A View of America From the Outside

American people identify themselves with their country. They are proud of being American and get reminded of it every day by saying the Pledge of Allegiance and seeing the Flag e.g. in classrooms, on streets, etc. This is one big difference to Germany. The only pledge we have is for people who join the military and the only times you hear the national anthem is at a sports game when the national team plays against another country or at official meetings with politicians from different countries.

Singing the national anthem before a game creates a feeling of unity before you fight against each other and I like that. It reminds people of where they come from and even if people are fans of different clubs, they are still one community. This feeling makes a country strong and persistent, a trait that is important.

German people believe in their country too but it's different. Germans don't value the flag so much, they try to change the way of thinking some people still have about Germany by not valuing the flag so much because there are still small communities of nazis. They are too small to have any kind of power now, but that is what many people don't want to happen. 

The German feeling of unity is not that strong because there is still an economic difference between East and West Germany since it got parted after World War 2, that means that people still earn a bit less money in the East and sometimes you can hear people talking about the East and the West but not in a bad way.

The similarities I noticed are mostly economic. Both countries have a low percentage of unemployment and both economies are growing. Most people think modern and accept any kind of gender and sexuality and are open minded. 

Watching the movie "American Creed" has helped me a lot to get a better understanding of the American culture and how people think and it is a good way to learn about America.