More German than many Germans
441–450 of 545 posts
Re: More German than many Germans
#442A very nice read and pretty much my experience. I have been here for a quarter of my life now, I do not think I can live anywhere else now. People may not like me being here because of my skin color or whatever but I do not mind. I keep to myself and follow all the "rules" I can. In fact, I like most of the rules, rules are good because they ensure order, fairness and equality. Will a little bit of empathy be nicer,…
> people have no idea how good they have it here. Whenever I tell Germans that I'm Canada, they almost always respond with "Canada!? It's such a wonderful country, what are you doing here??" as if they couldn't possibly imagine what a Canadian might like about their country. Sure, Canada's a great place, just like Germany. Also just like Germany it's far from perfect, and sometimes one is just after a different trade…
Re: More German than many Germans
#443A very nice read and pretty much my experience. I have been here for a quarter of my life now, I do not think I can live anywhere else now. People may not like me being here because of my skin color or whatever but I do not mind. I keep to myself and follow all the "rules" I can. In fact, I like most of the rules, rules are good because they ensure order, fairness and equality. Will a little bit of empathy be nicer,…
> and some are even leaving the country (around 100k left last year) They have them in Spain, and they are retired. Do you want them back?
Re: More German than many Germans
#444Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not the OP but to give you an example. Spines on books in German are written one way along the spine. While generally in English books it's the other way round. https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/1n5booe/do_all_ger... Both have their trade-offs and most cultures are chill about it, but a lot of Germans will swear by the way it is done in Germany being the logical method. It is a vrry homogenizing culture that…
what are you talking about bro, I think you're really getting carried away here. Nobody cares about the direction of writing on the spine of a book. And your thing with sentence vs title case doesn't make sense because German doesn't even have that distinction.
Re: More German than many Germans
#445There are many things going in the wrong direction in this country but most things are that are not in the sphere of politics are fine. The problem is mostly in my opinion that political decisions are made by career politicians. We could really use some fresh air in our political system with more participation by the actual society (e.g. make it easier to get a political mandate without deep affiliation in a politica…
Sentiments like this always make me think of https://xkcd.com/977/ (under Goode Homolosine).
Re: More German than many Germans
#446Re: More German than many Germans
#447Saying that you love rules is insanity - no you don't, nobody does nor should LOVE rules. Some of the rules in Germany not long ago was to put people in furnaces - do you love those rules ?! What you love is predictability, when everyone is stopping at the light, navigating a city becomes easier because it's predictable. Our brains love predictability that's why we love habits - it's comforting and we don't have to b…
Re: More German than many Germans
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have been living in Berlin since my birth and your experience is one _many Germans have in Berlin, too_. Berlin is it's own thing, both in good and bad, I would not treat it as representative for Germany at all. 1. Berlin is the _least_ German Germany city, by far. 2. around ~20% of people living in Berlin aren't from Germany, I can't find the numbers but I think another 30-40% where not born in Berlin and likely w…
"Berlin is the _least_ German Germany city, by far." Isn't that a common complaint in the lot of countries - people complain about London in the UK in a very similar fashion?
And yes, you can say the same about e.g. Amsterdam vs. The Netherlands. And others.
But also, neither of them were literally isolated like West Berlin.
Re: More German than many Germans
#449* Last year, my net salary went down even though my gross salary remained the same. The same is about to happen again: https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article69483c23f6fc5...
* The author fortunately ended up in Hamburg, but in Munich, many people end up stuck with Fiktionsbescheinigungen and expired visas, unable to travel because the waiting time at the KVR is too long.
* Friends of mine have been waiting a year and eight months for permanent residence.
* If you apply for citizenship, they officially tell you not to even bother inquiring before a year and a half. Many have waited two years for it.
* To get a driver's license Neuantrag (which is just permission to start taking classes), it officially takes 3 months, but can take even longer. It's also expensive (around €3k), and changing driving schools is difficult.
* Hard to make friends: just look at r/germany. Everyone does activities together and then says goodbye. "Join a Verein" or "Learn the language" don't work as advertised.
* Annoying and obscene amount of paperwork and bureaucracy: Your tax office doesn't know about your health or pension insurance contributions even though they are state-managed, so you have to upload these documents or click buttons in ELSTER to retrieve them.(still better than a few years ago)
* Many shops close at 7 or 8 PM on weekdays, and supermarkets are closed on Sundays. You always have to rush if you have a long commute. Even grocery delivery services like Flink are constrained by this. Some shops even take a lunch break at 1:30 PM on top of that (idk if this is asking too much).
* DHL is so dysfunctional. They sometimes don't even ring when you're home, drop the package at the nearest pickup point, and leave a receipt in your mailbox. But if you go to the address on the receipt, you'll be disappointed because there's fine print stating it's only available for pickup starting from a future date. So you end up making multiple trips, guessing their opening hours (which don't match Google or the sign on the door), and waiting in line. Keep in mind "DHL Packstations" exist 24/7, yet they fail to sometimes reroute packages to them even if configured to do so.
* Those insurance portals where everyone reimplements email because "email is insecure, hurr durr": they send you an email with a login link -> an SMS OTP -> a cookie banner -> navigate a badly designed portal to find the latest message -> open the message only to find a PDF attachment. Why a PDF instead of writing the message directly on the portal? Because web text can be changed, whereas a PDF supposedly cannot (lol).
* A bakery closes at 19:00. We enter at 18:58, and the worker refuses to serve us - I thought you were supposed to serve customers who enter before closing time.
* If you miss an appointment at a branded repair store, they turn you away with zero flexibility or customer friendliness. You have to go back to their website, book another appointment, and travel all the way back later.
* Enormous wait times for doctors under public insurance. They aren't proactive, so you have to push for treatment and do your own research just to get a prescription.
* Forget about therapists, too. There's a 6+ month waiting list for every therapist on Doctolib - and with recent reforms, getting it reimbursed by public insurance is getting nearly impossible.
* They like laws - but a little too much, sometimes inventing their own rules to win arguments. I've seen this on streets where people just argue.
* Deutsche Bahn - no need to explain.
* Training and qualifications: It takes minimum 10 years to be a therapist, min. 8 years - tax advisor , minimum 8 years to become a lawyer . These are skilled jobs, but come on, all these are 1-3 years more than other countries. Not to mention it's some are gated so that it's tough to graduate.
* Also high rent ofc
Probably due to this, more citizens leave the country than arrive, and around 50-60% of immigrants end up leaving within a decade too. Overall, the country is a big step up from many other countries, including where I come from - India.
Re: More German than many Germans
#450Saying that you love rules is insanity - no you don't, nobody does nor should LOVE rules. Some of the rules in Germany not long ago was to put people in furnaces - do you love those rules ?! What you love is predictability, when everyone is stopping at the light, navigating a city becomes easier because it's predictable. Our brains love predictability that's why we love habits - it's comforting and we don't have to b…