Can Americans and Germans Learn From Each Other? with
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- In our last video, we talked about some cultural differences between Germans and Americans and explored the ways in which Americans can learn from the German way of life. But now, it's time to flip the script! Join us as we sit down with Anni, a German expat living in America, to talk about some things that Germans can learn from the American culture. This two-part collaboration is not to be missed as we share our thoughts and perspectives on the cultural exchange between our two countries. Don't forget to check out part one on Anni's channel, @AmericasGotGermans , for the full experience: • Things Americans can L...
If you missed our last video about things Americans can learn from Germans, check it out here: • Living in Germany: 3 T...
If you haven't seen Anni's video about things Germans can learn from Americans, check it out here: • 3 Things GERMANS can l...
DISCLAIMER: We are just two people who are talking about our observations and experiences. We both come from particular places in our home countries and live in particular places in our new countries, and this will of course affect our points of view. While we are talking in general about German and American people, we know that not all Germans or Americans fit into all of these generalizations. But we would love to hear your thoughts on these things, so drop us a comment below!
#lifeingermany #germanculture #germany #culture #cultureshock
00:00 Intro
01:31 Being Nicer
05:35 Work, School and Fun
17:57 Innovation
30:44 Disclaimer and Conclusion
About us: In July of 2021, after a long time of hoping, dreaming, and planning, we sold or gave away almost everything we owned and left the United States to begin our journey with four children as an expat family. We moved to Leipzig, Germany, a beautiful city in the state of Saxony. This is our story.
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Thanks so much for watching! Again, these are just some of our thoughts and opinions and while we speak in generalizations, we know that you can't contain a whole country or culture within any particular stereotype or observation. Whether you agree or disagree, let us know your thoughts below, and don't forget to check out part 1 on AmericasGotGermans!
19:50 Anyone who moves must notify the authorities of their new address: Just as in MANY other countries around the world, a registration obligation applies in Germany for primary and secondary residences.
This is the only way authorities can organize elections or plan daycare places, for example, and the population of a municipality is also the basis for funding from the state. However, the registration also gives you advantages: You are only entitled to certain services and club memberships if you are a resident of the municipality.
Also important for law enforcement!
In the case of minor accidents, you exchange addresses that are on your identity card, because the address on it is also changed when you re-register.
I can also travel to many countries only with an personal identity card, without needing a passport or visa. The Personalausweis and the obligation to register are closely related.
Good points. I think for us, there are some aspects of the behind the scenes bureaucracy that we don't see and don't yet participate in, so sometimes it's harder to understand it all. I'll accept the anmeldung as necessary and important to do in person (so the authorities really know you are here), but I would love for the ummeldung and abmeldung to move to online services - this would also solve the problem of not being able to make an appointment for six weeks!
The thing with being friendly to strangers is kind of a double edged sword. Even in germany you can expirience that. I, born near by Berlin so more in the north, was used to, what we call the "Maulfaulheit" of the people there. Don't talk to strangers without good reasons. Nice polite greetings, but nothing more.
But then I moved to a little town in Rheinland-Pfalz and the people there were much more open and I liked it. But I also realized, this has nothing to do with ME. If it wasn't me there in this situation, they would acted in the same way to everyone.
And I prefer the northern way, because if someone in Berlin is very nice to you, you can be sure, they do it, because they really likes YOU. And this is a challenge which is worth 😜
Greetings from Neuenhagen bei Berlin 😎
Good info. For me, I don't expect someone to be nice to me if they don't like me, but I think it's enjoyable to be nice to people that you don't know. I have a few memories of strangers being extra nice to me through some small talk and casual conversations, and I remember it really changed my day from being pretty crappy to being a little brighter. So I think of it like this: you never know what is going on in someone's life, and you never know what kind of impact a smile and warm greeting can do for someone's day. (But admittedly, I don't always go around talking to and smiling at everyone that I meet. But I try to be a friendly face!)
Hi guys,
friendliness - you've got a point here
school, early reading, and combining the job with fun - of course, it's better to have a job you enjoy than to just grind your hours for a paycheck, but there is the danger of self-exploitation and resulting burnout. Children should have fun while learning in pre-school and in school - and in my experience, this works just fine in Germany. Btw there are recent studies that see no advantage in early (pre-school) reading lessons. They compared kids further down the line (grade 4 or so) by their reading competence and found no difference between kids that started reading early and those who started only in school.
innovation - yes, we Germans are hesitant in adopting new technologies. There are a few reasons for that. New technology is almost always combined with new devices, but we are a little bit stingy (why buy something new, when the old device works just fine?). Then there are the beaurocratic and data-safety regulations that prevent a lot of quality-of-life improvements. Certain documents have to be provided in "Schriftform" (written) which means a piece of paper. Different branches of the administration have different and intentionally not compatible databases to prevent our most feared nightmare "der gläserne Bürger" aka an administration that has all data about you with one press of a button (that's why the citizen registration and police don't exchange data and why I get called by the police who asks me if a certain person lives in one of our rentals). That's why sometimes you have to bring a printed document from one office to another office. The German administration(s) work hard on how to make online portals secure and compliant with administrative regulations and that can be more complicated than you might imagine - every hacker attack is detrimental as it erodes trust (how can I as a citizen trust the administration will protect my data when they can't prevent a hack of their data and their online portal is down for 3 months? [happened to my local trash removal administration in October 2022 and the portal isn't back to full functionality yet]).
Btw1: Using cheques is so 2000
Btw2: My father-in-law and his colleagues (all engineers), even the American ones, always said "never touch a running system"
I appreciate the comment and your input! it's always good for us to hear things from other points of view!
@@OnwardMJ I forgot to mention a very German POV "We prefer data-protection over convinience."
With the cheques, you call a point out, I really never understood. Why americans still use this? Maybe they're also a bit german and don't wanna change a system, that just works for them?! 😎
@@juwen7908 It's mostly gone now. I think I wrote 1 or 2 checks in my last six years in the states...
Really interesting video. I think you are so right about everybody needing to take a look at themselves regularly to reassess views, beliefs or procedures.
Generalising is always dangerous but I feel that sticking to procedures as ‘we have always done it that way and it works’ is an absolute trap. After working in education for the last 20 years I believe that continuing to do things the way they have always been done means that you are forgetting to take into account the ever more rapidly change of young people’s worlds. This means the well oiled procedures and systems completely miss to meet the needs of today’s young people. When you are working with challenging youths this can have disastrous outcomes. To insist on ‘old fashioned’ principles means you could potentially lose them altogether. I hope this makes sense without any examples.
I am a German living in the UK and can absolutely understand and support your notions regarding friendliness. A nice word goes a long way. As you say it can brighten up your day and lead to deeper conversations anyhow. I think it’s just the belief of many Germans that small talk is unnecessary and without purpose. I get this when it comes to meeting up with a group of friends and you only talk about ‘light topics’.
I also completely agree with you in that education should be fun, learning should be fun. I think today’s teachers are encouraged to make sure it is presented that way. Not sure it always is though. What it’s like in Germany these days I don’t know. I left Gymnasium in 1980. However, I totally agree with the German system that formal education can/should wait until kids have learnt about social behaviour and personal matters. Here we get a significant number of children who can still not use the toilet independently or eat with cutlery, not talking about independence in the wider sense. However, if a child is encouraged to read, cook or anything else from a young this is wonderful also but not in a formal setting.
I don’t know where the fear of technology stems from apart from the potential danger of leaking data and the possibly disastrous consequences for the individuals affected.
You are absolutely right, in my view, it is completely outdated, long winded and not effective.
Thanks for watching and for the insightful comment. All of these things are can definitely be deeper topics with a lot to say about them, and yes, it is tricky to generalize. But of course we're just trying to share our observations and we hope it doesn't come off the wrong way!
Sorry, my comment about generalisation was a pre warning to my first point, definitely not directed at you or Annie.
I can see the beauty of sticking to old habits, traditions etc. that’s why I put that comment in front.
I really liked your video and thought it was very balanced. I thought you apologising to Germans and Annie was very nice so very friendly and American 😊😊
Have you ever seen a video about Waldkindergarten? Here is one in english: Denmark's Forest Kindergartens Kids Gone Wild ruclips.net/video/Jkiij9dJfcw/видео.html
@@arnodobler1096, many thanks. I will definitely watch this. I am familiar with the principles of Waldorfschulen and had friends who went to one but haven’t seen any video about their Kindergarten.
@@mariashepherd8650 not Waldorf
I think a reason why the older generation stay at the job they don't like is found in the history of germany. We had periods of time where there was few jobs for every one. If you got a job, you would stay with it so you can feed your family. Therefore I think this mentality was passed down a few genrations.
That makes sense. I just feel like in the global economy today, if your job doesn't make you happy, maybe look for something that does instead of spending all of that time being miserable. I know that's not the case for everyone, and some people love having a job they don't have to care about. But for me, if someone is complaining about it enough, then it's time to look for something new.
As a German who lived in the US for about a year I realized how inefficient and complicated this indirect communication and sugar coating is. Back in Germany I found that the more direct way to communicate makes things much easier. So I would not call it unfriendly, I would call it honest.
I think it really depends on the situation. I'm good with less or no small talk and sugar coating in business/meetings/bureaucratic situations. But in casual places casual conversations are enjoyable.
@@OnwardMJ I think the different perception is based on the different cultural experiences. If you have been socialized in such a culture, you usually don't recognize it.
In Germany there are also different levels of politeness in communication.
Personally, I think directness is also not bad in private interactions, because even there it makes many things less complicated.
Words lose meaning and seriousness if they do not say what is meant. This has effects on the mentality over all.
When I was in the USA, some Americans complained about the general unreliability. This is connected with it.
I also spent some time in Japan. The need to "read the air" is pretty extreme there, and even some Japanese consider it problematic in private relations and business.
hmm I don't know if you aware German-Americans make up the largest self-reported ancestry group within the United States accounting for roughly 49 million people and approximately 17% of the population of the US.
I agree, that COVID-19-crisis, shows that we missed to train our teachers to work with modern systems at school. But I don't think, that it is in general a bad thing, that the kids are not all the time on screens. They're are used to it so much out of school. Is it really necessary, that they have even more time on screens? It's not healthy. And they wouldn't learn some things, they learn now. For example, if heard, (I don't know, if it's true) that many americans aren't able to read handwriting any more, because they don't get used to it. And I thought, WHAT?? Thats unbelievelable for me. But maybe, thats just my opinion 😉
Screen time is a big deal, but I manage our kids screen time when they are home, so I don't mind if they are doing learning activities on screens during the day. Plus the fact that many jobs will continue to rely more on technology, I think it can help the kids prepare for the future. But it definitely needs to be balanced.
As far as US students not being able to read handwriting, that is not exactly true. Most schools no longer teach cursive (Schreibshrift) but focus on print handwriting (Blockshrift). In general, it is more legible and easier to read. But it also depends on where your kids go to school... I will say this, even with all of the lessons on handwriting, we get notes from the teachers and their handwriting is not very legible! So it doesn't always make the students write better! 😂
Ich als Deutscher will gar keinen Smalltalk lernen. Ich bin kein SCHAU-SPIELER. Ich will lieber ehrlich sein. Bei euch werden Schauspieler sogar Präsident.
Wer ist der nächste? Vin Diesel? Dwayne Johnson? Kim Kardashian? HAHAHA
Keine Sorge, natürlich muss niemand Smalltalk lernen, aber für mich ist es schön. Wie gesagt, finde ich, dass Smalltalk und Freundlichkeit mein Leben ein bisschen Netter machen. Und es führt auch zu tieferen Gesprächen. Aber ich verstehe, dass es nicht für jeder ist.
The lack of innovations in Germany is a real problem. Germany is painfully slow in innovations.
Mein Kommentar gelöscht?
Das habe ich nicht getan... Keine Ahnung?
@@OnwardMJ dann YT
@@arnodobler1096 ja, manchmal kann YT echt dumm sein. Aber ich freue mich immer auf deine Kommentare. Du bist immer hier! 😃
@@OnwardMJ Yes and getting worse every year - I was shown 4 comments, but really see only 3..
What I wrote, you must not compare/confuse bureaucracy and officialdom with innovation of a country.
In Bloomberg's innovation index, Germany ranks 4th and the US 11th.
Do you know the Hidden Champions? List of mid-sized world leaders - 50% are German companies.
We don't have Google Apple (who buy everything together) & Co, but they are not so visible.
Google ASML (NL) and Zeiss Optik and Trumpf Laser - the USA would like to have this know-how and skilled workers.
Little small talk saves a lot of time every day (I use for 2 3 espressos daily - sitting and in peace 🤣).
Ja und wird von Jahr zu Jahr schlimmer - mir wurden 4 Kommentare angezeigt, aber wirklich sehe nur 3..
Was ich schrieb, ihr dürft Bürokratie und Beamtentum nicht mit Innovation eines Landes vergleichen/verwechseln.
Im Innovations Index von Bloomberg rangt Deutschland auf Platz 4 und die USA auf 11.
Kennst du die Hidden Champions? Liste von Mittelständischen Weltmarktführern - 50 % sind deutsche Firmen.
Wir haben kein Google Apple (die alles zusammenkaufen) & Co, sind halt nicht so sichtbar dadurch.
Google mal nach ASML (NL) und Zeiss Optik und Trumpf Laser - dieses Know How und die Fachkräfte hätten die USA gerne.
Wenig Small Talk erspart mit täglich viel Zeit (nutze ich für 2 3 Espressi täglich - sitzend und in Ruhe 🤣).
PS: Sensing solutions from German Bosch Sensortec enable the following use cases in smartphones and tablets:
Image stabilization
Activity, gesture & context recognition
Screen orientation
Device orientation
Indoor SLAM
Shock and freefall detection
Significant motion
Motion control
Market share 50% i.e. every 2nd device uses Bosch
I think, most reasons for the luck of innovation in modern communication belongs to our deep deep fear of data security. I mean, your example at the Meldeamt is really a bad, maye this one also belongs to, what we call 'Das war schon immer so' means 'its always been like this', so don't change! (A real german mindset, I'm soo sick of! 🫤)
But I work in a library and we also tell our readers to fill out a little form and then we put the datas in the computer (and I never thought about it) and then saved the paper contract, because we (germans) have the fear of, what happens if the computer crashes or get hacked. Thats the only reason. That is soo deep inside of the german mindset. It's hard to change that, it just feels unsafe being addicted to that machines. Paper feels safer and can not be hacked. We don't trust the internet when it comes to data.
Yeah, I can see that. Same reason cash is still king in Germany. I know there is a history here that can impact all aspects of life, but some things are just (to me) a mindset shift that could really improve some aspects of life. From my perspective, having my personal information in paper form in 12 different offices doesn't really feel safer than having it online. But I can understand the concern for some people. An interesting thought for me though, is that the fear of security from tech doesn't stop most Germans from using smartphones, which are probably the worst devices from a privacy perspective! But I know it's a complicated topic...