I'll answer your questions on the Christmas pickle,
which German stereotypes are actually true
and which sounds should be able to make in order to speak German.
Hallo, Servus and welcome back to my Youtube Channel.
My name is Felicia, I'm from Munich Germany, but I have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio for about 3 years now.
Today, I'm going to do another Round of #askagerman,
and answer your Questions that you guys asked me here on YouTube in the Comments and on Instagram
The list of Questions keeps getting longer and longer, and there's no Way
that I'll ever reply to all of them. So I apologize for that,
but I'll try to reply to as many as possible in today's Video.
So let's get started: So the first Question is:
This is a really good Question,
but it kind of depends on which Stereotypes about Germans you know.
Here are a few that I would definitely say are true,
not for every single German of course,
but, if you're in Germany, you'll definitely see or experience some of those Things;
The first Thing that's definitely true, is that we love Rules,
and it seems to be typical German to also snitch on People, who don't follow the Rules,
even if it doesn't even affect that Person.
I feel like I could make a whole Video on this Topic,
but one very obvious Thing is that you won't see a lot of People jaywalk in Germany and, if you do,
it's very likely that there was an old Lady or a Man or just someone,
who watched you do it,
and who will give you a mean Look afterwards or even yell at you,
and we also just have a lot of Rules regarding everyday life.
So for Example there are Rules about
when People are allowed to mow their Lawn or just make Noises in general:
Like you can't make any Noises on Sundays or on Holidays at all,
and if you live in an Apartment complex, you should make sure that you don't make any Noises after 10 p.m, because, if you do,
it's very likely that your Neighbors will complain about you.
Your german Neighbors may also get annoyed with you,
if you clean the shared Hallway in an Apartment complex
the wrong Way, or if you don't clean it on the right Day, or if you don't clean it at all, of course
or they may get annoyed with you because you're hanging your wet Towels
over your Balcony rail in Summer,
because it's against the Fire protection laws. That actually happened to me,
and my Neighbors apparently saw that I did that for maybe three Hours.
I just came back from Swimming, and
I hung my Towels outside over my Balcony rail.
and they saw it but instead of coming to me to tell me that that's not allowed, of which I wasn't aware,
they went straight to the Landlord.
So that's definitely a Stereotype, that is true,
and another one that I would say is true is that Germans are very efficient
and that goes along with Germans not being a big Fan of Smalltalk,
and therefore coming off as reserved sometimes.
If there's no real Point and talking about something
Germans just don't because they kind of feel like it's a Waste of Time if they talk about something unnecessary.
We're also very straightforward, if you've ever heard that Stereotype about Germans,
and german Tourists can easily be spotted all around the World,
because a lot of them like to dress according to the Weather and the Occasion,
which a lot of Cases, means,
that they will wear their functional Jackets like the typical jack-wolf-skin Jacket or functional Shoes, and they will wear their Hats and their Sunglasses
kind of like that.
So if you've ever seen a typical german Tourist, you'll know what I'm talking about.
One other thing that I can think of is that Germans are really big on planning ahead,
which also means that some of them aren't very spontaneous,
which can be frustrating if you like to do spontaneous Things.
With some of my german Friends, I actually have to make sure to ask them Weeks ahead if they can hang out,
but there are also positive Sides to this; Germans are really good at saving Money for Example,
and when they go on Journeys, they usually have amazing Experiences,
because they like to plan ahead and do a lot of Research,
but maybe you guys could let me know which Stereotypes you know about Germans,
and then I can let you know whether or not I think that they're true. So leave me a Comment.
Ok, so I say that the typical american Food
is probably Burgers, Fries
fried Chicken
Turkey and all kinds of thanksgiving Foods,
fast Food for sure and maybe Pies,
and I think I've mentioned this a few Times before, that Germany is pretty Americanized
and therefore a lot of Germans love american Food.
We actually have some American fast food Chains in Germany, like McDonald's Burger King
K.F.C, even Domino's is there,
and Burger places also seem to be really popular recently
like there's more and more burger Restaurants opening all throughout Germany.
Some of them make the Burgers a little more German though
by using like fancy Cheeses and healthy Toppings and healthy Bread and those kind of Things.
One example for those Burger restaurants would be the chain 'Hans im Glück' if you've ever heard of that.
So Burgers are really popular in Germany,
and I know that a lot of Germans who travel to the US are really excited to travel to the west Coast and go to 'In-N-Out Burger.'
I don't really know about that because I'm Vegetarian, so I haven't tried it, but
that's what I know.
Also, Steakhouses are really popular in Germany, which I would say is an American thing,
but for me as a Vegetarian,
I really love Mac-and-Cheese or just like a grilled Cheese sandwich
everything with melted Cheese is amazing for me here,
and american Milkshakes, I love them!
But the funny Thing is, that, whenever I'm in Germany, it's not even the american Food that I miss
it's the mexican Food; every time I leave the US, I get Mexican one last time
and every Time I leave Germany, I get italian Food one last time, because
it's really really hard to find good italian Food in the U.S,
whereas in Germany, we have italian Restaurants at almost every Street corner, I mean, I'm exaggerating a little Bit, but
Italy is very close to Germany,
and it's the same with mexican Restaurants in the U.S.
There's a lot of amazing mexican Food here, but it's really really hard to find in Germany
This was funny because more than half of the cincinnati Population has german Heritage
so People say this to me all the Time here.
There were even Times when I would tell someone that I'm German and they'd just be like, oh, yeah
me too!
And I'd be like no I'm
actually German, I was born and raised there and to be honest
I do find it nice to hear and sometimes People even know where their Ancestors were from in Germany,
but it doesn't get me like super excited.
I don't necessarily feel a Connection to that Person just because they have german Heritage.
I do think that it can be a nice way to open up a Conversation
but I also think that a lot of other Germans just don't care at all
I think I'm going to do a whole Video on Christmas in Germany,
but we do celebrate fairly similar to Americans except that we don't have Stockings,
and we mainly celebrate Christmas Eve,
that's usually when the Families get together and exchange Presents and have Dinner together and sing Songs
and then December 25th and 26th are Holidays as well,
and that's usually when People
travel and visit their larger Families and celebrate with them.
Okay, and then about the Christmas Gherkin:
I'm assuming that you referred to the Christmas Pickle,
which is not a thing in Germany, no
and I think for all Germans I should probably explain
Some Americans think,
that it's a german Tradition to hide a Pickle ornament
in the Christmas tree and then the first Child who finds the Ornament in the Tree
gets an extra Present. I had actually never heard of this before I came to the U.S,
and I kind of thought it was ridiculous when People first asked me those,
but it's not German
and I think I'm going to do some more research on this for the Christmas video.
When it comes to Holidays in general, we actually do have a lot of Holidays in Germany,
they vary from State to State with
Bavaria being the state with the most Holidays, with
13 throughout the year.
So on all of those 13 Days,
Schools are closed, Businesses are closed and People get a Day off
and most of those Holidays are christian Holidays actually.
The Holiday that is kind of the equivalent to 4th of July is October 3rd
which is German Unity Day.
Germany celebrates the official Integration of the former G.D.R
Into the Federal Republic of Germany on that Day, which happened in 1990.
It's not much of a cultural Holiday, though. So Germans don't really celebrate being German on that Day.
There are official public Celebrations
but not a lot of Germans celebrate at Home with their Friends and Family. So
it's not exactly like 4th July.
O.K so now we'll get into a few language-related Questions
and no,
there is no Age-limit on saying 'servus'.
For those of you who don't know what that means,
'Servus' is what I usually say in the beginning of my Videos and it's a bavarian dialect Word,
that means both 'hi' and 'goodbye'
and you can use it at any Age,
but it's not very formal and it's mostly used in the South of Germany and in Austria
So that's something that you should keep in Mind.
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That's hard to say actually;
I think for most People their native Language will have
a stronger Connection to their Emotions in a good and in a bad Way,
at least that's the Case for me.
So, when I cuss in English,
it doesn't feel as bad as when I do it in German
and I think it's because I have a deeper emotional Connection to german Words,
but I also know, that a lot of People who speak German as a second Language
really enjoy cussing in German because they think that it's very easy to make the Words sound angry.
When it comes to describing Emotions,
I personally would say that German offers more Words,
that describe Feelings in a more complex Way,
but I'm not sure if that's maybe just because I know the Language better so what do you guys think?
I personally don't think that anyone needs a perfect Accent as long as German native Speakers, or
the native Speakers of that Language
are able to understand you
you're fine in my Opinion, and also
Accents have a lot of Character too. I'm not quite sure what exactly you're referring to here with the r-Question,
but in my Opinion it's not necessary to be able to do the German r-Sound.
I mean obviously you'll sound a lot more German if you can say it
but I'll still be able to understand you if you use your English .
What I think is more important is that you know the Difference between the  and the  Diphthong,
that you pronounce the  as
[ts] like 
and that you try and pronounce the ch-Sound correctly.
It's a big Difference whether you pronounce this Word [ʁaizə]
or [ʁizə], because one means 'Journey' and the Other means Giant,
but it doesn't really make a Difference to me whether you say [ʁaizə] or [ɹaizə]. I'll still be able to understand you,
and it also makes a Difference to me whether you say 'lachen' or 'lacken.'
That just sounds like a different Word to a native Speaker.
So I would say that  and ,
 and  are important to know
and also make sure to pronounce the  like in english 
the  like an f-Sound.
So for example, it's not
Volks-wagon
it's [folks.va.gn]
[folks.va.gn]
I hope this helps.
Okay, so I hope that I could answer some of your questions
as always feel free to share your personal experiences and opinions in the comments below
and also feel free to ask me more questions under #askagerman
Thank you guys so much for watching subscribe to my channel if you like what I'm doing,
follow me on Instagram, and I hope I'll see you next time.
[In German] Bye!
