Hello everyone! Today I have a very interesting video for you guys. If you're new to this channel, I'm Sonia, I'm Italian and I am married to my American husband, Brian. I love to travel and I spend a lot of time thinking about different cultures, differences between people from different countries. It's like a hobby of mine. I love it. I've already made a few videos about differences between Italy, America and international relationships, but today I have some very interesting, deep-level differences between Italy and America. So I think you will really, really enjoy this video. First of all, let me say that I am a bit generalizing because it's impossible to make a video about differences without generalizing everybody's different, but I think most people will agree. So let's start. The first difference I've called it saving money. I've noticed that generally speaking, if an American earns 10, they tend to spend 9 or maybe even 10, you know, you spend what you make. So even your life standards will get higher, like you earn 10, your life standard is 10. In Italy, usually you earn 10, you spend 7 or 6, even though you earn 10, your life standard is 6 or 7, and you want to save money. I'm sure there must be some important historical reason or, you know, the economy, unemployment, I don't know, there must be some reason behind this, but I think it's very, very interesting. And I am totally Italian, like, okay, I earn 10, I want to spend 7. And brands sometimes is a little more American, like, oh, the sun, yeah, but you earn 10, so if you spend 10, you're good. And I'm like, how does that go? Like, no savings. I don't know, it's, it's very interesting. It can be a problem if you are in an international relationship because, you know, money, people fight a lot over money. We don't, because I feel like we found a good compromise. Like maybe Brian wants to spend 9, and I want to spend 7. We spend 7. I'm kidding, maybe 7.5. I'm just kidding, we found our own balance. Difference number two, this is very interesting too. I called it, how much influence you have on your own future? You've probably heard that movie where the parents tell the children, you can become anything you want in your future. If you work hard, you can become the president of the United States of America. I feel like in Italy, usually it's, the mentality, it's a little different. My parents have always encouraged me, but they always kept it, I don't want to say kept it real because even the American point of view can be real, so I don't know, but in Italy it's more like, probably you can do anything you want, but you also have to be lucky, and a lot of things need to go the way they're supposed to and blah, blah, blah. I feel like most people in Italy don't truly believe that you can be anything you want. Probably we think that we have to work hard and we, of course, we shouldn't give up, but we have to be lucky. We have to know someone, but in America you're really really like the owner of your own future, and this is good, and this is bad, so I feel like sometimes if you have an American mentality, you can put a lot, a lot, a lot of pressure on yourself, because if you don't succeed, you feel like you did something wrong, because why didn't I become president of the United States? In Italy it's more like, if you don't succeed, well, you tried hard, good job, you made it this far, that's really good, but maybe you were unlucky, but on the other hand, if you're too Italian, you might not even try. So maybe you might become the president of the United States, but you don't believe you can do it, and so you don't even try. So I think we should find a good, good balance. Very interesting, think about it. The third difference I called it job stability. I feel like in America, since they have more jobs, there's more employment, definitely compared to Italy, so right now this is not the best moment for America, but in general, still there's more employment. So I feel like there's more job hopping in America compared to Italy, in Italy it's like really hard to get a job, so if you get a job, you don't, you don't want to quit, usually, and also in Italy there are a lot of roles, so it's really hard to get laid off. In order to get fired, you would have to do something really big, or the company, you know, the company needs to prove that they can fire you, because it's not easy at all to get fired. I think in America, it's a little bit easier to get laid off. I'm not really, really, really good at this topic, so probably a lot of you guys know more about this. So let's move on to the next point. I called it independence from family. This is probably not a surprise. Most Italians are spoiled. I feel like our parents don't really push us to leave the family, to leave the nest. No, actually a lot of parents are like, but why would we want to leave your nest, to stay with us and be with us, and we are a big family until you're 50. I'm exaggerating, but kind of. In America, I've met a lot of Americans who told me like, oh no, I couldn't wait for my kids to become independent, and I was happy when they went to college, and yay! Well, weren't you sad? Didn't you cry? I feel like I would be more Italian. I don't know, pros and cons. On one hand, you're always dependent, and you feel like you owe your parents a lot, but it's also nice to be spoiled, so pros and cons. I'm not judging. Last difference for today, punctuality and planning. If you plan to go out with your friends in America, usually you pick a place, and then you pick a time, and you have the place and time, and you meet there on time. In Italy, it's usually like, hey guys, do you want to hang out on Friday night? Yes, okay, cool, see you on Friday! And then it's Friday evening, and you still don't know where you'll go and what time, and I think it's very stressful for Brian because like, where are we going? And I feel him because I'm more American, I like to know where we're going, and what time, and I'm also very, very punctual, but I'm used to living in Italy, so I don't really get mad. He gets frustrated. Like the other day, we had to go out for a job with my uncle, and he said, let's meet at 7.15, and it was like 7.25. I was totally chilling because, you know, just 10 minutes, and where I was like, where are you seeing? Where are you seeing? I was like, I don't know, he'll probably contact us when he's ready. Yeah, well, we were late, we ended up going out at like 8. That's it, really for you! Guys, I really hope you enjoyed this video. I really like to share all these things, like these deep level differences between Italians and Americans. Leave a comment below. 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