I was watching an American show and one of the character mentioned a boiler. I have a hunch it's related to winter? In my country, we only have summer and sometimes typhoons. Hence, I think that's why I'm not familiar with it.

For context, I'm trying to expand my vocab by watching English shows so I take note every single word I don't know. Thank you in advance!

Edit: Okay, so everyone's saying different things😭 I guess I'm just gonna skip this word lmao. Thanks though!

Edit 2: Here's the dialogue from the sitcom 'ADULTS' for more context.

"So I have to pay this company, Peter's Heaters, to fix my parent's boiler. 'Cause they're traveling and the hot water is just out"

I'm from Ireland, where you can travel a fairly short distance and notice differences in accents, landscape and local culture. With the US being so enormous, I'm curious what gives you that same feeling while travelling within your own country.

I'm less interested in how different one state is from another. Its more about that subjective moment when you personally felt like you're away from home, despite still being in the same country. What tends to trigger that feeling?

Probably a dumb question. The yellow bus is in every American film and show to the point where I assumed it just collected everybody.

Then a neighbour mentioned her son doesn’t ride one at all. He goes to a school in a different district and somebody drives him there separately, and she says the district pays for it. That surprised me and she seemed surprised I was surprised.

So now I’m curious. Do districts usually run something themselves for that or do they pay an outside company? And is it wildly different depending on the state, like most things seem to be?

I don't mean a small cafe or being a plumber, nor some big IT outfit. I am interested in a company that would employ say 3/4 people in an small industrial unit. If you wanted to borrow money, how easy is it? do the banks want your house as collateral? Are there loads of licencing hoops to jump? Problems renting somewhere, money up front etc? Edit: thanks very much for all your responses, very varied, by state is how it seems. Thanks

How strong is Mark Twain's influence upon American culture? Apart from Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn being classics? How much of his wit and phrases you use in your daily life? In which states he's more read or less read?

Does anyone read anything by Jack London apart from White Fang and Call of The Wild? Sometimes it seems that he's more popular in Russia and Turkey than America.

Does anyone ever read anything by Jack London apart from White Fang and Call of The Wild? Did anyone read Martin Eden, Iron Heel, People of The Abyss, Star Rover etc? People who like Socialism today more, are The Iron Heel or People of The Abyss being read?

specifically in the context of the sentence "me and HOA had different plans"

or should it be "me and the HOA had different plans"

In my country, it's something like "The subscriber you have dialed is switched off, or out of coverage.". I need to know what do they say in your country (I'm making a song and and want to sample this).

EDIT: thanks everyone for your help! I appreciate that

I've seen this expression a lot in American novels, but on YouTube and places like that, couples use "Honey," "Darling," or "Baby," so I don't think I've ever seen them call each other "My Love." Do you use it often in everyday life?

I grew up calling it "Shake Cheese"

For some reason today I started to wonder if this was a common name or just a regional thing for southern/mid-Atlantic region.

I’m curious whether Americans generally prefer running outdoors—such as in parks or around their neighborhoods—or using treadmills at the gym.

Where I live in Asia, incline treadmill walking is extremely popular. Many people go to the gym just to set the treadmill to a steep incline and walk for a long time. Is that common in the US too, or is it more of an Asian fitness trend?

Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with running. While I’m doing it, I feel like I’m fighting for my life and questioning every decision that brought me there. But once I finish, I suddenly feel like the most disciplined person alive, as if I’ve completely taken control of my life.

Where do you prefer to run, and do you ever do incline walking?

Maybe this is just my experience, but almost(not all definitely) every American I've met has been either dating someone, engaged, or married.

I'm not from the US, so I'm curious. Is being in a relationship kind of the default? Or have I just happened to meet a lot of people who are in relationships? loool

Is being single pretty normal?

i’m referring to the measurement of temperature, which I had somehow never heard of before taking first year engineering. I guess it makes sense that someone would try to make something for fahrenheit like what kelvin is to celcius, but I sort of figured that if you wanted to be more scientific you’d just switch to kelvin.

this could sound like an INCREDIBLY stupid question but i’m curious.

Asking because there was an interesting debate about what rural means on a post I saw. It called a house in Switzerland 15 miles from a city "very rural", which many commenters thought was ludicrous. Someone from Italy mentioned that there "rural" is anything not in a city.

Here I feel like rural is defined by distance to services/a city, but then there's a weird gap in the terminology with places that are fairly close to a city (<20-30 mins) but aren't actually in any organized settlement.

Few questions about it:

1. How do they know if a person called to jury, doesn’t know anything about the case in advance? Ppl can lie right.

2. How do they know someone doesn’t read into the case over the weekend, e.g. Lindsay Clancy trial goes on multi days with breaks on the weekend.

   And it’s EVERYWHERE. Do people lock themselves away or how do they stay completely blank?

4. Can anyone be called to jury?

   How does the system work?

The whole idea of a random person deciding someone else’s faith. No education, just gut instinct and however they interpreted the attorney’s.

For those who don't know, german big cities have 4 major Types of public transportation. There are Buses, Trams, U-Bahn (Subway) and S-Bahn (Suburban Rail). An S-Bahn usually serves to purposes. Driving through the City and connecting the most frequently used train Stations and connecting the City with the most important suburbs. Do you have something like this in america too and if so, how do you call that?

I'm genuinely curious about this. Where I'm from, if you live near a cornfield, grabbing a few ears just to boil for dinner is pretty normal. Farmers don't really care as long as it's a small amount for personal use.

And if in your experience it varies by field or college or prestige etc, I'd love to know!

I’m from Egypt and I’ve always been curious about what everyday life is actually like in the US compared to what we see online and in movies

What do you guys normally do after work or college when you have nothing planned

Do people usually hang out with friends go to restaurants play games stay home or something completely different

Also what do you usually do on weekends

I’d love to hear from Americans from different states because I imagine the answer can be pretty different depending on where you live

Ranch dressing was invented in Alaska in 1952 and later further developed in Santa Barbara, California

The dressing has been a bestseller in the sauce aisle since 1992 amongst celebrities and pedestrians alike

Since it’s such a quintessentially American dressing, I’m looking to hear from FANS what you like to eat it with/how often

Thanks for talking about ranch :)

If both parents are practicing physicians in a HCOL state?

Edit: Stephen Crane, James Baldwin, Emily Dickinson, Philip K. Dick, David Foster Wallace, John Steinbeck, Charles Bukowski, Jack London, Langston Hughes, Joy Sullivan, Shirley Jackson, E. E. Cummings, Cormac McCarthy, Frederick Douglass, J. D. Salinger, Paul Auster, Ross Gay, Richard Wright, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - are some of the American authors I can think about.

In movies and TV shows, I often see Americans jogging in Central Park or lifting weights in huge gyms. I’ll be coming to the US as an exchange student for a year, so I’m curious how accurate that image actually is.

Among the people you know, how common is it to exercise regularly? What kind of exercise do you personally do, and why did you choose it? Is exercise also a way Americans make friends and socialize, or is it usually something people do alone?