to be especially dedicated to all of  the swiss viewers watching because  

i'm going to be sharing with you some things  that you should avoid saying to americans

so i recently did a video talking about some  things that you should not ask swiss people  

and we got an overwhelming amount of comments  and people saying that i should really do the  

video the other way around for all of the swiss  people watching so swiss people know um what to  

avoid mentioning or discussing when they talk to  americans and this is actually a very uh great  

suggestion from you guys so thank you so much by  the way there are so many swiss people watching  

um we have between like 50 to 70 of all of the  views coming from switzerland so special thank  

you to all the swiss people supporting this  channel i really really appreciate it so yeah  

back to the video in my experience a lot of  swiss people really um like visiting america  

they like to meet americans they really like the  culture at least that's what i've experienced as  

an american i've had an over mount overwhelming  amount of swiss people say how much they want to  

go visit california or florida or new york city  and how they've road tripped around the country  

or whatever a lot of people here seem to want to  do that so i thought that this video might help  

for those swiss people watching that want to go to  the united states and want some advice on how to  

deal with americans but of course this can go the  other way around a lot of american tourists visit  

switzerland every single year or move here and  become expats here so if you're swiss you probably  

if you're not visiting america you probably bump  into americans in your everyday life especially  

if you live in a very touristy kind of city and  sorry guys i always have to say this but quick  

disclaimer before i get into the points and that  is whatever i tell you not to say not to ask the  

complete opposite is also going to be true that  is just how cultural differences work whatever  

my subjective personal experience has been or my  thoughts or my opinions are you will find people  

with the exact opposite point of view that's  just how it works but in my experience americans  

in general are very friendly open-minded people  that love to talk that love to be asked questions  

and they're pretty much open to everything but  yeah anyways let's just get into the points  

first thing to be aware of when you are talking  to americans as a swiss is the type of english  

you are using so i would say don't use british  english if it is possible i know in school here  

matthias has told me that they teach british style  english and i have noticed that as well that when  

i'm talking to swiss people that they might use  words like trousers lift jumper um or things like  

that that americans do not say now i mean who am  i to tell you what kind of english to speak when  

you're visiting america as a person that barely  can speak enough german to get around and i live  

here so anyways but if you are swiss and you  are interested in improving your english for  

a trip to the united states or whatever i would  recommend that you would just look up the common  

um differences between british and american  english although americans will not be insulted  

if you use british english they definitely will  not take offense to that or anything like that it  

just might lead to some uncomfortable situations  because if you walk in a department store and you  

ask where are the jumpers they might not have  any idea what you are referring to and it might  

just lead uh to some awkward situations or you'll  definitely kind of stand out as a tourist um if  

you use british english words that americans don't  really understand what they mean and of course  

there are good amount of words that are said in  british english that are actually offensive or  

rude in the united states so you might just want  to be aware of that but again you guys if you  

can speak english and go over there you're you're  better off than i am so major props but it's just  

something to consider second thing to be aware  of when talking to americans is how americans  

talk about their ancestry okay so let's get this  situation that happened to my husband all the  

time he is swiss and he would be in america and he  would meet somebody and it would come up that he  

is swiss and the american would respond and say  oh my gosh you're swiss me too like my family's  

from switzerland i'm swiss or they would say oh  i'm german or i'm french and um this would lead  

matthias my husband to be like oh that's really  cool like do you speak german or what part of  

germany or what part of switzerland are you  from and then the american would be like  

oh no i'm not like from there i'm like from there  like my my ancestors are from there and americans  

tend to talk like that i know this is a little  bit different but if you're in the united states  

and americans talk about their where they're from  or their uh ancestry they're talking about you  

know like great great uh great grandparents  and at this point they pretty much have  

no uh ties to those countries or very weak ties  usually they don't speak the language or a lot  

of times they may have never even been to that  country but they sometimes refer to themselves as  

as from that country so if this comes up if  you meet an american and they say oh i'm swiss  

2 don't expect that they actually are like  from switzerland like born there or raised  

there or even that their parents are from  switzerland they could be referring to their  

great great great grandparents being from  switzerland moving on to point number three  

and this has to do with american chocolate okay  so you swiss watching you have some incredible  

chocolate in this country the best chocolate in  the world the best chocolate that i've ever had  

amazing quality amazingly delicious and if you  go to the united states and you eat chocolate  

in my experience most swiss people's  reaction is not positive to eating american  

chocolate i've heard from matthias that it tastes  fake it tastes overly sweet it tastes grainy it  

tastes sugary and it's just not real chocolate  you'll hear that a lot it's not real chocolate  

and if that is your opinion that is perfectly fine  that is perfectly valid but if you would outright  

say to an american that you think their chocolate  is gross or that it is not good or that is not  

real chocolate they might find this slightly  offensive because whenever you are talking about  

somebody's food especially you know chocolate for  a lot of us americans like we grew up on hershey's  

chocolate hershey's is probably the main producer  of chocolate in the us i don't know if that's a  

fact or not but it's the chocolate that i grew  up eating and um if you would say that you think  

it's gross or you don't like it or you you just  think it's bad quality they'll probably be like  

what are you talking about and they really might  not like to hear that okay moving on to point  

number four that you should really keep in mind if  you are dealing with the u.s americans is to avoid  

saying anything anti-american and i know  that this is like a pretty big topic it's  

almost like i feel like that's a pretty big  statement of me to say don't say anything  

anti-american but you need to remember that  the united states is is very different it's  

i've never lived somewhere i've lived in you  know a good amount of countries and i've never  

lived somewhere that has as much patriotism as  the united states americans are instilled with a  

lot of pride for their country from the time they  are very very young and most americans are very  

very proud to be american and have an extremely  low tolerance for people saying negative things  

about their country and i know this seems kind of  obvious and obviously this is just good manners um  

wherever you go if you travel anywhere it's never  good to say negative things about the country  

that you are visiting but just keep in mind that  in the us it is in my opinion it is another level  

of patriotism so if you would say anything about i  don't agree with this as far as your laws i don't  

agree with this as far as your politics i don't  i don't think you have good public transportation  

or whatever even if it's true i think it's best  to just kind of keep those thoughts to yourself  

because you might find that you could really piss  some people off and really upset them if you say  

really anything negative i've experienced  this myself as well on youtube you guys i make  

videos talking about cultural comparisons and  whenever i mention something that i didn't you  

know have the best experience with in the united  states for something that i think is perhaps done  

better in different countries this always comes  with an onslaught of comments of people saying  

um that i'm wrong and that if i disagree  i should just leave america and never come  

back or i should give up my passport and there's  just a lot of really proud americans out there  

that don't want to hear anything negative even if  it is true so i would just advise you to just keep  

those opinions to yourself but again this goes  for any country because i have seen this the  

other way around as well i can tell a short story  i'm sorry guys these videos are always so long  

but we were in grindelwald about two years ago and  we were on a train and i was talking with matthias  

and we were just talking i don't know about what  but some lady kind of like injected herself into  

the conversation because she heard that i was  american by my accent obviously and she's like  

oh you're american too are you visiting blah blah  blah and i was like no i live here or whatever  

and she was like oh what did you think about  um grindelwald like what did you think about  

jungfrau yak and she had done a bunch of stuff  and i was like oh like yeah it's really pretty  

like it's a great experience i got a good time  and she's like oh i just hated it i thought it was  

really horrible and i didn't like it at all and  i don't even know what i'm going to do tomorrow  

we were going to go to burn but we drove by in the  train today and it looked really ugly and i don't  

want to go there and i was just like wow lady  this is really just bad manners this is really bad  

etiquette to be in switzerland as a foreigner and  verbally in a train making these negative comments  

about the country even i mean i was just really  thrown back by this and um yeah just it's not it's  

never good it's never right to say something  negative especially if you are visiting just  

keep those thoughts to yourself because it really  doesn't help anything all right moving on number  

five the fifth thing that really you should  not ask americans is who did you vote for or  

what do you think about obama or what do you think  about trump or what do you think about hillary  

or what do you think about bush now i know that  this sounds super obvious that it's inappropriate  

to ask people these questions to their face but  i get asked these questions all the time as an  

american living in switzerland and sometimes it is  actually one of the first things that people bring  

up with me they'll be like oh you're american like  what do you think about trump and what's going on  

and i just think it's kind of inappropriate to  discuss politics with people i just think i just  

think it's bad taste it's bad manners to discuss  politics especially with people that you barely  

know um because it just it's a dividing issue  and it's not something that most people want to  

talk about openly especially at like a cocktail  party or something like i'm just there trying to  

have a good time like everybody else because  i'm an american you don't need to come up to  

me and try to talk politics i think it's a bit  inappropriate okay so point number six this is  

kind of a cultural difference but you definitely  need to keep it in mind as a swiss if you are  

dealing with americans so americans are actually  quite indirect in how they talk compared to swiss  

so the swiss if they say something they generally  mean it and they mean that they will do it and  

they will follow through with it and this is not  the case with americans so let me just give you  

an example if if you're swiss and you're chatting  with an american you're just chit-chatting maybe  

you just met or you'd spend some time together  and then at the end of the conversation  

the american says hey like it was so great meeting  uh you we should definitely grab lunch sometime  

okay this is not an invitation to lunch as weird  as that sounds this is really not an invitation  

to lunch this is a polite way of saying goodbye  i had a nice time meeting you and that's kind of  

weird i know it sounds kind of weird and i think  as americans when you grow up there you understand  

when people say things like let's keep in touch or  let me know next time you're in town or let's grab  

lunch or let's catch up soon we kind of  understand that unless a specific date  

and time was given that this is just kind of a  pleasant treat and it doesn't necessarily mean  

that this will happen and in fact a lot of  the times i think americans understand if  

somebody says yeah let's stay in touch it kind  of means that you're probably not going to hear  

from this person anymore and i know this is very  confusing um but this happened with matthias a lot  

in the u.s he found that people would say let's  get together sometime and then if he would try to  

pursue that he would find that that person would  maybe not reply or he would find out sooner or  

later that this person did not actually mean it  when they said that so if you meet an american  

and you're leaving each other and they say hey  we should definitely grab coffee sometime don't  

jump in and say oh really awesome how about next  week at three because the american will probably  

be like oh uh and they'll probably backpedal and  talk their way out of it it's just a pleasantry  

that is it unless they give you a specific  suggestion of a place