A German living in the US provides his subjective comparison of the two countries. A few random points:
- In Germany, most public spaces, restaurants, and offices are full of smoke. People habitually throw cigarette butts on the ground.
- In German restaurants, you cannot get free water with your food.
- In Germany, when you have eaten in a restaurant, taking the leftovers with you is typically frowned upon; they are thrown away. In the US, it is customary to ask for a box.
- In the US, when you enter a restaurant, you have to wait for a waiter to seat you; generally you cannot freely choose your table. In Germany, you just sit down wherever you want.
- In the US, foods are often served in a way which makes it impossible to eat them in a civilized manner, for instance tremendously huge hamburgers or too long French fries.
- In Germany, there are no motels, and there are very few cheap ways to spend a night, especially close to the highways.
- Waiters in US restaurants have a habit of coming to your table while you are eating or while you are talking, interrupt you and ask “Is everything OK?”. Sometimes they even try to start a fake conversation.
- In Germany, TV shows start at varying, strange times. In the US, all shows on all channels always start on the full hour.
- The US uses absolutely brain-dead bank notes: all denominations have the same size, feel and color. Furthermore, the largest denomination is only $100.
- German dog owners almost never collect their dog’s feces. In the US, most cities require this and most dog owners do it.
- In German cinemas, you have to endure a much longer barrage of commercials.
- American jelly donuts contain a lot more jelly than German ones.
- In the US, you can open beer bottles without a bottle opener, by turning the lid. Not possible in Germany.
- In the US, apartments or houses for rent or sale are commonly advertised with a large sign in front of the house. In Germany this isn’t done: you have to find the address from ads in newspapers or from real estate agents, which is annoying.
- Most US bookstores have coffee shops and armchairs and are open till 11pm, also on the weekends. Most German ones discourage browsing, don’t offer coffee and close at 8pm, and don’t open at all on Sundays.
- Cheerleaders, high school girls cheering and dancing in short dresses for the boys’ sport teams, actually do exist in the US. I had always thought they only exist on TV, just like the laughter in the background of soap operas. But no: girls actually do want to be cheerleaders. To Germans, the whole setup is ridiculous, sexist, and degrading.
- In the US, prices are always stated without sales tax, so you never know in advance how much you actually have to pay.
- Americans have a strange obsession with the points of the compass. Frequently inside a building you will find signs like “This elevator is out of order. Please use the one on the North side of the building.” How am I supposed to know where North is? Why can’t they just tell me where the elevator is?
- By contrast, German highway signs are unusable for foreigners (and many Germans) since they eschew points of the compass completely. In order to navigate on German Autobahnen, you need to know the relative locations of all cities in Germany. The signs won’t say “B1 East” and “B1 West”, but instead “B1 Richtung Bochum” and “B1 Richtung Unna” and you are supposed to know that Unna is East of Bochum.