I say this as an American, because the average American is dumber than a box of rocks. The education system is lackluster at best in most places as well as the poor work ethic of many kids.
I don't think they have to know about timezone time differences. Like, I believe from the few clips I have seen that programs on television are announced something like "This show starting tonight at 07:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time, 08:00 pm Mountain Daylight Time, and 09:00 pm Central Daylight Time." If you know you are using Central Daylight Time, because you live in New Jersey, it's easy to reason "yeah, they Californians always get the program a few hours early, they're treated a bit special. That's the way it is." and then not question it further. Even when the program is shown at the same time throughout the whole country. You don't need to question it any more, especially if you're never crossing state borders in your entire life.
@@mlee6050 No I mean concerning time zones, not anti-LGBT laws. Florida is in the same time zone as New Jersey, so the comparison can't be made that way regarding time zones.
As a German, I was once asked by an American if we have electricity. I must have reacted kind of confused, so he added "you know, because everything is in ruins since WW2..."
Einfach zurück fragen ob die US-Army noch immer die Pocken verseuchten Decken an die Indianer verschenken und wann sie denken damit alle Indianer ausgerottet zu haben. ;)
I worked for a small tourism company in Berlin in the 90s and had a lot of contact with Americans as a result.... One of them asked me where we "hide" the ruins. I pointed to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which as a ruin is supposed to symbolise the consequences of the war. He just said "No, I mean the real ruins. It is impossible that you guys have rebuilt the city so quickly". And another "stupid" American asked me why we Germans only drive US cars. I looked around... VW, BMW, Audi, Mercedes etc. I told him that they were all German cars. He then accused me of lying, because all his work colleagues drive such cars and they would never drive "inferior foreign" cars, because after all Ford invented the car. When I tried to explain to him that a German had invented the car, he became really insulting.
Well, Germany had the first patented car. If you count the Fardier by James Cugnot the car is technically french, but that is a real stretch. That second coworker is really stupid and short-sighted, and his comment hurts as a car-fan.
Hmm the 90's, that was like half a century after WW2 ended. How long did they expect it to take to rebuild a city? Sometines it actually did take a long time to remove them. For example the Frauenkirche in Dresden was still in ruins in the late 90's when they started rebuilding it. On the other hand, there still ARE lots of WW2 ruins, who are being preserved that way as memorials. It's called Denkmalschutz (monument conservation). Or in some cases they are being left alone bcs communities simply don't have the funds to tear them down or rebuild them.
German who grew up in the USA here! Americans love pulling that "I'm half/quarter/eighth so-and-so" BS, so whenever someone would say they're part German, I'd start having a conversation with them in fluent German. Needless to say, they'd stand there silently with wide eyes and a red face. Works like a charm 🤣
When i was in the US, ordering food at a fast food restaurant, me and my friends were discussing our orders in german, the woman behind the counter was asking what language we speak and was very surprised to hear its german and asked: „oh you got your own language??“
@@m0lDaViA I would say a lack of education and interest. I am Belgian and I speak fluently 4 languages. So does my daughter in addition that she learnt latin and old greek. How many Americans speak a 2nd language?
I once read a reddit post in which an American was seemingly unable to comprehend that he would be considered a foreigner in another country. No, according to him the term "foreigners" only applied to Non-Americans (regardless where they are) but never to Americans...
A person moving to the US is a migrant, but a US-citizen moving to anothet country isn't called a migrant, but an ex-pat... Because Im(migrant) is a term for non-americans i suppose...
That refrigerator question is really frequent. A friend of mine tried to explain, that Miele is a German brand, but it didn't help, they still thought there are no fridges in Germany.
That one I can't understand. Why do Americans think that Germany doesn't have refrigerators? You would think that default assumption is that every household has one in pretty much everywhere in the world.
I came upon an American who asked me the same question. He couldn’t even answer me why he thought we wouldn’t have fridges. My guess is, they ingrain a heavy superiority complex into US children so they believe everyone else lives in caves
@@3characterhandlerequired after haveing heard story from people,and heard thing by american youtuber i think they didn't understand that the rest of world is go foward and they except the only country which have go foward,like everybody is still stopped at the sterotype they know
They may be more familiar with Knorr, Leica, Braun, early Gillette, Aldi, Bosch, DHL, and Addidas. I would never get into a frig conversation with this kind of person because they don't really know where Samsung isfrom either.
Regarding the many names: Deutschland is the name Germany gave itself. The Old German word thiutisk means "belonging to our people". Germania is the name given by the Romans as a collective noun for all tribes North of the Alps and east of the Rhine river that they couldn't conquer. The names Allemagne, Almanya etc. which are used in South Western Europe, North Africa and the Middle East come from the South German tribe Alemanni who were neighbours of the Galloromanic tribes in todays France. The Finns and Estonians call us Saksa and Saksamaa, after the Saxon tribe that lived along the Elbe river. And in the Eastern European countries they call us Niemcy, Nemecko or similar names which comes from an old word meaning "The silent" or "Those who just don't know how to speak". 😅 To be fair the Slavic people called all foreigners who didn't speak their language "niemc" (unable to speak).
Nope, nemec (sg.) nemci (plural) is only german people for slavic people, we dont use the term for any other country's people, and its; just because germans in the 70-80s didnt like to speak a lot in general, and they used to give short, one word mostly answers and continue existing in scilence
I was once asked by an American if we have houses/ homes in Germany...I told her that we live on trees because of the radiation accident/ pollution caused by the Tschernobyl incident and she was like: "Yep, I see and I'm so sorry for you guys" #facepalm
That's such a good startng point! You could just go on and on elaborating to find out how long it takes for them to figure out that it's a joke. Had to immediately think of Pippy Longstockings: "You know, it's not as bad as you might think. For example due to the radiation our trees grow lemonade now so we never run out of drinks." LOL
My dumbest moment was not only a question but also a reaction. I was asked by an American: "what kind of language do you guys speak in Germany?" I thought to myself, it was so obvious that people in Germany speak German - so I wanted to be funny and answered: "Austrian" But to my surprise nobody laughted or smiled - instead my answer was taken seriously. 😵💫
That’s OK, I’ve heard of some of these idiots asking the English what language they speak and can’t seem to get it through their heads that the root or native language is “English”and not “American”!
@@kkerr1953 well, it feels "dumb" or funny when the possible answer for the language is already in the name of the country ... like asking someone from England and being surprised the common language is English ... Germany and German ... or Italy and Italian likewise.
It's the 80's, Germany is still splitted into West Germany and communist East Germany: I travelled around the US at the Age of 17 and guess how many times I was asked: "How did you escape?" 😂
I was asked if I was from the East or West on a regular basis. It took me a couple of days to realize that explaining why I couldn't possibly from the DDR was a waste of time. Most American kids couldn't wrap their heads around the concept of the Iron Wall - nor did they really care.
I think we should coordinate our answers to this question for maximum trollage, like we all were sneaking across the border to Australia and then fled on kangaroos.
When I was in Berlin with American exchange students we went to a remaining part of the Berlin Wall and told them about DDR etc. One girl asked "Aaah, DDR, it's there where Hitler lives, right". I didn't know where to start
@@Why-D well we dont say "football" in Sweden, we use the swedish word fotboll. fot=foot/feet boll=ball. Most nations use the native language, but it the closest translation from english would still be football, not soccer.
most Americans have never set foot outside of America and have been told since birth that they live in the greatest country on earth. They know no better.
@@barbarawhite4257 sadly!!! Believe it or not, many of the “Trumpette” Americans really are that stupid and don't seem to know other countries are just as good, or better actually!!!
Doesn't matter. Before I ever left my country, I already knew about most of Europe anyways BECAUSE I HAD ACCESS TO THE INTERNET. There is literally no excuse for Americans.
I can agree in so many things to that video. 1996, my first time with high school year in the US. First school day I had to introduce myself. Was standing in front of the class, I said that I am from Germany, the East German part of Germany and saw some irritated faces. I noticed that and asked if they are having any questions? Answer was: "You are having brown hair, brown eyes and a tanned skin and you are not wearing" Lederhosen" at school?!? You can't be from Germany. Where r u originally come from?" My answer: "Originally born in the former East-Germany part and not all German men having blond hair, blue eyes and white skin or wearing Lederhosen all day long." Reaction of the teacher to that conversation: "I'm so glad for you that you can never become a Nazi then!" Teacher noticed that I got irritated by his sentence and the teacher put on top: "... I mean only a blond guy can become a Nazi in Germany. And coming from East-Germany the former GDR being a communist you will be hate by them!" My reply to the teacher's stereotypes was:"So all Germans born in the former GDR are still communists and if you were born there with blond hair and blue eyes you will become automatically a Nazi and have to leave the East German part over the wall to West-Germany, because communists hate the Nazis??? "... quietness was in the room. And no, I am not eating everday a Schnitzel or Bratwurst with Sauerkraut... 😂😂😂
And also mentioned Brussels is a hellhole, I do agree with him on that. I live close enough for the daily bombings to be audible and to smell the sulfer when the wind is right. /s
As a german I was asked by a american if we have "BMWs" in Germany. I asked if they know what the appr. stands for.. you know, after that they just nodded and walked to another party guest
The most parochial question I was ever asked by an American was in the Business Centre of the Four Seasons Hotel (as it was then named), In Seattle, WA. This lady and her friend were in the Centre printing some documents and graciously gave way to me when I explained the urgency of my need for various printed documents. But then I had to change the settings on the printer from foolscap (or whatever size they were using) to A4 size. One of the ladies asked me "why?" and I explained that all my documents had to be in A4. To which she again asked "why?". I said that almost the entire business world uses A4 size for documents. The lady who had clearly never heard of the A4 size of paper responded with "Well that's so silly". I was so dumbfounded by her ignorance and reply that I was lost for a reply.
There's some perverse logic that Americans insist on using their own size of paper while the entire world (with the exception of one or two US colonies and Canada) has standardised on the use of A4 size (and double A4 width A3). Arrogance knows no bounds.
@@nevillemason6791DIN A4 (Deutsche Industrie Norm) is based on the metric system (A0 is a square meter with length:width √2:1, A4 is A0 'folded' 4 times). It's indeed incomprehensible that a country that's so keen on efficiency doesn't use decimal/metric system, but it makes sense that a country that doesn't use the metric system also not uses the DIN A4. American paper sizes are obviously in inches. By the way, screen sizes (TV, PC, smartphone) are usually in inches also in Europe. In my youth in the Netherlands the Deutsche Industrie Norm for paper sizes wasn't common yet in my country the Netherlands, we used 'folio' (a bit larger than A4) and 'quarto' (a bit smaller than A4. It took a while before one size for all was introduced.
When we were kids, my family hosted a girl around our age from Australia. When she arrived, we brought her around to our friends and neighborhood kids to introduce her. When we introduced her to the neighborhood kid, Adam, a son of an immigrant and an American, he stated with great confidence, "Boy! You speak English really well!". All our Australian "sister" said was, "uh... Thanks?".
I had a friend from the us visiting me in Germany and he thought we don’t have no electricity because he didn’t see no overhead power lines 😂😂 OMG they think we live like Hansel and Gretl 🤦♀️ or they think we still live like after WWll 🙄
Ja weil Amerika in Wirklichkeit ein 3. Welt Land ist. Vorne alles super, aber geht man tiefer, sieht man die Mängel sehr deutlich. Vegas ist vorne hui, hinten pfui und so ist es bei allem in Amerika. Die Häuser sind aus Pappe, die Kabel wild verlegt usw. In Europa und allen voran in Deutschland würde sich der TÜV überschlagen. Da hängen die Kabel wild durcheinander und verknotet übereinander, in Deutschland wäre so etwas nicht möglich, genau so wie bei den Autos, die fahren teilweise Autos die 30 Liter auf 100 km brauchen, zumindest gefühlt und die niemals ne Zulassung auf unseren Straßen bekommen würden. Deutschland ist 1000 mal fortschrittlicher als die USA, außer halt nach vorne, da steht die USA wie eine 1, nur dieses Konstrukt zerbricht immer mehr und mehr, bis es nicht mehr zu halten ist
@@manuelrentz4728 Die sind nur in wenigem vorne: - Militär - Leute mit Medizinschulden - Mehr Schusswaffen als gesundes Gemüse im Haus Die Autos von denen, vor allem die Pickups, sind bei uns auch zulassungsfähig. Das Problem ist eher, dass man fast 33% Importgebühr draufgehaut kriegt. Aus einem Auto, das neu knapp 60000 kostet, wird bald ein Auto, das knapp 90000 kostet. Da lohnt es sich fast, auf dem eigenen Markt eine Option von VW oder Nissan zu kaufen. Natürlich endet das am horrendren Spritverbrauch gar nix - der bei uns knapp drei mal so teuer ist.
Naja, wenn Deutschland eigene, riesige Ölvorkommen hätte, dann hätte kein Ingeniuer sich hier Gedanken gemacht, den Spritverbrauch zu senken. Und erst seit der Ölkrise in den 70ern hat man sich darüber so richtig Gedanken gemacht in Europa
Yeah! Me as a german is seven hours ahead ... actually i am writing this comment on your video 6.5 hours before you uploaded it! :) *amazing_german_life
40 years ago I was in Dover (New Jersey) as part of an high school exchange program. Two of the most annoying questions back then: Do you live in houses and do you have cars?
French, I’ve been asked by an American guy if we had washing machines in France. I then answered « No, my mother goes to the river to wash our clothes ( I then lived in Paris and he knew ) » and he trusted me !
Americans ask stupid questions of other Americans who are from different parts of the same country. I moved from Boston, MA to San Jose, CA and my family asked me "Do you have a furnace in your house?" "Uh, yeah, it's Northern California, and it gets *cold in the winter*." I know they were thinking of the Southern California stereotype of everyone being at the beach 365 days a year. . . sad.
@@cheriem432 I used to work for a Westboro, MA based company. Once while there for a meeting I got invited for a dinner at his home by an American colleague of mine. During the dinner he complained he was loosing the French he learnt in his childhood when his father was military based in France at the former NATO base of Orléans. As I suggested they could go for extended week-ends in the province of Quebec ( 200 miles north of Boston ), he replied me : « do you think we have time to travel to the pacific coast during week-ends ? » which kept me speechless !
When I was younger, French people were known for not being the cleanest. The term “French showering” meant when instead of showering you try to cover up your body odors with perfume. Maybe that was his question?
My sister-in-law was as an exchange student for a few weeks in the US. On the very first day she was asked, why she is wearing so beautiful and modern clothes. Did she buy them at the airport directly after the arrival.
When I was first in the US I came for five weeks to visit my sister who was in Baltimore doing a Post-Doc One of the things I noticed was the lack of news from out of state even It was amazing how localised the news and information was. I think in five weeks there were THREE stories not from the USA or much beyond the state.
that’s how they keep the people dump!!! America has a invisible wall around it. Nothing from the outside comes in😂. The media anyways private owned and us- centric doesn’t want that people get informed about the outside world 😉 don’t open up a can of worms 😂
I can assure you as someone originally from Baltimore that while there is a great deal of truth in what you say, many of us, in addition to reading the Baltimore Sun, also subsribe to the Washington Post and The New York Times or Wall Street Journal. It is a shame that the Sun deteriorated so much after it was bought by a conglomerate because it used to be one of the top three or four papers in the US. Also, if you were getting the TV news, CBS or ABC networks have world news but charming little WBAL is purely local. Johns Hopkins probably has more foreign than native students so they definately could not live in a bubble.
@@jeanneknight4791 I know that there are sources of news in Baltimore and nearby Washington I was definitely intrigued by how local the news on the TV was I was almost randomly sampling it as I didn't know where to get news or programming in general I ended up watching a LOT of Maryland Public Television and they had the PBS NewsHour which was good but still mostly national stories (As my sister pointed out the USA is a continental sized country) I think I am spoilt as I understand English, French and German as well as bizarrely Finnish and Estonian. I try to maintain my languages by reading news websites and watching the news in those languages so I felt very isolated when I was in the States.
@@johncrwarner You have an admirable command of languages and you are right in realizing that part of the problem in the USA is that it spands the continent from Atlantic ot Pacific. There is no doubt that Maryland Public Television is a life saver! However, did you notice that MPT hs a HUGE amount of programs from the United Kingdom! One way of discerning if someone from the US is going to be a thinking individual is if they know what Masterpiece Theatre is.
14:44: As an European to be fair: You have enough states + capitals to memorize, so I really can't blame you, when you get confused about Europe. Even some Europeans are ignorant of other European Countries. The most American thing I encountered in online discussions is, when I try to point something out, and tell somebody that he or she is wrong (Like for example "But this country doesn't even exist!", although it clearly exists), and then get the answer "I am not wrong! I have only a different opinion than you, and you can't handle this!". This can be really annoying sometimes, but it kind of reflects the very democratic nature of the US. But I otherwise never had this kind of problems-and my English teacher in school was a really cute girl from the Appalachian mountains!
It is not about information but about confidence and attitude. Normal people, if they don't know, they ask about more information OR act as they knew to don't look dumb. BUT Americans just accuse you of lying and deny existence of everything they are not thought in school (and that are lot of things)
13:06 I appreciate the pain in your eyes and the fact that you're dying inside a little because that's exactly how I feel every time I hear someone ask shit like this and I'm not even American, I'm German but man, that the fucking definition of _Fremdschämen._
I can’t even begin to explain how many times I have to deal with fremdschämen as a German living abroad (2 years in the states and since 2009 in Ireland) 🙈
@@BlackWater_49 you have no idea 🤦♀️ Maybe not so much in regards to Germany (after all, it’s only a 2 hour flight away), but on so many other things.
I once spoke to a group of of Americans on the London Underground. They we very nice and proceeded to tell me how much they loved London and that they’d been out all day taking in the sights. So I politely asked where they’d been and told me the Hard Rock Cafe 😅
You've got to admire Henning Wehn who has managed to overcome stereotypes and prejudice to be a genuinely funny comedian in the UK. I think he single-handedly overturned the idea that "Germans have no sense of humour" in Britain; a heroic feat.
I had a really stupid story happen to me once with an American (i think it counts as a customer?) I was working as one of the IT guys for a company and we had a rep from one of our US partners for a week at our HQ. We also had a few bedrooms at that place because we often had spontaneus guests from Partners. I got a call from that guest, lets call him joe, saying that the network port in his room wouldn't work. Went up there, fixed it and made the stupid move to say "If you need Something else, call me" That was a thursday and i had taken the next day off. That thursday after work, i fired on a barbeque with some neighbours. It was 2 or 3 in the morning, when my phone rang, and i, still a bit drunk, took the call. Joe, trying to Skype with his wife in the states. I don't remember what the issue was anymore. When i came Back to my office on monday, my boss told me that joe would have been screaming through the entire office about me being a drunk moron, who wouldn't do his job, without realising that a) my shift was over b) that call was way outside our business hours anyways and c) my private life is no matter to him. My boss and i laughed about that guy for years
The top three dumb questions which I have been asked are: 1. Is Hitler still in power? 2. Do you have refrigeration in Germany? 3. Why do you hang a pickle on your Christmas tree? (We don't, that's not a thing anywhere in Germany.) Added bonus: "German chocolate cake" that you can buy in the US has absolutely nothing to do with the country. The recipe's inventor had the last name German.
Another German here 👋 If an American would have asked me why we Germans didn’t warn the US about the tragic and horrible things that sadly happened on 9/11, I would have been speechless to say the least. Maybe I would have asked back if this question was meant seriously or if this question was a joke, but there’s absolutely nothing funny regarding the 9/11 incident. I saw the impact of the second plane live, and I‘ll never forget that image and that sound, absolutely horrifying 🥺 Besides all that: Feli made an amazing video about the most „typical questions asked by an American“, and there are way more I can tell you that 🥴😉 But anyhow, I really like the US and I never ever had any negative event with an American 👍 Best regards from Germany 🇩🇪, Philipp 👋
my best conversation in the usa was in florida: i asked a young woman which cities she knew in germany expect berlin. she said munich, hamburg, stockholm. and i said, but that's in sweden and she thought for a moment and said, oh, that's where the good cheese comes from. and i said, no, that's switzerland, whereupon she said, but isn't that the same? it was like omg
Long time ago, I was living in Madrid and had an American friend. We were at a daytime party at another friend's house. He's recalling some story, and says: The World Ba,.... erm, North American Basketball championship. Whole room of Europeans and South Americans erupts in cheers. He got sheepish, but totally got why the cheer and acknowledged it. When more Americans understand, you have progress
The rest of the world should get together all the best baseball players and grind the World Series into dust. The only downside would be if the Americans won, they would be unbearable and justify them calling it the World Series in the first place. As an aside, I love it when Americans say "whose flag is on the Moon?", because we can now say "China and the Surrender flag" (now the American flag has become so bleached by sunlight it's basically a white flag) 😂
@@avaggdu1 even if they won, that would not justify the name as the name would remain EVERY YEAR., not just the year they win such an exhibition match. There are major baseball countries - not many, but a few (Cuba, Japan...)
@@mango4ttwo635 I wasn't suggesting an exhibition match but a permanent inclusion of a "rest of the world" team to dominate the competition. Even then, I wasn't being serious; virtually no-one else cares about baseball.
Hey, man, I JUST LITERALLY found your stuff. I love it - not because Americans mit be considered dumb, but because your column basically opens people's minds, eyes and ears to the fact that not everything in the world is identical and that we should be tolerant, curious and interested. And yes, I'm German, but I worked for WWF/WWE for 31 years ... Thanks for this great and entertaining column!
Oh mein Gott... Die Legende... Carsten Schäfer... Dank Ihnen und ihrem tollen Kommentarstil bin ich WWE Fan geworden... Ich blamiere mich wohl gerade aber ich bin ein richtiger Fan, schon seit 18 Jahren, seitdem ich 12 war... Um einmal die fantastischen 4 zu zitieren: Ich wollt noch Danke sagen.
I’m an English person who has lots of experience with Americans in various capacities. When I lived in Berlin, there were a large number of American expats and I got to know quite a few. They were always scared to drink the water, despite the water in Germany generally being cleaner in the USA, because they thought that only USA has clean drinking water. They also used to think that American laws regarding food safety (or lack of them!) applied in Europe too and wouldn’t believe that our food didn’t contain the same chemicals/ chicken wasn’t chlorinated etc. They also tended to be a bit ignorant of the origins of technology. They always seemed to brag about how “You only have cars because of us” etc… er… no… That said, I used to genuinely believe the stereotype that Germans were efficient and always on time. I soon understood this was completely untrue, within a week of living in the country! 😂
The same goes for Americans and eggs. They wash eggs with detergent which strips off the protective layer on the shells that prevents bacteria penetrating and going bad if not refrigerated.
I would even go as far as to say that our tap water in Germany is cleaner than what is bottled in some states in the US. Especially in Alabama and Florida.
Being efficient and on time is what we expect each other to be. And no, we're not hard working. We work the least annual hours globally. We just make those hours count.
Feli made lots of videos worth watching as she is a pretty smart woman and good observer, not to mention, she is often pretty funny imo. Also, its hard to get angry with her even when she says controversial things, she just smiles and all is ok again 🙂
When I was travelling through Louisiana, a guy at a gas station asked me if I came all the way from Germany in my (rental) car. I told him yes, because my car was really a boat 🤐
in time, there were two kinds of football in the Brittish Isles: assocation Football and rugby football. Both were imported in the US by immigrants, but the second (rugby football) became the most popular one. Instead of calling it rugby football, people shortened it to just "'football". Later association football became more a thing for girls/women. Because the word football was already in use, people used the abbreviation of assocation and called it soccer. In the meantime, in England "association football" was the most popular one and so they called it "football", while the less popular "rugby football" was shortened to rugby. I know that rugby and the American football are not the same, but rules changed over time in the US.
There is a ton of different footballs, and most of the others are distinguished by the location they're mostly played or specific rules. Like indoor football, gaelic football, australian rules football, canadian football (yes there is a difference), flag football, beach football, and many more. If people talk about football and which one is the one that gets the name, throw any of the other in.
I can relate about the "authentic German food." I love Thai food, so when I went to Thailand I couldn't wait to order my favourites dishes in their country of origin. Turns out all the Thai food I was eating at home was made up bullshit. Actual Thai food is absolutely amazing. Next I will try fake German food and compare.
Hi, I'm from Germany and I like your reaction content. 😂 And, Yes my english is bad, but learning by doing. I love it, when Americans have Questions. Lets go to the bar and we have fun. ❤
I was once asked if we have cars in Germany by a guy who drove a BMW! 🤦🏽♀️And also if the Berlin wall goes through the whole of Germany. And no, I'm not going to go into that...🤣
Had a lot of bitter fun reading this comments but I still think I win with question I was asked in 2006 in Minnesota. "Where exactly in US is this Europe? I've never been further than to Chicago." 🤯😂
Well, the thing about 'slang' actually triggered a memory for me. I was in New York back in 1988, visiting my uncle who lived in Queens. He had a friend over from Harlem and I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of what he was saying 😄 It definitely didn't sound like English to me 🙂
A country doesn't define it's citizens, and you were really humble and corageous to make this video-reaction. You shouldn't be embarassed by the US, you're educated, humble and open-minded. Great video.
5:56 "Because Americans think that the entirety of Europe is like Britain, because Europe looks British for the Americans", hahaha, that got me really :DDD "Europe looks like Britain for the Americans" xDDD
I think it’s just about education and interests also probably everywhere similar. I will never forget back in my schooldays when one 17 year old (german) girl was confused that America is not a european country as she assumed. ^^
About that slang/dialect thing: I'm from Austria (more specific Vienna) and we have many different accents and dialects. So, eg I can easily hear if someone comes from Tyrol or Vorarlberg, even if they don't speak in their dialect. I once met a group of people from those two regions. The ones from Vorarlberg I had a hard time understanding even as they tried to avoid using "proper german", but still managed, the Tyrolians had their accsent, but I had no problem understanding them. Now, there was one guy from a region within Tyrol called Zillertal where the others would say, if he spoke in his own dialect, even they wouldn't understand him... And just remember, Austria is just about 84k sqarekilometers (something between 32k and 33k squaremiles) big and has only about 9 million inhabitants.
This video is by far my favorite. Especially at the part where she is asked about the 7 hour time difference to the warning of 9/11. And the current Cologne video, I love that too
I am into watches, like for example Rolex and other nicer brands. Once I started talking to this American about watches as I noticed his watch and brought it up in conversation, and I noticed that his Rolex had the completely wrong time, I first thought he had kept the time from back home but no. He said "oh I never adjust the time on the watch, I don't understand how to read the time on it anyway", I just wear it because it looks nice. ??? so he did't even know how to read the time on an analog watch, I could't believe it... A grown man!
I brought my motorcycle over to North America to travel for several months. Several times I’ve been approached and the following dialogue ensued: They: „I’ve never seen a licence plate like that. Where are you from?“ I: „From Germany.“ They: „Oh wow, that’s FAR! Did you drive all the way?“ I: „Yepp.“ Also: They: „With all those migrants, Germany is on the brink of civil war, isn’t it?“ I: "No.“ Actually, this idea does exist. It is a narrative of the extreme right, of Neo-Nazis. It’s complete nonsense though.
oh boy!! I'm swiss and soooo agree specially you have fridges??? I was asked once by an American not in the USA and not in Switzerland, we meat elsewhere: how did you come? OMG u guys have airplanes in Switzerland (BTW the person was about to faint😂) and I love the last thing about time differences! (here I was about to faint🤣) I was also asked do you get up at 4am to take care of the farm in your backyard🤣 another one: "where do you live?" "Switzerland" "never heard of that place where in America is Switzerland?" CLOSE MINDED BEYOND and then Switzerland has the name of living behind and not knowing stuff......
She mentioned it. A part of Ireland is British. In the other part they drive on the left because of the British influence. Malta and Cyprus had a time in history were the UK occupied these islands. So all of them are included in her mentioning of countries the UK had once occupied.
Until relatively recently Sweden drove on the left. As of this month, India will have the largest population of any country and they drive on the left. So do Japan. Originally America drove on the left too. There’s an auto museum in Brussels where I saw several early American right hand drive cars.
@@Joanna-il2ur You are correct. The US went to the right side of the road driving, because the T-Ford was built to drive on the right side of the road. Mozambique went from right side driving to left side driving. Because being a Portugese colony right side driving was the norm. But after independence they had all their neighboring countries driving on the left. So they switched and made car imports easier.
Every bavarian would instantly die at these things (especially the food related things) I mean i'm bavarian and i call out my friends for putting ketchup on their "Leberkassemmel" ... obviously just as a joke but its still just a trigger just for the fun of it. Hearing thinks like "beer-cheese" and "dipping your pretzle into mustard" is making me feel like i'm ready for the final rest
An American once asked me "where you're from (Belgium) do you get to choose stuff like for example which shoes you want to wear?". I was so flabbergasted that I didn't even directly understand he thought I lived under a hardcore communist regime
I mean, asking is seldom bad, it's assuming that makes it bad.. at least I think so? Like you can ask "do you drive on the left or right side of the road", but coming in saying "so what's it like driving on the WRONG side of the road" is what makes it dumb for me 🤷🏼♀️
She is a fun person and a good video. Ignorant people everywhere; don't sweat it, Joel! My own pet peeve is when a foreigner (to the UK) asks me why we drive on the "wrong" side of the road. Labelling it "wrong" rather than "different" speaks to an ignorant frame of mind imho
it happens that british people are beaten by british humour :) we know that it is not the wrong side, and we know that you drive on the other side. but we still say wrong side just to poke at you. apparently it works, so we keep doing it.
One thing I have experienced, which she also mentioned was the: "But, you/they have such an American name?"... Like, yeah, where the hell do you think most American names came from? Probably the place where most of the Americans came from in the first place
When I vistied the USA in 1989 (!!!!) as a teenager, I was asked whether we Germans have supermarkets, refrigerators and taps/faucets with cold and hot water.
My wife is from the uk and moved to thw nwtherlands. She is learnong dutch. Schoolbook dutch can be learned relatively easilly. But proper dutch is chuck full of slang and eufanisms. Its how we can easilly spot foreigners who know dutch bit dont speak it. The eufanisms are so common that we dont even realise were using them.
I once was a German in the us and I was asked if we have paved roads in Germany and what language we speak. But that was actually the only "dumm" questions I got in three years.
Germans actual helped invent the fridge. Carl von Linde made a big discovery that led to electric fridges. Fun fact : he did that to have a cold beer ;)
I think you are right at 11:35 min. - I learned English at school in Germany about 30 years ago and I understand you very well when you speak English. 🙂
I'm a German and I have an American High School degree from my exchange year. The dumbest questions I was asked by my peers that I still remember were probably: 1. "So do you have cows in Germany?" 2. "Do you have lightbulbs in Germany?" To give my American classmates some credit, the guy in the group who asked the second question was looked at by the other 3 who said: "dude, really?"`I feel the people in South Dakota were generally less ignorant and stereotypical than in other places. There were very few people who were overweight, fast food was not that important, there were no homeless people in our town and nowhere did it smell like pee (: This might just be a difference between rural areas like ours and bigger cities though.
I think a lot of it has to do with just how geographically isolated the United States is from the rest of the world. We only share a border with two other countries, Canada and Mexico. Canada isn't really all that different from the United States from a cultural standpoint, and I think whenever an American typically travels to Mexico, it's almost always some resort that stands out from the rest of the country. So our exposure to other cultures isn't as high as it would be in other countries. Furthermore, traditions and cuisine from other countries tend to get absorbed into the United States. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad or a good thing, but it is a reality that we assume some tradition or some food becomes Americanized and don't realize that either it came from or was inspired by somewhere else. Again I think it goes back to just how isolated we are from the majority of the world.
Yes, that could be one reason. I'm German and I live near Bonn/Cologne. You only have to drive 100km to be in three different Countries (Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherlands). Germany shares borders with 9(!) countries. We have so many different countries here in Europe, so many different cultures. It makes me sad that people here often don't see this as a great chance, a big advantage to get new ideas, new impressions, new thinking. But to get back to your statement. I think, everyone here in Germany knows that in the US/Canada/Mexico there are refrigerators available (and the other things) ;-) So the ability to look beyond the own borders necessarily doesn't need physical borders.
@@walover165 I've never been to Australia, but I had friends in college who are Australian. Granted that's a rather small sample size, but even adjusting to life in the United States was quite difficult for at least one of them. The first time I took them out anywhere, simply driving on the right side of the road was enough for her to scream in terror. I didn't even know what she was carrying on about until her sister reminded her Americans drive on the right. With that (and from what I've read) I'd say Australians are just as bad, if not maybe a bit worse, than us "Yanks". Which that term which she used made someone else in our friend group really mad. She looked at me with that look of "What did I just do?" I asked "Yank is short for Yankee, correct?" She said it was. So then I told her our mutual friend there was from North Carolina which, despite the name, is in the Southern United States. In the South, "Yankee" or "Yank" is very insulting as it evokes one of the darkest times in American, particularly Southern American, history. She had absolutely no idea.
England only shares a border with 2 countries also...And we are much more diverse in our outlook and knowledge...Lets not forget that the UK invented about 75% of everything that you use or do in the modern world. The internet being a huge thing we invented.
@@simonkirk3067 England is also adjacent to Europe and has had a direct influence in European affairs since the time of the Roman Empire, so it's not exactly the same as being separated from the rest of the world by two rather large oceans
I was asked one time where i come from. I said Austria, and she answered... ohhh Australia... and I... nooo Austria it's next to germany. Oh Germany, no Autria... bruh..😂
aright.. i even learned somethin... great.. i dint know you (american) guys get such a result callin FUSSBALL, soccer..... huh.. new to me.. so, thx for that.. btw ... i find it damn cool, you watchin this stuff so open minded, with so much fairness and honesty.. for me... even with family in the us, a light in all this darkness over there... stay that way man... like in evry question about other people ur mind wants to judge too early.. thx 4 doin this ;o)
Adding to the football / soccer confusion, we mostly refer to it as American football. But especially from a german perspective we should lay low. One of the most linguistical heated debates we have in germany is whether a certain pastry is called Berliner, Krapfen, Pfannkuchen or what not. Even more confusing is that it is often translated as donut.
Just FYI football originated in Great Britain. Occasionally we do call it soccer ourselves but football is generally more widely used. In German fussball. Confusingly we also have rugby football which is closer to American football in style only without the body armour.
The first people who could write did so in Latin. The common, illiterate people who continued to speak the Germanic dialect were called "THEUDO" by the scholars - translated, this means "the people". The word "deutsch" developed from THEUDO. That is why it is now called "Deutschland".
I was once asked if I voted for Hitler. I thought it was a joke at first, only to then explain that the guy was dead for more than sixty years at that point and not even my grandparents were old enough or even born to vote.
I have driven on the left side of the road in many places, The craziest thing that happened to me was in the British Virgins Islands....which they call the Virgin Islands, i have a license plate. They gave me a rental car with a left-hand drive ....I was like Whaaat?, I got used to it, and then in the Bahamas, drive on the left steering on the left., there are 77 countries that drive on the left. Gibraltar they drive on the right cause of Spain. U.S. Virgin Islands they drive on the left cause of England, I'm glad I had a right hand drive there, and in Suriname in South America, they drive on the left( I almost found out the hard way). I love Feli's videos, they also help me out as I am trying to speak better German from what I know already
my mama said to me on the opening day of the olympics "I have to go to watch the opening, it is starting now" dont spoil it to me you are 4 hours ahead!
Reminds me of a question asked by an American once who was wondering why people from The Netherlands speak ‘Dutch’, when that word rather ressembles ‘Deutsch’ (German in German). Why do you say you speak German har har har? Ehm…, that’s on you guys. We call our country Nederland and we speak… Nederlands😂
Some questions cant be excused with "cultural differences". Questions like "do you guys have Internet in europe?" While we were talking in a discord Channel...
what's amazing is that I've said millions of times that I come from Poland, and they still ask me if I know any other language... well, we talk in English, yes!
How is it possible for an American not to know about timezones? You have multiple timezones inside your country! 😂
I say this as an American, because the average American is dumber than a box of rocks. The education system is lackluster at best in most places as well as the poor work ethic of many kids.
It as they not like the true timezone GMT, also with 11/09 surely they should of asked Australia and not us British as they are even more ahead
I don't think they have to know about timezone time differences. Like, I believe from the few clips I have seen that programs on television are announced something like
"This show starting tonight at 07:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time, 08:00 pm Mountain Daylight Time, and 09:00 pm Central Daylight Time."
If you know you are using Central Daylight Time, because you live in New Jersey, it's easy to reason "yeah, they Californians always get the program a few hours early, they're treated a bit special. That's the way it is." and then not question it further. Even when the program is shown at the same time throughout the whole country.
You don't need to question it any more, especially if you're never crossing state borders in your entire life.
@@amyloriley Californians? Surely Florida people need treated special lmao
@@mlee6050 No I mean concerning time zones, not anti-LGBT laws. Florida is in the same time zone as New Jersey, so the comparison can't be made that way regarding time zones.
As a German, I was once asked by an American if we have electricity. I must have reacted kind of confused, so he added "you know, because everything is in ruins since WW2..."
Einfach zurück fragen ob die US-Army noch immer die Pocken verseuchten Decken an die Indianer verschenken und wann sie denken damit alle Indianer ausgerottet zu haben. ;)
Zurück fragen: und wie machen sich unsere Wissenschaftler bei euch die euch halfen den Krieg zu gewinnen?
Why not go all the way and ask if we have food here, too? 😅🤭
If you're going to be this ignorant, own it! 😎🤙
An American tourist guide once asked my if our townhall was built BC or only shortly after...
Who said all America's are smart? LOL
I worked for a small tourism company in Berlin in the 90s and had a lot of contact with Americans as a result.... One of them asked me where we "hide" the ruins. I pointed to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which as a ruin is supposed to symbolise the consequences of the war. He just said "No, I mean the real ruins. It is impossible that you guys have rebuilt the city so quickly".
And another "stupid" American asked me why we Germans only drive US cars. I looked around... VW, BMW, Audi, Mercedes etc. I told him that they were all German cars. He then accused me of lying, because all his work colleagues drive such cars and they would never drive "inferior foreign" cars, because after all Ford invented the car. When I tried to explain to him that a German had invented the car, he became really insulting.
What did he think BMW stood for? Baltimore Motor Works?
@@drsnova7313 😂😂😂😂😂
@@drsnova7313 Yes
Well, Germany had the first patented car. If you count the Fardier by James Cugnot the car is technically french, but that is a real stretch.
That second coworker is really stupid and short-sighted, and his comment hurts as a car-fan.
Hmm the 90's, that was like half a century after WW2 ended. How long did they expect it to take to rebuild a city?
Sometines it actually did take a long time to remove them. For example the Frauenkirche in Dresden was still in ruins in the late 90's when they started rebuilding it. On the other hand, there still ARE lots of WW2 ruins, who are being preserved that way as memorials. It's called Denkmalschutz (monument conservation). Or in some cases they are being left alone bcs communities simply don't have the funds to tear them down or rebuild them.
German who grew up in the USA here! Americans love pulling that "I'm half/quarter/eighth so-and-so" BS, so whenever someone would say they're part German, I'd start having a conversation with them in fluent German. Needless to say, they'd stand there silently with wide eyes and a red face. Works like a charm 🤣
🤣🤣It happened to me too..he spoke German like I speak Hungarian....
My cousins are also so called germans. Never been in germany , don't speak a word german , but have a german passport.
@@svenbrenner3583 3rd most powerful passport
Echt, krass. Bist du dort geboren oder wie? Oder mit ganz jungen Jahren nach Amerika verreist. Mit den Eltern natürlich
@@svenbrenner3583 "so called germans"...
When i was in the US, ordering food at a fast food restaurant, me and my friends were discussing our orders in german, the woman behind the counter was asking what language we speak and was very surprised to hear its german and asked: „oh you got your own language??“
WTF o.o
Huh??? 🫣
Stupid things like that you can only hear in the USA
@@willydelzongle4329And you know why?
@@m0lDaViA I would say a lack of education and interest. I am Belgian and I speak fluently 4 languages. So does my daughter in addition that she learnt latin and old greek. How many Americans speak a 2nd language?
I once read a reddit post in which an American was seemingly unable to comprehend that he would be considered a foreigner in another country. No, according to him the term "foreigners" only applied to Non-Americans (regardless where they are) but never to Americans...
the same with China
Can someone link it? I cant find it because there are like a million ask reddit's about foreigners
A person moving to the US is a migrant, but a US-citizen moving to anothet country isn't called a migrant, but an ex-pat... Because Im(migrant) is a term for non-americans i suppose...
"... "foreigners" only applied to Non-Americans ..."
Lol. That is so stereotypical US American.
*Panther774* Everybody is a foreigner almost everywhere! 🙂
That refrigerator question is really frequent. A friend of mine tried to explain, that Miele is a German brand, but it didn't help, they still thought there are no fridges in Germany.
That one I can't understand. Why do Americans think that Germany doesn't have refrigerators? You would think that default assumption is that every household has one in pretty much everywhere in the world.
I came upon an American who asked me the same question. He couldn’t even answer me why he thought we wouldn’t have fridges. My guess is, they ingrain a heavy superiority complex into US children so they believe everyone else lives in caves
@@3characterhandlerequired after haveing heard story from people,and heard thing by american youtuber i think they didn't understand that the rest of world is go foward and they except the only country which have go foward,like everybody is still stopped at the sterotype they know
They may be more familiar with Knorr, Leica, Braun, early Gillette, Aldi, Bosch, DHL, and Addidas. I would never get into a frig conversation with this kind of person because they don't really know where Samsung isfrom either.
We often have built-in fridges which look like cupboards from the outside. Maybe that's the reason why they don't see them. 😉
Regarding the many names:
Deutschland is the name Germany gave itself. The Old German word thiutisk means "belonging to our people".
Germania is the name given by the Romans as a collective noun for all tribes North of the Alps and east of the Rhine river that they couldn't conquer.
The names Allemagne, Almanya etc. which are used in South Western Europe, North Africa and the Middle East come from the South German tribe Alemanni who were neighbours of the Galloromanic tribes in todays France.
The Finns and Estonians call us Saksa and Saksamaa, after the Saxon tribe that lived along the Elbe river.
And in the Eastern European countries they call us Niemcy, Nemecko or similar names which comes from an old word meaning "The silent" or "Those who just don't know how to speak". 😅 To be fair the Slavic people called all foreigners who didn't speak their language "niemc" (unable to speak).
Funny thing: „dutch“ and „deutsch“ (both from „thiutisk“) mean the same
@@Andy33615 This is also the same root as Italian "tedesco" (= "German")
@@Andy33615 In Norway and Sweden, Germany is called "tyskland" coming from the same rots. ^^
Nope, nemec (sg.) nemci (plural) is only german people for slavic people, we dont use the term for any other country's people, and its; just because germans in the 70-80s didnt like to speak a lot in general, and they used to give short, one word mostly answers and continue existing in scilence
@@atanaskumanov86 ma on je to mislio za pridev nem dakle da za sve ljude koji ne znaju da govore se kaze nem ili u ijekavici nijem
I was once asked by an American if we have houses/ homes in Germany...I told her that we live on trees because of the radiation accident/ pollution caused by the Tschernobyl incident and she was like: "Yep, I see and I'm so sorry for you guys" #facepalm
😆
😂😂😂😂👏👏👏👏👏
Don't say that. They take it seriously 😂
I can't :D
That's such a good startng point! You could just go on and on elaborating to find out how long it takes for them to figure out that it's a joke. Had to immediately think of Pippy Longstockings: "You know, it's not as bad as you might think. For example due to the radiation our trees grow lemonade now so we never run out of drinks." LOL
As a German, I was once asked by an American if we also see the moon at night
Hahahahahahahaha
Of course we see the moon..
Obviously the backside with the reptiles, Nazi bases, Russian nuclear craters and Quentin Tarantino's moon landing studio.
😂😂😂
And we always dance to Rammstein in our Dirndls
@@mariaeloisaapacionado2741 yup 😂
🤣
My dumbest moment was not only a question but also a reaction.
I was asked by an American: "what kind of language do you guys speak in Germany?"
I thought to myself, it was so obvious that people in Germany speak German - so I wanted to be funny and answered: "Austrian"
But to my surprise nobody laughted or smiled - instead my answer was taken seriously. 😵💫
Sarcasm is not common in the us obviuosly
@@Deliciousfoodofficer I guess, it has to be combined with a funny face expression to be recognized.
That’s OK, I’ve heard of some of these idiots asking the English what language they speak and can’t seem to get it through their heads that the root or native language is “English”and not “American”!
@@kkerr1953 well, it feels "dumb" or funny when the possible answer for the language is already in the name of the country ... like asking someone from England and being surprised the common language is English ... Germany and German ... or Italy and Italian likewise.
@@henningbartels6245 In Switzerland they speak Swedish according to some Americans.
It's the 80's, Germany is still splitted into West Germany and communist East Germany: I travelled around the US at the Age of 17 and guess how many times I was asked: "How did you escape?" 😂
stopped counting after 127?
I was asked if I was from the East or West on a regular basis. It took me a couple of days to realize that explaining why I couldn't possibly from the DDR was a waste of time. Most American kids couldn't wrap their heads around the concept of the Iron Wall - nor did they really care.
@@Kristina_S-O It was called the "Iron Curtain", not "Iron Wall!? 😉
I think we should coordinate our answers to this question for maximum trollage, like we all were sneaking across the border to Australia and then fled on kangaroos.
@@blackforestghost1 🤓
When I was in Berlin with American exchange students we went to a remaining part of the Berlin Wall and told them about DDR etc. One girl asked "Aaah, DDR, it's there where Hitler lives, right". I didn't know where to start
I've worked with european people getting all WWI and WWII and cold war mixed. They were young. It's somehow all "past" to them.
"Oh, you call it football!"
"No, the rest of the world calls it football."
No. Just because your native language uses an English word to name this game doesn't mean every langage does.
@@emileduvernois6680 there are many other countries that call in another way than "foot" and "ball" or the local translation of it?
"Football" means the local game in different countries, e.g. America, Australia and Ireland. "Soccer" is used to describe Association Football.
@@Why-D well we dont say "football" in Sweden, we use the swedish word fotboll. fot=foot/feet boll=ball. Most nations use the native language, but it the closest translation from english would still be football, not soccer.
Its football, it's a round ball and you kick it with your feet, end of.
It's not armour plated rugby.
most Americans have never set foot outside of America and have been told since birth that they live in the greatest country on earth. They know no better.
Most Americans haven’t set foot out of their own city or state. No awareness of the outside world at all,just not relevant.
@@barbarawhite4257
sadly!!!
Believe it or not, many of the “Trumpette” Americans really are that stupid and don't seem to know other countries are just as good, or better actually!!!
Problem is, when they're told about other countries they don't want to know. They're not even open to that possibility.
Doesn't matter.
Before I ever left my country, I already knew about most of Europe anyways BECAUSE I HAD ACCESS TO THE INTERNET.
There is literally no excuse for Americans.
It is simple as that. And when they hear evidence that some things could be better elsewhere, they get very dismissive if not angry.
I can agree in so many things to that video. 1996, my first time with high school year in the US. First school day I had to introduce myself. Was standing in front of the class, I said that I am from Germany, the East German part of Germany and saw some irritated faces. I noticed that and asked if they are having any questions? Answer was: "You are having brown hair, brown eyes and a tanned skin and you are not wearing" Lederhosen" at school?!? You can't be from Germany. Where r u originally come from?" My answer: "Originally born in the former East-Germany part and not all German men having blond hair, blue eyes and white skin or wearing Lederhosen all day long." Reaction of the teacher to that conversation: "I'm so glad for you that you can never become a Nazi then!" Teacher noticed that I got irritated by his sentence and the teacher put on top: "... I mean only a blond guy can become a Nazi in Germany. And coming from East-Germany the former GDR being a communist you will be hate by them!" My reply to the teacher's stereotypes was:"So all Germans born in the former GDR are still communists and if you were born there with blond hair and blue eyes you will become automatically a Nazi and have to leave the East German part over the wall to West-Germany, because communists hate the Nazis??? "... quietness was in the room. And no, I am not eating everday a Schnitzel or Bratwurst with Sauerkraut... 😂😂😂
I'm not surprised about the students, but shocked that the teacher was just as ignorant.
And none of them ever noticed that Hitler himself was not blond-haired nor blue-eyed?!
Wenn der Lehrer noch blöder als die Schüler ist, kann man nichts mehr erwarten.
@@davidbroadfoot1864 to be fair, hitler aint german, lol. He came from austria to germany when he was like in his thirties or late twenties i think?
A friend of mine told me he was asked during his exchange year by a classmate in the US: "Is being German a religion?"
I laughed my a** off that day😂
I remember where Trump said Belgium is a nice City.😂 . Belgium is a country.
And also mentioned Brussels is a hellhole, I do agree with him on that. I live close enough for the daily bombings to be audible and to smell the sulfer when the wind is right. /s
Holland ist die schönste Stadt der Welt, oder so.
He said even worse. He called Belgium a nice city in Brussels - which shows that at least somebody tried to teach him...
@@himmel-erdeundzuruck5682 NOOOO
Ich denke er meinte Brüssel, kann man ja mal verwechseln 😂
As a german I was asked by a american if we have "BMWs" in Germany. I asked if they know what the appr. stands for.. you know, after that they just nodded and walked to another party guest
did you at least say Bayerischer Mist Wagen?
@@dadudeme Ich dachte immer das sei 'Bei Mercedes Weggeworfen'
You witnessed a real redneck, now i'm jealous .
B m Double uuu
@@sksaddrakk5183
Bring Mich Werkstatt
The most parochial question I was ever asked by an American was in the Business Centre of the Four Seasons Hotel (as it was then named), In Seattle, WA. This lady and her friend were in the Centre printing some documents and graciously gave way to me when I explained the urgency of my need for various printed documents. But then I had to change the settings on the printer from foolscap (or whatever size they were using) to A4 size. One of the ladies asked me "why?" and I explained that all my documents had to be in A4. To which she again asked "why?". I said that almost the entire business world uses A4 size for documents. The lady who had clearly never heard of the A4 size of paper responded with "Well that's so silly". I was so dumbfounded by her ignorance and reply that I was lost for a reply.
There's some perverse logic that Americans insist on using their own size of paper while the entire world (with the exception of one or two US colonies and Canada) has standardised on the use of A4 size (and double A4 width A3). Arrogance knows no bounds.
@@nevillemason6791DIN A4 (Deutsche Industrie Norm) is based on the metric system (A0 is a square meter with length:width √2:1, A4 is A0 'folded' 4 times). It's indeed incomprehensible that a country that's so keen on efficiency doesn't use decimal/metric system, but it makes sense that a country that doesn't use the metric system also not uses the DIN A4. American paper sizes are obviously in inches. By the way, screen sizes (TV, PC, smartphone) are usually in inches also in Europe.
In my youth in the Netherlands the Deutsche Industrie Norm for paper sizes wasn't common yet in my country the Netherlands, we used 'folio' (a bit larger than A4) and 'quarto' (a bit smaller than A4. It took a while before one size for all was introduced.
When we were kids, my family hosted a girl around our age from Australia. When she arrived, we brought her around to our friends and neighborhood kids to introduce her. When we introduced her to the neighborhood kid, Adam, a son of an immigrant and an American, he stated with great confidence, "Boy! You speak English really well!". All our Australian "sister" said was, "uh... Thanks?".
I had a friend from the us visiting me in Germany and he thought we don’t have no electricity because he didn’t see no overhead power lines 😂😂 OMG they think we live like Hansel and Gretl 🤦♀️ or they think we still live like after WWll 🙄
In the southern regions, especially in the country side, you can actually find these, but they are rare.
Ja weil Amerika in Wirklichkeit ein 3. Welt Land ist. Vorne alles super, aber geht man tiefer, sieht man die Mängel sehr deutlich.
Vegas ist vorne hui, hinten pfui und so ist es bei allem in Amerika. Die Häuser sind aus Pappe, die Kabel wild verlegt usw. In Europa und allen voran in Deutschland würde sich der TÜV überschlagen.
Da hängen die Kabel wild durcheinander und verknotet übereinander, in Deutschland wäre so etwas nicht möglich, genau so wie bei den Autos, die fahren teilweise Autos die 30 Liter auf 100 km brauchen, zumindest gefühlt und die niemals ne Zulassung auf unseren Straßen bekommen würden.
Deutschland ist 1000 mal fortschrittlicher als die USA, außer halt nach vorne, da steht die USA wie eine 1, nur dieses Konstrukt zerbricht immer mehr und mehr, bis es nicht mehr zu halten ist
@@manuelrentz4728 Die sind nur in wenigem vorne:
- Militär
- Leute mit Medizinschulden
- Mehr Schusswaffen als gesundes Gemüse im Haus
Die Autos von denen, vor allem die Pickups, sind bei uns auch zulassungsfähig. Das Problem ist eher, dass man fast 33% Importgebühr draufgehaut kriegt. Aus einem Auto, das neu knapp 60000 kostet, wird bald ein Auto, das knapp 90000 kostet. Da lohnt es sich fast, auf dem eigenen Markt eine Option von VW oder Nissan zu kaufen.
Natürlich endet das am horrendren Spritverbrauch gar nix - der bei uns knapp drei mal so teuer ist.
Naja, wenn Deutschland eigene, riesige Ölvorkommen hätte, dann hätte kein Ingeniuer sich hier Gedanken gemacht, den Spritverbrauch zu senken. Und erst seit der Ölkrise in den 70ern hat man sich darüber so richtig Gedanken gemacht in Europa
@@LexusLFA554 We have them in the North as well.
Yeah! Me as a german is seven hours ahead ... actually i am writing this comment on your video 6.5 hours before you uploaded it! :) *amazing_german_life
40 years ago I was in Dover (New Jersey) as part of an high school exchange program. Two of the most annoying questions back then: Do you live in houses and do you have cars?
No we live in the trees and use wild horses
Just answer 'yes' and let them think, lol
French, I’ve been asked by an American guy if we had washing machines in France. I then answered « No, my mother goes to the river to wash our clothes ( I then lived in Paris and he knew ) » and he trusted me !
Great, I love it "playing dumb" humor. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Americans ask stupid questions of other Americans who are from different parts of the same country. I moved from Boston, MA to San Jose, CA and my family asked me "Do you have a furnace in your house?" "Uh, yeah, it's Northern California, and it gets *cold in the winter*." I know they were thinking of the Southern California stereotype of everyone being at the beach 365 days a year. . . sad.
@@cheriem432 I used to work for a Westboro, MA based company. Once while there for a meeting I got invited for a dinner at his home by an American colleague of mine. During the dinner he complained he was loosing the French he learnt in his childhood when his father was military based in France at the former NATO base of Orléans. As I suggested they could go for extended week-ends in the province of Quebec ( 200 miles north of Boston ), he replied me : « do you think we have time to travel to the pacific coast during week-ends ? » which kept me speechless !
When I was younger, French people were known for not being the cleanest. The term “French showering” meant when instead of showering you try to cover up your body odors with perfume. Maybe that was his question?
@@alestbest Ths same in Dutch: "met de Franse slag.": Doing stuff the French/ shoddy way/ bad quality.
My sister-in-law was as an exchange student for a few weeks in the US. On the very first day she was asked, why she is wearing so beautiful and modern clothes. Did she buy them at the airport directly after the arrival.
She had to bought them! Everyone knows we’re still wearing lederhosen and Dirndl everywhere, especially at the northern sea!
When I was first in the US
I came for five weeks to visit my sister
who was in Baltimore doing a Post-Doc
One of the things I noticed
was the lack of news from out of state even
It was amazing how localised the news and information was.
I think in five weeks there were THREE stories
not from the USA or much beyond the state.
that’s how they keep the people dump!!! America has a invisible wall around it. Nothing from the outside comes in😂. The media anyways private owned and us- centric doesn’t want that people get informed about the outside world 😉 don’t open up a can of worms 😂
Why
not
type
every
word
in
a
new
line? 🤪🤪
I can assure you as someone originally from Baltimore that while there is a great deal of truth in what you say, many of us, in addition to reading the Baltimore Sun, also subsribe to the Washington Post and The New York Times or Wall Street Journal. It is a shame that the Sun deteriorated so much after it was bought by a conglomerate because it used to be one of the top three or four papers in the US. Also, if you were getting the TV news, CBS or ABC networks have world news but charming little WBAL is purely local. Johns Hopkins probably has more foreign than native students so they definately could not live in a bubble.
@@jeanneknight4791
I know that there are sources of news
in Baltimore and nearby Washington
I was definitely intrigued by
how local the news on the TV was
I was almost randomly sampling it
as I didn't know where to get news
or programming in general
I ended up watching a LOT of
Maryland Public Television
and they had the PBS NewsHour
which was good but still
mostly national stories
(As my sister pointed out
the USA is a continental sized country)
I think I am spoilt as I understand
English, French and German
as well as bizarrely
Finnish and Estonian.
I try to maintain my languages by reading
news websites and watching
the news in those languages
so I felt very isolated when
I was in the States.
@@johncrwarner You have an admirable command of languages and you are right in realizing that part of the problem in the USA is that it spands the continent from Atlantic ot Pacific. There is no doubt that Maryland Public Television is a life saver! However, did you notice that MPT hs a HUGE amount of programs from the United Kingdom! One way of discerning if someone from the US is going to be a thinking individual is if they know what Masterpiece Theatre is.
14:44: As an European to be fair: You have enough states + capitals to memorize, so I really can't blame you, when you get confused about Europe. Even some Europeans are ignorant of other European Countries.
The most American thing I encountered in online discussions is, when I try to point something out, and tell somebody that he or she is wrong (Like for example "But this country doesn't even exist!", although it clearly exists), and then get the answer "I am not wrong! I have only a different opinion than you, and you can't handle this!". This can be really annoying sometimes, but it kind of reflects the very democratic nature of the US. But I otherwise never had this kind of problems-and my English teacher in school was a really cute girl from the Appalachian mountains!
Same questions people ask me in germany , i am from balkan
It is not about information but about confidence and attitude. Normal people, if they don't know, they ask about more information OR act as they knew to don't look dumb.
BUT Americans just accuse you of lying and deny existence of everything they are not thought in school (and that are lot of things)
I love how respectful and interested in other cultures you are😊 (21 year old German here, just happy that someone appreciates cultural differences!)
“Do you have cars in Germany?“……. „Yes, we invented cars…..“
13:06 I appreciate the pain in your eyes and the fact that you're dying inside a little because that's exactly how I feel every time I hear someone ask shit like this and I'm not even American, I'm German but man, that the fucking definition of _Fremdschämen._
I can’t even begin to explain how many times I have to deal with fremdschämen as a German living abroad (2 years in the states and since 2009 in Ireland) 🙈
@@babs926 C'mon, Ireland shouldn't be that bad...
@@BlackWater_49 you have no idea 🤦♀️ Maybe not so much in regards to Germany (after all, it’s only a 2 hour flight away), but on so many other things.
The way I cackled at “No, Kyle! We don’t.” 😂
I once spoke to a group of of Americans on the London Underground. They we very nice and proceeded to tell me how much they loved London and that they’d been out all day taking in the sights. So I politely asked where they’d been and told me the Hard Rock Cafe 😅
The Hard Rock Cafe chain actually originated in London, I believe.
@@hebneh Yeah might be idk, but imagine going to US and saying "I've been sightseeing all day!" "where have you been?" "Mcdonalds"
10:41 you gotta admit, despite the saying, Germans do have sense of humor, don't they? At least Joel is cracking up. 😆
You've got to admire Henning Wehn who has managed to overcome stereotypes and prejudice to be a genuinely funny comedian in the UK. I think he single-handedly overturned the idea that "Germans have no sense of humour" in Britain; a heroic feat.
I had a really stupid story happen to me once with an American (i think it counts as a customer?)
I was working as one of the IT guys for a company and we had a rep from one of our US partners for a week at our HQ. We also had a few bedrooms at that place because we often had spontaneus guests from Partners.
I got a call from that guest, lets call him joe, saying that the network port in his room wouldn't work. Went up there, fixed it and made the stupid move to say "If you need Something else, call me"
That was a thursday and i had taken the next day off. That thursday after work, i fired on a barbeque with some neighbours. It was 2 or 3 in the morning, when my phone rang, and i, still a bit drunk, took the call. Joe, trying to Skype with his wife in the states. I don't remember what the issue was anymore.
When i came Back to my office on monday, my boss told me that joe would have been screaming through the entire office about me being a drunk moron, who wouldn't do his job, without realising that a) my shift was over b) that call was way outside our business hours anyways and c) my private life is no matter to him.
My boss and i laughed about that guy for years
The top three dumb questions which I have been asked are:
1. Is Hitler still in power?
2. Do you have refrigeration in Germany?
3. Why do you hang a pickle on your Christmas tree? (We don't, that's not a thing anywhere in Germany.)
Added bonus: "German chocolate cake" that you can buy in the US has absolutely nothing to do with the country. The recipe's inventor had the last name German.
They often use a Dutch Oven. Never saw the thing here in The Netherlands, lol
@@Linda-hs1lk Remind me never to come to your house for German chocolate cake or English muffins. 😄
Then where does "Stille Nacht, beizen Nacht, Gurke Sohn, o wie lacht" come from? 😉
"I'm a Christmas tree fairy, Morty!"
Dipping your Pretzels in Mustard?! Never seen that in Germany either.
Another German here 👋
If an American would have asked me why we Germans didn’t warn the US about the tragic and horrible things that sadly happened on 9/11, I would have been speechless to say the least. Maybe I would have asked back if this question was meant seriously or if this question was a joke, but there’s absolutely nothing funny regarding the 9/11 incident.
I saw the impact of the second plane live, and I‘ll never forget that image and that sound, absolutely horrifying 🥺
Besides all that: Feli made an amazing video about the most „typical questions asked by an American“, and there are way more I can tell you that 🥴😉 But anyhow, I really like the US and I never ever had any negative event with an American 👍
Best regards from Germany 🇩🇪, Philipp 👋
my best conversation in the usa was in florida: i asked a young woman which cities she knew in germany expect berlin. she said munich, hamburg, stockholm. and i said, but that's in sweden and she thought for a moment and said, oh, that's where the good cheese comes from. and i said, no, that's switzerland, whereupon she said, but isn't that the same? it was like omg
Asked by American if we have cars in Greece. I replied, no we ride donkeys and he replied back: That must be really cool!!!
😂😂😂
Long time ago, I was living in Madrid and had an American friend. We were at a daytime party at another friend's house. He's recalling some story, and says: The World Ba,.... erm, North American Basketball championship. Whole room of Europeans and South Americans erupts in cheers.
He got sheepish, but totally got why the cheer and acknowledged it. When more Americans understand, you have progress
The rest of the world should get together all the best baseball players and grind the World Series into dust. The only downside would be if the Americans won, they would be unbearable and justify them calling it the World Series in the first place.
As an aside, I love it when Americans say "whose flag is on the Moon?", because we can now say "China and the Surrender flag" (now the American flag has become so bleached by sunlight it's basically a white flag) 😂
@@avaggdu1 even if they won, that would not justify the name as the name would remain EVERY YEAR., not just the year they win such an exhibition match. There are major baseball countries - not many, but a few (Cuba, Japan...)
@@mango4ttwo635 I wasn't suggesting an exhibition match but a permanent inclusion of a "rest of the world" team to dominate the competition. Even then, I wasn't being serious; virtually no-one else cares about baseball.
My all time favourite will forever be: "You guys live in tree houses, right?"
Hey, man, I JUST LITERALLY found your stuff. I love it - not because Americans mit be considered dumb, but because your column basically opens people's minds, eyes and ears to the fact that not everything in the world is identical and that we should be tolerant, curious and interested. And yes, I'm German, but I worked for WWF/WWE for 31 years ... Thanks for this great and entertaining column!
Oh mein Gott... Die Legende... Carsten Schäfer... Dank Ihnen und ihrem tollen Kommentarstil bin ich WWE Fan geworden... Ich blamiere mich wohl gerade aber ich bin ein richtiger Fan, schon seit 18 Jahren, seitdem ich 12 war... Um einmal die fantastischen 4 zu zitieren: Ich wollt noch Danke sagen.
Somebody from the US once asked me if we have cars in germany. Like bro we invented them
No joke, a collegue was asked : Do you have electric power in germany.
I’m an English person who has lots of experience with Americans in various capacities. When I lived in Berlin, there were a large number of American expats and I got to know quite a few. They were always scared to drink the water, despite the water in Germany generally being cleaner in the USA, because they thought that only USA has clean drinking water. They also used to think that American laws regarding food safety (or lack of them!) applied in Europe too and wouldn’t believe that our food didn’t contain the same chemicals/ chicken wasn’t chlorinated etc. They also tended to be a bit ignorant of the origins of technology. They always seemed to brag about how “You only have cars because of us” etc… er… no…
That said, I used to genuinely believe the stereotype that Germans were efficient and always on time. I soon understood this was completely untrue, within a week of living in the country! 😂
I gotta say though, the Deutsche Bahn is NOT representative of german punctuality in general. Especially not the ICE.
The same goes for Americans and eggs. They wash eggs with detergent which strips off the protective layer on the shells that prevents bacteria penetrating and going bad if not refrigerated.
I would even go as far as to say that our tap water in Germany is cleaner than what is bottled in some states in the US. Especially in Alabama and Florida.
Being efficient and on time is what we expect each other to be. And no, we're not hard working. We work the least annual hours globally. We just make those hours count.
Germans are definitely not always on time, look at their train system!😂
Not like my homeland Hungary was any better though.
Feli made lots of videos worth watching as she is a pretty smart woman and good observer, not to mention, she is often pretty funny imo. Also, its hard to get angry with her even when she says controversial things, she just smiles and all is ok again 🙂
I went to highschool in Flagstaff, AZ. My favorite question was whether we live in houses.
When I was travelling through Louisiana, a guy at a gas station asked me if I came all the way from Germany in my (rental) car. I told him yes, because my car was really a boat 🤐
in time, there were two kinds of football in the Brittish Isles: assocation Football and rugby football. Both were imported in the US by immigrants, but the second (rugby football) became the most popular one. Instead of calling it rugby football, people shortened it to just "'football". Later association football became more a thing for girls/women. Because the word football was already in use, people used the abbreviation of assocation and called it soccer. In the meantime, in England "association football" was the most popular one and so they called it "football", while the less popular "rugby football" was shortened to rugby. I know that rugby and the American football are not the same, but rules changed over time in the US.
Thank you! that's the best explanation I have heard so far. I knew it originated in the UK but didn't know the origin of the two names.
The word soccer is short for association as in Association Football. Similarly Rugby is sometimes called rugger.
and still rugby is the best, but somehow is the least popular ...
There is a ton of different footballs, and most of the others are distinguished by the location they're mostly played or specific rules. Like indoor football, gaelic football, australian rules football, canadian football (yes there is a difference), flag football, beach football, and many more.
If people talk about football and which one is the one that gets the name, throw any of the other in.
I can relate about the "authentic German food." I love Thai food, so when I went to Thailand I couldn't wait to order my favourites dishes in their country of origin. Turns out all the Thai food I was eating at home was made up bullshit. Actual Thai food is absolutely amazing. Next I will try fake German food and compare.
5:41 Not just the UK. Ireland, Malta and Cyprus also drive on the left side, but are former countries of the british empire. c:
Hi, I'm from Germany and I like your reaction content. 😂 And, Yes my english is bad, but learning by doing. I love it, when Americans have Questions. Lets go to the bar and we have fun. ❤
I was once asked if we have cars in Germany by a guy who drove a BMW! 🤦🏽♀️And also if the Berlin wall goes through the whole of Germany. And no, I'm not going to go into that...🤣
Had a lot of bitter fun reading this comments but I still think I win with question I was asked in 2006 in Minnesota. "Where exactly in US is this Europe? I've never been further than to Chicago." 🤯😂
Well, the thing about 'slang' actually triggered a memory for me. I was in New York back in 1988, visiting my uncle who lived in Queens. He had a friend over from Harlem and I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of what he was saying 😄 It definitely didn't sound like English to me 🙂
A country doesn't define it's citizens, and you were really humble and corageous to make this video-reaction. You shouldn't be embarassed by the US, you're educated, humble and open-minded. Great video.
5:56 "Because Americans think that the entirety of Europe is like Britain, because Europe looks British for the Americans", hahaha, that got me really :DDD "Europe looks like Britain for the Americans" xDDD
I would so keep calling it football, because in my view American football is just the vanilla version of rugby, right?
I think it’s just about education and interests also probably everywhere similar. I will never forget back in my schooldays when one 17 year old (german) girl was confused that America is not a european country as she assumed. ^^
On sa e way people from germany trate us from balkan with question did we have tv or showed to us how to use pioe in bathroom.....
About that slang/dialect thing: I'm from Austria (more specific Vienna) and we have many different accents and dialects. So, eg I can easily hear if someone comes from Tyrol or Vorarlberg, even if they don't speak in their dialect. I once met a group of people from those two regions. The ones from Vorarlberg I had a hard time understanding even as they tried to avoid using "proper german", but still managed, the Tyrolians had their accsent, but I had no problem understanding them. Now, there was one guy from a region within Tyrol called Zillertal where the others would say, if he spoke in his own dialect, even they wouldn't understand him...
And just remember, Austria is just about 84k sqarekilometers (something between 32k and 33k squaremiles) big and has only about 9 million inhabitants.
This video is by far my favorite. Especially at the part where she is asked about the 7 hour time difference to the warning of 9/11.
And the current Cologne video, I love that too
I am into watches, like for example Rolex and other nicer brands. Once I started talking to this American about watches as I noticed his watch and brought it up in conversation, and I noticed that his Rolex had the completely wrong time, I first thought he had kept the time from back home but no. He said "oh I never adjust the time on the watch, I don't understand how to read the time on it anyway", I just wear it because it looks nice. ??? so he did't even know how to read the time on an analog watch, I could't believe it... A grown man!
Yep, that's why they call them simply 'accessories'.
It even gets worse. Young American kids can not tell time from an analogue clock. So the schools switched to digital clocks.
@@mardiffv.8775 I've seen it in europe too.
She’s so sarcastic, I love it.
I brought my motorcycle over to North America to travel for several months. Several times I’ve been approached and the following dialogue ensued:
They: „I’ve never seen a licence plate like that. Where are you from?“
I: „From Germany.“
They: „Oh wow, that’s FAR! Did you drive all the way?“
I: „Yepp.“
Also:
They: „With all those migrants, Germany is on the brink of civil war, isn’t it?“
I: "No.“
Actually, this idea does exist. It is a narrative of the extreme right, of Neo-Nazis. It’s complete nonsense though.
oh boy!! I'm swiss and soooo agree specially you have fridges??? I was asked once by an American not in the USA and not in Switzerland, we meat elsewhere: how did you come? OMG u guys have airplanes in Switzerland (BTW the person was about to faint😂) and I love the last thing about time differences! (here I was about to faint🤣) I was also asked do you get up at 4am to take care of the farm in your backyard🤣 another one: "where do you live?" "Switzerland" "never heard of that place where in America is Switzerland?" CLOSE MINDED BEYOND and then Switzerland has the name of living behind and not knowing stuff......
Ireland, Malta and Cyprus drive on the left as well, not just the UK. I suspect Feli hasn't been to those countries.
She mentioned it. A part of Ireland is British. In the other part they drive on the left because of the British influence. Malta and Cyprus had a time in history were the UK occupied these islands. So all of them are included in her mentioning of countries the UK had once occupied.
Until relatively recently Sweden drove on the left. As of this month, India will have the largest population of any country and they drive on the left. So do Japan. Originally America drove on the left too. There’s an auto museum in Brussels where I saw several early American right hand drive cars.
@@Joanna-il2ur You are correct. The US went to the right side of the road driving, because the T-Ford was built to drive on the right side of the road.
Mozambique went from right side driving to left side driving. Because being a Portugese colony right side driving was the norm. But after independence they had all their neighboring countries driving on the left. So they switched and made car imports easier.
Every bavarian would instantly die at these things (especially the food related things)
I mean i'm bavarian and i call out my friends for putting ketchup on their "Leberkassemmel" ... obviously just as a joke but its still just a trigger just for the fun of it.
Hearing thinks like "beer-cheese" and "dipping your pretzle into mustard" is making me feel like i'm ready for the final rest
I like your attitude! Greetings from Switzerland
An American once asked me "where you're from (Belgium) do you get to choose stuff like for example which shoes you want to wear?". I was so flabbergasted that I didn't even directly understand he thought I lived under a hardcore communist regime
I mean, asking is seldom bad, it's assuming that makes it bad.. at least I think so? Like you can ask "do you drive on the left or right side of the road", but coming in saying "so what's it like driving on the WRONG side of the road" is what makes it dumb for me 🤷🏼♀️
She is a fun person and a good video. Ignorant people everywhere; don't sweat it, Joel! My own pet peeve is when a foreigner (to the UK) asks me why we drive on the "wrong" side of the road. Labelling it "wrong" rather than "different" speaks to an ignorant frame of mind imho
Some of us can tell right from wrong.
I always hope they think it’s funny.
it happens that british people are beaten by british humour :) we know that it is not the wrong side, and we know that you drive on the other side. but we still say wrong side just to poke at you. apparently it works, so we keep doing it.
Knew it!🏆
@@uliwehner So mean as well as uncreative then?
Dipping pretzels in mustard sounds to me like a reason to call the anzeigenhauptmeiester
Info: in Malta and Cyprus you drive on the left, too. European countries btw
I love the metric discussions usually ending "Who put a man on the Moon?" at which you answer "NASA uses Metrics!" and... *silence*
"What? You drive not on the left side?!?"
"Well, some do, but not for long." ;)
You are so sweet making this video and reacting without getting upset...
One thing I have experienced, which she also mentioned was the: "But, you/they have such an American name?"...
Like, yeah, where the hell do you think most American names came from? Probably the place where most of the Americans came from in the first place
When I vistied the USA in 1989 (!!!!) as a teenager, I was asked whether we Germans have supermarkets, refrigerators and taps/faucets with cold and hot water.
My wife is from the uk and moved to thw nwtherlands. She is learnong dutch. Schoolbook dutch can be learned relatively easilly. But proper dutch is chuck full of slang and eufanisms. Its how we can easilly spot foreigners who know dutch bit dont speak it. The eufanisms are so common that we dont even realise were using them.
I once was a German in the us and I was asked if we have paved roads in Germany and what language we speak.
But that was actually the only "dumm" questions I got in three years.
Germans actual helped invent the fridge. Carl von Linde made a big discovery that led to electric fridges. Fun fact : he did that to have a cold beer ;)
I lost hope when I was asked whether our day also has 24 hours in Germany. 😳
I think you are right at 11:35 min. - I learned English at school in Germany about 30 years ago and I understand you very well when you speak English. 🙂
the left side car fair enough not bad question honestly, id think it is left because of the UK too, theyre my reference
I'm a German and I have an American High School degree from my exchange year.
The dumbest questions I was asked by my peers that I still remember were probably:
1. "So do you have cows in Germany?"
2. "Do you have lightbulbs in Germany?"
To give my American classmates some credit, the guy in the group who asked the second question was looked at by the other 3 who said: "dude, really?"`I feel the people in South Dakota were generally less ignorant and stereotypical than in other places. There were very few people who were overweight, fast food was not that important, there were no homeless people in our town and nowhere did it smell like pee (: This might just be a difference between rural areas like ours and bigger cities though.
I think a lot of it has to do with just how geographically isolated the United States is from the rest of the world. We only share a border with two other countries, Canada and Mexico. Canada isn't really all that different from the United States from a cultural standpoint, and I think whenever an American typically travels to Mexico, it's almost always some resort that stands out from the rest of the country. So our exposure to other cultures isn't as high as it would be in other countries. Furthermore, traditions and cuisine from other countries tend to get absorbed into the United States. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad or a good thing, but it is a reality that we assume some tradition or some food becomes Americanized and don't realize that either it came from or was inspired by somewhere else. Again I think it goes back to just how isolated we are from the majority of the world.
Yes, that could be one reason. I'm German and I live near Bonn/Cologne. You only have to drive 100km to be in three different Countries (Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherlands). Germany shares borders with 9(!) countries. We have so many different countries here in Europe, so many different cultures. It makes me sad that people here often don't see this as a great chance, a big advantage to get new ideas, new impressions, new thinking.
But to get back to your statement. I think, everyone here in Germany knows that in the US/Canada/Mexico there are refrigerators available (and the other things) ;-)
So the ability to look beyond the own borders necessarily doesn't need physical borders.
Australia is far more isolated than America and yet does not have this issue to the extent you do. Try again
@@walover165 I've never been to Australia, but I had friends in college who are Australian. Granted that's a rather small sample size, but even adjusting to life in the United States was quite difficult for at least one of them. The first time I took them out anywhere, simply driving on the right side of the road was enough for her to scream in terror. I didn't even know what she was carrying on about until her sister reminded her Americans drive on the right. With that (and from what I've read) I'd say Australians are just as bad, if not maybe a bit worse, than us "Yanks". Which that term which she used made someone else in our friend group really mad. She looked at me with that look of "What did I just do?" I asked "Yank is short for Yankee, correct?" She said it was. So then I told her our mutual friend there was from North Carolina which, despite the name, is in the Southern United States. In the South, "Yankee" or "Yank" is very insulting as it evokes one of the darkest times in American, particularly Southern American, history. She had absolutely no idea.
England only shares a border with 2 countries also...And we are much more diverse in our outlook and knowledge...Lets not forget that the UK invented about 75% of everything that you use or do in the modern world. The internet being a huge thing we invented.
@@simonkirk3067 England is also adjacent to Europe and has had a direct influence in European affairs since the time of the Roman Empire, so it's not exactly the same as being separated from the rest of the world by two rather large oceans
I was asked one time where i come from. I said Austria, and she answered... ohhh Australia... and I... nooo Austria it's next to germany. Oh Germany, no Autria... bruh..😂
aright.. i even learned somethin... great.. i dint know you (american) guys get such a result callin FUSSBALL, soccer..... huh.. new to me.. so, thx for that..
btw ... i find it damn cool, you watchin this stuff so open minded, with so much fairness and honesty..
for me... even with family in the us, a light in all this darkness over there... stay that way man... like in evry question about other people ur mind wants to judge too early..
thx 4 doin this ;o)
American "football" is just a derivative of rugby.....and calling it football just doesn't make sense....you play it with your hands.
Danes have something living in their throat. Have they already discovered what it is?
Adding to the football / soccer confusion, we mostly refer to it as American football. But especially from a german perspective we should lay low. One of the most linguistical heated debates we have in germany is whether a certain pastry is called Berliner, Krapfen, Pfannkuchen or what not. Even more confusing is that it is often translated as donut.
And it doesn't help that donuts are also a thing, but something completely different.
Just FYI football originated in Great Britain. Occasionally we do call it soccer ourselves but football is generally more widely used. In German fussball. Confusingly we also have rugby football which is closer to American football in style only without the body armour.
The first people who could write did so in Latin. The common, illiterate people who continued to speak the Germanic dialect were called "THEUDO" by the scholars - translated, this means "the people". The word "deutsch" developed from THEUDO. That is why it is now called "Deutschland".
I was once asked if I voted for Hitler. I thought it was a joke at first, only to then explain that the guy was dead for more than sixty years at that point and not even my grandparents were old enough or even born to vote.
I have driven on the left side of the road in many places, The craziest thing that happened to me was in the British Virgins Islands....which they call the Virgin Islands, i have a license plate. They gave me a rental car with a left-hand drive ....I was like Whaaat?, I got used to it, and then in the Bahamas, drive on the left steering on the left., there are 77 countries that drive on the left. Gibraltar they drive on the right cause of Spain. U.S. Virgin Islands they drive on the left cause of England, I'm glad I had a right hand drive there, and in Suriname in South America, they drive on the left( I almost found out the hard way). I love Feli's videos, they also help me out as I am trying to speak better German from what I know already
my mama said to me on the opening day of the olympics "I have to go to watch the opening, it is starting now" dont spoil it to me you are 4 hours ahead!
Reminds me of a question asked by an American once who was wondering why people from The Netherlands speak ‘Dutch’, when that word rather ressembles ‘Deutsch’ (German in German). Why do you say you speak German har har har? Ehm…, that’s on you guys. We call our country Nederland and we speak… Nederlands😂
Some questions cant be excused with "cultural differences". Questions like "do you guys have Internet in europe?" While we were talking in a discord Channel...
what's amazing is that I've said millions of times that I come from Poland, and they still ask me if I know any other language... well, we talk in English, yes!
A German here. One of my sons was on vacation in the USA and he was asked if we have cars in Germany, like Mercedes and BMWs.