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.
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.
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!
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 "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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
brit living in the usa here - here are my experiences and comparisons and culture shocks after living here for 5 months. please excuse the amount of brain mush and garbled thought trains in this comment, i'm so tired right now lol. i live in a small city on the outskirts/suburbs(?) and the pavement/sidewalk just ends halfway down the road i live on, i dont know why they even bothered putting one because the road my road comes off of doesn't have a pavement/sidewalk either. and then you get to a bigger road/highway from there so it's not safe to cross and there aren't any crossings. the closest walmart to me is an hour walk each way with no sidewalks or crossings and im in florida so in the summer the heat gets dangerous for walking that long, especially with having to carry everything back. it just is not feasible. a car makes life 1000x easier here for literally everything. the most unfortunate part is that not everyone can afford a car and people who don't have access to a car are forced to walk and cross these dangerous roads in insane heat in the summer to get to and from work or to and from walmart/other supermakets/grocery stores. it just sucks, especially because of what i'm used to there being in the uk. in the uk i lived in a similarly populated large town, also on the outkirts but there was a co-op 5 minutes away and a larger supermarket about 15 mins away each way. there aren't any convenience stores that aren't petrol stations near me here, and though there is one closer than walmart, it isn't close enough to actually be convenient, it would shed off maybe 10 mins each way to walk to that instead. something i really miss about the uk is trains and buses actually existing, even with some decreased routes in the case of buses. where i live now only downtown has buses and they are extremely sparse, i've only seen a bus like two or three times?? its crazy. im very thankful that my husband drives and can shoulder that responsibility until i learn to drive and can get my license. there is a huge emphasis on drive-thru establishments, not only fast food, but also banks have drive thrus as well as pharmacies. its kinda funny, i can't get used to that being the norm. its also true that there are fast food places and restaurants everywhere. my british town of around 40k only had a mcdonalds, other than that it was mostly local run takeaways and chippes. i do like the usa, i like it probably as much as i like the uk, but i am feeling homesick right now so that is skewing my view a bit to the negative side. of course the main reason i like the usa is because it has my husband in it, i would not be here otherwise. i think the usa is a lot more fun to visit than to actually live in. i think if you get the chance to visit, there are a lot of cool places you can choose from and you absolutely should. this country is HUGE. i'm no longer surprised about the americans never having left their country statistic because there are so many things you can see just in the states alone. there are some truly beautiful places, and the food is great as well as the people. i think anyone with a foreign accent gets an advantage when interacting with people here, people seem to be friendlier to me by default if i approach them to ask a question or strike up a conversation with them, and i get a lot of questions about where i'm from and compliments on my accent which makes me feel teehee inside. overall, the usa is nice, it's just hindered by capitalism going a bit too far (i.e health insurance/sick leave/at will employment), strange politics/political idolisation (i have thoughts and feelings that i won't go into here) and poor infrastructure, especially outside of the main big cities.
I 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.
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.
"moving out" at 18 is more related to college. not many kids go to college within driving distance. when you go home for the holidays, your childhood home is not quite your home anymore as you expand your view of the world. it feels different. Also, when you move out for college, good chance you'll find employment not near your childhood home. hence you move out. as for onions, point a fan(like those little battery powered ones) to blow over your onion while cutting, and have that pushed air going to the extractor. it'll keep the lachrymatory agents from getting into your eyes. or point the wind toward your partner and laugh like doctor evil.
I am living in Denmark at the moment and I don't think I will ever see my home city in the US the same after experiencing a walkable city in a more suburban setting on the island of Zealand. I feel like this is how it's supposed to be and I'll never understand why American developers always have to take cars into account for every little decision.
They tried to “fight” communism with Suburbia (nuclear weapons less effective when you have low density). So because of Cold War the US has mutilated all its cities and turned its population into humanoid pigs.
On credit scores: I Germany we have the Schufa-score, which is pretty similar. It's made by this private company that uses secret algorithms to assign you a score based on credit history, amount of bank accounts, how likely you are to change into a wolf at full moon, etc. So all in all very dubious and annoying. Like, why are they exempt from so many privacy laws? Anyways it's used by banks to decide if they give you a loan or credit card and even by some landlords when they decide if they're going to rent out their flat to you.
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.
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.
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;-)
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.
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 ❤
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.
"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.
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.
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. 😅
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?
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.
The 🇺🇸 USA uses a janky bassackwards date format of MM/DD/YYYY vs EU's 🇪🇺 DD/MM/YYYY -- Also I love not having to specify AM / PM in EU itineraries. "Meet us at 19:30" vs "Meet me at 7:30" "Wait bro, Is that AM or PM ?"
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)
Yes, many neighborhoods in America have zero sidewalks and typically zero public transit so there are almost no options except drive, even biking is dangerous. I know neighborhoods built in about 1960 in California don't, some newer ones do have sidewalks, luckily. You'd have to look up more. I am an American but am working hard to be in a spot to be able to move to Europe in the near future, so I can have a walkable lifestyle, and be able to walk for real bread. I wish this was more readily available in America... But cars & their manufacturers ran our country for decades.
(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?
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.
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.
Us supermarkets are big bc they don't have small ones. They don't have small ones because these are not profitable bc of lower population density and car culture(park lots, highways, etc)
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!
As a Canadian it's annoyingly similar to the US and here's some of the things you talked about that are relatable as a Canadian: We say how are you The bathroom stalls suck We don't actually use metric (at least casually), like we say "I'm 6'0" or something (I'm not tho lmao) We use Celsius when talking about weather but for cooking we use Fahrenheit (which confuses me) OH MY GOSH I HATE THE CAR DEPENDENCY (check out Not Just Bikes for amazing explanations on why that's the case) McDonalds is always sticky so we (at least my family) don't like eating there. The US is huge. Canada is even bigger! You could drive for 16 hours and still be in the same province 💀 Our rail sucks. (Again watch Not Just Bikes)
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 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 :(
American resident: No walkable cities, none, its true. (Almost hard to imagine) Cause every street is unshaded, no benches, no real sidewalks, and (Texan resident) the sun is awful. So walking, it is not an option… (idek where to begin when it comes to introducing walkable cities to America)
a lot of these are jokes but I can tell you why we're called americans: in english we just say the name of the country in the official name, so we don't say "people's republicans" when talking about chinese people or "united statesians" when talking about mexicans, we just pluralize the name of the country so it's just americans :D
Someone who claims to be from the country ruled by Dr Doom can say nothing bad about America. That said, Americans have bigger houses so we do less frequent shopping trips where we buy more. Supermarkets are larger and farther away, and that's why there's so few of them: car culture.
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.
In America we actually do use an IM app that is hugely popular, and that is iMessage. Since apple integrated their IM client into their SMS app since the beginning, and since Americans always had a proclivity to texting, that means apple especially created a monopoly on the US phone market since you can only use iMessages on an apple devices, and non tech inclined individuals just end up buying iPhones because “the texting on an iPhone is better for some reason”.
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
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.
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.
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.
@@Azhureusthat’s a massively overstated issue. I’ve literally never seen a gun menacingly presented in public in my 52 years. 2/3 of reported stats are from suicides and most of the rest are amongst criminal elements and confined to obviously problematic areas. 99% never see the type of violence you imagine. The US is generally safe if you have any common sense at all.
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.
hard to roast the country of Latvia since I myself am Latvian but....there are too many russian and other type of people who have lived here since soviet times but still try to do everything in russian and dont even attempt to use latvian
After moving to Germany and meeting Unitedstatians (in Latin America we call them Estadunidenses): "Hi, nice to meet you! Where are you from?" "I am American." "Cool, so am I. But seriously, which country are you from?"
Ich komme aus den USA would be a better answer. I always thought whenever people say we're Americans is kinda dumb because we're not the only Americans that lives on continent.
After you moved to Germany, you met some "Americans". Americans are from the US. You're simply uneducated. But.. I'll help educate you. I think it would be a good idea if the concept of "linguistic shortening" as a very common feature in most languages...and definitely Romance and Germanic languages....was taught in each countries educational system. It might clear up a very common mistake being made. Also special attention to "context" and "reference" should be taught....because it is clearly lacking. I'm guessing that you are aware of a thing called a "dictionary" and that most words in the dictionary have more than a single definition....or perhaps you don't know this. When US citizens say, "American" as a self-description..... it is NOT that "we think we own all of the Americas" as is commonly claimed. It is a feature of many languages used throughout the world known as "linguistic shortening". "America" is a linguistically shortened form of "United States of America". I WISH there were another common example of this....Oh Wait, There Is. There is no country named "Mexico". The country's name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos", However due to the same exact, identical "linguistic shortening", it is most often referred to as Mexico and the citizens refer to themselves as "Mexicans"...... this is the exact same reason that US citizens refer to themselves as Americans. Mexico and the US share this in common. It is linguistically correct to describe anyone originating from the continent of "America" or "The Americas" as American. When that is done, the context is the Continent of Origin and the Reference is the name of the continent. It is linguistically correct to describe anyone originating from the US as "American". When that is done, the context is the Country of Origin and the Reference is the LINGUISTICALLY SHORTENED name for The United States of America. The same as we all do for Mexico/Mexicans. The fact that so many people don't know this is lack of education and the failure of various countries educational system. NOTE: On a side note, when you ask a person from Greece, "where are you from?" They will most likely say they are from Greece rather than say that they are from Europe. The context of the question is the nation of origin, not the continent of origin. That, in itself, should have prevented this very obvious mistake.
@@chandie5298 Dear person from the Country without a name... blah... blah... blah... you are dumb... blah... blah... blah... Fuck your imperialism... blah... blah... blah... Kisses, bye.
4 หลายเดือนก่อน +3
@@chandie5298 pfff. No. And your condescending example of Mexico doesn't apply since there is nothing else called Mexico, whereas America was and is already something else: a CONTINENT
Pretty spot on But she just looking at it on the top surface. America is a whole lot different culture from region to region. But cool video I just found shout out from Atlanta Georgia
Not really tbh, at least in the part of germany where i live, if you ask someone "Wie geht's?", you actually want an honest answer, it's used more as a conversation starter and not as a greeting.
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.
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.
Ha! Love your sense of humor! The US Tipping Culture is out of control, and while I had to laugh at the salad portion, I still think the most bizarre 'salad' and alsoone of the most delicious is teh German Wurstsalat!
Rich people make the rules that benefit them, the rest of us are just left to improvise a system around that in order to survive. So, we end up with weird things, like no vacation, no sick days, and tipping culture. Even the need to drive everywhere itself is from automakers and oil companies desire for profits. Then on top of that, those same rich people convince half of the country that it is the poor people that are the problem. So, obviously things can never change because the rich people don't want it to change.
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.
5:41 actually, in the United States, we have sonic (idk if you know what sonic is but I don’t want to insult your knowledge by explaining it to you), and you can get a ‘Route 44’ sized drink. It’s 44 ounces which is the next largest size I think? Anyways it’s a travesty, and so are three musketeers’, I’m moving to Germany ASAP.
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.
Totally anecdotal comparison but people in my small midwestern town do this depressingly often. And when I used to live in an even smaller, more midwestern town, it was even more common... but I did not live in a nice part of my state before so that's neither here nor there
Not a thing in my country. There is no bureau actually keeping track of any of it, so they aren’t somehow pulling the information out of thin air. Nothing is connected, not even the government offices in my country (which is a 30 minute flight from the U.S.), so no, it’s not a thing everywhere.
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'?".
Drinking is more dangerous when everyone has a gun ...
.. I guess.
Watch Yet Another Urbanist on drunk driving. Because of the city design forcing many Americans to drive there's too much killing people with drunk driving and motor accidents. There isn't enough of a option to walk, bike, or take transit home from a bar.
The mindset is often to put the responsibility on the individual to not drink and drive rather than change the infrastructure.
Many American news headlines and articles victim blame pedestrians and cyclists for getting hit or killed by cars too rather than talk about the road design. Those pedestrians are called jaywalker. Jay means stupid.
They sometimes are biased for drivers and make the excuse that "the drivers couldn't see the pedestrians or cyclists". Or say "cyclists shouldn't be on the road so it was their fault". Even tho there isn't enough bike lanes and sidewalks everywhere. Including not enough transit too.
There not being enough sidewalks has also caused some pedestrians to have to walk on the edge of the road and has caused cops to handcuff them.
Flurfdesign talked about how a bus driver had to block drivers to protect kids cause they even wouldn't stop for kids to cross the street.
Watch Not Just Bikes and About Here.
If you have a detached home in the Midwest, it may be appropriate to have a gun in the house. But anyone who believes they can keep young people away from drinking or drugs is a dreamer or a malicious demagogue.
The increase in quality of editing and humor !! Love it !! Great work !
American here! My home I grew up in, in Tennessee, had no sidewalks, but I walked in the road and got over when cars were coming. My school was a block away, but the principal didn’t want me walking to school, because no sidewalks. The closest grocery store was 5 miles away. Non-existent public transportation, so very car-dependent.
I’ve been able to live and travel around a lot, so I know this isn’t a universal American experience, but my goodness, do I see the same thing all over the place. In the middle of a bigger city now and still find myself being car dependent.
Huge fan of public transportation. Love trains. Dublin and Amsterdam, and to a lesser extent, Seattle and Chicago really spoiled me on trains and now I just don’t get why we don’t have trains all the time everywhere else too. Loved the video Erika!
Opposite here in NYC (want to visit Tennessee one day in the near future)
The 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”.
unless you live in like a dense urban area, or near a city or town center, pretty much nothing is walkable
And even then its like "walkable"
The "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.
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.
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.
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...
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
Spot on! Couldn't stop smiling and laughing, you are so light and fresh😄
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.
I vote for you to keep doing what you do, Erika, especially the snarky humor!
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.
brit living in the usa here - here are my experiences and comparisons and culture shocks after living here for 5 months. please excuse the amount of brain mush and garbled thought trains in this comment, i'm so tired right now lol.
i live in a small city on the outskirts/suburbs(?) and the pavement/sidewalk just ends halfway down the road i live on, i dont know why they even bothered putting one because the road my road comes off of doesn't have a pavement/sidewalk either. and then you get to a bigger road/highway from there so it's not safe to cross and there aren't any crossings. the closest walmart to me is an hour walk each way with no sidewalks or crossings and im in florida so in the summer the heat gets dangerous for walking that long, especially with having to carry everything back. it just is not feasible. a car makes life 1000x easier here for literally everything. the most unfortunate part is that not everyone can afford a car and people who don't have access to a car are forced to walk and cross these dangerous roads in insane heat in the summer to get to and from work or to and from walmart/other supermakets/grocery stores. it just sucks, especially because of what i'm used to there being in the uk. in the uk i lived in a similarly populated large town, also on the outkirts but there was a co-op 5 minutes away and a larger supermarket about 15 mins away each way. there aren't any convenience stores that aren't petrol stations near me here, and though there is one closer than walmart, it isn't close enough to actually be convenient, it would shed off maybe 10 mins each way to walk to that instead.
something i really miss about the uk is trains and buses actually existing, even with some decreased routes in the case of buses. where i live now only downtown has buses and they are extremely sparse, i've only seen a bus like two or three times?? its crazy. im very thankful that my husband drives and can shoulder that responsibility until i learn to drive and can get my license.
there is a huge emphasis on drive-thru establishments, not only fast food, but also banks have drive thrus as well as pharmacies. its kinda funny, i can't get used to that being the norm. its also true that there are fast food places and restaurants everywhere. my british town of around 40k only had a mcdonalds, other than that it was mostly local run takeaways and chippes.
i do like the usa, i like it probably as much as i like the uk, but i am feeling homesick right now so that is skewing my view a bit to the negative side. of course the main reason i like the usa is because it has my husband in it, i would not be here otherwise. i think the usa is a lot more fun to visit than to actually live in. i think if you get the chance to visit, there are a lot of cool places you can choose from and you absolutely should. this country is HUGE. i'm no longer surprised about the americans never having left their country statistic because there are so many things you can see just in the states alone. there are some truly beautiful places, and the food is great as well as the people. i think anyone with a foreign accent gets an advantage when interacting with people here, people seem to be friendlier to me by default if i approach them to ask a question or strike up a conversation with them, and i get a lot of questions about where i'm from and compliments on my accent which makes me feel teehee inside.
overall, the usa is nice, it's just hindered by capitalism going a bit too far (i.e health insurance/sick leave/at will employment), strange politics/political idolisation (i have thoughts and feelings that i won't go into here) and poor infrastructure, especially outside of the main big cities.
I 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.
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.
"moving out" at 18 is more related to college. not many kids go to college within driving distance. when you go home for the holidays, your childhood home is not quite your home anymore as you expand your view of the world. it feels different. Also, when you move out for college, good chance you'll find employment not near your childhood home. hence you move out.
as for onions, point a fan(like those little battery powered ones) to blow over your onion while cutting, and have that pushed air going to the extractor. it'll keep the lachrymatory agents from getting into your eyes. or point the wind toward your partner and laugh like doctor evil.
I am living in Denmark at the moment and I don't think I will ever see my home city in the US the same after experiencing a walkable city in a more suburban setting on the island of Zealand. I feel like this is how it's supposed to be and I'll never understand why American developers always have to take cars into account for every little decision.
They tried to “fight” communism with Suburbia (nuclear weapons less effective when you have low density). So because of Cold War the US has mutilated all its cities and turned its population into humanoid pigs.
On credit scores: I Germany we have the Schufa-score, which is pretty similar. It's made by this private company that uses secret algorithms to assign you a score based on credit history, amount of bank accounts, how likely you are to change into a wolf at full moon, etc.
So all in all very dubious and annoying. Like, why are they exempt from so many privacy laws?
Anyways it's used by banks to decide if they give you a loan or credit card and even by some landlords when they decide if they're going to rent out their flat to you.
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.
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.
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
For the onion, i heard not taking the top out first prevents the whole crying situations
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;-)
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.
lmao enjoyed the 40min roast! love your videos and intellectual humor/banter keep up the good work 😂❤🙏
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 ❤
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.
"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.
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.
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. 😅
I for one do appreciate your videos Erika, and looking at the comments and statistics, I'm not the only one.
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?
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.
The 🇺🇸 USA uses a janky bassackwards date format of MM/DD/YYYY vs EU's 🇪🇺 DD/MM/YYYY -- Also I love not having to specify AM / PM in EU itineraries. "Meet us at 19:30" vs "Meet me at 7:30" "Wait bro, Is that AM or PM ?"
No one small talks in a McDonalds in America just letting you know
We are a bit odd. Entertaining and humorous video. Great job. ❤😊
Me worries in American: "Wait a gallon of milk is a lot? But I drink a gallon of milk by myself all the time..."
The Kit Kat logo I europe is the original english one from rowntrees
As of the latest data, there are approximately 200,000 fast food restaurants in the United States. The number of grocery stores is around 40,000.
Fast Food Restaurants
US: Approximately 0.000604 per capita (1 fast food restaurant per 1,655 people)
Europe: Approximately 0.000201 per capita (1 fast food restaurant per 4,986 people)
Grocery Stores
US: Approximately 0.000121 per capita (1 grocery store per 8,275 people)
Europe: Approximately 0.000134 per capita (1 grocery store per 7,437 people)
yeah i think she added 3 orders of magnitude but the number was about correct ignoring that lol.
Yes, many neighborhoods in America have zero sidewalks and typically zero public transit so there are almost no options except drive, even biking is dangerous. I know neighborhoods built in about 1960 in California don't, some newer ones do have sidewalks, luckily. You'd have to look up more.
I am an American but am working hard to be in a spot to be able to move to Europe in the near future, so I can have a walkable lifestyle, and be able to walk for real bread. I wish this was more readily available in America... But cars & their manufacturers ran our country for decades.
(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?
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.
Yes yes, very professional presentation. Thank you, very good.
In Germany we also have a Credit score. It is called "SCHUFA" and no one knows, how they roll their dice to "calculate" your credit score
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.
Us supermarkets are big bc they don't have small ones. They don't have small ones because these are not profitable bc of lower population density and car culture(park lots, highways, etc)
I am an American and I love this.
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
As a Canadian it's annoyingly similar to the US and here's some of the things you talked about that are relatable as a Canadian:
We say how are you
The bathroom stalls suck
We don't actually use metric (at least casually), like we say "I'm 6'0" or something (I'm not tho lmao)
We use Celsius when talking about weather but for cooking we use Fahrenheit (which confuses me)
OH MY GOSH I HATE THE CAR DEPENDENCY (check out Not Just Bikes for amazing explanations on why that's the case)
McDonalds is always sticky so we (at least my family) don't like eating there.
The US is huge. Canada is even bigger! You could drive for 16 hours and still be in the same province 💀
Our rail sucks. (Again watch Not Just Bikes)
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.
11:41 😂😂appreciate zoom out and echo effects
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 :(
American resident: No walkable cities, none, its true. (Almost hard to imagine)
Cause every street is unshaded, no benches, no real sidewalks, and (Texan resident) the sun is awful. So walking, it is not an option… (idek where to begin when it comes to introducing walkable cities to America)
a lot of these are jokes but I can tell you why we're called americans:
in english we just say the name of the country in the official name, so we don't say "people's republicans" when talking about chinese people or "united statesians" when talking about mexicans, we just pluralize the name of the country so it's just americans :D
Omg I just had biggest most significant revelation of my life about the onions! This makes so much sense!
Someone who claims to be from the country ruled by Dr Doom can say nothing bad about America.
That said, Americans have bigger houses so we do less frequent shopping trips where we buy more. Supermarkets are larger and farther away, and that's why there's so few of them: car culture.
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.
In America we actually do use an IM app that is hugely popular, and that is iMessage. Since apple integrated their IM client into their SMS app since the beginning, and since Americans always had a proclivity to texting, that means apple especially created a monopoly on the US phone market since you can only use iMessages on an apple devices, and non tech inclined individuals just end up buying iPhones because “the texting on an iPhone is better for some reason”.
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
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.
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.
Celsius is great if you want to know how close something is to freezing or boiling. But Fahrenheit really is a lot better for weather measurement for the general public at least. 0 degrees is a very cold day. 100 degrees is a very hot day. It makes more sense for that. I don't know what you mean by "more precise" they have the same amount of precision. They are numbers. Fahrenheit has a larger range of numbers for the same temperature scale in terms of whole numbers. But given decimal points it doesn't really matter that much.
I'm going there this July. Wish me luck ;))
You dont need luck, you need to learn how to dodge bullets.
@@Azhureusthat’s a massively overstated issue. I’ve literally never seen a gun menacingly presented in public in my 52 years. 2/3 of reported stats are from suicides and most of the rest are amongst criminal elements and confined to obviously problematic areas. 99% never see the type of violence you imagine. The US is generally safe if you have any common sense at all.
@@michaelrains64295 I think they were making a joke, you can't really dodge a bullet
bathroom stall dividers! lol
Moral of the story; non-Americans, just stop trying to understand America.
Redmond downtown in redmond wa, SUPER WALKABLE AND RARE FOR THE U.S.
Love the tie and your content.
I have 10 days of PTO a year. And no sick days. F*cking hell!
Futurama & Simpsons wallpaper = you won life.
Your content is cool
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).
hard to roast the country of Latvia since I myself am Latvian but....there are too many russian and other type of people who have lived here since soviet times but still try to do everything in russian and dont even attempt to use latvian
Fill your mouth with water when you are cutting onions or just close your eyes but keep the attention on the knife to not cause an accident.
After moving to Germany and meeting Unitedstatians (in Latin America we call them Estadunidenses):
"Hi, nice to meet you! Where are you from?"
"I am American."
"Cool, so am I. But seriously, which country are you from?"
Yeah that sounds dumb asf
Ich komme aus den USA would be a better answer. I always thought whenever people say we're Americans is kinda dumb because we're not the only Americans that lives on continent.
After you moved to Germany, you met some "Americans". Americans are from the US. You're simply uneducated.
But.. I'll help educate you.
I think it would be a good idea if the concept of "linguistic shortening" as a very common feature in most languages...and definitely Romance and Germanic languages....was taught in each countries educational system. It might clear up a very common mistake being made. Also special attention to "context" and "reference" should be taught....because it is clearly lacking. I'm guessing that you are aware of a thing called a "dictionary" and that most words in the dictionary have more than a single definition....or perhaps you don't know this.
When US citizens say, "American" as a self-description..... it is NOT that "we think we own all of the Americas" as is commonly claimed.
It is a feature of many languages used throughout the world known as "linguistic shortening".
"America" is a linguistically shortened form of "United States of America".
I WISH there were another common example of this....Oh Wait, There Is.
There is no country named "Mexico".
The country's name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos", However due to the same exact, identical "linguistic shortening", it is most often referred to as Mexico and the citizens refer to themselves as "Mexicans"...... this is the exact same reason that US citizens refer to themselves as Americans.
Mexico and the US share this in common.
It is linguistically correct to describe anyone originating from the continent of "America" or "The Americas" as American.
When that is done, the context is the Continent of Origin and the Reference is the name of the continent.
It is linguistically correct to describe anyone originating from the US as "American". When that is done, the context is the Country of Origin and the Reference is the LINGUISTICALLY SHORTENED name for The United States of America. The same as we all do for Mexico/Mexicans.
The fact that so many people don't know this is lack of education and the failure of various countries educational system.
NOTE: On a side note, when you ask a person from Greece, "where are you from?" They will most likely say they are from Greece rather than say that they are from Europe. The context of the question is the nation of origin, not the continent of origin. That, in itself, should have prevented this very obvious mistake.
@@chandie5298 Dear person from the Country without a name... blah... blah... blah... you are dumb... blah... blah... blah... Fuck your imperialism... blah... blah... blah... Kisses, bye.
@@chandie5298 pfff. No. And your condescending example of Mexico doesn't apply since there is nothing else called Mexico, whereas America was and is already something else: a CONTINENT
Pretty spot on
But she just looking at it on the top surface. America is a whole lot different culture from region to region. But cool video I just found shout out from Atlanta Georgia
Germans do the "How are you?" as well, "Wie geht's?" It is anoying i must say
Not really tbh, at least in the part of germany where i live, if you ask someone "Wie geht's?", you actually want an honest answer, it's used more as a conversation starter and not as a greeting.
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
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.
198 million fastfood restaurants 😂😂😂 Dear sweet Erika, maybe you have to remove 3 zeroes???
i was so confused about that 😭
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.
i'm from America! good points!
Ha! Love your sense of humor! The US Tipping Culture is out of control, and while I had to laugh at the salad portion, I still think the most bizarre 'salad' and alsoone of the most delicious is teh German Wurstsalat!
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.
Rich people make the rules that benefit them, the rest of us are just left to improvise a system around that in order to survive. So, we end up with weird things, like no vacation, no sick days, and tipping culture. Even the need to drive everywhere itself is from automakers and oil companies desire for profits. Then on top of that, those same rich people convince half of the country that it is the poor people that are the problem. So, obviously things can never change because the rich people don't want it to change.
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've never seen oreos in a tube-shaped plastic wrapper in the United States. Always as you had shown in your video.
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.
This is the content I wanna see !
I am disappointed every time I go to the grocery store and can't get 2 gallons of the milk I drink
5:41 actually, in the United States, we have sonic (idk if you know what sonic is but I don’t want to insult your knowledge by explaining it to you), and you can get a ‘Route 44’ sized drink. It’s 44 ounces which is the next largest size I think? Anyways it’s a travesty, and so are three musketeers’, I’m moving to Germany ASAP.
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.
Your videos are such a pleasure to watch and goddammit you're looking so gorgeous
I love this girls vibe
Using paper plates daily is not a normal thing... like I haven't seen many people do this.
Totally anecdotal comparison but people in my small midwestern town do this depressingly often. And when I used to live in an even smaller, more midwestern town, it was even more common... but I did not live in a nice part of my state before so that's neither here nor there
credit score is a thing everywhere, you just don't know it
Not a thing in my country. There is no bureau actually keeping track of any of it, so they aren’t somehow pulling the information out of thin air. Nothing is connected, not even the government offices in my country (which is a 30 minute flight from the U.S.), so no, it’s not a thing everywhere.
ものすごく共感しました。貴重な動画ありがとう。