Just one thing on the sizes of items in the stores- one reason is since we usually live further from the stores, especially in rural areas, making a store trip is very inconvenient so we tend to buy more so our trips are less frequent. Unfortunately we sacrifice freshness and sometimes health, for this convenience. So those giant jars of mayo or peanut butter aren't necessarily because we eat so much of it, but because we can't all go to the grocery store every few days or weekly. I live in such a remote area, we shop monthly for jars, cans, dry goods, etc and only go biweekly for a few things that freshness is required. Just wanted to share that so people don't think we are THAT bad that we need a gallon of peanut butter per week 😂 Some do though. 🤦🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️😅
Josh disagrees: "I would not neccessarily say so." So American. Feli in roasting mode: "... makes sense, because the beer does not taste as good..." so German. You are both fitting the stereotyps perfectly. :-D
"Kabuff" is a totally acceptable German word for a sort of makeshift cabinet - like basement compartments made from mere boards or... that broomshed Harry Potter and Dumbledore have a talk in at the beginning of The Halfblood Prince: that's a Kabuff
The answer to most of the clichés about Germany is probably: "Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps" - literally translated: "Duty is duty and booze is booze". It's not necessarily about alcohol, but about the strict separation of work (and other important things) and leisure time. At work, most of the stereotypes about being stiff, serious, etc are quite true. But during our free time among friends and family we show or relaxed and humorous side. That's why foreigners often don't get to see it unless they really make friends with Germans. Some Germans even take the relaxed side to the extreme and party hard as if no rules ever existed (as long as they are back to work on time on Monday morning...).
I feel like people would not "survive" the American work ethic without the joyful, outgoing attitude they usually have. While they are hard workers, they also tend to enjoy their (work) lives much more..
I think buying a house is a much bigger thing in Germany than in the US. Usually when you buy a house in Germany you plan to live in it for the rest of your life and if you are not ready for that you just rent. Regarding humor I think the language barrier is a big reason why Germans might not be perceived as funny, as you said. With English being so commonly spoken in touristy areas, the Americans are basicly always on their home turf languagewise, it is hardly ever the other way around, it is rare that Americans speak German. If you are in a country with not so good English skills you are just glad you can communicate, but English skills in Germany might be misleading. A lot of Germans speak English well enough that they can have conversations about any topic, but humor is about little details a lot and when speaking already needs a lot of concentration, you just don't have the mental capacity for humor anymore.
But it's not just Americans who have this impression of Germans as being cold and humorless: that impression seems to be universal, even among other Europeans.
@@wardandrew23412 A wide part of German humor consists of puns. So people who are not familiar with the language are not able to see the humor in it. A great exemple for that are two of the greatest humorists ever: Heinz Erhardt and Loriot. Heinz Erhardt was great in the 50s and is still honored for his jokes but unable to understand if you don't know the difference between "dichter" and "Dichter" or the different meanings of "sauer". Loriot made a lot of sketches about German behavior but to see the fun in it you must know the behavior or it it may seem just stupid. There is nothing like a universal sense of humor.
I think a good follow-up topic would be: In what ways do America and Germany actually defy expectations and be the opposite of what people think? For example, Feli mentioned about Germans reserving spots using beach towels and then just leaving for hours at a time, and that that is actually quite inconsiderate of them. Similarly, in what ways are Americans more considerate, more tolerant/understanding than Feli expected, or in what ways are Germans less rules-based and "logic-focused" than Americans would expect? Etc, etc, etc.
Humor and jokes are more a private matter in Germany - and no so much used in public situations. Germans would not that much joke around with strangers or in a professional situation which, I think, comes accross to foreigners as a misconception having no humor. Very typical is that Anglo-Saxons would even start a scientific speech to an unknown professional audience with some joke in order to warm up - which would be not very common in Germany. Regarding "stupid" American questions: I was once asked what language is spoken in Germany - which is actually a legimit question. At this time, I thought, what a stupid question - it's German, duhh! So I wanted to be funny and answered: "We speak Austrian." The scary thing was I just got away with it and my answer was not recieved as a joke at all.
1:36:53 Backpacks: Germans tend to carry lots of stuff, and also heavy shoes, for even a small hike. But those Germans who do long (multi-day, 100s of km) hikes go lightweight, like people of other nations.
Feli: German wants to know exactly : The guides on "Hurtigruten" give Germans extra information when a lighthouse was build, tourists from other countries seams to not care😁🇳🇴
Loved the video. You both are awesome and wonderful and adorable. Your videos are the best and great. Please make more videos more often. Your videos are uplifting, informative and entertaining. Lots of love. You both are my inspiration.
Sarcasm is always a tough thing to decipher in your non-native language. Much can be inflection that takes a lot of practice to figure out. If you are just learning a language, you may take things at face value and miss the humor of how it is said.
My impression is that people in the US on average use stronger sarcasm markers than Germans. For me, that can sometimes feel over-acted, if you know what I mean? But when it comes to stand-up comedians, I just don't like them in general - no matter the country. I treat humor more like seasoning than a full meal on its own, I guess. But yeah, there are also many cases where people in the US crack a joke and it's lost on me because of the language barrier or because I didn't understand the cultural reference. Playing with language and cultural references is a big part of humor in general, so that is *very* noticeable.
Yes, absolutely…I also think what adds to that is most of the Americans never get to a point in their foreign language skills where they have experienced those…I know I understood what was said, but there is some sort of pun I‘m not getting…situations, so it‘s hard to empathize if they have the feeling the language skills are up to pr, but the humor is lacking…like with the Movember, sometimes a simple double entendre is just not understood.
00:48:00 Oh, yes. True. That's something that I - as a high school exchange student from Germany to the U.S. in the early '90s - was also totally baffled about: chips as a side for lunch (plus milk as a drink to go along with that lunch). In Germany, chips are used only as a party snack or a guilty pleasure watching TV in the evening. So it is something Germans would not normally eat during daytime and not in connection with regular meals. It felt also weird that that was lunch in the school cafeteria, which - as an educational setting - you would expect to be serving only or mostly healthy food to the kids.
I just got back from Germany. I was surprised that all the portion sizes we got were same from what I could tell as American restaurants. And when we're in Italy the portions were far bigger esp because of the many courses. But the drinks are the biggest difference, I can see why they drink so much beer bc it's the only thing they will give a large quantity of lol. Loved my experience there and thanks to this channel for giving me education before I went!!
They have lots of smaller stores like Feli was mentioning in the US. They are usually called convenience stores that stock almost all common food items. We have 3 here in Juneau, all run by the same folks-called Breeze-In. And our population is only about 30K. They even have their own bakery. Also they sell huge sandwich's, well worth the price-usually 2 meals worth from one sandwich.
Being raised by German nationals, I am like Josh , and am over-punctual. I drive my family crazy with it. It does come in handy with regards to flying; being early to go through security with no stress.
Some of the comparison seem to be more age base. Raised in the US midwest, you were expected to show up on the expected time ( not either early or late). Had to walk to the local store for small items. Fast food never really came into the area until the late 60's and then it was rare to eat.
Ich kann mich auch noch an welche erinnern, denen man sagen musste, dass die Party um 15:30 Uhr anfängt, obwohl sie um 15 Uhr anfing, weil sie sonst mitten in die Vorbereitungen platzen würden. Ich selbst bin gerne pünktlich, aber nicht überpünktlich. Es kommt aber darauf an, ob es z.B. ein Arbeitsmeeting, ein Arzttermin oder ein privates Treffen ist. Beim Arzttermin macht es ja nichts, wenn ich viel früher da bin. Ansonsten höchstens 5 Minuten zu früh. Auf jeden Fall bin ich oftmals der erste oder einer der ersten und muss dann eventuell daran denken, ob ich etwas verpasst habe und am falschen Ort bin oder das Meeting abgesagt wurde. Bis dann der erste andere kommt.
As a German who used to live in the US for a while, I miss healthy American takeout so much, also the service culture and the variety: chipotle, American Asian food, Greek food, the jummy salads you can get everywhere etc. I also miss frozen yogurt (you can have it here but not everywhere..). And I miss the houses. I would love to live in a typical American dream home.. :)
HUMOR: Feli is right BUT ... "German humor" would be the humor of normal people in their daily lifes, not the one of Comedians. And for that "more sarcastic", "more complex" (much more irony), "darker" all sound right to me for the German humor. A real intercultural difference seems to me that Americans seem to avoid making a joke about themselves (not "of themselves" ;)). I had that a lot of times with American colleagues, until I learned that the majority never thought I could be joking about myself. For Comedians: The average American comedian is better than the average German Comedian. (all just IMHO ;))
As long as your wall is already that shade, re-paint it to "Chromakey Green" (or "Chromakey Blue:" if the green is too bright/glaring). That would give you the much broader option of using digital images for a background vs. requiring something 'In Real Life".
"Being early is on time": Yes, and even moreso. My farrier always arrives early, usually 30 minutes! I have a friend who is always 15 minutes early to my house, it makes me crazy. She stands outside in the yard visiting my animals as I try to finish my coffee or brush my teeth. But we always arrive on the dot, and this Tuesday my husband said, "omg we're going to be 10 minutes late to your dr appt" and I said, "Seriously, this is America, it's expected." I'm not sure he accepted that. Over my time in Germany I find myself arriving exactly on time, it's like a super power now.
You should try Wurstfest in New Braunfels Tx. It starts in the first weekend on November till the second weekend of November. It's the closest I have been to of OctoberFest around this areas. Also, the area have tons of german historical landmarks and people.
Hey there -- I have a big pile of clothes to iron and I'll watch the newest episode while I'm working. So thanks for the distraction. I have another question for you. I don't know if it'll be suitable for an episode but it could be food for thought at the very least. This one is about nostalgia. I myself love "old things". I like the vibrant colors in the fashion of the 80's, I love the petticoats of the 50's, I love the Bohemian vibe of the 70's. I love vintage decor and fun paraphernalia from the past. But when it comes to nostalgia, I think Germans mostly mean the 50's, 60's, and 70's with the classic American fridge, aprons, and what not. Or they refer to the very past that is the 19th century or even farther back than that. The average German, I believe, does not - for obvious reasons - look back happily on the 30's and 40's. Even the 20's are critical with the rise of the Nazis even though fashion was pretty awesome then. Now, when I think of American nostalgia, I think of Renaissance fairs and actors in Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities, re-enacting the Boston Tea Party or various other historical events. That was kind of cringeworthy to me because it just seemed over the top and often times not very authentic at all. I later wondered though: How offensive might this kind of nostalgia be to some Americans? When they see people putting on these costumes and reveling in a time when black lives hardly mattered, when immigrants were excluded from society, and Native Americans were put on reservations (just to list a few issues here)? I do appreciate the want and need of remembering and preserving important cultural milestones but do you think that minorities in America feel differently about this? I know for sure that some women in Germany do not appreciate nostalgia when it's directed at the 50's and 60's because that's when women were still supposed to adhere to the 3K rule: Kirche, Küche, Kinder (i.e. church, kitchen, children) and they were fighting hard for women's rights. So people looking back dreamily on this difficult time makes them rather angry. I particularly wonder about Thanksgiving. So American families come together, feast on all these fine dishes, and share what they are most thankful for. But how thankful can they be when they hardly remember what the actual day in its origin looked like? I don't think that Native Americans feel especially appreciated or remembered on Thanksgiving even though they were the ones who fed the settlers.... right? What do you think about this dilemma? Of remembering vs. offending? How offensive are we when it comes to respecting our traditions (in Germany and the US)? I have posted quite a few questions and ideas before and you two have never reacted so I guess you didn't like them. That's totally fine. But there was one idea I at least wanted to remind you of because I think it very valuable for your content. Let's take episode 34, for instance; the French interview: You addressed sterotypes that the French guests reacted to. I like that approach because we all know these stereotypes and can learn whether they are accurate or not. However, your ultimate goal in the end is to find out the truth and go beyond the cliché. I thus think that the final follow up question for each guest should be: We now understand better what's true and what's a prejudice. But what part of your culture are people not aware of? What is an important accomplishment you celebrate that we don't know of? What is essentially French (for example) that people wouldn't associate with your country? So when people abroad praise German cars I'm somewhat proud, yes. But at the same time, I want them to know that we are more than just engineers. We used to be known as Dichter und Denker (i.e. poets and thinkers) and I do believe that a lot of Germans think that we still are to a certain degree. I would want people to know famous German authors as well as Mercedes, BMW, and Adidas. So I wondered, what your guests would want us listeners to know about their country and culture. Stereotypes are always great to start a conversation: "Is it true that....?" But you two mentioned before that there are questions and comments you get tired of because they are shallow and boring, sometimes offensive, and usually just... clichés. I bet there were times when you thought "Sure, I'll answer that question but I'd much rather talk about THIS because it's far more interesting and much more American (or German) than this stupid stereotype." And I would like to know about that THIS when you have international guests on... I'm sorry that it always takes me so long to respond to your content. I just hope that it might inspire you for future episodes. Lots of happy thoughts from Bremerhaven! (I really need to get that ironing done now ^^)
@@katharina6884 I'll certainly bear that in mind when I get round to visiting Bremerhaven! Although I am allergic to dust so that will be entertaining.
Did you notice the difference Americans hold a fork. I hold my fork upside down, with my left hand, when I cut my meat and put the meat in my mouth with the fork held the same way. Americans hold the fork with the left hand to cut, then put the fork in their right hand to put the meat in their mouth. Americans have a very bad diet. I have a copy of a food ration card, from one of the family in Germany. The card is from after WW2, and Germans were only allowed 1200 calories a day. Also one cousin here, was canning Goose grease and sending it back to the family in Germany. They would use Goose Grease as butter.
@@ArgusStrav I don't know, but when I left Germany in 1970, they were known as the fattest people in Europe. I still have that impression in my mind whenever I visit Germany, even though it's no longer true.
@@karinland8533 The irony is that in many Western nations, it's actually the poor who tend to be overweight. People with more disposable income eat better quality food and have gym memberships. They also tend to be more self conscious about their physical appearance.
When talking about "simple" vs. "complex" humor, Feli said listed some of the most "basic" shows in the world (which I like as well, by the way) as her faforite ones and went on to say that The Office (I'm guessing she was referring to the US version) isn't funny to her. What?
There are a lot of good craft beers made by micro brewers in the United States. There are German style lagers, pilsner, and hefaweisens. A lot of Americans prefer these types of beers over large commercial brewers. The I.P.A.s which I don't care for, have their following. I don't like too much hops flavor in my beers. I don't care for the fruit flavors in some beers.
I think alot of Americans don't think of places like subway or Panera as fast food cuz it's marketed as healthy or like Applebee's cuz you sit down in the restaurant to eat. When i was in college i probably bought food 2 or 3 times a week, depending if i had time to make something or not. I also had at least a 30 min or 45 min drive to get to college so that takes a lot of time off and i couldn't drive back to my place to eat. Humor is so subjective so I don't think you could answer that one. I too don't like Dave Chappelle.
Thanks for differentiating fast food vs take-out. I've never experienced anyone getting McDonalds or Taco Bell for take-out. That's just weird cuz it's basically going bad the moment they hand it to you (fries) and if you drive home, it's ruined. BUt to connect two of your topics - fast food and "stiffness" - last week at Taco Time, we were perplexed about the recycling system, because it said, "Everything on your tray is recyclable, please dump it here" and then there was another bin that said, "Please dump these particular recycling items here." I called an employee over and he couldn't understand the issue. He called the manager (making me "Karen" I suppose). She said, "OMG that makes no sense at all, I cannot believe this!" I said, "If I worked here, I would be annoyed." And she went on and on about how annoying it is and how right we are and I was stunned - I live in Germany. A store manager would never jump to my side and become emotional about my position about the wording on the signs. *** THEN, a week later, at Jack in the Box, there were also contradictory signs. I asked an employee if she could help me explain them, and she said she had just taken over managing the store. She was baffled by the signage as well, and said, "Well, that makes no sense...." and she followed our suggestion to fix them. She did immediately. Again - pure bafflement after living in Germany where no manager will give you sincere time and connection with a problem.
Figures for beer consumption that I have seen recently list Germany (95 litres per person per year) in 6th spot after Czech Republic (149), Ireland (120), Austria (105), Poland (101), Lithuania (96)
Hey Feli hope you're doing well. I enjoyed your latest recording. Wonder how many people actually understand train station, I know I relate. I'm hearing that train horn several times a day and it's funny the train only runs here once a week...stay beautiful...
I was in Germany in 1970 where we would drink in the nearest Gasthaus and there were older Germans who put their beer on the radiator because they knew the beer was very cold because a lot of soldiers were patrons.
Does that mean they drank it WARM though? 😅 Sometimes, when I make a salad in the US, I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds before eating it because the veggies are so freezing cold out of the fridge (my American boyfriend wants it that cold for his soda) that it's uncomfortable to eat and it makes the veggies taste like nothing. True story 😂 I still don't eat my salad warm though. -Feli
I work for an American company with an office in Munich. My experience with rigidly following procedures is different than the cliche as discussed. My German counterparts were not inclined to follow our procedures because they were not the German way. We eventually had to develop "Munich office" procedures so they would be followed!
Now that's very interesting. Would you mind to explain a little more detailed (if possible without specific knowledge) what changes had to be made and what was "wrong" with the procedures/ why certain rules were not followed by the Munich office?
@@elenano2793 It would difficult to explain without specifics. My opinion is there are cultural differences that influence business practices. American companies rely on checks and balances. Individuals with diverse training interact in work execution. These principles don't seem to fit in German work places.
As far as Germans eating out less then Americans. We rented an Airbnb on the beach last summer with German friends. Me, we’re on vacation, let’s eat out every night. German friends,we still have leftovers from the meal we cooked at home last night 🤷♂️😩🤦♂️
Sometimes when an American says a soda is "hot," they just mean it's room temperature and hasn't been refrigerated yet, not that it's actually hot. This may have a bearing on Americans' calling German beer "warm"; they just mean it isn't as cold as what they're accustomed to. (Just as when a Southern American says someone is a Yankee, they don't necessarily mean that person is from New York or New England, just that they're not from the South.)
1:09:00 I hear this argument in music a lot. People who like certain genres think the others are lacking in complexity. For example if you're used to Rock, the melodies in Rap music are barely there. You're not used to listening for flow and so you miss the complex part that makes it interesting. Conversely if you're used to Rap and are listening to Rock, there's never any flow except on accident. It just sounds terrible because you're sort of almost ignoring the melodies - because you're not used to anything interesting happening in that aspect of the music. It seems like humor in the 2 countries might follow a similar separation. The funny part is somewhere the listener doesn't expect, so they miss it. What this might look like in practice is that American humor tends to revolve around the punchline, so if the joke is anywhere else, the listener assumes it's part of the buildup and doesn't think it's a joke. Meanwhile a German listener might expect the end of the joke to recontextualize something that came before so if the only thing that's funny is the punchline, it just kinda falls flat.
"Happy Veterans day " so when our old timer dad past away.I said to my brother the people that made the grave stone must had made a mistake due too every war was credited on the grave market my brother replied no. War war two, vietnam, korea. Wars. War war two I believe had two parts yes I remember Japan Okinawa on the paperwork as far as Normandy the second part had too been in it he met mom at the officers club in Germany. Rescue mom from the troubling Germany at the time .no regrets I'm happy coming from a German lady a sweet person.😊
That makes sense for Germans as well as for Americans, in the USA it is so warm that you are happy to enjoy a cold drink the other way around in Germany where it is not so warm you are annoyed when the cup is full of ice
Hey guys… I think you’re both doing a great job highlighting the cultural differences in a very positive and entertaining way. I wanna comment on what Josh said about getting scolded as a child for being sarcastic, and I totally relate to that, because it’s usually considered “mean” to express this kind of dark sarcastic humor, whereas here in Germany people find it funny 😅 I got to experience this first hand when I moved to Germany 4 years ago, learned the language, and started to “crack jokes“ when in fact I was just being sarcastic 🙃 I was recently on a festival and got me thinking about how different people party in Germany compared to the US… MAYBE you could make an episode about that???? 😄 @Feli here are a couple of hilarious comedians (one of them is Canadian but hilarious nonetheless) let me know what you think: Sebastian Maniscalco, Jim Gaffigan, Russell Peters
Feli I get why you wouldn't like Dave Chappelle's early work (I assume you meant The Chappelle Show) there was some good stuff there but alot of it is typical American toilet humor. His Netflix specials are really good though, pretty dark and very complex (watch The Bird Revelation) . Also can anyone recommend some good German stand up comedians?
To be fair, soda coming in tiny expensive bottles is more of a big city thing. When you order Coke or Sprite in more rural areas, you'll most likely get a 0.5 litre glass, and that'll only cost around 2 Euros at most places.
I usually run late. It’s hard for me to be overly punctual. And someone once pointed out: when you’re early, you’re not on time. So it can be considered as being as rude as when you’re late. I think there’s some truth in that.
The trick with being overly punctual is waiting until approximately 5 minutes before the appointment/whatever else you have to attend and then go in. Unless it's parties, that's the only time where Germans also appreciate someone not showing up exactly on time.
@@leDespicable I think it's like they discussed in the episode: with doctor's appointments for instance, it can't hurt to be early but it can be problematic when you show up to early at a party ;-)
59:17 you guys know why People in the US scream or speak so loud? Beacause ther is so much space and if the wonna communicate they have to cover more distance in any situation. :D And as soon as they step out of there country every thing is closer together and so you could talk like a normal person but they still keep there screaming voice.
Josh, don't let her dis your stach. You do you. It is just a caterpillar under his nose. But seriously, I've not shaved off all my beard and moustache for 45 years and I don't plan to start now, it is not a fashion statement. And when it gets a bit too long or out of shape, my wife begins to *strongly* hint to clean it up, she watches out for me.
Ja warum ist der Hoff in meiner Generation so beliebt?! Gute Frage. Damals gab es nur drei öffentliche TV Sender mit einer Programaustrahlung von Nachmittags bis knapp nach Mitternacht. Gewöhnlich gab es mindestens ein TV-Gerät im Haushalt, so das TV schauen eine Sache war das die Familien Abends zusammen machten. Dan kamen zwei private Sender hinzu(RTL Plus und Sat.1). Der eine strahlte tagsüber alte Episoden von TV Shows aus und zeigte dann, im wöchtenlich rythmus, Abens eine aktuelle Folge. Einer dieser Serien war das originale Night Rider. Wir Kinder/Teenies sahen also den Hoff fast jeden Tag. Später kam dann der große Baywatch Erfolg und obwohl sich die TV Landschaft geändert hatte machte Sat.1 mit Baywatch fast das gleiche. Wir sind also nicht nur mit dem Hoff groß geworden, er hatt uns auch später "alltäglich" begleitet. Dazu der Mauerfall und der Erfolg von "Looking for Freedom" (Freedom klingt wie das deutsche Wort Peace - Frieden, Freiheit und Mauerfall passt auch gut, gell Westernhagen?) Und schon war die Legende Hoff gewachsen.
Don't go for white Feli with the ceiling it'll be too bright. Yellow perhaps? Something as bright and cheerful as yourself definitely. That colour is the same as our kitchen (on my laptop) and it's called duck egg.
With respect to humor, my impression having lived in both countries, is that Germans live up to the stereotype of being humorless generally, and what humor they do have is of a very simplistic type. It's clearly a matter of perspective though, because I have two German friends, one of whom agrees with my assessment, while the other doesn't. And by the way, the stereotype of Germans being humorless is pretty common all over Europe; it's not just an Americans view.
It's so interesting, because Feli had the complete opposite impression. I wonder how much of it is determined by the language divide, or by Germans requiring more time to get close to people and let down their guard, etc--what accounts for that gap in perception?
I think Americans often don't understand that Germans are joking because we often keep a serious face. That's what makes it even funnier to us - that we're not making it obvious that it's a joke. I have American friends who sometimes didn't catch that the German was joking until minutes later or when I say something sarcastic with a straight face, they just respond with "really?". So as I said in the episode, I think it's the opposite of what you said. I think Americans overall have a more "on the nose" humor but that's just my impression. -Feli
@@ArgusStrav I can't say for sure, but several years ago we had a young German woman working at my office who was the living embodiment of the German stereotype. She had almost no sense of humor, expressed herself in a way that made her seem very rude, and was very cold and unapproachable. She once mentioned that what she disliked most about Americans is that, "They're too happy and smile too much".
@@UnderstandingTrainStation I can point to examples of Germans I've known who don't seem to have anything more than a rudimentary understanding of humor: if it's not an obvious joke, you have to explain to them why it's funny. Sometimes they don't get the joke even then. Obviously not all Germans are like that, but I've been to almost every corner of the world, and if you were to ask the English, Spanish, Italians, Dutch, Chinese, Indonesians, Egyptians, etc., to describe Germans, you will hear the same general description; that Germans are cold and humorless. Nobody else has that reputation around the world.
When I visited the U.S. some years ago I could see both extrems. Only very fit and sporty people in L.A.. and lots of very big people in Orlando. Maybe it depends on at which coast you are 😁
I recommend you watch WRKP in Cincinnati. I liked it so much I bought all the disks. Very entertaining and supposedly takes place in that city. A really great series.
re: Feli's judgement of the relative complexity of German vs American humor. Did you watch "The Good Place"? If so in German or English? And how did you take the various kinds of jokes in it? Come to think of it, "Bojack Horseman" would be a good subject for the same questions.
„The good place“ is hilarious. I watched the original version. Comparing the humor is really hard, one has to be more or less fluend to get the nuances. Lot of the expat youTubers said It takes a lot of language skills and cultures references to understand a lot of the German jokes. And I guess it is exactly the same the other way round
@@karinland8533 "the same the other way round" Yep. With Feli's fluency it's easy to forget that she didn't spend the first twenty years of her life in America. American media notwithstanding, she is not completely immersed in the culture, even now. A while back, on one one of the videos where she had interaction with her "other self" on screen, someone commented that "her sister is prettier". Feli replied "How rude", not getting that there's a running joke in RUclips comments about "clones" and "twins" (See Ryan George, Julie Nolke etc.) I think she does actually have a sister, which might have thrown her off, too.
I don't remember commenting that but if I did, it was 100% meant as a joke. Just another example of how German humor is different 😅 Being "upset" about something that is obviously not offensive is a pretty common situation where we'll react in a sarcastic way. -Feli
@@UnderstandingTrainStation Interesting. That would not be the first time I've taken something seriously that was meant as sarcasm. As far as I'm concerned, written sarcasm especially on the internet, can't exist... except when preceded by tons of context making it obvious to everyone reading that the writer believes the opposite of what they wrote. In one example, I pointed out to the writer that tens or hundreds of thousands of people of several nationalities could have made the same statement in complete seriousness. So... What about "The Good Place"? or that one about the horse? ☺️
You might have to check out episode 1! :) But to give you a hint, it goes back to the German idiom "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof" which translates to "I only understand train station" but actually means that you don't understand anything/that it's Greek to you/that you're lost.
For the cliche that "There is a large percentage of Americans that do love guns": - Talking about grammar and "sound": I think Josh got confused with the "do" vs "does" because it actually should be "There is a large percentage of Americans who love guns". So neither do or does. It also could be simplified as "A large percentage of Americans love guns". - If I was answering this, I would start out by saying there's a huge difference between saying "love" and "accept". There are a great number of Americans who don't own a gun at all and have no interest in owning one, but don't mind if other people do. Or they might value the right to own one. The people who "love" guns pretty much all own one.
When i lived in the U.S i noticed that the 'gun lovers 'own a lot of guns . I met a group of people, who had multiple handguns, shotguns, etc, etc. , and were very passionate collectors . And i obviously met more people without guns. Now I Only lived in Florida for a year, so my experience is limited. But it made me think that a small % with many guns could influence statistics of the average gun ownership
In the USA, there are reasons for larger cars and meals. The large cars has to do with large distances we travel in the USA. My children live 3 hours away at 70 MPH (miles per hour) travel speed. But I still see that as a day trip. Visiting grandparents can easily take a whole travel day so you need to carry more in your car. As for food, portions were set based on “no one leaves the table without feeling full”. So one portion at a restaurant is often enough food for a “weightlifter”. So, yes, portions are large.
I have a German friend who asks me (an American) to correct his English when he makes mistakes, so I point thing out to him when I might otherwise have said nothing.
Gun control is a very tough question. US as a country was born with guns, people owned firearms for generations and I've heard from my older co-workers that they used to have their rifles in their trucks at the school parking lot so they could go shoot squirrels after school with friends. Owning a firearms is nothing special around here, many people have them just to go to a range on a weekend and have some fun. Many go hunting, a lot of people who live on ranches have to have a firearm to protect from coyotes and wild hogs. Others just keep them in a night stand just in case. In other words - you have to accept the fact that you will be surrounded by firearms if you are in the US. It's totally up to you to either embrace that right or not. People who say US needs a better gun control - what exactly do you propose?
Vermutlich suchst du nach diesem Sprichwort: „5 Minuten vor der Zeit ist des Deutschen Pünktlichkeit". Wahlweise kann man die 5 natürlich ersetzen und eine noch frühere Ankunft voraussetzen.
Sorry for the novel, but... I agree with so much of this, but have a COMPLETELY different take on the "ignorant American" topic. In general, yeah I agree that the average American is generally less internationally informed than the average German, but I TOTALLY disagree that it is a failing of our school system or that America does not place a cultural value on knowledge of non-American cultures. I would argue that America places actually quite an unusually large value on knowledge of non-American cultures, due largely to how vast and ubiquitous immigrant populations are in America. We ALWAYS had emphasis on multiculturalism in my school (but I'm Bay Area raised so maybe we're just more liberal here?). But, as an American who's worked in Germany/with Germans for several years now, who is a moderately fluent German speaker after studying for those years, and is more politically active/aware/engaged than the average American or German, I think there are other, far larger systems keeping Americans in the dark about global politics, and I can break it into two major points. The first thing to consider is the size of the US. Germany is smaller than California, so a German keeping informed about national politics is roughly akin to a Californian keeping up on statewide politics. But most Americans are not just following their own statewide politics, we are also watching Texas politics, Florida politics, governors races in Virginia and Wisconsin, watching demographics change in Iowa and Louisiana. The average German probably knows less about Greek politics than the average New Yorker knows about Texan politics. Europe is slightly larger than the US, but they are roughly equivalent in size, so staying informed on EU politics to a German, which qualifies as "international" politics in the minds of Germans and Americans alike, is roughly equivalent to Americans keeping up on, well, "domestic" American politics (inter-state politics). This also extends to geography - sure, most Americans probably can't point out Croatia on a map, but how many Germans can locate Nebraska? This cuts both ways, but because all 50 US states are still considered "domestic politics" and the EU is not, Americans get chastised for not being "internationally aware" even though our brains are filled with about the same amount of info on average. If we reframe US states as being "countries" within the "American Union," suddenly this makes more sense. Furthermore, I support this theory by asking Germans to impress me with their knowledge of non-European/American news and culture. The average German and the average American probably know the same amount of info about Asian politics, for example, or African politics. Can either of us point out Kyrgyzstan on a map? Germans get to claim a greater knowledge of "international" politics than Americans only due to the relative sizes of the EU and America, but outside of what is more-or-less still "domestic" (read: European), Germans are just about as ignorant as Americans. "But Germans definitely know way more about America than Americans know about Germany, and Germans follow German AND EU politics!" you might say. Yes, this is undoubtedly true, which brings me to other major point: The language barrier cannot be dismissed here. I am very politically aware and have a lot of German friends who are also very politically aware, and I am fluent in German to about a solid B2 level, or slightly higher. I can converse in German (albeit with many mistakes) without much issue. This is the result of many years of study, formal and informal. But when my German friends post political videos or memes on Instagram, I do not understand them. I want to very badly, but I simply lack the vocabulary to listen to the German news or political speeches or read political discourse. So I'm not even as informed on German politics as I COULD be if I was as fluent in German as, say, Josh is, and I do actively seek out German news and understand German to an uncommonly high level for an American. But Germans, particularly Germans under, say, 35/40 years old, speak excellent English - even the ones who claim to have very bad English. English, generally, is the language that unifies Europe (and, actually, the world) across international boundaries, so nearly everyone speaks English better than I speak German. As a result, English-language news media is syndicated, untranslated, around the world. Any German can just turn on CNN or Fox News on their home TV and just watch it - they are syndicated (read: readily available without having to make an extra effort to find it) and the average German viewer can understand it without trouble (not just American news but also the BBC). Even though Deutsche Welle has an English language department that does the monumental task of taking the most internationally relevant German news (read: not ALL German news), translating them all in real time, and syndicating this slice of German news in English, DW is not ubiquitously syndicated. In order to receive this special version of the German news, I have to manually add it to my American cable plan. I have never seen it on in a bar or restaurant, anywhere in the US. CNN, on the other hand, unfiltered, plays everywhere in the world, to an audience that understands it. Jesus I went to a café in Oman once and CNN was on. When, for example, Trump goes (went) on a Twitter tirade, nobody has to explain to the average German what he is saying. I can't just follow Merkel's twitter feed. I just don't know what she's saying, and it is a lot of work for little reward to manually translate all of that, or to find a publication that has translated it for me. Germans, on the other hand, can just read the New York Times or the Washington Post, though perhaps with some difficulty. I cannot read Der Spiegel. I simply lack the language skills to accomplish this. And most Americans probably have never heard of it anyways, because we do not carry it here, again largely because Americans would not be able to understand it. So the language barrier is a kind of membrane that only allows information to filter one direction. Germans have the ability to follow American news with very little effort. Americans do not have the same ability to follow German news. Period. And once again, I present the third option: Neither of us have the opportunity to follow, say, Korean news, or Japanese news, and therefore our cultural knowledge of these places is equally poor. Most of what America knows about Korean or Japanese culture comes from the elevation of these cultures through immigrant populations and the importing of their media. Again, I would argue that American society at large places a very high value on knowing about these other non-American cultures - we are simply limited in what is possible to consume, so having more than a passing understanding becomes a very high-effort endeavor. It's just not that high-effort for Germans to know American culture. Germany imports American music, TV, movies, and news, and can consume it all without translation. And perhaps an objection might arise about how Americans (in general) don't learn foreign languages and that's further proof of our disregard for other cultures, but as an American, I can travel to nearly every country on earth and get around just fine without speaking a language beyond my native one. Sure, there will be challenges, but it's largely doable. The same cannot be said for Germans, or really any speaker of a native language other than English. English is unique in this way. What may be a bumpy interaction for an English speaker in Thailand would be an incomprehensible failure for a native German speaker. Thai people also learn English. Learning a foreign language is an incredibly long, frustrating, difficult goal - but there is a necessity for non-English speakers to learn English in order to communicate with the vast majority of the rest of the world. With the whole world accommodating native English speakers, it's little wonder that native English speakers feel little incentive to dedicate tens of thousands of hours of their lives to speaking, for example, in German to a native speaker who would prefer to just switch into English anyway. So anyway. That's my two cents on the topic. Or twenty dollars, haha. Also, Germans drink their white wine with ice, so there is no moral high ground to be taken about watery soda or cold beer hahaha.
Side note, the mustache looks great on you Josh. Staches have got a bad rep in the 70's but they're not THAT bad. Tom Selleck without a 'stache is definitely missing some sex appeal. Also, 100% agree with Josh's take on Americans confronting their history vs. Germans. Well said. Great thoughts from Feli as well about revisionist American history. Really important conversation for Americans and Germans to have together I think.
I contributed the "poorly educated on non-american history" cliche and just want to tell you what I thought when I wrote that. And I will answer to the points you made. First I didn't want to blame you or any other individual american for that. It was more of a observation I made (online not in person) that also matched pretty well with the stereotypical videos of "the dumb American" you find here on youtube. I was totally aware that there are some very good reasons why it probably is like it is. Like some of the ones you made here. I'll come back to them later because for now I will go through your comment "chronological ". Otherwise I think I would totally lose track on all of the points I want to make. So first, I am quite sure that there is a huge emphasis on multiculturalism in the US but that's often mostly about the people of other countries in the US than on how the situation in these countries is now and what historical events are important until now. Second, I think the geographical size of a country doesn't really matter that much when talking about keeping informed about politics. In my opinion it's much more important how a country is structured. And as you surely know, Germany is a federal republic and therefore as well has different states just like the US. So to keep informed about German politics is pretty much the same as keeping informed about US politics. (Despite the point we only have 16 states and not 50) So German national politics is absolutely not roughly akin to Californian politics. On top of that we have the EU politics (with is a whole topic fore itself) and then the normal international politics. When it comes to geography I am totally with you with the size argument. With knowledge about Asian, African politics and stuff I am with you as well. Knowledge about South America is somewhere between Europe/US and Asia/Africa for us I think. I wonder how that is in the US. Third, the Langage barrier is probably the hugest point. And I agree with most of your points here, but only for young Germans. The English skills of older Germans are often okay for day to day conversation but not good enough to follow politics. Consuming information on US politics directly from US media is only a thing of young politicly very interested Germans. Everyone else has their information from German sources in German. So I would "blame" the US media to not provide you this information from around the world in English. Well, that were just my two cents.
@@lenab5266 I appreciate the thoughtful reply! I want to be clear that I have no judgement for people who subscribe to the ignorant American stereotype in general, obviously I respect Josh and Feli and their respective opinions highly, and I think most people understand that all stereotypes come with a grain of salt and that cultures are not monoliths, so no worries about your contribution. No judgement from me, just wanted to lend some perspective. To respond to your response, I would say that the size of the country is important to an extent, because as finite creatures, we can only process so much information at once. Germany does have 16 states, but California is roughly the same size and itself split into 58 counties with their own local governments. Now the big difference here is that we certainly do not follow countywide politics with the same intensity that Germans follow their state politics - Germany is far more populous than California (over twice as many citizens, 83M in DE and 39.5M in CA, in roughly the same sq. m. - I just googled it and Germany is actually slightly larger than CA, I think I said that wrong before) and therefore the politics state-to-state are more impactful in Germany than in most California counties. But new media starts closest to home and then branches outward, so first we get local news about our own city, then countywide news, then out-of-county news (lots of news reports about z.B. San Diego county and LA county), then statewide news, then out-of-state news, THEN nationwide news... and we haven't even left "domestic" American news yet. It leaves little room in the news cycle to then talk about international news, and even then English-speaking countries like Great Britain and Australia are prioritized because the flow of information is so much simpler without need for translation. So once we get past all of that... maybe we can squeeze in a story about France? Very very major news stories about Germany to get reported on in the US - there was moderate coverage of the recent German Bundestagswahl in the New York Times usw - but beyond that we're pretty saturated already. When considering the US to be more like an American Union than just a big country, I think the comparison becomes a lot stronger. The US Federal government is not dissimilar to the EU - but when Europeans hear stories about EU events, it counts as "international" news, whereas when Americans hear stories about other states or the Feds, it's considered domestic. That's the primary point I am trying to make regarding our perception of being "ignorant" of international news. I would say that South American politics are about as well-covered in America as Asian politics. If Bolsonaro does something horrible or stupid, we do hear about it, and of course when a Central American economy collapses we hear about it because inevitably we receive an influx of migrants and we can't help but politicize and propagandize about it. So maybe slightly more coverage than Asian or EU coverage, but roughly equal I would say. I'm hearing a lot about Ethiopia right now, but normally we hear virtually nothing out of Africa. And not to drag this out, but there's also something to be said for how dependent Germany is on the US economy. Germany does a ton of business with the US and our economies are closely linked - but it's more important for Germany that the US economy is successful than it is for the US that Germany's economy is successful. For Americans, that economic incentive is in China, who we DO hear a lottttt about for this very reason. So there's an outsized focus for Germans on American news because what happens politically in America so much more directly impacts the lives of Germans than the other way around. And you're totally right, the language barrier is still relatively high for older Germans, many of whom can't speak English well enough to simply turn on CNN. But even so, as a society, that is a unidirectional flow of information that allows Germans general accessibility where there is none for Americans. This is of course a huge and complicated topic so I appreciate you taking the time to offer your input. And I'm obviously not some kind of expert or all-knowing wizard, these are just my observations. I'm sure there's lots I'm also leaving out or don't fully understand, but I've had a lot of time to think about this over the years and am positioned weirdly in the middle of it so I feel emboldened by that insight.
@@lenab5266 And I'm shocked that you've never seen white wine with ice in Germany! Soooooo many of my German colleagues - primarily the women - order Weißwein mit Eis or, even more common still, Weißweinschorle mit Eis. Maybe it's a cruise line thing, but I've also experienced it when visiting cities too. I would guess that I know more German women who drink their white wine with ice than don't, hahaha.
I gladly would learn spanish. But I think, due to lack of using possibilities, it doesn't make much sense. Then I would have to relearn it every time I want to use it.
There have been times, when I wore a beard . Most times moustache, somtimes full. But everyone I knew told me, I would look much younger without. So.....goodbye beard :)
I agree with Josh about grammar: espially people living in the South say :er ist groesse als ich. This is definite wrong because it's a comparison. Its: er ist groesse als ich! :
David Hasselhoff was the lead actor of one of my favourite shows in these days. (Knight Raider) And I knw some of his songs and I like them as well. But I'm no fan at all. (I'm in this age bracket of the "older" Germans.)
@@connyapfelbaum4498 Ich habe nochmal nachgeschaut, aber du hast wohl recht. Ich hatte eigentlich geglaubt, mich zu erinnern, dass es zwar wie Knight Rider ausgesprochen, aber als Knight Raider geschrieben wurde.
Claiming that Americans in general are simultaneously 'ignorant about geography/ history ,etc , but also interested ' is a contradiction. If people are interested in something they learn more about it , and therefore not ignorant. These days general knowledge is one google search away. Obviously there are Americans who are interested in these topics . But not only are a lot of ignorant Americans , they also really don't care being ignorant.
I assume there are totally idiotic Americans out there who live by the "Ignorance is bliss" quote, but I think that American 20-year-olds and so and younger, *play dumb to look ignorant,** because they try to say that things they ignore are _"not relevant",_ for example: countries outside America, historic events that happened before they had consciousness, world events, etc. Almost like it's trendy to embrace the Kardashian/bimbo part and roll with it.
Just one thing on the sizes of items in the stores- one reason is since we usually live further from the stores, especially in rural areas, making a store trip is very inconvenient so we tend to buy more so our trips are less frequent. Unfortunately we sacrifice freshness and sometimes health, for this convenience. So those giant jars of mayo or peanut butter aren't necessarily because we eat so much of it, but because we can't all go to the grocery store every few days or weekly. I live in such a remote area, we shop monthly for jars, cans, dry goods, etc and only go biweekly for a few things that freshness is required. Just wanted to share that so people don't think we are THAT bad that we need a gallon of peanut butter per week 😂
Some do though. 🤦🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️😅
And Feli would do well to avoid going to a warehouse club store :)
Josh disagrees: "I would not neccessarily say so." So American. Feli in roasting mode: "... makes sense, because the beer does not taste as good..." so German. You are both fitting the stereotyps perfectly. :-D
"Kabuff" is a totally acceptable German word for a sort of makeshift cabinet - like basement compartments made from mere boards or... that broomshed Harry Potter and Dumbledore have a talk in at the beginning of The Halfblood Prince: that's a Kabuff
The answer to most of the clichés about Germany is probably: "Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps" - literally translated: "Duty is duty and booze is booze". It's not necessarily about alcohol, but about the strict separation of work (and other important things) and leisure time. At work, most of the stereotypes about being stiff, serious, etc are quite true. But during our free time among friends and family we show or relaxed and humorous side. That's why foreigners often don't get to see it unless they really make friends with Germans. Some Germans even take the relaxed side to the extreme and party hard as if no rules ever existed (as long as they are back to work on time on Monday morning...).
I feel like people would not "survive" the American work ethic without the joyful, outgoing attitude they usually have. While they are hard workers, they also tend to enjoy their (work) lives much more..
@@Neelia35 I really wouldn't enjoy having to act joyful all the time. Super stressful
I think buying a house is a much bigger thing in Germany than in the US. Usually when you buy a house in Germany you plan to live in it for the rest of your life and if you are not ready for that you just rent.
Regarding humor I think the language barrier is a big reason why Germans might not be perceived as funny, as you said. With English being so commonly spoken in touristy areas, the Americans are basicly always on their home turf languagewise, it is hardly ever the other way around, it is rare that Americans speak German. If you are in a country with not so good English skills you are just glad you can communicate, but English skills in Germany might be misleading. A lot of Germans speak English well enough that they can have conversations about any topic, but humor is about little details a lot and when speaking already needs a lot of concentration, you just don't have the mental capacity for humor anymore.
But it's not just Americans who have this impression of Germans as being cold and humorless: that impression seems to be universal, even among other Europeans.
@@wardandrew23412 A wide part of German humor consists of puns. So people who are not familiar with the language are not able to see the humor in it. A great exemple for that are two of the greatest humorists ever: Heinz Erhardt and Loriot.
Heinz Erhardt was great in the 50s and is still honored for his jokes but unable to understand if you don't know the difference between "dichter" and "Dichter" or the different meanings of "sauer".
Loriot made a lot of sketches about German behavior but to see the fun in it you must know the behavior or it it may seem just stupid. There is nothing like a universal sense of humor.
I think a good follow-up topic would be: In what ways do America and Germany actually defy expectations and be the opposite of what people think? For example, Feli mentioned about Germans reserving spots using beach towels and then just leaving for hours at a time, and that that is actually quite inconsiderate of them.
Similarly, in what ways are Americans more considerate, more tolerant/understanding than Feli expected, or in what ways are Germans less rules-based and "logic-focused" than Americans would expect? Etc, etc, etc.
Humor and jokes are more a private matter in Germany - and no so much used in public situations. Germans would not that much joke around with strangers or in a professional situation which, I think, comes accross to foreigners as a misconception having no humor. Very typical is that Anglo-Saxons would even start a scientific speech to an unknown professional audience with some joke in order to warm up - which would be not very common in Germany.
Regarding "stupid" American questions: I was once asked what language is spoken in Germany - which is actually a legimit question. At this time, I thought, what a stupid question - it's German, duhh! So I wanted to be funny and answered: "We speak Austrian." The scary thing was I just got away with it and my answer was not recieved as a joke at all.
1:36:53 Backpacks: Germans tend to carry lots of stuff, and also heavy shoes, for even a small hike. But those Germans who do long (multi-day, 100s of km) hikes go lightweight, like people of other nations.
Feli: German wants to know exactly : The guides on "Hurtigruten" give Germans extra information when a lighthouse was build, tourists from other countries seams to not care😁🇳🇴
Krass, steht das dann etwa nur in Deutsch da drauf?
@@lynnm6413 muentlich, ja.
People often confuse ignorance with stupidity. Ignorance can be fixed if someone has the desire, stupidity is another story...
Großes KIno von Euch beiden! Really nice stuff to compare our cultures and by doing it bringing them closer together. Thank you!
Loved the video. You both are awesome and wonderful and adorable. Your videos are the best and great. Please make more videos more often. Your videos are uplifting, informative and entertaining. Lots of love. You both are my inspiration.
Sarcasm is always a tough thing to decipher in your non-native language. Much can be inflection that takes a lot of practice to figure out. If you are just learning a language, you may take things at face value and miss the humor of how it is said.
My impression is that people in the US on average use stronger sarcasm markers than Germans. For me, that can sometimes feel over-acted, if you know what I mean? But when it comes to stand-up comedians, I just don't like them in general - no matter the country. I treat humor more like seasoning than a full meal on its own, I guess.
But yeah, there are also many cases where people in the US crack a joke and it's lost on me because of the language barrier or because I didn't understand the cultural reference. Playing with language and cultural references is a big part of humor in general, so that is *very* noticeable.
Yes, absolutely…I also think what adds to that is most of the Americans never get to a point in their foreign language skills where they have experienced those…I know I understood what was said, but there is some sort of pun I‘m not getting…situations, so it‘s hard to empathize if they have the feeling the language skills are up to pr, but the humor is lacking…like with the Movember, sometimes a simple double entendre is just not understood.
00:48:00 Oh, yes. True. That's something that I - as a high school exchange student from Germany to the U.S. in the early '90s - was also totally baffled about: chips as a side for lunch (plus milk as a drink to go along with that lunch). In Germany, chips are used only as a party snack or a guilty pleasure watching TV in the evening. So it is something Germans would not normally eat during daytime and not in connection with regular meals. It felt also weird that that was lunch in the school cafeteria, which - as an educational setting - you would expect to be serving only or mostly healthy food to the kids.
"Fünf Minuten vor der Zeit ist des Deutschen Pünktlichkeit"
DANKE! -Feli
I just got back from Germany. I was surprised that all the portion sizes we got were same from what I could tell as American restaurants. And when we're in Italy the portions were far bigger esp because of the many courses. But the drinks are the biggest difference, I can see why they drink so much beer bc it's the only thing they will give a large quantity of lol. Loved my experience there and thanks to this channel for giving me education before I went!!
They have lots of smaller stores like Feli was mentioning in the US. They are usually called convenience stores that stock almost all common food items. We have 3 here in Juneau, all run by the same folks-called Breeze-In. And our population is only about 30K. They even have their own bakery. Also they sell huge sandwich's, well worth the price-usually 2 meals worth from one sandwich.
I can’t believe it’s been almost a year that has passed. I have been a loyal follower since the beginning
Josh looks good with a ‘ Stacsh’. My friends & I would grow them to get into Clubs&Bars when we were under 21. Worked 80% of the time.
That's hilarious! 😂
ID laws sure have changed since then!
Being raised by German nationals, I am like Josh , and am over-punctual. I drive my family crazy with it. It does come in handy with regards to flying; being early to go through security with no stress.
Some of the comparison seem to be more age base. Raised in the US midwest, you were expected to show up on the expected time ( not either early or late). Had to walk to the local store for small items. Fast food never really came into the area until the late 60's and then it was rare to eat.
In the US if you go super early to put a towel over a lounge chair to reserve it, your towel will often just be taken away. :)
Ich kann mich auch noch an welche erinnern, denen man sagen musste, dass die Party um 15:30 Uhr anfängt, obwohl sie um 15 Uhr anfing, weil sie sonst mitten in die Vorbereitungen platzen würden.
Ich selbst bin gerne pünktlich, aber nicht überpünktlich. Es kommt aber darauf an, ob es z.B. ein Arbeitsmeeting, ein Arzttermin oder ein privates Treffen ist. Beim Arzttermin macht es ja nichts, wenn ich viel früher da bin. Ansonsten höchstens 5 Minuten zu früh. Auf jeden Fall bin ich oftmals der erste oder einer der ersten und muss dann eventuell daran denken, ob ich etwas verpasst habe und am falschen Ort bin oder das Meeting abgesagt wurde. Bis dann der erste andere kommt.
As a German who used to live in the US for a while, I miss healthy American takeout so much, also the service culture and the variety: chipotle, American Asian food, Greek food, the jummy salads you can get everywhere etc. I also miss frozen yogurt (you can have it here but not everywhere..). And I miss the houses. I would love to live in a typical American dream home.. :)
HUMOR: Feli is right BUT ...
"German humor" would be the humor of normal people in their daily lifes, not the one of Comedians.
And for that "more sarcastic", "more complex" (much more irony), "darker" all sound right to me for the German humor.
A real intercultural difference seems to me that Americans seem to avoid making a joke about themselves (not "of themselves" ;)). I had that a lot of times with American colleagues, until I learned that the majority never thought I could be joking about myself.
For Comedians: The average American comedian is better than the average German Comedian. (all just IMHO ;))
As long as your wall is already that shade, re-paint it to "Chromakey Green" (or "Chromakey Blue:" if the green is too bright/glaring). That would give you the much broader option of using digital images for a background vs. requiring something 'In Real Life".
Yeah, that fits....when Josh was talking about to have a house, a backyard and all this, Amazing Grace started in my playlist hehehe...
Someone still needs to get his Lamp set up properly..... 🤣
It's probably "Art" or expensive "Designer" something. 😜
"Being early is on time": Yes, and even moreso. My farrier always arrives early, usually 30 minutes! I have a friend who is always 15 minutes early to my house, it makes me crazy. She stands outside in the yard visiting my animals as I try to finish my coffee or brush my teeth. But we always arrive on the dot, and this Tuesday my husband said, "omg we're going to be 10 minutes late to your dr appt" and I said, "Seriously, this is America, it's expected." I'm not sure he accepted that. Over my time in Germany I find myself arriving exactly on time, it's like a super power now.
1) Josh's stache looks more like a 30s actor stache than a 70s porn stache. Looks good. 2) It's hard being a deadpan American.
You should try Wurstfest in New Braunfels Tx. It starts in the first weekend on November till the second weekend of November. It's the closest I have been to of OctoberFest around this areas. Also, the area have tons of german historical landmarks and people.
I watch you all the time. But you only do north not south. We have german heritage down here to. Love you guys.
But the USA's Kraft beer is really good, not our regular domestic beer.
It's craft beer, not Kraft beer (consumerism is a terrible thing!)
Hey there --
I have a big pile of clothes to iron and I'll watch the newest episode while I'm working. So thanks for the distraction.
I have another question for you. I don't know if it'll be suitable for an episode but it could be food for thought at the very least. This one is about nostalgia.
I myself love "old things". I like the vibrant colors in the fashion of the 80's, I love the petticoats of the 50's, I love the Bohemian vibe of the 70's. I love vintage decor and fun paraphernalia from the past.
But when it comes to nostalgia, I think Germans mostly mean the 50's, 60's, and 70's with the classic American fridge, aprons, and what not. Or they refer to the very past that is the 19th century or even farther back than that. The average German, I believe, does not - for obvious reasons - look back happily on the 30's and 40's. Even the 20's are critical with the rise of the Nazis even though fashion was pretty awesome then.
Now, when I think of American nostalgia, I think of Renaissance fairs and actors in Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities, re-enacting the Boston Tea Party or various other historical events. That was kind of cringeworthy to me because it just seemed over the top and often times not very authentic at all.
I later wondered though: How offensive might this kind of nostalgia be to some Americans? When they see people putting on these costumes and reveling in a time when black lives hardly mattered, when immigrants were excluded from society, and Native Americans were put on reservations (just to list a few issues here)?
I do appreciate the want and need of remembering and preserving important cultural milestones but do you think that minorities in America feel differently about this?
I know for sure that some women in Germany do not appreciate nostalgia when it's directed at the 50's and 60's because that's when women were still supposed to adhere to the 3K rule: Kirche, Küche, Kinder (i.e. church, kitchen, children) and they were fighting hard for women's rights. So people looking back dreamily on this difficult time makes them rather angry.
I particularly wonder about Thanksgiving. So American families come together, feast on all these fine dishes, and share what they are most thankful for. But how thankful can they be when they hardly remember what the actual day in its origin looked like? I don't think that Native Americans feel especially appreciated or remembered on Thanksgiving even though they were the ones who fed the settlers.... right?
What do you think about this dilemma? Of remembering vs. offending? How offensive are we when it comes to respecting our traditions (in Germany and the US)?
I have posted quite a few questions and ideas before and you two have never reacted so I guess you didn't like them. That's totally fine. But there was one idea I at least wanted to remind you of because I think it very valuable for your content. Let's take episode 34, for instance; the French interview: You addressed sterotypes that the French guests reacted to. I like that approach because we all know these stereotypes and can learn whether they are accurate or not. However, your ultimate goal in the end is to find out the truth and go beyond the cliché. I thus think that the final follow up question for each guest should be: We now understand better what's true and what's a prejudice. But what part of your culture are people not aware of? What is an important accomplishment you celebrate that we don't know of? What is essentially French (for example) that people wouldn't associate with your country?
So when people abroad praise German cars I'm somewhat proud, yes. But at the same time, I want them to know that we are more than just engineers. We used to be known as Dichter und Denker (i.e. poets and thinkers) and I do believe that a lot of Germans think that we still are to a certain degree. I would want people to know famous German authors as well as Mercedes, BMW, and Adidas.
So I wondered, what your guests would want us listeners to know about their country and culture. Stereotypes are always great to start a conversation: "Is it true that....?" But you two mentioned before that there are questions and comments you get tired of because they are shallow and boring, sometimes offensive, and usually just... clichés. I bet there were times when you thought "Sure, I'll answer that question but I'd much rather talk about THIS because it's far more interesting and much more American (or German) than this stupid stereotype."
And I would like to know about that THIS when you have international guests on...
I'm sorry that it always takes me so long to respond to your content.
I just hope that it might inspire you for future episodes.
Lots of happy thoughts from Bremerhaven! (I really need to get that ironing done now ^^)
Can we send you some more ironing to do? Or just pop round with it? Thanks!
@@hairyairey sure thing. I actually don't mind ironing. I'll iron for you if you'll dust and vacuum for me ;-)
@@katharina6884 I'll certainly bear that in mind when I get round to visiting Bremerhaven! Although I am allergic to dust so that will be entertaining.
I live in a village with no stores. Its 12 mile drive to get groceries.
Did you notice the difference Americans hold a fork. I hold my fork upside down, with my left hand, when I cut my meat and put the meat in my mouth with the fork held the same way. Americans hold the fork with the left hand to cut, then put the fork in their right hand to put the meat in their mouth.
Americans have a very bad diet. I have a copy of a food ration card, from one of the family in Germany. The card is from after WW2, and Germans were only allowed 1200 calories a day.
Also one cousin here, was canning Goose grease and sending it back to the family in Germany. They would use Goose Grease as butter.
How things have changed. When I lived in Germany back in the 1960's, it was Germans who were obese, while Americans weren't. Now it's the reverse.
Is that why the German kid in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie was fat? It was a stereotype being played out?
In the Wirtschaftswunder time after the war it was important for many Germans to not look poor. Partly by having a fiew pounds more
@@ArgusStrav I don't know, but when I left Germany in 1970, they were known as the fattest people in Europe. I still have that impression in my mind whenever I visit Germany, even though it's no longer true.
@@karinland8533 The irony is that in many Western nations, it's actually the poor who tend to be overweight. People with more disposable income eat better quality food and have gym memberships. They also tend to be more self conscious about their physical appearance.
When talking about "simple" vs. "complex" humor, Feli said listed some of the most "basic" shows in the world (which I like as well, by the way) as her faforite ones and went on to say that The Office (I'm guessing she was referring to the US version) isn't funny to her. What?
Well, I guess it depends on which season you watch. Also the humor on the Office works better if you're familiar with all the context planted before.
There are a lot of good craft beers made by micro brewers in the United States. There are German style lagers, pilsner, and hefaweisens. A lot of Americans prefer these types of beers over large commercial brewers. The I.P.A.s which I don't care for, have their following. I don't like too much hops flavor in my beers. I don't care for the fruit flavors in some beers.
I think alot of Americans don't think of places like subway or Panera as fast food cuz it's marketed as healthy or like Applebee's cuz you sit down in the restaurant to eat. When i was in college i probably bought food 2 or 3 times a week, depending if i had time to make something or not. I also had at least a 30 min or 45 min drive to get to college so that takes a lot of time off and i couldn't drive back to my place to eat.
Humor is so subjective so I don't think you could answer that one. I too don't like Dave Chappelle.
Thanks for differentiating fast food vs take-out. I've never experienced anyone getting McDonalds or Taco Bell for take-out. That's just weird cuz it's basically going bad the moment they hand it to you (fries) and if you drive home, it's ruined. BUt to connect two of your topics - fast food and "stiffness" - last week at Taco Time, we were perplexed about the recycling system, because it said, "Everything on your tray is recyclable, please dump it here" and then there was another bin that said, "Please dump these particular recycling items here." I called an employee over and he couldn't understand the issue. He called the manager (making me "Karen" I suppose). She said, "OMG that makes no sense at all, I cannot believe this!" I said, "If I worked here, I would be annoyed." And she went on and on about how annoying it is and how right we are and I was stunned - I live in Germany. A store manager would never jump to my side and become emotional about my position about the wording on the signs. *** THEN, a week later, at Jack in the Box, there were also contradictory signs. I asked an employee if she could help me explain them, and she said she had just taken over managing the store. She was baffled by the signage as well, and said, "Well, that makes no sense...." and she followed our suggestion to fix them. She did immediately. Again - pure bafflement after living in Germany where no manager will give you sincere time and connection with a problem.
"Punkt. Fertig." - Finally I know the German phrase for "Mic-Drop". 😆
Figures for beer consumption that I have seen recently list Germany (95 litres per person per year) in 6th spot after Czech Republic (149), Ireland (120), Austria (105), Poland (101), Lithuania (96)
Hey Feli hope you're doing well. I enjoyed your latest recording. Wonder how many people actually understand train station, I know I relate. I'm hearing that train horn several times a day and it's funny the train only runs here once a week...stay beautiful...
I like to watch how Feli walks a tightrope every time when discussing complex or controversial topics and Josh just observes her nodding :D
I was in Germany in 1970 where we would drink in the nearest Gasthaus and there were older Germans who put their beer on the radiator because they knew the beer was very cold because a lot of soldiers were patrons.
Does that mean they drank it WARM though? 😅
Sometimes, when I make a salad in the US, I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds before eating it because the veggies are so freezing cold out of the fridge (my American boyfriend wants it that cold for his soda) that it's uncomfortable to eat and it makes the veggies taste like nothing. True story 😂 I still don't eat my salad warm though. -Feli
@@UnderstandingTrainStationSo do I, even in Germany. 😂
I work for an American company with an office in Munich. My experience with rigidly following procedures is different than the cliche as discussed. My German counterparts were not inclined to follow our procedures because they were not the German way. We eventually had to develop "Munich office" procedures so they would be followed!
Now that's very interesting. Would you mind to explain a little more detailed (if possible without specific knowledge) what changes had to be made and what was "wrong" with the procedures/ why certain rules were not followed by the Munich office?
@@elenano2793 It would difficult to explain without specifics. My opinion is there are cultural differences that influence business practices. American companies rely on checks and balances. Individuals with diverse training interact in work execution. These principles don't seem to fit in German work places.
@@jaywhiteford480 thanks for your reply
As far as Germans eating out less then Americans. We rented an Airbnb on the beach last summer with German friends. Me, we’re on vacation, let’s eat out every night. German friends,we still have leftovers from the meal we cooked at home last night 🤷♂️😩🤦♂️
Sometimes when an American says a soda is "hot," they just mean it's room temperature and hasn't been refrigerated yet, not that it's actually hot. This may have a bearing on Americans' calling German beer "warm"; they just mean it isn't as cold as what they're accustomed to. (Just as when a Southern American says someone is a Yankee, they don't necessarily mean that person is from New York or New England, just that they're not from the South.)
When talking about volume, how would you compare the loudness within a private setting, such as at home among friends?
1:09:00
I hear this argument in music a lot. People who like certain genres think the others are lacking in complexity.
For example if you're used to Rock, the melodies in Rap music are barely there. You're not used to listening for flow and so you miss the complex part that makes it interesting. Conversely if you're used to Rap and are listening to Rock, there's never any flow except on accident. It just sounds terrible because you're sort of almost ignoring the melodies - because you're not used to anything interesting happening in that aspect of the music.
It seems like humor in the 2 countries might follow a similar separation. The funny part is somewhere the listener doesn't expect, so they miss it. What this might look like in practice is that American humor tends to revolve around the punchline, so if the joke is anywhere else, the listener assumes it's part of the buildup and doesn't think it's a joke. Meanwhile a German listener might expect the end of the joke to recontextualize something that came before so if the only thing that's funny is the punchline, it just kinda falls flat.
"Happy Veterans day " so when our old timer dad past away.I said to my brother the people that made the grave stone must had made a mistake due too every war was credited on the grave market my brother replied no. War war two, vietnam, korea. Wars. War war two I believe had two parts yes I remember Japan Okinawa on the paperwork as far as Normandy the second part had too been in it he met mom at the officers club in Germany. Rescue mom from the troubling Germany at the time .no regrets I'm happy coming from a German lady a sweet person.😊
"5 Minuten vor der Zeit, ist die deutsche Pünktlichkeit." that's what you searched for about German punctuality
Congratulations on your new house
That makes sense for Germans as well as for Americans, in the USA it is so warm that you are happy to enjoy a cold drink the other way around in Germany where it is not so warm you are annoyed when the cup is full of ice
Loved this one!
Stone is often used by the Rehab Addict when she restores homes, which is a nice warm color to bring out the character of the home.
Hey guys… I think you’re both doing a great job highlighting the cultural differences in a very positive and entertaining way. I wanna comment on what Josh said about getting scolded as a child for being sarcastic, and I totally relate to that, because it’s usually considered “mean” to express this kind of dark sarcastic humor, whereas here in Germany people find it funny 😅 I got to experience this first hand when I moved to Germany 4 years ago, learned the language, and started to “crack jokes“ when in fact I was just being sarcastic 🙃
I was recently on a festival and got me thinking about how different people party in Germany compared to the US… MAYBE you could make an episode about that???? 😄
@Feli here are a couple of hilarious comedians (one of them is Canadian but hilarious nonetheless) let me know what you think:
Sebastian Maniscalco, Jim Gaffigan, Russell Peters
Feli I get why you wouldn't like Dave Chappelle's early work (I assume you meant The Chappelle Show) there was some good stuff there but alot of it is typical American toilet humor. His Netflix specials are really good though, pretty dark and very complex (watch The Bird Revelation) . Also can anyone recommend some good German stand up comedians?
To be fair, soda coming in tiny expensive bottles is more of a big city thing. When you order Coke or Sprite in more rural areas, you'll most likely get a 0.5 litre glass, and that'll only cost around 2 Euros at most places.
I usually run late. It’s hard for me to be overly punctual. And someone once pointed out: when you’re early, you’re not on time. So it can be considered as being as rude as when you’re late. I think there’s some truth in that.
The trick with being overly punctual is waiting until approximately 5 minutes before the appointment/whatever else you have to attend and then go in. Unless it's parties, that's the only time where Germans also appreciate someone not showing up exactly on time.
@@leDespicable I think it's like they discussed in the episode: with doctor's appointments for instance, it can't hurt to be early but it can be problematic when you show up to early at a party ;-)
Da bin ich aber ein bisschen froh, dass ich noch deutsch genug bin und Josh das Wort "Kabuff " nicht kennt. 😁😍
59:17 you guys know why People in the US scream or speak so loud? Beacause ther is so much space and if the wonna communicate they have to cover more distance in any situation. :D And as soon as they step out of there country every thing is closer together and so you could talk like a normal person but they still keep there screaming voice.
Josh, don't let her dis your stach. You do you.
It is just a caterpillar under his nose.
But seriously, I've not shaved off all my beard and moustache for 45 years and I don't plan to start now, it is not a fashion statement. And when it gets a bit too long or out of shape, my wife begins to *strongly* hint to clean it up, she watches out for me.
Ja warum ist der Hoff in meiner Generation so beliebt?! Gute Frage.
Damals gab es nur drei öffentliche TV Sender mit einer Programaustrahlung von Nachmittags bis knapp nach Mitternacht. Gewöhnlich gab es mindestens ein TV-Gerät im Haushalt, so das TV schauen eine Sache war das die Familien Abends zusammen machten.
Dan kamen zwei private Sender hinzu(RTL Plus und Sat.1). Der eine strahlte tagsüber alte Episoden von TV Shows aus und zeigte dann, im wöchtenlich rythmus, Abens eine aktuelle Folge. Einer dieser Serien war das originale Night Rider. Wir Kinder/Teenies sahen also den Hoff fast jeden Tag. Später kam dann der große Baywatch Erfolg und obwohl sich die TV Landschaft geändert hatte machte Sat.1 mit Baywatch fast das gleiche. Wir sind also nicht nur mit dem Hoff groß geworden, er hatt uns auch später "alltäglich" begleitet. Dazu der Mauerfall und der Erfolg von "Looking for Freedom" (Freedom klingt wie das deutsche Wort Peace - Frieden, Freiheit und Mauerfall passt auch gut, gell Westernhagen?) Und schon war die Legende Hoff gewachsen.
"Hevveoueisen - oh, furchtbar!" :) Spitze, wie sagt man so schön: "Made my day".
Beige walls allow you to accents or articles in your background. Congrats on the new House.
Once the Spülbürste is gone, Josh is the cutest boyfriend material
Wie ist das denn gemeint?😂
@@Winona493 the stache, sis, the stache
The German is strong in me: If I am not at least ten minutes early, I'm late!
Don't go for white Feli with the ceiling it'll be too bright. Yellow perhaps? Something as bright and cheerful as yourself definitely. That colour is the same as our kitchen (on my laptop) and it's called duck egg.
Room temperature beer IS warm beer.
“Germans always follow the rules.”
“Der Ampelmann ist rot!”
Germany: The land of sausage. Now lets talk about unhealthy food.
Yeah, Germany's level of meat consumption definitely isn't healthy.
With respect to humor, my impression having lived in both countries, is that Germans live up to the stereotype of being humorless generally, and what humor they do have is of a very simplistic type. It's clearly a matter of perspective though, because I have two German friends, one of whom agrees with my assessment, while the other doesn't. And by the way, the stereotype of Germans being humorless is pretty common all over Europe; it's not just an Americans view.
It's so interesting, because Feli had the complete opposite impression. I wonder how much of it is determined by the language divide, or by Germans requiring more time to get close to people and let down their guard, etc--what accounts for that gap in perception?
I think Americans often don't understand that Germans are joking because we often keep a serious face. That's what makes it even funnier to us - that we're not making it obvious that it's a joke. I have American friends who sometimes didn't catch that the German was joking until minutes later or when I say something sarcastic with a straight face, they just respond with "really?". So as I said in the episode, I think it's the opposite of what you said. I think Americans overall have a more "on the nose" humor but that's just my impression. -Feli
@@UnderstandingTrainStation yes!
@@ArgusStrav I can't say for sure, but several years ago we had a young German woman working at my office who was the living embodiment of the German stereotype. She had almost no sense of humor, expressed herself in a way that made her seem very rude, and was very cold and unapproachable. She once mentioned that what she disliked most about Americans is that, "They're too happy and smile too much".
@@UnderstandingTrainStation I can point to examples of Germans I've known who don't seem to have anything more than a rudimentary understanding of humor: if it's not an obvious joke, you have to explain to them why it's funny. Sometimes they don't get the joke even then. Obviously not all Germans are like that, but I've been to almost every corner of the world, and if you were to ask the English, Spanish, Italians, Dutch, Chinese, Indonesians, Egyptians, etc., to describe Germans, you will hear the same general description; that Germans are cold and humorless. Nobody else has that reputation around the world.
When I visited the U.S. some years ago I could see both extrems. Only very fit and sporty people in L.A.. and lots of very big people in Orlando. Maybe it depends on at which coast you are 😁
I recommend you watch WRKP in Cincinnati. I liked it so much I bought all the disks. Very entertaining and supposedly takes place in that city. A really great series.
1:20:20 following joke comes to mind:
Why do Americans drink their beer ice-cold?
Because it improves the flavor.
re: Feli's judgement of the relative complexity of German vs American humor.
Did you watch "The Good Place"? If so in German or English? And how did you take the various kinds of jokes in it?
Come to think of it, "Bojack Horseman" would be a good subject for the same questions.
„The good place“ is hilarious. I watched the original version.
Comparing the humor is really hard, one has to be more or less fluend to get the nuances. Lot of the expat youTubers said It takes a lot of language skills and cultures references to understand a lot of the German jokes.
And I guess it is exactly the same the other way round
@@karinland8533 "the same the other way round"
Yep. With Feli's fluency it's easy to forget that she didn't spend the first twenty years of her life in America. American media notwithstanding, she is not completely immersed in the culture, even now.
A while back, on one one of the videos where she had interaction with her "other self" on screen, someone commented that "her sister is prettier". Feli replied "How rude", not getting that there's a running joke in RUclips comments about "clones" and "twins" (See Ryan George, Julie Nolke etc.) I think she does actually have a sister, which might have thrown her off, too.
I don't remember commenting that but if I did, it was 100% meant as a joke. Just another example of how German humor is different 😅 Being "upset" about something that is obviously not offensive is a pretty common situation where we'll react in a sarcastic way. -Feli
@@UnderstandingTrainStation Interesting. That would not be the first time I've taken something seriously that was meant as sarcasm. As far as I'm concerned, written sarcasm especially on the internet, can't exist... except when preceded by tons of context making it obvious to everyone reading that the writer believes the opposite of what they wrote. In one example, I pointed out to the writer that tens or hundreds of thousands of people of several nationalities could have made the same statement in complete seriousness.
So... What about "The Good Place"?
or that one about the horse? ☺️
Please explain "understanding train station" because I don't understand how your title relates to your content. Thank you.
You might have to check out episode 1! :) But to give you a hint, it goes back to the German idiom "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof" which translates to "I only understand train station" but actually means that you don't understand anything/that it's Greek to you/that you're lost.
For the cliche that "There is a large percentage of Americans that do love guns":
- Talking about grammar and "sound": I think Josh got confused with the "do" vs "does" because it actually should be "There is a large percentage of Americans who love guns". So neither do or does. It also could be simplified as "A large percentage of Americans love guns".
- If I was answering this, I would start out by saying there's a huge difference between saying "love" and "accept". There are a great number of Americans who don't own a gun at all and have no interest in owning one, but don't mind if other people do. Or they might value the right to own one. The people who "love" guns pretty much all own one.
When i lived in the U.S i noticed that the 'gun lovers 'own a lot of guns . I met a group of people, who had multiple handguns, shotguns, etc, etc. , and were very passionate collectors . And i obviously met more people without guns. Now I Only lived in Florida for a year, so my experience is limited. But it made me think that a small % with many guns could influence statistics of the average gun ownership
Metaphor, pronounced MetaFORE , as opposed to MetaFIR . Just trying to help.
In the USA, there are reasons for larger cars and meals. The large cars has to do with large distances we travel in the USA. My children live 3 hours away at 70 MPH (miles per hour) travel speed. But I still see that as a day trip. Visiting grandparents can easily take a whole travel day so you need to carry more in your car. As for food, portions were set based on “no one leaves the table without feeling full”. So one portion at a restaurant is often enough food for a “weightlifter”. So, yes, portions are large.
I have a German friend who asks me (an American) to correct his English when he makes mistakes, so I point thing out to him when I might otherwise have said nothing.
Kabuff : A very tiny room without windows.
Hi Josh!
May your wonderful German not be spoilt by the local persons in Munic.
:-)
Gun control is a very tough question. US as a country was born with guns, people owned firearms for generations and I've heard from my older co-workers that they used to have their rifles in their trucks at the school parking lot so they could go shoot squirrels after school with friends. Owning a firearms is nothing special around here, many people have them just to go to a range on a weekend and have some fun. Many go hunting, a lot of people who live on ranches have to have a firearm to protect from coyotes and wild hogs. Others just keep them in a night stand just in case. In other words - you have to accept the fact that you will be surrounded by firearms if you are in the US. It's totally up to you to either embrace that right or not.
People who say US needs a better gun control - what exactly do you propose?
Vermutlich suchst du nach diesem Sprichwort: „5 Minuten vor der Zeit ist des Deutschen Pünktlichkeit". Wahlweise kann man die 5 natürlich ersetzen und eine noch frühere Ankunft voraussetzen.
Sorry for the novel, but... I agree with so much of this, but have a COMPLETELY different take on the "ignorant American" topic.
In general, yeah I agree that the average American is generally less internationally informed than the average German, but I TOTALLY disagree that it is a failing of our school system or that America does not place a cultural value on knowledge of non-American cultures. I would argue that America places actually quite an unusually large value on knowledge of non-American cultures, due largely to how vast and ubiquitous immigrant populations are in America. We ALWAYS had emphasis on multiculturalism in my school (but I'm Bay Area raised so maybe we're just more liberal here?). But, as an American who's worked in Germany/with Germans for several years now, who is a moderately fluent German speaker after studying for those years, and is more politically active/aware/engaged than the average American or German, I think there are other, far larger systems keeping Americans in the dark about global politics, and I can break it into two major points.
The first thing to consider is the size of the US. Germany is smaller than California, so a German keeping informed about national politics is roughly akin to a Californian keeping up on statewide politics. But most Americans are not just following their own statewide politics, we are also watching Texas politics, Florida politics, governors races in Virginia and Wisconsin, watching demographics change in Iowa and Louisiana. The average German probably knows less about Greek politics than the average New Yorker knows about Texan politics. Europe is slightly larger than the US, but they are roughly equivalent in size, so staying informed on EU politics to a German, which qualifies as "international" politics in the minds of Germans and Americans alike, is roughly equivalent to Americans keeping up on, well, "domestic" American politics (inter-state politics). This also extends to geography - sure, most Americans probably can't point out Croatia on a map, but how many Germans can locate Nebraska? This cuts both ways, but because all 50 US states are still considered "domestic politics" and the EU is not, Americans get chastised for not being "internationally aware" even though our brains are filled with about the same amount of info on average. If we reframe US states as being "countries" within the "American Union," suddenly this makes more sense.
Furthermore, I support this theory by asking Germans to impress me with their knowledge of non-European/American news and culture. The average German and the average American probably know the same amount of info about Asian politics, for example, or African politics. Can either of us point out Kyrgyzstan on a map? Germans get to claim a greater knowledge of "international" politics than Americans only due to the relative sizes of the EU and America, but outside of what is more-or-less still "domestic" (read: European), Germans are just about as ignorant as Americans.
"But Germans definitely know way more about America than Americans know about Germany, and Germans follow German AND EU politics!" you might say. Yes, this is undoubtedly true, which brings me to other major point:
The language barrier cannot be dismissed here.
I am very politically aware and have a lot of German friends who are also very politically aware, and I am fluent in German to about a solid B2 level, or slightly higher. I can converse in German (albeit with many mistakes) without much issue. This is the result of many years of study, formal and informal. But when my German friends post political videos or memes on Instagram, I do not understand them. I want to very badly, but I simply lack the vocabulary to listen to the German news or political speeches or read political discourse. So I'm not even as informed on German politics as I COULD be if I was as fluent in German as, say, Josh is, and I do actively seek out German news and understand German to an uncommonly high level for an American.
But Germans, particularly Germans under, say, 35/40 years old, speak excellent English - even the ones who claim to have very bad English. English, generally, is the language that unifies Europe (and, actually, the world) across international boundaries, so nearly everyone speaks English better than I speak German. As a result, English-language news media is syndicated, untranslated, around the world. Any German can just turn on CNN or Fox News on their home TV and just watch it - they are syndicated (read: readily available without having to make an extra effort to find it) and the average German viewer can understand it without trouble (not just American news but also the BBC). Even though Deutsche Welle has an English language department that does the monumental task of taking the most internationally relevant German news (read: not ALL German news), translating them all in real time, and syndicating this slice of German news in English, DW is not ubiquitously syndicated. In order to receive this special version of the German news, I have to manually add it to my American cable plan. I have never seen it on in a bar or restaurant, anywhere in the US. CNN, on the other hand, unfiltered, plays everywhere in the world, to an audience that understands it. Jesus I went to a café in Oman once and CNN was on.
When, for example, Trump goes (went) on a Twitter tirade, nobody has to explain to the average German what he is saying. I can't just follow Merkel's twitter feed. I just don't know what she's saying, and it is a lot of work for little reward to manually translate all of that, or to find a publication that has translated it for me. Germans, on the other hand, can just read the New York Times or the Washington Post, though perhaps with some difficulty. I cannot read Der Spiegel. I simply lack the language skills to accomplish this. And most Americans probably have never heard of it anyways, because we do not carry it here, again largely because Americans would not be able to understand it.
So the language barrier is a kind of membrane that only allows information to filter one direction. Germans have the ability to follow American news with very little effort. Americans do not have the same ability to follow German news. Period. And once again, I present the third option: Neither of us have the opportunity to follow, say, Korean news, or Japanese news, and therefore our cultural knowledge of these places is equally poor. Most of what America knows about Korean or Japanese culture comes from the elevation of these cultures through immigrant populations and the importing of their media. Again, I would argue that American society at large places a very high value on knowing about these other non-American cultures - we are simply limited in what is possible to consume, so having more than a passing understanding becomes a very high-effort endeavor. It's just not that high-effort for Germans to know American culture. Germany imports American music, TV, movies, and news, and can consume it all without translation.
And perhaps an objection might arise about how Americans (in general) don't learn foreign languages and that's further proof of our disregard for other cultures, but as an American, I can travel to nearly every country on earth and get around just fine without speaking a language beyond my native one. Sure, there will be challenges, but it's largely doable. The same cannot be said for Germans, or really any speaker of a native language other than English. English is unique in this way. What may be a bumpy interaction for an English speaker in Thailand would be an incomprehensible failure for a native German speaker. Thai people also learn English. Learning a foreign language is an incredibly long, frustrating, difficult goal - but there is a necessity for non-English speakers to learn English in order to communicate with the vast majority of the rest of the world. With the whole world accommodating native English speakers, it's little wonder that native English speakers feel little incentive to dedicate tens of thousands of hours of their lives to speaking, for example, in German to a native speaker who would prefer to just switch into English anyway.
So anyway. That's my two cents on the topic. Or twenty dollars, haha.
Also, Germans drink their white wine with ice, so there is no moral high ground to be taken about watery soda or cold beer hahaha.
Side note, the mustache looks great on you Josh. Staches have got a bad rep in the 70's but they're not THAT bad. Tom Selleck without a 'stache is definitely missing some sex appeal.
Also, 100% agree with Josh's take on Americans confronting their history vs. Germans. Well said. Great thoughts from Feli as well about revisionist American history. Really important conversation for Americans and Germans to have together I think.
I contributed the "poorly educated on non-american history" cliche and just want to tell you what I thought when I wrote that.
And I will answer to the points you made.
First I didn't want to blame you or any other individual american for that. It was more of a observation I made (online not in person) that also matched pretty well with the stereotypical videos of "the dumb American" you find here on youtube.
I was totally aware that there are some very good reasons why it probably is like it is. Like some of the ones you made here. I'll come back to them later because for now I will go through your comment "chronological ". Otherwise I think I would totally lose track on all of the points I want to make.
So first, I am quite sure that there is a huge emphasis on multiculturalism in the US but that's often mostly about the people of other countries in the US than on how the situation in these countries is now and what historical events are important until now.
Second, I think the geographical size of a country doesn't really matter that much when talking about keeping informed about politics.
In my opinion it's much more important how a country is structured. And as you surely know, Germany is a federal republic and therefore as well has different states just like the US. So to keep informed about German politics is pretty much the same as keeping informed about US politics. (Despite the point we only have 16 states and not 50) So German national politics is absolutely not roughly akin to Californian politics.
On top of that we have the EU politics (with is a whole topic fore itself) and then the normal international politics.
When it comes to geography I am totally with you with the size argument.
With knowledge about Asian, African politics and stuff I am with you as well. Knowledge about South America is somewhere between Europe/US and Asia/Africa for us I think. I wonder how that is in the US.
Third, the Langage barrier is probably the hugest point. And I agree with most of your points here, but only for young Germans. The English skills of older Germans are often okay for day to day conversation but not good enough to follow politics. Consuming information on US politics directly from US media is only a thing of young politicly very interested Germans. Everyone else has their information from German sources in German.
So I would "blame" the US media to not provide you this information from around the world in English.
Well, that were just my two cents.
Oh and for the wine thing... never seen white wine with ice in Germany. Might be an "emergency solution" when you forgot too cool the wine.
@@lenab5266 I appreciate the thoughtful reply! I want to be clear that I have no judgement for people who subscribe to the ignorant American stereotype in general, obviously I respect Josh and Feli and their respective opinions highly, and I think most people understand that all stereotypes come with a grain of salt and that cultures are not monoliths, so no worries about your contribution. No judgement from me, just wanted to lend some perspective.
To respond to your response, I would say that the size of the country is important to an extent, because as finite creatures, we can only process so much information at once. Germany does have 16 states, but California is roughly the same size and itself split into 58 counties with their own local governments. Now the big difference here is that we certainly do not follow countywide politics with the same intensity that Germans follow their state politics - Germany is far more populous than California (over twice as many citizens, 83M in DE and 39.5M in CA, in roughly the same sq. m. - I just googled it and Germany is actually slightly larger than CA, I think I said that wrong before) and therefore the politics state-to-state are more impactful in Germany than in most California counties. But new media starts closest to home and then branches outward, so first we get local news about our own city, then countywide news, then out-of-county news (lots of news reports about z.B. San Diego county and LA county), then statewide news, then out-of-state news, THEN nationwide news... and we haven't even left "domestic" American news yet. It leaves little room in the news cycle to then talk about international news, and even then English-speaking countries like Great Britain and Australia are prioritized because the flow of information is so much simpler without need for translation. So once we get past all of that... maybe we can squeeze in a story about France? Very very major news stories about Germany to get reported on in the US - there was moderate coverage of the recent German Bundestagswahl in the New York Times usw - but beyond that we're pretty saturated already.
When considering the US to be more like an American Union than just a big country, I think the comparison becomes a lot stronger. The US Federal government is not dissimilar to the EU - but when Europeans hear stories about EU events, it counts as "international" news, whereas when Americans hear stories about other states or the Feds, it's considered domestic. That's the primary point I am trying to make regarding our perception of being "ignorant" of international news.
I would say that South American politics are about as well-covered in America as Asian politics. If Bolsonaro does something horrible or stupid, we do hear about it, and of course when a Central American economy collapses we hear about it because inevitably we receive an influx of migrants and we can't help but politicize and propagandize about it. So maybe slightly more coverage than Asian or EU coverage, but roughly equal I would say. I'm hearing a lot about Ethiopia right now, but normally we hear virtually nothing out of Africa.
And not to drag this out, but there's also something to be said for how dependent Germany is on the US economy. Germany does a ton of business with the US and our economies are closely linked - but it's more important for Germany that the US economy is successful than it is for the US that Germany's economy is successful. For Americans, that economic incentive is in China, who we DO hear a lottttt about for this very reason. So there's an outsized focus for Germans on American news because what happens politically in America so much more directly impacts the lives of Germans than the other way around.
And you're totally right, the language barrier is still relatively high for older Germans, many of whom can't speak English well enough to simply turn on CNN. But even so, as a society, that is a unidirectional flow of information that allows Germans general accessibility where there is none for Americans.
This is of course a huge and complicated topic so I appreciate you taking the time to offer your input. And I'm obviously not some kind of expert or all-knowing wizard, these are just my observations. I'm sure there's lots I'm also leaving out or don't fully understand, but I've had a lot of time to think about this over the years and am positioned weirdly in the middle of it so I feel emboldened by that insight.
@@lenab5266 And I'm shocked that you've never seen white wine with ice in Germany! Soooooo many of my German colleagues - primarily the women - order Weißwein mit Eis or, even more common still, Weißweinschorle mit Eis. Maybe it's a cruise line thing, but I've also experienced it when visiting cities too. I would guess that I know more German women who drink their white wine with ice than don't, hahaha.
Hasselhoff sung "I've been looking for freedom" and then we dismantled the Berlin Wall brick by brick. The Scorpions and the Hoff reunited Germany
Well, both the Scorpions and the Hoff rode the wave of the public opinion in Germany during these times.
I gladly would learn spanish. But I think, due to lack of using possibilities, it doesn't make much sense. Then I would have to relearn it every time I want to use it.
Ich habe gehört ,,Pünktlichkeit ist 5 Minuten vor der Zeit.''
There have been times, when I wore a beard . Most times moustache, somtimes full. But everyone I knew told me, I would look much younger without. So.....goodbye beard :)
Fünf Minuten vor der Zeit - das ist Deutsche Pünktlichkeit!
I agree with Josh about grammar: espially people living in the South say :er ist groesse als ich. This is definite wrong because it's a comparison. Its: er ist groesse als ich!
:
Du meinst sicher :“Er ist größer als wie ich“ (Bavarian)
Er ist größer als ich (High german)
@@karinland8533 danke:-)
My wife hates facial hair so I gladly stay clean shaven! It also didn’t hurt that the US Air Force didn’t allow beards.
My cliché was that America was a free country. With the removal of the youtube dislike counter I am reconsidering.
David Hasselhoff was the lead actor of one of my favourite shows in these days. (Knight Raider) And I knw some of his songs and I like them as well. But I'm no fan at all. (I'm in this age bracket of the "older" Germans.)
Knight Rider... Raider ist der Schokoriegel,.der schon ungefähr 30 Jahre Twix heißt.
@@connyapfelbaum4498
Ich habe nochmal nachgeschaut, aber du hast wohl recht. Ich hatte eigentlich geglaubt, mich zu erinnern, dass es zwar wie Knight Rider ausgesprochen, aber als Knight Raider geschrieben wurde.
Claiming that Americans in general are simultaneously 'ignorant about geography/ history ,etc , but also interested ' is a contradiction. If people are interested in something they learn more about it , and therefore not ignorant. These days general knowledge is one google search away. Obviously there are Americans who are interested in these topics . But not only are a lot of ignorant Americans , they also really don't care being ignorant.
I assume there are totally idiotic Americans out there who live by the "Ignorance is bliss" quote, but I think that American 20-year-olds and so and younger, *play dumb to look ignorant,** because they try to say that things they ignore are _"not relevant",_ for example: countries outside America, historic events that happened before they had consciousness, world events, etc. Almost like it's trendy to embrace the Kardashian/bimbo part and roll with it.
When I want to do quick shopping in Kansas I go to Aldi.
So would a German ever ask a German bureaucrat on a date? Like someone at the motor vehicles department, the post office, etc.?
Ich liebe euren Podcast!
Edit: Bin ich hier der einzige deutsche Kommentar? 😂