VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
Trev in Poland
Differences Between Polish & American Houses
Description generated by Skrybot
Discover the intriguing differences between American and Polish homes in this informative video. This video delves into the unique contrasts between these two cultures, from the materials used in construction to the distinct terminologies.
Learn about the reasons behind the use of cheaper wood in American homes and the preference for more durable materials in Polish homes. Acquire knowledge about the different terms used to describe homes, such as townhouses and duplexes in America, and terraced and semi-detached houses in Poland.
Additionally, the video discusses how Polish homes are usually smaller compared to their American counterparts. Discover the reasons why basements are less common in Poland and how construction methods vary between the two countries.
The video also showcases the aesthetic differences between the two countries, including textured black roof shingles in the US and popular vibrant orange Spanish tiles in Poland. We also examine interior differences, such as the prevalence of hardwood floors in American homes and the popularity of tile and hardwood floors in Polish residences.
Additionally, we cover the importance of privacy in Polish homes, the preference for backyard spaces over porches, and the customary practice of removing shoes upon entering a Polish home.
Explore the intriguing differences in kitchen design, such as the American obsession with granite countertops and the popular Polish preference for wood countertops with lamination. We will discuss differences in bathroom design, including the common presence of towel racks in Poland, and the unique dual-flush system used in Polish toilets.
Additionally, the video covers differences in home appliances, such as combined washer-dryer units found in Poland, and separate units found in the US. We also examine the varying air conditioning needs and varied window types used in both countries.
Please join us in uncovering these and several other intriguing differences between American and Polish homes. Stay tuned for an exciting upcoming change to the channel! Thank you for watching. As they say in Poland: 'do widzenia!'
Transcription generated by Skrybot
so I know a lot of people would say why would you make your your house out of cheap flimsy wood and my statement to that is would you build your ship out of rocks? Dzień dobry cześć nalo today guys I wanted to talk about the differences between American homes and Polish homes now I actually made this video before but there's so many more things I could have added to that and it's just really outdated at this point so I wanted to make a new video on this topic so anyways guys I'll see you in the next video. Let's just get started.
And also who am I? I'm an American who's been in Poland plenty of times now. And at this point, I kind of know the differences between the homes there and the homes here and also the vocabulary with them, which is the first point that I wanted to talk about, which is the vocabulary that we use when we're describing the differences between houses, homes, townhouses, condos, flats, apartments, all of that stuff. So let's just get started with that. And the first difference is going to be with a townhouse. Now in America, we say townhouse. but with Polish people, when they're especially learning, you know, British English, which is what they're only learning typically, that vocabulary is going to be terraced house, a terraced home.
So the difference is, is that in the US, we call these homes townhouses, and then in Poland and Europe, they're called a terraced house. And then the next one in American English, this is called a duplex. And then in Poland, what most people are familiar with, with this one is a semi-detached house. And then in Poland and Europe, this is known as a detached house. And then in the US.
This is simply just called a house and the next one I wanted to talk about condos or also referred to as condominiums in the US and then also apartments or flats in Poland now the difference between Apartments and condos in the US is that with apartments so think of one apartment building? Yeah Well that's owned by one apartment company and there they lease out their apartments to their tenants and then with condos each specific room is Individually by specific people and I'm pretty sure in Poland the word Condo doesn't really exist. There isn't such thing as condos versus apartments.
They're really just known as apartments or flats So now that this is defined I wanted to talk about the percentages of who lives where now in America 72% of Americans live in houses 20% live in apartments and 5% live in mobile homes or trailers and 3% lives in RVs vans or boats and then in Poland around 55% of Poles live in houses and then around 44% live in apartments and then let's talk about how big these houses are so in the US the house size is around 214 square meters or 2,303 square feet. But I found that in Poland the average home was around 100 square meters.
So basically in the US our living quarters are around twice the size that they are in Poland. Now so the differences between rooms in the US and Poland are actually pretty much the same. You know there's still a laundry room, there's still of course the living room, bathroom, and then you know separate bedrooms and all that stuff. But in Poland I noticed that there really isn't too many houses with basements. Now I'm pretty sure that this is based upon the soil I'm guessing. Either that or it's extremely expensive. So my theory about this is that Poland has a very sandy soil and typically in places that have sandy soils you won't find homes with basements.
Someone let me know about this down below if that's actually right because here in the US this actually depends on pretty much which state you're living in on whether that's going to have a basement or not. Now if you go somewhere like Florida or near the beach to a specific area you're not going to find a house with a basement. The building and city heights can only be of a certain limit in those areas because of the sandy soil. So in the US it kind of depends on if the house is gonna have a basement, really just where the area is specifically. Now let's talk about how each house is built in each country.
Now in the US most of our houses are built with a concrete slab or you know base layer. Typically they're reinforced obviously with steel and then upon that base slab of concrete there is wood structures and wood beams that are then built up upon that and it's really just wood.
It's also typically Really just pine wood and nowadays the wood isn't as strong as it was before because the trees are being cut down faster They're really just trying to cut down trees as fast as possible to get this specific lumber And of course, they have to follow a specific amount of years that the tree has to be alive before they cut it But yeah for the most part They're really just trying to cut down the tree as fast as possible And because of this older homes were built with much stronger and older wood versus nowadays Most of the homes are built with a younger wood Which is also more susceptible to catching on fire now in the future Poland from what I could see is that most of the houses are built based upon a concrete slab or base layer just like in the US but the differences between the housing and the construction is that Then the layer on top of the concrete is then usually cinder blocks and most of these blocks seem to be fairly easy to kind of put together kind of like a puzzle and then upon The concrete cinder blocks usually there's lots of masonry work that's involved in this with filling You know the the cinder blocks with concrete and masonry and all of that type of stuff.
And then I'm pretty sure on top is a wood layer. And then on the roof, the roof shingles in the US are kind of like a. . . like this textured, almost like a piece of like sandpaper if you kind of think of it like that, and then think of if it was like glued, and then you sprinkled a bunch of mini little rocks over. It's kind of like that. That's kind of what it looks like. Typically they're all black, and then versus in Poland, the roofs have kind of like a orange, Spanish type of tile, and then, you know, nowadays they're even making lots of homes with black tiles. That's, I think, kind of the newer trend.
To me, the new look that's like white on black is kind of like this really cool, sophisticated, neat kind of look, almost like a Japanese house. in a way. And then in the US, the sides of the homes are made with a vinyl siding and really all it is is kind of like this hard piece of plastic that basically locks, interlocks with each one. To me it's nothing special, it's really just a piece of plastic that's interlocked with the others. And then in Poland it's typically just the masonry layer, I'm guessing it's really just grout on the outside that's simply just painted with whatever color to match.
And then inside, a lot of the floors in the US have a hardwood floor, especially on the first level, and then usually the upstairs and or downstairs is typically just the same. of a carpet material. Now this really depends because some places people have different preferences but it seems like a lot of the homes at least have a first layer of hardwood floor and then the upstairs and downstairs are typically carpet. Versus in Poland what I notice is that typically the first floor is all made of tiles and then once you get up to the second floor it can still be tiles or typically hardwood floor.
And so I also have to say that while most houses in the US are constructed of wood, some places in the US like typically in desert regions are really just made of simple in your house. All right, I'm actually just kidding. Like, yeah, some of the homes here are done very badly and I've been working in construction in residential areas and some of the homes that I've seen really don't, they're really not good from the start to the finish. Like there's just so many different errors along the process and then the material is so cheap. So I'm not here to argue with anyone that the houses are flimsier in the US because really on average they are.
So next up, I'm just gonna talk about a bunch of different little small things and some fun things. well. So the first one I wanted to talk about is porches. Now in the US a lot of people will either have like a porch area on the front of their house or you know they will even have like this back porch that's on like a full deck and from there they'll have like their barbecue grill and all of that. Whereas in Poland it seems like there's more emphasis on the back of the house and having your barbecue and all that back there.
And then in the US there's this depiction of having a house with a white picket fence and I wouldn't really say that's true. I would say kind of the opposite's true. Now in Poland a lot of people are really big on not being able to look into your yard, right? It's kind of like this privacy issue. You know, this is my yard. No one can see in, right? Everyone has these popsicle trees. That's what I call them, popsicle trees in their yards. And they're going all the way around. So it's like this barrier of like this fort along with a, you know, typically like a gate that you have to swing open in order to even get into the driveway.
So, you know, versus in the US, a lot of people have open properties with no fences on them. And you could simply just walk up to. their front door. So the next up is microwaves. Now in the US we are pretty much obsessed with them and if you don't have a microwave you're probably considered strange because of how popular a microwave is. Every single house I've ever been to in the US, apartment, condo, whatever has always had a microwave versus in Poland. Seems like a lot of people don't have microwaves and most people aren't really for them and I'm pretty sure there's probably two reasons for that.
One being that if you have to microwave your food in order to cook it, it's probably not the best food and it would taste better anyway. if you cooked it, you know, in a pan or whatever. And then also microwaves, you know, for the most part are bad for you because most of the materials that we cook our foods in in the US in the microwave are plastics. Yes, we, you know, typically will put all of our food in different plastics and then we put that and put it right into the microwave and then essentially you're melting your plastic and then you're going to eat that. Now, it would be much better option to use like a glass container or, you know, something like that.
But most people don't. A lot of people I know always use plastic containers. to microwave their foods. So yeah, I would say in most cases, it's probably nice to not have a microwave and instead just always cook fresh. And the next one is granite countertops. In the US, everyone has this weird obsession with having a granite countertop, something that's thousands of dollars, has to be beautiful, shiny. Most of them have a different pattern in them. They can have like different sparkling type of rocks or minerals in them. And then they also have a fake granite countertop that's like half the price. It literally looks pretty much exactly the same as regular granite. Yeah, I don't know. This is.
weird obsession with granite countertops that I don't really understand versus in Poland it's typically just like a wood countertop with you know some type of lamination over it. Now the next one is walking into the house. What are you gonna do? Are you gonna take your shoes off or not? Well if you're in Poland you're taking your shoes off and in the U. S. it really just depends on that specific family. Toilets, there's a big flush and a small flush in Poland and in the U. S. there is just one flush and then also there's bidets in Poland so you can clean after you go and take a sh. . .
So the next one that's pretty cool is heated floors in like kind of the kitchen living room type of area in Poland. I noticed that there are some houses that have this option. with also towel racks in the bathrooms. Whereas in the US, we don't really have that option. It's not even popular at all. I've never heard of anyone that has that, but there is some homes that have heated driveways. So in the winter, if you're in an area where it snows a lot, or you really just don't like the snow, you don't like shoveling and doing all of that, you can just turn on the switch to your heated driveway and it's going to melt the snow.
Of course, the plug outlets are different. In the US, we use a different one than in Poland and Europe, and I'm pretty sure most of the world, which didn't we invent electricity? Why is that? I'm just kidding, but that's true. The next one is windows and in the US most of our windows are slide ups and slide downs and there is typically like a bug screen as well that's on them and you can also easily take those out if you wanted to.
And typically in Poland there's a push in and push out type of situation with the windows where you can let in a ton of air because the entire window is open instead of simply just half of it, but if you were to slide it, if that makes any sense. And then there's typically no bug screens in Poland. Poland homes also don't typically have AC as they're not fully needed. I know that most people. . . in the summer are always saying, man, I really wish I had AC and stuff, but it seems like for the most part it's really only a month or two. That's pretty bad, like hot wise, where it's just always hot.
But for the most part, most Poles don't really have ACs in their homes. And I would argue that it's really not needed, especially with the price and all of that. But here in the US, a lot of homes do probably need AC, especially areas like the Southeast. And the next one is washers and dryers. Now I know that in Poland, they make washers and dryers built into one.
another and that's really cool like you can wash your clothes and then the next setting leave all your clothes in there and then it's gonna dry it automatically and maybe I haven't been looking at washers and dryers in the US but you know I'm sure we have that option as well but most families will simply just have a washer and a dryer but in Poland I would say the typical thing to do is to really just have a washer and then to dry your clothes on a rack after so that's really it for this video I wanted to talk about a bunch of different things that I didn't in the previous one that I've talked about the differences between homes so I hope you guys found this at least like somewhat entertaining and also maybe educational.
And if you learned something new, let me know in the comment section down below. And if you wanted to add something that you thought was really important that I forgot and I just completely missed, also let me know in the comment section down below because I'm really eager to hear what you guys have to say. There's new things coming soon in a few months. Just be prepared for that. There's gonna be a whole different change to the channel and I'm really excited about that. So anyways, guys, thank you so much for watching. I will catch you in the next one. Dziękuję i do widzenia. .
S K R Y B O T
Skrybot. 2023, Video transcriptions from YouTube
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