5 Things Americans Do That Europeans Find WEIRD!!(Vice Versa) 

Glad I'm not the only one that thought he would make a great movie villian.

@@tool4rage434it’s just inborn Germans are natural born villains 😂😂😂 and British too!!

He should have a cat on his lap.

@@lucone2937 precisely haha stroking her

Either someone with a grand evil plan or someone who can a henchman like Stamper from Tomorrow Never Dies

I didn't get that response. You're using energy to make water hot, you're not "cooking" water. There really is a big stigma with the microwave I'm guessing? Also in Europe they had 220/240V outlets, so their electric kettles can actually get water hotter significantly faster than they could in the US with 120V. But the bottom line is tea is kind of a second class citizen to coffee in the US.

agree with mike_b, but also, normally, if you're boiling water, it is to cook food along with the water, so that's one reason why the microwave would be used. Or the range. The reason electric kettle is uncommon is that Europeans use those because they want to drink tea. In the USA, most of us drink coffee instead, and we have a device called a coffee maker that does the heating of the water for the coffee. Hence no reason to have an electric kettle. Many Americans who drink tea use a steam kettle, which is similar to an electric kettle except it has no electronic parts; you put on the range and it "whistles" when the water boils. If for some reason you wanted to boil water and water only, there's no reason not to use the microwave for that. Ideally you want a rotating tray in the microwave, and you have to be careful because the container will also become hot. The other thing you could do is use a pot and put a cover it, and heat it on the electric range. The microwave has the advantage that it will give you a "beep" or "ding" when finished. 🙂

We need him to do audiobooks 😂😂😂

he sings on Kraftwerk,he says - uno,due,itch ni,san,its more fun to compute....

Funny enough here in Spain nobody would react about that. We don't usually have electric kettles (because we usually just have coffee machines). So If you want to make tea is not uncommon to use the microwave.

Good to see you still making videos, Christina! I'm American and I purchased an electric water boiler (kettle) a decade ago. Electric kettles are much faster than kettles put on the stove. ^_^

We from Iberian peninsula are different, in older time people would boil water on a kettle on the stove, now most microwave the water then put the tea bag, but I know the Brits love their electric kettles, sparkling water isn’t popular and most only drink it when they have an upset stomach so nobody has soda streams, we don’t do have the bag of treats thing, Portugal doesn’t have pfang but we have machines that you can put pet bottles but only in a few places first they gave people a few cents now you need to choose a charity to donate too aka almost nobody use it, the tape measure things is outdated for decades maybe you find one in a toolbox somewhere but most use the “roll up ones”, we aren’t rule followers like germans but rule breakers ect

It's actually legal in the US for 16 + teens to drink 1 ounce of wine or beer under adult supervision.😊 I am second generation Dutch American 😊

We call it Zollstock in Germany, literally "inch stick", which is funny because we don't even use inches 😂

@@andyx6827 Nice 🤣

yeah I scratched my head at that, we have those here, lol. At first I thought it was just a ruler, but when I saw that it folded, I had seen those too. I'm a computer guy but I know what those things are used for. Of course, the retractable metal measuring tape is more common these days. More portable and convenient. 🙂

It's most of the geographical area but remember, it's not most of the people. The census for 2020 says that 80% of us live in urban areas (google "urban areas facts"). 🙂 I'm from the Sna Francisco Bay Area....SF itself is walkable throughout, and down here in Silicon Valley we have a lot of different walkable areas and you get from one to the other on transit, or driving if you insist lol. I'm 46 and I don't know how to drive, because I'm from here. 😃 I doubt the flyover states/inbred trumptard states will ever be dense enough to justify extensive public transit. 🙂

i feel like if you live in a populated city its more convienient to walk, it also just depends on the state

The United States was supposed to change to the metric system in the 70s, but for some reason they never did.

How is driving weird?? You said you are from here so you should know that the US is really huge unlike in Europe and unless you live in a major city(like New York City, Chicago, etc), it’s just not walkable to different places. Therefore we have to drive to get to where we need to go. Would it be convenient to have a great transportation system like railways, buses, etc. all over here in the US? Yes. Would it be convenient if things were close to each other in order for people to walk everywhere? Yes. That would be awesome but until then we have to rely on driving. Also the metric system was used at one point but it got too confusing for people so they reverted back to the imperial system for us. Are you even American?? How do you not know these things? Seriously!

Your driving lessons and test are easy compared to most of Europe

@@santostv. That’s true. The driving lessons are too easy and I thoroughly agree. They should make it harder in the United States.

@@sarahprince2412 Nope, cars are only a thing because you and other motorists have allowed it. I cycle whenever I can, sometimes upwards of 50 miles. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. I care about this planet. We need thriving trees and healthy oceans, not stupid metal boxes that terrorize usable space. I do ocean cleanups regularly and the runoff from car containments is disgusting. People are lazy, that's it. No excuses to try to minimize car use.

Most major grocery stores in the US (ie _not_ Walmarts with food) have in-house bakeries just like they have in-house delis. The fancier ones are even getting all "European" with olive bars, charcuteries, etc.

The bread isn't fresh nor is it the kind of traditional bread that's made most commonly in Europe. It's a "bakery" with the same sliced bread on plastic bags you find everywhere else. Plus even the few actual bakeries you have with actual hand-made bread is from European immigrants and bakeries

Yup "San Francisco Sourdough" it's awesome, I'm from the Bay Area too (South Bay/Silicon Valley/San Jose). 🙂

@@MW_Asura "The bread isn't fresh" Yeah it is. Safeway makes it the same day. "nor is it the kind of traditional bread that's made most commonly in Europe." Well.....we're not Europe. It's not shameful that we don't make bread the same way Europe does when we are not Europe. That is one of the reasons why one travels, to experience different cultures. I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area. You can't shame us for our food. We have hundreds of Michelin style restaurants here, and the excellent food is one of many reasons that we get millions of visitors here every year from all over the world. The wine in Napa and Sonoma, aka "the North Bay" (north shore of the San Francisco Bay) is praised throughout the world, easily on par with that of France. Our whole grain wheat bread is definitely NOT "unhealthy" or "full of chemicals" or anything of that nature. There are bakeries in the USA that make the kind of bread they make in Europe, just, usually not the bakeries that are integrated into the local grocery store. Like r2d2rxr said, here the Bay Area, we have "San Francisco Sourdough" which is definitely world class bread. It's a unique variant created in the Bay Area in the 1850s by French and German immigrants. Well, actually a few different variants, but they are all known as San Francisco Sourdough.

also these days i hear people have started making their own sourdough bread from scratch

Lasers still cost 80€-100€, I know the swiss are rich but i was surprised when she said that.

Lasers still cost 80€-100€, I know the swiss are rich but i was surprised when she said that.

Well

No.. he just considers what he says..

or loose the virginity...and stonks...you know..

I'd say buying some things in bulk is still common to save money, but not for years.

@@Trifler500 Yes Costco - the large sizes are a bit of a novelty in Australia.

same here. It might be a bias some people have?

@@brainy191 maybe?

Beliefs around microwaves and air conditioners are bizarre in Switzerland and Germany. Some Germans/Swiss/Austrians think AC makes you sick and microwaved food or drink is dangerous. It's pure superstitious nonsense, zero basis in reality. It's like fan death in Korea, something they should be embarrassed about.

​@@MarcioHuser She might have meant that it promotes unhealthful eating choices (tv dinners, buttery popcorn in PFAS lined bags, and just not taking the time to slow down and cook a healthful meal). The actual radiation waves, though, are extremely long wavelength-longer than visible light and a billion times larger than the waves of scary nuclear gamma radiation. In that sense, microwave radiation is harmless.

No, I dont think there is any evidence for this, but everyone knows at least one person who thinks that microwaves are unhealthy. Its the german version of "cows can be purple"

Something that only Germans do is switch off all nuclear plants, just happened one month ago in April 😅 Nuclear energy formerly took 30% of the national production of energy and was finally reduced to 0% now, although our plants were regarded as the most safest, with a spherical security container. Although a incident is unprobable, the general damage was huge, so our nation decided to dump the technology. On the other hand renewable energies are introduced since 2000 and take already 50% of the national energy mix. 🌏

Chris, anyone ever tell you you give off an elven lady vibe? I keep picturing you with pointy ears! 🧝‍♀

@@hnrccaa "On the other hand renewable energies are introduced since 2000 and take already 50% of the national energy mix. " 54% in California (65% zero emission, if you count hydroelectric and nuclear, which I do). When the sun is up we're about 83% zero emission, and about 90% if you count hydroelectric and nuclear (we have one nuclear plant left). We also have the largest energy storage system in the world, which holds 10.3 GWh of energy, and is charged via solar and wind. It gives us another 5-6 hours of solar power after the sun sets. Another 4 GWh is planned to be added this year, and the ultimate goal (for right now) is 54 GWh, although I think we will sail past that in about five years if we keep going at the present rate. During the day in spring and summer, California typically exports over 1 GW of solar power. Today we were exporting 5 GW at one point. 🙂Alas, at night we do have to burn some natural gas and import some power. As more storage is built up, we will need to do less and less of that. 🙂 I served on nuclear powered submarines in the USN, and while I was not a nuclear technician, I was Qualified in Submarines (it's required for all but very difficult to achieve) so I'm a lot more familiar with it than the average person. There's nothing scary about it if you're doing it right. However it is a lot more expensive than solar and wind, which are cheaper than coal at this point. 80% of all new power plants planned in the USA for 2024 are solar or storage. 🙂 The reactor on a submarine is very low power output, about 300 MW, versus a civilian commercial one that will be 2 GW or so. The civilian plants are more expensive because they need that containment dome etc. I agree that the future for civilian power is definitely solar/wind/geothermal, nuclear will be used less and less. Not because of danger, but simply because of economics. Of course we will still need it for the Navy and for space exploration/colonization. 🙂

Christina in major cities we have lots of public transit in the USA. You're from Massachusetts, in Boston you don't need a car day to day, surely. I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and have never been to Boston, but it's a reasonable size city so I assume it has buses, light rail etc., like here we have BART, Caltrain, SMART train, light rail, buses. I actually don't know how to drive, and I'm 46....I can get around on the public transit we have here. 🙂

All the states I visited, I drank the tapwater. I have not heard of a place in the United States, where you cannot drink the tapwater, maybe there’s some, but I don’t know of any.

It's actually suggested to drink tap water, as it has fluoride. Good for the teeth as health care is expensive. But some times if the city has to work on pipes or there's a contamination issue, the news will issue a boil advisory and state not to drink the water.

She said it because of the flint fiasco and in some states isn’t recommended, also although it also it happens in Europe industry contaminated a lot of water, but I’m not from USA , so someone from their can say it better.

@@santostv. We rank really high in tap water quality, consistently top ~15 in the world. Availability, we do a bit worse than Europe as a whole but we're talking like 97.5% vs 98%. It's actually really annoying to me as an American because I was in Germany like 15 years ago for a long time and *nobody* drank tap water. I did, but people thought I was weird because they drank nothing but bottled mineral water. Now I teach young Germans English and they come here afraid to drink the water because they heard about Flint. I'm like, guys, it's one city that mismanaged their water supply horribly. We're thousands of miles away in the state that has the best water in the country. In the entire time our water has been monitored, we've had like two violations. If we were an independent country we'd have the safest water in the world. But in my experience, there's this weird quirk that people outside the country, and a few of them inside it, *really* like the idea of things being awful here.

@@benf91 Don’t sh0t the messager, I’m from Europe although from the southern part so we are different than them, I instantly knew why see said but i see plenty Americans drink from the tap in videos, like their said they preffer carbonated water so maybe thats the reason for not drinking from the tap, in my if you have a well you buy bottle water, at home depending some drink from the tap other buy bottled minera water but is because of taste not safety a lot of places have hard water so it tastes “bitter”, also my country is mineral water most only drink carbonated water when they have an upset stomach for example.

😂❤

In DE it is legal to drink wine and beer from 16, and spirits from 18. DE has a smaller alcoholism problem than the USA.

​@@arnodobler1096 Source: your butt, lol, that's not true at all. Europeans and being in denial about their own alcoholism, name a more iconic duo. Okay, besides turning into pretentious self-righteous snobs the minute America comes up.

And it is a generalisation anyway. Not all Europe is the same. Here in Spain we use the microwave often too because we don't have electric kettles (just coffee machines).

Tea has been known for thousands of years and nowdays is accepted all over the world. Preparing and drinking tea (or coffie) is small ritual for inner satisfaction and peace. Can't explain but when someone use microwave to heat water for tea its like you are washing your hands with gloves on.

@@Mrpeacemaker2 It’s all electricity no matter which way the water is heated. Sorry not sorry.

Thinking they could have a gas stove, not electric. Just putting myself in their shoes. However, a microwave is not comparable to an electric stove top either. The way it heats food up is very different and an electric stove top, although electric, is more natural in comparison.

I don’t think the tea taste the same in a microwave, I’ve tried all three ways microwave, tea, kettle, and electric tea kettle

Actually, unfortunately, it seems like the majority of Americans do use the drive-through with their cars for food, banks, pharmacies, and more except maybe in cities where more people walk such as New York City and San Francisco.

I agree, it's non-ionising radiation. They are found in most households in Australia, but so are kettles and increasingly coffee machines.

it's one of those irrational beliefs people have....another one common in Europe is that air conditioning will make you sick. It might stimulate your sinuses in ways you're not used to if you don't normally use AC, but it's not going to make you sick. Even in parts of the USA that get colder than Europe, we still typically have AC in the house. It might be a portable unit that is only rolled out in summer. Here in California, there is no environmental concern with AC, because when the sun is up in summer, California gets over 80% of our power from the Sun. AC isn't really optional in California because it does tend to be over 30 C in summer, and 40 C or even 45 C is not uncommon in the summer. But in my opinion, even if a typical summer temperature is 23, I would still want the AC, especially in a typical European house that's designed to trap heat. If it's over 22 and your house is designed to trap heat, it will get VERY hot inside. It's one of those things, if a European gets AC, he will wonder how he ever got through summer without it. 🙂

@@neutrino78x The Problem with ACs in Germany is, that electricity is more expensive and the government has no real replacement for those shut down nuclear powerplants. Renewable energy is great but it can't cover the whole electricity consumption of the country yet. To close the gap, some coal powerplants are still running and we buy electricity from other European countries. If electricity were plenty and cheap, there would be more ACs. In public transport vehicles (train and bus), there usually is a good AC installed but they don't switch it on very often or keep it at a very low level.

@@Headhunter-5000 " the government has no real replacement for those shut down nuclear powerplants. " I'm not sure how this is a reason not to use AC. Nuclear is clean, dude. No CO2 emissions. Doesn't contribute to climate change in ANY way. I served on nuclear powered submarines in the USN, and though I wasn't a nuclear tech, I'm Qualified in Submarines, so I know a lot more about nuclear power than most people do. Trust me, it's perfectly safe. "Renewable energy is great but it can't cover the whole electricity consumption of the country yet." So? Between solar, wind, and nuclear, you're covered. Germany might need to build solar and wind out more, but this isn't a reason not to run AC. " If electricity were plenty and cheap, there would be more ACs." Ok, so, do it. Here in my apartment we pay about 100 USD for electricity each month in summer, and we have a window mounted AC which we need to use a lot because it's California. California is also 90% zero emission when the sun is up. (about 83% solar/wind/geothermal, and then we also have one nuclear power plant, which is about 10% of our power, and we also have 5 GW of hydroelectric.) You can always put a solar panel on your roof if you're concerned about CO2 emissions.

@@Headhunter-5000 Nils, I was just looking it up; it looks like you guys are about 55-60% zero emission, about the same as California. Of course, that's over the course of a year. Earlier today, California was about 96% zero emission. (we have 300 days of sunshine a year....on those days, it's typically 90+ percent zero emission in the daytime and around 50% at night. We store the solar power in the world's largest energy storage system, 10.3 GWh and growing, mostly paid for and owned by the private sector. Another 4 GWh is expected to be added this year by the private sector, and the goal right now is 52 GWh by 2050.) Anyway, Germany's grid is clean enough that there shouldn't be a concern with CO2 as a result of AC. You would mainly run AC during the day, and there's more zero emission power available at that time. I can understand "I personally can't afford $500 for a portable AC" (I'm pretty broke myself, it happens), but what I can't understand is people who can afford but they refuse to for some weird reason. Like with the French, they have an irrational fear of AC (And they're 80% nuclear, no climate concerns there either), in English it's called "current of air", they think a cold breeze will give them the Black Death. Like I said, if a given individual is concerned about CO2 from use of AC, they can always have solar installed on their roof. Surely the German government subsidizes that to some extent? I think the US Federal Government subsidizes it 30% or something like that. In California it pays for itself in about six years. 🙂

Because unfortunately Europeans stereotype us instead of understanding that different places have different cultures and it doesn’t make it wrong. Just look at Elena(the girl from Switzerland). She comes across as snobby to me thinking she’s better than Americans. It doesn’t help that Christina(the American) doesn’t really defend our country or schools them properly in why we do what we need to do. She seems to really just try to apologize for our culture instead which is insulting to us. Unfortunately many Europeans act very snobby towards Americans thinking we are uncultured and yet bitch and complain if we have stereotypes about them, refuse to assist them(i.e solve their problems for them), etc. It’s pathetic actually to think that places have to act like they are better than everyone else. Can’t we all just appreciate the differences with each other and not compare each others cultures? Jeesh. And this is coming from someone who is a military brat who was born in the UK and who has traveled to other countries. I have dual citizenship and both birth certificates for the UK and for the US. I’m over the hate for us Americans. There is nothing wrong with our culture and how we do certain things just like how there’s nothing wrong with other cultures in Europe and some of the things they do over there. Who cares? That’s what makes us all unique.

The uk is the usa of Europe, Switzerland is rich af and they have their “north” European upfront way of speaking, the water thing is because of flint everyone in the world heard about it.

A lot of places cannot drink their tap water, including some places in Europe. She said that Switzerland can drink their tap water to point out that Switzerland can drink it. This wasn't an attack against the USA. Quit playing the victim card on everything.

@@andyx6827 Quit saying stuff that is either wholly untrue or grossly exaggerated about our country and maybe we'll think about it. Seriously, Europeans know next to nothing about America but they watch a couple of movies and think they're an expert.

@@andyx6827 Where in Europe? In my country they only advise not drink from some village fountains because they aren’t monitored, also they removed them in my village for whatever dumb reason so now only the public tank has it, still you can safely drink water everywhere.

Europe is slightly bigger than the USA, there’s some people that have 1h commutes in the capital and they live in the neighboring city is more common but is not the norm for most I would say work at max 10-20 min away from work at least in my country, public transportation is also b@d here but the Americans usually are referring to Central Europe.

@@santostv. I lived in a village in germany. I havent enter a train before i was 16 :D We have to do everything by car like americans. Shopping was a 25 minute drive, school was a 40 minute drive by bus every morning. But our citys are more walkable than american ones. And we can walk from villiage to villiage if we want by seperate "streets" for walk/cycle. I walked one of this ways to my best friend often, 30 minutes through the forest (our forests are not dangeours unlike the usa, we have no dangerous animals)

@@xxklesx1 I also live in village but within the city so I guess Americans would consider it the suburbs, i went to school in the city so ~car rides but if i went to kindergarten and primary school in village it would be like 2 min away, here we are car addicts, my city doesn’t have trains for decades, most of the population lives by the coast so if you live in the rest of the country you milage might very, they close a lot of public kindergarten and primary schools because of lack of students, so again it very, shopping we do it by car is because village supermarkets are “overpriced” and lack variety and most work in the cities so you go to supermarkets hypermarkets on your way home but again in metropolis life is a bit different, but from what i see usa people do , walking is more common here besides nyc , people walking with their groceries. Like I said working in a different city isn’t uncommon here either, but I think most usa citizens take longer commutes because they have highway instead of “normal” road but might be a perspective thing idk, but don’t worry we are getting Americanized so even with aging population we wil be forced to live further from the cities if you are a renter, it’s what politicians and businessmen want to increase their real estate portfolio value. Again it varies city from city, region to region and type of job you have in my country but public transportation here s*cks maybe compared to the usa is considered good but for us it doesn’t suit the need of the average citizen.

Good catch! What's especially ironic is that Christina is talking to German and Swiss persons. Unlike the English language, they typically put i after e, so if ever there was a World Friends video that should have correctly spelled it with an 'ei', this would have been it. Also, it's a pet peeve of mine that people from the US usually mispronounce "voila" as "walla" instead of giving it the hard 'v' sound like the French do. Well, Germans often pronounce 'v' like 'w' too (and 'w' like 'v')-Joshua does it in this very video for other words-yet when it comes time for Joshua to say "voila", he nails it! ...which is also ironic since he's from Germany.

People say buy a bread machine, but oh, I’m a bit lazy for that plus I think the ingredients that you put in the bread machine may still not taste it like the European breads.

Hii :) We do have a" schultüte "in Switzerland where i grew up :) so with many things i can relate too 🎉

@@twoworldsof_yerin Ah okay, interesting. Never had and never heard of a “Schultüte” here in Switzerland. At least here in the Zurich area this is totally uncommon. But still I think it’s a bit strange to have an American, a German AND a Swiss in a video and only have the sections with the names “things Germans do” and “things Americans do”.

Europe is also pushed into that direction. I feel like younger people these days are more materialistic

which one?

@@masaru340 Sonny Crocket from Miami Vice

Yeah and Europe has NOTHING to do with any of that 🙄

Again, they are not bakeries in the same way as in Europe, they're just the same sliced bread on plastic bags as everywhere else. And the few real bakeries you have are European

@@MW_Asura That's what we call them here in Los Angeles. It's nothing special. But, you can find plenty in this area.

​@MW_Asura no, we have actual bakeries with real bread. Not just that sliced crap, and not just Europeans in America. Theyre often built in to grocery stores and you can get it fresh baked. It's usually separate from the aisle where you find sliced bread.

It is illegal in every state I've lived lol. And I think just every state. Where do you live that being on the phone while driving is legal?

classic murica tourists 😂

As much as it galls me to agree with a vegan, I totally agree with you.

@@metricstormtrooper suer unecessary