Hallo! My name is Montana, and I was an exchange student in Germany with the CBXY Program from 2019-2020. My videos often compare US and German culture as well as showing my experiences as an American teen living abroad and learning German!
Hi, as a German myself, I think it really depends on the school. For example, our school has an internal cloud file exchange system which is automatically connected to the file system on school computers which makes it really easy to transfer files, even easier than using Google Drive. Also, we have a 5G wifi network and even faster 5GB+ ethernet connection at the local university nearby. In terms of digitalization, our school hasn't been using "Overheadprojektoren" anymore for a very long time. Teachers often don't even use the blackboards anymore and instead tend to use the whiteboards which are in every classroom (besides the old school teachers maybe, but they've all received training for using digital media to teach). Students here are allowed to use tablets as a replacement for books, but not for tests yet (because of cheating possibilities). In the area where I live, streets are cleaned from snow by heavy machinery every few hours in the winter. And every family in our neighbourhood stores a bucket of salt to get rid of the snow in their driveway. Besides that, I personally think it's really fun to walk in snow lol. Haha, is your attention span really that short, come on it's just 45 minutes 🤣And if they gave you the same test as the German students, that's just not thoughtful at all by the teachers. Once we had an exchange student too and she had easier tests (with the questions and answers entirely in English) which weren't graded and just used to see if the teacher has to help the student a bit more. If it was really the teachers' opinion, then I have to say you should complain about them to the school board. Generally, our teachers aren't really opinion-focused and treat everyone the same. Hell, they even let the good students answer last, so the "worse" students get a chance to add good contributions too. And on top of that, teachers meet up with parents every now and then and they'll very clearly explain the grade of the student in question. And if you are between two grades and you improved, they tend to mostly give you the better grade, especially on the "Jahreszeugnis". Additionally, presentations are almost always graded by a sheet here where the teacher has a list of aspects they want to see (which they give the students beforehand too). Then they evaluate if the specific aspect was reached in the presentation or not and explain it next to that. Maybe you're referring to "Schreibschrift" (the way most Germans write). It looks different from the writing you'd see when you print something and I have to admit, I can imagine an exchange student struggling to read the way we write. Often, older teachers still write in older versions of the "Schreibschrift" and that makes it even harder to read. Are your teachers against you simply asking them to dictate what they just wrote. Also, "Overheadprojektoren" are really old. Is it possible that you went to a school funded by the city (not state-owned) because that makes a huge difference. Our school is state-owned which allows our school board to literally spend as much money as they want while city-owned schools mostly don't have that luxury since most cities are already in huge debt. When it comes to the pride of a school, I think we take a more serious approach and just think of schools as the place you have to go to in order to learn for your future life, not like the place where you necessarily want to hang out at. Btw, this was actually a great video. Everything was explained thoroughly and it was all reasonable. Amazing! ;)
Da ist leider schon eine Gebühr auf Kreditkartenaktionen und unter einer gewissen Summe ist das schlicht zu teuer für das Geschäfft. Aber natürlich hätte er das trotzdem freundlicher sagen können. Das ist leider auch ein grosses Problem bei Amazon, Ebay, PayPal und Co.
Hello I am applying for this exchange program this coming year and I have some questions. 1) do we have to have a social media presence to participate? 2) do we actually get a stipend each month? 3) how far in advance do we get to communicate with our Host families? Thank you!
Hallo liebe Montana -als erstes muss ich Dir sagen, dass Dein Deutsch sehr viel besser geworden ist, teilweise ist es sogar besser als es viele Deutsche oder Einwanderer sprechen. Als Zeites - Dampfnudeln werden mit Vanille-Soße, ja richtig, auch als Dessert gegessen. Aber eigentlich ist es ein Hauptgericht aus früheren Zeiten: früher hatte man weniger Inkredenzien, aber man hatte Mehl, Hefe, etwas zum Süßen und Salz, um daraus eine schönen Teig zu machen. Dazu gab es in der Regel noch was, was fast jeder zuhaus hatte, nämlich Kartoffeln. Daraus wurde eine deftige Kartoffelsuppe gemacht, mit angebratenem Speck und Kräutern darin und mit Wasser, Brühe und/oder Milch aufgegossen. Durchpüriert ergab das eine feine, kräftige Suppe und dazu warme Dampfnudeln. MmmJam...! Esse ich heute noch sehr gerne, weil es satt macht und sehr preiswert ist.
Are you guys in Southern Bavaria? What a great way to learn the Bairisch dialect. Get with a friend and speak constantly in immersion. Your native speaker can give you pointers and corrections. As the French say: P'tit à p'tit l'oiseaux fait son nid. Little by little the bird builds its nest. Ya gotta start somewhere, so start at the beginning. You know the native speaker is teaching you correctly so you can more easily and quickly memorize ( by so much repetition ) the vocabulary, sentence structure, frequent phrases, language tiks, body language. All kinds of communication in the new dialect. It may take years to be fluent in the new dialect but in the end, what a wonderful new language. Austrian Bavarian dialect has been the natural spoken language in Bavaria and much of Austria for many hundreds of years, who knows how long. Of course, everyone learns to speak Standard German in school. This is the written language for school, business, and other formal situations. But dialects of German are often the spoken language in the home. It is the real language of the people. What a gift !
Ich finde es auch sehr schade, so lange nichts mehr von Montana zu hören. Aber so wie ich sie hier kennenlernen konnte hat sie zurzeit einfach viel zu tun. Hoffentlich findet sie bald wieder Zeit uns ein kleines Lebenszeichen zu geben. ❤
I had a less than ideal experience on ICE from Frankfurt to Berlin yesterday. It was over 90 minutes late due to a line closure halfway through the trip, and the train had to reverse and go backwards. But I arrived, and the trip was comfortable since the train was thankfully not packed. I agree that it's easy to complain about DB when it doesn't work efficiently (which is often) and forget that other countries don't have anything remotely similar to what DB offers. I love the 49€ ticket as well. I try really hard not to take that for granted because I know the price will rise in the near future.
Hallo Mädels - ich sehe gerade Euer Video im Juli 2024 - Ich hoffe Euch geht es gut!? Seid Ihr noch Freundinnen= Also, ich möchte sagen, dass alle drei ein gutes Deutsch sprechen ( Note 2 ) , man kann esgut verstehen, au wenn es mit englischen Worten ausgeschmückt ist. Das Spechen in deutsch ist wesentlich besser, als mein Englisch. Zudem seid Ihr alle drei sehr hübsch anzusehen, sehr sympatisch und aufgeschlossen - ich würde mich freuen, wenn ich Bilder oder Videos aus den jetzigen Zeit, als 2024, von Euch sehen könnte. Inzwischen ist ja sicher vieles passiert, das würde mich alles sehr interessieren. Ich wünsch Euch dreien "Viel Glück und Gesundheit" und besucht mal wieder Deutschland. Und nun leider "Nur" eine Überstzung durch Google: - And now unfortunately "only" a translation by Google: Hello girls - I'm watching your video in July 2024 - I hope you're doing well!? Are you still friends?? Well, I would like to say that all three of you speak good German (grade 2), you can understand it well, even if it's embellished with English words, which comes across as very funny. Speaking in German is much better than my English. In addition, all three of you are very pretty to look at, very friendly and open-minded - I would be happy if I could see pictures or videos of you from now, in 2024. A lot has certainly happened in the meantime, and I would be very interested in all of that. I wish you three "good luck and health" and visit Germany again.
How to make Friends in Germany: 1. Understand that Germans take friendship VERY seriously. That isn't a topic to be taken lightly here. 2. Connect through HOBBIES, and the same interests, like musik, sports, cooking, knitting (Vereine!) Always follow, were the germans disapear to... :-) 3. Ehrenämter: Connect with other people who want to commit oneself to the same cause, like saving animals, human rights, soup kitchens, etc. 4. Local independent churches. They are often very family like and warm hearted and welcoming to strangers. 5. Try going to pubs with germans. When drinking beer, germans loosen up. I personally as a german don't like alcohol, but at least go to the pub and drink something else!
I feel American parents are getting more and more conservative. They don't want even their teenagers having sex ed in schools, going to gay pride events, and wearing certain clothes. They don't allow their children to have their own religious ideas. They don't want their children to be independent individuals and want to make them carbon copies of themselves. They feel their children should only go to certain colleges and work certain jobs. They should only have certain friends and a strict schedule. The helicopter attitude of parents comes from being extremely conservative, religious, and afraid of new ideas and influences on their children. Parents don't trust their children to make their own decisions or form their own conclusions in the USA like they do in Germany. At the same time, I feel that children aren't raised to be responsible for their mistakes, either, because either their parents are doing all the work for them or their parents are making excuses for their child's misbehavior or lack of dedication. Working in the education system for 10 years, children were failing their subjects in the school I worked in, and they didn't care. Their parents pressured teachers to pass their children, even though their children did nothing all year. Children would be disrespectful to teachers and administration, and the parents would applaud and reward their children for behaving this way. I don't think American children are raised to be as responsible as German children. In Germany, I think having that 3-Tier school system, where they are broken off at 9 years old, makes them realize the decisions they make at a young age can affect them the rest of their lives.
Sendung mit der Maus - my choldhood in Czechoslovakia 😂 it was also broadcasted here - some episodes and as a kid I used to have some stickers with this Maus 😂
Warum zum Beispiel "der", "die", "das"? Deutsch ist eine sehr präzise Sprache, und anders, als im englischen, muß man die Verhältnisse nicht aus dem Zusammenhang erkennen. Weiterhin gibt es für Verschiedene Begriffe jeweils einzelne Wörter, wo es im englischen nur eines gibt: Kraft, Stärke, Macht, = power Schlagsahne ohne Zucker: Amerikaner scheinen seeehr süß zu essen. Bei Eis, ist doch das Eis selbst schon süß genug, und in der Kombination fällt es nicht mehr auf, dass der Zucker fehlt. Ebenso bei Kuchen. Und, sorry dafür, schau dir deine amerikanischen Mitmenschen an. Warum sind sie so dick? Ein Grund ist Zucker in allem, und da, wo er hineon kommt, in viel zu großen Mengen.
99.99999% in Germany not only sign with cash on delivery, they also at least take the first letter of their first name, or write both names in full. I can't remember ever seeing someone just use their last name.
European exchange students in America: 'My American Dream!" Germans listening to an American exchange student in Germany: Americans are so stupid!' Seems like we only get the good ones.
About the card rant - the last few years there have been some talks in germany about getting rid of cash money to fight corruption and money laundering. And as usual in politics, some ultra conservatives come along and poison some minds with stupid populism and crazy conspiracy myths. Maybe the Weihnachtsmarkt-Dude was of them and his rage was incited by our german version of the crazy parts of your GOP, called AFD.
super market bread? the worst there is. there are sooo many bakeries where you get much better bread. and fresher. did you get Haxe? h > k. come on! they are looking for you, not for a certain body part.
Today a customer wrote a complaint to my boss about a colleague of mine who works as a security guard at the entrance. The security lady had not smiled at him. He did not feel welcome. I was actually very annoyed by that. I am so used to a culture where you smile when you feel in the mood for it and look grumpy when you feel grumpy and I actually like it that way… I have lived in other countries and I find it very confusing when someone smiles at you but the eyes don’t smile. Like…you can see that the person is fake smiling. I prefer it when you know exactly where you are with a person. Someone looks angry? He IS angry. Someone looks annoyed? She IS annoyed. Someone smiles? This Person ACTUALLY is happy to see you… way easier…! Btw. I told my boss about the complaint and she just rolled her eyes…😂
