7 Weird Germany vs. USA Differences i never noticed before | American in Germany

[@martinschulz326]

Ich kenne nur den Begriff "Versuchskaninchen". Ein "Testkaninchen" nicht. Höchstens einen "Testkandidaten".

[@muiggmuigg]

Yes, I would also say "Versuchskaninchen" :-) If you wanna use the word "Test..." then "einen Testballon starten" would be the better version.

[@lenastorm6280]

Same

[@ArtinSinger]

Martin Schulz ich denke sie hat einfach unseren Begriff „Versuchskaninchen“ mit „test rabbit“ übersetzt, was meiner Meinung nach auch korrekt ist. Wir übersetzen „Versuch“ in dem Kontext immer mit „Test“.

[@martinschulz326]

@@ArtinSinger Vermutlich.

[@keyem4504]

@@muiggmuigg But a Testballon is something different. It describes the process of trying itself, while a Versuchskaninchen is the object the test is conducted on.

[@wtsalive8210]

Eine kleine Klugscheißerei: Botanisch gesehen, zählt die Haselnuß tatsächlich als Nuß, während die Erdnuß zu den Hülsenfrüchten(Erbsen, Bohnen...) zählt, obwohl sie als Nuß bezeichnet wird.

[@elecrom_9757]

Das ß triggered mich grade etwas xD Es heißt mittlerweile Nuss :)

[@wtsalive8210]

Elecrom _ Du hast Recht. Ich bin aber großer Gegner der Rechtschreibreform. Deshalb unter anderen auch das „ß“. 😉

[@Timinator0815]

WTS Alive Und Menschen wie ich lesen dann immer erstmal "Haselnuuuuus" 😅

[@wtsalive8210]

@Timinator 😂

[@sisuguillam5109]

@@miggelie Ich höre gerade die Stimme meines Papas im Kopf, die sagt: Erdbeeren? Scheinfrüchte!

[@wreathedriver2856]

German software will simply turn the quotation marks around if they are in front of a word, but the key is the same

[@ein_nachti]

Right, it's just easier to read, while the actual character is the same.

[@huawafabe]

On my android phone here, "it doesn't get changed". But I know that my iPad does it, even in a KZbin comment.

[@frs-01-35]

On a computer, you need to switch the language of the text to German or English (in the settings; some programmes do so automatically) to change the style of the quotation marks.

[@huawafabe]

@@frs-01-35 but that doesn't work on KZbin or something, only in office software or something

[@elessartelcontar8208]

Also US American software like Windows and MS Word will use German quotation symbols if they are set up properly. I don’t know any specifically German software that is involved in this process.

[@kevinprice2274]

Air quotes are the exact same gesture in German. German computer keyboards don't have a key for the opening (bottom) quotation mark, but some programs such as MS Word convert them while typing. Also Frensh quotation marks (guillemets, » «) are commonly used in typeset.

[@Timinator0815]

BUT, the guillemets are switched in comparison to French. French: « Bonjour » German: »Hallo« (Also notice the lack of spacing)

[@ThePerfectRed]

I guess the habit of gesturing quotation marks was copied from TV shows and thus spread to many countries even it the quotation marks are different there.

[@HagenvonEitzen]

On a typical keyboard, there are no keys for US quotation marks (“…”), either; there's only that straight up one ("). It is up to the software to turn such to typographically correct codepoints (from context and language settings), and that's also how German „…“ is the result of some automatic input conversion. Apart from that, I personally prefer »…« in all German book projects under my typographic control

[@Gerhard-Martin]

@@Timinator0815 Est-ce que ça veut dire, ce que j´ ai écrit les Guillemets toujours INcorrects ? 8-O Olalaa ?

[@Timinator0815]

Gerhard Martin Pardon Monsieur :*

[@ChrissyXD1001]

Hey, Ich arbeite in einer Buchhandlung,und es ist tatsächlich so, dass es in Deutschland unterschiedlich ist. Bei uns gibt es also beide Varianten :)

[@Herzschreiber]

Ja stimmt. Jetzt wo Du es sagst....... wenn ich auf mein Bücherregal schaue, gibt es beide Varianten. Plus einer dritten......ein sehr dickes Buch bei dem der Titel waagerecht geschrieben ist.

[@meikem.1095]

Genau das habe ich auch beobachten können. Ich habe eine Reihe an dänischen Büchern und die sind tatsächlich so bedruckt wie in Amerika 🇩🇰

[@Wildcard71]

Es gibt zwar eine Richtlinie, aber die ist nicht verbindlich.

[@TBFSJjunior]

Die eine ("falsche") Variante ist bevorzugt von Buchhändlern da man den Titel lesen kann, wenn man das Buch mit dem cover nach oben auf den Tisch legt. Nach Richtlinie gedruckte werden von Büchereien bevorzugt, weil man am Regal nicht die Position von links nach rechts wechseln muss wenn man das Buch raus zieht.

[@kevinprice2274]

There is no "Testkaninchen", the word is "Versuchskaninchen".

[@Markle2k]

Is that universally true? Could it be that it exists in Munich (where she lives) or Cologne (where Stefan is from)? edit: I suppose another explanation is that it exists only in the Denglish that she and Stefan speak at home.

[@AMK650]

And you can say "Laborratte" which means lab rat.

[@WantedAdventure]

@Kevin Price super interesting! When I looked it up in the German-English dictionary it gave me both "Testkaninchen" and "Versuchskaninchen" as options. Thanks for the feedback to the word!! "Versuchskarnickel" was also mentioned in the dictionary, but as a regional term.

[@publicvoidmain]

@@WantedAdventure Yes, Kaninchen and Karnickel are synonyms, while Karnickel is supposedly more usual in the northern regions (something I can't relate to, heavy Franconian dialect also often times defaults to Karnickel rather than Kaninchen)

[@muiggmuigg]

@@WantedAdventure Apropos "Karnickel" - I would say "Karniggel" - which let me remind to a cult film made by Detlev Buck :-D kzbin.info/www/bejne/rInUen-deayHmrM

[@undertakernumberone1]

Zum "Ouch/Ow/Aua": Ich kenne folgendes in Deutsch: Autsch, Aua, Au! Die Verniedlichung: (Weh)Wechen... oder "Aua". Wird auch dafür benutzt. z. B. "Hast du ein Aua?"

[@masatwwo6549]

Weh ist ein altes Wort für Schmerz. Das gibt es nur noch in wenigen Worten: Heimweh, Fernweh, Wehwehchen ...

[@undertakernumberone1]

@@masatwwo6549 Vergiss nicht "Wehe!"

[@jannecapelle_art]

about the soda bottle - i would be a bit confused if i saw someone carrying around a 1,5 liter bottle of coke for example, but not bc of the carrying around bit, but bc people in germany generally dont drink as much sugar sodas as people in the US do. mostly people carry around waterbottles, whether they are the plastic (or glas) ones from the supermarket or the metal kind that you can buy seperately. i think one beverage thats pretty popular in germany but ive never seen an american talk about is apfelschorle? so, carbonated water mixed with applejuice? that was always my drink of choice to bring to school, since its sweeter and tastes nicer than plain water, but is not extremely sugary like soft drinks are.

[@karinbirkenbihl2053]

Be carefil:Apfelschorle may contain even Mord sugar than Coke, at least more than the Coke they dell in German. After realizing that, I stopped drinking Apfelschorle.

[@karinbirkenbihl2053]

Of course more! sugar, but "mordssüss" würde ja auch passen. Englisch schreiben, wenn Deutsch eingestellt ist..🙄😂🙈

[@jannecapelle_art]

@@karinbirkenbihl2053 idk, the apfelschorle we bought back when i was in school definitely had less sugar in it than coca cola🤷🏻‍♀️

[@schnullobullo]

You have to differ between self-mixed "Apfelschorle" and buyed "Apfelschorle". So buy a good Applejuice and mix it with soda and you have "Apfelschorle" with less sugar!

[@jannecapelle_art]

@@schnullobullo we started doing that when we got a sodastream, bc otherwise we'd have to buy crates of applejuice AND carbonated water, and thats kinda annoying and more expensive😅

[@tramper42]

3:41 „drinking from the bottle“ your example is maybe wrong „drink the the bottle and put it back in the fridge“ well, if you life ALONE then it’s ok, but if other people drink from that, then it’s considered GROSS in Germany... If you are the ONLY ONE, that drinks from that bottle, while you are „underway“ , it’s ok to drink from bottle,. However in a Restaurant or AT HOME, where glasses are available, normally people do not drink from a (beer) bottle ... but what other people do at home, is their business.

[@peterkoller3761]

Testkaninchen kenn ich nicht, bei uns heißts Versuchskaninchen. and what you present as hazelnuts in their shells is just the base/stem of a hazelnut *cultivar*, without the shell and the nut. and for event t-shirts: If they want me to wear a t-shirt with an advertisement on it, they´d have to pay me for it or at least give me the t-shirt for free.

[@kevinprice2274]

I do own a number of festival T-shirts that I paid for. I bought them and I wear them because they're sweet memories. They're like festival ribbons, of which I currently wear seven around my right hand wrist, the oldest one being from 2015-04. twitter.com/mister_burns/status/1008061360159313920

[@cheezarose]

Hazelnut,Walnut and Almond are three almost equally popular nuts in Europe,there in so many sweets and deserts. In French speaking countries,books are printed like in Germany and we don't drink directly from big bottle of soda. It would be seen as weird and people would be concerned that you have an addiction.

[@philipkudrna5643]

In Österreich gibt es das Wort „ein Weh-Weh“ bzw „ein Aua“ für eine Verletzung. Wenn man in MS Word als Sprache Deutsch einstellt, macht Word ein Anführungszeichen VOR einem Wort automatisch „unten“. Fun fact: die Anführungszeichen in der Schweiz sind »seitlich«!

[@mirafuchsi7744]

I‘m ukrainian and we also write the quotation marks like this: „...“ I remember my ukrainian teacher telling me that „we’re going up the stairs“. However I was shocked when I saw another type of writing them: »...« 🤯 because in ukrainian (and russian as well) we use these «...» in a typed text („...“ is only for handwritten). The fact those are used the other way around was mindblowing for me. As for the spines of the books, in Ukraine we don’t have any pattern and it only depends on the publisher. Most of my german books have their names written from top to bottom, but it seems to be an exception. Passport Two also covered this topic in one of their videos, they even did a little research on it.

[@publicvoidmain]

«» is Ukrainian? I didn't know that! I only knew »« is French style...

[@flowerdolphin5648]

@@publicvoidmain Guillemets « » are French. The inverted »« is strictly German.

[@publicvoidmain]

@@flowerdolphin5648 Us Germans are oddballs.

[@kevinprice2274]

I used to be a school library assistant in the UK. Book spines where printed mostly in one orientation, but a significant amount was in the opposite orientation, to my annoyance.

[@kevinprice2274]

To the defense of the publishing industry, reading upside down is what I learned as a small child. My father used to read the newspaper at the breakfast table, and i read it from the opposite side. Easy! I find it much harder to read text through a mirror.

[@RepairCat]

Regarding the "Event-Shirts": The only place where i´ve seen something like that here in Germany are music festivals, where they´d sell shirts with the festivals logo, name and year on the front and all the names of the bands that were there on the back.

[@Sayu277]

Not just festivals it's regular concert tours as well (Tourdates on the Back)

[@diwadada]

Solche Shirts bekommt man oft für die Teilnahme an größeren Sport Events, wie Volksläufen oder dem JP Morgan Chase.

[@cptjfk]

The Quotations are automatically inserted. When you type shift -2 they are inserted low, at the end of the sentence high. There's no button for it. But you have to leave NO space before the letter or after the Interpunktion. (I think for globalization effects germanized software simply leaves this out and quotes high.)

[@Gerhard-Martin]

Sorry: 8-/ I have tried it several Times now...also with the "strg"-Key ...but it doesn´t work. 8-/

[@cptjfk]

@@Gerhard-Martin only works with German settings - and probably not with every software. Notepad f. e. won't, OpenOffice won't, but WordPad or MS Word will. Actually in the newer Versions you have to set the options for lower quotations. (and shift-2 depends on keyboard settings, too...)

[@Gerhard-Martin]

@@cptjfk Aaah ? 8-o OK.... 8-/ So maybe also with LINUX and as you said: OpenOffice it might be useless to try ?! 8-/ Can I possibly change my Keyboard Settings somehow, somewhere, please ?

[@cptjfk]

@@Gerhard-Martin would have to Google that. I know there's an option somewhere in the localisation. But really no idea where it's hiding 🤔

[@Gerhard-Martin]

@@cptjfk OK, Thanks....SIGH...So, Thinking of how "well" OTHER Services on the Internet work, too, obviously the whole Adoo about "easy to use" and "making everything so easy"-Internet/Digitalization is a Fraud, a Hypocrisy , a Fake, a Joke !? 8-(P I always knew it and I always HOPED it ! 8-P This will at least make it EASY for me to LEAVE again ! ^__^ What a Relief ! =) Thanks (to) Digitalization !

[@Timinator0815]

Actually, the American quotation marks aren't "..." but “...” (a little 66 and a little 99) whereas in German, they are - like you mentioned - „...“ (a little 99 and a little 66). How do you type them on a keyboard? Well, actually you don't. Normally your text processing program is doing that job for you. You will notice that when typing English text, that it will also change "..." to “...”, and the same thing happens to German texts. You just need to select the correct language in, say for example, Microsoft Word.

[@HenryLoenwind]

Do you, by chance, know who uses ‟this” style? I‘d have said it's an alternative for German, but I'm too lazy to try looking it up.

[@Timinator0815]

@@HenryLoenwind No, definitely not an alternative. „Outer Comment ‚Inner Comment‘ Outer Comment“ is the standard way. Only alternative is the use of chevrons.

[@Trifler500]

There's also the more easily noticed difference that in US and UK English we use commas for multiples of 1000 and a decimal for numbers smaller than 1, such as 9,657,435.35. The Germans do the opposite, such as 9.657.435,35. At least, that's what my German friend told me.

[@felistrix7163]

Dana mentioned this in a video before. 🙂

[@Trifler500]

@@felistrix7163 Ok :)

[@felistrix7163]

@@Trifler500 I don't know or find the video, but I know, she compared it with a sentence. The sentences, the "larger" parts of the language, are divided by dots and the sentence itself by commas into subparts for better reading. That fits to the US-System, where the big number parts (the whole number and the ... "Bruch"(?)) are seperated by a dot and the number itself is seperated by commas for a better reading. This sounds legit to me. :)

[@nordwestbeiwest1899]

Zu einen Schmerz als Verniedlichung sagen wir : " Wehwehchen " .

[@sarahw3923]

I definitely agree that we constantly get t-shirts from various events in the US. I can’t even tell you how many t-shirts I’ve gotten over the years! Most of the time I either donate the t-shirts or wear them while I’m cleaning the house, doing yard work, or anything else messy. By the end of high school I had received so many t-shirts from various school events, that I wasn’t sure what to do with them all. Since I didn’t want to just throw away all of my high school t-shirts, I ended up cutting them apart and sewed together a large quilt from the pieces. Now I have a quilt with various event logos on it to remind me of my high school. I’m not sure how common it is to turn t-shirts into quilts, but a few of my friends also have one or two of them as well. It’s a great way to recycle some of those free t-shirts :)

[@jonassteiner3532]

Can we appreciate the good audio quality in Dana's Videos? I can't believe that i didn't notice earlier how great the sound actually is.

[@torameno1560]

🤣 actually, there are no hazelnuts in the picture you inserted. they seem to have already fallen out.

[@centrifugedestroyer2579]

Also there are two main categories of hazelnuts in my experience. There are hazelnut trees that often line city roads, those have the meatier husks in clusters that were shown in the video. Those are proper trees and have a rough bark. There are also hazelnut bushes that basically grow multiple small flexible trunks with a smooth bark. In those have much slimmer husks and don't grow in clusters (but sometimes in sets of two or three. Both kinds of hazelnuts slightly different as well (colour and shape). The kind you buy in stores is the bush variety. I'm no biologist so the tree hazelnuts may not really be "true" hazelnuts, but they pretty much taste the same. The trees are easy to spot as they litter the streets with the husks and tons of those hazelnuts, while the bushes produce much less.

[@D3g0nGirl]

@@centrifugedestroyer2579 we have one with green leaves and one with red leaves

[@centrifugedestroyer2579]

@@D3g0nGirl Yes, we have those too. I forgot about that.

[@chrisis123]

When writing by hand I definitely use the „-“ style. When writing on a computer - most word processors these days automatically set it in the proper German style if it's set to German - but if it doesn't (like in an e-mail) I wouldn't care much if it used the English style (unless I was writing a formal paper or maybe a book)

[@jorglanganki6116]

you show us a Hazelnut but its not our german Hazelnut, its Corylus colurna, a southeast european Species, that grows like a Tree, our Hazelnut is Corylus avellana, its a bush.

[@marcelthoma8890]

Just adding something: I think Dona is only showing the sepalum not the real fruit (nut). The fruit of the turkish hazel (Corylus colurna) is much smaller than the fruits of the common hazel (Corylus avellana). You can eat it, but it is not used for mass production. Like most trees from the mediterranean Corylus colurna is often planten in cities in Germany, where there is less water and higher tempratures.

[@staceygoggin1574]

I was first introduced to hazel nut spread in ‘77 as an exchange student in Germany. It was so good.

[@SYCHR0N]

There's another big difference about quotation marks: In german texts, they are always used in pairs. One at the beginning of the quotation, one at the end. In english texts, the opening quotation mark is often repeated at the start of each new paragraph.

[@karinbirkenbihl2053]

When I first read english books, I was really confused, because I didn't realise they they print quotation in the middle of ones speech, as usual in Germany I had thought that each time there was a new " someone else was talking. Only after a while I realized how it was meant instead.

[@ninjakeks9326]

In Germany, many things grow on trees so many kids know how they look. I wouldn't be surprised that many kids in the US think that cows are actually violet - I think the main problem for that is school education. But I think there is a more American nut - the pecan. It is a nut that is native in the US and doesn't grow naturally in Europe. I never have eaten one. In the UK, book spines are like the US ones ( I have one book in English and it's from the UK). I asked Wikipedia and there is written that in English speaking countries book spines are written from the top to the bottom, in Germany, Italy and France it is the other way. I heard (not from Wikipedia) that the European way is newer and the English one older. Ouch probably came from "Autsch" and ow from "Au" or "Aua" (since English in the US came from the British English that developed from "Old Englisch" which is exactly the same as "Anglo-Saxon"). Both are used in Germany. I remember that my mom asked like "Hast du ein Aua?" not something else. But here in Saxony we sometimes call bruises "Klingelknopf" - "Bell button". You make a sound when someone pushed it. I thought that this was funny when I was a kid. When it isn't that bad I sometimes still say "Es ist nur in Klingelknopf". You buy drinks in 0,75 or 1,5-liter bottles (less common 1-liter) why not drink from it? I think it is just the fastest and easiest way. They are made for that. When I don't have to share the bottle I drink from it - always. Why should I make a cup "dirty" if I can use the bottle I have to give back anyway? I am a bottle drinker and I will never change. (Btw here in Germany we askes "Aus der Flasche oder aus dem Glas?" when we get an order for beer. Beer in cans is like... the ghetto version of glass bottles.) If you are in a sports club I guess here you get T-Shirts too but I think maybe you have to pay for it. I mean somebody has to pay for it right? Why not the one who possesses it? Makes sense to me. But I have free shirts from a sports event at school. It is just one but it is one. The french Guillemets are the oldest of the quotation marks - the others developed from them probably at the same time independently from each other. And I have an advice for you. Try to change the language you write in at the computer. When I change it to English, my quotation marks are all up then. It is probably an automatism that quotation marks are customised for the language ( just try to use German as language and press shift+2 like you would usually, you should get fitting marks). I didn't even know that English speaking people say guinea pig for that... Probably that is caused by the fact that in industry test animals are mice, guinea pigs and bunnies. In Germany, guinea pigs were never really used for that because they aren't native here and expensive to get back then, Rabbits and Bunnies are native here. I guess that is why Americans use that idiom and we not. "But it isn't "Testkaninchen" it is "Versuchskaninchen". I needed quite a time until I got what you wanted to say.)

[@RolandHutchinson]

Donna, I would guess that you had in fact encountered hazelnuts in the USA, where they are commonly found in cans of mixed nuts. The trick is that they called filberts on the ingredient list on the outside of the can. You can also buy filberts in bulk at US supermarkets, especially around the fall/winter holidays, I think. Strictly speaking (I just found out), the filbert is one type of hazelnut (the other type being a cobnut), but "filbert" is often used as a synonym for "hazelnut", i.e. with the broader meaning of a hazlenut or either type.

[@askialuna7717]

i only know the term filbert from these rounded flat brushes.

[@markbernier8434]

I'm with Dana. I used to chuck them out of the mixed nuts.

[@FiveOClockTea]

In German we also say "Autsch" and "Au" which sounds exactly like much and ow next to aua 🤗

[@ein_nachti]

And the children's version for owie would be Auaweh.

[@ChrissyXD1001]

@@ein_nachti Yeah, or Wehwehchen

[@ein_nachti]

@@ChrissyXD1001 I think Wehwehchen is more used in a sarcastic way, making fun of someone, while Auaweh is used when you really care about

[@AMK650]

I also know Autchi to make it more cute.

[@Morgowitch]

@@ein_nachti I have never heard the word 'Auaweh' in my life in germany. Bavaria that is. We would probably say 'hast du ein aua?' or 'aui' or something like that.

[@mirkobongiorno168]

In Italy we write quotation marks like this "..." but in texts also like this: «...»

[@TBFSJjunior]

For the book covers there is a rule, which isn't always followed, so that we have both. The "wrong" way is favored by book stores as you can lay the book on a table and both read the front cover and the side title. The "correct" way is favored by libraries and is better for having books in a book shelf, cause you stand on the right side of the book to read the title and don't have to switch positions to read the front cover after pulling the book out.

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

Word processing software usually does the quotation marks automatically, like, if there's a space before the quotation mark, it's assumed that it is the beginning of a quotation and it'll be a lower quotation mark. But yes, traditionally, computers weren't able to do that, before like the first version of Word for Windows in the early 90s, or something like that.

[@unsignedmusic]

German TV sets have presets so you can set it for the 1st program (ARD), the 2nd program (ZDF) and the third program. They just have preset numbers on them. American TVs have channel numbers on them and you have to figure out what Network you are watching by knowing what network broadcasts on what channel in your area.

[@tramper42]

2:52 The sound you make while saying „ouch“ sounds similar to the German „Autsch“ to me.

[@anoukgeenachternaam9803]

I am a germanistics student in the Netherlands, so I have plenty of German and Dutch books. The backs of the Dutch books have the text top to bottom, the German books have the text bottom to top. However!! Those yellow/orange Reclam books are not like the other German books I own!! Those Reclam books have the text top-bottom, like the Dutch books I own. But the same goes with DVD covers, right? I think I have seen some differences with DVD covers as well

[@erikaziesmann4741]

"Been there, done it, got the t-shirt." I heard the first time in the UK. Here in the US it is so common to express your opinion or show where you have been or what you have done, which school or college you attend, even as a conversation starter and on and on.

[@Naontaes]

I do like „this“ when Hand writing and "this" when Smartphone-writing. So I just found out that it possible to do „this“ while choice it through Holding the typ-space for a while. Then the menu for extra-Typs opens. In the PC the writing-software will notice Your quotationmark and sets it in the Common Position of seted Language.

[@m.a.327]

The book thing. One variant is optimized for horizontal stacking, the other for vertical placing in shelfs.

[@publicvoidmain]

1:29 Peanuts aren't nuts, but hazelnuts are. But the fact that the Americans' favorite nut isn't a nut is kinda nuts. 2:45 Yup. Noticed the pattern. And, of course, the compulsory exception: the "Einsamer Wolf" series by John Dever (although I only have the first book currently here) is printed "upside down", so while all German book covers in my shelf are either readable upright or tilted to the left (bottom of the text is on the right side), and all English book covers (regardless of origin, this goes for the britain-manufactured Harry Potter books as well as for my American books) are tilted to the right. With that one exception, that my German "Einsamer Wolf" book 1 is only legible from the left. This will now bother me for the rest of my... does anyone wish to buy a used copy of "Eiserner Wolf" 1? 3:30 Of course German kids can have an Auabubu. AFAIK, that has something to do with A being the easiest/least formed, and at the same time loudest vowel, so it's the fist noise that comes out if you just make noise. Kinda weird, that it's "itai" in Japanese - then again, most Japanese people I know leave out the first 'ee' sound and just curse "tai". 6:28 Do I own generic event shirts? One. And that's from Italy. But on the other hand... festival shirts, or band tour shirts? A lot! A lot lot! Actually, half my wardrobe is just plain black t-shirts, the other half is festival or tour shirts. The third half is sweaters and trousers, but they're not t-shirts, so they don't even count for the sake of an argument. 6:40 Just change your Word or Pages or LibreOffice to German. It'll happen automagically. The only quotation marks I know of that you can manually decide which direction they should go are the french ones: »« 7:51 In normal text, it's whatever my computer/phone/whateverelse decides. I prefer them up, though, but that's because for me they carry a second meaning: they are instructions. As in... I'm a programmer, and quotation marks actually have semantic meaning in almost all programming languages.

[@baijayantasenchowdhury9806]

Haha so cute, your smile and the positive energy that you exude is so captivating. Takes me back to my time in Berlin in 2018. I too noticed that books in Europe have the titles printed upside down on the spine. You got a new subscriber. One love from India 🇮🇳

[@missis_jo]

About the spine: Passport two mentioned that in one their most recent videos. Apparently the orientation from top to bottom (american way and many others) is good for books that lie flat, because you can read the spine and see the cover at the same time. But, if you walk along a bookshelf, you'd automatically tilt your head to the right, maybe even walk from left to right and then grab the book with your right hand. But in doing so, you'd always see the back of the book first. With the 'german way' (text running from bottom to top - is it even exclusively german?) you'd tilt your head left, grab the book with your left hand and tadaaa, you can see the cover of the book without having to pull it all the way out and turn it around. I assume that's why most german magazines have it the 'american way', because they are more likely to lie flat on tables instead of standing upright in a bookshelf. A mixed bookshelf is a pain in the ass, though 😕.

[@babsihebeis8939]

I have noticed the direction of labelling the spines of books too. Since I am a German, living in UK, my bookshelves are full of both, German and English books and that alerted me to the pattern. But I also have Spanish books and they are labelled just like the English books, and Austrian books just like the German. So my conclusion is that it is a Germanic thing.

[@FlintlockFreddy]

About the T-Sirts: Depending on what you are into. Every heavy Metal Fan has usually dozens of T-Shirts that commemorate the concerts and festival he visited and so do I! (and most of them say "Wacken") About the quotation marks: usually the word processing software does that for you (if it's switched to Gernan locale). If the quotation mark is followed by a word it automatically becomes a lower quotation mark. Oh and it's "Versuchskaninchen" And one bonus thing: German makes heavy use of capital letters (every noun is starting with a capital letter) and even after speaking and writing English for nearly 40 years now I still have a hard time when I write English and I have to check any text twice for unwanted capital letters.

[@publicvoidmain]

Actually the rule is "if it's preceeded by a whitespace character" not "if it's followed by a word"...

[@untruelie2640]

Yes, the book spine thing ALWAYS irritates (or even infuriates) me. As a person who reads (and has to read) a lot of books and spends a lot of time in university libraries, it is really hard to cope with this difference. In general, english book spines are oriented to to the left side while german (and other european?) spines are oriented to the right side. When I'm looking for a particular book in the shelfes, I constantly have to turn my head from on side to the other to read the titles on the spines. Sometimes it makes my neck hurt.

[@yanalovezuko]

The quotation marks get upside down when your computer or the program is in German than it goes automatically there is no extra key on the keyboards But we do the quotation marks with the hands like americans

[@thomasl.9090]

Quotation marks: Most people I know use the US type here in Germany, but wordprocessors like MS-Word automatically replace the "wrong" ones with the correct ones. So no one seems to really care. Guinea pigs: The German equivalent is "Versuchskaninchen". Don't think that Testkanichen is ever used somehow.

[@trickycoolj]

In my area of the US (Seattle) pop is really falling out of fashion as there are very high sugar taxes on pop in the city. Most people carry a refillable/reusable 1L/32oz thermos bottle of still water.

[@KatzeRegi]

On the topic of books: Most of the german books are like you pointed out, but for example books of Reclam Verlag have the spine like the american books.

[@lotharschepers2240]

The quotation marks are displayed according to the language that your writing software is set up. If I write a letter with words set up to German the quotation marks are showed the German way, but if I switch the language setting to English I got the other result.

[@stricknitt0184]

I don't know the actual numbers, but these event t-shirts are realy popular and normal in Germany as well. For all types of graduations, winning the Championship, as jearsy for a summer tournament (instead of the normal ones), other special (Sport) Events etc.

[@wasauchimmer1109]

Drinking from the bottle is only socially accepted if you don't (have to) share the bottle. For a similar reason, water fountains aren't a common thing in Germany -- they're widely regarded as unsanitary, especially in an outside location where, say, a pigeon could poop into it or right onto the spigot. So if you don't want to actually buy your drink when you're travelling, you have to bring your own, and plan accordingly.

[@jabba6552]

Americans have peanuts and peanutbutter, Germans have hazelnuts and Nut-ella (even if that is Italian really) I use quotationsmarks as they come by the software (i.e. down-up oder up-up) but I do use different quotationmarks: there are the "normal" double lines and for qutations in quotations the 'single' lines and to mark things additinally I use »Guillemets«

[@paulsj9245]

Yet another nice "curiosity" video! Soda water: There's almost never a cup dispenser for water in Germany - I only remember coffee dispensers. To me, it's - at least partly - a matter of environmental protection: No throwaway cups! Water comes in bottles (with deposit), from 0.5 l up. Traditionally, they were 0.7 l glass bottles, but with plastic bottles, the contents went up to 1.0 l or more.

[@piaklein6112]

Funny that you noticed that about the t-shirts, too :-D I got so many "event t-shirts" when I lived in America for a year, and almost none during the 25 years I lived in Germany.

[@Jemima1377]

Same - I have about 2 event T-shirts from a live of 30+ years in Austria. They exist, but they are definitely not common. You can sometimes buy a T-shirt from a band or some such, but it's not what most people usually do, and if so, it's more likely to be a fan-shirt of the band/thing itself, not particularly related to one specific event.

[@helmutmerk2015]

IT guys (german or not) have them very often from conferences they attended to. See Linus Torvalds for a rather extreme example (a Finnish guy)

[@elecrom_9757]

Regarding the 'owie' thing, in German you would say 'Hast du ein Aua gemacht?" so you'd use Aua and not another word

[@junglelizzy]

Boo-boo might be a wehwehchen? At least in Austria we call very very minor wounds a wehwehchen (not sure if spelled wright). And we say versuchskaninchen not testkaninchen. At least in Austria. I always had a laugh when my american ex husband tried to pronounce versuchskaninchen... haha

[@Oceanborn712]

I just looked at my book shelf and all the spines are printed in the same direction without fail, English and German books just the same. Most of the English books were bought from within Europe so it's safe to say they're printed for the European market but some of them also came from eBay US back in the early 2000s. It's mostly role playing game source books as I prefer my novels in audiobook form but I feel like that shouldn't matter.

[@sandral9401]

I checked my shelves, Portuguese and British editions have the same orientation as in the USA. I have a Brazilian edition that has the same orientation as the German books. Funny enough, German magazine spines have the opposite orientation of German books.

[@PalmyraSchwarz]

One thought: I have around 20 T-shirts, all of them unprinted and I use them as an undershirt. A normal shirt comes on top. In the summer I sometimes only use unprinted T-shirts. I also had a company T-shirt or some event T-shirts that I only wore to the event. I think it's silly to walk around in public with a company or event T-shirt. It is nobody's business where I work or which events I visit. Your questions: A word processor with the German language set automatically sets the quotation marks to „“, but not on the web. There is no simple method there to enter the preceding quotation mark „ with the keyboard. Versuchskaninchen or Testkandidat, not Testkaninchen or test rabbit.

[@jessicaely2521]

The US is so gigantic no one would know what the event was or what company you work for.

[@PalmyraSchwarz]

@@jessicaely2521 I don't understand you. If I wear a company T-Shirt or an event T-Shirt is that a statement for my understanding. The company T-Shirt indicates that I have something to do with this company. Why should I wear a company T-Shirt from a company, to which I have no connection and that in my spare time? It is the same with the event T-Shirts.

[@DramaQueenMalena]

Just type Shift+2. Word adapts the quotation marks automatically if you have installed both languages. If not you can go to Datei and Optionen to choose the quotation marks.

[@elessartelcontar8208]

The quotation marks depend on the language and regional settings of your word processor (MS Word, LO Writer, etc.) and the keyboard layout in the operating system. The print on the physical keyboard is just telling you what the key will produce in the language of that keyboard layout.

[@Eurician]

Now i sit at home shaking myself "never unsee again, never, never NEVER"...

[@prinzezze]

Books: in Sweden the title and author is printed like in the USA. in swedish we say försökskaniner so it's basically the german way translated. and the quotation marks are the american way.

[@msehrhardt9339]

I am German and I have used ">autschi" before

[@aeldrayphyth1664]

Here in Australia, the books that we have are printed the same (or at least similar) as the American books. You would think they would be upside down since it's Australia haha!

[@marcelthoma8890]

The Hazel (Common Hazel = Corylus avellana) is the most common nut in Germany because of the weather. The walnut does grow here, but not as good. The word "Walnuss" means something like "nut from roman countries (welsche Nuss = Nuss aus Italien und/oder Frankreich). For mass production is often used the Lambertsnuss (Corylus maximq) which is closely related to Corylus avellena. Please also note my answer to Jörg Laganki's post. This with the book spines was very new to me. All in all thanks for the interesting video.

[@johngriffith6479]

Hi Dana. I know exactly what you meant by needing a break. Good to see you making videos again. In the UK, book spines read from top to bottom, Hazelnuts, Peanut butter and Nutella are all popular, large bottles of soda are available, but we don't tend to carry them about all day and we call it "pop". Event Tshirts are common and we are Guinea-Pigs.

[@unsignedmusic]

German phone numbers sometimes have longer area codes than the actual phone number. My phone number in Germany was literally 549. In America, it’s a standard to have a phone number with 7 digits and an area code of 3 digits.

[@rolandberger7493]

Toffifee has hazelnuts in the middle, too

[@Freakyboss]

Quotation Marks: I do a kind of weird thing. When handwriting, I write my quotation marks at random sometimes the English way and sometimes the german way. I don't know why. But this happened since I started learning english in school.

[@herbertthoma6670]

For "ouch" we have "Autsch", sounds the same. If you ever move to France, you will be shocked again. There they have > as opening and closing quotaion marks.

[@snakezockt5273]

Quotation marks: I use to write the correct quotation marks only if I'm writing with a pen on paper. When I write on a computer I only type like these "..." . I think this was different when typewriters, computer keyboards and smartphones were not common or not yet invented. There is a trick for writing the right quotation mark on a typewriter which they told us at school (move the paper down, writhe the quotation mark, move the paper up again). But I think people got lazy so it seems not to be that important anymore when you write on a computer.

[@kenzieduckmoo]

here in the US the 1 liter soda bottle is quite common, but you dont drink on it all day, cause it wont last that long, since theyre only slightly bigger than a 20 oz bottle

[@Markle2k]

I think you are a bit confused or remembering things wrong. A liter is almost 34 fl. oz. in US Customary measures, more than a quart (32 fl. oz.). Imperial (aka UK) quarts, like pints, are bigger than USC quarts and have more ounces because Imperial measure fluid ounces are smaller (~28.5 ml per fl. oz. / 20 ounces to a pint) than US fluid ounces (29.57 ml per fl. oz. / 16 ounces to a pint). 750 ml is a typical wine bottle. I don't drink much soda, but there are those plastic bottles that are in the mini cooler by the checkout stand in the grocery store that are bigger than the typical 355 ml (12 ounce) can, but I don't know what size they are offhand.

[@unsignedmusic]

German license plates tell you where the car was registered by the first letter(s) on then. A “B” means Berlin for example. In America we just put the whole name of the State on it. The shapes are also different.

[@bjornschauland6418]

Never thought about these differences before. 😃 so cool!

[@DramaQueenMalena]

The collar of Baby-Shirts are different. In Europe we use buttons on one side in the US it's a sort of overlapping pieces on both sides... just google "Amerikanischer Ausschnitt"

[@Ginnilini]

Interesting video! I would object on the point of the T-shirts. My closet is filled with at least 25 T-shirts from sports events, runs and festivals.

[@ShaYa21]

In French, the quotation marks are usually at the same level than the words and they can look > or "like this" :-)

[@mccardrixx5289]

I love listening to off-the-cuff rambles/rants!!!

[@fawnjenkins7266]

You are right about Hazelnuts in Germnay and peanuts in America. The runner up in both countries is Almonds! Except for a German bakery has almonds in everything!

[@jessali_]

I noticed the spine on books too! I import most of my books from the UK, and the words on the spine are the same orientation as my books from the US. I also have 1 or 2 books from Ireland and even India (in English), and they're also like the ones in the US and the UK. But Germany's different. It's so weird, lol.

[@kallejodelbauer2955]

But where had invented the Bookprinting? I dont Care what is printed first ,the Title or the Author. Perhaps they are rading like the Arabians? On English Cars ,its different then on German Cars too, but they drive on the other Side and American Cars that have that too not.

[@janfriberg]

In Denmark text on book-spines are the same way as English books, readable when the book is lies front side up.

[@janfluitsma8274]

AFAIK, the book-spine is only different in Germany.

[@Motacilla191]

Yes, I think that the hazelnut is the most popular nut in Europe, but the walnut is very popular, too. It's almost as popular as the hazelnut.

[@talideon]

The same thing is done with book spines in France, which makes the French books on my shelf look odd.

[@picobello99]

You know nutella is a chocolate hazelnut spread, right? About the books: I live in the Netherlands and interestingly enough Dutch books are printed the "American" way. The only books I have that are printed the "German" way were printed in France (and probably translated from French).

[@unsignedmusic]

In Germany, the traffic lights turn red and yellow at the same time before turning green. In America they just go directly from red to green.

[@florianstock376]

The book spine thing is no rule: Next to my desk is my "working book shelf", and a first glance showed my all 4 variants: german clock/counter-clockwise, english clock/counter-clockwise. Even books from the same publisher showing in opposite direction (Addisson Wesley, so its not a small back yard factory). But you are right: for most english, the title is clockwise for most germans its counter clockwise. And I find the german way better: The reason is, that when you put all on your shelf, and start to read titles, you read the on the shelf from left to right, which is the regular reading direction. Esp. in a library where the books are sorted on the shelfes from left to right, this is superior.

[@limettenkuchen]

Not all book covers are printed upside down in Germany, but a lot of them

[@martinriexinger5824]

Walnuts are perhaps more popular as nuts, whereas hazelnuts are mostly consumed as ingredients of chocolate, spreads, etc.

[@heinzsilberbach7586]

Even though "nut" is in its name, a peanut is actually a legume. Like soybeans, lentils, and other legumes, peanuts are edible seeds that grow in pods. Still, most people think of them as nuts, along with tree nuts such as walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts.

[@jetilargo6867]

I have two spanisch children books and the first one is printed the american way and the second one is printed the german way. But I have to admit, that I never noticed why some bookspines are the other way around till you just mentioned it. Thanks ;)

[@peterketel1982]

To type „ (hexadecimal Unicode 211E) U+201E, and to type “ U+201C or ” U+201D. By the way … is a single Unicode character U+2026 To write straße I type for the ß U+DF on a US international keyboard. The Apple computer and Linux machines have an easy method to type Unicode characters.

[@michaela114]

Die Anführungszeichen unten werden verwendet, um den Beginn der wörtlichen Rede zu kennzeichnen und deutlich vom Ende zu unterscheiden - je nach dem, wie lang die Rede ist, kann man sonst schon mal durcheinander kommen... besonders in handgeschriebenen Texten. Im Spanischen gibt es z. B. auch am Beginn einer Frage, ein umgedrehtes Fragezeichen - wahrscheinlich wichtig für die Satzmelodie 🤷‍♀️ so hat wohl jede Sprache ihre Besonderheiten. Das Versuchskaninchen ist (glaube ich) nach der Maus das gängiste Tier in Laborversuchen - oder war es zumindest. Daher kommt wohl der Begriff 🐇😪

[@noodleppoodle]

When you change language on your computer or phone quotation marks change automatically adjusting to the convention of a particular language. There is no special button for bottom quotation marks as computer recognises this is the beginning of a word. I type in English, Polish, German, French and Chinese and in each language quotation marks are different. Chinese is maybe a bit of a special case but still.

[@Hallolisi]

In Austria, you can call an "ouwie" a "Weh-weh" or an "Aua". As others have said, it's the "Versuchskaninchen" ;-) and with the Quotationmarks in Words or any other writing tool on a Computer if you put in 'German' as main Language, the programm automatically shows the german Quotation marks when you hit the quotation mark button....

[@kelsqi-books4835]

'Hazelnuts' are a big deal in Oregon but they're really filberts which are from a different kind of Hazel tree. So that's weird

[@Wizamatox]

As an Australian, the English-language books on my shelf follow the American pattern in terms of the spine unless the book is thick enough for the words to fit horizontally. I do have other books in Mandarin, however there is more diversity in how these are structured.

[@andreasrehn7454]

Almonds and Hazelnuts are just old world nuts, whereas the peanut is from the new world. that is why peanut is much more popular in the us and vice versa.

[@dripdaddy2192]

The „Finger move“ for quotation marks is exactly the same with two on the top weirdly. That’s probably adapted from movies etc

[@chrom0xide123]

Quotation marks usually switch on a german computer, if you put them in front of a letter or behind a letter. (So its the same key for both) But I don't know why "youtube" doesn't do it

[@publicvoidmain]

The key isn't the letter but the whitespace character. with a"a, it stays "up in the air". KZbin doesn't, because this would be in the responsibility of your browser. And no browser automagically corrects this, except maybe on phones, where it's the responsibility of the software keyboard... oh, so complicated...