I'm a German and I think it's weird that you can get water for free in most of the countries but not in Germany.... Why? Even in asian countries it's normal to get water or tea for free
Your friend is adorable. Is her site in English? I don't do half-birthdays and get little out of having been a veteran (Army in Germany) for many years. I could not live without a drip coffee-maker. The cookpot you showed at the end would go to waste on me.
Friendship isn't just about how often you hang out with people but mostly actually getting to know them, liking them, trusting them ect. If you call somebody a friend after hanging out with them 2 times it simply has no meaning.
Agreed. An aquaintance is not the same as a friend. For me, it takes monthes and multiple talks and meet-ups until I might consider someone a friend. But as Dana said: if you have become friends, that is a serious thing and will most likely last for a long time.
Yes, Someone we know only from a few times hanging out, we would called them a "Bekannter" in German a 'known one" an "acquaintance" but becoming a friend can take a long time in Germany. The word might have changed a little in recent years especially with Facebook, but the German word "Freund" is probably more like a "close friend" in English.
Harald Peter, I understand your point but I beg to differ. A friendship can occur immediately when two individuals really hit it off as they say. Dana is a very friendly woman who took a liking to this lady and she sees herself enjoying the times that they discuss different topics such as cultural differences. The feeling seems to be mutual with her new friend. If you believe in personality theories such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator I would bet that Dana is likely an ENFP. This means extroversion with intuition and feeling plus spontaneity. I am an ENFJ myself hence there are differences in personality between myself and her. The J or judgment according to the MBTI means that I prefer things in my life to be more scheduled. Anyway, people who prefer extroversion (the E in ENFP, and ENFJ), generally have an easier time making friends because we tend to have a variety of different friendships. Some of these friendships are very close, some we see perhaps a few times a year, some are from different age groups. Introverted people in general reserve the word friend for those that they are closest too. This is from my life experiences of having different kinds of friends through the years and being an extroverted person.
Thanks to visiting Berlin, I discovered electric kettles. I had no idea at the time that they were called Wasserkucher. I bought one for my house and it's one of the loveliest little kitchen gadgets I have. I use it every day. Vielen dank für dieses Video.
I've never been to Berlin, but I bought one 3 yrs ago because I got sick of buying kettles for the stove that would rust, so I broke down and got a glass electric kettle. I use it every single day. Can't imagine living w/out one now!
"Nosh" is one of those words that I think of as yiddish, but I've had a lot of "I didn't know this was german/russian" moments with yiddish words! To nosh for yiddish speakers is to eat something a little bit, you can nosh on any meal if you're just having a little bit of it.
Are you Jewish? My first contact with Yiddish was through The Nanny. My first reaction, being a German speaker(not a native one), was, "Wow! That's some sort of German dialect!" I could understand the words. To get back to the point, I also think of nosh as a Yiddish word coming from naschen.
@@MrTiliceahorea I am Jewish, but not a fluent Yiddish speaker. The overlap is pretty wide though-- my dad is conversational in German, and he won over my mother's mother, the last fluent Yiddish speaker in the family, by watching Yiddish theatre on public access television with her.
@@MrTiliceahorea There are lot's of words in the German language with yiddish roots: meschugge, bohei, Maloche, schmusen, zocken, Tinneff and much more.
I thought it was only a modern myth that Americans don't have those. Like the christmas pickle for Germans. Hearing Dana as an American repeat it surprised me.
A thing I realized while living in the US was that children would call me "Miss Hanna". We would never do that in Germany. We would either say "Hanna" or we would say "Frau Schmitt" 😊🤔
It is usually a southern US thing. Southern US is from Arkansas east and it goes up to Maryland. It shows respect, but it isn't to formal. Mrs. Ely is very formal. It's to formal for me.
Das war in Deutschland vor einigen Jahrzehnten aber durchaus auch noch gebräuchlich, daß Kinder jüngere, unverheiratete Frauen mit "Fräulein" und dann den Vornamen angeredet haben. Ich kann mich erinnern, daß wir im Kindergarten unsere Kindergärtnerinnen so angeredet haben.
Pleeaaase do a video on the friendship topic! Super interesting and also ways to keep up the friendship, keep it alive amd how Germans/Americans might adjust their habits of making/upholding friendships
One of the biggest culture shocks for me visiting friends in the US was how often people eat out at restaurants over there. Here in Sweden it might be something I do a few times a year, but there people seemed to go several times a week, if not daily. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed all of it and it was great food, but it was still weird. Going out for breakfast was the weirdest experience as well. I'd never done that in my entire life before. Most restaurants here don't even have breakfast menus at all.
@HeathenMaiden-I have to wonder if it wasn’t related to their cooking skills 😝. Cooking seems to be declining among the younger generation and depending on their age, your friends may have been embarrassed to invite you over for hot dogs and mac ‘n’ cheese. We “adopted” a German post-doc for the year he was in the US-he ate dinner at home with us about 3 times a week. We thought ourselves unusual in that, due to our jobs as church musicians, we would sometimes eat out on Sunday nights and brought him along to these as well. Of course, it helped that my wife’s heritage is German and her cooking is “pretty much like his mother’s.”
@@heymikeyh9577 Ah, but I was in my late teens and visited friends (also in their teens) who still lived with their parents and it was most often the parents who took us out to eat. I visited two different friends in two different states (IN and MO) and it was the same thing. Maybe it was a Midwest thing?
There is something like the Pledge of Allegiance here in Germany, but it's for the members of the armed forces when they pledge or swear allegiance to our constitution, depending on whether they're enlisted or volunteers. Quite a big deal and legally binding as well.
Everybody who goes to work for the U.S. government anywhere has to take an oath like that, from the president on down. That's legally binding. The Pledge of Allegiance is completely different. It's more of a tradition.
Taxes are different in each county and state, as Dana said, so in the DC area there are two states and DC and a few counties in both MD and VA that are nearby. So if Walmart puts an advertisement out on either radio, TV, or newspaper, what price are they supposed to list?
The biggest, most annoying thing for me ,when I first came here to live was,that I always was called by my first name (dr.offices etc) or in stores with “honey, sweetheart etc “. I felt very disrespected.
The tap water and in general all drinks ive tried in america was so disguisting for me. I dont know why but it tasted like chlor and dishwash. And there was also never really much healthy food, just like many sweets and fast food. Thats very shocking
For kicks, sometimes when I'm driving around, I will purposely pay attention to the number of American flags I see. Like Dana, I feel "blind" to them because it's something that I expect to see, but I just don't realize how prevalent they really are.
a positive culture shock was that the people in the shops and supermarkets were so friendly in the US, I couldnt believe how nice they were... here in Germany Verkäufer können sehr grantig sein... das Popkorn in den Kinos ist salzig.... Weihnachten wird ganz anders gefeiert, die Feiertage sind ein wichtigeres Ereignis als hier in Deutschland wie z. B. Erntedank... die Portionen sind so groß: Kleines Eis in den US sind so bestimmt 3 Kugeln in Deutschland... super geärgert habe ich mich, dass es dort noch CO2-Schädliche Styropor-Becher gibt, statt normaler Papp-Becher und die das gar nicht interessiert, Mülltrennung interessiert die auch nur im Fernsehen, sehr seltsam war auch der Essensreste-Klein-Häcksler in der Spüle.... (warum will man Essensreste im Abwasser????), anderer Culture-Shock war die Armut, die mir an manchen Stellen größer erschien als in Deutschland, da kein Hartz IV...
I'm sure, some swiss got a real culture shocks, that not everyone has a (nuclear) bunker in the basement or that it isn't normal to have soldiers (conscripts) going home/to base by public transport (with uniform, assault rifle and luggage) all over the weekend.
we call it nosh and i always thought that was a jewish thing! like the snacks you'd eat at recess, or the house's "nosh cabinet." (my family/community i grew up in is ultra orthodox jewish) (new yorker)
The concept isn’t Jewish, but the word certainly is, it is from Yiddish. Now it is also an English word, though like the whole soda, pop, soda pop, and coke thing, the word nosh isn’t necessarily used everywhere by everyone.
@@fordhouse8b oh i meant using the word nosh. obviously jews arent the only people who have a concept of snacks, but i didnt think dana would call it that
I'm German and I lived in the US for quite a while (Ohio) where I made the same experience about making friends, too. And I discovered a pretty (in my opinion) appropriate comparison: Coconuts and peaches. In that respect Germans are coconuts, when making friends with them you first have to accomplish the hard job of cracking that strong and resistant coconut shell. When you've achieved that, though, you get all the wonderful and sweet coconut milk that's inside. Americans, however, are like peaches. On the outside they are really soft, meaning really easy to approach for a start. So you'll think you have a new friend soon, but after a while you hit the hard stone in the middle that takes forever to crack...
I like the analogy :D Though if I may suggest a modification: I don't know about peaches, but for apricots I know that at least some types of apricots have an edible nut in their stone. It's similar to almonds but with a hint of apricot flavor. Just to keep the analogy of "once you crack it you get something tasty". (if the insides of the stone of peaches are edible too, ignore my suggestion xD)
Biggest culture shock was all the plastic bags they filled groceries into! Every single thing is packed separately. So horrible for people trying to make low waste
Here in California they passed a law where you have to pay for bags or bring your own. Though I don't understand what you mean everything has a separate bag. Usually, back when they were free, they would pack them pretty tight because most people would rather carry a couple heavy heavy bags then a bunch of small bags and have to make more trips back and forth.
@@sarasan3 well in Georgia at the grocery stores they would pack a milk in a bag, then other things in another bag, sometimes even in 2, even though there was still space in the first bag
@@myclickjournal I hope your your talking about a milk carton, because then your outrage makes sense and that bagger sounds like they don't know how to do it properly. Now, if your talking about the 2 gallon milk jugs, well then duh its by itself. You can risk the bag breaking other wise. Plus, the reason milk jugs were sometimes put in bags was mostly for the eldery and/or handicapable, because the bag was easier and drier then the milk jug handle.
The friendship thing is interesting. Do we Germans have more subcategories for "people we like"? I always get the feeling that in the US (or in Britain) it's not very "nice" to use the word acquaintance for someone while it's perfectly ok to "categorize" people like this in Germany. I use "Bekannte" for people I know and it's quite neutral. You can use it for people you like as well as for people you don't like. No one is offended by that (as long as they don't consider you a friend 😉) "Gute Bekannte" are not your friends (yet) but you do like them. "Kumpel" describes - at least for me - a nice but mostly superficial kind of friendship while a "Freund" is a person really close to you.
in Germany, the stages of closeness are more or less: entfernte Bekannte, Bekannte, nahe Bekannte, Freund, guter Freund, bester Freund. (bester Freund is closer than 95% of your family)
I know some Americans that consider everyone they know to be friends, but that is seen as phoney. There are people I know, people who are acquaintances, people who are friends, and people who are close to best friends. We definitely have categories in the US. I find it disarming, after living in Germany for 7 years, how Americans talk to you all the time like in the post office or grocery store queue. I hate the small talk now as it does not seem authentic or I feel overwhelmed by hearing strangers’ personal stories.
@ukkr A "buddy" is someone you could have fun with. You share same interests, sometimes just special ones (like the interest in a special sport f.e.). A buddy relationship is still on the surface of things most of the time with some deeper spots here and there. But a friend is a person who knows you from top to bottom. A person you could call in the middle of the night when you are in trouble. A person you would help without even asking why.
1:20 Half-birthdays 2:08 School being cancelled countywide (e.g. because of snow in one area) 2:39 Tax not included in prices on price tags 3:38 Making friends 7:34 Snacking 9:34 Free refills 10:51 Veterans 12:51 Flags 13:32 Pledge of allegiance in school 14:19 "Wasserkocher" / electric kettles
Yeah, I'm an American and, though I started hearing about this maybe 10 years ago, I've never celebrated my half-birthday, nor do my children or anyone in my extended family do so.
It depends on the person We moved to the Us for 2 years as I was 7 and my sister had an almost accent free english and I had a really strong accent although in the first year we were kind of in the same class and had the same friends so yeah it really depends on the person
@@sarasan3 Define "celebrated". My mom used it as an excuse to make a small cake, and that's it. Normal people don't need an excuse to bake. Not sure eating a bit of cake mid-year counts as spoiled...?
@@IceNixie0102 she said she "never heard of" it as well. Can't really bake a cake for something that you don't know exist. And maybe I was harsh, but I've just never even seen anyone in my personal life acknowledge they're half-birthday. It was never talked about at all, didn't even know this was something anyone did.
"Half-birthdays" are by no means universal. They originated as a way of having celebrations for kids whose birthdays coincide with holidays, like Christmas, who might share a birthday with another family member, or to move the party into or out of the school holidays. Of course sibling-rivalry and friendly competitiveness being what it is, as soon as a few kids got "half-birthday" celebrations, other kids (or their families) wanted in on the action.
in British English "nosh" is slang for "eat" or "food" though it's never tied to a specific time or meal. We also call a Waserkocher a "kettle" and it is identical to its German counterpart. The lack of kettles in the US baffles us too ... I think we generally assume that is why they threw their tea into the sea.
Lol. You wish. It was the taxes that Britian put on the tea in the New World. The settlers thought it was a rip off that they were taxed more than the British people. Also the lack.of tea kettles isn't true. My mom has 10. I have 2. My friends and family are the exact same way.
@@roichir7699 no I didn't. The first 1/2 I was joking. The second half I was serious. You said Americans dont have many tea kettles. This isn't a fact. You cant put 380 million people into one little box. People who drink tea on a regular basis have a tea kettle in the US.
Jessica Ely And that’s the difference, in Germany nearly every household has a kettle and we use them for a bunch of things, not just tea. It isn’t an add-on which you are buying when you like tea. By the way: What the hell is your mom doing with 10 !!! kettles, heating the water for the bathtub?
Besides all the things you already mentioned, I was shocked about how wide all the streets are are the lack of sidewalks. Even if there is a Target opposite from Hobby Lobby (or where ever you want to go), there is no way to just cross the street and go there, because the street feels like a highway and the parking lots are so big that it makes the shops even further apart. So naturally, people drive everywhere. Seeing that made me understand where their idea to implement drive-throughs/ drive-ins came from ='D
In some prisons in Germany the inmates are allowed to have watercookers in their cells. At a time in my life as a judge i had to read the inmates letters and some young prisoners were so proud to tell their moms, that now they learned how to cook. They made pudding in their watercookers :)
@@julianjakobi309 i think you are pretty free in what you can bring with you outside of counterband also prisonders are able to lock there own rooms so there no danger of your stuff getting stolen like in american prisons.
I spent 12 years in German Army Aviation and when I was in Fort Rucker, AL, to undergo my flight training in the mid 80s, I was astonished and simultaneously very pleased to see, what a great reputation soldiers have in the American public. In Germany soldiers are far from being liked, they're more like an "accepted evil" because they're necessary. Parents of girls aren't very delighted to see their daughter dating a German soldier but when I was in the US, girls were really VERY interested once they realized I'm an army pilot. As a member of military service we German soldiers got a kind of "active service" card which gave us special treatment in public offices or even tourist attractions like reduced entry prices for the Empire State Building and similar places. That was the first time I seriously realized how bad the German public treats their defenders und protectors (same goes for the police, btw. My dad was a police officer). So yes, I can fully understand Katie's surprise about the veteran "glorification" in the US. When I went out with friends in the US, some of them in their US Army uniforms, people actually stepped up and said "Thank you for serving our country" to them. That's absolutely friggin' impossible in Germany!
Milk in the US is not like milk elsewhere, is it? It's almost its own category of soft drink now. Before I lived in Japan (I realized one time when I was back in the US for a visit), where I got habituated to tea. Before, in the US, I drank lowfat milk often - I've never really been into soda, and tap water tastes different everywhere, and they usually don't just give you tap water (unless you're in Vermont) so you have to pay for water in many places. Everyone drinking bottled water was a big surprise to me when I first went to Europe/Germany in 1987, but of course that's changed and it's ubiquitous in the US. I find it really difficult to easily find quality loose leaf tea, which I still have as my fall back drink - and thank the gods for electric kettles!
The veterans thing is the weirdest idea to me. Why celebrate those people that sign up to invade a bunch of countries that didn't attack you in the first place? I feel like people in the US aren't even aware of what their soldiers are used for.
The thing about veterans is really interesting. I found it everywhere in the US. I lived in LA for about 4 years and then I moved to Washington DC because my current boyfriend lives there. I realised that in both cities, veterans have a special kinda status. They’re are meet ups and random people talk to them and tell them how much they appreciate the work they did. And in Germany, nobody does any of that. Being in the military isn’t something to be proud of in Germany. It’s a normal job and you have no perks on a daily basis because you joined the military. Veterans aren’t treated differently either. I agree with Katie that it might be because of our history in WW2 and being proud of your nationality is considered wrong in Germany. What do you guys think?
🤣 That's exactly what it's considered here in Germany. You don't snack during the hour before dinner/lunch. Oh the struggles when the kids are hungry but food isn't ready yet. Ok, we do let them have an apple or some cucumber or the like when they really seem close to fainting and starvation 😅. I just recently heard a term: Wolfsstunde (hour of the wolve). That's usually between 5 and 6 pm, when you start to prepare dinner, the kids are tired from the day, you don't have time to play with them (cause you prepare dinner) and they are not allowed to eat. I loved that! I live in a densely populated area and yes, starting at around 5pm, parents start draging their kids home and on every second corner you can hear at least one toddler throw a tantrum 😅.
I think many of the different behaviors to how we react with others(German/Americans) starts in Kindergarten... German parents also seem to give their children more freedom... I can not see Germans running into the streets to watch a military parade and praise being heaped upon them as victorious protectors of the country...It is all politically backed in the US of A... I think the biggest culture shock I had was toilets and men peeing on the side of the road...those ledges on toilets were confusing...
America has a different culture about every 500km/300 miles. "Grits" are unknown in my part of the country when I went to San Antonio no breakfast came without "grits".
Friends are people that turn up, when you move and there are heavy furnitures to lift. Or they have at least a valid reason for not turning up and call you.
That is exactly what I wanted to comment, too. Having to move is a real test for friendships. Some people didn't even offer to help, some would have, but live too far away and some came from far away just to help us. Those ones are my "real" friends.
Anyone can help move furniture in the US. I was moving into an apartment in the US and neighbors (I didn't meet them before this) and they helped move my furniture inside.
Helloweener Friends are the ones you can call at 2am and tell them you need help. They will say 3 things Where are you at. What do I need to bring. I'm on my way.
Nosh: we Brits like to go for some nosh, we like to nosh on something. we like a good Nosh-up (a large and satisfying meal). Origin is Yiddish. Compare with german word naschen: to nibble.
not really: to nibble = knabbern, while naschen is "to eat something you like for non-nutritional reasons (or even in spite of those reasons)" = just because it tastes good.
I'm in my mid fifties and I've never heard of the half birthday thing. Sounds lame. BTW, how do you spend less then a year in the US and your English is perfect? Very impressive.
Most German students learn English for at least for 5 to 8 years during school. And because English is so important in everyday use (RU-vid, movies, books) it really opens up the world. Even more so because most people in Europe learn English. So could talk to each other in all of Europe
We finally got a water heater thing ugh i cant even think of the name any way we got one last Christmas and IDK why more Americans don't have one they are great!
It's actually because the water boils slower because of the difference in power output. 110v in the US versus 220v in most of Europe. So a stove top will take just about as long.
@@87glassrose I could be wrong, but he might be referring more to problems with hard water, rather than contaminated water. Where I live the water is pretty hard, and heavily usede electric kettles and coffee makers need to be de-limed frequently if you want them to last.
fordhouse8b yea that’s what I was thinking and we don’t have that problem at all also I have one that has an automatic shut off so the boiling away all the water and leaving nothing but the stuff behind doesn’t happen.
-I'm a 47 year old American and I've never even heard of half birthdays! -The snow thing is true...mostly a DC/Virginia thing mostly due to the large area and extremely high traffic congestion (just a little bit of snow can cause huge backups). I've lived in the Northern Virginia area now for 15 years and this surprised me too when I first came here from Pennsylvania. -As for veterans, the DC area has a very high concentration of military and veterans which is likely why is seemed so prevalent to you. There are things like this across the US but the Virginia/Maryland/DC are is much more to an extreme than most other areas because of the abnormally high number of military, veterans, and government employees. -One thing to note about the Pledge of Allegiance is that the US is different than most other countries with regards to how it was formed. It was created from scratch by people of many nations. When someone came to the US to become a citizen back then, it was important that they came to actually be a contributing member of the US and not acting in the interest of their former country. We wanted to make sure that person had true intentions of supporting the US as a new citizen which is how the Pledge of Allegiance became ingrained into our lives. Over the years, it has become more of a tradition because most people here today were born here and have family roots. Back when the Pledge of Allegiance was first uttered in the 1800's...that was not the case. It is not worshiping the country like some have alluded to...it's tradition. Since other countries were not created in such a manner, things like this didn't evolve in the same way.
I hear what you're saying about the pledge of allegiance, but from the outside it really does look like indoctrination and propaganda and we, especially as Germans, are very very wary of that. Especially since you hear a lot of reports of people being called to the principal for not taking part in it, that's just insane. It happened to friends of mine who were in the US for an exchange year, and they were told they were being unpatriotic by the principal and just went??? Dude we're foreign nationals who are here for a year, why would we pledge allegiance to the flag of a foreign nation... and that just shows you how well the propaganda already worked since the people at that school didn't even stop to think reasonably about it for even a second. I think just because something is a tradition doesn't mean it's necessarily still a positive thing and traditions should be re-evaluated regularly.
@@Phelie315 - Hi Phelie. Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Do you know what school they went to (location), and when they went there? When I was in school in the 1970's and 1980's, we said the pledge every morning but it was not mandatory. We could respectfully remain seated and quiet during that time if we wanted to do so...we certainly weren't in trouble or sent to the principal's office. Today, many schools no longer even say it. And since progressive views abound our modern school systems, I would be completely shocked if this would have happened recently. I would totally understand your point especially if they were not US citizens...I mean why would you expect someone to pledge allegiance to a country that is not theirs? That school that did that would be the exception and not normal. I'm sorry they were forced to deal with something like that as that is not the positive experience I would hope they had while here in the US. As for tradition, saying the pledge is kind of like standing during a nation's anthem out of respect...nothing to do with indoctrination but I see your point about how Germans are more wary of anything that could be perceived as such. Again, thank you for your respectful comments.
@@manub.3847 - The late 1800's up into the 1930's was the busiest period for immigration to the US, and those immigrants were coming from many countries around the world (not just a few European countries like was predominant in earlier times)...so it's not surprising the Pledge of Allegiance became integrated into US society at that time as a way to help support the notion that people coming here were doing so to truly become Americans.
Ohhh really! It's so easy to make friends with me ,people say " Hi" and I tell them everything hahaha. Not being able to make friends when abroad makes me nervous 😅
Half birthdays are not really a big thing in the US except for 6 mos old baby! And the snow thing is just a southern thing. They have no equipment for dealing with it.
As a Mexican living in Germany for the last 5 years, I consider that many Germans are too hard to crack through. I prefer the superficial talks in the start and in parties, cause with German topics it can honestly get awkward sometimes. But then later on I agree Germans can become amazing friends, while some American live forever in this superficial level, not all though. And in mexico I think you have like co-workers/classmates, friends, good friends and best friends. Unless you only met the person once, I don't think you would ever call them just an Acquaintance. The water situation in German restaurants is very weird for me, even though in Mexico in some places you can't drink from the tap, most places will give you pure drinking water from water jugs.
The thing that shocked me about Austria, Germany, Croatia what the hell is with no screens in the windows. For the love of God even my tent has mosquito netting!
My mom is German and hates this. She would buy window screens for my grandma's house whenever we'd visit her. It really doesn't make ANY sense considering the diseases mosquitos carry, and just the general discomfort of mosquito bites
Funny, back in the ‘70s when I was college, so-called “hot pots” were ubiquitous in the dorms where we weren’t allowed to cook, but also in apartments before poor students had microwaves. We sent them to college with our kids 25 years later and nobody seemed to think they were weird. What am I missing that you never saw them in the US?
I'm an American, and I have only heard of one family who celebrated a half-birthday. One child was born on Christmas, so they celebrated her half-birthday instead. The other kids' true birthdays were celebrated. I have never heard of anyone celebrating both true and half-birthdays. I think half-birthdays are rare (and kinda weird!).
Patriotism/Pledge of Allegiance in the US is a tradition born out of the vast diversity of immigrants. It served as a way to unite different people from different cultures into an American culture. There has been push back against this tradition in the US, and with it a lack of American identity has followed. It’s a strange solution to a diversity problem, but celebrating your national identity has a way of coupling differing identities and cultures.
It might come from noble roots and if adults learn and recite the pledge out of their free will when immigrating - more power to them but with children it's an attempt to get them while they're young. It baffles me that a country that prides itself on its dedication to free will sees fit to subject its youth to such a brain washing ritual. It strongly reminds me of my time in school in East Germany in the 80ies.
@@maybeeton Unfortunately, patriotism and nationalism are being conflated as the same thing. They most certainly are not the same. However, the demonizing of the Pledge and anyone who is patriotic is a much bigger problem that needs to be addressed thoughtfully. Simply criticizing the bad and conveniently forgetting the good is a major problem. I am grateful for the life my family has made in the USA, and while I remain proud of my heritage, I try not to forget that we moved to the US and found a better life than the one we we left. The USA remains an amazing country in spite of the legitimate criticisms.
Flags everywhere, pledge of allegiance, worshipping veterans (that was surprising, the extend to what; though I understand it might be a local thing due to being close to Washington, DC) ... though most of it wasn't news to me, talking about it in quick succession like you did, it really sounds more like you are talking about a military state than a democracy. I never noticed that before.
Yank here: don't celebrate half-birthdays, don't know anyone who does. Live in NH, no sales tax (but have lived elsewhere...it's wonderful). Restaurants portions are much too large, esp. drinks and french fries. Waste is horrendous, even if you take leftovers at home. Lived in Germany...hated paying to use a restroom (sometimes attendants collect fee!). In the 60's Germans were horrible drivers...terrifying.
It isn’t that we don’t understand the difference between the two concepts, we just use one word to cover both of them. In the US, the word friend has a broader meaning, or perhaps multiple meanings.
The first time I went to the toilet in Germany a woman started to clean the urinal right next to mine. I think having to pay someone who keeps up the toilet is a very good idea. I have never heard of 1/2 birthday celebrations, I know children measure their ages by 1/2 years but I have never heard of a celebration. We have an electric tea kettle, and all of our friends have electric tea kettles, I think they are becoming very common in the USA. Thanks for the wonderful video.
Great video, its interesting to see the USA from European's perspective. One complaint Dana, please allow your guests to speak without monopolizing the conversation.
I think this is another example of a cultural difference-- where the enthusiasm of a conversation is demonstrated in the quick shifting back-and-forth of dialog. I don't think Germans are accustomed to or enjoy such high-energy enthusiastic conversations.
Culture shock in America? While visiting Southpark, Colorado I observed people eating food through their butts and pooping out of their mouths. It must have been a regional custom, as I never saw it anywhere else.
I was in the US just once, back in 2007 on business (end of january, damned, it was SO cold ! ) in New Jersey, and did a one day trip to NYC, and I noticed that the customs staff was very unfriendly, while usually the americans on the street (or of course in the hotel) were super friendly, but this stays usually on the surface, which is different in Germany - people are sometimes first a bit reserved, but may become friendly a bit later, which then means something. But what annoys me the most is the big efforts you need to overcome when you want to travel to the US as a german, while we are a befriended nation and NATO member. They showed a video on the plane with detailed instructions how to fill out the immigration form, and especially how to write down the '1' and the '7'. It took three times for me to do it the right way. Also these questions on the form like: "Did you do war crimes ?", "Do you want to sell drugs ?" etc. I mean that's kinda ridiculous - who would answer any of these questions with 'yes' ? It's much easier to travel to countries like Thailand, Cambodia or Laos, and I prefer it. And so I would not go again to the US for vacation or else - if the US government does not want to have german citizens travel to their country, ok, here we go..
Lol. The questions isn't just for Germans. It's for anyone who isn't a US citizen. Canadian friends had to fill out the form and Canada is a hell a lot closer to the US. Canada hasn't waged war on the US. Germany has. I had to fill out one of these forms for my 8 week old daughter. We were flying from Switzerland to the US. She was born in Switzerland and her father is Swiss so she is Swiss. I didn't get her US passport before we left because of all the bureaucratic BS I had to go thru. Believe me I wanted to be a smartass and say yes. Labour is a form of crime (just kidding). It is BS some of the questions asked, but the stuff about visiting farms and bringing in food from other countries isn't BS. There are so many bugs and diseases across the world that if the US wasn't strict it could wipe out the US's entire ecosystem. On a TV show about US border control there was a person trying to smuggle in plants. Border control found over 1000 bugs in the plants, and 95% of the bugs would have wiped out California's ecosystem. Another example that is wiping out bats in North America is White Nose Syndrome. It came from Europe. Someone had it on their shoe and went caving in the US. European bats have adapted to this fungus, but North American bats have not.
I wonder if the half birthday thing is a regional thing? I'm from the midwest and I've never heard of a half birthday. Most people I know don't even celebrate their actual birthday, unless they're a kid.
Well, taxes being different in different areas is no reason to not mention them on the price tag. If the cashier knows how much to charge then the taxes are obviously no secret.
But in this way you build an aversion to taxes in the normal citizen. Imagine calculating the price of your groceries during shopping but in the end you are thinking „dam! Those stupid taxes!“ In this way even poor people suddenly agree with a billionaire when he is demanding lower taxes. Very nice manipulation.
@@untergehermuc groceries are really hard too, here in Indiana "regular" groceries don't get taxed, but then some "junk food" does called taxable groceries. I wish the prices were easier.
@@MsPandaDoodle - In my state, food that is ready to eat (restaurants or pre-packed ready to eat foods at the market) are taxable...but fresh fruits or food ingredients are not. For instance, if you buy microwave spaghetti that the only preparation required is heating it in the microwave, it's taxed. If you buy tomatoes, pasta, cheese, herbs, and ground beef to make spaghetti from scratch, it is not taxed. Also, most clothing is not taxed here.
Admiration for veterans/military personnel wasn't always a such a big thing in the U.S. It declined after WWII with Korean & got a low point during the Vietnam War (I know so many Vietnam Era Vets that were spit on or called things like baby killer, upon returning stateside) thankfully things have improved for our military/vets.
@@Phelie315 when there was a draft yes it was something to put them on a pedestal for. They were forced to leave their families and friends. My dad didn't know his father for the first 3 years he was born. My grandpa was drafted to go into WW II. The day before he left he found out my grandmother was pregnant. My grandpa tried to get out of the draft, but couldn't. This is a gigantic deal. Not knowing your child for his first 3 years is terrible. *Edit the only people who got out of the draft were rich people. For example Mr. Bone Spurs(Trump).
I 100% agree on the friendship thing. I'm German and I lived in Canada for quite some time (they kinda do have a lot of the same habits than Americans have) and people "befriend" you very easily over there but they'll also unfriend you a lot faster. It takes a lot longer to befriend someone in Germany but that friendship is also a lot more likely to last for a very long time.
There are many cultural differences between Germany and the US. Many could say some of the customs are "better" here or there, but that would be unfair, all countries have nice customs and also less nice ones but for a person, who comes from the culture at hand, his or her judgment will be based on ethnocentrism when assessing the other culture. I myself am German, born and raised ( until I got to college) in South America and when I came to Germany I experience a lot of differences. Now, older and wiser and after also having lived 12 years in the States ( I am back in German now) I´d say one of the nice traits in the US is the open mindedness of (most) US citizens, this is in my opinion the result of the existing diversity in the country. And the constant smiling and politeness of people is also the result of the different backgrounds of immigrants and the lack of command of the language (at least in the first generation) and this behavior became an American trait; on the other Hand in Germany people are more reserved maybe because diversity was over centuries not wanted and the proximity of so many other strong cultures (French, polish, dutch, danish) helped develop a sort of "defense mechanism" in order to preserve the local identity and only open up when it was confirm the the other person had a cultural affinity. But in the end for a foreigner is much easier to integrate and be social active in the US than in Germany, that´s why it took Hanna 4 years to make some friends in Germany. I think it is just much easier to have a fun life (even "superficial") in the US than in Germany . But again that is just a matter of taste. Nowadays with globalization people should be more open to other cultures and embrace diversity. just think that if things go the same way as today in 300 - 400 years there will be only 5-6 languages spoken worldwide, and those will represent the more flexible cultures who managed to integrate and assimilate many immigrants, all others will just disappear. my two cents...
I live in Fairfax County, which is in the area where Kati stayed. She's right, shutting down the schools for the whole county is a local thing, but it's for a variety of reasons. Normally kids wait for school buses on the sidewalk, but if the sidewalks are unshoveled then they might have to stand in the street, which could be dangerous. Second, while the main roads might be plowed, a lot of the neighborhood streets might be untouched, and you don't want school buses getting stuck in the snow. And third, a lot of local residents learned to drive somewhere else, perhaps from a place with no snow, and so they drive like total idiots in the snow, endangering everyone. Fairfax County used to be a lot more hard-nosed about their school closure policies, but learned the hard way that they needed to be more cautious. The thing about veterans is kind of a cultural swing away from the late 60s. In those days, veterans returning from Vietnam were verbally (and sometimes physically) abused, and otherwise shown a lot of disrespect. Americans since then have come to be more sympathetic with veterans and, not wanting to repeat the excesses of the past, have gone a little overboard the other way.
Great video! Being born and raised in California by a French born mother gave me a unique experience on cultural differences. It's always really fascinating to get first person perspectives on the topic.
Snow in Virginia is rare, so the road services can't deal with itike they do in northern states. So the whole business of school closings is badly organized. When I was a child in New England, on snowy mornings we huddled around the radio listening to the school closings waiting for our school to be named.
what blew me completely in the USA: normally intelligent men in their 20s, 30s, 40s discussing cartoon characters like superman, spiderman, wolverine, swamp thing etc. the way 6 y. o. would over here, like these were real persons, and get really emotional in an argument along the lines of who would win a fight between, say, wolverine and swamp thing, and why.
I moved from Texas to Austria in March and the biggest shock for me was EVERYTHING I CLOSED BY 7 and nothing was open on Sunday! I’m used to it now BUT I really had to plan my day to make sure I had time to be done with shopping by 7.
Mauricio R3 for me it was fairly easy since I got married to a citizen of Austria. My German only has to be basic where as if you come for work/immigrate it has to be more advanced like B2-C1 level, you also need to be financially well off or have a “host family” willing to cover expenses for you because you CANNOT get aid of any kind from the government(even if you have a child here with a citizen). You can always DM me for more information though - there is a TON! Lol and I’d rather not share my entire story on here haha
Near me our culture is mainly a mix of: Boston - Largest European ethnic group is Irish. It has communities of Swedes, Germans, Poles, Lithuanians, Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Albanians, and especially Italians and Portuguese. Also, it has many European and Israeli Jews. Other cities are based on a different mix of cultures. These mixes in different proportions and constituents make every large city different. Even our French have a different experience than other cities French as ours are mainly filtered through eastern Canada.
Some culture shocks I experienced in Germany (decades ago): - Food that looks/smells/tastes wonderful - baked goods, sausages, whipped cream, etc. - because it's real and fresh (vs. our processed food in the US) - Stores close really early - Super punctual public transportation - Super high gas prices - Drinking age for beer: 16 - Female attendant in the men's room (cleaning the urinal next to me as I pee!) who expects a tip - Toilets with shelves (gross!) and rough toilet paper - ouch! - Sparkling clean garbage trucks! Alles in Ordnung! 😁 - Autobahn high speed lanes
About taxes in the US (I'm German, living in the US, working in retail): The explanation about all those different taxes and in the end no one knows how much it is for what does not really count, because once clocked in the the cash register, the computer automatically adds taxes, ergo: the computer knows! In many stores prices are labeled with an electronic tag, changing automatically to whatever The Computer wants it to change to. Those stores could easily add taxes right than and there. Actually, all stores are able to add taxes to the price tag, because they all are aware of how much taxes they are going and have yo charge the customer. In my opinion, they prefer not to, because it looks cheaper which lures the customer into buying more.
