Germans eat 1.7 times faster than Americans

Germans are the kings of efficiency and this extends into the realm of eating lunch. If you work at a big company in Germany, you will almost certainly have a cafeteria to eat in which serves up great subsidized meals. Because Germans want to spend as little time as possible at work, they limit their lunch breaks to exactly 45 minutes. That means you have 45 minutes to walk from the office to the cafeteria, get served up a nice meal and a tiny drink with no ice (and no free refills), talk about the latest episode of the emigration reality show, a soccer match, or what would have happened if some battle in a war 95 years ago would have turned out differently. After that you need to return your dishes and take a 10 minute walk the long way back to the office.

When you subtract the walking times and time needed to buy your lunch, you actually only have about 10 minutes to eat your meal while discussing 1 reality show, 1 soccer match, and 1 alternative outcome to a historic event. You as an American cannot pull it off. Do not attempt to participate in the conversation, focus solely on eating as fast as you can. The cards are stacked against you in this for the following 2 reasons:

  1. You likely haven’t mastered the super-efficient German style of eating, whereby you scoop everything onto your fork in your left hand with your knife that’s in your right hand. Maybe you are becoming adept at using the fork with your left hand and are gaining speed, but it won’t be enough.
  2. You must constantly try to remember the gender of every noun you want to say, then figure out whether the prepositions you want to use require the accusative, dative, or genitive case. Then you have to match the gender with the case to figure out the needed definite article in a table in your head you learned in German class, and you are almost there. Now you just have to figure out the adjective ending based on the definite article and you have part of the sentence you want to say completed. Now figure out where the verbs go in the sentence, conjugate and you are ready to add your mustard to the conversation. Unfortunately by the time you have your witty sentence about the reality show constructed in your head, the topic has already moved on to the Bundesliga.

Not only did you not get to say a single word about the first topic, you wasted your first 3 minutes of valuable eating time. You are still working on your soup, while your German colleagues have already finished their Maultaschen and are getting ready to dig into dessert.

Once again its going to be one of those days where the only thing you said all lunch long was genau one time, and your colleagues are still going to have to wait for the slow American to finish lunch.

deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid ein/ausblenden

13 Responses to “Germans eat 1.7 times faster than Americans”

  1. Bettina Says:

    Sehr cool, mir ging es genau so, als ich die ersten Wochen in Amerika war…während ich noch Antworten formuliert habe, war das Gespräch schon wieder bei einem ganz anderen Thema angekommen und ich hatte nix gesagt. Aber nett lächeln kommt auch immer gut an ;-)

  2. Melanie Says:

    I am left handed, so I put the knife into my right hand and hold the fork in my left, but I still master the art of fast eating. It can be done! What counts is to learn how to use knife and fork *at the same time*. :-)

  3. Jo Says:

    Mwahahaha you are so right!

  4. c3p Says:

    viel wahres dran, wenn ich mich so in meiner mensa umgucke

  5. Frank Says:

    German lunchbreaks at work last usually 30 minutes not 45 as written in the text.
    But the rest is true… *smirk*

  6. Bettina Says:

    @ Frank: poor you. I am working in Germany and have a whole hour for my lunchbreak! Isn´t that awesome? :-D

  7. Klaue Says:

    Well, here (Switzerland) in my company, we got a minimum of 30 min. of unpaid time at mealtime. that means you can eat as long as you want (1h = 1h unpaid) but if you finished too soon, you’re screwed (10 min = 30 min unpaid).
    I usually have 20-30 mins, so it’s quite ideal. 45 mins would be way too long.
    (and, even if some people give me a weird look, I hold the fork in my right. It’s way more efficient in my point of view)

  8. titrat Says:

    lunch is like sex: the faster, the better :-)

  9. ZEUGS: Neue Hiroshima-Fotos, britische Gewalt und Waffengesetze « USA Erklärt Says:

    […] ist auch der Hinweis, dass Deutsche schneller essen als Amerikaner, was die Schönste Germanin mit etwas anderer Betonung bestätigen würde. Man […]

  10. marie Says:

    You learn that when you go to the Bundeswehr: They leave you with a lunchtime of about 10 Minutes including potty break. :-D

  11. simi1983 Says:

    i’m german but i make everyone wait at lunch cause i just eat slowly.
    Tip to all americans. Just claim that you’re following your doctor’s advice to chew everything carefully in order to cure your sick stomach.
    minimum 2 people will full of understanding start a conversation about stomach sicknesses they’ve experienced themselves or that any of their relatives or collegues have gone through. soon you will wish to finish your lunch so badly that you’ll eat faster automatically.

  12. Stefan W. Says:

    >> You learn that when you go to the Bundeswehr: They leave you with a lunchtime of about 10 Minutes including potty break. :-D

    Absolutely true… and it’s even worse if you’re at the end of the line waiting to receive your meal. I think at several occasions the time was down to 2 minutes or less remaining to actually eat something, if I remember correctly. :)

  13. derdude Says:

    First thing you learn in basic training : take only food you can eat with a spoon - cuting things will cost you too much time

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