I was warned the same about the Netherlands. But it is not usually rudeness, it is just that the Dutch are pretty blunt, and "call a spade a spade". Sometimes the Brits or Americans don't understand this.
The difference between Germans and Dutchies is that Germans will tell you their honest opinion if you ask for it. Dutchies will give your their opinion, especially if you didn’t ask for it.
I lived in Germany for three months last year. I traveled a lot using the 9€ ticket. Everyone I had any interaction with was wonderful, especially at my local LIDL and REWE. There was one local bus driver that was awesome.
@@kawaii_hawaii222 I lived in Lower Saxony. I traveled to numerous cities. Dresden, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Gifhorn, Braunschweig, Hannover, Kassel(2), Keil, Bad Harzburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Goslar, Köln.
My two cents: Perhaps it’s a question of semantics. As an American living in Germany (going on almost 20 yrs), I think Germans and Americans have a different definition of what it means to be ‘polite.’ In the US (regardless of whether it’s with friends, acquaintances, coworkers, or strangers), it’s impolite to bring down the mood of the group. In Germany, politeness seems to be measured by what WORDS you say; whereas in America, your ATTITUDE plays the major role in how people interpret your politeness. For example, if you’re not greeted appropriately (i.e. “Guten Tag” or similar) in a shop by the employees in Germany, this is considered impolite. In the US, no words are necessary, but acknowledging the customer’s existence with a smile, nod of the head, or friendly words like “hi” are all that is needed to be polite; but, if you scowl or frown this would absolutely be viewed as impolite.
I disagree - or at least this does not align with my personal experience. If someone greets me with "Guten Tag" but their face remains expressionless and they don't even smile for a second, then I don't feel welcome and I wouldn't exactly consider that polite. If someone on the other hand simply gives me a quick friendly smile and nod but does not say anything I would consider that behaviour as friendly and polite even with no words exchanged.
I think you're saying the exact same thing I am. If someone greets you with "Guten Tag" but is expressionless, I take this to be rude. But in Germany, this is NOT considered rude.@@julinbelle
@mrridikilis I forgot to point out in my comment that I am German. What I was trying to say is that I - as a German - _would_ consider it impolite though. I don't expect over the top grinning or extensive conversation but at least a small smile and nod. I don't like shopping at places where staff is unfriendly, it makes me feel uncomfortable like I'm not welcome. This might be very regional though, I grew up in the Rhineland and people here are supposedly a lot more friendly than in other parts of Germany. So what I would consider impolite might in fact be deemed socially acceptable in other parts of the country.
Maybe your are right. Even German courts will give you a lesser fine when you insult a police officer with the formal you "Sie ****" than informal you "Du ****". Acknowledging that you, while insulting someone, showed some politeness in your words. 😅
@@julinbelle yeah, i think you're right; this could be regional. i live in BW, where people in the service industry can be rather curt. but i love interacting with people in Koeln or Duesseldorf!
In the US, people in customer service jobs will usually get written up for not being polite enough, not smiling enough, etc. This happened to me in multiple jobs. Even when you apply to any job, there's a baseline expectation that you are doing so out of devotion to the company in question, as it makes it easier to discourage unionization (which is illegal, but most new employees in non-union businesses have to attend seminars on how to report coworkers for trying to unionize).
I lived in Munich for two years before moving to the Netherlands. I never experienced rudeness from any public service worker. They don't smile and are not always helpful, But never rude. But had many experiences of workers being rude at private establishments, which was kind of a shocker.
Well we openly talk about customers from hell and how good it feels to lose them instead of making a business and bonding with them. Not every profit is worth it.
In my personal experience, people from Munich are especially rude in their own weird Bavarian way, I feel like. But I also live much closer to the Netherlands (pretty much only ~3km) than I do Munich, so there's that.
I am from northern Germany and we are said to be rather quiet and reserved. You know that particularly from the Flensburger commercials. You've already described it very well and I enjoy getting different perspectives on Germany. I have half my family in England myself. :)
Two days ago I was in a Schienen Ersatz Verkehrs Bus. A bus that operates when trains are out of order for some reason. There was this young woman on it, who couldnt speak German very well and wanted to go the other way actually. The driver, quite rudely but friendly, told her "Come here! Come to the front!" And told her quite rudely how to get to where she wanted. He then proceeded to stop the bus coming from the other direction and told the other driver to wait for a girl who has to get on his bus. The other bus driver unfortunately didn't quite catch it, or was just quite an ar se. He drove off without waiting for the girl. Our busdriver then loudly shouted "arschloch!" In that bus drivers direction. Just goes to show, rudeness doesn't mean unfriendly or unwillingness to help. The same bus driver also let people on without a ticket because who cares on a SEV Bus no one's gonna fine them.
Nice story. Yeah, there are different levels of friendliness and unfriendliness. You don't have to super nice smiling like an idiot to be considered friendly. You can be a bit unnerved and still be helpful. We don't know what kind of day you had, if you are tired, if you have personal problems etc. Maybe people have bothered you with the same problem a thousand times and you just had it but you still do your best to be as polite as possible and helpful. That's a lesson learned!
But English bus drivers can also be a little witty. You have to stand at the bus stop and make it visible that he will stop, it was evening and I had black clothes on. I was greeted with "You couldn't find something darker to put on?" I can live with criticism put into sarkasm but I was a little bit surprised.
Having worked in customer service for ten years, I like to remind people that the ones serving you are people, too. If there was an overly rude fellow in, we'd take great pleasure in being nasty in return -- while being extra polite and nice to every other table in the vicinity. And especially waiters have a lot of really fun ways to mess with customers. Either way, people just need to be aware that 'politeness' is a culturally acquired definition. There is no 'universal truth' here. Let's just treat each other respectfully, and it'll be okay.
The right thing to do when faced with a nasty customer is to stand your ground and tell them politely but firmly that there behavior is unacceptable and if the do not stop they will have to leave. It is VERY childish and unprofessional to simply act nasty in return when you are on the job.
@@jamesocallaghan898 Right. But there are also lots of restaurants where the owners can't be bothered to care about how badly the waiters are treated. And yes, you'll end up quitting those jobs, but in the meantime, you have bills to pay until you get a better job. Is that behaviour childish and unproductive? -- Yes. But you're really - really - out of touch with reality if you think that acting calmy, decently, and rationally will get through to everyone.
@@RagingGoblin I agree with this opinion, having also worked a bit in customer service You think telling someone their behaviour is unacceptable is the best way to go? LOL 😂 Sounds like he never worked at customer service. In many cases that's not enough, and sorry,. I'm not your punching bag for today. It's very easy to be nasty in return, it's fun sometimes even when they go out of line. But it's always very difficult to tell polite customers what they don't wanna hear.
Public transport staff isn't all the same. A Frankfurt tram driver got 5.1 % of the votes at the Bürgermeister election lately, which is awesome for a single candidate with advertisement expenses next to zero. (He's quite a legend in his job for his humor and entertaining talent.)
I'm an autistic Brit that moved to Berlin 3 years ago, and realising that people are actually honest about what they think and feel here was like being able to breathe for the first time in my life. Like, the fact that I could be visibly annoyed at being made to go home to correct a small error on a package I wanted to send at the Postamt before they would post it? I can just hear the sea of British *tut*'s in my mind's ear at the thought! But of course I cam back with it correct, saw the same person, and everything was fine, and wishing each other "Schönen Tach, noch!" still felt completely genuine. ...I do wonder if that doesn't make my very British "Dürfte ich bitte mit Karte bezahlen?" somewhat out of place.
It has been a pet theory of mine for some time that part of Germany's success as an economy has been its ability to integrate people slightly farther out on the autistic spectrum than other nations. I have no idea what the hen and the egg is and how I would even go about proving the theses but this was certainly an interesting point.
@@voiceinthewilderness7596 That's an intriguing idea. I would really like to see proof for it. However, to some extent Germany's success seems mostly part of a natural cycle. Economies increasingly manufacture cheap goods as they have cheap labour. Know-how begins to accumulate and the country begins to produce high quality goods and even innovate. Then labour becomes so expensive that companies have to outsource most of the work in order to stay competitive. A country that starts this process earlier reaches the decline earlier. If you look at the UK, Germany, Japan and China, you can clearly see how these countries have started this cycle one after another. Another issue is modernization. Germany profited in the long run from enormous, disruptive social and economic reforms under the Nazis. (These reforms are not often talked about because they were obviously overshadowed by massive crimes and to some extent the two were connected. So anyone who mentions any benefits of the Nazi regime easily finds themselves taken for a neo-Nazi. But it is simply a fact that, for example, it is thanks to the Nazis that today's Germany is not strictly divided into distinct classes but has more of a soft system with significant social mobility.) This was followed by a spectacular military defeat and reboot of the country initially under two competing economic systems which cooperated to a surprising extent and profited from each other, while each was trying hard to keep waste and corruption low to prove it had the better system. Therefore, the integration of people on the spectrum seems at most one of many contributing factors.
@@voiceinthewilderness7596 Given the fact that I do know quite a few people on the light side of the Autistic spectrum working in high qualified jobs (in STEM, as programmers or engineers), some of them not or only lately diagnosed because 40, 50 years ago, highly functional autism was not really a thing, there might be something to that thought.
@@shahlabadel8628 I think the most significan thing that happened was really reshuffling the social classes. This can't be overestimated in its importance. Germany was extremely conservative until 1918. It was a federation like it is today, but one of the states, Prussia, dominated everything because it had annexed large parts of Germany before unification (which happened in 1871). So Germany was very militaristic. It also had an emperor and a lot of other nobility like today in the UK. This was changed with the Weimar Republic (from 1918), but that was more of an accidental revolution caused by the First World War. Half the people were totally behind the new order, half wanted the emperor back. There was a conservative/progressive split very similar to what is going on in the US today. Fascism reorganized the country along totally different lines. People were pressured into joining mass organizations where former nobility, doctors and miners interacted socially with each other. Ruthless workers could easily make fantastic careers, while some members of the upper class found themselves in dire circumstances. And there were those opposed to the regime, who also came from all classes. In 1945, after the Second World War, absolutely nobody wanted to return to the monarchy. People's nostalgia wasn't for the German Empire before 1918, it was strictly for the Weimar Republic of 1918-1933. Suddenly everyone agreed that this was the golden age that one should try to return to, even those who had previously rejected it. This seems in part a direct result of modernization under the Nazis, and in part a counter-reaction to things the Nazis had done. There are also areas where we are profiting from a pure counter-reaction. Germany used to be a very authoritarian society, and children were raised very strictly with a lot of beating. This is good for producing effective soldiers, but bad for producing peaceful citizens. The Nazis pushed ruthless discipline for children, which created opposition already during their reign and changed the way Germans raised their children completely after 1945. (This was in part due to the lack of fathers; a lot of children were half orphaned and were raised by their mother, potentially along with a nice 'uncle' who had returned from the war finding his own family wiped out.) An unrelated point that is often mentioned is the German motorway (Autobahn) system. This was a massive infrastructure (and propaganda) project. It was made possible by the socialist aspect of national socialism. The large construction companies were either socialized or acted as if they were. There was even a mass organization (Reichsarbeitsdienst) in which all young men (in addition to military service) and women had to work for half a year, many of them in motorway construction. We are profiting from the motorway network to this day. There were also many cases in which companies were concentrated into monopolies for the war effort. This obviously made them more competitive internationally even after the war. The really gigantic ones such as IG Farben were too big and had to be cut up after the war. Think AT&T.
I am from Germany but my daughter lives in the Netherlands - and whenever I visit her I think that Dutch people are much friendlier and politer than Germans. ^^
If you or the other is on vacation and in good mood, you might encouter just the good days ;-) It's not so much, they are less polite, they are just not pretending to be in good mood, if they are not. I always get the idea, when shopping 8am in the supermarket, staff is much more friendly, relaxed, just starting their day, than they are at 4pm in the rush hour.
Visiting the Netherlands, I always feel like the streets are cleaner, and the people quieter and more polite. But maybe that's just relative perception. If you're on vacation, you're more relaxed and see things differently, and focus on the positives naturally. Perhaps we Dutch and Germans are even more similar than we think we are. ❤
Know a couple of Dutch people. You guys are REALLY direct! 🤕 But I know that you - generally - do not intend to be rude, just honest, and appreciate that 😁
Here in the midwestern US, that overly kind, cheerful attitude has been so ingrained for so long, that it seems to me that the customer service workers who engage in it are more or less brainwashed and that the idea of behaving in a matter-of-fact manner is unthinkable, let alone demonstrating outright rudeness. But as we have seen lately, this dynamic seems to be changing when you notice how many more people are behaving rudely and even violently in public (abundant examples are now seen of people acting up on airliners).
@@xdeanx1988 Me, silently in my head, "yeah, right. I don't give a sh* about you, and you don't give a sh* about me. FU". Being Canadian I am too polite to say it aloud. I often wonder whether Americans really think that fake friendliness is fooling the rest of the world.
As a Brit living in Germany the rudest thing for me is being ignored in a queue as someone steps in front of me. When I rarely confront these people they say they didn’t see me. I didn’t realize I was invisible.
I once lived in Berlin close to the only branch of an old-fashioned bakery located in Brandenburg, dating back to East German times. The shop was operated by the baker's wife, who mastered the art of _friendly rudeness._ She had a jocular insult for every customer, and most of us got it and loved it. Unfortunately they couldn't compete against the unfair competition (temporary dumping prices over several years) from the large bakery chains, so they had to close.
PS: I once had a guest from Colombia who was in Berlin for a conference. Probably the most polite person I have ever met. We had fun sending him alone to that bakery shop, with proper warning what to expect as he didn't speak German and might have misunderstood the situation otherwise. I think it was a unique experience for him. Unfortunately he also experienced some genuine Berlin rudeness, which is definitely also a thing.
I lived in Berlin for a couple of years as well and really didn't encounter any "friendly rudeness" what ever that may be. A lot of people were downright rude. At the bakery for example. Shortly after arriving in Berlin, I used to ask for "Semmel" and the lady behind the counter would act very aggressive and shout at me telling me that there isn't anything of that kind. When I pointed to what I wanted, she would tell me that those are "Schrippen" and I should get used to it. in the same aggressive way. When people found out that I was from Bavaria (as I don't speak a Bavarian dialect, it wasn't noticed right away), they at once connected me to Franz Josef Strauß, a very disgusting right wing Bavarian politician. That was in the 80ies and I could go on with further examples of rudeness. It wasn't just by chance that most of my friends at university were not Berliners, but from the north, Hamburg, Bremen, SH, etc., and from NRW. Of course, I also met people with manners while living in Berlin, but they definitely a minority. ascociated
@@magmalin Yes, there are a lot of extremely rude people in Berlin. I guess it was worse before reunification, because that's when I had the worst experiences, too. I used to think I would never want to live in Berlin because people were so rude, but now I live in Neukölln, which is in many ways a big, super friendly German and Turkish village. (Now getting more and more Arabic.) The baker's wife I mentioned was definitely special and typical for Berlin only in the sense that even one of the most outgoing and friendly persons I have ever met was using a playfully rude façade -- ein Berliner Original (that seems to be an untranslatable German idiom).
@@johaquila I also lived in Berlin before the wall fell. That was in the 80ies. And I lived in Neukölln, Sonnenallee. :). Don't want to go to Berlin again, not even for visiting a very close relative of mine. I'd rather stay living in my home town. It's much closer to Southern France and Italy when going on holiday ;)
Bring back the Nachtbackverbot! I grew up in Berlin (West) specifically Neukölln and Wilmersdorf but I can't remember experiencing any rudeness only something the British would call banter. You need to give as good as you get and then have a jolly good laugh about it. I got much worse after I moved to Birmingham but that might be down to the company I worked for which was very much NOT like your average workplace.
I've heard this many times, not only about Germany, but also about many other European countries. I think that the idea that people are rude in those countries comes from people who come from a place where they do small talk all the time, not realising it's not done everywhere. If I'm in a restaurant, in Germany for example, the server is going to ask me what I want to order, not what my plans are for the day, how long I am in town for, where I am from, or if it is my first visit in a certain country. That's not being rude, but being efficient.
True. But if the waiter is not busy, it's often very easy to engage them in a friendly conversation that goes beyond the surface friendliness you would expect in the US. Our small talk is rarer, but when it occurs it is usually deeper and more natural.
the lack of customer service - and thus somewhat "rudeness" - especially in the restaurant environment is, that you won't even get to see a server coming to your table at all... in Germany you might need to indeed snip your fingers to get the waiters attention at all... while snipping your fingers at a waiter most anywhere else in the world in itself is considered "rude" from me(!) - the customer(!)
@@theorganguy Snipping is rude in Germany too. If it is busy in the restaurant and the waiter doesn't come to you by himself you just raise your hand and make eye contact with the waiter. That is enough. If he still doesnt notice you can call him and say "Entschuldigung, ich würde gerne bestellen". But never ever snip your fingers.
I have been pulled over by police in Cologne two weeks ago at around 23:30. Was a pleasent talk, as they checked my documents and made an alcohol test. Really, most of the time I have the feeling that most germans expect rude or impatient customers and are pleasantly surprised if you are meeting them with pleasant patience.
It must have been the same cops. I was also stopped staggering down the Luxemburger Strasse at about 2 a.m. I didn't have any ID, with me. They asked my name, looked on their computer and asked my my date of birth. They smiled and said "get home safely"
Waiters in Cologne serving flavoured "Kölsch" water (the locals call it beer) are supposed to be rude. That is a mandatory job requirement and everyone would be totally confused if they are not.
Once I was with my wife and she said that she doesn’t want a beer. The waiter mock her. She responded she was pregnant. I saw the waiter face fell off. Next, he apologized to her. 😂
Aus Deutscher Sicht, find ich das garnicht so schlimm. Die meisten Leute, zu denen ich nett bin, sind auch nett zurück. Klar, ab und zu trifft man jemanden, der wirklich kaum was sagt und schlechte Laune versprüht, aber ansonsten sind die meisten nett. Ich bin aber auch nur selten im Ausland gewesen, daher kenne ich es nicht anders.
Imagine going to an English-speaking place, with an English video, with a English-speakign audience, and deciding that you are just gonna use whatever the heck language you want to use. Quite rude, isn't it? Acojonante como la gente intenta rebatir un argumento probando exactamente lo contrario. Bien hecho, amiguete.
@@parametr The video is about an aspect of life in Germany, and this guy is expressing his experiences in his native language, German. The audience also includes many Germans. What's rude is going to a foreign country and deciding only to use English to communicate with locals, instead of at least learning the few basic phrases you are likely going to be exchanging with someone. Unlike the English, French, and Spanish, Germans got into the colonization game rather late, and were promptly forced to give up their colonies (not a bad thing considering the treatment of locals). Thus, the German language is at risk of deterioration, as its base of speakers is limited to those living in the comparatively small country. English is already taking over in everyday German life, you can't hold a conversation with the younger population without hearing a few English words sprinkled into every other sentence. I've noticed non-native English speakers often have a higher regard for English; as a native speaker it pisses me off how the language is encroaching on others. It's fine to establish a common language so that everyone may communicate, and I suppose English is as good a language as any to fulfill this role, but it shouldn't take away from other languages. I see you yourself are bilingual, so you should understand that sometimes translating a thought that came to you in one language to another causes the idea to lose a part of its identity and charm. You shouldn't be upset at someone for using their bleeding language, his comment was probably also meant to be read by Germans anyway.
@@parametr Why would it be rude? The majority of the audience on this channel is from Germany. Andrew also understands German. Also, the topic is about Germany. Therefore your arguments are not even correct. But even if they were, there is nothing wrong with commenting in another language. I find it much more pleasant to write in my native language. You don't hurt anyone with that. You just have to live with the fact that only a few people understand you. And even if you comment in Spanish, that's perfectly fine. We are here on the Internet in a globalized world. But maybe you're right and I prove with this comment that Germans are rude from the point of view of others. In any case, I do not find it rude to comment in any language under videos in other languages. And this is my German view on the subject. If you find that rude from your point of view from another culture, then we are probably just different opinion. But that's perfectly fine :)
@@111BAUER111 maybe this is the clue. The video is in English, the title is in English, and 96% of the comments are in English (I counted). Math says this is an English corner of UA-cam. But you chose to use a different language because it's more confortable for you. Even if you have the right to, it's most likely an inconvenience to others who agreed to use English in this forum. You agree that it might be unpolite based on the rules the community chose for this particular video when 96% of them chose to use English. But you are ok with being rude because it's not rude in your specific culture. That disregard is again, rude. Let me try with stereotipical examples: - We don't many bike lanes in UK, I go to Germany and I just walk in the bike lane; when you ring the bell to warn me, I ignore you because in UK we ignore cyclists. - I go to Germany and I drive in the middle lane in the Autobahn. When you tell me I shouldn't, I tell you that it's normal in my hometown so I'm gonna keep doing it in Germany. - If we set an appointment at 4pm, I show up 30 minutes late and tell you relax when you complain. Being late is perfectly fine here, so I can do it at your home aswell and it's all ok. Context is important. You need to know where you are, and THOSE rules are the polite ones to follow. Not caring about it is rude by itself.
In my experience, I find Germans either charmingly personable and courteous or rudely short with little in between. I would say it’s mostly on the positive side, even in Berlin. Then again it could be me, I have the same experience of Paris!
Yes well said.If a German seems friendly then be friendly back.But if a minority seem grumpy or even look down their nose at you then it's frankly their fault for being negative.Every German is an individual.You are entitled to like some.Avoid the other types if you can.
@@martinwilliams9776 I always start being friendly! When some uncultivated trash from the lower bourgeoisie tries to looking down on me, it’s my guilt pleasure to put the serf in place. That type of behaviour isn’t synonymous with a good upbringing.
In summer 2022 I had a plane connection to Tunisia in Berlin where I had to stay overnight in a hotel close to the airport. I managed to get yelled twice at by the same driver. "Welcome to Berlin!" I only can say. Never I would want to live in that place. You are right with the overfriendliness in countries like the USA. For the same reason I don't like to stay in luxury hotels in many places as I feel arkward. Happy to live in Thailand where most people are friendly from their hearts without exaggerating.
This is precisely the point - many Germans do not have the same concept of politeness as most of us. Being polite in Germany means using Sie, but it’s perfectly okay to ignore me, a person with a cane, on the tram and give me a nasty look when I ask for a seat. I’ve been shoved 3x now by angry, impatient Germans because I don’t move fast enough. Meanwhile, 90% of the people who jump up to help me are clearly Middle Eastern. It’s sad. There’s a real problem with empathy around the world, but it’s particularly bad here.
Imagine having to sit in an airport all day saying "Hello! Welcome to [country]!" or some minor variation, hundreds if not thousands of times a day. I think I'd go mad within a week.
@@sweetmelon3365 I don't know any country who does this. At least not in Europe. But I also went to Thailand and they don't friendly greet you there either. And why should they - I would be annoyed by fake friendlyness.
It is recommended that when bording a bus or a request stop on a train, that you put your arm out so that the driver is 1) able to see you easily and 2) knows that you are going on the bus/train. This is similar to using hand signals when cycling. I did not do it when i first started going on the bus on my own until the driver recommended it and saw passengers getting on doing it.
Whenever I am in the US I am stunned how polite and friendly everyone is. They have staff at the airport whose only job it is to give you directions and they keep smiling all the time. At first I thought this was great compared to all the unhappy and unfriendly faces in Europe, but after a while it became irritating. I got the impression that it's all just a facade. Nobody can constantly be happy and cheerful. The last time I returned from the US, the first European I talked to was a French airport official who was incredibly bored, snobby and unfriendly, and it acutally felt right to me, like returning from a dream world to reality. Weird.
This reminds me of an interaction I had at a zoo at those takeaways that are scattered ascross the park. The lady at the register took my order. Gave me my food. That's it. No smile. No thank you. No goodbye. Now, as a German from the northern part of the country I didn't think too much of it. Just thought a "thank you" would have been nice. But then it dawned on me while the lady at the register didn't do anything wrong in particular, people from a different cultural background might find her behavior incredibly rude. For me, "rudeness" would have been if she had insulted me, or spit in my food, or something like that. For other people, rudeness is not receiving a thank you, or a good bye.
As an American living in Germany for over 19 years, I have found that customer service has improved a lot. When I got here, if I had a question on something, the sales person acted like they didn't want to be bothered. I don't expect a fake smile and when Germans smile, and yes they do, it's natural.
This type of video is needed: No matter which language we are learning, and even if we never travel, let's remember that there's social and longterm history that flavors it.
I would rather like to deal with someone who pretends to be nice than with someone who is rude in any way. I don't care if the kindness is sincere because I don't know the person in the first place. Sincerity is for friends, and they aren't my friends, are they?
My mom and I have never visited Germany, but we have on 5 occasions routed through Germany. Once by plane and 4 times by train. In all 5 scenarios, we have faced extremely long delays or outright cancellations. Our last time, we had a layover in Berlin and our next train was completely cancelled. My Mom struggled with customer service to get her on another train. Then we had to take 3 more trains just to get where we were going (Amsterdam). She was completely exhausted by the time it was all over and they finally routed us.
Funnily enough, your portrayal of "German" immigration officers matched exactly my experience of "English" immigration officers on my first and only trip to the UK/London.
And talking about rudeness: I really like your attitude here! People are not machines and working in the service industry can be tough. In any job, it usually takes only one(!) person that can make or break your day or even your job. One person getting on your nerves from time to time so that you won't enjoy your job anymore. I think the best is to be friendly towards other people. Do your part. You cannot control the reaction of others. And do not lower yourself to the level of unfriendly people or iditos (I know it's super easy and people love doing it because it makes great and relatable stories). And don't talk bad about them behind their backs because what does this accomplish? You tell ME that this waiter or train driver was rude to you? Either you tell him personally to his face or you shut up. I don't want you to poison the atmosphere. Either you face the person or you shut up. Also we should stop being so hypersensitive. This train conductor maybe has people coming late or not standing where they're supposed to stand regularly. We should try to judge a person that we don't absolutely know nothing about by just one statement or one thing they did. We wouldn't want others to do that to us and we cannot always make the best impression or influence how others perceive us.
Yup, I noticed that too at passport control in Frankfurt airport. There was once an old grump. I said hallo and he was like "Guten Morgen sagt man!". Anyone else was just normal and not bothering to make a definition on the proper greeting. As you said, could've had a crappy day thus far. Regarding the bus drivers - over here on the emerald isle passengers usually thank the driver upon disembarking the bus and often wish him a nice day. I think that makes the commonality so much more pleasant. One bus driver is a real star, whenever someone swipes their bus ticket card he goes like "That's grand! / That's brilliant / that's magic..." He is always cheerful and always makes my day. I had already emailed the company to give him a massive pat on the shoulders for delivering such a cheerful mood on his bus.
As a German I'd consider that extremely rude. But maybe you just happened upon a racist? I used to work a supermarket till in a big city centre location. My southwest area has lots of people from different cultural backgrounds and during that time we had an influx of South Asian customers. Now, I speak English fluently and didn't mind switching to it if the customer struggled with German, but I had an older colleague who sometimes got downright nasty with customers. She'd say things like "this is Germany, you need to speak German here!" From stuff she said about immigrants I can tell you she was racist. I always countered with facts about that and when she was nasty with a customer for not being able to speak German I'd admonish her and then I'd tell the customer what was needed in English. I did complain about her behaviour to my boss, but that hardly helped. Some people are just arseholes and should not be allowed to have customer-facing jobs.
Thanking the driver before leaving the bus also happens in England as well. I think it's a nice tradition and it's a shame that such "traditions" are dying out.
I had shockinly bad experience in the US assuming a Info counter staff would be nice and got talked down upon why I don’t look at the info table display…
If you want to experience British rudeness - I suggest you deal with the Home Office when trying to get some help in filling in a 86 page long form for 'settled status' .... on your mobile. Or you drive in the UK with a German or French number plate - you will be told to 'get back where you came from, forrinner'. Or you speak German or French with your 'forrin' relatives* in Public Transport in London ..... * in your case: your German wife, in my case: my German mum and my French in-laws.
In Germany we have a saying: Wie es in den Wald schallt schallt es auch wieder hinaus. (Literal translation is something like The wait it sounds - like an echo - in the forest, they wait it sounds back out). If you are rude to someone people in the service sector they won't be nice to you. On the other hand, if you are nice say thanks and please it will be different. Especially if you talk in complete sentences. There are many people that shout "That Bread" while gesturing and that's it. If you are a friendly regular in a local store like a bakery I always found the people extremely friendly and helpful. The will move mountains for you and will try their best to help you. Same for the people working in the town hall. They have to sit there for 8h a day and get barked at. If you are nice, friendly, and try to be helpful they will most often than not be glad.
I remember moving from the UK to Germany as a child 33 years ago and wondering as an 8 year old why none of the pupils in my new class (or the teacher for that matter) had any kind of manners. No "bitte, danke, gern geschehen.." It was a quite a culture shock and the opposite to what I had lerned in a british primary school. 30 years later as a german citizen I maintain that Germans are in a whole friendly, but just ignorant of good manners.
Interesting, do you live in Hesse? I am Northener living in Hesse for more than 30 years now and surely driving this guys and girls crazy around here with my "bitte ","danke".😊
@@michaelcliffe562 LOL,... it took me decades to get used to it in Hesse. As mentioned, I am from the North, Lower Saxony and have the idea the Northeners are quite polite. The Bavarians are polite also. Near to the Austrian border they often say: Habe die Ehre! I am honered :-) But the Hessians...
ngl in the anecdote with the train driver at the beginning the passenger's message does seem genuine to me; the train driver was just giving a remark about how some train drivers might have missed them and was pointing that out to help avoid that. In general, even when tone might sound gruff it is (in my experience) usually well intentioned and genuine
Рік тому+14
I had the opposite experience. I always found the Germans very polite, direct and honest, but courteous and respectful. Except a few occasions, less than fingers I have in my hand, everyone has been perfectly nice.
How is that the opposite of what he said? He says that it's not rudeness but just honesty. You can honestly express "I'm in a bad mood" while also being polite.
True story: I went to the registration office to request a new ID card. It's a small town so I didn't make an appointment. It was about 09:59:59 am and I was sitting face to face with the official who collected my data. A customer knocked on the door, opened the door and said "Excuse me, I had an appointment at 10 am". The official replied "Yeah, wait outside". 5 seconds of silence. Then she yelled at me "HELLO!? WAIT OUTSIDE! THIS MAN HAS AN APPOINTMENT"! I hadn't even understood that her first "Wait outside" was directed at me 😔 If you think German service providers are rude, try German officials.
Since I'm here and found this comment. Yeah, the official was very unfriendly but you are not able to judge the entire administration section from one negative incident! And surely not by one rude person because there are like 1000s of people working there. If you had experienced like 5 times in the past where these administration officials had been rude to you, then we could see a pattern. If not, it's your word against my word because I so far cannot remember having a bad experience with any officials. And even if today I had a bad experience, this wouldn't take away all the normal, pleasant interactions with officials I had. Here's a very recent true story of mine: I need to get a new licence plate and part of the process obviously is to bring documents to one place and then to another place. I made a call, wrote an e-mail, then got a reply what documents are necessary. Then I replied that I wanted to know exactly what documents they need because I don't want to go there to waste everyones time. Today I got a reply: Can you please give me your adress, we'll send you the requested document. 😊👍
Deutsche Beamte sind das Letzte, ich schätze es gibt Defizite in der Ausbildung. Extrem niedriger persönlicher und intellektueller Standard, aber alle benehmen sich mit Allmacht.
First German met in US college told me at a party, she knew we weren't really real about nice to meet you. I didnt understand until years later when I met people from NY city and Chicago. Whew!
And there are people who quickly react negatively, hurt or aggressive when people are not super friendly while others (like me) for different reasons (not saying it's always right to not talk back) don't take it personally and they don't let one rude person spoil the day.
I moved from Munich to Berlin and let me tell you I was shocked how much of a difference there is regarding culture in general. Especially how rude people are. And not in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. Nope, straight nasty. It was the first time I was threatened with death, because (during the early stages of COVID restrictions) I dared to tell a guy to literally not rub himself on me while I was standing in front of a shelf grabbing some products. He could not wait for me to finish and yelled like a crazy person in front of all the people in the store. It was embarassing for him and for myself. Honestly, eff Berlin.
When I’ve traveled Germany for work, it honestly reminded me of east coast culture in the USA. People generally keep to themselves but are usually friendly once you start interacting with them. You sometimes get an impatient cashier, but it’s nothing to write home about. I did notice my coworkers being extremely honest about how they felt about things (whether good or bad) but it never felt rude, just very direct.
I've always seen things as not being rude, it's just more direct than a British person might be used to. It's caught me out a couple of times even with friends, but it's also so nice not to have to try and guess what people are thinking or want to do.
Your understanding of rudeness also depends on which part of the UK you visit / live in. IMO, people up North are generally friendlier and politer in their casual interactions.
I’m from South America and I now live in Chicago Illinois and I can tell you that the vast majority of gringos (people from the USA) at least in Chicago and the Midwest are genuinely nice and most people even in jobs where the is no tipping honestly want to help you and be friendly towards you. This is also true in Latin America in fact even more so. Almost anyone from the Americas, with few exceptions, will always give up their seat for a pregnant woman or someone on crutches. Germans would never consider such an act and they never help strangers. Their “honesty” is just an excuse to be an A**hole to people. Germans simply have a bad culture and they could learn from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the USA or Latin America because I know first had the places I just mentioned are very hospitable, caring, charitable, friendly people and societies especially Syria and Jordan but South America is also up there too. Germans, in my experience, are just bad humans. The elderly, handicapped and pregnant are not equal to the rest of us they deserve more kindness and help. Everyone seems to understand this except for Northern Europeans. If you think I’m wrong than please educate me on what I am incorrect about I welcome constructive criticism Below is a comment I left on another person’s video concerning German behavior which led me to this video I really, really don’t like Germans or Nordic people they are extremely rude and hostile to strangers the exact opposite of any country in the Americas, southern Europe or the Middle East and North Africa. I don’t think Germany denazified because they are still obsessed with being on time, doing paperwork, disregarding other’s feelings, extremely inhospitable to strangers and believing everything they do is correct as well as accusing Americans of “being fake” for genuinely being nice and helpful to strangers when every country and culture from Canada to Argentina are nice and helpful to strangers, except the Quebecois
My experience was that...Germans expected me to know exactly what I was doing at all times. If I got to a kiosk, door, or screen - I should already be familiar & know what to do. To ask for help or to ask for an explanation was an inconvenience. Then if I needed any kind of clarification - it was above and beyond. They had already fulfilled their furthest commitment by making eye contact with me.
I am a German working in retail. And God knows, I am trying my hardest to be as friendly and nice to my customers as I can. But honestly, they don't make it exactly easy for me. In most cases I'm happy to hear a "Guten Tag!". But that sadly happens less and less in today's society. It could be so easy...
As others already mentiones, I as a customer always try to see the pearson and keep a minimum level of friendlynes. However if I enter a Shop with no particular intention of buying something, then get talked to by some service worker who then "wastes" his time talking to me... well then I might feel obligated to by something, or leave the shop with the bad feeling of having wasted someones time. Of course there is people feeling completely oposite about this, and judjing what kind of person just entered the shop must be a real challange for serviceworkers. However if I'm looking for something in particular I'll first scan the shop by myself and the ask for help. If they don'T have what I was looking for I thank tham for their time and leave. This however still feels rude from my side in many cases...
@@AkantorJojo All we usually do is to say "Good morning!" (or whatever the time of day is) while waking by the customers, so they know I'm there and they can always ask me anything if necessary. Unless we can clearly see in the customers face that he or she actually needs some kind of help. Be there for the customers, but don't annoy them is the unspoken rule.
@@AkantorJojo Oh yes, during college i worked at a small fashion store for alternative clothing, mostly goth but also metal, gypsy, rockabilly, medieval-fantasy etc. Our boss was utterly convinced, that we had to be more oriented towards customer service than at e.g. an H&M. That mostly included background knowledge about the stuff we were selling (for example how to properly put on a corsett, how to take care of military leather boots after buying them or the fact that a certain brand produces fair trade clothes in the EU, and not in chinese slave companies). Which is obviously correct. But he also insisted, that we greet every single customer that comes into the store, go to them and try to help them and if they try something on, suggest other clothes/shoes/accessoires that will go well - and THAT was an argument with my boss every time. While I agree on greeting customers, and asking if they need help when they appear lost - i absolutely refused to follow people around the store or to look for a pair of trousers for 150 bucks that would fit well with the one single shirt on sale they took to try on. The most i would do was ask if they were looking for something specific when they come in, and then let them browse the store after telling them they can ask me anytime if they have a question or need help. My boss didn't like it, and i did not make the highest sales during my shifts. But i did make stable sales and repeating customers would ask for me when i'm not on shift. I admit though, i automatically smile when talking to people (cause i have a rbf face) without forcing it, so most people think i'm a nice person to talk to or happy to help them.
@@AkantorJojo Yeh...but it's always like this. walking around, say in Saturn only wanting to look at the new iPhones TVs etc. You'll always have someone coming up to you to ask if they can help you. It's contra-productive I think, I'll either say "no thanks" or move on. But when you DO want to buy something there...there's no service around to be seen. (It's like the ..."I always seem to end up in the longest queue in the supermarket").
I'm in the U.S and I'm always insulted by the "Americans are faking it" comments common from Europeans. I worked customer service for 12+ years. One time a customer, from a different country, YELLED at me, "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SMILING?!?" I love my customers, I love my fellow employees, I love my job (frenetic and high pressured as it is) ... Why wouldn't I be happy? I responded with the aforementioned reasons and he obviously wasn't buying it (though he didn't bring it up again). What's wrong is people who AREN'T happy doing their jobs, not with people who ARE happy doing their jobs.
It's trying to hide here. Unfortunately they've forgotten why they're hiding here and have resorted to being rude to the rest of the country for refusing to provide a reason for hiding.
I've lived there for almost 2 years, and it certainly feels less German in some regards than Zurich or Vienna. On the other hand, its grittiness is pretty much the same as in Mannheim or Cologne.
I think you confuse Berlin and Bavaria. Even through both begin with the letter "B": Berlin is the capital of Germany, Bavaria is the area taken by the ego of Markus Söder.
I think that you can have a basic level of politeness without being either OTT or rude. It's called being professional. If someone's having a bad day it's not my fault. I don't expect them to smile and do somersaults but I don't expect them to bark at me and take their frustration out on me either.
When it comes to service personnel, it's true that you experience a lot of indifference in Germany. But generally, I think there's one factor that contributes to the impression of rudeness without really having anything to do with it and that's how language is used: German is usually spoken with the idea of being "to the point" in mind and so people tend to confine themselves to saying the necessary (well, more or less 😉), while in other languages, social relations are considered a little more, resulting in the use of phrases that might be interpreted as unnecessary or even dishonest. So it's easy to see, that when you're used to the latter, Germans may seem rude, even if they don't actually intend to.
And I think another point is that a lot of Germany do not want to be bothered by staff in the shop, they just want to look for themselves, asking for help when needed. So, it's considered polite if staff does not bother the clients, but comes to help them if asked for. Someone coming from a more service oriented industry might mistake this for rudeness or indifference because they enter the shop with completely different expectations.
I think there are many reasons to be rude. - If the customer is rude why should i be polite? - The other one is rude by nature. ;o) - You come from a country where fake politeness is a part of the job (USA) I think the german behavior is not intentional rude. Its a cultural thing. Some people are surprised, maybe shocked, if a german answer a resounding and unequivocal NO because in their own culture its not usual. Many people from asia prefer to say "maybe" or "i dont know" even they mean no. Or being on time. For many germans it is very impolite to be late. For people from other countries its ok if they arrive within half an hour at the agreed time.
What people (e.g. the Germans) don't understand is that what we "wear" on the outside (facial expressions, mannerisms, etc.) has a huge impact on how we feel on the inside. That is, if we "act" friendly and polite on the outside, there's a good chance we will feel friendly and polite on the inside. One affects the other. Conversely, if we wear a frown on the outside, we stand a very good chance of absorbing that frown into our inside. Friendliness begets friendliness and rudeness begets rudeness, both within ourselves and in the reaction we get from others.
Yeah well, I was subjected to American overt-friendliness for 3 weeks on my vacation and I couldn't help to have the impression that this behaviour oozes duplicity. It's a cultural thing, I suppose.
I've only ever experienced once being blamed at an airport for arriving late to the gate because my preceding flight landed an hour late at passport control was slow. "You have to be here on time!" Yes. I really did try. This was Frankfurt airport. Coincidence? Maybe.
Allow me one opinion: I had a 15 year stint in the US, coming from Germany and going back in 1992. IMHO, within those 15 years, things got a lot better here in Germany. Also, it is really a big difference where in Germany you are. I moved from the Stuttgart area to Karlsruhe and lived there 11 years and boy, did I think people were friendlier. Until I moved to the südliche Weinstraße (near Landau) 12 years ago and realized that people in Karlsruhe are, in comparison, rather rude… 🙂
As a German when I visited the US all the small talk made me really uncomfortable. Also I knew that they don't really care so I thought THAT to be rude and unrespectful. I am used to people that care for what I say when they ask. When you don't care why ask in the first place? I just hate fakeness.
My real name (both first and Last) is German. I have traveled to Germany quite a few times as I worked for a German Company. Once when traveling with colleagues with somewhat unusual passports, my colleagues were taken for further examination by customs while I was greeted by the same fellow now smiling and saying "Welcome home to Germany."
German here: This week my wife called me to buy a gift at a shop before it was closing. I was there five minutes before closing time but the lights were out and the door was already closed by key. As I wanted to leave the shop assistant rushed on, apparently from an open-air café nearby, not so happy to see a customer. She opened the door and a little later turned on the light. I took a packet of sweets from the shelf. At the cash she told that I could only pay by card as she had already counted the money. So I did. Then I asked for their service of packing things decoratively. She said "not at that time". I reminded her that she still had four minutes of working time left, so she did.
I've lived in Frankfurt for a year and a half and I don't think Germans are rude at all. They may be blunt when it comes to expressing their opinions or giving information, but I believe this honesty and direct to the point approach prevent them from being rude. Like, there's no need to be rude when all you have to say have already been clearly stated, there's no space for "in between the lines" rudeness when there's no small talk and so the situation don't escalate to open rudeness. I'm from Brazil, where people are expected to be friendly towards others, but where rude behavior pops up a lot and in many different forms.
Sometimes foreigners speak directly in English to shop assistants. I noticed a man trying to exchange his shoes which he had admittedly worn outside the house as well - the shop assistant didnt go for English (very likely a lady from Croatia or even Russia). They settled the matter with a voucher out of courtesy.
Germans are extremely practical. And yes, Berlin has a problem with public services, but it is not necessarily rudeness. Coming from a country in which politeness towards customers is very important, it was very difficult for me to adapt here, specially in Berlin. But now I understand how it works and am fine with it
Hahaha, I, as a German, experienced the Berlin extra rudeness every once in a time. I think that has Berlin with Vienna in common, You don't were in Berlin/Vienna unless you have experienced once the rudeness of a waiter/waitress in a restaurant, cafe or bar. Don't be to offended, it is part of the game. And ofc, I met a ton of nice people there, too.
I work as a security guard in Esslingen. I try to be as nice, as i would like to be welcomed if i would visit the company. Its not always easy, but a smile mostly gets a smile back.
i've never met a nice immigrations officer so far. They all have to maintain the tough guy facade like they are the last line of defense sorting out the evil terrorists.
I have. I live in Melbourne and on my first visit to Europe, the immigration official asked me where I was staying. I was not prepared for this and said that the details were in my suitcase, but I thought the hotel was in a particular area. So he got out his own phone and we went through a map until I recognised the name of the hotel. He then entered it in his computer. That was a long time ago, but I still remember his friendly and helpful approach. 🙂
About 3:30 PM on 14th February this year, in Hamburg's Reeperbahn S Bahn station, on the westbound train to Hamburg Altona, I was filming and minding my own business, when some random man came from behind me, and threw a tantrum prior to alighting. It didn't last long and the man hobbled away up to the street level near Beatles-Platz and Suzie's. The Stadtpolizei Hamburg were never involved, and when I returned back to the USA, the German passport control in Frankfurt Rhein Main airport never even brought up the indicent on 14th February in Hamburg.
Passport checkers (presumably they are the Police or a private security...looked the Police to me) at a German airport (Frankfurt) are usually quite stone-faced, non-engaging. Not that I expected some kind of full-on effusive greeting just for checking my ID. Certainly not. But a small 'thank you' or some kind of engagement.....goes a looooong way. Next time at a German airport, I'll serve them back exactly the (non-) engagement they serve. I owe them zilch.
The only time I found efficiency to over step the mark was on one arrival at Brandenburg Airport. The border guard didn’t like the fact I was visiting for leisure purposes rather than essential reasons. He slammed my passport on the desk, I collected it and entered the country. Unfortunately for him the government said it was fine for me to enter the country for the reason I was doing regardless of his clear views on it
Well, congratulations! I am struggling with it but I have made plans to return to my home country where things are much better and peaceful. Living in Germany is like living in a third world country. The digital touch here is laughable given that it is a developed country. I hope the situation improves and people learn how to be happy and cheerful. One option is to start eating spicy food. The warmth in the body will at least make you guys warmer at heart. Nevertheless, I have also had a few good experiences with the Germans. Some of them were kind, but I still sensed a look for unhappiness in their faces.
Well, you seem to have had a much more pleasant experience than some people, like getting yelled at "He, Sie da, was machen Sie da auf der Wiese! Sie dürfen das nicht machen, oder wohnen Sie hier?!" when pulling some stuck piece of trash out of a public lawn next to an apartment complex in a city. In my own experience people from rural areas are much more open and visibly-nice, while city people seem either like a closed shell or some territorial ruler.
For some odd reason it makes me happy that we still use the Hoff as a universal way to denote something being german. Also, in the US it appears there is a huge difference between east coast / west coast. West Coast they will be incredibly nice but not help, East Coast they will insult you first but then give you hand. Give me West Coast any day.
I live in Croatia and I've visited Germany last summer. I've had quite a different experience, it seems. To me, the service was very good and helpful, but I ended up being annoyed by the ordinary people. I have noticed certain patterns of behaviour that I would find unacceptable in Croatia. Of the top of my head, I remember a dude in a shop in Berlin taking a carton of juice from the shelf, opening it and drinking from it before going through checkout. I also remember children being allowed to run around public transport vehicles and sit/play on the floor. In Croatia, parents usually encourage children much more eagerly to remain calm in public. I also remember a woman spraying people with water in an S-Bahn stop. I almost feel like this would provoke a physical altercation in Croatia. So, to me Germans, particularly Berliners, though other urbanites as well, seem to behave much less acceptably (according to my urban Croatian social values) than the service personnel or governmental clerks.
That's not germany. That's Berlin. If you're forced to handle the crazy people there long enough, you learn to ignore them, or you become one of them. A physical altercation would be the first step to become that woman yourself. ;)
I once heard Aldi Süd described as "Service with a grimace", and this was during a conversation about that time Wal Mart took over some German shops. Apparently the U.S. philosophy of having staff smile at customers distrubed some Germans as they weren't used to it and found it creepy.
They say Thailand is the land of smile yet there immigration officials are constantly in a bad mood. And you know what? As a German I love it. So refreshing honest, no fake friendlyness I instantly feel welcome there by NOT being fake-smiled at but receiving their honest feelings 😊
Talking about the person in the glass box at the airport passport scanners (I assume also FRA) - I was surprised that he said “Willkommen zurück in Deutschland!” - I don’t know if he said it because he saw our (my son and my) passport being issued in Houston, TX - or if he was just friendly - but he was friendly!
To go at it another way, how about saying to the rude person "Sorry to see you're having a bad day"; what will happen then? Might upset the pattern. Going to try this next time!
I was warned the same about the Netherlands. But it is not usually rudeness, it is just that the Dutch are pretty blunt, and "call a spade a spade". Sometimes the Brits or Americans don't understand this.
I would rather that so you know where you stand I'm the same as them but I'm autistic
Since I lived in both Germany and Netherlands, I have to say Dutch people are much more polite comparatively during such casual interactions.
The difference between Germans and Dutchies is that Germans will tell you their honest opinion if you ask for it. Dutchies will give your their opinion, especially if you didn’t ask for it.
@@weetikissa ouch!
@@Jules_Diplopia I agree with your original point. "Rude" is the wrong word. "Blunt" is more correct. Germans and Netherlanders.
I lived in Germany for three months last year. I traveled a lot using the 9€ ticket. Everyone I had any interaction with was wonderful, especially at my local LIDL and REWE. There was one local bus driver that was awesome.
Which area?
@@kawaii_hawaii222 I lived in Lower Saxony. I traveled to numerous cities. Dresden, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Gifhorn, Braunschweig, Hannover, Kassel(2), Keil, Bad Harzburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Goslar, Köln.
@@kawaii_hawaii222 and Berlin.
My two cents:
Perhaps it’s a question of semantics. As an American living in Germany (going on almost 20 yrs), I think Germans and Americans have a different definition of what it means to be ‘polite.’ In the US (regardless of whether it’s with friends, acquaintances, coworkers, or strangers), it’s impolite to bring down the mood of the group. In Germany, politeness seems to be measured by what WORDS you say; whereas in America, your ATTITUDE plays the major role in how people interpret your politeness.
For example, if you’re not greeted appropriately (i.e. “Guten Tag” or similar) in a shop by the employees in Germany, this is considered impolite. In the US, no words are necessary, but acknowledging the customer’s existence with a smile, nod of the head, or friendly words like “hi” are all that is needed to be polite; but, if you scowl or frown this would absolutely be viewed as impolite.
I disagree - or at least this does not align with my personal experience. If someone greets me with "Guten Tag" but their face remains expressionless and they don't even smile for a second, then I don't feel welcome and I wouldn't exactly consider that polite. If someone on the other hand simply gives me a quick friendly smile and nod but does not say anything I would consider that behaviour as friendly and polite even with no words exchanged.
I think you're saying the exact same thing I am. If someone greets you with "Guten Tag" but is expressionless, I take this to be rude. But in Germany, this is NOT considered rude.@@julinbelle
@mrridikilis I forgot to point out in my comment that I am German.
What I was trying to say is that I - as a German - _would_ consider it impolite though. I don't expect over the top grinning or extensive conversation but at least a small smile and nod. I don't like shopping at places where staff is unfriendly, it makes me feel uncomfortable like I'm not welcome.
This might be very regional though, I grew up in the Rhineland and people here are supposedly a lot more friendly than in other parts of Germany. So what I would consider impolite might in fact be deemed socially acceptable in other parts of the country.
Maybe your are right. Even German courts will give you a lesser fine when you insult a police officer with the formal you "Sie ****" than informal you "Du ****". Acknowledging that you, while insulting someone, showed some politeness in your words. 😅
@@julinbelle yeah, i think you're right; this could be regional. i live in BW, where people in the service industry can be rather curt. but i love interacting with people in Koeln or Duesseldorf!
In the US, people in customer service jobs will usually get written up for not being polite enough, not smiling enough, etc. This happened to me in multiple jobs. Even when you apply to any job, there's a baseline expectation that you are doing so out of devotion to the company in question, as it makes it easier to discourage unionization (which is illegal, but most new employees in non-union businesses have to attend seminars on how to report coworkers for trying to unionize).
I lived in Munich for two years before moving to the Netherlands. I never experienced rudeness from any public service worker. They don't smile and are not always helpful, But never rude. But had many experiences of workers being rude at private establishments, which was kind of a shocker.
Well we openly talk about customers from hell and how good it feels to lose them instead of making a business and bonding with them. Not every profit is worth it.
@@llothar68 Here in America, sometimes "customers from hell" have the gall to request you do your job.
@@drh3b
Which is why all the karen videos are from the US
In my personal experience, people from Munich are especially rude in their own weird Bavarian way, I feel like. But I also live much closer to the Netherlands (pretty much only ~3km) than I do Munich, so there's that.
@@D0MiN0ChAnReally? I live in Munich and can't actually say people are rude at all🤔
I am from northern Germany and we are said to be rather quiet and reserved. You know that particularly from the Flensburger commercials.
You've already described it very well and I enjoy getting different perspectives on Germany.
I have half my family in England myself. :)
Two days ago I was in a Schienen Ersatz Verkehrs Bus. A bus that operates when trains are out of order for some reason. There was this young woman on it, who couldnt speak German very well and wanted to go the other way actually. The driver, quite rudely but friendly, told her "Come here! Come to the front!" And told her quite rudely how to get to where she wanted. He then proceeded to stop the bus coming from the other direction and told the other driver to wait for a girl who has to get on his bus. The other bus driver unfortunately didn't quite catch it, or was just quite an ar se. He drove off without waiting for the girl. Our busdriver then loudly shouted "arschloch!" In that bus drivers direction. Just goes to show, rudeness doesn't mean unfriendly or unwillingness to help. The same bus driver also let people on without a ticket because who cares on a SEV Bus no one's gonna fine them.
Nice story. Yeah, there are different levels of friendliness and unfriendliness. You don't have to super nice smiling like an idiot to be considered friendly. You can be a bit unnerved and still be helpful. We don't know what kind of day you had, if you are tired, if you have personal problems etc. Maybe people have bothered you with the same problem a thousand times and you just had it but you still do your best to be as polite as possible and helpful. That's a lesson learned!
There are many unfriendly bus drivers in germany.
Older Germans seem to be grumpy and rude Af I don’t like them
As a Brit living in Germany, I find some Germans to be "Besserwisser". (Know it all). That pisses me off.
@@mikefraser4513that's because brits know absolutely nothing
But English bus drivers can also be a little witty.
You have to stand at the bus stop and make it visible that he will stop, it was evening and I had black clothes on.
I was greeted with "You couldn't find something darker to put on?"
I can live with criticism put into sarkasm but I was a little bit surprised.
Obviously that didn't happen in London. Probably to the north of the Midlands too?
@@simonh6371
No, it was in Plymouth.
@@helloweener2007 Ah yes I've forgotten the South West is normal, just the SE of England where people are cold
Having worked in customer service for ten years, I like to remind people that the ones serving you are people, too. If there was an overly rude fellow in, we'd take great pleasure in being nasty in return -- while being extra polite and nice to every other table in the vicinity. And especially waiters have a lot of really fun ways to mess with customers.
Either way, people just need to be aware that 'politeness' is a culturally acquired definition. There is no 'universal truth' here. Let's just treat each other respectfully, and it'll be okay.
The right thing to do when faced with a nasty customer is to stand your ground and tell them politely but firmly that there behavior is unacceptable and if the do not stop they will have to leave. It is VERY childish and unprofessional to simply act nasty in return when you are on the job.
@@jamesocallaghan898 Right.
But there are also lots of restaurants where the owners can't be bothered to care about how badly the waiters are treated. And yes, you'll end up quitting those jobs, but in the meantime, you have bills to pay until you get a better job.
Is that behaviour childish and unproductive? -- Yes.
But you're really - really - out of touch with reality if you think that acting calmy, decently, and rationally will get through to everyone.
@@RagingGoblin I agree with this opinion, having also worked a bit in customer service
You think telling someone their behaviour is unacceptable is the best way to go? LOL 😂
Sounds like he never worked at customer service. In many cases that's not enough, and sorry,. I'm not your punching bag for today.
It's very easy to be nasty in return, it's fun sometimes even when they go out of line. But it's always very difficult to tell polite customers what they don't wanna hear.
Public transport staff isn't all the same. A Frankfurt tram driver got 5.1 % of the votes at the Bürgermeister election lately, which is awesome for a single candidate with advertisement expenses next to zero. (He's quite a legend in his job for his humor and entertaining talent.)
I'm an autistic Brit that moved to Berlin 3 years ago, and realising that people are actually honest about what they think and feel here was like being able to breathe for the first time in my life.
Like, the fact that I could be visibly annoyed at being made to go home to correct a small error on a package I wanted to send at the Postamt before they would post it? I can just hear the sea of British *tut*'s in my mind's ear at the thought! But of course I cam back with it correct, saw the same person, and everything was fine, and wishing each other "Schönen Tach, noch!" still felt completely genuine.
...I do wonder if that doesn't make my very British "Dürfte ich bitte mit Karte bezahlen?" somewhat out of place.
It has been a pet theory of mine for some time that part of Germany's success as an economy has been its ability to integrate people slightly farther out on the autistic spectrum than other nations.
I have no idea what the hen and the egg is and how I would even go about proving the theses but this was certainly an interesting point.
@@voiceinthewilderness7596 That's an intriguing idea. I would really like to see proof for it.
However, to some extent Germany's success seems mostly part of a natural cycle. Economies increasingly manufacture cheap goods as they have cheap labour. Know-how begins to accumulate and the country begins to produce high quality goods and even innovate. Then labour becomes so expensive that companies have to outsource most of the work in order to stay competitive. A country that starts this process earlier reaches the decline earlier. If you look at the UK, Germany, Japan and China, you can clearly see how these countries have started this cycle one after another.
Another issue is modernization. Germany profited in the long run from enormous, disruptive social and economic reforms under the Nazis. (These reforms are not often talked about because they were obviously overshadowed by massive crimes and to some extent the two were connected. So anyone who mentions any benefits of the Nazi regime easily finds themselves taken for a neo-Nazi. But it is simply a fact that, for example, it is thanks to the Nazis that today's Germany is not strictly divided into distinct classes but has more of a soft system with significant social mobility.) This was followed by a spectacular military defeat and reboot of the country initially under two competing economic systems which cooperated to a surprising extent and profited from each other, while each was trying hard to keep waste and corruption low to prove it had the better system.
Therefore, the integration of people on the spectrum seems at most one of many contributing factors.
@@voiceinthewilderness7596 Given the fact that I do know quite a few people on the light side of the Autistic spectrum working in high qualified jobs (in STEM, as programmers or engineers), some of them not or only lately diagnosed because 40, 50 years ago, highly functional autism was not really a thing, there might be something to that thought.
interesting. What are some other reforms by nazis aside from a soft system of class?
@@shahlabadel8628 I think the most significan thing that happened was really reshuffling the social classes. This can't be overestimated in its importance.
Germany was extremely conservative until 1918. It was a federation like it is today, but one of the states, Prussia, dominated everything because it had annexed large parts of Germany before unification (which happened in 1871). So Germany was very militaristic. It also had an emperor and a lot of other nobility like today in the UK.
This was changed with the Weimar Republic (from 1918), but that was more of an accidental revolution caused by the First World War. Half the people were totally behind the new order, half wanted the emperor back. There was a conservative/progressive split very similar to what is going on in the US today.
Fascism reorganized the country along totally different lines. People were pressured into joining mass organizations where former nobility, doctors and miners interacted socially with each other. Ruthless workers could easily make fantastic careers, while some members of the upper class found themselves in dire circumstances. And there were those opposed to the regime, who also came from all classes.
In 1945, after the Second World War, absolutely nobody wanted to return to the monarchy. People's nostalgia wasn't for the German Empire before 1918, it was strictly for the Weimar Republic of 1918-1933. Suddenly everyone agreed that this was the golden age that one should try to return to, even those who had previously rejected it. This seems in part a direct result of modernization under the Nazis, and in part a counter-reaction to things the Nazis had done.
There are also areas where we are profiting from a pure counter-reaction. Germany used to be a very authoritarian society, and children were raised very strictly with a lot of beating. This is good for producing effective soldiers, but bad for producing peaceful citizens. The Nazis pushed ruthless discipline for children, which created opposition already during their reign and changed the way Germans raised their children completely after 1945. (This was in part due to the lack of fathers; a lot of children were half orphaned and were raised by their mother, potentially along with a nice 'uncle' who had returned from the war finding his own family wiped out.)
An unrelated point that is often mentioned is the German motorway (Autobahn) system. This was a massive infrastructure (and propaganda) project. It was made possible by the socialist aspect of national socialism. The large construction companies were either socialized or acted as if they were. There was even a mass organization (Reichsarbeitsdienst) in which all young men (in addition to military service) and women had to work for half a year, many of them in motorway construction. We are profiting from the motorway network to this day.
There were also many cases in which companies were concentrated into monopolies for the war effort. This obviously made them more competitive internationally even after the war. The really gigantic ones such as IG Farben were too big and had to be cut up after the war. Think AT&T.
I'm from the Netherlands and I always think that Germans are very polite. It all depends on what you are used to :)
I am from Germany but my daughter lives in the Netherlands - and whenever I visit her I think that Dutch people are much friendlier and politer than Germans. ^^
If you or the other is on vacation and in good mood, you might encouter just the good days ;-) It's not so much, they are less polite, they are just not pretending to be in good mood, if they are not.
I always get the idea, when shopping 8am in the supermarket, staff is much more friendly, relaxed, just starting their day, than they are at 4pm in the rush hour.
I would say people are generally a bit more ethusiastic when talking to foreigners.
Visiting the Netherlands, I always feel like the streets are cleaner, and the people quieter and more polite. But maybe that's just relative perception.
If you're on vacation, you're more relaxed and see things differently, and focus on the positives naturally. Perhaps we Dutch and Germans are even more similar than we think we are. ❤
Know a couple of Dutch people. You guys are REALLY direct! 🤕
But I know that you - generally - do not intend to be rude, just honest, and appreciate that 😁
Here in the midwestern US, that overly kind, cheerful attitude has been so ingrained for so long, that it seems to me that the customer service workers who engage in it are more or less brainwashed and that the idea of behaving in a matter-of-fact manner is unthinkable, let alone demonstrating outright rudeness.
But as we have seen lately, this dynamic seems to be changing when you notice how many more people are behaving rudely and even violently in public (abundant examples are now seen of people acting up on airliners).
Welcome to Costco, I love you!
@@xdeanx1988 Me, silently in my head, "yeah, right. I don't give a sh* about you, and you don't give a sh* about me. FU". Being Canadian I am too polite to say it aloud.
I often wonder whether Americans really think that fake friendliness is fooling the rest of the world.
As a Brit living in Germany the rudest thing for me is being ignored in a queue as someone steps in front of me. When I rarely confront these people they say they didn’t see me. I didn’t realize I was invisible.
I once lived in Berlin close to the only branch of an old-fashioned bakery located in Brandenburg, dating back to East German times. The shop was operated by the baker's wife, who mastered the art of _friendly rudeness._ She had a jocular insult for every customer, and most of us got it and loved it. Unfortunately they couldn't compete against the unfair competition (temporary dumping prices over several years) from the large bakery chains, so they had to close.
PS: I once had a guest from Colombia who was in Berlin for a conference. Probably the most polite person I have ever met. We had fun sending him alone to that bakery shop, with proper warning what to expect as he didn't speak German and might have misunderstood the situation otherwise. I think it was a unique experience for him. Unfortunately he also experienced some genuine Berlin rudeness, which is definitely also a thing.
I lived in Berlin for a couple of years as well and really didn't encounter any "friendly rudeness" what ever that may be. A lot of people were downright rude. At the bakery for example. Shortly after arriving in Berlin, I used to ask for "Semmel" and the lady behind the counter would act very aggressive and shout at me telling me that there isn't anything of that kind. When I pointed to what I wanted, she would tell me that those are "Schrippen" and I should get used to it. in the same aggressive way.
When people found out that I was from Bavaria (as I don't speak a Bavarian dialect, it wasn't noticed right away), they at once connected me to Franz Josef Strauß, a very disgusting right wing Bavarian politician. That was in the 80ies and I could go on with further examples of rudeness. It wasn't just by chance that most of my friends at university were not Berliners, but from the north, Hamburg, Bremen, SH, etc., and from NRW.
Of course, I also met people with manners while living in Berlin, but they definitely a minority.
ascociated
@@magmalin Yes, there are a lot of extremely rude people in Berlin. I guess it was worse before reunification, because that's when I had the worst experiences, too. I used to think I would never want to live in Berlin because people were so rude, but now I live in Neukölln, which is in many ways a big, super friendly German and Turkish village. (Now getting more and more Arabic.)
The baker's wife I mentioned was definitely special and typical for Berlin only in the sense that even one of the most outgoing and friendly persons I have ever met was using a playfully rude façade -- ein Berliner Original (that seems to be an untranslatable German idiom).
@@johaquila I also lived in Berlin before the wall fell. That was in the 80ies. And I lived in Neukölln, Sonnenallee. :). Don't want to go to Berlin again, not even for visiting a very close relative of mine. I'd rather stay living in my home town. It's much closer to Southern France and Italy when going on holiday ;)
Bring back the Nachtbackverbot!
I grew up in Berlin (West) specifically Neukölln and Wilmersdorf but I can't remember experiencing any rudeness only something the British would call banter. You need to give as good as you get and then have a jolly good laugh about it. I got much worse after I moved to Birmingham but that might be down to the company I worked for which was very much NOT like your average workplace.
I've heard this many times, not only about Germany, but also about many other European countries. I think that the idea that people are rude in those countries comes from people who come from a place where they do small talk all the time, not realising it's not done everywhere. If I'm in a restaurant, in Germany for example, the server is going to ask me what I want to order, not what my plans are for the day, how long I am in town for, where I am from, or if it is my first visit in a certain country. That's not being rude, but being efficient.
True. But if the waiter is not busy, it's often very easy to engage them in a friendly conversation that goes beyond the surface friendliness you would expect in the US. Our small talk is rarer, but when it occurs it is usually deeper and more natural.
@@johaquila In other words our small talk is not small.
the lack of customer service - and thus somewhat "rudeness" - especially in the restaurant environment is, that you won't even get to see a server coming to your table at all... in Germany you might need to indeed snip your fingers to get the waiters attention at all... while snipping your fingers at a waiter most anywhere else in the world in itself is considered "rude" from me(!) - the customer(!)
@@theorganguy Snipping is rude in Germany too. If it is busy in the restaurant and the waiter doesn't come to you by himself you just raise your hand and make eye contact with the waiter. That is enough. If he still doesnt notice you can call him and say "Entschuldigung, ich würde gerne bestellen". But never ever snip your fingers.
That is being a subhuman. More of a robot.
I have been pulled over by police in Cologne two weeks ago at around 23:30. Was a pleasent talk, as they checked my documents and made an alcohol test. Really, most of the time I have the feeling that most germans expect rude or impatient customers and are pleasantly surprised if you are meeting them with pleasant patience.
Nah, it's not expecting rudeness, it's "just don't go on my nerves, so I won't either". You do your job and I'll do mine.
It must have been the same cops. I was also stopped staggering down the Luxemburger Strasse at about 2 a.m. I didn't have any ID, with me. They asked my name, looked on their computer and asked my my date of birth. They smiled and said "get home safely"
Waiters in Cologne serving flavoured "Kölsch" water (the locals call it beer) are supposed to be rude. That is a mandatory job requirement and everyone would be totally confused if they are not.
Once I was with my wife and she said that she doesn’t want a beer. The waiter mock her. She responded she was pregnant. I saw the waiter face fell off. Next, he apologized to her. 😂
In Düsseldorf, too.
Offering somebody Kölsch and calling it beer is rude in itself :P
Aus Deutscher Sicht, find ich das garnicht so schlimm. Die meisten Leute, zu denen ich nett bin, sind auch nett zurück. Klar, ab und zu trifft man jemanden, der wirklich kaum was sagt und schlechte Laune versprüht, aber ansonsten sind die meisten nett.
Ich bin aber auch nur selten im Ausland gewesen, daher kenne ich es nicht anders.
Imagine going to an English-speaking place, with an English video, with a English-speakign audience, and deciding that you are just gonna use whatever the heck language you want to use. Quite rude, isn't it?
Acojonante como la gente intenta rebatir un argumento probando exactamente lo contrario. Bien hecho, amiguete.
@@parametr I know you are being sarcastic but I think the plurality of Andrew's viewers are German
@@parametr The video is about an aspect of life in Germany, and this guy is expressing his experiences in his native language, German. The audience also includes many Germans. What's rude is going to a foreign country and deciding only to use English to communicate with locals, instead of at least learning the few basic phrases you are likely going to be exchanging with someone. Unlike the English, French, and Spanish, Germans got into the colonization game rather late, and were promptly forced to give up their colonies (not a bad thing considering the treatment of locals). Thus, the German language is at risk of deterioration, as its base of speakers is limited to those living in the comparatively small country. English is already taking over in everyday German life, you can't hold a conversation with the younger population without hearing a few English words sprinkled into every other sentence. I've noticed non-native English speakers often have a higher regard for English; as a native speaker it pisses me off how the language is encroaching on others. It's fine to establish a common language so that everyone may communicate, and I suppose English is as good a language as any to fulfill this role, but it shouldn't take away from other languages. I see you yourself are bilingual, so you should understand that sometimes translating a thought that came to you in one language to another causes the idea to lose a part of its identity and charm. You shouldn't be upset at someone for using their bleeding language, his comment was probably also meant to be read by Germans anyway.
@@parametr Why would it be rude? The majority of the audience on this channel is from Germany. Andrew also understands German. Also, the topic is about Germany. Therefore your arguments are not even correct.
But even if they were, there is nothing wrong with commenting in another language. I find it much more pleasant to write in my native language. You don't hurt anyone with that. You just have to live with the fact that only a few people understand you. And even if you comment in Spanish, that's perfectly fine. We are here on the Internet in a globalized world.
But maybe you're right and I prove with this comment that Germans are rude from the point of view of others. In any case, I do not find it rude to comment in any language under videos in other languages. And this is my German view on the subject. If you find that rude from your point of view from another culture, then we are probably just different opinion. But that's perfectly fine :)
@@111BAUER111 maybe this is the clue.
The video is in English, the title is in English, and 96% of the comments are in English (I counted).
Math says this is an English corner of UA-cam.
But you chose to use a different language because it's more confortable for you. Even if you have the right to, it's most likely an inconvenience to others who agreed to use English in this forum.
You agree that it might be unpolite based on the rules the community chose for this particular video when 96% of them chose to use English. But you are ok with being rude because it's not rude in your specific culture. That disregard is again, rude.
Let me try with stereotipical examples:
- We don't many bike lanes in UK, I go to Germany and I just walk in the bike lane; when you ring the bell to warn me, I ignore you because in UK we ignore cyclists.
- I go to Germany and I drive in the middle lane in the Autobahn. When you tell me I shouldn't, I tell you that it's normal in my hometown so I'm gonna keep doing it in Germany.
- If we set an appointment at 4pm, I show up 30 minutes late and tell you relax when you complain. Being late is perfectly fine here, so I can do it at your home aswell and it's all ok.
Context is important. You need to know where you are, and THOSE rules are the polite ones to follow. Not caring about it is rude by itself.
In my experience, I find Germans either charmingly personable and courteous or rudely short with little in between. I would say it’s mostly on the positive side, even in Berlin. Then again it could be me, I have the same experience of Paris!
Yes well said.If a German seems friendly then be friendly back.But if a minority seem grumpy or even look down their nose at you then it's frankly their fault for being negative.Every German is an individual.You are entitled to like some.Avoid the other types if you can.
@@martinwilliams9776 I always start being friendly! When some uncultivated trash from the lower bourgeoisie tries to looking down on me, it’s my guilt pleasure to put the serf in place. That type of behaviour isn’t synonymous with a good upbringing.
I love your "Abspann" music, it's super cool! And your bloopers as well 😄
In summer 2022 I had a plane connection to Tunisia in Berlin where I had to stay overnight in a hotel close to the airport. I managed to get yelled twice at by the same driver. "Welcome to Berlin!" I only can say. Never I would want to live in that place.
You are right with the overfriendliness in countries like the USA. For the same reason I don't like to stay in luxury hotels in many places as I feel arkward.
Happy to live in Thailand where most people are friendly from their hearts without exaggerating.
You can be sincere by being polite, it's a sign of civility everywhere.
This is precisely the point - many Germans do not have the same concept of politeness as most of us. Being polite in Germany means using Sie, but it’s perfectly okay to ignore me, a person with a cane, on the tram and give me a nasty look when I ask for a seat. I’ve been shoved 3x now by angry, impatient Germans because I don’t move fast enough. Meanwhile, 90% of the people who jump up to help me are clearly Middle Eastern. It’s sad. There’s a real problem with empathy around the world, but it’s particularly bad here.
Imagine having to sit in an airport all day saying "Hello! Welcome to [country]!" or some minor variation, hundreds if not thousands of times a day. I think I'd go mad within a week.
Then one should get a different Job🤷🏻♀️
you dont have to look like the happiest person alive, just a slight smile is enough tho
@@lumina9995 not in germany ^^
But don't you want to welcome a visitor?
@@sweetmelon3365 I don't know any country who does this. At least not in Europe. But I also went to Thailand and they don't friendly greet you there either. And why should they - I would be annoyed by fake friendlyness.
It is recommended that when bording a bus or a request stop on a train, that you put your arm out so that the driver is 1) able to see you easily and 2) knows that you are going on the bus/train. This is similar to using hand signals when cycling. I did not do it when i first started going on the bus on my own until the driver recommended it and saw passengers getting on doing it.
I've been doing this in the UK ever since I can remember using public transport.
Whenever I am in the US I am stunned how polite and friendly everyone is. They have staff at the airport whose only job it is to give you directions and they keep smiling all the time. At first I thought this was great compared to all the unhappy and unfriendly faces in Europe, but after a while it became irritating. I got the impression that it's all just a facade. Nobody can constantly be happy and cheerful. The last time I returned from the US, the first European I talked to was a French airport official who was incredibly bored, snobby and unfriendly, and it acutally felt right to me, like returning from a dream world to reality. Weird.
This reminds me of an interaction I had at a zoo at those takeaways that are scattered ascross the park.
The lady at the register took my order. Gave me my food. That's it. No smile. No thank you. No goodbye. Now, as a German from the northern part of the country I didn't think too much of it. Just thought a "thank you" would have been nice. But then it dawned on me while the lady at the register didn't do anything wrong in particular, people from a different cultural background might find her behavior incredibly rude.
For me, "rudeness" would have been if she had insulted me, or spit in my food, or something like that. For other people, rudeness is not receiving a thank you, or a good bye.
As an American living in Germany for over 19 years, I have found that customer service has improved a lot. When I got here, if I had a question on something, the sales person acted like they didn't want to be bothered. I don't expect a fake smile and when Germans smile, and yes they do, it's natural.
Service staff is not paid to be natural. Is paid to make you feel good
This type of video is needed: No matter which language we are learning, and even if we never travel, let's remember that there's social and longterm history that flavors it.
I would rather like to deal with someone who pretends to be nice than with someone who is rude in any way. I don't care if the kindness is sincere because I don't know the person in the first place. Sincerity is for friends, and they aren't my friends, are they?
Thanks for explaining the legendary German rudeness by an understanding foreigner 😀
Me (a German) and a Polish lady got yelled at by a London bus driver bc apparently we walked in too fast.🙄
My mom and I have never visited Germany, but we have on 5 occasions routed through Germany. Once by plane and 4 times by train. In all 5 scenarios, we have faced extremely long delays or outright cancellations.
Our last time, we had a layover in Berlin and our next train was completely cancelled. My Mom struggled with customer service to get her on another train. Then we had to take 3 more trains just to get where we were going (Amsterdam). She was completely exhausted by the time it was all over and they finally routed us.
Funnily enough, your portrayal of "German" immigration officers matched exactly my experience of "English" immigration officers on my first and only trip to the UK/London.
And talking about rudeness: I really like your attitude here! People are not machines and working in the service industry can be tough. In any job, it usually takes only one(!) person that can make or break your day or even your job. One person getting on your nerves from time to time so that you won't enjoy your job anymore.
I think the best is to be friendly towards other people. Do your part. You cannot control the reaction of others. And do not lower yourself to the level of unfriendly people or iditos (I know it's super easy and people love doing it because it makes great and relatable stories). And don't talk bad about them behind their backs because what does this accomplish? You tell ME that this waiter or train driver was rude to you? Either you tell him personally to his face or you shut up. I don't want you to poison the atmosphere. Either you face the person or you shut up.
Also we should stop being so hypersensitive. This train conductor maybe has people coming late or not standing where they're supposed to stand regularly. We should try to judge a person that we don't absolutely know nothing about by just one statement or one thing they did. We wouldn't want others to do that to us and we cannot always make the best impression or influence how others perceive us.
Yup, I noticed that too at passport control in Frankfurt airport. There was once an old grump. I said hallo and he was like "Guten Morgen sagt man!". Anyone else was just normal and not bothering to make a definition on the proper greeting. As you said, could've had a crappy day thus far. Regarding the bus drivers - over here on the emerald isle passengers usually thank the driver upon disembarking the bus and often wish him a nice day. I think that makes the commonality so much more pleasant. One bus driver is a real star, whenever someone swipes their bus ticket card he goes like "That's grand! / That's brilliant / that's magic..." He is always cheerful and always makes my day. I had already emailed the company to give him a massive pat on the shoulders for delivering such a cheerful mood on his bus.
As a German I'd consider that extremely rude. But maybe you just happened upon a racist?
I used to work a supermarket till in a big city centre location. My southwest area has lots of people from different cultural backgrounds and during that time we had an influx of South Asian customers. Now, I speak English fluently and didn't mind switching to it if the customer struggled with German, but I had an older colleague who sometimes got downright nasty with customers. She'd say things like "this is Germany, you need to speak German here!" From stuff she said about immigrants I can tell you she was racist. I always countered with facts about that and when she was nasty with a customer for not being able to speak German I'd admonish her and then I'd tell the customer what was needed in English.
I did complain about her behaviour to my boss, but that hardly helped. Some people are just arseholes and should not be allowed to have customer-facing jobs.
Thanking the driver before leaving the bus also happens in England as well. I think it's a nice tradition and it's a shame that such "traditions" are dying out.
I had shockinly bad experience in the US assuming a Info counter staff would be nice and got talked down upon why I don’t look at the info table display…
If you want to experience British rudeness - I suggest you deal with the Home Office when trying to get some help in filling in a 86 page long form for 'settled status' .... on your mobile.
Or you drive in the UK with a German or French number plate - you will be told to 'get back where you came from, forrinner'.
Or you speak German or French with your 'forrin' relatives* in Public Transport in London .....
* in your case: your German wife, in my case: my German mum and my French in-laws.
In Germany we have a saying: Wie es in den Wald schallt schallt es auch wieder hinaus. (Literal translation is something like The wait it sounds - like an echo - in the forest, they wait it sounds back out). If you are rude to someone people in the service sector they won't be nice to you. On the other hand, if you are nice say thanks and please it will be different. Especially if you talk in complete sentences. There are many people that shout "That Bread" while gesturing and that's it.
If you are a friendly regular in a local store like a bakery I always found the people extremely friendly and helpful. The will move mountains for you and will try their best to help you.
Same for the people working in the town hall. They have to sit there for 8h a day and get barked at. If you are nice, friendly, and try to be helpful they will most often than not be glad.
I remember moving from the UK to Germany as a child 33 years ago and wondering as an 8 year old why none of the pupils in my new class (or the teacher for that matter) had any kind of manners. No "bitte, danke, gern geschehen.." It was a quite a culture shock and the opposite to what I had lerned in a british primary school.
30 years later as a german citizen I maintain that Germans are in a whole friendly, but just ignorant of good manners.
Interesting, do you live in Hesse? I am Northener living in Hesse for more than 30 years now and surely driving this guys and girls crazy around here with my "bitte ","danke".😊
@@AltIng9154 Yes, I am in fact hessian😃 I live in Usingen, about 30 km north of Frankfurt. Maybe that has something to do with it😅
@@michaelcliffe562 LOL,... it took me decades to get used to it in Hesse. As mentioned, I am from the North, Lower Saxony and have the idea the Northeners are quite polite. The Bavarians are polite also. Near to the Austrian border they often say: Habe die Ehre! I am honered :-)
But the Hessians...
ngl in the anecdote with the train driver at the beginning the passenger's message does seem genuine to me; the train driver was just giving a remark about how some train drivers might have missed them and was pointing that out to help avoid that. In general, even when tone might sound gruff it is (in my experience) usually well intentioned and genuine
I had the opposite experience. I always found the Germans very polite, direct and honest, but courteous and respectful. Except a few occasions, less than fingers I have in my hand, everyone has been perfectly nice.
How is that the opposite of what he said? He says that it's not rudeness but just honesty. You can honestly express "I'm in a bad mood" while also being polite.
True story: I went to the registration office to request a new ID card. It's a small town so I didn't make an appointment. It was about 09:59:59 am and I was sitting face to face with the official who collected my data. A customer knocked on the door, opened the door and said "Excuse me, I had an appointment at 10 am". The official replied "Yeah, wait outside". 5 seconds of silence. Then she yelled at me "HELLO!? WAIT OUTSIDE! THIS MAN HAS AN APPOINTMENT"! I hadn't even understood that her first "Wait outside" was directed at me 😔
If you think German service providers are rude, try German officials.
Since I'm here and found this comment.
Yeah, the official was very unfriendly but you are not able to judge the entire administration section from one negative incident! And surely not by one rude person because there are like 1000s of people working there.
If you had experienced like 5 times in the past where these administration officials had been rude to you, then we could see a pattern. If not, it's your word against my word because I so far cannot remember having a bad experience with any officials. And even if today I had a bad experience, this wouldn't take away all the normal, pleasant interactions with officials I had.
Here's a very recent true story of mine: I need to get a new licence plate and part of the process obviously is to bring documents to one place and then to another place. I made a call, wrote an e-mail, then got a reply what documents are necessary. Then I replied that I wanted to know exactly what documents they need because I don't want to go there to waste everyones time. Today I got a reply: Can you please give me your adress, we'll send you the requested document. 😊👍
Deutsche Beamte sind das Letzte, ich schätze es gibt Defizite in der Ausbildung. Extrem niedriger persönlicher und intellektueller Standard, aber alle benehmen sich mit Allmacht.
First German met in US college told me at a party, she knew we weren't really real about nice to meet you. I didnt understand until years later when I met people from NY city and Chicago. Whew!
And there are people who quickly react negatively, hurt or aggressive when people are not super friendly while others (like me) for different reasons (not saying it's always right to not talk back) don't take it personally and they don't let one rude person spoil the day.
I moved from Munich to Berlin and let me tell you I was shocked how much of a difference there is regarding culture in general. Especially how rude people are. And not in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. Nope, straight nasty. It was the first time I was threatened with death, because (during the early stages of COVID restrictions) I dared to tell a guy to literally not rub himself on me while I was standing in front of a shelf grabbing some products. He could not wait for me to finish and yelled like a crazy person in front of all the people in the store. It was embarassing for him and for myself. Honestly, eff Berlin.
People from Bayern are mostly nicer than people from other states 😢
Awww love the farewell.
(I suspect though, the algorithm hates vids without a lot of without-further-ado ado, judging by lots of popular videos.)
When I’ve traveled Germany for work, it honestly reminded me of east coast culture in the USA. People generally keep to themselves but are usually friendly once you start interacting with them. You sometimes get an impatient cashier, but it’s nothing to write home about. I did notice my coworkers being extremely honest about how they felt about things (whether good or bad) but it never felt rude, just very direct.
I've always seen things as not being rude, it's just more direct than a British person might be used to. It's caught me out a couple of times even with friends, but it's also so nice not to have to try and guess what people are thinking or want to do.
Your understanding of rudeness also depends on which part of the UK you visit / live in. IMO, people up North are generally friendlier and politer in their casual interactions.
It is not rude, they are just factual and direct. 02:30 love it
I’m from South America and I now live in Chicago Illinois and I can tell you that the vast majority of gringos (people from the USA) at least in Chicago and the Midwest are genuinely nice and most people even in jobs where the is no tipping honestly want to help you and be friendly towards you. This is also true in Latin America in fact even more so. Almost anyone from the Americas, with few exceptions, will always give up their seat for a pregnant woman or someone on crutches. Germans would never consider such an act and they never help strangers. Their “honesty” is just an excuse to be an A**hole to people.
Germans simply have a bad culture and they could learn from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the USA or Latin America because I know first had the places I just mentioned are very hospitable, caring, charitable, friendly people and societies especially Syria and Jordan but South America is also up there too.
Germans, in my experience, are just bad humans.
The elderly, handicapped and pregnant are not equal to the rest of us they deserve more kindness and help. Everyone seems to understand this except for Northern Europeans.
If you think I’m wrong than please educate me on what I am incorrect about I welcome constructive criticism
Below is a comment I left on another person’s video concerning German behavior which led me to this video
I really, really don’t like Germans or Nordic people they are extremely rude and hostile to strangers the exact opposite of any country in the Americas, southern Europe or the Middle East and North Africa.
I don’t think Germany denazified because they are still obsessed with being on time, doing paperwork, disregarding other’s feelings, extremely inhospitable to strangers and believing everything they do is correct as well as accusing Americans of “being fake” for genuinely being nice and helpful to strangers when every country and culture from Canada to Argentina are nice and helpful to strangers, except the Quebecois
My experience was that...Germans expected me to know exactly what I was doing at all times. If I got to a kiosk, door, or screen - I should already be familiar & know what to do. To ask for help or to ask for an explanation was an inconvenience. Then if I needed any kind of clarification - it was above and beyond. They had already fulfilled their furthest commitment by making eye contact with me.
I am a German working in retail. And God knows, I am trying my hardest to be as friendly and nice to my customers as I can. But honestly, they don't make it exactly easy for me. In most cases I'm happy to hear a "Guten Tag!". But that sadly happens less and less in today's society. It could be so easy...
As others already mentiones, I as a customer always try to see the pearson and keep a minimum level of friendlynes. However if I enter a Shop with no particular intention of buying something, then get talked to by some service worker who then "wastes" his time talking to me... well then I might feel obligated to by something, or leave the shop with the bad feeling of having wasted someones time.
Of course there is people feeling completely oposite about this, and judjing what kind of person just entered the shop must be a real challange for serviceworkers.
However if I'm looking for something in particular I'll first scan the shop by myself and the ask for help. If they don'T have what I was looking for I thank tham for their time and leave. This however still feels rude from my side in many cases...
@@AkantorJojo All we usually do is to say "Good morning!" (or whatever the time of day is) while waking by the customers, so they know I'm there and they can always ask me anything if necessary. Unless we can clearly see in the customers face that he or she actually needs some kind of help. Be there for the customers, but don't annoy them is the unspoken rule.
@@AkantorJojo Oh yes, during college i worked at a small fashion store for alternative clothing, mostly goth but also metal, gypsy, rockabilly, medieval-fantasy etc. Our boss was utterly convinced, that we had to be more oriented towards customer service than at e.g. an H&M. That mostly included background knowledge about the stuff we were selling (for example how to properly put on a corsett, how to take care of military leather boots after buying them or the fact that a certain brand produces fair trade clothes in the EU, and not in chinese slave companies). Which is obviously correct. But he also insisted, that we greet every single customer that comes into the store, go to them and try to help them and if they try something on, suggest other clothes/shoes/accessoires that will go well - and THAT was an argument with my boss every time.
While I agree on greeting customers, and asking if they need help when they appear lost - i absolutely refused to follow people around the store or to look for a pair of trousers for 150 bucks that would fit well with the one single shirt on sale they took to try on. The most i would do was ask if they were looking for something specific when they come in, and then let them browse the store after telling them they can ask me anytime if they have a question or need help. My boss didn't like it, and i did not make the highest sales during my shifts. But i did make stable sales and repeating customers would ask for me when i'm not on shift. I admit though, i automatically smile when talking to people (cause i have a rbf face) without forcing it, so most people think i'm a nice person to talk to or happy to help them.
@@olgahein4384 Oh I love staff following me around and treating me like a thief.
@@AkantorJojo Yeh...but it's always like this. walking around, say in Saturn only wanting to look at the new iPhones TVs etc. You'll always have someone coming up to you to ask if they can help you. It's contra-productive I think, I'll either say "no thanks" or move on. But when you DO want to buy something there...there's no service around to be seen.
(It's like the ..."I always seem to end up in the longest queue in the supermarket").
German rudeness: "How up do high knee!" (German pronounciation of German for "Get away!")
I'm in the U.S and I'm always insulted by the "Americans are faking it" comments common from Europeans. I worked customer service for 12+ years. One time a customer, from a different country, YELLED at me, "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SMILING?!?" I love my customers, I love my fellow employees, I love my job (frenetic and high pressured as it is) ... Why wouldn't I be happy? I responded with the aforementioned reasons and he obviously wasn't buying it (though he didn't bring it up again). What's wrong is people who AREN'T happy doing their jobs, not with people who ARE happy doing their jobs.
Can you download some other more convincing personality, everyone has been pretty much trained by experience to distrust the corporate drone speak.
@@robertkalinic335 😄
I'm not convinced Berlin actually is in Germany
It's trying to hide here. Unfortunately they've forgotten why they're hiding here and have resorted to being rude to the rest of the country for refusing to provide a reason for hiding.
I've lived there for almost 2 years, and it certainly feels less German in some regards than Zurich or Vienna. On the other hand, its grittiness is pretty much the same as in Mannheim or Cologne.
I think you confuse Berlin and Bavaria. Even through both begin with the letter "B":
Berlin is the capital of Germany, Bavaria is the area taken by the ego of Markus Söder.
@@Gebieter
He certainly doesn't. Berlin is not german the same way London isn't english, metropolitan areas like that are microcosms of their own
Berlin is the Westernmost Turkish city. It is known for its German past and still has a large German minority.
I think that you can have a basic level of politeness without being either OTT or rude. It's called being professional. If someone's having a bad day it's not my fault. I don't expect them to smile and do somersaults but I don't expect them to bark at me and take their frustration out on me either.
When it comes to service personnel, it's true that you experience a lot of indifference in Germany. But generally, I think there's one factor that contributes to the impression of rudeness without really having anything to do with it and that's how language is used: German is usually spoken with the idea of being "to the point" in mind and so people tend to confine themselves to saying the necessary (well, more or less 😉), while in other languages, social relations are considered a little more, resulting in the use of phrases that might be interpreted as unnecessary or even dishonest. So it's easy to see, that when you're used to the latter, Germans may seem rude, even if they don't actually intend to.
And I think another point is that a lot of Germany do not want to be bothered by staff in the shop, they just want to look for themselves, asking for help when needed.
So, it's considered polite if staff does not bother the clients, but comes to help them if asked for.
Someone coming from a more service oriented industry might mistake this for rudeness or indifference because they enter the shop with completely different expectations.
@@marge2548 Good point!
I think there are many reasons to be rude.
- If the customer is rude why should i be polite?
- The other one is rude by nature. ;o)
- You come from a country where fake politeness is a part of the job (USA)
I think the german behavior is not intentional rude. Its a cultural thing. Some people are surprised, maybe shocked, if a german answer a resounding and unequivocal NO because in their own culture its not usual. Many people from asia prefer to say "maybe" or "i dont know" even they mean no.
Or being on time. For many germans it is very impolite to be late. For people from other countries its ok if they arrive within half an hour at the agreed time.
There is no real and fake politeness at work. It's just politeness. In all civilized parts of the world
Bei Busfahrern gehört es zum Berufsbild.
😂tried to make a little german impression at the end of the video...loved it❤
What people (e.g. the Germans) don't understand is that what we "wear" on the outside (facial expressions, mannerisms, etc.) has a huge impact on how we feel on the inside. That is, if we "act" friendly and polite on the outside, there's a good chance we will feel friendly and polite on the inside. One affects the other. Conversely, if we wear a frown on the outside, we stand a very good chance of absorbing that frown into our inside. Friendliness begets friendliness and rudeness begets rudeness, both within ourselves and in the reaction we get from others.
Yeah well, I was subjected to American overt-friendliness for 3 weeks on my vacation and I couldn't help to have the impression that this behaviour oozes duplicity. It's a cultural thing, I suppose.
You think that because you're duplicitous yourself.
Can we call you RewdBoss now?
I've only ever experienced once being blamed at an airport for arriving late to the gate because my preceding flight landed an hour late at passport control was slow.
"You have to be here on time!" Yes. I really did try.
This was Frankfurt airport.
Coincidence? Maybe.
Allow me one opinion: I had a 15 year stint in the US, coming from Germany and going back in 1992. IMHO, within those 15 years, things got a lot better here in Germany. Also, it is really a big difference where in Germany you are. I moved from the Stuttgart area to Karlsruhe and lived there 11 years and boy, did I think people were friendlier. Until I moved to the südliche Weinstraße (near Landau) 12 years ago and realized that people in Karlsruhe are, in comparison, rather rude… 🙂
I appreciate German directness and brutal honesty.
It's not even that brutal, I feel like. Just not sugarcoating needless things.
Having lived in Germany for many years (born in Frankfurt Main), my experiences were always pretty positive.
"Are germans really rude?"
Me, a german: "What's with all the silly questions? >:["
As a German when I visited the US all the small talk made me really uncomfortable. Also I knew that they don't really care so I thought THAT to be rude and unrespectful. I am used to people that care for what I say when they ask. When you don't care why ask in the first place? I just hate fakeness.
I couldn't care less what you think. And learn English -- it's "disrespectful." Blunt enough, Kraut? lol
My real name (both first and Last) is German. I have traveled to Germany quite a few times as I worked for a German Company. Once when traveling with colleagues with somewhat unusual passports, my colleagues were taken for further examination by customs while I was greeted by the same fellow now smiling and saying "Welcome home to Germany."
Indeed, past personal experience suggests that your name had something to do with it.
Someone who is so "German" must be trust worthy.
Trevor Noah has talked about similar experiences with US customs. not for him of course as he is not an US citizen.
Yes, it's not rudeness, it's honesty.
German here: This week my wife called me to buy a gift at a shop before it was closing. I was there five minutes before closing time but the lights were out and the door was already closed by key. As I wanted to leave the shop assistant rushed on, apparently from an open-air café nearby, not so happy to see a customer. She opened the door and a little later turned on the light. I took a packet of sweets from the shelf. At the cash she told that I could only pay by card as she had already counted the money. So I did. Then I asked for their service of packing things decoratively. She said "not at that time". I reminded her that she still had four minutes of working time left, so she did.
2:37 I had a cashier at Trader Joe’s in California calling me « my friend ». This was strange.
I've lived in Frankfurt for a year and a half and I don't think Germans are rude at all. They may be blunt when it comes to expressing their opinions or giving information, but I believe this honesty and direct to the point approach prevent them from being rude. Like, there's no need to be rude when all you have to say have already been clearly stated, there's no space for "in between the lines" rudeness when there's no small talk and so the situation don't escalate to open rudeness.
I'm from Brazil, where people are expected to be friendly towards others, but where rude behavior pops up a lot and in many different forms.
Sometimes foreigners speak directly in English to shop assistants. I noticed a man trying to exchange his shoes which he had admittedly worn outside the house as well - the shop assistant didnt go for English (very likely a lady from Croatia or even Russia). They settled the matter with a voucher out of courtesy.
My god if you can stand us for 30 years you've certainly earned to be one of us.
Germans are extremely practical. And yes, Berlin has a problem with public services, but it is not necessarily rudeness. Coming from a country in which politeness towards customers is very important, it was very difficult for me to adapt here, specially in Berlin. But now I understand how it works and am fine with it
I’ve been in Germany for 33 years. My experience is that service here has improved a lot since I first came here.
Hahaha, I, as a German, experienced the Berlin extra rudeness every once in a time. I think that has Berlin with Vienna in common, You don't were in Berlin/Vienna unless you have experienced once the rudeness of a waiter/waitress in a restaurant, cafe or bar.
Don't be to offended, it is part of the game. And ofc, I met a ton of nice people there, too.
I lived there for almost three years and everyone I met there was very nice.
I love your comments on reddit!
I work as a security guard in Esslingen. I try to be as nice, as i would like to be welcomed if i would visit the company. Its not always easy, but a smile mostly gets a smile back.
i've never met a nice immigrations officer so far. They all have to maintain the tough guy facade like they are the last line of defense sorting out the evil terrorists.
I'm guessing their face is not a deterrent.
Maybe the result of a intensively boring job instead?
I have. I live in Melbourne and on my first visit to Europe, the immigration official asked me where I was staying. I was not prepared for this and said that the details were in my suitcase, but I thought the hotel was in a particular area. So he got out his own phone and we went through a map until I recognised the name of the hotel. He then entered it in his computer. That was a long time ago, but I still remember his friendly and helpful approach. 🙂
The nicest immigration officers I personally experienced were those at the Russian border, of all places.
The US is a mixed bag. West coast has mostly kind officers, but in the middle, they can be more direct.
Canada has professional officers.
What a great impression of Mrs. Coren-Mitchel who sends off viewers in similar dry manner on OC :)
About 3:30 PM on 14th February this year, in Hamburg's Reeperbahn S Bahn station, on the westbound train to Hamburg Altona, I was filming and minding my own business, when some random man came from behind me, and threw a tantrum prior to alighting. It didn't last long and the man hobbled away up to the street level near Beatles-Platz and Suzie's. The Stadtpolizei Hamburg were never involved, and when I returned back to the USA, the German passport control in Frankfurt Rhein Main airport never even brought up the indicent on 14th February in Hamburg.
If no name and passport was recorded, you won’t show up in any system.
Thanks for your very intelligent videos. what does rewbossthe title of your video mean?
Passport checkers (presumably they are the Police or a private security...looked the Police to me) at a German airport (Frankfurt) are usually quite stone-faced, non-engaging. Not that I expected some kind of full-on effusive greeting just for checking my ID. Certainly not. But a small 'thank you' or some kind of engagement.....goes a looooong way. Next time at a German airport, I'll serve them back exactly the (non-) engagement they serve. I owe them zilch.
The only time I found efficiency to over step the mark was on one arrival at Brandenburg Airport. The border guard didn’t like the fact I was visiting for leisure purposes rather than essential reasons. He slammed my passport on the desk, I collected it and entered the country.
Unfortunately for him the government said it was fine for me to enter the country for the reason I was doing regardless of his clear views on it
Das Ende ist hilariös
Well, congratulations! I am struggling with it but I have made plans to return to my home country where things are much better and peaceful. Living in Germany is like living in a third world country. The digital touch here is laughable given that it is a developed country. I hope the situation improves and people learn how to be happy and cheerful. One option is to start eating spicy food. The warmth in the body will at least make you guys warmer at heart.
Nevertheless, I have also had a few good experiences with the Germans. Some of them were kind, but I still sensed a look for unhappiness in their faces.
Well, you seem to have had a much more pleasant experience than some people, like getting yelled at "He, Sie da, was machen Sie da auf der Wiese! Sie dürfen das nicht machen, oder wohnen Sie hier?!" when pulling some stuck piece of trash out of a public lawn next to an apartment complex in a city.
In my own experience people from rural areas are much more open and visibly-nice, while city people seem either like a closed shell or some territorial ruler.
For some odd reason it makes me happy that we still use the Hoff as a universal way to denote something being german.
Also, in the US it appears there is a huge difference between east coast / west coast. West Coast they will be incredibly nice but not help, East Coast they will insult you first but then give you hand.
Give me West Coast any day.
I miss flying due to all the David Hasselhoff pictures on the airports alone! One has to be visible at all times, just like North Korea 🙂
I live in Croatia and I've visited Germany last summer. I've had quite a different experience, it seems. To me, the service was very good and helpful, but I ended up being annoyed by the ordinary people. I have noticed certain patterns of behaviour that I would find unacceptable in Croatia.
Of the top of my head, I remember a dude in a shop in Berlin taking a carton of juice from the shelf, opening it and drinking from it before going through checkout. I also remember children being allowed to run around public transport vehicles and sit/play on the floor. In Croatia, parents usually encourage children much more eagerly to remain calm in public. I also remember a woman spraying people with water in an S-Bahn stop. I almost feel like this would provoke a physical altercation in Croatia.
So, to me Germans, particularly Berliners, though other urbanites as well, seem to behave much less acceptably (according to my urban Croatian social values) than the service personnel or governmental clerks.
That's not germany. That's Berlin. If you're forced to handle the crazy people there long enough, you learn to ignore them, or you become one of them. A physical altercation would be the first step to become that woman yourself. ;)
Why was this woman spraying people with water? It sounds bizarre.
I once heard Aldi Süd described as "Service with a grimace", and this was during a conversation about that time Wal Mart took over some German shops. Apparently the U.S. philosophy of having staff smile at customers distrubed some Germans as they weren't used to it and found it creepy.
it had nothing to do with the smiling but more the idea of the staff not being able to leave you the fuck alone
Maybe not rudeness, but definitely some bruskness we're not used to 😜
They say Thailand is the land of smile yet there immigration officials are constantly in a bad mood. And you know what? As a German I love it. So refreshing honest, no fake friendlyness I instantly feel welcome there by NOT being fake-smiled at but receiving their honest feelings 😊
Talking about the person in the glass box at the airport passport scanners (I assume also FRA) - I was surprised that he said “Willkommen zurück in Deutschland!” - I don’t know if he said it because he saw our (my son and my) passport being issued in Houston, TX - or if he was just friendly - but he was friendly!
To go at it another way, how about saying to the rude person "Sorry to see you're having a bad day"; what will happen then? Might upset the pattern. Going to try this next time!