Voigt (back right) and her family in Germany.

Comparing cultures

Paulina Voigt is a foreign exchange student from Berlin, Germany, who is living in Craigsville while she attends Richwood High School. She wrote the following top 10 lists:

10 things I was surprised to learn about Americans

1. Americans use the word love even when talking about a chocolate bar.

2. They’re patriotic (and can’t understand why anybody wouldn’t be).

3. They think they don’t need to learn a foreign language.

4. They drink their milk with ice cubes.

5. Peanut butter with jelly???

6. Everything costs more than you think it will; there are always tips or taxes added.

7. A “frappucino decaf” is their idea of Italian culture.

8. They eat a Big Mac and super-sized French fries, and then drink a diet Coke.

9. They believe that everything is solvable by technology (and in that regard, they’re even worse than Germans).

10. They’re terrible at geography. Some think that the city of Heidelberg is Germany.

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10 things Americans would be surprised to know about Germans

1. In America, Germans wear man-purses on their bellies because they are scared that they could get robbed.

2. Germans don’t know how to use fractions (because of the way too easy metric system).

3. Wearing designer glasses is a symbol of individuality.

4. They destroy every American movie with the same synchronic voiceovers.

5. They believe safety is paramount and take no risks.

6. Grimms’ fairytales are actually way too scary and cruel for kids.

7. Germans eat pizza with a knife and fork.

8. There is deadly silence in the subways and on other trains.

9. Most Germans speak English. In fact, most will answer in English the questions posed by German-speaking Americans.

10. They are so proud of their beer that some even drink it for breakfast.