So listen, guys! there's nothing planned for today, so I thought we could just do
a staring contest! are you ready? 1– 2– 3!
Wha–? Hold on! apparently we've got some mail here, let's see... oh it's from Norah! let's
talk about the differences between North, South, East, West and the Midwest! you know
what? that's a really good idea, thanks Norah! Actually Norah did not send me
anything, but she did win the vote for this week on Patreon. on Patreon you get
to vote twice each week for two of the videos that I make, and this week
Nora's idea won, so I'm making her video! become a patron now so you can vote for
two of next week's videos as well as get a lot of other really cool shit. Now to
start, we need to understand some American geography. because often
when we talk about American culture and language, we divide the country into two
parts, the North and the South. after hearing that you might expect that the
map looks like this, but nonononoo! because there is no map, no map that looks like
that. instead when you hear an American talk about the North and the South,
they're imagining the North, the United States, fighting the South, the
Confederates, the Confederacy! if you want another video that explains the American
Civil War in more detail, yo, just click right up here! but
this geography is already confusing because the North was also made up of
some Western states, California, Oregon and Nevada. as well, in the middle of the
country, there were five buffer States. these were neither part of the South or
the North. to make it easier, let's divide the United States into four regions. but
even with this subdivision we still have some confusion. let's analyze the four
parts, so you can see exactly what I mean! first– when we talk about the North I
think what we're really imagining in our head, as Americans and you should too, is
the Northeast. the Northeast is where massive urbanization occurred much
earlier than in other parts of the United States– New York City, Boston, New
Jersey– these places! now let's go a little further west to the Midwest. the
Midwest also has some urbanized pockets, Milwaukee and Chicago are great
examples, but these larger cities are still surrounded by smaller mid-sized
cities and a lot of rural communities. let's go south to where the population
density is a bit lower than the Midwest. you have more rural communities with an
even smaller number of large and mid-sized cities. by the way, Florida is
in the South, but it really shares nothing in common with the other states
in that region. and finally, we have the West. but we should really divide this
into two regions. the West Coast and the West. the West Coast is California, Oregon
and Washington. these are all very urbanized states. the
majority of the states in the West are the least urbanized states. very rural! so
the main difference between the South, although I do think the southern states
have a lot in common with those very rural states in the West, is that there
is much more importance to unwritten etiquette and courtesy. in the southern
states and I think in most rural places in general, you are expected to show a
lot more of that unwritten etiquette, while in much more urbanized places, that
etiquette I think goes away as city life makes everyday interactions less
personal. but let's continue! how I've described these regions, some more rural
and some more urban, is really what we mean when we say North and South. city
folk and country folk. each region has its own unique identity, and we'll focus
more on them in the future, but for now urban means more liberal,
secular, Democratic and city centric. that's our imaginative understanding of
what the North is. while rural means more conservative, religious, Republican and
country focused. so what about differences in American English? the most
general comparison is again northern and southern. and for many people, when they
meet someone for the first time based on their accent, they will ask "where are you
from in the South?" or "where are you from in the North?" that's very general. as we
investigate more, you'll find that accent is just as if not more complicated
than how we divide the regions of the United States, because living in a rural
or urban area has a big impact on how you speak English. whether it's rural
Michigan in the northern United States or rural Mississippi in the South, you
can often tell if someone grew up in a city, a town, or on a farm based on how
they speak. and all over the US, accents are becoming much more distinct. so even
in a state where I'm from there are three distinct accents. but if you're
learning English don't worry too much about that, in fact I made a video a
while back, you can watch it here, about why you need to choose a specific accent
to study. vocabulary is one reason, there's a lot of regional words but
especially the vowel differences that I just mentioned. you don't want to be
corrected by someone in Alabama even though you're speaking with a perfect
Minnesota accent. if you don't study a specific accent, when someone tries to
correct you, you don't know when you're right and when you're wrong! because
people from different regions, especially if you're traveling to different
english-speaking countries, will correct you WHEN YOU ARE CORRECT! putting a link
in the description for a really fun website you can visit. you'll see a big
map of the United States. you can click anywhere and listen to the regional
accents from across the country. use this because there's a lot of northern
southern and western accents, it's really fun to check it out. now that you
understand these parts, it's going to be much easier to move forward and learn a
lot more about American culture and language. and hey! thanks patrons for
making these videos possible! you guys ROCK! people like Norah, who I think is on
her 30th degree and only 30 more to go, so keep it up Norah! why you're still here,
let's talk a little bit more about Wisconsin. in terms of accents Wisconsin
is unique because there's really three distinct accents or dialects in this
state. and one of them we share with parts of Michigan, Minnesota and North
Dakota. this is the upper accent from the Upper Peninsula. and I'll just say
it's not the prettiest– there's a famous SNL sketch about "Da Bears", that uses this
accent. Sarah Palin, she wa– she's from Alaska but she's famous for having
this accent, and then finally there's the show and the movie Fargo, where you can
hear a lot of this accent as well! I'll catch you guys later!
"you were having sex with a little fella, then?" "that's something that John McCain
and I have both been discussing" "there anything else you can tell me about him?"
"I love John McCain" "oh yeah?" "yeah!" "oh you betcha yeah" "yeah!"
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