I am the website author, but I am not the author of this email, even though I could have written many of the items based on my own experiences. If it makes you think or even aggravates you, perhaps it's been worth reading. More examples are on my Daily Life site. Alle Angaben sind wie immer ohne Gewähr!

From an email I received:

I am an American living in a beautiful German city. I have lived here nearly twenty years and do not read , write or understand any German.

Concerning different attitudes and opinions:

German friends know that in my apartment they do not dare close a door, ( I took most of them down anyway) nor do they ever cut off lights when we leave to go out for a coffee. I finally convinced them that it is the turning on and off that uses the most electricity. Every summer I am traveling and when I return to Germany it is the hottest point in the year, Every window on the unairconditioned train is closed tightly. Open one and 10 people get up and slam it shut. But I am seeing apartments advertized WITH AIRCONDITIONING.

When I moved here some kindly Americans told me all the things you could not do on Sundays, like wash clothes. I asked a German lawyer who told me there is no law, If you rent a space you can wash and dry all night long while tap dancing if you want to do so. I have found that a lot of Germans will tell non- Germans about " Laws " that actually do not exist. I do think that they think these are laws. It is a country that is very tightly programmed.

Shopping in Germany can be interesting. The concept of customer service that we see in other countries does not exist here. It is far better than it once was but still not exactly customer friendly. Stores can stay open until 8 PM Monday through Saturday. Unfortunately the labor unions have prevailed and Sundays are not a shopping day which greatly increases the traffic problem here. People are trying to beat the clock to get to a store. Now even if you get to a , say grocery store , 30 minutes before closing you really are not in luck. If the store closes at 8 PM it closes at 8 PM. This means the front door is being locked and all the lights are turned off at 8PM. There are no employees in the building. They really begin to close about 30 minutes ahead of the posted closing time.

Food stores......Mercifully ther are now larger stores comparable to our Supermarkets. I think the practice of putting a Euro in a little slot to release a shopping cart is inconvenient . When you chain the cart back to another one you get the Euro back. I assume this is to discourage the theft of the cart. Most Americans would think, " Gee ,look at this , a shopping cart for only one Euro. I'll take ten." and then there is self bagging in stores , still the worse part of shopping, and the fact that the cashier is sitting down. This strikes me as disrespectful toward the customer and not at all willing to accommodate the customers shopping needs. ( those ridiculous German labor unions , again )

American Style Bread , softer and whiter , has taken hold here now. I personally do not like dark bread but then I never eat bread unless I have a sandwich. Sandwiches , as we know them have not been a part of the German cuisine until recent years. There has been bread with a meat filling but not the concept that we have in the US, no doubt a descendent of English Tea sandwiches.

The Pastry shops offering traditional Kaffe and Kuchen are fast disappearing. To American tastes the pastries are not sweet enough. They are always very beautiful, almost architectural, but not at all sweet. When I entertain my German friends they all seem to love American style cakes and especially pies. Muffins have come to Germany and you see Muffin pans available in stores.

I do like most German food though. It is hard to find a German Restaurant in a city this size. You usually have to go out in a village and I don't do a lot of villaging. There is a place a few miles from me that is very popular with Americans and students because the portions are so ample and the prices are so low . But it is so smokey and HOT and noisy .....it is my experience that Village cafes and restaurants are NOISY.

I refuse flat to be seated with a stranger in a restaurant. The locals are aware of this and at the same time they know better than to seat a stranger at my table. But then I rarely dine out alone.

Iced tea is everwhere but for some strange the Germans think it is seasonal. I drink ice in everything. Cola drinks often have little ice in them . I don't think that they understand that ice enhances any sparkling beverage. Refrigerators have far larger compartments for ice now; in the past few years the frozen food industry here has picked up and what is sold is delicious.

NOSE BLOWING: Do they teach that in German schools? Is there an anatomical difference? I have never met an American yet who can duplicate that moose sound. My nose blowing apparently doeant qualify as real nose blowing under German standards. I have been scolded for using Nasal Spray. " You shouldn"t take that , it's addictive." they warn . I just tell them , " No it's not , I should Know , I have been taking it for years."

Workplace formality here is so interesitng . People work next to another person for 30 years in an office and always refer to that person as Herr or Frau so and so.

Train travel is interesting. I like the fact that the trains are available and convenient to take you absolutely anywhere. At one time all trains seemed to have these hot little compartments seating about six people uncomfortably. You were in a little " glass box" and the fact that you were facing another traveler left you with no privacy at all. I see that the train system is replacing thse type trains with cars with " airplane type seating " which is comfortable and a bit more private.

It's interesting that most Germans think that if you can't speak another language than you are totally uneducated. I have multiple degrees and I have to admit that my knowledge of European history seems to impress my German friends. Once I was with a German friend and we passed a lovely Schloss (Castle). When he told me the family who lived there I immediately turned in and rang the door bell. " Are you crazy?" he asked. When the door was opened I asked if Princess so and so was in and could we see her. She was and we did . My friend had no idea that she was a former American, a friend of my parents.

I am often In Turkey and get interesting comments after the Turks realize I am an American living in Germany. So many of them have lived here at some point and after they become comfortable we begin to talk about those things that we find so odd here in the German culture. One gentleman in Turkey recently told me that he was offended by the choice of attire many Germans seemed to prefer when going to a play or concert. He felt that jeans and athletic shoes did not show an appreciation to the performers . I tend to heartily agree. He also felt as I do that there are so few choices available to the Germans due to the constricting laws ( Shopping Hours ) that this causes them to be so disgruntled . I do know that taxes here are ridiculous. More and more professionals are leaving the country by the thousands each year because they are tired of supporting those Germans , and there seem to be a growing legion of them , who simply refuse to work.

Clothing....Why do Germans wear so much in the winter? I have never seen so many layers of clothing in my life. I suppose this love of saunas..... Like the US , larger cities are occuppied by people wearing more fashionable clothing.

Doors.....Here in the land of the Bauhaus, the breeding ground for Modern Architecture and open planning, most Germans prefer closed interior doors. This presents quite a challenge to us in some office buildings . You are told to go to a certain office only to be faced with a closed door although you do know it isnt a private office but a space where there are several people working at different desks. Do you knock and wait for someone to open the door? Do you knock, then pause , and then open the door cautiously yourself. Do you just walk in with no knock?

Walking..... Lets just call it INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH WALKING. Everyone is in such a terrible rush. I have been told that German families consider a Sunday afternoon stroll in the same way that Americans once looked upon a Sunday afternoon drive. I have no interest at all in walking unless stores are open .

Museums.....One of my great passions, but the lighting here in all of them is just as bad as lighting can get. There is far too much natural light which is the worse way to view any art work.

Buying a car.....The dealers are very accommodating and friendly. More and more autos are sold with automatic transmissions although many many die hards here insist on manual transmissions. When I first arrived the German friends were fascinated that I had a car with an automatic transmission. As I explained to them, " why would you actually want to add to the stress of driving by having to think about changing gears?" ( and besides this frees up a hand to eat with , drink with , apply makeup, brush your hair , finish dressing...) Twenty years later all of my friends here have bought cars with automatic transmissions. To get a Drivers license Germans have to take a driving course at some expense. Most drive as if they have never taken any driving course at all.

Which leads to Parking Places.....I am amazed at how long it takes a German to get in and out of a car. I mean they take off a coat , they adjust this and adjust that, they get out a thermos. I think it's a control issue. The driver knows that in all likelyhood he is relasing the only available parking place for a thousand blocks and he actually enjoys having 17 cars lined up behind him all waiting for it. Most German cities have made parking as inconvenient as possible .TREES take precidence over tax paying residents of that city.

Renting a house or an apartment. It can be an ordeal. For one thing there is a feeling that one person needs so much space, two people need so much space, three people need so much space , etc. Should you want four square meters more than what is expected you are met with very odd stares. It took me a while to find a ten room apartment . I have looked at many newly constructed apartments and the planning is really pretty dreadful. If you rent , German landlords can be interesting, I am told that in villages they are very intrusive and actually enter your apartment to close the doors between rooms and do thse little German things. There is definitely a strain of thinking that non -Germans need guidance in order to shape up into " Germans ". Immobiliens are real estate agenbts who handle the sale or rental of properties. They charge a lot and now I am told are losing business because property owners simply advertize their properties in the internet, thus saving a commmission to the Imobillien. Interest rates are low but buying property here is so entangled with massive amounts of RED TAPE that , well, is it worth it? I can see why the concept of making money by buying a house , rennovating it and reselling it at a profit simply has not caught on here yet.

University life...... OH OH , Now universities will begin to actually charge a tuition. University students present themselves as far more "adult" than American students do. The system is very different . I can't see that the end results are much different from the U.S. I can only relate to my own field .

Travel.....Germans are traveling more and every time you travel , even if you don't realize it , you open yourself up to comparing the country you have visited with your own. They are seeing the conveniences in other countries, the open shopping hours , the day long availablity of all sorts of services. At last things are beginning to change here.

Return to the Work Page Kinda reminds me of Mark Leyner