European Things American Find Weird

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🇺🇸Christina

🇺🇸Haley

🇩🇪Elena

[leonie.]

About the keeping distance one: in Northern Germany we like to say "I can't wait until Corona is over so I can finally get further away from people than only six feet"

[Onnarashi]

"There's no personal space in Europe."

Huh? Go to a Nordic country. If anything, I think there's MORE personal space in many European countries compared to the USA.

"You have to use coins in Europe."

Again, travel to a Nordic country. Personally, I do use cash sometimes, but generally you don't need cash for most transactions. All stores take cards. Maybe not vending machines, but I haven't used one in ages so I don't know. This is the problem with comparing a single country to an entire continent. There are SO many cultural differences, systems, currencies etc. that it's impossible to say "Europe does this" or "Europe does that".

[Rothstein]

In Spain tipping is completely voluntary and optional. Normally, if you are satisfied with the service is common to leave a tip (in cash) after paying (by card or cash too).

[Kiwi]

Thinking France and Germany represent the whole Europe is like thinking that China and Japan represent the whole Asia. It just creates misconceptions and false assumptions about the whole continent, which is a mash of hundreds of different cultures who do things differently. Kind of a shame you barely ever show anyone from any country east of Germany.

[reminotinparis]

The credit card thing in France has definitely changed now since the pandemic. You can pay by card everywhere, I am french and I really never need to get some cash with me

[ChristinaDonnelly]

Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the video~ If you have similarities or differences in your country let us know in the comments! 😀 -Christina 🇺🇸

[DulcisAbsentia]

In Italy, or at least the north where I live:
- university is paid in accordance to your parent’s income, every year
- you don’t use cards for something that costs less than 5€
- you don’t tip through cards or signs, just leave 1-2€ on the table (tipping isn’t really common)
- we recycle (food, paper, glass and plastic)based on the choices of our district (we pay taxes based on that)

[FurryPeachify]

So cute how the comment section really brings home the fact that Europe is a mish mash of very different countries/cultures who do not like being lumped together as though we’re all the same xD I love Europe, I love being European, I think our many different cultures and long histories give all our countries great charm. So yeah, I like us being “Europe”. However having lived in France for several years (as a Dutch woman) has really made me see how very different we are culturally and exactly how much influence my own culture has had on me. So in that way I am European, but also very Dutch :)
Then again I imagine that America’s states each have their own differences, much like our countries do!

[LumyTheQueen]

PLEASE stop treating Europe like a country! Its a continent!! You can't compare any of these questions between two countries on opposite sides of the continent, you'll get completely different answers!
Each European country has a very unique and specific culture to it as well as diverse local laws and customs. They are simply not comparable.

[lou]

I usually like your videos a lot, but this one is kind of ridiculous. You can't lump all Europeans together, it's the same as making a video called "Asian Things Americans find weird"

[krakowian]

I would say this movie is not USA vs Europe, but USA vs France/Germany. Europe has changed a lot since those two ladies were in Europe :D

[michaelwilliamgraham]

I think they missed the boat on a few of these. Mostly the one about coins. Europe has 0.50€, 1€, and 2€ coins. The smallest note is a 5€ bill. The largest coin in wide circulation in the states is $0.25. Fifty cent coins and $1 coins exist but are so rare they’re almost seen as collector’s items (by many) instead of being used as currency. The smallest note is the $1 bill. This translates into Americans keeping $1 bills in their wallets and dumping their coins into a jar or something and then periodically emptying that jar at the bank or coin exchange machine once the jar fills up. In contrast Europeans keep and use their coins because the number of things costing between 1€-5€ makes it practical to do so.

[Riondrial]

I like paying with cash. It feels real, i see it getting less and less and i know and feel very fast if i spend more than usually. It leaves my hands and it comes to my hands.
Per card i miss that absolutely. There is just a number often going down and once in a while going up. On phone i never want to use it. Can never be safe enough for me.

[ElliinKorea]

Hey everyone! ☺
It was so fun for me to film this new video with the international ladies~ 💗
I hope you enjoyed this little insight into some differences between the US and Germany and France! 🥰

[szymonkryszewski]

About using coins and personal space i would disagree.
It depends on a country. On a north people are more distant than on a south and you can see it in communication.
Southern Europeans are touching eachother a lot during conversations and there is little distance between them. Northens on the other hand dont like that and choose to be more distant and mind their personal space. Its also well seen in greetings.
About coins, well, it also depends. In Poland we do not need cash, we have several non-cash payment options. Same thing in Nordic countries and Germany. And after pandemic i think all Europe is non-cash friendly.

[Frank-mmyp]

Visited a museum gift shop in Denmark in 2018. Wanted to buy some souvenirs with cash. I even had Danish KRONE to pay for my haul. But the cashier looked stunned at my fistful of Danish money. He said he was so used to all his customers using their cards that he had almost forgotten how to make change.

[Mrkva]

In Slovakia:
- university is is free for you if you're under 26. We finish highschool at 18 or 19... So if you enroll at the Uni immediately and you want a master's degree - that would be 5 years of study, which means, you get the whole 5 years for free. If you need to repeat some semester or year, the likelyhood of you having to pay for your last year at the Uni is higher. Also if you stop at yout bachelor's degree, go to work for 2 years and then enroll back to Uni for master's, again, you might have to pay for your last year or two. This system keeps us motivated to finish Uni as soon as possible - which means to not take breaks in between the degrees or between the highschool and uni and also keeps us motivated to be good at passing the semesters in order to not extend our study time. You also get student discount prices everywhere - like public transport, cinema tickets, museums, galleries, some of the fastfood chains etc.
- exactly, you don't use cards for something that costs less than 5€! Also, they forgot to mention that we Europeans use coins more, because in America, your coins are just cents and your paper bills start at just 1 dollar. For us, the highest coin is 2€ and our paper bills start at 5€.... So I can literally hold 10 pieces of coins in one hand and the value of them would be as much as 20€, meanwhile for Americans, holding 10 pieces of coins in my hand looks like I don't have much.... Also, what was not mentioned is that what we mean by "paying with card" is that "the card" is debit card. Not credit card. We use a card connected to our bank account with money on it to pay for things. If you run out of money, you can't pay. We don't voluntarily put ourselves in debt. It's hard for us to understand why so many Americans use credit cards instead of debit cards.
- in my country, tips are voluntary, nobody gives your attitude for not tipping. Tipping is specifically not expected from teenagers, students, old people, etc. The amount of tip (if you choose to) is absolutely voluntary and there's no "unwritten rule of 30%" or so. But we usually round up the price so if we are supposed to pay 13, 72€, we'd round it up to be 15€ - that's when we are paying cash - we do it because we wanna tip but at the same time we don't wanna wait until the staff srambles up the change back . When using a card, you don't tip.
- we recycle based on the availability of the trash cans in our neighborhood, almost 100% of residential areas have availability of paper, plastic, glass. But some areas also have bio cans (food) available. There are still some households that don't recycle at all but most people have AT LEAST a separate plastic bin at home

[escfer]

In Spain it's true that owners don't let you pay with card unless it's a significant amount of money (like +10€) but this only happens in small and local businesses. When it comes to big companies or great brands you can even pay some cents with your card.

[Mike]

A shopkeeper in Germany does not need to accept credit cards even if there’s a machine for cashless payment visible on his counter . The reason being that the only „legal tender“ inside the Euro Zone is the Euro in the form of coin and bills, not Credit cards ( there are some exceptions even for accepting cash, where a small shop or gas Station can refuse 500€ bills if clearly visible on the entrance ) .

[frenchie]

As a young Brit, I’m jealous of the rest of Europe. When my older siblings went to university it was WAY cheaper, and for one of them, free! Now I pay £9, 250 per year. Which theoretically, most students will never pay back. Especially since we also get maintenance loan plus added interest to both