Beer Country....

Than we thought.....

You hear it a lot "I went there"

Trendy at university

That makes us happy.

Well, at least I was happy.

The Japanese medical system...

I think we have some similarities there...

Hi guys it's me Cathy Cat.

If you don't speak German be sure to tick on the little gear down there and...

Tab on the English subtitles because this time we're gonna talk in German.

Off we go! The topic today is.... what surprises German in Japan...?

If I frill up like this in front of Japanese people, they are sometimes surprised too...

In case they don't know this fashion well.

But there are also things that surprises normal Germans

when we communicate with Japanese people.

Or spend time. About those we will talk today.

You will often be mistaken for an Amerian or an Americanee....

Americanee...???

Take 2

You will often be mistaken for an American.

That can happen so many, even if they're from Europe or similar.

Even if you don't look American at all.

The first thought of many Japanese people seem to be "are you from America?"

America is represented a lot in Japanese media, a lot more than....

any other country!

So the first thought is... "She's a foreigner ... looks caucasion... could be American."

And when you say you're German the reaction is generally "OH!"

And I still really don't know why the common reaction is "OH!"

Japanese people will then often try to say some stereotypes they know about Germany....

And those will also be mentioned.

The Sausage and Beer Country.

We will NEVER ESCAPE this cliche.

We're never gonna live it down. Because...

after the first initial "OH!" that I mentioned, Japanese people will say "Sausage! Beer!!!"

I hear that ... every

time

There must be something to it I guess. I am quite picky about the sausages here too.

But me and my German friend Sarah don't drink that much beer.

But still people expect us to drink it.

Or that we ought to like drinking it....

And we are no TRUE germans if we don't drink beer.

I think that's up to everyone's opinion.

But we will NEVER live this cliche down.

What many Japanese have here even more than the sausages...

is Baumkuchen!

And many Japanese don't even know that Baumkuchen comes from Germany.

I mentioned that in another video, if you are curious, find it in the Germany-Japan playlist.

Yes?!

Number 3.....

Japanese people can drink a lot more than you might think!!!

Maybe that's another reason why we get hit with the beer country stereotype so quickly.

A reason for that is probably that Japanese people do love to drink beer too.

And many can drink a lot more than a German might expect them to drink

Many get red cheeks quickly, but I do too.

Many can drink a lot and the after work hours in Japan often start with....

a glass of beer for many. First the beer before other drinks are choosen.

Beer here is a lot more popular than you might think.

Not just the rice wine and similar! Beer is part of the daily life for many here.

My old host family dads had their evening beer and when people of a company go for drinks....

everyone has their end-of-work beer.

Many Japanese have been to the romantic street in Germany.

If you speak to Japanese people who have traveled a lot more....

They will often say "Yes I have been to Germany's romantic street..."

I must be honest, I didn't at first know where that was....

and what it connects. But I was still happy....

that many Japanese said they have been there already.

Unfortunately many see it on power bus tours where you rush through Germany and don't see much

But this seems to be a very popular travel path.

That also includes the Neuschwanstein Castle.

It is very famous and popular amongst Japanese visitors.

There used to be a time when the German language was pretty trendy at University.

If you talk to an older generation of Japanese men and women....

they might tell you that they used to learn German at the university.

It was a boom during university but now everyone stays with English.

And many try to learn that language as good as possible.

Every time someone says "I used to learn German."

That's when they generally are good sports and try to speak some German that they still remember.

Of course many young Japanese are still studying German now.

But there used to be a popularity wave in the older days.

Especially one older generation... hard to say how old they are.

Many of those will tell me it was the thing to learn German back then.

Glad to hear that.

What really will surprise Germans is that... some Japanese who are interested in Germany....

Sometimes tend to know more about Germany than I do.

I once talked with a Japanese man who was interested in Classical Music from Germany....

He knew more than I did. I was so amazed.

I was a little bit embarrassed that I didn't know all the people he mentioned.

Or which symphonies he meant.

But it's flattering to hear that someone is interested in your culture.

Especially if it is not the mainstream culture.

It makes people happy... at least I was happy.

The Japanese medical system used to be partly based on the German medical system.

Who would have thought?

Many Japanese doctors used to go and study medicine in Germany.

And the patient card is using the German word for it still.

And many German medical words used to be used in hospitals in Japan.

This has changed now, everything is a little bit more digital and....

of course English is being used more now than German.

But some older doctors who have their own offices now...

Still tend to know some complicated German medical words.

I once was talking to a doctor and he said....

and tried to use some German words in our conversation. I was impressed.

Germans and Japanese are very similar.....

I hear Japanese people tell me that a lot.....

I am happy to hear that because it's often the punctuality and hard work that gets compared

Even some emotional aspects are said to be had in common.

I hear that a lot to my delight. Especially punctuality, we Germans are over-punctual.

And Japanese love it when you are over punctual too

I think there are some surprising similarities.

Well.....

What surprises you when you are talking with Japanese people? Let us know in the comments.

We have more videos with me speaking in German....

even though I generally speak in English and Japanese.

I always have to get back into the habit of speaking German again.

I hope you enjoyed these videos.

If you enjoyed them a lot it would be nice if you could subscribe to us

so I can see more of you around. I have an Instagram account too, would be nice to see you.

I wish you all the best until next time. Hope to see more of you on Ask Japanese. Bye!