10 German Culture Shocks | | American Girl In Germany 

its normal to give a tip and unusual not to. the only thing thats different is the amount you tip, rounding up and adding 1-3€ extra is standard, not the almost mandatory 10-20% like in the US

I don't think you are right on tipping in restaurants. We do give tipps the rule of thumb is about 10% of the bill. But only, if we are happy with the service. In other words: Good service, good tipp. Lousy service, no tipp

In Germany the meals are cheaper than in the US and the restaurants make the money with the beverages.

11:00 the main reason for your last point is generally restaurants in germany make their main profit in drinks, while providing pretty low food prices and fair wages to their employees (compared to the US). free-refills or serving 25% of customers with free tap water would destroy this calculation. same reason for this is also why nobody rushes you out in restaurants here in germany, while in the US you just started your drink/meal and all of a sudden the bill arrives :D

Great video! I've never been to Germany! Can't wait to go there!

Another American in German!! Subscribed! Looking forward to future content!

some insights about credit-/debitcard usage from a small business owner: while I get it, that you get exited over the benefits (bonus miles, cashback etc.) you get by paying with your card, keep in mind and be aware of that this creates extra costs for the business owner. Beside the basic monthly fee, every time the terminal is used, the business owner has to pay a usage fee of 7-12 cents to the service provider, plus billing fees from the bank (0.15-0.23% for debit card transactions and 1-3% for domestic and European credit cards and even up to 5% for credit cards from non-european banks.). This is no big deal for large retailers and grocery chains, but when you only have a small shop like a bakery, a Döner joint or a "Späti", where the average payment is between a few cents and €5, it just creates a large amount of extra unnessecary costs for the owner, wich can make a big difference at the end of the month. As german small business owners are very cost sensitive, I hope you now get a clearer picture why many only accept cash or limit the possibility of card payment. greetz from (East)Berlin

Employers used to pay their employees more for working on Sundays in the US too and decades back just about everything was closed on Sunday. Now, employers basically own employees where good paying jobs are in short supply.

We DO have public toilets, but it's a matter of the local municipalities to provide them, not all do. Many fuel stations don't charge you either. But you will likely have to ask for the key or the staff to unlock the door.

Many Germans use their "secret toilets" at ""half-public" places, for example, my Mum always uses the toilet of the local labour union headquarter and my sister uses her dentist´s toilette. Also the toilettes of the townhall, the public library or even of graveyards or churches are quite popular. The knowledge of these places are passed from generation to generation. Only tourists and travellers pay for that. For a local free peeing is a question of honor.

You have to make the connection. Water (good service) is free, stuff is not paid but you actually pay (good service) with tip. In Germany what is tip for service in the US is actually calculated on top of all things to eat and drink in the restaurant. That includes water. That's the reason why tap water in restaurant seems to be odd, because only paying for service (bringing tap water to the table) (as some restaurants do anyway) seems odd. Another reason. Most restaurants, bars, clubs or the like are owned or financed by brewaries or liquor stores. So you have to pay their stuff. By contract you are not allowed to sell other brands than what they are offering to you. This includes water. So, tap water is bad for them because they have to fulfill their contract.

As a child in the U.S., I remember pay toilets (10 cents) at some places like airports and such. There was a pay lock on each stall door. Don't remember if there were urinals then. And on a connected, sort of, theme, water brought to your table. I seldom drink the water, instead I'll order what I'm drinking right a way. Seems like a waste to bring it if you're going to dump it afterward. I guess it's expected by most American diners.

Hi, I am just curious what do u like about living in Germany.

Some one brings the water and the glass has to be washed

You, can be sure, that the credit card reward is payed from the fee that the shops have to pay to the credit card company. And the shops do increase prices of the goods to pay those fees. Hence this is a "left pocket, right pocket". Ofcourse, once this is established in a society, everybody feels a strong demand to participate.

The tipping definitely takes some getting used to!

Don't stare at naked people!!! Germans won't do that. 🤣🤣

Coming from a Dutch person that lives in a nearly cashless country going to Germany always feels like going back in time. Everything just looks older... the buildings the roads etc. But hey everything in Germany is way cheaper, so it's nice to go shopping over there. Gasoline is cheaper in Germany and the portions at restaurants are bigger. So it does feel like Germany is in some ways in between the Netherlands and the US. The model here with the drinks is that they pay for the wages here like tips do in the US. My parents drilled into me as a kid to drink slowly and not drink too much when we went to an all you can eat buffet. They would serve really small glasses and there were certainly no refills.

Germans over 40 still remember that until some time in the 1990s shops closed at 6:30 pm and on 2 pm on saturdays. There was a thing called "langer Samstag" once a month or so which meant that on saturdays stores would be open until... 4 or 6 pm :D Same with smoking. It was very different until the early 2000s. Everything (restaurant, cafe, club, pub, station, university lounge) was filled with smoke until the 90s. It was legal from 16 and at my conservative highschool (maybe more like a prep school for American standards) there were officially declared Raucherecken and very rarely would a teacher check if some smoker there was only 15... After the "Abitur" finals, free beer was served on the schoolyard! And while I am too young for this, in the 1970s humanity students were smoking during university seminars... I think that usually nudity should be kept to the nude section of a beach, but it is probably different depending on the region and often not enforced. Topless women are a borderline case and used to be very common for a while in the 1990s. But I would also be surprised by a completely naked adult at a non-nude beach.

The free water topic: theres a complete different culture, how to calculate the prices in german restaurants and bars than in the US. You cant compare it. That also has to do with the wages and social security system etc... But as far as i recogniced, it becomes more and more commen to get a glas of tap water free... If you ask for free water, make sure to ask for "Ein Glas Leitungswasser" ( a glas of tap water). I personaly think that question is ok if you also order another drink aswell like wine, breer or coffee. Remember the calculation of the prices includes that you have also a payed drink.

I recognized, that the free water in restaurants in the US do have a taste of chlorine. I don't know whether this is a standard everywhere in the US, but I think it should be mentioned in your water comparison.

Dear Amanda.. you're right, more or less. (I'm ashamed of some things)... but come to Saarland.. you won't know the country... but a you can get a free glass of tap water everywhere! 😘

I'm born and raised in Germany (like usually all the people commenting on videos like this one), but as far as I can tell, the paying for public toilets thing is a relatively new thing. At least in the part of Germany where I grew up (the south-west) I never saw one of those "Toilet Ladies" collecting money in my youth. That is a thing I only encountered in my 20s, about 15 to 20 years ago. An uncle of mine owned a small cleaning company. His biggest customer was a shopping mall in the county capital. They did not have a "Toilet Lady" in that shopping mall. The toilets were cleaned twice a day by the regular cleaning staff that was cleaning the rest of the mall too and nobody was charged for using it. Only when my uncle retired 7 years ago and a new cleaning company, owned by a Turkish dude, took over, they installed a "Toilet Lady" and are charging for using the toilets now. I really don't think this is a traditional German custom. That is why I once was pretty offended when I saw another such "expat in Germany" video, I think it was a Australian woman, or one from Newzealand, talk about "Toilet Ladies" in Germany and how she thinks this is a racist thing because they tend to be immigrant women. As far as I can tell, those immigrants are who came up with the idea.

Smoking in Germany: In Germany, the tobacco lobby is very strong because they were not sentenced to heavy fines like in the USA and were not obliged to finance educational programs. For decades the major parties have fended off every attempt to ban cigarette advertising. The state earns 5 billion euros each year in taxes on tobacco. The costs for the health system are often ignored. Toilet usage fee: You ask why it is not enough to buy something at a gas station to use the toilet for free? This has to do with the fact that the toilets are managed by another company. When the state sold the monopoly of the Autobahn service stations, the operating contract stipulated that the toilets were to be used free of charge. The companies just don't stick to it and try to circumvent it with a voucher system.

There is some religious background for the closing of shops on Sunday - otherwise it would be another day of the week. But it was an unlikely coalition of the churches with the trade unions and workers parties which succeeded in 1892 in pushing through the "Law for the protection of workers" (Arbeiterschutzgesetz) which for the first time restricted the opening of shops on Sundays. This led to Art. 139 of the Weimar constitution "The Sunday and the state-approved holidays have to remain legally protected as days off and days of mental evelation" (very loosely translated). And this Art. was included with some others regarding religious freedom to the current constitution (by Art. 140 GG which names the articles of the Weimar constitution which are also valid within the current basic law). In the 1950s there was even a trade union campaign "Samstags gehört Vati mir" targeting in declaring Saturdays to work-free family days which was partly successful ("5 days week"). From time to time there are attempts to soften up the rule, against resolute resistance of trade unions and churches; cities can now allow a small number of sundays open for trading (according to very varying rules in the different states). In some industries Sunday work is allowed, but it's invariably handled as "overtime work" and has to be paid accordingly. Consider this: you like to have the weekend off, but also do the people working in the shops. And the German philosophy is: they should have the same day off as any other family member so they can spend the day together. And air condition ist not only environmentally bad, it's also bad for your health. If rooms are always cool even in hot summer you'll more easily catch a cold. Since most houses in Germany are well insulated - even older buildings will have at least thick stone (or medieval adobe-and-straw) walls - there is also less need for air condition. In the summer most interior rooms will be a few degrees cooler than outside (at least if you "obey" the rules of "Lüften"/ventilation at the right time), in autumn a few degrees warmer, and in the winter most houses have central heating which is far more efficient than air condition. In public toilets you pay for the service to keep them clean. A few decades before most communal (funded by town council) toilets were free, but there was much misuse and the municipalities had to pay more and more for maintenance. So they were either closed or a payment scheme was introduced. Toilets at highway service areas are run by private companies who want to be paid for their services - and some of them diversify by offering their services to municipalities and leasing public toilets. Cash is king in Germany because German shopkeepers count every cent, ;) and credit cards are expensive. Credit card companies make their profit by fees on every transaction, often with a minimum fee on small transactions, which makes it very expensive for e.g. bakeries where many transactions are below 2 Euros. And they have to rent the card readers meaning an additional fee - so they just don't. And most German customers are good with that - they are accustomed to cash, they know what they spend if using cash instead of cards or mobile pay, and they are keen on privacy. The whole cash-back thing is about getting your data for better targeting in marketing, so selling more items to you, so getting more data for targeting, so selling more trash. And that's not very environment-friendly... ;) In regards to smoking is Germany about a decade or two behind the US. It was definitely more common about 2000 and it's less common with every year. But there are smoker's countries all around, and there are (somewhat) new trends like hookahs (Shisha bars) and "electronic cigarettes" which will keep "smoking culture" alive a while. To give a tip is not mandatory, but good manners. Usually you give about 10 percent if you are satisfied with the service, more if you are really pleased and less or nothing if the service was bad. Most restaurants get a major part of their profit from drinks. So they are often not very pleased if you ask for tap water and will sometimes charge you a fee for using the drinking glass (Gedeckgebühr or cover charge) - which is totally usual in other countries like Austria or Italy.

Mentioning "public restrooms"... The first time i realized what it means to go to a "public" restroom were in the states ;)

There’s definitely a reward in using cash: You can only spend the amount of money you have in your pocket, no fear of debt

It’s always the same culture shocks. The same for each and every American vlogger in Germany.

Nice video 👍

I don`t understand why people drink water in the restaurant? You can drink water all day long. Everywhere.

Need to always carry cash might be a bit shocking to other Europeans too. I can go with no cash for months, except for some change for shopping carts (20 or 50 euro cent coin, depends on supermarket chain) or toilet, just in case.

I never paid for toilet use at a gas station , on the other hand I literally almost never use other peoples toilet , I use nature , & if I would go to a Shopping Center , I don’t have to pay there either , so we see : may things in our life only happen because it’s our character 🥳

The earnings of staff e.g. at the hairdresser's or in gastronomy are so low that they urgently need a tip in order to be able to live reasonably well and yet it is usually only enough to survive. So if you want to get it right and that is the general consensus, tip 10% of what you have to pay in total there. An bareeper in Germany is not obliged to serve you and may refuse you drinks and food, which is required by law. However, also he must allow you to use the toilet and has to give you a glass of water for free which is also required by law. As a rule, although there are always exceptions that confirm the rules, you will always receive a glass of water upon polite request.

About the air conditioning - it has a huge environmental impact. Most people understand that the more we ruin the planet, the hotter it will get because of climate change. Most people use ventilators indoors in Europe.

Very entertaining expression of the face . I like

Damn, you are loud!! I can hear that both by intonation (voice sounds a bit more strained) and by echoes from the walls. XD Sorry, I'm not saying what you should or should not do, that's just my European cultural bias kicking in.

Sorry, but I need to correct you a tiny bit concerning cash. There is a great reward paying cash: anonymity! That's the greatest reward in difference to paying with credit card or anything else comparable. But as always, it's a point of your personal perspective. Kind regards and all the best!

NO , you don't pay for A TAP WATER

6:15 Laughed so hard. :D Number 5 is always the best. :D You really should go to a German sauna. ;)

I became a cultur shock in the US because i see more Star Banner that leave a some tree

Please don't tell Americans who come to Germany that they shouldn't tip. It is normal to round up the sum so the tip is 5-12%. It is considered sort of rude not to do that, and the waiter thinks about what he did wrong if the guest does not tip.

Well thanks for sharing. Did not know this. I am in Ireland by the way. New Sub lets support eachother 😊

Everybody knows smoking is bad for your health and the alleged missing prevention in school is not the reason why more people smoke (we have anti drugs campaigns in school). People don't do those things because the don't know it's bad. I guess it's just more common or normal. That's why people try it. Another reason is also peer pressure.

You misunderstood something with the drinking age. Actually you can drink beer and wine with your parents when you are 14 in a restaurant or pub. The law is for restaurants, pubs, night clubs, and so on. There is no regulation for drinking at home. You could drink with even a younger age at home. So if your mother or father would let you have a sip from the beer or wine, nobody could say something against it legally. When the child gets drink, someone would call for the CPS I guess. But most of the parents won't let the children do this. A little bit of inch pinching. Water from the tap is not for free, the cubic meter (1000 litre) cost about 2,39 EUR in mean. ;)

Don't forget about the Payback Punkte!!

Welcome in Germany! Ich hoffe du sprichst etwas deutsch, mein Englisch ist nicht besonders gut. Das sind die typischen Dinge die Amerikaner in Deutschland nicht gewohnt sind. Ich denke du wirst damit leben können. Auch ohne Klimaanlagen. In Berlin ist es eventuell etwas wärmer als bei mir hier. Ich wohne in Südwestdeutschland, Baden-Württemberg, in der Nähe von Albstadt. In einer großen Stadt zu wohnen kann ich mir nicht vorstellen. Mit Sicherheit hat das Vorteile, ist aber nichts für mich. Vor einem Jahr hatte ich eine Amerikanerin als Freundin, deshalb sind mir deine shocking things nicht Neu. Gerne stehe ich zur Verfügung wenn du noch weitere Fragen hast! Ich werde deinen Kanal abonnieren, und sehen wie du mit uns Deutschen zurecht kommst. Es ist ein mutiger Schritt von Amerika nach Deutschland zu ziehen. Ich denke du wirst gewisse Vorzüge zu schätzen wissen, die man in Deutschland hat. Das geht mit der sozialen Sicherheit los, die es in Amerika nicht gibt. Ich war noch nicht inden USA. Irgendwann möchte ich aber mal hin, das ist ein Wunsch. Vielleicht klappt es ja.

Well, you grew up in the land of the free. But would tell people to put on clothes? But you already found, that prohibit stuff does not teach to handle things responsible. So, welcome to germany.

If you want to monetize your channel only in 2000$

I would like to comment an many things you mentioned, but I pick up two. First, walking naked on beaches. It is not allowed except in designated areas, but it is not severely prosecuted. Fines for sex on the beach can be heavy when the police think there might have been children watching, so wait until 8 pm before you search your comfort in the dunes. Drinking age: You are partly wrong. Drinking at 14 is illegal. Drinking beer and wine at 16, that's alright. And for the real stuff, you need to be 18. Reason why? A nation that can draw you into the army at age 18 has very few arguements to keep you from drinking.

No reward in using cash? There is payback and other rebate systems.

As a former restaurant owner i have to tell you that it takes 3 glasses of water plus soap to wash that glass of water you just got , that’s why you pay for water , plus i get a water bill , and if you add ice cubes that’s another expense

No Restaurant in the world can exist from serving only dishes..the drinks only making the money they need. In US you have to rush, for the next guest. In Germany you can stay as long you want more or less. Germans pay normally tip about 10 % but it is not a Must. Waiters are considerable better paid over here..one reason to pay for mineral water. I m going for 40 years to the Baltic Sea, same place. in this period I have only seen 4 to 10 naked people laying on the beach when we were walking far away.

You don't get water for free out of the sink ...

Sprichst Du etwas Deutsch?

I am allowed to be shot as a soldier for my country, but I cannot drink alcohol.

OMG Really? That is shocking 😄😄😄😄

You can not drink, but you can go to war?

Hello US-Lady. The fck-proganda of US-tobacco did well since 1953 and there a lot off tobacco lobbyist in Berlin and Brüssel. gratulation to the US-companies

Are you doing sone music reaction Videos: ? From german Bands? Here is my tip: Scooter- God Save The Rave " Official Video.

Du warst verwundert, dass du in einer sozialen Marktwirtschaft für Leistungen und Waren bezahlen musst!

So funny. In the neighboring country, the Netherlands (aka Holland), many shops (almost everything) are open on Sundays. And cash is no longer possible in some shops. Often paid contactless.

You will learn to love german sundays!believe me!ac sucks!❤🇺🇸🇩🇪stay healthy!

The money for water thing is a thing which threw me a bit up when I was in the States. I was in a PizzaHut in Texas, and was still thristy, and the husband of my godmother told me: "Yeah, just go inside and fill it up. So I went back inside, went to the counter, pointed at my empty cup and said "water please". The clerk looked at me in surprise and asked "water?" I said yes and pointed on the faucet behind him. He was still baffeld but shrug it off and filled my with tap water. And I wasn't charged as I normaly would in Germany. And I was baffeld by his reaction... (I was 9 years old at that time, but dont ask me about the story when I was kicked out of the community pool in the States and escorted back to my home - because a 9 year old isn't allowed to visit the pool without a guardian and that they where surprised that I even cleaned it before going into the pool) Back to topic: It is even OK to walk up to a normal persons home and ask for tapwater (like you are hiking and miscalculated your water supplies), but you have to be realy thirsty. P.S.: Welcome to youtube and be prepared to have a big german audience; somewhat germans like to watch those videos to see how they are perceived in the rest of the world.

Beside all your true words spoken, I noticed never seen a training-jacket suits more on anyone else without worn for exercise , than you! Gorgeous!

Finde ich nett the sweetest people aber vllt nicht so allgemein jedes Land hat sweet people aber leider hat auch jedes Land Entschuldigung arschlöcher aber ich wünsche dir das alle deutsche immer nett zu dir sind .

I always thougt That american People are much more religious than european, especially in the bible belt. But then they are surprised, that sunday is a holy day and most shops are closed?! That is a contradiction!

I refuse to pay for other peoples pee or poo! Isn't this the American approach?

Yes, we do like "Bargeld" in this country! Why? Because for Germans data privacy is a VERY important matter. It's a kind private self-consciousness. Most of us don't like at all when international Banks, governmental and multinational institutions, or tax authorities will be able to track every single private stream of money, even the smallest amount. And this has nothing to do with defrauding the revenue. The overwhelming majority of the Germans pay their taxes true and punctual. But there ist a strong feeling of suspicion that all this private pieces of information could fall into wrong hands. Simply we want cash to stay, as the last rest of privacy in the modern world of datatracking as long as possible. That's it! TIP! There ist a real big difference between the US and Germany respectively the salery of people working in service branches. In America waitors are reliant on tip. Because their salary is incredible! Indeed it is, in Germany you also will not become a millionaire as a waitor, but your salery ordinarily is ok. Employees are not depending on of goodwill of unknown guests. Of course they too don't say "no, thanks" when one give them a tip. But most time it is only approximated to the amount yo have to pay. Or perhaps sometimes one or two Euros more. But like i said, they don't need to accept charity! I ask all here, what's the better way?

5:14 wrong! You don’t get constantly spied on by the government when using cash. That’s a reward.

I will never get the water thing most americans complain about in germany. I wouldn't even drink the water you get in the US for free because your tap water has a weird taste, you can even taste that in drinks like Coke or Dr. Pepper produced in the US. I think most of us germans prefer carbonated water anyway, that is another reason why we pay for it in restaurants.

There are WAY more culture SHOCKS when I visit the US !!!!! Just saying ………

Ooohhh, no, not this „sunday-closed“-thing again!!!🤢👎🤮

..des arme mädl...typische ami halt,alles was sie soo schockt is einfach erklärbar,wenn man nur ein bißchen nachdenkt und sich interessiert....vielleicht kommt`s iwann drauf,warum. in´diesem video bedient sie ja die meisten klischees über amis und warum man sie nicht mag..lol...

That the closed stores on sunday have their base in religion. 'On the seventh day thou shall rest....' I heard that the nudity part in Germany is also related to religion. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in paradise, nude. 'And He looked onto His work, and saw it was good...' Who will argue with God. Oh, of course puritans... :)

yes.lik.love.now.good

yes.ok.you.vedo.lik.you.to.i.love.you.lik.looking.you.maces.plece.coment