GERMAN MATH + ENGINEERING 🇩🇪 Are Our American Kids Getting a Better Math Education Here?

[@maireweber]

I'm a German who went to US high school for a year. Granted, I had very good math grades in Gymnasium, but as a 10th grader I took AP Calculous in high shool, surrounded by seniors. And I tried to take chemistry and physics. The only class they offered was Chem/Phys and it was so basic that both sides agreed it would be a waste of time for me. Never caught up again back in Germany in these two subjects.

[@svevo]

Yeah, I did my 12th grade there... American public school is terrible and I believe it's on purpose

[@bellathemusicaddict]

That’s why, at least at my school, if you chose to do a year in the US, you would repeat that year in Germany. You just lost too much in some subjects

[@harryhirsch3637]

@@bellathemusicaddict And that was also true in the 80s when i thought of doing 12th grade in the US but ended up not doing it. When my classmates came back after a year, their english was significantly better then ours, they had improved in sports a lot but with one excemption they all had to repeat 12th grade for lack of education in any other subject.

[@maireweber]

@@bellathemusicaddict Same here. Only if you were one of the top students who might possibly skip a grade anyway, you'd be allowed to join your old class.

[@alexk7973]

in my school if you went abroad for an entire year they usually gave you an exam to see if you could rejoin your class or needed to repeat, no matter where you went. Which was one of the reasons why I only went for 5 months. But I went to Canada and had a similar experience, though Canada is said to have a better public school system than the US. Still, I was a rather average math student in Germany and I still passed the Senior year advanced math class even though I was a Sophomore.

[@jpdj2715]

I saw this interview, a couple years ago, with two German teenage~adolescent girls that had been on student exchange in the USA for 6 months, after some time being back home again. Q: "What do you miss most about the USA?" A: "High school!" Q: "Why?" A: "Because it was so easy!"

[@felimuller909]

a few of my classmates went to the US for an exchange year and they found the level also to be very low (and they were average students in Germany). one even wrote the best english essay of her grade in Florida!!

[@Lylantares]

@@felimuller909 one of my classmates in 11th grade went to the USA for a semester, and he was sent straight to college. He was an intelligent guy, so he managed quite well and returned with just a slight advance in math (calculus) and really good spoken english. But yeah, he missed out in chemistry and geography, because 11th grade just brings you on par in ALL TEH SUBJECTS. Seriously, 1st semester of 11th or E-phase is just like the first weeks of freshman semester in any subject that had a prior school version.

[@marrykurie48]

It's interesting to hear about your experiences with mathematic. I remember that there has been a foreign student from russia in my class about 30 years ago. He couldn't speak German but he once ended up at the blackboard after a math lesson discussing the way to solve a mathematical problem with the teacher just by using mathematical terms written in chalk. This was his only possibility to "speak" with a teacher and to show his talent for doing logic. It was cool.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

So cool! Math is a more universal language.

[@faultier1158]

Migrants from Russia & Kasachstan had a reputation of being good at math. For them, it apparently was a common thing to solve math problems together with the family from a young age.

[@hartmutfeige548]

Our physics professor entered the lecture hall with only a pack of chalk for the blackboard. The problem was presented verbally and the mathematical solution developed on the blackboard. I don't know any different. The American way of teaching does not seem to me to be aimed at recognizing problems and thus being able to solve them. You cannot work as an engineer if you have only learned to solve calculations correctly, but not to understand the problem.

[@hartmutfeige548]

@@faultier1158 Look at the list of chess grandmasters. A lot of them are from the "east".

[@_Yannex]

@@faultier1158 You're right. We got 2 girl from Kasachstan in our class one year. I think at 6th. All math lessons they where extremely bored and at the end of every year the best of all.

[@Speireata4]

What I really like about this video is, that compared to others, who just say the American education system was bad, you were able to really explain in which ways they are different.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

We are glad you enjoyed it! Thank you.

[@BaluDerBaer933]

That was just their polite American sugarcoating not to mention it like this! ;-)

[@silmuffin86]

Because Americans (and British people!) never say something is bad, they just go around it with other words 🤣 Europeans on the other hand will tell you how it is, which is the reason we are often considered rude by Americans

[@AlbusHeizer]

@@silmuffin86 especially the Germans :-) Usually they don't need a euphemism or a "nice expression", they just say it how it is or how they see it. 😂 . . . and this is for Americans kind of rude.

[@zackfair6203]

As a math teacher at a gymnasium I really appreciate your insights. Mathematics is so much more than calculating things (which can be done by a computer faster and more accurate - if you program it correctly) - stiil, you need to know what the computer should execute and if this makes sense. It is abour seeing patterns and thinking logically - something that you need as an interdisciplinary everyday skill. And of course you first have to learn the basics as a tool kit so that you can later mathematically solve the real (and not just designed for classroom) questions in the upper school. Many complain in Germany that you learn too much at school that you don't need. If it was only about learning what I really need in everyday life, then schooling could be shortened to around 4-5 years. Strictly speaking, you only have to be able to read and write, as well as master the basic arithmetic operations (although every pocket calculator or computer can do this more reliably than humans. But I have to know whether the calculation that I let the computer do makes sense at all) . But now we live in a world that is a little more complicated, in which know-how and technical progress are becoming more and more important. The three types of school in Germany are each geared towards different educational goals. Mittelschule and Realschule are designed to enable vocational training. Therefore, subjects are taught here in a much more practical way. The aim of the Gymnasium is the general higher education entrance qualification, so it should enable one to study every potentially possible subject. From German studies to philosophy to the natural sciences. Of course, everyone has their own interests, strengths and inclinations - but I can only find them out when I have had the opportunity to get a taste of as many areas as possible. And for this I also need perseverance, as it usually takes a little while to work my way into something, to understand it and then to discover whether I enjoy this topic and whether I am interested. Think, for example, that I am trying to juggle. The probability is very high that I won't be able to do it the first time. Then probably not fun either. But should I stop immediately because of that? Wouldn't that mean missing out on the opportunity to discover my own skills and interests? Many always complain that school didn't prepare them for life (and that's true, because education is so much more than just coping with everyday life). As an example, it is often cited that one would never have learned how to prepare a tax return. Then I always ask myself: How do these people imagine it actually? Who decides what things should be taught in school? In addition to tax returns, buying a house and other often mentioned aspects: why not also how to cook, clean, wash clothes, iron, tie your shoes, ride a bike, ... The list could be extended endlessly. In other words, you would be in school for almost your entire life. So where should the limit be set as to what should be taught in school and what is personal responsibility? School cannot do that. And by the way, that is not what you want. To use math as an example, which is very often seen as "unnecessary": of course, you will probably not need the Pythagorean theorem in your later job. But that's not the point either. Above all, subjects like math are there to train logical thinking, to be able to draw logical conclusions and to be able to acquire things for oneself. The same applies to poetry analyzes in German. Sure, I will specifically need this in very few situations after school, but analytical skills are also trained here. By memorizing poems, a wide variety of learning strategies can be practiced at the meta level (mnemonic techniques, loci method, ...), and soft skills such as the ability to concentrate, discipline and perseverance are trained. And that's not limited to math or German. In everyday life one constantly draws logical conclusions in all possible situations in life. At school you learn a number of soft skills that you need in order to acquire knowledge yourself - e.g. also to find out how to file a tax return or what to consider when buying a house. Regardless of this, it would hardly make sense to deal with the topic of tax returns in the 9th class, as this topic only becomes really relevant for the students much later (and by then a number of things have probably already changed again). In my opinion, the subject of tenancy law, which is of course very important for everyday life, has no place in school. It feels like it changes every few months due to various court rulings and is also very complex. In school this topic could only be dealt with very superficially and the content would be out of date for a long time after a year. It cannot be the task of the school to take up the topic annually in order to constantly convey all updates. Then you would be very busy with your time and could hardly devote yourself to other topics. And last but not least, math (and the reasoning behind it) occurs in almost every profession in some way. The shopkeeper has to calculate sales and purchase prices as well as invoices. The psychologist must collect data from random samples and evaluate them statistically in order to derive meaningful conclusions. The gardener has to calculate areas in order to know how much can be planted. He must be able to handle volumes, for example to calculate the need for soil or filler material. The craftsman and the architect need spatial imagination and have to consider various aspects such as the nature of the subsurface, energetic properties of the materials used, sensible laying of cables and connections, ... To do this, they have to be able to think logically. Now many argue that this content could simply be moved into vocational training. Problem 1: the training courses would be significantly longer in terms of time. Problem 2: very few pupils already know from the 6th grade which profession they want to take up one day. Career aspirations change. Therefore one should be as broad as possible with the school education. Regardless of this, the different types of schools have different requirements: Middle and Real Schools should prepare for vocational training, and grammar schools should also allow access to higher education. To do this, different skills and more abstract knowledge and thinking are required. It is simply a matter of a broad general education in order to be able to develop one's own interests, for example. If I've never heard of biology, I might never discover my interest in cell structures and what goes on in the body. And it is also not a "must" to study with a high school diploma - the high school diploma only offers more options, but it is absolutely legitimate to do an apprenticeship after graduating from high school. Unfortunately, this is often no longer accepted in today's society. And yes, the educational opportunities in Germany unfortunately still depend too much on the parents' home. But school cannot take over all the tasks of the parental home, such as complete upbringing, education and the imparting of knowledge that is necessary for life. Parents, too, have a responsibility that, unfortunately, in some cases they are less and less able to live up to. School CAN'T catch everything. In school, the foundations should be laid in order to be able to acquire things for oneself. And ultimately, education is reciprocal, i.e. an offer that the respective student must also accept. And yes, nowadays you can googling almost all information - but I still have to classify it myself and draw and reflect on my own conclusions. Soory for this book of a comment :-)

[@sisuguillam5109]

Top notch comment!

[@Schweineferkel]

Danke für diesen tollen Kommentar.

[@ravanpee1325]

Also you don't know as a pupil what you will later need at a university level. I was happy after my English abitur exam, no more English. Fun fact - the whole literature (e.g. journal papers) in the university classes was written in English.

[@alicemilne1444]

Great comment. Just to add a bit more: Sure you can google just about everything, but that doesn't mean that what you find is actually always useful or even correct, so acquiring those logical, analytical and critical thinking skills at the primary and secondary school stages is a great help later on. I do think that "internet literacy" should be taught.

[@HimanshuSachdevaHS]

Wow. I've never seen such a long comment on KZbin since I've been using it. And it makes so much sense. Thanks for sharing your opinion 👍

[@0Hasaname0]

Hey ihr beiden! Nur ein kurzer Kommentar: Danke! Leute wie ihr passen hier super gut rein! Schön, dass ihr gekommen seid um zu bleiben!

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Hope you enjoy this video where Kevin gets to GEEK 🤓 out about math and engineering! Does he give German math education a 👍 or 👎?

[@ThePixel1983]

Geeks also make great wifes!

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

@@ThePixel1983 that’s right! Geeks are just awesome all around. 😍😀

[@janpracht6662]

At our Gymnasium I hated maths. In languages (German, Latin, English, Spanish) and history I always had a 1 or 2 without learning at home, but for maths I absolutely have no sense and only had a 5. If you solve a calculation together with me step by step it seems logical to me, but when I have to solve another calculation alone I simply cannot get it. Additionally I had problems with most of my maths teachers, because they always took it personally that I was so bad at maths. The worst was a maths-teacher who was a colonel in Bundeswehr (German Army) before he became a teacher. Two years I had war with this as*ho**....

[@3.k]

@@janpracht6662 I think that especially in math, the kind of teacher that you have matters a lot. Also, in higher grades in gymnasium, math becomes more and more abstract. At that point, I would have found it helpful if the math teachers were still able to explain how and where the math problem refers to a real world task. I think that it’s a lot harder to just learn formulas by heart, than it would be if there was given a reference, like the example from the above video with the baking recipe. Of course, it helps if you have an engineer at home helping you with homework. 😊

[@DramaQueenMalena]

And a combination of a geek husband and a creative and charming wife is the best. Especially if both love and respect each other's personality and don't want to change each other.

[@BlissLovePeace]

I wasn't even aware of this difference until I lived in the USA. I was surprised how rudimentary math skills were in the USA (in general in everyday life) . Starting with the simple ability to quickly calculate the change for a purchase to more complex calculations or just plain, simple additions of decimal values. I helped a friend renovating his house for 6 months and he was surprised about my metric "Zollstock" (ironically Zoll means inch) and how quick I measured and added or subtracted values. Something nobody would be surprised about in Germany. Who in the world would want to add 5""1/32 + 18"1/8 + 14"1/2 when you can simply measure everything in millimeters (mm) and be able to calculate the sum of the values in a heartbeat? Not even Americans (the average person that is) if they actually knew how much easier it can be done ... I am pretty sure of that.

[@germansnowman]

I heard that there is a lot more waste of building materials when using the imperial system because people just get used to rounding up a lot to be safe.

[@Username_647]

@@germansnowman I could see that been a thing

[@dikkiedik53]

The decimal calculation they do all day.. they should measure and calculate in USD $ ;-)

[@515aleon]

Kids in the US spend huge amts of time on fractions, which are really hard from a child development statement, because they involve part to whole relationships. The US started going metric and then just stopped, I think back in the 60s or 70s. People worry we couldnt' adapt, of course we could because you just learn to think in metric. Translating from one to another is ridiculous. I really wish we would go metric (and I'm in my 70s, pretty sure I could adapt).

[@dikkiedik53]

I love your videos. From what I know the children in The Netherlands have similar mathematics education. I'm 69 and live in The Netherlands. I went to the Elektro Techische School in Amsterdam and I sure had to learn German technical language because most of the engeneering in those days, 20 years after WW2, was from Germany. I got an internship at Siemens medical technics, Amsterdam branch. Installing medical equiptment in hospitals around the country. Well I needed my German lessons at full.. Everything was in German language, from speaking to my chef to all the manuals. I improved my German in those 3 months very much. Even around the Commodore 64 era I bought German computer magazines because they were better then Dutch magazines.I still have no problem at all watching German TV, reading a German newspaper, reading German books or chatting with German people all over Europe while on holiday.

[@stephantrzonnek1720]

I wish could say that for my Dutch skills ;-) The Netherlands have great artist, great musicians and many things to offer. It's always worth to enjoy a classic concert in the Concertgebouw. dank uw wel

[@wWvwvV]

With your german skills you trapped into a false friend with the word chef. A chef in german is the boss but a chef in english is the cook.

[@schwarz-rot-gold6693]

As a German engineer, I found this video particularly interesting. It would be great to learn more about Kevin's work experience in the US and now in Germany. It's amazing that you find the time, alongside all your experiences and work, to put out a great video every week.

[@petraw9792]

It would also be interesting to learn how engineering studies in Germany differ from the US.

[@mikemer79]

@@petraw9792 we American though them the engineering

[@darkiee69]

@@mikemer79 Huh? 🤔

[@kuschelirmel]

I second that, I would love to hear about Kevin's work experience! (also a German engineer here :D)

[@petraw9792]

@@arvedludwig3584 I feel you. :D I don't know what Semesterferien are supposed to be. You write your exams or several term papers or both during the vorlesungsfreien Zeit. Even worse when you have family, lectures and/or exam preparations are always during the school breaks.

[@tobiasfuchs7016]

You are *SO* American, it's adorable! It is heartwarming and uplifting to see how you found a home in Germany, especially with your bubbly personalities explaining all the peculiar detail we Germans take for granted.

[@lukieskywalker136]

I was shaking my head when you asked wether the day-to-day examples stay, because I didn't really remember and then five minutes later it hit me: in one exam in grade 12 on the topic of vector computations we actually had to calculate wether spider man, who was in position ABC was able to save his girlfriend in Position DEF from being killed by a chain saw moving from GIH to JKL at speed X. You know, every day stuff. That same teacher took us to a casino to teach us probabilities and in physics we had to analyse Lenkzeitenscheiben (little disks that show how long truck drivers are driving) and you can calculate down to wether they stuck to the speedlimit or not if you wanted to (of course the teacher wanted us to). It was all too much for me.

[@killitwithfire5377]

I had a college professor like this too. On the exam we had to calculate the electric field inside the hole of a block of cheese, when the cheese is placed in an external field.

[@marck8519]

That sounds like it could be from the book "the physics of superheroes" ^^

[@manuelrentz4728]

Da wäre ich aber auch raus 😅, so etwas ist ja schon echt übertrieben. Ich habe eine bekannten der Macht gerade seine Doktorarbeit in Mathematik oder ist sogar schon fertig, da bin ich mir gerade nicht sicher, der könnte so was sehr wahrscheinlich leicht lösen, aber so hat doch jeder seine Stärken und Schwächen. Er hat dafür in der IT 0 Ahnung usw.... Ich denke genau deswegen brauchen wir Fachkräfte, damit alles am laufen bleibt

[@dianahausen6619]

Welcome back! My pupils (mostly Gymnasium) will be pleased. I have recommended your channel to them for various reasons ( the clarity of your speech, the values you as a family represent, intelligent discussions around the content of your videos, the warmth and general wholesomeness emanating from your videos). They find it fascinating to see how foreigners experience the culture they've grown up with and take for granted. It prompts some really interesting discussions!

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Oh wow! That’s so cool! Thank you! 💕

[@erikaverink8418]

I know this is a reply to a very old comment, and i am not even German, but watching videos from people coming from outside the EU living in the Netherlands made me appreciate the things i took for granted. I guess it is the same for Germany.

[@BobWitlox]

I'm 50 and live in the Netherlands. I also grew up with the idea that a lot of engineering and math text books were in German. I didn't actually encounter this myself in my education. Upto high school all text books were in Dutch and by the time I got to university, English had taken over as the dominant language. But my dad was from the generation where German was still an important language in engineering. He had a lot of text books in German from his education. So that's why I was told that German is important if you're going to study engineering.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

How cool! I hadn’t heard that learning German was important to be an engineer. Love that!

[@franhunne8929]

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife In Japan for a long time the medicine text books were in German. (Well, after they opened their country to the West.) They still have learning German as part of medical studies in Japan.

[@MrLotrecht]

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife it had been centurys ago the languaga of science! Its a logik builded speech aslo perfekt for that!

[@abinashmishra329]

When I was in college at University of Michigan, in my course catalogue, I noticed that for majoring in Math, Physics, Biology or Chemistry, they strongly recommended having a good reading knowledge of German. And it does not surprise me. I know several PhD recipients (even from US universities) that did postdoctoral work in Germany 🇩🇪.

[@abinashmishra329]

@@franhunne8929 interestingly enough, as a podiatrist, I know that at least before COVID, podiatrists who underwent residency training in USA would go to Germany to do foot/ankle surgical fellowship training.

[@carlschafer7416]

At 15 years old I went to Argentina for one year. I studied in a private school which was deemed to be at a high level in Buenos Aires. The first day in the teacher gave me Math problems to solve just to see at which level I was at. Well let’s say I wouldn’t have to be sitting in classes till maybe one and a half year later. In Physics it was even worse and they didn’t teach Chemistry at all. Forget about doing experiments either. There was non of that! Other subjects were closer in standard, but it was still way to easy to pass the classes… Now I am a Maths and Physics teacher in a German Gymnasium and I have to say, our school system actually could be soooo much better, but than I think back to Argentina or think about standardized tests in USA or even the high pressure in most Asian schools and I‘m glad our students have a comparatively good education here. I'm happy and proud top teach here. Still, I'm up for a few changes;)

[@29duygu24]

This is very interesting and makes me curious about what it is like in Turkey. They say Turkis kids from Turkey are quite good at maths

[@manuelrentz4728]

Man könnte anfangen mit Ganztagsschulen, dann hätten die Kinder auch mehr Freiheiten und vielleicht auch Spaß etwas neues zu lernen.

[@danielblume7753]

So great to see how excited Kevin is about all of this :)

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

One of his favorite topics! 😀

[@europeangardenflower9812]

I'm a elementry school teacher in the Netherland. This is how math is tought here too. With a lot of realistic everyday context. My own kids are in high school and math is getting more and more abstract.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Great to know it’s also like this in the Netherlands! America has catching up to do with most of Europe, making the decision for us to move here easy. 😆

[@mimmiblu6138]

It's a EU guideline for schools... same in Italy. It's called "real life tasks". Teachers throughout the EU are all encouraged to assess students' skills and not only their theoretical knowledge. Some countries are much better at it than others, though.

[@missis_jo]

Awesome seeing Kevin get all excited. Nothing beats having a professional talk about his/her profession 😆. Honestly, I always thought Americans must be mathematical geniuses because of having to deal with the non-metric system. I‘m a carpenter and also into sewing and whenever I stumble across Americans on KZbin giving measurements for their projects I‘m like: „3 1/16 + 5 7/32 … WHYYY? 😭“ and I had advanced maths in Gymnasium and also some maths courses in Uni for Computer Science BA - so I really don’t mind numbers…

[@sinusnovi3826]

the imperial system is stupid. And the biggest joke: US got rid of british empire but not got rid of the british imperial system.

[@danilopapais1464]

I loved seeing Kevin get excited about this, especially since he has a unique perspective because of his education (Btw Kevin, if you ever play D&D with the kids again, why not throw some math and engineering challenges at them instead off riddles or fights?). Btw, Sara, since you seem interested about culture and history I can highly suggest the KZbin video "Facts about Germans never taught in School" from Thomas Sowell. Here is the link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6muoaJ3Z5iMjcU. Have a nice sunday.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Thanks for the suggestion, Danilo! Kevin liked your comment about D&D 😉. He needs to play more of it with the boys now that they’re older!

[@danilopapais1464]

@@lenaw.9405 Kevin mentioned in a reply to me in another video that he had played with the kids. I currently play in a D&D group 5th Edition and in another one 3.5 Edition (but that is put on hold at the moment). I used to play Magic the Gathering but mostly Commander (EDH) because it is less expensive. I started playing DSA when I was 10 and stopped when the 5th Edition came out. Over 90% of my tweets on Twitter are related to D&D, there's great interaction as long as it is on the topic.

[@keenmate9719]

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife he really is a nerd. That face was priceless. Does he know series IT Crowds? I'm pretty sure he would love it as much as we, programming nerds working in Keenmate, love it.

[@Opa_Andre]

While - according to the tests I was very good at math ending up with a masters degree in university in Germany back in the early 90s, I have to admit I had partially a hard time helping / teaching my granddaugther a few years ago at highschool in her 10th grade. They learn so much more nowadays, using different approaches and obviously I also forgot alot. So be prepared, it will become increasingly challenging for you during the next years. 😂

[@katjaschulz3022]

Yeah, I also had that Angst about Textaufgaben. 🤣 Because they weren't just calculations but required real thinking. Then there was the question: Boiling 1 egg takes 5 minutes. How long does boiling 6 eggs for the whole family take? Me: multiplied 5 minutes × 6 of course... 😬😭🤣 Also, absolutely LOVE it how Kevin shines and gets animated in this video. He almost climbed out of my screen and into my living room. 😆

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Hahaha! Yes Kevin gets so excited about math!

[@aliceputz3183]

So glad to see you have returned safely from your US vacation. Happy New Year! And about the dog, ask the cat first - lol.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Hahaha that’s right! Ask the cat! 😺😺

[@renate_c4h]

Happy New Year to all of you. I am glad to hear that you are safely back in German. Hope you had a great time in the States. Regarding the dog-you could consider adopting rather than buying a dog. You could adopt a young dog (age 1 or older) rather than a puppy. That makes home training a lot easier, too. Most rescue places test the dogs whether they are OK with cats before letting them go into a family with one or more cats. Cats are normally OK with dogs as long as the dogs know the cat is the boss. 😀 I currently share my life with 3 dogs and 4 cats-all rescues. Have a nice Sunday and a happy new week.

[@franhunne8929]

@@renate_c4h Rescue is my favourite breed!

[@aviva53]

Another aspect that always amazed me is the amount of "non-fiction" books available to even the youngest German kids. In French or Italian bookshops you might have a couple of options, but in German ones there's usually a huge section of picture books about everything from recycling to spaceships, trains and whatnot. And they are super detailed. At 3 my son would casually lecture me on the different types of fenders while walking around our street 🤓

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

I love reading that about your son! I hadn't really noticed that before, but yeah, there are many nonfiction books for kids.

[@InTeCredo]

Interesting topic here. When I was a child in the 1970s, I excelled in math and could do everything in my head. After we moved to the United States, the teachers refused to allow me to do them in my head and forced me to do the long way (writing down the problem, crossing out and/or adding numbers, etc.). For instance, we could do 341:22=15,5 instead of the long division or 2.27323=75.009. When my parents showed my teachers how we did it in Germany, they were so flabbergasted, but they insisted on doing it the "American way". Afterwards, I despised the math so much that I wanted nothing to do with them for a very long time. I struggled to pass compulsory Math 101/102 at the university. I was so angry at the American educational system that focused on the hardest way to do the math problems than allowed us to do them in the head. Obviously, the American teachers have a very serious trust issues...

[@SubterranBayern]

Regarding the Würfelgebäude. You mustn't forget that there are highly qualified apprenticeships in Germany. Just 10% of the students in Bavaria go to the Gymnasium. Usually the apprentices start at the age of 16 and a CNC worker who writes his own programs needs a three-dimensional imagination. I think that's one reason why the teaching of STEM content starts early.

[@therealannakonda]

It’s actually about 40% who go to gymnasium

[@VanAdventuresBavaria]

@@therealannakonda Right, i had old numbers in mind. It changed the last few years a lot. I remember the highest quote was in Berlin with 30%.

[@xyungeloest]

Yes it continues in the Oberstufe (German high school equivalent). Even in your final exams (Abitur) EVERY question is based on a real problem. They can be unrealistic but still. For example we had a chart of the election results and hat so calculate the chances of what 5 random people voted or if they even voted and so on. Also: I don’t know how it is in the US, but here in Germany you work with calculators from grade 8 onwards. So the questions are never just „calculate this“. And in the final exams there are small tests without calculators and the rest with them, so you still have do a little calculation in your head sometimes

[@jessicaely2521]

I'm not sure what it's like now and it maybe different in different states, but when I was in school in Florida (1989-2002) you didn't get to use a calculator until you started Algebra. You could start Algebra at 14. It depended on how good in math you were. My brother was extremely good in math and started Algebra at 14. I didn't start until I was 15. All my math teachers said "you aren't going to carry a calculator with you everywhere you go." It's not like now where the whippersnappers have a cellphone with a calculator. When we did get to use calculators you had to write down everything you did. You couldn't say 4 when you typed in 8÷2 (I wouldn't type in something this easy. I would just do it in my head. It's just an easy example). To this day you aren't allowed to use a calculator for some state licensing exams. When I took my state licensing exam in physical therapy I wasn't allowed to use a calculator. As I said a few times here. Every state even every city is different. There isn't a blanket rule on what you can and cannot do. The federal government leaves education up to states. It used to be the "rich" areas in a state have harder rules and school is harder than the poor areas. Now they did common core in a lot of states and instead of getting good teachers in the states at a lower level and bringing them upto the higher level they brought the states and cities with a good education down to the level of everyone else. Not all states participate in this. Florida finally dropped out of teaching common core. Unfortunately the "rich" areas are far far far better educated than the poor areas. *Edit actually I think things have changed in Florida. I just thought of this. When I was about 25 a hurricane came and destroyed the transformers in my city. Since this happened we had no electricity. Stores were open, but you could only pay with cash. The 16 year olds didn't know how to make change when you handed them a 20 and the total was $6.30. My dad had a kid say to him "This is to much. I can't take this." This was a 🤦‍♀️ moment.

[@xyungeloest]

@@jessicaely2521 Wow that's sad, here in Germany we have standardized statewide exams since 2005 and there is a push for nationwide exams in recent years. This forces every school to teach the kids the same stuff for the final exams and if the school if constantly below average they face problems. Our schools are also run by the districts, but the curricula and laws are handled by the state. The reason why we don't have "poor districts" with bad schools is, that rich districts have to help the poorer financially and the same goes for states. Furthermore the higher levels also helps them out financially. So a poor district will get Money from the richer districts and the state, while the state gets money from the richer states and the federal government. But I think America would write that off as Communism :)

[@leoe.5046]

In german (bavarian) gymnasium you may be allowed to use your calculator from 8th grade onwards but you won't really need it as you are mostly working with equations - also the part in the Abitur (maths and german are mandatory in Bavaria) where you mustn't use your calculator is relatively large

[@darkiee69]

@@xyungeloest In Sweden we do have national test in Swedish, English and Math. The Math test is a two part test where the first part, making up about 2/3 of the test is without calculator where you have to write down your calculations and the second part is with a calculator. You still have to show the calculations, not just the answer.

[@3nt3_]

@@leoe.5046 you mostly need it for physics in my experience

[@CCervido]

Kevin might also be interested in having a look at the questions of the "Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik". It's basically a German version of the math olympiad. The questions are demanding (you can find them online). They typically ask for proofs of some problems and are at least one or two levels above standard math classes. But that's why the Bundeswettbewerb is quite prestigious. Managing to qualify for the advanced rounds of the Bundeswettbewerb certainly looks good on a CV. The Bundeswettbewerb also exists for other subjects such as coding, physics, languages and music, just in case your kids at some point are interested in getting (another) tough challenge. (However, sixth grade still seems to be a bit early for it.)

[@larseberhart]

I had the "privilege" of "enjoying" the math course with Professor Baron, who in Austria was heavily involved with the math olympics. Everybody felt like the guy in the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIbNfIZqrZ2Iepo And everybody pointed out in their CVs that they had "math with Baron".

[@stromhummel4068]

As a teacher of a third grade let me tell you we worked with Würfelgebäude this week and kids love it. At this age even more with a plan than with imagination. To find out how many dices it takes or go around these buildings and draw it from every side is so much fun for these little professors. And it's fun for me to watch. I love this video a lot and maths a little more - thank you Kevin!

[@OtmarLendl]

I was used to Greek letters for angles when starting to study mathematics in Austria. What I was not prepared for was the utilization of the full Greek alphabet, and the use of old German handwritten letters (Kurrent) for vectors.

[@tobyk.4911]

my math teacher in 12th and 13th grade used _Sütterlin_ (old German handwriting) letters for vectors and matrices... but then my math professors in university just wrote normal letters with an arrow above them for vectors.

[@volldillo]

Using Kurrent for vectors is outdated now, vectors are either not specially signed, or written blackboard bold, or underlined, or over-arrowed. However, Kurrent remains one of the standards for set systems in measure theory and probability (the other standard being to use calligraphic script letters), or for universes in set theory, or for models in model theory. I was able to read Frakturschrift when I was at school (my parents owned old editions of Goethe's and Schiller's works), but I had to learn Sütterlin-Kurrent within one week in order to be able to do the exercises and to follow the lectures of measure theory at university, which was a mandatory course of the third semester.

[@OtmarLendl]

@@volldillo Re outdated: That was in 1988 and the Professor was nearing retirement.

[@yvonnesokoll8790]

Welcome back !! FROHES NEUES JAHR!!! In today s Video I loved Kevins enthusiastic outburst on German school methods teaching Math ....That was great to see!!

[@sophiarain8901]

The last three years of Gymnasium are usually called „Oberstufe“.

[@supnik6398]

Maybe I am wrong, but I would think that at 5:13 you need to put in banknotes that actually exist, so 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 or 500. Nice video as always.

[@tinomertens7805]

Thanks for the perspective. My godchild teaches Math in Elementry school but her university education was based on teaching university classes. And a small history fact: In Japan the engineers learned quite often German to read the textbooks (before WWII).

[@bearoscar1358]

A lot of animal shelters in germany have volonteer programs, where you can take shelter dogs on walks. Maybe a great opportunity to get to know a dog that is already house trained and in need of a good home.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Oh cool! Thanks for letting us know’

[@kitkat5153]

Aww, Kevin’s enthusiasm is so infectious! Hope you guys had a lovely time in the US! ☺️

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Thank you! Yes we had a great time.

[@martinstudnicky4635]

Thank you for all your vids. I love to watch them. Somehow they bring light in our mostly dark times. I wish you and your family all the best for this year 🙂🙋‍♂️

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Thank you so much. Wir wünschen auch Ihnen ein wunderbares Jahr! ❤️💕

[@matzek.3220]

Now this was a fun video seeing Kevin get excited over maths. And although I have not made it to engineer's level (maths at university became too hard for me 😅), I still like it and try to help my kids here. But as an addition for the future (ninth grade and on I think) I would like to recommend the YT channel MathemaTrick to you, because I think Susanne does a great job explaining and has a lot of videos for different math topics online.

[@ca9603]

And there are more good channels, I remember 'simpleclub math' when I had to help my boy. I couldn't have done without it 😉.....

[@marinabayview]

Wow! Just checked that out. Thank you so much!

[@alexisgreen1453]

I really enjoyed this video. My son attends a special needs school here in Germany and he also gets this type of math. It is interesting to see how much the education system is the same between his school and a regular gymnasium. If I had to guess I think he is in the real system. So far the only languages his school has taught him is German and English, but my son loves his school, much better than the American school he attended.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Wow that’s great to know the math education is similar in German special needs’ schools, also! Go Germany 🙌🏻

[@lissalack1490]

I love how excited Kevin is for math! The kids are lucky he can help them understand. So impressive to see this level of work. Your kids are doing such excellent work, in a new language yet!

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Yeah it really is amazing how you can accomplish so much in school without fully knowing German! And how fast our kids have learned the language is extraordinary. As it is with many children.

[@Candy7la3Creme]

Ich habe in meiner ganzen Schullaufbahn keinen grafischen Taschenrechner benutzt. Als ich in der 10. Klasse mal nach Buffalo, NY, zur Schule ging, da war ich von grafischen Taschenrechner total verwirrt. Gleichzeitig stellte ich im Mathe und Physik Unterricht fest, dass die Verknüpfung von Experimenten oder neuen Lerninhalten mit dem bestehendem Wissen kaum vorhanden war. Ich war irritiert, warum in der 10./11. Klasse nicht aus einer Tabelle von Daten ein x/y Koordinaten System erstellen? (ich stelle außerdem fest, dass ich den Kommentar auf englisch gedacht habe und der dadurch total befremdlich auf deutsch klingt xD)

[@ThePixel1983]

The wonders of being multilingual, je sais, tu peux in mehreren Sprachen Worte vergessen. 😁

[@missis_jo]

Ich habe 2005 Abitur gemacht und wir konnten im Vorfeld sogar abstimmen, ob wir die normalen oder die graphischen Taschenrechner benutzen wollen. Dem entsprechend hätte es im Abi dann natürlich andere Aufgaben gegeben. Das war allerdings im LK, nicht im Grundkurs und nachdem wir auch nur eine sehr dürftige Einführung in die Dinger bekommen haben, haben wir dankend abgelehnt 😅.

[@silke5469]

I find this interesting, I struggled a lot with math, but was very good language wise. I took French at Realschule and during my term at Highschool in the UK, I noticed as well a gap in French. Even though being in Realschule they were doing stuff at Highschool and the pupils were struggling with it, which I had done two years ago in Germany. What I loved so, was the viarity in listening comprehension tasks and applying the language to real life situations. I once went to a language awareness meeting in French, and we had to make a movie about the city, explaining about the sights and characteristics of the city all in french. I really enjoyed that. Or I had to take a phone call and make a hotel booking all in french. I really was missing things like that in my school. Keep up the good work, always interesting to watch your perspective of things here in Germany. And as being a foreigner once myself I can relate to culture shocks and differences. But I took it always like a chance to broaden my horizons and was always curious to find out the reason, why something is done that way, or why people behave in a certain way.

[@diane8684]

Hi there. That was so nice to watch Kevin in his element there. He looked so excited talking about maths. Thanks for your great videos.

[@TheElainemarley]

Very interessting video! Yes indeed, the way they teach math has changed a lot in the last 10-20 years and is much more text based than before. I personally love it but you need a good teacher that helps you from the beginning to understand everything. I'm already looking forward to do math with my two girls when they are in school :D

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Yeah it definitely helps to have a parent in the house who is good at math to help the kids with their homework. It’s been really hard for me to help them, and much easier for Kevin.

[@balthasar5302]

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife That’s one of the reasons why we argue a lot about equal chances for children in school. When your parents don’t care or cannot help you it’s very difficult to achieve higher degrees.

[@LadieMysterie]

I got my Abitur just 2 years ago and am now currently studying. It's very interesting to hear your perspective. Having grown up in Germany I never considered the way we were taught math to be looked upon as a special way. It definitely stays that way up in the higher levels/years of education in my opinion. What's funny is that in the higher years german students will also question why they have to learn certain topics in math. At least I used to constantly ask this as well and my classmates too.

[@lhuras.]

well. In germany a high percent of young people do not study at college when they leave the school but do so called Lehrjahre. there you learn a job where you already have to know how all those things work. You can't just start there with the basics in math as - especially if you do craft trades - you'll have to learn the things you need for this particullar job within a short time period. (mostly between 1 1/2 and 3 years) and as no one can tell who is going to do what in his/her life they teach the basics to everyone at school. not only for math.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

True!

[@repost2563]

we learned how functions like Fx (y) work, by calculating wich phone provider is the most profitable over wich period of time :) didnt knew until now that this is a german thing :) great video!

[@cosmos60]

That insight into US maths teachings was interesting. Also the differences in regard to German maths classes. I knew that there are international differences e.g. in doing mathematical divisions, too. Like France or England.

[@4Asteria]

Thank you very much for these insights.

[@Melisendre]

In Grundschule math was no problem for me but in gymnasium it was one of the reasons I changed to Realschule after 7. grade. Not every geman child wants to become a engeneer. If you are not so talented in maths this system could be very hard. I always hated Textaufgaben. Even in Grundschule I never understood why I should learn stuff like this. As an adult I see the sense but as a child I didn't. Like you said, math is like a new language. It took time for me to learn but in Gymnasium I didn't have enough time. In Realschule I had a little bit more time and I understood everything. It's not only geometry and algebra we learn in german schools. We learn logical thinking like finding a solution for a problem in your own way. Funny story: after school I became a Erzieherin and thought I would never need maths anymore. After more than 20 years I had to change my profession for health reasons. Now I am a Fachinformatikerin and need math every day for programming. I am happy I learned logical thinking at school. You will never know what the future brings. (in german we say "Logisches Denken". I don't know if logical thinking is the exact expression in englisch).

[@lynnm6413]

I remember the Maths class in Scottsville High School, Mason County, Mi as an exchange student…they put me in Senior year but whatever for I sat in a class of Maths I and I think we did nothing but matrices…I was obliged to do maths and English and a socio-economic class, and that left me only one subject to choose. My father was a German Maths teacher and he just shook his head when I showed him what we did…and then I changed school, started my own 12th year and we did statistics that I later needed for both my studies in veterinary science and my doctorate (phd) in molecular genetics….Maths was my number one hate class after getting rid of Latin and Physics, but I still needed it and our one semester statistics class in university was so difficult that had I not had statistics for 2 years in school I would have failed. It was a close one even then because they covered what we had learned I’m Gymnasium in 3 weeks….

[@ninan9650]

It’s quite funny. Me and my partner are both engineers and we were discussing that we were missing the link to the real live for some mathematical areas. In school up to the 10th grade Textaufgaben were common, but afterwards, as well as in Uni, the application of the math was not clear anymore. Why did we needed to going through complex integral calculus? Yes it is important to know, that the integral is the area below a curve and do some calculations to understand the concept. When it is really getting complicated I start R and get the results immediately. Thanks for the video, It brings a new perspective on things that were so natural to me.

[@ravanpee1325]

We learned to calculate the Stata output per hand and the parallel course just to interpret the results. Big difference

[@eisikater1584]

I love Tetaufgaben like this: "One cubic meter of water costs 30 cents. You have a round pool with a diameter of 2.5 meters and a height of 80 centimeters. How much does it cost to fill up the pool?" If I didn't miscalculate, approx. 1.13 euros, but the point here is: You learn how to handle units, and how to read thoroughly. Give that to a class, and I bet there will be some who punch the 2.5 into their cylinder formula r^2*pi*h without minding that it's the diameter, not the radius.

[@peterkesseler9898]

Good morning from Rheinland-Pfalz. Once more a very interesting video with a new topic! Always a pleasure to see how you like (most) of what you experience here in Germany.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Hallo Peter! 👋🏼 Ich hoffe, du hast einen schönen Sonntag!

[@pklausspk]

Welcome back, good to see you healthy. Many here say, "what do I need this for in life" when it comes to math. Good to hear things from the other side, that a lot of practical stuff is taught. By the way, I think a little statistics would have done one or the other quite well, in these strange times.

[@ContinuumGaming]

I just like watching your journey and find it very sympathetic how you are approaching everything and how you are doing what you are doing. Thank you very much for another very likeable and fun video :). It will not stay as it is in 4th grade concerning the "practicality" of the tasks, but yes they try to make it more experienceable instead of just telling you how to calculate an angle even in higher grades. Still, it will change after a while if it is just going to be harder to find easy real life examples.

[@lilianapalhinha6840]

Welcome back Nice And inteligente famíly! 😘 Thank you for another interesting video. My grand daughters are in the 4th And 6th grades here in Portugal And I am curious to compare... The other grandmother is a math teacher in Gymnasium And my son in law is an engeneer, so I shared the video With trem And I am waiting for their coments, as They are the ones who Help the girls With their homework...

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

It would be interesting to see the differences in Portugal!

[@asmodon]

Ha! That homework sheet with the word problems had the old DM erased and a € sign pencilled in. 😁

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Oh I didn’t even notice that! Haha it took us all a few months to stop writing $$ and write €€.

[@Nikioko]

Of course, angles are represented by lower case Greek letters. Latin lower case letters are used for line segments and upper case letters for vertices.

[@elisabethlemoigne5710]

What interesting insights. Thank you. I can completely relate to Sarah pointing out that sometimes you have to figure out first what the question is. This is a new focus of the Lehrplan Plus in Bavaria, the first group of students using this curriculum are the current 9th graders. I have been struggling with this with my kids and have given up. As an exchange student in Colorado, I chose not to take maths in high school, but, and that was 35 years ago, being a student from Gymnasium, American High School was very easy for me. If you can memorize irregular verbs in Latin, you can also memorize the 50 states and their capitals. I don't want to show off, I just want to express that you need not worry about your kids returning to the American school system, if you so decide. American teenagers are better in other respects, like applied computer sciences or presentations. It must also be pointed out that maths is the most common subject involved when talking about children failing and repeating a grade. The other one is Latin. I would love for you to do a video about other subjects at all, for example languages (as you have pointed out there is a lot more language instruction here than in the US) I am looking forward to more of your insightful videos. 😊

[@wora1111]

I never managed the 50 states nor the president's in High School ( as an exchange student). But I still remember the Math equation I had to prove for my final grade. And the Aufgabe from the Abitur as well!

[@hildegardkhelfa5358]

Welcome back, I hope, you had a wonderful holiday back with your family. As always, I enjoyed your video very much. And its absolutely cute, how Kevin gets excited. ;-) I like you guys. Great family.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Thank you so much 😍😍

[@andibuletten6206]

Nice, video again. In germany the standards in all kinds of education are very high. Also the Berufsausbildung is very extensive. A nurse for example needs soo much to know about anatomy, medicines etc. And most of the terms are latin. And germany has been the only country, where you needed a "Meister" to teach an apprentice. Happy new year. Stay save and healthy and enjoy the snowy winter.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

I love how high the standards of education are here in Germany. Your country is known world-wide for the quality of products made here, so I can imagine that the high standards of the Berufsausbildubg have a part in that!

[@berndhofmann752]

You are a nice couple! Very sympthetic! ❤❤❤❤❤ Greetings from a German living half year in Cameroun. 😂😂😂

[@melly7210]

Happy New Year for your family ! these tasks are called Sachaufgaben ore Textaufgaben

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Thank you! Wir wünschen euch auch ein frohes neues Jahr!

[@philipptielmann]

Your Gymanisium year breakdown: 5th and 6th grade: Unterstufe 7th through 10th grade: Mittelstufe (you can leave and/or enter Gymnasium after 10th grade. However your degree is the same as if you went to a realschule until 10th grade. Academically I would say this is comparable to US high school. 11th through 13th grade: Oberstufe (this prepares you for university which you can only attend when going through these 3 (or sometimes just 2) years and then also passing the Abitur examination. I would say academically this is beyond your average US highschool as i.e. calculus, complex numbers, advanced statistics and so on is mandatory for all students starting from 11th grade. also in other subjects it’s probably more like the first year/s of US college. Interestingly enough this is also when it becomes more like US highschool from an organization standpoint as you are picking your classes and can have each different class with totally different people. Until 10th grade you are in your “Klasse” and you will have almost all classes with the same group of people. often the “klasse” (as in group of kids) will stay in the same room all day and the teachers of the various subjects are the ones that will move around the school building. this is quite the opposite of the US system where the teacher has its fixed class room and the students move around.

[@maxAnonymousname]

Later at Gymnasium, this will probably not be the case anymore for most of the math stuff. I often asked myself what I'm even learning something for and where in my daily life I need that. But for calculating probabilities or geometry, they give you logical cases that you could actually use. For analysis, not so much.

[@compuholic82]

Probably depends a lot on your teacher. I've been out of school for a while so a lot might have changed but I had an awesome math teacher from the 9th grade all the way up to my Abitur (and in some years he was also my physics teacher). A truly dedicated guy with a doctorate in mathematics who apparently spent a lot of his free time in the university library. I will always remember that one day he was excited because he found an old text (of course in Latin) with a physics problem that was relevant to the math that we were currently studying. We translated it, formalized the problem (since it was written in some flowery language) and solved it in this class. And everybody could contribute something, whether they liked languages, physics or mathematics. He always managed to tell us the story why the math we were currently studying is important.

[@chaotischekreativitat9391]

I can remember some tasks that were inspired by physics or biology, e.g. about growth of bacteria or bank interest as examples of how to use exponential functions. And on the other hand, analysis was pretty advanced - we talked about how to find maxima and minima of functions by using derivations (which is extremely helpful to know for scientific or technical tasks at university)

[@wimschiphorst8541]

The same concept here in The Netherlands. As an example. From my school time. Johan, Mary and Peter go to xxx. Johan walks, Mary takes the train and Peter the car. The distance is ....etc. And everything by heart. Today one can use one's laptop. Progress???

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Yeah it’ll be interesting as technology is already much smarter than we are…will we all get dumber or just get smarter about new things?

[@felimuller909]

5:13 you have some very interesting bills there ;) (while the total sums are correct, the task was to figure out how to get to the sums with the actual bills - for example: 300 with four bills: 100+100+50+50)

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Yeah it seems our son misunderstood the question! Language barrier…

[@gerhardhettler8521]

Hallo, In German we say " was Hänschen nicht lernt lernt Hans nimmermehr" When you something learn as a child mit is easyer then when you must lern it as a Man.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Ah okay! Great to learn this new German phrase. And it’s very true!

[@vickenkodjaian5265]

Good morning. And welcome back to Germany. And Happy New Year. You should do a video on reverse culture shock after you came to United States after less then a year. And it seems Germany is a perfect place to be when it comes to mathimatics.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Yes! That’ll be next week - excited to do that!

[@jessicaely2521]

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife you had reverse culture shock? Am I the only weird on that didn't? The only thing I did in the US that people looked at me strangely is looking for the scale to weigh my fruits and vegetables and get a price tag. I kept forgetting a scale is built in the register in the US.

[@KJ-md2wj]

Germany a perfect place to be for math--- an yet German students do relatively poorly in international testing.

[@sisuguillam5109]

@@KJ-md2wj partly because of the way the testing is done.

[@franhunne8929]

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Oooh, can't wait!

[@GeschichtenUndGedanken]

Thank you for sharing this video. I really enjoyed it.

[@hartmutbohn]

Would be interesting to see a similar video about foreign language teaching in Germany vs. the US.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Yes! We did talk quite a bit about that in our German Gymnasium video, actually, but it’d be great to make that a separate video.

[@jessicaely2521]

You can't do a blanket statement like the US and foreign language. It depends where you are from in the US. If you are from someplace that has a lot of foreigners your chances of learning a foreign language at a young age is higher than someone who doesn't live in an area with a lot of foreigners. Its also more intensive in areas with a lot of foreigners. For example people who live in South Florida (Miami and Fort Lauderdale is here) have a completely different experience than someone in some small town in North Dakota. For example my cousin went to school in Massachusetts. She's 2 years younger than I. She didn't get a foreign language class until she was 16. I grew up in South Florida and my first foreign language class started when I was 7 and I continued until I was 17. I was the first class that started learning a foreign language so young. Now foreign language starts when a kid goes to Preschool in South Florida which is 4 (it's free to go to Preschool in the state of Florida). The reason behind kids learning a foreign language so early in South Florida is because there's a huge population of Spanish speaking people in South Florida. There are areas in South Florida you can't communicate with people unless you speak Spanish. My husband is screwed in parts of Miami when he isn't with me. He is Swiss with a greencard. His foreign language was French and then English. I need to say my Spanish definitely isn't perfect, but I can communicate and understand people. You don't get into situations in Massachusetts where people only speak a foreign language.

[@wora1111]

@@jessicaely2521 Makes sense. In Germany in Kindergarten they do some songs in the language across the next border (France in my case). Without borders it defaults to English. And Schwyzerdütsch is considered German. First grade just continues with whatever you started with. There is a problem though if you move during the first years: You may end up in an area where another language is the primary second language.

[@WeltderWerkstoffe]

I love it as a german engineer beeing married to a mathematician.

[@cailwi9]

Interesting. Lots of thoughts regarding this one. Let me try to get my arms around some of them: 1) Fully agree with you that in Germany the engineer has a completely different level of standing than in the US. In Germany, engineering is seen as one of the most desirable career paths a person can take within natural sciences, especially, given that the type of engineering that Germany is known for is the creative kind, where it is about new designs, new technologies, new developments, or the wide world of industrial engineering, where Germany dominates the custom-design part of machining, and thereby thrives in a field of work that to most Americans, in my experience, seems to be a completely unknown world. The best students often go into these career fields in Germany. In the US, the best have a desire to be in sales and that is the job that has status associated with it, a status way beyond what I was used to from back in DE, where sales tended to always have the pejorative of 'snake oil-salesman' or 'car-dealer' associated with it. In the US, sales seems almost untouchable, both within the corporate culture as well as in society overall, whereas engineering is very readily dissed with words like 'grease-monkey', etc. Both are of course stupid stereotypes, but their existence is telling, and probably defines everything from perceived social status to the development of high school curriculums. 2) There is a price to pay for this technical and mathematical focus, and that needs to be mentioned too. Social skill development is far more important when you are in sales. In engineering, while you do need to learn how to communicate, it is of secondary importance, and there are always those few who have the ability to have technical as well as social skills, so the rest gets by without. In a sales oriented society, like the US, developing diplomacy, negotiation skills, listening skills, and social skills in general, is far more fostered throughout the school system and beyond. It starts with a vast social program in middle and high schools, that stands in sharp contrast to the purely academic focus of the German school system. And having lived in both places, as well as quite a few other countries too, I have to say, that lack of social skills, from the top to the bottom of the social ladder, is far more readily observed in Germany than in the US. 3) Back to math: This is one area where Gymnasium education will show its muscle. Gymnasium has the mission, not only to educate, but to teach how to think. It is designed to raise future leaders and future thinkers, and therefore will teach critical thinking and foster it, in all parts of its education system. It furthermore advances in rather big strides. What you will notice as you go along, is that latest by 7th - maybe 8th grade, the German system is about one academic year ahead of the US. This leads to a situation where Algebra comes along at an age, where the kids tend to be mentally not ready for the abstract material thrown at them. I was generally good at math, but I remember 8-9th grade to be really tough. It was too abstract for me at the time. I welcomed the text problems, but they were not as frequent as they had been in earlier grades, and tbh, most others hated the text problems, so teachers often accommodated that by doing less of them. It was an endless slog of simplifying expressions and solving equations / or equation systems. In geometry, precision and neatness of drawings were my downfall, I could not handle the accuracy and neatness required. In the US, most problems are multiple choice, so that is not a problem. But in Germany, you have to do the drawings yourself, remember, you are raising future engineers, and I struggled, especially with motivation, as I did not understand why I was doing what I was doing. Things got better around the end of 10th grade. Trigonometry unified the previously separate topics of geometry and algebra, which I found interesting, and calculus helped me appreciate why I was doing what I was doing, and from then on, things started to get easier again, but those middle years were hard. You guys are in Bavaria, so the pressure will be on. The good news is, your kids have parents who can help, but it is tough for kids who do not have a support system like that. 4) My US experience comes mostly from elementary school in CA and NC, and then all school types in PA. I think, the US itself is not aware, how different the education systems are within their country, and math is a pretty good example. Here in PA, and probably most northeastern states, math education was reformed to teach much more thinking, and lots of the elements that you are showing here from Germany (three dimensional cubes, text problems to learn how to mathematically express things like 'more than', 'n times something', 'a fraction / percentage of something' were commonplace, and the math books focused on all this stuff, just like you are showing in the worksheets in the video. It was the teachers who were struggling, because they had been raised with a different system and now had to switch to what was called 'common core', and they were struggling, just like you say. I personally found the math books well designed, and did not understand the uproar. The focus is on learning how to think in mathematical terms, what could be wrong with that? Which brings me to North Carolina. There the school system was totally different, it was not oriented towards learning how to think, it was oriented towards absorbing information. Math was seen more as what I would call 'first to sixth grade thinking', in that it was teaching methods to calculate things you needed for daily life. The important part was that everything was done exactly like the teacher had done it, and correct answers were marked as wrong, if they were achieved in a different way than they had been taught, which made it difficult for me as a parent. The principle was to teach number crunching, not thinking. Common core was poopoo'd and rejected as a socialist concept - too much European stench to it, I guess. Why building blocks are socialist is beyond me, but generally, learning how to think was frowned upon in all areas, because people who think might become libtards and that had to be avoided at all cost. Now I only encountered elementary level education in those years, but there is no question, that the school system was more rigid, more indoctrinating, and more limiting. I am obviously not familiar with Georgia, but I assume, based on how you describe it, that in many ways it was more like NC, and not like PA. Now California, in comparison, was outright dysfunctional. I am not even sure what system they were following, but we at home were debating what private school system to search, because public school was detrimental to our kids, and we were living in a so-called 'good neighborhood'. Teachers were babysitter, not teachers, they were endlessly rotated in and out of classrooms, so they did not know their kids, third graders could not read, not because there was something wrong with the kids, but it simply had not been taught. Math had not yet become an issue, as these were early grades, but it was complete chaos on every level. There were also no books, just loose papers, and that made it difficult for us parents to look through what was happening. This chaos was left behind when we left CA, but tbh, it had been shocking. Obviously, these are just one person's experiences, and I am sure there are other examples that could be given, but I do think that my observations are at times representative of some general trends. The US is encountering very different schooling depending where people live, and a lot of today's divide in the society as a whole, could be a direct result of the different education systems that students encounter. Things are worse in science, history or English, and I have not even talked about homeschooling, which adds another two millions kids to the overall social divide of present day America's school system. Germany has its own problems, and they are different. One recommendation I would definitely have for anybody raising kids in Germany, is to make sure they have activities outside of school, and participate in groups, clubs (Verein), sports, cultural or church events, music, and other activities, to enrich the child beyond the academics, and also to ensure that the kid develops social circles outside of the purely Gymnasium atmosphere. Hope you can find these things for your four kids as you get to know the country better.

[@map2932]

As an American grandmother of three grandchildren in German schools I agree with much of what you say. The suggestion at the end to socialize the children was especially good. Making friends from a variety of settings and learning social graces, manners, might easily be overlooked.

[@praeceptor]

Sie haben eine sehr beeindruckende Abhandlung verfasst.

[@brkr78]

Regarding your 2nd point: Well, yeah, no. I've had my fair share of interactions with US-citizens, and most of them, once they have an opinion, completely refuse to listen to a counterargument. They talk a lot, and they are loud, make sure to get their point across. Granted. But listening? Not so much. Not all, but a lot do. They want to be right, by all means, double down on what they think is right regardless of any evidence or argument brought before them. US-citizens are tenatious, to the point that they become stubborn. And while these people also exist in Germany I've yet to encounter the same amount of willfull ignorance or stubborness. "And having lived in both places, as well as quite a few other countries too, I have to say, that lack of social skills, from the top to the bottom of the social ladder, is far more readily observed in Germany than in the US." Depending on whith whom you are dealing with - those "people skills" you praise so highly are either sucking up to their superiours or kicking down on those they deem inferiour to them. I've never seen a German insult a fast food employee, a cleaning lady, a janitor. Do these people exist in Germany? Sure, but it's not widely accepted social behaviour. Now tell me, and be honest, that that isn't a thing in the US. You call your inability to directly address issues in fear of repurcussions "social skills". I disagree. "In engineering, while you do need to learn how to communicate, it is of secondary importance." Come again? That ... is just not true. I don't know where you get that from, but precise and facutal communication is key in this fields. What you seem to misunderstand is that Germans are way more direct, they tell you if you did something wrong, they don't sugarcoat it. And that is twice true for anything engineering-related as lives might be endangered. Just my 2 cents.

[@cailwi9]

@@brkr78 re Americans and listening to each other: When it comes to debates, i.e. politics and religion, etc. yes, the US is presently stuck and entrenched on two opposing sides, each accusing the other of destroying the fabric of the nation and its values, and nobody listens. Agreed, But that is not what I was writing about. When products get designed or developed, requirements get specified and explained, etc., I found Americans to be attentive listeners, and good at finding compromising solutions, the Germans were sometimes very good, sure, but there were also quite a few very rigid and non-understanding ones among them. ' this is how it is, deal with it' responses, or even telling the customers that their wishes were dumb to begin with, in situations where that was wrong, and certainly neither appropriate nor needed. And I'll leave it at that. My experience. Now what I did experience in the US, is sales guys promising something that cannot be kept, then being treated like God by their own management, and that leads to your next point. The pressure downwards, the lack of respect for what is communicated back up. Yes - I fully agree with you here. People on the lower rungs of the corporate ladder being exploited, not treated humanely, no respect for their needs, their families, and everything you say above about that. Yes. And lack of unions and lack of laws that protect the workers, and lack of judges who see this as a problem, rather than being in bed with management. Yes. Again, it had not been my topic, but I do agree with your observations or comments. But when it comes to customer service in DE, I have seen rude behavior, but not towards the employee, but rather from the employee towards the customer. Sorry, but Germans reacting defensive, when they should be listening or should be providing customer service, that problem is quite common on many levels of society. And while raising German kids to be direct and to stand up for themselves is good to some extent, I have seen this self-defense behavior go overboard on quite a few occasions in Germany. Finally to your last point, of course communication is important, and of course we both appreciate people who can both think in technical terms as well as have people skills and will value people who have both abilities. If there is only one though, the tendency in the US is to promote or give attention to the person with social skills, but no knowledge what they are talking about, leading to one set of issues. Whereas the German way to promote the person with technical competence, but lack of social skills, leads to a different set of issues. Again, you need both and should therefore try to develop that in your kids, which is what I was saying or trying to say anyways. Peace out.

[@brkr78]

​@@cailwi9 Nah, it goes way beyond that. Of course this is only me talking from the interactions I had and what I had witnessed over time, and you can't make broad stroke assumptions from anecdotal experiences, but when a US-citizen has an opinion he has an opinion, come hell or high water. And that is not only limited to politics, its only way more visible and outspoken. I've had way more constructive discussions with Germans that people from the US. Ironically enough the same stubbornness you ascribe to the Germans in not wanting to budge on stuff, on saying "it can't be done" can be flipped on its head when you change perspective. From a concrete example that did not concern me directly, but i was a first hand witness of, and I'm kinda vague on purpose: Company here got bought by a company from the US. Company founder built the company up from 3 employees to a respectable size of approximately 100 people. Now he made a fortune by selling the company off, he took the money and left. Before he did he taught a selected few people on how to work with something he invented. New management comes in, immediately demands unachievable goals and tries to get rid of half of the staff. Declares that new procedures have to be followed, because they know best and whatnot. Those selected few told them that it just can not be done that way, that is not how the whole thing is set up and there is no way to make it work any other way than start from scratch. Management doesn't back down, tires to play some power play and gets a major slap on the wrist, first by union, then by court. They still don't want to back down, they want to push through with their own way of doing things. They take the whole process and outsource it and move it into another country. They also changed the way the company communicated with their customers, removed the whole call center and support department and moved it to yet another country. Both times under protest, both times against the repeated and strained advice to not do it. The chosen few were condemned to do menial tasks. One by one they left, taking with them a sizeable junk of tribal knowledge and a sizable junk of the companies workforce, until only two of them were left. Now, the whole process needed some expert knowledge, you had to know how to deal with this stuff beforehand or you would not be able to make any sense out of it. Which was exactly what had happened. The foreign guys got the invention, poked around and came back with a blank. Now management demanded a full documentation for it, demanded that the people here teach those who are supposed to replace them for a fraction of their wage. I guess you can see where this is going ... in the end everyone left. They lost the vast majority of their customers, because the new call center wasn't even able to speak the language fluently, let alone help people troubleshoot issues - they lacked the technical knowledge the local support had, they lacked the short communication times between adjacent departments the local call center had, they lacked the training and they lacked the personal connections. Sales didn't go as expected, because promises were made by the new sales staff overseas (in the US) that was not achievable, at least not in the timeframe they promised, and especially given that the guys now in charge of utilizing the invention had no solid idea what they were doing. The company is still around, but it is a husk of what it was when it got bought, it only has its name to it, and once people found out what had transpired behind closed doors not even that was worth a lot anymore. So yeah, you must excuse me for not believing they were great listeners, they were great business partners, they were great anything. Let me stress that again - this outcome came to no ones surprise here, but the US management didn’t listen, didn’t budge, didn’t care and reaped what they sowed. I lost contact with that company years ago, but from what limited knowledge I have of the current situation it doesn’t seem like they have recovered yet, and it is questionable if they will. Founder went on to greener pastures and is living the good live somewhere in SE-Asia (as far as I know…), a couple of the chose few still stay in contact to this day, but they never came together and formed a new company - everyone found another well paying and/or less stressful job. That rudeness you decry from sales staff - yeah, cou can have that. I won't argue there. Again, that is a question of perspective. In the US it seems that there is an implicit understanding that the customer is always right, to just “shut up and endure” because the customer brings the money. That isn’t so much true in Germany, where people recognize that the people serving them are not their servants, but people. And people have bad days. The fake smiling and enduring just comes of as fake there, and as such is deeply distrusted in Germany, and in most of Europe for that matter. And as far as interpersonal relationships are concerned, there is a comparison, I don’t know who said that, but I agree: “Americans are like peaches and Germans are like Coconuts." Americans are very soft on the outside, but they are an extremely tough nut to crack on the inside. Germans are tough on the outside, but once you are beyond that barrier you find that they are soft on the inside. What you call self defense is in fact just cultural difference. Germans appear brash, almost abrasive at first glance, and they are very cautious on who the let get close. They are direct to the point that many US-citizens feel attacked, and they rather have cleared fronts from the start, even if it means that it hurts the other persons feelings. Most of the time you just know where you stand when you interact with a German. Conflict is addressed and sorted out, by either avoiding further contact or trying to find a common ground from which to work. Once you are behind that, once you break that shell Germans are usually very honest, friendly and loyal. They’ll listen to you, and will try to help if they can. With a US-citizen … not so much. Everyone is polite, smiles and pretends they are listening, but it seldom goes beyond small talk. They swallow down their grievances, bury them and let it eat away from their inside until it explodes, until it unloads in one way or another. I think that is the major difference here … US-citizens might have a lot of “friends” - people the Germans would call “acquaintances”, but really deep friendships are way less common. In that regard you are a little bit like the Japanese. You seem to be on the road to establish your own version of “Tatemae”, but without the homogeneous population and culture that is somewhat unique to them. When it comes to this point they usually fall pray to the bandwagon fallacy and try to gather as much people around them as they can to make their point and have their very own echo chamber. Don’t get me wrong, that happens in Germany as well, but by no means to that extend I witnessed on so many occasions in the US. The result usually ends in people talking in their respective group about the other side, but they seldom engage in direct conversations. When they do they scream over each other, interrupt, interject and when proven wrong they feel offended or sulk. “If there is only one though, the tendency in the US is to promote or give attention to the person with social skills, but no knowledge what they are talking about, leading to one set of issues. Whereas the German way to promote the person with technical competence, but lack of social skills, leads to a different set of issues.” If I look at the state in which both countries are in current year … I know what I prefer. I’d rather have a competent but brazen leader than a wellspoken, well liked but incompetent leader. And not only in politics. This is a part of US-culture I definitely don't apprecieate. Sadly the latter kind of leaders are gaining support here in Europe as well, a development I observe with deep concern.

[@krischezockt1916]

Science teacher in Germany here 👩‍🔬 there is a big emphasis in university on the „Alltagsbezug“ (every day life context), and how important it is to teach in such a context, so we try implementing it wherever possible. In every subject for that matter ;)

[@jpdj2715]

This video oozes positive excitement - great to watch. As to a woman being good at maths, I have pointed several women in my life at their assumption that women are better at language than men, which they then confirmed (I hold another opinion, silently ;) ). My follow-up: as most of what we call mathematics and arithmetic happens in the language part of the brain and both are symbolic languages with a strict grammar, this then means that women should be better at them then men, or, in short and bottom line: you have zero excuse for thinking you cannot be good at it.

[@Talon_24]

Can I just say, these assignment sheets are at least 26 years old. 4:11 The text says "muß" instead of "muss", this writing has been wrong since 1996. 6:30 The printed text is made to say e.g. "8 Handtücher zu je 6 DM und 6 Geschirrtücher zu je 5 DM", the €-sign is handwritten over that. In Germany, the DM was replacey by the Euro in 2002.

[@rytchbytchrockingclub3867]

Ha, seeing Kevin's eyes and smile go wide was SO fun! He looked like his pulse went up 20 beats, like a kid in a toy store :D. As a German native, I'm not so in love with German school in general, however the real-life focused math stuff and the engineering mindset I love dearly as well. It gets crazier in the higher grades of Gymnasium and then really dips into subjects that NO "normal" citizen will ever need (and you can't ever opt out of math in Germany, you have to continue doing it), and I disliked that and still do, but then Gymnasium is supposed to prepare you for EVERY possible university study so there's that... there are other high schools that offer a more narrow education focused on specific areas (like business, design, electronics etc.) and their diplomas ("Fachabitur") only allow you to study at specific corresponding universities ("Fachhochschule"). Problem is that most kids wouldn't know yet where their interests lie, and that's my main critique of most kinds of education systems around the world - they don't allow time and opportunities for kids to REALLY get to know themselves and to find out what they really love to do and want to spend their life doing. Granted, you can never really be sure and life's full of surprises. But if you don't even have a time slot for it, it's highly likely you'll have no idea (or, even worse, the wrong one... parents and peers can give really bad advice and pressure). You hurry from Kindergarten to Grundschule, then to Highschool, then you're supposed to directly choose the next step without any time in between etc. - it's just not en vogue to take a year or two off to travel the world or try out 10 different jobs. Then in midlife crisis, many people find that they never really liked their jobs and always dreamt of something else - what a waste of talent. Oh, and one last thing: In the title of the video, it should read "... bessere Matheausbildung!" (the short version of "Mathematik" is "Mathe").

[@Jeweliedear]

Yes that was so cool! Also neat to hear more of his work background.fascinating both of their travel experiences also. Japan, Sweden, France etc

[@elkeyvonnelindemann8284]

Your openness and zest for new things with such a positive acceptance is so joyful to watch! Moving from Germany to the US we went kind of backwards in the education department for our kids! We are impressed with the creative subjects here in High School and the abundance of elective subjects and athletics! Our two oldest loved to be in theatre, tech and acting! Our youngest loves the sports! What we also love is that they learn here already in Elementary to present projects and speak in front of an audience! I didn’t have to do it that much in my time in school in Germany and therefore have a problem to be confident, when I have to speak up or speak in front of an audience! Our sons though do it with such ease! We moved to Mexico for two years and came back to Bavaria where our oldest attended Elementary! He wanted to do theatre and couldn‘t, because it was just around Christmas where they rehearsed for a play and not an ongoing Club or subject in school during the year! That we llllllllove here! Kids get here more encouraged to be creative and athletic than in Germany! So, what is more important? Better academics or a better arts education? I wished there would be a good balance……but neither the US nor Germany has figured that out that for a well educated and good person in life both things are equally important! I am still looking for that kind of school;)!

[@sonjabergmeister8624]

Welcome home again! The connection to reality stays at school up to the Abitur, if the teacher is a good one😎. 30 Years ago my great teacher for maths and physics went with us at the age of 18 to the brewery near the gymnasium and we learned stochastics in the bottle cleaning and filling area in real life. How many bottels get destroyed im relation to the good ones etc. We got the connection to the importance of these calculations immediately. And we had lots of fun....and got to taste also....and to do stochastic calculations who of us would be capable to drink how much beer 🍻🍻🍻

[@compuholic82]

Indeed. I also had a great math/physics teacher who always managed to connect mathematical concepts to the real world. When we studied decay and half-life we had a homework assignment that we should measure beer foam as it decays over time, plot our measurements and calculate the half-life. Great fun. And when we compared results, some of us actually made whole measurement series for different types of beer.

[@RustyDust101]

Oooh, I absolutely adore the sound of freshly fallen snow crunching under your feet when you sink into the top layer. Your love for the landscapes shows through in your intros each and every time. Thanks, Sarah, that brought back childhood memories. Hehe, I could see Kevin totally geeking out over the maths and everyday applicability from the engineer's perspective. totally loved his enthusiasm. It took me until my final year of Abitur to finally get a grip on the concepts behind maths, thanks to an awesome teacher who just synced perfectly with my type of thinking. When Kevin talked about the stereotype of Germans being engineers I believe there is a kernel of truth to that. I can't say with certainty, but I have the feeling that the Germanic language group, including Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Dutch, all have a tendency to easily create compound words. That influences the mindset in a subtle way. Don't look for a totally new way to express your creativity (ie don't create a new word that has no roots in your own language), but throw together already well known parts to create something that works better. But the obverse is also true: when you have a compound word made up from fairly easy defined basic words, you can also easily dissect the compound word into its individual components, and gather the overall meaning from these components. In the same way engineers are able to deduce from individual components working together what the whole construct is probably supposed to do. But the mental mindset of an engineer is also capable of dissecting the whole final product into at least certain types of components that are required to make up the whole. That means the concepts behind everything have to be understood, not only a rote formula how to create A, B, and D, but you have no clue how to build C because you did not understand the concept of the alphabet. Ok that was a highly oversimpllified example, and it certainly lacks in a lot of areas like most analogies. Just my gut feeling. I can't say for certain if that affects the mindset at all. Maybe somebody in university could pick up on that and conduct some really long-term experiments on that subject. I could also be totally wrong but I am definitely intrigued by the 'outsiders' view into the matter.

[@kaivonneu-lich6327]

Happy new year! This is the traditional way the schools were separated. More or less Grundschule for manual labour and craftsmanship. There you learn things not tought in other schools. Real- or Mittelschule were for office related jobs, where you also learned typing etc., and Gymnasium prepared you for University. This also goes for foreign languages. Hauptschule English, Realschule or Mittelschule English and one other European language. In Gymnasium English, Latin or Greek and sometimes a third language. Although things have changed and continue to due so, this is the traditional reason for the different schools. Making a life decision at this early age charted your career, most times the same as your parents. One of the reasons for the changes that were made and change still continues.

[@Cosmopolitanaa]

The passion! Hahaha, so lovely to see! And definitely "ansteckend". 😊

[@TheStrangelady]

Maths got more abstract later in Gymnasium. The questions would still present real-life problems, though. It's just that those problems became less and less applicable in every day life. But I guess that's just in the nature of things. If you want kids to prepare for university with vector calculations... You just don't need that everyday. No way around it. But with only few exceptions of mathematical concepts that simply have no real world appliance, I remember getting those kind of questions all through gymnasium!

[@swanpride]

Yeah...I basically lost my footing in math when we did stochastic and totally lost it when they were doing the completely abstract stuff. But then I had some goodawful teachers.

[@JohnHazelwood58]

I went to the Gymnasium and there I had to pick two subjects as "Leistungskurse" (eng.: "advanced courses") - for example: I took "Mathematik" - after the 10th grade. But you have to be sure to be good enough if you pick it! :) You'll get trainend in a professional way, faster (so more stuff to learn) with much more and higher expectancy! Fridays schedule was like 4 hours (!) of mathematic-lessons instead of only 1 hour! It was quite hard, but a lot of fun! :-) *haha ... So: There is more mathematics to come for your kids! And one day, they'll help you with your (home) work! :-)

[@JP-fb6kx]

Really interesting video. Need to add that showing the working outs to a mathematics question is the norm in Germany, so that even if the final answer is wrong, marks will be given if the student by their written proof was going the right path. Additionally there is less multiple choice questions than in the US so students have to show true deeper understanding mathematically. A suggestion for another education comparison video is the use of ink fountain pens in German schools and of cursive writing script. Spotted one of your children using a fountain pen for their math homework.

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Ah yes the whole fountain pen thing is so interesting here in Germany! Why is it important? Our kids like them, though they can be messy. We have actually discussed cursive writing and how it’s taught much more in Germany compared to the US. That’s in our Grundschule culture shocks video.

[@flowerdolphin5648]

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Idk if this is the real reason, but one thing I found is that it helps me write more easily. Idk if you've ever had this problem, but writing with pencils or ballpoint pens is often tiring and painful for me, as I tend to press down rather hard. With a fountain pen you have to be more light handed & hold the pen in specific angles. Because if you press too hard or hold it wrong, you ruin the pen. I can write more comfortably and for much longer at a time with a fountain pen. Without my hand hurting. And I suppose it's also to keep some form of tradition. Due to the nature of a fountain pen nib, it's also easier for me to write more cleanly. But these are all just my personal opinions.

[@ThePixel1983]

This is great: We usually rant about what's bad in the German education system!

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

They are great at math for sure!

[@Alexander-dt2eq]

@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife well actually that is not the general opinion here. but yes the region you live in and being on a Gymnasium this is probably the highest level in the world you can have at their age.

[@peterpain6625]

@@Alexander-dt2eq Comparing to the american education system it's gold. Got some pretty smart american colleagues that lacked the grasp of some concepts that are taught at age 11 or 12 over here in Europe. Don't get me started on their "grasp" of political systems ;)

[@Alexander-dt2eq]

@@peterpain6625 on international math rankings (pisa 2018) Germany places 19th and the US 25th. so it cannot be that bad in the US. Asian countries are best, because they are trained to excel at those tests.

[@peterpain6625]

@@Alexander-dt2eq Yet i failed so get some of those "high and mighty" asians (chinese) to get basic engineering concepts when trying to explain technical drawings. Engineering is not just adding numbers. Also tests don't tell you if someone is able of abstract thought or applying math to other concepts. They excel at copying things while getting more and more "creative" each time to make them cheaper. We had to put australian, british and other european engineers in QA to make stuff even work "most of the time" instead of getting containers full of refuse ;) ymmv. Don't get me started on amercian "engineers" and the metric system. That'll be another very sad story ;)

[@bibliopolist]

Keep in mind that German school children have lots of free space in their brains for all that terminology because they don't have to learn how many ounces go in a gallon and how many inches go in a mile...

[@franhunne8929]

But we have to (in my case had to, or even were offered to) learn more foreign languages than the average US student.

[@maeanden]

This was super interesting, thank you for this video! I wasn’t aware all of these things were so different to the US, I went through the whole bavarian education system and am studying engineering now. It honestly still felt like I had to learn a whole new language in my first semester especially when it comes to mathematically correct proofs and such but I cannot imagine how that would have been if I wasn’t used to greek letters and the concept of counterproofs from a young age!

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Yeah I wonder if you had come from the US if it would’ve been much harder! Best of luck in your studies!

[@starryk79]

well Textaufgaben oder word problems were also the stuff i liked least in Math class. I was good at math in general though. Interesting to hear how math is teached in the US though. Sadly i remember very little of my math knowledge now and i had it as one of my focus courses (Leistungskurse) for the Abitur. I had the worst grade in math ever in my final written exam with a 5+. Saved it with the oral exam (a 2+) that was only done when the grade before final exam and the great of the final written exam were too different. That was in NRW in the year 2000 and that time the Abitur consisted of 4 classes, were you had to take an exam. 2 focus courses (Math and History for me) one basic course (German for me) and finally one course with only an oral exam (Philosophy for me).

[@dorotheaduwel587]

Hallo, mein Enkel Martin geht in die 3.Klasse und liebt Mathematik. Anfangs hatte er Schwierigkeiten. Ich habe ihm spielerisch gezeigt, dass überall Mathe ist und dass das Spass macht sie im Alltag zu suchen. Im Supermarkt, beim Hausbau, in der Natur usw. . Nachdem er das erkannt hatte, wurde er ein Mathefreak. Wenn wir unterwegs sind machen wir Kopfrechenaufgaben oder suchen geometrische Figuren in der Umgebung. Durch diese Dinge wird das logische Denken gefördert und durch das Erklären wächst der Wortschatz. Das Wichtigste beim Lernen sollten Neugier und Freude sein, denn dann hat Angst keine Chance. Viele liebe Grüße und noch ein gutes neues Jahr.

[@Joelina456]

Another awesome video from you guys. Thanks for producing such high quality content 🙂 I love hearing your "reviews" and experiences.

[@wjhann4836]

Great to hear such view. What's about schedules? My daughter did a year in the US - it was a big difference of having a weekly schedule that included only a view subjects - and after a time there was a new schedule with different subjects. In Germany a schedule consists always on all subjects (some complain about).

[@sabinestrumpf2337]

My nephew is studying mechanical engineering and he says he knows a large part of the maths they use from the Oberstufe (grades 11 to 13 of the Gymnasium). I wonder how they teach maths in the US without using the terminology. Do they just use other words instead or not talk about it at all?

[@emilwandel]

They learn in in Junior College or college math classes in school if you choose to take them already in highschool.

[@stahlgewitter69]

i think they dont teach much higher mathematics... otherwise its not possible

[@LookAtKristian]

I would love to get your take on the differences of another school subject: History. Because this is in my opinion is a very big part of developing values and a understanding for society and cultures and much more. And I just don't know what is taught in the US. Do you also learn about the early ages? Do you learn about the romans and the greeks? What about the medieval times? And then the realy interesting part begins, where we in Germany have a focus on Europe. We learn of the rediscovering of science. The forming of european kingdoms, nations and so on. The influence of religion. Revolutions, wars. Eventually colonialism. We learn how the Europeans exploited other places and especially people all over the world. The world wars. In great detail about all the horrors that Nazi-Germany inflicted. But also about slavery in the US, the human rights movement. In my English lessons I learned about Britsh imperialism and apartheid in South Africa. I feel like some of these topics would be viewed as political in a polarized environment and thus be problematic in the US. Obviously your kids are in the lower grades and much of this will come later. But maybe you already have a opinion concerning this.

[@jorgschimmer8213]

As an mechanic i use physics every day and i was so bad in school in physics. But my school time is more than 20 years ago and i think they changed the teaching methods a little bit.😁

[@mabuse786]

Just wow. Thank you for your assesement! I've also learned something.

[@cesbi]

This is really interesting to me because as a German I'm always super impressed with Americans' ability to recite mathematical function and equations. So I guess we're both impressed with each others' math education..

[@felixklusener5530]

Here is one example of what you can expect in 9th grade maths in Germany: During vacation in the US Anna visits the St. Louis 'Gateway Arch'. She wants to know the buildings hight. She measures the span between the ends to be 192 m. She walks in a straight line between the endpoints. 0.5 m from each of the ends the arch is 2 m high. Calculate the highest point of the Gateway Arch. If you want to know how a task in the final Abitur exam looks like, I recommend to take a look at the wikipedia article 'Oktaeder des Grauens' (Octahedron of Horror) which describes a task from the 2008 NRW Abitur. That is analytic geometry at a very high level!

[@Michael_Bonn]

Kevin was really euphoric. I think: If he had learned mathematics in Germany... - he would be a Nobel laureate today. The tasks with the banknotes convinced me. Cash is better for kids to learn. Better than a credit card (because the credit card does the math). *NICE, THAT YOU'RE HERE AGAIN* 👍

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Yeah true! Gymnasium would’ve been the perfect place for him!

[@brigittelacour5055]

No Nobel in mathematics, Nobel had a thing against mathematicians.

[@helilebon614]

Sehr guter Satz: die Kreditkarte nimmt einem das Rechnen ab.....👍😊

[@Michael_Bonn]

@@brigittelacour5055 Ich schrieb nicht , dass er einen Nobelpreis FÜR Mathematik bekommen hätte; ich schrieb, dass er mit den deutschen Mathematikkenntnissen Nobelpreisträger geworden wäre. Bspw. in Physik - wie Albert Einstein.

[@kilsestoffel3690]

@@helilebon614 leider nicht. Mit der Kreditkarte merkt man nur viel später, dass am Ende des Geldes noch Monat übrig ist

[@shift-happens]

what a cool video! :) I went to school in the south of Germany in the Black forest. When I first heard about v = s/t in school (I was pretty young), I went to a Motocross race with a friend where we diligently timed every driver during the rounds, asked organisers for the total track length and calculated the average velocity of any driver etc. - we absolutely loved that. Presented the results at school and got huge positive feedback, something like this you'll never forget. School is all about encouraging curiosity - lovely to see you and your kids enjoy it too :)