Not just since I am together with my American girlfriend there is something in my country I can't stand. Germans are experts on everything. Asked or not asked they let you know what they think and how they see the world. As always, I have to say I don't like stereotypes and generalisations. There are many, many wonderful and friendly people here in my country but there are also a lot of the first mentioned.
I can't stand people who tell you: "Why don't you do that like this" or "oh my god you look awful today, didn't you sleep enough???" and the grumpy retired who yell at you when you do somehting wrong ae just a pain in the a...The problem is that everyone doesn't like it. It happens so often that people tell me what awful things someone said to them and complain why they can't stick to their own business. I just think then how they do the same all the time. Is it so difficult to understand that you shouldn't say something to another person you don't want to hear?
I don't know why but good manners are not always seen as something important. On the contrary something like friendly small talk at the beginning of a business meeting or in general, with a person you don't know is seen as something inefficient. As a student I worked in a callcenter where I had to put business people through. It happened very often, especially with people in a higher position in a company that they would be really disrespectful. It is very efficient but just rude behavior if you only say: Miller, Mr. Schneider!!! The information i should get was that the name of the person who called was Miller and he wanted to talk to Mr. Schneider. Since these people were in a higher position in a company bad behavior can't have anything to do with a possible lack of education. It always really offended me when it happened.
It is not just the cashier in a grocery store that answers you in a very sassy way when you ask for a new line to open." For you???"
It is also not just the Hartz IV guy who is cutting the line in front of you.
What is it that people behave like that? And was it always like that? Older people tell you that there was a time when manners were more important. If you read old letters or watch old movies the language they used was definitely more polite and less efficient. What do you think???
Samstag, 2. April 2011
Mittwoch, 30. März 2011
Montag, 28. März 2011
German Humor???
I won't say anything just think about it:
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110328-34021.html
Sorry you have to copy it, don't know why it doesn't work.
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110328-34021.html
Sorry you have to copy it, don't know why it doesn't work.
Everything ends sometimes
Since I am originally from Baden-Württemberg the states elections which took place yesterday were very interesting for me even if I live in Berlin now. American expats might think German politics are not interesting but these elections were interesting. Something happened I would have never ever imagined. After almost 60 years of being in power the CDU (German Republican Party equivalent, well not really since I believe that German parties are all more leftwing than most of the US politicians) lost ethe elections. If it wouldn't be inaproppriate after what happened in Japan you could call it a political earthquake.
Now the state will have a Green-SPD government with a green ministerpräsident (govenor), also something very new since the green party never was that strong. It will be very interesting to see, what the new government will do. The controversy about the new train station in the state's capital Stuttgart, which is known as Stuttgart 21 project, will be a big challenge for them. The greens opposed the plans to build it and now they might have no other chance than building it.
The situation in the japanese nuclear power plant finally gave the greens the push of the voters to be that strong in the elections since they wanted to end the usage of nuclear power since decades. Both, Stuttgart 21 and the japanese nuclear catastrophy polarised German politics in a way I never experienced before.
Something you are used to from the US at least since Bill Clinton and which got even bigger with the whole tea party movement, might come to Germany, too. In the past they would fight in a parlamentary debate but at night members from different parties would go to have a drink together. This could be over now. Today the new Minister of the Interior got a bullet in his mail from a leftwing anarchist group as a warning sign. Were will that end?
There are some things we could and should do similar than the US but the polarisation of politics is definitely nothing we should adopt.
Now the state will have a Green-SPD government with a green ministerpräsident (govenor), also something very new since the green party never was that strong. It will be very interesting to see, what the new government will do. The controversy about the new train station in the state's capital Stuttgart, which is known as Stuttgart 21 project, will be a big challenge for them. The greens opposed the plans to build it and now they might have no other chance than building it.
The situation in the japanese nuclear power plant finally gave the greens the push of the voters to be that strong in the elections since they wanted to end the usage of nuclear power since decades. Both, Stuttgart 21 and the japanese nuclear catastrophy polarised German politics in a way I never experienced before.
Something you are used to from the US at least since Bill Clinton and which got even bigger with the whole tea party movement, might come to Germany, too. In the past they would fight in a parlamentary debate but at night members from different parties would go to have a drink together. This could be over now. Today the new Minister of the Interior got a bullet in his mail from a leftwing anarchist group as a warning sign. Were will that end?
There are some things we could and should do similar than the US but the polarisation of politics is definitely nothing we should adopt.
Dienstag, 15. März 2011
Japan
My deepest sympathies and condolences to all the people of the wonderful country of Japan. What a terrible desaster for mankind.
Donnerstag, 10. März 2011
German Ways Part 1: Fasching
OMG, it is already march and I realized that this is my first post this year. I don't know what is more stunning for me. It was a very busy start of the year and so I was never really in the mood to sit down and do my blog obligations. Well let me have a very late new years resolution to blog more often.
I want to start a new series about different topics that bother me here in my strange Nativeland. Since the peak of German fun and humour (Fasching, Karneval, etc. and please notice the irony!!!) isn't over very long, I thought I would start with it. Living in Berlin has many advantages, one is that Fasching does not exist here and you are not bothered. Since I am from the south I can not say that about the first part of my life.
I have to tell you, I really hate it. The parades are boringly the same every year, the word hellau makes me sick after I hear it more than 10 times (and that means I am really sick) the candy is awful and don't get me started with the TV coverage of the so called Prunksitzungen. Overweight Men dress like women and do ballet dancing, people talk about their stool samples or do slapstick and the audience laughs like crazy of course just after the fanfare. When it is very very haha funny then they do the fanfare 3 times in a row (Is this what people mean when they say Germans don't have a sense of humour??? It would make sense when you have to give them a signal when to laugh!!!
These funny people are the same who have google street view paranoia, they fight with the neighbours about the height of the hedge or scream at children when they dare to interrupt the Mittagsruhe. They have no sense of humour in the daily life and are angry grumpy grandpas in normal life or even worse tell you how to cross a street or that you have to slow down with your bike, car, etc.
Fasching seems very German to me. Everything has to be organized, even the fun part. What is your opinion about Fasching???? I can't wait untill november 11 at 11.11 am (hahaha how very funny) when the next 5th seasons starts.
I want to start a new series about different topics that bother me here in my strange Nativeland. Since the peak of German fun and humour (Fasching, Karneval, etc. and please notice the irony!!!) isn't over very long, I thought I would start with it. Living in Berlin has many advantages, one is that Fasching does not exist here and you are not bothered. Since I am from the south I can not say that about the first part of my life.
I have to tell you, I really hate it. The parades are boringly the same every year, the word hellau makes me sick after I hear it more than 10 times (and that means I am really sick) the candy is awful and don't get me started with the TV coverage of the so called Prunksitzungen. Overweight Men dress like women and do ballet dancing, people talk about their stool samples or do slapstick and the audience laughs like crazy of course just after the fanfare. When it is very very haha funny then they do the fanfare 3 times in a row (Is this what people mean when they say Germans don't have a sense of humour??? It would make sense when you have to give them a signal when to laugh!!!
These funny people are the same who have google street view paranoia, they fight with the neighbours about the height of the hedge or scream at children when they dare to interrupt the Mittagsruhe. They have no sense of humour in the daily life and are angry grumpy grandpas in normal life or even worse tell you how to cross a street or that you have to slow down with your bike, car, etc.
Fasching seems very German to me. Everything has to be organized, even the fun part. What is your opinion about Fasching???? I can't wait untill november 11 at 11.11 am (hahaha how very funny) when the next 5th seasons starts.
Samstag, 4. Dezember 2010
Grouch of the year
Two weeks ago i thought of introducing a new category to my blog: Grouch of the month. I wanted to honour wonderful and lovely behaviour like the one cashier at my local grocery store. We had a thanksgiving dinner for friends and part of it was a pumpkin dish with sage (Amazingly good!!!!).
I went to the store and just found an awful looking old plant which they called sage. I saw that you could maybe use half of it so i asked the cashier for a discount. She looked at me like i told her she wouldn't get any vacation days for the rest of her life anymore. In the typical nasty berliner Schnauze-style she said: Det kann ick nich entscheiden und det mach ick och hier nich. (I can't decide that and something like that I don't do). That made me really angry and I said: So get me one who can decide that. At that point I didn't care that the line behind me got bigger. It is not my fault that even in better stores normally just 2 cash outs are open? Her face expressed sheer hate and with the biggest disgust ever she called someone. The superior who came gave it to me for 1/2 price. When I left I smiled at the grouchy woman and thanked her for her wonderful service. She must have had a muscle paralyzation because her expression didn't change at all the whole time I was there. If not I would recomend therapy: How can I learn to get happy in life and if it is not possible for me how can I hide my negative attitude so I don't ruin the day of other people!!!!! Does anybody know a therapist who offers that??? I would love to hand over the adress and phone number!!!!
Well, the story above is nothing compared to the experience my girlfriend and I had with a Deutsche Beamtin. And she will be named: GROUCH OF THE YEAR and we should send her a thank you-card for making our life so difficult.
As I mentioned in an earlier post my gf does a master program at Humboldt-University here in Berlin. In 2008 she got granted a 2 years student visa. Since she needs another half a year to finish she had to renew her visa. So we went to the Ausländer-Behörde together and we thougt we were prepared. Boy was I wrong!!!
First the Beamtin was kind of nice and she asked for her health insurance status. In Germany everyone needs health insurance and if you don't have it as a foreigner you have to leave. Since she is covered under her mothers plan in the US for free she opted out of the German system to save 65 Euro every month. She has a very good health care plan with her mother and since she goes back to the US every semester break for some time she always went to the necessary doctors appointments. She was told in 2008 by the student who did the visa stuff for her at her school that this is possible but she could never get the German states health care anymore for the rest of the master-program, she would have to get private insurance if needed. So she took the document which showed that she opted out to the Ausländeramt in 2008 and since then it wasn't a problem.
This time the Beamtin looked at it and said she doesn't have health insurance and that her college must have been overworked so she misread the document as a confirmation from AOK that she is insured there. WHAT ???? If it wouldn't be so urgent I could have found some unintentional humor in this statement. If someone in 2008 would have told her the problems with her mothers plan she would have gotten the German one. Now she has to send a document to her insurance. I asked the Beamtin if you could get this formular in English because it might be difficult for someone in the US to read it. She didn't care and just said: Hamwa nich!!! (We don't have that). So the only possible option might be now to get private health insurance here, because AOK won't take her anymore and her insurance in the US can't guaranty what this document asks for: No time limit for the plan (her plan will expire in 2012) and no co-payments (she has very little but even that is to much).
This is just the little of the 2 problems the Beamtin caused. She asked her then to show that she has a monthly income. Her grandma and her mother give her money every month. She showed the notified statement from both of them. Then the woman got really nasty: "No, no, no that is enough that doesn't work here you have to have a blocked account where the minimum they have to put in is 8000 Euro and you can just take out 650 Euro every month. Otherwise you have to show me your bank statements wchich shows this amount to be put on every month in the past". She then decided to not renew her visa and just give her an extension of the old one untill January 18, 2011. Thank you wonderful lady. If your "overworked" collegue from 2008 wouldn't have missed to tell her that, too she might have been able to put the money she lived of in her first year into this blocked account. She sold her car in the US and it was a big part of the required amount of 8000 what she got for it. But nobody told her to do so, especially NOT the overworked Beamtin in 2008. In the last 2 years my girlfriend always took the money out of her US-Bank account and put the money into her German account. That was the cheapest and easiest way to get money from the US. Why should she have done it differently. Of course she did not put all the money into her German account because sometimes, liebe Beamtin, you have to do something like grocery shopping or you need other stuff.
Since her brother is in a masters program in the US her family doesn't have 8000 Euro in cash to put on her account at once now. So what to do ???? Not your problem, liebe Beamtin, I know. If you want people to follow the schei.... Deutsches Beamtenrecht than teach your collegues better and don't blame it on someone who can't know your silly rules.
At home I went on the internet just to find out that for a renewal of her student visa you don't have to proof all the things she asked for. Did anybody experience similar problems??? Why does this country make it so difficult and complicated for you always...
I went to the store and just found an awful looking old plant which they called sage. I saw that you could maybe use half of it so i asked the cashier for a discount. She looked at me like i told her she wouldn't get any vacation days for the rest of her life anymore. In the typical nasty berliner Schnauze-style she said: Det kann ick nich entscheiden und det mach ick och hier nich. (I can't decide that and something like that I don't do). That made me really angry and I said: So get me one who can decide that. At that point I didn't care that the line behind me got bigger. It is not my fault that even in better stores normally just 2 cash outs are open? Her face expressed sheer hate and with the biggest disgust ever she called someone. The superior who came gave it to me for 1/2 price. When I left I smiled at the grouchy woman and thanked her for her wonderful service. She must have had a muscle paralyzation because her expression didn't change at all the whole time I was there. If not I would recomend therapy: How can I learn to get happy in life and if it is not possible for me how can I hide my negative attitude so I don't ruin the day of other people!!!!! Does anybody know a therapist who offers that??? I would love to hand over the adress and phone number!!!!
Well, the story above is nothing compared to the experience my girlfriend and I had with a Deutsche Beamtin. And she will be named: GROUCH OF THE YEAR and we should send her a thank you-card for making our life so difficult.
As I mentioned in an earlier post my gf does a master program at Humboldt-University here in Berlin. In 2008 she got granted a 2 years student visa. Since she needs another half a year to finish she had to renew her visa. So we went to the Ausländer-Behörde together and we thougt we were prepared. Boy was I wrong!!!
First the Beamtin was kind of nice and she asked for her health insurance status. In Germany everyone needs health insurance and if you don't have it as a foreigner you have to leave. Since she is covered under her mothers plan in the US for free she opted out of the German system to save 65 Euro every month. She has a very good health care plan with her mother and since she goes back to the US every semester break for some time she always went to the necessary doctors appointments. She was told in 2008 by the student who did the visa stuff for her at her school that this is possible but she could never get the German states health care anymore for the rest of the master-program, she would have to get private insurance if needed. So she took the document which showed that she opted out to the Ausländeramt in 2008 and since then it wasn't a problem.
This time the Beamtin looked at it and said she doesn't have health insurance and that her college must have been overworked so she misread the document as a confirmation from AOK that she is insured there. WHAT ???? If it wouldn't be so urgent I could have found some unintentional humor in this statement. If someone in 2008 would have told her the problems with her mothers plan she would have gotten the German one. Now she has to send a document to her insurance. I asked the Beamtin if you could get this formular in English because it might be difficult for someone in the US to read it. She didn't care and just said: Hamwa nich!!! (We don't have that). So the only possible option might be now to get private health insurance here, because AOK won't take her anymore and her insurance in the US can't guaranty what this document asks for: No time limit for the plan (her plan will expire in 2012) and no co-payments (she has very little but even that is to much).
This is just the little of the 2 problems the Beamtin caused. She asked her then to show that she has a monthly income. Her grandma and her mother give her money every month. She showed the notified statement from both of them. Then the woman got really nasty: "No, no, no that is enough that doesn't work here you have to have a blocked account where the minimum they have to put in is 8000 Euro and you can just take out 650 Euro every month. Otherwise you have to show me your bank statements wchich shows this amount to be put on every month in the past". She then decided to not renew her visa and just give her an extension of the old one untill January 18, 2011. Thank you wonderful lady. If your "overworked" collegue from 2008 wouldn't have missed to tell her that, too she might have been able to put the money she lived of in her first year into this blocked account. She sold her car in the US and it was a big part of the required amount of 8000 what she got for it. But nobody told her to do so, especially NOT the overworked Beamtin in 2008. In the last 2 years my girlfriend always took the money out of her US-Bank account and put the money into her German account. That was the cheapest and easiest way to get money from the US. Why should she have done it differently. Of course she did not put all the money into her German account because sometimes, liebe Beamtin, you have to do something like grocery shopping or you need other stuff.
Since her brother is in a masters program in the US her family doesn't have 8000 Euro in cash to put on her account at once now. So what to do ???? Not your problem, liebe Beamtin, I know. If you want people to follow the schei.... Deutsches Beamtenrecht than teach your collegues better and don't blame it on someone who can't know your silly rules.
At home I went on the internet just to find out that for a renewal of her student visa you don't have to proof all the things she asked for. Did anybody experience similar problems??? Why does this country make it so difficult and complicated for you always...
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