Pictures of boobies at the gas station? What do you think? Where are you more likely to
see them, Germany or the U.S.? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not the U.S.
Hey everyone! I’m Dana and you’re watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
Back when Mr. German Man and I first started dating, I was actually living in Prague and
he was living in Munich. So for the first few months we spent just about as much time
together in Prague as we did here in Munich, so I didn’t really get so much exposure
to the German culture as when I finally moved here, but even within those first few months
Mr. German Man had taken me to two naked saunas, and I had seen that in the gas station stores
on the Autobahn they sell magazines with topless women on them. So just sitting there, right
out there in the store, next to the Marie Claire and kids coloring books. Boobies, just right there.
So yeah, even before moving to Germany, I had already realized that the nudity comfort
level is way more relaxed here in Germany than in the U.S., where porn magazines are
dirty and hidden away, and where a lot of people even keep their bathing suits on while
showering off in the changing room showers after using a swimming pool.
I’ve talked about it in several other videos, which I’ll link to down below, for the most
part, Germans are just a lot more comfortable with the naked body: breast feeding is a non-issue,
doctors don’t usually leave the room while you get undressed, and you usually don’t
get any kind of gown to cover yourself with. So in the U.S. doctors hand you a paper gown
and then leave the room while you change, waiting until you say you’re ready and re-“dressed”
in that paper gown before coming back in.
There are also naked areas here in Munich, just 5 minutes from the city center. Areas
in the park and by the river where people just hang out totally naked. And really it's
it's just no big deal.
Another big difference is that here in Germany small talk isn’t really a thing. It’s
completely normal to send off a business email that gets straight to the point. Dear Anja,
I need those figures before tomorrow’s meeting. Kind regards, Lisa. In the U.S. that would
probably be seen as an angry or an upset email. What’s wrong with Lisa? Why is she in such
a bad mood? What did I do wrong. You gotta make a little small talk, even in an email.
Hi Sally! I hope you’re having a nice week. Love those new photos you have in your office.
About those figures we discussed earlier, it’s really important that I get them before
tomorrow’s meeting...and so on.
The freedom given to kids and teenagers over here is another big difference. By the 5th
grade I’ve seen kids in Germany taking the underground all by themselves. Getting themselves
to and from school with it, often switching trains, switching lines, all without, it seems,
causing the parents even the slightest bit of worry. It's just fine. It's just normal.
I mean, teens are even sent on trips to other countries. For short stays of like a week, but also for
longer ones -- a lot of Germans, a lot of Germans, not just a few, go on an exchange
year in high school to the U.S., to South America, to other places all around the world.
Yeah right, when I was 17 I still wasn’t allowed to drive more than an hour away from
my home, and that wasn’t because my parents were particularly strict or anything, that
was a pretty normal rule among most of my friends. It was a huge deal when my parents
let me and one of my girlfriends drive to Tampa, which is four hours away, and stay
there all weekend alone. A huge deal.
But the funny thing is, then at age 18 in the U.S., you’re suddenly let loose. Like
up until then you’ve been driving nothing more than an hour away from your home, but then,
boom, you turn 18 and you move halfway across the country to go to college, move
into your own apartment, and, yeah, you’re, you're all alone. You're an adult now. You’re
kind of seen as a bit of a loser by society if you stay at home with your parents or if
you move back in with your parents after college. It’s kind of like you’ve failed. Whereas
here in Germany, I've noticed it’s really not a big deal at all for people to keep living
with their parents for a while. There doesn’t seem to be that same stigma of shame and failure
attached to it.
Another pretty big difference is that prostitution is legal here in Germany whereas in the U.S.
the only place that prostitution is legal is in some parts of Nevada. And I think that this
ties in with yet another big difference, which is that sex in general is a lot less
taboo here in Germany than in the U.S. It’s not something to feel bad or ashamed about.
Sex here is just, it's part of life and it’s just, it's not really a big deal. It’s just
life! You don’t have these abstinence is the only way training programs in middle school
here in Germany. Which, if you don’t know, abstinence only
training is the sex talk that I, as well as a lot of other people in the U.S. got as our
“safe sex” talk in school. Some guy or girl in a stiff collared shirt, showed up
at the school and stood at the front of the classroom to tell us that abstinence, which
is no sex at all, is the only form of safe sex.
Yes, that’s right. That was my sex talk in middle school. No sex is the only safe
sex. Anything else is gonna give you diseases and bring you and your family shame. You and
your family shame. You and your family shame. As a part of this “safe sex” talk, they
also showed us slides of genitals with herpes and other STDs to convince us and scare us
into not having sex. Wow, that sounds really messed up when I say it out loud. It's a good
thing that I had, you know, more open parents that I could talk to about sex, who kept me
on a more sane path. Yeah. That sounds really messed up.
And, on that note, so my question for you is: what other big differences have you noticed
between Germany and the U.S.? And what’s your opinion on these differences that I mentioned?
Do you prefer a little small talk, or you like getting right to the point. How about
sex? Is that something you're comfortable with? Nudity? How do you feel about that?
Please let me know in the comments below.
Thanks so much for watching! Please don't forget to subscribe for more videos and hit
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with me over here on my Twitter and my Facebook page. Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
Now I'm going to get deep in the traumatizing area of my childhood. Thanks so much for watching
and letting me get out my therapy session about the mutilated vaginas. They didn't even
show us pictures of the genitals, but slides. They projected them onto the wall. There were
like these huge pictures of vaginas with STDs. Why would they do that? I bet Laci Green has
a video on that. I need to check out Laci Green's channel. Some parts of Nevada. And...