Oh dear, I’m British living in Germany and I say “how are you” as a greeting and every day am surprised when I get a sincere answer. It’s just so hard to stop but after seeing this, I will try to just say “hello”. (Also I’m a big fan of your channel)
Well, you ask a question we give the answer 😅 In English language classes, we were taught that "How are you?" is not a real question, but it's not within our habit to treat it like that. Cause u never know who and why is asking 👀 Maybe they really wanna know about my cat eating my yoghurt this morning
Actually some Europeans (me, German 29, included) also use phrases like that. "Was geht?" ("What's up?") is my favorite here. It has a double meaning I think. It combines the rhetorical "How are you" with an expression of surprise (a second meaning of "Was geht?"). To emphasize the surprising expression, you can put the "Was geht?" first and change the intonation. At least that's how my peer group uses that. If someone actually asks me "Wie geht's?" ("how are you?") while passing me, that also confuses me tbh.
The car dependency aspect is sooo true. I’m an American who spent around 2 ish years total in Europe (time in Slovakia and moved to Edinburgh, Scotland for school at 18). The culture shock of even small quaint towns in SK having little city centers and being so walkable was sooo freeing to me coming from the US south. I came back to the states to finish school bc of COVID and going back to an environment where I had to drive to literally anything was beyond depressing. I yearned for the European walkability so bad that I convinced my bf to move to Chicago with me last year. I am 100x happier here! my car in Kentucky was costing me $800 / month between car payments and insurance. Here I pay like $75 per month for an unlimited train + bus pass and my quality of life is sooo much better. Being able to walk to anything I need is something I’ll never sacrifice ever again. I don’t think I could live anywhere in the US other than Chicago or NYC because I refuse to be stuck in car culture again. anywho, I loved your video and how you explore quirky things about my country without being condescending like a lot of Europeans on tiktok tend to be. I’m hosting my European friends in September for 2 weeks and it will be their first time here and I’m so excited to see their real time culture shocks lol
Because have you seen how huge America is compared to Slovakia? There’s way more space. We’re not all living on top of each other like in Germany. If you’re a city dweller and don’t desire to do anything outside of a city, you can walk everywhere, but most Americans like to travel around the country, to the next town, or explore different places in their own states that are very distant from each other because of geography, it’s not a car “culture”, not sure what that means.
@@alpharius_nox fun fact..23% of grown Americans has never even left their state where there born so "travel the country" statement is kind of..wrong =)
@@nattm6553 I know you’re just trolling me right? 23%? That means most do leave their states … Population density and geography have a lot to do with the use of cars in America. There’s no conspiracy, no lack of government enforcement or encouragement that needs to happen, there’s no cultural deficiency or anything else, it’s pragmatic. If I live in a town with less than 1000 people and the nearest town is 30 minutes away, of course I’m going to drive.
@@alpharius_nox Why, exactly, are you trying to mansplain American culture to me, an American? you know Europe as a continent is also huge, right? Yet most of their cities are walkable and interconnected by rapid transit. The size of the US doesn’t matter when talking about individual cities. Individual cities should be walkable and transit oriented, in addition to people being able to drive if they feel like it. Trust me my guy, I’ve traveled all over the country in my car and have done multiple 12+ hour road trips. I still love a good road trip. Do you think that Europe doesn’t have highways and cars? You’d be wrong. Walkable cities aren’t a threat to you wanting to travel around the country or live in a rural place with your car. Nobody is trying to take your cars away. Also, the US quite literally is a car culture. When I go back to my home state, everyone has a car, anything you have / want to do has to be done with a car. Even in the big cities there, a car is a necessity. Which is absolutely ridiculous. Being in a walkable city has greatly improved my mental health and lifestyle. Maybe you should try getting out of the US & your little bubble and see how good others have it…..
@@josiahholsomback7507 I live in Germany. I feel like I need to mansplain to you since understanding things like population density and geography seems to be beyond your abilities. Consider this, how much do you think the extremely high cost of gas/oil and the amount of taxes you have to pay on vehicles play a role in this lack of “car culture” you see in Europe? I’ll give you a good example, I was up in Norway a few months ago, and I noticed that many Norwegians drive SUVs with the rear seats removed. When I asked one of my Norwegian friends why this was, he explained that there is a tax in Norway for your car based on the number of people it can hold. So a car that would normally cost 40,000, would be 80,000 Euro if they didn’t take the seats out when registering the car. Norwegians have it so good they can’t even afford an SUV with more than two seats. Not sure what this “car culture” people keep referencing, I’m assuming it’s some climate zealot phrase to add negative connotations to anything that Americans do that goes against the prevailing wisdom of the technocrats that want to control everything we do. In my day, “car culture” meant a bunch of people who liked the mechanical nature of automobiles, the type of people who built cars, raced cars, and knew everything about cars because they had a passion for it. My grandmother that owns a pinto just so she can go to church on Sunday is not part of some “car culture”.
Our food in supermarkets are so big because we usually only go shopping once a week, this is because grocery stores are not in walking distance so it’s a bit of a trip to go and get stuff so we stock up
Going anywhere without a car in America is extremely difficult. I am a runner and often the only place to walk, bike, or run from one place to the next is literally the road with cars driving 70mph on it. Some people will actually try to run you over aggressively because they are mad if they have to slow down to pass you. But the road is almost always the only option of going anywhere in the country. If you don’t have a car or can’t drive, there is no other option available to you. I really hate it even though I grew up here in the U.S. I wish we had trains like in Europe, or even better, a path to walk/run/bike on because that would be great.
The "how are you" thing is much more widespread to more cultures than just the US. It seems to be something especially designed to trip up german speakers. It happens with my Turkish friends as well. I always try to answer honestly and ask them back which is when I remember it's just part of the greeting.
American here! My home I grew up in, in Tennessee, had no sidewalks, but I walked in the road and got over when cars were coming. My school was a block away, but the principal didn’t want me walking to school, because no sidewalks. The closest grocery store was 5 miles away. Non-existent public transportation, so very car-dependent. I’ve been able to live and travel around a lot, so I know this isn’t a universal American experience, but my goodness, do I see the same thing all over the place. In the middle of a bigger city now and still find myself being car dependent. Huge fan of public transportation. Love trains. Dublin and Amsterdam, and to a lesser extent, Seattle and Chicago really spoiled me on trains and now I just don’t get why we don’t have trains all the time everywhere else too. Loved the video Erika!
American here - we don't just eat in our cars outside the restaurant we are always on the go so we might have to feed the family dinner at the drive-thru on our way to some event. This is really common when you have children in after school activities.
The portion sizes are to emotionally compensate people on the loosing side of the wealth divide. It makes poor people feel like they are getting more for less. Generally you find these giant portion sizes at fast food restaurants that use processed foods to cut corners. Four words, High Glucose corn syrup. It is the byproduct of corn farming, Your body can not actually process it, And it is filler for these large capacity low budget sodas.
The urban sprawl is a big part of the reason of why I'm leaving the US. I've had too many close calls in vehicles and have sunk tens of thousands of dollars into them just to have a way to get around. I much prefer just walking or taking the train, tram, or bus, but those are only an option in very few places in the US (and they are usually absurdly expensive and might not be the safest places to live).
If you don’t like urban sprawls, don’t move to Germany: the population density of the United States is approximately 36.4 people per square kilometer (94.2 people per square mile), while the population density of Germany is approximately 237.016 people per square kilometer (614.6 people per square mile).
@@alpharius_nox you know Urban Sprawl refers to cities with LOW population density, right? OP is condemning how sparsely populated our cities are. Densely populated cities are more walkable, have more transit, and better community. Cities like Austin have huge amounts of urban sprawl and are basically a giant lifeless suburb.
@@josiahholsomback7507 Germany the country has a higher density, not just the cities, that means there are more ubran sprawls, in fact, Germany is basically one giant urban sprawl, with some nice scenery a few kilometerrs between each city, unless you go to Bayern or Northern parts of Germany. Yes, the densly populated cities have good public transport, but there are too many other negative aspects of German society that I cannot recommend moving here to anyone at all, especially not just to come here for “walkable” cities, pfffk.
i live in a big city in the US, not far from downtown at all, but it’s so unwalkable. our neighborhood does have sidewalks but the only think i could walk to in 20 minutes is the library. you also have to cross some dangerous roads to get there. the grocery store is a 42 minute walk away, or you could take the bus for 25 min (which comes rarely) or drive for 7 minutes.
not to mention that this close grocery store is dangerous so we don’t even go to it. even though we live in a very nice neighborhood, there are shootings multiple times a month in the area :(
Supermarkets - when I was in Germany, I totally fell in love with REWE. Brimming over with the kind of wonderful chocolates and delicious cheeses and delicatessen that we would have to pay premium for in the USA, but inexpensive in Germany.
having had lived in a large town in alabama with no sidewalks before moving to a very walkable city in the UK with great public transit, I can tell you its absolutely miserable having to drive what is physically a 4 min walk but because of road heirarchy is impossible.
Watch Yet Another Urbanist on drunk driving. Because of the city design forcing many Americans to drive there's too much killing people with drunk driving and motor accidents. There isn't enough of a option to walk, bike, or take transit home from a bar. The mindset is often to put the responsibility on the individual to not drink and drive rather than change the infrastructure. Many American news headlines and articles victim blame pedestrians and cyclists for getting hit or killed by cars too rather than talk about the road design. Those pedestrians are called jaywalker. Jay means stupid. They sometimes are biased for drivers and make the excuse that "the drivers couldn't see the pedestrians or cyclists". Or say "cyclists shouldn't be on the road so it was their fault". Even tho there isn't enough bike lanes and sidewalks everywhere. Including not enough transit too. There not being enough sidewalks has also caused some pedestrians to have to walk on the edge of the road and has caused cops to handcuff them. Flurfdesign talked about how a bus driver had to block drivers to protect kids cause they even wouldn't stop for kids to cross the street. Watch Not Just Bikes and About Here.
If you have a detached home in the Midwest, it may be appropriate to have a gun in the house. But anyone who believes they can keep young people away from drinking or drugs is a dreamer or a malicious demagogue.
If everyone has a gun, it means you also have a gun. criminals are cowards, if a restaurant was filled with gun owners do you think some criminal could carelessly wave a gun to rob them without fearing getting popped in the head? the alcohol thing you have to blame puritan women from back in the day.
not really most deaths are from drunk driving when it comes to being intoxicated but telling from ur pfp and the fact ur german probably means that you don't have the brain compacity to actually do any research and you just go off whatever tik tok tell you
On credit scores: I Germany we have the Schufa-score, which is pretty similar. It's made by this private company that uses secret algorithms to assign you a score based on credit history, amount of bank accounts, how likely you are to change into a wolf at full moon, etc. So all in all very dubious and annoying. Like, why are they exempt from so many privacy laws? Anyways it's used by banks to decide if they give you a loan or credit card and even by some landlords when they decide if they're going to rent out their flat to you.
I am living in Denmark at the moment and I don't think I will ever see my home city in the US the same after experiencing a walkable city in a more suburban setting on the island of Zealand. I feel like this is how it's supposed to be and I'll never understand why American developers always have to take cars into account for every little decision.
They tried to “fight” communism with Suburbia (nuclear weapons less effective when you have low density). So because of Cold War the US has mutilated all its cities and turned its population into humanoid pigs.
erika, can i suggest you see the world beyond europe? there are many other countries/humans with interesting culture, cuisine, architecture, nature, etc. all the best.
About the the part of fastfood, grocery stores and surroundings. In Netherlands, “almost” all cities have allot of chain grocery stores in the suburbs and the city center. Its mostly (depending where you live) a 4-7 minute bike ride or car ride. But the fastfood chains are mostly in these places in Netherlands. City center, side of a highway or in mostly in industrial terrains or near it alongside some bigbox stores which are so far away from the city. Thats the reason why most people here go to grocery stores. Even schools mostly have a grocery store very near the campus or school. And when its lunchtime almost 3/4 of the whole school goes there for a nice bun and some drink. Im not kidding, there even is a meme about the common meal most students take. Its the Frikandelbroodje with a Energydrink. Dutch people know.
And when it comes to groceries in the US, you save money by buying in bulk. Why buy one item for $6 when you can buy 3 for $10? Just put the extra in your freezer. Some people in more rural/suburban areas that have the space will have an extra fridge/freezer in their basement or garage for this exact reason. And when it comes to big portion sizes at restaurants, it's very common for people to take what they didn't eat back home with them for a lunch the next day. Large portion sizes at American restaurants doesn't mean that they eat all of it there or leave it and waste it. Though that does happen. But it isn't out of the norm to request a container to take what you didn't eat back home.
I live in a small walkable town and things are pretty good. America does have Suburbs but you don't have to live in them if you don't want to. There are so many Cities and towns that are walkable especially in the Northeast and Midwest.
The tie really worked. I enjoy listening to your look on things every time. The city reviews are also great. Keep it up, as long as you enjoy it. Please ❤
In Australia we go one step further on the "how are you" thing. A common greeting is "Hey, how's it going?" and half the time the other person doesn't even say "good" they'll just say "how's it going?" back. Strange if I think about it, but it's pretty much just like saying hello.
German here - I remember it well. My first time at a supermarket and the cashier asked me. I thought, how nice, she must know that I'm a tourist, so I told her my whole day of expierences and adventures. GOSH - the poor woman. Looking back - it's funny... and I still feel a bit sorry for the cashier. Stay safe!
I think Americans have these large jugs because of suburban city design, where you have to drive about a hour to get to supermarket. So Americans have to buy food for a week or more, and that's why big packages quite useful for them.
In Germany I have to buy food everyday because the fridges are so small you can’t fit more than 3 days worth of food in it. For a family of six, you need at least 3 fridges, unlike in the U.S. you can make it with just one fridge.
@@alpharius_nox BS du kannst american sized Kühlschränke hier kaufen. Kühltruhen auch. Wir hatten vor 50 Jahren schon eine Kühltruhe, wo 2 Schweine reinpassten!
I'm from the US, I've had a few times where things were just terrible for me or someone else and when we simply said "How are you?" The person having a genuinely bad time gave a truthful answer. Same when things were great.
America is on one of the top countries in CO2 emission with 14.4 metric ton CO2 per capita per year, the world average is only 4.66. the same goes for wastage and many things
Stumbled over your video. What a lot of fun to watch. All points are spot on. I am from Germany, but a US citizen, living on both sides of the Atlantic in equal years. To this day, I do not understand why people would want to get out the house, drive to a restaurant, wait in line at a drive through, get the food and either eat it in the car and drive home, or, drive home and eat there....food is cold till then, of course. BTW, there are about 200,000 fast food restaurants in the US. Still way to many;-)
I will say as an American living in Europe, celsius is more logical on paper, but day to day, it's actually easier to use fahrenheit. You can think in blocks of 10, and you can dial down to much greater specificity. It's less logical, but since 90% of the time you're measuring air temperature, boiling being 100 is rarely helpful. I think what a good compromise would be is freezing at 0, and boiling at 200. 0 to 100 is just craming together too fast. It feels like temps in Europe basically become a vague approximation, because the change from 1 degree to next is so drastic and no one uses the decimals.
Maybe you are used to it, so it'smore comfortable? I know when it's close to zero its freezing and might be snowy. There is real frost and snow stays on the street under zero. And if it's more than 30 its hot. Over 40 is super hot (but probably in Europe only Andalusians have it every summer?). There is not so much difference between 19 or 21 grad of Celcius for me, maybe only of its -1 and +1?
@helgaserge7152 see, that's what I mean. "Not much difference between" you get used to just thinking vaguely about temps in C. In F we get used to being really able to dial in the temp. I've had legitimate arguments over setting the thermostat to 72 instead of 71. (22.22 vs 21.66) Because we know what that difference feels like. In C it's all just sort of vague feeling. And you can generalize sure. But it's easier to do 60s, 70s, 80s. Blocks of 10 degrees is just easier to think about, that's the very thing usually metric is better at So you lose specificity and then even when you generalize, you can't do it in 10s like with F. Like I said. Fahrenheit is definitely flawed when it comes to science, for sure. And freeze point being 32 is very confusing when talking winter temps. But aside from that, honestly, I really miss it The rest of imperial I don't miss at all
"moving out" at 18 is more related to college. not many kids go to college within driving distance. when you go home for the holidays, your childhood home is not quite your home anymore as you expand your view of the world. it feels different. Also, when you move out for college, good chance you'll find employment not near your childhood home. hence you move out. as for onions, point a fan(like those little battery powered ones) to blow over your onion while cutting, and have that pushed air going to the extractor. it'll keep the lachrymatory agents from getting into your eyes. or point the wind toward your partner and laugh like doctor evil.
Hi Erika, found your channel over an American commenting one of your videos (Europe explained to Americans) and your humor was refreshing. BUT you totally got me mentioning Italian Americans. That was hilarious. I'm Spanish... living in Germany or like I use to say I'm a Spanish German... wait, does that make me a Sperman? 🤔😳
Hello Erika. Your channel is very creative, entertaining to watch, and honestly feels like a breath of fresh air. Genuine, if I'm am to find a right word.
Note about the parking - the parking spots are not properly distributed even a little, so a walmart out in the middle of nowhere will have like 100 parking spots and 20-50 cars maximum at a time. Meanwhile there is very limited parking in the city and you have to pay extreme prices that fluctuate based on the day, the time, if its raining, if theres a concert within 5 miles, etc. we had to pay upwards of 100$ for concert parking about a month ago. That was the most extreme but it doesn't get cheaper than like 15$ in my nearest city.
Ok I also don’t get the paper plate / plastic cup thing😭I’m American but I always try my best to not use plastic and I hate seeing other people constantly use plastic
I really like your video. I find it insightful and it is presented in an interesting way. I like your English accent, it is clean and easy to listen to. All together I find it delightful to sit through the whole video.
The moving out thing is in the past because the economic situation and rent. Everyone I know was pushed out of Boston. I was able to find a 1400 studio with a lot of difficulty in 2017. And you need 4x rent to move in. Now you can not find a studio apt at all for less than 1900. Everyone is scattered around the country trying to figure it out.
I live in Maine (not the French one) and I have a good friend in Nantes that I went to visit about half a year back. I’m only 18 and was sort of thrust into the American grindset so when I visited France, I’ve began to really consider getting out of what I believe to be a capitalistic nightmare and found your channel while doing research. I’m very happy I did so, your videos are very charming and give what I think to be well rounded information based on your experience. I’ve been very carefully considering where I might want to go and plan to visit many parts of Europe during the end of the summer to get a feel for a few different places and kind of gauging them based on my personal preferences. I plan to get info from other sources as well of course, ideally from people who live in the places I am interested in and I look forward to my eventual new life in Europe, and getting settled in thanks to my mother for allowing me to be eligible for polish citizenship. I appreciate your videos and wish you the best going forward!
Fahrenheit is a superior system to Celsius, & Celsius is not more precise; Fahrenheit actually is more precise because there's more degrees, thus making it more descriptive. Most people use temperature to check the weather or set the A/C for a building, that is the most common reason temperature is gauged. This is why Fahrenheit is better because as an American who's not familiar w Celsius calculations, if I go to Europe & they say it's going to be 25 degrees I have no way of picturing how that's going to feel. If someone comes to America for the 1st time & u tell them Fahrenheit temperature is on a 0-100 scale, 0 being very cold & 100 being very hot, they can easily understand what 50, 75, 85 degrees is going to feel like even if they've never used Fahrenheit in their life. The only thing Celsius has going for it is that it's "pleasing" or "clean" that water boils (roughly depending on sea level) @ 100 degrees & it freezes @ 0. But when u boil water, u just put the burner on high & let the water boil, you don't check the temperature. & as it pertains to freezing, everyone who's born in America knows water freezes @ 32 degrees Fahrenheit, so what's the difference between knowing it's 0 or 32? I'd rather have the more practical system that accurately depicts the temperature on a 0-100 scale & is more precise. If I have my A/C set @ 71 degrees Fahrenheit, a foreigner would have to set theirs to 21.6 Celsius to match it; way more complicated & unncessary imo
what is cold and what is extreamly hot??? farnhaits are only for stupid americans, nobody else in the whole world wants to deal with this stupit scale.
You are right in the sense that celcius is not more precise then Fahrenheit. Its just that Celcius is more practical in every single way as it fits into all the physics. But we should still use metric only as imperial is basicly useless when it comes to science
Eating fastfood in your car is just the way to go in American suburbia. Even if you want to walk inside and order your food, it's still faster to go through the drive-thru because every fastfood place prioritizes the drive-thru over walk-ins. If you go inside a fastfood restaurant with the intention of sitting down and eating your meal, you can easily wait 2 or 3 times longer than if you went through the drive-thru. I grew up a very walkable city and wasn't used to this when I was in a very suburban university. So what I did was order through the drive-thru and then park my car and then go inside to eat. I timed it, and it was significantly faster than if I ordered inside in the first place.
21:17 I think the idea is to go to the supermarket for a week at a time, and arrive there after eating, so you don't waste part of that week's provision on sweets or unhealthy stuff.
American here! Got me cracking up over here 🤣 Also the salads you’ve mentioned is mostly a Minnesota/Wisconsin thing. I’m from the South and I’ve never tried any of those dishes. 😅
hello Erika, some background on those salads. To sell more product, companies in the 50s-70s would often have recipes on them using their product as one of the main ingredients. Americans have always been big on deserts and when one had friends over and a 'salad' was proffered, one's popularity would skyrocket. my mother never made such things, which might explain my introversion, dunno. I live in a very big city in a very big state and we have side walks and I could walk to a grocery store, which might take 30 minutes because there is no way to get through certain parts of the neighbourhood because it was built for people who drive cars. but when it gets to be 41C here in the summer, no one walks. we have a surface train, SBahn like, but it only goes a few miles north and south, so very few people take it. I lived in DC for a while and there the train sounds like Deutsche Bahn, single-tracking, tardy due to snow, same deal. I lived in Asia for a while and did not have a car, only public transportation, it was wonderful, the envy of the developed world. I have an electric car, but I would trade the payments and insurance in a second to be another passenger on the train and why did that guy just bump into me and WHERE IS MY WALLET? you take the good with the bad.
Probably the best way to think about the USA is that basically nobody's life is the same, whatsoever. It's way too diverse and states/cities all have different laws to say anything for certain. I would say many people's lives are similar in many ways, but you have millions of others who are not at all similar. For example, if you get good health insurance in a large metropolitan area, it's likely you're going to be getting the best care from the best providers, possibly in the world. Many people have to pay nothing to get excellent health insurance. Others have to pay hundreds of thousands in medical bills. It's very confusing. Sick time is the same - some jobs will be extremely understanding and let you go for months on end. Many others will treat you as expendable and fire you for taking too much sick time. And different states have different rules. There are absolutely smaller supermarkets, but the ones you see highlighted in videos are the biggest ones. Also, there are many smaller, older cities across the US that are pretty walkable. The newer neighborhoods, by and large, are as you see in the picture. Pretty sad. In European countries, like Nederland, you do essentially have a hidden credit scores when making home purchases - at the end of the day, there is not a tremendous amount of difference between credit scores and the credit system of these countries. But yes, I would say the biggest mistake most Europeans make is to think that American life is similar enough to generalize. But, it very much is mind-numbingly diverse, from region to region, state to state. Tipping and massive gaps in bathroom stalls, however, are truly universal in the US.
I'm in California so we're a weird. But parts of the US have paid sick days some do have requirements its just done state to state or even city to city depending of the state like California. Jobs are required to have paid vacation time in California as well.
14:49 I forget which country it was, but in some countries, a public bathroom will actually have ultra violet light so you can't see your veins. Denmark, or parts of? Netherlands? Belgium? Not sure. Can't recall that from last year, but I think I can recall it from 2004.
When I go out and the bill is anywhere up to around $30, I try to tip close to half. If the bill is around $100 or more, I usually try to tip $20-$40. It means I don't go out to eat as much, but food service workers are some of the hardest workers and deserve every penny.
No they deserve being paid a livable wage from their employers, just like every other country does. But that will never happen because the employers and the government know y’all will continue to foot the bill that they should be paying. That’s the difference. It will NEVER change if you keep paying it.
@@NomadicIslanders They do deserve to be paid a liveable wage, I completely agree with that. The impetus shouldn't be on the costumer to make up for the employer shafting them, I fully agree with you there. I definitely don't think skipping out on tipping would foment any meaningful change other than less pay for food service workers. Employers and the gov't don't give a shit whether costumers tip or not and I highly doubt they'd see a shortage in tipping as an act of protest. I'd much rather the gov't admit the system is broken and just mandate employers to pay them a fair wage, but I doubt that'll happen any time soon.
Witty as ever, Erika! I use WhatsApp here all of the time, and I remember eating Mars bars as a kid. But I completely agree with everything you said. The waste here is horrible, so much plastic that it makes me lose my mind. The healthcare situation is a mess, and the automobile and oil companies rule this country making it nearly impossible not to be car dependent. Tipping in this country has gotten out of control. Workers deserve to make a real wage, and the customers should not be responsible for paying their salaries. I truly believe that, although many Americans love to say that we live in the greatest country in the world, most of us live in a constant state of anxiety and frustration. (many without even realizing it) It's a sad and unhealthy situation. I'm in the process of (hopefully) obtaining dual citizenship with Italy, and I plan to move to the EU soon. For now though, I'll just enjoy your insights and humor! Oh, and like you, if sweets are in my house, they call to me from the cabinets and I have no way of resisting! 😁🍬🍫
It's funny how much of the stuff you talked about is a direct result of car culture tbh. Like the drinking age, is because it is much more of a necessity for people to own and drive a car here than in Europe, and so drunk driving is a lot more of a public danger. There was some research that younger people especially are likely to get into severe accidents while drunk than older people, so there was a big lobbying push where the federal government basically twisted the states' arms into raising the drinking age to 21, by threatening to withhold federal transportation funds if they didn't. (The federal gov actually can't force states directly to set their drinking age) Similar thing with obesity rate, since cars mean people aren't forced to walk to and from school/work as much, people get less physical activity as part of their daily routine. If you look at the bigger cities like New York and Chicago which have decent public transportation systems, the obesity rate is actually much closer to the rates in most of Europe.
The tipping in Europe is not like in %. You tip what you what and when you want. Like in a café you round up tho the next € or give 1€ when the service was nice. When you are eating out somwhere and have a 200€ meal and everything was great you leave like 5 or 10€ but not tip or 2€ are also ok.
US cities were not build for cars they were once walkable cities with public transit then bulldozed for cars, and after that , it escalated to suburb without sidewalks. in usa the main culture was build on puritanic conservative culture and toilette stalls with big gaps should prevent using it for sexual activities, prostitution, drug selling and or use, or even sleep bc housing is not much supported from gov. the public space, third places are harder to find, parks and malls are having a lot of regulations, so people went to toilette stalls thinking they could get away from what they want to do. student dormitories in universities are usually hosting two students per room, same reason, its social controll, puritanic culture, avoiding to use the dormitory room for sexual activity or whatever. they try to sell it as "learning to socialize and get to know other people, learn to share" but that is just an excuse. onions come naturally in various sizes , without additional hormones, same goes for fruits and vegetables but of course the culture of cultivating them for hundreds of years, changes them and adding growth hormones illegal can add to it. if businesses can not afford to pay their workers, they should not open restaurants or other places. its just an excuse for bosses to exploit worker and avoid a good wage.
There are a few reasons for the portion sizes. One being that the US has a huge left over culture. We eat some at the restaurant and then take the rest home for later. Also the portions stay that big because alot of people have been trained to eat that way unfortunately. People continue to eat large amounts so the resturants keep seving the big sizes. Its one of the hardest things to unlearn when trying to get healthy. I hope that helps you understand us in the US a little more. ❤
Many years ago the Three Musketeers bar was segmented into three parts, which you could break apart. Each part was a different flavor of insides: vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. You could swap out the parts with your pals. How many years ago? At least 60. I am very old, and enjoyed that candy a lot.
1:55: it does not stop with the "3 musketeers": in Europe there was a "Musketier" candy, made from three braided strings of caramel, covered with chocolate. And again this was similar to "Curly wurly" or "Leckerschmecker" .. And Twix was Raider ... but this is a different story... ;-)
(Former) American living in Basel, Switzerland. I love your videos. They are so Erika. That's good. Sorry about DB. Swiss trains run on time. You forgot to mention guns. Maybe you understand guns in America?
the reason america used the imperial units of measure is, historically, Americans saw themselves as an extension of the English people, with the American revolution being a break away from the English crown rather than English people. As for the continuation of this system, the US has been the largest power in it's region, has been less reliant on foreign imports than other countries and it's largest trading partners have been the UK and Canada, so shifting customary units hasnt been necessary.
I'm from the UK living in America, I feel like after moving here these questions just raise more questions than answers. This place confuses me in too many ways
Celsius is great if you want to know how close something is to freezing or boiling. But Fahrenheit really is a lot better for weather measurement for the general public at least. 0 degrees is a very cold day. 100 degrees is a very hot day. It makes more sense for that. I don't know what you mean by "more precise" they have the same amount of precision. They are numbers. Fahrenheit has a larger range of numbers for the same temperature scale in terms of whole numbers. But given decimal points it doesn't really matter that much.
@@ABa-os6wm When drinking and driving first started becoming illegal, a lot of Americans found this to be an infringement on their freedoms. Same thing for seatbelt mandates. I love watching old local news footage sometimes.
I live in America im not sure if the fast food stats are true but the grocery store stats are probably true if it doesn't count Dollar General (and it shouldn't in my opinion) a lot of rural towns near me only have a Dollar General and no grocery store at all.
In city centres within Europe, it's better to just book parking a few days before if you plan to go to an event right in the centre, then you don't have to worry about parking and you know what walking distance to expect.
@@arnodobler1096I regularly go to a town near me for work, but the buses take a while to arrive and is overall annoying, therefore I drive there instead, which means that it's stupid to not make the most of my car by driving to the city centre.
31:28 in India also lenders do check the borrower's credit score the better it is the better deal you will get in terms of interest rate, duration etc.
The drinking age is steeped in American culture. Note that our driving age starts younger, 16, to enable children to work on the farms. Also, because of some protestant religions believing that alcohol should be banned, it was first at a minimum age of 18 before being increased to 21. As if that wasn't bad enough, there was at one time the 18th Amendment which prohibited all alcohol. In a few years, crime actually increased due to the bootlegging and was eventually repealed by the 21st Amendment.
The Drinking Age was NOT due to any religion. It was mutually agreed that TEEN AGERS AREN'T MATURE ENOUGH TO BE RESPONSIBILE DRINKERS. THEY PROVED THAT CORRECT, with numerous drunk driving deaths, hence the age was increased to 21. The famous Sufferagette: Susan B. Anthony, WAS AN ABOLITIONIST FIRST. NOT BECAUSE OF HER RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, BUT BECAUSE SHE WAS TIRED OF SEEING WOMEN AND CHILDREN STARVE, BECAUSE THE PROVIDER OF THE FAMILY GOT OFF WORK, AND WENT STRAIGHT TO THE BAR. She tried for years, working with other charity organizations to get MEN SOBER, so they could provide for their families. She later faught for Women's RIGHT TO WORK, as well as the right to Vote, so a Mother could support herself and her children, when her husband would wallow in his booze at the bar. ALCOHOLISM FUELED THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT; RELIGION WAS JUST AN EXCUSE.
@@arnodobler1096 Exactly, just one of the many things he fucked up. The best was of course that he made you believe that its good to give all your money to the rich so they could care better about the poor 🤣
@@beldin2987 Teen drinking is the number one cause for teenage deaths in the U.S and still is even after raising the age to 21. What exactly is "good" about lowering back down so it's easier to access?
Quick search says about 202,000 fast food restaurants in US. Not verified but probably a little closer. I live about 20 min walk to grocery store but I have to cross at a huge intersection twice (I’m on SE corner, store is on NW corner of six lane intersection.) so the heavy traffic dissuades people from going by bike or on foot.
19:20 On average, onions are like this in America (All the continent). Here in Colombia, carrots, onions of all kinds, bananas, potatoes and others tend to have a larger size and greater potency in their flavor. Thankful for that, really
Sveiki! You are really straightforward, and that's fun and nice to me. Ma olen pärit Argentiina, aga ma elad Eestis praegu (I am learning Estonian, ma ei raagi vaga hasti veel, vabandust). So yes, I know where your country is located and part of your history as well, because i've learning about it a lot by myself. Once I made the Valga-Valka cross on foot, and spent a day in that little city of Latvia. I hope to know Riga soon, and other parts as well... any advice please? :) Paldies, sveicieni!!
The US does not use imperial, they use US Customary Units which are based on Imperial but differ on liquid volumetric measurements. A US pint is not the same as an Imperial pint for example
"Sure, we obey" would have only ever been uttered in prehistoric times, and by prehistoric I mean before July 4, 1776. Edit: Also, according to Statista there were 198,000 fast food restaurants in the US as of 2022.
As of the latest data, there are approximately 200,000 fast food restaurants in the United States. The number of grocery stores is around 40,000. Fast Food Restaurants US: Approximately 0.000604 per capita (1 fast food restaurant per 1,655 people) Europe: Approximately 0.000201 per capita (1 fast food restaurant per 4,986 people) Grocery Stores US: Approximately 0.000121 per capita (1 grocery store per 8,275 people) Europe: Approximately 0.000134 per capita (1 grocery store per 7,437 people)
Well, we are following you since a while and I would say that apart the obvious unearthly Baltic beauty and the less obvious very engaging sympathy, the videos are well made, scientifically sort of. Let's say everything exudes CLEVERNESS. Our sincere appreciation! great job!
About the wastefulness of disposable cups and plates. There was a study that compared paper cups with mugs, and found the differences were negligible. If you don't wash your mug that often, or not at all, then the mug is better, but even then the production of the mug is very energy costly so you need to use each mug for years before it becomes comparable to paper cups. Plastic cups is obviously a different beast. You also need to dispose of the paper cup properly and not throw it in the general waste. I am sick with cfs/me and at my sickest it became impossible for me to do the dishes, so I was forced to switch to disposable. Luckily the EU enforced rules reducing plastic disposable utensils and cups so I got less of a guilt trip after that, but after learning that as long as I dispose of it in a good way it's comparable to ceramics and steel in terms of environmental impact, I didn't bother switching back. If I ever get a girlfriend I'm gonna have a real problem, but, I'd also have a problem with disgusting week-long dishes in my sink.
Oh dear, I’m British living in Germany and I say “how are you” as a greeting and every day am surprised when I get a sincere answer. It’s just so hard to stop but after seeing this, I will try to just say “hello”.
(Also I’m a big fan of your channel)
Well, you ask a question we give the answer 😅
In English language classes, we were taught that "How are you?" is not a real question, but it's not within our habit to treat it like that. Cause u never know who and why is asking 👀 Maybe they really wanna know about my cat eating my yoghurt this morning
Actually some Europeans (me, German 29, included) also use phrases like that. "Was geht?" ("What's up?") is my favorite here. It has a double meaning I think. It combines the rhetorical "How are you" with an expression of surprise (a second meaning of "Was geht?"). To emphasize the surprising expression, you can put the "Was geht?" first and change the intonation. At least that's how my peer group uses that. If someone actually asks me "Wie geht's?" ("how are you?") while passing me, that also confuses me tbh.
The Irish version is "How are you keepin'?".
In every European country I visited I got weird stares for saying hello to strangers💀
@@germporeor what s the crack
The car dependency aspect is sooo true. I’m an American who spent around 2 ish years total in Europe (time in Slovakia and moved to Edinburgh, Scotland for school at 18). The culture shock of even small quaint towns in SK having little city centers and being so walkable was sooo freeing to me coming from the US south. I came back to the states to finish school bc of COVID and going back to an environment where I had to drive to literally anything was beyond depressing. I yearned for the European walkability so bad that I convinced my bf to move to Chicago with me last year. I am 100x happier here! my car in Kentucky was costing me $800 / month between car payments and insurance. Here I pay like $75 per month for an unlimited train + bus pass and my quality of life is sooo much better. Being able to walk to anything I need is something I’ll never sacrifice ever again. I don’t think I could live anywhere in the US other than Chicago or NYC because I refuse to be stuck in car culture again.
anywho, I loved your video and how you explore quirky things about my country without being condescending like a lot of Europeans on tiktok tend to be. I’m hosting my European friends in September for 2 weeks and it will be their first time here and I’m so excited to see their real time culture shocks lol
Because have you seen how huge America is compared to Slovakia? There’s way more space. We’re not all living on top of each other like in Germany. If you’re a city dweller and don’t desire to do anything outside of a city, you can walk everywhere, but most Americans like to travel around the country, to the next town, or explore different places in their own states that are very distant from each other because of geography, it’s not a car “culture”, not sure what that means.
@@alpharius_nox fun fact..23% of grown Americans has never even left their state where there born so "travel the country" statement is kind of..wrong =)
@@nattm6553 I know you’re just trolling me right? 23%? That means most do leave their states …
Population density and geography have a lot to do with the use of cars in America. There’s no conspiracy, no lack of government enforcement or encouragement that needs to happen, there’s no cultural deficiency or anything else, it’s pragmatic.
If I live in a town with less than 1000 people and the nearest town is 30 minutes away, of course I’m going to drive.
@@alpharius_nox Why, exactly, are you trying to mansplain American culture to me, an American?
you know Europe as a continent is also huge, right? Yet most of their cities are walkable and interconnected by rapid transit. The size of the US doesn’t matter when talking about individual cities. Individual cities should be walkable and transit oriented, in addition to people being able to drive if they feel like it. Trust me my guy, I’ve traveled all over the country in my car and have done multiple 12+ hour road trips. I still love a good road trip. Do you think that Europe doesn’t have highways and cars? You’d be wrong. Walkable cities aren’t a threat to you wanting to travel around the country or live in a rural place with your car. Nobody is trying to take your cars away.
Also, the US quite literally is a car culture. When I go back to my home state, everyone has a car, anything you have / want to do has to be done with a car. Even in the big cities there, a car is a necessity. Which is absolutely ridiculous. Being in a walkable city has greatly improved my mental health and lifestyle. Maybe you should try getting out of the US & your little bubble and see how good others have it…..
@@josiahholsomback7507 I live in Germany.
I feel like I need to mansplain to you since understanding things like population density and geography seems to be beyond your abilities.
Consider this, how much do you think the extremely high cost of gas/oil and the amount of taxes you have to pay on vehicles play a role in this lack of “car culture” you see in Europe?
I’ll give you a good example, I was up in Norway a few months ago, and I noticed that many Norwegians drive SUVs with the rear seats removed. When I asked one of my Norwegian friends why this was, he explained that there is a tax in Norway for your car based on the number of people it can hold. So a car that would normally cost 40,000, would be 80,000 Euro if they didn’t take the seats out when registering the car. Norwegians have it so good they can’t even afford an SUV with more than two seats.
Not sure what this “car culture” people keep referencing, I’m assuming it’s some climate zealot phrase to add negative connotations to anything that Americans do that goes against the prevailing wisdom of the technocrats that want to control everything we do. In my day, “car culture” meant a bunch of people who liked the mechanical nature of automobiles, the type of people who built cars, raced cars, and knew everything about cars because they had a passion for it.
My grandmother that owns a pinto just so she can go to church on Sunday is not part of some “car culture”.
The increase in quality of editing and humor !! Love it !! Great work !
Our food in supermarkets are so big because we usually only go shopping once a week, this is because grocery stores are not in walking distance so it’s a bit of a trip to go and get stuff so we stock up
Going anywhere without a car in America is extremely difficult. I am a runner and often the only place to walk, bike, or run from one place to the next is literally the road with cars driving 70mph on it. Some people will actually try to run you over aggressively because they are mad if they have to slow down to pass you. But the road is almost always the only option of going anywhere in the country. If you don’t have a car or can’t drive, there is no other option available to you. I really hate it even though I grew up here in the U.S. I wish we had trains like in Europe, or even better, a path to walk/run/bike on because that would be great.
The "how are you" thing is much more widespread to more cultures than just the US. It seems to be something especially designed to trip up german speakers. It happens with my Turkish friends as well. I always try to answer honestly and ask them back which is when I remember it's just part of the greeting.
We say it in spanish too. At least in south america.
Same in Norway.
Or more literally translated we say: "How's it going?"
American here! My home I grew up in, in Tennessee, had no sidewalks, but I walked in the road and got over when cars were coming. My school was a block away, but the principal didn’t want me walking to school, because no sidewalks. The closest grocery store was 5 miles away. Non-existent public transportation, so very car-dependent.
I’ve been able to live and travel around a lot, so I know this isn’t a universal American experience, but my goodness, do I see the same thing all over the place. In the middle of a bigger city now and still find myself being car dependent.
Huge fan of public transportation. Love trains. Dublin and Amsterdam, and to a lesser extent, Seattle and Chicago really spoiled me on trains and now I just don’t get why we don’t have trains all the time everywhere else too. Loved the video Erika!
Opposite here in NYC (want to visit Tennessee one day in the near future)
Here in Colorado got grocery store 6 short blocks away!!! And other stores
American here - we don't just eat in our cars outside the restaurant we are always on the go so we might have to feed the family dinner at the drive-thru on our way to some event. This is really common when you have children in after school activities.
The portion sizes are to emotionally compensate people on the loosing side of the wealth divide. It makes poor people feel like they are getting more for less. Generally you find these giant portion sizes at fast food restaurants that use processed foods to cut corners. Four words, High Glucose corn syrup. It is the byproduct of corn farming, Your body can not actually process it, And it is filler for these large capacity low budget sodas.
The urban sprawl is a big part of the reason of why I'm leaving the US. I've had too many close calls in vehicles and have sunk tens of thousands of dollars into them just to have a way to get around. I much prefer just walking or taking the train, tram, or bus, but those are only an option in very few places in the US (and they are usually absurdly expensive and might not be the safest places to live).
If you don’t like urban sprawls, don’t move to Germany:
the population density of the United States is approximately 36.4 people per square kilometer (94.2 people per square mile), while the population density of Germany is approximately 237.016 people per square kilometer (614.6 people per square mile).
^^ that guy clearly has no idea what the term urban sprawl means lmaoooo
@@josiahholsomback7507 In other words, for those without reasoning skills, Germany is one big Urban Sprawl.
@@alpharius_nox you know Urban Sprawl refers to cities with LOW population density, right? OP is condemning how sparsely populated our cities are. Densely populated cities are more walkable, have more transit, and better community. Cities like Austin have huge amounts of urban sprawl and are basically a giant lifeless suburb.
@@josiahholsomback7507 Germany the country has a higher density, not just the cities, that means there are more ubran sprawls, in fact, Germany is basically one giant urban sprawl, with some nice scenery a few kilometerrs between each city, unless you go to Bayern or Northern parts of Germany. Yes, the densly populated cities have good public transport, but there are too many other negative aspects of German society that I cannot recommend moving here to anyone at all, especially not just to come here for “walkable” cities, pfffk.
i live in a big city in the US, not far from downtown at all, but it’s so unwalkable. our neighborhood does have sidewalks but the only think i could walk to in 20 minutes is the library. you also have to cross some dangerous roads to get there. the grocery store is a 42 minute walk away, or you could take the bus for 25 min (which comes rarely) or drive for 7 minutes.
not to mention that this close grocery store is dangerous so we don’t even go to it. even though we live in a very nice neighborhood, there are shootings multiple times a month in the area :(
@@elizabetht308Have you ever thought about living in another country?
unless you live in like a dense urban area, or near a city or town center, pretty much nothing is walkable
And even then its like "walkable"
Denver has decent bus service
Supermarkets - when I was in Germany, I totally fell in love with REWE. Brimming over with the kind of wonderful chocolates and delicious cheeses and delicatessen that we would have to pay premium for in the USA, but inexpensive in Germany.
having had lived in a large town in alabama with no sidewalks before moving to a very walkable city in the UK with great public transit, I can tell you its absolutely miserable having to drive what is physically a 4 min walk but because of road heirarchy is impossible.
Drinking is more dangerous when everyone has a gun ...
.. I guess.
Watch Yet Another Urbanist on drunk driving. Because of the city design forcing many Americans to drive there's too much killing people with drunk driving and motor accidents. There isn't enough of a option to walk, bike, or take transit home from a bar.
The mindset is often to put the responsibility on the individual to not drink and drive rather than change the infrastructure.
Many American news headlines and articles victim blame pedestrians and cyclists for getting hit or killed by cars too rather than talk about the road design. Those pedestrians are called jaywalker. Jay means stupid.
They sometimes are biased for drivers and make the excuse that "the drivers couldn't see the pedestrians or cyclists". Or say "cyclists shouldn't be on the road so it was their fault". Even tho there isn't enough bike lanes and sidewalks everywhere. Including not enough transit too.
There not being enough sidewalks has also caused some pedestrians to have to walk on the edge of the road and has caused cops to handcuff them.
Flurfdesign talked about how a bus driver had to block drivers to protect kids cause they even wouldn't stop for kids to cross the street.
Watch Not Just Bikes and About Here.
If you have a detached home in the Midwest, it may be appropriate to have a gun in the house. But anyone who believes they can keep young people away from drinking or drugs is a dreamer or a malicious demagogue.
If everyone has a gun, it means you also have a gun. criminals are cowards, if a restaurant was filled with gun owners do you think some criminal could carelessly wave a gun to rob them without fearing getting popped in the head?
the alcohol thing you have to blame puritan women from back in the day.
Not everyone in America has a gun
not really most deaths are from drunk driving when it comes to being intoxicated but telling from ur pfp and the fact ur german probably means that you don't have the brain compacity to actually do any research and you just go off whatever tik tok tell you
On credit scores: I Germany we have the Schufa-score, which is pretty similar. It's made by this private company that uses secret algorithms to assign you a score based on credit history, amount of bank accounts, how likely you are to change into a wolf at full moon, etc.
So all in all very dubious and annoying. Like, why are they exempt from so many privacy laws?
Anyways it's used by banks to decide if they give you a loan or credit card and even by some landlords when they decide if they're going to rent out their flat to you.
8:46 surprisingly, in my experience, smaller and independent cafes typically are the ones with the ceramic cups and plates if you decide to stay
I am living in Denmark at the moment and I don't think I will ever see my home city in the US the same after experiencing a walkable city in a more suburban setting on the island of Zealand. I feel like this is how it's supposed to be and I'll never understand why American developers always have to take cars into account for every little decision.
They tried to “fight” communism with Suburbia (nuclear weapons less effective when you have low density). So because of Cold War the US has mutilated all its cities and turned its population into humanoid pigs.
Spot on! Couldn't stop smiling and laughing, you are so light and fresh😄
erika, can i suggest you see the world beyond europe? there are many other countries/humans with interesting culture, cuisine, architecture, nature, etc. all the best.
About the the part of fastfood, grocery stores and surroundings.
In Netherlands, “almost” all cities have allot of chain grocery stores in the suburbs and the city center. Its mostly (depending where you live) a 4-7 minute bike ride or car ride. But the fastfood chains are mostly in these places in Netherlands. City center, side of a highway or in mostly in industrial terrains or near it alongside some bigbox stores which are so far away from the city.
Thats the reason why most people here go to grocery stores. Even schools mostly have a grocery store very near the campus or school. And when its lunchtime almost 3/4 of the whole school goes there for a nice bun and some drink.
Im not kidding, there even is a meme about the common meal most students take. Its the Frikandelbroodje with a Energydrink.
Dutch people know.
And when it comes to groceries in the US, you save money by buying in bulk. Why buy one item for $6 when you can buy 3 for $10? Just put the extra in your freezer. Some people in more rural/suburban areas that have the space will have an extra fridge/freezer in their basement or garage for this exact reason. And when it comes to big portion sizes at restaurants, it's very common for people to take what they didn't eat back home with them for a lunch the next day. Large portion sizes at American restaurants doesn't mean that they eat all of it there or leave it and waste it. Though that does happen. But it isn't out of the norm to request a container to take what you didn't eat back home.
I for one do appreciate your videos Erika, and looking at the comments and statistics, I'm not the only one.
I live in a small walkable town and things are pretty good. America does have Suburbs but you don't have to live in them if you don't want to. There are so many Cities and towns that are walkable especially in the Northeast and Midwest.
Here in Arvada Colorado, a Denver Suburb, we can get around okay with public transport, although it could be better!!!...YES WE GET SICK DAYS
The tie really worked. I enjoy listening to your look on things every time. The city reviews are also great. Keep it up, as long as you enjoy it. Please ❤
This is the content I wanna see !
In Australia we go one step further on the "how are you" thing. A common greeting is "Hey, how's it going?" and half the time the other person doesn't even say "good" they'll just say "how's it going?" back. Strange if I think about it, but it's pretty much just like saying hello.
German here - I remember it well.
My first time at a supermarket and the cashier asked me. I thought, how nice, she must know that I'm a tourist, so I told her my whole day of expierences and adventures. GOSH - the poor woman.
Looking back - it's funny... and I still feel a bit sorry for the cashier.
Stay safe!
I think Americans have these large jugs because of suburban city design, where you have to drive about a hour to get to supermarket. So Americans have to buy food for a week or more, and that's why big packages quite useful for them.
In Germany I have to buy food everyday because the fridges are so small you can’t fit more than 3 days worth of food in it. For a family of six, you need at least 3 fridges, unlike in the U.S. you can make it with just one fridge.
@@alpharius_nox BS du kannst american sized Kühlschränke hier kaufen. Kühltruhen auch. Wir hatten vor 50 Jahren schon eine Kühltruhe, wo 2 Schweine reinpassten!
Yep
Thought you were referring to breast size initially... I was like "What is he on about?"
I'm from the US, I've had a few times where things were just terrible for me or someone else and when we simply said "How are you?" The person having a genuinely bad time gave a truthful answer. Same when things were great.
i googled the fast food restaurant number from the us and it seems to be around 204k so yea way less than expected but STILL A LOT
America is on one of the top countries in CO2 emission with 14.4 metric ton CO2 per capita per year, the world average is only 4.66. the same goes for wastage and many things
Stumbled over your video. What a lot of fun to watch. All points are spot on. I am from Germany, but a US citizen, living on both sides of the Atlantic in equal years. To this day, I do not understand why people would want to get out the house, drive to a restaurant, wait in line at a drive through, get the food and either eat it in the car and drive home, or, drive home and eat there....food is cold till then, of course. BTW, there are about 200,000 fast food restaurants in the US. Still way to many;-)
I will say as an American living in Europe, celsius is more logical on paper, but day to day, it's actually easier to use fahrenheit. You can think in blocks of 10, and you can dial down to much greater specificity.
It's less logical, but since 90% of the time you're measuring air temperature, boiling being 100 is rarely helpful.
I think what a good compromise would be is freezing at 0, and boiling at 200.
0 to 100 is just craming together too fast. It feels like temps in Europe basically become a vague approximation, because the change from 1 degree to next is so drastic and no one uses the decimals.
Maybe you are used to it, so it'smore comfortable? I know when it's close to zero its freezing and might be snowy. There is real frost and snow stays on the street under zero. And if it's more than 30 its hot. Over 40 is super hot (but probably in Europe only Andalusians have it every summer?). There is not so much difference between 19 or 21 grad of Celcius for me, maybe only of its -1 and +1?
@helgaserge7152 see, that's what I mean. "Not much difference between" you get used to just thinking vaguely about temps in C.
In F we get used to being really able to dial in the temp. I've had legitimate arguments over setting the thermostat to 72 instead of 71. (22.22 vs 21.66) Because we know what that difference feels like.
In C it's all just sort of vague feeling.
And you can generalize sure. But it's easier to do 60s, 70s, 80s. Blocks of 10 degrees is just easier to think about, that's the very thing usually metric is better at
So you lose specificity and then even when you generalize, you can't do it in 10s like with F.
Like I said. Fahrenheit is definitely flawed when it comes to science, for sure. And freeze point being 32 is very confusing when talking winter temps.
But aside from that, honestly, I really miss it
The rest of imperial I don't miss at all
Exactly
"moving out" at 18 is more related to college. not many kids go to college within driving distance. when you go home for the holidays, your childhood home is not quite your home anymore as you expand your view of the world. it feels different. Also, when you move out for college, good chance you'll find employment not near your childhood home. hence you move out.
as for onions, point a fan(like those little battery powered ones) to blow over your onion while cutting, and have that pushed air going to the extractor. it'll keep the lachrymatory agents from getting into your eyes. or point the wind toward your partner and laugh like doctor evil.
Hi Erika, found your channel over an American commenting one of your videos (Europe explained to Americans) and your humor was refreshing. BUT you totally got me mentioning Italian Americans. That was hilarious.
I'm Spanish... living in Germany or like I use to say I'm a Spanish German... wait, does that make me a Sperman? 🤔😳
Hello Erika. Your channel is very creative, entertaining to watch, and honestly feels like a breath of fresh air. Genuine, if I'm am to find a right word.
Note about the parking - the parking spots are not properly distributed even a little, so a walmart out in the middle of nowhere will have like 100 parking spots and 20-50 cars maximum at a time. Meanwhile there is very limited parking in the city and you have to pay extreme prices that fluctuate based on the day, the time, if its raining, if theres a concert within 5 miles, etc. we had to pay upwards of 100$ for concert parking about a month ago. That was the most extreme but it doesn't get cheaper than like 15$ in my nearest city.
Hope this goes as well as the Europe one did!!❤️
lmao enjoyed the 40min roast! love your videos and intellectual humor/banter keep up the good work 😂❤🙏
ものすごく共感しました。貴重な動画ありがとう。
Ok I also don’t get the paper plate / plastic cup thing😭I’m American but I always try my best to not use plastic and I hate seeing other people constantly use plastic
I really like your video. I find it insightful and it is presented in an interesting way. I like your English accent, it is clean and easy to listen to. All together I find it delightful to sit through the whole video.
The moving out thing is in the past because the economic situation and rent. Everyone I know was pushed out of Boston. I was able to find a 1400 studio with a lot of difficulty in 2017. And you need 4x rent to move in. Now you can not find a studio apt at all for less than 1900. Everyone is scattered around the country trying to figure it out.
as an american, my neighborhood is not walkable even in a pretty decent area 😭 i'm used to walking on the side of the road at this point
I live in Maine (not the French one) and I have a good friend in Nantes that I went to visit about half a year back. I’m only 18 and was sort of thrust into the American grindset so when I visited France, I’ve began to really consider getting out of what I believe to be a capitalistic nightmare and found your channel while doing research. I’m very happy I did so, your videos are very charming and give what I think to be well rounded information based on your experience. I’ve been very carefully considering where I might want to go and plan to visit many parts of Europe during the end of the summer to get a feel for a few different places and kind of gauging them based on my personal preferences. I plan to get info from other sources as well of course, ideally from people who live in the places I am interested in and I look forward to my eventual new life in Europe, and getting settled in thanks to my mother for allowing me to be eligible for polish citizenship. I appreciate your videos and wish you the best going forward!
French Maine doesn't exist anymore, for about 250 years now
I really love this content and its vibes
Fahrenheit is a superior system to Celsius, & Celsius is not more precise; Fahrenheit actually is more precise because there's more degrees, thus making it more descriptive.
Most people use temperature to check the weather or set the A/C for a building, that is the most common reason temperature is gauged. This is why Fahrenheit is better because as an American who's not familiar w Celsius calculations, if I go to Europe & they say it's going to be 25 degrees I have no way of picturing how that's going to feel. If someone comes to America for the 1st time & u tell them Fahrenheit temperature is on a 0-100 scale, 0 being very cold & 100 being very hot, they can easily understand what 50, 75, 85 degrees is going to feel like even if they've never used Fahrenheit in their life.
The only thing Celsius has going for it is that it's "pleasing" or "clean" that water boils (roughly depending on sea level) @ 100 degrees & it freezes @ 0. But when u boil water, u just put the burner on high & let the water boil, you don't check the temperature. & as it pertains to freezing, everyone who's born in America knows water freezes @ 32 degrees Fahrenheit, so what's the difference between knowing it's 0 or 32? I'd rather have the more practical system that accurately depicts the temperature on a 0-100 scale & is more precise. If I have my A/C set @ 71 degrees Fahrenheit, a foreigner would have to set theirs to 21.6 Celsius to match it; way more complicated & unncessary imo
what is cold and what is extreamly hot??? farnhaits are only for stupid americans, nobody else in the whole world wants to deal with this stupit scale.
You are right in the sense that celcius is not more precise then Fahrenheit.
Its just that Celcius is more practical in every single way as it fits into all the physics.
But we should still use metric only as imperial is basicly useless when it comes to science
I agree. Celsius is better used for scientific measurements and Fahrenheit is better for measuring the weather.
Eating fastfood in your car is just the way to go in American suburbia. Even if you want to walk inside and order your food, it's still faster to go through the drive-thru because every fastfood place prioritizes the drive-thru over walk-ins. If you go inside a fastfood restaurant with the intention of sitting down and eating your meal, you can easily wait 2 or 3 times longer than if you went through the drive-thru. I grew up a very walkable city and wasn't used to this when I was in a very suburban university. So what I did was order through the drive-thru and then park my car and then go inside to eat. I timed it, and it was significantly faster than if I ordered inside in the first place.
21:17 I think the idea is to go to the supermarket for a week at a time, and arrive there after eating, so you don't waste part of that week's provision on sweets or unhealthy stuff.
Love the tie and your content.
American here! Got me cracking up over here 🤣 Also the salads you’ve mentioned is mostly a Minnesota/Wisconsin thing. I’m from the South and I’ve never tried any of those dishes. 😅
No one small talks in a McDonalds in America just letting you know
i really like the vibe of your videos :) very entertaining
As an American, this was very funny and entertaining to watch!! Great job!
hello Erika, some background on those salads. To sell more product, companies in the 50s-70s would often have recipes on them using their product as one of the main ingredients. Americans have always been big on deserts and when one had friends over and a 'salad' was proffered, one's popularity would skyrocket. my mother never made such things, which might explain my introversion, dunno. I live in a very big city in a very big state and we have side walks and I could walk to a grocery store, which might take 30 minutes because there is no way to get through certain parts of the neighbourhood because it was built for people who drive cars. but when it gets to be 41C here in the summer, no one walks. we have a surface train, SBahn like, but it only goes a few miles north and south, so very few people take it. I lived in DC for a while and there the train sounds like Deutsche Bahn, single-tracking, tardy due to snow, same deal. I lived in Asia for a while and did not have a car, only public transportation, it was wonderful, the envy of the developed world. I have an electric car, but I would trade the payments and insurance in a second to be another passenger on the train and why did that guy just bump into me and WHERE IS MY WALLET? you take the good with the bad.
Probably the best way to think about the USA is that basically nobody's life is the same, whatsoever. It's way too diverse and states/cities all have different laws to say anything for certain. I would say many people's lives are similar in many ways, but you have millions of others who are not at all similar.
For example, if you get good health insurance in a large metropolitan area, it's likely you're going to be getting the best care from the best providers, possibly in the world. Many people have to pay nothing to get excellent health insurance. Others have to pay hundreds of thousands in medical bills. It's very confusing.
Sick time is the same - some jobs will be extremely understanding and let you go for months on end. Many others will treat you as expendable and fire you for taking too much sick time. And different states have different rules.
There are absolutely smaller supermarkets, but the ones you see highlighted in videos are the biggest ones.
Also, there are many smaller, older cities across the US that are pretty walkable. The newer neighborhoods, by and large, are as you see in the picture. Pretty sad.
In European countries, like Nederland, you do essentially have a hidden credit scores when making home purchases - at the end of the day, there is not a tremendous amount of difference between credit scores and the credit system of these countries.
But yes, I would say the biggest mistake most Europeans make is to think that American life is similar enough to generalize. But, it very much is mind-numbingly diverse, from region to region, state to state.
Tipping and massive gaps in bathroom stalls, however, are truly universal in the US.
Great answer. You seem dutch by your name but would be surprised if you weren't American because no foreigner seems to understand these contrasts.
I'm in California so we're a weird. But parts of the US have paid sick days some do have requirements its just done state to state or even city to city depending of the state like California.
Jobs are required to have paid vacation time in California as well.
Hello erika i have been watching you for such a long time and i absolutely love your vlogs and your personality keep making these videos ❤
14:49 I forget which country it was, but in some countries, a public bathroom will actually have ultra violet light so you can't see your veins.
Denmark, or parts of?
Netherlands? Belgium? Not sure.
Can't recall that from last year, but I think I can recall it from 2004.
I think you find that in a many places (German train stations or club bathrooms sometimes have that kind of light).
Great video, very entertaining!
YAYYYY NEW ERIKA VIDEO
When I go out and the bill is anywhere up to around $30, I try to tip close to half. If the bill is around $100 or more, I usually try to tip $20-$40. It means I don't go out to eat as much, but food service workers are some of the hardest workers and deserve every penny.
No they deserve being paid a livable wage from their employers, just like every other country does. But that will never happen because the employers and the government know y’all will continue to foot the bill that they should be paying. That’s the difference. It will NEVER change if you keep paying it.
@@NomadicIslanders They do deserve to be paid a liveable wage, I completely agree with that. The impetus shouldn't be on the costumer to make up for the employer shafting them, I fully agree with you there. I definitely don't think skipping out on tipping would foment any meaningful change other than less pay for food service workers. Employers and the gov't don't give a shit whether costumers tip or not and I highly doubt they'd see a shortage in tipping as an act of protest. I'd much rather the gov't admit the system is broken and just mandate employers to pay them a fair wage, but I doubt that'll happen any time soon.
Witty as ever, Erika! I use WhatsApp here all of the time, and I remember eating Mars bars as a kid. But I completely agree with everything you said. The waste here is horrible, so much plastic that it makes me lose my mind. The healthcare situation is a mess, and the automobile and oil companies rule this country making it nearly impossible not to be car dependent. Tipping in this country has gotten out of control. Workers deserve to make a real wage, and the customers should not be responsible for paying their salaries. I truly believe that, although many Americans love to say that we live in the greatest country in the world, most of us live in a constant state of anxiety and frustration. (many without even realizing it) It's a sad and unhealthy situation. I'm in the process of (hopefully) obtaining dual citizenship with Italy, and I plan to move to the EU soon. For now though, I'll just enjoy your insights and humor! Oh, and like you, if sweets are in my house, they call to me from the cabinets and I have no way of resisting! 😁🍬🍫
We have Mars Bars in the US
Your videos are such a pleasure to watch and goddammit you're looking so gorgeous
Your content is cool
It's funny how much of the stuff you talked about is a direct result of car culture tbh. Like the drinking age, is because it is much more of a necessity for people to own and drive a car here than in Europe, and so drunk driving is a lot more of a public danger. There was some research that younger people especially are likely to get into severe accidents while drunk than older people, so there was a big lobbying push where the federal government basically twisted the states' arms into raising the drinking age to 21, by threatening to withhold federal transportation funds if they didn't. (The federal gov actually can't force states directly to set their drinking age)
Similar thing with obesity rate, since cars mean people aren't forced to walk to and from school/work as much, people get less physical activity as part of their daily routine. If you look at the bigger cities like New York and Chicago which have decent public transportation systems, the obesity rate is actually much closer to the rates in most of Europe.
The tipping in Europe is not like in %. You tip what you what and when you want. Like in a café you round up tho the next € or give 1€ when the service was nice. When you are eating out somwhere and have a 200€ meal and everything was great you leave like 5 or 10€ but not tip or 2€ are also ok.
US cities were not build for cars they were once walkable cities with public transit then bulldozed for cars, and after that , it escalated to suburb without sidewalks.
in usa the main culture was build on puritanic conservative culture and toilette stalls with big gaps should prevent using it for sexual activities, prostitution, drug selling and or use, or even sleep bc housing is not much supported from gov. the public space, third places are harder to find, parks and malls are having a lot of regulations, so people went to toilette stalls thinking they could get away from what they want to do.
student dormitories in universities are usually hosting two students per room, same reason, its social controll, puritanic culture, avoiding to use the dormitory room for sexual activity or whatever. they try to sell it as "learning to socialize and get to know other people, learn to share" but that is just an excuse.
onions come naturally in various sizes , without additional hormones, same goes for fruits and vegetables but of course the culture of cultivating them for hundreds of years, changes them and adding growth hormones illegal can add to it.
if businesses can not afford to pay their workers, they should not open restaurants or other places. its just an excuse for bosses to exploit worker and avoid a good wage.
There are a few reasons for the portion sizes. One being that the US has a huge left over culture. We eat some at the restaurant and then take the rest home for later. Also the portions stay that big because alot of people have been trained to eat that way unfortunately. People continue to eat large amounts so the resturants keep seving the big sizes. Its one of the hardest things to unlearn when trying to get healthy. I hope that helps you understand us in the US a little more. ❤
Many years ago the Three Musketeers bar was segmented into three parts, which you could break apart. Each part was a different flavor of insides: vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. You could swap out the parts with your pals. How many years ago? At least 60. I am very old, and enjoyed that candy a lot.
Actually we used to have the Mars bar, twas my favorite.
We have WhatsApp. We’re not monsters.
:D okay good to know
don't you colonials dare to deep fry Mars bars ? is it true isn't ?
@@Guiscardo777 no thats scottish people
It was chocolate covered nougat and almonds. My dad loved them.
@@Guiscardo777 that's a southern thing. they'll deep fry anything and it's disgusting
1:55: it does not stop with the "3 musketeers": in Europe there was a "Musketier" candy, made from three braided strings of caramel, covered with chocolate.
And again this was similar to "Curly wurly" or "Leckerschmecker" ..
And Twix was Raider ... but this is a different story... ;-)
(Former) American living in Basel, Switzerland. I love your videos. They are so Erika. That's good. Sorry about DB. Swiss trains run on time. You forgot to mention guns. Maybe you understand guns in America?
We are a bit odd. Entertaining and humorous video. Great job. ❤😊
the reason america used the imperial units of measure is, historically, Americans saw themselves as an extension of the English people, with the American revolution being a break away from the English crown rather than English people. As for the continuation of this system, the US has been the largest power in it's region, has been less reliant on foreign imports than other countries and it's largest trading partners have been the UK and Canada, so shifting customary units hasnt been necessary.
18:50 In Belgium the milk is in packs of 12 times 1,5 liters. So a galon is really not that much.
I vote for you to keep doing what you do, Erika, especially the snarky humor!
No humor just stupid
I'm from the UK living in America, I feel like after moving here these questions just raise more questions than answers. This place confuses me in too many ways
Celsius is great if you want to know how close something is to freezing or boiling. But Fahrenheit really is a lot better for weather measurement for the general public at least. 0 degrees is a very cold day. 100 degrees is a very hot day. It makes more sense for that. I don't know what you mean by "more precise" they have the same amount of precision. They are numbers. Fahrenheit has a larger range of numbers for the same temperature scale in terms of whole numbers. But given decimal points it doesn't really matter that much.
They tried dropping the drinking age to 18 in the US but it increased accidents and death so they moved back up to 21. This was many decades ago.
Only in US? And the rest of the world doesn’t have the same problem? How interesting
Dont drive after a drink, you know...
@@ABa-os6wm When drinking and driving first started becoming illegal, a lot of Americans found this to be an infringement on their freedoms. Same thing for seatbelt mandates. I love watching old local news footage sometimes.
I live in America im not sure if the fast food stats are true but the grocery store stats are probably true if it doesn't count Dollar General (and it shouldn't in my opinion) a lot of rural towns near me only have a Dollar General and no grocery store at all.
In city centres within Europe, it's better to just book parking a few days before if you plan to go to an event right in the centre, then you don't have to worry about parking and you know what walking distance to expect.
Why go to a city center by car???
@@arnodobler1096I regularly go to a town near me for work, but the buses take a while to arrive and is overall annoying, therefore I drive there instead, which means that it's stupid to not make the most of my car by driving to the city centre.
Thanks for your interesting videos, and... Yes, you always put in so much information that we are sure it requires a lot of research!
Yes yes, very professional presentation. Thank you, very good.
31:28 in India also lenders do check the borrower's credit score the better it is the better deal you will get in terms of interest rate, duration etc.
The drinking age is steeped in American culture. Note that our driving age starts younger, 16, to enable children to work on the farms. Also, because of some protestant religions believing that alcohol should be banned, it was first at a minimum age of 18 before being increased to 21. As if that wasn't bad enough, there was at one time the 18th Amendment which prohibited all alcohol. In a few years, crime actually increased due to the bootlegging and was eventually repealed by the 21st Amendment.
The Drinking Age was NOT due to any religion. It was mutually agreed that TEEN AGERS AREN'T MATURE ENOUGH TO BE RESPONSIBILE DRINKERS. THEY PROVED THAT CORRECT, with numerous drunk driving deaths, hence the age was increased to 21.
The famous Sufferagette: Susan B. Anthony, WAS AN ABOLITIONIST FIRST. NOT BECAUSE OF HER RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, BUT BECAUSE SHE WAS TIRED OF SEEING WOMEN AND CHILDREN STARVE, BECAUSE THE PROVIDER OF THE FAMILY GOT OFF WORK, AND WENT STRAIGHT TO THE BAR. She tried for years, working with other charity organizations to get MEN SOBER, so they could provide for their families.
She later faught for Women's RIGHT TO WORK, as well as the right to Vote, so a Mother could support herself and her children, when her husband would wallow in his booze at the bar.
ALCOHOLISM FUELED THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT; RELIGION WAS JUST AN EXCUSE.
R. Reagan raised the age to 21.
@@arnodobler1096 Exactly, just one of the many things he fucked up. The best was of course that he made you believe that its good to give all your money to the rich so they could care better about the poor 🤣
@@beldin2987 👍
@@beldin2987 Teen drinking is the number one cause for teenage deaths in the U.S and still is even after raising the age to 21. What exactly is "good" about lowering back down so it's easier to access?
Omg I just had biggest most significant revelation of my life about the onions! This makes so much sense!
Quick search says about 202,000 fast food restaurants in US. Not verified but probably a little closer.
I live about 20 min walk to grocery store but I have to cross at a huge intersection twice (I’m on SE corner, store is on NW corner of six lane intersection.) so the heavy traffic dissuades people from going by bike or on foot.
19:20 On average, onions are like this in America (All the continent). Here in Colombia, carrots, onions of all kinds, bananas, potatoes and others tend to have a larger size and greater potency in their flavor.
Thankful for that, really
Americans: I want to drink at 18
Government: All i can do is war
ty for the fun video
nice video - as always
Sveiki! You are really straightforward, and that's fun and nice to me. Ma olen pärit Argentiina, aga ma elad Eestis praegu (I am learning Estonian, ma ei raagi vaga hasti veel, vabandust). So yes, I know where your country is located and part of your history as well, because i've learning about it a lot by myself. Once I made the Valga-Valka cross on foot, and spent a day in that little city of Latvia. I hope to know Riga soon, and other parts as well... any advice please? :)
Paldies, sveicieni!!
we have mars bar in usa. on the west coast atleast I know we have it for sure
Many of these things can be simply explain by: we are forced to use cars and we're all angry and sad inside
There are two measurement systems in the U.S. metric and imperial, and we also use Celsius or Fahrenheit, it just depends on your profession.
The US does not use imperial, they use US Customary Units which are based on Imperial but differ on liquid volumetric measurements. A US pint is not the same as an Imperial pint for example
"Sure, we obey" would have only ever been uttered in prehistoric times, and by prehistoric I mean before July 4, 1776.
Edit: Also, according to Statista there were 198,000 fast food restaurants in the US as of 2022.
As of the latest data, there are approximately 200,000 fast food restaurants in the United States. The number of grocery stores is around 40,000.
Fast Food Restaurants
US: Approximately 0.000604 per capita (1 fast food restaurant per 1,655 people)
Europe: Approximately 0.000201 per capita (1 fast food restaurant per 4,986 people)
Grocery Stores
US: Approximately 0.000121 per capita (1 grocery store per 8,275 people)
Europe: Approximately 0.000134 per capita (1 grocery store per 7,437 people)
yeah i think she added 3 orders of magnitude but the number was about correct ignoring that lol.
Well, we are following you since a while and I would say that apart the obvious unearthly Baltic beauty and the less obvious very engaging sympathy, the videos are well made, scientifically sort of. Let's say everything exudes CLEVERNESS. Our sincere appreciation! great job!
About the wastefulness of disposable cups and plates. There was a study that compared paper cups with mugs, and found the differences were negligible. If you don't wash your mug that often, or not at all, then the mug is better, but even then the production of the mug is very energy costly so you need to use each mug for years before it becomes comparable to paper cups. Plastic cups is obviously a different beast. You also need to dispose of the paper cup properly and not throw it in the general waste.
I am sick with cfs/me and at my sickest it became impossible for me to do the dishes, so I was forced to switch to disposable. Luckily the EU enforced rules reducing plastic disposable utensils and cups so I got less of a guilt trip after that, but after learning that as long as I dispose of it in a good way it's comparable to ceramics and steel in terms of environmental impact, I didn't bother switching back. If I ever get a girlfriend I'm gonna have a real problem, but, I'd also have a problem with disgusting week-long dishes in my sink.