News on Youtube Dec 28 2017

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!"