During my 2-month stay in Germany so far, I’ve noticed many cultural and behavioral differences between people in the southeastern United States (where I’m from) and the southwestern region of Germany (where I’m currently living). I’ve even started getting used to some of them too, even though it’s a little late because I’ll be back in the USA a week from now.
Anyway, I’ve been maintaining a list of some of the things that stand out to me and I’ll put some of them in here. Hopefully this post isn’t too long/boring to read.
First and foremost, I was surprised, impressed, and thankful for the prevalence of English-speakers in my area of Germany. This is probably due to the fact that we’re staying in (1) a more affluent area of the country, and (2) we’re very near a large university campus. I didn’t really spend any time trying to learn German before I came to Stuttgart, and I survived regardless. I will say, however, that learning the phrases “Sprechen sie English?” and “Ich spreche kein Deutsche” have been invaluable as I try to explain my American-flavored-ignorance when travelling about the country. However, I have to comment on the fact that German words are way. too. long. It’s like, every noun is at least 25 letters and 18 syllables and instead of saying “the street located near the northern train station” (for example), you have to say “Nordbahnhofstraße.” That one’s not even that bad either, compared to others I’ve seen. Fun fact: the longest German word according to Wikipedia is 63 letters long.
Another thing: Graffiti is absolutely EVERYWHERE! Just. Everywhere. Some of it is actually pretty good, too. I don’t know if this is just an urban thing because we haven’t really made visits to places outside of city centers, but I’m not complaining at all. I generally enjoy public displays of art, graffiti included. The picture above is at the Berlin Wall, which I guess doesn’t really count, but still…
I’m also interested in the attitudes towards cigarettes and beer here. I was very surprised by how prevalent and available cigarettes are, compared to the USA (where they’re frowned upon more and more with each decade that passes). There are many cigarette advertisements in city centers, and there are even more cig vending machines. Same goes for alcohol. To start, German beers have a much higher “normal” alcohol content compared to the “watered-down” USA brews, and it took some time for me to get used to. It seems like it’s perfectly normal to have a case of beers in your office/work fridge, or to have a beer during lunch break. Students are also allowed to openly drink alcohol on a university campus, which is obviously very different from the USA. I don’t mean for any of these observations to sound negative, of course. It’s just part of the culture here.
The automobiles here are also very different than what’s found in the USA (in a good way). Germany is kind of an automotive heaven, so obviously I’m having a great time spotting lots of rare/neat/high-end cars fly past me “in the wild”. Let’s just say I’ve seen more 458’s, R8’s, and Gallardo’s in a 2-month period than I have in my entire life (car shows included).
Speaking of cars, I had the opportunity to attend the 2014 Formula One German Grand Prix a few weeks ago. Attending an F1 race is something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time, but I was never able to do it because the races are mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere and even the cheapest ticket options are still very expensive. Thankfully I was able to score a seat at the Hockenheimring for the GP and I was in an area where most of the action occurred that weekend. I’d really like to go to another one in the future, perhaps at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX.
I’ll write some more about these topics in different posts so that it’s not just one huge wall-of-text.