It's interesting to hear about your experiences with mathematic. I remember that there has been a foreign student from russia in my class about 30 years ago. He couldn't speak German but he once ended up at the blackboard after a math lesson discussing the way to solve a mathematical problem with the teacher just by using mathematical terms written in chalk. This was his only possibility to "speak" with a teacher and to show his talent for doing logic. It was cool.

I saw this interview, a couple years ago, with two German teenage~adolescent girls that had been on student exchange in the USA for 6 months, after some time being back home again. Q: "What do you miss most about the USA?" A: "High school!" Q: "Why?" A: "Because it was so easy!"

As a math teacher at a gymnasium I really appreciate your insights. Mathematics is so much more than calculating things (which can be done by a computer faster and more accurate - if you program it correctly) - stiil, you need to know what the computer should execute and if this makes sense. It is abour seeing patterns and thinking logically - something that you need as an interdisciplinary everyday skill. And of course you first have to learn the basics as a tool kit so that you can later mathematically solve the real (and not just designed for classroom) questions in the upper school. Many complain in Germany that you learn too much at school that you don't need. If it was only about learning what I really need in everyday life, then schooling could be shortened to around 4-5 years. Strictly speaking, you only have to be able to read and write, as well as master the basic arithmetic operations (although every pocket calculator or computer can do this more reliably than humans. But I have to know whether the calculation that I let the computer do makes sense at all) . But now we live in a world that is a little more complicated, in which know-how and technical progress are becoming more and more important. The three types of school in Germany are each geared towards different educational goals. Mittelschule and Realschule are designed to enable vocational training. Therefore, subjects are taught here in a much more practical way. The aim of the Gymnasium is the general higher education entrance qualification, so it should enable one to study every potentially possible subject. From German studies to philosophy to the natural sciences. Of course, everyone has their own interests, strengths and inclinations - but I can only find them out when I have had the opportunity to get a taste of as many areas as possible. And for this I also need perseverance, as it usually takes a little while to work my way into something, to understand it and then to discover whether I enjoy this topic and whether I am interested. Think, for example, that I am trying to juggle. The probability is very high that I won't be able to do it the first time. Then probably not fun either. But should I stop immediately because of that? Wouldn't that mean missing out on the opportunity to discover my own skills and interests? Many always complain that school didn't prepare them for life (and that's true, because education is so much more than just coping with everyday life). As an example, it is often cited that one would never have learned how to prepare a tax return. Then I always ask myself: How do these people imagine it actually? Who decides what things should be taught in school? In addition to tax returns, buying a house and other often mentioned aspects: why not also how to cook, clean, wash clothes, iron, tie your shoes, ride a bike, ... The list could be extended endlessly. In other words, you would be in school for almost your entire life. So where should the limit be set as to what should be taught in school and what is personal responsibility? School cannot do that. And by the way, that is not what you want. To use math as an example, which is very often seen as "unnecessary": of course, you will probably not need the Pythagorean theorem in your later job. But that's not the point either. Above all, subjects like math are there to train logical thinking, to be able to draw logical conclusions and to be able to acquire things for oneself. The same applies to poetry analyzes in German. Sure, I will specifically need this in very few situations after school, but analytical skills are also trained here. By memorizing poems, a wide variety of learning strategies can be practiced at the meta level (mnemonic techniques, loci method, ...), and soft skills such as the ability to concentrate, discipline and perseverance are trained. And that's not limited to math or German. In everyday life one constantly draws logical conclusions in all possible situations in life. At school you learn a number of soft skills that you need in order to acquire knowledge yourself - e.g. also to find out how to file a tax return or what to consider when buying a house. Regardless of this, it would hardly make sense to deal with the topic of tax returns in the 9th class, as this topic only becomes really relevant for the students much later (and by then a number of things have probably already changed again). In my opinion, the subject of tenancy law, which is of course very important for everyday life, has no place in school. It feels like it changes every few months due to various court rulings and is also very complex. In school this topic could only be dealt with very superficially and the content would be out of date for a long time after a year. It cannot be the task of the school to take up the topic annually in order to constantly convey all updates. Then you would be very busy with your time and could hardly devote yourself to other topics. And last but not least, math (and the reasoning behind it) occurs in almost every profession in some way. The shopkeeper has to calculate sales and purchase prices as well as invoices. The psychologist must collect data from random samples and evaluate them statistically in order to derive meaningful conclusions. The gardener has to calculate areas in order to know how much can be planted. He must be able to handle volumes, for example to calculate the need for soil or filler material. The craftsman and the architect need spatial imagination and have to consider various aspects such as the nature of the subsurface, energetic properties of the materials used, sensible laying of cables and connections, ... To do this, they have to be able to think logically. Now many argue that this content could simply be moved into vocational training. Problem 1: the training courses would be significantly longer in terms of time. Problem 2: very few pupils already know from the 6th grade which profession they want to take up one day. Career aspirations change. Therefore one should be as broad as possible with the school education. Regardless of this, the different types of schools have different requirements: Middle and Real Schools should prepare for vocational training, and grammar schools should also allow access to higher education. To do this, different skills and more abstract knowledge and thinking are required. It is simply a matter of a broad general education in order to be able to develop one's own interests, for example. If I've never heard of biology, I might never discover my interest in cell structures and what goes on in the body. And it is also not a "must" to study with a high school diploma - the high school diploma only offers more options, but it is absolutely legitimate to do an apprenticeship after graduating from high school. Unfortunately, this is often no longer accepted in today's society. And yes, the educational opportunities in Germany unfortunately still depend too much on the parents' home. But school cannot take over all the tasks of the parental home, such as complete upbringing, education and the imparting of knowledge that is necessary for life. Parents, too, have a responsibility that, unfortunately, in some cases they are less and less able to live up to. School CAN'T catch everything. In school, the foundations should be laid in order to be able to acquire things for oneself. And ultimately, education is reciprocal, i.e. an offer that the respective student must also accept. And yes, nowadays you can googling almost all information - but I still have to classify it myself and draw and reflect on my own conclusions. Soory for this book of a comment :-)

What I really like about this video is, that compared to others, who just say the American education system was bad, you were able to really explain in which ways they are different.

I'm a German who went to US high school for a year. Granted, I had very good math grades in Gymnasium, but as a 10th grader I took AP Calculous in high shool, surrounded by seniors. And I tried to take chemistry and physics. The only class they offered was Chem/Phys and it was so basic that both sides agreed it would be a waste of time for me. Never caught up again back in Germany in these two subjects.

At 15 years old I went to Argentina for one year. I studied in a private school which was deemed to be at a high level in Buenos Aires. The first day in the teacher gave me Math problems to solve just to see at which level I was at. Well let’s say I wouldn’t have to be sitting in classes till maybe one and a half year later. In Physics it was even worse and they didn’t teach Chemistry at all. Forget about doing experiments either. There was non of that! Other subjects were closer in standard, but it was still way to easy to pass the classes… Now I am a Maths and Physics teacher in a German Gymnasium and I have to say, our school system actually could be soooo much better, but than I think back to Argentina or think about standardized tests in USA or even the high pressure in most Asian schools and I‘m glad our students have a comparatively good education here. I'm happy and proud top teach here. Still, I'm up for a few changes;)

I wasn't even aware of this difference until I lived in the USA. I was surprised how rudimentary math skills were in the USA (in general in everyday life) . Starting with the simple ability to quickly calculate the change for a purchase to more complex calculations or just plain, simple additions of decimal values. I helped a friend renovating his house for 6 months and he was surprised about my metric "Zollstock" (ironically Zoll means inch) and how quick I measured and added or subtracted values. Something nobody would be surprised about in Germany. Who in the world would want to add 5""1/32 + 18"1/8 + 14"1/2 when you can simply measure everything in millimeters (mm) and be able to calculate the sum of the values in a heartbeat? Not even Americans (the average person that is) if they actually knew how much easier it can be done ... I am pretty sure of that.

Another aspect that always amazed me is the amount of "non-fiction" books available to even the youngest German kids. In French or Italian bookshops you might have a couple of options, but in German ones there's usually a huge section of picture books about everything from recycling to spaceships, trains and whatnot. And they are super detailed. At 3 my son would casually lecture me on the different types of fenders while walking around our street 🤓

Hey ihr beiden! Nur ein kurzer Kommentar: Danke! Leute wie ihr passen hier super gut rein! Schön, dass ihr gekommen seid um zu bleiben!

As a German engineer, I found this video particularly interesting. It would be great to learn more about Kevin's work experience in the US and now in Germany. It's amazing that you find the time, alongside all your experiences and work, to put out a great video every week.

I love your videos. From what I know the children in The Netherlands have similar mathematics education. I'm 69 and live in The Netherlands. I went to the Elektro Techische School in Amsterdam and I sure had to learn German technical language because most of the engeneering in those days, 20 years after WW2, was from Germany. I got an internship at Siemens medical technics, Amsterdam branch. Installing medical equiptment in hospitals around the country. Well I needed my German lessons at full.. Everything was in German language, from speaking to my chef to all the manuals. I improved my German in those 3 months very much. Even around the Commodore 64 era I bought German computer magazines because they were better then Dutch magazines.I still have no problem at all watching German TV, reading a German newspaper, reading German books or chatting with German people all over Europe while on holiday.

You are *SO* American, it's adorable! It is heartwarming and uplifting to see how you found a home in Germany, especially with your bubbly personalities explaining all the peculiar detail we Germans take for granted.

Welcome back! My pupils (mostly Gymnasium) will be pleased. I have recommended your channel to them for various reasons ( the clarity of your speech, the values you as a family represent, intelligent discussions around the content of your videos, the warmth and general wholesomeness emanating from your videos). They find it fascinating to see how foreigners experience the culture they've grown up with and take for granted. It prompts some really interesting discussions!

I'm 50 and live in the Netherlands. I also grew up with the idea that a lot of engineering and math text books were in German. I didn't actually encounter this myself in my education. Upto high school all text books were in Dutch and by the time I got to university, English had taken over as the dominant language. But my dad was from the generation where German was still an important language in engineering. He had a lot of text books in German from his education. So that's why I was told that German is important if you're going to study engineering.

I was shaking my head when you asked wether the day-to-day examples stay, because I didn't really remember and then five minutes later it hit me: in one exam in grade 12 on the topic of vector computations we actually had to calculate wether spider man, who was in position ABC was able to save his girlfriend in Position DEF from being killed by a chain saw moving from GIH to JKL at speed X. You know, every day stuff. That same teacher took us to a casino to teach us probabilities and in physics we had to analyse Lenkzeitenscheiben (little disks that show how long truck drivers are driving) and you can calculate down to wether they stuck to the speedlimit or not if you wanted to (of course the teacher wanted us to). It was all too much for me.

Maybe I am wrong, but I would think that at 5:13 you need to put in banknotes that actually exist, so 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 or 500. Nice video as always.

Awesome seeing Kevin get all excited. Nothing beats having a professional talk about his/her profession 😆. Honestly, I always thought Americans must be mathematical geniuses because of having to deal with the non-metric system. I‘m a carpenter and also into sewing and whenever I stumble across Americans on KZfaq giving measurements for their projects I‘m like: „3 1/16 + 5 7/32 … WHYYY? 😭“ and I had advanced maths in Gymnasium and also some maths courses in Uni for Computer Science BA - so I really don’t mind numbers…

I'm a elementry school teacher in the Netherland. This is how math is tought here too. With a lot of realistic everyday context. My own kids are in high school and math is getting more and more abstract.

So great to see how excited Kevin is about all of this :)

The last three years of Gymnasium are usually called „Oberstufe“.

Yeah, I also had that Angst about Textaufgaben. 🤣 Because they weren't just calculations but required real thinking. Then there was the question: Boiling 1 egg takes 5 minutes. How long does boiling 6 eggs for the whole family take? Me: multiplied 5 minutes × 6 of course... 😬😭🤣 Also, absolutely LOVE it how Kevin shines and gets animated in this video. He almost climbed out of my screen and into my living room. 😆

Interesting topic here. When I was a child in the 1970s, I excelled in math and could do everything in my head. After we moved to the United States, the teachers refused to allow me to do them in my head and forced me to do the long way (writing down the problem, crossing out and/or adding numbers, etc.). For instance, we could do 341:22=15,5 instead of the long division or 2.27323=75.009. When my parents showed my teachers how we did it in Germany, they were so flabbergasted, but they insisted on doing it the "American way". Afterwards, I despised the math so much that I wanted nothing to do with them for a very long time. I struggled to pass compulsory Math 101/102 at the university. I was so angry at the American educational system that focused on the hardest way to do the math problems than allowed us to do them in the head. Obviously, the American teachers have a very serious trust issues...

Regarding the Würfelgebäude. You mustn't forget that there are highly qualified apprenticeships in Germany. Just 10% of the students in Bavaria go to the Gymnasium. Usually the apprentices start at the age of 16 and a CNC worker who writes his own programs needs a three-dimensional imagination. I think that's one reason why the teaching of STEM content starts early.

Hope you enjoy this video where Kevin gets to GEEK 🤓 out about math and engineering! Does he give German math education a 👍 or 👎?

While - according to the tests I was very good at math ending up with a masters degree in university in Germany back in the early 90s, I have to admit I had partially a hard time helping / teaching my granddaugther a few years ago at highschool in her 10th grade. They learn so much more nowadays, using different approaches and obviously I also forgot alot. So be prepared, it will become increasingly challenging for you during the next years. 😂

Hallo, In German we say " was Hänschen nicht lernt lernt Hans nimmermehr" When you something learn as a child mit is easyer then when you must lern it as a Man.

A lot of animal shelters in germany have volonteer programs, where you can take shelter dogs on walks. Maybe a great opportunity to get to know a dog that is already house trained and in need of a good home.

So glad to see you have returned safely from your US vacation. Happy New Year! And about the dog, ask the cat first - lol.

The same concept here in The Netherlands. As an example. From my school time. Johan, Mary and Peter go to xxx. Johan walks, Mary takes the train and Peter the car. The distance is ....etc. And everything by heart. Today one can use one's laptop. Progress???

I loved seeing Kevin get excited about this, especially since he has a unique perspective because of his education (Btw Kevin, if you ever play D&D with the kids again, why not throw some math and engineering challenges at them instead off riddles or fights?). Btw, Sara, since you seem interested about culture and history I can highly suggest the KZfaq video "Facts about Germans never taught in School" from Thomas Sowell. Here is the link: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d957o9Jyl5m9h5c.html. Have a nice sunday.

Yes it continues in the Oberstufe (German high school equivalent). Even in your final exams (Abitur) EVERY question is based on a real problem. They can be unrealistic but still. For example we had a chart of the election results and hat so calculate the chances of what 5 random people voted or if they even voted and so on. Also: I don’t know how it is in the US, but here in Germany you work with calculators from grade 8 onwards. So the questions are never just „calculate this“. And in the final exams there are small tests without calculators and the rest with them, so you still have do a little calculation in your head sometimes

As a teacher of a third grade let me tell you we worked with Würfelgebäude this week and kids love it. At this age even more with a plan than with imagination. To find out how many dices it takes or go around these buildings and draw it from every side is so much fun for these little professors. And it's fun for me to watch. I love this video a lot and maths a little more - thank you Kevin!

Ich habe in meiner ganzen Schullaufbahn keinen grafischen Taschenrechner benutzt. Als ich in der 10. Klasse mal nach Buffalo, NY, zur Schule ging, da war ich von grafischen Taschenrechner total verwirrt. Gleichzeitig stellte ich im Mathe und Physik Unterricht fest, dass die Verknüpfung von Experimenten oder neuen Lerninhalten mit dem bestehendem Wissen kaum vorhanden war. Ich war irritiert, warum in der 10./11. Klasse nicht aus einer Tabelle von Daten ein x/y Koordinaten System erstellen? (ich stelle außerdem fest, dass ich den Kommentar auf englisch gedacht habe und der dadurch total befremdlich auf deutsch klingt xD)

Kevin might also be interested in having a look at the questions of the "Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik". It's basically a German version of the math olympiad. The questions are demanding (you can find them online). They typically ask for proofs of some problems and are at least one or two levels above standard math classes. But that's why the Bundeswettbewerb is quite prestigious. Managing to qualify for the advanced rounds of the Bundeswettbewerb certainly looks good on a CV. The Bundeswettbewerb also exists for other subjects such as coding, physics, languages and music, just in case your kids at some point are interested in getting (another) tough challenge. (However, sixth grade still seems to be a bit early for it.)

I love Tetaufgaben like this: "One cubic meter of water costs 30 cents. You have a round pool with a diameter of 2.5 meters and a height of 80 centimeters. How much does it cost to fill up the pool?" If I didn't miscalculate, approx. 1.13 euros, but the point here is: You learn how to handle units, and how to read thoroughly. Give that to a class, and I bet there will be some who punch the 2.5 into their cylinder formula r^2*pi*h without minding that it's the diameter, not the radius.

In Grundschule math was no problem for me but in gymnasium it was one of the reasons I changed to Realschule after 7. grade. Not every geman child wants to become a engeneer. If you are not so talented in maths this system could be very hard. I always hated Textaufgaben. Even in Grundschule I never understood why I should learn stuff like this. As an adult I see the sense but as a child I didn't. Like you said, math is like a new language. It took time for me to learn but in Gymnasium I didn't have enough time. In Realschule I had a little bit more time and I understood everything. It's not only geometry and algebra we learn in german schools. We learn logical thinking like finding a solution for a problem in your own way. Funny story: after school I became a Erzieherin and thought I would never need maths anymore. After more than 20 years I had to change my profession for health reasons. Now I am a Fachinformatikerin and need math every day for programming. I am happy I learned logical thinking at school. You will never know what the future brings. (in german we say "Logisches Denken". I don't know if logical thinking is the exact expression in englisch).

I was used to Greek letters for angles when starting to study mathematics in Austria. What I was not prepared for was the utilization of the full Greek alphabet, and the use of old German handwritten letters (Kurrent) for vectors.

Thanks for the perspective. My godchild teaches Math in Elementry school but her university education was based on teaching university classes. And a small history fact: In Japan the engineers learned quite often German to read the textbooks (before WWII).

I think the basics of math in Germany are logic and understanding the problem, the solution is important but the steps you do to get there are equally as - if not more important - in learning. As an engineer/scientist I still think one of the most important and often neglected skills is the skill to understand the problem and then tackling it on that basis. A lot of people just jump on a problem or try to find a solution around a problem without really getting what the problem is.

Welcome back Nice And inteligente famíly! 😘 Thank you for another interesting video. My grand daughters are in the 4th And 6th grades here in Portugal And I am curious to compare... The other grandmother is a math teacher in Gymnasium And my son in law is an engeneer, so I shared the video With trem And I am waiting for their coments, as They are the ones who Help the girls With their homework...

5:13 you have some very interesting bills there ;) (while the total sums are correct, the task was to figure out how to get to the sums with the actual bills - for example: 300 with four bills: 100+100+50+50)

I really enjoyed this video. My son attends a special needs school here in Germany and he also gets this type of math. It is interesting to see how much the education system is the same between his school and a regular gymnasium. If I had to guess I think he is in the real system. So far the only languages his school has taught him is German and English, but my son loves his school, much better than the American school he attended.

This is fascinating. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing.

Welcome back !! FROHES NEUES JAHR!!! In today s Video I loved Kevins enthusiastic outburst on German school methods teaching Math ....That was great to see!!

Hi, I'm a 30 year old mother in Illinois, USA. I grew up using these unit blocks in elementary school. So has my son! He really appreciates math. Honestly I think he needs more challenge from his math classes. I do believe that America needs to reevaluate it's standards for youth education.

Thank you for sharing this video. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you very much for these insights.

Ha! That homework sheet with the word problems had the old DM erased and a € sign pencilled in. 😁

Another awesome video from you guys. Thanks for producing such high quality content 🙂 I love hearing your "reviews" and experiences.

Just wow. Thank you for your assesement! I've also learned something.

Hallo, mein Enkel Martin geht in die 3.Klasse und liebt Mathematik. Anfangs hatte er Schwierigkeiten. Ich habe ihm spielerisch gezeigt, dass überall Mathe ist und dass das Spass macht sie im Alltag zu suchen. Im Supermarkt, beim Hausbau, in der Natur usw. . Nachdem er das erkannt hatte, wurde er ein Mathefreak. Wenn wir unterwegs sind machen wir Kopfrechenaufgaben oder suchen geometrische Figuren in der Umgebung. Durch diese Dinge wird das logische Denken gefördert und durch das Erklären wächst der Wortschatz. Das Wichtigste beim Lernen sollten Neugier und Freude sein, denn dann hat Angst keine Chance. Viele liebe Grüße und noch ein gutes neues Jahr.

Maths got more abstract later in Gymnasium. The questions would still present real-life problems, though. It's just that those problems became less and less applicable in every day life. But I guess that's just in the nature of things. If you want kids to prepare for university with vector calculations... You just don't need that everyday. No way around it. But with only few exceptions of mathematical concepts that simply have no real world appliance, I remember getting those kind of questions all through gymnasium!

we learned how functions like Fx (y) work, by calculating wich phone provider is the most profitable over wich period of time :) didnt knew until now that this is a german thing :) great video!

> Thank you very much for sharing this video!

Very interesting and cool!!

I just like watching your journey and find it very sympathetic how you are approaching everything and how you are doing what you are doing. Thank you very much for another very likeable and fun video :). It will not stay as it is in 4th grade concerning the "practicality" of the tasks, but yes they try to make it more experienceable instead of just telling you how to calculate an angle even in higher grades. Still, it will change after a while if it is just going to be harder to find easy real life examples.

Welcome back, good to see you healthy. Many here say, "what do I need this for in life" when it comes to math. Good to hear things from the other side, that a lot of practical stuff is taught. By the way, I think a little statistics would have done one or the other quite well, in these strange times.

You are a nice couple! Very sympthetic! ❤❤❤❤❤ Greetings from a German living half year in Cameroun. 😂😂😂

Happy New Year to all of you! Hope you enjoy 2022 as much as the last year!

Very interesting 😍🙋‍♂

Now this was a fun video seeing Kevin get excited over maths. And although I have not made it to engineer's level (maths at university became too hard for me 😅), I still like it and try to help my kids here. But as an addition for the future (ninth grade and on I think) I would like to recommend the YT channel MathemaTrick to you, because I think Susanne does a great job explaining and has a lot of videos for different math topics online.

Love your passion talking about teaching and engineering 👍👍👍

Many things you encounter in daily life has technical and mathematical elements or background. But most of the time you don't see it, except that you understand it easily. Unconsciously it is your hidden knowledge of mathematics which helps you to understand.

Keep in mind that German school children have lots of free space in their brains for all that terminology because they don't have to learn how many ounces go in a gallon and how many inches go in a mile...

Later at Gymnasium, this will probably not be the case anymore for most of the math stuff. I often asked myself what I'm even learning something for and where in my daily life I need that. But for calculating probabilities or geometry, they give you logical cases that you could actually use. For analysis, not so much.

Of course, angles are represented by lower case Greek letters. Latin lower case letters are used for line segments and upper case letters for vertices.

The passion! Hahaha, so lovely to see! And definitely "ansteckend". 😊

Thank you for all your vids. I love to watch them. Somehow they bring light in our mostly dark times. I wish you and your family all the best for this year 🙂🙋‍♂️

I got my Abitur just 2 years ago and am now currently studying. It's very interesting to hear your perspective. Having grown up in Germany I never considered the way we were taught math to be looked upon as a special way. It definitely stays that way up in the higher levels/years of education in my opinion. What's funny is that in the higher years german students will also question why they have to learn certain topics in math. At least I used to constantly ask this as well and my classmates too.

Hi there. That was so nice to watch Kevin in his element there. He looked so excited talking about maths. Thanks for your great videos.

Haha it's fun to see how excited Kevin is about this.

Aww, Kevin’s enthusiasm is so infectious! Hope you guys had a lovely time in the US! ☺️

I find this interesting, I struggled a lot with math, but was very good language wise. I took French at Realschule and during my term at Highschool in the UK, I noticed as well a gap in French. Even though being in Realschule they were doing stuff at Highschool and the pupils were struggling with it, which I had done two years ago in Germany. What I loved so, was the viarity in listening comprehension tasks and applying the language to real life situations. I once went to a language awareness meeting in French, and we had to make a movie about the city, explaining about the sights and characteristics of the city all in french. I really enjoyed that. Or I had to take a phone call and make a hotel booking all in french. I really was missing things like that in my school. Keep up the good work, always interesting to watch your perspective of things here in Germany. And as being a foreigner once myself I can relate to culture shocks and differences. But I took it always like a chance to broaden my horizons and was always curious to find out the reason, why something is done that way, or why people behave in a certain way.

Thanks for your great video, love you and your family!

My favorite Question at School was in 4th Grade >Math

I love how excited Kevin is for math! The kids are lucky he can help them understand. So impressive to see this level of work. Your kids are doing such excellent work, in a new language yet!

It’s quite funny. Me and my partner are both engineers and we were discussing that we were missing the link to the real live for some mathematical areas. In school up to the 10th grade Textaufgaben were common, but afterwards, as well as in Uni, the application of the math was not clear anymore. Why did we needed to going through complex integral calculus? Yes it is important to know, that the integral is the area below a curve and do some calculations to understand the concept. When it is really getting complicated I start R and get the results immediately. Thanks for the video, It brings a new perspective on things that were so natural to me.

Really interesting video. I went to primary school in Scotland and secondary school in England and in both learnt Maths this way. I remember doing the building blocks in primary and using greek in secondary. I loved Maths 👍

Here is one example of what you can expect in 9th grade maths in Germany: During vacation in the US Anna visits the St. Louis 'Gateway Arch'. She wants to know the buildings hight. She measures the span between the ends to be 192 m. She walks in a straight line between the endpoints. 0.5 m from each of the ends the arch is 2 m high. Calculate the highest point of the Gateway Arch. If you want to know how a task in the final Abitur exam looks like, I recommend to take a look at the wikipedia article 'Oktaeder des Grauens' (Octahedron of Horror) which describes a task from the 2008 NRW Abitur. That is analytic geometry at a very high level!

Happy New Year for your family ! these tasks are called Sachaufgaben ore Textaufgaben

This video oozes positive excitement - great to watch. As to a woman being good at maths, I have pointed several women in my life at their assumption that women are better at language than men, which they then confirmed (I hold another opinion, silently ;) ). My follow-up: as most of what we call mathematics and arithmetic happens in the language part of the brain and both are symbolic languages with a strict grammar, this then means that women should be better at them then men, or, in short and bottom line: you have zero excuse for thinking you cannot be good at it.

Your video made me smile :) I never thought I would get to know someone who appreciates the Bavarian math curriculum as much as I do. I'm an engineer as well. My kids are in 5th and 7th grade and I was amazed as you are whenever I got a glimpse at their homework. It started in Grundschule when they had to interpret statistics or generate tables with all possible results to estimate the right answer like an approximation procedure.

Super interessant. Vielen Dank für das Video! =)

Would be interesting to see a similar video about foreign language teaching in Germany vs. the US.

That insight into US maths teachings was interesting. Also the differences in regard to German maths classes. I knew that there are international differences e.g. in doing mathematical divisions, too. Like France or England.

I love your enthusiasm. I wish you continued joy on your journey :)

Science teacher in Germany here 👩‍🔬 there is a big emphasis in university on the „Alltagsbezug“ (every day life context), and how important it is to teach in such a context, so we try implementing it wherever possible. In every subject for that matter ;)

Nice, video again. In germany the standards in all kinds of education are very high. Also the Berufsausbildung is very extensive. A nurse for example needs soo much to know about anatomy, medicines etc. And most of the terms are latin. And germany has been the only country, where you needed a "Meister" to teach an apprentice. Happy new year. Stay save and healthy and enjoy the snowy winter.

Good morning from Rheinland-Pfalz. Once more a very interesting video with a new topic! Always a pleasure to see how you like (most) of what you experience here in Germany.

Cool you made a shorter video with chapters! I really enjoyed that! 🙂

As a German that has been to University both in the US and in Germany I can assure you that the type of Tasks and the idea of understanding concepts will continue and even increase. The biggest difference between the systems that i found was the idea of transfering concepts and learings to a similar field in Germany vs. memorizing and reproducing information in the US. We basically learn to analyze problems and then try to solve them with what we know instead of just memorizing a bunch of problems with the perfect laid out solution to each one. That maybe leaves out a few problem-solution pairs but enables us to tackle completly new problems with a different approach. Its quite funny how you like the "university language in math" being used from a very young age. I honestly cant think of other names than alpha or delta, sinus etc. since i have always used them, i always thought that was just the standard everyone else was using too. Another problem i noticed is the huge difference in schools you have in the US. While we also have differences in Germany they all are at a pretty high level and you would expect people graduating to be able to start a college education right away. In the US the difference between public and private schools is huge and the first year in college seems to just bring everyone on the same level. All that being said i still must say that the college i was at (actually in Georgia - KSU) was pretty easy compared to what i was used to. Most exams where multiple choice, no real discussion about problems or tackling them from a different angle only memorizing and reproducing information. The level in statistics was basically what I had learned in 11th and 12th grade in Germany. There were some exceptions when the professors really tried to make the subject interesting but those where few. I am not sure how other, maybe better known colleges compare but from what i have seen they shouldnt be that different. Someone from my hometown who went to harvard told me the concept was: "get some spoiled and very rich people that pay full tuition and donate some money on top and pair them with a few very bright individuals. That way you always have some good ideas and the funding to make them a reality"

I remember my math teacher ending each class with Math fun. This was something for us to try beside the home work. The most impressive fun I remember was the multiplication of 1 numbers (11,111,1111,11111,...) either by itself or a smaller 1-number. It made math so much more interesting.

This was super interesting, thank you for this video! I wasn’t aware all of these things were so different to the US, I went through the whole bavarian education system and am studying engineering now. It honestly still felt like I had to learn a whole new language in my first semester especially when it comes to mathematically correct proofs and such but I cannot imagine how that would have been if I wasn’t used to greek letters and the concept of counterproofs from a young age!

Klasse Video! :)

Wonderful to see how excited Kevin can get about Math!;) For me math was always quite the most disliked topic at school...but for both of my sisters ist was the same.My father, a trained and qualified engineer, was alway trying to help us as much as possible though

well. In germany a high percent of young people do not study at college when they leave the school but do so called Lehrjahre. there you learn a job where you already have to know how all those things work. You can't just start there with the basics in math as - especially if you do craft trades - you'll have to learn the things you need for this particullar job within a short time period. (mostly between 1 1/2 and 3 years) and as no one can tell who is going to do what in his/her life they teach the basics to everyone at school. not only for math.

Happy new year! This is the traditional way the schools were separated. More or less Grundschule for manual labour and craftsmanship. There you learn things not tought in other schools. Real- or Mittelschule were for office related jobs, where you also learned typing etc., and Gymnasium prepared you for University. This also goes for foreign languages. Hauptschule English, Realschule or Mittelschule English and one other European language. In Gymnasium English, Latin or Greek and sometimes a third language. Although things have changed and continue to due so, this is the traditional reason for the different schools. Making a life decision at this early age charted your career, most times the same as your parents. One of the reasons for the changes that were made and change still continues.

what a cool video! :) I went to school in the south of Germany in the Black forest. When I first heard about v = s/t in school (I was pretty young), I went to a Motocross race with a friend where we diligently timed every driver during the rounds, asked organisers for the total track length and calculated the average velocity of any driver etc. - we absolutely loved that. Presented the results at school and got huge positive feedback, something like this you'll never forget. School is all about encouraging curiosity - lovely to see you and your kids enjoy it too :)

Do you know "LÜK-Kasten"? Maybe it will be interesting for you: LÜK Sachrechnen, Textaufgaben:)