15 Things Germans Don't Understand About Americans 

Every time I hear the "Americans wear shoes in the house" thing, a piece of my soul dies as a Minnesotan. We don't do that here. Shoes are removed at the door, and most living spaces will have a shoe rack right at the entrance.

I was stationed in Würzburg and Stuttgart and was in Germany for most of the 80’s. I accidentally found your channel because I’m planning a trip back soon and I wanted to see what has changed in the 20 years since I was last there. When I was over there I totally got into the culture. All my years back in the states I’ve never felt at home. Germany became my home in my heart.

I grew up in the eighties in Germany and the only automatic car I knew of was that of our nextdoor neighbour because he lost a leg in WWII. For those who do not know: To drive a manual, you need two functioning legs.

When I was in western Ireland I could recognize and differentiate between Germans, Americans and Irish people very easy: - in the moist weather Germans and Americans wear functional jackets, the americans wore predominantly HH, the Germans JW and GT - Americans tend to grab more space, the ellbows are more outwards - Americans drive on the right side, when the correct side in Ireland is the left lane, especially after left turns. - all Americans seem to have visited the orthodontist often - if someone walks calmly through the rain without jacket but with cigarette, he is Irish

We lived one year in Switzerland with my husbands work. My son was 5 years old. My son and I discovered a McDonalds in Basel and we went in and sat down for a meal. Of course even though there were many people, it was very quiet. Suddenly a group came in talking very loudly while ordering their food. My son asked, "Mommy, who are those really loud people?" I answered, "They are Americans." He looked shocked and then confused and asked me, "Mom, aren't we Americans?"

For number twelve: "Bei Risiken und Nebenwirkungen lesen sie die Packungsbeilage und fragen sie ihren Arzt oder Apotheker"

In the Netherlands it's not only that you as an employee can claim a minimum of a certain number of days off a year, you are obliged to take up at least a single consecutive period of two weeks each year. As you can also save up part of the time, a colleague of mine this year was away for a mont and a half to the walk through northern Spain of the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostella.

I think the thing with the personal bubble depends on where you are in Germany. I'm from northern Germany and we need more personal space here. We don't like when people get so close. I think it also depends on whether you are in a crowded city or in the countryside.

I remember going on a vacation in Miami .When I ordered two beers , i had to show ID, and they refused to serve me . I was so confused, and kept saying 'wait, wait..There must be some mistake i'm 20 !' 😅

Having a German mom because of my former GI dad, I grew up with German family visiting us in rural Missouri. (One of mom's brothers came over, stayed, and lived the American Dream.) They're amazed at how isolated we are with neighbors a mile away and nearest town being 10 miles away. We always take them out target shooting which they always seem to enjoy as it's something they cannot do in Germany. They in turn once bought out the entire supply of Budweiser and Bud Light from my small town after going through about 40 cases in 2 weeks. Our diet beer simply has no effect on them as they would point to the 'Rice' ingredient and laugh. My Dad and his old Army buddy said that they had to take a break after about a week of drinking beer with them. They play hard, but they also work hard. When you find yourself with a group of them in full party mode it's some of the most fun you'll ever have.

I remember one time me and my sister were buying clothes at an H&M and it was so peaceful and quite there and suddenly there's a noise coming from another place I turned and it was a group of Americans who were taking so loudly that me and my sister just looked at each other with shock But at the same time I really love how warm and friendly Americans are

Just discovered your channel, and happy to have. One comment to shoes at home: Grown up as a Turkish guy in Germany in the 70s/80s, I experienced that Germans wore more often shoes at home than you stated, but maybe I perceived this as such a significant habit, because in Turkish households street shoes are absolutely forbidden, just like in Japan!

I remember learning a short poem when I was younger to help when thinking about temperatures in Celsius. "30° is hot, 20° is nice. 10° is cool, 0° is ice" While 20° being a 'nice' temperature is debatable (I'd prefer 23-24° myself) it was a good rhyme to use.

I think the "loud" aspect of being an American can greatly depend on where you were brought up. I was raised right off of the Navajo reservation in New Mexico and have been accused of being VERY quiet after I moved to California. That was until I took my husband home for the first time. He tried to order at a Burger King and was like "It's not just you...It seems like everyone around here whispers".

I like the Celsius scale, because you can categorize them more or less roughly in steps of 10. 0°C = Water freezes, 0-10°C = cold, 10-19°C = ok, 20-29°C = warm, 30-39°C = very warm, >40°C = hot

When it comes to shoes indoors for Americans, it varies from place to place and household to household, but generally speaking, most people I've known didn't wear shoes indoors. However, I do feel that when it comes to visiting a house, there's kind of an "unspoken rule" to not take your shoes off if you're just an acquaintance/worker or are only going to be there for a few minutes. Taking off your shoes at a stranger's house is kinda considered rude because you're "making yourself at home" so to speak. Maybe this is just a California thing

I always thought the Hausschuh-Issue is due to the driving-everywhere thing.. If I only walked on my 3m concrete way to my car and then on your 4m of concrete, I probably wouldn´t take off my shoes sometimes either.. but after walking 20min thru Berlin streets? hell no, thank you, i´ll be on my socks in your flat

Now it's the complete Video! I did like the 18 second version too ;-) As a German living in Seattle, my wife is making fun of me when I change from sweat pants to Jeans just to walk down the street to pick up the mail.

As a German living in the US currently I found myself nodding along and I loved how you described everything without making either side sound or seem weird. Fun too that you are with the Unicorns, I myself am a Frankfurt Galaxy Gal, where people do tailgate btw. But that could be a thing people do at American sports played in Germany to somewhat honor the process and live the entire experience which I respect. German football / soccer fans usually find a bar or kiosk to pregame and / or drink on their way to the game, since thats legal.

Thank you so much for this video! I learned a lot and your way of talking is really agreable.

This theory with larger personal bubble of Americans is a bit weird. When I was working in the US, a lot of Americans wanted to hug me (mostly female coworkers) and not the polite, lean in, air kisses kind of way found in Germany, but a real hug. That was way too much physical contact for this German girl. Okay, I also hate hand-shakes and air kisses, unless it's really close friends. Drinking age is also an interesting thing. Because the high age kind of hypes up being legal to drink? I found that so odd when I was watching another youtuber and she really went on and on about turning twenty-one soon and being able to drink. And on the day of her birthday, she went out to party and got really drunk with a bunch of cocktails. And cocktails are dangerous because they often contain a lot of hard alcohol but taste like fruit drinks. Even if you're used to harder stuff it's easy to misjudge them. And of course at twenty-one all of them already have a driver's license so drinking and driving is an issue, while Germans at sixteen don't. When my friends and I wanted to get drunk we met for a party with sleep-over. And often our parents bought the alcohol and laughed at us when we came home with a hang-over. Public transport with a hang-over is also fun.

I live in Belgium, also lived here previously for work and lived in Germany as well. On the manual car, there are just so many subconscious and conscious benefits to driving a manual. 1) You are more innately aware of your speed because you have to change gear to change speed. 2) You have to be more preoccupied with the current driving situation: oncoming traffic, intersections w/ right-of-ways, pedestrians....all of which force you to be mindful of what gear you're in and how fast you're going 3) Far more control over speed in braking and cornering by holding gears (gear braking). 4) Safety as you stated! With tailgating, here in the EU parking lots are not typically public space. Space is a premium, and if it is public space, it will be a park or a garden. Most cities, towns, villages you go in the EU, finding parking will usually be at least somewhat of a challenge, and not meant to be "hang-out" space because space is tight and usually not where you want to be. For instance, like I said I live in Belgium which is approx. 1/5th the size of the state of Georgia with 11.5M people (slightly more than the state of Georgia)...and much like Georgia, there's countryside and farming but the majority of people live in cities. To put it into perspective, just on a quick G search. Atlanta in size is 353 KM^2 and population of just under half a million. Brussels Belgium has just over 2 million people squeezed into 32 KM^2....basically 1/10th the size with 4 times the population. Not a whole lot of room for parking lots to tailgate, and you don't need to know the metric system to understand the difference between 353 and 32 in terms of size.

There actually is a sensible reason why quoted prices in the U.S. don’t usually include sales tax. If sales tax were included, it basically would be impossible for businesses operating in multiple states to advertise. E.g., Subway couldn’t really advertise its signature “$5 foot-long sandwich” in the Portland, Oregon TV market, because the $5 sandwich sold on the Oregon side (where there is no sales tax) would cost $5.45 (or so) just across the river in Washington state, after figuring its 9% sales tax. In general, I agree that not knowing the final price sucks for the consumer.

I really enjoyed watching this video! Buillding a bridge over different cultures is (for me) an always welcomed icebreaker! Being myself a „naive“ Englisch/American (speaker), but native German, the basic message for me is: Openly talk to each other! And both nationals will. I‘m sure! If you do, both sides will learn a lot about each other and each other‘s culture! …and, most likely, will have a lot to lough about. …I missed the prejudice of wearing a Jeans trousers only once ;-) Great job! Cheers

The 21 drinking age thing is relatively recent, at least for this 60-year-old. States used to have different drinking ages and many were 18, especially on the East Coast. The federal government basically forced them all to go to 21 in the 1980’s by linking highway funds to the 21 drinking age. It did reduce drunk driving deaths. Probably in Germany there are more public transportation options so drunk driving isn’t as much of a concern.

Beer consumption and age: the most weird thing happened to me when I was in new York some years ago. Among food for dinner, I wanted to buy two cans of beer in a supermarket. At the checkout, the cashier asked me to show her my passport. Upon my question why, she explained that for buying alcohol I had to proof to be 21 years old. Strange thing is that I had just turned 50 (f-I-f-t-y)! 🤣 I had left my passport in my holiday apartment, thus she refused to sell me the beer. It was absolutely ridiculous - it was more than obvious that I had passed my 21st year on this planet decades ago. I asked her to call her manager, who after a short examining look at me, gave his ok. I’m still shaking my head in disbelieve whenever this incident comes to my mind.

Re: shoes inside… i built my first new house ~30yrs ago, and other than marble & stone in baths, all other floors were mahogany or oak. I did not have a house “rule” to remove shoes, but after some friends visited I noticed in the reflection of light on the wood floors that there were all these round scrapes, like from sandpaper. I finally determined that someone’s shoes had grit from outside stuck on the bottom, so every time they turned on their heel, it put a bunch of scratches in the wood. NO MORE SHOES! Only exception is a formal or cocktail party, where shoes are likely part of the outfit. And when i go to people’s homes, I ALWAYS ask, “shoes on or off?”

This was interesting😊thank you for enlightening me:)

Yeah the 24 days of leave really makes you more productive. I have worked for about 9 years with my current company and my leave started at 24 and is at 29 days now. When I filed the "leave request" for 3 weeks in the summer I still had enough left for another 2 weeks(I think I'll take them over christmas). This made my whole week. These happy feelings carry you over many bad things that happen at work through out the year.

When I went to Germany in the Army I had a super great experience. I think it's funny the military adopted the metric system. I still estimate range in meters. I never had an issue with chips. Usually there was so much potatoes and gravy there was no room for chips. I ate chips when I was on base. I absolutely agree on manual VS auto. manual you are in control of the driving experience. I taught my 2nd ex wife how to drive manual and she really enjoyed it. Germans don't really have that personal bubble at all. lol Hans, my ambulance driver when I was stationed at Graf thought showering was optional.

Thanks for the video and thank you for being so gentle with us!

I'm American and I'm not loud at all and you scare the hell out of me whenever you start your videos. I lived in Germany for 3 years in the late seventies and we were the only Americans in a German village. Pretty awesome experience

I grew up on a farm, (my father was a farmer) so whenever I came indoors, I always took off my shoes. It was the house rule my mother insisted on because of the cattle lot, hog lot, and other areas that we would tend to walk in with shoes or boots on. It kept the house cleaner, and the shoes and boots contained in the entryway. If you saw what my boots looked like, you would do the same. Thats country life!

As someone who lived in Germany for 4 years (and Belgium for 1), this is spot on. One thing I had to learn right away is that when it's your birthday in Germany, YOU buy the drinks for everyone. 😂 Also, I find Germans to be super loud when they are vacationing as tourists. But you're right, they are quiet at home. You can hear a pin drop on the Munich subway...

This is a great video imo that touches on numerous cultural differences well. Thanks you!

Great video 👍👏

Here in the US my parents taught me to drive on a stick. That way I would always be able to drive any car in case of emergency. They also started teaching me when I was in 5th grade. By the time I was in 7th grade they let me drive alone to the dump and to the store to pick up packs of smokes for them. Of course we lived in a super small town that only had one yellow light.

I am an American that learned to drive a stick shift vw in the states. When I had kids I did the perverbiale Family car that was automatic. I still love a stick though and my Peugeot here in Germany has lasted me 17 years. Also short story that Germans can be loud too. I was coming back home from the USA a couple of weeks ago and waiting for my train to go back home when I heard a big commotion. There were 7 drunk guys and the groom (I think) had a pink tutu and a phallic hat on. It was loud but it did make my day

No idea, why I found your channel today on my page, but I enjoyed watching this and was really laughing (in a friendly way) about "freaking out because there were no chips". May you and your fellow landsmen and -women always find them everywhere 😁😂. I made a mental note, when an old friend from USA plans to visit me next year. Greetings from German, Bavaria.

I like this channel, thank you!

I lived in Germany for 13 years, it was culture shock coming back to the US haha. This makes me want to go back

I was an army brat in Germany in mid 1960s and had a beer delivery account which was great I could call Kurts beer delivery and have couple cases of good German beer in liter bottles and heavy wooden cases delivered even though I was 12 years old. I could get a swig of beer but never got drunk. When I returned from Vietnam, I didnt have a drivers license and went to dry county in Arkansas to visit family and on way home I asked my mother to stop at a liquor store for a six pack of beer. I went in alone and clerk demanded I show id. The only id I had was military and I was nineteen so the cashier told me to get the fuck out before he called police on me (drinking age was 21). Humiliated and thoroughly pissed I got my mother to buy beer. I was naive enough to buy beer cuz a week before I was in a bunker with m-60 belt fed machine gun and I could buy all liquor I wanted not to mention heroin, opium,pharmacutical amphetamines, seconal, and dew (marijuana) I wanted. To be fair I still looked about 15 years old, but it still pisses me off.

While Germans think it odd how quick Americans are to talk to each other, we were surprised at the way German restaurateurs would seat strangers at our table when all tables were occupied. This is how we met a man (back in the 80's) who had been a German prisoner of war in Idaho. He said he had the time of his life, that he never ate better in his life and spent the whole war listening to American records and playing baseball all day. Said he fell in love with America and Americans in the prisoner of war camp. Asked to stay, but they made him go back. He got a job which allowed him to travel on business to the USA and he did, as often as he could.

Taxes vary from state to state. So the Tips in the US: FWIW there are many servers that live a nice middle class live style due to tipping. It would actually reduce most server income if we went to a "minimum wage" for servers. It incentivizes good service.

So ive watched some of your videos here and there and notice that you and other american RU-vidrs who living in germany focus a lot on the diffrences between america and germany/europe. Sure the small and big diffrences are interessting and I enjoy learning more about them, but did you consider to do once a video about what both countrys have in common? The influence of germany on america and visa versa? Maybe you did such video already and Ive missed it? For example: When I as a german grow up, american cartoons and sitcoms became more and more popular over here. And often you seen like a "Hallowen Special" episode in these. And I think because of these cartoons and sitcoms Hallowen in general become more and more popular in germany. Sure its not as big here as its in america (yet), but from my experiance it became bigger and bigger every year. Anyways, I better stop here now because my english isnt the best, but I hope you dont mind my small video suggestion and wish you a happy weekend and furthermore a lot of fun and succes with your videos. Greetings from Niederrhein

German here. 1.) Oh boy I've been in the "I've got a fiver to spend, let's grab a drink real quick, suddenly it's 5+ including taxes" situation. At the register I was so sure to get some change. I was standing there, basically holding my hand out, waiting for some coins to fall down. "Sir, it's five-twenty-three" - "What???". I was confused AF. 2.) I adopted the "sandwich with side chips" thing and I love it! I totally get it! If you're having a nice juicy sandwich, you need some crunchy texture as a complement. One day, I really went out there and put some chips ON my sandwich. It felt so ... adventurous :D

The reason the USA doesn’t put the tax on Stamp is because the tax is different for almost every county

Totally get the tailgating! Lovely custom!😂

Utterly shocked & devastated that the prevalence of AC everywhere in the US didn’t make your list ! Should we be highly concerned now about the traditional rant video for this coming summer ? ;-)😉🥵

In college, my German friend didn’t understand why we didn’t put a crutch on the end of our joint. Nor did we know how to properly smoke a hash and tobacco cone joint. Played soccer, had many German friends Great times!

Your videos are great! I am from Seattle now living in Hamburg and played football at Redlands in California. Lived in the Portland area for 2.5 years. My girlfriend and I are thinking of firing up similar content so this is good inspiration and I find it quite funny. So accurate as well. Would love to connect!

Great football explanation!

That bubble thing with the talking louder makes sense. That is why it is harder to make friends in germany cause our personal bubble is smaller so you come closer so it takes longer to trust you enough...

When I was in the USA (New York) for the first time, I got a water from the refrigerator in a small store. When the cashier told me a higher price than indicated, I said, "but it only costs xxx". And for that price he actually gave it to me. At that time I didn't know about this tax.

Really cool video, I'll have to send a link to your channel to my cousin; he lived and worked in Görlitz, which is on the Polish border, for about five years in the early 2000s and absolutely loved it! One of his favorite things was that being Polish/Ukrainian on our side (his mom/my aunt is my dad's older sister) and German on his dad's side, he could literally stroll from his office near the Untermarkt (Lower Market Square) and over a pedestrian bridge in a park, cross the Lusatian branch of the Niesse River, and have lunch in Zgorzelec, Poland, directly across the river. No checkpoints, no passports, no border control. Just a nice ten minutes' walk into an entire other country. Apparently, it was pretty common amongst his colleagues when discussing lunch plans to just very casually be like, "Oh, let's go to Poland and get some pierogi" like us Yanks would talk about going to Taco Bell. I am surprised however that you didn't bring up how different German beer is. When my cousin came back for a visit while living in Görlitz and brought his German girlfriend - a surgeon from one of the local hospitals who was an absolute blast and just so much fun to talk to - she was flabbergasted by the concept of "light beer" and commented that she wished they had something like that (not sure if they do now since this was 20 years ago) since it "goes down so easy, like beer-flavored water".

The reason sales tax is reported separately is to make sure people know how much tax they are actually paying. I’m many states it is against the law to bury the sales tax in the final price.

Ich finde tatsächlich neben dem Kennenlernen anderer Länder und Kulturen das Beste am Reisen ist das Kennenlernen seines eigenen Landes. Man bekommt ein Blick auf Dinge, die man sonst nicht wirklich wahrnimmt, weil sie vollkommen normal sind. Das gilt für Positives, wie für Negatives. Ich bin jedes Mal wieder überrascht.

I think the major difference with the drinking age is, it’s about around whom you are gaining your initial drinking experiences around. When you’re 16 some sort of moderation naturally has to be learned because you have to go home to your parents at the end of the night. and also still function represent yourself as a decent member of your own community. People you’ll have to see every day people go to school with people you’ve grown up with chances are more family members, getting trashed in front of them is probably not gonna happen all the time like it wouldn’t college because you have a higher respect for them and also they’ll have a higher respect for you and not encourage you to drink as much as you can as fast you can. But off in college usually when everybody starts drinking you’re surrounded by nothing but 18 to 22 year olds that are just encouraging each other to drink more and more faster and faster all out of sight of the people they love and respect most and that love and respect them most. There are plenty of dumb and disrespectful things I did under the influence of alcohol at college that I would not have done if we were to get around town to my grandmother or something

Schwäbisch Hall xD Lol you guys chillin' here around the corner :)

Nalf! Long time no see😀 I hope you are OK and not inflicted with Covid and still enjoy your Bavarian Prezels😁 Greetings from Oldenburg and the northern part of Germany.

I'm loud because I was the 3rd of 6 siblings. Getting stuck in the middle, you just had to be loud. I'm loud even by American standards. I went to Austria for my honeymoon 32 years ago and the Austrians are very reserved and friendly. They are very diplomatic. Then I went to Munich and Munich was just like going home to New England, it was loud, fun, and the Germans all had opinions on everything and they loved to debate politics. I had a great time. I took German in High School and college and it was all coming back to me. My wife had a bunch of German relatives that debated politics in German and all of that brought back some memories for my wife. She told me, if I wanted to hear drunk Germans debating and yelling politics at each other in German I would have just stayed home. Well this Anglo/Irish/Jewish kid was enjoying yelling at Germans and being yelled at and of course drinking up copious amounts of German beer.

I started school in the US during the push toward metric conversion. Then one fall, I started class and suddenly everything was all inches and pints. Add to this that I lived near the US/Canada border, watching mostly Canadian TV, and to this day I get horribly confused. Like, just hearing the temperature doesn't tell me whether it's going to be hot or cold outside. I always have to look it up.

The pharmaceutical commercials hit me hard when we did watch TV the one night we stayed in when we went to Hawaii. Almost every ad after the pharmaceutical ad was one from a personal injury lawyer telling you to contact them if you have been injured by the proceeding drug advertised. It was so weird. We don't have prescription drug ads here and ambulance chaser lawyers are also banned.

I'm from the Buffalo, NY area. So funny to hear a Bills reference in a video about Germany haha. Love it.

nonsense take on some of these 1. The Imperial system is bonkers. How do you calculate with that? 😳 2. Chips on the side? Really good, but not essential. 👌 3. While manual cars are fun, automatic cars are great as well! Thankfully, Germans are opening up to automatic ones. 🙏 6. I feel, Germans go for neither comfort nor fashion. They do everything practically... which is almost a seperate category? I'd like for us to be more stylish. Other European countries value good dress much more than we do. 👔 8. Polite is good. If it's genuine, I appreciate it each and every time. 😊 9. Yeah, true. By the age of 20, many Germans are already through their worst escapades. 😅 10. Grimey outdoor shoes in the house are a crime. 🥾

My mother taught me how to drive stick shift in a large Ford pickup in our high school parking lot while no one was there. I have never struggled to drive any stick shift vehicle since, and I have thanked her for teaching me many useful things while I was young. When people are surprised I can drive stick like a boss it actually surprises ME! I never knew it was such a special skill here 😂

This was fun. Thank you. DA

I _love_ you saying "Thank you" pretty oftenly !!! *THANK YOU SO MUCH for doing so !!* ... Since -- I somehow "hate" (young) people forgetting how to say "Thank you" ..... !

We discussed with american about the drinking age. We agreed that it is bad to handle weapons when you are drunk. So in Europe, it is forbidden to have weapons, in the US it is forbidden to drink, so both are kind of safe ;). The idea behind the drinking age of 16 is to avoid that you start drinking hard alcohol when you first are allowed to drink alkohol. Hard drinks are allowed from 18 !

There's something to be said about not going to college. My parents, especially my dad, did not want me to go to college, he wanted me to work for a living, so I was an electrician/mechanic, also known as maintenance, and with plenty of overtime and a union, I averaged around $100 K a year. But I have always have missed the nice college girls and spring break, though. I speak and understand a little German. I could have learned the fluent language from my grandparents, but when I was a kid, that was the old country 'n I didn't care.

As an Englishman I find the continued use of the Imperial measurement system in the Us very annoying. When I do carpentry I nearly always use my metric tape measure as it is just so much easier to work with. On the other hand in the UK speed limits are still in MPH, perhaps that is part of the 'freedom' we got by leaving the EU.

Spot on! Having lived in the US but being born in Germany this is such a comprehensive list WITH good explanations of why things are that way!

The vacation (holidays, sorry can't help myself) days one is interesting because I think it ties into the myth of the hardworking American and the lazy European. I work for a tech company that has both Irish and American offices. Ireland has 20 days per year min holidays. Ireland (generally) has a better work life balance than America too in my experience. The guys in the American offices often make jokes at us leaving early on a Friday or taking a couple weeks off to go on holidays etc. They also tend to stay at work way way way later than us (we leave at 5 unless its an emergency, American's are supposed to do the same but usually stay until 7 at least). And despite all of this, Irish projects are handed in (fully complete) way sooner than the American projects. Not always obviously, but much more often. I've noticed a similar trend when we work with other American companies and other European companies too, American teams just seem to spend more time doing less than we do. It goes without saying, that's not a comment on their competence (they're are every bit as capable as we are) but from what I can tell its all about being seen to be working as opposed to actually doing all that much. Which is infuriating to me, why would you be there wasting your life for nothing when you could be out doing something you actually care about. Really strange. Anyone else have similar (or opposing) experiences?

4:00 Totally true, I also feel that way. Driving manual gives you an understanding of how the car works and why gears are actually neccessary. But for me it even goes beyond that. I cannot have fun driving an automatic, for me it's just too boring. Switching gears myself, using the clutch and so on is a very important part of driving most people miss nowadays. This is why I learned driving manual since the beginning and this is why I will never stop doing that.

Thanks for the shout out to Bills Mafia 😁

*14:00** That's how a $30 price becomes a $32,57 price... impossible to give the change!* 🤦🏼‍♂🤣

😹 Missed Mikey’s lovely interpretation of your outro…🎼

Sales tax is shown separate for a few reasons. But my favorite is that you get to see how much you pay in taxes. It's not some hidden VAT that is hard to define, and changes for different products.

In Switzerland, we also used to say thank you multiple times like you described in the video and we also used to say "bye" mutliple times at the end of a phone call :D

thx for the viedeo

"Why don't Americans use the Metric system?" Oh, but we do - in *addition* to SAE/Imperial, depending on what we're doing.

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and shoes were typically worn in the house. I think there are a few things that might contribute to that trend: We had a cement floor basement and cement floor attached garage. Both were visited daily if not hourly to store and retrieve items. We had 3 living levels - the bedrooms upstairs, kitchen mid level, and family room downstairs, then the basement below ground. Now add in central air-conditioning, and the bottom levels were considerably colder than the upper levels, and the cement and tile floors were freezing to bare feet. There are slippers obviously for cold feet, but having 3 kids constantly running in and out of the house, in and out of the basement and garage, and watching TV in the cold downstairs family room, it was just not convenient to take shoes on and off constantly. Shoes were only removed if they were wet or muddy. As an adult, my house now is a live-in workshop. My floors throughout the house are as likely to be covered in sawdust and metal chips as any dirt from outside. The only time I walk around in my own house barefoot is when I'm getting ready for bed, or waking up in the morning. I do have separate house and outdoor shoes, but I'm not really picky out go outside to grab something in my house shoes so long as the ground is dry.

good content

Regarding the pre-party - I once was on the concert in the States and there was a big pre-concert party on the parking lot, similar to what is shown here in the video. People were drinking, listening to music, playing games, basically having a lot of fun. Very interesting experience indeed, it felt like you're on some big music festival with camping.

I am so with you on number 8. I‘m Welsh, which makes me more outgoingly friendly than English people. I meet with distrust all the time, and it’s a bit depressing to be honest. Learn to take enthusiasm on the chin, Deutschland! It’s not the end of the world to be happy and grateful when nice things happen and you enjoy those. It doesn’t jinx it.

The tax thing is because the sales tax on items can vary all the way down to the individual town level and sometimes the sales tax for gas can be different than the sales tax for groceries which again can vary down to the town level and most businesses don't want to bother with making a different price tag on each item at each location so they don't bother.

I am German. I also wear comfortable clothes, and it has become more common here as well. And I also like thanking people. Maybe I would even like driving automatic, but learning the harder one so I can drive both still makes sense. Maybe your culture washed over the ocean once more. I'm still glad we have social systems that probihit letting someone work without any ensurance for 3$ and no vacation. We fought for free education, 12$ minimum wage, 24 days of vacation and 5 mandatory ensurances paid 50/50 between worker and company: health, accident, unemployment, pension and caretaking.

#nodaysoff gets even better-Some companies in the US (I’m familiar specifically with tech companies, but I’d be willing to bet it’s a growing trend with some other fields) are now marketing themselves to prospective employees as having unlimited sick/vacation days. Sounds great! Until you get into the job and see that the competitiveness with your coworkers/teammates and pressure from those above you means taking time off hurts your career and affects how your coworkers interact with you. Not to mention there’s also an increasing trend of the unspoken, but heavily felt more-than-eight-hours work day. But hey, they officially allow unlimited time off!

100% true! My wife is Deutsche, we stayed in Germany after I retired from the military in 2013. The hardest things to get used to, for me, was the no yard work /no noise on Sunday rule, no built in closets and you need a heavy duty industrial strength drill to hang a light from a typical German ceiling. American tourists are louder, I have seen it first hand on the trains. Americans are usually accompanied by the spouse, 4 kids, 3 dogs and 15 peices of luggage everywhere they go.

I love your Videos - but had to hop on here to tell you that I am as a German from Dresden, Saxony Was also taught to be super polite and say thank you quiet often - especially in a store. My friend from Brandenburg was at first anoid about that, but living for quiet some time or working together with me, she started saying thank you more often too.... Maybe you should do a Trip to Saxony and find out for yourself...

As a german I have to admit that "party at the parking lot" looks awesome and should become a german tradition right now 😁

One of the popular quotes from our great Karl Lagerfeld was: «Wer eine Jogginghose trägt, hat die Kontrolle über sein Leben verloren» (The one wearing sweatpants lost control of his life) and many Germans probably agree here.

This explained a few weird encounters, thanx. I got two more that explicitely hit me: The politeness of Americans. It´s such a big difference to Germany, especially the very west Germany, where people are comparably rude. I had to assume it´s fake and people just culturally are used to be that polite, but I don´t really get it. It feels good, though. It feels better than usual interactions in Germany. And even when I try to keep up, I still think I´m kind of cold and rude when beeing in the US. But a part of me thinks this is only a mask. And then there is the thing when you meet a stranger, and then they suddenly start to talk with you like you´re an old friend. I love it! I was extremely shy, but this actually helped me out of some uncomfortable situations and made me more open. Especially in airports or bars. Someone comes around, and you chat about stuff for an hour, drink beer, goof around or whatever. Very, very uncommon in Germany with strangers. What I also heard many times was "Hey, nice shirt!".

1960/61 I spent in Canada and the US and almost stayed for good. What made me leave in the end is the lackin interest over there in many things of interest that I had got implanted in Germany in my childhood and youth. We learn to take our life serious, whether this is good or bad is hard to say.

The shoes in the house thing I think is more about the floor surface. In areas where carpeting more common, you take the shoes off, in areas where you get tile or hardwood floors less so. I've seen that difference between NJ and FL where in NJ the presumption is you take your shoes off, in FL, land of tiled floors, the presumption is you don't.

Great video! Another thing that is very different in the US is the use of "I love you". I feel like Americans say "I love you" all the time. How do you know when somebody actually loves you? :-D

As an American living in Germany, my theory on why we talk so loudly is that we are just so amazed at how nice (and how old) everything is, that we're like, "Oh, my God, Janet, look at that cathedral/half-timbered house/castle/etc!" Plus, we automatically assume that everybody else wants to know what we're talking about. I miss tailgating before games! Go Unicorns!

As for identifying foreigners and telling where they are from - a game I used to play with myself while waiting on my friends by the Dom in Cologne - I actually went by clothing. If I see a person who looks like he - guys are easier to tell - just put on the clothes he found on the floor in the morning: American. I see a person like that, but the colors match somewhat: Canadian. Somebody is prepared for every eventuality with backpack, fanny pack, map pulled out, and tons of sun screen: Australian. A woman - this time easier to tell on women - wearing clothing that is far too "cold" for the outside temperature, but she wanted to look good/sexy: Brit. Woman that wears every accessory imaginable without looking tacky: Russian. Socks in Sandals: German. Not dead give-aways, but it works surprisingly well. Btw: I played for the Cologne Crocodiles in my youth. Nice to see that the GFL is still up and running.

I didn't even know you eat sandwich with chips! 😂 what a great idea!!! I will try that!!! 😃

I have family in the US, and I have been there a few times. I also follow US sports a lot. I understand the talking louder part a bit, because of the personal space bubble. But I don't understand the hollering and yelling, whenever something quite normal happens, like while watching or even playing Golf. I also like comfortable clothes, but I don't understand the obsession with shorts, especially the combination of shorts and really warm sweaters or jackets Americans often seem to wear.