10 things you got wrong about germany
being in time and trains
Sure, we germans love to be on time, we are worldwide known for our punctuality. But our trains are a whole other story. There is this common joke here „do ppl who work for DB (Deutsche Bahn our traincompany) have to be on time at work, or do they take trains to work“ because the reality is like this, trains are rarely ever on time and every season creates new hurdles to overcome, the ac falls out because the summer just popped up or it`s actually cold in winter or just poor planning. Fact is, if someone ever says to you „as punctual as a german train“ it means not punctual at all.
Lederhosen
Don`t we all love stereotypes, one stereotype about germany is the culture of the Lederhosen. Outside of germany it`s basicly the picture of traditional pants for men. It`s not, it`s a traditional pants from bavaria which is just one of our 16 federal states. But it was the most successful one when it came to marketing for tourists, now germany is associated with lederhosen, even tho only a small part of germany actually has them as traditional clothings. But we won`t be butthurt if you buy and wear them.
Humour
Germans don`t have humour, this is only partially true. We have humour but it`s dry as a cracker. We take things a lot more serious but that doesn`t mean we have no humour. Here is a small example „“Boss, can I leave work two hours early today? My wife wants me to go shopping with her.” “That’s out of the question. “Thanks, boss! I knew you wouldn’t let me down.“
But i promise, if you get used to the dry german jokes...you will have a fun time.
We are not the most complicated language
We all know the saying „life is to short to learn german“ and yeah what can i say, our language is a pain in the ass. 3 different genderarticles like der, die, das...the fact that a girl is an it „das Mädchen“, but the keyboard is a she „die Tastatur“ and if you get those articles wrong, the grammar of the whole sentence will be wrong. We add words to eachother and create really long words, i.e. „Multivitaminmehrfruchstaftgetränk“ which is just a multifruitjuice. There are tons of evidence that our language isn`t easy, but it`s definitly not the most complicated one. Personally i find polish to be a superhard language, their grammar seems way more complicated then ours.
we have very poor ppl aswell
We have poor people, and with poor i mean people living on the street. Germany is one of the richest industrial nations on this planet, but a very significant amount of people live in poverty. We have people without healthinsurance, people who live on the street and people who have nothing but the clothes they wear. A big number of people relies on free food given out by churches and other charity organisations, it`s a way bigger number then it should be. I know that germany has a good socialnet and plans to help those who are in need, but like all plans..they have holes. And our bureaucrazy makes it sometimes really hard to help people. So just because you see wealthy germans on the tv who drive around in their BMWs and live in nice houses, it`s definitly not a fact for everyone. We have ghettos, we have poor people on the street and we have old people standing in line for free handouts of food. Because it`s either that or not eating.
beer is not our most fav drink
beer is actually just on the 5th spot on the ranking of most sold drinks. The all time favourit is fizzy water, we love our fizzy water. Then it`s applesodas, coffee..sodas in general and then beer. But there is some truth to it, we take beer breewing incredibly serious and we have tons of small local breweries and i think even if you tried a different beer everyday, i don`t think you can drink all beers made in germany.
sauerkraut and sausage are not the most sold dish we are actually a nation that eats a lot of pasta, pasta dishes are the most sold ones in germany. I personally will be thankful forever to the italians for bringing this to germany. I mean what is life without pasta, i can`t even imagine it.
being rude
we often come across as rude, but for a german we are just normal. We are more direct then others and often we don`t engage in small talk as easy as americans for example. I will never understand why you greet a mc.donalds worker with „hi, how are you doing? And they will reply „fine how are you, then another fine from your side til you hear „what can i do for you“ and then you can finally say what you want to order. I don`t get it, why ask someone how they are, if none wants to know. In germany an order at mc.donalds goes like this mcdonalds:“ welcome to Mc.Donalds, your order please“ If you`re at the counter inside you might want to add a hello first. And that`s it, you order, you pay done. Often our efficiency and not engaging in small talk is interpretated as rude, we are not. We just don`t know better.
we dont speak english
yes everything in germany gets translated or subbed, but it`s a misconception to think we don`t speak english. All kids in germany will have english as a second language in school, many will learn 2 languages. I had 8 years of english in school and 7 in french, (french was a waste of time tho) the reason why not many germans speak english is they are to shy making mistakes. And in order to avoid them they would rather not speak then make a mistake. But mostlikely you will find many people here who will understand you.
no no speed limit
yes, the german autobahn...where there is no speedlimit. Actually our most common speedlimit is 120km/h and only 40-45% of the german autobahn are without a speedlimit. It`s shifting due to many construction sides on the autobahn and many politicians want to ban the no speedlimit rule. Personally i wouldnt`t mind that, i ve seen to many accidents of people completely destroying their car and get torn into pieces because they caused an accident with 250km/h. It doesn`t matter what you hit when you drive 250km/h..you will not survive.