Birthdays Are Different in Germany

The Weather, Spring and Beyoncé

Jae:
[1:18] But on the bright side, the weather is changing, It's getting warmer. I'm ready to go to the [inaudible].

Manuel:
[1:23] That's right. That's right. I escaped some of the winter, I was gone for six weeks. And now I'm back, and I'm looking out of my window and the sun is shining. So I love spring. I'm hoping for a beautiful springtime.

Jae:
[1:39] Me too. I am excited for spring and also summer. I have a lot of plans this summer. I'm going to Barcelona in May to celebrate my birthday. We'll talk about that in a bit. And then I got tickets to see Beyoncé in Hamburg.

Manuel:
[1:58] Oh my God! How did you accomplish this?

Jae:
[2:03] They went on sale last Thursday at 10 am. And I was online and you had to wait, like a wait list of like 20,000 people. And then there were still tickets available, so I bought four.

Manuel:
[2:18] So it's not as crazy as getting Taylor Swift tickets, I take it?

Jae:
[2:23] Not for me. It was pretty easy breezy. I mean, the seats are like way up, but I still get to see her. And then I'm going to vacation in a few other places, but still not confirmed just yet. But yes, I'm excited for the spring and the summertime, and just being outside a lot more.

Manuel:
[2:43] Nice. So today we're celebrating a few things.

Our First Podcast-Anniversary

[2:48] One is that it's our one year anniversary, and I mean our podcast's anniversary, everyone.berlin ... I'm checking, when did we release the trailer ?

Jae:
[3:04] We released the trailer on February 21st.

Manuel:
[3:08] February 9th, I think it says on the website. And then February 26th was the first episode, "Berlin Has Just Always Called My Name." So either way, we're somewhere in the time frame of having podcasted together for one year. How do you feel?

Jae:
[3:30] I feel nice. It's crazy that we did this for a entire year. Like commitment is difficult for me. So it is nice to see that we have actually done it. It's also crazy to see that it's like been like a year. Time moves by so fast, but so much has happened in that time, too.

Manuel:
[3:48] Yeah. "Commitment is difficult for me," could be Berlin's like tagline, because I feel like commitment is very difficult for many people in Berlin. But yeah, with podcasts specifically, there's this whole term or concept of pod faith, where most podcasts actually never make it beyond Episode 12 or whatever. And we did it. We somehow are making this happen, even though we both are very busy. And I think that's great because we get a lot of feedback from people saying like: Hey, this one episode really helped me in one way or another. And that's really nice.

Jae:
[4:32] It is really nice, I really have enjoyed hearing all the positive feedback and stuff. And that makes it a lot easier, I think, to keep going, too. It's really nice to like know that you're helping people and know that, you know, people are kind of receiving the energy that you're sending out.

Fraternities & Sororities

[4:50] And I just think this is like, just a good thing to have in the archives of Berlin, just in general. And I think just moving in general, because I mean, there's so much that goes into entering into a new world. And I'm really grateful, you know, that we have this platform and the listeners and the people supporting us to really help us, you know, just keep helping people. I mean, at the end of the day, I love helping people. So this podcast is a really big like feature for me in that.

Manuel:
[5:21] Totally. And we have some ideas on what to do next with this project. But before we talk about that, I wanted to ask you about kind of the concept of anniversaries in general, and your personal perspective on this, like do you celebrate anniversaries? And then also how is it different between Germany and the US? Like do you ... are there any anniversaries that you actually celebrate? Do you, I don't know, do you have any anniversaries in your life that are important to you?

Jae:
[5:57] Aside from like birthdays, I don't personally celebrate any anniversaries. I'm like single in that type of relationship type of wise, but in general, I think America, they definitely take relationship anniversaries pretty big. And then like fraternities and sororities, I know like my mom's sorority, they always do something for Founders Day, which is, I guess, the anniversary.

Manuel:
[6:21] Explain what that is, first.

Jae:
[6:24] What?

Manuel:
[6:25] A sorority.

Jae:
[6:27] Sorority? So, do you know the term, like the concept, of a fraternity?

Manuel:
[6:33] I know it from the movies, and I recently did meet someone who was in one and he explained it a little bit. It's basically a drinking club for guys, right? With some kind of pathetic story behind it.

Jae:
[6:48] That is one concept of it, but there's actually a lot more to it. Yes, and I think like, so in the college realm of things, fraternities and sororities are essentially, in simple terms - so someone will correct me properly - but in simple terms, it's a club where either a whole bunch of men or a whole bunch of women get together and they essentially form a brotherhood/sisterhood with each other. In college, it is very prominent that these fraternities end up throwing a lot of parties and a lot of people start drinking and stuff like that. And that is what you see a lot on TV. But I will also say that that is pretty valid too, like I went to a lot of fraternity parties and there was just a lot of drinking and stuff.

[7:36] But also my parents, they were in a fraternity and sorority when they were in college, and they're still active in their fraternity and sorority. So from what I've seen, growing up with my parents and these fraternity sororities, is that it's even bigger than just this club where people are just drinking. For them, it's this organization, it's a family, it's a community where they get together, put on events, put on celebrations, and just continue these types of friendships that they've been having for years, and also helping other sorority and fraternity new members into them as well. Yeah, my family has just been very active in their Greek life still to this day. So yeah, I've seen it from deep in.

Manuel:
[8:30] That's interesting. This does exist in Germany as well. It's called a Studentenverbindung, or - that's kind of the broader concept or term - and then there's the Burschenschaften, and that is specifically men coming together, so I guess it would be a fraternity. Then if you go to Wikipedia and you open Burschenschaften and then you click on the English article ... Oh, well, it just gives you a specific explanation for the concept in Germany. The thing is that they're often very ... even on Wikipedia, it says, "inspired by by liberal and nationalistic ideas." And there, like at least from what I've heard, quite often the people drawn to this are often kind of right-wing leaning, maybe not always, but it has that taste of: Oh, these are kind of very conservative people and sometimes a little nationalistic and stuff who joined these Burschenschaften. I don't know. I think that's maybe different from the US where I think it's much more open, right?

Jae:
[9:47] Yeah, that's pretty different. I mean, like a lot of these fraternities and sororities are founded upon principles and ideals. And a lot of them do have like an initiative, most of them being very helpful, very like: We want to essentially empower people or whatnot. But yeah, they're not ... I will say that I wouldn't make them really similar to that. I've looked into like if they have fraternity and sororities here, but nothing really caught my eye. I kind of thought about making one here.

Manuel:
[10:16] But is it not tied to a university always? Like you can just make up a fraternity as a non-student?

Jae:
[10:23] It kind of is, but like also I'm like, "I can do whatever I want to," type mentality!

Manuel:
[10:31] It would be so you, to like, "I don't have enough projects yet! Let me just start a fraternity out of nowhere!"

Jae:
[10:39] Yes, exactly. Yeah, I'm like, I'll just make it out of nothing and just call it ... Essentially, I mean, someone would probably disagree with this, but I mean, sometimes there are fraternities and sororities that are just made out of nothing, especially when it comes to like fraternity sororities that people don't fit into those categories. Like let's say you have queer people, LGBT people, yeah, people essentially who don't fit into the stereotypical categories of sororities and fraternities, they will make their own too. And like a lot of people still can make their own as adults too. It's not necessarily just specific to universities, but it is tied to them.

Manuel:
[11:24] But at that point it's just a club, right? Like you're just making a club or a community, like I don't know ...

Jae:
[11:29] Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. You can definitely call it. Like I said, I would use that word too. But then also I'm like, in Berlin club has such like a ... one meaning, that if I start starting a club, people are like: Oh, is it techno?

Manuel:
[11:44] Yeah. And fraternity has that kind of: It's forever and we're like bound by, not by blood, but by ... Well, they are the whole thing where they, like they have these rituals, right? When you start, you first have to fight someone with a saber or stuff like that. I don't know, at least I think that ... Okay, we digressed from the talk.

Anniversaries in De vs. US

[12:09] So the anniversaries are important in that context. That makes sense. And clubs, and like there are a lot of like associations in Germany, like anything from choir to sports clubs to whatever. Like I feel like Germans do like to start associations and clubs like that where they stick together because they share some kind of hobby or experience that they had. And I guess in those contexts, anniversaries are important. With couples, I feel like it is important in Germany, especially once you're married and stuff, so that does become a thing, but way less than in the US. Like in the US, even like Valentine's Day just happened and like it still boggles my mind how in the US you have to like write Valentine's Cards in like kindergarten and for people who you have zero romantic relationship with. Whereas in Germany, even most couples don't really care about at least I think so. So like, I don't think Valentine's Day plays that much of a role here.

Jae:
[13:18] Yeah, Valentine's Day definitely plays a role in the US, like even with my family and my friends, like: Hey, Happy Valentine's Day, love you! And especially like as a kid at elementary school, we would have these Valentine's Day parties, and yeah, you would just give everybody a Valentine's Day card.

Valentine's Day

[13:34] Or if you had a crush, that would be your time to like, you know, tell them. And then when it comes to anniversaries, I would say that people in America do value anniversaries. Like it is a big deal, I would say, like even with my parents, they always go out to dinner or they celebrate in some shape or fashion. Even with my friends, I'll see a post of their saying: Happy Anniversary, and stuff. That's the only type of anniversary that I really see that's really big. I don't see any other ones that are just like celebrated as much.

Manuel:
[14:10] But is it left to those two people to remember and celebrate it? Or do you, as maybe a friend of the couple, also have a responsibility to congratulate them? Because that would be taking it too far, from my perspective. Like, I don't have any obligation to remember anybody's anniversaries, as far as I'm concerned. How is that in the US?

Jae:
[14:32] For me, particularly, I would only do that for my parents, like just tell them: Happy Anniversary, but I wouldn't really ever tell my friends or whatnot. I'm like, that's their business. I'm not dating them! So I'm like: Oh, cute heart! But like I might comment on it, but like it's never like a thing where like we'll all go out to dinner for somebody's anniversary, you know. It's definitely, I think, more private between the couple or [inaudible] or whoever it is.

Manuel:
[15:01] Okay. So just for our listeners, if you are moving to Berlin or to Germany and you start dating a German person and they don't care as much about your anniversary as you do, then it might be a cultural difference. Don't take it personally. As with many things, it just might be a cultural difference.

Birthday

[15:24] So your birthday is coming up, which in a way is just ... It's the subcategory of anniversaries, right? It's the anniversary of your birth.

Jae:
[15:31] Yeah. It is. It definitely is. I'm really looking forward to it. It will be this upcoming Tuesday. I'll be turning 25.

Manuel:
[15:42] February 21st, everybody put that on your calendars! You will be turning 25, which means you're a baby!

Jae:
[15:51] Absolute child, yes, still growing! But we've hit the quarter-life crisis mark.

Manuel:
[15:58] Are you planning on having a quarter-life crisis? Or has it already started?

Jae:
[16:01] Probably! I see it coming!

Manuel:
[16:05] You see it coming? You're waiting for it to hit you?

Jae:
[16:09] Yes, yes, yes!

Birthdays in Germany

Manuel:
[16:12] Let's talk about birthdays in Germany. I want to prepare you, because it's your 25th birthday, but it's your first birthday in Germany.

Jae:
[16:23] Yes, yes. I'm quite curious to know how I shall expect people to respond.

Manuel:
[16:28] Yeah, yeah. There's a few things that are very special, and I do think it's important to know about these. So the number one thing, or the first thing, is that in Germany it is not allowed, like literally it's against the law, to congratulate - it's not against the law! - but it is very much frowned upon, congratulating anyone before the actual birthday. And we're taking it to an extreme. Like we're not that, as you know, superstitious in most areas of life, but here it's like wishing somebody a happy birthday before it's their birthday is bad luck and you don't do it. And we're taking that very seriously. You will have birthday parties where. we call it reinfeiern, so, celebrate into the birthday, which just means your birthday is on a Sunday, so we're going to have the party on a Saturday night and then at 12 o'clock midnight, that's when you turn 25 or whatever, right? Very common. And if you go to one of those parties, you will experience that people will bring gifts and stuff, but they will not hand over the gifts and they will not even mention that it's your birthday or anything. Like they will just arrive at the party and make small talk and have fun and celebrate, but they will not mention your birthday until the clock strikes midnight. And that's when you start singing and handing over presents and blowing out candles and stuff like that. But you wait until that second of 12 o'clock midnight.

Jae:
[18:09] So basically, like you guys do for New Year's as well? People don't wish a Happy New Year's before?

Manuel:
[18:15] Right, that's true. Yeah, that is ... I mean, we have a different thing to say before New Year's, right? We say: Guten Rutsch, which is kind of wishing you a good slide into the New Year, but yeah, with birthdays, it's really, don't congratulate anybody. So for example, I think in America, it would be totally fine for me to say: Oh, your birthday is coming up in like a couple of days, Happy Birthday! Right? Like that's a thing. That is totally unthinkable in Germany. So don't expect anybody to do this, and most importantly, don't fall into that trap yourself. If somebody's birthday is coming up, make a note, text them or call them on their birthday, which by the way, I think people should call on people's birthdays. I think texts are fine if you don't have that much contact with each other, but calling someone on their birthday is like a nice gesture.

Jae:
[19:14] I agree. I will call. Also for me, it depends on the level of friendship. If it's like an Instagram friend where I just message ... I talk to him briefly, like once in a while, I'll just text them. But like my best friends and my family ... Well actually, my family, we don't, it just ends up being like, if it's my mom, my dad, my grandma, my actual intermediate family, yes, calling is important. The extra family, probably not so much, I think a text is okay. But like I will expect a call from my family. And if I don't, I'll be a little bit butthurt.

Manuel:
[19:51] Yeah, I agree.

Jae:
[19:52] Also, my question would be, how about: Happy Belated Birthday? Do you guys say it, if it's past the birthday and it just happened? Because we do that.

Manuel:
[20:00] Yeah, that we do do. We say: Alles Gute nachträglich. So, nachträglich means like in - what does it mean? - in retrospect or like after the fact. Or belated. It basically means belated, but the structure is a little bit different of that whole sentence. So we say: Alles Gute nachträglich. And yeah, that's basically the... That works the same way as it does in the States.

Jae:
[20:28] Interesting. And are birthday parties very common here?

Manuel:
[20:33] Yeah, I was going to talk about that with you. So birthday parties are, are definitely a thing. What I find interesting is how much it changes from once you become an adult. I feel like there's like three different kinds of birthday parties, the kid birthday party, the teenager/young adult birthday party, and then now-you're-a-grownup birthday party. The kid birthday party is like a whole thing in Germany where we take it very seriously and parents really go out of their way to organize it, and there's all these rules. I think in many families, it's like you get to invite as many people as the number of years that you turn, like on your 9th birthday, you get to invite nine kids and on your 10th, you get to invite 10 kids, and stuff like that. I think that's just some rule that some people made up so that it doesn't get out of control. But then we have all these games - I think, yeah, we should make a video about that at some point - where we have a lot of games that are very traditional to play on a kid's birthday. Then when you're a teenager, you just go nuts, right? Like you just have these ... Like hopefully your parents are gone and you can have a party where everybody gets wasted and it's just a good party. And then when you're a grownup, things just become very kind of formal and serious in some way, not for everybody, maybe, but I feel like that's kind of how things go often. Is that how it goes in the US as well?

Jae:
[22:07] Kind of like definitely as a kid, birthday parties were like super big. As a teenager, I think the party celebration becomes less of a thing. Maybe, at least for me, maybe when you get into college, and depending on your friend group, they might do something celebratory, but like, I didn't really have that many party parties. And then honestly, I think as I got older, they kind of got more wild, 'cause you would, go out that night, or you would go clubbing, or to the bars and stuff like that. And I think, depending on your energy styles and how you like to celebrate as you get older, depends like ... will determine like if you're going wild on your birthday or if you're just having like a small dinner. It also depends on who you're with, too. Like my family, we would do like a dinner, but then when I went with my friends, we'll go out that night.

Manuel:
[23:06] Yeah, totally. And then, how about gifts?

Gifts

[23:10] Because this is one of the big differences, I think, where in Germany, as long as you're a child, and I think a teenager, the idea is that it's your birthday, so people are going to give you gifts. And I think at first it's just, yeah, as a kid, you definitely want and get gifts. And then later it's a little bit dependent maybe on ... like if you're throwing a party, then the people who are coming will bring gifts. And if you're not throwing a party, then maybe not. But as an adult, there's this whole thing in Germany where you're supposed to give other people things on your birthday! Like ...

Jae:
[23:54] Really? That is so weird. I would never do that.

Manuel:[23:56] Yes! It kind of turns around, especially in a work environment. Work, but also school, university, in many kind of contexts, if it's your birthday and you're spending that day in a group of kind of, not necessarily your friends, but your co-workers or your co-students, you're supposed to bring like cake for them to eat. Isn't that weird?

Jae:
[24:27] That is so weird. I would never do that.

Manuel:
[24:30] Like we work together and our office is not usually that packed because we are very flexible in terms of working from home and stuff, but basically if you went to the office on your birthday on Tuesday and you brought like cupcakes or whatever for anyone else who's working in the office that day, that would be a very German thing for you to do. So not putting any pressure on you, but I kind of expect it!

Jae:
[25:00] That's kind of funny! I would ... like that's something that we would do as a kid if we were in school on our birthdays. Like if it was somebody's birthday, then like the parents would bring like cupcakes and stuff for everyone to eat. So we do that exact thing but at a much younger age, and then as you get older, it's like vice versa. It's like, I would expect ... like at my old job I would expect them to bring a cake and then like sing Happy Birthday to me, and stuff like that.

Manuel:
[25:30] That's awesome. But that also means that they would have to definitely have a system where they're tracking everybody's birthdays and then coordinate ...

Jae:
[25:37] Yes.

Manuel:
[25:38] ... Like who's making the cake. 'Cause I feel like in Germany, sometimes people don't even know that it's your birthday and then your way of telling everybody that it's your birthday is bringing a cake and saying, by the way, it's my birthday today, so I brought a cake! The more I think about it, the worse this seems to me, the way we do it in Germany.

Jae:
[25:58] It's ... yeah, it's quite interesting. It's like, it's not self-centered, but it is ...

Manuel:
[26:05] But you are calling attention to the fact that it's your fucking birthday1

Jae:
[26:08] Yes: And I want you guys to thank me for the cupcakes and for my birthday!

Taking Time Off

[26:16] Yeah, it's very interesting. I have another question for you, dude. 'Cause I'm actually, I requested off, on my birthday. Is it common for people in Germany to request off, on their birthday? Or do they typically ...

Manuel:
[26:29] Yeah. No, that's quite common. I mean, I also usually don't just take my birthday off, but that whole week. I mean, my birthday is in June, so it's a good summery time to take vacation anyway, so I usually try to kind of plan my vacation around ... Ah! I'm actually not doing that this year, but I am taking like a long weekend. So yeah, it's very common to either try to take the weekend off, or a whole week, or just that day. But many people also, especially like the kind of people who really don't care about their birthday, especially as they get older, they're like: Oh, I'd rather just ignore this this day. And then they just go to work as normal, and that's also common. I would say it's probably 50-50 between the people who try to take some time off and people who just treat it as a regular day. Plus they bring cupcakes to work.

Communicating Your Birthday

Jae:
[27:28] And is it common for people to like randomly say it's their birthday, or like if no one says it, are people more just reserved? 'Cause like, I know some people who like, it's their birthday, but they will never tell you it's their birthday. So you're like, "Why didn't you tell me?" Is that very common for Germans to do?

Manuel:
[27:45] Isn't that the most awkward thing? I feel like that happens in Germany too, where you go through the whole work day or whatever, and then it's five o'clock and you're saying, "All right, have a good night, what are your plans tonight?" And then they're like, "Oh, I'm going out with my partner 'cause it's my birthday today." And you already spent the whole day together and you're like, "Wait a minute! It's your birthday? Why didn't you say anything?" But it's also understandable because you don't want to come in the office and say like, "Good morning, it's my birthday!" Like that would also be weird.

Jae:
[28:22] Exactly. Yeah. Well, like how do you ... Okay. I guess the cupcakes is the best way, but like are there any other ways to tell people it's your birthday without like telling people it's your birthday?

Manuel:
[28:34] Yeah, it's a good question. First of all, I think in the company context, I think every company needs a person - for us, it's Isa - who takes it upon themselves to like get everybody's birthdays and permission, I think, to even like publicize this. 'Cause in Germany we're big about privacy and maybe somebody doesn't want to tell. But in general, somebody should basically put together a calendar and then remind everybody, so we don't have to deal with these awkward things. But otherwise, yeah, I don't know, like I think the way, the method, is just to kind of slip it into conversation casually, like, "How are you doing?" "Oh, great, 'cause it's my birthday today and I had a nice ..." You know, like you somehow try to mention it without making it a big thing, but also not waiting eight hours until you mention it.

Jae:
[29:25] Yes. When I was in high school, I would wear like a pin that said my birthday and like, my mom gave like money or whatnot, and I would just wear that pin with like the cash on my shirt the entire day, and that was the sign that it was my birthday! It was actually very common for us to do, like you have a pin that says, Happy Birthday, and then you would like attach money to it. Like, so if you're at a birthday party or whatnot, people give you money, you just add that money to the pin. Is that common to do here?

Manuel:
[29:57] That is so American! You're attaching money to your clothes! "Give me money. It's my birthday. I'm going to stick it on my T-shirt and remind everybody that they should give me money because it's my birthday!" That's funny.

Jae:
[30:15] That is actually a very ... As I speak, that is a very American thing!

Manuel:
[30:20] We definitely ... I've never ever seen this in my entire life. I don't think anybody would stick money to their T-shirt on their birthday.

Jae:
[30:28] Oh yes. It is a thing.

Manuel:
[30:30] Quite the opposite! Like the cards that you give to people where you do give money, which in and of itself is like not that common. I think people try to not do that, and instead ... Unless it's a teenager or something and you're the grandparent, then you give money. But between kind of adults, if you don't know what gift to give, you give a gift card, but you don't give cash. It just feels a little weird. But if you do give cash, you kind of get one of those cards where you get ... where the card has a little envelope stuck to it where you get to hide the cash. Like you try to make it classy and kind of hide it - and not stick it on your T-shirt!

Jae:
[31:14] Yeah, that's interesting. I'm definitely a cash person as I ... When I was a child I had very specific gifts that I wanted, but now I'm easy, Give me some cash, take me out to dinner, buy me some drinks, you know? But like, I think that's also, it's like, how do you celebrate other people's birthdays? I'm more of a person who will like, not necessarily give cash - a gift, yes - but I like to kind of maybe treat them out for dinner, or like if we're going out that night then I'll pay for the drinks and stuff like that. I think that's like one of the most common ways that I typically celebrate other people's birthdays.

Manuel:
[31:51] Yeah, yeah. That's a good other question, like do you tell people what you want for your birthday?

Jae:
[32:00] If they ask, now if they ask, but like typically no. And I don't really ever have anything specific that I want. I mean, I'm grateful enough to have like a job so I can get myself things if I want things.

Manuel:
[32:14] I'll tell you a trick. So last year, what happened? We, on my other podcast, the Easy German podcast, we had an episode about lists. And there was no like ulterior motives or anything, but we just happened to also talk about my wish list of like material things that I want. And Cari was like, "Okay, what's on your wish list? I would like to know what's on your wish list since you're a self-proclaimed minimalist. Like tell us what's on your wish list." And so I read out like five or six things that were on my wish list at that moment in time. And then my birthday happens like two months later, and I'm spending it in Leipzig with a few of my closest friends and also Cari and Janusz. And they basically bought everything that I mentioned on that podcast episode! They were like, "Thank you for telling us what you wanted. We got you everything!" Which was amazing, but also very weird. But yeah, why don't you tell us what's on your wish list? Maybe listeners will want to send you all of your wishes.

Jae:
[33:22] Look, maybe I want a whiteboard with a stand. That's on my wish list.

Manuel:
[33:27] A whiteboard, okay.

Jae:
[33:29] Yeah. Yeah.

Manuel:
[33:31] Like a good old office whiteboard?

Jae:
[33:32] Yes, because like it's really good for like ideas and stuff. I just want it in my room, like over here. What else do I want? You see, like I always get so nervous because I really don't know. I'm a pretty simple guy. I want that and yeah, honestly, that's like it at the moment. I'm really like, I really ... It's weird. Like, I don't really want a lot of things, but then it's like the moment that like, I want something, that I forget about it to ask people. And then I'm like: Oh shit, yeah, I kind of wanted that too!

Manuel:
[34:08] Yeah. You need a list.

Jae:
[34:11] Oh, white board with a stand. That's, that's pretty ... Oh, and a teleprompter for my iPhone. 'Cause I'm making YouTube videos now.

Manuel:
[34:18] Mmm. Yeah. You know what? I just got a teleprompter ,because I'm also doing a course now. And I haven't set it up yet, it just got here last night. But I'm trying this now too, because I realized, like I don't want to be reading off of a teleprompter necessarily, but even just kind of reminding you of what's next, like just kind of having an outline. It's nice, I think, if you don't have to look down, if you can just keep looking at the camera and scroll through your bullet points.

Jae:
[34:51] Yeah. I agree, I agree.

Manuel:
[34:53] So I'm going to try this. I can let you know how it went.

Jae:
[34:54] Let me know if it works, yeah. We need a link to it. But yeah, a whiteboard and a teleprompter are on my list of things for my birthday, I guess.

Manuel:
[35:03] All right, all right, everybody. You can buy us a coffee at ... I don't even know the URL!

Jae:
[35:09] everyone.berlin

Manuel:
[35:10] everyone.berlin ... everyone.berlin/contribute. Yes.

Join Us: everyone.berlin/discord

Manuel:
[35:14] So, final thing: I have to go in a few minutes, but since this is our anniversary, we wanted to use it as an opportunity to start something new with this project. Like we said, we're really happy how the podcast is going and that people are finding it useful and stuff. But from the beginning, I was kind of hoping for this to become a little bit of a community project where it's not just like "our show" and "you listen" and that's the end of it, but I kind of hoped that this would become somewhat of a community of people helping each other. And this already started in a way, because we put these kind of automatically generated transcripts on our website for accessibility and stuff, so people can read along, or just read, if they can't listen for some reason. And I always put a note like: Hey, if you'd like to help correct this transcript ... because these automatically generated transcripts aren't perfect. And several people have pitched in and started transcribing, and one of them is very, very active, Valda, and we just talked on the phone and she's amazing. She lives in Cape Town, and she just really cares about our work and wanted for us to have perfect transcripts on our website, so she offered to basically do all of them, which is amazing. But then one other idea that we had, was to start a way for our listeners to communicate with each other.

Jae:
[36:52] Yes. I think that Discord is a really great platform because also it's like I get messages from people one-on-one, and I do feel like a lot of the content that we share and talk about, maybe even off the platform, could really be beneficial if we have kind of this community area where we can just talk to each other and also provide specific advice on certain things and stuff, and it's free for us to do, you know? So it's something I think that could really help us keep the community up, but also help us know who we are helping, who we are interacting with, you know? Like we have like all these listeners, but sometimes I don't know who I'm actually talking to, so I think it could be a really good opportunity for us to kind of put a name with a face, you know?

Manuel:
[37:44] Totally. Explain what Discord is, for anyone who hasn't used it.

Jae:
[37:49] So Discord is essentially a platform where people can chat and communicate with each other. That's the simple terms. What you can do in Discord is, we create these servers. And these servers, I'm wanna say are like houses, right? And then in this house, we have different rooms, and different rooms can be for different things. We have a room that's dedicated towards just introducing yourself. We have another room that's dedicated to the best restaurants in Berlin. Then we have another room where we are able to just talk to each other like with the audio thing. So Discord, essentially, is like the land, and then our server is like the house. So we're kind of building a house for you guys all to enter into, and we can talk to in these different rooms. Is that a good analogy?

Manuel:
[38:41] Did you come up with this amazing analogy just on the spot? Or did you ...

Jae:
[38:46] Yes. No, I just thought about that right now.

Manuel:
[38:49] That is amazing. That is a great analogy. So yeah, we're just gonna start a Discord server, build our own little house. You can join for free. And then there's going to be rooms or channels about different topics. I think we're just going to have like one or two in the beginning. And then, like I said, I want this to be a community thing. So if you care about this, if you want to be a part of this, then don't just ... Like join the discord server, like sign up for discord, join our thing. You will find a link to the Discord server in the show notes of this episode. But then also like we need people to basically lead this project, to become moderators, to suggest channels that we should have or shouldn't have, to kind of make sure that there's no spam and stuff - you always need to make sure like, you know, sometimes there's bots and stuff - like basically we need people who actively help with this community. And then my hope is that just that everybody who listens joins, and if they have a question, they can ask it there, and hopefully either us or someone else can answer it. But also if you already live here, or have lived in Berlin in the past, or you just have suggestions or ideas or recommendations, you share them there. And we just have a nice house, like a mini fraternity, but online! And on Discord where we can help each other.

Jae:
[40:17] Yes, exactly. And if for some reason you have any technical difficulties, I mean, my Instagram is always open, my URL is also everyone.berlin Instagram is. So just feel free to reach out to us if there's any type of struggle you have with actually registering.

Manuel:
[40:34] Perfect. Yeah. And I just realized we can we can make a redirect. So the link to join our Discord server will just be everyone.berlin/discord - if you just go to that link right now, you should be able to join.