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The Differences Between Germany and the United States

math-www.uni-paderborn.de

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Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#51

Post by gegenschall »

eru wrote: post #49
gegenschall wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclaimer: I am German and I actually saw and liked 30 Rock (in English) ;-) As for 30 Rock: The problem with English shows on German television is that they are all dubbed. I won't say that they are doing a bad job (c.f. eastern european countries) but sometimes they are missing out puns and jokes which "can't be translated" without losing meaning. In the end this can make a funny TV show unwatchable. On the other…

Nitpick: Arte has undubbed shows. And there's the ever popular Dinner for One.

Didn't think of that. Arte is actually one of the few good TV channels in Germany (and France).

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#52

Post by gyardley »

wahsd wrote: post #44
gyardley wrote: post #40

Good article, but it always bothers me a bit when people talk about Americans generically. Yes, you can make some generalizations, but the country is huge and there are many distinct cultural zones. Attitudes and behavior vary widely between them.

Sorry, but you apparently have no understanding for the topic or you would not say that it is a good article. As much as you are bothered that people "talk about Americans generically", it should provide you a slight understanding for how poor this "article" is.

Was that comment truly necessary?

Did leaping, in a hostile fashion, on two words used as a preamble to the point I was making add anything to this discussion not already added by the other comment you made on the thread?

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#53

Post by gcp »

tweiss wrote: post #2

tl;dr but I guess his point is that if you're a kickass German scientist, you don't have to use CSS and make your posts more readable. <3 the attitude!

The post contains proper HTML markup. Why would he need to add CSS given that it's just a plain article? It should render perfectly - and in fact it's much more readable than many websites here.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#54

Post by anamax »

Argorak wrote: post #41
gyardley wrote: post #40

Good article, but it always bothers me a bit when people talk about Americans generically. Yes, you can make some generalizations, but the country is huge and there are many distinct cultural zones. Attitudes and behavior vary widely between them.

Germany also has a diverse culture, especially because it wasn't a unified state until the end of the 19th century. So the generalization is on both sides.

> Germany also has a diverse culture

Compared to what?

Compared to Madison Wisconsin, maybe, compared to all of Wisconsin, probably not, compared to Texas or CA, not a chance. Heck, South San Jose is more diverse.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#55

Post by cschwarm »

sfall wrote: post #13

Seems interesting but with a notable number of mistakes on the US, how much can I trust what is said about Germany? and how much has changed since he moved to the US?

The description of Germans and German behavior seems to be mostly correct, in my opinion. Some points I disagree with:

- I never heard someone discuss the environmental impact of microwave ovens.

- I have some doubts if the public TV stations are still the biggest.

- Unions appear to have lost some power in the last twenty or thirty years here in Germany. At least, the amount of serious strikes seems to have decreased.

- The requirement to be a "Meister" to be able to open a shop have been dropped in recent years, for almost all trades as far as I know.

I disagree mostly with the German description of aggression and violence. Sometimes, I wish he'd expressed a point a little bit more nuanced.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#56

Post by maxerickson »

sdoering wrote: post #28
vacri wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have it backwards - he's saying that all German extension cords have a third pin for ground.

Well grounding is built in (and required) into every socket. We have to main pins and secondary pins for grounding on most of the plugs. There are hovever some plugs for electronic devices, that do not have the grounding-pins.

Required (on new construction).

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#57

Post by maxerickson »

Indyan wrote: post #21
vacri wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have it backwards - he's saying that all German extension cords have a third pin for ground.

Oh yeah..I got it wrong. So, US doesn't have the concept of grounding? Surprising, but I suppose that does explain the sparks.

There are, I guess legacy, 2 wire systems. On those systems, one wire is hot and the other is neutral. The neutral is connected to ground at the electrical box.

For 3 wire systems, there is an additional ground wire. It comes into play when the hot wire shorts to a part of the device that is exposed to the environment (hopefully tripping the breaker).

Modern 2 pole plugs are constructed with different size pins, so a device can be wired to be safer when connected to a properly wired 2 pole outlet.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#58

Post by yummyfajitas »

eru wrote: post #48
yummyfajitas wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ridiculously expensive to treat someone in the ER for an infection rather than them having regular doctor visits. No, it's billed at ridiculously high rates. That's not the same thing. ER docs are not paid that much more than primary care docs. The cost of treating an infection in the ER is 1 hour of a doctor's time + drugs. The cost of a regular doctor visit is also 1 hour of the doctor's time + drugs. The hosp…

I agree broadly. Some minor points: You are probably right about the direct labour costs of treating an infection in ER. However, to use the language of computing, the difference between a GP and ER comes down to latency. An ER should be able to react fast, clogging it up with ailments that could be resolved at a leisurely pace earlier, doesn't strike me as a good idea.

An ER should be able to react fast, clogging it up with ailments that could be resolved at a leisurely pace earlier, doesn't strike me as a good idea.

Fortunately this is a solved problem - the solution is called "triage". No matter how many coughing people are ahead of you in the queue, spurting blood gets immediate treatment.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#59

Post by Argorak »

anamax wrote: post #54
Argorak wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany also has a diverse culture, especially because it wasn't a unified state until the end of the 19th century. So the generalization is on both sides.

> Germany also has a diverse culture Compared to what? Compared to Madison Wisconsin, maybe, compared to all of Wisconsin, probably not, compared to Texas or CA, not a chance. Heck, South San Jose is more diverse.

I din't compare anything.

Also, it looks a lot like you never travelled through Germany from north to south. Every piece of Germany has different traditions, dialects and food. I am from a place where I cannot understand people from the next village. Also, all those parts are pretty vocal: I think Germany is the only country that has developed regional Wikipedias (at least Bavaria, Palatinate and Northern Germany).

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