How Germans Don’t Fit Into American Stereotypes of Germans 🇩🇪
Вставка
- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- Check out the first episode of The Länd's new web series here 👉 bit.ly/THELAEND_passporttwo
After moving to Germany and living in Germany, we have discovered that Germans do not always live up to the German stereotypes we so often hear! Find out if Germans are exactly what you imagined them to be or not in this video 😊 American reacts to what Germans are really like!
Jet Lag: The Game - / @jetlagthegame
🎒Merch Shop (Germany) - passport-two.myspreadshop.de/
🎒Merch Shop (USA) - passport-two.myspreadshop.com/
Join our channel to get access to perks:
/ @passporttwo
PATREON: / passporttwo
This video was sponsored by: The Länd
#AmericansInGermany #GermanyVlog #MovingToGermany
_____________________________________________________
INSTAGRAM: @passport_two
/ passport_two
TWITTER: @PassportTwo
/ passporttwo
_____________________________________________________
❤️Aubrey was a Speech-Language Pathologist and Donnie was a graphic designer, but we both had a dream to #travel the world and experience cultures. After three years of being married and dreaming about if something like this great adventure would be possible, we decided to quit the rat race and take on the world. We sold everything we had, quit our jobs, and took off! After 9 months of aimless and nonstop travel, we now get to fulfill our dreams of #LivingAbroad as #expats as we move to #Germany!
00:00 - Intro
1:01 - Thing 1
3:49 - Thing 2
7:03 - Thing 3
9:55 - Thing 4
13:09 - Bloopers
Definitely check out The Länd’s miniseries about Baden-Württemberg here 👉 bit.ly/THELAEND_passporttwo
Thanks so much for watching, guys! Hope you enjoyed it 😊
Funny thing is I don't know any fellow Baden-Württemberger that likes this advertising campaign.
Much of what is shown in these *promotional* videos is *wishful thinking* compared to what living there is actually like. The "Länd" is the center of conservative religious splinter groups and such denominations comparable to Southern Baptists in the USA. In my opinion it's more like West Virginia, where they keep the women pregnant & without shoes .... add a totally screwed view on matters of environmental protection and education.
The videos themselves are technically brilliant and convincing - but the very center of perspective, Science, admiration of reason and open-mindedness, is rarely found outside the towns being home to renowned Universities.
NO, whoever has been there observing with an open mind will not swallow the hook.
I would say the most friendliest and openminded people you´re going to find are in Cologne and Hamburg, that´s how I feel as a german living in Düsseldorf for the majority of my life. And the shrink wrap thing is easy, you did notice how Germany isn´t up your arse customer service? That´s just how they´re delivered to the stores on pallets and employees simply aren´t supposed to unwrap bottles and manually put them on display 1by1, waste of time. If the customers wants a full pack just grap one, if you want just 1 or 2 bottles? Well, get em out yourself, let the customer doing the work is cheaper for the companies, as an US american you should totally get it.
@@sebastianc9716 i love it
@@Balligat wtf 🙈
I prefer people who are genuine and dont like it when they are over friendly and don't actually mean it, I can deal with the fact that people don't like something or even me but I cant deal with someone who pretends to like me and is very nice to me and turns around and talks behind my back
Absolutely, word for word my exact opinion 👍
Das ist des Westfalen Seele, was Sie sagen
Wenn die ostfriesen wieder gewinnen❤
I think the thing with bottles being ripped out of the packaging is kind of caused by the way German discount supermarkets operate. Their principle is to save as much as possible on personnel cost in order to sell their goods at the lowest price possible.
That means only having minimal staff, so the act of stocking up the shelves is simplified as much as possible by just putting the goods on the shelves in the packaging that they were shipped in, leaving it to the customers to take the products out of the boxes (or wrappers, in the case of soda and water).
Many stores simply don't have an additional shelf for individual bottles, and if they do it's usually just for smaller 0.5 to 0.75 litre ones.
So, the only way to buy big soda or water bottles individually is to rip them out of a sixpack.
Which is fine as far as it goes, but can someone explain to me why I (usually planning to buy two six-packs) regularly have to dig through at least three or for partially-opened packs, at least two of which are missing only one bottle? Why does everybody who does this have to do it to a new pristine pack? It's not as if those bottles are somehow different!
Früher war es absolut üblich, dass zumindest bei Discountern nur das komplette 6-er-Pack verkauft wurde, die Flaschen hatten nicht mal einen eigenen Barcode. Weil Kunden aber zu oft darauf bestanden haben, dass sie kein komplettes 6-er-Pack kaufen wollen, hat man die Einzelflaschen dann mit Aufpreis verkauft in der Hoffnung, Kunden so doch zu den größeren Paketen zu motivieren. Die lassen sich nämlich auch ohne Regal hoch stapeln (ja, früher gab es bei Aldi keine Regale...) Hat sich aber auch nicht durchgesetzt, also gibt's jetzt überall auch einzelne Flaschen.
@@KaiHenningsen
There's no reason for that apart from people being jerks. Always take from already opened packs if available.
Actually you are both right and wrong ^^
Yes it is that super markets save money but not because of the lack of staff primarily but in fact for the issue that comes with something as simple as space!
A German grocery store has often at least a 2 of a kind rule which basically means for everything you sell you need 2 options which are a cheaper and a more expensive brand this is even true for Aldi by the way. So the requirement for the space is immense and space is something that is a huge difference between the US and Europe. Space in Germany is expensive so wasting space for single bottles in addition to packages is a big waste of money.American super markets have a whole ilse often for 1 specific item which you will find in Germany at best for noodles everything else is often shared by more than one kind of item which are arround the same theme like backing ingredients. Compared between the US and Germany however those isles are highly different and you might see 8 packages of the same stuff in an US store but 2 packeges next to each other in a German super market only.
This ripping off of six packs however is also related to the original concept of the classic crates we used most of the time before as a crate of soda that holds 12 bottles was the only option to choose from so people would take the amounts of bottles out of it they need so the next crate wizkd not be full but often missing a few bottles ^^ the convenient plastic packages however took way more space than the original crates were supposed to an additional shelf just for single bottles is basically super inefficient. (by the way I worked in our own beverage market that was arround 40m² the only crates that had more than one stack were the ones that people would buy very often and in such a small store we stil managed to have at least 30 different beer brands 20 different soda brands, 8 different brands of bottled water, 15 different brands of wine, a shelf with over 30 different liquors and other hard alcoholics like Vodka, with additional space for sweets and candy, magazines, chips, cakes and cookies and so on. The main question was never if you had an employee to sort in single bottles but of you have enough diversity of products available so people would get what they want and yes they stil had complaints about the amount of products we offered. In fact a missing brand is actually the number one reason in Germany to go to another store instead.)
Hope I could give all of you insight in this phenomenon of Germany ^^)
By the way if there is more than one package opened there are 3 reasons for this:
Number one is lazyness: The costumer doesn't want to be burdened with additional work of searching for allready ripped of packages or even worse you want 5 bottles and there areonly 3 left in the one package so they go for a new one instead ^^
Number 2 is disgust: More rare but stil a reason people dislike going for the allready ripped of packages as they might feel the other bottles might be conaminated.
Number 3 is the package remains: There is something awful behind the idea to leave the plastic package behind laying there next to the other packages stil in order. It is something we considder wrong and people will have this look on their face searching for a place to get rid of the plastic package if they want to empty it like they are going to do something illegal. (and yes Im guilty of that as well ;)
@@kirasternenfeuer6198 mein Aldi-Beispiel bezieht sich übrigens auf Zeiten, als dort ausschließlich Eigenmarken verkauft wurden. Konsumenten bekamen dort null Service oder Auswahl, auch waren sie rigidere regeln gewohnt. Das Selbstbewusstsein jedoch stieg und auch Aldi musste sich an mehr Kundenorientierung gewöhnen, da die Vollsortimenter ihr Sortiment um preiswerte Varianten erweiterten und somit direkt konkurrierten. Dass Kunden sich heute so verhalten, wie sie es tun, hat auch mit früheren Entwicklungen zu tun, nicht alles erklärt sich aus der heutigen Marktlage.
Here in northern Germany, the only people who wear lederhosen and eat white sausage are Japanese tourists who can't find the Autobahn to Munich.
We people from northern Germany are friendly people, but we don't talk about it.
I'm waiting for the Deutschland-Ticket (also called 49-Euro-Ticket) that should come from April 23. Then there will really be something going on at Deutsche Bahn and in the entire German local transport system.
Inzwischen sind es weit mehr chinesen als japaner. Und, dass das hofbräuhaus in berlin steht, weiss man sogar in amerika.
Yes, up in the north you say two words per hour on average, but those words have weight.
@@hansberger4939 it is not certain that there are more Chinese than Japanese who cannot find the Autobahn to Munich 🤣
@@uncinarynin exactly ... everything else would be pointless chatter
The thing about punctuallity is: I (as a german) very much want to always be punctual. If possible, I am always over-punctual. Meeting in MS Teams? Be at least 2 minutes early. Meeting in a meetin room in the same house? Be at least 5 minutes early (if room is free befor your meeting). Meeting you need to drive to first? Be at least half an hour early.
DB on the other hand.... they dont understand what punctual means.
Thinking that less than 6 minutes late is still "punctual" is the fundermental mistake of DB. 5 Minutes late is enough for you to miss your connection train.
db does know what puncutality means they just dont get that they have to INVEST in there ruinous systhem
@@gehtdichnixan3200 Actually, they do get that, and they actually do it, too. The real problem here is historical, and I certainly remember living through all of that. See, some decades in the past, after having rather successfully sold off the Bundespost, the government wanted to sell the Bundesbahn in the same way. So they converted it into a private business owned by the state, and started improving the financials so it would fetch a good price.
And then the market crashed. It would have been a bad idea to sell at that point.
So DB got put into a holding pattern, keeping the financials nice in the hope the markets would recover. One thing led to another, and selling became less and less likely, until at some point, the plug was pulled, immediately selling was off the table ... now please do something about the drop in quality (which, surprise, is the consequence of stopping to pay for things because you want nice financials). However, at the time, the financials were actually not looking all that good - the continual drop in quality had reduced ridership, so DB was hurting financially. And it pretty much took until, mainly I think driven by climate change, the government finally decided to give DB lots of money to improve their game, that they could really do so in a significant sense.
Which is where we are today. Unfortunately, if you want to (say) repair your important tracks, to avoid slowdowns ... that means that you can't use them while they are being repaired, making you even more late. It has to get worse until it can get better.
It's not that DB doesn't understand the problems. It's that for years, they had to work under (at least in retrospect) bad policies dictated from above, and now, they have a gigantic amount of work to do to be able to improve.
DB also has to cope with more and more connections. I live in Hamburg and the main railway station is a large bottle neck for trains in the north/south direction. More than 550.000 passengers daily on 12 platforms. Every small delay in arrival or boarding leads to more delays for the next trains scheduled to use the platform. But the station was built in 1906 and now there is no more land available to build more platforms 😔 It was fine for 100 years, but now customers expect at least hourly connections to larger cities and the traffic volume rises.
@@kuebbisch ach ja der Grund warum ich das letzte halbe Jahr nirgendwo mehr pünktlich bin, weil sie sich gedacht haben es bräuchte einen neuen Bahnhof in Diebsteich, ganz vergessend, dass die Züge von Süden (wo die meisten herkommen) trotzdem durch den Hbf müssen...
@@gehtdichnixan3200 investing would be the long-term solution; the short-term would be to write realistic schedules. If every second train is >5 minutes late, than probably it's just not possible to do that trip within the announced time.
The Problem with DB was Hartmut Mehdorn. He was also invoved in Air Berlin (bankrupt before BER airport could open) and BER airport (opening delayed far after Air Berlin went bankrupt. Like a J.J. Abrams of economics, he's capable of running everything down but stil being able to secure great gigs.
The Problem is the German government, they squeezed Out a Lemon until there was No Juice. Mehdorn was the enforcer for this objective....and his sucessors are Not doing very better, medorn left 2009 the deutsche Bahn
That is too easy, you can't just put the blame on one person alone, it was also the government who didn't fund the necessary reparation and maintenance for over 20 years, as well as hiring and training the necessary HR. Currently DB lacks not just punctuality, it is also rotten to the core with insufficient trains, broken material and rails, and not enough people to actually run the whole thing. Even if they had the trains, they lack the drivers. One person alone can't ruin a state company that first and foremost depends on actual state funds that weren't there. So much for a country that still lives in the illusion that cars are the most important thing in the economy...
@@MyriamSchweingruber Buuuut... If one name pops up leading failing (big) projects again and again, it's suspicious ;)
@@jkb2016 he only applied what his employer wanted, making it as cheap as possible. The results were accordingly.
@@jkb2016 well.. he can give the HAnd to others who fit in this line... some .... we had voted as Bundeskanzler... :D
The train system here is the absolute biggest fing meme on earth😂 It sits right between being infuriating as hell and funny that you die of laughter
I don't know what's the problem with the bottles. You can buy the amount of bottles you need and you don't have to buy the entire pack. And if you like to buy an shrink pack - go for it! THAT's REAL FREEDOM!!! 😁😁😁
I think he just wasn't used to it.
Other anglophone UA-camrs in Germany have pointed this bottle difference out as well.
In the US, it's normal to sell single bottles and packs separately.
Not really a problem for a normal rational person sadly this guy makes a living from being overly shocked,confused or amazed about non issues
If you compare the rail network of Germany and other European countries, you will find that the network is a lot denser connecting not only major cities but also small country towns and sometimes villages. The denser the network the more crossings / intersections the higher the risk for technical problems. If you only have to serve major lines connecting major cities, you will not have less stress maintaining the system.
Germans mostly get this "cold and rude" reputation because we are a really direct and mostly honest bunch. A german friend is more likely to tell you your shoes are ugly than an american friend for example. They're just like that towards strangers though and that's what is often received as "rude" or "cold" by tourists even though they're just being direct and honest.
Oh and the shrink wrap thing is normal. The packs of soda are only still in the wrap because it's easier to stack, and transport if you buy a whole or partial pack. You will fairly often see people who will grab an already opened pack because the 2-4 bottles are easier to carry when the shrink wrap is still there.
Usually, I stay home and play videogames on Fridays, unless a friend invites me to something or I'm interested in a local student club. Many clubs feature Techno on their parties and I never got into that genre myself.
I believe that fellow UA-camr "rewboss" was spot on when he summed it up like this:
"Germans will follow rules that they find sensible, but bend or break rules that don't make sense to them; if they feel like they can get away with it."
For instance, when my English teaching mother took me along an Ireland expedition, she allowed 16 year-old me to drink beer in the local pubs. Her colleague was outraged because of the differences in German and Irish drinking laws.
The thing with the plastic bottles saves money for the stores and the customers. Being able to buy all bottles in bulk and not paying higher wages for stocking single bottles keeps the prices relatively low.
The bottle thing:
You showed clips of discounters which was originaly cheaper because the staff just brought the storage units to the selling place of the market. This was more efficient than putting the goods into the shelf with single bottles and six packs. In stores that are espespecially for drinks you probably find shelfs.
The "supermarket culture" is often a topic when people compare the US to Germany. There are indeed some supermarkets which try to offer some kind of so called "Einkaufserlebnis" (shopping experience) with more space between the shelfs, some nice decoration and places to sit and rest. In those shops I guess you will not find ripped open packages of soda bottles. Of course that makes everything a bit more expensive.
Sometimes I like those shops, for example when I'm on holidays. But when I do my weekly grocery shopping at my local Aldi, the best shopping experience is leaving the place with a cart full of stuff for the week and having paid less than 100 Euros.
(and that's not because of low quality meat!)
the delay of the DB is actually a service for late people so they dont miss the train🙃
I‘ve always wondered about the “Germans are cold” stereotype. I live in a small (like 600 people small) village an everyone is super friendly and we help each other out all the time
Weil deine Frau auch deine Cousine ist .
Daran liegt das 😁
2:38 It's so refreshing to see this clarification.
For many of us South Americans the generalized use of "American" as referring to US citizens is outrageous.
Germans copy this behaviour unreflectingly. They fully adopted this patronizing self-denomination of US-Americans into their language.
And I'm frequently called names by both groups for pointing this out.
I am with you! I have written lots of comments and even letters to the editor on this topic. People are uneducated unless they learn otherwise. But at least a journalist should know? When I read something like: Designer xyz worked for several years in his homecountry Mexico before he went "to America". Ah, so before he lived on Mars?
A very common joke about Deutsche Bahn, which describes quite well the image that Germans have about DB: Are Deutsche Bahn employees actually allowed to come to work by train, or do they have to be on time?
And about the random question of the week: Earlier Friday evenings at home were unthinkable, today I'm happy when I have my rest on Fridays after a week of work and can stay at home... Things change and you get old... even at 43 :D
Disturbo Ossessivo/Compulsivo? XD The way I buy the water here in Italy is; If I need 6 I pick the whole package, if insted I need just one or two I break the package. Who annoyed me are those customers that they break another package wend there is already one breacked.
So sweet & lovely that your neighbors have shown you such love on the birth of your baby.
Regarding trains, with the German and the Swiss railroad networks there are two systems neighboured to each other which are considered as the best and (one of) the worst in Europe regarding their punctuality. And sometimes of course trains pass from one system to the other, requiring a certain match of the schedules.
While this is obviously no problem when a train rolls from Switzerland to Germany, in the opposite direction it may cause a lot of troubles with the usual delays one may expect. As a consequence the Swiss introduced the so-called "Kulturpause" (culture break), where for every train handed over from Germany to Switzerland a 20 minute delay is anticipated. If the train arrives before that time, it will wait for the rest of the period to pass before moving on. As a result most of the trains crossing the border then move through the Swiss system in time.
Personally, besides the clever way of handling this general problem, I really like the term "Kulturpause" for it... 🙂
Speaking of DB. You should remember that the last two great adventures experienced by the Germans were World War I and World War II. After that we didn't have anything else for a long time. And because we are an extraordinarily friendly and peaceful people today, we didn't start World War III, but the DB. This is our new big adventure and we'd love for you to share it with us.
DB is also very good at fudging statistics, e.g. if a train is 3 hours late they just cancel it before the last stop so it won't count as being late.
I've got a strong dislike for people who keep up a overly friendly or nice behavior towards me only to later talk to others what a douchebag I am. And every American I've met has a tendency for being not honest about their feelings (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) and I really don't like that. I prefer being on point right away. If someone doesn't like me, at least saying it would be something I'd appreciate. I think instead of being rude, most of us are genuine. And I really don't see the point of smiling at a stranger and making complements if I don't even know him
Put the knife in the wound again and turned around. The Germans, who like to be punctual themselves, really throw up about the DB. The aftermath of the attempted privatization is still to blame after twenty years. In the run-up to privatization, costs should be reduced. There were massive reductions in personnel and route kilometers. Unfortunately, this also meant giving up the flexibility that is needed to be able to absorb delays. I can understand the malice from abroad at this point.
Friday is great on the couch, but if there is a good opportunity to meet friends somewhere, going out for dinner is a good option, too.
What I've heard, people in Cologne are very friendly. I've had a train ride with my Deutschlandticket from Frankfurt am Main to Bramsche (close to Osnabrück) yesterday. Because of a changing time of 3 minutes in Siegen I was worried if get get stuck somewhere. The ride went through the Sauerland where I grew up when I was a little child. I met a group of people coming back from a Sauftrip. They said "if that happens, you can stay at our house. I was pretty surprised as Germans usally don't offer things like this.
12:00 ripping bottles out of a package is OK. What makes me go mental are people ripping up a sixpack to get e.g. 2 bottles and right next to the package is already an open one with 2 or more bottles.😤
ich bin immer noch davon überzeugt, dass das Problem daher kommt, dass das Gleisnetz abgebaut wurde. Am allerschlimmsten sind übrigens die Güterzüge betroffen, die dem Passagieren immer Vorfahrt geben müssen. Außerdem überbuchet die Bundesbahn die Züge dermaßen gnadenlos, dass ich mir dringend wieder die Abteil Wagons zurückwünsche.
The 6pack issue is a Lidl and Aldi thing, where they don't have a single bottle section to save on effort for their staff
The packs of bottles are not labelled as a pack, but as a single bottle and deposit on the bottle. So people take as many as they need at that time. If you need more, it is easier to a full cradle. Discounters usually don’t sell the cradles.
DB - Germanys unique location, the distribution of metro areas make it harder for fast trains and local trains to run on the same tracks. In France for example all lines radiate out of the Paris area. And the TGV system was especially build for only TGV trains.
In Germany you have Berlin in the East, Rhein/Ruhr in the West, Hamburg in the North, Rhein/Main in the center and Stuttgart and Munich in the South. And the ICE trains connect them all, but have to share the tracks with local and regional trains, and cargo trains. Politically, there was no urge to separate the systems.
Mind you, in the 80s people used trains faaaar less to travel cross country. The with the fall of the iron curtain, suddenly 1/3 more people and big cities joined the network. Then 16 years of sleep walking Merkel vibes numbed the country, immer ein ‘weiter so’ - and now it all ends in chaos. A combination of bad management on the DB side, and no interest on the political side is the result. And Germans love to complain about train delays. The network simply can’t support the demand 100% - new tracks and separation is needed, but that’ll take decades and a lot of money.
On another note: when planning to travel cross country like from Dortmund to Munich, consider the overnight connections. At night the delays are much less. And if there is a NightJet service, take that. Even a sleeper cabin with shower, when travelling on business. Anyhow, you arrive around 06:30 to 7am at your destinations. I did. it once from Berlin to
Munich, and I had a great sleep from Leipzig to Augsburg, quick shower and brecky in the on board restaurant and was ready for the day when I stepped out at Munich Hbf. Awesome experience.
Thanks for the video!
I totally agree about the shrink-wrap issue.
Oh you better belive DB is awful. You know what they did to me last time I was on one of their trains? Well, it was supposed to start at [station A], where I was. But because the train that the crew was on was late, they were just like "let's just ignore [station A] and start at the next stop"
And we only got to know this when we arrived there, so we planned to take a Regio to [station B] and we'd have about 10 minutes to get to our train. And then that regio was delayed by 5 minutes, then 10, 15...
At that point, we left to get on a subway and catch the next train an hour later.
Germans are not rude but direct.
And the only thing that unites them as Germans is their love of bread, whether baked or liquid.
The bottle packs: I was in northern Ireland last year and went to a Tesco. I wanted just ONE big bottle of water but all the plastic wraps where, well, undamaged and I was really confused. I asked an employee if it was ok to just open the wrap and take one bottle out but it was not lol. My alternative where overpriced tiny bottles or 2,5 litre ones.
I think generalizations of countries and people are everywhere, and you described it perfectly, as in Germany they've been more helpful than not. Additionally, I think it's because of the way the language sounds...this may be a reason why people think "Germans aren't nice."
Also, staying in...
Hard to have the energy to go out on a Friday unless it is right after work. I do get up at 5 in the morning. I'm from the northern New York suburbs & I'm never late, always early!
@11:47 It is just for convenience. Unless it is explicitly stated that it is sold only in 6 packs it is easier that way. It is not convenient at all anymore for those who wanted to buy a 6 pack.
I'm a native born and living in Hamburg. The things I hate most are people who shout while calling a friend via phone and drop door behind them so you run against it. We aren't big fans of Karneval or going to church like Bayern. Sorry if you think it is a stereotype. There is nothing positive about DB...
5:50 but not only Deutsche Bahn has crappy train-plans in Germany. I curently travle with a train by a company called "National Express" each morning and that train was only 2 days on time in the last 30 days, most of the time it arrived 10-15 minutes late or was even cancled and that sucks at 7 in the morning when you need to go to work where you are not allowed to be late
How does the US transport bottles intended for single bottle sale ? They don't have reusable boxes either so it must be wrapped with something also.
So I guess they have an employee unwrapping the packages, and the cost of the employee makes the bottle more expensive. Germans like to "give the shop a hand .." if this makes products cheaper. That's why the cheap shops don't have shelves, they sell from the palette as it comes from the truck.
When they (jet lag the game) were in germany there were also „Streiks“ so workers not working to get more money. And this was a train workers Streik.
I think they were here in a bad timing. But yes, still they are usually late oe canceled anyway
Wildpinkeln / public urination is caused by the lack of public toilets or the price. You pay 50ct in most public toilets and if you want to use one in a shop there is often a sign 'no use of the toilet if you don't buy anything' . I've seen at a few fast food places that they have a barcode or a pin code on their receipts and you need the barcode or the pin code to open the the door to the restroom. Nobody wants to pay for something they could get for free.
Ripping plastic wrapped packs apart is annoying for me, too. I always buy complete packs and what annoys me the most is that you'll find more than one pack ripped apart. People don't get a bottle from a pack and the next person who wants only a bottle takes it from the same pack. No they rip a new pack apart and now there are two incomplete packs and to get a complete pack you have to move the incomplete ones out the way.
and 0.5€ are still the cheapest toilets 😭
When I was younger staying home Friday night was impossible - but today I really like a cozy night with a book, the TV or the computer.
In Germany the bottles are not calculated per pack but per bottle. There will be an extra sign if they are supposed to be sold only per sixpack. And it is just normal for discounter stores to save money with not putting bottles single on a shelf but to leave them packed in a six pack. The most people here by their bottles in a crate or per six pack - but sometimes you just do not want six bottles of that type of drink or just need a bottle to go.
Wenn die DB Verspätung hat, geht das ja noch! Bei uns fährt die Bahn bis August nächsten Jahres nicht mehr! Deswegen brauche ich jetzt fast 2 Stunden pro Strecke, anstatt 25 Minuten!
Great video. I liked the last part with the ripped open 6 pack bottles. There is a reason for this. In the US, as you said, you have areas with single bottles but you do not have that in Germany as it is not efficient. So, if I as a consumer just want 1 or 2 bottles, I rip it open to buy just that as Germans hate to be told what or what not they can buy.
And for example i like to buy maybe 4 bottles and dont have ti buy 6
in France, too you cannot be force to buy the package of bottle in their plastic, it's selling by force. you can cut the plastic and buy only what you need, knowing that the price may not be the same (however, it's indicated on the label in those cases). If i want only one bottle and there an open pack, i usually take my bottle from the open one, not open a new. And there's enough complete packages for thoses who want it all.
Sometimes a market will hang out signs which say "Öffnen verplichtet zum Kauf" which translates to "Opening the shrinking packs/carton (from beer six packs) obliges to buy the whole pack"
On the topic of public urination... Recently the karneval season had started and I had to go to work that day. While sitting at the bus station a drunk man came into the little glass hut, pulled out and peed into the corner. I thought : are you kiddinng me?
Growin up in the nothen rheinland pfalz ( hey!) I usually sundays when I took the dog for a walk, I saw a guy peeing in the bushes. Always sundays, always the same bush, same guy. And I knew him, he had a place to live. Sorry, not the most pleasent topc, but it is so annoying!
Great video-
I still remember a cyclist peeing against a tree in the middle of a Sharp turn so you could see him from three sides.
I've always said if an S-Bahn is on time, it's probably because it is 20 minutes late.
The DB is very efficient except it comes to one of the five problems : spring, summer, authum, winter, or customers
About the bottle packs: It is easier to count at the cash register and to transport. That is all behind it. A question on my part: Is there a price difference in the US between buying 6 single bottles and a sixpack? I could immagine it...
In video you showed Cola as single bottle and as a pack and the prices didn't match (6 times the price of single bottle). Do the packs of drinks in US stores really have a different price than when bought as single bottles? Except for a few exceptions like beer can sixpack, the prices of drinks in stores in Europe are the same no matter if you buy it as a pack or singles.
There may be sales where it is cheaper if you take (at least) 4 or 6 bottles. But that's automatically done by the till.
First of all, compared to Amtrak in the USA the DB in Germany is still in time running.
As long as there was a Deutsche Bundesbahn (in the FRG), i.e. the railroad was state-owned, it was punctual. When it was privatized (in 1994, because of the costs of reunification), it became increasingly unpunctual. I can't say anything about the railroads in the GDR.
In Germany, shrink-wrapped bottles cost just as much as individual ones, so there's nothing wrong with tearing open six-packs.
"late to everything" - that's totally normal to parents 😆
Regarding the bottle wrap thing: Stores will not provide bottles individually, but you HAVE to break the wrap to get a single bottle. But you'll get odd looks if you rip open a second pack, if one is already opened. So there's the unwritten rule, to only have one open wrap there.
The wrap is also meant to be used to buy a full pack, as the pack has a handle and a barcode on the bottom for the six-pack.
The issue with these things is kinda new. 10 years ago, there were no such things in Germany, as everyone was buying reusable PET bottles in beverage crates.
However, the "American Way" to create more plastic waste has entered the marked here, so we ended up with this mess.
I visit hessen hessen for more than 12 years ( 4 yr - 16 yr every year) i worked as agent for 10 years. And still visit germany for holidays in different regions and i think there all very friendly, maybe becaus ei speak germen verg well
The friendliest Germans life in the north. We don't speak much to persons we don't like. So we don't waste the person's time.
Second, in Germany we are still used of bottles in a box "Kasten Bier oder Kasten Wasser" and it is still okay to take a bottle of those boxes, it's the same for this shrink plastic wrapped bottles. I assume as well there is a price listed for a shrink plastic wrapped unit of bottles, as well one for a single bottle. And they might differ in kind of price per bottle.
I dislike the “Wildpinkler” very much- especially if they do it in the city.
I understand the action, if you are on a country side and no public toilet is in sight for miles.
But in the city you can always find a toilet in a restaurant or a public version…
Punctuality is a matter of respect.
Those who are not punctual do not care about the time of their counterpart, they waste it.
I live in Iceland, but I was born in Hamburg and I grew up in north Germany. I find there are very distinct types of Germans in the different areas. North Germans behave much like the citizen of the Nordic countries. Difficult to get to know, but once friends, than friends for life. With strangers they are cautious friendly and rather cold, but mostly helpful if necessary.
You have the middle west German area, very friendly, but will they ever invite you home? They go bonkers in Karneval and than go to the courts about if the permission of calling them du instead of sie is enforceable when the Karneval ends.
I will not talk about the south Germans especially Bavarians, because my wife is from Austria.
Than we have east Germany, especially the southern part, where many carry a big chip on their shoulder and do not like foreigners.
I don't like going out in general, too loud. So I stay in, no matter what day it is.
You're 100% correct on DB. It was totally different 2-3 decades ago...before it was run like a profit-generating company, but with an overly-bureaucratic structure. That doesn't work, obviously. It might have changed for the better by abt. 2030...at least we all hope for that. ;)
Public urination (at least by men) has traditionally never been considered a problem, in Western culture and probably worldwide. I am not sure when this started to change in Western countries, but the UK seems to be among the European leaders of the new trend to pathologize it, whereas Germany is probably just following with an average speed.
Going out or staying in is mostly age depending. The younger one is the greater the chance that person wants to goi out. Later stages in your life let you experience and enjoy the amenities of your home. this is, of course, greatly dependent on your abilities to cook great food and enjoy good quality drinks -- without have to drive home...
Meanwhile I prefer the less noisy and busy environment of my home, occasionally entertaining friends, or visiting friends having them to entertain me with food and drink. The latter forces me to go home later and my wife or I refraining of alcoholic drinks. 🙂)
I don't agree on the DB thing. The fact, that the Trains are often delayed or cancelled is not a cultural one, but that the German Government did not invest enough in the Rail network. This is the only reason.
I've never seen or noticed any wildpinklers, or obvious smells in 2 years. But the problem doesn't surprise me, as there is a severe lack of free public toilets in Germany. Petrol stations? Usually none, unless it's in a rest area on a highway. Supermarkets (Aldi, Lidl)? None. Electronics, home improvement, rossman/dm stores? None. In the US, pretty much every place has toilets. You don't have to actively search for one. In German city centers, if you have no coins, the most reliable solution is to search for the nearest McDonalds and buy a cheap dessert pie.
I've traveled with 11 DB trains in the past 3 months. The ICE was full and delayed, I was sitting on the floor. The RE from agelis was nearly always on time with a clean and big toilet. The RE from DB is worse. But because of the many stops they have, you won't need to stand that long if you have no seat, plus the regional trains have wider doors and are less likely to have stairs for entrance.
I recommend the IC. Enough staff for the bistro and if you need help, but cheaper and less crowded than the ICE.
And most people don't like the "The Länd" campaign from Stuttgart.
I don't mind people being 5 or 10 minutes early but recently a contractor showed up 30 minutes early and I was out on the back 40 so I had to reschedule. If you are 30 minutes early, sit in your car and wait, don't just drive off. It seems like all the people I interact with are habitually early.
The shrink wrap is more of a suggestion than a demand. If you want to buy a lot, you buy a crate of course.
Does the US display "1 bottle = X$" on the same price tag as the 6-bottle shrinks? If not that would be a clear distinction in the "allowed" usage.
the bottle taken like that is just a practical thing. First of you would need two separate spaces, then the staff would have to open packages and sort them and constantly restock (unnecessary work) - so might as well let the customer do it.
Fun fact for the db plan. Canceled trains fall in the right time point. Maybe with the canceling they uphold there statistics. I never see a German train that came not 10 minutes late.
Ich denke die freundlichsten sind die in Sachsen, Bayern und in Teilen vom Reihenland aber die Regel ist in den ländlichen Regionen sind die Leuten mehr an dir interessiert als in der Stadt.
Btw ich komm aus MV.
Das mit den Trinkflaschen. Da hab ich ne Gegenfrage. Hast du in einem Supermarkt wie zum Beispiel Aldi je einzelne Brauseflaschen gesehen? ( Ausnahme hier sind Sonderangebote und sondergrößen)
Ich finde Einzelflaschen meist nur in der Kühlung oder beim Getränkehandel.
Thank God we live in a country where most people don't gulp down Coke like water, hence we rarely need six big bottles of Coke at a time. ;-)
PS: Going out.
As I might have said on other channels before: Passenger punctuality matters more than train punctuality. A missed connection because the first train was a few minutes late and the second departed without waiting for it might mean that hundreds of people have to wait an extra hour or two or even can't make it to their destination the same day, having to find a way to spend the night somewhere along the way while communicating to their potentially important date that they can't come.
Deutsche Bahn loves to break connections like that because they minimize train delay, not passenger delay. Might look better in the statistics but it can be a disaster to the stranded passengers.
A train system where every train is 5 minutes delayed works wonderfully, much better than one where half the trains are delayed and the other half is not, the latter would be total chaos.
bavaria is not just bavaria. the upper north of bavaria defines themselves as "franconia" which means "Franken" and we have 3 "Regierungsbezirke" which i cannot translate now.
there is:
Oberfranken,
Mittlefranken,
Unterfranken.
(as a whole known as "Franken")
On paper, a Franke is a Bayer but Franken and Bayern is noticable different from eachother.
Mhm it should be said in fairness that a train is considered late if it is 5 minutes overtime. I remember travelling with AMTRAK in the US and the chap printing out my ticket for the train at 10 am when ask about the train's prosepective arrival casually responed: "Oh maybe around 6" WTF? 6 pm? I spent the rest of the day with the other folks in the train station, chatting, going shopping, the thing you do in smalltown America. The train arrived after 8 pm. OK there were floods and the train had to take a "detour" which meant across a bunch of other states.
One of the biggest misunderstandings of us Germans is us having no humour.
I highly disagree with that. I think the difference is our way of being funny. Probably when a German makes a joke, Americans won't get it because we've got a complex way to joke. And, well - I'm sorry to say, but usually the jokes americans are making just isn't funny to a lot of us. I don't know if it's because they tend to be dirty or whatever. But in opposition we are huge fans of British humour.
Hey! Quick question: How good is your german and do you find it easy to learn it? Because in our school we have a few ukrainian kids that have been learning german for 6-7 months now and one of the girls is already good enough to join us in some classes like maths and IT that are held in german and her german is almost accent-free. So I was just wondering if you have more troubles with learning
Ich kann deutsch, aber nicht ganz fließend und mit Akzent. Ich werde nicht sagen, deutsch einfach zu lernen ist, sondern schwer 😅 Eigentlich vorgestern habe ich ein Interview für ein Lokal Zeitung gemacht, und ich habe nur deutsch gesprochen. Also, ja, ich kann deutsch (vielleicht du siehst viele Grammatik Fehler, die ich geschrieben habe 😅) aber ich denke, dass diese Ukrainische Kinder, die auf deine Schule gehen, sind schon viel besser in deutsch als ich 😂
@@PassportTwo Das klingt super!👍Und die Grammatik ist echt schwer
regarding wildpinkeln,... the problem (most of the time) is a lack of police. most police throughout germany are severly understaffed and so have "better" things to do than to pursue someone that urinates at a corner somewhere.
Our ICE was late which caused us to miss our flight to Seattle. From now on I insist on staying at the (crappy) Sheraton at the Frankfurt airport so DB cannot cause us to miss a flight again.
Mein Mann kennt noch den Spruch: 5 Minuten vor der Zeit ist des Soldaten Pünktlichkeit. 10 Minuten später kommt der Sanitäter. War wohl ein alter Bundeswehrspruch. Passt aber auch. Nur ehemalige Studenten kommen oft c.t., sprich eine Viertelstunde zu spät.
We now live in an area where people are super punctual which is also considered as Prussian inheritance. When we have people come to our house they sometimes come half an hour early...
Ausland: Das Deutsche Bahnsystem ist doch bestimmt voll gut.
Deutschland: Wer unsere DB mag, hat nicht alle Tassen im Schrank.
Last week some street workers were working on the berm in front of our home and one of the dudes peed right there on the street.
0:05 What kind of track is this?
Oi, we live in the same state! Welcome. :D
Ever visited Worms?
There are two things that really annoy me even as a german: the DB and paying for public toilets.
My Dad fit almost every German stereotype. He was super prompt and organized. If he said he'd pick you up at 3:30 he'd be there at 3:29. His Dad was from Kaiserslautern.
Jeder sollte so sein das zeigt Respekt für den anderen
"How punctual the Germans" ... ha ha ha. When I was transferred to the "top business" part of our corporation I was flabbergasted. I terminate a meeting at 10:00 - first person of that division arrived 18 min. late, most were present a good 1/2 hour later.
The problem with peeing in public is due to the fact that we in Germany have a lack of public toilets. Also you have to pay for public toilets. The most pricy are along the motorway where they mostly belong to the sanifair group. You can expect to pay 1 Euro for a visit to one of their toilets.
Friendliest fellow Germans I've encountered are propably from NRW. They're the easiest to connect with. Spent significant amounts of time in NRW, RLP, BW, Bavaria, Hesse and HH.
I second that but I'm maybe biased. 😄Greetings from Dortmund.
People from NRW can be a bit direct at times, though, and also won’t make an effort to hide their true feelings if they have a bad day. This is another example of how different definitions of friendliness can change your perception. Is it more about making social interaction with strangers run smoothly (smile a lot, hide your true feelings) or about being genuinely open (and maybe rude)? I had a teacher from northern Germany tell us how friendly the Suabians were. As someone who grew up in Stuttgart and who has ties to RLP and good friends from northern Germany, I found that funny. Because those Suabians might be somewhat less „stuck up“ than her fellow northern Germans and seem more welcoming at first, but they won’t really let you get as close as you might think and might talk behind your back. I think, people from RLP are the friendliest. They are welcoming and far more open than Suabians for example, but not as blunt as people from NRW.
The other ones you can call "reserved", but not unfriendly.
@@holger_p Indeed, I wouldn't describe Germans as unfriendly, but some are friendlier than others.
Regarding the peeing in public. I would never do that in a city. Outside a city in the nature where no toilette is available it might be that I use a tree.
At Hamburgian Reeperbahn the problem are very drunken party people from outside. And that are not only Germans but also tourist from across the world. A Hamburger would never do that. And don’t hide that San Francisco has copy that.
What I find annoying in Berlin is, they often expect a "Danke (Thank you)" when you pass them with your bike, which is not common where I grew up in Freiburg. And when you dont say it they are throwing you a passive aggressive "Bitte (You are welcome)" in your face.
Haha never knew it's not common in whole Germany. But I must admit - I think it's only fair to say thank you if someone is making you room. It's only expected if they have to move out of their way to let you pass (without having to slow down), not just for simply passing them. Big difference here!
@@Pudeta In Berlin I pass someone every minute. I dont think I want shout "Thanks" after someone a tousand times everytime I ride to the city.
Have to agree about DB. As an Englishman married to a German girl. for forty years, and having lived over there for ten of them. DB is no better than the British rail system. Maybe not so much with the ICE which is brilliant? In fact my best mate stopped using the railway to commute as he couldn't guarantee arriving at his work on time, as a senior police officer? Never really found unfriendly Germans, perhaps it helps if you aren't overly loud and speak the language. Even if it is "Jlabbacher Platt"?
the rest of germany combines the large beers with other clothing and sausages ;)
😂😂 Great point!
It's an important difference.
the best and most welcoming germans you will find in Nordrhein-Westfahlen period.. smalltalk with stangers is very common there, something i never experiance anywhere else and Karneval is out right legendary.
I traveled my country and was around in many major citys partying and the "Pott" , the most populated area of Germany is awesome.. my home town in niedersachsen i would consider more "reserved" to say it mildly.
DB is not really a cultural phenomenon, Swiss and Austrian trains are way more reliable for example.
Btw it's common courtesy to take bottles from already opened packs before starting another, so people who want a full pack don't have to dig first.
i like to see your videos every time you have a new one, germany invested less money in db under chancler schröder, and chief mehdorn, only half per capita like swiszerland, now they are investing a lot but you have to wait 10 more years if i see in the supermarked the price for one bottel itake one out of the pack, they write it in big letters if you ave to take 6 or so, it is a problem of the city they could built more urinals like in france