🇩🇪 HOW GERMANS DEAL WITH PROBLEMS VS NEW ZEALANDERS 🇳🇿 Cultural Clashes explained

hey guys welcome back to my channel and if you're new here it is so great to have you I'm Anette a New Zealander who has been living for over a decade in Germany so this video today has been a long time coming I have had so many requests over the years to make a video like this and today is finally the day I have no idea what's taken me so long if you're interested in New Zealand and German culture you have probably come across life swap if you haven't you are in for a treat so life swap is a series of short com animations about New Zealand and German culture it follows the adventures of two 27-year-old guys Duncan from New Zealand and yur from Germany both of them are going through a little bit of a quarter life crisis you could say and they meet online randomly and spontaneously decide to fly to each other's countries and literally swap lives for a month honestly you guys just have to see for yourself I'm going to be reacting to one of my favorite LIF stop episodes called called the teail stinks I did watch this years ago but I'm going to be watching it again today with you guys and share some of my you know reactions and opinions on this so let's get into [Music] it I love that [Music] intro this is how all the episodes start good day mate k hey your kiwi is sounding awesome how's it going down under hey have you tried walking barefoot to the Dair yet I'm currently in transition so yur the German guy is trying to use some New Zealand slang in his German accent which sounds hilarious he's like Koda bro so Koda means hello in maldi which is our native New Zealand language and Duncan asks have you tried walking bare feet to the dairy yet so a dairy is a little convenience store we have them all over New Zealand basically on every street corner I'm exaggerating a little bit but there are a lot of these little dairies in New Zealand they sell like milk and bread and lollies and just things like that ice cream and yeah we have a lot of them and you will often see new zealanders just slapping along in bare feet to the dairy and so that is what that part's all about think I've made a mistake in the flat oh cheers y here you go the tea Tower stinks you give me a new one yeah you might have sounded a bit harsh there but a tower was smelling very bad that may well be y but in New Zealand you just can't be that direct no no you can't somebody about an issue there are some Unwritten rules about how to approach it a lot of Unwritten rules I take I like rules okay rule number one don't say anything at all Fe we kiwis have a proud tradition of not talking about our problems true we don't like to assume we can tell other people what to do so what I do is just put up with a smelly teail you that's so Nish it is annoy also the proud tradition of clean kitchens nothing can do here well if you have to address the problem rule number two is do it but start by making friendly ation on an unrelated topic like this so en how's your mother these days after 2 or 3 minutes it will be safe to raise the issue on the te but it will seem like a spontaneous assign my God we do this say it smells bad and ask for a new vet um not quite rule number three is don't State the problem no never do that by offering to fix it yourself for example and if you really have to confront the issue head on use language like a wee bit or a tad this is such now and then and don't forget to use liberally words like possibly might and would you mind oh yeah we love these kind of from now on I just stay in my home poor so this is a perfect example of brutal German honesty from A New zealander's Perspective and how our cultures Clash so a New Zealand you need to be really careful about the way you bring up these kind of issues the tone of voice you use the words you use my German husband to this day still struggles with this aspect of New Zealand culture where you have to tread really lightly around these kind of topics in order to not offend people so just straight out saying something like the teail stinks it's a noo in New Zealand you need to be a little bit more gentle with your approach so let's keep watching we'll get there hang of it mate oh there's just one more really important rule rule number five make your voice go up at the end of sence you've got to do that too make it seem like a question and it will reassure the other person that you might be wrong after all so this is a good one let's put it all together sorry to hear about your M's varicose bin operation an that sounds awful H sorry but do you do you think it might be okay if I possibly got a fresh tea tow only if you've got one I was wondering if this one could maybe do with a bit of a wash I don't mind doing it this Al yeah I'm actually finding it pretty refreshing how you Germans just get Point I've jotted down some of my favorites is you just seem to straight out say it n is yeah that's a good one I really mean it I have to go now I get you hey try it again in kiwi English Okay um sorry Duncan would you mind if I'm possibly going event now awesome bro oh you'll have it a no time this is just so good yeah honestly this brings back so many memories of when I first met my husband in New Zealand and I was lucky that I kind of of understood German mentality because my uncle my dad's brother married a German lady and she would often share stories of the massive culture shock for her when she moved to New Zealand this was like well over 40 years ago but she still had that German directness I think that's why a lot of Germans struggle to integrate into New Zealand culture in this way I think they pick it up pretty quickly and they learn from their I don't want to say mistakes but if you're in New Zealand I guess you kind of have to adapt to this New Zealand mentality of sugar coating everything beating around the bush so in Reverse you can understand how much of a culture shock it was for me moving to Germany and being faced with this brutal German honesty that I wasn't used to now after all of these years I love German directness and German honesty you always know where you stand with Germans no Bing around the bush no having to guess and wonder what somebody means they just say it and it's so much easier and when I go back to New Zealand I actually struggle with the New Zealand mentality of having to tread really lightly around conversations in case you offend somebody and not saying what you actually think because you don't want to sound rude and it's exhausting I didn't realize how exhausting it was until I moved to Germany and then went back to New Zealand years later and I was faced with the New Zealand mentality which was a reverse culture shot for me as I always say you can take the girl out of New Zealand but you canot take the New Zealand or the keyway out of the girl so I still have that New Zealand mentality to a certain extent where I don't like to straight out State the obvious and risk offending somebody even though Germans don't get offended by you telling the truth I do like to sort of talk my way around these kind situations and apologize a little bit too much but at the same time I'm a lot more direct than I was when I lived in New Zealand and the same goes for my German husband he's definitely softened up in that sense and he is a little bit more kiwi in the way that he is not as sort of harsh and direct with his statements as he was classic New Zealand and my classic kiwi indirectness you could say has has been refined a little bit I don't know if that's the right word but I definitely have learned to be a little bit more assertive even though I'm still a kiwi and I will always be a kiwi you can't take that out of me thank you so much for watching guys if you enjoyed this video then don't forget to give it a big thumbs up it really helps out my channel if you're not already subscribed to my channel I would love you to consider subscribing I know that so many of you who watch my videos are not actually subscribed so so if you would consider subscribing that would mean so much to me feel free to connect with me on Instagram and I will see you again really soon bye