# Differences between US and Germany, real and imagined **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 16, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844 "2015-02-16T19:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/41 "2015-02-18T07:19:04Z")
My daughter has just moved back to the States after living about four years in Germany. She spent one year at the University, then got a Fulbright to teach English for two years, and then worked. She also got married to a German. Beer is much cheaper and more available there. Soda is more expensive. My son-in-law - who loves coffee - was pleasantly shocked at free refills at restaurants, which are unknown there. And yes, he was quite impressed by the size of our grocery stores - even normal ones. Trains are a lot better there, and S-bahn in Berlin is always on time. It is also honor system, in that you buy a ticket but do not go through a turnstile. (Like in Seattle.) One big thing that most Europeans don’t get is how big the US is. They tend to plan unrealistic car trips or think that people in LA are right next door to those of us in the Bay Area. Germans get a lot more vacation than we do and worry less about health care, though I hope that never becomes an issue. She may have some odd (or not some odd) ideas about the US. My daughter’s new mother-in-law was quite concerned that we, being Americans, would be religious fanatics. She was quite relieved to find we thought the same as she did about that. However, there are state religions and the school my daughter taught in had masses and stuff. Her area got the Protestant and the Catholic holidays off. I don’t know if this is a general rule, but when my daughter got married we rented a big house near Berkeley for the German guests - about 16 of them. They kept the place spotless. And they were all incredibly punctual, always being ready ten minutes before. They laughed at the one Dutch guy who was only ready five minutes before. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/42 "2015-02-18T08:19:11Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > You said she was perplexed by the “walk/don’t walk”, not by “traffic lights”. That’s probably because “traffic lights” generally refers to the red-yellow-green lights for vehicles only (at least IME). “Walk/don’t walk” is indeed a phrase I’ve heard used to refer to the lights in question, along with crosswalk signal, crossing signal, walk signal. I can’t recall them being called “lights” at all, interestingly.\* - Or I haven’t noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/43 "2015-02-18T13:40:20Z")
A different German I lived with bemoaned the quality of american washing machines, which just didn’t get his clothes clean enough. I was perplexed by this, as my clothes for plenty clean. But I’ve never washed clothes in Germany. I don’t know if he was using the same detergent. > [@Nava](#): > > You said she was perplexed by the “walk/don’t walk”, not by “traffic lights”. Sometimes it’s words, sometimes it’s pictures. “walk/don’t walk” accurately describes both. They’re never called “traffic lights”. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/44 "2015-02-18T14:11:30Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > If she spends any time on the Autobahns, and is anything like me, your daughter is going to wonder where the city of Ausfart is and why it needs so many exits off the highway? We once had a German client we were interacting with primarily through email. A goodly number of otherwise very clever people thought that the client’s company’s name was “Antwort”, because nearly all the subject lines of the emails started with that. [QUOTE=jnglmassiv] I hatched a plan to skip buying them and, if confronted, play the clueless American tourist. I chickened out. [/QUOTE] And that’s how they make money despite not having very many ticket checks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/45 "2015-02-18T16:32:15Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Sometimes it’s words, sometimes it’s pictures. “walk/don’t walk” accurately describes both. They’re never called “traffic lights”. Please tell [these people](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/traffic%20light). Or, well, any of [these](https://www.google.se/search?q=traffic+light&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=fb7kVOfcBcn8UJaIgNgD). ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/46 "2015-02-18T16:36:03Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > That’s probably because “traffic lights” generally refers to the red-yellow-green lights for vehicles only (at least IME). “Walk/don’t walk” is indeed a phrase I’ve heard used to refer to the lights in question, along with crosswalk signal, crossing signal, walk signal. I can’t recall them being called “lights” at all, interestingly.\* On the subject of traffic lights, the ones in Germany are a little different. U.S. traffic lights go green -\> yellow (briefly) -\> red -\> green. I saw some in Germany (don’t know if they’re all like this) that went green -\> yellow (briefly) -\> red -\> red-and-yellow-together (briefly) -\> green. The red-and-yellow-together is a signal that it’s about to turn green. I figured it was because manual transmissions are more common there; you can leave your transmission in neutral at a red light, and when you know the green is imminent you shift into first gear. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/47 "2015-02-18T16:40:37Z")
My brother-in-law was stationed in Germany and rented a house in a small town outside of Worms. He was seriously berated by his German neighbors for washing his car in his driveway on a Sunday - that’s a day of rest! Although he said it seemed that gardening on a Sunday was OK. We visited him awhile ago and while riding the train, a nice younger German lady got into a discussion about working for some US financial firms. She asked “Lehman Brothers - that’s a Jewish company, isn’t it?” I was shocked and surprised; I never would consider associating the two or that would even be an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/48 "2015-02-18T16:52:40Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Please tell [these people](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/traffic%20light). Or, well, any of [these](https://www.google.se/search?q=traffic+light&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=fb7kVOfcBcn8UJaIgNgD). What is your point? ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/49 "2015-02-18T17:56:54Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Germans are generally a lot more open about nudity than Americans, though I think this is starting to change somewhat. Still, if your kid is shy about communal changing areas or showers, now would be a good time to get over it. maybe so, but this girl (she’s fifteen) expressed shock at the way a 20-something old woman was dressed in the store the other day—she had on a very low cut shirt and very short skirt, and she told us that no one would dress like that in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/50 "2015-02-18T18:01:19Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > If **batsto** ’s traffic lights aren’t “red man/green man”, they are not something she will have seen before. they are. I shouldn’t have said ‘traffic lights’'; I just meant that, at the intersections that have traffic lights, mounted on the same pole is the walk/don’t walk sign with the colored pictograms, and she seemed clueless as to what purpose they served. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/51 "2015-02-18T19:55:24Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > Are you saying that if there’s a two lane highway, and the car in the left is going way under the speed limit, you can’t pass him in the right lane? You just have to go as slow as he is, even though there’s an easy way around him? I drove extensively in Germany years ago, when my father was stationed there with the U.S. Army. To add to what others have said, in Germany, if you are in the left lane and not **actively passing another vehicle** , you are breaking the law. This law is taken very seriously. You can and will be ticketed, and the fine is huge. Similarly, it is strictly prohibited to pass a vehicle on the right. If you are in the left lane, and not getting over quickly enough, you can expect to have another vehicle behind you, flashing their headlights, turning on their left turn signal, and even honking if you refuse to get the message. A German would sooner go through you than pass on the right. (Sometimes almost literally; I’ve seen vehicles tailgating so close it seems that the bumpers might have tapped.) All in all, it actually makes for a much safer situation on the highway (not the tailgating part, which rarely happens) and is something that I wish we would implement here in the U.S. I can’t tell you how many times (in the U.S.) I start to move to the right to get out of the way of a vehicle approaching me rapidly from behind, only to find that the vehicle in question has also moved over to the right and nearly slams into me from behind. In Germany, this never happens. No matter how fast the vehicle behind you is going (and on the Autobahn the vehicle behind you may be going double your speed) you can be quite sure that you can safely move over and not find the passing vehicle moving into the same lane. P.S. On a related note, in my experience, Germans **really** follow the rules. If the rule is “never pass on the right,” nobody passes on the right. If the rule is not to wash your car on Sunday, nobody washes their car on Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![starryspice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@starryspice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starryspice)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/52 "2015-02-19T02:24:15Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > maybe so, but this girl (she’s fifteen) expressed shock at the way a 20-something old woman was dressed in the store the other day—she had on a very low cut shirt and very short skirt, and she told us that no one would dress like that in Germany. It’s a weird double standard. They’re more okay with nudity and will on occasion even go nude in public (i.e., their comfort with nudity isn’t limited to the locker room), but they’re also far more conservative than Americans when it comes to dress. Yet their magazine stands carry nudes on the covers, with no black polywrap. Weird. I’ve also found Germans to be far more conservative regarding gender roles as well. This might have to do with the fact that they give women a year of maternity leave, but men don’t get much of anything and aren’t expected to help as much in child-rearing. (My qualifications, in case they matter: German American, parents moved here in '75 from Stuttgart area, been back to visit many times.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/53 "2015-02-19T02:50:25Z")
> [@robby](#): > > I can’t tell you how many times (in the U.S.) I start to move to the right to get out of the way of a vehicle approaching me rapidly from behind, only to find that the vehicle in question has also moved over to the right and nearly slams into me from behind. I agree. I can’t say this happens that often to me, but there are times when I’m in the left passing, and I think, oh, I’ll just pass one more vehicle a couple car lengths up when suddenly somebody going 15+mph faster than me shows up in my rear-view mirror. Being a courteous driver, I turn on my blinker, start moving into the lane one to the right of me when the driver behind me starts switching lanes simultaneously. This is why I get annoyed at people passing on the right. It makes for more unpredictable driving. So I’ve kind of altered my strategy to pass each vehicle individually if there’s more than a few car lengths break between them. It was so much nicer driving the highways in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/54 "2015-02-19T03:37:50Z")
I never have this problem unless I fuck up and leave space to my right. ---
**Author:** ![analogqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@analogqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/analogqueen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/55 "2015-02-19T05:22:32Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > German high schoolers (which I assume is the age group we’re talking about here?) are a lot more casual about drinking than Americans are. You hear few stories in Germany about wild kegger parties; it’s more about having a few beers at a club or some wine. Your kid will probably be offered some alcohol. > > Germans are generally a lot more open about nudity than Americans, though I think this is starting to change somewhat. Still, if your kid is shy about communal changing areas or showers, now would be a good time to get over it. > > Germans walk and take public transportation a lot more often than Americans do. > > From the other side of the spectrum, many Germans I’ve found take offense at Americans asking “How are you?” - or, rather, take offense that the only acceptable answer 99% of the time is “fine” or “okay.” They tend to take this as a sign of the shallowness of Americans, and don’t understand that “How are you?” is really just a way of saying “hello,” and is seldom a real question. We have other ways of asking how a person is feeling. > > I was in an Austrian classroom once (okay, not German, but close enough) and listened as the teacher told her students that so many Americans were illiterate that all pre-packaged food products in the US had to have a picture of the contents on the label so that us dumb Americans would know what we were buying. > > ETA: Also, many Germans - and most Europeans and Canadians, for that matter - feel very comfortable being quite negative/rude about the US to Americans. They will freely tell you with very little prompting exactly what they dislike about your country, which can feel very impolite to an American. . :mad::mad: Omg yes. EVERY time I have traveled, there was always some know-it-all local on the train/plane/lobby of hotel/you name it/ that had to criticize US policy, whomever the latest president or even some political US policies that I had no idea that even existed. One memorable account was about 15 yrs ago on a train and some douche would NOT shut up about Clinton and bored me for about 2 hours of non-stop blabbing and criticizing. I wish I was not so polite then and had the gall to say “you know what? I didn’t’ ASK your opinion.” ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/56 "2015-02-19T10:45:58Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > ETA: Also, many Germans - and most Europeans and Canadians, for that matter - feel very comfortable being quite negative/rude about the US to Americans. They will freely tell you with very little prompting exactly what they dislike about your country, which can feel very impolite to an American. You should try being a foreigner in the USA sometime. Apparently every decision ever made by any european in the last 250 years is my personal fault.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/57 "2015-02-19T14:34:11Z")
Some great insights [here](http://mil-millington.com/). Granted, the differences are English/German, but they apply to the US as well. Plus it’s freaking hilarious. I don’t know how true this would be with a traveling student, but I know my German counterparts in the business world have no wish to discuss their private lives at all. In fact, they reacted as if we had asked point blank for their home address, or hinted at inviting ourselves for the holidays. It simply isn’t done, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/58 "2015-02-19T15:06:12Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > You should try being a foreigner in the USA sometime. Apparently every decision ever made by any european in the last 250 years is my personal fault.:rolleyes: If it wasn’t for us, you’d \*all \*be speaking German. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/59 "2015-02-19T15:08:27Z")
> [@starryspice](#): > > It’s a weird double standard. They’re more okay with nudity and will on occasion even go nude in public (i.e., their comfort with nudity isn’t limited to the locker room), but they’re also far more conservative than Americans when it comes to dress. Yet their magazine stands carry nudes on the covers, with no black polywrap. Weird. … I don’t consider that to be a double standard at all, and I’d argue that it’s American society that has one. Our Puritan ancestors considered nudity to be shameful, and in modern American society, nudity is still shameful and yet, at the same type, hypersexualized. (That’s the double standard part, kids.) In most European counties, nudity is generally considered to be no big thang (assuming proper context: beaches, swimming pools, etc.) and is not so intrinsically linked to sex, which is why you see those non-wrapped nudie mags. You’ll also see generic everyday things like toilet paper commercials show completely bare-ass naked adults, which I guarantee you would make a lot of Americans lose their collective shit. (HA!) ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844/60 "2015-02-19T20:52:25Z")
> [@starryspice](#): > > I’ve also found Germans to be far more conservative regarding gender roles as well. This might have to do with the fact that they give women a year of maternity leave, but men don’t get much of anything and aren’t expected to help as much in child-rearing. Probably explains why she found it so strange that my wife drove the van when we picked her up from the school, while I road in the passenger seat. (When we drive in ‘my’ car, I always drive, when we drive in the van, she drives, primarily because I hate driving the van and she hates driving my car). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-us-and-germany-real-and-imagined/712844.md?page=4)