A German woman who now lives America has revealed the five things she would change about her home country.
Felicia, who goes by Feli, moved from Munich, Germany, to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2016 and has admitted the experience has definitely ‘changed her perspective.’
‘I realized things about German culture and the German system that I never really noticed before, and some things about Germany that I used to take for granted I now truly appreciate,’ Feli, who regularly shares videos about her life in the US shared to YouTube.
As much as Feli appreciates her home country, she said there are ‘many things’ she likes better about America. In a recent video the German-born woman divulged what she’d change about her home land, after she was asked by a follower.
Felicia, who goes by Feli, moved from Munich, Germany, to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2016 and has admitted the experience has ‘definitely’ changed her perspective on her home country
‘I realized things about German culture and the German system that I never really noticed before,’ she dished
‘Please keep in mind that this is a completely hypothetical scenario,’ she added.
‘Differences aren’t good or bad per se, that’s something to keep in mind when watching any of my videos,’ Feli added.
‘By the way, differences are valid and important and to me, they’re super interesting to observe.’
Customer service
The first thing Feli would change in Germany is the customer service, noting the waiters in the US are a lot more attentive than in her home country.
‘In my opinion customer service in Germany isn’t nearly as good as customer service in the US,’ she shared.
The content creator said her opinion is slightly controversial, as a lot of Germans that have visited actually prefer the service in Germany – finding the service in America ‘too fake,’ particularly in restaurant settings.
Although she said she can understand their point, she sometimes feels guilty when dining in Germany.
‘I also don’t want to feel like I, as the customer, am bothering the waiter or store employee,’ she explained. ‘I don’t want to feel guilty for being here but that’s how it often feels to me in Germany.’
Feli said she would change the customer service in Germany, noting the waiters in the US are a lot more attentive than Germany
German bureaucracy
The second thing she’d change is the German bureaucracy.
‘This one probably doesn’t come as a surprise to many people because our bureaucratic system truly doesn’t have a good reputation – even among locals,’ she noted.
Feli explained that a lot of ‘die Behörde,’ which is a public office or government agency in Germany, have complicated protocols that can turn simple tasks into a long, drawn out process.
‘Files get handed back and forth forever, and every step has to be followed by the book so as a German resident having to wait several weeks or even months to get an appointment for a form you submitted is normal,’ she explained.
‘Plus the government systems in Germany are pretty behind in terms of digitalization,’ she added.
Feli further explained that a friend who works for the government had told her they print out all emails and make revisions by hand.
‘I wish I was making this up, some of these places also don’t accept emails but they do accept faxes,’ she quipped.
Feli and her American boyfriend Ben (pictured) live in Cincinnati, Ohio
She used buying a house in the US in comparison to Germany as an example.
‘I was absolutely baffled by how quick and easy it was to buy a house here in the US, compared to the bureaucratic hoops you have to jump through in Germany,’ she said.
According to Feli, it was only about a month between seeing the house she purchased for the first time to the day she officially owned it.
‘There are also tons of positions in the system that are pretty much redundant and barely have any work to do,’ Feli added. ‘There’s actually a whole joke genre about how civil servants in Germany sleep at work or go home at noon every Friday or can’t be reached after 2pm.
Feli continued saying while some departments are overworked, others are poorly run, complaining that the bureaucratic system costs the German government a lot of money, and also slows down their economy.
‘One of the inherent problems here is that most civil servants are “verbeamtet” – so they’re tenured and can’t be fired,’ she said. ‘The longer they work in the system the more money they make so they don’t really have an incentive to initiate changes that would make the system more efficient.’
Negative outlook
Another difference between the US and Germany is their general outlook on life – saying Germans can often have a ‘negative outlook.’
‘It sounds a little harsher than it actually is of course it’s not like all people in Germany walk around like “I hate my life, everything sucks,”‘ she shared.
‘I mean some do but I’m talking more about this subtle pessimism that always seemed completely normal to me before I moved to the US,’ she shared.
According to Feli, she noticed in general, Germans she’d have conversations with have been more pessimistic and cautionary
Another difference Feli pointed out was the difference in people’s attitudes in America and Germany
‘I never saw anything wrong with this before I moved to the US and if you’re German I’m sure you don’t either, totally understandable, but suddenly in the US when I shared something about myself or shared some good news, people were often even more excited than myself,’ she recalled.
She continued saying some Germans consider an excited reaction as superficial and fake, however she found it liberating to not feel like everything said immediately being evaluated and met with ‘skepticism and critical follow-up questions.’
‘Sometimes I wish Germans could just allow themselves and others to be unapologetically happy positive and excited about something and not in a sarcastic way, as we like to do it a lot, but in a genuine way without feeling like you’re being judged or acting dumb,’ she explained.
German school system
According to Feli, the German school system is still very similar to what it was like in the 19th century when it was created.
‘It’s still based on a rather authoritarian and old-fashioned teaching approach so I think it will be about time for a big general reform, but education in German,’ she explained.
However, Feli explained that education in Germany is a state matter, and all of the 16 states in Germany have their own education system and curriculum.
‘Not only are we probably wasting a lot of money by having 16 different school systems rather than one,’ she pointed out.
Feli explained the difference between the schooling system in Germany and America
She said it also makes it very difficult to move schools within Germany, with some schools graduating in 12th grade and others 13th; as well as starting learning second languages in different years and even different subjects.
Five things Feli would change about Germany after living in America Customer ServiceGerman BureaucracyNegative Outlook German School System Free Water
‘The fact that the das Abitur [the German A-levels or final exams] vary so much between states makes it really difficult to compare final grades and GPA,’ Feli explained.
She said she would also want to get rid of the three-level school system that most German states have.
Feli explained that after Elementary School, students get divided into three different school types depending on their academic performance in fourth grade.
The first is hauptshule, which ends after ninth grade and student will then choose a higher diplomas or start an apprenticeship.
Then there’s realschule, which begins after tenth grade and finally gymnasium; which ends after 12th or 13th grade and prepares students for University.
‘While it’s technically possible to move between these three school levels, it’s not very easy in real life,’ she shared. ‘Partly because of the difference in curriculums and subjects which often means that students that do switch have to repeat a grade to catch up.
‘I don’t think the system properly caters to the individual strengths and weaknesses of students and it can also really mess with their self-confidence,’ she said.
Free water
Feli’s final difference was waiters giving customers table water when they sit in restaurants.
‘It might sound kind of trivial but it makes such a big difference,’ she said.
‘That’s not a common thing in Germany,’ she continued. ‘In fact I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that.’
She said instead German restaurants will offer bottled water that you have to pay for when you ask for water at a restaurant.
‘They’ll usually ask you which size bottle you want and if you want still or sparkling water and it will show up on your bill,’ she explained.
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