4 Things Living in Germany as Foreigners Taught Us

We just completed our first full calendar year living as Americans in Germany and we learned a lot through our interactions with others as foreigners in Germany! Of course, there were all kinds of culture shocks and reverse culture shocks we have experienced that taught us a lot about life in Germany vs America, but there were bigger lessons that have made us grow as people. Find out ways us moving to Germany changed our lives for the better in this video! 😊

0:00 - Start
1:28 - Intro
2:22 - Preconceived Notions
5:03 - Communication
7:24 - Own Cultural Bias
10:27 - Who is the Best?
11:58 - What Are We Saying?
12:43 - Bloopers

Filmed: Kaiserslautern / Ramstein, Germany - December 2020
#AmericansInGermany #German #MovingToGermany
_____________________________________________________

INSTAGRAM: @passport_two

TWITTTER: @PassportTwo
_____________________________________________________

🛏 Get $40+ off of your first Airbnb by using the following link!!

🎵 Like our music? Download these copyright-free songs here:

🎒Our Gear:

*These are affiliate links. If you use them and make a purchase, we get a small commission that goes towards supporting our work! Thank you so much if you use them!!* 😊
_____________________________________________________

❤️Aubrey was a Speech-Language Pathologist, Donnie was a graphic designer, but we both had a dream to #travel the world and experience cultures. After three years of being married and dreaming about if something like this great adventure would be possible, we decided to quit the rat race and take on the world. We sold everything we had, quit our jobs, and took off! After 9 months of aimless and nonstop travel, we now get to fulfill our dreams of #LivingAbroad as #expats as we move to #Germany!

[PassportTwo]

If you could move anywhere in the world, where would it be?? Even if it’s a different part of your current city or country, where would you like to live an experience? 😃

[box-of-chocolates]

Really love how the two of you are able to turn everything that happens to you into an opportunity for learning and growth! Thank you for your great content! ❤️🙏

[Rsama]

When we got back from our 3 years living in the US we where quite often asked: „Where is life better, USA or Germany?“ Our answer: „Wrong question, there is no better or worse, just different.“ It took a bit to understand the differences and accept them but then life was good. There are still things I like and „hate“ in the US but also in my country Germany.

[fdelta]

While in Munich at a laundromat, we met a very friendly and extremely helpful German lady that assisted us in figuring out how to work the machines. For those that may not know, you find an empty machine and then put your money into a corresponding numbered slot on the (opposite side) wall in order to make it work. After getting mostly done with the washing, the owner came in to clean up and get the shop ready to close. We figured we had plenty of time to get everything in the dryer and have it dried enough to wear the next day. We continued our conversation with the helpful lady (in English...mostly) about where we were from, weather, what we liked or disliked about Germany, etc. 10 minutes into the drying cycle, the owner told her in German that we needed to leave. Not when the dryer was done, but the sooner the better. She was livid with him knowing that we still had time on the dryer and at least another hour before the place was scheduled to close. Not knowing everything he was telling her, she started translating for us as best she could. I can only assume that he wasn't too friendly to foreigners and didn't appreciate us being in there. Our friendly lady convinced him to allow us to wait until our dryer shut off before he could kick us out. The entire time she kept telling me about how wrong he was for kicking us out early. Rather than be the 'typical' Americans and demanding that we be allowed to stay, we gathered up all of our things, thanked her for being so friendly and helpful and left. We took our still damp laundry back to the hotel we were staying in, stopped at the front desk and requested all the hangers they could spare and went old school Okie on them and hung our laundry up in the room to finish drying overnight. Just goes to show that no matter where you are in the world, you'll find both friendly and unfriendly people. The sad part is, I still know exactly where the laundromat is, but that is the only semi bad memory I have of anywhere in Germany.

[brozy]

The main reason, why I watch vids like this, is to view my country through foreigners eyes. It's always entertaing and fascinating to hear, how others perceive it and what their issues (pro and con) are.

[gerdpapenburg]

Dieses Video hat mich an den Spruch des Komikers Frank Goosen erinnert: "woanders ist auch Scheiße"!

[lotharschepers]

Native German babyboomer here I'm pretty thankful for your work because you give me the chance to see my own society from a viewpoint I could never reach and with that, you give me the chance to move my society a very small way towards the point of perfection. Btw. from my point of view this idea (to make things perfect) is typical for Japan or the Scandinavian nations or us Germans and I think that it is not bad overall but it confronts these societies with the reality of being not more than humans.

[MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Love this video guys! It’s so good to walk in someone else’s shoes. We’ve had such compassion and empathy for immigrants, expats and refugees since we lived abroad in France.

[zapptos]

Heyyy, das ist tatsächlich ein ziemlich guter Breakdown! Echt nicht schlecht, davon kann man tatsächlich was lernen!
Grüße aus Österreich!

[lauraarsenault]

This video really resonates with me. My husband and I lived in Munich for 14 months. During that time I taught English and American culture to various companies. I took German language lessons but never became proficient. I could speak well enough to get by in my daily life, but never well enough to have a free flowing conversation. This vulnerable feeling gave me great empathy for immigrants in the USA, and when I returned I volunteered at a nearby English language school where I tutor immigrants for free. It has been very illuminating to hear of their cultures which they are so eager to share with me. Honestly, my opinions of Germans changed greatly, for the better, by living there. And I like to think that I helped to inform their opinions of the USA.

[mrchainanimal]

You're doing great... most people in Germany are proud, that people like you guys decide to live in our country. Just ignore the idiots... they are the minority.

[BruceHamilton]

I'm an American saving $ and learning German hoping to get to travel there and hopefully live one day! Thanks for the videos. Congrats on the first full year!

[danshigley]

What a great video and great sentiments. Since we moved to Germany we have experienced much the same. Keep up the great content guys.

[kimgardner]

Great video guys! It's a great reminder to try and see things from another point of view as a foreigner. When we moved here, I decided that I wasn't going to change my "ways" as far as being friendly. I really miss being comfortable saying "how are you" but I say "hallo" or "morgan" to every person I pass my daily walks. I often wonder if my german neighbors are thinking "here comes that crazy American lady".

[frankmitchell]

I lived and worked in Germany years ago and I watch your videos to see if your, newer, experiences are different from mine in the 1980's. I was in a large city with many non German residents so I was not unusual. When I returned to England I found that having experience of another countries working methods was not seen as an advantage. Looking forward to more from you.

[calise]

You guys are great! Keep up the great videos and your wonderful, genuine personalities.

[AlBfR]

I think as kids even in Germany making friends is relatively easy like probably everywhere around the world. But when we grow up, our personalities build up. And especially for Germans the coconut metaphor seems to hit the nail on its head considering that there is a second hard shell on the outside you need a machete to get through! 😉
And you‘e absolutely right, there is no perfect country and with a high probability no best country either. If you start to believe that your country is the best, then you stop trying to get better. The same rule applies imho to many people.

[synthplayer]

Das ist das beste Video von euch das ich gesehen habe! Toller Inhalt und starker Aufruf zu Toleranz unter allen Menschen und zu gegenseitigem Verständnis.

[soniadume]

I look forward to seeing your videos. This one was pretty on point. I have lived in other countries due to being in the Military, and I agree 100% that we really need to embrace the culture of the country we are currently living in. We need to also learn to embrace people's cultures from other countries that live in America. thank you for this great videos. Love the bloopers at the end.

[horsthelge]

Your comparison between coconut and peach is just on POINT! The best I've ever heard about comparing North American and German culture!