go out for brunch or maybe get coffee with your girlfriends.

[00:10:07]It is still a normal thing to do but since living in Australia I definitely go to brunch and go get coffee way more than I was doing in America. In America it's more seen as like a fast quicker pace in terms of going to grab a coffee.

[00:10:18]It's normally like in a takeaway cup and it could be drip coffee. In Australia the coffee culture is crazy >> [laughter] >> especially in Melbourne where I'm living now. All really focused around quality of the coffee. You would never see anyone going to Starbucks. There is a Starbucks in the city but I don't really see anyone go to it to be honest. There are so many other great coffee to try.

[00:10:37]So if you're American and you ever come to Australia and you buy Starbucks know that I hate you. So with brunch in Australia because there's no tip and because taxes is included I feel like it's more affordable to go out for brunch. So that could be the reason that I just go to more brunches now. Is cuz there's no tip? I mean I wouldn't tip at Starbucks either here.

[00:10:56]Who tips at Starbucks?

[00:10:59]Mhm. It's like They have that option though. So I guess people do did.

[00:11:05]It's an option but I wouldn't tip at Starbucks. Like what they do put the your drink in? Yeah, cool.

[00:11:10]Like tipping to me is you you start tipping when they bring the food out to you.

[00:11:16]When you go pick up the food I was there to tip. Like McDonald's you don't tip.

[00:11:21]The same thing. I don't know if McDonald's have a tip option. I don't know. Maybe now they do.

[00:11:26]I don't know but like at McDonald's I wouldn't tip cuz how is the Starbucks is basically coffee for McDonald's.

[00:11:33]Now, if it's like a sit-down place and they, you know, you sit down, they come bring you coffee, and they bring you the Okay, that's different. Yeah, you would tip that. Tip they.

[00:11:43]So, I guess it depends there, but uh it's interesting. I would have never like considered not that.

[00:11:48]I guess I never heard of Australia as being uh like having a coffee culture like that.

[00:11:53]But, you see like Italy, Croatia, you know, like those European countries.

[00:11:57]Never really heard Australia being like that. That's interesting. Well, that I live in Australia, I think it's more of a culture of slowing down a little bit, hang out with your family, hanging out with your friends. I know that's still something that you do in America, but I feel like it's quite emphasized to do in Australia. I feel like the typical Melbourne girl's weekend is Saturday morning wake up, do a fitness class, and then go to brunch in your workout gear.

[00:12:18]I feel like I see so many people do that, especially when I used to live in Richmond, that was just everything that I would see on a weekend is girls walking around and guys walking around in their workout gear, and then going to brunch and getting a coffee. Difference number nine is UV protection. In Australia, it's quite known that the UV is really, really It's so bad, and people who come here from other countries just don't realize it and just get super, super sunburned.

[00:12:41]In America, the UV is bad.

[00:12:44]when they went.

[00:12:45]Um Well, they wore sunscreen usually, but I mean, they were only there for 2 weeks. Well, you're not going to catch cancer in 2 weeks, I don't think. No, not that part, but like you're going to sunburn.

[00:13:02]I mean, it's kind of expected when you go to like a warm weather, you're going to get sunburned. So, it's not like I don't think it's shocking.

[00:13:09]>> But, would you have worn sunblock?

[00:13:10]That's the thing. Me? Mhm.

[00:13:13]Probably, if I'm outside a lot, yeah.

[00:13:15]Mhm. Like if I'm just going to grocery store, I wouldn't.

[00:13:19]>> Mhm. But, maybe in Australia you have to, I don't know.

[00:13:23]healthy, which is nice. So, you normally can go out in the sun for a good couple hours and maybe with some light sunscreen you don't really have to worry about it. But in Australia you can get burned in like 15 minutes, which is crazy. Because of that there have been a lot of campaigns on being sun smart.

[00:13:38]Their campaign was known as slip, slop, slap. So getting people to I think they would have advertised it a lot. Mhm.

[00:13:45]Like there would be signs. or to slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat. So because of that campaign a lot of skin cancer rates went down in Australia. But at the same time I think it's something like one in two Australians get skin cancer, which is very very scary.

[00:13:56]>> you like she's picked up an Australian accent.

[00:14:00]There's a little accent going on. Like it's not full on accent, but it you hear a little bit of an accent, yeah. you're coming to Australia, wear a ton of sunscreen because the sun can really really damage you. I even find that the quality of sunscreen is quite different from American brands than it is from Australian brands. So even if you're coming over to Australia on a trip, buy your sun There is an Australian brand of sunscreen. At least it's called Australian something here.

[00:14:24]We do have it. I don't I don't remember right now.

[00:14:29]I can't use it.

[00:14:31]Burns your eyes.

[00:14:33]sunscreen in Australia because it will just be higher quality and will protect your skin better. Honey, look who it is.

[00:14:39]I heard you got a new deck. made it this far in the video, please leave an Australian flag emoji down in the comments so I know that you're a real one. Now we're getting to a number 10 of the differences and that is school holidays. In America it's quite known that you go on a really long summer break. It's about 3 months long. In Australia you would call it holidays, but in America you would call it vacation. In America it's all this whole big summer vacation. You go with your friends, maybe you do like a summer camp. In Australia however, the holidays are a little bit different. It's almost like every quarter, every like couple months that you would get 2 to 3 weeks off with a larger one I think around like Christmas, which is about like a month. Although you don't get like a full summer break of 3 months off, you get more of these like standard longer breaks. You can plan a lot more holidays rather than going on like one giant one.

[00:15:21]I'm actually quite curious what you guys think about summer in America or summer in Australia in terms of holidays. Which one would you prefer? Would you rather take a giant 3-month holiday or would you rather take a bunch of smaller ones that are like 2 to 3 weeks? Leave a comment down below. I'm curious. An extra difference that I wanted to This is a hard one. I'm I'm so used to like the summer break. I don't think I I would prefer it any other way. But, I think at the same time, I think that's just cuz I'm conditioned to it.

[00:15:47]I think in theory maybe the The multi breaks is better than the Multi breaks could be better. Like I could see, you know, like you don't get as exhausted as the like going like 5 months you know, and then 5 months or like 4 months, 4 months, whatever.

[00:16:06]But, it's just like I'm so used I I can't imagine any other way, honestly. It's It would be really hard that I don't have like a big break.

[00:16:15]Cuz, you know, you you that big break is something to look forward to. Like you will look forward the whole year.

[00:16:22]Take that away and life is kind of like never-ending cycle.

[00:16:27]And it at As an adult this is already, but as a kid at least there was like that big break. As an adult you don't really have that. So, like whatever.

[00:16:37]But, I guess as an adult, you know, if you work a job, you have a vacation, you kind of also if you take like that month vacation, however long you get, you do kind of wait for it, too. So, it's kind of similar. Cuz imagine if instead of being able to take two to four week vacation, you kind of take a a week-long vacation every like a quarter.

[00:16:57]That would be like You haven't had a like a time off.

[00:17:01]>> Yeah, like you feel like you never you didn't have a time off. Versus that month, you feel like you had a time off.

[00:17:06]So, that's why I feel like it it would be really hard. I'm sure for Australians, maybe they feel like the same way. They're like, "Oh, I wouldn't want that much time off. Like I prefer my my, you know, regular breaks." Which I think it's I think honestly I think it's just conditioning how you condition.

[00:17:20]>> I I'm kind of shocked too because I can imagine traveling from Australia to anywhere else is a long time. So to accomplish that in like a short time span and then do that often, I would think they would want a big break so they could do one travel out and then you're out where you were at and you could travel wherever you want to with much more easier and not spend so much time on the sky in the sky.

[00:17:42]When is the flies and insects? In America, the flies are there but they're just not as annoying and they're not as big. But in Australia, the flies are so huge and there's so many of them. It is so annoying. Like every time summer comes around, I forget how annoying the flies are. They just like stick to your face different and they just annoy you different and I just hate flies. So at least I'm living in Melbourne where the flies aren't as bad, I feel like. But up north like all the insects are crazy. I wish I knew that before coming to Australia for sure.

[00:18:13]So if you enjoyed watching this video of the differences Interesting.

[00:18:17]But the flies I wonder if it's cuz she's in the city like in America she lived in the city.

[00:18:24]Cuz here in in Miami there's not too many bugs too like the mosquitoes. But like in Lithuania, oh boy. But at the same time Lithuania I lived by a forest though.

[00:18:33]So like is it because of that? Cuz I wonder how like here in the states if you go to a swamp out in the Everglades, I'm sure there would be bugs. Like I think it really depends where you live too.

[00:18:45]But hm Interesting video though. I think she did a good job.

[00:18:50]I see the comments.

[00:18:55]It's not your right to vote, it's your duty to vote.

[00:18:59]Yeah, that's the way to put it.

[00:19:01]Like you know your duty to go serve the country, here's your duty to vote.

[00:19:04]And then I'm surprised you didn't mention the lack of mass shootings as a major difference.

[00:19:10]Personal health care too of course.

[00:19:14]Ooh, they have them being picky now.

[00:19:15]Wow.

[00:19:16]Well, no, she just gave 10. Yeah, she just gave The thing is like universal healthcare, she probably hadn't had to deal with it, so it's like doesn't come to her mind. Or shooting.

[00:19:26]Yeah, shooting. She never had to deal like that's the thing with the shootings. Like if you see like if you watch TV, you watch the news, yeah.

[00:19:33]But like if you don't have to deal with it day-to-day, like you don't really doesn't doesn't even come to your mind.

[00:19:38]That's like it's not something you sit here and think about like oh, I'm not going to go outside cuz what if there's a shoot like it just doesn't happen like Only Melbourne has a cup day off. The rest of the states have to work as usual. Same with the AFL grand final.

[00:19:52]Oh, okay. Oh, correction.

[00:19:55]Ask about long service leave. I'm retired now. Left Australia for Asia. I remember meeting some Americans in Japan during a scientific conference. They were shocked at the concept of long service leave.

[00:20:05]After 10 years service, you are awarded 3 months leave and and more as your employer and pensioner.

[00:20:11]Oh, that's cool.

[00:20:13]That's really nice. I wonder if Yes, they get they do pretty well for themselves then to be able to accomplish that.

[00:20:21]>> No, but I think it's a paid leave.

[00:20:23]I think you get paid for it. Oh.

[00:20:25]>> I think the government pays for it. It comes out of your taxes. And that's how that's what I how I understand it.

[00:20:30]Cool, that was an interesting video.

[00:20:31]This was interesting. Hey guys, request that you let us know your thoughts. If you could like, comment, and subscribe.

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