An American living in Australia has shared the two biggest shocks she has had when it comes to Aussie etiquette, and people aren't happy.
Brooke Laven is originally from Minnesota but has been living in Australia for three years. Laven says she only notices a couple of cultural differences now, but the ones that affect her daily are to do with Aussie etiquette in two locations - movie theatres and public transport.
In a video posted online on Friday, the expat said that these differences often leave people thinking that she is rude, without her realising or meaning to be.
"In the movie theatre, if you see a movie in the US, everyone has their phones out, you see the little screens, but it doesn't really affect other viewers' experiences," she said. "In Australia, people think it's distracting to have the little screens lit up in the theatre, so a random person will ask you to leave if you have your phone out."
Laven described the use of mobile phones in a cinema as one of the "things that would be fine in the US but not okay in Australia."
Her take on cinema etiquette lit up the Australians in her comments, with people shocked the behaviour would be considered tolerable. "The cinema one with the phone is shocking, how can you focus on the screen the movie is on with a hundred bright lights in your face?" one commenter asked. "Sorry your bright phone is distracting? Like turn it off, every cinema asks you to do this before the movie starts," another added.
According to research from the US National Research Group, 20 per cent of US teens say they use their phones inside a cinema.
Laven also took aim at Australian etiquette regarding public transport, and the lack of rush she said Australians tend to display. "Sometimes I'm in a hurry and I really need to get somewhere, and everyone else is just slowly, patiently waiting for the next person to go," she explained. "Sometimes I just have no patience, and I know it can be taken as rude, but it's like I don't have time to sit here and watch you slowly get up, but I know I'm in the wrong there and I need to slow down."
Unlike cinema etiquette, viewers were split on public transport behaviour. "It's taken as rude because it is rude," an Australian wrote. "I'm with you on the dawdling. He who hesitates is lost," argued another. "No one is in that much of a rush that you can't wait an extra two seconds for the person in front of you," another commenter wrote.
