All the stuff you mentioned shocked me in the beginning but it’s also the very stuff I came to love and miss when We came stateside. Thank you, enjoyed this convo. P.S. I remember people knowing we were American because of the white socks. They actually stared and laughed.
You are so welcome! There was nothing online when I PCS'd in 2014 so I had to do something about that ;) Let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to see!
Great video and very informative👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾! I have definitely been sharing ☺️. I will be PCSings to Germany in a couple months. Also yes you do have to have a quarter to get a shopping cart at Aldi here in the states!
When I was a kid the Shops closed monday till friday at 6 and saturday at 12. At my area the shops now are allowed to open till 10, but most groceries close at 8, because they don't have enough costumers to pay the wages of the employees.
Having lived in Germany as a kid, & having actually lived on the economy for part of that time as well, living in quarters (for me) was somewhat weird! I thought that our quarters apartment was just great, while my ex, & the neighbors were doing the "it's so small" thing!! So, I have to say that being an Army Brat, even as a kid, prepared me well for living in Germany! it was for that reason that I had almost no culture shock, & had pretty much "reverse culture shock" when we returned to the States!! LOL!!! Thank you for a very informative video about the subject!! WELL DONE, Daniel!!!
Uncle Dave! Thanks so much man! To be honest, this video didn't come out the way I wanted it to but there's a ton of helpful information in there. Every video is a learning experience :)
The difference in restaurants is very true. It is nearly impossible to have a conversation in a US restaurant without being rudely interrupted every five minutes. „Everything Ok, would you like a refill ....“ A waiter should have the judgement to not interrupt conversations all the time
just to correct some of your legal advices for the autobahn, flashing lights to inidcate the wish to overtake out of town/city is legal while keeping a safe distance. In contrast to that staying on the left lane without the intent to overtake ist actually coercion in terms of § 240 StGB... (Nötigung)
After praising Germany for its work/life balance you constantly wish for longer biusiness hours, which means people having shitty work/life balances. You can either have convenient commercial culture, or work/life balance. US went for the former, we for the latter.
49:51 fun fact ...... if she stays one the left lane on purpose and the right lane is empty she would have done a ,, Nötigung ,, ( coercion ) punished with a hefty fine ...... cause in germany we have the ,, Rechtsfahrgebot ,, ( keep right requirement is intended to ensure the orderly flow of traffic) if the right lane is emty she has to move over .
The roads are not smaller, that is a myth. de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richtlinien_f%C3%BCr_die_Anlage_von_Stra%C3%9Fen_%E2%80%93_Querschnitt Lane in the US are typically between 8 and 13 feet. So between 3 and 4 meters. Typically lanes on US highways are 12 feet which is 3,65 meters. The German Autobahn has 3,75 meters each lane. Even with 12,5 feet/3,81 meters Autobahn and Highway are not that much different per lane. Normal streets in city's in Germany typically have 2,75 meter/9 feet. So there is no "much".
About card paying - please keep in mind that you can pay with the debit card (giro card) in the most shops in germany and europe. But not in all small shops e.g bakeries. The background is that stores have to pay for the card readers and have to pay for every transaction. So it could be that in some cases the transaction fee that the baker have to pay to the credit card company is higher as the product that he have sold to his customers. About the closed sunday - The free sunday is protected by the german constitution. Its based wide in the past to find a solution with the most religions here, but meanwhile its a sign of respect towards the working peoples in the shops. Personally, I don't expect that a worker have to wait in a shop at sunday night just because I forgot to buy a bag of cookies the saturday before ;) But... in some cases, the sunday opening exist. This is possible because individual federal states have made own shop opening hours act. And also - but... employers have to ask who of the workers want to work at sunday or at a public holiday. So workers get a sundays and public holidays subsidy and/or an extra day off. As you said for your self " i as an american... business is to make money..." thats the most difference between the culture of the US and the EU. The idea is that workers in the EU are also "businessmen" the workers here are highly specialized and they sell their know-how, their knowledge and their labor to companies. For this, they receive wages and salaries. And also the companies have to respect their work lifetime balance. Workers here are not slaves. Workers enjoy legal protection here and companies have a social responsibility towards them. In the US this meight call socalism or communism, but here its also a question of humanism. The first article of the german constitution is: "Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority." Slavery is not protected here. About water in Restaurants. I am with you. Tap water is not a drink for me but tapwater in germany is one of the best controlled resources and has a very high quality. The quality is higher than bottled water and this is protected by law, so things like the "Flint water crisis" are unthinkable here. One cubic meter of water costs about 1.50 €. This means that water has the highest margin of all beverages here in germany and innkeepers like to take advantage of that. About ice in drinks - its also a thing of culture and personal taste - and also the economy. If you order a drink at McDonalds, the cashier fills the cup at first full of ice and than he added a few drops of e.g. coke. So the margin for a McDonalds drink is astronomic and as a result, the guest gets simply a cup of coloured water ;) Some times ice in a drink can also be an insult. What i have observed with my own eyes: We were in a wine tavern for a wine tasting. An American tourist group was seated at another table. They put ice cubes in the wine of this winery. It's like pouring ketchup over a Kobe steak or pour maggi wort into a minestrone made by a star cook or paint some betterments on Leonardos Mona Lisa ;) Visiting restaurants at evening is not only to get full because you are hungry - its to enjoying together with friends a meal that has been prepared by an artist in his field ;) About tipping - exactly, you have it :) Tipping here is a part of appreciation, esteem... About nudity - its not a theme here, but mainly in the us and the other religious states on this planet. This is a part of bigotry there. Remember the "Nipplegate" during the superbowl in 2004. Otherwise the world biggest producer of porn worldwide are the USA. About recycling - The target is for sure to make it uncomfortable for the consumers to separate every single part of trash. The consequence is that customers will buy less packing trash. You also can unpack your purchases directly in the store. If you do this, you have less stress at home with trash bins ;) About the "F-bomb" :D As i have observed the "Trump periode" in the US, everyone insists on freedom of expression and free speech but the f word will be censored in every case? Read my comment above to the american bigotry ;) Staring at people that looks different like yourself. Today its not a problem of racism. Its simply psychology. If you are grown up in your own comfort zone, and you can see at first time people with another scin colour or eye shape or one of my fafourite "eyecatcher" women with colorful traditional clothes from Senegal or Kenya - its not staring in the bad sense, its simply staring of admiration or simply to see something that you never have seen before. Wow. I wonder about the lenght of my comment but i find it really funny to see the videos about the culture shock if people are comming from the "land of free" to find out, that they have more free here ;) Nice video! Thumb up.
I've studied abroad in England back in the early 2000s and loved that they sat other groups with you when you were alone. I did a lot of traveling alone at the time and it was nice to have someone to talk to, even if it was just surface level conversations, because otherwise I'd sometimes go 3-4 days without talking to anyone. Having someone sit with me at a table felt more comfortable than trying to talk to someone on a bus or train.
You can go to a lake swimming with your kids or friends,have a barbecue(not to loud),just enjoy life on a sunday and slow down,there are millions of opportunities, my late dad and I searched for fossiles,when a new road was built, it was announced in the newspaper when chances were good (nobody worked cause it was sunday!)or we visited caves or went sailing...you certainly will lern to appretiate german sundays!.stay healthy!
It's not about the labour work on sundays, but about the noise complains. If you sit in your garden for relaxing and sunbathing, your neightbour is a pain in the neck with all the lawnmowing.
Thank you! It’s ALWAYS a good idea to start learning basic German. They do speak English, but more so in the KMC Ramstein area as opposed to the more rural country locations like Bavaria. Start with basic phrases, numbers, colors, and food items. I’ll be posting a vid on how to get started with German soon!
Most young Germans speak English but many older persons don't. Everyone appreciates if you learn some basic German. It's considered polite and as a form of interest in our culture.
americans who are angry about short opening hours in germany don't work as salesmen in such stores, otherwise they would know how crappy it is. it's a typical egoist thing. in germany they protect their employees, after all most salesmen are female and their children miss them. and in america most people have two jobs to get by, so such opening hours are of course an advantage.
Guys, as a military brat who lived in Germany for six years as a dependent, and then for two years as a serviceman, I enjoyed this discussion, but I found the audio hard to deal with. A couple of lav mics would have made all the difference.
Hey Jon, thanks for watching! Yep you’re right, the sound quality sucks. I didn’t bring the second mic that day 🤦🏽♂️ I’m actually surprised you’re the first person that’s said something 😬 I won’t make you go through that pain in any future video 🙉 Deal? 👍🏾
Cash is about privacy,also a cashless society is very dangerous, i think it was estonia,a complete cashless society,where people weren't able to do anything for days after a russian cyber attack.now they installed backup servers in Luxemburg, but theres still a danger.
Well.... do you need 6 bottles of water and 4 cans of energy drink in the fridge at once? Cool one and if you drink it, replace it? Might be more a habit than size issue?
Water is cheaper than beer: I do not think so. Per German law one non-alcoholic beverage has to be cheaper than the cheapest alcoholic beverage calculated per liter. Meaning that one liter of water is usually cheaper than one liter of beer.
Well, nowadays with the cards you can just swipe them often, so that makes it fast too. Besides in some places where you still have to type in your code. Bakeries are open on Sunday mornings for some years now, but yeah otherwise just petrol stations or at the central station/airport here in Frankfurt.
Typical American way of thinking. Europeans are not ashamed of being naked, but we have this backward social culture of shame engrained into us from Puritan influence.
US more buisiness, at the expense of staff and rising prices! Germany Work Live Balance! Walmart in Germany went out of business after 9 years with billions in losses! Gastronomy in Germany lives more from drinks than from food. That was really interesting! Thx
Just to be clear. If you go to Czech republic, you can pay almost everywhere with you credit/debit card or your phone with NFC. I have not been to a bankomat in months, perhaps even years. :-) of course if you are paying small amounts of money, say 10s, 20s of czech korunas( a euro or a dollar) you won't be probably able to pay it with your card but otherwise we are pretty much covered. At least in cities.
I am German and you can pay everything with EC/debit, Creditcards if you want. Personally I just knowing one Shop (a tiny smartphone repairing shop), where you only pay with cash. It’s just the case that most people in Germany don’t like electronic payments so much because of the following reasons: -privacy: they don’t want to track all your payments -it’s better if you don’t have so much money reserves. So the risk you get a negative amount on your bank account is much lower with cash than with electronic payments. -and last: there are some restaurants ect., you can’t given extra money for service with electronic payments, also spending on homeless or some food automats or (not very common in times everyone has a smartphone) public phones (mostly just on train stations , airports and big bus stations) only work with coins.
What me shocked every day in Germany. Compare to public places in US. In Germany cigarette butts are everywhere. It startes when I leave the airport and it ends on my private ground. In the states public places are much much cleaner.
You can vacuum or clean the inside of your car, but not the outside, because of soap, oil, and other pollutants. Car washes have oil separators and other filters. BR that's so funny, the most conservative channel still, unbelievable. The Americans swear the most, but not on radio TV, isn't that out of touch with reality? Staring? I don't think I stare, but I look at other people, if you feel uncomfortable, that's your problem. I'm not responsible for other people's feelings and I don't have any influence on them. If you're uncomfortable, that's more of an American problem. Seeing it as aggression, or referring to race!? AC for four weeks? Oh man, yeah, they sell it at the hardware store.
Waiter etiquette: As a German I expect a waiter not to be seen unless the moment I want something. Then, and just then I expect to see them. In a good German restaurant that really works like I described
About the ice...When you order a drink what ever it is, you´ll get charged for a certain amount/volume of liquid, either 0,25 or 0,3, or 0,5 what ever.. with ice in the glass you would get less of the liquid you have to pay for...and that would be actually fraud. But in restaurants you would usually always get ice, when you order ice, they will bring it in an extra vessel/glas for free....just saying
I was stationed in Heilbronn in 74-75 and what shocked me was nudity on television, legal prostitution, parking on the sidewalks. There was an alley around the corner of our favorite watering hole where everybody would go and pee. Men and women.
If there is no more cash the danger is that your are controlled by the bits and bytes and the people who make the rules about the bits and bytes, with and without legitimation.
Yeah I do not tip in Germany. Sorry never will. You brought my food and drink and that was it, so ummm no Tip. That is not normal to be honest, that is around places with Americans.
We have free refills in the States..ask for light ice/no ice in the States and all that will be solved. No free refills in Germany is why I don’t order a drink, I usually bring my own water bottle. 😜 Maybe that is bad, but 20€+ in drinks for my family (of 5) does not work for me.
Free refills: Restaurants in Germany earn their money with drinks, the food is usually very cheap for the quality. Someone always pays - staff? Bringing your own drinks can get you thrown out, and rightly so! In some areas of Bavarian beer gardens you can bring food, but not drinks! you can ask for ice cubes, The innkeeper is happy because he has less cost of goods. At McD's, one third of the drinks contain ice cubes.
