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More German than many Germans
531–540 of 543 posts
Re: More German than many Germans
#532The first time I was in Berlin I had to take a bus. It was just leaving the stop as I was getting there, but stopped at the next red light. So I ran to the bus and knocked on the door. The driver looked at me with a concerned look to see if something was wrong, and once he understood I was just asking to come onboard outside of the regular stop, he laughed. Not ironically or in a mean way: it was a genuine laugh like…
Huh. I'm Irish; it would never occur to me to try this. Buses will sometimes delay departure if someone is visibly running for the stop, but that's as far as it goes. I think maybe France might be an outlier there. Honestly, opening the door in random places seems kind of unsafe. EDIT: As people are doing stories of public transport in different countries, here's mine. I was getting the BART in San Francisco carrying…
A German woman told me about her trip to Ireland: She tried to buy a bus ticket from the driver, like she did at home. But, in Ireland, you have to buy it at the station. The driver pulled up next to the station and said, “Run in there and buy you ticket quick! I’ll wait for you.” She did it in complete disbelief. “This would never happen in Germany!”, she said.
Re: More German than many Germans
#533Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Public company" is a very specific thing; the BVG is state owned, but very much not a public company.
In the US, “public” can be short for a private business with publicly listed shares on a stock exchange anyone can buy, or public can mean an organization owned and operated by the government.
The first of those is a "publicly traded company", which Americans often call "public", but is entirely different to an actual public company.
Re: More German than many Germans
#534Earlier quoted context omitted.
yeah Munich if anything is extremely hostile to integration. i know several people who moved there and got burnt out trying to integrate. with previous knowledge of the language.
You know the parent comment is blaming immigration for the current status of Munich right?
good lord i did read right through that. how someone could come to that conclusion is beyond me
Re: More German than many Germans
#535Earlier quoted context omitted.
The driver is not allowed to open the door anywhere but at a bus stop, the company running the bus forbids it. Quite strictly, actually. I think it is mainly because of insurance things. It is the same in a traffic jam when you are on the bus and the next bus stop is just a few meters away, and the bus is stuck and nothing moves -- impatient people will get angry because they want to leave the bus, but the driver is…
Calling people "impatient" because someone is trapping them against there will without a good reason lol. Those people are acting reasonable, it's the rules that are bad.
Absolutely!
Re: More German than many Germans
#536Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What realistic alternative was there to fixing the (fiscally) unsustainable pension system I think there are multiple alternatives. To make people work up to 70, when Men have a life expectancy in average of 78 and Women, in average 86, is probably not the most attractive one.
> I think there are multiple alternatives. Such as...?
Do you think it makes sense to contribute 9.3% of your salary every month (well, your employer contributes roughly the same, so about 18% in total) for around 40 years (assuming you start working at 30, which is already late), only to enjoy it for an average of 8 years if you're a man?
For instance, if you earns, 3k/month, your whole life, and a 2% year annual return in a saving account, over 40 years, that's roughly 300k in contributions. Spread over 8 years, that's about 4.5k/month. And no, your pension will never will be even 2k/month with a salary of 3k/month.. At this point, will just make sense to become civil servant.. full pension, private insurance, depending of the job, 40 days+ holidays/year..
Re: More German than many Germans
#537Earlier quoted context omitted.
What they do is very interesting, though IMO "refuse to enter the country" sounds harsher than it actually is. If an inbound German train is late to Basel by more than 20 minutes, the Swiss run their own substitute train from Basel (they keep rolling stock on standby). The replacement train runs to the original timetable so that local passengers are unaffected. The late train is then pulled out of service at Basel (t…
That sounds like an excellent solution for locals. But it also seems very inefficient because of the need to keep rolling stock in reserve, ready to go just in case. That’s a lot of maintenance, staff, and machine time to burn.
That inefficiency is the very reason, why the Swiss have a more reliable network. The DB used to have all these inefficiency too and was reliable. Then they decided to cut all that and that's the current state now.
Personally I think that there is no "real inefficiency", the money just achieves something else, that you don't consider the goal yet. Sometimes that is making someone else richer, sometimes that is making the system more reliable in ways you couldn't plan.
Re: More German than many Germans
#538Earlier quoted context omitted.
As southern European that has lived a couple of years in Switzerland and eventually moved into Germany, I always mention that from flexibility and rules point of view, being in Germany versus Switzerland, feels so much better in Germany. Sorry for the stereotypes, it was just how it felt dealing with everything, which is how everything gets to be so organised in first place, and the difference on similar matters in G…
Swiss voted against tax reduction in the past. I do not know of that many countries, where people would have done that. So the way they think is a bit different. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/poison-withholding-tax...
If you have a high ROI it's a bad idea to stop putting money in. Logically all people should be for high taxes, but they are not, because they don't believe that their taxes fund things they profit from and that it's easier to put less money in, then to fix that.
Re: More German than many Germans
#539Earlier quoted context omitted.
The question is... what about the german culture do you know? Do you know the "functional" Brother Grimm's tales? Or the "dry" humor of Dieter Hallervorden if you're a bit older? (okay, Christian Ehring from extra3 is perhaps really dry ...) Do you know the rigid songs of, say Nena or Einstürzende Neubauten? Or is the music of BAP functional to you? Are the books of Andreas Eschbach dry? Or the lyrics of Ingeborg Bac…
It's not a matter of not knowing the language. I grew up in Brazil but studied in a German school from grades 6-12. I used to watch Deutsche Welle more than I'd watch canned US sitcoms on cable. I can understand a joke, and I can even (most of the times) understand the intention of the joke. But it doesn't mean that I find it funny . As for "culture", I don't think we are using it in the same way. I mean in the sense…
I'm from Germany. never really went anywhere else much, and I basically only knew it your way, growing up.
I also went to some "BBQ" once, where it was "eat your own food", but that's just a sign, that you don't trust each other and don't know each other well.
So I would say, that's just this guys and maybe some others customs. It would be rude for other Germans too.
> he got some of the side dishes, sat down on the table by himself and had his lunch. Only then he decided to join the rest of the people in the party.
Did you already stop eating? This sounds like he assumed you were already done with the meal part, so he tried to catch up and then join. If you were still eating, then this guy is just very weird and rude.
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> this is an day-long event
So if you invite me for "Grillen", I assume it's taking ~3 hours. If you mean "day-long", maybe the German mind comprehends it better, if you say you are hosting a party and do also do a BBQ.
Re: More German than many Germans
#540Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not a matter of not knowing the language. I grew up in Brazil but studied in a German school from grades 6-12. I used to watch Deutsche Welle more than I'd watch canned US sitcoms on cable. I can understand a joke, and I can even (most of the times) understand the intention of the joke. But it doesn't mean that I find it funny . As for "culture", I don't think we are using it in the same way. I mean in the sense…
Being German who lived in other parts of the world myself, and someone who likes food and considers the typical German BBQ an abomination I can feel your pain. But is this not more of an example of you wanting to do things the Brazillian way rather than German's unwillingness for you to integrate? At any rate, the Nackensteak guy is a total dick! Also don't forget, a lot of those Italian, Turk, Greek, Spanish and Pol…
> the typical German BBQ
Maybe this is just an East/West or North/South thing. I am German too and would find that just very weird and atypical. Maybe something you would do in a company setting, where you don't actually want to go, but just keep your job and don't create enemies, so you come and keep the lowest profile possible.