I think the thing with nudity is in Germany the body isn't inherently associated with sexuality as it is in most cultures. So being nude in a sauna or while tanning is just more logical.
Part of that is because FKK places get really riled and angry if you try to make it sexual. Try being a little pervert at the Schwabenquelle and see how long it takes to get kicked out.
I very much agree. although I am not German but am northen scandivaian and grew up with saunas and nudity being just there. Not that we run around naked but like So for me that is very much true and nudity and sex are not connected. Tbh for me I still sometimes struggle with wrapping my head around that fact that people think just a naked body is sexual in itself. Not meaning that you wouldn’t be able to tell if something went over and line even as a kid. To me it be even more clear as for me something like being nude wasn’t sexual and It is more clear to me when something has a more sexual intent.
100% True. Nudity is not automatically something sexual - only context makes it that. I think the thing that helped me most with body positivity was to be nude around other nude people. I grew up swimming in lakes, rivers and the sea naked and it was never something sexual - just normal. At ~12 I became more self-conscious about my body but luckily we went to Japan again that year and I was "forced" to touch the edges of my comfort zone until my comfort zone widened. When I went to Japan again in following years I spent up to 4 hours at public baths. I also went swimming again naked in Germany. I re-learned that my body is nothing shameful that needs to be hidden and I've never had issues in Germany. Everyone just minded their own business. I think it really can help kids to be nude and be around naked people so that they learn people come in all shapes and sizes. It's normal to have flabby skin, bones sticking out a bit, fat, moles, warts, body parts of different and uneven sizes. When kids grow up like that they won't get distracted by a little shoulder showing. They'll know movies and porn show selected models that are not like most people. Even bikini's can cover a lot/ mask how uneven boobs are...
Kraut: that stereotype doesn't come from the Americans. It comes from the British! In the age of sail, to avoid the sailors get scurvy, they had to digest vitamin C. The British, having already colonies and established foreign trade routes, used limes. The German sailor had kraut, which is also a great source of vitamin C. So, "Kraut" got stuck with the Germans, and the not so well known "Limey" with the British 😀
That is not the entire truth. James Cook used Sauerkraut on his long expeditions, but he bought it in jars from the supermarket instead of using homemade German Sauerkraut. Storebought Sauerkraut of course always is disgusting, and the British, knowing that their own food is not very popular in the rest of the world then used this fact to make Germany look bad.
I think that it's also a kind of nickname in France: "les Choucroute" meaning the Germans. Maybe the Alsacians too. Writing a comment on a British website I wanted to use the word Krauts to poke a bit fun at myself. My comment got rejected due to use of insulting and discriminating language. Which somehow I felt even more insulting because I actually like to eat Sauerkraut (if it's prepared well).
2:45 "i have never seen any nationality that is complaining as much as the German" Well, as a French, i feel offended ... We DESERVE our reputation as the most complaining people ...
In my experience, Germans basically pretend you don’t exist until you introduce yourself. They will bump into you and say nothing. After introduction, though, they are super friendly.
I think that is an extension of personal privacy that allows for all that nudity, and so long as you are not doing something strange you are just part of the scenery. Get weird and they get nosey.
@@Ribberflavenous Agreed. Looking at the population density in some German areas, it's the only way to give each other some room, even if it's only in a social sense. That being said: throughout Germany there are *vast* differences in how open/approachable people are. In my experience, people from Baden tend to be super outgoing and easy to get to know. Hamburg is the polar opposite. Karlsruhe is Germany on noob level. People tend to be really easygoing, willing to engage with strangers. It's also a beautiful and interesting city. Well worth a visit IMO and I don't know why it's not getting more love from tourists?
My ex is half-German and he is a baker and I'm more of a dessert baker than he is. He is the one I usually go to when I need some baking tips. I almost married him. We never did small talk either. He's a sweetie though. We did the dorkiest things together. Can't get any more German than that
About speaking English: There is a difference between the generations (my grandmother never learned English, but younger people all do) and even between western and eastern Germany. Living in Brandenburg I sometimes helped people from Syria who had to go to the local registration office. The lady there could have managed Russian, but not English - as recently as 2016. Yes, GDR still has its influences.
Makes sense if you think about it. Even though the GDR seems/feels long ago, it's been just 35 years. Since the vast majority of the people in Germany are 35yo or older, you notice a difference. The systems and the people (f.ex. teachers) didn't switch the second after the wall fell. That needs time. All those Russian teachers, who went to uni for Russian language, couldn't just switch to English. So you had the same teachers, in the same schools, up until the 2000s in some areas, teaching the same subjects for which they got their teaching license.
Yes, we visited many years ago and in the former east Germany we didn't think people spoke that much English - not even the young people. I'm sure that has changed now, though as that was the late 90's, early 2000's.
Ja i just said something to this effect. I’ve lived in Brandenburg for 3 years and I’ve met probably 4 people that can speak a bit of English. My partners family can’t communicate at all to me in English
I am really glad you said that our humor is just different. I think many people miss that part. One bit is obviously as you said that we have a pretty dry humor and the other part I'd say is that we love puns but if you don't understand the language very well yet they don't make sense as most you can't translate to English. Another bit that also ties sometimes a bit into the complaint category is a lot of humor based on culture, politics and generally very country specific stuff. If you aren't informed on those things it naturally doesn't hit.
I find that you can tease out the humor out of a German person if you're genuine and open to them coming to terms with the joking on their own terms which doesn't really take much. I find they care about upholding rules and norms as to not inconvenience others and in fear of letting too much dilly dallying and slack in character change their attitude from appropriate to inappropriate, very similar to how attentive they are at red lights and how people might percieve you etc. Germans are great fun though, they're some of the most genuine laughers and clever joksters you can find once they're comfortable with you.
"... if you don't understand the language very well yet they don't make sense as most you can't translate to English...." Absolutely agreed! And apart from the language barrier, there's the cultural aspect. How do you explain to a non-German why "Der Schuh des Manitu" is funny? You'd have to start with the original books by Karl May, the controversy around this author, the movies with Pierre Brice and Lex Barker, and finally explain Bavarian humor. I tried to give my American husband a TL;DR ... his eyes glazed over and I don't think we'll ever watch the movie. Pretty much everything German that has me in stitches (Kaeptn Blaubaer, Das kleine Arschloch, Loriot) is so deeply rooted in our culture that it's inaccessible for someone who isn't German/Austrian/Swiss. (That being said, some American humor completely misses the mark with me.)
I am dating a german and I love your videos because its so true. For a lot of my jokes he just sends frowny emojis when we chat but he is super sarcastic. Your channel has been amazing, thank you for all the laughs and for showing the cultural differences in a light respectful way
I have to confess - whenever I had a hard day at work of feeling low, I pull up a clip from you and start instantly smiling. You have such a wonderful humor and a fine style of presenting you beautiful clips. Thank you. Greetings from Berlin
I'm finnish and us finnish people are claimed to be the most socially reserved people in Europe. We don't do small talk. Then how do we communicate with strangers? I'll give you an example which comes to my mind particularly. A couple of years ago at spring I went for a walk in this beautiful old farming area which is preserved for the sake of agricultural heritage in this city. Hackberry trees were blooming and I stepped aside just to watch and smell the beautiful flowers close. An old woman approached me asking me " aren't they lovely?" And we started chatting. She told me these flowers were her husbands favorite. She asked me if I would like to hear a song. Then she sang me a song with the most beautiful voice and I was like "whoah". She told me her husband wrote this song for her and for hackberry flowers. We both went off and told eachothers with happy smiles on our faces "have a lovely spring". You don't need to talk much. You just have to tell the essential.
@rickwarren I’m originally from California and when I moved to Atlanta for a while many years ago I was so blown away how everyone just talks to each other on the subway like they know each other. When I’d meet people they’d ask me about my parents, where I was born, where I was educated (everyone was confident I was foreign for some reason - I think because the city was less diverse than it is now ), etc. it was nice and endearing for a while…but then when you want your quiet time it can be really grating and obnoxious. Sometimes people would start talking to you when you’re right in the middle of a book.
Maybe complaining simply is the German version of small talk? 😉 I'm German, and I haven't reflected on this before. But I guess complaining together with my German friends makes me feel connected to them...
It is our version of smalltalk. And sometimes you complain to just the right person and get/make something better and find new things to complain about!
I'm American and 100% consider light complaining as small talk. I don't mean heavy topics like complaining about politics or something. But complaining about the weather, or maybe high prices of things, that's absolutely small talk to me.
@@cloudsn Complaining about politics IS the normal complaining here tho😅 i do agree that germans complain as small talk. Still, we dont do any kind of small talk as much as, say, americans
When is complaining complaining and when is it not? When I was abroad, I was always accused of always having to complain. But most of the time it wasn't complaining at all - I was commenting on what I was seeing/experiencing. "Oh, it's full here" - not a complaint . "The prices are high" - also not a complaint and so on
Sauerkraut (and potatoes) used to be what got most farmers and poorer families through the winters up until about 100-150 years ago. It was the best and sometimes only way to get your vitamins in winter and many people ate it daily. I think thats where the stereotype stems from.
Kraut etc. is very dependent on the region. Sauerkraut, Rote Beete, Blaukraut, is mostly a Franken, Baiern kind of thing. Schwaben sind eine Verschwörung der Schweizer Freimaurer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The technique that I know is, cabbage is sliced up mixed with a lot of salt and packed into air-tight jars, with even more salt, if necessary! The salt draws out the water from the cabbage cells which then, in turn, ferments the cabbage. Thus, sauerkraut is a fermented food. Here, in England, we tend to have pickled cabbage which is, cabbage cut-up the same way, put in jars and covered with vinegar (no salt). I believe the Sauerkraut method produces a much more healthier food. Und, es ist sehr toll mit Wurst und Kartoffeln!
That explains why many American Germans eat it. Because some areas were settled by German Farmers who came to America over 100 years ago looking for a better life.
My mom's American but of German descent. Her family motto handed down to us was "Strangers should be a little strange" i.e., keep away from strangers and don't feel pressured to be friendly/interact just because someone you don't know behaves that way toward you.
I’ve heard that for the 19th century German immigrants to America found, sauerkraut was one of the specifically German dishes they could most easily recreate with ingredients available to them in the US. So sauerkraut became the most distinctively “German” food in American communities. And as a reminder of home, it probably became more important within those German-American communities.
As someone from the UK I always ask "how are you doing?" and when coming to Germany most my friends out there were blown by how much I cared. I do care alot but it's a thing we just ask here.
I guess this is the best international community I've ever seen, commenting under Uyens videos. Warm vibes, self-ironic, no hate. People from so many different countries posting nice and funny things. Don't know how Uyen makes that possible. I would love too see this more outside of this channel :-)
I once complained to my grandma that I find it annoying when old people are always looking out of their windows and watching everyone else - to me that's also typically German in a certain way. She explained to me that she used to do that all the time too. After the war, there was nothing to do apart from work and reconstruction - you had nothing. So we looked out of the window and watched what the rest of the world was doing. Since this conversation bewtween my grandma and me, I see the world with different eyes and it no longer bothers me when older people "stare" out of the window. You always have to know the background to understand a situation and/or the people behind it. Thank you Grandma
I think the sausage stereotype is based on a translation error. Germans love sliced cold meat and bread. It's a religion and the main dish here. You can eat Wurstbrot for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But in German the sausages and sliced cold meat are both called Wurst. People think that Germans love only sausages, but we love all kinds of meat you can combine with a bread. We even have a sliced cold meat salad ;) (Wurstsalat)
But we also have a insanely huge variety of sausages (Bratwurst, Weißwurst, Wiener, Nürnberger, Thüringer, Lyoner, Blutwurst, Bockwurst, Gelbwurst, Landjäger, Pfefferbeißer, Pinkel, Bregenwurst, Teewurst, Leberwurst, Mettwurst, Bierwurst, ...). Just to name a few of them. Allegedly there are more than 1,500 types of sausages in Germany. 😂 And we are very fond of our local butchers who - of course - make the best bratwurst one has ever eaten 😋
When you say 'sausage' are you referring to 'aufschnitt' ? I'm bilingual, but this went right over my head? ---- Wurst ist wurst, aber schinken ist schinken. Von speck, all den vielen streichpasteten und terrinen sprechen wir dann ein andermal!
OMG, the socks with sandals!! My dad was German and he passed away 10 years ago. So many things you said reminded me of him, especially that one! Thank you for the lovely vid, they always tug at the heartstrings. (Also a few I identified with, I think my German side is coming out)
Around 60% of the "German" stereotypes are actually more common European things, which is why you always see Dutch/Danish/French people (and a bunch of other Europeans) commenting "we do they same thing!"
I can relate alot as a Swede who lived together with a chinese lady for 8 years as I think germans vs vietnamese have similar contrast. Thannks for sharing both of you.
The only useful smalltalk with Germanic people is talking about the square footage of apartments, the prices of groceries, or how on vacation the bread wasn't good.
Language is for communicating information, not for expelling hot air. So yes, wen Germans talk, we intend to do the former. Not saying that all of it will be useful information. There are plenty old people in germany who will trap you in a conversation about cats taking a dump in their garden, which then leads over to pictures their kids send them, which will lead to talking about their grandkids and suddenly an hour has gone by and you are about desperate to kill yourself.,
You should try making your own Saurkraut, it's amazing and much better than what you can buy in the store. And you can adjust the level of sourness to your liking. It can taste similar to a refreshing coleslaw (Krautsalat). I was born in Germany but my parents come from Eastern Europe and I also found that eastern Europeans eat/make more Saurkraut than Germans. At least my Grandma made her own which I loved and during Covid I tried to do it myself and it was not the difficult. The slavic way is to just ferment it slightly and keep it crunchy, and then eat is as a salad. The German heavily fermented super sour Kraut is only edible cooked (e.g. with Schupfnudeln). Historically I think it was more common before we got refrigeration everywhere, people needed some vitamins in winter. Now that you can buy strawberries in the deepest winter it's not needed for survival anymore, which is why you don't see it much in Germany these days. But it's a loss in my opinion, because done well it can taste good and is good for the gut microbiome.
Spot on! Fermented foods are just so amazing for humans, we more or less evolved to eat them. I have respect for my russian/slavic ancestors now for preserving the traditions more than in many other places
or when you like pickeld food and their is aturkish supermarket in your area try "karisk tursu" it is usually pickled vegetables which my family really likes
@@nonamepainterOh cool, I didn't know, that Uyen also makes Kimchi. My girfriend is Korean so during Covid I also made Kimchi for us and it was only afterwards that I tried Saurkraut, when I found that compared to Kimchi it's even simpler. But I admit Kimchi has the more complex flavor. Love both.
I've been considering doing that (again). But I don't have a basement anymore, nor any place I can store it at low-ish temperatures. Do you have experience making and storing it without a basement?
There is a channel here on youtube, The Honest Guy, who said in one of his videos that during Covid travel restrictions czechia lost first place actually.... That means mostly tourists get drunk over there :D
The level of English fluency in Germany has increased a lot in the past 20-ish years. Back then there were a lot of young people whose English was very very basic. As a Dutchy I regularly worked with Germans, and me being able to speak German came in useful quite often. Even German university students were pretty happy when the English of their international course was translated for them, because they just didn't understand the instructions the first time round. And those weren't even from the whole generation in the Eastern part of the country that got Russian at school instead of English.
It is ultimately a question of whether you keep using it after school. My father kept the language in his brain by reading english novels and later by speaking a lot of english in hi job. Me? I grew up with the internet. not speaking English was not an option....
This was extra interesting. Really enjoy your videos. I totally get why kids would watch you. You are completely genuine. You are at ease in front of a camera, which puts watchers at ease. I have never heard you say anything a kid shouldn't hear. You're getting better and better. 👍😉
Regarding the "socks with sandals" thing, when sandals became trendy and widely used, then many people used socks when wearing their sandals. It was practical, you wouldn't feel bugs crawling on your skin if you walked through taller grass in the park, dust wouldn't accumulate between your sweaty toes and you wouldn't be cold even if the wind blew a bit more. But then after some time someone claimed that the more fancy countries like France or Italy thought that it looked uncool, so people in central Europe (I'm uncluding Czechs and Slovaks here) started avoiding wearing this combo and started being ashamed of it. That is why people now are offended if you tell them that the stereotype for their people is "wearing white socks with sandals", because it has a derogatory meaning in our culture now.
I put socks under sandals and don't give a damn if anybody thinks anything. It's more comfortable. I have bad arthritis in both feet. The socks are cute and fluffy and I really wish somebody would try to say something....
I went out with a hiking group to the beach. This woman who was dressed like a literal clown, did not shut up about my socks and sandals. It's hot, it's gritty. I do not have other shoes. Im wearing the socks if you like it or not.
I wear sandals only with socks. Crocs and flip-flops - also usually with socks (unless I am going swimming). Everywhere, including home (the purpose of socks is to absorb sweat, they are much easier to wash than slippers or shoes of any kind).
Complaining, or as we here in Austria call it 'sudern', is our kind of small talk. If I wait at a bus stop and start small talk with a stranger they will either think I'm crazy or that i want money and ignore me. But if we start complaining about public transport, postal service, ridiculous politics or any other thing.... there a common ground 😄
Let's face it, we're all just one big group of Germanic people with more or less similar languages and habits. I met a Norwegian guy and expected he would be very different from me but we just spent the whole evening realising all the similarities, even in the language, it was almost scary.
I'm American-born of German immigrants so I was raised with German values and culture while living as an American. I have found your presentations helpful in understanding my own quirks that differ from typical American characteristics, like seriousness vs sense of humor which has made for laughs at work with colleagues (it's too easy to play jokes on me). Oh, and I wear Japanese socks with my thong sandals when the weather is a bit chilly here in Florida.
@@quasnof They at least apologize for it. Every time I caught a train and it was more than 60 seconds late, the conductor apologized at every stop over the intercom, haha.
ADHD friendly?! No! THAT ONE TIME you need these 5 slack minutes because you spent 5 minutes just standing around in the kitchen, IT IS ON TIME!!!! 😮 Okay, I guess I also like to complain :D - Complaining about DB really is a unifying force in Germany.
@@m0llux My one serious gripe was with their IC night train, Austrian rail has malfunctioning engine, I guess, so I got stuck with waiting for the next (ICE) train 3 hours later. Ever spent 3 hours in downtown Hamburg at 3 a.m.? It's awfully boring when everything is closed!
How to get to know someone in germany: 1. Go to a place often and at the same time. Start noticing people. Great them. 2. After a few days to weeks when they start to give you a nod or greet you first you can add a small sentence about the location, the weather, etc. and have the posibility to chat. Keep it short and polite. 3. After more weeks one of you might share a very specific and much too personal Story. Or you get a monologe about a random topic. They trust you now. 4. After 2 or 3 too personal chats you can ask if they want to meet somewhere else and if they want to exchange numbers. If they agree and actually showed up you might have a new friend. All it takes is a funny social dance that lasts 6 month to a year.
This was a GREAT video and I hope you do more like this. Can you discuss accents? In the US, we've heard a stronger accent on tv shows and movies. I love how softly German Boyfriend speaks with you!
Thats actually a stereotype that makes me go mad. People thinking that the German language is aggressive when really most Germans in international media talk with a WW2 accent. While there are many many different dialects in the German language, none of them sound like the yelly-harsh language that people always think German is.
I am not German nor Vietnamese and i dont have a boyfriend but girl this was HILARIOUS 🤣🤣 German fiancee is so against some of these and the way he reacts is so funny. The way your react is hilarious as well, especially in this part 14:22 when you said "Sorry" i found it hilarious for some reason 😆 🤣
Hey , I just want to say that I agree with most of your opinions, the only 2 I don’t agree with is smalltalk ( because I do it all the time with stranger at all ages ) and the sausage one ( because I’m vegan and I know many people who are eating vegetarian/vegan and I think it’s more and more every day . At the time where I ate meat fish etc. I didn’t liked sausage either) . Thank you for making this video and i hope a part 2 is coming soon ! ❤❤❤
Uyen, I totally agree with: Sausages, there are so many varieties of German sausages and they are all so freaking amazing. It is true that German food is a bit on the salty side, hehehe. Beer: Again, German beer is ridiculously high in quality and taste and variety. One time in Bavaria, we drank a beer that tasted like a banana smoothie. Rules: Yes, I crossed a small side street against the light and I was honked at a lot. LOL. Staring: Yes! Elderly people in the smaller towns stare a lot! Complaining: I don't think this is just German thing. I noticed the French and Italians are expert complainers as well. Nudity: Absolutely. I had a good friend growing up and she is German. She is very comfortable exposing her body. I'm Asian, so I found this rather shocking. Also having travelled quite a bit in Germany, there is a lot of partial nudity in the parks. Being an Asian, this of course would make me kinda uncomfy. lol. There is always a nugget of truth in stereotypes.
The main stereotype for me was hardworking and strict with details. We had a german supplier. The products are really great but it was so hard to get any additional information. You need more for the customs and german colleagues are not answering the emails for days. It was a matter of seconds for their engineer but still no rapid response. i like germans as a nation but working with them a little bit treaky.
Most industries lack qualified workers. So we tend to prioritise fulfilling the main work over conversation, as conversation can get in the way of just getting stuff done and that delays everything else.
Our office workers are just lazy. Our HR department is especially infamous for not answering the phone. The maintenance planners are a full-blown catastrophe. And some of our engineers seem to think that we electricians and mechanics are their personal servants for everything. One of them literally wanted us to bring him a crate of drinks in summer.
What a great topic! I am German and smiled a lot while watching. To me it seems for you two, as a couple, it was interesting too to talk about this stereotypes. 😘
LOL. As someone who doesn't tend to like small talk but lives in the US where random people will talk to you all the time, here's some potential tips: 1) In terms of your neighborhood or places you frequent and see the same people all the time, like if you get on the bus or the train with the same group of commuters all the time, Begin a practice of catching the eye of people you see all the time, smiling (doesn't have to be a big smile, just a little smile) and then nodding. They should, eventually, start nodding back to you unless they are truly grumpy and don't like people. If you do this over the process of months, you can eventually stand with them on the train platform or next to their yard and say "hello" and you might get a more positive response because you've built up a relationship as a "nodding acquaintance." This also gives you time to evaluate people who really don't want to get to know you and who deliberately turn away rather than nodding to you. These people don't want contact at all. 2) The weather. This is a small talk topic, but it also has some utility. This makes it less tedious for people who don't like small talk. Knowing that a blizzard or a heatwave is coming, and then talking about preparations or concerns or conflicting news reports provides some basis for conversation. Usually the weather is a topic of mildl interest for everyone from the mother of nine to the curmudgeonly old bachelor. Rich or poor, religious or atheist, it is really hard to get off on the wrong foot with the weather. 3) Once you have developed a relationship of talking with a person, you can then move to deeper topics, or perhaps they will move you to deeper topics.
I can imagine that the Techno thing comes from the Love Parade since it was a pretty well known thing with people coming from all over the world and that was basically a Techno Parade/Festival. I think it's either Techno or Rammstein if you ask anyone about german music 😅
I’m completely German on my father’s side, 5th generation, but I’ve only spent one day in Germany, so it’s very interesting to see how my family exhibits so many German characteristics. Beer, stoicism, being rule followers. I see these things n my family. Stoicism, as In being very even tempered. Also, my family seems to be very hospitable, musical, and my grandma was a great baker of sweets. There was always an ice cream pail of fancy cookies in the freezer to be brought out in case company dropped by! Fun people, but also sensible and logical. My Grampa played the drums and harmonica, and I have my father’s 8 key harmonica.
If you like smalltalk you should visit Cologne ( the most caribbean city in germany) . Here it is most common to talk to strangers...if you have eye contact with somebody that waits with you at a red traffic light he or she feels invited to start a conversation, about red lights, traffic in cologne, inefficient administration departments in Cologne, Football , wheather etc.
Sauerkraut WAS a very important food before fresh fruits in winter were more available. A great source for vitamin C and goes well with potatoes. But culture change and now it isn't as popular anymore. People think Kraut stinks when cooked Fermented vegetables are getting fashionable again in cooking let's see what the future holds.
Lol, I freaking love sauerkraut. Weirdly enough, the only way I can eat cabbage is if it's been fermented. So I'm also a huge kimchi fan. Very different, but they're both forms of fermented cabbage!
As always I enjoy your video immensely. You two are so funny and heartwarming together. As for many stereotypes attributed to Germans, they are true for many European cultures. Like the French are Champions in complaining ( I have lived there several years.). Sauerkraut is a dish found in many European countries. The beer culture is very strong and the Germans are proud of their beer. But beer is also amazing in Belgium and living in Quebec, I can say that their artisan microbreweries are legendary too with even more variety than in Germany. Germans love football because it is the sport that it most talked about in the media and among people. When I grew up I didn't know about sports like rck climbing, surfing and such because it was just not a thing. Here in Canada its the same with Hockey but it doesn't mean everybody loves it. The nakedness is also common in Skandinavia (in Sweden they even have business meetings in the sauna). As a German not living in Germany anymore I find that many of these stereotypes apply a lot to the older Generation and can be explained by their upbringing and their childhood in difficult circumstances. Germans have a great sense of humor but as in every culture it is hard to understand because humor is one of the most culture-related things. I loved in 4 different countries and speak the languages fluently and yet, I always had trouble with their sense of humor. I think what makes people laugh is what they can relate to and when you share time with people who grew up in the same context, the same things will make you laugh. Smalltalk is not everybody's cup of tea, not only in Germany. I think a lot of people just don't want to spend their time talking about nothing. But being nice, greeting people is always welcome even if you may not get an immediate response.
Great comment. Humour is absolutely one of the most difficult things to understand in a foreign country. The kind of humour in general, the tone, but also specific references. While that also is fluently changing across generations, but not abruptly I guess.
Love your videos, found this one very interesting!:) I live in the US and my daughters high school hosts German students each year. She said all the girls think the German boys are really good looking! 😉
Every single country in the world would have had lots of fermented foods in the past. We moved away from that and into eating ultra processed foods developed by corporations. There are so many different types of fermented foods, including sauerkraut (which can be super awesome). It is also amazing for your gut microbiome
Hearing GBF describing it made me think of pickled onions. Someone French once got obsessed with how many pickled onions I, as a Brit, ate every week and was gutted to know I'd never had one.
I am English and live in Germany. German boyfriend reminds me a lot of the reason I originally came to Germany. Meanwhile I have been here over 30 years. The staring prejudice is a strange one. Germans, if they do it, do not know that they are doing it. Every time a new intern joins our team from England they mention it but I personally do not notice it. I actually think it has been propagated by the internet.
I am so impressed with your English. My mother was German. She lived in Stuttgart last. Stuttgart is so different than Hanau. Hessen was so much friendlier.
In regards to Germans speaking English, I used to work at a museum when I was a kid. One of the things I would do would be to give out maps, and of course we had maps in many languages. Anyway, if tourists understood English, we would offer a map in English and then ask if they would like another map in their native language. I can still remember one German-speaking lady who was so offended that I offered. Her English was excellent. She just had a trace of an accent. But if you know about languages, you know that even if you're good at another language, it can be tiring just to read and understand things in that language. It was a courtesy to offer it to her to make her trip easier and less taxing.
I wouldn't be offended when offered of course, but I would probably also decline. It's a bit less tiring for me to read in German but English uses fewer letters, shorter sentences and a less complicated sentence structure, which definitely makes up for it. In fact, when I watch foreign movies I always choose English subtitles instead of German ones, because I don't have to read as much text 😅
Yes. Our German ancestors who came to the U.S. in the 1800s often depended on sauerkraut as a way to preserve vegetables through the winter. So sauerkraut is part of our German heritage. We think all Germans still eat it! Yes, the festivals that serve brats often have sauerkraut as an option.
Wow!! This is very interesting to learn so many German stereotypes match up with my behavior! I am German-American, 2nd 3rd generation, and now I feel so good with all that German behavior still flowing in my veins!😉😆
I had a wonderful German exchange student still in touch 20 years later. I was warned about making rules especially about public nudity. He wanted to know why (like a two year old, he asked why a lot and followed my answer with "we don't do that in Germany" about many things). When we went to the beach he asked if all the little houses were toilets and could not understand why we needed little changing rooms! He said it only takes a second to switch from pants to a bathing suit, so who cares if I flash a bit, it's not a problem in Germany. I love your views on Germany because I see my German boy in almost every situation you've mentioned. 😅♥
you both are so funny and Thank you for sharing your lives and ..cough antidotes of life. :D you both have come a long way and are talented . Have a blessed day
The casual snorlax with mustache in the background is killing me 😂😂 interesting to hear your thoughts about it, as a german I mostly agree with your opinions about the stereotypes. 😁☺️
I see so many similarities between the German boyfriend and myself. I don't like Techno music, football, cars and potatoes. Like him I'm influenced by South East Asia (in my case the Philippines due to a Filipina GF) and I eat a lot of rice and pasta. I also rarely eat Sauerkraut. Like him, I also never wear socks with sandals.
The Chicago brew houses have the BEST sausages on a bun. Each brew house has their own unique recipe and visiting each one is a blast. My personal fav is sweet spicy mustard, sauerkraut, garlic pickle, with fried onions.
As someone from rural Ohio….the small talk thing would probably made me the most hated foreigner in Germany 😂 I live in a community where you can be seen as RUDE if you DON’T engage in small talk. Even on the street, it’s not like a busy city, so if you walk past someone and don’t make eye contact or acknowledge their presence….you’re gonna look like a jerk. 😂 It’s just normal for us to wave hello or smile at each other. I’ve become conditioned into it, so I feel like a rude, mean person if I don’t acknowledge every human in my vicinity. 😮💨 I’ll admit…it can be tiring when you’re not in a good mood. However, I’ve had some really bad days of depression, but then a random stranger smiled at me or just said “hi!” and it truly made my day. It’s amazing how a simple greeting can really brighten someone’s day, so I think this is something that will never leave me. 😂 I’m gonna be that person who’s always starting small talk and annoying all the Germans. 🤦♀️😮💨🤣🤣
I grew up more American than my brother. I went to American military schools in Hanau. My brother went to German schools in Germany. His sense of humor is different. More dry than mine and he takes things so litterly.
Complaining is the German smalltalk. You get a good fix on their views and build comradery over shared complaints.
Same in Poland 😅
true
You beat me to it.
Sounds about white.
"I can't complain"/"Ich kann mich nicht beschweren" is one of the best compliments a German can give
I think the thing with nudity is in Germany the body isn't inherently associated with sexuality as it is in most cultures. So being nude in a sauna or while tanning is just more logical.
Part of that is because FKK places get really riled and angry if you try to make it sexual. Try being a little pervert at the Schwabenquelle and see how long it takes to get kicked out.
I very much agree. although I am not German but am northen scandivaian and grew up with saunas and nudity being just there. Not that we run around naked but like So for me that is very much true and nudity and sex are not connected.
Tbh for me I still sometimes struggle with wrapping my head around that fact that people think just a naked body is sexual in itself.
Not meaning that you wouldn’t be able to tell if something went over and line even as a kid. To me it be even more clear as for me something like being nude wasn’t sexual and It is more clear to me when something has a more sexual intent.
the fact that you need those, normally covered, bits for sex is also logical
@@whattheflyingfuck... yes, of course. Bodies are only there for that, nothing else. those of children especially 🤦♀️
100% True. Nudity is not automatically something sexual - only context makes it that. I think the thing that helped me most with body positivity was to be nude around other nude people. I grew up swimming in lakes, rivers and the sea naked and it was never something sexual - just normal. At ~12 I became more self-conscious about my body but luckily we went to Japan again that year and I was "forced" to touch the edges of my comfort zone until my comfort zone widened. When I went to Japan again in following years I spent up to 4 hours at public baths. I also went swimming again naked in Germany. I re-learned that my body is nothing shameful that needs to be hidden and I've never had issues in Germany. Everyone just minded their own business.
I think it really can help kids to be nude and be around naked people so that they learn people come in all shapes and sizes. It's normal to have flabby skin, bones sticking out a bit, fat, moles, warts, body parts of different and uneven sizes. When kids grow up like that they won't get distracted by a little shoulder showing. They'll know movies and porn show selected models that are not like most people. Even bikini's can cover a lot/ mask how uneven boobs are...
Small talk is pointless.
Complaining is better. You get to the heart of the person 😂
😂
i dont think this was a joke.@@karinlynne1064
It’s the same tho,complaining is a subset of smalltalk
As a Polish girl I approve
Oh so make friends with Germans just start complaining abt something
Kraut: that stereotype doesn't come from the Americans. It comes from the British!
In the age of sail, to avoid the sailors get scurvy, they had to digest vitamin C. The British, having already colonies and established foreign trade routes, used limes. The German sailor had kraut, which is also a great source of vitamin C.
So, "Kraut" got stuck with the Germans, and the not so well known "Limey" with the British 😀
That is not the entire truth. James Cook used Sauerkraut on his long expeditions, but he bought it in jars from the supermarket instead of using homemade German Sauerkraut.
Storebought Sauerkraut of course always is disgusting, and the British, knowing that their own food is not very popular in the rest of the world then used this fact to make Germany look bad.
I think that it's also a kind of nickname in France: "les Choucroute" meaning the Germans. Maybe the Alsacians too.
Writing a comment on a British website I wanted to use the word Krauts to poke a bit fun at myself. My comment got rejected due to use of insulting and discriminating language. Which somehow I felt even more insulting because I actually like to eat Sauerkraut (if it's prepared well).
I ❤❤❤ sauerkraut! When made well, it is transcontinental 😊
Thanks. I love learning about each other.
i have my own theory for that,they are just jellous kraut needs a summer to grow
2:45 "i have never seen any nationality that is complaining as much as the German" Well, as a French, i feel offended ... We DESERVE our reputation as the most complaining people ...
Get back in line, cousin :-* .
LOL the French take it to another level by complaining AT their subject with disdain.
But the french also hate speaking english, so most people don't know, that they are complaining. ┐(´ー｀)┌
😂
@@quasnof Excellent point!
In my experience, Germans basically pretend you don’t exist until you introduce yourself. They will bump into you and say nothing. After introduction, though, they are super friendly.
I think that is an extension of personal privacy that allows for all that nudity, and so long as you are not doing something strange you are just part of the scenery. Get weird and they get nosey.
Same in Poland 😊
In Germany, if you are a stranger people don't interact with you and barely perceive you.
@@Ribberflavenous Agreed. Looking at the population density in some German areas, it's the only way to give each other some room, even if it's only in a social sense.
That being said: throughout Germany there are *vast* differences in how open/approachable people are. In my experience, people from Baden tend to be super outgoing and easy to get to know. Hamburg is the polar opposite.
Karlsruhe is Germany on noob level. People tend to be really easygoing, willing to engage with strangers. It's also a beautiful and interesting city. Well worth a visit IMO and I don't know why it's not getting more love from tourists?
Well, that can hardly explain the culture shock here. Have you ever been to Ho Chi Minh City? @@p.s.shnabel3409
I just baked some bread and said "The Germans would be proud of me." They make the best bread IMO. Love your channel.
As a German who bakes his own bread as well:
I'm proud of you 😄
Come to Norway and try our bread 😊
Our German exchange intern arrived two weeks ago and is already homesick, he misses the bread.
My ex is half-German and he is a baker and I'm more of a dessert baker than he is. He is the one I usually go to when I need some baking tips. I almost married him. We never did small talk either. He's a sweetie though. We did the dorkiest things together. Can't get any more German than that
Try Central Asian bread sometime - especially Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan :D
A little off topic, but Uyen you're so sweet. And your cardigans are so pretty. I love the warm energy you guys radiate.
I love her cardigans! I've tried to find similar online but no luck.
"Schling Schlong" killed me 🤣
That is German for "dillhonker"
@googiegress7459 I believe "schlong" is english and not german. Never heard it here.
@@quarksandaces2398 (it was a joke)
So funny!!
@@googiegress I thought the word was Yiddish.
About speaking English: There is a difference between the generations (my grandmother never learned English, but younger people all do) and even between western and eastern Germany. Living in Brandenburg I sometimes helped people from Syria who had to go to the local registration office. The lady there could have managed Russian, but not English - as recently as 2016. Yes, GDR still has its influences.
Makes sense if you think about it. Even though the GDR seems/feels long ago, it's been just 35 years.
Since the vast majority of the people in Germany are 35yo or older, you notice a difference. The systems and the people (f.ex. teachers) didn't switch the second after the wall fell. That needs time. All those Russian teachers, who went to uni for Russian language, couldn't just switch to English. So you had the same teachers, in the same schools, up until the 2000s in some areas, teaching the same subjects for which they got their teaching license.
Yes, we visited many years ago and in the former east Germany we didn't think people spoke that much English - not even the young people. I'm sure that has changed now, though as that was the late 90's, early 2000's.
GDR? 🤔😃
Ja i just said something to this effect. I’ve lived in Brandenburg for 3 years and I’ve met probably 4 people that can speak a bit of English. My partners family can’t communicate at all to me in English
@@Lalolale GDR (German Democratic Republic) = DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik)
I am really glad you said that our humor is just different. I think many people miss that part. One bit is obviously as you said that we have a pretty dry humor and the other part I'd say is that we love puns but if you don't understand the language very well yet they don't make sense as most you can't translate to English. Another bit that also ties sometimes a bit into the complaint category is a lot of humor based on culture, politics and generally very country specific stuff. If you aren't informed on those things it naturally doesn't hit.
I find that you can tease out the humor out of a German person if you're genuine and open to them coming to terms with the joking on their own terms which doesn't really take much. I find they care about upholding rules and norms as to not inconvenience others and in fear of letting too much dilly dallying and slack in character change their attitude from appropriate to inappropriate, very similar to how attentive they are at red lights and how people might percieve you etc. Germans are great fun though, they're some of the most genuine laughers and clever joksters you can find once they're comfortable with you.
@@Yous0147 Thank you, that's a very sweet view on us. I love interacting with all sorts of people and joking around. I just gotta get comfy first ^^
Y’all like fart jokes 😂
"... if you don't understand the language very well yet they don't make sense as most you can't translate to English...."
Absolutely agreed! And apart from the language barrier, there's the cultural aspect.
How do you explain to a non-German why "Der Schuh des Manitu" is funny? You'd have to start with the original books by Karl May, the controversy around this author, the movies with Pierre Brice and Lex Barker, and finally explain Bavarian humor.
I tried to give my American husband a TL;DR ... his eyes glazed over and I don't think we'll ever watch the movie.
Pretty much everything German that has me in stitches (Kaeptn Blaubaer, Das kleine Arschloch, Loriot) is so deeply rooted in our culture that it's inaccessible for someone who isn't German/Austrian/Swiss.
(That being said, some American humor completely misses the mark with me.)
@@sharonmontano4924 I do if they are well placed XD
I am dating a german and I love your videos because its so true. For a lot of my jokes he just sends frowny emojis when we chat but he is super sarcastic. Your channel has been amazing, thank you for all the laughs and for showing the cultural differences in a light respectful way
I love how it circled back to "yeah, people will just stare and complain" 🤣
I have to confess - whenever I had a hard day at work of feeling low, I pull up a clip from you and start instantly smiling.
You have such a wonderful humor and a fine style of presenting you beautiful clips.
Thank you.
Greetings from Berlin
I'm finnish and us finnish people are claimed to be the most socially reserved people in Europe. We don't do small talk. Then how do we communicate with strangers?
I'll give you an example which comes to my mind particularly. A couple of years ago at spring I went for a walk in this beautiful old farming area which is preserved for the sake of agricultural heritage in this city. Hackberry trees were blooming and I stepped aside just to watch and smell the beautiful flowers close. An old woman approached me asking me " aren't they lovely?" And we started chatting. She told me these flowers were her husbands favorite. She asked me if I would like to hear a song. Then she sang me a song with the most beautiful voice and I was like "whoah". She told me her husband wrote this song for her and for hackberry flowers. We both went off and told eachothers with happy smiles on our faces "have a lovely spring".
You don't need to talk much. You just have to tell the essential.
The essential: vesihiisi sihisi hississä.
@rickwarren I’m originally from California and when I moved to Atlanta for a while many years ago I was so blown away how everyone just talks to each other on the subway like they know each other. When I’d meet people they’d ask me about my parents, where I was born, where I was educated (everyone was confident I was foreign for some reason - I think because the city was less diverse than it is now ), etc. it was nice and endearing for a while…but then when you want your quiet time it can be really grating and obnoxious. Sometimes people would start talking to you when you’re right in the middle of a book.
Maybe complaining simply is the German version of small talk? 😉
I'm German, and I haven't reflected on this before. But I guess complaining together with my German friends makes me feel connected to them...
It is our version of smalltalk. And sometimes you complain to just the right person and get/make something better and find new things to complain about!
I'm American and 100% consider light complaining as small talk. I don't mean heavy topics like complaining about politics or something. But complaining about the weather, or maybe high prices of things, that's absolutely small talk to me.
@@cloudsn Complaining about politics IS the normal complaining here tho😅 i do agree that germans complain as small talk. Still, we dont do any kind of small talk as much as, say, americans
Yes in France it's the same complaining is our small talk
When is complaining complaining and when is it not?
When I was abroad, I was always accused of always having to complain.
But most of the time it wasn't complaining at all - I was commenting on what I was seeing/experiencing.
"Oh, it's full here" - not a complaint .
"The prices are high" - also not a complaint
and so on
Sauerkraut (and potatoes) used to be what got most farmers and poorer families through the winters up until about 100-150 years ago. It was the best and sometimes only way to get your vitamins in winter and many people ate it daily. I think thats where the stereotype stems from.
Kraut etc. is very dependent on the region. Sauerkraut, Rote Beete, Blaukraut, is mostly a Franken, Baiern kind of thing.
Schwaben sind eine Verschwörung der Schweizer Freimaurer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Adding on to correct something Boyfriend said...saurkraut isn't fermented cabbage, it is pickled cabbage.
No its fermented
The technique that I know is, cabbage is sliced up mixed with a lot of salt and packed into air-tight jars, with even more salt, if necessary! The salt draws out the water from the cabbage cells which then, in turn, ferments the cabbage. Thus, sauerkraut is a fermented food.
Here, in England, we tend to have pickled cabbage which is, cabbage cut-up the same way, put in jars and covered with vinegar (no salt). I believe the Sauerkraut method produces a much more healthier food. Und, es ist sehr toll mit Wurst und Kartoffeln!
That explains why many American Germans eat it. Because some areas were settled by German Farmers who came to America over 100 years ago looking for a better life.
My mom's American but of German descent. Her family motto handed down to us was "Strangers should be a little strange" i.e., keep away from strangers and don't feel pressured to be friendly/interact just because someone you don't know behaves that way toward you.
That is not why we don't talk to strangers. If anything, the whole concept of "stranger danger" is very weird to most of us.
I’ve heard that for the 19th century German immigrants to America found, sauerkraut was one of the specifically German dishes they could most easily recreate with ingredients available to them in the US. So sauerkraut became the most distinctively “German” food in American communities. And as a reminder of home, it probably became more important within those German-American communities.
As someone from the UK I always ask "how are you doing?" and when coming to Germany most my friends out there were blown by how much I cared. I do care alot but it's a thing we just ask here.
Be carefull, if you ask the wrong german, he will take 8 hours of your life by actualy telling you how he feels in detail.
@@quasnof, that's true. 😂 Never ask if you don't like to know or if you can't stand bad news. Better stay with "nice to see you."
@@quasnof That was me in Britain🥲 people had to tell me to stop😂
Careful, they might hold a monologue about their recent knee operation or something like that :D
Being nice costs nothing...
I guess this is the best international community I've ever seen, commenting under Uyens videos. Warm vibes, self-ironic, no hate. People from so many different countries posting nice and funny things. Don't know how Uyen makes that possible. I would love too see this more outside of this channel :-)
Maybe she's just good at filtering comments, lol.
Censorship is big in both Asia and EU :D
...because she is so authentic!
I once complained to my grandma that I find it annoying when old people are always looking out of their windows and watching everyone else - to me that's also typically German in a certain way. She explained to me that she used to do that all the time too. After the war, there was nothing to do apart from work and reconstruction - you had nothing. So we looked out of the window and watched what the rest of the world was doing. Since this conversation bewtween my grandma and me, I see the world with different eyes and it no longer bothers me when older people "stare" out of the window. You always have to know the background to understand a situation and/or the people behind it.
Thank you Grandma
yes, staring and nosy. It was in the video
I think the sausage stereotype is based on a translation error. Germans love sliced cold meat and bread. It's a religion and the main dish here. You can eat Wurstbrot for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But in German the sausages and sliced cold meat are both called Wurst. People think that Germans love only sausages, but we love all kinds of meat you can combine with a bread. We even have a sliced cold meat salad ;) (Wurstsalat)
But we also have a insanely huge variety of sausages (Bratwurst, Weißwurst, Wiener, Nürnberger, Thüringer, Lyoner, Blutwurst, Bockwurst, Gelbwurst, Landjäger, Pfefferbeißer, Pinkel, Bregenwurst, Teewurst, Leberwurst, Mettwurst, Bierwurst, ...). Just to name a few of them. Allegedly there are more than 1,500 types of sausages in Germany. 😂 And we are very fond of our local butchers who - of course - make the best bratwurst one has ever eaten 😋
Yes, we are Indeed 😂
When you say 'sausage' are you referring to 'aufschnitt' ? I'm bilingual, but this went right over my head?
----
Wurst ist wurst, aber schinken ist schinken. Von speck, all den vielen streichpasteten und terrinen sprechen wir dann ein andermal!
thats only because the "wurstscheibe" or similar things like cooked ham are "cold cuts" in English @@rainbowlable
Wurstsalat sounds like worst salad. 😅
OMG, the socks with sandals!! My dad was German and he passed away 10 years ago. So many things you said reminded me of him, especially that one! Thank you for the lovely vid, they always tug at the heartstrings. (Also a few I identified with, I think my German side is coming out)
Around 60% of the "German" stereotypes are actually more common European things, which is why you always see Dutch/Danish/French people (and a bunch of other Europeans) commenting "we do they same thing!"
Not the stereotypes, as such. It's usually just the normal, unremarkable things that people do, that are common for a lot of countries.
Agreed. The whole potatoes, saurkraut, and sausages thing applies to all of central and eastern Europe, not just Germany.
True
You find all those stereotypes worldwide. The complaining attitude is an international thing.
Love your GBF! Love his honesty and view on life!
I can relate alot as a Swede who lived together with a chinese lady for 8 years as I think germans vs vietnamese have similar contrast. Thannks for sharing both of you.
The only useful smalltalk with Germanic people is talking about the square footage of apartments, the prices of groceries, or how on vacation the bread wasn't good.
also if you think Germans complain you need to come to Vienna.
Language is for communicating information, not for expelling hot air. So yes, wen Germans talk, we intend to do the former.
Not saying that all of it will be useful information. There are plenty old people in germany who will trap you in a conversation about cats taking a dump in their garden, which then leads over to pictures their kids send them, which will lead to talking about their grandkids and suddenly an hour has gone by and you are about desperate to kill yourself.,
@@napoleonsdauphinfr, vienna is next level when it comes to complaining
Actual LOL. Well done. (Square meters though, now that I think about it.)
You should try making your own Saurkraut, it's amazing and much better than what you can buy in the store. And you can adjust the level of sourness to your liking. It can taste similar to a refreshing coleslaw (Krautsalat). I was born in Germany but my parents come from Eastern Europe and I also found that eastern Europeans eat/make more Saurkraut than Germans. At least my Grandma made her own which I loved and during Covid I tried to do it myself and it was not the difficult. The slavic way is to just ferment it slightly and keep it crunchy, and then eat is as a salad. The German heavily fermented super sour Kraut is only edible cooked (e.g. with Schupfnudeln).
Historically I think it was more common before we got refrigeration everywhere, people needed some vitamins in winter. Now that you can buy strawberries in the deepest winter it's not needed for survival anymore, which is why you don't see it much in Germany these days. But it's a loss in my opinion, because done well it can taste good and is good for the gut microbiome.
Spot on! Fermented foods are just so amazing for humans, we more or less evolved to eat them. I have respect for my russian/slavic ancestors now for preserving the traditions more than in many other places
or when you like pickeld food and their is aturkish supermarket in your area try "karisk tursu" it is usually pickled vegetables which my family really likes
@@nonamepainterOh cool, I didn't know, that Uyen also makes Kimchi. My girfriend is Korean so during Covid I also made Kimchi for us and it was only afterwards that I tried Saurkraut, when I found that compared to Kimchi it's even simpler. But I admit Kimchi has the more complex flavor. Love both.
I've been considering doing that (again). But I don't have a basement anymore, nor any place I can store it at low-ish temperatures.
Do you have experience making and storing it without a basement?
@@p.s.shnabel3409
Yes, my mom doesn't do it in the bassement either. Just in a big jar in her flat.
You two are lovely 😊
For me, the most notable thing about this whole video is that Czechs drink TWICE as much beer as the next country on the list 😮
There is a channel here on youtube, The Honest Guy, who said in one of his videos that during Covid travel restrictions czechia lost first place actually....
That means mostly tourists get drunk over there :D
Half of it is tourism. If you just count natives, Czechs and Austrians would have a brutal showdown for 1st place.
i think complaining about late train, bad weather, bad government and so on is our way of smalltalk if nothing special is going on.
The level of English fluency in Germany has increased a lot in the past 20-ish years. Back then there were a lot of young people whose English was very very basic. As a Dutchy I regularly worked with Germans, and me being able to speak German came in useful quite often. Even German university students were pretty happy when the English of their international course was translated for them, because they just didn't understand the instructions the first time round.
And those weren't even from the whole generation in the Eastern part of the country that got Russian at school instead of English.
It is ultimately a question of whether you keep using it after school. My father kept the language in his brain by reading english novels and later by speaking a lot of english in hi job. Me? I grew up with the internet. not speaking English was not an option....
This was extra interesting. Really enjoy your videos. I totally get why kids would watch you. You are completely genuine. You are at ease in front of a camera, which puts watchers at ease. I have never heard you say anything a kid shouldn't hear. You're getting better and better. 👍😉
Yes!! This. 😊
I was thinking, she may not target kids/have a kids channel, but it's 💯 absolutely child appropriate! ❤
Regarding the "socks with sandals" thing, when sandals became trendy and widely used, then many people used socks when wearing their sandals. It was practical, you wouldn't feel bugs crawling on your skin if you walked through taller grass in the park, dust wouldn't accumulate between your sweaty toes and you wouldn't be cold even if the wind blew a bit more. But then after some time someone claimed that the more fancy countries like France or Italy thought that it looked uncool, so people in central Europe (I'm uncluding Czechs and Slovaks here) started avoiding wearing this combo and started being ashamed of it. That is why people now are offended if you tell them that the stereotype for their people is "wearing white socks with sandals", because it has a derogatory meaning in our culture now.
and it's stupid. it's just clothes
I put socks under sandals and don't give a damn if anybody thinks anything. It's more comfortable. I have bad arthritis in both feet. The socks are cute and fluffy and I really wish somebody would try to say something....
I went out with a hiking group to the beach.
This woman who was dressed like a literal clown, did not shut up about my socks and sandals.
It's hot, it's gritty. I do not have other shoes. Im wearing the socks if you like it or not.
In the States stereotype is that those that wear socks with sandals are liberals.
I wear sandals only with socks. Crocs and flip-flops - also usually with socks (unless I am going swimming). Everywhere, including home (the purpose of socks is to absorb sweat, they are much easier to wash than slippers or shoes of any kind).
in Germany “trekking”is called “wandern”.
Complaining, or as we here in Austria call it 'sudern', is our kind of small talk. If I wait at a bus stop and start small talk with a stranger they will either think I'm crazy or that i want money and ignore me. But if we start complaining about public transport, postal service, ridiculous politics or any other thing.... there a common ground 😄
Lol I don't want my morning starting with complaining though.
So true! I started doing that at some point during my stay abroad in america and think it annoyed everyone 😅 i missed complaining so much
Na hallo, hallo, zerst aussteign lossn D'leut, du Rauschkind du schwindligs.
@@chaoskind9012 That's hilarious.
Uyen: Germans complain the most
Dutch: Hold my bitterballen THIS IS MY THING
Same for being frugal, I was like "hey that's our stereotype!"
Let's face it, we're all just one big group of Germanic people with more or less similar languages and habits. I met a Norwegian guy and expected he would be very different from me but we just spent the whole evening realising all the similarities, even in the language, it was almost scary.
Danes: Hold my Tuborg, I got a rant for you about the busses being late and the rising prices on groceries.
Polish people - it is our national sport 😅
@@KirstenRosin It's our daily conversation with our morning coffee at work 😂
I'm American-born of German immigrants so I was raised with German values and culture while living as an American.
I have found your presentations helpful in understanding my own quirks that differ from typical American characteristics, like seriousness vs sense of humor which has made for laughs at work with colleagues (it's too easy to play jokes on me).
Oh, and I wear Japanese socks with my thong sandals when the weather is a bit chilly here in Florida.
Sauerkraut is so healthy for you being fermented.
i love the cloud sweater you are wearing, its so cute
No small talk, the trains run on ADHD-Friendly time (5m late), and delicious food is cheap.
Germany is nailing it in my eyes!
DB is a bit late with fashion trends, they still think its fationable to be late.
@@quasnof They at least apologize for it. Every time I caught a train and it was more than 60 seconds late, the conductor apologized at every stop over the intercom, haha.
ADHD friendly?! No! THAT ONE TIME you need these 5 slack minutes because you spent 5 minutes just standing around in the kitchen, IT IS ON TIME!!!!
😮
Okay, I guess I also like to complain :D - Complaining about DB really is a unifying force in Germany.
@@m0llux My one serious gripe was with their IC night train, Austrian rail has malfunctioning engine, I guess, so I got stuck with waiting for the next (ICE) train 3 hours later. Ever spent 3 hours in downtown Hamburg at 3 a.m.? It's awfully boring when everything is closed!
@@ulogy, Mainz is worse...😅
How to get to know someone in germany: 1. Go to a place often and at the same time. Start noticing people. Great them. 2. After a few days to weeks when they start to give you a nod or greet you first you can add a small sentence about the location, the weather, etc. and have the posibility to chat. Keep it short and polite. 3. After more weeks one of you might share a very specific and much too personal Story. Or you get a monologe about a random topic. They trust you now. 4. After 2 or 3 too personal chats you can ask if they want to meet somewhere else and if they want to exchange numbers. If they agree and actually showed up you might have a new friend. All it takes is a funny social dance that lasts 6 month to a year.
Got a Haribo commercial before this video haha
Fitting!
I'm German and moved to Scotland in 2016, I love that small talk is sooooooo normal and common here and I love it ♥
Yes, but how long did it take you to understand a single word anyone was saying?
This was a GREAT video and I hope you do more like this. Can you discuss accents? In the US, we've heard a stronger accent on tv shows and movies. I love how softly German Boyfriend speaks with you!
Thats actually a stereotype that makes me go mad. People thinking that the German language is aggressive when really most Germans in international media talk with a WW2 accent.
While there are many many different dialects in the German language, none of them sound like the yelly-harsh language that people always think German is.
The German spoken in American movies is usually borderline incomprehensible to me, a German
I am not German nor Vietnamese and i dont have a boyfriend but girl this was HILARIOUS 🤣🤣 German fiancee is so against some of these and the way he reacts is so funny. The way your react is hilarious as well, especially in this part 14:22 when you said "Sorry" i found it hilarious for some reason 😆 🤣
Complaining is small talk, it’s how Germans connect ❤😂
Exactly! So true! 😂
Hey , I just want to say that I agree with most of your opinions, the only 2 I don’t agree with is smalltalk ( because I do it all the time with stranger at all ages ) and the sausage one ( because I’m vegan and I know many people who are eating vegetarian/vegan and I think it’s more and more every day . At the time where I ate meat fish etc. I didn’t liked sausage either) .
Thank you for making this video and i hope a part 2 is coming soon ! ❤❤❤
Uyen, I totally agree with: Sausages, there are so many varieties of German sausages and they are all so freaking amazing. It is true that German food is a bit on the salty side, hehehe. Beer: Again, German beer is ridiculously high in quality and taste and variety. One time in Bavaria, we drank a beer that tasted like a banana smoothie. Rules: Yes, I crossed a small side street against the light and I was honked at a lot. LOL. Staring: Yes! Elderly people in the smaller towns stare a lot! Complaining: I don't think this is just German thing. I noticed the French and Italians are expert complainers as well. Nudity: Absolutely. I had a good friend growing up and she is German. She is very comfortable exposing her body. I'm Asian, so I found this rather shocking. Also having travelled quite a bit in Germany, there is a lot of partial nudity in the parks. Being an Asian, this of course would make me kinda uncomfy. lol. There is always a nugget of truth in stereotypes.
The main stereotype for me was hardworking and strict with details. We had a german supplier. The products are really great but it was so hard to get any additional information. You need more for the customs and german colleagues are not answering the emails for days. It was a matter of seconds for their engineer but still no rapid response. i like germans as a nation but working with them a little bit treaky.
Most industries lack qualified workers. So we tend to prioritise fulfilling the main work over conversation, as conversation can get in the way of just getting stuff done and that delays everything else.
Our office workers are just lazy. Our HR department is especially infamous for not answering the phone. The maintenance planners are a full-blown catastrophe. And some of our engineers seem to think that we electricians and mechanics are their personal servants for everything. One of them literally wanted us to bring him a crate of drinks in summer.
What a great topic! I am German and smiled a lot while watching. To me it seems for you two, as a couple, it was interesting too to talk about this stereotypes. 😘
LOL.
As someone who doesn't tend to like small talk but lives in the US where random people will talk to you all the time, here's some potential tips:
1) In terms of your neighborhood or places you frequent and see the same people all the time, like if you get on the bus or the train with the same group of commuters all the time, Begin a practice of catching the eye of people you see all the time, smiling (doesn't have to be a big smile, just a little smile) and then nodding. They should, eventually, start nodding back to you unless they are truly grumpy and don't like people. If you do this over the process of months, you can eventually stand with them on the train platform or next to their yard and say "hello" and you might get a more positive response because you've built up a relationship as a "nodding acquaintance." This also gives you time to evaluate people who really don't want to get to know you and who deliberately turn away rather than nodding to you. These people don't want contact at all.
2) The weather. This is a small talk topic, but it also has some utility. This makes it less tedious for people who don't like small talk. Knowing that a blizzard or a heatwave is coming, and then talking about preparations or concerns or conflicting news reports provides some basis for conversation. Usually the weather is a topic of mildl interest for everyone from the mother of nine to the curmudgeonly old bachelor. Rich or poor, religious or atheist, it is really hard to get off on the wrong foot with the weather.
3) Once you have developed a relationship of talking with a person, you can then move to deeper topics, or perhaps they will move you to deeper topics.
Sauerkraut + mashed potatoes are dope
Your cardigan is so cute!
Germany (and Belgium) are known for their techno scene. Techno clubs and parties are super fun and the people are usually super nice and chill.
I can imagine that the Techno thing comes from the Love Parade since it was a pretty well known thing with people coming from all over the world and that was basically a Techno Parade/Festival. I think it's either Techno or Rammstein if you ask anyone about german music 😅
You have a very nice way of getting the flow going. Your videos are good. Thanks
“I hate watching Football, I don’t give a sh*t about cars, and I don’t like potatoes “ was the most shocking part.
Sounds like me, just that potatoes are tolerable, not "not liked" definitely lowest tho
For me Football/soccer-- ehhh, cars--🤮, potatoes ❤❤❤
I’m completely German on my father’s side, 5th generation, but I’ve only spent one day in Germany, so it’s very interesting to see how my family exhibits so many German characteristics. Beer, stoicism, being rule followers. I see these things n my family. Stoicism, as In being very even tempered. Also, my family seems to be very hospitable, musical, and my grandma was a great baker of sweets. There was always an ice cream pail of fancy cookies in the freezer to be brought out in case company dropped by! Fun people, but also sensible and logical. My Grampa played the drums and harmonica, and I have my father’s 8 key harmonica.
If you like smalltalk you should visit Cologne ( the most caribbean city in germany) . Here it is most common to talk to strangers...if you have eye contact with somebody that waits with you at a red traffic light he or she feels invited to start a conversation, about red lights, traffic in cologne, inefficient administration departments in Cologne, Football , wheather etc.
“They were complaining about the food, and they were very happy about it” - laughed out loud at that one!
Sauerkraut WAS a very important food before fresh fruits in winter were more available. A great source for vitamin C and goes well with potatoes. But culture change and now it isn't as popular anymore. People think Kraut stinks when cooked Fermented vegetables are getting fashionable again in cooking let's see what the future holds.
I eat it most days and I'm 🇯🇲🇬🇧. Health thing.
Love Germany, beautiful country and amazing people!!! Thank you Uyen
German boyfriend: Liking Techno is a stereotype?
Also GB: Of course there are Techno festivals. 😎⚡️
Very cute and informative- love hearing the two of you talk together ❤
“can you open a beer with your eye socket honey?” 💀
😂
lol...omg...i was not expecting Uyen to come right out an say it...."sling slong" 🤣🤣 had me rolling. 🤣🤣🤣
Lol, I freaking love sauerkraut. Weirdly enough, the only way I can eat cabbage is if it's been fermented. So I'm also a huge kimchi fan. Very different, but they're both forms of fermented cabbage!
The moustache on your Snorlax is a nice touch! xD
As always I enjoy your video immensely. You two are so funny and heartwarming together.
As for many stereotypes attributed to Germans, they are true for many European cultures. Like the French are Champions in complaining ( I have lived there several years.). Sauerkraut is a dish found in many European countries. The beer culture is very strong and the Germans are proud of their beer. But beer is also amazing in Belgium and living in Quebec, I can say that their artisan microbreweries are legendary too with even more variety than in Germany. Germans love football because it is the sport that it most talked about in the media and among people. When I grew up I didn't know about sports like rck climbing, surfing and such because it was just not a thing. Here in Canada its the same with Hockey but it doesn't mean everybody loves it. The nakedness is also common in Skandinavia (in Sweden they even have business meetings in the sauna). As a German not living in Germany anymore I find that many of these stereotypes apply a lot to the older Generation and can be explained by their upbringing and their childhood in difficult circumstances. Germans have a great sense of humor but as in every culture it is hard to understand because humor is one of the most culture-related things. I loved in 4 different countries and speak the languages fluently and yet, I always had trouble with their sense of humor. I think what makes people laugh is what they can relate to and when you share time with people who grew up in the same context, the same things will make you laugh. Smalltalk is not everybody's cup of tea, not only in Germany. I think a lot of people just don't want to spend their time talking about nothing. But being nice, greeting people is always welcome even if you may not get an immediate response.
Great comment. Humour is absolutely one of the most difficult things to understand in a foreign country. The kind of humour in general, the tone, but also specific references. While that also is fluently changing across generations, but not abruptly I guess.
i love her sweater its so cute!!
Wim Wenders once said that Germans invented sense of humour. And then forgot all about it.
The lightbulb joke 😂😂😂😂😂❤ loved your video. Thank you 😊✨ Have a nice weekend.
"i have never seen any nationality that complains as much as the germans" giiiiiiirl the french we beat germans anytime at complaining
From my experience in Europe the ranking looks something like this:
- France
- UK
- Germany & Austria
Poms.
Love your videos, found this one very interesting!:) I live in the US and my daughters high school hosts German students each year. She said all the girls think the German boys are really good looking! 😉
It’s the healthcare
Every single country in the world would have had lots of fermented foods in the past. We moved away from that and into eating ultra processed foods developed by corporations. There are so many different types of fermented foods, including sauerkraut (which can be super awesome). It is also amazing for your gut microbiome
Hearing GBF describing it made me think of pickled onions. Someone French once got obsessed with how many pickled onions I, as a Brit, ate every week and was gutted to know I'd never had one.
@@stalfithrildi5366 funny, I know quite a few Brits that like pickled onions
So enjoy you both your videos
I am English and live in Germany. German boyfriend reminds me a lot of the reason I originally came to Germany. Meanwhile I have been here over 30 years. The staring prejudice is a strange one. Germans, if they do it, do not know that they are doing it. Every time a new intern joins our team from England they mention it but I personally do not notice it. I actually think it has been propagated by the internet.
I am so impressed with your English. My mother was German. She lived in Stuttgart last. Stuttgart is so different than Hanau. Hessen was so much friendlier.
...shlingshlongs....yep, that's the word I'm using from now on!!😆
Note to self: when next I meet German bf, DO NOT TALK ABOUT POTATOES!
Most German Cookbooks include recipes on how to make saurkraut, zwiebel soup, and many potato recipes.
In regards to Germans speaking English, I used to work at a museum when I was a kid. One of the things I would do would be to give out maps, and of course we had maps in many languages. Anyway, if tourists understood English, we would offer a map in English and then ask if they would like another map in their native language. I can still remember one German-speaking lady who was so offended that I offered. Her English was excellent. She just had a trace of an accent. But if you know about languages, you know that even if you're good at another language, it can be tiring just to read and understand things in that language. It was a courtesy to offer it to her to make her trip easier and less taxing.
I wouldn't be offended when offered of course, but I would probably also decline. It's a bit less tiring for me to read in German but English uses fewer letters, shorter sentences and a less complicated sentence structure, which definitely makes up for it. In fact, when I watch foreign movies I always choose English subtitles instead of German ones, because I don't have to read as much text 😅
We had 30 minutes ago Sauerkraut mit Schupfnudeln. We love it and your Channel
Sauerkraut was brought to the US by German immigrants and is still popular in areas with strong German heritage.
love it....❤❤
Yes. Our German ancestors who came to the U.S. in the 1800s often depended on sauerkraut as a way to preserve vegetables through the winter. So sauerkraut is part of our German heritage. We think all Germans still eat it! Yes, the festivals that serve brats often have sauerkraut as an option.
Wow!! This is very interesting to learn so many German stereotypes match up with my behavior! I am German-American, 2nd 3rd generation, and now I feel so good with all that German behavior still flowing in my veins!😉😆
Uyen the GOAT lol
I had a wonderful German exchange student still in touch 20 years later. I was warned about making rules especially about public nudity. He wanted to know why (like a two year old, he asked why a lot and followed my answer with "we don't do that in Germany" about many things). When we went to the beach he asked if all the little houses were toilets and could not understand why we needed little changing rooms! He said it only takes a second to switch from pants to a bathing suit, so who cares if I flash a bit, it's not a problem in Germany. I love your views on Germany because I see my German boy in almost every situation you've mentioned. 😅♥
you both are so funny and Thank you for sharing your lives and ..cough antidotes of life. :D you both have come a long way and are talented . Have a blessed day
The casual snorlax with mustache in the background is killing me 😂😂 interesting to hear your thoughts about it, as a german I mostly agree with your opinions about the stereotypes. 😁☺️
I see so many similarities between the German boyfriend and myself. I don't like Techno music, football, cars and potatoes. Like him I'm influenced by South East Asia (in my case the Philippines due to a Filipina GF) and I eat a lot of rice and pasta. I also rarely eat Sauerkraut. Like him, I also never wear socks with sandals.
You two are adorable
Dutch like to complain a lot too! I am half Dutch, half German, born and raised Dutch tho. I have a hard time deciding who complain the most 😅
The Chicago brew houses have the BEST sausages on a bun. Each brew house has their own unique recipe and visiting each one is a blast. My personal fav is sweet spicy mustard, sauerkraut, garlic pickle, with fried onions.
As someone from rural Ohio….the small talk thing would probably made me the most hated foreigner in Germany 😂 I live in a community where you can be seen as RUDE if you DON’T engage in small talk. Even on the street, it’s not like a busy city, so if you walk past someone and don’t make eye contact or acknowledge their presence….you’re gonna look like a jerk. 😂 It’s just normal for us to wave hello or smile at each other. I’ve become conditioned into it, so I feel like a rude, mean person if I don’t acknowledge every human in my vicinity. 😮💨 I’ll admit…it can be tiring when you’re not in a good mood. However, I’ve had some really bad days of depression, but then a random stranger smiled at me or just said “hi!” and it truly made my day. It’s amazing how a simple greeting can really brighten someone’s day, so I think this is something that will never leave me. 😂 I’m gonna be that person who’s always starting small talk and annoying all the Germans. 🤦♀️😮💨🤣🤣
And a local German is going to be the rudest person in your community🤣🤣🤣🤣
@8:00 "you meet people doing naked yoga": is that the voice of experience I hear? 😀
I grew up more American than my brother. I went to American military schools in Hanau. My brother went to German schools in Germany. His sense of humor is different. More dry than mine and he takes things so litterly.
5 seconds in and the moustache on the Snorlax has already taken me out 🤣🤣🤣
hi uyen!! i love your content so much!! all of it is so interesting and i learn a lot about germany and vietnam! ❤️❤️
Can we get a Vietnamese version of this as well! This was very interesting, thank you
Well I am polish, I really hope that someday you will release A short about polish stereotypies. 😎😁