Americans BIGGEST CULTURE SHOCK moving to Germany

In this video we have a chat about my biggest culture shock when moving to Germany from America. There are many, but this is by far the biggest. Any tips?

[sigmagic]

I would advice to stop Isa from doing everything for you and stop being afraid to make mistakes, but embrace them on the way to becoming better. Start talking and leading conversations yourself, even if you don’t know all words- just amend it with English. It will be complicated, you will make a lot of mistakes and sometimes feel embarrassed, but you also will gain understanding, proficiency and joy much faster.

[rewelke]

"Es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen." 😊

[meanckz]

read a lot of German (books, newspaper, something you're specially interested in .... write down words you don't know, look up definition(s) and write them down as well, built vocabulary).
this is how I learned English, I'd also have a person explain the definition(s) so to get 'real world' sense of words.

[Kazuya]

I feel with you. Had same experience when I came to Spain for 6 months.

[cap.luisfigo]

Ja mein Lieber. Ich kenne dieses Problem. Mein Englisch ist schon ganz gut. Das meiste habe ich "auf der Straße" gelernt. In der Schule hatte ich kein Interesse. Aber wenn es ernsthaft in Gespräche mit englischsprachigen Freunden geht, erreiche ich oft meine Grenze. Was mir weiterhilft ist folgendes. 1. Lesen. Alles. Zeitungen, Bücher. Kurze Geschichten. Wenn ich was nicht verstehe, übersetzen. Dank Internet gibt es da heute viele Möglichkeiten. Das beste Übersetzungsprogramm ist für mich "deepl". Es übersetzt nicht nur einfach den Satz, es versteht meist auch den Sinn hinter einem Satz. Schon die kostenlose Version ist klasse. 2. Sprechen. So oft wie möglich einfach sprechen. "Übung macht den Meister", sagt man in Deutschland. Jede Möglichkeit nutzen. Wenn Du Musik magst, höre deutsche Songs (z.B. auf Youtube), kopiere die Lyrics in "deepl" und lese sie. Das hilft mir sehr viel. 3. Höre und sehe deutsches Radio und TV. Filme auf deutsch (für mich englisch) helfen sehr. Am besten ohne Untertitel, weil da die Übersetzungen oft sehr schlecht sind (Youtube, Google allgemein). Nur "deepl" (nein, ich bekomme kein Geld für meine Werbung). 3. Schreib auf deutsch. Botschaften, Mitteilungen, Einkaufszettel etc. Wenn Du das konsequent machst, hast Du schnell Erfolg. Übrigens, perfekt wirst Du wahrscheinlich nie. Aber warum auch. Auch viele "Nativ speaker" beherrschen ihre Sprache schlecht, oder gar nicht. Im allgemeinen sind die Deutschen sehr tolerant, was das betrifft. Und freuen sich, wenn man versucht ihre Sprache zu sprechen. So, jetzt hast Du Deinen ersten Text zum Übersetzen. Viel Spaß und Erfolg. 🇩🇪🇺🇸🇬🇧💕☮

[Scorpion-kjrl]

Es gibt ein Sprichwort: Übung macht den Meister. Das war bei mir mit englisch auch nicht anders. Und englische Grammatik beherrsche ich immer noch nicht.

[TheAxel]

I had the same experience when I lived for a year in Paris in the Mid 80s - my whole french consisted of "oui", "non", "merci" and "bonjour" when I arrived there. But it helped me tremendously to be in a place where I was _forced to speak_ French to get my daily things done. By the end of the year, I was already able to understand some more complex french but still was not able to have a discussion about e.g. the philosophic principles of Aristotle. 😂

But just like you, despite my growing knowledge, I had the feeling that I would never master the French language in all its complexity - I suppose this is due to the iceberg effect: as your knowledge of the language grows, so does your understanding of its depth, and this can be quite daunting 😅

[brianwinters]

I was married for 38 years to a woman born in the us but had parents came from Germany in Jam 1957 and my wife was fluent in German and i learned to be comfortable in German on several trips to germany

[alpenroseable]

i learn a language easily like this, you buy a film cd on ebay with de and english language and subtitles then you need a cd player for your notebook and you can always stop and think it has to be a film that you watch at least 100 times can. yes and always turn on the translation on youtube i watched casablanca 1000 times and lets live a little 100 times, you are strong

[SkandalRadar]

I was an exchange student from Germany in Kentucky in 1995-1996. Since I came from the former GDR, I didn't start learning English until the 7th grade. Until then, Russian was the first foreign language. So my English was pretty bad, and also hardly usable in everyday life in the USA. But in the 10 months in Kentucky I absorbed the language. At the end of the year my English was very good and I understood 99% (old people are quite hard to understand, because they often mumble) and was able to communicate well about 85%. Sure, I was still missing any special technical terms, but it was good enough for a normal conversation on all kinds of topics. You don't have to be perfect. The best thing for me was that I didn't speak a word of German in the 10 months. It is certainly more difficult for Americans in Germany not to speak English here, because we Germans like to start speaking English with them, also to test and improve our English. So you have to force yourself not to speak your native language often. Then you learn a foreign language much faster. At least that's my experience. Greetings from Kiel.

[mupfel_]

Even if it sounds stupid: try reading children's books. The sentence structure in German can be a real hassle. Children's books are rather simple and often have a repetitive pattern, which would allow you to understand certain words in different phrases. Or try to watch films, which you are familiar with, in German.

[elektrofix]

I learned a lot of english by watching Videos like yours. Only hearing the foreign language gives you a lot of the tone, the pronunciation and the genarel sound of the Language you wont to learn. I strugelt a lot learning english till i met US-Army soldiers here in Germany in the late 80`s.

[janastratmann-severin]

I can only pass on my own experience. I learned English at school and couldn't do anything with it. But reading books in English and watching YouTube videos in English changed my world. Since then, my listening comprehension is so much better that I understand 95% of everything I hear. Try that in German. That should help

[peterweiss]

Hey, huge respect for your effort! For many americans it's difficult, because unlike europeans, they're not much around other language exchange(besides maybe spanish ! Keep going! Also read and follow podcasts! GL xD

[G.Harley.Davidson]

Go to Berlín. It’s basically been Americanized.

[nicknicoara]

We are the same bro! Jetzt verstehe :)))

[martinscholer]

Read and watch children literature and films. There are some acceptable for adults without feeling too silly or bored. The language is normally relatively correct but simple. Ideal to learn some not schoolbook vocabulary and to get used to common talk.

[olafborkner]

The same thing happened to me when I met my Italian wife. Italians speak at an incredible speed and at first all I heard was a jumble of words. I couldn't identify a word in the mush of language. After some years it has gotten better and now I talk like an Italian.

[Ruheschrei]

watch your favorite TV shows in german. that helps a lot. especially if you can turn on translations anytime you feel like you didn't understood what was said.
start with one you already watched (so you basically have a knowledge of what is going on) and progress to newer once.

[Traumglanz]

Interesting, he seem to have learned as kid all the stuff that is required to speak without much of an accent. So even if it's hard, your results are impressive.