Archive for May, 2008

Culture shock

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

The surprising thing about culture shock is that it is actually worse when you get back to your home country. When you move off to a foreign land, you expect that you are going to have to adapt to changes. But when you set foot back on your own shores, suddenly you realize that home is missing some of the things you have come to love.

100% of Americans returning home from Germany miss German bread and German chocolate, immediately. Although feeble attempts to recreate German bread are created throughout the country, you can still always mash the entire loaf into a pancake shape with ease. Pretty good bread is available in America, but certainly not on every street corner.

The chance to walk around a nice looking city center, without being inundated with cars and ugly billboards competing for your short attention span, is something most Americans returning home miss as well. Most of us would like to have the chance to walk or bike somewhere without imminent death waiting around each street corner.

Germany produces some of the worst software ever created, i.e. SAP. One need only compare the beautifully elegant Gmail to the hideous GMX, which the majority of Germans inexplicably continue to use. Despite Germany’s propensity towards poor quality software, Germany makes the best computer magazine in the world, c’t, which expat computer geeks severely miss upon their repatriation.

In America we speak our own flavor of English, which is missing the amazingly useful word doch. Normally German words are entire sentences strung together into a single word, but this little gem is actually the sentence, “I am right, and you are wrong”, all wrapped up into a single grunt from the bottom of your throat. The closest we have as Americans to this is “yuh-huh”, but that becomes unacceptable to say after you turn 7 years old, about the age where you are expected to stop saying exactly how you feel.

deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid

Germans do things wrong

Monday, May 26th, 2008

In 1713, when the International Assemly on How to Do Stuff met to determine the acceptable standards of the world, the Germans didn’t show up. That’s why when traveling or living in Germany, you will have to get used to the fact that they do everything wrong.

Germans start counting with 0. When you go to a hotel, they will tell you that your room is on the third floor, when it is actually on the fourth floor, because Germans don’t understand that the first thing counted is always 1, not 0. This has the side-effect of causing Germans to start counting with their thumb.

Germans don’t realize a phone number should have a fixed number of digits. In America we always use the same number of digits, so that when we give our phone number out, we kind of have a tune that we all sing it to. In Germany, you never know when to put down the pen, since your phone number could be 472323412232 or 7.

Germans don’t know how to work a calendar. First of all they write the date, month, and then the year seperated by dots instead of a month, date, and year sperated by slashes, like any reasonable person. But the weirdest thing is that Germans think the week starts on a Monday, so you always have to shift around the calendar in your head to figure out what they really mean.

With numbers, the Germans put a comma where the decimal goes, and decimals where the commas go.

The one thing the Germans did get right is that you drive on the right side of the road, which they probably decided on just to spite the British.

The silliest thing the Germans do is use the metric system. Everyone knows the inch is better than the centimeter, because it is bigger. Also, if you want to divide up a Subway footlong sub among 2,3,4, or 6 people, you make, 6,4,3, or 2 inch sections, respectively. Try that with the centimeter. The sections would be 15.24, 10.16, 7.62, or 5.08 cm. That’s simply too hard to remember.

God made the 7 day week, but it was the genius of George Washington that gave the world the 24 hour day, which lets you divide the day evenly into halves, thirds, quarters, sixths, eigths, twelveths, as well as twenty-fourths, which is the same reason the mile has 5,280 feet, so that you can divide it into one-thousand seven hundred sixtieths evenly.

The circle isn’t made up of 100 degrees for a reson. Think about it.

deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid ein/ausblenden

Globalization rears its ugly head

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Germans as well as Americans have long feared the ever quickening pace of globalization and its devastating effects on culture and commerce. Factories are shut down, ancient dialects die out, and now this:

The first Nordic Walker has been spotted in Oklahoma. At first, one may think, ok, no big deal, it’s just a German tourist out getting some exercise.  But it is a fact that no tourist, German or American, has ever come to Oklahoma, so it must be one of us.

American Nordic Walker

Thank you Stine for alerting us about this sad occasion.

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Germans can’t leave well enough alone

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Americans and Germans enjoy drinking beer, but we all hate tasting it. That’s why in America we chill it to just above its freezing point, so that it numbs our taste buds as we force it down. Miller Lite at 1°C is the perfect beer, because even at room temperature, it is almost flavorless.

Germans are pretty good at making beer, too; but since they love the environment so much, they refuse to spend the energy to cool their beer to our standards. Instead Germans have the audacity to mix things into their beer to make it more “palatable”. Germans have the beer purity law, the Reinheitsgebot, dating way back from 1516, which states that beer shall consist of nothing more than water, barley, and hops. Germans have been ignoring this law in the following ways ever since:

The Radler (also known as Alster in High German - you won’t be leaving Bavaria, so you don’t need to know this) is the most common and least offensive beer mixture. It is created by mixing a helles or Pils and Schprite (or any other lemon-lime drink) to create a bitter-sweet beverage, which is quite refreshing on warm summer’s day.

The Russnmaß steps it up a notch in creating a bad tasting drink. This is formed by joining Weißbier and lemon-lime. A side note here, if you decide to buy the cuckoo clock and have to go to the Black Forest: Anytime you order a Weißbier in Baden-Württemburg, the waitress will always act confused, and ask you if you meant Hefeweizen, even though it says Weißbier right on the bottle. Schwabs will tell you that’s because they have some thing called Kristallweizen, and they want to make sure, that they understand want you want, but we know it’s just because Germans always feel the need to correct you.

The Bananenweizen, or its ugly sister Kirschweizen (aka Heba and Heki in High German), is a mixture of Weißbier and banana juice or cherry juice, respectively. Weißbier has a hint of banana taste on its own, so it seems natural to mix it with banana juice. Don’t do it. It’s disgusting. Just be happy that such a thing as banana juice exists at all. It’s pretty good. Don’t ruin it.

The Forest Master Berliner Weisse takes the cake for the absolute worst idea ever put into practice in Germany. Stay far, far away from this Jello flavored beer.

Don’t fall victim to any of these travesties. You will spend most of your time in Munich, so just order an Augustiner Helles or Schneider Weisse and be happy. If you venture into the Black Forest, get a Tannenzäpfle. If you get stuck anywhere else in Germany, see if you can find an MGD.

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Germans only speak clear text

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

Communication between Americans and Germans can be very difficult, because we have different expectations about language. In America, we like to coat everything up nicely and try to indirectly say what we want to say in the most polite way possible. We are taught as kids, that if we don’t have anything nice to say, then we shouldn’t say anything at all. This is why we have to try to say negative things in more positive ways. It also means the listener has to think about what is being said and figure out the actual intent of the statement. Germans have the luxury of taking everything at face value, since Germans say exactly how they feel. Since Germans take everything we say literally, there is often confusion in transatlantic matters.

Here is some anecdotal evidence from an acquaintance, let’s call him “Jon”. Jon has just moved to Germany from America, and the change in climate has caused him to get a bad case of dandruff. Jon’s German is pretty good, but the subject of dandruff never came up in German class, so he grabs his trusty German/English dictionary and discovers that the German word for dandruff is Schuppen. Armed with his new vocabulary, Jon heads to the drug store and asks the employee there, if they have any shampoo for Schuppen, to which Jon receives a blank stare as if he were completely crazy.

Then she responds matter-of-factly, “No, we only have shampoo against dandruff.”

deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid ein/ausblenden