5 Things We’re Surprised We Have To Pay For In Germany That Is FREE In America! 🇩🇪
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- After moving to Germany and living in Germany for over 3 years, we have had multiple culture shocks of things we've had to pay for in Germany, that we expected to be free in Germany because they are free in America! 😊
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❤️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
1:18 - Thing 1
4:04 - Thing 2
6:50 - Thing 3
8:46 - Thing 4
11:35 - Thing 5
13:17 - Bloopers
Check out our brand new merchandise shop! 😃
Merch Shop (Germany) - passport-two.myspreadshop.de/
Merch Shop (USA) - passport-two.myspreadshop.com/
as you mentioned the merch i recognized for the first time, that your logo literally means passport two. In germany we show the two with other fingers and so i found the passport and the victory gesture always a little bit strange before i understood it a few minutes ago
This is so cool!
I love this!!
My experience with free drinking water in the US (Dallas area) was very eye opening. The water was more like swimming pool water then what a German tongue would expect named drinking water. Made me understand why people opted for sweet sodas.
But then the sodas are also made with tap water. The bars and restaurants get the pops as sirup to save on shipping costs. This then is thinned down with ... tap water. So the pops taste differently in different locations based on the mount of chlorine the community puts in its water. Except the business has a purifier tied into their system.
Which I experienced some hotels do to an excessive amount. There I felt like the soap would never go off my skin because the water was so soft. And it varied from hotel to hotel in the same area. So it was not done on the utilities' side.
Be careful to not assume that the quality of water from your experience in Texas is replicated across the state, no less the entire country. I have had marginal experiences and excellent free water in the USA, and of course there are the stories that come out of places like Flint, MI where the water is particularly bad and dangerous. That said, most places in the USA have perfectly drinkable free water from fountains, and many places more recently have been installing bottle filling stations as well. These can especially be found in airports throughout the country, and at sporting venues, gyms, shopping malls, schools, office buildings, etc.
Your quality of water from a public fountain might also be affected by the age of the station itself. Older fountains, while nostalgic and charming, will not likely have any advanced technologies, while newer ones typically provide better quality free water through advanced filtering, etc.
one of my friends was in america as an au pair. she immediately got bad skin allergies from the shower! when she asked her hosts if the water in the house was drinking water, they were shocked and offended. of course you could drink it! her allergy would come from something else. a little research later it turned out that, according to german standards, it was actually not drinking water...
Banning free bags in Europe was a long and hard process and is a great achievment eventually.
No. I need to buy more trashbags instead ...
@@Svenne23, trashbags are way bigger than free plastic bags, so it is much more efficient to use one trashbag instead of three smaller plastic bags for the same amount of trash. And the moment you have to pay for it, the more you become aware of how much trash you are actually throwing away.
@@Svenne23 Find your inability ;)
Exactly, had free bags and thankfully not any more.
Since 2018 free plastic bags are illegal in the EU. Bevor 2018 we had free bags, too.
Great info! 😊
You still get those small thin plastic bags for fruits and vegies (for free). They should‘ve baned all of that.
@@scofield3467 Not everywhere. Most supermarkets supply those free single-use thin bags in Hungary too, except one, Auchan. They sell you one for about 3 cents.
@@PassportTwo Actually, the stores have been FORCED(!) to take a fee for plastic bags, in order to avoid using them. People should not use plastic bags. I think, its a good thing, you can also have reuseable bags in a store (made from Cotton) instead of plastic bags. Next time, you bring your own Cotton bag.
yes, theoretically. Usually, they did already cost something. If you want to spot people from outside of europe: They are the people who put all of their groceries in these little thin bags where you are supposed to put fruit and vegetables in. Also watch how confused they seem because the bags are so small and of course break all the time.
Why do you think the meals in US restaurants are so much more expansive, maybe because of the "FREE" refills and water, that are of course not for free. German restaurants make their profit mainly by selling drinks, so you will not forced to go right after finishing your meal, because the longer you stay and ordering drinks, the more profit for the owner.
Meals in German restaurants are more expensive than in Oklahoman restaurants. I always wonder why I am paying so much to eat out in Germany than back home actually 😂 (and yes, I am factoring in tip that we leave in the US)
@@PassportTwo Brcause in Germany thr owner HAS to pay his rmployes a FAIR salary.
Hi all, I am a bit fed up how the topic of free water in restaurants keeps coming up again and again.
We spent six weeks in Canada recently and we tried that free water every now and then. It always tasted as if we were drinking from a public swimming pool after a busy day - yoicks - awful - like chlorine.
We gladly payed a few bucks for fresh fountain water. You can get that in America as well, but it costs - exactly like in Germany.
Interesting for me, as a german. I'm fed up with that complaining too.
I guess they should fill some cans of water from home before they visit a restaurant, order one glass of mineral water and then take their chance to refill the glass when the waitress is not watching. Free refill problem in Germany solved once and for all...
And the calcualation goes always like: Make the food more expensive to finance the 'free' water.
Regarding the Library: Three things to consider. One: Technically Libraries in Germany are free, what isn't free is the option to borrow a book. But if you just want to go there and read, you are free to do so. Two: There is the project Gutenberg, where you can download a huge chunk of public domain books for free. And Three: Many Cities have some sort of book exchange set up, where you can just take a book out of a little box (or tree trunk or old telephone house or whatever else they come up with) and exchange it for one of your own.
To answer your question: I used to have a library card, but I stopped to bother once I started to read more of the stuff which is available online. Once a while I go into a library but just to browse what is there, maybe read into some books and if they turn out to be good, I might buy them, because in this case I will want to own them anyway.
Also, libraries are usually not as expensive as the examples in the videos. It's more like 5-10€/year. And there's a discount for low-income households.
@@petraw9792 That too...
The last time i was in a library i had to pay for was in my late childhood. But it was a small annual fee.
Now you can rent books online, too.
In addition, there are free libraries too. It's up to the city to decide whether or not to charge a fee.
Unfortunately, Project Gutenberg has blocked Germans from downloading their stuff :(. Apparently, there was some copyright dispute, and as a result they decided not to let us access their books anymore (though I think you can easily circumvent that by using a VPN).
The thing is "fecal matters" just don't "float in the air". As long as you don't swallow half the tap while drinking, it is completely safe - as long as the water is of good quality. And that is just as true for water fountains.
Also, I guess that having a toilet in the same room as a toothbrush or a towel is worse than taking your water from bathroom sink.
Technically METRO is wholesale store and nor aimed at consumers, so you can only get a (free) 'membership' if you can provide proof that you own a business. In the past this technicality allowed METRO to have longer opening hours than normal retail stores, as the Ladenschlussgesetz did not apply to wholesalers. This was a nice perk in the the old days when retail stores had to close at 6:30 PM Mon-Fri and 2 PM on Saturdays, before the Ladenschlussgesetz was change to allow for longer store hours some 20 to 25 ago.
In Germany, if you go to a public swimming pool, you can drink from the pool as much as you like. It is the same kind of water you get for free in the USA
Hope you are kidding. Sure, it's tab water in first place, but for a pool it get's occasional chlorine treatment, and you cannot be sure how much other swimmers in the pool left some dirt, oil, sweat, in the pool.
@@holger_p the US tab water I havecome across so farsoemtimes smells worse from chlorine than public pool water in Germany
We in austria have free footballfields in nearly every our villages where you can play soccer instead... witch makes a lot more sense when you think about the popularity of it.
In Bavaria, the "Bavarian National Library" is fee free - you only have to pay fines for delayed books. Also many University Libraries are even free for "external users" (also called "Stadtbenutzer") as well as the libraries of a "University of Applied Sciences". But they can limit the amount of books you can borrow or if you can use inter library loan.
I think the reason because many public libraries have introduced a fee is because although it is a service from your town it is what we call a "Freiwillige Leistung" which means that the city provides it but it is no "compulsory" service for the residents. It is like the swimming pools - so as there are some services that are "Pflichtaufgaben" (like the registry office etc.) all of the "volunteer" services a town provides may have to work in a way that parts of the costs have to be generated by fees ... As many towns are "short of money" there is an increasing trend to close down branches of public libraries which are not frequented too much. It is a great pity and I feel very sorry when I read about that a public library is closed because of a cutback of its budget. And as more and more cities are beginning to change from "Kameralistik" (a way of public controlling and accounting) to the way companies do so (Kosten- und Leistungsrechnung, Buchführung nach HGB usw.) I fear this trend will increase ... Thank you for your interesting videos and many greetings from Philipp
Another German writing about the public library: It seems the costs of using a public library strongly depend on the city where you live - the local government makes the rules. For example, where I live, becoming member and using the library is normally completely free. The only exception is the fee you have to pay if you silently keep a book or other media longer than the allowed maximum period of time (which is 4 weeks for books and 7 days for e.g. weekly magazines). Furthermore, it is possible to extend that allowed period. Another example for extra (small) fees for extra services such as borrowing a book our library does not have available but which can be ordered from another city library.
Another interesting bit: "our" library calls itself a "Refill-Standort", which means everyone is invited to go in and refill their water bottle, which also is free.
You can use the library for free, just not check out books and other media. For example, lots of people read the paper there for free, which usually cannot even be checked out.
Our local library is 22 €/ year for an adult and 30 €/ year for a whole family, so that might come relatively cheap. Say, two adults, three kids - 1,50 €/ person/ quarter.
I think you drive to the shops in theUSA. It could not be so complicatet to store a few multiple use bags in the car. Here in Europe we often go shopping after something else on the way home by feet and /or public transport, often we don't want to carry the bags the wholeday. so we have a lot of multiple use bags at home especially since cotton bags (easier to hide/fold) are nearly banned it could become a problem because you don't want to throw they into the Trash.
We lived in the Hampton Roads in Virginia for 7 years and just recently returned. We traveled on the East Coast quite a bit and if there was a water fountain it was 9 out of 10 disconnected, broke or whatever. Even in DC. In Williamsburg, VA, we went to a self-serving restaurant and when we asked for water they charged us for the cup but the water was free. Many of us were highly upset 😄. Some restaurants also only let their customers use the bathrooms and some bathrooms are not for free anymore either. Times are changing. We hardly ever drank any of the free water in the States because we did not like the taste of chlorine.
👍
In my hometown the public library was free for students, for everyone who had a "schülerausweis". They even had a bus with the "bestsellers" and drove from school to school. When i finished school i had to pay 20 deutsche mark ( yes,it was a long long time ago)annually to get a library card.
Free soda refills in the US has to be related to expensive dental treatment....
Sort of an aside, but I find it hilarious how many decorative fountains in German cities have a sign "kein Trinkwasser" on them.
In Germany, you have private sport centers that are for example attached to a hotel or gym where you can rent a tennis, squash or badminton courts. I used an indoor tennis court at a hotel for many years. It was pretty cheap in summer and more expensive in winter when some local tennis clubs used it for training because they had no indoor courts. For a hotel in an industrial area, that has personal all day anyway, managing some sport facilities is easy.
Also there are a lot of tennis clubs out there in every village..thx to 90s hype about Becker and Graf
Not sure if you're aware of that, but plastic bags USED to be free over here too. The price tag is actually the result of a conscious effort to discourage people from seeing those bags as dispoasble. So basically having free shopping bags is a sign of a LACK of development, which is probably why you see democrat dominated regions over there adopting the practice as well..
Some/many American municipalities and states have adopted rules banning plastic bags, plastic straws, styrofoam, etc. Likewise, some national chain businesses have banned some or all of these things. Even more, there are some chain businesses that will charge you for your plastic bags like the American versions of Lidl and Aldi. It's (pardon the pun) a mixed bag of bans, charges, and environmental regulations across the country.
Even so, many more Americans adopt reusable shopping bags by choice, even when free bags are offered to customers. Like most cultural change in the country, it's a messy and uneven path.
Because Austria is very similar in many regards I guess it's the same in Germany: keep an eye out for public playgrounds - for teenagers and adults (so no seesaw, swings, sand box etc.). In Austria there's often playgrounds with a small football, basketball and tennis court(s). Mostly they are solid ground like rock or Tartan but every mid-sized city has at least a handful of them (and in bigger ones 10+). And they are completely free, you just show up there with your buddies and look if a court is free or you join the other group.
Also: all the way American country, Schlager just hurts my ears, doesn't matter if it's in Austrian dialect or High German, it's just bad, even after 5 beers :D
in hannover i have to pay 25 € per year for all well equiped Libraries ( public and university library). i think that`s okay. WE also have a BÜCHERSCHRANK in any part of the city where anybody can put his used books in and take whatever you from it. thats for free! Michael/Hannover
In Germany there are mostly free football courts.
Mostly free? 😅🤔 What’s makes them just mostly free? 😊
@@PassportTwo the football (soccer) clubs have a massive number of courts, so they aren't free... But besides these there are many public courts which aren't from a football club...
And in Germany there are many other free public courts like basketball, volleyball and so on...
Tennis courts are usually not for free. If there is a fence around it, you‘ll know it^^
I know also free Tennis and Golf courts
In Germany people usually drink sparkling water and that is not expected to be free. If it were the waiters and waitresses would be paid as bad as they are in the US. Also, if you want still water in Germany you can drink it safely out of the tab. The same goes for coffee. Also, the coffee you get free refills of in the US can not be compared to a good coffee in a German Café.
Btw, tap water from the sink is also not free in Germany... You pay for it too.
And for grocery shopping, you might either...
1) ...bring your bag/ box into the store and bag your stuff at the checkout (make sure you show your box to the cashier first to show him/ her that it's already yours, because they also sell these exact boxes in the stores).
2) ... leave your bags in your car, put your groceries back into the shopping cart and bag everything outside, so you don't block the checkout for too long. Makes sense especially if it's a bigger purchase.
3) ...or pay for bags/ boxes at the checkout and bag your groceries into those. They also offer a large variety from paper bags and reusable cartons to reusable plastic bags, cloth bags, reusable cooling bags or plastic foldable shopping boxes.
Oh and American Country music >>> German Schlager
Two years ago, the EU amended the Water Directive, requiring member states to expand public drinking water dispensers.
Regarding Metro stores: These are business only stores, or B2B stores, if you want to name it that. To get that 'membership' you mentioned, you have to register and during that you have to provide your business license as proof. Regular customers usually can't shop there without that.
Officially registered sports clubs have an exception to shop there as well, even though they are not a business per say.
While bags are not free in stores, cardboard boxes (packaging material they get their stuff delivered in) are, and they make them available just behind the cash desk, so I mostly take those
yeah with your opinion on tap water from a sink id say you should really clean your bathroom way more if you think like that. on the other hand you can also simply go and use the sink in the kitchen . (and honestly that is disgusting if someone else had his ,mouth on that already these water fountains lol. you should sanitize it first before use every time then, but then again you could also take a bottle with something to drink with you instead of needing to desinfect that water fountain first (the worst of it is its public stuff, why tf would anyone want to use some public fountain to drink? who knows what kind of people all were on it and what people did , because there are also some associal asshole who would do weird shit to it probably, cant be trusted .
There is community libraries that take fees - and some that do not. Usually it is not big amounts we are talking about and improves the selection of books and services that are available. I am not sure about how it is today but the library in my village does not have a basic fee but the public library in the neighbouring city that is a lot bigger and has a lot more books available and more customers and is opened for more weekly hours does.
I never have been in need of a water fountain - maybe because we usually do not have them we just organize ourselves else differently.
About your plastic bag issue... - I need one small plastic bag for garbage a week - but would need a lot more to do my shopping with.
But I think the "pay for plastic bags" does make you aware about the plastic problems, too, that you would not be aware if you get them in bulks for free.
Free refills or free water might be a thing in the USA where you do not sit in restaurants for hours and is just a different calculation in combination with the food prizes or the tipping culture. And it does not make sense to give out free water when the Coke that might have a purchasing prize per glass of not much more than 10 Cents for the restaurant costs 2 EUR.
Why should a shop give so much freebies to customers... The "Freibiergesichter" aren't the ones that will give you the most income. It should not be more then an incentive to try before you buy something you do not know before - not attract people that do not want to spend any money and are just in for freebies...
- Never saw a water fountain in Germany.
- 40€ per year for a public library is a lot - normal is 10 to 20.
- Definitely Schlager, but only old stuff. Nothing from this century.
And I said a hundred times that nothing in life is free, so
1) free refills aren't free; the cost is hidden elsewhere
2) drinking fountains aren't needed in Germany, you can safely drink tap water at any public toilet or refill your water bottle (NOT on trains!) -- and as you mentioned, I think water fountains are gross; would never drink from them
3) public libraries may not be free, but you have to admit that they are affordable, and you can't take Hamburg as an example, as everything is expensive there (Your question: I also use our local library regularly, but I go there to read a REAL book, you know, the ones with the paper)
4) I once drank my way through a Schnaps sample stand at my local supermarket. They were introducing their new set of locally distilled liquors. Being a little bit drunk, I ended up buying a bottle. As to the distillery, mission accomplished. -- You should try Metro, but you have to be a business owner to get a membership card, or be employed with one who lends you his card. You could make a meal out of the free samples, but that may have changed; haven't been there in years.
5) The bag issue will never end. For example, at REWE, they banned plastic, but you can buy (yes, buy!) paper bags and boxes, at NETTO, I still can get plastic bags. But I see that more and more people start doing what I've been doing for years: Bring their own sturdy bags or a rucksack for their shopping, and have sturdy boxes in their trunks so that things won't roll around while you drive. The final destination of a plastic bag will be as a trash bag, and a paper bag will end up in my wood stove.
6) You're late for the tennis courts. My small community built three public tennis courts back in the days when Boris Becker and Steffi Graf were big stars, and they were, AFAIR, free to use at certain times. When people lost interest, they let the courts rot away and finally put them to another use. -- One word about sports clubs in general: They usually let you try if you like their sport for free, but they'll do EVERYTHING to persuade you into becoming a paying member.
YOUR RANDOM QUESTION is what I'm always waiting for, and this time, my answer is clear: (modern) American Country. The instrumentation is better, and the rhythm is more like a heartbeat, even when it's slow.
dem ist nichts hinzu zu fügen. Alles wird irgendwie bezahlt.
I mean the water in the US tastes like chlorine. No wonder you get free refills in restaurants. I wouldnt want to drink that. I dont know if the water from water fountains also taste like that. Never tried that one in the US but Im a bit afraid.
The thing with the water...the average restaurant in the US will serve free water, granted. But that same restaurant will voluntarily serve you the cheque roughly 2 minutes after you finished your dessert. In Germany however, no restaurant will kick you out after your meal, if you decide to stay and have a conversation and have another beer or 5...or 10. The owner of the full restaurant might not like it, but he'll most probably never ask you to leave, whereas in the US you will be kindly asked to f* off or get your a* to the bar...rude!🙄😂🍻
In Cologne we have the "Kölntag" or Cologne Day every first Thursday of the each month where every resident gets free entry to all municipal museums. Just show your ID and your good to go. There are also tours included.
I don't know if this is true for every city in Germany.
Truck Stop! 😉
At least that is what I also played with my former band at beer festivals, Kirmes and Schützenfesten, besides Schlager and Country. Personally I don‘t listen to Schlager except for some parties where everybody is going wild. But I do at least have some country on my thumb drive in my car if you count Shania Twain. Brad Paisley on the other hand probably does count. 😊
You have to order tap water explicitly in Germany to get water for free in restaurants
For free food you could try Wochenmärkte oder special food markets. It might not be enough for a whole meal though. Especially the "Olivenstände" with oriental and mediterranean food offer a lot of samples. However, I tend to end up buying way too much afterwards....
as a German, ich muss auch fragen, wieso ihr kein gesundheitssystem habt und eine besseres schulsystem und oder waffengesetze, macht mal darüber ein thema bitte
Ich mag nicht diese so politische Sachen auf UA-cam darüber zu sprechen, ehrlich gesagt 😅
@@PassportTwo aja, das glaube ich dir sofort
For a german your german is very not german
@@PassportTwo Little correction of the German sentence: "Ich spreche nicht gerne über so politische Sachen auf UA-cam, ehrlich gesagt."
The correct German translation of English phrase "like to do something" is "etwas gerne tun". The word "like" itself means in German "mögen".
Be careful with word by word translations!
@@ancentropia3418 who?
Often, not always, the sinks in public restrooms are in a separate room from the stalls. So, there need not be faecial matter floating around.
In many areas of the US, you may be eligible for free library privileges outside of your hometown library. When I was in Indiana, any Indiana resident could borrow books from the local state university without charge. In Mass., any Massachusetts resident can get a free library card to the Boston Public Library (which comes with access to free movies through the Kanopy streaming service).
At least in my town there ARE free tennis courts. But you have to go to the town lake to use them. It's about 20 km away from where I live. But they are there.
Well, we do have a lot soccer/football fields though for free. I guess it's only up to how popular a sport is, if there's a public pit, field or so. :-)
Most public libraries used to be free in Germany. After reunification the cities financial situation worsened, so they withdrew many benefits and raised fees.
I admit I don't always carry my reusable bag to the grocery stores. Half of the times I pay for a plastic bag, and yes, I also use them for trash afterward.
Library Fees: In my hometown children and young adults (under the age of 21) are still free, and I think, about a decade ago (as I still used it on a regular basis) it was also free for all adults. The fee is currently 25 € per year for singles (couples, married or not, which live together, can get a partner card for 36€ per year), which would never be enough to fund the library, so the municipality still funds most of it. The fees are barely sufficient to cover the administration costs for managing memberships and issuing member cards. But maybe it is more of a "what costs nothing is worth nothing" thing?
Bags: A few decades ago obligatory fees for plastic bags were introduced (as I recall at first only about 10 Pfennig or so) which led first to free paper bags at some stores, but soon to regular selling of different kinds of bags at the checkout. Many supermarkets offer now a choice of paper bags (different sizes, depending on size and quality between 10 and 50 cts), cotton bags (from 1 € up) and recycled PET bags (made from recycled PET bottles, from 50 cts. up depending on size, design and quality).
Tennis: Tennis is still seen as kind of "fancy sports for the upper class" in Germany, so a municipality paying for the construction of a public tennis court would probably encounter some shitstorm for wasting public money to butter "the elite" up. Therefore municipalities will constrain themselves to Bolzplätze (simple soccer fields), concrete table tennis tables, skating areas, sometimes some basket ball places or rather rarely handball or field hockey courts.
Water is somewhat free in some stores. They do have a water fountain with cheap cups that you can use to get a taste of some wetness for your mouth especially during the summer. At in Leichlingen Germany. And yes today the water fountains are not healthy. Especially with Covid.
As far as the shopping bags concerns, I do agree there. Buy a sturdy bag that can be used again and again especially the cloth ones, where you can actually wash, I find it better. Half of the plastic bags you get for free in the states, are so weak, they rip apart before you get home. At least the plastic bags here you pay 10 or 20 cents for, depending on the size of it are sturdy. I can't tell you how much weight I had in them and they didn't break or tear at the bottom.
When it comes to free refills, I'm actually glad Germany doesn't have them for a very simple reason.
German restaurant make a large portion of their profits with drinks and not as much with the food itself. So as a customer you'll end up paying a lot more for drinks than you would in the US, but a lot less for the food itself. If restaurants started handing out free refills, they would have to compensate for that by increasing their prices for food.
And here is why this matters: When you go out for a nice dinner and you have a few drinks there, you will pay around the same amount, maybe even a bit more in Germany than you would in the US, because of the drinks, however, it allows you to get some pretty affordable food for your lunch break at a restaurant.
Personally, I do get free drinks and free coffee at the office, so when we decide to head to a restaurant, we usually only order a dish and maybe, at the very most one drink and usually end up paying somewhere between 10 and 15 euros, sometimes even less than 10€ for a nice, restaurant quality dish for lunch, tips already included.
In the US, pretty much the only way to get lunch at that price point are fast food restaurants.
What is better, free (affordable) books (knowledge?) or affordable education? Which society benefits more?
I use the public library especially for children's books and CDs for my daughter. I pay 15 Euros per year. A membership for children is free.
In Germany, tennis courts aren't free. However, there are often free basketball courts and, how could it be otherwise, football pitches are free. In all sizes. As small cages or whole pitches, sometimes even with rugby goals on both ends above the football goals. (And yes, european/german football)
Regarding Tennis I'd say it has something to do with how big the sport is in that country. Even though germany had some great international tennis players - it's much more niche than soccer for example.
So we do have public soccer courts everywhere that are free to use. Concrete ones also don't need much maintainance and can easily be combined with an additional basketball court. Two flies with one swipe. 😁
Also sports work differently in the US vs. Germany. Sports in school are a much bigger part in the US (especially college). Not so much in Germany. But "club culture" is huge in Germany. The holy "Verein" is basically an Institution germany. So much so, that they get even different treatment by law/taxation.
Club memberships are also not that expensive in germany - therefore the entry level is low. That's by design. Because they are also considered as young talents promotion. By entering a club - you can get access to professional training from a young age - which in return is considered to promote young players where trainers can promote talent, etc.
I have a library card and I also rent books digitally and read it on my iPad it's convenient
Ok the library thing os way cool!!
Water: You'll find more free fountains in the area of the alps. Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland.
Libraries: When I was young, all libraries were free - as long as you returned the books in time. In my place, the library still is free.
Tennis: with us it always was a sport for rich people - and I guess the rich preferred to stay among rich...
Music: I prefer Folk!!! Our Volksmusik is an offense to my ears. I think I'd prefer nearly every kind of music to this 😭
our playground in front of our flat has a water fountain.
For a big part of my life, I seem to recall German libraries - at least the local Stadtbücherei - being free (unless overdue books). I was a bit upset when that changed (to a very small amount). But then, approximately at that time, I had pretty much read the parts of the library I was interested in, and had shifted over to buying books. (Inter-library loans? Far too slow for my taste.) I later used the local uni library for a while for more technical topics, but that also trickled off, and was slowly replaced by the growing Internet - faster and simply more.
As for shopping and trash bags - I still(!) have a ton of plastic shopping bags from when they were free - they mostly never got reused for anything (and not got rid of because, as a consequence, they are in places hard to get at). I did reuse some of them, of course - but only a small percentage. And rarely as trash bags, they're mostly the wrong size.
Schlager or country? Neither, except for the few cases where you really don't care what genre they are from, they're just so good (but no example off the top of my head). But if I absolutely have to choose, something not in my native language, that makes it slightly easier to ignore the cringe.
I know a supermarket where you can get lots of samples to try inside the supermarket. People who work there told me that older people who had little money, never bought anything and came daily for free samples were banned from the store. That was really sad!
13:00 Schlager vs country is like Pest oder Cholera.
As I was a child I got a card from the library after my school visited it for the first time. We got to learn what a libary is and got asked if we wanted to have the free card for the library to rent books. Later we went back to the library as class but due to not all had the card, our teacher let us use her card since we only needed to rent the books for 1 evening (sounds weird I guess lol). And than I went to the library once with my own card, but my mom forgot to remind me the book has to be taken back and so I got to pay a fine for being too late and my mom was so angry for paying a fine of 1€ back in like 2004 so that she told me to never go to the library again and that I should buy books instead lol
In German libraries you can use Fernleihe charge free. If you want to read a book which you library has not available, they borrow it from an other one for you.
Ask for a glas of tub water in a restaurant and see if you pay for it. Nothing you should ask for frequently but it does work.
I've used several public libraries in Germany and never had to pay any fee - well, as long as I returned the books in time. 😅
But maybe I just was lucky. I guess it depends on the particular library's extent and purpose - a communal library might be financed differently from a university's or state's library where you would go for researching your thesis.
Yes, in bigger cities with more things to rent - like CDs, comics, DVDs, magazines, games... there is often a small fee. I think i joined one in Karlsruhe when I was in school, payed a fee to get accepted and still got acces (online).
If you use it often it makes sense, even if you pay a small fee.
The library's at university are free.
Regarding university libraries: If you are a student, the fee you pay for studying also ensures that you have free access to all university libraries in the country. And in a lot of cities, the univertiy library is free for people living there, too.
The public libraries are a different matter.
You will find soccer places in any little community, in simples case, it's just the green of a farmer. There is simply no demand for something like tennis. It's as common as Golf, the sport of dentists.
I wouldn‘t like someone to pack my stuff not only bc i‘m not used to that but bc of it‘d feel like it‘s a like a slave who gets paid very poorly, like some ppl in Germany who had to work for 1€ an hour.
I was a "bag boy" at age 16 and it was a great job. My favorite part was going out in the parking lot to collect carts. I loved the alone time in the fresh air. Also, I'm really good at bagging my own groceries now: )
To pay for the big library has mostly the reason to easily kick out unwanted visitors (sad to say that there are people who just show up for a bit of warm air). I worked in one for a few weeks. Free samples : wtf. There is NO reason why it schould be free there. Someone who owns a buissnes does not need it and other schould get it at the gov welfare (yes that system is flawed).
Plasticbags for the shop used to way more stable, diffrent material and much more of it. Trashbags are thinner and are from diffrent material (plastic is not plastic). And there are trashbags that even rott. Tennis is for Lawyers , Dentis and other Peakocks. Ok , I do live in a small country town.
The library in my german town is for free and isn't small. They also have lots of free ebooks.
We have a lot of public sport areas. Maybe not for tennis but courts for football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis and a lot more. Why should we support tennis courts with our taxes if we prefer other sports? That makes no sense.
I usually grab a empty cardboard box in the supermarket to transport my groceries to and in my car.
Or bring my Einwegpfand in a cardboard box to the store and put my goods in it.
Das Thema mit den Trinkwasser Brunnen wird in Deutschland gerade angegangen. Die Regierung hat die Länder dazu aufgefordert mehr Trinkbrunnen zu installieren.
I‘m surprised that public libraries in Germany aren‘t free everywhere. In my hometown you just have to pay if your book is overdue (is this the right use of the word „overdue?). And you can also rent pictures and sculptures but they charge you a small fee for them.
As a kid I was almost every other week in the local library where I always got one or two popular „Was ist was?“ books (How and Why in English) or some title from Jules Verne. But as an adult the only library I visited was the library of my University while I was studying. Since then I almost bought all books I read.
Yes, "overdue" is the right word -- you used it correctly. I work in a library (in the USA), and "overdue" is correct. One could also say "past due" -- that is also correct, but personally I say "the book is overdue".
I generally have a very broad music taste. But there are more German Schlager among the songs, I like. I think that is, because my parents always had those on the radio.
Do you really believe refills or samples are free? They are priced in, not free.
I grew up in suburban New York and we were not allowed to like country music. My older brother did like what was called southern rock. I did come to love Patsy Cline. And I have a couple of colleagues who are from the same area and they like country music. And my sister does too.
Water: Did I imagine that, or did I read that the american type of water fountains are actually really unhygienic and a breeding ground for germs?
Library: I live in a town with only 3k people, and our library is even more expensive than the ones in the bigger cities nearby. And our town has neither a website nor e-books. (But we use the library from one of the bigger cities, and yep, I use the ebook option, while my mum uses their physical books and CDs a lot.)
Food samples: Yeah, no, close to no free samples.
Bags: They were free until a few years ago. But that led to A LOT of littering. And the state would prefer for people to use reusable bags, so free bags don't exist anymore and the cheaper plastic is banned.
Tennis courts: Yeah, tennis is really a rich people only sport, so the players don't want poor people around - and poor people don't have the money for the equipment anyway, so creating special courts for the non-rich is ... a bit too expensive for the community.
Random: DEFINITELY country! I mean, I'm more into celtic folk, but ... country is way better than German schlager.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the little condiment bags at fast food joints.
Actually talked about that in 2 previous videos very recently so I thought I’d give that one a rest 😅 But you’re definitely right about that! 😊
Remember that nothing commercially is ever really free. E.g. the price for the shopping bags is calculated into the prices of all products.
Rewatch the part of the video at 0:37 😉
@@PassportTwo Hah sorry, I usually skip intros, my mistake :)
Lol, no worries. You aren't the only one 😅 Have a great day!
Can we cut the crap re. FREE refills once and for all?
In the US your softdrink / soda comes in a glass most filled with (crushed) ice.
I guess roughly 80% of the content is (free??) ice?
How many “refills” does it take to replace the ice with what you’re paying for?
3 - 4?
Nothing in life is free, except death, which will cost your life !
You have to run a commercial business ("Gewerbeschein") to get a "Metro Mitgliedskarte" ...
Tennis or Golf are both organized in private sport clubs, so you either know someone who is a member in a local club or you become a member yourself, in most cases you can take one training hour for free before you choose to become a member...
As for you mentioning the price charged for bags (plastic bags are banned in the EU since 2018): bring your shopping bag with you for shopping, prevent plastic waste and save money. Don´t get the point why drop-away plastic things like plastic bags etc. are still allowed and even free in the US, that´s hilarious...
Public Libraries have to struggle hard in Germany since one of the first measures for municipalities to cut costs is either the public library or the public swimming hall. Guess, which of them both people might miss more, when they are locked down due to cost cutting measures. Both institutions simply need the fees you mentioned.
Metro and alike is not like Costco. You'll only get a membership when you run a business. Especially owners of small grocery stores, restaurants or alike are customers there as they sell groceries in big and super big packages. Like 25kg of noodles or 2kg of Cheddar, which you don't get in a normal grocery store.
Bibliothek Osthofen. 30 km from your Location and completely free ;) Also supports the "Onleihe"
I did not even knew that there is a charge for libraries and I am a German. I personally buy all my books. This is probably what most Germans do. I guess this is also the reason why Germany holds the worlds largest book fair. We love books and simply buy them. There is a good reasons for bringing your own bag to stores. It is called reducing plastic to save our environment. Just banning straws does not do too much. We certainly needed more trash bags in the US than here and the shopping bags are so thin that we mostly needed two of them anyway to hold some weight and I am afraid that most of them end up in the trash and go from there to landfills and when the wind picks up they will be even hanging in trees. At least did we see them all over.
Public libraries in the US also offer more services like often multiple story times per week, homeschooling clubs, homework help, classes, and movie nights.
For free?!
@@troychavez yes!
@@fritzieschomaker1476 great tax funding
@@troychavez it is.
This exist in Germany too although not in a library but with other names e.g. "Offenes Haus", "Kulturzentrum", "Sozialstation", etc
in berlin gibt es wasserspender und auch pumpen am straßenrand
4:02 you can get your water at the sink in the kitchen if you dislike the ones in the bathroom. You use that for cooking anyway so why don't drink that?
Q: can you really drink clear fresh water from the US water fountains? in most german households and restaurants nobody would object to give you a glas of tap water, which is usually much better here than most soda waters around the globe
deciding between schlager and country music is like deciding between pestilence and cholera
Yes. But as a German you don't need to care for the english text of country music which is probably similar in content to Schlager.
@1:40 That's not true. Go to a flagship(?) Burger King or Subway fastfood joint and you get free refills. E. g. Subway Hattingen or Burger King Bochum, Dorstener Str. They still rip you off on ketchup and mayo, though.
I wonder how drinking fountains - for free or not - could survive the corona pandemic in Germany. I think they are a contagion hotspot.
you also believe that the plexiglas shield in the supermarked destroys all germs, which had been transferred to your goods by the cashier touching it when scanning the price? life can be so easy when you don't use your brain, but believe everything you get told...
Note: there hasn't been a single case of covid yet in which the virus has been proven to have been transferred via Schmierinfektion! So sanitizing your hands in the case of covid has nothing to do with science, is just for the psyche.
For other contagious diseases (like noro, rota or the common cold), sanitizing your hands does help, however.
At my regional radio station SWR1 there is always a show with country music on Wednesday evenings, which I listen to very often. Country music actually was the first genre of music I loved as a child. I think I must have been about 10 years old when my mother gave me my first country cassette. We were at our local electronics store when I saw a cassette tape with the silhouette of a cowboy and a cactus on it and begged my mom to buy it for me. "Guck mal, Mama, Cowboy-Musik!" I don't like Schlager at all. I'm a big Johnny Cash fan and I also like all kinds of music from Mozart to Metal.
Many libraries in Germany are free.
Huge library fan here. I read over a hundred books per year, and if it weren't for free ebook lending from the Boston Public Library, I'd be out so much money. XD
Can I opt out of both Schlager and country? Not a fan in either case!
Hi ein toller Beitrag wie immer.
Um bei Metro einkaufen zu können muss man ein Gewerbe/Firma haben sonst kann man dort nicht einkaufen.
Papiertüten oder Plastiktüten beim Einkauf kann man mehrmals verwenden anstatt sie nach dem Einkaufen direkt Wegzuwerfen. Ich nutze zum Beispiel die Tüte bis es nicht mehr geht und durch eine neue Tüte ersetzt werden muss das spart kosten und schont die Umwelt.
In deinem Beitrag zum Anfang wo auch Wasser gezeigt wird: Leitungswasser ist in Deutschland das Lebensmittel was am stärksten kontrolliert wird in Deutschland.
Here, before the effects of global warming, such drinking fountains in the inner cities were also not absolutely necessary. Now they are being considered for installation, at least in large cities. I think that's good.
I don't like free drinking water fountains. I work in a lab. I don't trust that water. I just carry my own water. No problem 😂 also free water refills in US restaurants are probably covered by higher meal prices anyways. Regarding the libraries: You can always go and read there for free. I pay 10€ per year if I want to borrow books in my town's library.
I don't get the thing with the free food samples. As a customer I just can't demand free stuff. Someone has to pay for it.
We banned plastic bags because it is better for the environment and we charge paper bags, because you're expected to bring your own bag from home. It is encouraging the use of cloth shopping bags.
In Germany you find free table tennis areas in some parks or on school grounds.
I‘m German. Lived all over in Germany. I‘ve never seen a Public Library you had to pay for
At least in the cities are some football courts or Basketball courts free for use
09:00 Plastic bags used to be free in West German supermarkets before 1974. They used the first oil crisis as an excuse to charge for them. In most other stores such as media, clothes etc, plastic bags used to be free until just a few years ago. These days you get useless paper bags in most shops, because the greens don't like plastic, and you get charged for them. Among the supermarket chains where you can still get plastic bags are the two Nettos.
Here in Virginia, you must pay for bags, but paper is still free.
I'm an avid libray user, too - I love my local library, even though it's not that big. There are various options for your membership fee here: the "Premium" version includes everything for €35, but the standard fee for adults is €18. Below the age of 18 it's free, and there are also discounts for students, people who volunteer, people who receive state benefits etc. I always get standard because I never check out computer games or DVDs, except maybe once every two years (and then it costs €1.50, which is easily the better option for me).
If I think about how many books I could buy for 18 Euros, the library fee is a total bargain. Especially since I don't only take out books, I also take out audio dramas (Hörspiele) and board games. [Sure, no fee at all would be an even better bargain, but I don't mind the fee as it is miniscule compared to what is offered to me.]
And of course, included in the fee there is also the "onleihe", where you can download e-books and all sorts of other digital media (like movies or e-learning courses). Here my library has paired up with several other libraries in the region so we all get a wider selection.
I also love public book cases, but you never know what you'll find there and of course most of the books there are relatively old. Not that I mind old books, but if you want to read something specific, they're generally not the place to go to. But I love the idea of sharing, because if I'm not going to read a book again, why not put it out there for someone else to enjoy? I've discovered quite a few great books this way and often then went to the library to find more from a certain author.