things I don't understand about America
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- Howdy!
There are many things that I don't get and these are a few of them.
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Oh dear, I’m British living in Germany and I say “how are you” as a greeting and every day am surprised when I get a sincere answer. It’s just so hard to stop but after seeing this, I will try to just say “hello”.
(Also I’m a big fan of your channel)
Well, you ask a question we give the answer 😅
In English language classes, we were taught that "How are you?" is not a real question, but it's not within our habit to treat it like that. Cause u never know who and why is asking 👀 Maybe they really wanna know about my cat eating my yoghurt this morning
Actually some Europeans (me, German 29, included) also use phrases like that. "Was geht?" ("What's up?") is my favorite here. It has a double meaning I think. It combines the rhetorical "How are you" with an expression of surprise (a second meaning of "Was geht?"). To emphasize the surprising expression, you can put the "Was geht?" first and change the intonation. At least that's how my peer group uses that. If someone actually asks me "Wie geht's?" ("how are you?") while passing me, that also confuses me tbh.
The Irish version is "How are you keepin'?".
American here! My home I grew up in, in Tennessee, had no sidewalks, but I walked in the road and got over when cars were coming. My school was a block away, but the principal didn’t want me walking to school, because no sidewalks. The closest grocery store was 5 miles away. Non-existent public transportation, so very car-dependent.
I’ve been able to live and travel around a lot, so I know this isn’t a universal American experience, but my goodness, do I see the same thing all over the place. In the middle of a bigger city now and still find myself being car dependent.
Huge fan of public transportation. Love trains. Dublin and Amsterdam, and to a lesser extent, Seattle and Chicago really spoiled me on trains and now I just don’t get why we don’t have trains all the time everywhere else too. Loved the video Erika!
Opposite here in NYC (want to visit Tennessee one day in the near future)
The increase in quality of editing and humor !! Love it !! Great work !
The portion sizes are to emotionally compensate people on the loosing side of the wealth divide. It makes poor people feel like they are getting more for less. Generally you find these giant portion sizes at fast food restaurants that use processed foods to cut corners. Four words, High Glucose corn syrup. It is the byproduct of corn farming, Your body can not actually process it, And it is filler for these large capacity low budget sodas.
The car dependency aspect is sooo true. I’m an American who spent around 2 ish years total in Europe (time in Slovakia and moved to Edinburgh, Scotland for school at 18). The culture shock of even small quaint towns in SK having little city centers and being so walkable was sooo freeing to me coming from the US south. I came back to the states to finish school bc of COVID and going back to an environment where I had to drive to literally anything was beyond depressing. I yearned for the European walkability so bad that I convinced my bf to move to Chicago with me last year. I am 100x happier here! my car in Kentucky was costing me $800 / month between car payments and insurance. Here I pay like $75 per month for an unlimited train + bus pass and my quality of life is sooo much better. Being able to walk to anything I need is something I’ll never sacrifice ever again. I don’t think I could live anywhere in the US other than Chicago or NYC because I refuse to be stuck in car culture again.
anywho, I loved your video and how you explore quirky things about my country without being condescending like a lot of Europeans on tiktok tend to be. I’m hosting my European friends in September for 2 weeks and it will be their first time here and I’m so excited to see their real time culture shocks lol
Because have you seen how huge America is compared to Slovakia? There’s way more space. We’re not all living on top of each other like in Germany. If you’re a city dweller and don’t desire to do anything outside of a city, you can walk everywhere, but most Americans like to travel around the country, to the next town, or explore different places in their own states that are very distant from each other because of geography, it’s not a car “culture”, not sure what that means.
@@alpharius_nox fun fact..23% of grown Americans has never even left their state where there born so "travel the country" statement is kind of..wrong =)
@@nattm6553 I know you’re just trolling me right? 23%? That means most do leave their states …
Population density and geography have a lot to do with the use of cars in America. There’s no conspiracy, no lack of government enforcement or encouragement that needs to happen, there’s no cultural deficiency or anything else, it’s pragmatic.
If I live in a town with less than 1000 people and the nearest town is 30 minutes away, of course I’m going to drive.
@@alpharius_nox Why, exactly, are you trying to mansplain American culture to me, an American?
you know Europe as a continent is also huge, right? Yet most of their cities are walkable and interconnected by rapid transit. The size of the US doesn’t matter when talking about individual cities. Individual cities should be walkable and transit oriented, in addition to people being able to drive if they feel like it. Trust me my guy, I’ve traveled all over the country in my car and have done multiple 12+ hour road trips. I still love a good road trip. Do you think that Europe doesn’t have highways and cars? You’d be wrong. Walkable cities aren’t a threat to you wanting to travel around the country or live in a rural place with your car. Nobody is trying to take your cars away.
Also, the US quite literally is a car culture. When I go back to my home state, everyone has a car, anything you have / want to do has to be done with a car. Even in the big cities there, a car is a necessity. Which is absolutely ridiculous. Being in a walkable city has greatly improved my mental health and lifestyle. Maybe you should try getting out of the US & your little bubble and see how good others have it…..
@@josiahholsomback7507 I live in Germany.
I feel like I need to mansplain to you since understanding things like population density and geography seems to be beyond your abilities.
Consider this, how much do you think the extremely high cost of gas/oil and the amount of taxes you have to pay on vehicles play a role in this lack of “car culture” you see in Europe?
I’ll give you a good example, I was up in Norway a few months ago, and I noticed that many Norwegians drive SUVs with the rear seats removed. When I asked one of my Norwegian friends why this was, he explained that there is a tax in Norway for your car based on the number of people it can hold. So a car that would normally cost 40,000, would be 80,000 Euro if they didn’t take the seats out when registering the car. Norwegians have it so good they can’t even afford an SUV with more than two seats.
Not sure what this “car culture” people keep referencing, I’m assuming it’s some climate zealot phrase to add negative connotations to anything that Americans do that goes against the prevailing wisdom of the technocrats that want to control everything we do. In my day, “car culture” meant a bunch of people who liked the mechanical nature of automobiles, the type of people who built cars, raced cars, and knew everything about cars because they had a passion for it.
My grandmother that owns a pinto just so she can go to church on Sunday is not part of some “car culture”.
Drinking is more dangerous when everyone has a gun ...
.. I guess.
Watch Yet Another Urbanist on drunk driving. Because of the city design forcing many Americans to drive there's too much killing people with drunk driving and motor accidents. There isn't enough of a option to walk, bike, or take transit home from a bar.
The mindset is often to put the responsibility on the individual to not drink and drive rather than change the infrastructure.
Many American news headlines and articles victim blame pedestrians and cyclists for getting hit or killed by cars too rather than talk about the road design. Those pedestrians are called jaywalker. Jay means stupid.
They sometimes are biased for drivers and make the excuse that "the drivers couldn't see the pedestrians or cyclists". Or say "cyclists shouldn't be on the road so it was their fault". Even tho there isn't enough bike lanes and sidewalks everywhere. Including not enough transit too.
There not being enough sidewalks has also caused some pedestrians to have to walk on the edge of the road and has caused cops to handcuff them.
Flurfdesign talked about how a bus driver had to block drivers to protect kids cause they even wouldn't stop for kids to cross the street.
Watch Not Just Bikes and About Here.
If you have a detached home in the Midwest, it may be appropriate to have a gun in the house. But anyone who believes they can keep young people away from drinking or drugs is a dreamer or a malicious demagogue.
The "how are you" thing is much more widespread to more cultures than just the US. It seems to be something especially designed to trip up german speakers. It happens with my Turkish friends as well. I always try to answer honestly and ask them back which is when I remember it's just part of the greeting.
unless you live in like a dense urban area, or near a city or town center, pretty much nothing is walkable
And even then its like "walkable"
The urban sprawl is a big part of the reason of why I'm leaving the US. I've had too many close calls in vehicles and have sunk tens of thousands of dollars into them just to have a way to get around. I much prefer just walking or taking the train, tram, or bus, but those are only an option in very few places in the US (and they are usually absurdly expensive and might not be the safest places to live).
If you don’t like urban sprawls, don’t move to Germany:
the population density of the United States is approximately 36.4 people per square kilometer (94.2 people per square mile), while the population density of Germany is approximately 237.016 people per square kilometer (614.6 people per square mile).
^^ that guy clearly has no idea what the term urban sprawl means lmaoooo
@@josiahholsomback7507 In other words, for those without reasoning skills, Germany is one big Urban Sprawl.
@@alpharius_nox you know Urban Sprawl refers to cities with LOW population density, right? OP is condemning how sparsely populated our cities are. Densely populated cities are more walkable, have more transit, and better community. Cities like Austin have huge amounts of urban sprawl and are basically a giant lifeless suburb.
@@josiahholsomback7507 Germany the country has a higher density, not just the cities, that means there are more ubran sprawls, in fact, Germany is basically one giant urban sprawl, with some nice scenery a few kilometerrs between each city, unless you go to Bayern or Northern parts of Germany. Yes, the densly populated cities have good public transport, but there are too many other negative aspects of German society that I cannot recommend moving here to anyone at all, especially not just to come here for “walkable” cities, pfffk.
They tried dropping the drinking age to 18 in the US but it increased accidents and death so they moved back up to 21. This was many decades ago.
Only in US? And the rest of the world doesn’t have the same problem? How interesting
Dont drive after a drink, you know...
having had lived in a large town in alabama with no sidewalks before moving to a very walkable city in the UK with great public transit, I can tell you its absolutely miserable having to drive what is physically a 4 min walk but because of road heirarchy is impossible.
America is on one of the top countries in CO2 emission with 14.4 metric ton CO2 per capita per year, the world average is only 4.66. the same goes for wastage and many things
i live in a big city in the US, not far from downtown at all, but it’s so unwalkable. our neighborhood does have sidewalks but the only think i could walk to in 20 minutes is the library. you also have to cross some dangerous roads to get there. the grocery store is a 42 minute walk away, or you could take the bus for 25 min (which comes rarely) or drive for 7 minutes.
not to mention that this close grocery store is dangerous so we don’t even go to it. even though we live in a very nice neighborhood, there are shootings multiple times a month in the area :(
"moving out" at 18 is more related to college. not many kids go to college within driving distance. when you go home for the holidays, your childhood home is not quite your home anymore as you expand your view of the world. it feels different. Also, when you move out for college, good chance you'll find employment not near your childhood home. hence you move out.
as for onions, point a fan(like those little battery powered ones) to blow over your onion while cutting, and have that pushed air going to the extractor. it'll keep the lachrymatory agents from getting into your eyes. or point the wind toward your partner and laugh like doctor evil.
I vote for you to keep doing what you do, Erika, especially the snarky humor!
I am living in Denmark at the moment and I don't think I will ever see my home city in the US the same after experiencing a walkable city in a more suburban setting on the island of Zealand. I feel like this is how it's supposed to be and I'll never understand why American developers always have to take cars into account for every little decision.
They tried to “fight” communism with Suburbia (nuclear weapons less effective when you have low density). So because of Cold War the US has mutilated all its cities and turned its population into humanoid pigs.
On credit scores: I Germany we have the Schufa-score, which is pretty similar. It's made by this private company that uses secret algorithms to assign you a score based on credit history, amount of bank accounts, how likely you are to change into a wolf at full moon, etc.
So all in all very dubious and annoying. Like, why are they exempt from so many privacy laws?
Anyways it's used by banks to decide if they give you a loan or credit card and even by some landlords when they decide if they're going to rent out their flat to you.
I live in a small walkable town and things are pretty good. America does have Suburbs but you don't have to live in them if you don't want to. There are so many Cities and towns that are walkable especially in the Northeast and Midwest.
Going anywhere without a car in America is extremely difficult. I am a runner and often the only place to walk, bike, or run from one place to the next is literally the road with cars driving 70mph on it. Some people will actually try to run you over aggressively because they are mad if they have to slow down to pass you. But the road is almost always the only option of going anywhere in the country. If you don’t have a car or can’t drive, there is no other option available to you. I really hate it even though I grew up here in the U.S. I wish we had trains like in Europe, or even better, a path to walk/run/bike on because that would be great.
I think Americans have these large jugs because of suburban city design, where you have to drive about a hour to get to supermarket. So Americans have to buy food for a week or more, and that's why big packages quite useful for them.
In Germany I have to buy food everyday because the fridges are so small you can’t fit more than 3 days worth of food in it. For a family of six, you need at least 3 fridges, unlike in the U.S. you can make it with just one fridge.
@@alpharius_nox BS du kannst american sized Kühlschränke hier kaufen. Kühltruhen auch. Wir hatten vor 50 Jahren schon eine Kühltruhe, wo 2 Schweine reinpassten!
Yep
Thought you were referring to breast size initially... I was like "What is he on about?"
Stumbled over your video. What a lot of fun to watch. All points are spot on. I am from Germany, but a US citizen, living on both sides of the Atlantic in equal years. To this day, I do not understand why people would want to get out the house, drive to a restaurant, wait in line at a drive through, get the food and either eat it in the car and drive home, or, drive home and eat there....food is cold till then, of course. BTW, there are about 200,000 fast food restaurants in the US. Still way to many;-)
i googled the fast food restaurant number from the us and it seems to be around 204k so yea way less than expected but STILL A LOT
Spot on! Couldn't stop smiling and laughing, you are so light and fresh😄
"Sure, we obey" would have only ever been uttered in prehistoric times, and by prehistoric I mean before July 4, 1776.
Edit: Also, according to Statista there were 198,000 fast food restaurants in the US as of 2022.
lmao enjoyed the 40min roast! love your videos and intellectual humor/banter keep up the good work 😂❤🙏
I'm from the US, I've had a few times where things were just terrible for me or someone else and when we simply said "How are you?" The person having a genuinely bad time gave a truthful answer. Same when things were great.
The tie really worked. I enjoy listening to your look on things every time. The city reviews are also great. Keep it up, as long as you enjoy it. Please ❤
For the onion, i heard not taking the top out first prevents the whole crying situations
brit living in the usa here - here are my experiences and comparisons and culture shocks after living here for 5 months. please excuse the amount of brain mush and garbled thought trains in this comment, i'm so tired right now lol.
i live in a small city on the outskirts/suburbs(?) and the pavement/sidewalk just ends halfway down the road i live on, i dont know why they even bothered putting one because the road my road comes off of doesn't have a pavement/sidewalk either. and then you get to a bigger road/highway from there so it's not safe to cross and there aren't any crossings. the closest walmart to me is an hour walk each way with no sidewalks or crossings and im in florida so in the summer the heat gets dangerous for walking that long, especially with having to carry everything back. it just is not feasible. a car makes life 1000x easier here for literally everything. the most unfortunate part is that not everyone can afford a car and people who don't have access to a car are forced to walk and cross these dangerous roads in insane heat in the summer to get to and from work or to and from walmart/other supermakets/grocery stores. it just sucks, especially because of what i'm used to there being in the uk. in the uk i lived in a similarly populated large town, also on the outkirts but there was a co-op 5 minutes away and a larger supermarket about 15 mins away each way. there aren't any convenience stores that aren't petrol stations near me here, and though there is one closer than walmart, it isn't close enough to actually be convenient, it would shed off maybe 10 mins each way to walk to that instead.
something i really miss about the uk is trains and buses actually existing, even with some decreased routes in the case of buses. where i live now only downtown has buses and they are extremely sparse, i've only seen a bus like two or three times?? its crazy. im very thankful that my husband drives and can shoulder that responsibility until i learn to drive and can get my license.
there is a huge emphasis on drive-thru establishments, not only fast food, but also banks have drive thrus as well as pharmacies. its kinda funny, i can't get used to that being the norm. its also true that there are fast food places and restaurants everywhere. my british town of around 40k only had a mcdonalds, other than that it was mostly local run takeaways and chippes.
i do like the usa, i like it probably as much as i like the uk, but i am feeling homesick right now so that is skewing my view a bit to the negative side. of course the main reason i like the usa is because it has my husband in it, i would not be here otherwise. i think the usa is a lot more fun to visit than to actually live in. i think if you get the chance to visit, there are a lot of cool places you can choose from and you absolutely should. this country is HUGE. i'm no longer surprised about the americans never having left their country statistic because there are so many things you can see just in the states alone. there are some truly beautiful places, and the food is great as well as the people. i think anyone with a foreign accent gets an advantage when interacting with people here, people seem to be friendlier to me by default if i approach them to ask a question or strike up a conversation with them, and i get a lot of questions about where i'm from and compliments on my accent which makes me feel teehee inside.
overall, the usa is nice, it's just hindered by capitalism going a bit too far (i.e health insurance/sick leave/at will employment), strange politics/political idolisation (i have thoughts and feelings that i won't go into here) and poor infrastructure, especially outside of the main big cities.
I for one do appreciate your videos Erika, and looking at the comments and statistics, I'm not the only one.
The 🇺🇸 USA uses a janky bassackwards date format of MM/DD/YYYY vs EU's 🇪🇺 DD/MM/YYYY -- Also I love not having to specify AM / PM in EU itineraries. "Meet us at 19:30" vs "Meet me at 7:30" "Wait bro, Is that AM or PM ?"
We are a bit odd. Entertaining and humorous video. Great job. ❤😊
In Germany we also have a Credit score. It is called "SCHUFA" and no one knows, how they roll their dice to "calculate" your credit score
Supermarkets - when I was in Germany, I totally fell in love with REWE. Brimming over with the kind of wonderful chocolates and delicious cheeses and delicatessen that we would have to pay premium for in the USA, but inexpensive in Germany.
American here! Got me cracking up over here 🤣 Also the salads you’ve mentioned is mostly a Minnesota/Wisconsin thing. I’m from the South and I’ve never tried any of those dishes. 😅
21:17 I think the idea is to go to the supermarket for a week at a time, and arrive there after eating, so you don't waste part of that week's provision on sweets or unhealthy stuff.
No one small talks in a McDonalds in America just letting you know
(Former) American living in Basel, Switzerland. I love your videos. They are so Erika. That's good. Sorry about DB. Swiss trains run on time. You forgot to mention guns. Maybe you understand guns in America?
Hello Erika. Your channel is very creative, entertaining to watch, and honestly feels like a breath of fresh air. Genuine, if I'm am to find a right word.
As of the latest data, there are approximately 200,000 fast food restaurants in the United States. The number of grocery stores is around 40,000.
Fast Food Restaurants
US: Approximately 0.000604 per capita (1 fast food restaurant per 1,655 people)
Europe: Approximately 0.000201 per capita (1 fast food restaurant per 4,986 people)
Grocery Stores
US: Approximately 0.000121 per capita (1 grocery store per 8,275 people)
Europe: Approximately 0.000134 per capita (1 grocery store per 7,437 people)
yeah i think she added 3 orders of magnitude but the number was about correct ignoring that lol.
Yes, many neighborhoods in America have zero sidewalks and typically zero public transit so there are almost no options except drive, even biking is dangerous. I know neighborhoods built in about 1960 in California don't, some newer ones do have sidewalks, luckily. You'd have to look up more.
I am an American but am working hard to be in a spot to be able to move to Europe in the near future, so I can have a walkable lifestyle, and be able to walk for real bread. I wish this was more readily available in America... But cars & their manufacturers ran our country for decades.
Eating fastfood in your car is just the way to go in American suburbia. Even if you want to walk inside and order your food, it's still faster to go through the drive-thru because every fastfood place prioritizes the drive-thru over walk-ins. If you go inside a fastfood restaurant with the intention of sitting down and eating your meal, you can easily wait 2 or 3 times longer than if you went through the drive-thru. I grew up a very walkable city and wasn't used to this when I was in a very suburban university. So what I did was order through the drive-thru and then park my car and then go inside to eat. I timed it, and it was significantly faster than if I ordered inside in the first place.
I live in Maine (not the French one) and I have a good friend in Nantes that I went to visit about half a year back. I’m only 18 and was sort of thrust into the American grindset so when I visited France, I’ve began to really consider getting out of what I believe to be a capitalistic nightmare and found your channel while doing research. I’m very happy I did so, your videos are very charming and give what I think to be well rounded information based on your experience. I’ve been very carefully considering where I might want to go and plan to visit many parts of Europe during the end of the summer to get a feel for a few different places and kind of gauging them based on my personal preferences. I plan to get info from other sources as well of course, ideally from people who live in the places I am interested in and I look forward to my eventual new life in Europe, and getting settled in thanks to my mother for allowing me to be eligible for polish citizenship. I appreciate your videos and wish you the best going forward!
French Maine doesn't exist anymore, for about 250 years now
And when it comes to groceries in the US, you save money by buying in bulk. Why buy one item for $6 when you can buy 3 for $10? Just put the extra in your freezer. Some people in more rural/suburban areas that have the space will have an extra fridge/freezer in their basement or garage for this exact reason. And when it comes to big portion sizes at restaurants, it's very common for people to take what they didn't eat back home with them for a lunch the next day. Large portion sizes at American restaurants doesn't mean that they eat all of it there or leave it and waste it. Though that does happen. But it isn't out of the norm to request a container to take what you didn't eat back home.
Hope this goes as well as the Europe one did!!❤️
EU has a credit score too, it is just used internally by Banks. If you have failed to pay a credit loan, they can see that. In the US you can check your credit score every time you want. Valid points btw.
Yes yes, very professional presentation. Thank you, very good.
I really like your video. I find it insightful and it is presented in an interesting way. I like your English accent, it is clean and easy to listen to. All together I find it delightful to sit through the whole video.
Us supermarkets are big bc they don't have small ones. They don't have small ones because these are not profitable bc of lower population density and car culture(park lots, highways, etc)
It's funny how much of the stuff you talked about is a direct result of car culture tbh. Like the drinking age, is because it is much more of a necessity for people to own and drive a car here than in Europe, and so drunk driving is a lot more of a public danger. There was some research that younger people especially are likely to get into severe accidents while drunk than older people, so there was a big lobbying push where the federal government basically twisted the states' arms into raising the drinking age to 21, by threatening to withhold federal transportation funds if they didn't. (The federal gov actually can't force states directly to set their drinking age)
Similar thing with obesity rate, since cars mean people aren't forced to walk to and from school/work as much, people get less physical activity as part of their daily routine. If you look at the bigger cities like New York and Chicago which have decent public transportation systems, the obesity rate is actually much closer to the rates in most of Europe.
American resident: No walkable cities, none, its true. (Almost hard to imagine)
Cause every street is unshaded, no benches, no real sidewalks, and (Texan resident) the sun is awful. So walking, it is not an option… (idek where to begin when it comes to introducing walkable cities to America)
The drinking age is steeped in American culture. Note that our driving age starts younger, 16, to enable children to work on the farms. Also, because of some protestant religions believing that alcohol should be banned, it was first at a minimum age of 18 before being increased to 21. As if that wasn't bad enough, there was at one time the 18th Amendment which prohibited all alcohol. In a few years, crime actually increased due to the bootlegging and was eventually repealed by the 21st Amendment.
The Drinking Age was NOT due to any religion. It was mutually agreed that TEEN AGERS AREN'T MATURE ENOUGH TO BE RESPONSIBILE DRINKERS. THEY PROVED THAT CORRECT, with numerous drunk driving deaths, hence the age was increased to 21.
The famous Sufferagette: Susan B. Anthony, WAS AN ABOLITIONIST FIRST. NOT BECAUSE OF HER RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, BUT BECAUSE SHE WAS TIRED OF SEEING WOMEN AND CHILDREN STARVE, BECAUSE THE PROVIDER OF THE FAMILY GOT OFF WORK, AND WENT STRAIGHT TO THE BAR. She tried for years, working with other charity organizations to get MEN SOBER, so they could provide for their families.
She later faught for Women's RIGHT TO WORK, as well as the right to Vote, so a Mother could support herself and her children, when her husband would wallow in his booze at the bar.
ALCOHOLISM FUELED THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT; RELIGION WAS JUST AN EXCUSE.
R. Reagan raised the age to 21.
@@arnodobler1096 Exactly, just one of the many things he fucked up. The best was of course that he made you believe that its good to give all your money to the rich so they could care better about the poor 🤣
@@beldin2987 👍
@@beldin2987 Teen drinking is the number one cause for teenage deaths in the U.S and still is even after raising the age to 21. What exactly is "good" about lowering back down so it's easier to access?
In America we actually do use an IM app that is hugely popular, and that is iMessage. Since apple integrated their IM client into their SMS app since the beginning, and since Americans always had a proclivity to texting, that means apple especially created a monopoly on the US phone market since you can only use iMessages on an apple devices, and non tech inclined individuals just end up buying iPhones because “the texting on an iPhone is better for some reason”.
a lot of these are jokes but I can tell you why we're called americans:
in english we just say the name of the country in the official name, so we don't say "people's republicans" when talking about chinese people or "united statesians" when talking about mexicans, we just pluralize the name of the country so it's just americans :D
As a Canadian it's annoyingly similar to the US and here's some of the things you talked about that are relatable as a Canadian:
We say how are you
The bathroom stalls suck
We don't actually use metric (at least casually), like we say "I'm 6'0" or something (I'm not tho lmao)
We use Celsius when talking about weather but for cooking we use Fahrenheit (which confuses me)
OH MY GOSH I HATE THE CAR DEPENDENCY (check out Not Just Bikes for amazing explanations on why that's the case)
McDonalds is always sticky so we (at least my family) don't like eating there.
The US is huge. Canada is even bigger! You could drive for 16 hours and still be in the same province 💀
Our rail sucks. (Again watch Not Just Bikes)
Great video, as an "American" I can give every European one tip: don't think of the US as "one country" but a collective of many ethnic and sub-cultures under a larger structure and ethos. Imagine if I said Iceland and Poland were the "same" because they were in "Europe". Even the word for "Europe" is new in history, relatively. The wide vareity of people in the US explains many confounding paradoxes.
Agreed. There is great cultural diversity depending on region and state and even regions within larger states.
There are more than 200 languages in Europe (name from the Greeks!!!), in Germany alone 200 dialects and 5 protected languages. Official language in the USA? 0. Europe has been a melting pot for over a thousand years, ppl migration after the Romans, for example. But even before that.
I think you're correct in that Europeans think of the US too much as a unified monolith. But I'm having the impression that you're underestimating the diversity spread throughout Europe compared to the US
@@jinjunliu2401 Please reconsider. There are ovet 1,000 languages spoken in the US. 800 just in New York City. Hawaii, Utah, Louisiana, Puerto Rico etc. are very different plaves culturally and ethnically. There are 324 Native American reservations or villages. And consider the wide range of arts and music.... etc. etc.
@@eschiedler I would still have to say that there's is a general baseline of "american" culture permeating through most regional groups of the US (except some fringe ones), because even the 2nd generation immigrants in the US have noticeable and recognizable differences from their parents.
I would say that maybe the diverseness of the US is akin to UK + Germany combined or something, surely cities like London and Berlin (combined if necessary) will have similar numbers as New York in terms of languages. But both UK and Germany have tons of regional differences which are over regions even smaller than US states. But we still have the rest of Europe which has aspects that are totally different than what's in UK and Germany.
In addition I wouldn't count Hawaii and Puerto Rico to "US culture" or at least the perception of it. (puerto ricans don't even have voting rights if I'm not mistaken) Otherwise you could also say the Caribbean islands of the UK, France, The Netherlands and tons of random islands over the world from European countries make the "European culture" even more diverse as well
Actually we used to have the Mars bar, twas my favorite.
We have WhatsApp. We’re not monsters.
:D okay good to know
don't you colonials dare to deep fry Mars bars ? is it true isn't ?
@@Guiscardo777 no thats scottish people
It was chocolate covered nougat and almonds. My dad loved them.
@@Guiscardo777 that's a southern thing. they'll deep fry anything and it's disgusting
I really love this content and its vibes
After moving to Germany and meeting Unitedstatians (in Latin America we call them Estadunidenses):
"Hi, nice to meet you! Where are you from?"
"I am American."
"Cool, so am I. But seriously, which country are you from?"
Yeah that sounds dumb asf
Ich komme aus den USA would be a better answer. I always thought whenever people say we're Americans is kinda dumb because we're not the only Americans that lives on continent.
After you moved to Germany, you met some "Americans". Americans are from the US. You're simply uneducated.
But.. I'll help educate you.
I think it would be a good idea if the concept of "linguistic shortening" as a very common feature in most languages...and definitely Romance and Germanic languages....was taught in each countries educational system. It might clear up a very common mistake being made. Also special attention to "context" and "reference" should be taught....because it is clearly lacking. I'm guessing that you are aware of a thing called a "dictionary" and that most words in the dictionary have more than a single definition....or perhaps you don't know this.
When US citizens say, "American" as a self-description..... it is NOT that "we think we own all of the Americas" as is commonly claimed.
It is a feature of many languages used throughout the world known as "linguistic shortening".
"America" is a linguistically shortened form of "United States of America".
I WISH there were another common example of this....Oh Wait, There Is.
There is no country named "Mexico".
The country's name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos", However due to the same exact, identical "linguistic shortening", it is most often referred to as Mexico and the citizens refer to themselves as "Mexicans"...... this is the exact same reason that US citizens refer to themselves as Americans.
Mexico and the US share this in common.
It is linguistically correct to describe anyone originating from the continent of "America" or "The Americas" as American.
When that is done, the context is the Continent of Origin and the Reference is the name of the continent.
It is linguistically correct to describe anyone originating from the US as "American". When that is done, the context is the Country of Origin and the Reference is the LINGUISTICALLY SHORTENED name for The United States of America. The same as we all do for Mexico/Mexicans.
The fact that so many people don't know this is lack of education and the failure of various countries educational system.
NOTE: On a side note, when you ask a person from Greece, "where are you from?" They will most likely say they are from Greece rather than say that they are from Europe. The context of the question is the nation of origin, not the continent of origin. That, in itself, should have prevented this very obvious mistake.
@@chandie5298 Dear person from the Country without a name... blah... blah... blah... you are dumb... blah... blah... blah... Fuck your imperialism... blah... blah... blah... Kisses, bye.
@@chandie5298 pfff. No. And your condescending example of Mexico doesn't apply since there is nothing else called Mexico, whereas America was and is already something else: a CONTINENT
Love the tie and your content.
I'm from the UK living in America, I feel like after moving here these questions just raise more questions than answers. This place confuses me in too many ways
When I go out and the bill is anywhere up to around $30, I try to tip close to half. If the bill is around $100 or more, I usually try to tip $20-$40. It means I don't go out to eat as much, but food service workers are some of the hardest workers and deserve every penny.
No they deserve being paid a livable wage from their employers, just like every other country does. But that will never happen because the employers and the government know y’all will continue to foot the bill that they should be paying. That’s the difference. It will NEVER change if you keep paying it.
@@NomadicIslanders They do deserve to be paid a liveable wage, I completely agree with that. The impetus shouldn't be on the costumer to make up for the employer shafting them, I fully agree with you there. I definitely don't think skipping out on tipping would foment any meaningful change other than less pay for food service workers. Employers and the gov't don't give a shit whether costumers tip or not and I highly doubt they'd see a shortage in tipping as an act of protest. I'd much rather the gov't admit the system is broken and just mandate employers to pay them a fair wage, but I doubt that'll happen any time soon.
14:49 I forget which country it was, but in some countries, a public bathroom will actually have ultra violet light so you can't see your veins.
Denmark, or parts of?
Netherlands? Belgium? Not sure.
Can't recall that from last year, but I think I can recall it from 2004.
I think you find that in a many places (German train stations or club bathrooms sometimes have that kind of light).
Hello erika i have been watching you for such a long time and i absolutely love your vlogs and your personality keep making these videos ❤
Celsius is great if you want to know how close something is to freezing or boiling. But Fahrenheit really is a lot better for weather measurement for the general public at least. 0 degrees is a very cold day. 100 degrees is a very hot day. It makes more sense for that. I don't know what you mean by "more precise" they have the same amount of precision. They are numbers. Fahrenheit has a larger range of numbers for the same temperature scale in terms of whole numbers. But given decimal points it doesn't really matter that much.
I'm in California so we're a weird. But parts of the US have paid sick days some do have requirements its just done state to state or even city to city depending of the state like California.
Jobs are required to have paid vacation time in California as well.
About the wastefulness of disposable cups and plates. There was a study that compared paper cups with mugs, and found the differences were negligible. If you don't wash your mug that often, or not at all, then the mug is better, but even then the production of the mug is very energy costly so you need to use each mug for years before it becomes comparable to paper cups. Plastic cups is obviously a different beast. You also need to dispose of the paper cup properly and not throw it in the general waste.
I am sick with cfs/me and at my sickest it became impossible for me to do the dishes, so I was forced to switch to disposable. Luckily the EU enforced rules reducing plastic disposable utensils and cups so I got less of a guilt trip after that, but after learning that as long as I dispose of it in a good way it's comparable to ceramics and steel in terms of environmental impact, I didn't bother switching back. If I ever get a girlfriend I'm gonna have a real problem, but, I'd also have a problem with disgusting week-long dishes in my sink.
actually, I love how big the portions of food are in USA😁 It`s much fun
We have Whatsapp, but I don't know anyone who actually uses it. The average American just texts. It doesn't cost us anything because most of us rarely (if ever) leave the country.
Personally, I live just outside downtown Minneapolis, so it's relatively walkable for the US, but I've been to Germany and it's not comparable. If you go just a couple minutes down the road from me away from the city, pedestrian space disappears. The closest grocery store is a 10 minute drive, which is like a 90 minute walk because the only foot paths to it go through or around a bunch of places designed exclusively for cars.
I think this is probably why our milk jugs etc are so large. We tend to stock up on groceries because in some places it's a 15-30 min drive to the store and a 15-30 min drive back, so it's not the kind of trip you want to make 2-3 times per week.
The Kit Kat logo I europe is the original english one from rowntrees
Me worries in American: "Wait a gallon of milk is a lot? But I drink a gallon of milk by myself all the time..."
Many years ago the Three Musketeers bar was segmented into three parts, which you could break apart. Each part was a different flavor of insides: vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. You could swap out the parts with your pals. How many years ago? At least 60. I am very old, and enjoyed that candy a lot.
Your videos are such a pleasure to watch and goddammit you're looking so gorgeous
5:41 actually, in the United States, we have sonic (idk if you know what sonic is but I don’t want to insult your knowledge by explaining it to you), and you can get a ‘Route 44’ sized drink. It’s 44 ounces which is the next largest size I think? Anyways it’s a travesty, and so are three musketeers’, I’m moving to Germany ASAP.
In city centres within Europe, it's better to just book parking a few days before if you plan to go to an event right in the centre, then you don't have to worry about parking and you know what walking distance to expect.
Why go to a city center by car???
@@arnodobler1096I regularly go to a town near me for work, but the buses take a while to arrive and is overall annoying, therefore I drive there instead, which means that it's stupid to not make the most of my car by driving to the city centre.
Fill your mouth with water when you are cutting onions or just close your eyes but keep the attention on the knife to not cause an accident.
Omg I just had biggest most significant revelation of my life about the onions! This makes so much sense!
America is such a beautiful country being ruined by endless greed. As much as I would love to love here when I grow older, I can’t see myself doing it.
This is the content I wanna see !
well, the british pound is called a pound because it used to equal a pound (weight) of silver if I remember correctly. Lindybeige has an excellent video about English coinage
Hey! American here!! America is heavily car cultured because unless you are in a big city like New York and Chicago, there is NO public transportation. No buses, taxis, Lyft, nothing! No sidewalks to walk on, and you can either walk in the ditch or on the road 😂 It is very different here and I don’t think you realize it until you’re actually here. Some streets don’t even have a shoulder for you to walk on or even ride a bike on.
I am an American and I love this.
Germans do the "How are you?" as well, "Wie geht's?" It is anoying i must say
Not really tbh, at least in the part of germany where i live, if you ask someone "Wie geht's?", you actually want an honest answer, it's used more as a conversation starter and not as a greeting.
I live in America im not sure if the fast food stats are true but the grocery store stats are probably true if it doesn't count Dollar General (and it shouldn't in my opinion) a lot of rural towns near me only have a Dollar General and no grocery store at all.
Your content is cool
Using paper plates daily is not a normal thing... like I haven't seen many people do this.
Totally anecdotal comparison but people in my small midwestern town do this depressingly often. And when I used to live in an even smaller, more midwestern town, it was even more common... but I did not live in a nice part of my state before so that's neither here nor there
Celsius is not more precise than Fahrenheit, it's just more widespread around the world. Fahrenheit is actually a better unit for measuring ambient temperature because it was designed specifically for that. If you look at the F scale, 0F (-15C) corresponds to a very cold day outside, while 100F (+36C) corresponds to a hot day outside. It is much more intuitive than measuring ambient temperature against a freezing and boiling points of water.
That's still a pretty weak argument, as your anchor points of "very cold day" and "very hot day" are subjective. Meanwhile the anchor points of Celsius are objective, 0c is where water turns to ice.
For "ambient temperature" as you said, they are just as effective as each other and it's a matter of which system you learned first.
@@Lumiobyte You realize that F also has a standard, right? It is also anchored to a freezing/boiling temperature of liquids, in that sense it's just as objective as C. You make it sound like the dude picked the anchor points randomly 😁
I never said that F was more effective than C, I said it was more intuitive for ambient temperature. Of course you would be more comfortable using whatever you grew up using, I'm just saying that F is designed specifically for ambient temperature, so it is better for that specific purpose
@@Lumiobyte Using boiling and freezing of water isn't ideal, because water boils and freezes at different temperatures depending on altitude
The gap exists in many places in Europe. Airports, restaurants, clubs. If you pee on your feet you feel uncomfortable knowing that the user next to you may miss to the floor and spoil your shoes.
What???
@@arnodobler1096 What you mean what ?
American here. I live in a rural spot with zero areas to walk on. The only flat surface I can walk on is the main road- which is dangerous with how fast people are!!
as an american, my neighborhood is not walkable even in a pretty decent area 😭 i'm used to walking on the side of the road at this point
Moral of the story; non-Americans, just stop trying to understand America.
Ha! Love your sense of humor! The US Tipping Culture is out of control, and while I had to laugh at the salad portion, I still think the most bizarre 'salad' and alsoone of the most delicious is teh German Wurstsalat!
Celsius is not more precise, neither is. It's like saying 2.54cm is more precise than 1 inch.
In regards to food: Larger portions is a good thing. Can't finish it? Take some home.
Yes, both are equally precise, but calculating is easier with the metric system. It gets complicated when the two meet, NASA and other production companies. Costs millions.
Other countries favour quality over quantity, almost all of them!
@arnodobler1096 I actually am a fan of the metric system in other aspects (like distance...you know what a meter is? Congrats you know what a millimeter up to a kilometer is automatically). Temperature to me is better in Fahrenheit, has a finer discrimination in a useful range.
As for quality over quantity (I'm going to assume you mean in regards to my food comment) bold of you to assume that the United States does not have quality food. In fact, the United States was 6th highest ranking in the world for Michelin star restaurants. As a bonus: I would argue that the United States also has the most diverse cuisines available as well
About the the part of fastfood, grocery stores and surroundings.
In Netherlands, “almost” all cities have allot of chain grocery stores in the suburbs and the city center. Its mostly (depending where you live) a 4-7 minute bike ride or car ride. But the fastfood chains are mostly in these places in Netherlands. City center, side of a highway or in mostly in industrial terrains or near it alongside some bigbox stores which are so far away from the city.
Thats the reason why most people here go to grocery stores. Even schools mostly have a grocery store very near the campus or school. And when its lunchtime almost 3/4 of the whole school goes there for a nice bun and some drink.
Im not kidding, there even is a meme about the common meal most students take. Its the Frikandelbroodje with a Energydrink.
Dutch people know.
Rich people make the rules that benefit them, the rest of us are just left to improvise a system around that in order to survive. So, we end up with weird things, like no vacation, no sick days, and tipping culture. Even the need to drive everywhere itself is from automakers and oil companies desire for profits. Then on top of that, those same rich people convince half of the country that it is the poor people that are the problem. So, obviously things can never change because the rich people don't want it to change.
I prefer public transport than car however, my only worry is like I’m gonna have a kid soon, and I’m not sure how easy it is to go on a public transit with a zero month old or even a six month old
There are a few reasons for the portion sizes. One being that the US has a huge left over culture. We eat some at the restaurant and then take the rest home for later. Also the portions stay that big because alot of people have been trained to eat that way unfortunately. People continue to eat large amounts so the resturants keep seving the big sizes. Its one of the hardest things to unlearn when trying to get healthy. I hope that helps you understand us in the US a little more. ❤
I live in the Midwest in a suburban neighborhood and it is very walkable, also a shit ton of deer. College towns here are definitely more walkable. This is all so funny as an American. Hope to experience and learn European cultures, I want to do my masters program in the Netherlands.
Yeah imma say thats cap and you don’t really know what a walkable environment is.
I have never seen a genuinely walkable suburban environment.
Someone who claims to be from the country ruled by Dr Doom can say nothing bad about America.
That said, Americans have bigger houses so we do less frequent shopping trips where we buy more. Supermarkets are larger and farther away, and that's why there's so few of them: car culture.
The car dependency is the main culprit to so many issues in America:
Isolationism
Lack of culture
High cost of living
Status-driven/Shallowness
Materialistic
Unhealthy habits
Don't get me wrong I like cars, and I love spending an evening doing some work on my car listening to music in the garage gradually watching the sunset, but It was a huge mistake to prioritize them. And I already know Americans will be too stubborn to change, they all have this attitude that America is the "alpha" and the "American way" is the best way and anything else is to adhere to some subpar level of human. Ironically this superiority complex is making them miserable.