We all like living in Germany - why else would we be here?
And by and large the people are wonderful, but some things they do still make
us hot feel discriminated.
1. They are very
direct
Don't expect British levels of small talk.
Some cultures wind everything they say into convoluted
sentences, for fear of being thought rude. In China, saying 'no' to people
directly can cause terrible offence. That great ambassador of Britishness, Hugh
Grant, can't finish a sentence without stuttering “I’m so terribly sorry.”
Germans are quite the opposite: cut the small talk, and say
it straight. “Pass the salt” will do nicely and won’t come across as impolite.
In our book they even make the Dutch look shy.
And it’s not just trivial conversation either. You can meet
someone in a bar, and rather than exchanging niceties, the first question will
be: “So why did you Brits vote for Brexit?”
It may take time to get used to it, but you do eventually
realize it’s not impolite. In fact, you'll soon realize it saves quite a lot of
time!
2. They still have a
correcting culture
Germans still sometimes take discipline into their own
hands
Americans, Brits and Canadians are often struck by the
reprimands they receive when they first arrive in Germany and don't abide by
societal norms.
If a kid has his shoes up on the seat on the bus, it's quite
normal for a fellow passenger to lean over and ask him to put them on the
floor.
This willingness to discipline other members of the public
is particularly strong in the more traditional areas such as Bavaria. There,
you may well be confronted by a local who will set you straight. In Berlin, by
contrast, the correcting culture is much less apparent.
In Germany people often have no qualms about telling you
you’re doing something wrong, regardless of whether you’re a young child, or a
grown adult. One particular bugbear of Germans is crossing roads when there’s a
red light, and they will often give you a piece of their mind if you decide to
jaywalk.
3. They make you pay in cash
Germans don't like using these much.
Germany is a country famed for technology: its high-spec
BMWs, Audis and Porsches, or its efficient transport system. But many
foreigners will soon realize that this is in many ways a bit of a myth.
Sometimes it seems that no one is more technophobic than the
Germans. The most surprising example is how rarely Germans use debit or credit
cards. With contactless technology now available in almost every shop in
Britain or the US, it seems bizarre that many restaurants in Germany are cash
only.
It can be pretty embarrassing when trying to pay for
something and the staff say they don’t accept card. The result is all too often
a humble apology as you ask the waiter the way to the nearest cash machine.
They’ll sigh and shrug their shoulders.
4. Terrible service
Karl Garff and Eva-Maria Keller performing the iconic
"Dinner for One" in Hesse, which although it's a British sketch has
become a German must-watch on New Year's Eve
If you’re American, you probably find British restaurant
service pretty dismal, but you clearly haven’t visited a Berlin restaurant
recently.
To tar all with the same brush would be unfair, but there
are a whole host of restaurants to choose from if you’d rather feel like a
naughty child than a paying customer.
The “customer is always right” rule just doesn’t really
apply here. You can't be in a rush in many German restaurants, as the waiter
will often pay you zero attention - and expect them to argue back if they get
your order wrong.
You won’t believe the reactions you get when you ask for a
glass of tap water. The Local has received a range of responses in Berlin from
“We don’t have any here” to “You can get some warm water from the bathroom”.
5. They waste no time in sending threatening, Kafkaesque
letters
Don't panic if you get a letter from a German bureaucrat
threatening the absolute worst. Germans love making everything official by what
many foreigners may consider to be an outdated system - postal mail - and they
love even more writing terrifying letters.
So if you miss part of a rental payment, don't be surprised
when instead of a knock at your door or kind phone call, your German landlord
decides to deal with the situation by sending a letter threatening immediate
eviction without warning.
And if you're a bit behind on paying your German public
broadcaster fee, they'll soon start threatening to seize your car - even if you
don't in fact own one.
A simple phone call or - of course - letter explaining that
you've already made the payment online will always diffuse the situation,
perhaps much to your surprise after receiving such startling threats.
6. They smoke indoors, but do everything else outdoors
This is another one that will affect people in Berlin most,
but Germany’s smoking ban is much more relaxed than most other western
countries.
Germany still does not have a federal smoking law, so each
of its 16 states have different rules about puffing in public. Apart from in
Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saarland, it is still possible to smoke in
some restaurants, bars and clubs depending on the state regulations.
So for non-smoking Brits or Americans, the often very public
smoking seems completely alien. After sitting in a smoke-filled bar you may
well return home at night to find your clothes reek. These days, even France is
less smokey than Germany.
Even on train station platforms, Germans are often happy to
light up, and once they’ve had a couple of drinks, the underground stations can
become smoking zones too. They just don’t seem to take the ban as seriously as
we do.
But it's equally strange to us that they also love being
outside. Maybe it's their tolerance for colder weather, but even when it's
freezing you'll see families at the playground and children running around in
sub-zero temperatures.
7. Political incorrectness
Perhaps because the US and Britain have such long histories
of inward migration, the words Germans use can seem outdated to us.
For example, German citizens whose parents or even
grandparents came from Turkey are still often referred to simply as
"Turks" rather than Germans.
And Americans who find costumes like "Red Indian"
and blackface offensive may also be surprised to find these readily available
in dress-up shops in Germany, where people might not understand the cultural
significance.
But then the fact that our countries are busily finding ways
of pushing immigrants back out the door, while Germany has taken in hundreds of
thousands of refugees, might make us think that language isn't so important
after all.
Compile by Stein
Source: http://www.thelocal.de
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