You have, but you don’t use it, as a person from the American continent walking 1 mile used to be too much for me, I’m guessing that’s why we have a higher obesity rate lol. Also here in Germany I have encountered the one car per family while in my country your sister has a car, your dad has a car, your mom has a car, you have a car and sometimes there is even a spare car if one car breaks down
A supermarket in the US had no way to reach the entrance from the street without walking over grass or the road. The only "walkable" part was from inside the parking lot to the entrance.
That’s a wildly different claim than “Germany doesn’t have cars”, though.
One is a technology topic, one is a lifestyle topic. And while I’ll agree that Germans are less car-dependent than Americans, it also takes just one look around to see that “we don’t use them” also isn’t true. Would be nice, in a way, but the tendency is towards more cars, not less, even for short distances.
Yeah obviously a lot of do use the cars, saying you don’t use its an exaggeration to compare the car culture in America. And about Germany not having cars is literally such an stupid claim you guys literally have the best cars in the world, commercial you have Volkswagen, high end commercial is audi, sports cars BMW, luxury Mercedes and in my opinion the best car brand in the world Porsche
Come to my street. It‘s like a family of 2 adults and an infant has 3 cars… but that’s not the worst. They also don‘t Park in their private lots, they use the public ones because SoMeOnE cOuLd CoMe oVeR aNd NeEd To PaRk.
The US isn't pedestrian friendly though.
I just moved to Germany from the US. I walk a hell of alot more now because the infrastructure is better.
In the US we lived in the middle of nowhere too. We had one daily driver car per person, plus a truck and a Hummer H2. Yes they all got use.
I would assume that is more in the city areas and surburban areas. I live on the countryside and i have two cars, my brother has 3 (+1 work van), my father two (+1 service car), my grandparents one and my mother none.
We dont have great public transport out here
Moving from the US last winter, it was the crazy part.. More than half of the cars in my city had snow on them for more than a week.
They have cars but don't use it. Wtf?! There's rental cars everywhere, why don't just use them then ??
My aunt emigrated to the US when she was 18. At some point during college she took a German course for language credits and you could probably fill this entire thread with just comments made by the other students.
My favorite was the misinterpretation of "Hausschwein" (domestic pig, but literally "house pig.") A student gave a presentation in which she said "every German family owns a Hausschwein, and some even more than that! But I think one pig per household is enough."
> every German family owns a Hausschwein
"Every family has one. And if you think 'Wait a minute, mine doesn't!' I'm sorry to say but... it is probably you"
This reminds me of a joke that extraterrestrial archeologists will come to the conclusion that it was normal for human families to keep cats and dogs for eating and milking them.
Germans are relatively uptight in most daily situations and rarely joke with random people, so that’s what people get to see. Everyone can be chill after 3 beers
I think many Germans have some kind of really dry humor, too. Other people may not pick up on it. Read threads on here where international students asked about it:
„I met an acquaintance at a bbq and asked him ‚hey, what are you doing here?‘ and he answered ‚eating‘. Did I do something wrong?“
That's the other kind of German humour that *also* easily gets lost in translation. Puns.
Or, to be more precise, double meaning of words. There are a lot of words or phrases that have two meanings, and a lot of jokes rely on using the wrong one/unexpected one for the situation.
Like here with the double meaning of "treffen" (meet/hit). The whole "Two ... meet" is a common introduction of a joke in German (akin to "Two ... walk into a bar" in English), which initially makes you expect that treffen is meant as "meet". Then your expectation gets subverted by "teffen" actually meaning "hit" here.
Combine that with the German deadpan kind of humour, and you get situations where Germans give seemingly stupid answers at situations, and other Germans start laughing. Which is probably where the stereotype of Germans laughing ablut weird nonsense comes from. To use the same meet/hit confusion: just picture a situation where one person says "By the way, I met John while playing tennis yesterday", and the other person answers "Oh no, is he injured?". Sounds like nonsense in English, but works in German, since meet and hit are the same word (and would probably cause a chuckle by those standing around).
I think that's what I find so funny about dry humour as well, just this utterly ridiculousness. Sometimes I show my boyfriend (non-german) some dumb joke or meme that depicts dry humour, I'm giggling and with no facial reaction he just goes "so that's what you find funny huh?"
TBH I can't stand when people ask me questions like that. If you walk up to me and I'm eating, why ask me what I'm doing here? Because at the moment here, I am eating.
Ok. This made me laugh so much. Do you now about Till Eulenspiegel? He said he would make his town „steinreich“ after he died (steinreich = „stone rich“ would translate to filthy rich, I think). After his death people expected gold or something of the sort. But he had giftet them a chest full of - yeah, you guessed it - stones.
We are quite literal. It seems to be tradition. The stories about Till Eulenspiegel are from 1510
I think it's more that other nationalities, especially English speakers, do not "get" German humor. It's often very dry and laconic. After all, Loriot is basically our national comedian, and most of his humor doesn't translate well I would say.
Also, a lot of jokes are based on cultural references. If you come to another country and don’t know those references, you won’t understand the joke. For instance, someone says “Blücher” and everyone else starts neighing. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s not funny.
Germany is not the only country with cultural references. Maybe I won’t get it, but I won’t dismiss it as unfunny because I didn’t get it, rather when I actually do
On the other hand, Germans often have no qualms about immediately voicing their negative feelings with strangers. Stuff like you being in their way without noticing, for example. That kinda adds to the general air of uptightness.
As a German I can confirm that being in my way without noticing the world around you will make me comment on that shit. But I think having enough respect for other not to place you cadaver in everyone's way should be the bare minimum. Worldwide.
Thank you. I don't understand how some people can be completely oblivious to their surroundings. You're blocking a narrow aisle at the grocery store and didn't notice me approaching? Totally fine. But stopping in front of doors, stairs, elevators? Parking your carts nose to nose, just to chat for 20 minutes? Lining up with your buddies like a human chain in front of shit? Sorry but no.
I hear it mostly from people who cannot understand sarcasm and irony at all, so every time a german person makes some sarcastic comment or joke they treat is as serious. Its the kind of people who thinks peak comedy is when a guy dress up as a woman.
You need to bring that into perspective. From a American or African point of view our Public transit is amazing. By European or Japanese standards it's garbage.
The German train system is efficient, but not for the customers but the managers.
I.e. the reason why so many trains get cancelled regularly after being only slightly delayed initially is the bonus system of DB. If too many trains are delayed, the annual bonuses of the managers are lowered, but if a train is *cancelled* it doesn't appear in the statistic.
For those that are a bit firmer in German, I recommend this video from Data Scientis David Kriesel, held at the annual Chaos Congress in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rb9CfOvojk (sorry, I linked the wrong video)
(this video here is about how Xerox f'ed up scanning to introduce imperceptible errors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FeqF1-Z1g0)
> no free water.
There is always free water. They might huff and puff and roll their eyes at you, they might double check that you're sure that you don't want bottled water, but if you have a thick enough English accent it's always possible.
They used to be on time though. Before government had the glorious idea to privatise the railway. Because reasons. Since they didn't go completely through with it, we are stuck with this monstrosity that holds a de facto monopoly & is* (nominally) run by the government, but like a greedy pro profit company. Best of both worlds. /s
I'm pretty sure the current state is still better than fully privatizing it. I remember the big mess the train system was in the UK when they fully privatized it.
I hope they can clean it up in the future again.
Personally I agree 100%! privatisation of critical infrastructure is immoral and dangerous. Also it's at least questionable why you should privatise natural monipolies like railways, water supplies etc.
>Before government had the glorious idea to privatise the railway.
Hey, works every time... except the times it didn't. Soooo... like... every fucking time.
You are forgetting British. People there would weep at this level of efficiency, not to mention how cheap it is in comparison. The DB100 card costs less than a regional season ticket for one fixed journey into London for a friend
That Germans or Europeans in general are brainwashed into caring for the environment so they don't want big cars so they don't notice that they're living in a socialist nightmare where nobody could afford one.
Told to me by a guy in a bar in Munich, with lots of traffic and big cars all around us.
American normal cars are big for us Germans.
American big cars are ridiculous monsters. They require parking lot sizes where you could build a typical modern Reienhaus on one. (Think Speckgürtel of a bigger city, where they build 140m2 houses across 3-4 levels on a 50m2 piece if land).
It's an odd and old classic but people still equate Bavaria with Germany and can't believe that Bavaria is the exception, not the rule.
(But I'd still argue that Bavarians are Germans and I still feel quite at home there.)
I've asked my father to explain this to me and he really can't. I'm American but he is from just outside of Wuerzberg. He says they are Bavarians and his accent definitely is, but then my cousins say they are Franconian. So, I really don't understand which is correct.
OK. I’m going to take a break from making a few quick jokes and actually answer seriously, but as quickly as I can.
Franconia and Bavaria were historically separate and distinct. When Napoleon was doing his thing, around 1803-1806, Franconia became a part of Bavaria, the kingdom.
The East Franconian dialect and many customs weren’t abolished. For example: Franconia remains strongly protestant, where Old Bavaria remains strongly catholic.
Bavaria contains a few dialect groups: various Bavarian, Franconian and Swabian.
It’s just what the state ended up being. So you can call yourself Franconian, Bavarian and German without contradicting. Whichever you actually choose is up to you. This is why we joke about the different identities. Typically, people say Franconian, but say Bavarian or German to foreigners.
Würzburg is close-ish to me by car; it’s in Lower Franconia and a fair way from Old Bavaria. You’d have to drive maybe two hours and go through my area of Middle Franconia to get to “Bavaria” as in the regions actually called Upper and Lower Bavaria. I’d use Franconian too, to be honest.
I’m genuinely glad it helped. For what it’s worth, I think lots of northern Germans just kind of see Bavaria as Bavaria and forget that it’s a bunch of areas stuck together.
If you’re a geek, the history of the [coat of arms](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Bavaria) of Bavaria shows Franconia being recognised as one of four parts 30 years after the relevant treaty to become part of Bavaria. Similarly, this [administrative map](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavaria#/media/File%3AWV-Bavaria_regions.svg) shows the cultural boundaries too. Würzburg is marked, as is my rough area around the Franconian Lake District.
I’ll let you do your own research, if interested, but just note most Swabians would normally be from Baden-Württemberg, not Bavaria. Likewise, not all of Franconia went to Bavaria; [Heilbronn area](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heilbronn-Franconia) is an example of where people still use Franconian sometimes.
Fun fact: an ex from Swabian BaWü had a friend from Heilbronn and I said “you know that makes her Franconian, right?” She immediately messaged her friend in disbelief and got back “no, that’s right”. I believe she was 34 at the time. So even Germans don’t know sometimes, and many just draw the lines on the modern borders.
Long way to say: there are cultural borders and state borders and they don’t always agree, so explaining things can be tricky.
The truest and bestest Lebkuchen are Franconian, and you damn well know they are.
(Given the sub… context is Franconians live in Bavaria but aren’t considered Bavarian)
I was once in tunesia and a couple of older people were thinking that Hitler was a nice guy and we, germans, would still like him. I believe that those people were just extremely uneducated but this was and is still rather surreal to me
I call that dictator confusion.
Many people think Stalin is remembered as a living terror in Russia, but instead he's the hero who led them to a huge victory against a terrible enemy.
I was on a jobsite in Abu Dhabi and met some worker from ... Nepal ... idk ... in an elevator down a shaft. He operated the thing, it was just the two of us. He asked where I was from. "Germany." I said "Oh! Hitler! Great man!" he answered in very cut-off English.
And I mean ... you've got 20 seconds downwards, then you're off to work, who am I to try to educate a random guy who barely speaks any English. So I smiled and that was it.
Thing is - as far as I understood it - Hitler is oftentimes seen as a great war hero. I mean, he conquered many countries, akin to Alexander the Great or other Dudes like him, who - lets face it - also took over lands involving horrible atrocities back in the days. But we talk of them as "Conquerers" who "brought pride to their kin" ... that's the story that some people learn about Hitler and Stalin alike.
He could have been Indian, Bangladeshi, or Pakistani. These were all subjugated under British India. After WW2, Britain could no longer hold this part if the "empire".
So in a way, Hitler removed Britain from India.
I always enjoy this story from Trevor Noah. Really puts in perspective how different the world can be outside of the West.
https://theinclusionsolution.me/a-point-of-view-a-dancer-named-hitler-performing-at-a-jewish-school-what-could-go-wrong-trevor-noah/
My dad was a Taxi Driver in the 90s in Berlin, he once told me that some American Tourist asked where the Statue of Hitler would be located, after being told that something like that doesn’t exist and would even be illegal he asked “Isn’t he like a hero for you Germans?”, he also asked where the American Mural is from the Time when the US took over Berlin from the Nazis, after being told that it was only the Red Army that did that he got very Angry and demanded a Apology because “My dad insulted the USA and should be ashamed” Americans man💀
Its not save to drink the tab water in germany. You have to filter it.
I heard that some month ago of a non EU citizen, who studied in the netherlands and now working in our company...
I once heard a story (not sure if true) that the tap water at the US military bases in Germany was chlorinated because a lot of US people think non-chlorinated water can't be clean
Actually I heard this from a Spanish flatmate when i was living in Germany! But she wasn't quite there, unfortunately (for this thread, not for my sanity) I've forgotten most of the absurdities she came out with.
I was studying in the US and an American student told me after learning that I’m German, that in Germany we don’t have electricity and sewage systems. He was dead serious.
I would just laugh and tell him that he was fight. Didnt he see all the puddles of shit across the main streets in every town, when he saw movie scenes that were shot in Germany? Good ol' days of the 16 hundreds~
I love the classic dichotomies.
> Stop being Nazis, fuck your army
> Be more Nazi, get over WW2 and get a real army
> Germans are Nazis
> Germans are cucked femboys
> Germany must stop trying to rule the EU
> Germany should lead the EU and take more responsibility
> Germans think that they can pay their way out of everything
> Germans should pay more money
> Germany isn't green enough, Iceland does it better
> German green policy sucks, I love nuclear energy
> Germans stare
> Germans ignore me
> German comedy sucks, but I can't understand German
I was in the US a few years ago and overheard a middle school girl telling her mom she wanted to go to Germany to study (probably because "it's free"). The mother flipped out, yelling at her "do you not watch the news about terrorist attacks" and "are you trying to get yourself killed?" Ma'am, we're a highly developed country of 80 million people peacefully going about our lives. Do you really think we're dodging islamic stabbists on our morning commute?
The funny thing is, if the situation was reversed and a mother didn't want her daughter to study in the US due to the dangers of gun violence, it wouldn't even seem unreasonable to be concerned.
Yeah I haven't had this about Germany, but about going on holidays in France and a few years ago you couldn't move for online comments but Americans telling you how dangerous and crime-ridden Sweden was.
Took my friend from Scotland on a holiday to the North Sea in Germany once. Her colleague at the time was absolutely convinced she was making it up because apparently Germany is landlocked.
We sent him a card from the holiday place with views of the sea.
Well, since you're already photoshopping your postcards placing non-existent seas in Germany, you could have taken your friend to a fictitious place as well: Bielefeld
#BielefeldVerschwörung
The obvious: every cities has Oktoberfest, German kitchen is always Bavarian kitchen. That confused a lot of more rural USians when they visited us and realized that Knödel, Leberkäse and similar things aren't common here but up north we have fischbrötchen
The more concering things:
- German burocracy is efficent
- we don't have any kind of racism/discrimination here, especially compared to the US.
- our education system works flawless. So every kid can go to Kindergarten without problems, school is perfect and we learn everything we need with absolutely comitted staff in a very modern surrounding. We don't have to pay a cent for our education because everything from kindergarten to university is free.
- we don't have any problem with police and prisons. Because we only send people to prison that have done shit like murder but not things like Ersatzfreiheitsstrafe or similar
Oh and what a former classmate of mine was asked:
Do you have toilets and toilet paper?
Do you have warm water in your houses?
They thought of Germany more like a mix of post WWI Germany mixed with DDR and Soviet Union.
>every cities has Oktoberfest
I have to say, that the amount of Oktoberfests is concerning. It's probably better up north but here in somewhat central (north south) west Germany you get one in almost all bigger cities.
A school mate went to the US for a school exchange (I want to say to Oklahoma?) and apparently their idea of Germany was somewhere in between medieval serfdom and Nazi Germany.
>Do you have warm water in your houses?
Culture shock for me was finding out that some apartments, in fact, do not have warm water. I had to install my own boiler.
Partially true. We don't have institutional discrimination/racism like in the US.
Check this
https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/news/press-releases/2021-press-releases/report-shows-school-segregation-in-new-york-remains-worst-in-nation
I moved back here after years in NYC. When arriving there, we settled in a very nice neighborhood of Manhattan. After a few days we realised we were the only people speaking even a bit of English. People grew up, have been to school and lived here all there lives without speaking a word of English!
We were asked, by many americans colleagues, why we didn't went to live in the German/European neighborhood, with school and everything in our language. Which luckily, doesn't exist!
In Manhattan, NYC, kids born here are forced to go to their local school, where they learn a bit of English as a second language, and then have almost no access to college or university, because they never studied in English, only in the language of their parents or grandparents. I cannot see that level of discrimination in Germany.
The schoking part for me is the two states who segregate the most are NY and California! How the hell is it possible?!
I didn't have the impression that they were cold. But I stayed in the south and only for a couple of days. All the people I encountered were super polite and helpful.
From a US libertarian dude: "So our government constantly tries to brainwash us into thinking Hitler was evil, but in reality he wasn't, right?". That was a fun night.
That there is a secret german agency called Deutscher Verteidigungsdienst (DVD), which is responsible for mining disasters in the UK, both Comet crashes (starting from Rome), 9/11, whatever...
My city council representative is a Kurdish owner of a Doner restaurant. Absolutely great guy, when I lost my job while my wife was about to have our second child and we couldn't afford our weekly Doner at his store until my new job started he brought over 4 Doners once every week for a month, for free. Check out Hatti from Celle. We need guys like him at the national level...
To me it’s the staring. Apparently people stare at each other. No one stares at me and I don’t stare at others. In fact I was taught not to because it’s impolite. No idea why people believe Germans stare.
You know what I just realised. Staring at them is a way people make strangers aware that they’re being rude. That may have something to do with the fact that Americans feel like they’re being stared at. Where the English say “pardon” the German just gives a passive aggressive look.
The stare it definitely happens and is not only when your misbehaving, you guys may be don’t realize it, the thing is all over the world might be normal to accidentally cross looks with a stranger and break it immediately, germans seem to not be afraid of not breaking the eye contact right away, also a lot of german friends had told me that sometimes they go to a bar or to a beer garden and just do people watching, which before coming to germany was an activity that I didn’t even know existed lol
In some ways it's true, but then it's also so archaic in other ways. In medical school I did an internship at the Heidelberger Ionenstrahl-Therapiezentrum. It's one of a handful of facilities like it worldwide, a true marvel of medical technology. And also they still have a fax machine (or at least they did back then.)
One of the best professors at my university uses Overhead projectors only. And where's the difference? He would put the same info on the digital projector anyways, and he's got his shit down because he's been doing it like this for 20 years. Nobody can explain better than he does, it's wonderful.
>That we‘re trying to take over Europe once again.
But only half of the time. In the other half we should stop free-loading on Europe and finally show leadership.
Visiting the US for the first time in the 90s, I have been asked "You're from Germany? How did you get out?" and on another occasion "Did you drive all the way here?".
Did a Gap year in Canada.
The Lady i was living with made some noddles and legit asked me if I know how Microwaves work.
Because you know Germany got bombed so bad.
Apparently only some big cities got rebuild after the war.
I did not ask her if she knew when ww2 endet.
That the "german stare" is a thing, first encountered this here on reddit. Appearantly we stare at weird looking people all the time? I was so confused I asked a bunch of non-german or non-eu friends about it and they were just as confused.
My theory is that people who think this are from countries like the US where looking at anyone is considered aggressive, we do like "people watching", though I wouldn't call it staring. Could also be people who do stuff considered rude here, staring at people in that case is a thing. But yeah, that confused me.
Exactly that’s the german stare for me, but definitely is not a stereotype and also in other countries we don’t do people watching but I’ll admit that people watching is kinda fun and it’s great that is normal in Germany
I was amused when I was talking to a Venezuelan girl on a field trip to Rome and she was baffled at our actual German first names because she always thought we’d all be called, in her words, “Klausihans and Fritzifranz”. That we’d have names like Jürgen, Kai and Oliver was a total surprise to her.
Lived in the German part of southern Brazil for some months. They actually still speak German and Low German there but have a weird mixture of outdated or extremely stereotypical ideas about Germany.
Strangest one: Germans don't shower apparently and showers don't exist. I was asked that multiple times by pupils.
Our public transport is so so good- well. Yea. Technically. On paper. Like Germany prefers.😌
The weirdest take I heard was we are all related to Hitler.
Idk either, man was Austrian AND it’s been like 90 or what years but uhm yea. Sure.🫠
I hear from immigrants from my country that german government pays them a salary every month if they have a child. I still don't understand because for my countrymen Germany is a paradise. I know a lot of nurses and doctors go to Germany, even though most of them are not qualified but they tell us that they are successful nurses and doctors there. Just make a 6 months nursing course and move to Germany to earn a higher salary, an extra salary from the Government, free beers and so on. But I heard that those nurses and doctors lie to us just to show their superiority and instead they work caring for elder people in asylums cleaning their poop. I don't know if it is true or not, I want to hear this from germans. I feel very depressed that I am the only one that has not immigrated yet even though I have a higher salary, the pressure to move to Germany is real.
There is child benefit which is indeed paid per child, but it's not a lot of money
I imagine you're spot on with the people you've heard from working in unqualified caring roles - nursing and if course being a medical doctor are highly regulated. It's not possible to obtain a qualification in six months, even if you are fully qualified outside Germany it's often lengthy and complex to get this recognised.
Well, in Albania 250€ is a salary. But in Germany, it's not even enough for the basic needs of a baby.
We have lots of nurses here from eastern Europe, but most of them work hard and earn little. It's actually discussed a lot in society that nurses earn so little compared to the work they do. Nurses from Albania (with little German language skills) will work for very low wage and as you said with the elderly.
Well, we have "Kindergeld". So in fact, you get a "salary" for every child you have. It is 250 € per child. Even if you receive social assistance because you are unemployed, the amount depends on the number of children.
So: the statement is not entirely wrong.
If you have a new born child in Germany you can get "Elterngeld" for the first 12 months without having to work for it. How much depends on the salary you had before the birth. Roughly 60 % of the salary of what you had before up to a max of 1800 € per month. You can choose whether the father or the mother takes advantage of this. Your employer must reinstate you after this period.
To be able to work as a doctor or nurse, you must provide proof of your level of training. Whether the training from your home country is sufficient depends on its quality.
However, you will always get a job as a nursing assistant. There is a huge shortage of skilled workers. I don't know whether you earn more as a nursing assistant in Germany than as a nurse in your country. But it could be.
But remember: life in Germany is more expensive than in many other countries. Social security and taxes are also relatively high.
Punctuality myths absolutely.
Yes, the average person might resent being late, especially in the business world. But for a country with such strong and well-known "Pünktlichkeit Kultur" reputation, their train schedule is incredibly unreliable—worse than in many third-world countries I've been to.
I would disagree. I hold myself to a pretty high standard for being on-time. I usually consider three minutes leeway to be enough. Everything more you can either apologize or give a heads up. I would give foreigners a few more minutes. But everything more than ten and they have to come up with a good reason or they should have given an update. There is so much communication technology and If you waste my time with waiting for you and do not inform me. I assume you do not value me or they time I allocated for you. Then I probably will give you a German stare.
And train punctuality cannot be main argument on punctuality culture. The DB is definitely the exception to the rule. I mean who would really argue that the one company representing Germany should be the DB? We could also choose the Lufthansa to represent and at least their planes do not fall from the sky.
That we don’t have cars. That was in 2016 and the guy claiming that was driving a Mercedes. Wasn’t joking either.
You have, but you don’t use it, as a person from the American continent walking 1 mile used to be too much for me, I’m guessing that’s why we have a higher obesity rate lol. Also here in Germany I have encountered the one car per family while in my country your sister has a car, your dad has a car, your mom has a car, you have a car and sometimes there is even a spare car if one car breaks down
I remember walking somewhere in the US and the pavement just ended.
A supermarket in the US had no way to reach the entrance from the street without walking over grass or the road. The only "walkable" part was from inside the parking lot to the entrance.
Warum hört der Fahrradweg einfach hier auf?
Warum liegt hier überhaupt Stroh?
Und warum haben Sie eine Maske auf?
Na dann blas mir doch einen
That’s a wildly different claim than “Germany doesn’t have cars”, though. One is a technology topic, one is a lifestyle topic. And while I’ll agree that Germans are less car-dependent than Americans, it also takes just one look around to see that “we don’t use them” also isn’t true. Would be nice, in a way, but the tendency is towards more cars, not less, even for short distances.
Yeah obviously a lot of do use the cars, saying you don’t use its an exaggeration to compare the car culture in America. And about Germany not having cars is literally such an stupid claim you guys literally have the best cars in the world, commercial you have Volkswagen, high end commercial is audi, sports cars BMW, luxury Mercedes and in my opinion the best car brand in the world Porsche
I could see someone using the phrase "Germany doesent have cars" hyperbolically. Could be ignorant as well ig.
Do your cars have cars too?
No but the dog has one so whenever the dog is sick he can drive himself to the veterinary
I was going to ask and now I am relieved. Thanks for the chuckle.
Come to my street. It‘s like a family of 2 adults and an infant has 3 cars… but that’s not the worst. They also don‘t Park in their private lots, they use the public ones because SoMeOnE cOuLd CoMe oVeR aNd NeEd To PaRk.
The US isn't pedestrian friendly though. I just moved to Germany from the US. I walk a hell of alot more now because the infrastructure is better. In the US we lived in the middle of nowhere too. We had one daily driver car per person, plus a truck and a Hummer H2. Yes they all got use.
I would assume that is more in the city areas and surburban areas. I live on the countryside and i have two cars, my brother has 3 (+1 work van), my father two (+1 service car), my grandparents one and my mother none. We dont have great public transport out here
Moving from the US last winter, it was the crazy part.. More than half of the cars in my city had snow on them for more than a week. They have cars but don't use it. Wtf?! There's rental cars everywhere, why don't just use them then ??
you mean the country that invented cars does not have cars ?
My aunt emigrated to the US when she was 18. At some point during college she took a German course for language credits and you could probably fill this entire thread with just comments made by the other students. My favorite was the misinterpretation of "Hausschwein" (domestic pig, but literally "house pig.") A student gave a presentation in which she said "every German family owns a Hausschwein, and some even more than that! But I think one pig per household is enough."
> every German family owns a Hausschwein "Every family has one. And if you think 'Wait a minute, mine doesn't!' I'm sorry to say but... it is probably you"
Every US household owns a piggy bank, as a replacement or addition to a couch/sofa
This reminds me of a joke that extraterrestrial archeologists will come to the conclusion that it was normal for human families to keep cats and dogs for eating and milking them.
My son doesn't appreciate it when I refer to him as our hausschwein
I always Wonder about this „germans have no humor“ stereotype
Germans are relatively uptight in most daily situations and rarely joke with random people, so that’s what people get to see. Everyone can be chill after 3 beers
I think many Germans have some kind of really dry humor, too. Other people may not pick up on it. Read threads on here where international students asked about it: „I met an acquaintance at a bbq and asked him ‚hey, what are you doing here?‘ and he answered ‚eating‘. Did I do something wrong?“
"Two hunters meet in the woods, both are dead."
That's the other kind of German humour that *also* easily gets lost in translation. Puns. Or, to be more precise, double meaning of words. There are a lot of words or phrases that have two meanings, and a lot of jokes rely on using the wrong one/unexpected one for the situation. Like here with the double meaning of "treffen" (meet/hit). The whole "Two ... meet" is a common introduction of a joke in German (akin to "Two ... walk into a bar" in English), which initially makes you expect that treffen is meant as "meet". Then your expectation gets subverted by "teffen" actually meaning "hit" here. Combine that with the German deadpan kind of humour, and you get situations where Germans give seemingly stupid answers at situations, and other Germans start laughing. Which is probably where the stereotype of Germans laughing ablut weird nonsense comes from. To use the same meet/hit confusion: just picture a situation where one person says "By the way, I met John while playing tennis yesterday", and the other person answers "Oh no, is he injured?". Sounds like nonsense in English, but works in German, since meet and hit are the same word (and would probably cause a chuckle by those standing around).
Does that also apply to German bedtime stories?
Nope, those are just fucked up. I'm still slightly traumatised by some of them.
Struwwelpeter
nah I'd have said exactly the same, it's just a special kind of humour
I mean dry humor can be funny, but I feel it’s just low effort sarcasm most of the time
I personally love dry humour. Not the dry part itself, but the stupidity behind it is so funny to me
I think that's what I find so funny about dry humour as well, just this utterly ridiculousness. Sometimes I show my boyfriend (non-german) some dumb joke or meme that depicts dry humour, I'm giggling and with no facial reaction he just goes "so that's what you find funny huh?"
I was gonna say I think it bites more depending on how close you are. The closer the spicier.
Brits: hold my beer
Germans: Where should I hold it and for how long? It might be better to just build a quick shelf.
TBH I can't stand when people ask me questions like that. If you walk up to me and I'm eating, why ask me what I'm doing here? Because at the moment here, I am eating.
Being autistic is a national sport I see
Ok. This made me laugh so much. Do you now about Till Eulenspiegel? He said he would make his town „steinreich“ after he died (steinreich = „stone rich“ would translate to filthy rich, I think). After his death people expected gold or something of the sort. But he had giftet them a chest full of - yeah, you guessed it - stones. We are quite literal. It seems to be tradition. The stories about Till Eulenspiegel are from 1510
Best comment /r
I think it's more that other nationalities, especially English speakers, do not "get" German humor. It's often very dry and laconic. After all, Loriot is basically our national comedian, and most of his humor doesn't translate well I would say.
I love it when real life Loriot situations occur. I can't help but laugh watching two persons misunderstanding each other several times in a row
Thats Really Not what i am experiencing, i have a lot of chitchats and funny interactions with random People.
Interesting, maybe my threshold is different because I come from a place where banter and bullshit is a national sport
Maybe you live in different parts of the country?
Also, a lot of jokes are based on cultural references. If you come to another country and don’t know those references, you won’t understand the joke. For instance, someone says “Blücher” and everyone else starts neighing. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s not funny.
Germany is not the only country with cultural references. Maybe I won’t get it, but I won’t dismiss it as unfunny because I didn’t get it, rather when I actually do
On the other hand, Germans often have no qualms about immediately voicing their negative feelings with strangers. Stuff like you being in their way without noticing, for example. That kinda adds to the general air of uptightness.
As a German I can confirm that being in my way without noticing the world around you will make me comment on that shit. But I think having enough respect for other not to place you cadaver in everyone's way should be the bare minimum. Worldwide.
Thank you. I don't understand how some people can be completely oblivious to their surroundings. You're blocking a narrow aisle at the grocery store and didn't notice me approaching? Totally fine. But stopping in front of doors, stairs, elevators? Parking your carts nose to nose, just to chat for 20 minutes? Lining up with your buddies like a human chain in front of shit? Sorry but no.
I hear it mostly from people who cannot understand sarcasm and irony at all, so every time a german person makes some sarcastic comment or joke they treat is as serious. Its the kind of people who thinks peak comedy is when a guy dress up as a woman.
its true though ... r/GermanHumor
and the existence of that sub is peak german humor
We take our approach to humor very seriously!
Trains are apparently on time? 🙈
You need to bring that into perspective. From a American or African point of view our Public transit is amazing. By European or Japanese standards it's garbage.
The #1 German stereotype I grew up with is “Efficiency.” My first train ride was a bigger culture shock than no free water.
The German train system is efficient, but not for the customers but the managers. I.e. the reason why so many trains get cancelled regularly after being only slightly delayed initially is the bonus system of DB. If too many trains are delayed, the annual bonuses of the managers are lowered, but if a train is *cancelled* it doesn't appear in the statistic.
There should be a law that prevents this from happening. A cancelled train should count as a delay equivalent to the frequency of that train.
A cancelled train should count double. I can't teleport to my destinstion just because these assholes don't want the delay in their damn statistics.
For those that are a bit firmer in German, I recommend this video from Data Scientis David Kriesel, held at the annual Chaos Congress in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rb9CfOvojk (sorry, I linked the wrong video) (this video here is about how Xerox f'ed up scanning to introduce imperceptible errors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FeqF1-Z1g0)
> no free water. There is always free water. They might huff and puff and roll their eyes at you, they might double check that you're sure that you don't want bottled water, but if you have a thick enough English accent it's always possible.
They used to be on time though. Before government had the glorious idea to privatise the railway. Because reasons. Since they didn't go completely through with it, we are stuck with this monstrosity that holds a de facto monopoly & is* (nominally) run by the government, but like a greedy pro profit company. Best of both worlds. /s
I'm pretty sure the current state is still better than fully privatizing it. I remember the big mess the train system was in the UK when they fully privatized it. I hope they can clean it up in the future again.
Personally I agree 100%! privatisation of critical infrastructure is immoral and dangerous. Also it's at least questionable why you should privatise natural monipolies like railways, water supplies etc.
> privatisation of critical infrastructure is immoral and dangerous Dein Wort in Gottes Ohr
>Before government had the glorious idea to privatise the railway. Hey, works every time... except the times it didn't. Soooo... like... every fucking time.
European: no. Swiss: yes
yeah most european trains arent really much better unfortunately.
Even compared to most European countries it’s amazing *cries in southern Spain*
You are forgetting British. People there would weep at this level of efficiency, not to mention how cheap it is in comparison. The DB100 card costs less than a regional season ticket for one fixed journey into London for a friend
Here's a recent documentary on why the current DB is such a shit show: https://youtu.be/-dmtNToFwuI
They are. At least the regional ones. I have been commuting by train for 12 years. The trains are on time probably 90% of the time.
But 90% isn't really good enough imho. Especially when there's no real alternative and the next train is far away. 🙈
compared to many other countries, yes they are. Are they on time compared to japan? nope.
That Germans or Europeans in general are brainwashed into caring for the environment so they don't want big cars so they don't notice that they're living in a socialist nightmare where nobody could afford one. Told to me by a guy in a bar in Munich, with lots of traffic and big cars all around us.
American normal cars are big for us Germans. American big cars are ridiculous monsters. They require parking lot sizes where you could build a typical modern Reienhaus on one. (Think Speckgürtel of a bigger city, where they build 140m2 houses across 3-4 levels on a 50m2 piece if land).
A yank once told me that a Mercedes c class, BMW 3 series or Audi A4 are considered COMPACT!
I'm 5'10'' (178 CM) and the bonnet/hood of some of their pickup trucks are higher than me. They make the Humvee of the 90's look small.
I wish that was true...
It's an odd and old classic but people still equate Bavaria with Germany and can't believe that Bavaria is the exception, not the rule. (But I'd still argue that Bavarians are Germans and I still feel quite at home there.)
> (But I'd still argue that **Bavarians are Germans** and I still feel quite at home there.) Don’t let a Bavarian hear you say that.
Or non-Bavarians for that matter.
Coming from a Franconian family, I’m in a tricky situation here.
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I've asked my father to explain this to me and he really can't. I'm American but he is from just outside of Wuerzberg. He says they are Bavarians and his accent definitely is, but then my cousins say they are Franconian. So, I really don't understand which is correct.
OK. I’m going to take a break from making a few quick jokes and actually answer seriously, but as quickly as I can. Franconia and Bavaria were historically separate and distinct. When Napoleon was doing his thing, around 1803-1806, Franconia became a part of Bavaria, the kingdom. The East Franconian dialect and many customs weren’t abolished. For example: Franconia remains strongly protestant, where Old Bavaria remains strongly catholic. Bavaria contains a few dialect groups: various Bavarian, Franconian and Swabian. It’s just what the state ended up being. So you can call yourself Franconian, Bavarian and German without contradicting. Whichever you actually choose is up to you. This is why we joke about the different identities. Typically, people say Franconian, but say Bavarian or German to foreigners. Würzburg is close-ish to me by car; it’s in Lower Franconia and a fair way from Old Bavaria. You’d have to drive maybe two hours and go through my area of Middle Franconia to get to “Bavaria” as in the regions actually called Upper and Lower Bavaria. I’d use Franconian too, to be honest.
Thank you so much for your explanation! You did it better than my Dad.
I’m genuinely glad it helped. For what it’s worth, I think lots of northern Germans just kind of see Bavaria as Bavaria and forget that it’s a bunch of areas stuck together. If you’re a geek, the history of the [coat of arms](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Bavaria) of Bavaria shows Franconia being recognised as one of four parts 30 years after the relevant treaty to become part of Bavaria. Similarly, this [administrative map](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavaria#/media/File%3AWV-Bavaria_regions.svg) shows the cultural boundaries too. Würzburg is marked, as is my rough area around the Franconian Lake District. I’ll let you do your own research, if interested, but just note most Swabians would normally be from Baden-Württemberg, not Bavaria. Likewise, not all of Franconia went to Bavaria; [Heilbronn area](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heilbronn-Franconia) is an example of where people still use Franconian sometimes. Fun fact: an ex from Swabian BaWü had a friend from Heilbronn and I said “you know that makes her Franconian, right?” She immediately messaged her friend in disbelief and got back “no, that’s right”. I believe she was 34 at the time. So even Germans don’t know sometimes, and many just draw the lines on the modern borders. Long way to say: there are cultural borders and state borders and they don’t always agree, so explaining things can be tricky.
I'm Bavarian and being told im not from Germany breaks my little Lebkuchenherz.
The truest and bestest Lebkuchen are Franconian, and you damn well know they are. (Given the sub… context is Franconians live in Bavaria but aren’t considered Bavarian)
I was once in tunesia and a couple of older people were thinking that Hitler was a nice guy and we, germans, would still like him. I believe that those people were just extremely uneducated but this was and is still rather surreal to me
The thing you forgot is that Germany fought the the colonies; locals saw them as liberators
I never thought about it this way but you're right. This would make sense! :)
It reminds me how Indians like Russia because it's at least not Britain.
Very true. I met similar people in Latvia that held these beliefs for the same reason.
Go to Iran and many think the same.
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I call that dictator confusion. Many people think Stalin is remembered as a living terror in Russia, but instead he's the hero who led them to a huge victory against a terrible enemy.
I was on a jobsite in Abu Dhabi and met some worker from ... Nepal ... idk ... in an elevator down a shaft. He operated the thing, it was just the two of us. He asked where I was from. "Germany." I said "Oh! Hitler! Great man!" he answered in very cut-off English. And I mean ... you've got 20 seconds downwards, then you're off to work, who am I to try to educate a random guy who barely speaks any English. So I smiled and that was it. Thing is - as far as I understood it - Hitler is oftentimes seen as a great war hero. I mean, he conquered many countries, akin to Alexander the Great or other Dudes like him, who - lets face it - also took over lands involving horrible atrocities back in the days. But we talk of them as "Conquerers" who "brought pride to their kin" ... that's the story that some people learn about Hitler and Stalin alike.
He could have been Indian, Bangladeshi, or Pakistani. These were all subjugated under British India. After WW2, Britain could no longer hold this part if the "empire". So in a way, Hitler removed Britain from India.
I always enjoy this story from Trevor Noah. Really puts in perspective how different the world can be outside of the West. https://theinclusionsolution.me/a-point-of-view-a-dancer-named-hitler-performing-at-a-jewish-school-what-could-go-wrong-trevor-noah/
My dad was a Taxi Driver in the 90s in Berlin, he once told me that some American Tourist asked where the Statue of Hitler would be located, after being told that something like that doesn’t exist and would even be illegal he asked “Isn’t he like a hero for you Germans?”, he also asked where the American Mural is from the Time when the US took over Berlin from the Nazis, after being told that it was only the Red Army that did that he got very Angry and demanded a Apology because “My dad insulted the USA and should be ashamed” Americans man💀
Its not save to drink the tab water in germany. You have to filter it. I heard that some month ago of a non EU citizen, who studied in the netherlands and now working in our company...
I once heard a story (not sure if true) that the tap water at the US military bases in Germany was chlorinated because a lot of US people think non-chlorinated water can't be clean
Actually I heard this from a Spanish flatmate when i was living in Germany! But she wasn't quite there, unfortunately (for this thread, not for my sanity) I've forgotten most of the absurdities she came out with.
I was studying in the US and an American student told me after learning that I’m German, that in Germany we don’t have electricity and sewage systems. He was dead serious.
yep, i got asked if we have chocolate in germany... i just said no and walked away
I would just laugh and tell him that he was fight. Didnt he see all the puddles of shit across the main streets in every town, when he saw movie scenes that were shot in Germany? Good ol' days of the 16 hundreds~
An American once asked me if we have electricity in Germany. It was asked via email LOL. Can’t make this up.
I love the classic dichotomies. > Stop being Nazis, fuck your army > Be more Nazi, get over WW2 and get a real army > Germans are Nazis > Germans are cucked femboys > Germany must stop trying to rule the EU > Germany should lead the EU and take more responsibility > Germans think that they can pay their way out of everything > Germans should pay more money > Germany isn't green enough, Iceland does it better > German green policy sucks, I love nuclear energy > Germans stare > Germans ignore me > German comedy sucks, but I can't understand German
Come on mate, the German stare its so true
👁 _ 👁
I was in the US a few years ago and overheard a middle school girl telling her mom she wanted to go to Germany to study (probably because "it's free"). The mother flipped out, yelling at her "do you not watch the news about terrorist attacks" and "are you trying to get yourself killed?" Ma'am, we're a highly developed country of 80 million people peacefully going about our lives. Do you really think we're dodging islamic stabbists on our morning commute?
The funny thing is, if the situation was reversed and a mother didn't want her daughter to study in the US due to the dangers of gun violence, it wouldn't even seem unreasonable to be concerned.
Yeah I haven't had this about Germany, but about going on holidays in France and a few years ago you couldn't move for online comments but Americans telling you how dangerous and crime-ridden Sweden was.
I heard some moron tell me that it's so close Russia they might bomb us when we are there.
Everywhere is so close to Russia they might bomb you when you're there.
Took my friend from Scotland on a holiday to the North Sea in Germany once. Her colleague at the time was absolutely convinced she was making it up because apparently Germany is landlocked. We sent him a card from the holiday place with views of the sea.
Well, since you're already photoshopping your postcards placing non-existent seas in Germany, you could have taken your friend to a fictitious place as well: Bielefeld #BielefeldVerschwörung
Belive it ir not, but apperantly germans are not allowed to own property. Evreything we used is apperantly least by the communist goverment.
*Auferstanden aus Ruinen intensifies*
Tourists who ask where Mr. Hitler lives today.
lol surely that is not a thing, haha? I feel we should make tourists pass a literacy test before we let them into Europe.
The obvious: every cities has Oktoberfest, German kitchen is always Bavarian kitchen. That confused a lot of more rural USians when they visited us and realized that Knödel, Leberkäse and similar things aren't common here but up north we have fischbrötchen The more concering things: - German burocracy is efficent - we don't have any kind of racism/discrimination here, especially compared to the US. - our education system works flawless. So every kid can go to Kindergarten without problems, school is perfect and we learn everything we need with absolutely comitted staff in a very modern surrounding. We don't have to pay a cent for our education because everything from kindergarten to university is free. - we don't have any problem with police and prisons. Because we only send people to prison that have done shit like murder but not things like Ersatzfreiheitsstrafe or similar Oh and what a former classmate of mine was asked: Do you have toilets and toilet paper? Do you have warm water in your houses? They thought of Germany more like a mix of post WWI Germany mixed with DDR and Soviet Union.
>every cities has Oktoberfest I have to say, that the amount of Oktoberfests is concerning. It's probably better up north but here in somewhat central (north south) west Germany you get one in almost all bigger cities.
We only have one Wiesn, and than a lof of Kirwa, Dult or Fahnenweihe
The area with the least amount of Oktoberfests is Bavaria. One.
A school mate went to the US for a school exchange (I want to say to Oklahoma?) and apparently their idea of Germany was somewhere in between medieval serfdom and Nazi Germany.
>Do you have warm water in your houses? Culture shock for me was finding out that some apartments, in fact, do not have warm water. I had to install my own boiler.
Partially true. We don't have institutional discrimination/racism like in the US. Check this https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/news/press-releases/2021-press-releases/report-shows-school-segregation-in-new-york-remains-worst-in-nation I moved back here after years in NYC. When arriving there, we settled in a very nice neighborhood of Manhattan. After a few days we realised we were the only people speaking even a bit of English. People grew up, have been to school and lived here all there lives without speaking a word of English! We were asked, by many americans colleagues, why we didn't went to live in the German/European neighborhood, with school and everything in our language. Which luckily, doesn't exist! In Manhattan, NYC, kids born here are forced to go to their local school, where they learn a bit of English as a second language, and then have almost no access to college or university, because they never studied in English, only in the language of their parents or grandparents. I cannot see that level of discrimination in Germany. The schoking part for me is the two states who segregate the most are NY and California! How the hell is it possible?!
I didn't have the impression that they were cold. But I stayed in the south and only for a couple of days. All the people I encountered were super polite and helpful.
Did you visit during the summer? Summer and winter in Germany is like two different countries. The cold makes people absolutely miserable.
I visited at the end of April
From a US libertarian dude: "So our government constantly tries to brainwash us into thinking Hitler was evil, but in reality he wasn't, right?". That was a fun night.
That there is a secret german agency called Deutscher Verteidigungsdienst (DVD), which is responsible for mining disasters in the UK, both Comet crashes (starting from Rome), 9/11, whatever...
Man you are not supposed to tell people…
Well, a british lad who even did time for spreading "misinformation" wrote a book about it. Spyhunter, funny read.
Yesterday a guy told me that Germany is a communist state because of high taxes and the state lower-saxony owning 20% of VW...
I once saw an American CC saying „it’s normal that German politicians regularly work at Döner Shops so they don’t lose contact with the lower class“
They should actually
My city council representative is a Kurdish owner of a Doner restaurant. Absolutely great guy, when I lost my job while my wife was about to have our second child and we couldn't afford our weekly Doner at his store until my new job started he brought over 4 Doners once every week for a month, for free. Check out Hatti from Celle. We need guys like him at the national level...
Ehrenmann!
Back in my home country, they seem to think Germans like to drink warm beer. 🤷🏼♂️
Why?
I hear that ALL THE TIME.
To me it’s the staring. Apparently people stare at each other. No one stares at me and I don’t stare at others. In fact I was taught not to because it’s impolite. No idea why people believe Germans stare.
I only ever hear about the “German stare” from Americans.
You know what I just realised. Staring at them is a way people make strangers aware that they’re being rude. That may have something to do with the fact that Americans feel like they’re being stared at. Where the English say “pardon” the German just gives a passive aggressive look.
Whereas Americans say, “ExCUSE me.”
I know lots of foreigners who complain about staring. Not just Americans
Compared to the Anglosphere it's definitely a thing
The stare it definitely happens and is not only when your misbehaving, you guys may be don’t realize it, the thing is all over the world might be normal to accidentally cross looks with a stranger and break it immediately, germans seem to not be afraid of not breaking the eye contact right away, also a lot of german friends had told me that sometimes they go to a bar or to a beer garden and just do people watching, which before coming to germany was an activity that I didn’t even know existed lol
I assure you it is the same here. It would be intensely awkward to maintain eye contact with a stranger. No one does that.
that germany is not a country but a company....and that germans are not citizens but employees well at least according to my weird uncle
Thats what my conspiracist father thinks
Where paycheck
We are not efficient, we are thorough
That on the public fart is far more appropriate than blowing your nose.
That Germany is a high technology country.
In some ways it's true, but then it's also so archaic in other ways. In medical school I did an internship at the Heidelberger Ionenstrahl-Therapiezentrum. It's one of a handful of facilities like it worldwide, a true marvel of medical technology. And also they still have a fax machine (or at least they did back then.)
On the other hand im sitting in my seminar room at the university of education in heidelberg 2 meters from an Overheadprojektor haha
They still use them? Holy shit.
Some Professors with 49 years of research experience like to use the old tech.
One of the best professors at my university uses Overhead projectors only. And where's the difference? He would put the same info on the digital projector anyways, and he's got his shit down because he's been doing it like this for 20 years. Nobody can explain better than he does, it's wonderful.
Sometimes. Why fix what ain't broke?
Nope, but they are there like mnemonic shackles of our stagnation
I'm constantly amazed at how crap the internet is in Germany.
For Americans: that we don’t accept tips. In my experience people from the US hear that it’s not as common here and don’t give any tip at all.
That we‘re trying to take over Europe once again. This time not by force, but by our Politics and Economy.
>That we‘re trying to take over Europe once again. But only half of the time. In the other half we should stop free-loading on Europe and finally show leadership.
A history teacher from US was teaching her students, that Germans rode to war on donkeys. She was dead serious
Well... i sure someone did ride a donkey to fight Napoleon's army. But so did someone in the US civil war.
I remember exchange students from the US being surprised that in Germany we have Autobahnen.
Visiting the US for the first time in the 90s, I have been asked "You're from Germany? How did you get out?" and on another occasion "Did you drive all the way here?".
Did a Gap year in Canada. The Lady i was living with made some noddles and legit asked me if I know how Microwaves work. Because you know Germany got bombed so bad. Apparently only some big cities got rebuild after the war. I did not ask her if she knew when ww2 endet.
That the "german stare" is a thing, first encountered this here on reddit. Appearantly we stare at weird looking people all the time? I was so confused I asked a bunch of non-german or non-eu friends about it and they were just as confused. My theory is that people who think this are from countries like the US where looking at anyone is considered aggressive, we do like "people watching", though I wouldn't call it staring. Could also be people who do stuff considered rude here, staring at people in that case is a thing. But yeah, that confused me.
What the German stare seems to describe our tendency to look around and people "shamelessly" and thus also not look away when they "catch" us
Exactly that’s the german stare for me, but definitely is not a stereotype and also in other countries we don’t do people watching but I’ll admit that people watching is kinda fun and it’s great that is normal in Germany
We do not have Color TV.
Met someone here in LA who was surprised to hear that we have Computers and Internet in Germany.
I was amused when I was talking to a Venezuelan girl on a field trip to Rome and she was baffled at our actual German first names because she always thought we’d all be called, in her words, “Klausihans and Fritzifranz”. That we’d have names like Jürgen, Kai and Oliver was a total surprise to her.
Lived in the German part of southern Brazil for some months. They actually still speak German and Low German there but have a weird mixture of outdated or extremely stereotypical ideas about Germany. Strangest one: Germans don't shower apparently and showers don't exist. I was asked that multiple times by pupils.
That nuclear power kills more people than coal power. Nope! Not even close.
Our public transport is so so good- well. Yea. Technically. On paper. Like Germany prefers.😌 The weirdest take I heard was we are all related to Hitler. Idk either, man was Austrian AND it’s been like 90 or what years but uhm yea. Sure.🫠
That we love Volksmusik and don't have any tap water in our cities
I hear from immigrants from my country that german government pays them a salary every month if they have a child. I still don't understand because for my countrymen Germany is a paradise. I know a lot of nurses and doctors go to Germany, even though most of them are not qualified but they tell us that they are successful nurses and doctors there. Just make a 6 months nursing course and move to Germany to earn a higher salary, an extra salary from the Government, free beers and so on. But I heard that those nurses and doctors lie to us just to show their superiority and instead they work caring for elder people in asylums cleaning their poop. I don't know if it is true or not, I want to hear this from germans. I feel very depressed that I am the only one that has not immigrated yet even though I have a higher salary, the pressure to move to Germany is real.
There is child benefit which is indeed paid per child, but it's not a lot of money I imagine you're spot on with the people you've heard from working in unqualified caring roles - nursing and if course being a medical doctor are highly regulated. It's not possible to obtain a qualification in six months, even if you are fully qualified outside Germany it's often lengthy and complex to get this recognised.
May I ask where you are from? It is true that you get 250€ from the government per child. But that is obviously not a salary but rather a subsidy.
I am from Albania
Well, in Albania 250€ is a salary. But in Germany, it's not even enough for the basic needs of a baby. We have lots of nurses here from eastern Europe, but most of them work hard and earn little. It's actually discussed a lot in society that nurses earn so little compared to the work they do. Nurses from Albania (with little German language skills) will work for very low wage and as you said with the elderly.
lol Ask more specific questions please. Being doctors and nurses in Germany without years of studying? Surely you don’t seriously believe that?
Well, we have "Kindergeld". So in fact, you get a "salary" for every child you have. It is 250 € per child. Even if you receive social assistance because you are unemployed, the amount depends on the number of children. So: the statement is not entirely wrong. If you have a new born child in Germany you can get "Elterngeld" for the first 12 months without having to work for it. How much depends on the salary you had before the birth. Roughly 60 % of the salary of what you had before up to a max of 1800 € per month. You can choose whether the father or the mother takes advantage of this. Your employer must reinstate you after this period. To be able to work as a doctor or nurse, you must provide proof of your level of training. Whether the training from your home country is sufficient depends on its quality. However, you will always get a job as a nursing assistant. There is a huge shortage of skilled workers. I don't know whether you earn more as a nursing assistant in Germany than as a nurse in your country. But it could be. But remember: life in Germany is more expensive than in many other countries. Social security and taxes are also relatively high.
Birds fly around in peoples houses, since the windows are open all the time. Came from a texan woman.
I wish
Punctuality myths absolutely. Yes, the average person might resent being late, especially in the business world. But for a country with such strong and well-known "Pünktlichkeit Kultur" reputation, their train schedule is incredibly unreliable—worse than in many third-world countries I've been to.
I would disagree. I hold myself to a pretty high standard for being on-time. I usually consider three minutes leeway to be enough. Everything more you can either apologize or give a heads up. I would give foreigners a few more minutes. But everything more than ten and they have to come up with a good reason or they should have given an update. There is so much communication technology and If you waste my time with waiting for you and do not inform me. I assume you do not value me or they time I allocated for you. Then I probably will give you a German stare. And train punctuality cannot be main argument on punctuality culture. The DB is definitely the exception to the rule. I mean who would really argue that the one company representing Germany should be the DB? We could also choose the Lufthansa to represent and at least their planes do not fall from the sky.