I have been watching some videos to learn Spanish–just a little bit every day for fun–and one of the YouTube videos is from a guy who works as a Spanish teacher in Germany. He is originally from Peru in South America, and he shares his thoughts on 30 things Germans do that he feels quite interesting. Incidentally I feel that I have observed similar cultural differences in America too. Let’s just say his name is M.
Go For A Walk
M says his German friends often asks him to go for a walk. He would ask them, “to where?” And they would say, “just walk around.” At first M would go with them out of curiosity. Soon he realized that it was an aimless walk to nowhere in particular and it could last for one or two hours. He was a little surprised since he never knew that people could have such a habit.
I have witnessed cultural differences in “taking a walk”. In Edison, New Jersey, only immigrants take walks in the neighborhood. I’ve never seen real Americans take walks here. They either walk their dogs or they jog. Other than that, they don’t take walks at all. Well, Edison is not a beautiful town with manicured lawns, well attended flower bushes, or a historical town center. Edison has no scenery. Probably in those towns that are picturesque, people tend to take more walks.
Sandals
M is a little shocked that Germans like to wear socks and sandals at the same time. M thinks that sandals have to be worn barefoot. I think so too for now. However I used to wear socks with sandals all the time when I was in primary school and middle school.
Dinner Party
M says that Germans like to say this in their invitation for dinner, for example, “please come to dinner at our place. We are going to have white asparagus.” M was at first a little confused what “white asparagus” would really signify. M was more accustomed to people talking about the main dish of their dinner, like steak, salmon. He was not used to people talking about a veggie. Later, M realized that Germans like to talk about the creative element of their dinner, like a home grown cucumber, a new cooking method, rather than the main dish of the dinner.
Oh, well, dinner party is quite a burden for the hardworking immigrant women around here. I have to say a dinner party has so much cooking involved and usually women cook nonstop during these parties. Since a lot of traditional dishes are not available in the restaurants here, one has to count on one’s own family to make it or getting it in a dinner party. And one of the problems of the traditional dishes is that it takes so much time to make it. If one hosts a dumpling party, it takes hours and hours to make the dough, chop the veggie, process the meat and veggie, make the dumpling skins, make the dumplings, and boil them.
Holidays & Vacations
M is a little surprised that Germans often go on holidays (vacations) with their friends and not their family. For example, Father’s Day is a holiday for fathers, who would form groups with other fathers to go travel or have fun together. Apparently fathers are not spending Father’s Day with their own children.
In America, people always have vacations with family and rarely with friends. But in Asia, vacationing with friends is quite common.
Beer
Germans will mix beer with anything, Coca-Cola, Sprite, or whatever liquid they fancy. M is very surprised. He always drinks beer unadulterated or unmixed. I think I am with Germans in this case. I remember I drank beer with juice when I was very young and really liked it. It became a habit later on.
Also in Germany, one can drink beer in movie theaters, schools, public transportation, children’s playgrounds. M was quite shocked at first. I have to say that will never happen in America.
Quark
Quark is something that Germans will put on everything, like bread, crackers, toasts. It is something between cream and yogurt.
I think it is probably the equivalent of peanut butter or hazelnut Nutella in here. If one doesn’t have anything else to eat, one just gets some crackers with two tablespoons of peanut butter spread on them. I was at first a little surprised to witness the enthusiasm for peanut butter and hazelnut Nutella. I even said I didn’t know such things had existed before. And at the time I was living in this International House, where a Jamaican guy insisted that I was too ignorant to exist without knowing Nutella. He tried to get me to like it since he had never lived one day without it and he thought everybody should like it. However I didn’t. At the time, I thought of the idea of using Nutella to make a noodle dish, which I imagined I would like, but I dared not propose it since it would sound weird to people who was not accustomed to the idea of nutty noodles.
There are many other little cultural differences that M has observed, like running out of gas being illegal etc. I will have to make another post.
(To Be Continued Here)
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Haoyan Do 
I think there are regional differences in the US. Where I live people go on aimless walks all the time, especially during the lockdown and after the pandemic. But I can also see why in some areas no one goes for walks like that.
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A very interesting post. As we were driving from the district that I manage yesterday, we drove past a sign to a farm that had a sign out “asparagus available.” We both said we must stop there on the way back and get some – we know they will be nice and plump – none of those thin varieties 😉 Anyway, I used to take aimless walks for years – something I need to get back too. I have never been a fan of Nutella. Our grown up children have always liked it. As for quark – interesting – a tasty sub atomic particle perhaps 😂🤣😂
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Very interesting. Out of curiosity, what is quark exactly?
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I don’t really know. My limited Spanish only gave me some vague idea. It is something half cream, half yogurt, half jelly like curds. It is a wild card food that can be eaten whenever one doesn’t have anything else to eat.
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Oh I see, very interesting. This is the first I’ve heard of it. Sort of like ketchup which people put on everything.
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“A quark is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons (e.g. protons and neutrons), the components of atomic nuclei.” ; )
Apart from that, it’s also a dairy product that, depending on location in non-far-east Eurasia is somewhere between a creamy, mild and lightly sour mix between yoghurt and cream cheese (in consistency) – to something like non-sweet pudding but without the wobbly gelatine-ness (think the more-or-less wobbly kind of Tofu) – to granular-like yet still soft and also a bit stiff not unakin to firmer Tofu (again; this one usually referred to as “Topfen”). It is of an interesting consistency that both is creamy but also breaks, like a volcano’s side in a lavalanche. That makes sense since all Quark is heavy with protein in both high and low fat variants.
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That’s so interesting, thanks for letting me know.
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Quark is my favorite word right now.
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Only in the case you might like to hear some few explanations or notes:
– “Going for a walk” is very much an Eurasian thing for sure, not least due to lower concentration of population in most parts and enough greenery, parks, an similar recreational areas in bigger cities. In fact, a few friends who travelled through the USA for a while got stopped regularly by the police because “how and why would you ever walk from a place to another, are you mental or a criminal?” Similarly for Australia, too.
– Sandals with socks are an ideal thermoregulatory system for legs: timed perspiration getting collected and conducted to easy evaporation for cooling, and otherwise giving a warming air cushion in colder situations (for those who use sandals or would otherwise go barfoot during winter). (It does look very bad and cliché still.)
– In English “dinner party” sounds so fancy, but it is more like a get-together (or even cook-together most of the time) to just meet and eat (and it’s also always mixed cooking in the kitchen, usually even mostly the guys amongst generations below and around fourty of age). I’ve always wondered why some people consider “going to the cinema” (without talking at a restaurant or bar or someone’s home afterwards) a social interaction, since sitting silently in a dark chamber seems not exceedingly social; it’s more of an excuse for mingling. (And it’s usually just making pizza and salads or most basic panasian dishes and not Croque em Bouche. ; )
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How fascinating to learn about the German willingness to mix beer with anything! What is strange to some is everyday to others certainly. ❤
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Yes, the notion of strangeness or normality is just a perspective.
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Socks with sandals are much mocked in the UK – but that doesn’t stop some men wearing them!
I think holidays (vacations) are mostly with family in the UK too. Holidays with friends are regarded as risky and possible way of ending a friendship! It works for some people though.
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Haha, here too. Socks can’t go with sandals at all and will be mocked for sure. I think Asian immigrants have completely given up on holidays with friends and follow the American style of holidays with family. It is very interesting. I don’t know why. I mean why we give it up so completely and so willingly. Is it economic considerations?
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Very interesting. Yes – going for a walk is very culture-dependent. It is a huge thing in the UK. As you say it depends on there being somewhere worth walking to within a reasonable distance. I imagine there are many places in the USA (eg the Midwest) where you would have to drive for a whole day (never mind walk!) to reach anywhere different from where you started!
When I was doing my teacher training (in a school near London in the 70s) they actually had a barrel of beer in the staff room. We would have a glass at lunchtime. Beer is also available in the UK in the venues you mention – but we never mix it with anything except maybe lemonade (to make shandy) – but not many people drink that.
My impression is that dinner parties are no longer a thing in the UK. I don’t think the middle classes could be bothered any more.
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When I read Jane Austen, it has so many walks. LOL. So true about the U.S. that you said. I mean for Asian immigrants, we have to live in the most densely populated and most expensive states since the Midwest and the South are just not having Asian groceries or Asian communities.
Beer in school is almost unthinkable in the U.S. and having beer at lunch time is also not practiced unless people don’t have to work in the afternoon.
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Haha yes – even in the UK the lunchtime beer wouldn’t happen now
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Oh, wish it will come back. Beer is quite harmless, like juice. i know several people who never drink anything but beer. They don’t even drink water much unless it is in the summer.
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My sense in the USA is that you you go for a hike in a National Park on a designated trail – rather than just anywhere as in the UK.
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Oh, yes, people drive and drive to a park to do their walks, unless it is in a township in Lehigh Valley where there are so many little ancient (300-year-old) towns, very picturesque, that one just want to walk and walk. I am thinking that probably U.K is like that too…
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Interesting!
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