Kapitel Zwei Kultur

Guten Abend!

After reading all of the articles, I must admit that I am less than surprised about how German culture operates. I have always been aware of the fact that most Americans are rather sensitive, which causes most people to "sugar-coat" certain statements and questions. Also, many Americans seem to "beat around the bush" when it comes to a more unpleasant topic. However most people in Europe, it seems to be Germans especially, are more direct. They say what they want to say and don't pull any punches. Ultimately, this seems like a better way to communicate, because in doing this, many common misunderstandings can be avoided.

Along with the German bluntness, the unrestrained questions about your decisions and opinions are also not surprising. If you're going to ask the awkward questions, why not get the reasoning behind the answers? Again, this seems to be a much more effective way to communicate. The frequent debates would surely get old, however; but communicating like this doesn't seem like it would be that bad to me. The only issue I would have would be when discussing something I do or do not like; there may not be a specific reason why I like or dislike that particular thing, sometimes the answer is "just because". It seems like this answer would not suffice to most German people, that they might think you're just unwilling to tell them the real reason for your opinion.

I can't say that I wasn't surprised by at least some of the things I read about. The Germanic "stare down" for example, seems super awkward and somewhat unpleasant. I myself am the type of person that thinks there is something on my face, or that I look particularly weird when I catch someone looking at me for an extended period of time. I understand if you are simply having a staring fit, but if everyone is doing it for a long time, I will most likely go to the nearest bathroom to see what is drawing everyone's attention.

As far as the whining goes, I have to admit that I have a slight tendency to do more whining than I should. I most likely wouldn't even notice it when in Germany. Most of the whining I would do in Germany would stem from the German peoples excessive knowledge of statistics. One of the few things I have absolutely no interest in is population. I will of course notice that there are more people around me in areas with a greater population that in the small towns I am accustomed to, but that doesn't mean I want to know exactly how many people are present in a city. Information of any kind about my current city, state, etc, is not something I go out of my way to learn. For the most part, I find things of that sort unimportant.

Even though these articles were meant to illuminate the less appealing side of Germany, I still think that it would be a very nice place to visit, vacation in, or even live. Most of the cultural differences would surely be less noticeable with time, especially in a country as interesting as Germany.

Well, Auf Wiederschreiben!