Hallo Ellie and Lucas, i am from Belgium but living in a small village in Germany and here the Gremans are very friendly and open. With only 250 people in the village they support each other a lot. In 2010 i bought a house here so i was new and every time i went out for a walk someone asked are you lost. After 2 years it changed and now they ask is bedroom 6 ready. Internet is very bad here we are at the end of the world for technology. We don't need it you can knock on the neigbours door if you need something.
That sounds like you are in a lovely town! I do think the size of the town makes a huge difference in the"friendliness" of the people. Glad to have you watching!
As a German from the country side of Bavaria, there is basically zero public transportation (1 bus to school in the morning and 2 back at noon and afternoon and that's it), so everyone is going everywhere by car. Now I am living in a bigger city and I am perfectly fine without a car or even a bike as I can get everywhere via public transportation. So it is really very different depending on where you live
Yes, we even discussed that ourselves. I think the major point here is that in the rural areas in the US, there is not even the option for public transporation in rural areas. It simply does not exist. At least here it does exist, even if it can be inconvenient
@@EllieandLucas Aren't there schoolbusses in the rural US, too? Because the public transportation literally only goes to the school and basically only students use it. Theoretically others can use it as well, but most don't as it only goes to the school in another village and there you can't transfer to another bus line, as they all end at the same time at the same place, so you are basically stuck in front of the school. So it is more a glorified school bus than real public transport. I think, that's just important to mention, so tourists don't expect to discover all of Germany by bus, especially not the rural parts.
Totally true . Germany will take it's time when comes to new technology. On the other hand it will spend a lot of money in infrastructure which I sadly totally missed when being in the States. Bad roads, crumbling bridges, little towns cut off where people lost their jobs because a factory closed and turning them into nomads. Former thriving towns turned into ghost towns. Big cities where people have to drive sometimes two hours and more just to get to work (one way). Unimaginably for most Germans. I have missed a healthy balance between infrastructure and new technology over the pond.
We had a smartboard at school. And in four years, I saw it in action once.😂 Often, the sluggish technological progress simply has legal reasons. Schools have to comply with students' data protection rights, for example. So student data is not allowed to be transferred to the USA. The same applies to public authorities and companies. The Federal Constitutional Court has also ruled that elections cannot be held purely electronically. In Germany, there are always a lot of regulations that have to be met before a new technology can be introduced. In addition, people are generally more suspicious of these technologies. It is no coincidence that Germany has organizations like the CCC. And as cases like Snowden, or various data scandals with Facebook etc. have shown us, not entirely without reason.
absolutely true. Data protection is a big thing in Germany. And in schools money is, too. It's always up to the individual school to spend the reduced amount of money they have on things that are much needed.After buying new books, furniture and other teaching / learning supplies there often isn't much left to spend on electronic devices.
I agree that data protection is important, and I also wish that technology was favored by more of the teachers- I find, when they truly know how to use it as a tool, it is quite helpful! This is from seeing it in action myself, thousands of times, and even teaching with it!
Digitalisation in German schools is a disaster. As a teacher in covid times I feel that every day. It has been neglected for decades and now we have to live with the consequences - hard time for everybody organizing lessons. Makes it so much more difficult for pupils, parents and teachers.
I so agree. I feel like in the States, we get training for technology (it was part of my bachelors degree), and I feel much more prepared to work with technology than probably most of the teachers in Germany. I feel so sorry for you all, because you also don't have the resources to teach you how to use it.
@@EllieandLucas the younger teacher generation is quite well trained privately but for the elderly it's not easy, that's true. And there are still students without computers at home or any access to tablets and many schools haven't been able to supply all classes with those gadgets.
My school has smartboards in every classroom and teachers who know how to use them. Even thirty years ago it had two classrooms with PCs... But it's the only school I know that is equipped like that.
When its still possible again I would recommend to you come to Munich and visit the Deutsches Museum (German museum) its amazing and absolutely great. Its one of Maybe the biggest Technical Museum in the World. You can See the history of so many Technical inventions. And many of them had been made by germans. But many of these inventors had to move to the US in order to make a Business out of there inventions. A Story like Elan Musk or Amazon or many others could hardly happend in Germany. As I mentioned before the politics oversleept a lot and the burocrazy.
We will put this museum on our list! It sounds like we would love it there. We also did visit the technical museum in Paderborn and made a video about it. we loved it there!
@@EllieandLucas as far as I saw they renewed it During the last three years. The reopening had been a yesr Ego I think. Unfortunately I wasn't there for such a long Time. So I can't tell you a Lot about the current Situation and the issued things. But I've heard that they have modernized it Not only the building but the issued things as well. In same cases you may could interact. But I am Not sure.. Beware before your visit what you are interested most. Because there are three different places of the Museum. A big Part of the car and Train Exhibition is outsourced from the mein building. It will be next to the place where the famous Oktoberfest Faker place. So you have to ask at the entrance and as far as I know you can access with the same Ticket. But I am sure if you visit the main building it will take the whole day😄😄😄👍👍👍
As to the friendlyness and openness there is a well known difference between north and south Germany. In NRW the difference in Charakter between Westfalen and Rheinland is legendary.
Being from the north I have to disagree. I think it depends on the individual person how forthcoming they are. We people from Schleswig-Holstein are no less friendly than others. Also I think unfriendliness is a matter of interpretation . In the US people might be more willing to talk to strangers and be very friendly but they don't have to address them in a foreign language whereas in Germany some people might be too shy to speak English and are not used to walk up to strangers to talk to them in their native language when they know they might not be understood. I wouldn't call that unfriendly or even rude.
It's just a Rhinelander tooting his own horn. People from the Rhineland always claim that they are sooo open and friendly while dissing Westfalia in the same breath. The biggest difference between the industrial rhineland and the agrarian Westfalia (the West of Westfalia is pretty industrial but the east of Westfalia is mainly agrarian.) The stereotype of a Rhinelander is loud, drunk and can't take anything seriously. The stereotype of a Westfalian is quiet, stubborn and maybe a bit to serious. Maybe you can see why those two oftwn clash. Both are honest and good-hearted people but they xan get quiet childish when they get together
@@EllieandLucas In the south and Rhineland people find it easier to greet complete strangers and engage in small talk. When entering a restaurant they may even seek out tables already occupied and ask if they may join. In the north and Westfalia people are more shy and taciturn and will keep more to themselves.
@@grandmak. We northerners aren't unfriendly. We are very friendly, but we are quiet and direct and use few words. It's a cultural thing. People from more vocal cultures sometimes think a northerner is being rude or doesn't want to talk to you when, really, they just don't think there's anything left to say. Also many places expect you for example to say yes to a request from a friend, even if you don't actually have time in the end. It's considered rude to outright say no. Northerners consider it rude to say yes if you already know you can't come through.
When I was a teenager in the early 2000s, my school was very well funded and we had some classrooms with smart boards. I hated it sooooo much. Nothing ever worked correctly, the writing of the teachers was even more unlegible than on the normal blackboards, software and hardware problems and it wasn't a good experience in general. We wasted some lessons by teachers just trying to figure out how things worked and why they didn't do what they were supposed to do. After like half a year, all teachers returned to using the normal blackboards and tried and tested methods.
That stinks. It sounds like the technology was there, but the teachers were not trained for it. In the US, that is rarely a problem. All the teachers have to take technology education courses (not a requirement here), and also have to take new courses every few years (in all subjects, not just technology education). I feel Germany is robbing the future generations by keeping everything the same as it always was. It is really not a huge problem to take a 6 week course to get new information on technology! It frustrates me, this lack of care!
@@EllieandLucas The technical education in schools is a real problem. I think that you don't have to teach coding/programming to all students, but basic knowledge in dealing with technology would certainly be good. However, you need special trained teachers for this and not just any teacher who knows a little about it. The problem has certainly existed for 30 years or more. In addition to this, really little has happened in the last few years when it comes to equipping schools. This is of course due to the fact that there was little pressure from the public, which is now having a negative effect in the Corona time. But I think the subject could be debated for hours.
I was at a confessional school in the 80ies. We had some mobile racks with TV and video player. All of them had hand written manuels, because some teachers had a remarkable lack of technical understanding. These manuals were written by the already retired Mother Superior. We had also other technical devices, but most teachers didn't knew how to use them. In my opinion that's a big problem, they don't know how to use it and they don't know what opportunities computers will offer them. These devices are much more than digital pictureframes or ebooks.
@@kilsestoffel3690 As a retired teacher I have to admit that you are right. I remember myself struggling with technical devices back in the 80ies . I was always happy to have a student help me with it - they of course always knew how to handle things.
I'm in 8th Class in Germany and I totally agree that our internet and technology in schools sucks! We indeed still use these Overhead projectors sometimes and it's just annoying us all so thanks that you mentioned it.
In Germany some things are done a certain way since 1653 and when you are doing things for so long you don`t change it so quickly, like the internet for example.
@@TheyCalledMeT Hello !? The German civil engineer Konrad Zuse (1610-1695) is considered the inventor of the first digital and programmable computers. Also, My Grandpa invented the raps music. th-cam.com/video/qfBWBZCpP4E/w-d-xo.html
Hi the last topic is complicated. We have 16 different school systems as education is down to the 16 states. Plus the school equipment is down to the city the school is in. Now there are "richer" states and "richer" cities. I can assure you that my school has everything from white boards to webmasters to laptops for the students to language and other laborities.... But then I live in the "rich" Southern part of Germany :-) !
Ahhh, okay. We didn't know about the 16 different systems. The USA also of course has differences in the schools, but I guess because of how Germany has a broader reaching government, we thought the schools all answered to one authority
Good morning Ellie and Lucas. What makes Germany so great abroad is not the big companies like Siemens or BMW, for example, but the large, very large proportion of innovative medium-sized companies that formed after World War II and contributed to the German economic miracle.The success does not come from the large corporations and companies but from the people who live in Germany, as well as in the countryside and in the cities.So it is the small companies that cause and keep the great success. Why do we have so little technology in schools? Now we first learn knowledge without technology and only then with a little technology. The advantage is that if the technology fails, we are still able to work. Find that sounds plausible, doesn't it. Side effect is the quality is higher. Well, you Americans use technology but don't know how it works, the best example: You drive a car but don't know where the windshield wiper water goes or check the coolant or brake fluid. Or where does the engine oil go after you have checked it? So who has more understanding of technology, the American or the German who has learned this thoroughly in the driving school.
I can understand what you mean, of course knowing how to do things without technology is important. For sure, I would want my children to know how to survive without 24/7 access to a computer. I would want them to know how to communicate with people to get info, and not just google. Our biggest point here was largely how technology is not largely incorporated into schools. Ellie actually talked about this a fair bit, but to keep the video from being too long I cut a bit of it out of the video. We find simply that US schools teach kids how to use technology and incorporate it into their lives to reach new heights of knowledge quicker. For sure, there is a balance here to what extent things like this should be done. -Lucas
Hey Ellie and Lucas, this is my first ever comment on youtube. I feel like I need to say something about Germans and speaking English. Sure in the western parts of Germany the people were taught English after WWII. But in the eastern part it wasn't common and only was an option as a second foreign language to learn. The first was russian because East-Germany was under russian control. Therefore many older Germans can't speak English or as you assumed didn't have any practice to keep what they have learned. My parents are from East-Germany and never learned it. They keep trying but they feel very frustrated and helpless if people come up to them, speak English and get irritated or even annoyed at them for not understanding English. Please also take into consideration that it's much easier these days to learn English because of all the social media platforms out there. And I'm often taken aback why so many assume we all speak or should speak good quality english in Germany since German is our main language. I wouldn't assume to go to America and have most people speak German even though many germans immigrated to the US. No shades, really. But this confuses me a lot. Yes.....English is the global language now but that didn't happen that long ago in history that it was decided on this and maybe in the future it will change to Chinese. Who knows. :)
My mom was born in 1942 and learned english at school. And never ever had the opportunity to use it again, except homework with her kids... She almost forgot every bit of it.
I agree. In mediterranean countries people mostly refuse to speak anything else but their native language ( except for touristic places) and expect foreigners to try and speak their language ( as by the way Americans do, too).
Hello! Wow, we are honored that you chose us as your first comment :D I think you have a super valid point. No offense taken, so please don't worry. I think your parents are allowed to feel frustrated over people expecting them to speak English, and then not being able to. Ellie herself is actually certified as a language teacher in the USA, and feels very strongly about not ever being frustrated with someone for not knowing a language, but doing their best. I of course agree with this. I did my best to convey this in so few words in the video, but I will give it a bit more here for you. I agree with the idea that I (nor anyone else) should actually expect or demand, for instance a German, to know and speak English when coming to Germany. For sure, it is Germany and thus German is the language. My assumption came from the fact that English is an international language, so I just figured Germans COULD speak it, but again, and I want to stress, I never expect them to actually speak English with me. In my own daily life, ever since we lived here, I have always done my best to communicate in German when possible, and even tried to learn it myself (that was a bad idea, should have used a class instead earlier). It is only when I would realize I couldn't speak German enough to convey a thought, that I would then tell someone I couldn't speak German well, and would ask for English, as the second option. For me of course it is always just about being accommodating to each other. I hope that makes a bit more sense?
@@EllieandLucas of course it does, and I have to admit that I often have felt frustrated how little English many of my students actually spoke after 6 years of learning it. When it came to song texts though they were fluent, lol, and they were very creative making up English words by pronouncing German words the English way - wee would laugh about it a lot and their classmates would tease them with it for years:)
@@grandmak. ich wundere mich gerade, warum Sie und fast alle Kommentatoren auf englisch schreiben. Ella hat meines Wissens mindestens ein C1 Zertifikat und auch Lucas müsste genug verstehen. Wenn er es vorzieht, auf englisch zu antworten, ist das okay für mich. Aber wäre es nicht besser, wenn wir Deutschen alles auf deutsch kommentieren, schon damit die beiden unsere Sprache besser lernen?
The technical equipment of schools depends on money. Unfortunately many schools are badly funded which has become widely obvious during the pandemic. In my opinion that's a shame and unforgivable.
Airport codes: MIA = Miami, NYC = New York City. 😀 I am in Essen right now for five days to visit my parents. Unreal how COVID has paralyzed the country. I just went shopping at the Limbecker Platz mall as I am double vaccinated and several stores are open. As to Essen, suggest to check out the Folkwang museum, the Munster Kirche downtown and the Synagogue. Also Zeche Zollverein. You may have done all those already, but just in case.
Thanks Andreas! Glad to see you were in Essen for a bit! We have been to Folkwang and the Synagogue, but I don't think we have been to the Munster Kirche. Maybe, but it was closed? We will have to look . Our favorite is always the light festival in October/November
Hey Ellie and Lucas, I am a German from Essen living in the US for many years and am so happy to see you both doing these videos and sharing your experiences. I would love to see you do some on Essen specifically. Maybe they already exist. Have to check. I always like to promote Essen to my wife and children born and raised in NYC and MIA. I only found out about you yesterday after reading the WAZ article on line. Keep it coming! Thank you!
You'll have to explain to me where MIA is- it sounds like Missing In Action! I really have no idea where that is. We will keep in mind to put in more videos about Essen- mainly we are waiting for the virus to get to a more manageable point before traveling. It is also hard for us to figure out what tourist-worthy in Essen, because we live here- everything it has to offer is normal for us. We do have a video about the Baldeneysee, and we hope to do a video on the Zollverein in the future. We're open to your ideas, too!
@@EllieandLucas MIA is the three-letter ID for the Miami (FL) international airport. People who travel learn how to name major cities by their airport IDs. I'm a USian living also in Essen where I'm about equidistant from the "hipster" Ruettenscheid district and the main train station. What a contrast between the upscale shops in Ruettenscheid and the wreckage of the city center, which was sadly infested by homeless alcoholics and addicts -- even before the pandemic hit. I don't know what pert of town you hang out in, but if you stay away from the center, it's still fairly pleasant. The pandemic has hit everyone, here, as you well know. You should visit Kettwig, a very picturesque outlying village incorporated in Essen get there on Stadtbahn 06 or the 141 Ruhrbahn bus; you can drive there, but be prepared to hunt for a parking spot. It wasn't bombed to smithereens in WWII, so there's a lot of charming older architecture, and Baldeneysee and Werden are close by. I have not wanted to take public transit much during the pandemic times, but when we get out of this, it will be pleasant to make contact again with these locales. It's so sad what has happened, but we can hope for better times ahead. One vaccination down and one to go, for me. Bleibt gesund, meine Täubchen.
@@danieljulian4676 We totally agree! We don't go to the city center much, now that school is online, and thank you for the advice! We have been to Kettwig a few times, and Werden is also nice, as well. Stay healthy- we are eagerly awaiting our first vaccine!
Great video guys and I loved the very accurate illustrations of the peach and the coconut :). I am looking for to the link of the both of you as you were interviewed, so cool my friends. Oh, the cat from the beginning to the end was hilarious lol lol.
Public transport is not that popular in average. In rural areas you only see school kids and old people in the bus, people who are unable to use a car.It's completly different in big cities, cause you are really faster with train, metro, etc. and you have no trouble with parking to get somewhere downtown. But even for "top-managers", they use to go by train, instead of taking a flight, cause distances are shorter, than in U.S. But this is for long distance only, when coming out of railway station they take a Taxi, not the bus.
The most important point was nr1. Its so important for the body and the brain to rest after a hard day and week of work otherwise both is broken within some years. 😊
While the internet isn't bad in international comparison, it's still slow and expensive compared to countries like France or the nordic countries. Mistakes have been made in the past and things take time to recover. Just like after 30 years we still try to even out salaries between east and west. And yes, using things that still work instead of replacing things just because something newer exists is a thing here. I went to school during the 90's and early 00's and tech wasn't really a thing. Think we had a computer room, but there was rarely if ever something done with it.
Totally true, and we understand this completely. I feel like, though, if the Germans addressed this better in the past, they could have been a lot more successful with the digital semesters for Corona. I feel like this is what the country needed to get used to technology, at least recognize it's potential
In my town all schools, including primary school habe smart boards. In the Gesamtschule and Gymnasium all pupils get iPads. That helps a lot in home schooling these times as the technology basis is the same for all kids. However, the use of these devices is introduced stepwise and on purpose manual tools are used, too. Studies show that digital is not always better as the way of learning and digesting data is important. E. g. Manual notes support memorizing and learning as you have to understand, interpret and and convert content to writing. When learning from your notes additional information, like where you noted Info in which shape/form, adds information helping your Brain to categorize and memorize in a more effective and sustainable manner.
This is so true! It is great to hear that your school incorporates technology AND how to use it. It is one thing to have it, but it is not as effective if you do not know how to use it. And I am a huge fan of manual notes! Otherwise, I find I don't remember much unless I write it myself! It has more meaning for me, then
Since you mentioned self-checkout: I like them, but they have some obvious flaws: they make more mistakes than human cashiers and then you have to wait for a human to have time to fix it, so it's not faster using them. You can't buy anything age restricted, because then you have to wait for a human again to check your ID, because it is too big of a safety hazard for the machines to be able to read your ID. Some people are just too stupid to use them in a fast way and then you will spend much longer waiting for them than it would have taken you to go through a normal line.
I totally agree, that they can be such a pain. Walmart used to have this weighted system, that when you would scan the item, you placed it in the bags, which had a weight sensor. Things like chapstick were a pain, because the weight sensor was not sensitive enough to detect them. They have since changed these. I find them a lot of fun, despite having to wait for associate help for alcohol and stuff!
Self check out does exist here in Germany. I prefer to use it not because it is faster then a cashier checkout, it is not, but because I can scan and pack my goods at my own pace. I use a foldable plastic basket, which I put on the output scale, since they no longer offer the free plastic bags and hangers to hold them open.. The basket must be approved by a cashier before I can start scanning. There is one cashier responsible to oversee 6 self checkout terminals. You need them if there are problems with the scanning process, or for adult only products like Alkohol. After I have paid with my iPhone using Apple Pay I put that basket back into the shopping cart to push it where my car is parked. There I put it in the trunk, bring the shopping cart to it’s shelter, go back to my car and drive home.
On the subject of new technology, I can only say that many Germans usually prefer the tried and tested more. New technology usually has a lot that can break and it usually takes a specialist or a lot of money to repair it. And just because something is old doesn't mean it's bad. Many things are still being done as they were 10, 100 or 1000 years ago. For example (maybe a stupid example) if you want to write something down and you don't have an Accu on your smartphone, no socket for your laptop or your IPad is broken, then you take a piece of paper and a pen (ballpoint pen) and if you have the Ink is empty, then you take a pencil because you can be sure that it will write and if not it is easy to scratch something on the face and it will work again and you are sure that you can take your notes that way. At my work we have a lot of machines that are over 40 years old and they run a good 120 hours a week without a fault. In contrast, new machines always cause problems, whether mechanical or technical (they need maintenance or system updates every week or once a month). That's why my colleagues also say; NEVER STOP A RUNNIG SYSTEM
Sure, but we don't still have horse-drawn buggies, which were a tried and true system. The mechanics of them are simple and they don't require much maintenance and are more affordable. But who travels around the world in a horse and buggy? Does the military still use old rifles or do they have more modern shot guns? Do we still manufacture books by writing them by hand or do we use a modified version of the printing press? I understand the argument, but the solution is to test the newer versions extensively to make sure they are reliable. Certainly Germans who pride themselves in their designs and inventions and quality should be able to test and design their own products. The solution is not to not use them.
You're right. Making friends is a huge difference in the cultures. You can tell this just by the fact, that there are different words for "friend". There's the known person, the more familiar person, pals etc. and friends. When a German calls you a friend, you can ask him to do almost everything for you and he will. But it might be a longer journey to get to this point. A friend is a BFF. Everything else is not a friend.
@@EllieandLucas Of course not. You cannot say that 82 million people are all like this or like that. Compared to US-Americans it is said that Germans are more reserved, but even this is something that will not be true for everybody. Of course you can find very open people here and very reserved people in the US. But when we talk about generalization: Germans say about Germans that the people from North Germany are more reserved and quiet and in the South they are more open. I don't know. I think it depends where you live (big city / small town) and what kind of people you meet.
@@TheKitaroHouse I understand. What I am wondering is there is no such thing as friend for most Germans- either acquaintances or best friends? Did I understand you correctly?
@@EllieandLucas I think it's a question of definition and everybody has a slightly different definition. This article talks about this definition problem: www.spiegel.de/partnerschaft/freundschaft-bekannter-kumpel-oder-freund-die-unterschiede-in-der-beziehung-a-00000000-0003-0001-0000-000002786106 This is the theory the author mentions: www.mamamia.com.au/6-stage-friendship-theory/ I would say the question is: are you an acquaintance or a friend? Not acquaintances or best friends. The distance between acquaintance and best friend is too big. A best friend for me is someone I can talk about everything and I would like to share a lot of time with. I have friends I can talk to very open, but I wouldn't want to spent much time with. So I have acquaintances and friends and this is the bigger question for me. Best friends are very rare. But this is my theory about friendships, I cannot tell you is this is true for all other 82 millions :-)
In general in Germany many honor data protection much more (which often results in less card paying / smartphone paying and a couple of other things) than people in the US. We are taking that in many situations pretty seriously (not serious enough in some, more than necessary in others in my opinion, but that is just the way it is). Teaching with new technology is highly depending on the schools you go to and the subjects you are attending. Sometimes it can help a lot, sometimes it stands in the way because it is playful but if you take away the computer / smartphone / tablet, people are no longer able to do it. I would be happy to say, that this is the most important reason why you still find "overhead projectors" in schools but the truth is: Teachers often are still that used to the old tech and can't operate the new tech very well or the teaching plan is just not steered towards integration of modern technology and most importantly: There are a lot of scools which just do not have the funding to do it. In the end you would have to provide every student with an tablet or better a 2-in-1 convertible or something to get that going. But there is not enough public money for that to be done with every school out there. And asking the students to bring there own would stand agains equility. People who can not afford to buy a good computer / laptop / convertible would have disadvantages compared to those who can. And that means: Wealthy parents equals better education. It already is a little bit like that, but steps in that direction would increase that problem even further and that is something nobody really wants. I really did enjoy your video. Very fair and nicly presented and pretty much on point while being very sympathic :). That you very much and keep up the good work :).
Thanks so much! Glad you liked the video! I find the happy medium between providing students with their own tablets and overhead projectors is a Smartboard. This means each student does not need a tablet, but there can be a higher integration of technology when it is needed/useful. However, if we provided each student with a tablet, I feel like students from the less-well-off families would truly be given a way to meet their educational goals better. This is not to say that all of the barriers fall away, but some do.
@@EllieandLucas Yep, that might be right and smart boards are sometimes there (especially in universities they are getting more and more common) but it just costs a lot of money many schools do not have. I think it is just too slow to be funded, not really about being to slow to get adopted. I think it will change and smartboards are of cause less expensive than buying 800 Euro devices for each student so it might get better. Still most schools try to make the hardware for everybody thingy start off because of doing homework and stuff like that is just much easier than too, but we will see. In recent years the government (federal states are the onces responsible in most cases, not the german government as a whole) are putting out more and more support programs but till that is going to be everywhere it might still need some time. At least digital projectors are much more common these days and you can use them in many situations like a smartboard, so it is a start ;).
There are many Germans and probably especially in Berlin who hadn’t English as a foreign language in school but Russian. That‘s probably the case for all those people who were born and raised in East Germany and already left the school when there was the reunion of East and West Germany in 1990.
Bad internet: the more rural the area the worse the connectivity, basically. But any city usually has fairly good connectivity (ie anything around 100k+ inhabitants). If you get a TV cable connection you can often upgrade to very high download/upload rates. I currently have 500 Mbit/s with my TV cable but I could upgrade to 1 GBit/s if I wanted to. Note: this is cable bound, NOT mobile. Mobile connectivity sucks in Germany. While mobile coverage in Germany may be almost universal don't expect high transfer rates. The bandwidths are gonna be tiny due to their massive overcrowding in most areas. But that's just part and parcel of a crowded population compared to the USA, or Canada. Just as a fun fact: high speed LAN over power was developed in Germany, and many compression algorythms in use today in many routers still derive from the MP3 algorythm, also developed in Germany. Self-check out is a thing that many German supermarkets in larger cities experiment with. In smaller towns the supermarkets are often very limited in their space and often can't replace standard check-out aisles with self-check out aisles.
Yep, our schools here in the U.S. throw a lot of money at technology as though it's the answer to why we lag other countries in education (according to some, not all reports). Especially true in our inner city schools. Plus seems like every year, someone comes up with a new way to 'teach' the basics, the 'method du jour' which only confuses our students and teachers. Would love to see a compare/contrast on education between the two countries from your eyes. My eyes may be a bit tainted.
I can contribute to that a little because I went to an American High school some decades ago and some things haven't changed since then. The US curriculum focusses mainly on US history and US geography so students don't have much knowledge of countries outside the US. In Germany history is taught almost throughout all school years beginning with life during the stone age all the way until WW2 including the French Revolution and American Civil War, industrial revolution in Great Britain and so on. Geography means world geography including the most important mineral resources in different countries as well as agriculture etc. Science is divided in Physics, Chemistry and Biology and is taught for at least 3 years, English for at least 6 years as well as a 3rd language for at least 3 years. Our schools don't focus as much on sports as US schools do. There aren't many school teams. We do more athletic disciplines. Almost no school teaches techniques for future jobs and there is no training for driving license . German literature is included in German classes which are taught throughout your school life. I went to a humanistic Gymnasium ( nothing to do with gym, just a kind of High School) and was taught 9 years of Latin and 6 years of ancient Greek as well as 6 years of English and a voluntary French class.
I can agree with this at least to a point. I do think the USA does sometimes see technology as the cure-all, which is also not all necessarily true. As for why the US is behind in like test scores I really can't say. For sure, Germany doesn't seem to change a lot, so whereas the USA might develop new teaching methods, Germany sticks with what works. However, while simply for all generations to understand, I can also see how this can be detrimental, as there are for instance scientifically backed methods about how to teach people languages and grammar, that have changed over the year, that people don't want to change to. Ellie might have mentioned how german teachers don't seem to need continuing education after getting their licenses, while USA teachers do. To this end, while I understand the "method du jour" can be annoying for us generations that are no longer in school, I do believe if the science says there are better ways, we need to support that science because otherwise we will stall in advancing as a species
@@EllieandLucas of course we do ! I've been retired for 10 years now and not sure what it is like today but my colleagues used to attend continuing education on a regular basis even during our vacation. At the end of my carreer we suddenly weren't financially supported any longer and forced to not only pay for the courses ourselves but also take courses only on weekends and during vacations. I remember a 3 week teachers' training in Cambridge I went to that was great fun but awfully expensive. Working as "Studienleiterin" for 6 years I was educating young teachers in Paedagogic which included all kinds of new teaching methods (besides the ones dependent on electronics , it was in the early 2000s).In their final exams it was one of the main criteria to use alternative methods. Maybe you were unlucky with the schools you saw because it's not as you described everywhere.
@@EllieandLucas I grew up in Germany and have children (11 & 16), both on Gymnasium. Of course some things are the same compared to my time, but some things they learn and how they learn are much different. The German Federal States always tries new methods of teaching. I have a younger sister (5 years) and when she has been to elementary school some methods were already different from the way I learned it (and we both have been at the same elementary school).
You are right, and I guees you could even have more bandwith if you wish to have. But 100MBit for two should be quite enough. Vodafone who swallowed the cabel company might even offer 1GBit. Schools are a matter if the federal state for the statt and the contents, but a matter of the town concerning their buildings and equiment. So the digitalization of schools is a subject with many stakeholders in NRW - and the current NRW government started to push for digitalization when they good elected in 2017. With so many stakeholders and also taking the strict data protection rules of both EU and Germany into account, this is not easy, so when COVID started, the rollout of all the plans developed in 2017 to 2019 were almost ready to rollout. So now, the schools have new infrastructure available for e.g. this week of remote schooling which was not possible last year. And here in my small town, even the elementary schools will get modern digital whiteboards during this summer break. The secondary school here has it for approx 3 years now - but also a school cloud is now available etc. So there should be much change visisble within 2021 here in NRW.
I lived in Hamburg for 27 years without a car and did just fine. But going to rural areas and small towns is impractical, if not downright impossible. I was dependent on friends for that sort of travel.
Yeah for sure, if we never had to leave Essen, or only traveled to Dusseldorf, Koln, etc (the big cities) we wouldn't have bought a car either. It wasn't until we tried traveling away from those cities that we found it to be a problem. Or for instance we went to a concert in Koln once, and because the concert went so late, we had to wait another hour at the bahnhof, to ride a train for an hour (or whatever the time is from Koln to Essen), and then had to wait 30 minutes for the night bus. I think that was what really broke us. (Excuse the lack of umlauts, it's very troublesome for a quick reply on a US Windows keyboard)
I'm Scottish, but have spent time in Germany and love it. The hospitality is second to none. If you are invited into a German home, you will be treated like royalty. Super nice people.
I think it is not only the if its not broken approach but mostly has to do with the tight budgets of schools an public services. I bet every school would like to be as modern as possible but they just can't afford it. As far as I know at least some of the equipment in american schools can be sponsored by like companies. (I may be wrong about that, but I think i saw a documentary on it). If that is the case, that could be one of the reasons because I think it wouldnt be that simple in germany. Even if there were a company willing they would have to go through the proper channels.
yes you have a great point. We actually did touch on this a bit, but for the sake of time it was cut from the video (sometimes we go a long tangents...) Anyways, for sure, schools in the USA can partner with major companies to get funding. This was the case in both my high school and university, where a local insurance company often donated to support the schools, and was well known for hiring business and technology graduates all the time
Many germans working over weekend also. Germans feel uncomfortable to speak sometimes English because some only learned Oxford english in school and it's very difficult to American English, othe case could be they are not used it so often and maybe get not the right words in English..
I actually hear a lot that in school, very little attention is focused on speaking. I have a friend who never had speaking excercises in school, and now is so afraid to speak the language because she never practiced it. Teachers...!
Digitalisation is a big deal now, but it is the right and wrong time at the same time at the moment. For years financing education was cut which results in less teachers for more students. This results in worsening education. Meaning: to understand literature or scientific writings, you have to learn how to read it. So, digitalisation is cool, but it is only a tool that you use. What counts is the input. If you can't handle the input, this tool is worthless. That is the problem now in Germany. We need digitalisation, but if we would finance it now, the basics will still be lacking. Unfortunately we do not have other options at the moment.
yeah this is for sure understandable and you are absolutely right. we do only mean technology as a tool, and for sure students must learn the core concepts first, very hard questions to find answers to for sure, without some kind of external help from businesses maybe
Totally, I understand this study and have encountered it myself. I find, however, that good teachers use a wide variety of media and materials to teach- this is part of the KMK. In fact, the KMK feels so strongly about technology that they are working hard to get schools money for technology, and state that teens and young adults from today need to be taught how to lifelong learn to incorporate them into the digital society of tomorrow. Good teachers don't just teach- they prepare students for tomorrow. *also, a side note- have you read the study by Schmidt-Borcherding 2020, that states that under the theory of dual coding that information is easier to remember when it is absorbed through more ways (through pictures, hearing it, etc). There are several studies like this, this is just one I have been working with lately
Regarding your point about the level of fluency in English in Germans i have to tell you that working for huge international companies in departments were English was supposed to be spoken all the time , there are many people who think that because they are able to read and understand English, they'll be convinced that they are totally fluid and nobody can teach them anything. When these same people write a memo or try to hold a conversation however, they come out with a lot of gibberish that you can sometimes make sense of if you are a German native yourself, but sometimes can't. At first i wasn't quite sure if i was able to judge that correctly but a American aquaintance of mine who taught English confirmed that for me when she complained how it was hard to teach these people anything. In one instance, when interviewing for a job i was given a "test" that was so confusing to read i couldn't even figure out what the questions actually were, but i'm sure the guy who came up with the test was convinced he had a useful tool.
I know what you mean! I just took a test to teach English online on a platform, and they seemed to have developed it for native German speakers. As a native English speaker, about 1/2 of the questions did not make sense to me. Also I found it really challenging to answer "Which of these words are spoken in an American dialect?" You would think this is easy, but sometimes in American English, people use older forms of English, depending on your age, ex. grey or gray? I currently write both forms, but probably tend towards the e form. These tests can even be confusing for native speakers, don't worry!
@@EllieandLucas The only regret about that test i had, was that i didn't get that particular job and i don't think the person i tried to explain my problem to (the guy who had produced the test) seemed to be unable to get my point, when i told him that MY English was very good and i couldn't quite figure out what he wanted to know. (I had worked with native speakers before.) I got started early pestering my parents about song texts and then starting to read novels in English at about age 12 and that was in my mid to late twenties. I do consider myself more or less bilingual, by now and whenever i do get to talk to native speakers they tell me that my English is REALLY good, i would never presume to know better than somebody who actually grew up speaking another language though, so i guess with these people, there's a lot of hubris involved as well. (You might have realized that is a trait that's not very uncommon here).
@@thomasbenck9525 I totally understand. I did not get into the teaching program either, and I didn't even feel like trying to explain myself, and I am the native! Btw., you taught me a new word: Hubris! Never heard of that before, but it is so true! Where do you think this excessive pride comes from? Is it toxic?
@@EllieandLucas I think basically it's human nature. There's a thin line between justified pride in something and being arrogant about something that you're not really responsible for and i think for a lot of people it is also a tool to gloss over insecurities. Some people have a very skewed sense of self-perception and manage to convince themselves they're great at everything and just ignore all evidence to the contrary, just as there are people who have no confidence in themselves whatsoever, even though they're basically doing all right. Is it toxic? Well i guess that depends on how much of it there is and how the people involved handle it. If someone is able to realize that maybe they came across a little over the top that usually helps resolve any issues that might arise, but there's always some people who're convinced everyone else is beneath them and that can be hard to resolve satisfactorily.
loved this. Lots of truths :-) Could you maybe talk about phone plans one day? I am always shocked when I hear how much people in the US pay.... also the whole "we think whatsapp is useless" mindset is something I would love to have your thoughts on....
We actually just did a video about phone plans! ;) th-cam.com/video/JK78OMMS2Bw/w-d-xo.html It doesn't go super in depth, but yeah for sure, america plans are often expensive, although some companies are appearing that offer cheaper rates for still good service. I personally don't know if Americans have a "whatsapp is useless" mindset. You'll have to elaborate on that for me. Personally, I never heard of WhatsApp until moving to Germany. I think the common thing in America is simply that people use the build in "text" feature of their phone, because most plans have unlimited texting. Whereas in Germany, since people can have friends from all over Europe, it because more cost effective to use WhatsApp instead. -Lucas
Germans and English: I think the usage of English is very low for a German in Germany and therefore one does not trust his/her knowledge after some time. Just looking at my own experiences: Learned fluent English during my exchange year in US and dropped the subject of English of my schedule for the next 4 years (= zero practice). At the university I notice that I only could very simply sentences, lacking lots of words. Started talking to myself in English, such getting stares but also rekindling my active vocabulary. Next forty years I spoke a total of maybe 100 days of English. I think many (older) Germans will have rather little possibility of practice and therefore mostly be able to understand but less willing to talk in English
That makes sense. I feel like it is so sad to have learned a language and then let it die. But I face the same thing when we go back to the US. I will miss German!
@@EllieandLucas Won't be quite that bad, I think. Your knowledge ist somewhere between C1 and C2 I guess. So you will loose some proficiency (or rather just fluency) when not speaking but you can easily keep up (and enlarge) your vocabulary by just reading or watching movies or vlogs. That is how I keep my English up to date (except I restrict myself to science fiction). Oh, and you are always welcome to come back. You would certainly make a very good English-Teacher - or something like "Meet the Germans"
sure, you'll always need practice to keep a foreign language going. It helps to watch vlogs and netflix movies in English but it helps even more to speak to somebody frequently. I learned some Norwegian at the age of 60 because my grandchildren are growing up in Norway and don't speak German. Due to the pandemic I haven't seen them in a long time and it feels as if I have to start learning all over again.
I can only agree with you. And the point with school. Well, the problem has simply been swept under the carpet (..the existing equipment is still working, so what). Through Corona and distance learning, which does not work really well, the Germans have really woken up that they urgently need to change something.
Germans are very uptight about data security and about not using too much technology. That has been a real downfall during this trying time because trying to set up something nobody is used too . Here in the US it has really not been that problematic event though we live really remote and internet access is not always guaranteed online schooling worked pretty much seamlessly during the last year. As a german american family I and we have experienced a lot of what you said here in the US. Every hour needs to be filled with work. Down time means working out and basically going out on a friday night drinking. And yes I exaggerate I know. The idea of not being productive is not so widely spread here in the US
I know! It is so good to hear from you. I like that through the experience of living here, I have learned these principles. I hope to bring them back with me to the US! At least for myself😁
@@EllieandLucas sounds like a great plan, it took me many years of living here to realize how much I had been sucked in to this principle and it took me about a year after I decided to change that , to actually make the change and make it a (hopefully) permanent change .
I'm German, and one of my American friends that I know closely so clearly has such a totally different mindset regarding work, it's bizarre. For me it's get paid for 40 hours, work 40 hours, done - I don't owe my company any more than that. It's transactional. I give them something, I get something in return. For her, it's normal to do a lot of overtime every day (even secretly), because having done work, being productive, getting her company ahead is almost a physical need to her. I have experienced her between jobs (not an euphemism for long unemployment, literally being between two jobs, just a month between quitting one, and starting another job), and she was miserable, instead of enjoying that rare long "holiday", as I would see it.
As far as English is concerned, you should bear in mind that the elderly generation and especially in the Eastern part of Germany didn't have the same access to English than younger generations. Language teaching has improved over the years and if your college education was rather poor forty to sixty years ago, don't expect too much. And , of course, speaking languages requires exposure to it.
We never knew that the East did not learn English, that surprised us, but we understand. We never expect anyone to speak any language, just thought they might be able to.
there is already a difference of "friendliness and Openness" if you compare Essen and Düsseldorf. I am from Essen-Kettwig (worth a trip btw) and the openness and happiness of the Düsseldorfers strikes me strange at places (and shallow). and self-check- checkouts - every one of those costs somebody a job. Only because of my impatience - not a very social thing. And in many ways - new technology i great, but not everywhere. A lot of our customs are built on trust - and trust is easier to build if there is more face-to-face interaction. And Kids in schools - we actually believe that writing things manually and cursive ;-) helps to learn how to think. And we like to keep out identity, so it is a careful weighting of pros and cons of new stuff. After all - if Germany, Italy and say Brazil would all be just the same - wouldn't it be boring. Nobody would watch your vlog then... Germany is a odd mixture between old and new. Burt maybe that makes us a bit more charming. At times. When we are not awful :-)
I think you have lots of great points! I've never experienced the Dusseldorf thing, but we haven't spent a lot of time there to talk with people. I think however, that just because a society advances their use of technology, that does not make them less special or even remove their culture. If Brazil, Italy, and Germany all had similar access to technology, sure that would mean we can't make a video about the differences in technology, but we could still make a video about the Weinachsmarkt. The old german architecture. The food, and the people. So I guess I have to somewhat disagree here. I think it's the people that make a country different, and I don't think technology necessarily takes that away. If anything, it spreads it for more people to appreciate. We also don't want to give the idea that we think people of all ages need to use/have computers. That's not it. But there is scientific proof that the use of new technologies in the classroom lead to improve learning, information retention, and engagement by the students. Ellie actually gets very excited about this particular topic, as a teacher herself. So absolutely, we are not advocating for students not learning to write by hand. Far from it, but that does not mean technology cannot have a place in schools. And while I loved learning and using cursive growing up as a child, I don't think it can be denied that cursive is dying, with many schools giving it up for other subjects to teach instead.
@@EllieandLucas Cursive IT Not a subject, it is a tool. 🙂 Corona alone moved the Technologie Revolution in, but as a german- I like our ways. They are both faults in my eyes. And a lot of germans think Like me. There you have it. And of course you can disagree BUT you are just living here for a short period of time, therefore - too bad🙂 for you.
In my mind, anything to be learned in school is a "subject matter", but we could debate the use of words all day. Of course they way Germany does things for the future is entirely up to the people and the country of Germany. We are not trying to say otherwise or say whether it is a good or bad thing. As you say, we will not be here long enough for it to affect us. We are simply giving our thoughts on what we experience. If you like it, by all means, love and enjoy and stick with it. We are not forcing an idea or method on you. We were simply trying to state a thought that we had about the use of technology in Germany. I think Germany is seen as a strong and thriving country to the rest of the world. Which it should be. So to us, it was simply interesting to see that the use of technology in schools (which again has been shown by science, something germany also likes to be a leader in) was not more integrated.
@@EllieandLucas And the point you have missed. It is FREE. 8or almost. If you have huge fees every year, that prevent a lot of people from getting an education in the first place - then you can have a lot of lovely gear. And depts until your 50ties. ;-)
@@IchSaluki74 I think you misunderstand- the students in the states and their parents do not pay for the technology in the schools- the districts do through state funding and taxes, much like in Germany. Furthermore, businesses are known to partner with schools to get them the technology if they cannot afford it. Certainly Germany has successful businesses that could do this for schools.
@Ellie and Lucas: If you're really into computer/internet stuff you gotta move to Switzerland. There you get 10Gbit/s Fiber Internet (symmetric) for about $39. 😉
Oh that sounds amazing!!!! I would personally love that, and switzerland seems like a great country. Unfortunately I don't see living in Switzerland in our long term future haha, but I wouldn't mind enjoying the perks for a month or two ;) -lucas
You are right when talking cars. They are of good use when living in a very rural area but living in a town with good bus Transfer..why bother spending money on a car.
yes for sure! we got around quite well the 1st year without a car. It just became hard for us when we wanted to go to concerts that get done at midnight and then trains are scheduled only every hour, or we want to go to certain wildlife areas where train service is not really a thing
about the technology ... I can explain. Most of the cities in Germany are 1000 years old and these are then young cities. there are cities whose marketplaces, the core of the city, are around 2000 years old. the age of the internet began in the 80s, everything ran over the old telephone cables ... until the performance of the cables was no longer high enough. Now imagine how difficult it is to retrofit these old cities with fiber optic cables. old technology in schools ... in space travel, you only use technology that you know, the russian and european rockets work with technology from the 60s to 80s. why? we know this technology 100% and can say exactly what lasts and how long .... that is safer ... old, tried and tested technology. what happens when you use the latest technology. challanger disaster ...... yes we are a fun bunch ... but it works
I disagree....I don't think it works. I find that schools are robbing students of more fun and new ways of learning, and forcing them in the boring, old methods. It's no wonder they dislike school! I agree it is hard to fit in the cities that are older. This definitely needs some planning. Also, check out Mark Rober's videos on Nasa- they use new robotics to land Perserverance on Mars. I don't know what technologies existed like that in the 70s and 80s!
Over here in Holland, old cities have fiber as well, some even more than one. The old phoneline provider replaces it for fiber. The cable company replaced it for fiber, just the last few feet into the houses are still Coax. And in some cities T-mobile is putting fiber into the ground as well. Be aware almost all cities in Europe are old
In my experience, Americans are also much more interested in new things. Europeans are not so much. We think that when something works. Why change? For example, we buy new furniture much less often than Americans - our homes often look exactly the same after 20 years.
Me as an older german; older than 60; understand your points but i see the background too. Many of your assumptions was colored by marketing and advertising, equal here of the USA and Germany. The same is also with me and that's why I try to separate the wheat from the chaff on TH-cam through your and other channels. And you do a good job and yes sure, we have problems with the IT infrastructure in public offices and schools. To point 6. I worked as an Systemadministrator in IT, but my expierince during that job was, not everyonce what is new is good and you have to do a lot of work to make it work or it was complete useless. Why it's so? Because the people who have to decide for the newer things fallen into the trap of marketing and andvertising and they have no background about IT and don't listen to the advice of their IT professionals And i mean you spoke about that you worked oder studied in IT and if im wrong excuse me please. But i have on question for you in one special point. Why you did not find in 99% of this enviroment Apple products, espially if you hear from the marketing thats these are the best IT-product in the world? Most decision makers use Apple, but they know nothing about Apple, its restrictive philosophy and the related work that must be done in an IT environment in order for these devices to function properly in a Linux or Windows environment. And Linux and Windows is the most common server systems and in the background IOS is a kind of Solaris or Linux OS-system and or have a lot of them, but they dont tell it.
hello! wow, thanks for the very precise comment. (lucas here) This is for sure a super interesting point that you bring up, and I can absolutely understand it. Yes it is true that I both have an education background in IT as well as work experience with an IT team from my former uni. In fact, I worked with what we called the "Enterprise Device Management" team, which for us basically meant we were the team that made many of the large scale decisions regarding computers and the uni. My major role on the team involved creating scripts that could manage entire departments, as well as often taking a large role in helping people and departments adapt to new computer systems that would be in place. You are absolutely right, that often administrators follow marketing over their own hired professionals. In my case, I think my uni had an advantage here though, in that often the voice of the IT team was at least considered quite a bit more. New operating systems did not get pushed out simply because a department wanted it, and even new computer systems/models were not given to people without first going through my team to make sure we understood what problems it might create. To answer your question (assuming I am understanding it): I think we can maybe both agree that apple marketing does a great job, but that IT people also know how to read past that marketing and see apple (as well as microsoft) computers for what they are, which are simply machines to fulfill a job. My uni certainly had apple machines, but we had them to the extent to satisfy the smaller population of people that wanted them. We also had probably 90% of our computers being microsoft based, and on my IT team of 5 people, only 1 person actually handled the apple side of things, while the rest of us maintained the microsoft ecosystem. So I think, as you said, IT people need to be listened to, but apple computers while great, present a much larger administrative problem for IT teams, with often high costs of management software as well. I hope I answered your question! It is fun for me to have these conversations. If I did not, let me know and we can discuss this more! -Lucas
Love your videos :) BTW: I think Germans do not care too much for having the latest smartphone, tv, etc. A least, I don´t care at all. I even don´t have a mobile myself and my tv is an old 30´´monitor: I could affort more but I don´t care. Having the latest smartwatch or anything won´t make me happier... Greeting from Duisburg ;)
Greetings! Glad to know you are in our neck of the woods! Lucas and I were also discussing technology and we have to agree, Germans seem more of a sustainable type and don't jump on the newest Smartphones and such. I don't know many of my family in the US that does that, either, unless they can afford it.
My stereotype assumptions about the US: while you might have WIFI in every Toilett, the last time the country invested in real Infrastructure (like roads) was after WWII (interstate project) and that was also when the building of railtracks was halted. So obviously the US and Germany invested in different things. And another thing: rather than burry electric wires on the ground (like in Germany), Florida hangs them on posts and waits for the next hurricane, to take them down, just to hang them up again (instead of one time properly burry them underground). And if the houses were made of concrete instead of cardboard and plywood, maybe the Tornados would not be that devastating. But building the whole house of decent bricks and concrete is obviously perceived as too expensive. So just build a small shelter, hope nothing happens and spend money on a new smartphone every year. I think there is also a different mentality when it comes to risk taking or risk avoidance, which can be seen by the amount of insurances German (and also most European) people have.
It's cool to hear from your perspective the assumptions about Americans! We can't really say anything to this- we don't want to live in Florida with the hurricanes and the rising ocean levels for this reason, and the fact that their houses can be flooded. We don't understand why people live there. With tornadoes, same goes, and then there is Earthquakes. For these reasons, Lucas wants to move to Colorado, where there are relatively few natural disasters. But not everyone thinks like this!
Thanks for watching! We never expect that ANYONE speaks English. In the video, Lucas said he thought that is what they would speak, not that he expected it. He also went on to explain why he thought this. We don't expect anyone speak any language, no matter where they are from or what country they live in. This is the 21st century. Stereotypes need to be debunked.
We have self checkouts in Holland as well, Germans also use them if they come shopping here. So maybe they want it, but are scared to implement it in Germany
@Tagedieb so we all have to pay more taxes and some big companies can save money? Just NO!. I like the idea of an unconditional basic income, but I have no clue where to get the money for it.
Interessantes Video. Was mich mal interessieren würde ist, wie steht es denn mit Euren Deutschkenntnissen? Wenn ich in die USA reise (z.B. wg. Harley fahren) erwarte ich doch auch nicht, das die Amerikaner Deutsch sprechen! Das ist doch ein wenig, na, hier kann jeder seine Meinung einsetzen....
Wir erwarten nicht, dass die Deutschen Englisch sprechen, Lucas fand es halt interessant, dass Englisch in der ehemaligen Ostregion nicht unterrichtet wurde. Deswegen spricht hier halt nicht jeder Englisch, was auch vollkommen okay ist, ist einfach interessant. Wir erwarten nicht, dass jedes Land der Welt und auch nicht die Hälfte Englisch sprechen können.
To be honest, I don’t believe that digitization in the school system as such will make people become smarter. To the contrary, in everyday life it either makes us more dependent on technology or it increases our expected productiveness. Today research, education and communication are incredibly easy. You can take courses on almost anything. Either for free on TH-cam or for little money at learning platforms. It is absolutely not necessary to learn the most modern technologies in school. You will learn all that in your own private life. What would actually change learning is if you watched lectures as homework and then did the assignments in class. Lectures are often very inefficient. I remember getting distracted for a short moment in physics only to basically miss what the rest of the lesson was about. If that lesson was a video, I could have immediately skipped back and not wasted my time. A digital black/white board is only saving your time and concentration that you would waste on writing all up. But that’s really it. Information is brought to us more swiftly. We still have to learn it.
you have a point for sure, but i think it could be argued that the majority of learners (in this case primarily children and young adults in uni) will not take the time to rewatch even a video lecture, if they even watch it all. To some degree I say this from experience as I routinely in uni had professors record their lectures for us to use later, based on the stats of the video platform, almost nobody ever used them. In cases like these, I would argue it's really only adults that would see the benefits of using video lectures, as at that point the adult is learning out of a desire, instead of a level of forcefulness or required learning by a school system. Of course these are also just my thought, feel free to continue the discussion with me! :D -Lucas
Actually you are not allowed to work more the 60 hours/week regularly....usual 40/hours a week. Most work hard on the time they have. Essen is in the Heart of the Ruhrgebiet, so a lot a persons have a „ruhrpottschnauze“, which seems to be rude. Only northern German persons and berliners seem to be more rude ;).
yes, but this is quite different in the US, where you can work as many hours a week to get the job done and are compensated by overtime pay. I feel like this is quite different from Germany, this is our point. Here, 40 hours is the max. In the US, 40 hours is the hopeful end, but often is not.
No smartboards at schools? Really? - We are living in Bavaria - Since my kids are in (what we call) "Gymnasium", they haven't seen a classroom without it. And because we had to move from München / Munic to Würzburg, they enjoyed (still do) smartboards in two schools now. To our understanding however, kids should learn the basics, such as math, natural sciences, languages, geography, history, economics. Maybe a smartboard helps to understand some steps in a calculation better than with a traditional blackboard, but at the end of the day, its about the content of what to learn rather than being perfect about presentation but not having an idea about the subject itself... . And now, with all that remote learning, things are really pushed into using digital chanels anyway. But still, its the subject, not the teaching method... .
Totally! We agree 100%! I am glad that your kids get to experience SmartBoards in their schools. I really honestly have yet to see one in a German school! It is all about how the teacher uses it- It in no way replaces any content, but helps the content be more meaningful and relatable and find new ways for the students to relate to it.
@@EllieandLucas There is something else, you might not be aware about: there are quite some differences in mentality, culture (to some extend) and between the south (in particular Bavaria- where we are & Baden-Würtemberg) and the north (including "Mitteldeutschland"- the former "DDR", a socialist state in the back then Warsaw Pact). In terms of school education, I would say, between Thuringia, Saxony and Bavaria on one (top) side and the rest of the coutry on the other side, with the city states (Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg) at the bottom. To some extend, the difference in education is dramatic. To make a long, long stroy short, I would like to suggest that you talk to teacher colleagues to find out. In particular it's most interesting if you talk to parents who moved from Bavaria to Berlin... . Stunning, believe me.
@@ottoe4925 yes, I had a practicum in Berlin and lived there for several months, I can see the differences in the education! I never had any contact with Bavarian schools, though. In my teaching program, we have learned that the schools are the most tough in Bavaria, so I can totally understand why you have smartboards there, too. Where we live now, however, was not part of the DDR, but there still is not a lot of technology in the schools.
if you hear what neuro scientists say, the human braing is not good at learning with technology. I thing everyone had experienced how less we can memorize someting if we know that we can look it up on google. So turns out that "old school" might be better than most of us think. In most schools the effect of learning is not top on the list. it is all about convenience. So never the less the education system is not good in Germany.
I think you might be misunderstanding something here- I am saying using technology to find out new things. For example, it is one thing to talk about the Perserverance Rover landing on Mars, it is another thing to see it. Which is only possible via video. Also, I am writing a paper on using Erklärvideos in schools, and I have learned that research supports more memorable learning when photos or videos accompany spoken words. The brain is capable of handling these two forms of input and makes it more memorable, because more sense organs are used to encode the information. I generally am not a fan of memorizing. I find it is only useful if you need the information later. If not, you can just forget it. Ex. the periodic table in my 12th year chemistry class. I learned it the old school way, and don't need it anymore. you have me on a bit of a soap box here, so I will finish with this: As a teacher from the US, I find memorization is not true learning, learning is being able to use and apply information to come to new understandings. Creating something new is the highest form of learning under Bloom's taxonomy. Memorization and rote knowledge are on the bottom. This is not my idea of teaching.
@@EllieandLucas oh ok... so you are a real teacher then. most teacher i have experienced are only looking for numbers on paper. they dont realy care what their students learn for live or how their brains develops. What counts is how students perform at a test. with more technology that only can be wors. in Germany it is possible to be an A-student whithout knowing anything. If you are able to memorize what you have to put down in a test for that day, it is enough. what you could do with technology having your mindset would be great. but to me it seems nearly unposible to rearange the the german school system in a good way. may be if more people like you try to make clear what school could be if one sees children as living humans and not as litle machines that have only to be programmed. seeing som mars rover on a screen with educational help ist good whithout a doubt, but seeing the whole world only on screens whithout context and all necessary senses involved is causing damage to childrens brains. ...hope my school-english from decades ago is understandable... 😉
@@EllieandLucas Here at home i didn't need the fastest internet connection so i took the cheapest cable intenet/telephone product from Unitymedia (now Vodafone) and this was 100M down und 10M up for 21,99 EUR (including a discount). And i get everytime the full speed without any issues. Of course, if you live a little further away from the bigger cities, it often gets a little worse in terms of speed. But there is a lot of work being done to improve it in the long term. Something like that just doesn't work overnight.
I have the same speed for like 10-15 years. It's 20-30MB download, 10MB upload here in Ostrava, Czech republic.. And this beautiful speed comes with say 30 disconnects for several minutes in a week. It's HORRIBLE
LOL😂 Lucas's family is actually from Poland- so in the area! He does have some German, too, but his parents and grandparents were born in the US, like him. I'm not sure I completely see the resemblance to Barbara, but I like how you also told us your assumptions!
America has on average slower internet than Europe. However, Germany is also below the European average. Schools don't have a lot of technology, because the teachers are the only professional group that is not exposed to new technology. Of the money the federal government has provided to upgrade schools with modern technology only 10% had been used because the schools did not care. The pandemic has changed that though...
I really hope so. We are interested to see what changes this will bring in the schools! I wish they realized the teachers needed training courses with the technology instead of just introducing it one day.
It isn't the prettiest town in Germany, is it? But maybe it turns to a new gem in near future, after leaving the coal and metal period behind .... I like to listen to reports with the 'outer view' aspect. And your tellings are very respectful, unagitated and comprehensable. Keep it up!
I love modern technology. But: There are almost infinitely more states in which a new thing can be worse, than in which it can be better. Explain to me how it works and proof to me that it works and I shall adopt it within a heart-beat. To misquote my French neighbors regarding one of the best ideas of humanity so far: égalité fraternité liberté rationalité ;-)
I understand, but I don't find that many people really understand how technology can be successful in schools in so many other countries, yet Germany is still behind! Obviously it works there!
And this is true. As a "Nerd" i was falling of from my Sofa 9 years before, as Angela Merkel smiles into the camera and said during an interview "Das Internet ist Neuland für uns!" (The internet is new territory for us!). At this time, i had just completed my home automation to get access to my smart home from outside of my home all over the world. i Was simply shocked about this sentence. But the internet in germany becomes better. Due to the very slow internet speed and break downs, the politics have decided to raise the communication infrastructure but the biggest internet provider, german Telekom, takes the grants and uses Vectoring as a new offer for their customers to have a reason to get more money for internet contracts simply by pressing some more bits through an copper cable. This was not acceptable for our little village and our Mayor found a solution our electricity company offers us free fiber optic connection. Consequence: Now we have light speed internet ;) in my case four time faster for half the price. The german Telekom have lost 2500 customers from one day to another.
Don't Germans speak British English, which is a bit different? Imo learned English from school is always different then when someone is exposed to it from early life. Not just English, every language actually
Most Germans in the north where the British were stationed speak british english, here in the south And south-west there were hundreds of thousands of americans, and there still are tens of thousands . So most of us speak a more american english, despite beeing drilled to speak british english in school. The least widely english is spoken in eastern germany, back in the days of the gdr, russian was considered more important than english.
yeah i've been told by friends that it is british english, but when they speak you probably couldn't tell. Any weird sentences or grammar I've always just assumed are results of being school taught without large english exposure. I can of course be wrong with this
@@EllieandLucas When online gaming, when Dutch, Flemish or Europeans from Nordic make jokes in English, by fooling around with words or do the jokes about Canadians can't say words ending in ~out. Most German speakers don't get it
@@dutchgamer842 Asuming your dutch you will have rooming in germany. Means that you have access to all the three networks (Telekom, Vodaphone & Telefonica) and should have superior coverage. At least that is how it works for me in other european countries. The german phone network coverage is actually pretty bad compared to most other european countries. Speed on the other hand is most of the times pretty good. Better than in most other contries i have been recently (spain, poland, austria), except for switzerland. But we get pretty bad deals on mobile internet, as well as the the classic landline. Both are cheaper and better in Switzerland ...
@@amduser86 I know it should work, it just doesn't. It works fine in Belgium. However in Germany it doesn't. It should work all over the European Union
Tja... schwierig dies zu kommentieren, denn ich kann euch in allen Punkt nur zustimmen. So haben Leute über 50 sicher seltener Gelegenheit englisch zu sprechen, haben ihr Schulenglisch verlernt und nun ist die Hemmschwelle groß. Außer in der Popmusik, wo man sowieso mehr auf die Musik achtet und weniger auf die oft englischen Texte, begegnet uns Englisch im Alltag kaum. Dass unser Bildungssystem in punkto Digitalisierung dermaßen rückständig ist, ist schon ein Skandal und eine große Misere. Ähnlich schlimm sieht es in deutschen Behörden aus. Es gibt sogar Ämter auf Bundesebene, in denen alle Akten noch in Papierform und fast nichts digitalisiert ist! Da konnte man die Mitarbeiter während des Lockdowns nicht ins Homeoffice schicken. Und der öffentliche Nahverkehr auf dem Lande ist auch furchtbar. Nach 20 Uhr kommt man fast nirgends mehr hin bzw. man kommt nicht mehr nach Hause. Ohne Auto geht gar nichts. Freunde zu finden ist auch für uns Deutsche schwierig. Ich bin vor knapp 4 Jahren von einer Kleinstadt auf dem Lande in eine Großstadt in eurer Nähe umgezogen und kenne noch nicht mal meine Nachbarn. Ohne Vereine usw. hat man kaum Chancen auf Kontakte. Wegen der Pandemie ist nun alles geschlossen, man kann nirgends hin. Wer da kein gutes soziales Netz hat, könnte vereinsamen. Wie gut, dass es Telefon und Internet gibt!
Aww, es ist etwas traurig, dass du noch nicht Freunden in der Gegend hast! Wir wissen, was Sie meinen- wir haben unsere Nachbarn erst nach 3 Jahre kennengelernt, als etwas in unsere Wohnung mit andere Nachbarn passiert. Wie komisch!
@@EllieandLucas Naja, bisher hatte ich beruflich auch wenig Zeit und ich pflege meinen Freundeskreis, nur dass halt nach meinem Umzug kaum jemand direkt in der Nähe wohnt. Ich baue aber jetzt Kontakte auf über die Plattform www.nebenan.de Probiert das doch auch mal aus!
Hallo Sanne, das habe ich in dem Video etwas angedeutet. In den USA wird es oft durch andere Firmen bezahlt. Eltern zahlen nicht für Schulen, soweit ich weiß. Außer privat Schulen. Aber in öffentliche Schulen, dies wird meist von Partnerfirmen gestiftet und Steuern. In Deutschland bekommen Schulen jetzt mehr Geld für Digitalisierung, aber irgendwie sehe ich keinen Beweis dafür. Lehrer kennen sich nicht aus mit die Technologie, was zur Überförderung zählt. Deutschland sollte weiterhin mit anderen Firmen koppeln, um weitere Digitale Projekten zu unterstützen und Lehrer sollten über die Technologie informiert werden. In ihren Studium, beispielsweise, genauso wie in den Staaten.
3:00 Duh bro, mind you I've studied in London, working for an International Company, Company language is English and you are accusing me of not knowing English because I am 51? On yer bike! 🤪😂😭😜 If you are relating to those who are around 70+ you are right. 👍
Yes for sure the 70+ people are part of that, but believe it or not there are even people I've met who are Uni students who have a very tough time speaking English. Maybe they are just not confident in their ability, and that experience has stretched through people of all ages that I have met. I really need to stress it's not that I expect Germans to speak English (especially to me). In Germany the language in German, that is totally okay. I just assumed, while living in the USA, that all Germans (or at least ones under 70) could speak a practical amount of English, and I have found that isn't always the case. It's not even their fault. Why would they remember English (assuming they learned it) if they only ever used German the rest of the lives. It was just something I thought that did not turn out to be true
You're going to have to explain to me how you figure this. US schools scored higher on German schools in the 2018 PISA study for reading and science, for example. Here we are not judging schools by the outcomes, that is the point. We are talking about what materials they use to teach, not even the subjects they teach. There are a million ways school systems can be compared, from the subjects they teach, the outcomes the students achieve, student career success, student happiness with the education, etc. Technology was the focus of our video today, not the outcome.
@@EllieandLucas .... and I simply added that this factor may not be important at all. (By the way, I do rather place Germany in Central , not Eastern Europe and it scored higher than the US in 2018 in Math place 20 vs 38, science: 17 vs 19, and lower than the US in reading 21 vs 14) But I did not even mention Germany, so why bing it up? Take another example: Elections. Most European countries use paper and pencil and it works just fine and is not prone to fraud. Other European countries use ultra modern technology - encrypted internet voting with 2 factor identity verification, and they are efficient as well. It's not really about the materials you use, it's the way you teach. I have first hand experience of the US (both a public high school - in an affluent area, though - and a catholic private high school as well as few European school systems. I generally found Eastern/Northern Europe the best (although maybe not very fun), the French system the most demanding and the US .... well, extremely variable in different areas. Really abysmal in foreign languages, great for sports. Also amazingly good in history and "citizenship". As you could chose among different subjects and sort of get a schedule tailored to your interests, many students never really HAD any actual "science" lessons or just the bare minimum. I do not doubt that for those who were interested, there were great science courses on the menu.
Friendliness??? REALLY??? Americans are friendly?? Since when is that true! You have mistaken your love for chit- chat in the USA for real conversation and to think that is what you Americans call,, Friendliness´´ We here in Europe don't love it or do it. We have self-checkouts here in Germany, but our Cashiers are 100 times faster than any American Cashier, they are not obligated to chit- chat with Costumars. Technology, America ?? Go to South Korea or Japan and see what the real meaning is -technology in schools-, but please not the USA. Private colleges and Universities, yes that is true but not Public schools or colleges.
07:03 ... wait, there is a mistake ... your assumption was, you will have bad internet, but you clearly said, that you have even better internet in Germany, so how can your assumption for #5 be correct?
Oh, you are absolutely correct. My mistake on putting the graphics together. Thanks for pointing that out! Yeah, i was for sure wrong (happily) to find that internet here was much better
@@EllieandLucas btw In Prague it's quite common now to have from 300 to 1000MB/s with Vodafone. That is the maximum speed ypu can get and it's aggregated with other people, but it's quite normal to be around 75% of the speed promised. It costs around 38euros per month.
@@EllieandLucas I don't know, they are german, but only few will know them. They poduce some kind of chemicals and raw materials, but no products people are aware of. I was just asthonished that you know them. I work together with them, but did not know them before.
Germany has one of the worst internet infrastructures in europe, so yeah the us has really bad internet. Which also includes WIFI and adaption of tech in schools.
Apart from having literally the most important internet hub (DE-CIX) in europe and the many very good and cheap datacenter and hosting providers ... you know ... actual internet infrastructure ...
We totally agree! We can't believe it is this bad, but we understand the history behind it. It is just weird for us. But there are countries who don't even have WIFi, so this is alright for us
No personal guns either. Did you do that one? Also, much better health care that doesn't bankrupt you, or leave a sizable portion of your population without any. Americans are nice, but your country is not.
We didn't expect Germans to have personal guns, so no, this did not make the list. Please don't think that just because we are from the US, we believe everyone should be able to have handguns. our country does have some problems, but there are many things that are specific to our country, which is why we like it. Germany also has problems that make it not pleasant for us to live here, in the same ways that the USA does
Germans as well as French or Spanish can not compete with Asians, Africans or Indian in talking english. In our countries, schools teach english as an foreign language, while in India and others it is the official language in school and university and often one of the official languages. It is getting better because of so many interactions with other europeans and foreigners in general. For higher educated people or people working in businesess with foreign contact it is mandatory for sure.
Germans learn english in schools as well , it also is reaquired and mandatory for higher education and universities as well ( with countless classes held in english strictly and only ). And also is a absolute must in all higher positions in industry and especialy in the fields of science and economy, starting from the lowest positions. And as for me, I find it very difficult to understand the majority of asian and african english speakers, because their accent is very thick and heavy. I'll take and prefer quality over quantity any day.
I still often find the people that do speak english in Germany do it very well! We always find it interesting how apologetic some Germans we meet are about their english, when so often it is beyond passable, even when they haven't spoken it heavily in years
Assuming everybody will be speaking is sooo arrogant! "Americans" should bother learning foreign languages and cultures. Maybe they would understand the rest of the world better and start less wars ...
Please understand that we never ASSUME people speak other languages. Even people that live their entire lives in Germany don't speak German. We understand this. Lucas said he thought they could, not that he assumed this. This has a different meaning.
germany is a very complex country. i like and dislike germany mostly for historic reasons. i'm interested in the writings of kant, hegel, feuerbach, nietzsche, freud, fromm, marx, engels, weber, luxemburg, adorno and horkheimer. history, philosophy, political science, psychology or religion (protestants) are just some interesting topics if you wanna explore german intellectualism. but germany also always had periods of very reactionary, anti-intellectual tyranny, obviously in its worst form during the reign of national socialism. the new democratic state germany became after the re-unification is still very young and it shows every day. nationalism, antisemitism, homophobia, social darwinism are still very much alive, even in gentrified urban areas. i would probably call the place where i come from (post-socialistic east germany) a first-world shithole. but i also suffered from depression since i was 14 and my problems could be mostly caused by a mix of family drama and not being on the winning side of capitalism. i'm too much influenced by a materialistic world view and never had any connection to organized religion that would give me easy answers to complex problems. sorry for my long comment.
Hallo Ellie and Lucas, i am from Belgium but living in a small village in Germany and here the Gremans are very friendly and open. With only 250 people in the village they support each other a lot. In 2010 i bought a house here so i was new and every time i went out for a walk someone asked are you lost. After 2 years it changed and now they ask is bedroom 6 ready. Internet is very bad here we are at the end of the world for technology. We don't need it you can knock on the neigbours door if you need something.
That sounds like you are in a lovely town! I do think the size of the town makes a huge difference in the"friendliness" of the people. Glad to have you watching!
@@EllieandLucas In Belgium city the same, people keep their distance. Less people, happier people.
In which state do you live?
@@stevensiegert RLP Rheinland Pfalz
As a German from the country side of Bavaria, there is basically zero public transportation (1 bus to school in the morning and 2 back at noon and afternoon and that's it), so everyone is going everywhere by car.
Now I am living in a bigger city and I am perfectly fine without a car or even a bike as I can get everywhere via public transportation.
So it is really very different depending on where you live
Yes, we even discussed that ourselves. I think the major point here is that in the rural areas in the US, there is not even the option for public transporation in rural areas. It simply does not exist. At least here it does exist, even if it can be inconvenient
@@EllieandLucas Aren't there schoolbusses in the rural US, too?
Because the public transportation literally only goes to the school and basically only students use it. Theoretically others can use it as well, but most don't as it only goes to the school in another village and there you can't transfer to another bus line, as they all end at the same time at the same place, so you are basically stuck in front of the school. So it is more a glorified school bus than real public transport.
I think, that's just important to mention, so tourists don't expect to discover all of Germany by bus, especially not the rural parts.
Totally true . Germany will take it's time when comes to new technology. On the other hand it will spend a lot of money in infrastructure which I sadly totally missed when being in the States. Bad roads, crumbling bridges, little towns cut off where people lost their jobs because a factory closed and turning them into nomads. Former thriving towns turned into ghost towns. Big cities where people have to drive sometimes two hours and more just to get to work (one way). Unimaginably for most Germans. I have missed a healthy balance between infrastructure and new technology over the pond.
yeah that is true. at the moment the USA needs to improve on infrastructure and societal needs, no argument there
We had a smartboard at school. And in four years, I saw it in action once.😂
Often, the sluggish technological progress simply has legal reasons. Schools have to comply with students' data protection rights, for example. So student data is not allowed to be transferred to the USA. The same applies to public authorities and companies. The Federal Constitutional Court has also ruled that elections cannot be held purely electronically. In Germany, there are always a lot of regulations that have to be met before a new technology can be introduced.
In addition, people are generally more suspicious of these technologies. It is no coincidence that Germany has organizations like the CCC. And as cases like Snowden, or various data scandals with Facebook etc. have shown us, not entirely without reason.
absolutely true. Data protection is a big thing in Germany. And in schools money is, too. It's always up to the individual school to spend the reduced amount of money they have on things that are much needed.After buying new books, furniture and other teaching / learning supplies there often isn't much left to spend on electronic devices.
I agree that data protection is important, and I also wish that technology was favored by more of the teachers- I find, when they truly know how to use it as a tool, it is quite helpful! This is from seeing it in action myself, thousands of times, and even teaching with it!
Digitalisation in German schools is a disaster. As a teacher in covid times I feel that every day. It has been neglected for decades and now we have to live with the consequences - hard time for everybody organizing lessons. Makes it so much more difficult for pupils, parents and teachers.
I so agree. I feel like in the States, we get training for technology (it was part of my bachelors degree), and I feel much more prepared to work with technology than probably most of the teachers in Germany. I feel so sorry for you all, because you also don't have the resources to teach you how to use it.
@@EllieandLucas The bachelor degree in Holland also requires it
yes, scandalously neglected.
@@EllieandLucas the younger teacher generation is quite well trained privately but for the elderly it's not easy, that's true.
And there are still students without computers at home or any access to tablets and many schools haven't been able to supply all classes with those gadgets.
My school has smartboards in every classroom and teachers who know how to use them. Even thirty years ago it had two classrooms with PCs...
But it's the only school I know that is equipped like that.
When its still possible again I would recommend to you come to Munich and visit the Deutsches Museum (German museum) its amazing and absolutely great. Its one of Maybe the biggest Technical Museum in the World. You can See the history of so many Technical inventions. And many of them had been made by germans. But many of these inventors had to move to the US in order to make a Business out of there inventions. A Story like Elan Musk or Amazon or many others could hardly happend in Germany. As I mentioned before the politics oversleept a lot and the burocrazy.
We will put this museum on our list! It sounds like we would love it there. We also did visit the technical museum in Paderborn and made a video about it. we loved it there!
@@EllieandLucas as far as I saw they renewed it During the last three years. The reopening had been a yesr Ego I think. Unfortunately I wasn't there for such a long Time. So I can't tell you a Lot about the current Situation and the issued things. But I've heard that they have modernized it Not only the building but the issued things as well. In same cases you may could interact. But I am Not sure.. Beware before your visit what you are interested most. Because there are three different places of the Museum. A big Part of the car and Train Exhibition is outsourced from the mein building. It will be next to the place where the famous Oktoberfest Faker place. So you have to ask at the entrance and as far as I know you can access with the same Ticket. But I am sure if you visit the main building it will take the whole day😄😄😄👍👍👍
As to the friendlyness and openness there is a well known difference between north and south Germany. In NRW the difference in Charakter between Westfalen and Rheinland is legendary.
oh really? can you explain more? we are super interested
Being from the north I have to disagree. I think it depends on the individual person how forthcoming they are. We people from Schleswig-Holstein are no less friendly than others. Also I think unfriendliness is a matter of interpretation .
In the US people might be more willing to talk to strangers and be very friendly but they don't have to address them in a foreign language
whereas in Germany some people might be too shy to speak English and are not used to walk up to strangers to talk to them in their native language when they know they might not be understood. I wouldn't call that unfriendly or even rude.
It's just a Rhinelander tooting his own horn. People from the Rhineland always claim that they are sooo open and friendly while dissing Westfalia in the same breath. The biggest difference between the industrial rhineland and the agrarian Westfalia (the West of Westfalia is pretty industrial but the east of Westfalia is mainly agrarian.)
The stereotype of a Rhinelander is loud, drunk and can't take anything seriously. The stereotype of a Westfalian is quiet, stubborn and maybe a bit to serious.
Maybe you can see why those two oftwn clash.
Both are honest and good-hearted people but they xan get quiet childish when they get together
@@EllieandLucas In the south and Rhineland people find it easier to greet complete strangers and engage in small talk. When entering a restaurant they may even seek out tables already occupied and ask if they may join. In the north and Westfalia people are more shy and taciturn and will keep more to themselves.
@@grandmak. We northerners aren't unfriendly. We are very friendly, but we are quiet and direct and use few words. It's a cultural thing. People from more vocal cultures sometimes think a northerner is being rude or doesn't want to talk to you when, really, they just don't think there's anything left to say. Also many places expect you for example to say yes to a request from a friend, even if you don't actually have time in the end. It's considered rude to outright say no. Northerners consider it rude to say yes if you already know you can't come through.
When I was a teenager in the early 2000s, my school was very well funded and we had some classrooms with smart boards.
I hated it sooooo much. Nothing ever worked correctly, the writing of the teachers was even more unlegible than on the normal blackboards, software and hardware problems and it wasn't a good experience in general. We wasted some lessons by teachers just trying to figure out how things worked and why they didn't do what they were supposed to do.
After like half a year, all teachers returned to using the normal blackboards and tried and tested methods.
That stinks. It sounds like the technology was there, but the teachers were not trained for it. In the US, that is rarely a problem. All the teachers have to take technology education courses (not a requirement here), and also have to take new courses every few years (in all subjects, not just technology education). I feel Germany is robbing the future generations by keeping everything the same as it always was. It is really not a huge problem to take a 6 week course to get new information on technology! It frustrates me, this lack of care!
@@EllieandLucas The technical education in schools is a real problem. I think that you don't have to teach coding/programming to all students, but basic knowledge in dealing with technology would certainly be good. However, you need special trained teachers for this and not just any teacher who knows a little about it. The problem has certainly existed for 30 years or more.
In addition to this, really little has happened in the last few years when it comes to equipping schools. This is of course due to the fact that there was little pressure from the public, which is now having a negative effect in the Corona time.
But I think the subject could be debated for hours.
I was at a confessional school in the 80ies. We had some mobile racks with TV and video player. All of them had hand written manuels, because some teachers had a remarkable lack of technical understanding. These manuals were written by the already retired Mother Superior. We had also other technical devices, but most teachers didn't knew how to use them.
In my opinion that's a big problem, they don't know how to use it and they don't know what opportunities computers will offer them. These devices are much more than digital pictureframes or ebooks.
@@kilsestoffel3690 As a retired teacher I have to admit that you are right. I remember myself struggling with technical devices back in the 80ies . I was always happy to have a student help me with it - they of course always knew how to handle things.
@@grandmak. I remember teachers going crazy, because one of the studends brought a remote controll from home, very mean but very funny
I'm in 8th Class in Germany and I totally agree that our internet and technology in schools sucks! We indeed still use these Overhead projectors sometimes and it's just annoying us all so thanks that you mentioned it.
you're so welcome! Glad you like our channel! We hope to see you back here soon
nothing changes slower than governmental bureaucratic organizations .. it happenes only if it realy REALY has to happen.
Kannst Du schon Deine Schuhe binden und einen Faden in eine Nadel einfädeln?
In Germany some things are done a certain way since 1653 and when you are doing things for so long you don`t change it so quickly, like the internet for example.
oh wow!
germany already had an early version of the internet in 1653? impressive!
(sry i had to! ^^)
@@TheyCalledMeT Hello !? The German civil engineer Konrad Zuse (1610-1695) is considered the inventor of the first digital and programmable computers. Also, My Grandpa invented the raps music. th-cam.com/video/qfBWBZCpP4E/w-d-xo.html
We understand that, and we find it interesting!
Hi the last topic is complicated. We have 16 different school systems as education is down to the 16 states. Plus the school equipment is down to the city the school is in.
Now there are "richer" states and "richer" cities.
I can assure you that my school has everything from white boards to webmasters to laptops for the students to language and other laborities....
But then I live in the "rich" Southern part of Germany :-) !
Ahhh, okay. We didn't know about the 16 different systems. The USA also of course has differences in the schools, but I guess because of how Germany has a broader reaching government, we thought the schools all answered to one authority
@@EllieandLucas nope "Bildung ist Ländersache" (education is for the states to regulate) as it is called
Good morning Ellie and Lucas. What makes Germany so great abroad is not the big companies like Siemens or BMW, for example, but the large, very large proportion of innovative medium-sized companies that formed after World War II and contributed to the German economic miracle.The success does not come from the large corporations and companies but from the people who live in Germany, as well as in the countryside and in the cities.So it is the small companies that cause and keep the great success.
Why do we have so little technology in schools? Now we first learn knowledge without technology and only then with a little technology. The advantage is that if the technology fails, we are still able to work. Find that sounds plausible, doesn't it. Side effect is the quality is higher. Well, you Americans use technology but don't know how it works, the best example: You drive a car but don't know where the windshield wiper water goes or check the coolant or brake fluid. Or where does the engine oil go after you have checked it? So who has more understanding of technology, the American or the German who has learned this thoroughly in the driving school.
I can understand what you mean, of course knowing how to do things without technology is important. For sure, I would want my children to know how to survive without 24/7 access to a computer. I would want them to know how to communicate with people to get info, and not just google. Our biggest point here was largely how technology is not largely incorporated into schools. Ellie actually talked about this a fair bit, but to keep the video from being too long I cut a bit of it out of the video. We find simply that US schools teach kids how to use technology and incorporate it into their lives to reach new heights of knowledge quicker. For sure, there is a balance here to what extent things like this should be done. -Lucas
Hey Ellie and Lucas, this is my first ever comment on youtube. I feel like I need to say something about Germans and speaking English. Sure in the western parts of Germany the people were taught English after WWII. But in the eastern part it wasn't common and only was an option as a second foreign language to learn. The first was russian because East-Germany was under russian control. Therefore many older Germans can't speak English or as you assumed didn't have any practice to keep what they have learned. My parents are from East-Germany and never learned it. They keep trying but they feel very frustrated and helpless if people come up to them, speak English and get irritated or even annoyed at them for not understanding English. Please also take into consideration that it's much easier these days to learn English because of all the social media platforms out there. And I'm often taken aback why so many assume we all speak or should speak good quality english in Germany since German is our main language. I wouldn't assume to go to America and have most people speak German even though many germans immigrated to the US. No shades, really. But this confuses me a lot. Yes.....English is the global language now but that didn't happen that long ago in history that it was decided on this and maybe in the future it will change to Chinese. Who knows. :)
My mom was born in 1942 and learned english at school. And never ever had the opportunity to use it again, except homework with her kids... She almost forgot every bit of it.
I agree. In mediterranean countries people mostly refuse to speak anything else but their native language ( except for touristic places) and expect foreigners to try and speak their language ( as by the way Americans do, too).
Hello! Wow, we are honored that you chose us as your first comment :D I think you have a super valid point. No offense taken, so please don't worry. I think your parents are allowed to feel frustrated over people expecting them to speak English, and then not being able to. Ellie herself is actually certified as a language teacher in the USA, and feels very strongly about not ever being frustrated with someone for not knowing a language, but doing their best. I of course agree with this. I did my best to convey this in so few words in the video, but I will give it a bit more here for you. I agree with the idea that I (nor anyone else) should actually expect or demand, for instance a German, to know and speak English when coming to Germany. For sure, it is Germany and thus German is the language. My assumption came from the fact that English is an international language, so I just figured Germans COULD speak it, but again, and I want to stress, I never expect them to actually speak English with me. In my own daily life, ever since we lived here, I have always done my best to communicate in German when possible, and even tried to learn it myself (that was a bad idea, should have used a class instead earlier). It is only when I would realize I couldn't speak German enough to convey a thought, that I would then tell someone I couldn't speak German well, and would ask for English, as the second option. For me of course it is always just about being accommodating to each other. I hope that makes a bit more sense?
@@EllieandLucas of course it does, and I have to admit that I often have felt frustrated how little English many of my students actually spoke after 6 years of learning it. When it came to song texts though they were fluent, lol, and they were very creative making up English words by pronouncing German words the English way - wee would laugh about it a lot and their classmates would tease them with it for years:)
@@grandmak. ich wundere mich gerade, warum Sie und fast alle Kommentatoren auf englisch schreiben. Ella hat meines Wissens mindestens ein C1 Zertifikat und auch Lucas müsste genug verstehen. Wenn er es vorzieht, auf englisch zu antworten, ist das okay für mich. Aber wäre es nicht besser, wenn wir Deutschen alles auf deutsch kommentieren, schon damit die beiden unsere Sprache besser lernen?
The technical equipment of schools depends on money. Unfortunately many schools are badly funded which has become widely obvious during the pandemic. In my opinion that's a shame and unforgivable.
I agree! Glad to have you watching!
true.. but quality of education depends more on other, more conceptional points imho.
Yeah, it always depends on the area or school. All schools I work with have smart boards in every classroom for example.
It's less an issue about money, but more about overbearing bureaucracy
@@ravanpee1325 its both and highly depends on where you live
Airport codes: MIA = Miami, NYC = New York City. 😀 I am in Essen right now for five days to visit my parents. Unreal how COVID has paralyzed the country. I just went shopping at the Limbecker Platz mall as I am double vaccinated and several stores are open. As to Essen, suggest to check out the Folkwang museum, the Munster Kirche downtown and the Synagogue. Also Zeche Zollverein. You may have done all those already, but just in case.
Thanks Andreas! Glad to see you were in Essen for a bit! We have been to Folkwang and the Synagogue, but I don't think we have been to the Munster Kirche. Maybe, but it was closed? We will have to look . Our favorite is always the light festival in October/November
Hey Ellie and Lucas, I am a German from Essen living in the US for many years and am so happy to see you both doing these videos and sharing your experiences. I would love to see you do some on Essen specifically. Maybe they already exist. Have to check. I always like to promote Essen to my wife and children born and raised in NYC and MIA. I only found out about you yesterday after reading the WAZ article on line. Keep it coming! Thank you!
You'll have to explain to me where MIA is- it sounds like Missing In Action! I really have no idea where that is. We will keep in mind to put in more videos about Essen- mainly we are waiting for the virus to get to a more manageable point before traveling. It is also hard for us to figure out what tourist-worthy in Essen, because we live here- everything it has to offer is normal for us. We do have a video about the Baldeneysee, and we hope to do a video on the Zollverein in the future. We're open to your ideas, too!
@@EllieandLucas MIA is the three-letter ID for the Miami (FL) international airport. People who travel learn how to name major cities by their airport IDs. I'm a USian living also in Essen where I'm about equidistant from the "hipster" Ruettenscheid district and the main train station. What a contrast between the upscale shops in Ruettenscheid and the wreckage of the city center, which was sadly infested by homeless alcoholics and addicts -- even before the pandemic hit. I don't know what pert of town you hang out in, but if you stay away from the center, it's still fairly pleasant. The pandemic has hit everyone, here, as you well know. You should visit Kettwig, a very picturesque outlying village incorporated in Essen get there on Stadtbahn 06 or the 141 Ruhrbahn bus; you can drive there, but be prepared to hunt for a parking spot. It wasn't bombed to smithereens in WWII, so there's a lot of charming older architecture, and Baldeneysee and Werden are close by. I have not wanted to take public transit much during the pandemic times, but when we get out of this, it will be pleasant to make contact again with these locales.
It's so sad what has happened, but we can hope for better times ahead. One vaccination down and one to go, for me. Bleibt gesund, meine Täubchen.
@@danieljulian4676 We totally agree! We don't go to the city center much, now that school is online, and thank you for the advice! We have been to Kettwig a few times, and Werden is also nice, as well. Stay healthy- we are eagerly awaiting our first vaccine!
Great video guys and I loved the very accurate illustrations of the peach and the coconut :). I am looking for to the link of the both of you as you were interviewed, so cool my friends. Oh, the cat from the beginning to the end was hilarious lol lol.
thanks darion! we are looking forward to it too!
@@EllieandLucas Awesome possum :)
Public transport is not that popular in average. In rural areas you only see school kids and old people in the bus, people who are unable to use a car.It's completly different in big cities, cause you are really faster with train, metro, etc. and you have no trouble with parking to get somewhere downtown. But even for "top-managers", they use to go by train, instead of taking a flight, cause distances are shorter, than in U.S. But this is for long distance only, when coming out of railway station they take a Taxi, not the bus.
oh that's super interesting!
The most important point was nr1. Its so important for the body and the brain to rest after a hard day and week of work otherwise both is broken within some years. 😊
That is such a good point!
While the internet isn't bad in international comparison, it's still slow and expensive compared to countries like France or the nordic countries. Mistakes have been made in the past and things take time to recover. Just like after 30 years we still try to even out salaries between east and west.
And yes, using things that still work instead of replacing things just because something newer exists is a thing here. I went to school during the 90's and early 00's and tech wasn't really a thing. Think we had a computer room, but there was rarely if ever something done with it.
Totally true, and we understand this completely. I feel like, though, if the Germans addressed this better in the past, they could have been a lot more successful with the digital semesters for Corona. I feel like this is what the country needed to get used to technology, at least recognize it's potential
In my town all schools, including primary school habe smart boards. In the Gesamtschule and Gymnasium all pupils get iPads. That helps a lot in home schooling these times as the technology basis is the same for all kids. However, the use of these devices is introduced stepwise and on purpose manual tools are used, too. Studies show that digital is not always better as the way of learning and digesting data is important. E. g. Manual notes support memorizing and learning as you have to understand, interpret and and convert content to writing. When learning from your notes additional information, like where you noted Info in which shape/form, adds information helping your Brain to categorize and memorize in a more effective and sustainable manner.
This is so true! It is great to hear that your school incorporates technology AND how to use it. It is one thing to have it, but it is not as effective if you do not know how to use it. And I am a huge fan of manual notes! Otherwise, I find I don't remember much unless I write it myself! It has more meaning for me, then
Since you mentioned self-checkout: I like them, but they have some obvious flaws: they make more mistakes than human cashiers and then you have to wait for a human to have time to fix it, so it's not faster using them. You can't buy anything age restricted, because then you have to wait for a human again to check your ID, because it is too big of a safety hazard for the machines to be able to read your ID. Some people are just too stupid to use them in a fast way and then you will spend much longer waiting for them than it would have taken you to go through a normal line.
I totally agree, that they can be such a pain. Walmart used to have this weighted system, that when you would scan the item, you placed it in the bags, which had a weight sensor. Things like chapstick were a pain, because the weight sensor was not sensitive enough to detect them. They have since changed these. I find them a lot of fun, despite having to wait for associate help for alcohol and stuff!
Self check out does exist here in Germany. I prefer to use it not because it is faster then a cashier checkout, it is not, but because I can scan and pack my goods at my own pace. I use a foldable plastic basket, which I put on the output scale, since they no longer offer the free plastic bags and hangers to hold them open.. The basket must be approved by a cashier before I can start scanning. There is one cashier responsible to oversee 6 self checkout terminals. You need them if there are problems with the scanning process, or for adult only products like Alkohol. After I have paid with my iPhone using Apple Pay I put that basket back into the shopping cart to push it where my car is parked. There I put it in the trunk, bring the shopping cart to it’s shelter, go back to my car and drive home.
@@rolfgarske8174 it works pretty well at IKEA.
On the subject of new technology, I can only say that many Germans usually prefer the tried and tested more. New technology usually has a lot that can break and it usually takes a specialist or a lot of money to repair it. And just because something is old doesn't mean it's bad. Many things are still being done as they were 10, 100 or 1000 years ago. For example (maybe a stupid example) if you want to write something down and you don't have an Accu on your smartphone, no socket for your laptop or your IPad is broken, then you take a piece of paper and a pen (ballpoint pen) and if you have the Ink is empty, then you take a pencil because you can be sure that it will write and if not it is easy to scratch something on the face and it will work again and you are sure that you can take your notes that way. At my work we have a lot of machines that are over 40 years old and they run a good 120 hours a week without a fault. In contrast, new machines always cause problems, whether mechanical or technical (they need maintenance or system updates every week or once a month). That's why my colleagues also say; NEVER STOP A RUNNIG SYSTEM
Sure, but we don't still have horse-drawn buggies, which were a tried and true system. The mechanics of them are simple and they don't require much maintenance and are more affordable. But who travels around the world in a horse and buggy? Does the military still use old rifles or do they have more modern shot guns? Do we still manufacture books by writing them by hand or do we use a modified version of the printing press?
I understand the argument, but the solution is to test the newer versions extensively to make sure they are reliable. Certainly Germans who pride themselves in their designs and inventions and quality should be able to test and design their own products. The solution is not to not use them.
You're right. Making friends is a huge difference in the cultures. You can tell this just by the fact, that there are different words for "friend". There's the known person, the more familiar person, pals etc. and friends. When a German calls you a friend, you can ask him to do almost everything for you and he will. But it might be a longer journey to get to this point. A friend is a BFF. Everything else is not a friend.
So am I understanding this correctly: Germans only have BFF's and acquaintances?
@@EllieandLucas Of course not. You cannot say that 82 million people are all like this or like that. Compared to US-Americans it is said that Germans are more reserved, but even this is something that will not be true for everybody. Of course you can find very open people here and very reserved people in the US. But when we talk about generalization: Germans say about Germans that the people from North Germany are more reserved and quiet and in the South they are more open. I don't know. I think it depends where you live (big city / small town) and what kind of people you meet.
@@TheKitaroHouse I understand. What I am wondering is there is no such thing as friend for most Germans- either acquaintances or best friends? Did I understand you correctly?
@@EllieandLucas I think it's a question of definition and everybody has a slightly different definition. This article talks about this definition problem:
www.spiegel.de/partnerschaft/freundschaft-bekannter-kumpel-oder-freund-die-unterschiede-in-der-beziehung-a-00000000-0003-0001-0000-000002786106
This is the theory the author mentions: www.mamamia.com.au/6-stage-friendship-theory/
I would say the question is: are you an acquaintance or a friend? Not acquaintances or best friends. The distance between acquaintance and best friend is too big. A best friend for me is someone I can talk about everything and I would like to share a lot of time with. I have friends I can talk to very open, but I wouldn't want to spent much time with. So I have acquaintances and friends and this is the bigger question for me. Best friends are very rare.
But this is my theory about friendships, I cannot tell you is this is true for all other 82 millions :-)
in germany its kinda hard to find friends. But if you find someone, it's forever.
(If you find someone immediately, it coul'd also immediately over)
truuue
In general in Germany many honor data protection much more (which often results in less card paying / smartphone paying and a couple of other things) than people in the US. We are taking that in many situations pretty seriously (not serious enough in some, more than necessary in others in my opinion, but that is just the way it is).
Teaching with new technology is highly depending on the schools you go to and the subjects you are attending. Sometimes it can help a lot, sometimes it stands in the way because it is playful but if you take away the computer / smartphone / tablet, people are no longer able to do it.
I would be happy to say, that this is the most important reason why you still find "overhead projectors" in schools but the truth is: Teachers often are still that used to the old tech and can't operate the new tech very well or the teaching plan is just not steered towards integration of modern technology and most importantly: There are a lot of scools which just do not have the funding to do it.
In the end you would have to provide every student with an tablet or better a 2-in-1 convertible or something to get that going. But there is not enough public money for that to be done with every school out there. And asking the students to bring there own would stand agains equility. People who can not afford to buy a good computer / laptop / convertible would have disadvantages compared to those who can. And that means: Wealthy parents equals better education. It already is a little bit like that, but steps in that direction would increase that problem even further and that is something nobody really wants.
I really did enjoy your video. Very fair and nicly presented and pretty much on point while being very sympathic :). That you very much and keep up the good work :).
Thanks so much! Glad you liked the video! I find the happy medium between providing students with their own tablets and overhead projectors is a Smartboard. This means each student does not need a tablet, but there can be a higher integration of technology when it is needed/useful.
However, if we provided each student with a tablet, I feel like students from the less-well-off families would truly be given a way to meet their educational goals better. This is not to say that all of the barriers fall away, but some do.
@@EllieandLucas Yep, that might be right and smart boards are sometimes there (especially in universities they are getting more and more common) but it just costs a lot of money many schools do not have. I think it is just too slow to be funded, not really about being to slow to get adopted. I think it will change and smartboards are of cause less expensive than buying 800 Euro devices for each student so it might get better.
Still most schools try to make the hardware for everybody thingy start off because of doing homework and stuff like that is just much easier than too, but we will see.
In recent years the government (federal states are the onces responsible in most cases, not the german government as a whole) are putting out more and more support programs but till that is going to be everywhere it might still need some time.
At least digital projectors are much more common these days and you can use them in many situations like a smartboard, so it is a start ;).
There are many Germans and probably especially in Berlin who hadn’t English as a foreign language in school but Russian. That‘s probably the case for all those people who were born and raised in East Germany and already left the school when there was the reunion of East and West Germany in 1990.
Bad internet: the more rural the area the worse the connectivity, basically.
But any city usually has fairly good connectivity (ie anything around 100k+ inhabitants). If you get a TV cable connection you can often upgrade to very high download/upload rates. I currently have 500 Mbit/s with my TV cable but I could upgrade to 1 GBit/s if I wanted to. Note: this is cable bound, NOT mobile.
Mobile connectivity sucks in Germany. While mobile coverage in Germany may be almost universal don't expect high transfer rates. The bandwidths are gonna be tiny due to their massive overcrowding in most areas. But that's just part and parcel of a crowded population compared to the USA, or Canada.
Just as a fun fact: high speed LAN over power was developed in Germany, and many compression algorythms in use today in many routers still derive from the MP3 algorythm, also developed in Germany.
Self-check out is a thing that many German supermarkets in larger cities experiment with. In smaller towns the supermarkets are often very limited in their space and often can't replace standard check-out aisles with self-check out aisles.
yeah that all makes sense. Thanks for your thoughts!
Yep, our schools here in the U.S. throw a lot of money at technology as though it's the answer to why we lag other countries in education (according to some, not all reports). Especially true in our inner city schools. Plus seems like every year, someone comes up with a new way to 'teach' the basics, the 'method du jour' which only confuses our students and teachers. Would love to see a compare/contrast on education between the two countries from your eyes. My eyes may be a bit tainted.
I can contribute to that a little because I went to an American High school some decades ago and some things haven't changed since then.
The US curriculum focusses mainly on US history and US geography so students don't have much knowledge of countries outside the US.
In Germany history is taught almost throughout all school years beginning with life during the stone age all the way until WW2 including the French Revolution and American Civil War, industrial revolution in Great Britain and so on.
Geography means world geography including the most important mineral resources in different countries as well as agriculture etc.
Science is divided in Physics, Chemistry and Biology and is taught for at least 3 years, English for at least 6 years as well as a 3rd language for at least 3 years.
Our schools don't focus as much on sports as US schools do. There aren't many school teams. We do more athletic disciplines.
Almost no school teaches techniques for future jobs and there is no training for driving license .
German literature is included in German classes which are taught throughout your school life.
I went to a humanistic Gymnasium ( nothing to do with gym, just a kind of High School) and was taught 9 years of Latin and 6 years of ancient Greek as well as 6 years of English and a voluntary French class.
I can agree with this at least to a point. I do think the USA does sometimes see technology as the cure-all, which is also not all necessarily true. As for why the US is behind in like test scores I really can't say. For sure, Germany doesn't seem to change a lot, so whereas the USA might develop new teaching methods, Germany sticks with what works. However, while simply for all generations to understand, I can also see how this can be detrimental, as there are for instance scientifically backed methods about how to teach people languages and grammar, that have changed over the year, that people don't want to change to. Ellie might have mentioned how german teachers don't seem to need continuing education after getting their licenses, while USA teachers do. To this end, while I understand the "method du jour" can be annoying for us generations that are no longer in school, I do believe if the science says there are better ways, we need to support that science because otherwise we will stall in advancing as a species
@@EllieandLucas of course we do ! I've been retired for 10 years now and not sure what it is like today but my colleagues used to attend continuing education on a regular basis even during our vacation. At the end of my carreer we suddenly weren't financially supported any longer and forced to not only pay for the courses ourselves but also take courses only on weekends and during vacations. I remember a 3 week teachers' training in Cambridge I went to that was great fun but awfully expensive.
Working as "Studienleiterin" for 6 years I was educating young teachers in Paedagogic which included all kinds of new teaching methods (besides the ones dependent on electronics , it was in the early 2000s).In their final exams it was one of the main criteria to use alternative methods. Maybe you were unlucky with the schools you saw because it's not as you described everywhere.
All Germans I know and heard about who went to school in the USA think the lessons were way too easy and would send their children to a German school
@@EllieandLucas I grew up in Germany and have children (11 & 16), both on Gymnasium. Of course some things are the same compared to my time, but some things they learn and how they learn are much different. The German Federal States always tries new methods of teaching. I have a younger sister (5 years) and when she has been to elementary school some methods were already different from the way I learned it (and we both have been at the same elementary school).
4:25 Kommt drauf an, wo ihr gerade seid, bei uns im Rheinland sind wie meistens direkt per du!
müssen wir mal merken!
You are right, and I guees you could even have more bandwith if you wish to have. But 100MBit for two should be quite enough. Vodafone who swallowed the cabel company might even offer 1GBit.
Schools are a matter if the federal state for the statt and the contents, but a matter of the town concerning their buildings and equiment. So the digitalization of schools is a subject with many stakeholders in NRW - and the current NRW government started to push for digitalization when they good elected in 2017. With so many stakeholders and also taking the strict data protection rules of both EU and Germany into account, this is not easy, so when COVID started, the rollout of all the plans developed in 2017 to 2019 were almost ready to rollout. So now, the schools have new infrastructure available for e.g. this week of remote schooling which was not possible last year. And here in my small town, even the elementary schools will get modern digital whiteboards during this summer break. The secondary school here has it for approx 3 years now - but also a school cloud is now available etc. So there should be much change visisble within 2021 here in NRW.
I hope so! These are changes we are looking forward to seeing. Thanks for commenting!
I lived in Hamburg for 27 years without a car and did just fine. But going to rural areas and small towns is impractical, if not downright impossible. I was dependent on friends for that sort of travel.
Yeah for sure, if we never had to leave Essen, or only traveled to Dusseldorf, Koln, etc (the big cities) we wouldn't have bought a car either. It wasn't until we tried traveling away from those cities that we found it to be a problem. Or for instance we went to a concert in Koln once, and because the concert went so late, we had to wait another hour at the bahnhof, to ride a train for an hour (or whatever the time is from Koln to Essen), and then had to wait 30 minutes for the night bus. I think that was what really broke us. (Excuse the lack of umlauts, it's very troublesome for a quick reply on a US Windows keyboard)
I'm Scottish, but have spent time in Germany and love it. The hospitality is second to none. If you are invited into a German home, you will be treated like royalty. Super nice people.
yeah that is very true!
I think it is not only the if its not broken approach but mostly has to do with the tight budgets of schools an public services. I bet every school would like to be as modern as possible but they just can't afford it. As far as I know at least some of the equipment in american schools can be sponsored by like companies. (I may be wrong about that, but I think i saw a documentary on it).
If that is the case, that could be one of the reasons because I think it wouldnt be that simple in germany. Even if there were a company willing they would have to go through the proper channels.
yes you have a great point. We actually did touch on this a bit, but for the sake of time it was cut from the video (sometimes we go a long tangents...) Anyways, for sure, schools in the USA can partner with major companies to get funding. This was the case in both my high school and university, where a local insurance company often donated to support the schools, and was well known for hiring business and technology graduates all the time
Many germans working over weekend also. Germans feel uncomfortable to speak sometimes English because some only learned Oxford english in school and it's very difficult to American English, othe case could be they are not used it so often and maybe get not the right words in English..
Why should anyone be ashamed of speaking Oxford English. Much more sophisticated than some American slang
I actually hear a lot that in school, very little attention is focused on speaking. I have a friend who never had speaking excercises in school, and now is so afraid to speak the language because she never practiced it. Teachers...!
Digitalisation is a big deal now, but it is the right and wrong time at the same time at the moment.
For years financing education was cut which results in less teachers for more students.
This results in worsening education. Meaning: to understand literature or scientific writings, you have to learn how to read it.
So, digitalisation is cool, but it is only a tool that you use. What counts is the input.
If you can't handle the input, this tool is worthless.
That is the problem now in Germany.
We need digitalisation, but if we would finance it now, the basics will still be lacking.
Unfortunately we do not have other options at the moment.
yeah this is for sure understandable and you are absolutely right. we do only mean technology as a tool, and for sure students must learn the core concepts first, very hard questions to find answers to for sure, without some kind of external help from businesses maybe
As Hattie showed in 2009 good technology does not make good education. Good teachers do.
Totally, I understand this study and have encountered it myself. I find, however, that good teachers use a wide variety of media and materials to teach- this is part of the KMK. In fact, the KMK feels so strongly about technology that they are working hard to get schools money for technology, and state that teens and young adults from today need to be taught how to lifelong learn to incorporate them into the digital society of tomorrow. Good teachers don't just teach- they prepare students for tomorrow.
*also, a side note- have you read the study by Schmidt-Borcherding 2020, that states that under the theory of dual coding that information is easier to remember when it is absorbed through more ways (through pictures, hearing it, etc). There are several studies like this, this is just one I have been working with lately
Regarding your point about the level of fluency in English in Germans i have to tell you that working for huge international companies in departments were English was supposed to be spoken all the time , there are many people who think that because they are able to read and understand English, they'll be convinced that they are totally fluid and nobody can teach them anything.
When these same people write a memo or try to hold a conversation however, they come out with a lot of gibberish that you can sometimes make sense of if you are a German native yourself, but sometimes can't.
At first i wasn't quite sure if i was able to judge that correctly but a American aquaintance of mine who taught English confirmed that for me when she complained how it was hard to teach these people anything.
In one instance, when interviewing for a job i was given a "test" that was so confusing to read i couldn't even figure out what the questions actually were, but i'm sure the guy who came up with the test was convinced he had a useful tool.
I know what you mean! I just took a test to teach English online on a platform, and they seemed to have developed it for native German speakers. As a native English speaker, about 1/2 of the questions did not make sense to me. Also I found it really challenging to answer "Which of these words are spoken in an American dialect?" You would think this is easy, but sometimes in American English, people use older forms of English, depending on your age, ex. grey or gray? I currently write both forms, but probably tend towards the e form. These tests can even be confusing for native speakers, don't worry!
@@EllieandLucas The only regret about that test i had, was that i didn't get that particular job and i don't think the person i tried to explain my problem to (the guy who had produced the test) seemed to be unable to get my point, when i told him that MY English was very good and i couldn't quite figure out what he wanted to know. (I had worked with native speakers before.)
I got started early pestering my parents about song texts and then starting to read novels in English at about age 12 and that was in my mid to late twenties. I do consider myself more or less bilingual, by now and whenever i do get to talk to native speakers they tell me that my English is REALLY good, i would never presume to know better than somebody who actually grew up speaking another language though, so i guess with these people, there's a lot of hubris involved as well. (You might have realized that is a trait that's not very uncommon here).
@@thomasbenck9525 I totally understand. I did not get into the teaching program either, and I didn't even feel like trying to explain myself, and I am the native!
Btw., you taught me a new word: Hubris! Never heard of that before, but it is so true! Where do you think this excessive pride comes from? Is it toxic?
@@EllieandLucas I think basically it's human nature. There's a thin line between justified pride in something and being arrogant about something that you're not really responsible for and i think for a lot of people it is also a tool to gloss over insecurities. Some people have a very skewed sense of self-perception and manage to convince themselves they're great at everything and just ignore all evidence to the contrary, just as there are people who have no confidence in themselves whatsoever, even though they're basically doing all right.
Is it toxic? Well i guess that depends on how much of it there is and how the people involved handle it. If someone is able to realize that maybe they came across a little over the top that usually helps resolve any issues that might arise, but there's always some people who're convinced everyone else is beneath them and that can be hard to resolve satisfactorily.
Nobody said German is friendly and open. Americans are the most friendly and open people.
nope, no one has said this, you are correct! Without knowing the culture, this is what we thought before coming to Germany.
loved this. Lots of truths :-) Could you maybe talk about phone plans one day? I am always shocked when I hear how much people in the US pay.... also the whole "we think whatsapp is useless" mindset is something I would love to have your thoughts on....
We actually just did a video about phone plans! ;) th-cam.com/video/JK78OMMS2Bw/w-d-xo.html
It doesn't go super in depth, but yeah for sure, america plans are often expensive, although some companies are appearing that offer cheaper rates for still good service. I personally don't know if Americans have a "whatsapp is useless" mindset. You'll have to elaborate on that for me. Personally, I never heard of WhatsApp until moving to Germany. I think the common thing in America is simply that people use the build in "text" feature of their phone, because most plans have unlimited texting. Whereas in Germany, since people can have friends from all over Europe, it because more cost effective to use WhatsApp instead. -Lucas
Germans and English: I think the usage of English is very low for a German in Germany and therefore one does not trust his/her knowledge after some time. Just looking at my own experiences:
Learned fluent English during my exchange year in US and dropped the subject of English of my schedule for the next 4 years (= zero practice). At the university I notice that I only could very simply sentences, lacking lots of words. Started talking to myself in English, such getting stares but also rekindling my active vocabulary. Next forty years I spoke a total of maybe 100 days of English. I think many (older) Germans will have rather little possibility of practice and therefore mostly be able to understand but less willing to talk in English
That makes sense. I feel like it is so sad to have learned a language and then let it die. But I face the same thing when we go back to the US. I will miss German!
@@EllieandLucas Won't be quite that bad, I think. Your knowledge ist somewhere between C1 and C2 I guess. So you will loose some proficiency (or rather just fluency) when not speaking but you can easily keep up (and enlarge) your vocabulary by just reading or watching movies or vlogs. That is how I keep my English up to date (except I restrict myself to science fiction).
Oh, and you are always welcome to come back. You would certainly make a very good English-Teacher - or something like "Meet the Germans"
sure, you'll always need practice to keep a foreign language going. It helps to watch vlogs and netflix movies in English but it helps even more to speak to somebody frequently.
I learned some Norwegian at the age of 60 because my grandchildren are growing up in Norway and don't speak German. Due to the pandemic I haven't seen them in a long time and it feels as if I have to start learning all over again.
@@grandmak. Sounds familiar. I am learning French (over 60 too) so I know your problems :-)
@@wora1111 sounds good! Thanks!
I can only agree with you. And the point with school. Well, the problem has simply been swept under the carpet (..the existing equipment is still working, so what). Through Corona and distance learning, which does not work really well, the Germans have really woken up that they urgently need to change something.
I think so, too, and I hope it fuels a big change. I wish teachers got the training they needed for this!
Germans are very uptight about data security and about not using too much technology. That has been a real downfall during this trying time because trying to set up something nobody is used too . Here in the US it has really not been that problematic event though we live really remote and internet access is not always guaranteed online schooling worked pretty much seamlessly during the last year. As a german american family I and we have experienced a lot of what you said here in the US. Every hour needs to be filled with work. Down time means working out and basically going out on a friday night drinking. And yes I exaggerate I know. The idea of not being productive is not so widely spread here in the US
I know! It is so good to hear from you. I like that through the experience of living here, I have learned these principles. I hope to bring them back with me to the US! At least for myself😁
@@EllieandLucas sounds like a great plan, it took me many years of living here to realize how much I had been sucked in to this principle and it took me about a year after I decided to change that , to actually make the change and make it a (hopefully) permanent change .
I'm German, and one of my American friends that I know closely so clearly has such a totally different mindset regarding work, it's bizarre. For me it's get paid for 40 hours, work 40 hours, done - I don't owe my company any more than that. It's transactional. I give them something, I get something in return. For her, it's normal to do a lot of overtime every day (even secretly), because having done work, being productive, getting her company ahead is almost a physical need to her. I have experienced her between jobs (not an euphemism for long unemployment, literally being between two jobs, just a month between quitting one, and starting another job), and she was miserable, instead of enjoying that rare long "holiday", as I would see it.
As far as English is concerned, you should bear in mind that the elderly generation and especially in the Eastern part of Germany didn't have the same access to English than younger generations. Language teaching has improved over the years and if your college education was rather poor forty to sixty years ago, don't expect too much. And , of course, speaking languages requires exposure to it.
We never knew that the East did not learn English, that surprised us, but we understand. We never expect anyone to speak any language, just thought they might be able to.
there is already a difference of "friendliness and Openness" if you compare Essen and Düsseldorf. I am from Essen-Kettwig (worth a trip btw) and the openness and happiness of the Düsseldorfers strikes me strange at places (and shallow). and self-check- checkouts - every one of those costs somebody a job. Only because of my impatience - not a very social thing. And in many ways - new technology i great, but not everywhere. A lot of our customs are built on trust - and trust is easier to build if there is more face-to-face interaction. And Kids in schools - we actually believe that writing things manually and cursive ;-) helps to learn how to think. And we like to keep out identity, so it is a careful weighting of pros and cons of new stuff. After all - if Germany, Italy and say Brazil would all be just the same - wouldn't it be boring. Nobody would watch your vlog then... Germany is a odd mixture between old and new. Burt maybe that makes us a bit more charming. At times. When we are not awful :-)
I think you have lots of great points! I've never experienced the Dusseldorf thing, but we haven't spent a lot of time there to talk with people. I think however, that just because a society advances their use of technology, that does not make them less special or even remove their culture. If Brazil, Italy, and Germany all had similar access to technology, sure that would mean we can't make a video about the differences in technology, but we could still make a video about the Weinachsmarkt. The old german architecture. The food, and the people. So I guess I have to somewhat disagree here. I think it's the people that make a country different, and I don't think technology necessarily takes that away. If anything, it spreads it for more people to appreciate. We also don't want to give the idea that we think people of all ages need to use/have computers. That's not it. But there is scientific proof that the use of new technologies in the classroom lead to improve learning, information retention, and engagement by the students. Ellie actually gets very excited about this particular topic, as a teacher herself. So absolutely, we are not advocating for students not learning to write by hand. Far from it, but that does not mean technology cannot have a place in schools. And while I loved learning and using cursive growing up as a child, I don't think it can be denied that cursive is dying, with many schools giving it up for other subjects to teach instead.
@@EllieandLucas Cursive IT Not a subject, it is a tool. 🙂 Corona alone moved the Technologie Revolution in, but as a german- I like our ways. They are both faults in my eyes. And a lot of germans think Like me. There you have it. And of course you can disagree BUT you are just living here for a short period of time, therefore - too bad🙂 for you.
In my mind, anything to be learned in school is a "subject matter", but we could debate the use of words all day. Of course they way Germany does things for the future is entirely up to the people and the country of Germany. We are not trying to say otherwise or say whether it is a good or bad thing. As you say, we will not be here long enough for it to affect us. We are simply giving our thoughts on what we experience. If you like it, by all means, love and enjoy and stick with it. We are not forcing an idea or method on you. We were simply trying to state a thought that we had about the use of technology in Germany. I think Germany is seen as a strong and thriving country to the rest of the world. Which it should be. So to us, it was simply interesting to see that the use of technology in schools (which again has been shown by science, something germany also likes to be a leader in) was not more integrated.
@@EllieandLucas And the point you have missed. It is FREE. 8or almost. If you have huge fees every year, that prevent a lot of people from getting an education in the first place - then you can have a lot of lovely gear. And depts until your 50ties. ;-)
@@IchSaluki74 I think you misunderstand- the students in the states and their parents do not pay for the technology in the schools- the districts do through state funding and taxes, much like in Germany. Furthermore, businesses are known to partner with schools to get them the technology if they cannot afford it. Certainly Germany has successful businesses that could do this for schools.
@Ellie and Lucas: If you're really into computer/internet stuff you gotta move to Switzerland. There you get 10Gbit/s Fiber Internet (symmetric) for about $39. 😉
Oh that sounds amazing!!!! I would personally love that, and switzerland seems like a great country. Unfortunately I don't see living in Switzerland in our long term future haha, but I wouldn't mind enjoying the perks for a month or two ;) -lucas
You are right when talking cars. They are of good use when living in a very rural area but living in a town with good bus Transfer..why bother spending money on a car.
yes for sure! we got around quite well the 1st year without a car. It just became hard for us when we wanted to go to concerts that get done at midnight and then trains are scheduled only every hour, or we want to go to certain wildlife areas where train service is not really a thing
about the technology ... I can explain. Most of the cities in Germany are 1000 years old and these are then young cities. there are cities whose marketplaces, the core of the city, are around 2000 years old. the age of the internet began in the 80s, everything ran over the old telephone cables ... until the performance of the cables was no longer high enough. Now imagine how difficult it is to retrofit these old cities with fiber optic cables. old technology in schools ... in space travel, you only use technology that you know, the russian and european rockets work with technology from the 60s to 80s. why? we know this technology 100% and can say exactly what lasts and how long .... that is safer ... old, tried and tested technology. what happens when you use the latest technology. challanger disaster ...... yes we are a fun bunch ... but it works
I disagree....I don't think it works. I find that schools are robbing students of more fun and new ways of learning, and forcing them in the boring, old methods. It's no wonder they dislike school! I agree it is hard to fit in the cities that are older. This definitely needs some planning. Also, check out Mark Rober's videos on Nasa- they use new robotics to land Perserverance on Mars. I don't know what technologies existed like that in the 70s and 80s!
Over here in Holland, old cities have fiber as well, some even more than one.
The old phoneline provider replaces it for fiber. The cable company replaced it for fiber, just the last few feet into the houses are still Coax.
And in some cities T-mobile is putting fiber into the ground as well.
Be aware almost all cities in Europe are old
In my experience, Americans are also much more interested in new things. Europeans are not so much.
We think that when something works. Why change?
For example, we buy new furniture much less often than Americans - our homes often look exactly the same after 20 years.
That is an interesting aspect, one that we had never thought of before. Thank you for sharing your point!
Me as an older german; older than 60; understand your points but i see the background too. Many of your assumptions was colored by marketing and advertising, equal here of the USA and Germany.
The same is also with me and that's why I try to separate the wheat from the chaff on TH-cam through your and other channels.
And you do a good job and yes sure, we have problems with the IT infrastructure in public offices and schools.
To point 6.
I worked as an Systemadministrator in IT, but my expierince during that job was, not everyonce what is new is good and you have to do a lot of work to make it work or it was complete useless.
Why it's so?
Because the people who have to decide for the newer things fallen into the trap of marketing and andvertising and they have no background about IT and don't listen to the advice of their IT professionals
And i mean you spoke about that you worked oder studied in IT and if im wrong excuse me please.
But i have on question for you in one special point.
Why you did not find in 99% of this enviroment Apple products, espially if you hear from the marketing thats these are the best IT-product in the world?
Most decision makers use Apple, but they know nothing about Apple, its restrictive philosophy and the related work that must be done in an IT environment in order for these devices to function properly in a Linux or Windows environment.
And Linux and Windows is the most common server systems and in the background IOS is a kind of Solaris or Linux OS-system and or have a lot of them, but they dont tell it.
hello! wow, thanks for the very precise comment. (lucas here) This is for sure a super interesting point that you bring up, and I can absolutely understand it. Yes it is true that I both have an education background in IT as well as work experience with an IT team from my former uni. In fact, I worked with what we called the "Enterprise Device Management" team, which for us basically meant we were the team that made many of the large scale decisions regarding computers and the uni. My major role on the team involved creating scripts that could manage entire departments, as well as often taking a large role in helping people and departments adapt to new computer systems that would be in place.
You are absolutely right, that often administrators follow marketing over their own hired professionals. In my case, I think my uni had an advantage here though, in that often the voice of the IT team was at least considered quite a bit more. New operating systems did not get pushed out simply because a department wanted it, and even new computer systems/models were not given to people without first going through my team to make sure we understood what problems it might create.
To answer your question (assuming I am understanding it): I think we can maybe both agree that apple marketing does a great job, but that IT people also know how to read past that marketing and see apple (as well as microsoft) computers for what they are, which are simply machines to fulfill a job. My uni certainly had apple machines, but we had them to the extent to satisfy the smaller population of people that wanted them. We also had probably 90% of our computers being microsoft based, and on my IT team of 5 people, only 1 person actually handled the apple side of things, while the rest of us maintained the microsoft ecosystem. So I think, as you said, IT people need to be listened to, but apple computers while great, present a much larger administrative problem for IT teams, with often high costs of management software as well.
I hope I answered your question! It is fun for me to have these conversations. If I did not, let me know and we can discuss this more! -Lucas
Also data privacy...you aren't allowed to secure data on an american server for obvious reasons
Love your videos :)
BTW: I think Germans do not care too much for having the latest smartphone, tv, etc.
A least, I don´t care at all. I even don´t have a mobile myself and my tv is an old 30´´monitor:
I could affort more but I don´t care. Having the latest smartwatch or anything won´t make me happier...
Greeting from Duisburg ;)
Greetings! Glad to know you are in our neck of the woods! Lucas and I were also discussing technology and we have to agree, Germans seem more of a sustainable type and don't jump on the newest Smartphones and such. I don't know many of my family in the US that does that, either, unless they can afford it.
Overhead Projectors are top notch technology :P don't need anything more than that xD xD xD
That's your opinion! I guarantee you very, very, very few US teachers use them. We stopped seeing them in 2006, and have never looked back
My stereotype assumptions about the US: while you might have WIFI in every Toilett, the last time the country invested in real Infrastructure (like roads) was after WWII (interstate project) and that was also when the building of railtracks was halted. So obviously the US and Germany invested in different things. And another thing: rather than burry electric wires on the ground (like in Germany), Florida hangs them on posts and waits for the next hurricane, to take them down, just to hang them up again (instead of one time properly burry them underground). And if the houses were made of concrete instead of cardboard and plywood, maybe the Tornados would not be that devastating. But building the whole house of decent bricks and concrete is obviously perceived as too expensive. So just build a small shelter, hope nothing happens and spend money on a new smartphone every year. I think there is also a different mentality when it comes to risk taking or risk avoidance, which can be seen by the amount of insurances German (and also most European) people have.
It's cool to hear from your perspective the assumptions about Americans! We can't really say anything to this- we don't want to live in Florida with the hurricanes and the rising ocean levels for this reason, and the fact that their houses can be flooded. We don't understand why people live there. With tornadoes, same goes, and then there is Earthquakes. For these reasons, Lucas wants to move to Colorado, where there are relatively few natural disasters. But not everyone thinks like this!
it is a little bit funny how americans expect that people should speak in english in a non-english speaking country,amazing
Thanks for watching! We never expect that ANYONE speaks English. In the video, Lucas said he thought that is what they would speak, not that he expected it. He also went on to explain why he thought this.
We don't expect anyone speak any language, no matter where they are from or what country they live in. This is the 21st century. Stereotypes need to be debunked.
We have self checkouts in Holland as well, Germans also use them if they come shopping here. So maybe they want it, but are scared to implement it in Germany
It could be! It was great to see you on Darion's live stream last night. Thanks for supporting us!
@@EllieandLucas I found you guys trough Darion's channel a while ago.
It was fun yesterday
I know some selfcheckouts in Germany. I avoid them, because these machines will be used to replace employees.
@Tagedieb so we all have to pay more taxes and some big companies can save money? Just NO!.
I like the idea of an unconditional basic income, but I have no clue where to get the money for it.
Well can only tell about my area by Cologne but most big stores here now have implemented self checkouts recently..
Interessantes Video. Was mich mal interessieren würde ist, wie steht es denn mit Euren Deutschkenntnissen? Wenn ich in die USA reise (z.B. wg. Harley fahren) erwarte ich doch auch nicht, das die Amerikaner Deutsch sprechen! Das ist doch ein wenig, na, hier kann jeder seine Meinung einsetzen....
Wir erwarten nicht, dass die Deutschen Englisch sprechen, Lucas fand es halt interessant, dass Englisch in der ehemaligen Ostregion nicht unterrichtet wurde. Deswegen spricht hier halt nicht jeder Englisch, was auch vollkommen okay ist, ist einfach interessant. Wir erwarten nicht, dass jedes Land der Welt und auch nicht die Hälfte Englisch sprechen können.
To be honest, I don’t believe that digitization in the school system as such will make people become smarter. To the contrary, in everyday life it either makes us more dependent on technology or it increases our expected productiveness. Today research, education and communication are incredibly easy. You can take courses on almost anything. Either for free on TH-cam or for little money at learning platforms.
It is absolutely not necessary to learn the most modern technologies in school. You will learn all that in your own private life. What would actually change learning is if you watched lectures as homework and then did the assignments in class. Lectures are often very inefficient. I remember getting distracted for a short moment in physics only to basically miss what the rest of the lesson was about. If that lesson was a video, I could have immediately skipped back and not wasted my time. A digital black/white board is only saving your time and concentration that you would waste on writing all up. But that’s really it. Information is brought to us more swiftly. We still have to learn it.
you have a point for sure, but i think it could be argued that the majority of learners (in this case primarily children and young adults in uni) will not take the time to rewatch even a video lecture, if they even watch it all. To some degree I say this from experience as I routinely in uni had professors record their lectures for us to use later, based on the stats of the video platform, almost nobody ever used them. In cases like these, I would argue it's really only adults that would see the benefits of using video lectures, as at that point the adult is learning out of a desire, instead of a level of forcefulness or required learning by a school system. Of course these are also just my thought, feel free to continue the discussion with me! :D -Lucas
Actually you are not allowed to work more the 60 hours/week regularly....usual 40/hours a week. Most work hard on the time they have.
Essen is in the Heart of the Ruhrgebiet, so a lot a persons have a „ruhrpottschnauze“, which seems to be rude. Only northern German persons and berliners seem to be more rude ;).
yes, but this is quite different in the US, where you can work as many hours a week to get the job done and are compensated by overtime pay. I feel like this is quite different from Germany, this is our point. Here, 40 hours is the max. In the US, 40 hours is the hopeful end, but often is not.
No smartboards at schools? Really? - We are living in Bavaria - Since my kids are in (what we call) "Gymnasium", they haven't seen a classroom without it. And because we had to move from München / Munic to Würzburg, they enjoyed (still do) smartboards in two schools now.
To our understanding however, kids should learn the basics, such as math, natural sciences, languages, geography, history, economics. Maybe a smartboard helps to understand some steps in a calculation better than with a traditional blackboard, but at the end of the day, its about the content of what to learn rather than being perfect about presentation but not having an idea about the subject itself... . And now, with all that remote learning, things are really pushed into using digital chanels anyway. But still, its the subject, not the teaching method... .
Totally! We agree 100%! I am glad that your kids get to experience SmartBoards in their schools. I really honestly have yet to see one in a German school! It is all about how the teacher uses it- It in no way replaces any content, but helps the content be more meaningful and relatable and find new ways for the students to relate to it.
@@EllieandLucas There is something else, you might not be aware about: there are quite some differences in mentality, culture (to some extend) and between the south (in particular Bavaria- where we are & Baden-Würtemberg) and the north (including "Mitteldeutschland"- the former "DDR", a socialist state in the back then Warsaw Pact). In terms of school education, I would say, between Thuringia, Saxony and Bavaria on one (top) side and the rest of the coutry on the other side, with the city states (Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg) at the bottom. To some extend, the difference in education is dramatic.
To make a long, long stroy short, I would like to suggest that you talk to teacher colleagues to find out. In particular it's most interesting if you talk to parents who moved from Bavaria to Berlin... . Stunning, believe me.
@@ottoe4925 yes, I had a practicum in Berlin and lived there for several months, I can see the differences in the education! I never had any contact with Bavarian schools, though. In my teaching program, we have learned that the schools are the most tough in Bavaria, so I can totally understand why you have smartboards there, too. Where we live now, however, was not part of the DDR, but there still is not a lot of technology in the schools.
100Mbit isnt realy fast it give more up to 1 Gigabit and in villages you get really slow Internet in Germany only 16 Mbit.
Good to know! Thanks for sharing!
if you hear what neuro scientists say, the human braing is not good at learning with technology.
I thing everyone had experienced how less we can memorize someting if we know that we can look it up on google. So turns out that "old school" might be better than most of us think.
In most schools the effect of learning is not top on the list. it is all about convenience.
So never the less the education system is not good in Germany.
I think you might be misunderstanding something here- I am saying using technology to find out new things. For example, it is one thing to talk about the Perserverance Rover landing on Mars, it is another thing to see it. Which is only possible via video.
Also, I am writing a paper on using Erklärvideos in schools, and I have learned that research supports more memorable learning when photos or videos accompany spoken words. The brain is capable of handling these two forms of input and makes it more memorable, because more sense organs are used to encode the information. I generally am not a fan of memorizing. I find it is only useful if you need the information later. If not, you can just forget it. Ex. the periodic table in my 12th year chemistry class. I learned it the old school way, and don't need it anymore.
you have me on a bit of a soap box here, so I will finish with this: As a teacher from the US, I find memorization is not true learning, learning is being able to use and apply information to come to new understandings. Creating something new is the highest form of learning under Bloom's taxonomy. Memorization and rote knowledge are on the bottom. This is not my idea of teaching.
@@EllieandLucas oh ok...
so you are a real teacher then.
most teacher i have experienced are only looking for numbers on paper. they dont realy care what their students learn for live or how their brains develops.
What counts is how students perform at a test.
with more technology that only can be wors.
in Germany it is possible to be an A-student whithout knowing anything.
If you are able to memorize what you have to put down in a test for that day, it is enough.
what you could do with technology having your mindset would be great.
but to me it seems nearly unposible to rearange the the german school system in a good way. may be if more people like you try to make clear what school could be if one sees children as living humans and not as litle machines that have only to be programmed.
seeing som mars rover on a screen with educational help ist good whithout a doubt, but seeing the whole world only on screens whithout context and all necessary senses involved is causing damage to childrens brains.
...hope my school-english from decades ago is understandable... 😉
30 mbit /s is my upload speed within a common 100 mbit connection 😂😂😂
That is what we have, but in the US, we only had 30mb/s download and 5mb/s upload- way worse!
@@EllieandLucas Here at home i didn't need the fastest internet connection so i took the cheapest cable intenet/telephone product from Unitymedia (now Vodafone) and this was 100M down und 10M up for 21,99 EUR (including a discount). And i get everytime the full speed without any issues.
Of course, if you live a little further away from the bigger cities, it often gets a little worse in terms of speed. But there is a lot of work being done to improve it in the long term. Something like that just doesn't work overnight.
I have the same speed for like 10-15 years. It's 20-30MB download, 10MB upload here in Ostrava, Czech republic.. And this beautiful speed comes with say 30 disconnects for several minutes in a week. It's HORRIBLE
I live in a small village and my vodafone 100mbit connection works perfectly well.
I envy you all.
Speaking about wrong assumptions, I thought that Lucas is German, he kind of looks that way. Ellie reminds me of Barbra Streisand.
LOL😂 Lucas's family is actually from Poland- so in the area! He does have some German, too, but his parents and grandparents were born in the US, like him. I'm not sure I completely see the resemblance to Barbara, but I like how you also told us your assumptions!
America has on average slower internet than Europe. However, Germany is also below the European average.
Schools don't have a lot of technology, because the teachers are the only professional group that is not exposed to new technology. Of the money the federal government has provided to upgrade schools with modern technology only 10% had been used because the schools did not care. The pandemic has changed that though...
I really hope so. We are interested to see what changes this will bring in the schools! I wish they realized the teachers needed training courses with the technology instead of just introducing it one day.
You're living in Essen? I grew up there in the 60s and 70s 🙂
We hope we do your city justice!
It isn't the prettiest town in Germany, is it? But maybe it turns to a new gem in near future, after leaving the coal and metal period behind .... I like to listen to reports with the 'outer view' aspect. And your tellings are very respectful, unagitated and comprehensable. Keep it up!
nice video
Liebe Grüße aus Düsseldorf 🌍🇪🇺🇩🇪🙏🏻
Danke! LG aus Essen!
I love modern technology. But: There are almost infinitely more states in which a new thing can be worse, than in which it can be better. Explain to me how it works and proof to me that it works and I shall adopt it within a heart-beat.
To misquote my French neighbors regarding one of the best ideas of humanity so far: égalité fraternité liberté rationalité ;-)
I understand, but I don't find that many people really understand how technology can be successful in schools in so many other countries, yet Germany is still behind! Obviously it works there!
About the internet, in Holland we also say Germany has bad internet compared to us
lol that is funny
And this is true. As a "Nerd" i was falling of from my Sofa 9 years before, as Angela Merkel smiles into the camera and said during an interview "Das Internet ist Neuland für uns!" (The internet is new territory for us!). At this time, i had just completed my home automation to get access to my smart home from outside of my home all over the world. i Was simply shocked about this sentence. But the internet in germany becomes better. Due to the very slow internet speed and break downs, the politics have decided to raise the communication infrastructure but the biggest internet provider, german Telekom, takes the grants and uses Vectoring as a new offer for their customers to have a reason to get more money for internet contracts simply by pressing some more bits through an copper cable. This was not acceptable for our little village and our Mayor found a solution our electricity company offers us free fiber optic connection. Consequence: Now we have light speed internet ;) in my case four time faster for half the price. The german Telekom have lost 2500 customers from one day to another.
5.
Well, kind of. Small German villages in some regions disagree hughly with you.
Thanks for the point of view! We understand!
Don't Germans speak British English, which is a bit different? Imo learned English from school is always different then when someone is exposed to it from early life.
Not just English, every language actually
Most Germans in the north where the British were stationed speak british english, here in the south And south-west there were hundreds of thousands of americans, and there still are tens of thousands . So most of us speak a more american english, despite beeing drilled to speak british english in school. The least widely english is spoken in eastern germany, back in the days of the gdr, russian was considered more important than english.
yeah i've been told by friends that it is british english, but when they speak you probably couldn't tell. Any weird sentences or grammar I've always just assumed are results of being school taught without large english exposure. I can of course be wrong with this
@@EllieandLucas When online gaming, when Dutch, Flemish or Europeans from Nordic make jokes in English, by fooling around with words or do the jokes about Canadians can't say words ending in ~out. Most German speakers don't get it
@@dutchgamer842 That's largely true because Germans on average are less good at English
great music .. ;)
thanks!
Every time I visit Germany, my cellular network is gone in lots of places, so no internet on phone.
that stinks! We have good service with Congstar, which might work off T-Mobile
@@EllieandLucas T-mobile is part of Deutsche Telekom. Maybe that's why. My provider for the cell phone is Vodafone.
@@dutchgamer842
Asuming your dutch you will have rooming in germany. Means that you have access to all the three networks (Telekom, Vodaphone & Telefonica) and should have superior coverage. At least that is how it works for me in other european countries. The german phone network coverage is actually pretty bad compared to most other european countries. Speed on the other hand is most of the times pretty good. Better than in most other contries i have been recently (spain, poland, austria), except for switzerland. But we get pretty bad deals on mobile internet, as well as the the classic landline. Both are cheaper and better in Switzerland ...
@@amduser86 I know it should work, it just doesn't. It works fine in Belgium. However in Germany it doesn't.
It should work all over the European Union
Tja... schwierig dies zu kommentieren, denn ich kann euch in allen Punkt nur zustimmen.
So haben Leute über 50 sicher seltener Gelegenheit englisch zu sprechen, haben ihr Schulenglisch verlernt und nun ist die Hemmschwelle groß. Außer in der Popmusik, wo man sowieso mehr auf die Musik achtet und weniger auf die oft englischen Texte, begegnet uns Englisch im Alltag kaum.
Dass unser Bildungssystem in punkto Digitalisierung dermaßen rückständig ist, ist schon ein Skandal und eine große Misere. Ähnlich schlimm sieht es in deutschen Behörden aus. Es gibt sogar Ämter auf Bundesebene, in denen alle Akten noch in Papierform und fast nichts digitalisiert ist! Da konnte man die Mitarbeiter während des Lockdowns nicht ins Homeoffice schicken.
Und der öffentliche Nahverkehr auf dem Lande ist auch furchtbar. Nach 20 Uhr kommt man fast nirgends mehr hin bzw. man kommt nicht mehr nach Hause. Ohne Auto geht gar nichts.
Freunde zu finden ist auch für uns Deutsche schwierig. Ich bin vor knapp 4 Jahren von einer Kleinstadt auf dem Lande in eine Großstadt in eurer Nähe umgezogen und kenne noch nicht mal meine Nachbarn. Ohne Vereine usw. hat man kaum Chancen auf Kontakte. Wegen der Pandemie ist nun alles geschlossen, man kann nirgends hin. Wer da kein gutes soziales Netz hat, könnte vereinsamen. Wie gut, dass es Telefon und Internet gibt!
Aww, es ist etwas traurig, dass du noch nicht Freunden in der Gegend hast! Wir wissen, was Sie meinen- wir haben unsere Nachbarn erst nach 3 Jahre kennengelernt, als etwas in unsere Wohnung mit andere Nachbarn passiert. Wie komisch!
@@EllieandLucas
Naja, bisher hatte ich beruflich auch wenig Zeit und ich pflege meinen Freundeskreis, nur dass halt nach meinem Umzug kaum jemand direkt in der Nähe wohnt. Ich baue aber jetzt Kontakte auf über die Plattform www.nebenan.de
Probiert das doch auch mal aus!
@@beatrixpastoors1104 Haben wir auch davon gehört! Vielen Dank und viele Erfolg!
Unfortunately 100Mb/s are MegaBITS not MegaBYTES - 100Mbits=12,5 MBytes ;)
yeah you are fur sure right. I misspoke in the video
Frage: Wer bezahlt die digitale Ausrüstung der Schulen in 🇺🇸?
Eltern über das Schulgeld oder Sponsoren oder der Staat?
Wer sollte es in 🇩🇪 bezahlen?
Hallo Sanne, das habe ich in dem Video etwas angedeutet. In den USA wird es oft durch andere Firmen bezahlt. Eltern zahlen nicht für Schulen, soweit ich weiß. Außer privat Schulen. Aber in öffentliche Schulen, dies wird meist von Partnerfirmen gestiftet und Steuern.
In Deutschland bekommen Schulen jetzt mehr Geld für Digitalisierung, aber irgendwie sehe ich keinen Beweis dafür. Lehrer kennen sich nicht aus mit die Technologie, was zur Überförderung zählt. Deutschland sollte weiterhin mit anderen Firmen koppeln, um weitere Digitale Projekten zu unterstützen und Lehrer sollten über die Technologie informiert werden. In ihren Studium, beispielsweise, genauso wie in den Staaten.
3:00 Duh bro, mind you I've studied in London, working for an International Company, Company language is English and you are accusing me of not knowing English because I am 51? On yer bike! 🤪😂😭😜
If you are relating to those who are around 70+ you are right. 👍
Yes for sure the 70+ people are part of that, but believe it or not there are even people I've met who are Uni students who have a very tough time speaking English. Maybe they are just not confident in their ability, and that experience has stretched through people of all ages that I have met.
I really need to stress it's not that I expect Germans to speak English (especially to me). In Germany the language in German, that is totally okay. I just assumed, while living in the USA, that all Germans (or at least ones under 70) could speak a practical amount of English, and I have found that isn't always the case. It's not even their fault. Why would they remember English (assuming they learned it) if they only ever used German the rest of the lives. It was just something I thought that did not turn out to be true
Ellie and Lucas love it, but I hope you did recognize that my remark was a bit cheeky
I will just say one thing: judge schools by the outcome. Any eastern European country outperforms the US, even if they use chalk
You're going to have to explain to me how you figure this. US schools scored higher on German schools in the 2018 PISA study for reading and science, for example.
Here we are not judging schools by the outcomes, that is the point. We are talking about what materials they use to teach, not even the subjects they teach. There are a million ways school systems can be compared, from the subjects they teach, the outcomes the students achieve, student career success, student happiness with the education, etc. Technology was the focus of our video today, not the outcome.
@@EllieandLucas .... and I simply added that this factor may not be important at all. (By the way, I do rather place Germany in Central , not Eastern Europe and it scored higher than the US in 2018 in Math place 20 vs 38, science: 17 vs 19, and lower than the US in reading 21 vs 14) But I did not even mention Germany, so why bing it up? Take another example: Elections. Most European countries use paper and pencil and it works just fine and is not prone to fraud. Other European countries use ultra modern technology - encrypted internet voting with 2 factor identity verification, and they are efficient as well. It's not really about the materials you use, it's the way you teach. I have first hand experience of the US (both a public high school - in an affluent area, though - and a catholic private high school as well as few European school systems. I generally found Eastern/Northern Europe the best (although maybe not very fun), the French system the most demanding and the US .... well, extremely variable in different areas. Really abysmal in foreign languages, great for sports. Also amazingly good in history and "citizenship". As you could chose among different subjects and sort of get a schedule tailored to your interests, many students never really HAD any actual "science" lessons or just the bare minimum. I do not doubt that for those who were interested, there were great science courses on the menu.
Friendliness??? REALLY??? Americans are friendly?? Since when is that true! You have mistaken your love for chit- chat in the USA for real conversation and to think that is what you Americans call,, Friendliness´´ We here in Europe don't love it or do it.
We have self-checkouts here in Germany, but our Cashiers are 100 times faster than any American Cashier, they are not obligated to chit- chat with Costumars.
Technology, America ??
Go to South Korea or Japan and see what the real meaning is -technology in schools-, but please not the USA.
Private colleges and Universities, yes that is true but not Public schools or colleges.
07:03 ... wait, there is a mistake ... your assumption was, you will have bad internet, but you clearly said, that you have even better internet in Germany, so how can your assumption for #5 be correct?
Oh, you are absolutely correct. My mistake on putting the graphics together. Thanks for pointing that out! Yeah, i was for sure wrong (happily) to find that internet here was much better
@@EllieandLucas btw In Prague it's quite common now to have from 300 to 1000MB/s with Vodafone. That is the maximum speed ypu can get and it's aggregated with other people, but it's quite normal to be around 75% of the speed promised. It costs around 38euros per month.
Welcome to civilisation.
yeahh
Also wir haben 1000 mbit/Sekunde...
Yep, or 1 Gb. Where we live, we only have 100 Mb.
Evonik? Most Germans will not know they are german.
Where are they based, then?
@@EllieandLucas I don't know, they are german, but only few will know them. They poduce some kind of chemicals and raw materials, but no products people are aware of. I was just asthonished that you know them. I work together with them, but did not know them before.
Yeah, never heard of them. It was a "huh?" moment in the video, where I wondered why you didn't mentions some actually well-known German brands.
Germany has one of the worst internet infrastructures in europe, so yeah the us has really bad internet. Which also includes WIFI and adaption of tech in schools.
Apart from having literally the most important internet hub (DE-CIX) in europe and the many very good and cheap datacenter and hosting providers ... you know ... actual internet infrastructure ...
We totally agree! We can't believe it is this bad, but we understand the history behind it. It is just weird for us. But there are countries who don't even have WIFi, so this is alright for us
Marburg 😍
ja!🥰
@@EllieandLucas I miss Marburg and the Hinterland.
Looking down from Spiegelslust and taking a walk...
No personal guns either. Did you do that one? Also, much better health care that doesn't bankrupt you, or leave a sizable portion of your population without any. Americans are nice, but your country is not.
We didn't expect Germans to have personal guns, so no, this did not make the list. Please don't think that just because we are from the US, we believe everyone should be able to have handguns.
our country does have some problems, but there are many things that are specific to our country, which is why we like it. Germany also has problems that make it not pleasant for us to live here, in the same ways that the USA does
Those were your assumptions about Germans. You don’t speak for Americans yourself as Americans. Don’t assume you know what Americans assume
Germans as well as French or Spanish can not compete with Asians, Africans or Indian in talking english. In our countries, schools teach english as an foreign language, while in India and others it is the official language in school and university and often one of the official languages. It is getting better because of so many interactions with other europeans and foreigners in general. For higher educated people or people working in businesess with foreign contact it is mandatory for sure.
Germans learn english in schools as well , it also is reaquired and mandatory for higher education and universities as well ( with countless classes held in english strictly and only ). And also is a absolute must in all higher positions in industry and especialy in the fields of science and economy, starting from the lowest positions. And as for me, I find it very difficult to understand the majority of asian and african english speakers, because their accent is very thick and heavy. I'll take and prefer quality over quantity any day.
yes for sure, asian accented english can be very difficult to understand.
I still often find the people that do speak english in Germany do it very well! We always find it interesting how apologetic some Germans we meet are about their english, when so often it is beyond passable, even when they haven't spoken it heavily in years
WAZ a big newspaper
I mean, yes, now that you say this, we have realized it as we were talking with the lady. We just didn't realize how big!
Thumbnail: AMERICAN ASSUMPTIONS ÜBER GERMANS
what are "über Germans"? i thought that idea died with the 3rd Reich? xD
about Germans, I have no idea what "about Germans" has to do with the 3rd reich- it is Denglish
@@EllieandLucas the über soldier or über mensch was something pursued by the 3rd reich. It seems like we don't share the same humor, never mind
Pov: you're coming from the WAZ article. Good stuff, you are always most welcome!
Much appreciated!
Deutschland🇩🇪das beste über alles😁? Kanada🇨🇦 sehr gut, America 🇺🇸 zu viel Problemen, to much problem with the political
Glad to have you watching! Every country has their own problems
Assuming everybody will be speaking is sooo arrogant! "Americans" should bother learning foreign languages and cultures. Maybe they would understand the rest of the world better and start less wars ...
Please understand that we never ASSUME people speak other languages. Even people that live their entire lives in Germany don't speak German. We understand this. Lucas said he thought they could, not that he assumed this. This has a different meaning.
germany is a very complex country. i like and dislike germany mostly for historic reasons. i'm interested in the writings of kant, hegel, feuerbach, nietzsche, freud, fromm, marx, engels, weber, luxemburg, adorno and horkheimer. history, philosophy, political science, psychology or religion (protestants) are just some interesting topics if you wanna explore german intellectualism.
but germany also always had periods of very reactionary, anti-intellectual tyranny, obviously in its worst form during the reign of national socialism.
the new democratic state germany became after the re-unification is still very young and it shows every day. nationalism, antisemitism, homophobia, social darwinism are still very much alive, even in gentrified urban areas. i would probably call the place where i come from (post-socialistic east germany) a first-world shithole. but i also suffered from depression since i was 14 and my problems could be mostly caused by a mix of family drama and not being on the winning side of capitalism. i'm too much influenced by a materialistic world view and never had any connection to organized religion that would give me easy answers to complex problems.
sorry for my long comment.
You're fine! We hope things are going well for you and we are glad to have you watching our videos. It was nice to hear your perspective!