I was born in Missouri, grew up in Kansas and have family in Nebraska. Our goodbyes could last an hour! 😂 I'm still like today living in Arizona just because that's how I grew up. It took me an hour to get out of the office this afternoon cause I kept talking to coworkers! 😂
I'm in my mid-50's, born and raised in PA with parents born and raised in PA. Even as an adult when I'd visit, the goodbye started in the house where we were talking. We'd say goodbye in the living room, keep talking and pause in the kitchen...say goodbye again...make it to the breezeway...make it to the driveway...get into the car...even when we finally could start the car, there might be some conversation...and then waving from the yard as we drove down the driveway. It took me years to figure out how "short goodbyes" worked when I left home.
I'm originally from Michigan, and so phone conversations with Mom often wound down with us saying "bye" several times -- and after a pause one or the other of us would say "oh, I just remembered..." The "goodbye" portion of the call usually ended up being an hour or more.
I dunno about that. I know when I was in college, if a group of us were together and someone had to go, they'd simply say bye and break from the group. It wasn't necessary for everyone in the group to give that person an individual goodbye and receive one from that person. Just bye to all and gone. Nothing rude about it. But she was saying Germans would take the time for everyone to give individual goodbyes back and forth to each person leaving the conversation. Sounds tedious to me, honestly. I prefer a quick bye and leave. Texan here.
Certainly if you’re walking to classes at a University it’s understood people need to get to class and peel off and go. Also something that happens in meetings and so on, you just say I gotta go or I have an appointment and you just go.
Depends on the conversation. Lots of times you're just talking meaningless bullshit to get to the point of saying goodbye! Call it friendly rudeness. An oxymoron to be sure!
My school desks in early grade school still had the hole for the ink well! We were required to use pencils in early grades, and to write in script once we learned it in about third grade.
Tucked in is better because they stay on all night. If they're untucked they get wrapped around you and you're constantly waking up during the night to cover yourself back up.
Some didn’t wear slippers until they get up in the middle of the night and stub their toe on a piece of furniture, like the table leg or floor lamp. I write my numbers and was taught that way but at train stations the numbers get more curvy. If you have slight astigmatism, it’s easy to mistake some numbers, hence why some people get on the wrong train. 🙀
The bedsheets being tucked in is definitely regional. I grew up in Florida and you definitely didn't sleep with them tucked in most of the year, and if the AC was broken during the summer sleeping with bedsheets *at all* was optional.
born and raised in the very place the woman is speaking from, I honestly haven't a clue what she's talking about with the physical tucking in of sheets lol family has been here in cincy since the fall of the kingdom of Bavaria in the 1860's at the hands of the Prussians.
While there is a lot of cultural diversity here in the U.S., I think that's why, as a whole, we seem more casual in many regards. Because there are so many different cultural influences, we've boiled down the etiquette in many interactions to just their most basic and universal parts. For example, in a party as she described, there are many ways people say "Hello". In some cultures, you acknowledge everyone present, one on one. In others, you greet the host, and they will announce your arrival to the rest en masse. And in other cultures, it is considered rude to approach someone without a formal introduction facilitated by the host. In many cultures, it is not sufficient to just greet everyone, but the order in which you do it matters as well, with the guests of higher status being acknowledged first, as dictated by a very formal social hierarchy. In such places, the entire guest list may be printed on an invitation in the correct order, lol. It's also common in many places that the men will be formally announced by the host, but the women they are escorting are not, and those introductions are the responsibility of that man. So whoever is receiving guests would announce the man's name, title and vocation. "Join us in welcoming noted surgeon, Dr. William Smith" with no mention of his wife. But Dr. Smith would take his wife around to guests and introduce them "Hello Bob, this is my wife, Eliza", and his wife would make a less formal, more warm and personal introduction in person. That's actually very common in formal events. These can be mutually exclusive, depending on the circumstance. You don't really know what the expectation will be. You can imagine a scenario where a guest is waiting for a formal introduction that never comes. Other's might view them as anti-social or standoffish because they are not interacting with anyone at a social gathering. Or the reverse may happen, guests expect to be announced, but someone slips into the party unnoticed by the host and just starts approaching other guests who have no idea who this random person is, lol. There generally isn't a single culture to provide clear guidance on these matters. But at their core, they are all just ways of announcing your arrival. If we just toss out the formalities, that can be accomplished in a way that everyone understands, A loud "Hey Everybody, good to see you" is sufficient. It may seem very informal or even uncouth to some, but when they realize that's more the custom here, they tend to adapt to it quickly. Society can't have millions of people all playing by a different rulebook, so we just simplify. It may seem informal or even rude at first glance, but it's actually a very good compromise to ensure nobody is offended or burdened with wondering what the expectations might be.
I think what he meant is what we call Kindergarten is what they call first grade, and what we call pre-school is what they call Kindergarten. Pretty sure they do that in the UK too; we say pre-school for what they call Kindergarten.
Germany: age 0-3 Krippe age 3-6 Kindergarten, mostly playing, some arts and music, last year before school might be called "Vorschule" (pre-school) and include some simple lessons. 6 years - Erste Klasse / first grade of primary school
American here. I write my 1s and 9s in the American fashion, but my 4s and 7s in the German fashion; I also put a line through my Zs-not to be German, but because of math! My handwriting it a messy mix of cursive & non-cursive, just based on whichever is faster, but my capital letters are never cursive. I hate tucked sheets! That seems to be about a 50/50 split within the US, as far as I can tell. My husband and I have been using separate covers for about a quarter of a century now-it’s always been the first piece of advice I give newlyweds! 🤣 Oh, and I always wear shoes indoors, but that’s more for medical reasons rather than anything else; due to MS, I walk a ton better with them on. Taking off shoes isn’t uncommon in the US, but it is more common to wear shoes inside homes by default. When visiting someone’s home, if they want you to take your shoes off they’ll ask, but it would be very unusual for them to say, “Welcome! Would you mind leaving your shoes on?” in the same way they might say, “Welcome! Would you mind taking your shoes off?” That is, unless they’d recently spilled something dangerous/nasty on the floor and hadn’t had time to finish cleaning it up!!
Definitely, the writing seems to be the really big difference. I don't know of any Americans who write like Germans. For most of the other stuff it is more individualistic. There are still a good many Americans who have shoes removed when first come in because by not having shoes on causes less wear on the carpet.
I see many Americans write their 4's & 7's in that fashion, especially 4's. I mean just look at how the 4 is typed out when you type it on your keyboard. The only difference between this '4' and the German one is that it's connected at the top.
@@dcore64 True! But it's also true that a lot of us move around the country frequently, and get to sample all the different ways we do things here. I've lived or spent large chunks of time in about 2/3 of the US states, and lived in all the major regions except Alaska/Hawaii & far NW--but have friends & fam in those regions, too! (Still except Hawaii, tho.)
As I recall from my academic days in an American public school, the earliest machines used to score exams were unable to accurately detect ink, or the marks from too hard pencils. Therefore, the No. 2 Pencil was developed into the primary instrument of test taking; being the best balance of softness, minimized smudging, and detectability for the scanners. While better machines have since been developed, inertia and familiarity (and probably the formidable pencil lobby) have made the No. 2 Pencil the main workhorse of the American Educational System.
I think Americans are so used to a fast pace that we all understand when someone has to get somewhere, it's not a big deal, and we'll see them later. I feel the better friends we are, the faster we can just say, got to go, bye - and they understand. As for being tucked in, we find it very cozy & soothing. 😊
@@moirapettifr7127 "tucking someone in" means putting them to bed and pulling the covers over them. Has absolutely nothing with tucking the actual sheet and/or blanket.
The tucking in thing sounds like she got information from a small child or something. We only have the foot of the bed tucked in usually, and there's plenty of people that don't even like that, and so don't. I personally have to leave the sides of my bed untucked, because I have to sleep diagonally across the bed for being too tall. Edit: I grew up in Alaska and lived there 20 years... No one wears their shoes in the house there, and it's simply an absolute habit for everyone. Too much snow means too much mud.
@@alisonflaxman1566When I was in the Navy you didn’t have fitted sheets, you were issued two flat sheets. The bottom sheet is tucked in opposite from the normal top sheet way. Meaning place the end of the sheet at end of the foot of the bed and proceed to tuck in with hospital corners at the head and tuck in the sides with a crisp 45 degree angle at the head corner tuck and folds. Repeat in the normal direction for the top sheet. This was in boot camp. In the barracks after boot camp and school you can buy normal bedding and makeup however you like but it must be neat or you may fail the weekly room inspection. Onboard ship the bunks are much smaller but the sheets are still the same size and instead of tuck and folding the bottom flat sheet you simply tie knots on the corners and tuck the knots under the mattress thereby making it a fitted sheet.
I feel like she misrepresented how we say bye. It’s not like we’re talking then we say bye and leave in the middle of conversations. It more like we’re talking and if he have to leave we say something like oh I have to go I’ll talk to you later, wait for a response to that then start the process of goodbyes. It’s not usually immediate, more like (person 1) “oh I just realize the time I have to catch my train” (person 2) “oh okay I’ll talk to you later then” (person 1) sounds good, bye” “okay bye”. Also I would say most people don’t flatly say good bye especially with friends or family. We put warmth into the bye it so it’s more like bye for now, talk to you later but with just the word bye or goodbye.
I have seen it both ways. My family and much of the region where I grew up, good byes can be excruciatingly long. I have also interacted with lots of people that pretty much do "gotta go - bye" and they are gone. Some do just disappear without saying anything at all. I'm not sure if this is situational or representative of some kind of cultural/generational pattern.
College students can be more abrupt, when they're operating on a long-term sleep deficit (which they usually are, after the second week of school or so), under time pressure (ditto), and running late (ditto). Feli's experience of America draws heavily on college, so I have no trouble believing she's experienced what she described.
She’s still learning and will be hit or miss for a few more years. She put a lot of effort into her American accent but she needs more work on our culture which has several different regions.
American here. One thing we do differently is writing dates- we write month, day, year. So July 9, 2024 or 7/9/2024 Tucked-in sheets - meaning all sheets and blankets tucked in all around the mattress? I’ve only seen that in store displays and some hotels on the first night. Otherwise, tucked in only on the foot end. Shoes indoors - I prefer street shoes to house shoes - they are safer, especially when you’re cooking. Duvet cover - cumbersome to take off, wash, and replace. I prefer top sheet, blankets, and bedspread or comforter. Greetings and farewells - I think most of us would find someone walking off in the middle of a conversation to be strange or rude. Farewells - depends on the situation and group, but there’s usually something more than just “‘bye”. And then in some groups - usually friends or family - it can take a long time to say good-bye! You say something like, “well, it’s that time” (meaning it’s time to leave) and talk a bit longer, and finally you make it to the door and talk some more, and this can keep happening even when you are in the car!
In the military dates are written day month year without any punctuation, it’s also the same format that was popular over 100 years ago I discovered while looking at old documents for my family tree. I don’t know why it was changed to a month day, year format and I never liked the all numerical format with slashes because people would always confuse the month and day unless the day was after the 12th.
A lot of us were taught to tuck the sheets from childhood some of us learned it in the military... It's the proper way to make a bed. And if you live somewhere that has scorpions rattlesnakes tarantulas et cetera..... It's a good idea.
Yes, the point of tucking is to keep bugs and other creepy crawlies out in many places. Even though I live in Texas, I don't bother with tucking though. I just shake my sheets out before bed. I really hate tucking. Lol
The "Smith residence, Paul speaking" is definitely the way we were taught to answer the phone in the US. That said, if you were at your own home and you were past a certain age, it became less common. But for young children or when you were at your grandparents, in either case where a strange voice could have confused the caller, the practice was very common. My practice answering both personal and business calls (and I think its fairly common - at least among my generation and older) is, if the caller is unknown or for formal situations, "This is Paul". If caller ID shows it as someone I know well, the greeting will be much more casual, anything from a "hey, what's up" to just 'hello". ETA: As for ending phone calls, she's nailed the most common way to end a call with someone who is well known. And 'bye" could be repeated as "bye bye". For more formal speech, it may be more like "Thank you. Good bye."
lol I just answer every call from someone I don't know with "Hi, this is ", just so they don't have to do the awkward thing of asking me if they can speak to... me 😂
II never heard of anything being taught like you describe. We simply answered "hello" 90% of the time or with our surname only. I grew up in East Tennessee.
Normally when I answer a phone I’ll just say “Hello”. I stopped giving out my name, first or last, as we get wrong numbers, spam calls, and never give out my phone number to someone calling me. I hate my blankets being tucked on the end. Its prevalent in hotels and it’s often tucked so much you don’t have enough to cover your chest.
I suspect that telemarketing has led to a general downturn in telephone civility. After being barraged by telephone calls during dinner from people we have ZERO interest in talking to, I think people just dropped the friendly greeting and adopted a very clipped and to-the-point "Hello?" You might become a lot more friendly after recognizing a friend on the other end of the line, but unwelcome spam-callers could expect continued hostility.
Same. I actually recently learned that if you get a lot of spam calls, you should answer the phone and not say anything. If a real person is calling you rather than an auto dialer, they'll say Hello? and then you can talk. If it's an auto dialer, though, it'll assume there was an error and hang up and remove that ph# from their call list. So I've stopped saying anything when I answer the phone until the person on the other side speaks. Lol
I use caller ID to screen calls and if I don’t recognize the name or number, I don’t answer the phone. If they leave a message I may answer the phone if they call back.
I'm from Virginia and I never heard of anyone taking their shoes off before coming into a home until I went into the Army and my best friend, who was from Hawaii, did at his house.
My grandmothers and my mother used a comforter with a cover. My grandmothers came from Russia and Poland at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century. I hate being tucked in and pull out the sheet and blanket in hotels. I didn’t even know that a lot of people use a sheet and blanket. I was college age and had no idea what people were doing with the flat sheets that I saw advertised.
@@RunningGrass-we7tm Nah, it's not that high. A lot of people do, but I have both friends and relatives that want you to take your shoes off in their house.
As someone from the upper Midwest, which was settled by a lot of German and Scandanavian immigrants, I can say positively that our "goodbyes" in conversation are definitely NOT short. They are perhaps a little shorter on the phone, but in person, definitely not. For example, if you're seated, you start the goodbye process bu exhaling, "Well...," you then slap your hands down on your knees, and say, "I suppose..." The phrase implies "I suppose I should be going/leaving now," but you don't have to say the end part. The very words themselves, and even the reluctance to say them, suggest that the person only reluctantly wants to leave, thus beginning the extended goodbye, even if they actually DO want to leave. Now, if the HOST says "Well, I suppose" instead of the guest, it is a polite way of telling the guest/visitor to leave. There are videos on RUclips about this. It's actually pretty hilarious. Here is Charlie Berens' take on it: ruclips.net/video/MHCmE4ABnNs/видео.htmlsi=mGVFAA5nbjyEcA0H
Another big difference is mealtimes. Both cultures have breakfast in the morning before going to work or school. In the US we have usually a light meal at midday around noon or 1pm. Usually something like a sandwich with maybe a cup of soup in the Winter or some fruit or a salad in Summer. When I visited my aunt in Bavaria she would close down her shop for two hours in the early afternoon and come home to have the big meal of the day. Then in the evening after work it's the opposite. In the US we have the big meal of the day around 6 or 7 pm while in Germany we just had a light Abendbrot - something like a roll or some bread with butter and jam or with a bit of cheese or some sort of sliced or spreadable wurst. My personal favorite was Teawurst which we always called Kinderwurst because children love it. I think the German way is probably healthier because you aren't going to bed so soon after a big meal. But it's impractical for the US because so many people have a half hour or an hour to drive to work and you would need at least a 3 or 4 hour break to get home, fix and eat your meal and then get back to work.
In Rome, they used to have a four-hour midday break for lunch and everyone would go home to eat. The traffic got terrible, and they no longer go home for lunch, but shops still close midday.
Now with both of us retired, we can eat whenever we feel like it but as we have become older, seems we don’t or can’t eat our meals too late in the evening.
My maternal grandfather was of German and Swiss ancestry and this is how he did mealtimes. He was a farmer and he had a larger meal and took quite a long break during the hottest part of the day. He started very early in the morning and then finished late in the evening.
While a lot of Americans might wear shoes in the house, there are a lot of households that don't allow shoes in the house. I had a friend who made us take our shoes off when we visited. House shoes do exist in the U.S. and some people wear them instead of wearing socks or bare feet. I hate socks and shoes all together, so as long as it is warm out side, I go barerfoot all over the place. In the winter, when I am in the house, if I am cold, I will wear socks, but I only put shoes on when I have to leave the house. I wear shoes when i go to work, but if I don't have to wear shoes, I just don't. My husband is the same. He only puts shoes on when he leaves the house to go somewhere, like work or the store. Our son also doesn't like shoes, and he also only wears shoes if he has to.
It’s like that in the South also. When guests say they have to leave, it’s about another hour or two carrying on more conversations they didn’t talk about in the last eight hours while they slowly walk to their car. Then they’ll call you when they get home to let you know they got home safe then start talking about the drive home for about another hour.😁
Please keep in mind that this girl only knows about her very limited experience in a particular part of the United States. Every single thing she lists as being different from Germany can also be found in the US somewhere. She makes a lot off assumptions.
I would go as far as saying her videos are not good ones to react to. Laurence Brown's videos are much better, he has actually lived here for 15 years and he's not a kid.
She always says in the beginning of her videos that this is her limited experience in Cincinnati. I don't understand why people keep leaving comments that she is generalizing about all Americans.
After reading a lot of the comments, it appears to me that there is some confusion about the taking shoes off when you enter a home in the US. There is a huge difference between going to someone else's home versus what you do in your own home. Most Americans take their own shoes off in their own home once they have decided they are not going out for some reason, such as working in the yard or on the house, or if they plan on going somewhere else totally, like shopping or gong to some else's house. But the removing of shoes is TOTALLY different when you go to another home. I have encountered less than 5 times where they expect or even ask you to take your shoes off when entering their home. It is NOT an American custom to take your shoes off at someone else's home. Of course, there are exceptions, such an environmental issue around the house you are visiting, which may be extremely 'dirty', such as after a recent local fire, or muddy outside, etc.
Most of the people who insist that you take off your shoes have light colored carpet and they are fanatical about not getting it dirty. Some houses (especially in rural areas) have mud-rooms near the front door where you are expected to take off your dirty footwear. But mostly it's not expected in most people's homes. Shoe removal is also a big thing with certain ethnic subcultures (for example, Asians almost always take their shoes off inside, or wear slippers or flipflops).
Bingo! I've always found it odd people say Americans don't take their shoes off in the house, but I can't think of a single person who doesn't want to kick their shoes off the second they get home from work or going out. But if you're a guest & visiting someone else's house, THEN you keep your shoes on unless there's a particular reason or they ask you to take them off.
As an HVAC technician I was asked to remove my shoes in many places...My response was always athletes foot...lol. Which does lead to the fact that it can be unsanitary especially from a labor perspective where you are always in smelly sweaty work shoes. I could never ask someone to remove their shoes because of this possibility.
American here. I would never step into another home , ever , ever with my shoes on without explicit instructions that it is okay to do so. Usually if people don’t mind- they tell you “no worries, or make yourself at home” in which case I take mine off because wearing shoes inside is disgusting. If they say nothing that is an indication to take your shoes off, as in what is the normal customary thing to do
I have house shoes and loafers for home. I'll often just go barefooted too, but if I'm working at home or cleaning I gotta have shoes. Idk why but it makes my motivation shoot through the roof and i don't tend to drag my feet if I'm wearing them.
It is the new Common Core Curriculum. Which is really meant to be what is minimally taught. Cursive is not taught anymore because we will all be using computers and keyboards in the future but this is a guideline only and each school district might be different.
@@SuperDrLisaYou can learn to read cursive without being able to write it. I have a few gen z coworkers who can’t write in cursive (one is trying to teach herself how) but can read it easily.
As a US Navy veteran, I met my wife in Frankfurt in the early 90’s. We had two daughters that have been confirmed to be 2/3 Cherokee Native American. When I took them to Germany to meet their German family, they loved them. This was surprising to me. But, my oldest daughter stayed in Germany with her German family to attend University and her German grandparents supported her. I am grateful for this.
Tucking the sheets in is far from universal and I suspect, today, the minority practice. It may be done when making the bed, but then undone before sleeping. I personally don't tuck my sheets and never have. But keep in mind, "tucking in" very rarely, as in almost never, actually involves tucking the sheets or blankets. It is merely the act of saying guten acht . The two mattresses pushed together is not unknown and no one would be surprised by it, but it is likely a small fraction of bed. Slatted beds definitely exist, especially with antique bed frames, but traditionally, they still used box springs. Box springs are becoming less common due to expense, but many beds will use a "platform" instead that looks like box springs, but is just fabric covered wood.
Box springs used to have springs in them, and mattresses didn't. It's been a long time since that was standard. Now, the mattresses have springs inside, so the foundation under it isn't needed except to raise the mattress up higher.
@@dmk-whc Box springs still have springs. A box without springs is a foundation. That said, you are generally correct, though there was a good number of decades when both the box and the mattress had springs.
House shoes exist in the US, but they are more for the winter when you don't want to put on real shoes, for example, before you get dressed in the morning. In the summer, people would just go barefoot or sock footed in the same situation, but in the winter, the floor can be very cold, so slippers or house shoes can be the best solution.
EVERYBODY IN THE USA IS DIFFERENT! THAT'S ONE THING ABOUT THE USA THAT'S GREAT AND IT'S THAT WE ARE VERY VERY DIVERSE. I write my numbers especially my 7 and my Z's just like German..
There is NO WAY I would ever answer my phone the way I did in 1969 which was to use "Stringfellow residence, this is Jude" Yeah, that's not going to happen, and I would not be happy if any of my grandkids did that either. In 2024 I won't even answer the phone if I don't know who is calling. Announcing who I am would be 100% out of the question. If they called me they should already know me.
@@alisonflaxman1566 Yes, the fitted sheet is always tucked, but the flat sheet that goes on top of the fitted sheet also gets tucked when people "tuck" their sheets. And people will often tuck a blanket or comforter in as well on top of the flat sheet when tucking. Those of us who don't tuck still tuck the fitted sheet, but don't bother tucking the flat sheet or anything above it. :)
My grandmother was of German and Irish descent and she was a schoolteacher. She taught me to write some of my numbers as German do with the line through the 7 and hanging from the top of a 1, she explained that’s how to tell them apart. I also have put the line through the letter z for as long as I can remember. Many times teachers and employers have not liked my writing with these differences, but it doesn’t look right to me still.
I have to say I absolutely hate tucked in bed sheets and blankets. Hotels always have everything tucked in tightly and I can't stand it. I have to untuck everything before I can sleep.
@@alisonflaxman1566 Technically, no one in the US refers to the bottom fitted sheet as being tucked in; we say it's fitted. The sheets on top of it are tucked in. Fitted sheets have to be put on correctly or they won't stay on. Lol
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Wow😱 I know her too Andrea Sheryl Fox is a remarkable individual who has brought immense positivity and inspiration into my life. Her unwavering wisdom have been invaluable assets, enriching my journey in countless ways.
I've never known of anyone to abruptly say goodbye in the middle of a conversation, and I'm a 57-year-old American. That would be seen as rude, and I could only imagine someone doing that if they didn't want to talk with the other person to begin with. When I answer my phone (landline or mobile) I always say "This is Terry", but I don't know anyone else who does it that way. Also I haven't known of anyone to use "residence" since about the early 1970s. The sleeping stuff is completely individual.
Answering a phone today is much different than it used to be. Rarely would anyone answer with, "Smith residence...", even in the '50s & '60s. Back then it was just 'Hello'. Now, with everyone on cell phones the first response is to see who's calling and decide whether or not to answer. No ID showing? Don't even pick the phone up. If someone needs us they'll leave a message otherwise it was more than likely a telemarketer and if you answer just once you'll be bombarded with sales calls and text messages for months.
The way I say hello on the phone is simply "greetings." I used to just say "hello?" but in High School I had a friend who always answered the phone with "greetings" and I liked it. Saying bye on the phone I do wait for a clear ending to the conversation before actually saying "bye." But not everyone does this... my wife doesn't. She just hangs up. No bye, no anything. Concerning shoes, I never wear street shoes indoors. No one in my family does that. I do have slippers, but don't wear them very much mostly because my house has a lot of carpet on the floor. I would imagine if the house had no carpet, and the Winters get cold, the floor would be really cold and thus slippers would be used more often. But I live in the Southern US where the weather tends to be warm and the Winters not so harsh, plus there's carpet.
I have German roots, but it doesn't influence what I do. I have always taken my shoes off in my own home and when I go visit someone else. When we used to have land line telephones (speaking for my home personally) I used to answer ' Hello, how may I help you? ' or ' Who would you like to talk to?' we were polite but not royally polite. We never used fountain pens in our schools, we had pencils and ball point pens. Fountain pens were saved for Art class.
I think the shoes thing is regional. I used to live in the upper Midwest and you were expected to take your shoes off, even if there was no snow on the ground. If there's a spot for shoes by the door, it's just implied that you're supposed to take them off. But about 10 years ago I moved to the Mid-Atlantic region and most guests will keep their shoes on by default unless asked to take them off (and this has never happened to be yet.)
As an American, I do the shoes like the Germans. I feel more relaxed and at home if I take my shoes off and put on house slippers as soon as I'm home. But I will leave my street shoes on if I'm only coming in for a little while and intend to go back outside within the hour.
Southerners in the US are likely to spend 30 minutes saying goodbye. When my daughter was about 5 she commented that her grandmother could say one more thing for 2 hours.
This was a lot of laughs! From the late 19th Century into the early 20th, tens of millions of Germans immigrated to America, including a pair of my great-grandparents. Many of them landed in the Mid-Atlantic States, such as New Jersey, and all over the Midwest, like Ohio. They kicked ass being successful in the New World. Many quirky Americanisms are a combination of German and British influences (the other branch of my family), and rebellion against the Old World.
In Hawaii wearing your shoes in the house is not done. Usually, the footwear is left outside the front door or inside the entrance out of the way of the door. Very few people use house slippers. Not wearing footwear in the house keeps the floor or carpet cleaner. Also, tucking in is not common here. Better to have your sheets and blankets loose especially if you move around a lot when you're sleeping. My husband and I have separate blankets in case you want to wrap it around yourself. It works.
I just commented about about wearing shoes in the house. I'm from Virginia and everyone I knew wore shoes in the house. First time I saw that was when my best friend in the Army, who was Hawaiian, brought me to his house the first time.
I'm GenX and we were taught to write the "G" like the "Germans" ! Of course we never thought it was German it was simply taught to us that way. I'm shocked about how we Americans tuck in our sheets. Yes or course we do that ! So odd German don't ? Not to mention U.S. military is so much about tucking in your sheets perfectly ! Makes me wonder how German hotels lay bedsheets ? lol
Yeah I was thinking the exact same thing 😂 I hate the blankets being tucked in and I always pull them out as well, I will say that all hotels always tuck in the sheets and such but I think it's mostly to look good
Chris, another fun video! I am an older GenX American, who spent an exchange year in Germany way back in the mid-1980's, before reunification. Many of these customs differ regionally, as well as generationally, and of course individually. Most of the things Feli mentioned As German are not completely foreign to Americans, even if they are not the most common choices. For example, the number writing. 4, 7, 9, 0 with a line through it, Z, I, & J vary some. I agree especially capitalization forms can differ enough to confuse people, but as for cursive handwriting, that may be changing, thanks to computers and internet texting. You said you never saw a 4 written more square and open topped. I think that became a common option as a result of the prominence of digital readouts, in which there is no option for diagonal lines. My son is 21. His elementary school did not even teach cursive writing. Instead they learned "keyboarding." In Germany, I usually could not recognize what Germans were writing, because most of your written words had only a recognizable first letter, followed by a string of little curly-queue loops, so a pair of i letters could also be a "u," or an "ei" or an "ie", or an "n", etc. Horrible. I started printing block letters, just so Germans could read my words, and all these decades later I still do that. The pen vs pencil thing varies in schools and often is left up to teachers. Bedsheets? I hate tucked sheets and pull them out. Hotels always tuck them. So do military barracks, so military personnel have to. Otherwise it is individual preference. Some differences I noticed ALMOST 40 YEARS AGO! 😱 Store hours much longer in the U.S. nice for customers, not so much for store employees. Traffic lights and driving: We only have yellow signal lights between green turning to red. Yellow light NEVER follows a red light. When a light turns green, drivers typically take an extra second or two to "go." I think that is one reason that so many American drivers run red lights. In Germany, you KNOW you don't dare to do that, because the other cars are already ready to go the instant their light is green. Americans are taught also to lock our car doors for safety when driving. It slightly reduces likelihood of a carjacking being successful against you. Yes, we have a stupidly violent culture. There's that "Land of the Free" you were asking about. Freedom to be victimized by lawlessness! 😐 Ice cold beverages. We do like our drinks cold, and we often prefer ice in them. I am definitely American in that specific sense. Lol Back to driving for a second. Fucking HUGE pickup trucks and SUVs are dominant in the U.S. I hate that. It is arrogant, inconsiderate of other drivers, wasteful of resources, and deadly. It also did not used to be that way. It is a roughly 40 year campaign by automotive manufacturers that led to this. In 1882, the top selling vehicle in the U.S. was the little Ford Escort. In 2022 it was the now much-bigger- than-before Ford F-150 pickup. If you haven't already seen it, check out the you tube video "These stupid trucks are literally killing us," by you tube channel "Not Just Bikes." It is quite eye opening. We could learn a lot from Amsterdam.
I don't sleep with my sheets tucked in. I prefer to wrap my covers around me, especially if I'm cold. My husband and I actually have our own blankets because I will take the whole blanket to wrap myself in. The writing though answered a bunch of questions for me. I work at a job that I interact with truck drivers, and there are a number of European truck drivers, and now I know what numbers are what!!! Score for learning something new!!!
I was waiting for her to cover how you count on your fingers. I learned from the movie, Inglorious Basterds, that Germans count one with their thumb while most Americans and Brits count one with the index finger.
I’ve heard so much talk from people about taking your shoes off in the house but nobody talks about what I think is the biggest problem with that: if you walk around in your socks all the time they wear out fast and you have to replace your socks all the time. I hate that!!
I prefer the American way of doing laundry (use of dryers). The only time I hang up linens to dry is after I go to the beach or water park and my swimming attire and towel are moist. German pillows suck. But I do prefer German public transportation where you don’t have to worry about crackheads screaming their face off at you for no reason or tweaking out on something. I had to learn cursive in American schools in 3rd and 4th grade and it kind of stuck with me to this day when I write my words. I like the German way of writing the number 7 with the line going through it, looks more dope that way.
@@arnodobler1096 : I remember the time between getting a clothes washer in our apartment and finally getting a dryer. We hung the clothes on a line. It's really nice in good weather, unless the birds poop on them (which requires re-washing). It's tough in winter. I remember bringing in clothes that were stiffened with ice! We would hang some over the radiators, but there weren't enough radiators for a full load.
@@dmk-whc In winter I hang the laundry in the basement. Often the clothes are marked: Not suitable for tumble drying! I think the dryer is better for towels and bed linen, but not for anything else.
You are correct, for my age group at least. However, I've heard from a few folks that it's optional now in some schools. This makes no sense to me because cursive allows you to take notes much faster than writing each letter as a separate character.
I am a teacher in Arizona, we stopped teaching cursive for many years and just started again recently. This means there are tons of kids here who are now adults that cannot read or write cursive.
I do not know where you get your information. In Texas, cursive is NOT required and is almost never taught even in private schools. My 21 year old can read and write cursive but rarely uses it as most of his peers cannot read it and certainly not write it.
Here is one that I learned from my German collogues at work. "I must leave a column of water in the corner" vs. in the US, "I gotta take a leak, bleed the chicken, go to the john"
I am American, but I hate sleeping with the sheets & blanket tucked under the bed. I sleep with them tucked around my legs like the Germans. However, most Americans I know especially older people sleep with sheets & blanket tucked under the bed.
First no one tucks them under the bed. They go under the mattress. Second the bottom sheet is fitted and I don't see how you can not tuck it in. I'm old and no one I know tucks in the top sheet except at the foot of the bed. Even my parents who were born in 1922 didn't tuck in the sides of a top sheet or blanket.
Alexander Graham Bell wanted to make answering the phone start with "ahoy". P.S. You only say "Smith residence" when the owner of the residence is busy and they ask you to answer the phone. For example, if they're cooking and have stuff on their hands and the phone rings. They say; "Can you get that for me?". You pick up the phone and say "Smith residence, may I ask whom this is?" While this is happening the owner of the residence is usually cleaning off their hands so that they can take over the call.
She is right. Americans write their numbers differently than what she described for Germans. Though, I have seen Americans write ones that look like sevens to me (more like the German "one"). I write my z's with a line through it. I used to see Americans write z's that way when I was a kid, and I like it, because if I don't do that, I can get my z's mixed up with my 2's. I just like it for readability. re. wearing shoes inside, that varies. Lately, I've been wearing slippers around my place, and wearing shoes to go out. I have a friend (who is of German descent) where he and his wife ask people to remove their shoes when they come in, and we just walk around in our socks. That's generally what happens. Throughout the years, I've been to people's places where they don't care if you remove your shoes, and others who ask us to remove them, but if we take them off, we don't use slippers. We just walk around in our socks. Also, just noticing, for someone who's only been here for 8 years, she has a very good American accent. I wouldn't know she was German just from listening to her.
Thanks, I have see several of her videos before and what I don't like is she is a very young person with limited experiences and she is quick to make sweeping generalizations solely based on her experience. Don't know how many times I caught her talking about things that ALL Americans do and many times is it something that some Americans in particular age groups do; but in no was some that most let alone all do.
Tucking your sheets under the mattress in isn't something you do in order to actually go to sleep, I've never heard of or seen anyone that sleeps with them tucked in. Generally most people are taught to tuck in their sheets when making their bed, so that it looks more neat and organized (as she mentioned hotels do), then you pull them out to go to sleep.
There is an interesting wrinkle when it comes to readable text in America: what you're looking at right now. The default font used on almost all computer devices, desktops in particular, has always been pretty different from how the majority of Americans write their letters, despite the internet and computer industry starting here. The most notable discrepancies being the lowercase "a" and uppercase "I". The "a" is rendered in the older "double story" fashion, with a curve on top, while the capital "I" lacks any serifs, depite the majority of people writing their capital "I"s with them. The Iatter difference has consequences on readability, since a capitaI "I" and lowercase "l" look absoIutely identical. In fact, l've replaced several random Is and Ls in these past two sentences with each other, and you'd probably never notice when and where I've done so. The font used as the default on almost all computer devices is called "Segoe" by the way.
I was just noticing that I write all my letters like this ThinkPad keyboard, but the numbers are European style, at least the 1, 4, and 9 and I don't do that.
One thing I think Germany does right that I wish they wouldn’t do as much in the US is not putting a bunch of ice in their drinks, I prefer my drinks either room temp or maybe refrigerated but definitely not loaded with ice
#2 Pencils when I was in school were required for “Scantron” tests and for the SATs. It was because the multiple choice sections of the test could be read and scored by computer (even in the early 80s), saving the teacher time and effort. If you didn’t use a #2 pencil the computer/scanner couldn’t read it.
Yes, I feel more productive and motivated with shoes on inside. That said, I also use indoor slippers with stiff memory foam padding. My podiatrist said alot of foot injuries happen indoors because people are climbing hard wooden stairs barefoot or with just socks, same for injuries on hard tiles, and chasing children or pets with no protection causes lots of issues too.
I’m an Ohioan of German heritage. Last summer I went on vacation to Pennsylvania to an area populated by a lot of people with German ancestry (“Pennsylvania Dutch”). I stayed at a bed and breakfast that was run by a woman who was directly from Germany. Her tolerance of heat was a lot different than mine, and even though this was the first week of August she kept the thermostat at a temperature that I don’t consider comfortable. It seemed like it was somewhere between 75-77 degrees F (24-25 degrees C) with the air conditioning on. I'm accustomed to 72 degrees F (22 degrees C). This was an upstairs bedroom with a bed with sheets, blanket, and duvet. I had to sleep with everything off of the bed so I could be comfortable and then put everything back on the bed in the morning. She made it clear that I was not to adjust the thermostat and to leave it alone. Also, it took a long time for me to pull myself away from her in the mornings when I wanted to go sightseeing and I didn’t want to leave too abruptly for fear of offending her. I think another cultural difference was the amount of food she set out for me for breakfast. I was the only guest at the bed and breakfast at the time, yet it seemed she cooked about 6 eggs at the very least, about half a pound of bacon, a bowl of yogurt and a bowl of fruit as well as toast. I think she may also have had pancakes, but I’m not sure about that. She seemed disappointed and maybe a little offended if I didn’t eat a big breakfast. When I was in college many years ago, I visited Germany (back when East and West were still divided) and stayed one night with a host family near Stuttgardt. That’s when I learned the German/European custom of having a small breakfast, a large noon meal (that I call lunch but many Americans would call dinner), and a very small evening meal/supper. I think they had a light snack a little before bedtime. That’s a cultural difference from the U.S. Generally, the evening meal/supper is the largest meal of the day unless you live on a farm where you’ll have a large breakfast.
Many years ago (like 40 years) I visited a German family for about a week. I remember the meals were virtually all the same. They would pull out a cheese and crackers platter, maybe with some deli meats involved ... a lot like a charcuterie board that Americans use today at parties. I realize this may have been how this one family fed themselves and their guests, or it may have been the common way most Germans served meals. In America, we have a lot more variety, often eating many variations of sandwiches or soups at lunch, or even leftover meals from the night before. And our dinners are more elaborately cooked meals like meatloaf and potatoes, sphagetti and salad, casseroles, chicken and veggies, etc, etc. Again, I'm not sure if my German experience was specific to how this one family did things, or if it was indicative of how most Germans served meals. I enjoy your videos, Chris!
I don't know anyone who sleeps in a bed with the sheets or blankets tucked in. That is uncomfortable. Tucking a kid in is simply pulling the blanket over them and telling them good night
@@alisonflaxman1566The bottom sheet has elastic all the way around a bottom sheet. That isn't tucking... that's how a fitted she is made to go onto a mattress!!??
Interesting to see so many Americans talking about how they were taught to answer the phone. I always just said “Hello?” until I started answering a work phone, where I was trained and it was necessary to identify oneself/the establishment. My impression of the meaning of “hello?” is “who is calling?,” which is interesting. It puts the onus of identifying oneself and who they are hoping to reach on the caller. Like, I’m receiving an inquiry, not providing information first, hehe. Or “Hi, who’s this?” It makes it kind of awkward to answer a cell phone, because I’m so used to answering “Hello?” When I already know who it is, it’s like signing off on a text or something, or starting it like a letter, “dear so and so” - unnecessary formality. So maybe that’s the cultural difference. Even though Germans are precise and to the point, they still take the time to do things properly, whereas Americans are always looking for corners to cut, like we don’t need to ask who is calling anymore so that becomes annoying to people.
Also as many people have pointed out the regional diversity. I’ve lived mostly in the north and when I go south it’s noticeably slowed down. Maybe it has to do with not wanting to draw things out if you’re outside in the cold, but rushing in the heat just makes you sweat.
8:45 Poor Feli! When people just say "Bye" and walk away while you're talking, they're being rude and trying to quietly tell you they don't want to talk to you right then. But maybe that's because she'd just walk along with them because that's what she was used to, and here we often say "Hey I'm heading to [whatever class], wanna walk with me?" Because sometimes people just want some time to themselves, or have to go somewhere else. Or just don't feel like it. So maybe they thought she was the one being rude. That's just surprising to me since she's really lovely
I think the tuck in bed thing is mostly a hotel thing. When I "tuck my kids in bed" I just cocoon them in their blanket like a burrito. The shoes in the house is family specific, it actually is better to assume you remove your shoes when entering someones house.
This is a regional thing, I think. In Texas, it's better to assume you leave your shoes on. Don't want anything to sting or bite you because you took your shoes off.
While serving in the U.S.ARMY I was stationed in Frankfurt, GE. Back then ( 1980s ) I loved it! Some of the writing ( numbers etc. ) I do as Germans do. Mostly because this how we did it in the military.
iam philipino german Irish from my dads side, 5.8s tlingit Alaska native from my moms side, I met a German women an she didn't know me but when I said I was part German she said thats where you get your anger from, kinda true lol imet a German called wolfgangfrank in west Germany, an he invited me over to eat, with his friends, my first time ever eating a fully cooke pig on a silver plater with a apple in its mouth an we drank beer out of a glass boot with a shot of schnapps, I got wasted, I let them play with my m16rifle, we had fun, thk you for your videos, iam learning alot about Germany, oh spoiler alert, my dad was a ww2 veteran,lol but I love German people, they have a rich culture with a great history, you had so great generals, America uses Erwin Rommel as a tank general in all our tank training, we learned alot from your blitzkrieg, an apply it in all or engagements across the world, danke Schoen,
❤I do not remember the name of the Holiday in Germany. It is around Christmas time. Children would leave their shoes outside the entrance of the house and receive gifts. Also, in certain areas of the country, because of tracking in mud and wet clothes, we have what is sometimes called a mudroom....we leave our shoes and dirty clothes. Sometimes you have the washer and dryer and a half-bath right there to wash up. Lastly, I remember how differently we shop for food. We have HUGE refrigerators and sometimes freezers so we only have to go shopping maybe twice a month. We also hunt or raise a lot of our meat, (we process it ourselves), which we dry or freeze for the year.. Sometimes you have to travel over an hour to get to the store. We grow, can and dry our own vegetables/fruit/meat etc when we can to save money. I have to say I miss the daily bread trucks in Germany. Your bread is soooo good!!! I make wonderful baked items...Yet, I have ALWAYS struggled making bread...but that is me...others make it very well.❤❤❤
While living in Germany during the early 1970s, seeing Germans step outside to sweep the sidewalk in front of their shop or home stunned me. I don't have memories of anyone doing that. I've lived in Chicago, Omaha, San Francisco, Colorado Springs, and have visited most of the states. I've seen people shovel snow and rake leaves from their sidewalks, but sweeping is extremely rare. Though I will admit that landscape companies will use 'air backpacks' with blowers to blow debris and grass clippings off of sidewalks, but homeowners and business owners? Extremely rare. But I haven't been to Germany in over half of a century, so maybe it has changed.
For the most part, America may have preschool, then kindergarten, then first grade. It was the first German word I learned.😉 Collectively, pre college education is referred to as "Grades K through 12"
I grew up in a military family, so made beds and tucked in sheets were a MUST! It has become a habit now, so an unmade bed is too sloppy for me. However, not all Americans think so.
53 yr old American here. numbers--I write my # four like this-4. Shoes in the house--when I was a kid, we always wore our shoes all thru the house. I got married at 16 and my wife MADE everyone take their shoes off at the door. I'm now married to a Filipina and, of course, shoes are not allowed inside. They all(her and her parents) take their shoes off at the door outside. I put mine inside. Their outside shoes annoy me as they all take them off directly in front of the door. It is very rude to me as you are not taking anyone else into consideration. You just care only about your shoes and you going into the door. Lets not think that your shoes may trip the next person. I usually take my foot and slightly KICK the other shoes aside. Wife and I bought our new house last yr and father-in-law was helping me carry something in. He made a motion for me to leave my shoes outside on the porch, where it was lightly raining. It really offended me as it is MY house and I am paying ALL the bills. I'll wear my shoes ALL THRU the house if I want to! Sleeping--I never make my bed. When I lay down, I usually raise my legs and roll side to side to get my blankets all under me. Always done that.
My mother was german and between her, my german relatives, and living as a child in German for 9 years I feel stuck between two cultures. I am not German ({lost language) but not quite American {don’t fit in}. I love watching your content!
the Letters portion. In Old English as used in the USA 200+ years ago the I and the J looked alike, which is how the modern J was introduced. And the thing about our Goodbyes is that we are so casual or short with them because formal goodbyes, or long goodbyes, make us feel like it is permanent. Over here we don't believe in a forever goodbyes, so it seems short and/or informal and casual.
I used to tuck in my sheets as a kid at my Mom's insistence. At least she didn't make me bounce a quarter off it like was required of an army soldier. The way I made my bed was tuck the sheet at the bottom and make a box fold at the corner. Then leave the sides hanging down. Followed by a blanket, then a bedspread just laid over the top sheet. It looked just as nice. Tucking you in was just the ritual of the kids getting into bed and the parent having bonding time. Sometimes it included reading a short book like a Dr. Seuss book before bed. It often involved listening to a child's nighttime prayers. Sometimes the parent getting the child a small glass of water. Of course, all this was delay tactics. Sometimes-many times-it would involve Dad singing "Quando La Gusta" until he tripped over his tongue. Then, at last, delay tactics were exhausted. Then the child got in bed (maybe one more time to the bathroom, and then to bed.) The tucking part would be Dad pulling the sheets higher to your chin and saying goodnight. Then, since I shared a room with my two sisters, we'd get to talking, quietly, so we didn't get anyone yelling at us. But invariably one of us would say something hilarious and we'd all crack up laughing! Then Mom would yell, "Shut up and go to sleep!" And we'd still giggle a little bit more, then finally go to sleep!
American here. Growing up I made 7's the "American" way, but because a lot of college instructors used middle slashes, i started doing so too. Given my sloppy handwriting, this helped make 7's look distinct from 1's and l's. I think my sister also changed in college.
I can’t believe she lives in Cincinnati and has never experienced the Mid-Western good-bye. Literally takes forever. 😂
I was born in Missouri, grew up in Kansas and have family in Nebraska. Our goodbyes could last an hour! 😂 I'm still like today living in Arizona just because that's how I grew up. It took me an hour to get out of the office this afternoon cause I kept talking to coworkers! 😂
I can't believe you think she should know how all Americans do things...
@@malcolmdrake6137 She is specifically saying that this is how Americans do things. It makes sense to point out that it is in fact only regional.
I'm in my mid-50's, born and raised in PA with parents born and raised in PA. Even as an adult when I'd visit, the goodbye started in the house where we were talking. We'd say goodbye in the living room, keep talking and pause in the kitchen...say goodbye again...make it to the breezeway...make it to the driveway...get into the car...even when we finally could start the car, there might be some conversation...and then waving from the yard as we drove down the driveway. It took me years to figure out how "short goodbyes" worked when I left home.
I'm originally from Michigan, and so phone conversations with Mom often wound down with us saying "bye" several times -- and after a pause one or the other of us would say "oh, I just remembered..." The "goodbye" portion of the call usually ended up being an hour or more.
I'm 75, born and raised in Texas, and I just wanted to compliment you on your open and inquisitive mind. May your path always rise up to greet you.
Saying the road rose up to meet me is slang meaning you passed out drunk.
@@MrManueleh he said path not road, path being the way you choose to travel. I'm pretty sure that's how it was meant.
No...saying goodbye in the middle of a conversation and walking away would be considered Very Rude in America.
I dunno about that. I know when I was in college, if a group of us were together and someone had to go, they'd simply say bye and break from the group. It wasn't necessary for everyone in the group to give that person an individual goodbye and receive one from that person. Just bye to all and gone. Nothing rude about it. But she was saying Germans would take the time for everyone to give individual goodbyes back and forth to each person leaving the conversation. Sounds tedious to me, honestly. I prefer a quick bye and leave. Texan here.
Certainly if you’re walking to classes at a University it’s understood people need to get to class and peel off and go. Also something that happens in meetings and so on, you just say I gotta go or I have an appointment and you just go.
Depends on the conversation. Lots of times you're just talking meaningless bullshit to get to the point of saying goodbye! Call it friendly rudeness. An oxymoron to be sure!
If you gave fountain pens to 1st, or, 2nd graders in America, there would be ink EVERYWHERE!
Especially if you're Left Handed..one big blue smear!!!
The ink goes everywhere in Germany: ) Just give them ball point pens!
My school desks in early grade school still had the hole for the ink well! We were required to use pencils in early grades, and to write in script once we learned it in about third grade.
And a lot of destroyed nibs. Ask me how I know.
If they even knew what it was...
The bed sheet tucking is for aesthetics when the bed is made. A lot of people (myself included) will untuck the bedding before they crawl in.
Not me lol, I love the feeling of tucked sheets so I can move all over my bed without getting tied up
@@bwestacado9643 Sun dried and tucked sheets are the best feeling bedding, ever!
@@bwestacado9643 Absolutely. If they don't like the conventional tucked-in sheet, they would go nuts over the 30 lb weighted blanket I use!
I have to untuck the sheets as well, it's so restricting to my legs otherwise...
Oh no no no. American here and I absolutely will not sleep with a tucked in duvet. I pull them out in hotels too.
Tucked in is better because they stay on all night. If they're untucked they get wrapped around you and you're constantly waking up during the night to cover yourself back up.
@@Sandman60077 I love the different approaches! I have no idea why but I hate a tucked in bed. I feel so trapped. Just not for me.
Yeah same.
Some didn’t wear slippers until they get up in the middle of the night and stub their toe on a piece of furniture, like the table leg or floor lamp.
I write my numbers and was taught that way but at train stations the numbers get more curvy. If you have slight astigmatism, it’s easy to mistake some numbers, hence why some people get on the wrong train. 🙀
@@Sandman60077 I've had zero such problems and I haver never tucked. It's so restrictive.
The bedsheets being tucked in is definitely regional. I grew up in Florida and you definitely didn't sleep with them tucked in most of the year, and if the AC was broken during the summer sleeping with bedsheets *at all* was optional.
same......grew up in the 50's with no AC
@@johnl5316not even regional I lived in the Midwest and I hate that
@@carolyndobry785 same here! I grew up in Kansas and have never liked my sheets tucked in.
@@user-id6tw3of1x it might be an Ohio thing because mother is from there and she will tuck people back in. We drive her nuts pulling them out.
born and raised in the very place the woman is speaking from, I honestly haven't a clue what she's talking about with the physical tucking in of sheets lol family has been here in cincy since the fall of the kingdom of Bavaria in the 1860's at the hands of the Prussians.
We are so diverse. There isn’t ONE American
This also applies to Germans.
@ravenmills-prouduscitizenm9609 She knows that. She's talking @ a majority overview of differences.
While there is a lot of cultural diversity here in the U.S., I think that's why, as a whole, we seem more casual in many regards. Because there are so many different cultural influences, we've boiled down the etiquette in many interactions to just their most basic and universal parts.
For example, in a party as she described, there are many ways people say "Hello".
In some cultures, you acknowledge everyone present, one on one.
In others, you greet the host, and they will announce your arrival to the rest en masse.
And in other cultures, it is considered rude to approach someone without a formal introduction facilitated by the host.
In many cultures, it is not sufficient to just greet everyone, but the order in which you do it matters as well, with the guests of higher status being acknowledged first, as dictated by a very formal social hierarchy. In such places, the entire guest list may be printed on an invitation in the correct order, lol.
It's also common in many places that the men will be formally announced by the host, but the women they are escorting are not, and those introductions are the responsibility of that man. So whoever is receiving guests would announce the man's name, title and vocation. "Join us in welcoming noted surgeon, Dr. William Smith" with no mention of his wife. But Dr. Smith would take his wife around to guests and introduce them "Hello Bob, this is my wife, Eliza", and his wife would make a less formal, more warm and personal introduction in person. That's actually very common in formal events.
These can be mutually exclusive, depending on the circumstance. You don't really know what the expectation will be. You can imagine a scenario where a guest is waiting for a formal introduction that never comes. Other's might view them as anti-social or standoffish because they are not interacting with anyone at a social gathering. Or the reverse may happen, guests expect to be announced, but someone slips into the party unnoticed by the host and just starts approaching other guests who have no idea who this random person is, lol. There generally isn't a single culture to provide clear guidance on these matters.
But at their core, they are all just ways of announcing your arrival. If we just toss out the formalities, that can be accomplished in a way that everyone understands, A loud "Hey Everybody, good to see you" is sufficient. It may seem very informal or even uncouth to some, but when they realize that's more the custom here, they tend to adapt to it quickly.
Society can't have millions of people all playing by a different rulebook, so we just simplify. It may seem informal or even rude at first glance, but it's actually a very good compromise to ensure nobody is offended or burdened with wondering what the expectations might be.
There totally is one American. Its me. I'm the one American.
Same up north, to a lesser degree. Our countries are too big for it to be otherwise.
(Bagged milk is superior lmao)
this channel is very cathartic. I know your audience must be mostly American, but its nice to hear a European just being kind and interested.
Kindergarten in America is Kindergarten. Pre-school is before Kindergarten.
I think what he meant is what we call Kindergarten is what they call first grade, and what we call pre-school is what they call Kindergarten. Pretty sure they do that in the UK too; we say pre-school for what they call Kindergarten.
Germany:
age 0-3 Krippe
age 3-6 Kindergarten, mostly playing, some arts and music, last year before school might be called "Vorschule" (pre-school) and include some simple lessons.
6 years - Erste Klasse / first grade of primary school
American here. I write my 1s and 9s in the American fashion, but my 4s and 7s in the German fashion; I also put a line through my Zs-not to be German, but because of math! My handwriting it a messy mix of cursive & non-cursive, just based on whichever is faster, but my capital letters are never cursive.
I hate tucked sheets! That seems to be about a 50/50 split within the US, as far as I can tell. My husband and I have been using separate covers for about a quarter of a century now-it’s always been the first piece of advice I give newlyweds! 🤣
Oh, and I always wear shoes indoors, but that’s more for medical reasons rather than anything else; due to MS, I walk a ton better with them on. Taking off shoes isn’t uncommon in the US, but it is more common to wear shoes inside homes by default. When visiting someone’s home, if they want you to take your shoes off they’ll ask, but it would be very unusual for them to say, “Welcome! Would you mind leaving your shoes on?” in the same way they might say, “Welcome! Would you mind taking your shoes off?” That is, unless they’d recently spilled something dangerous/nasty on the floor and hadn’t had time to finish cleaning it up!!
Definitely, the writing seems to be the really big difference. I don't know of any Americans who write like Germans. For most of the other stuff it is more individualistic. There are still a good many Americans who have shoes removed when first come in because by not having shoes on causes less wear on the carpet.
I see many Americans write their 4's & 7's in that fashion, especially 4's.
I mean just look at how the 4 is typed out when you type it on your keyboard. The only difference between this '4' and the German one is that it's connected at the top.
We don't all get together and do things one way in USA. Of course Germany is like the size of Missouri so... there ya go. It's a BIG country.
@@dcore64 True! But it's also true that a lot of us move around the country frequently, and get to sample all the different ways we do things here. I've lived or spent large chunks of time in about 2/3 of the US states, and lived in all the major regions except Alaska/Hawaii & far NW--but have friends & fam in those regions, too! (Still except Hawaii, tho.)
I write the same way - lines through 7s and Zs. And if someone tucked in my sheets while I was sleeping I'd be mad! Lol
As I recall from my academic days in an American public school, the earliest machines used to score exams were unable to accurately detect ink, or the marks from too hard pencils. Therefore, the No. 2 Pencil was developed into the primary instrument of test taking; being the best balance of softness, minimized smudging, and detectability for the scanners. While better machines have since been developed, inertia and familiarity (and probably the formidable pencil lobby) have made the No. 2 Pencil the main workhorse of the American Educational System.
That machine was called the Scantron machine.
Now they can read ink (blue or black) but that's recent.
I think Americans are so used to a fast pace that we all understand when someone has to get somewhere, it's not a big deal, and we'll see them later.
I feel the better friends we are, the faster we can just say, got to go, bye - and they understand.
As for being tucked in, we find it very cozy & soothing. 😊
Not all Americans like to be tucked in. I think it's more of a female thing, honestly. Most guys I know don't like to be held down by the blankets.
@@joshtiscareno1312 That makes sense, lol.
@@joshtiscareno1312 It's also regional. I'm female but live in Texas, where it's hot about 300 days out of the year, and I hate being tucked in.
Where I live in America, our winters can be Very cold. Tucking in our covers helps to keep us warm.
"Tuck me in mom." Something kids say to moms when they go to sleep. It's part of putting young children to bed.
@@moirapettifr7127 "tucking someone in" means putting them to bed and pulling the covers over them. Has absolutely nothing with tucking the actual sheet and/or blanket.
The tucking in thing sounds like she got information from a small child or something. We only have the foot of the bed tucked in usually, and there's plenty of people that don't even like that, and so don't. I personally have to leave the sides of my bed untucked, because I have to sleep diagonally across the bed for being too tall.
Edit: I grew up in Alaska and lived there 20 years... No one wears their shoes in the house there, and it's simply an absolute habit for everyone. Too much snow means too much mud.
Yeah, I've only tucked in covers & sheets making the bed, but not before going to sleep.
The bottom sheet is fitted how do you not tuck it in? You sleep on top of it not under it.
Nope... I never tuck in a bed.
@@alisonflaxman1566When I was in the Navy you didn’t have fitted sheets, you were issued two flat sheets. The bottom sheet is tucked in opposite from the normal top sheet way. Meaning place the end of the sheet at end of the foot of the bed and proceed to tuck in with hospital corners at the head and tuck in the sides with a crisp 45 degree angle at the head corner tuck and folds. Repeat in the normal direction for the top sheet. This was in boot camp.
In the barracks after boot camp and school you can buy normal bedding and makeup however you like but it must be neat or you may fail the weekly room inspection.
Onboard ship the bunks are much smaller but the sheets are still the same size and instead of tuck and folding the bottom flat sheet you simply tie knots on the corners and tuck the knots under the mattress thereby making it a fitted sheet.
Leaving in the middle of a conversation is absolutely considered rude here in the US as well hahaha
I feel like she misrepresented how we say bye. It’s not like we’re talking then we say bye and leave in the middle of conversations. It more like we’re talking and if he have to leave we say something like oh I have to go I’ll talk to you later, wait for a response to that then start the process of goodbyes. It’s not usually immediate, more like (person 1) “oh I just realize the time I have to catch my train” (person 2) “oh okay I’ll talk to you later then” (person 1) sounds good, bye” “okay bye”. Also I would say most people don’t flatly say good bye especially with friends or family. We put warmth into the bye it so it’s more like bye for now, talk to you later but with just the word bye or goodbye.
Yeah, I agree. It’s usually an agreement the conversation is ending. You just don’t cut them off and terminate it.
She 100% misconstrued how we say goodbye.
I have seen it both ways. My family and much of the region where I grew up, good byes can be excruciatingly long. I have also interacted with lots of people that pretty much do "gotta go - bye" and they are gone. Some do just disappear without saying anything at all. I'm not sure if this is situational or representative of some kind of cultural/generational pattern.
College students can be more abrupt, when they're operating on a long-term sleep deficit (which they usually are, after the second week of school or so), under time pressure (ditto), and running late (ditto). Feli's experience of America draws heavily on college, so I have no trouble believing she's experienced what she described.
She’s still learning and will be hit or miss for a few more years. She put a lot of effort into her American accent but she needs more work on our culture which has several different regions.
American here.
One thing we do differently is writing dates- we write month, day, year. So July 9, 2024 or 7/9/2024
Tucked-in sheets - meaning all sheets and blankets tucked in all around the mattress? I’ve only seen that in store displays and some hotels on the first night. Otherwise, tucked in only on the foot end.
Shoes indoors - I prefer street shoes to house shoes - they are safer, especially when you’re cooking.
Duvet cover - cumbersome to take off, wash, and replace. I prefer top sheet, blankets, and bedspread or comforter.
Greetings and farewells - I think most of us would find someone walking off in the middle of a conversation to be strange or rude. Farewells - depends on the situation and group, but there’s usually something more than just “‘bye”. And then in some groups - usually friends or family - it can take a long time to say good-bye! You say something like, “well, it’s that time” (meaning it’s time to leave) and talk a bit longer, and finally you make it to the door and talk some more, and this can keep happening even when you are in the car!
In the military dates are written day month year without any punctuation, it’s also the same format that was popular over 100 years ago I discovered while looking at old documents for my family tree. I don’t know why it was changed to a month day, year format and I never liked the all numerical format with slashes because people would always confuse the month and day unless the day was after the 12th.
Yeah, I don't get why so much of the world doesn't use Y/M/D.
A lot of us were taught to tuck the sheets from childhood some of us learned it in the military... It's the proper way to make a bed.
And if you live somewhere that has scorpions rattlesnakes tarantulas et cetera..... It's a good idea.
Yes, the point of tucking is to keep bugs and other creepy crawlies out in many places. Even though I live in Texas, I don't bother with tucking though. I just shake my sheets out before bed. I really hate tucking. Lol
The "Smith residence, Paul speaking" is definitely the way we were taught to answer the phone in the US. That said, if you were at your own home and you were past a certain age, it became less common. But for young children or when you were at your grandparents, in either case where a strange voice could have confused the caller, the practice was very common.
My practice answering both personal and business calls (and I think its fairly common - at least among my generation and older) is, if the caller is unknown or for formal situations, "This is Paul". If caller ID shows it as someone I know well, the greeting will be much more casual, anything from a "hey, what's up" to just 'hello".
ETA: As for ending phone calls, she's nailed the most common way to end a call with someone who is well known. And 'bye" could be repeated as "bye bye". For more formal speech, it may be more like "Thank you. Good bye."
these days I just answer saying "who is this" if I don't know the number lol
lol I just answer every call from someone I don't know with "Hi, this is ", just so they don't have to do the awkward thing of asking me if they can speak to... me 😂
I learned that when we had landlines, but now that everyone has a cell, usually we know who we're calling or who is calling us.
Never was taught to say anything when answering the phone but hello. Never knew anyone who said anything but hello unless at work.
II never heard of anything being taught like you describe. We simply answered "hello" 90% of the time or with our surname only. I grew up in East Tennessee.
Normally when I answer a phone I’ll just say “Hello”. I stopped giving out my name, first or last, as we get wrong numbers, spam calls, and never give out my phone number to someone calling me.
I hate my blankets being tucked on the end. Its prevalent in hotels and it’s often tucked so much you don’t have enough to cover your chest.
I suspect that telemarketing has led to a general downturn in telephone civility. After being barraged by telephone calls during dinner from people we have ZERO interest in talking to, I think people just dropped the friendly greeting and adopted a very clipped and to-the-point "Hello?"
You might become a lot more friendly after recognizing a friend on the other end of the line, but unwelcome spam-callers could expect continued hostility.
Same. I actually recently learned that if you get a lot of spam calls, you should answer the phone and not say anything. If a real person is calling you rather than an auto dialer, they'll say Hello? and then you can talk. If it's an auto dialer, though, it'll assume there was an error and hang up and remove that ph# from their call list. So I've stopped saying anything when I answer the phone until the person on the other side speaks. Lol
I use caller ID to screen calls and if I don’t recognize the name or number, I don’t answer the phone. If they leave a message I may answer the phone if they call back.
Our family has never tucked or worn shoes indoors I believe this is highly individualistic. Prefer socks indoors.
me too
I'm from Virginia and I never heard of anyone taking their shoes off before coming into a home until I went into the Army and my best friend, who was from Hawaii, did at his house.
My grandmothers and my mother used a comforter with a cover. My grandmothers came from Russia and Poland at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century. I hate being tucked in and pull out the sheet and blanket in hotels. I didn’t even know that a lot of people use a sheet and blanket. I was college age and had no idea what people were doing with the flat sheets that I saw advertised.
99% wear shoes indoors
@@RunningGrass-we7tm Nah, it's not that high. A lot of people do, but I have both friends and relatives that want you to take your shoes off in their house.
As someone from the upper Midwest, which was settled by a lot of German and Scandanavian immigrants, I can say positively that our "goodbyes" in conversation are definitely NOT short. They are perhaps a little shorter on the phone, but in person, definitely not.
For example, if you're seated, you start the goodbye process bu exhaling, "Well...," you then slap your hands down on your knees, and say, "I suppose..." The phrase implies "I suppose I should be going/leaving now," but you don't have to say the end part. The very words themselves, and even the reluctance to say them, suggest that the person only reluctantly wants to leave, thus beginning the extended goodbye, even if they actually DO want to leave.
Now, if the HOST says "Well, I suppose" instead of the guest, it is a polite way of telling the guest/visitor to leave.
There are videos on RUclips about this. It's actually pretty hilarious. Here is Charlie Berens' take on it: ruclips.net/video/MHCmE4ABnNs/видео.htmlsi=mGVFAA5nbjyEcA0H
Another big difference is mealtimes. Both cultures have breakfast in the morning before going to work or school. In the US we have usually a light meal at midday around noon or 1pm. Usually something like a sandwich with maybe a cup of soup in the Winter or some fruit or a salad in Summer. When I visited my aunt in Bavaria she would close down her shop for two hours in the early afternoon and come home to have the big meal of the day. Then in the evening after work it's the opposite. In the US we have the big meal of the day around 6 or 7 pm while in Germany we just had a light Abendbrot - something like a roll or some bread with butter and jam or with a bit of cheese or some sort of sliced or spreadable wurst. My personal favorite was Teawurst which we always called Kinderwurst because children love it. I think the German way is probably healthier because you aren't going to bed so soon after a big meal. But it's impractical for the US because so many people have a half hour or an hour to drive to work and you would need at least a 3 or 4 hour break to get home, fix and eat your meal and then get back to work.
In Rome, they used to have a four-hour midday break for lunch and everyone would go home to eat. The traffic got terrible, and they no longer go home for lunch, but shops still close midday.
Now with both of us retired, we can eat whenever we feel like it but as we have become older, seems we don’t or can’t eat our meals too late in the evening.
My maternal grandfather was of German and Swiss ancestry and this is how he did mealtimes. He was a farmer and he had a larger meal and took quite a long break during the hottest part of the day. He started very early in the morning and then finished late in the evening.
@@mandyd2319 But it never gets hot enough to bother avoiding it.
While a lot of Americans might wear shoes in the house, there are a lot of households that don't allow shoes in the house. I had a friend who made us take our shoes off when we visited. House shoes do exist in the U.S. and some people wear them instead of wearing socks or bare feet. I hate socks and shoes all together, so as long as it is warm out side, I go barerfoot all over the place. In the winter, when I am in the house, if I am cold, I will wear socks, but I only put shoes on when I have to leave the house. I wear shoes when i go to work, but if I don't have to wear shoes, I just don't. My husband is the same. He only puts shoes on when he leaves the house to go somewhere, like work or the store. Our son also doesn't like shoes, and he also only wears shoes if he has to.
Maryland goodbyes take at least an hour. Everyone gets a hug and a "we're headed out" then "bye" on the second go round
It’s like that in the South also. When guests say they have to leave, it’s about another hour or two carrying on more conversations they didn’t talk about in the last eight hours while they slowly walk to their car. Then they’ll call you when they get home to let you know they got home safe then start talking about the drive home for about another hour.😁
Please keep in mind that this girl only knows about her very limited experience in a particular part of the United States. Every single thing she lists as being different from Germany can also be found in the US somewhere. She makes a lot off assumptions.
I would go as far as saying her videos are not good ones to react to. Laurence Brown's videos are much better, he has actually lived here for 15 years and he's not a kid.
She always says in the beginning of her videos that this is her limited experience in Cincinnati. I don't understand why people keep leaving comments that she is generalizing about all Americans.
After reading a lot of the comments, it appears to me that there is some confusion about the taking shoes off when you enter a home in the US. There is a huge difference between going to someone else's home versus what you do in your own home. Most Americans take their own shoes off in their own home once they have decided they are not going out for some reason, such as working in the yard or on the house, or if they plan on going somewhere else totally, like shopping or gong to some else's house. But the removing of shoes is TOTALLY different when you go to another home. I have encountered less than 5 times where they expect or even ask you to take your shoes off when entering their home. It is NOT an American custom to take your shoes off at someone else's home. Of course, there are exceptions, such an environmental issue around the house you are visiting, which may be extremely 'dirty', such as after a recent local fire, or muddy outside, etc.
Most of the people who insist that you take off your shoes have light colored carpet and they are fanatical about not getting it dirty. Some houses (especially in rural areas) have mud-rooms near the front door where you are expected to take off your dirty footwear.
But mostly it's not expected in most people's homes.
Shoe removal is also a big thing with certain ethnic subcultures (for example, Asians almost always take their shoes off inside, or wear slippers or flipflops).
Bingo!
I've always found it odd people say Americans don't take their shoes off in the house, but I can't think of a single person who doesn't want to kick their shoes off the second they get home from work or going out.
But if you're a guest & visiting someone else's house, THEN you keep your shoes on unless there's a particular reason or they ask you to take them off.
As an HVAC technician I was asked to remove my shoes in many places...My response was always athletes foot...lol. Which does lead to the fact that it can be unsanitary especially from a labor perspective where you are always in smelly sweaty work shoes. I could never ask someone to remove their shoes because of this possibility.
American here. I would never step into another home , ever , ever with my shoes on without explicit instructions that it is okay to do so. Usually if people don’t mind- they tell you “no worries, or make yourself at home” in which case I take mine off because wearing shoes inside is disgusting. If they say nothing that is an indication to take your shoes off, as in what is the normal customary thing to do
I have house shoes and loafers for home. I'll often just go barefooted too, but if I'm working at home or cleaning I gotta have shoes. Idk why but it makes my motivation shoot through the roof and i don't tend to drag my feet if I'm wearing them.
In the US, they don't even teach cursive anymore. My daughter can't write cursive.
Our school district started teaching it again a few years ago.
It is the new Common Core Curriculum. Which is really meant to be what is minimally taught. Cursive is not taught anymore because we will all be using computers and keyboards in the future but this is a guideline only and each school district might be different.
Teach her how to do it. How will she be able to read our founding documents.
@@SuperDrLisa there are printed transcripts of all the founding documents.
@@SuperDrLisaYou can learn to read cursive without being able to write it. I have a few gen z coworkers who can’t write in cursive (one is trying to teach herself how) but can read it easily.
As a US Navy veteran, I met my wife in Frankfurt in the early 90’s. We had two daughters that have been confirmed to be 2/3 Cherokee Native American. When I took them to Germany to meet their German family, they loved them. This was surprising to me. But, my oldest daughter stayed in Germany with her German family to attend University and her German grandparents supported her. I am grateful for this.
Tucking the sheets in is far from universal and I suspect, today, the minority practice. It may be done when making the bed, but then undone before sleeping. I personally don't tuck my sheets and never have. But keep in mind, "tucking in" very rarely, as in almost never, actually involves tucking the sheets or blankets. It is merely the act of saying guten acht .
The two mattresses pushed together is not unknown and no one would be surprised by it, but it is likely a small fraction of bed.
Slatted beds definitely exist, especially with antique bed frames, but traditionally, they still used box springs. Box springs are becoming less common due to expense, but many beds will use a "platform" instead that looks like box springs, but is just fabric covered wood.
Box springs used to have springs in them, and mattresses didn't. It's been a long time since that was standard. Now, the mattresses have springs inside, so the foundation under it isn't needed except to raise the mattress up higher.
@@dmk-whc Box springs still have springs. A box without springs is a foundation.
That said, you are generally correct, though there was a good number of decades when both the box and the mattress had springs.
@@dmk-whcI was born in the 50's and mattresses always had springs.
House shoes exist in the US, but they are more for the winter when you don't want to put on real shoes, for example, before you get dressed in the morning. In the summer, people would just go barefoot or sock footed in the same situation, but in the winter, the floor can be very cold, so slippers or house shoes can be the best solution.
South Alabama here. We just call them bedroom shoes, haha.
We do boat shoes inside in the winter. Comfy.
I wear slippers all year round.
EVERYBODY IN THE USA IS DIFFERENT! THAT'S ONE THING ABOUT THE USA THAT'S GREAT AND IT'S THAT WE ARE VERY VERY DIVERSE. I write my numbers especially my 7 and my Z's just like German..
I can't sleep without the sheets and blankets tucked in tight. I had no idea this was an American thing. I'm from the NYC metro area.
There is NO WAY I would ever answer my phone the way I did in 1969 which was to use "Stringfellow residence, this is Jude" Yeah, that's not going to happen, and I would not be happy if any of my grandkids did that either. In 2024 I won't even answer the phone if I don't know who is calling. Announcing who I am would be 100% out of the question. If they called me they should already know me.
I was taught to say "Hatch Residence, Laurence speaking". It does sound formal and classy but your school friends would make fun of you.
The handwriting part is so fascinating! ❤it!!
Edit: Americans do not tuck in their sheets; just hotels do it annoyingly.
Really? You don't tuck in the bottom fitted sheet? You know you're supposed to sleep on top of it?
@@alisonflaxman1566 That's not what tucking in means. We are talking about top sheet and comforter.
@@alisonflaxman1566 Yes, the fitted sheet is always tucked, but the flat sheet that goes on top of the fitted sheet also gets tucked when people "tuck" their sheets. And people will often tuck a blanket or comforter in as well on top of the flat sheet when tucking. Those of us who don't tuck still tuck the fitted sheet, but don't bother tucking the flat sheet or anything above it. :)
My grandmother was of German and Irish descent and she was a schoolteacher. She taught me to write some of my numbers as German do with the line through the 7 and hanging from the top of a 1, she explained that’s how to tell them apart. I also have put the line through the letter z for as long as I can remember. Many times teachers and employers have not liked my writing with these differences, but it doesn’t look right to me still.
I cannot imagine walking away and saying goodbye in the middle of a conversation. I'm American, grew up in Texas and live in California.
I don’t think we (Americans) say “bye” in the middle of conversation to be honest. I honestly don’t know anyone who does this lol
I have to say I absolutely hate tucked in bed sheets and blankets. Hotels always have everything tucked in tightly and I can't stand it. I have to untuck everything before I can sleep.
Don't know how you don't tuck in the bottom fitted sheet. You're supposed to sleep on top of it.
@alisonflaxman1566 what kind of psycho untucks the fitted bottom sheet?
😄
@@11BscoutNG Yes 😄
@@alisonflaxman1566 Technically, no one in the US refers to the bottom fitted sheet as being tucked in; we say it's fitted. The sheets on top of it are tucked in. Fitted sheets have to be put on correctly or they won't stay on. Lol
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I've never known of anyone to abruptly say goodbye in the middle of a conversation, and I'm a 57-year-old American. That would be seen as rude, and I could only imagine someone doing that if they didn't want to talk with the other person to begin with.
When I answer my phone (landline or mobile) I always say "This is Terry", but I don't know anyone else who does it that way. Also I haven't known of anyone to use "residence" since about the early 1970s.
The sleeping stuff is completely individual.
Answering a phone today is much different than it used to be. Rarely would anyone answer with, "Smith residence...", even in the '50s & '60s. Back then it was just 'Hello'. Now, with everyone on cell phones the first response is to see who's calling and decide whether or not to answer. No ID showing? Don't even pick the phone up. If someone needs us they'll leave a message otherwise it was more than likely a telemarketer and if you answer just once you'll be bombarded with sales calls and text messages for months.
The way I say hello on the phone is simply "greetings." I used to just say "hello?" but in High School I had a friend who always answered the phone with "greetings" and I liked it. Saying bye on the phone I do wait for a clear ending to the conversation before actually saying "bye." But not everyone does this... my wife doesn't. She just hangs up. No bye, no anything. Concerning shoes, I never wear street shoes indoors. No one in my family does that. I do have slippers, but don't wear them very much mostly because my house has a lot of carpet on the floor. I would imagine if the house had no carpet, and the Winters get cold, the floor would be really cold and thus slippers would be used more often. But I live in the Southern US where the weather tends to be warm and the Winters not so harsh, plus there's carpet.
I have German roots, but it doesn't influence what I do. I have always taken my shoes off in my own home and when I go visit someone else. When we used to have land line telephones (speaking for my home personally) I used to answer ' Hello, how may I help you? ' or ' Who would you like to talk to?' we were polite but not royally polite. We never used fountain pens in our schools, we had pencils and ball point pens. Fountain pens were saved for Art class.
I think the shoes thing is regional. I used to live in the upper Midwest and you were expected to take your shoes off, even if there was no snow on the ground. If there's a spot for shoes by the door, it's just implied that you're supposed to take them off. But about 10 years ago I moved to the Mid-Atlantic region and most guests will keep their shoes on by default unless asked to take them off (and this has never happened to be yet.)
As an American, I do the shoes like the Germans. I feel more relaxed and at home if I take my shoes off and put on house slippers as soon as I'm home. But I will leave my street shoes on if I'm only coming in for a little while and intend to go back outside within the hour.
Southerners in the US are likely to spend 30 minutes saying goodbye. When my daughter was about 5 she commented that her grandmother could say one more thing for 2 hours.
not all Americans tuck blankets and sheets.
This was a lot of laughs!
From the late 19th Century into the early 20th, tens of millions of Germans immigrated to America, including a pair of my great-grandparents. Many of them landed in the Mid-Atlantic States, such as New Jersey, and all over the Midwest, like Ohio. They kicked ass being successful in the New World.
Many quirky Americanisms are a combination of German and British influences (the other branch of my family), and rebellion against the Old World.
In Hawaii wearing your shoes in the house is not done. Usually, the footwear is left outside the front door or inside the entrance out of the way of the door. Very few people use house slippers. Not wearing footwear in the house keeps the floor or carpet cleaner. Also, tucking in is not common here. Better to have your sheets and blankets loose especially if you move around a lot when you're sleeping. My husband and I have separate blankets in case you want to wrap it around yourself. It works.
I just commented about about wearing shoes in the house. I'm from Virginia and everyone I knew wore shoes in the house. First time I saw that was when my best friend in the Army, who was Hawaiian, brought me to his house the first time.
I'm GenX and we were taught to write the "G" like the "Germans" ! Of course we never thought it was German it was simply taught to us that way. I'm shocked about how we Americans tuck in our sheets. Yes or course we do that ! So odd German don't ? Not to mention U.S. military is so much about tucking in your sheets perfectly ! Makes me wonder how German hotels lay bedsheets ? lol
I think she's learning some unusual and weird habits around them Cincinnati people.
Right?!! Consider the source.
That's what I was thinking!
13:49 I have never in my entire life heard of an American tucking in
Same here
It is probably regional. I have been tucked in before, and I am from PA.
Just when we were kids, and it wasn't really being tucked in as much as it was our parents coming in to say goodnight before the lights went out.
Really, my experience is different. I have encountered trucking in beds in a few different states.
Yeah I was thinking the exact same thing 😂 I hate the blankets being tucked in and I always pull them out as well, I will say that all hotels always tuck in the sheets and such but I think it's mostly to look good
Chris, another fun video!
I am an older GenX American, who spent an exchange year in Germany way back in the mid-1980's, before reunification.
Many of these customs differ regionally, as well as generationally, and of course individually.
Most of the things Feli mentioned As German are not completely foreign to Americans, even if they are not the most common choices. For example, the number writing. 4, 7, 9, 0 with a line through it, Z, I, & J vary some. I agree especially capitalization forms can differ enough to confuse people, but as for cursive handwriting, that may be changing, thanks to computers and internet texting.
You said you never saw a 4 written more square and open topped. I think that became a common option as a result of the prominence of digital readouts, in which there is no option for diagonal lines.
My son is 21. His elementary school did not even teach cursive writing. Instead they learned "keyboarding."
In Germany, I usually could not recognize what Germans were writing, because most of your written words had only a recognizable first letter, followed by a string of little curly-queue loops, so a pair of i letters could also be a "u," or an "ei" or an "ie", or an "n", etc. Horrible. I started printing block letters, just so Germans could read my words, and all these decades later I still do that.
The pen vs pencil thing varies in schools and often is left up to teachers.
Bedsheets? I hate tucked sheets and pull them out. Hotels always tuck them. So do military barracks, so military personnel have to. Otherwise it is individual preference.
Some differences I noticed ALMOST 40 YEARS AGO! 😱
Store hours much longer in the U.S. nice for customers, not so much for store employees.
Traffic lights and driving: We only have yellow signal lights between green turning to red. Yellow light NEVER follows a red light. When a light turns green, drivers typically take an extra second or two to "go." I think that is one reason that so many American drivers run red lights. In Germany, you KNOW you don't dare to do that, because the other cars are already ready to go the instant their light is green.
Americans are taught also to lock our car doors for safety when driving. It slightly reduces likelihood of a carjacking being successful against you. Yes, we have a stupidly violent culture. There's that "Land of the Free" you were asking about. Freedom to be victimized by lawlessness! 😐
Ice cold beverages. We do like our drinks cold, and we often prefer ice in them. I am definitely American in that specific sense. Lol
Back to driving for a second. Fucking HUGE pickup trucks and SUVs are dominant in the U.S. I hate that. It is arrogant, inconsiderate of other drivers, wasteful of resources, and deadly. It also did not used to be that way. It is a roughly 40 year campaign by automotive manufacturers that led to this.
In 1882, the top selling vehicle in the U.S. was the little Ford Escort. In 2022 it was the now much-bigger- than-before Ford F-150 pickup. If you haven't already seen it, check out the you tube video "These stupid trucks are literally killing us," by you tube channel "Not Just Bikes." It is quite eye opening. We could learn a lot from Amsterdam.
I don't sleep with my sheets tucked in. I prefer to wrap my covers around me, especially if I'm cold. My husband and I actually have our own blankets because I will take the whole blanket to wrap myself in. The writing though answered a bunch of questions for me. I work at a job that I interact with truck drivers, and there are a number of European truck drivers, and now I know what numbers are what!!! Score for learning something new!!!
Sheets? Really you don't tuck in either sheet? The bottom one is fitted. You're supposed to lay on top of it.
@@alisonflaxman1566 I do tuck in the bottom sheet, I was referring to the ones I actually cover myself with.
I was waiting for her to cover how you count on your fingers. I learned from the movie, Inglorious Basterds, that Germans count one with their thumb while most Americans and Brits count one with the index finger.
I’ve heard so much talk from people about taking your shoes off in the house but nobody talks about what I think is the biggest problem with that: if you walk around in your socks all the time they wear out fast and you have to replace your socks all the time. I hate that!!
Most Americans just said "Hello?" when answering the phone, but that is changing, now that we all have caller ID.
I prefer the American way of doing laundry (use of dryers). The only time I hang up linens to dry is after I go to the beach or water park and my swimming attire and towel are moist. German pillows suck. But I do prefer German public transportation where you don’t have to worry about crackheads screaming their face off at you for no reason or tweaking out on something. I had to learn cursive in American schools in 3rd and 4th grade and it kind of stuck with me to this day when I write my words. I like the German way of writing the number 7 with the line going through it, looks more dope that way.
It's just gentler on the clothes, without a dryer.
@@arnodobler1096 : I remember the time between getting a clothes washer in our apartment and finally getting a dryer. We hung the clothes on a line. It's really nice in good weather, unless the birds poop on them (which requires re-washing). It's tough in winter. I remember bringing in clothes that were stiffened with ice! We would hang some over the radiators, but there weren't enough radiators for a full load.
@@dmk-whc In winter I hang the laundry in the basement. Often the clothes are marked: Not suitable for tumble drying! I think the dryer is better for towels and bed linen, but not for anything else.
You, a German, telling everyone at the party goodbye individually.
Me, an American, leaving without even telling anyone.
Cursive is always standard until 4th grade in USA also!
No, it is not. My brother is 59 years old and still can't read the lyrics on a Pink Floyd album, written in someone's unique style.
You are correct, for my age group at least. However, I've heard from a few folks that it's optional now in some schools. This makes no sense to me because cursive allows you to take notes much faster than writing each letter as a separate character.
I am a teacher in Arizona, we stopped teaching cursive for many years and just started again recently. This means there are tons of kids here who are now adults that cannot read or write cursive.
@@ktspirit1 ok....
I do not know where you get your information. In Texas, cursive is NOT required and is almost never taught even in private schools. My 21 year old can read and write cursive but rarely uses it as most of his peers cannot read it and certainly not write it.
Here is one that I learned from my German collogues at work. "I must leave a column of water in the corner" vs. in the US, "I gotta take a leak, bleed the chicken, go to the john"
You can say that all Americans do anything. We are all different.
You don't understand the video.
I am American, but I hate sleeping with the sheets & blanket tucked under the bed. I sleep with them tucked around my legs like the Germans. However, most Americans I know especially older people sleep with sheets & blanket tucked under the bed.
First no one tucks them under the bed. They go under the mattress. Second the bottom sheet is fitted and I don't see how you can not tuck it in. I'm old and no one I know tucks in the top sheet except at the foot of the bed. Even my parents who were born in 1922 didn't tuck in the sides of a top sheet or blanket.
Alexander Graham Bell wanted to make answering the phone start with "ahoy". P.S. You only say "Smith residence" when the owner of the residence is busy and they ask you to answer the phone. For example, if they're cooking and have stuff on their hands and the phone rings. They say; "Can you get that for me?". You pick up the phone and say "Smith residence, may I ask whom this is?" While this is happening the owner of the residence is usually cleaning off their hands so that they can take over the call.
She is right. Americans write their numbers differently than what she described for Germans. Though, I have seen Americans write ones that look like sevens to me (more like the German "one"). I write my z's with a line through it. I used to see Americans write z's that way when I was a kid, and I like it, because if I don't do that, I can get my z's mixed up with my 2's. I just like it for readability.
re. wearing shoes inside, that varies. Lately, I've been wearing slippers around my place, and wearing shoes to go out. I have a friend (who is of German descent) where he and his wife ask people to remove their shoes when they come in, and we just walk around in our socks. That's generally what happens.
Throughout the years, I've been to people's places where they don't care if you remove your shoes, and others who ask us to remove them, but if we take them off, we don't use slippers. We just walk around in our socks.
Also, just noticing, for someone who's only been here for 8 years, she has a very good American accent. I wouldn't know she was German just from listening to her.
Thanks, I have see several of her videos before and what I don't like is she is a very young person with limited experiences and she is quick to make sweeping generalizations solely based on her experience. Don't know how many times I caught her talking about things that ALL Americans do and many times is it something that some Americans in particular age groups do; but in no was some that most let alone all do.
Tucking your sheets under the mattress in isn't something you do in order to actually go to sleep, I've never heard of or seen anyone that sleeps with them tucked in. Generally most people are taught to tuck in their sheets when making their bed, so that it looks more neat and organized (as she mentioned hotels do), then you pull them out to go to sleep.
Lots and lots of us sleep with the sheets and blankets tucked in...just read the comments 🙂
There is an interesting wrinkle when it comes to readable text in America: what you're looking at right now.
The default font used on almost all computer devices, desktops in particular, has always been pretty different from how the majority of Americans write their letters, despite the internet and computer industry starting here.
The most notable discrepancies being the lowercase "a" and uppercase "I".
The "a" is rendered in the older "double story" fashion, with a curve on top, while the capital "I" lacks any serifs, depite the majority of people writing their capital "I"s with them.
The Iatter difference has consequences on readability, since a capitaI "I" and lowercase "l" look absoIutely identical. In fact, l've replaced several random Is and Ls in these past two sentences with each other, and you'd probably never notice when and where I've done so.
The font used as the default on almost all computer devices is called "Segoe" by the way.
I was just noticing that I write all my letters like this ThinkPad keyboard, but the numbers are European style, at least the 1, 4, and 9 and I don't do that.
IMNSHO, the bars on the upper-case I are not serifs, they are an integral part of the letter.
One thing I think Germany does right that I wish they wouldn’t do as much in the US is not putting a bunch of ice in their drinks, I prefer my drinks either room temp or maybe refrigerated but definitely not loaded with ice
#2 pencil is required on all exams in USA
This wasn’t really enforced in the schools I went to.
As an artist, I can use any grade of graphite or charcoal I like. Haven't taken a test in years that requires a #2 pencil.
#2 Pencils when I was in school were required for “Scantron” tests and for the SATs. It was because the multiple choice sections of the test could be read and scored by computer (even in the early 80s), saving the teacher time and effort. If you didn’t use a #2 pencil the computer/scanner couldn’t read it.
Yes, I feel more productive and motivated with shoes on inside. That said, I also use indoor slippers with stiff memory foam padding. My podiatrist said alot of foot injuries happen indoors because people are climbing hard wooden stairs barefoot or with just socks, same for injuries on hard tiles, and chasing children or pets with no protection causes lots of issues too.
For the record, I personally hate when my sheets are tucked in. I feel too confined and it drives me nuts.
Sheets? So you don't tuck in the bottom fitted sheet? You're supposed to lay on top of it.
I’m an Ohioan of German heritage. Last summer I went on vacation to Pennsylvania to an area populated by a lot of people with German ancestry (“Pennsylvania Dutch”). I stayed at a bed and breakfast that was run by a woman who was directly from Germany. Her tolerance of heat was a lot different than mine, and even though this was the first week of August she kept the thermostat at a temperature that I don’t consider comfortable. It seemed like it was somewhere between 75-77 degrees F (24-25 degrees C) with the air conditioning on. I'm accustomed to 72 degrees F (22 degrees C). This was an upstairs bedroom with a bed with sheets, blanket, and duvet. I had to sleep with everything off of the bed so I could be comfortable and then put everything back on the bed in the morning. She made it clear that I was not to adjust the thermostat and to leave it alone. Also, it took a long time for me to pull myself away from her in the mornings when I wanted to go sightseeing and I didn’t want to leave too abruptly for fear of offending her. I think another cultural difference was the amount of food she set out for me for breakfast. I was the only guest at the bed and breakfast at the time, yet it seemed she cooked about 6 eggs at the very least, about half a pound of bacon, a bowl of yogurt and a bowl of fruit as well as toast. I think she may also have had pancakes, but I’m not sure about that. She seemed disappointed and maybe a little offended if I didn’t eat a big breakfast.
When I was in college many years ago, I visited Germany (back when East and West were still divided) and stayed one night with a host family near Stuttgardt. That’s when I learned the German/European custom of having a small breakfast, a large noon meal (that I call lunch but many Americans would call dinner), and a very small evening meal/supper. I think they had a light snack a little before bedtime. That’s a cultural difference from the U.S. Generally, the evening meal/supper is the largest meal of the day unless you live on a farm where you’ll have a large breakfast.
I was in Germany from 4_60 to 2_63 in the army loved the German people really friendly
I was there from Summer 85 to winter 88 and I did too!
"Tuck me in mom." It's something for little children because.we are more tactile and hug our kids more than Germans.
Chris I Love Felicia ❤. You need to watch Her 2nd video . The 10 reasons she Loves America 🇺🇸 and I agree with her . 😉👍❤️🇺🇸
Have a Amazing Week My friend I Love and Care about you my friend. 😉👍❤️❤️❤️🇺🇸
Many years ago (like 40 years) I visited a German family for about a week. I remember the meals were virtually all the same. They would pull out a cheese and crackers platter, maybe with some deli meats involved ... a lot like a charcuterie board that Americans use today at parties. I realize this may have been how this one family fed themselves and their guests, or it may have been the common way most Germans served meals.
In America, we have a lot more variety, often eating many variations of sandwiches or soups at lunch, or even leftover meals from the night before. And our dinners are more elaborately cooked meals like meatloaf and potatoes, sphagetti and salad, casseroles, chicken and veggies, etc, etc.
Again, I'm not sure if my German experience was specific to how this one family did things, or if it was indicative of how most Germans served meals. I enjoy your videos, Chris!
I'm American, and I am ashamed to be known for having tucked in sheets. I agree, it's diabolical.
I think she got some bad information 😅
I tuck my sheet and middle blanket at the foot of the bed. Not the top cover. I don’t tuck the sides but definitely the foot.
I don't know anyone who sleeps in a bed with the sheets or blankets tucked in. That is uncomfortable. Tucking a kid in is simply pulling the blanket over them and telling them good night
Really? You said sheets so you don't tuck in the bottom fitted sheet? You are supposed to sleep on top of it.
@@alisonflaxman1566 yeah, but I don't really consider that as tucking it in since that is how it fits.
@@alisonflaxman1566The bottom sheet has elastic all the way around a bottom sheet. That isn't tucking... that's how a fitted she is made to go onto a mattress!!??
Interesting to see so many Americans talking about how they were taught to answer the phone. I always just said “Hello?” until I started answering a work phone, where I was trained and it was necessary to identify oneself/the establishment. My impression of the meaning of “hello?” is “who is calling?,” which is interesting. It puts the onus of identifying oneself and who they are hoping to reach on the caller. Like, I’m receiving an inquiry, not providing information first, hehe. Or “Hi, who’s this?” It makes it kind of awkward to answer a cell phone, because I’m so used to answering “Hello?” When I already know who it is, it’s like signing off on a text or something, or starting it like a letter, “dear so and so” - unnecessary formality. So maybe that’s the cultural difference. Even though Germans are precise and to the point, they still take the time to do things properly, whereas Americans are always looking for corners to cut, like we don’t need to ask who is calling anymore so that becomes annoying to people.
Also as many people have pointed out the regional diversity. I’ve lived mostly in the north and when I go south it’s noticeably slowed down. Maybe it has to do with not wanting to draw things out if you’re outside in the cold, but rushing in the heat just makes you sweat.
I'm an american and cross my 7s and Zs.
I always make my capital F in cursive look like the German 7.
The bedsheets being tucked in isn’t necessarily really for sleeping, more just so that it looks good when you aren’t actually sleeping in it.
I wasn't raised crossing my sevens or z's, but after a week or so of college started because it made total sense.
I recently started to prefer wearing slippers at home. They're so much more comfortable than shoes. Especially in the summer.
8:45 Poor Feli! When people just say "Bye" and walk away while you're talking, they're being rude and trying to quietly tell you they don't want to talk to you right then. But maybe that's because she'd just walk along with them because that's what she was used to, and here we often say "Hey I'm heading to [whatever class], wanna walk with me?" Because sometimes people just want some time to themselves, or have to go somewhere else. Or just don't feel like it. So maybe they thought she was the one being rude. That's just surprising to me since she's really lovely
I think the tuck in bed thing is mostly a hotel thing. When I "tuck my kids in bed" I just cocoon them in their blanket like a burrito.
The shoes in the house is family specific, it actually is better to assume you remove your shoes when entering someones house.
This is a regional thing, I think. In Texas, it's better to assume you leave your shoes on. Don't want anything to sting or bite you because you took your shoes off.
While serving in the U.S.ARMY I was stationed in Frankfurt, GE. Back then ( 1980s ) I loved it! Some of the writing ( numbers etc. ) I do as Germans do. Mostly because this how we did it in the military.
iam philipino german Irish from my dads side, 5.8s tlingit Alaska native from my moms side, I met a German women an she didn't know me but when I said I was part German she said thats where you get your anger from, kinda true lol imet a German called wolfgangfrank in west Germany, an he invited me over to eat, with his friends, my first time ever eating a fully cooke pig on a silver plater with a apple in its mouth an we drank beer out of a glass boot with a shot of schnapps, I got wasted, I let them play with my m16rifle, we had fun, thk you for your videos, iam learning alot about Germany, oh spoiler alert, my dad was a ww2 veteran,lol but I love German people, they have a rich culture with a great history, you had so great generals, America uses Erwin Rommel as a tank general in all our tank training, we learned alot from your blitzkrieg, an apply it in all or engagements across the world, danke Schoen,
❤I do not remember the name of the Holiday in Germany. It is around Christmas time. Children would leave their shoes outside the entrance of the house and receive gifts. Also, in certain areas of the country, because of tracking in mud and wet clothes, we have what is sometimes called a mudroom....we leave our shoes and dirty clothes. Sometimes you have the washer and dryer and a half-bath right there to wash up. Lastly, I remember how differently we shop for food. We have HUGE refrigerators and sometimes freezers so we only have to go shopping maybe twice a month. We also hunt or raise a lot of our meat, (we process it ourselves), which we dry or freeze for the year.. Sometimes you have to travel over an hour to get to the store. We grow, can and dry our own vegetables/fruit/meat etc when we can to save money. I have to say I miss the daily bread trucks in Germany. Your bread is soooo good!!! I make wonderful baked items...Yet, I have ALWAYS struggled making bread...but that is me...others make it very well.❤❤❤
While living in Germany during the early 1970s, seeing Germans step outside to sweep the sidewalk in front of their shop or home stunned me. I don't have memories of anyone doing that. I've lived in Chicago, Omaha, San Francisco, Colorado Springs, and have visited most of the states. I've seen people shovel snow and rake leaves from their sidewalks, but sweeping is extremely rare. Though I will admit that landscape companies will use 'air backpacks' with blowers to blow debris and grass clippings off of sidewalks, but homeowners and business owners? Extremely rare. But I haven't been to Germany in over half of a century, so maybe it has changed.
For the most part, America may have preschool, then kindergarten, then first grade. It was the first German word I learned.😉 Collectively, pre college education is referred to as "Grades K through 12"
I grew up in a military family, so made beds and tucked in sheets were a MUST! It has become a habit now, so an unmade bed is too sloppy for me. However, not all Americans think so.
53 yr old American here. numbers--I write my # four like this-4. Shoes in the house--when I was a kid, we always wore our shoes all thru the house. I got married at 16 and my wife MADE everyone take their shoes off at the door. I'm now married to a Filipina and, of course, shoes are not allowed inside. They all(her and her parents) take their shoes off at the door outside. I put mine inside. Their outside shoes annoy me as they all take them off directly in front of the door. It is very rude to me as you are not taking anyone else into consideration. You just care only about your shoes and you going into the door. Lets not think that your shoes may trip the next person. I usually take my foot and slightly KICK the other shoes aside. Wife and I bought our new house last yr and father-in-law was helping me carry something in. He made a motion for me to leave my shoes outside on the porch, where it was lightly raining. It really offended me as it is MY house and I am paying ALL the bills. I'll wear my shoes ALL THRU the house if I want to! Sleeping--I never make my bed. When I lay down, I usually raise my legs and roll side to side to get my blankets all under me. Always done that.
My mother was german and between her, my german relatives, and living as a child in German for 9 years I feel stuck between two cultures. I am not German ({lost language) but not quite American {don’t fit in}. I love watching your content!
the Letters portion. In Old English as used in the USA 200+ years ago the I and the J looked alike, which is how the modern J was introduced. And the thing about our Goodbyes is that we are so casual or short with them because formal goodbyes, or long goodbyes, make us feel like it is permanent. Over here we don't believe in a forever goodbyes, so it seems short and/or informal and casual.
I used to tuck in my sheets as a kid at my Mom's insistence. At least she didn't make me bounce a quarter off it like was required of an army soldier.
The way I made my bed was tuck the sheet at the bottom and make a box fold at the corner. Then leave the sides hanging down. Followed by a blanket, then a bedspread just laid over the top sheet. It looked just as nice.
Tucking you in was just the ritual of the kids getting into bed and the parent having bonding time. Sometimes it included reading a short book like a Dr. Seuss book before bed. It often involved listening to a child's nighttime prayers. Sometimes the parent getting the child a small glass of water. Of course, all this was delay tactics.
Sometimes-many times-it would involve Dad singing "Quando La Gusta" until he tripped over his tongue.
Then, at last, delay tactics were exhausted. Then the child got in bed (maybe one more time to the bathroom, and then to bed.)
The tucking part would be Dad pulling the sheets higher to your chin and saying goodnight.
Then, since I shared a room with my two sisters, we'd get to talking, quietly, so we didn't get anyone yelling at us. But invariably one of us would say something hilarious and we'd all crack up laughing!
Then Mom would yell, "Shut up and go to sleep!"
And we'd still giggle a little bit more, then finally go to sleep!
Handwriting is the first major difference I noticed when I moved to Germany in 6th grade!
American here. Growing up I made 7's the "American" way, but because a lot of college instructors used middle slashes, i started doing so too. Given my sloppy handwriting, this helped make 7's look distinct from 1's and l's. I think my sister also changed in college.