Quote :

"The key here is that Germans believe that they follow the rules"

They do love to trot that out, especially as a defense at war crimes tribunals.

Is there some reason for the aversion to electronic communication?

4/10/2014 10:43:22 AM

plausible deniability

4/10/2014 10:47:43 AM

the last time they kept all those records, it didn't turn out so well for them. I suppose an aversion to a permanent source of documentation would be natural after that whole, you know, thing

4/10/2014 10:50:11 AM

gas is something like 8$/gallon here.

4/10/2014 10:55:04 AM

Great thread. title is funny, insensitive, but funny (yes, I read about this in GOP's thread before you made this one).

I love hearing about the different ways and cultures of the world. I wished I remembered by experiences abroad (Okinawa and Costa Rica for the major two) more than I do; though I never lived there (visited for 1 week x 2 & 1 week, respectively)

4/10/2014 11:09:58 AM

April 28th is Holocaust Remembrance Day. You should go into work early and decorate the lab.

4/10/2014 12:46:34 PM

Quote :

"Is there some reason for the aversion to electronic communication?"

Well, one reason has to be the jobs that people will loose if they upgrade to electric. The system that they have now is so dependent on mail that the only service that people serve at local offices or service buildings is to simply collect your paperwork and mail it out. For instance, lets say I want to get a new insurance plan. I go to the insurance office and tell them that I want a plan, then they say OK and ask for my birthcertificate and student visa and mail that to Berlin. Then somebody in Berlin looks at it and mails it back to the local office. So, jobs would be lost.

The second has to be that they are resistant to change, because they truly believe that their way is superior.

It is real ironic that for as advanced as the Germans are in tech and engineering (I mean German scientists basically gave us modern theoretical physics), their bureaucracy is incredibly ancient.




[Edited on April 10, 2014 at 12:54 PM. Reason : g]

4/10/2014 12:50:19 PM

Does anyone there admit to watching the weird porn supposedly produced by their countrymen?

4/10/2014 12:54:41 PM

So, basically 10% of free TV channels turn into porn after 11 pm. Not exactly sure what you mean, but they are more opne about that than us.

4/10/2014 12:56:44 PM

Start the day off with a positive note:

I really like the fact that there is less social class distinction here compared to the States. People seem to interact with each other on an even keel despite their income, and people are OK with the fact that you are taxed by the government based off of what you earn and how many children that you have. Totally the opposite in the States where we have what O'Reilly coined as the White Establishment.

One time my boss, who surely earns a great deal of money, was openly discussing how he factored in tax breaks by the government when deciding how many children to have, and from his viewpoint it was almost as if the government was encouraging him to have more children. This would NEVER HAPPEN in the States.

[Edited on April 11, 2014 at 3:59 AM. Reason : h]

4/11/2014 3:50:20 AM

How's your ugly german wife?

4/11/2014 5:49:15 AM

^Not german, not ugly, just cray cray

4/11/2014 6:15:21 AM

Quote :

"One time my boss, who surely earns a great deal of money, was openly discussing how he factored in tax breaks by the government when deciding how many children to have, and from his viewpoint it was almost as if the government was encouraging him to have more children. This would NEVER HAPPEN in the States. "

There Government does actually encourage their citizens to have more children because of declining/aging population.

4/11/2014 6:38:13 AM

Of course, I am aware of that. I was just commenting how it's nice that any form of government assistance is not viewed as some scarlet letter like it is back home.

4/11/2014 7:07:18 AM

Do Germans really like David Hasselhoff?

4/11/2014 10:04:26 AM

Quote :

"This would NEVER HAPPEN in the States."

which part would never happen? openly discussing it? or making decisions about children based on taxes? because the second one happens.

[Edited on April 11, 2014 at 10:18 AM. Reason : .]

4/11/2014 10:16:38 AM

^^ no, because he is not really german

^ Talking about it.

4/11/2014 10:58:04 AM

He's 25% German...not too shabby!

4/11/2014 11:32:24 AM

Quote :

"It is like the job requirement is that you can't speak English. I live in a city in the Dortmund area that has a population of about 300,000. So it is not the small or that big really. And it is a major university town (kind of like chapel hill I huess), so there are a lot of people that live here that could speak english if you were in an emergency."

Most Germans learn English from Primary school on. I've never spoken to a German who didn't have at least broken English

They have something like 50 million English speakers and more than any other country where it isn't the official language.(except us).

I could see if you were in east germany where old people didn't learn English but Dortmund is west.

[Edited on April 11, 2014 at 8:18 PM. Reason : k]

4/11/2014 8:16:54 PM

dude I swear to ya, when you go into any sort of government registration office, a hospital, or on the bus, there is a huge drop off. It could be that they don't want to speak or are nervous, but it is there.

Yes, people between 16 - 30 can fo the most part speak it well, but it is not as good as it comes off. English is very hard for them to understand, at least the way that we speak, and some times to communicate it can require very slow very deliberate english.

4/12/2014 3:38:43 AM

Another thing with German and English is that the nouns are often times remarkably different in German than they would be for English or the Romance languages, which makes things difficult when you are trying to pursue a conversation beyond what you encounter at a bar or shop.

For instance, when I first arrived I was put in the wrong tax class due to somebody filling out paper work wrong. My german at that point sucked, so I went to the tax office and asked for an English speaking worker, and they directed me to this guy who greeted me with a hello and then asked me some questions about where I was from and if I liked Germany, so I really thought that I hit the jackpot. Then, we hit the paperwork and basically he could not translate anything to english, and I just gave him the benefit of the doubt that everything was getting corrected as he shook his head. At the very end he gave me a form, and then again struggled with German, and came up with the english translation of "when they receive this, it will all be OK", so I assumed that he had sent it to them or made some elctronic entry, but no, he meant that I needed to mail the form to the them but could not say it in English. This resulted in an extra month of me getting docked half my pay because I was in the wrong tax class.

Also, the first person that you meet at the foreign immigration office is unable to speak a word of Engish.

So, yeah, you would think that based off of the fact that the younger generation can manage English fine that they would make it a job requirement for the beurocratic jobs (and bus drivers), but it isn't.

Other things that take getting use to:

Germany is still a cash dominated society, meaning that people pay with cash and most places (again unless they are major tourist type shops/businesses) do not even take cards. When I first got here, I was constantly met with a dead stare when I gave somebody my card and often times had to bike it to cash machine. Most Germans do not even have credit cards and pay with things in cash. Also, compared to the states more people live in apartments instead of taking out a loan to buy a house.

[Edited on April 13, 2014 at 4:39 AM. Reason : s]

4/13/2014 4:33:59 AM

Quote :

"Germany is still a cash dominated society, meaning that people pay with cash and most places (again unless they are major tourist type shops/businesses) do not even take cards. When I first got here, I was constantly met with a dead stare when I gave somebody my card and often times had to bike it to cash machine. Most Germans do not even have credit cards and pay with things in cash. Also, compared to the states more people live in apartments instead of taking out a loan to buy a house."

I wish we were more like this. People are so fucking entitled when it comes to their damn cards here in the US.

4/13/2014 4:53:48 AM

Quote :

"JEWS"

6/26/2014 12:19:03 AM