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Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

blog.alexanderdickson.com

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Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#31

Post by blattimwind »

quelltext wrote: post #23
lainga wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame. If a country can't show you its culinary best at a university cafeteria, where else can you go?

There it is: Don't eat at cheap places. I really wouldn't bash a country's food based on bottom tier experience. I have to agree though that it's easy to end up in a bad place and in Germany there's no limit to how disgusting it can get. Germans do seem to have a higher tolerance for this. Of course nothing beats the university cafeteria but I don't know anyone who likes that food, it's just that the typical student…

You can eat very cheaply in Germany, but if you do that, you probably can't complain about the quality.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#32

Post by lucb1e »

FabHK wrote: post #11
quelltext wrote: post #8

> It’s also more difficult for me as a I have a US layout keyboard at home and a German layout at work. I'd hate tp be forced to use a specific layout governed by my employer and I'm glad it's not been a problem so far to get a replacement keyboard with US layout. It's pretty common nowadays for developers to simply prefer the US layout if their country's is not great, like the German one that makes typing braces etc…

At any rate, learn to to touch type blind, and then switch to your preferred keyboard layout in software (and ignore what’s printed on the keys). My mom can do it; I’d expect any programmer to be able to do it.

> and then switch to your preferred keyboard layout in software

If only. They have a different shape shift and enter key. It's not impossible to type on different keyboards at home and at work without mixing it up too much, but it is annoying, and not just a software configuration. (Source: am Dutch, live in Germany, have different keyboards at home and at work because I don't want to throw one away when it still works fine even if it's a little annoying.)

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#33

Post by FabHK »

lucb1e wrote: post #27
FabHK wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyday German food is absolutely horrendous. […] It is the worst of the seven countries I've lived in, by far. Lucky you, sounds like you haven’t lived in countries with bad food. First, everyday food in Germany is also Italian, Turkish, Croatian, Lebanese, etc. - delicious cuisines. Second, there is plenty of good traditional German food (Käsespätzle, Leberkäse, Currywurst, Rouladen, Bratkartoffeln, Erbsensuppe,…

What (kind(s) of) countries would you say have bad food?

My point was more that if German food was the worst among the seven, then they must have all been reasonably decent, at least.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#34

Post by darzu »

mtmail wrote: post #21
learnstats2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time. By standards I am familiar with, that's good. Last time I checked, my local train station had trains arriving within 10 minutes only 50% of the time.

"In Germany, there are two kinds of "on time". So far [2017], 94.2% of trains have reached their final destination within six minutes of the scheduled time, and 98.9% within 16 minutes." The article also goes into detail how every country measures punctuality differently. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42024020 (Yes, Germans love to complain about the train company)

I really wish articles like this put these numbers into a table or graph.

Does anyone know of a table comparing train punctuality?

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#35

Post by ajdlinux »

looki wrote: post #9

Regarding the trains, >They are usually on time and cover basically everywhere worth visiting in Europe. He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying. I also thought the ICE and…

> The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time

The author is an Australian, and is therefore almost certainly most impressed by the fact that long-distance trains exist in any meaningful way at all.

Our long distance trains certainly don't have a reputation for punctuality.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#36

Post by lucb1e »

looki wrote: post #28
lucb1e wrote: post #3

> [My car is] impractical with only two doors and four seats I like four doors, but only two isn't too bad (drove one of those for five years). Seats though, is it normal to own a bus in Australia? The people I would expect to own a car with more than two rows of seats are families with 4+ kids, which is nobody here. I've recently been thinking about a 2-seater to save on gas/CO2 since I have no kids anyway and you c…

I was actually almost happy when the other day, my train in the Netherlands got cancelled and I had to wait a full hour for another connection. Good to know you're human as well. Self checkouts are definitely a thing here, although typically not in small grocery stores. Larger stores like Edeka, Real, Ikea, Hornbach have them where I live. I'm aware that even the small stores like AH in city centers have them in NL t…

Which city do you live in, if I may ask? I don't think I've seen a self checkout anywhere* though I haven't been to most supermarkets in any given city (of course) so I might totally have missed them by chance.

* I've been to supermarkets in Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Darmstadt, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Stuttgart (and many smaller cities/towns/villages of course, but I guess there it would be less likely).

> Good to know you're human as well.

:-) You should ask a random Dutch(wo)man for their opinion of the trains' punctuality though. We totally envy Japan.

The statistics are alright though and it has improved quite a bit in the last decade (much like how O2 is seen as having a terribly mobile net by literally every German person, but after the fusion with E+ a few years ago it is statistically fine, and indeed, I often have full bandwidth when my colleagues on Telekom are complaining). Public perception is a fine art!

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#37

Post by lucb1e »

learnstats2 wrote: post #16
looki wrote: post #9

Regarding the trains, >They are usually on time and cover basically everywhere worth visiting in Europe. He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying. I also thought the ICE and…

> The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time. By standards I am familiar with, that's good. Last time I checked, my local train station had trains arriving within 10 minutes only 50% of the time.

75% punctual is good? Because I usually use the long-distance train when I need to go somewhere, not to go for a drink, and having a 1 in 4 chance of being late at a customer's or missing a plane... I dunno, that's not really a chance you want to take, so you end up planning for 1-2 hours of delay every single time, depending on how bad it is if you're late due to no fault of your own (a departing plane won't care but a customer might understand).

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#38

Post by ceejayoz »

looki wrote: post #9

Regarding the trains, >They are usually on time and cover basically everywhere worth visiting in Europe. He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying. I also thought the ICE and…

Here in the US, Amtrak considers within 30 minutes to be "on time"... and struggles a lot even with that.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-amtrak-cant-run-trains-on-t...

> The Coast Starlight, which runs between Seattle and Los Angeles, had an on-time performance of 4 percent in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. For the California Zephyr, connecting Chicago and San Francisco, the figure was 7 percent. In the current fiscal year, the California Zephyr has not once arrived on time.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#39

Post by looki »

lucb1e wrote: post #36
looki wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually almost happy when the other day, my train in the Netherlands got cancelled and I had to wait a full hour for another connection. Good to know you're human as well. Self checkouts are definitely a thing here, although typically not in small grocery stores. Larger stores like Edeka, Real, Ikea, Hornbach have them where I live. I'm aware that even the small stores like AH in city centers have them in NL t…

Which city do you live in, if I may ask? I don't think I've seen a self checkout anywhere* though I haven't been to most supermarkets in any given city (of course) so I might totally have missed them by chance. * I've been to supermarkets in Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Darmstadt, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Stuttgart (and many smaller cities/towns/villages of course, but I guess there it would be less likely). > Good to know yo…

I live in the Ruhr area. They're definitely still relatively rare (I haven't seen them in the most common stores like Aldi, Rewe), so it's not too surprising you've missed them. I guess that will change within the next couple of years.

I have a pretty good experiencce with O2 also, but I'm aware that it can be completely unusable in rural areas. Luckily, I don't really leave the city boundaries much.

EDIT: I just remembered, I used to live in Karlsruhe, and the Real there also had a self-checkout. I haven't lived there since 2016, for what it's worth. Yeah, not sure why it's confined to larger stores. Perhaps not popular enough to warrant sacrificing cash register real estate in smaller stores for it. Germans don't like new things after all.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#40

Post by coldtea »

looki wrote: post #9

Regarding the trains, >They are usually on time and cover basically everywhere worth visiting in Europe. He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying. I also thought the ICE and…

>He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying.

Then don't arrange for "tight transfers"?

If "within 5 minutes" (or close, I'm guessing the rest of the time would be some "unbearable" late of 10 minutes or so?) messes your schedule you have a messed up schedule.

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