In case any of my non-American followers were wondering, here’s the answer to some of the questions mentioned above:
There are 12 inches in a foot, and a foot is a little less than a third of a meter.
I actually had to look this one up because I didn’t know either, but apparently “pound” came from the Latin term “libra pondo” and lb is short for libra.
“Military time” is just 24-hour time. So 6 pm is 1800. Also they say the times a certain way; 4 am is said “oh four hundred” and 7:30 pm is said “nineteen thirty.” And it’s called that because the American military used that system, because I guess it’s clearer and more efficient?
Chick-fil-A is a restaurant, most popular in the South, that prides itself on its “Christian values.” Which would be fine if they just closed on Sundays and expected their workers to be extra polite, but they also give money to homophobic causes and are generally known to treat LGBT+ people badly.
“Freshman” refers to someone in their first year of high school, or 9th grade. This is the year when most students are 14 and turn 15. “Sophomore” refers to someone in their second year of high school, or 10th grade, and most students are 15 and turn 16. And these weren’t mentioned, but “junior” and “senior” refer to the next and last two years of high school, or 11th and 12th grade, respectively. These four words can also be used to refer to the first four years of college, so sometimes you need to specify “high school freshman” or “college sophomore.”
We do indeed pay for gas before we fill up. You swipe your card at the pump and then when you’re done it charges you for however much gas you took (or you can pay inside with cash and just fill up with however much you paid for). I guess there were too many people who would just fill up and leave without paying.
I know American higher education is different from the systems in other countries, but here, “college” and “university” are synonyms. There’s a technical difference (colleges are smaller and focus on undergraduate studies), so some schools are universities and others are colleges, but for the whole system and experience we mostly use “college” even if you’re technically attending a university.
Obviously I can’t explain all the weirdness of English grammar in one post, much less one bullet point, but if you have any questions feel free to ask me.
Our voting system (at least for presidential elections) is called the electoral college and yes it’s dumb but the way it works is that every state gets a certain number of people called “electors” based on their population. Even though the presidential candidates are the ones on the ballot, technically we’re voting for electors who have pledged to vote for them. Each state’s electors go to the candidate who won in that state, and the vote with the electors is done like a couple of weeks later, but it’s really just a formality these days.
8/7c means 8:00 Eastern Standard Time, 7:00 Central Standard Time. It’s used a lot for tv shows because they air simultaneously in those two time zones.
“Credit score” is basically an assessment of how likely you are to follow through on a promised payment, based on your history of paying your bills on time and such. I’ve never heard of a job wanting to know your credit score, but I suppose it might happen sometimes. As far as I know, though, it’s only used for things where paying people back is considered really important, like renting an apartment, taking out a loan, or getting a credit card.
I dunno what a National ID card is, but we do have ID cards. That’s what a driver’s license is.
Primaries are how parties choose their own candidate here.
Anyway, hope this was at least a little informative! And feel free to send me an ask or something if anyone has more questions.