Went to Germany for work....my impressions

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

You might want to alter your expectations about people happily speaking English to accommodate you in non English speaking countries. I doubt most Americans would feel or act any differently if someone came into their office talking German. A lot of Americans completely lose their shit when people can't habla correctly in the US.

While your experience does seem unpleasant, you describe it more as a tourist than someone who went to Germany 'for work'. Cab rides, hotels, plane flights, and rude service people. I don't think you described a single work interaction.

I lived and worked all over Europe for over 15 years and spent 6 months in Germany. They are definitely not known for their first impressions, but they warm up to you. The business work environment is exhilarating. They would be just as irritated with you for arriving 15 minutes early to a meeting as 15 minutes late. "who is this jackass with so much time to kill'. And they have fantastic attention to detail. Which meant it would take a little longer to accomplish a little less. But once you dealt with something, you rarely had to revisit it.

Spain is probably the most tolerant country in Western Europe for non English speakers. I live in the states now but still travel to Europe for work and play regularly. Spend about a month of every year over there as my wife's parents live in Scotland. I met, dated, and married her when I was living in Glasgow for several years.

Not that Americans were ever super popular to begin with- but my experience is that since Trump was elected in 2016, we have been considerably less welcome just about everywhere- unless perhaps you visit Russia or China.

I think that Murrkans have it relatively easy now in Yurrp, Trump or not. I mean with the internet and social media, young people in Yurrp are much more in contact with american culture and know that the biggest Trump haters are also found in USA.

After W's invasion of Iraq, now that was not easy for Murrkans in Yurrp as USA were seen as a country ran by war criminals, enabled by a hideous, retarded neo-Christian population.

 

[cooks1]

I think that Murrkans have it relatively easy now in Yurrp, Trump or not. I mean with the internet and social media, young people in Yurrp are much more in contact with american culture and know that the biggest Trump haters are also found in USA.

After W's invasion of Iraq, now that was not easy for Murrkans in Yurrp as USA were seen as a country ran by war criminals, enabled by a hideous, retarded neo-Christian population.

That ain't no lie! I lived in Europe between before and after W went in and id did get pretty chilly there for a while.

 

[650lb Sumo]

As a US citizen, I think I did about the opposite of your claim here...

You did.

 

[PBAC]

I just got back from a work trip to Germany - I spent 10 days in Dusseldorf and Frankfurt.... I know that isn't exactly representative of what a country has to offer, but I was not impressed.

My first experience was extremely negative - I get a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and the driver seems really angry (but speaking exclusively in German). I couldn't tell if he was angry at the traffic, at me, or something else entirely, but the guy spends the whole time screaming and banging his hands on the dashboard. We get to the hotel and I give him my credit card - keep in mind his window has a VISA/Mastercard sign in it. He loses his shit and says only money (and he keeps on repeating the word money and banging the steering wheel). This continues for a couple of minutes until he pulls out the credit card machine and punches in 40 Euros.....which was double the fixed fare that was advertised at the airport. I just said fuck it and paid him.

I don't even get to the hotel entrance and I am stopped by security who demand to see my passport. I tell them no and say that I am a guest at the hotel - the security could only speak broken english and just kept on demanding to see my passport. Eventually the hotel concierge comes out and explains that the EuroCup is being played at the Dusseldorf Arena (which was attached to the hotel) and because of heightened security risks, everybody has to show their passport. Fine, I give them my passport and check in. I was booked in a single room, which in every other instance in my life, meant a room with one queen or king sized bed in it. Instead, I get a room with two single sized beds - I am physically wider than a single sized bed and I go to the reception and explain that this must be a mistake. They tell me that it is no mistake, and just to push the two beds together.

For the next 8 days, I dealt with some of the rudest, angriest and unhelpful people I have ever met in my life (these were all service people - either people at working at the conference, in the hotel, or at the airport.... I didn't meet many people from the general public). People I dealt with seemed insulted when I couldn't speak German - on the way back, I missed my connecting flight because of a delay, and when I went to the Lufthansa help desk, the woman said "just check your email to see what to do next, I don't have any information".

The German people I know in my life back home in Canada are the exact opposite of what I experienced, so I don't know if I just had a string of bad luck, or whether Germany just doesn't like me.

dude ... don't get a fucking taxi from the airport

travel rule 101

 

[HHJ]

dude ... don't get a fucking taxi from the airport

travel rule 101

True.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

You didn't back up anything. You just observed a whole continent through your race/skin-colour obsessed, American melting-pot view of the world and started to make bigot/racist accusations. You cannot transpose your american view on Europe.

I made my argument about why I think Europe is more racist. If you want to make a counter argument about why the US is more racist, go ahead.

The ol' "Americans are race obsessed!" is a poor argument. Vinicius, Balotelli, and countless other black soccer players that get called monkeys by entire stadiums and online will certainly disagree with that.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I made my argument about why I think Europe is more racist. If you want to make a counter argument about why the US is more racist, go ahead.

The ol' "Americans are race obsessed!" is a poor argument. Vinicius, Balotelli, and countless other black soccer players that get called monkeys by entire stadiums and online will certainly disagree with that.

Nice try but you are not trapping me in your who is the most rayciss little fantasy and yes, you are race obsessed. You may not care, but to go around calling a continent racist makes you sound like one of these entitled, pampered little americans who can't accept that things are different abroad.

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

Nice try but you are not trapping me in your who is the most rayciss little fantasy and yes, you are race obsessed. You may not care, but to go around calling a continent racist makes you sound like one of these entitled, pampered little americans who can't accept that things are different abroad.

Us in the states are raised to see everything through a racial lens, and we indeed do try and put that on the rest of the world. Sorry about that… we suck sometimes

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Us in the states are raised to see everything through a racial lens, and we indeed do try and put that on the rest of the world. Sorry about that… we suck sometimes

TBF, the rest of the world gladly imports anything you do, so you don't even have to try ;-)

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

TBF, the rest of the world gladly imports anything you do, so you don't even have to try ;-)

Unfortunately for all, you are correct…

 

[Brampton_Boy]

You might want to alter your expectations about people happily speaking English to accommodate you in non English speaking countries. I doubt most Americans would feel or act any differently if someone came into their office talking German. A lot of Americans completely lose their shit when people can't habla correctly in the US.

While your experience does seem unpleasant, you describe it more as a tourist than someone who went to Germany 'for work'. Cab rides, hotels, plane flights, and rude service people. I don't think you described a single work interaction.

I lived and worked all over Europe for over 15 years and spent 6 months in Germany. They are definitely not known for their first impressions, but they warm up to you. The business work environment is exhilarating. They would be just as irritated with you for arriving 15 minutes early to a meeting as 15 minutes late. "who is this jackass with so much time to kill'. And they have fantastic attention to detail. Which meant it would take a little longer to accomplish a little less. But once you dealt with something, you rarely had to revisit it.

Spain is probably the most tolerant country in Western Europe for non English speakers. I live in the states now but still travel to Europe for work and play regularly. Spend about a month of every year over there as my wife's parents live in Scotland. I met, dated, and married her when I was living in Glasgow for several years.

Not that Americans were ever super popular to begin with- but my experience is that since Trump was elected in 2016, we have been considerably less welcome just about everywhere- unless perhaps you visit Russia or China.

Well, my opportunities to work with "native" Germans was fairly limited - it was a global conference that brought together people from all over the world. I was the keynote, ran one workshop and participated in a panel discussion.... while there were Germans there, they were no more or less professional than anyone else participating.

 

[bean88]

I’ve only been to Düsseldorf, had the odd place tell us they didn’t want us in (big group drinking one day) and some locals get annoyed at us speaking English but overall it was fine

I’m not in a huge rush to explore anywhere else there though

 

[Sano]

My experience with Germans hasn't been great either. They can come off as very off-putting and appear like they couldn't care less about you, and most of them don't speak English very well - they dub all their movies. They are very direct like the Dutch, but without the manners. I remember here in Denmark I was at a Rammstein concert which was packed with Germans and I don't think I've ever been that close to filling an entire arena with uppercuts before. Holy shit they were rude, no respect for personal space, completely arrogant attitude, pretended like you didn't exist, stopped tragic as they pleased and had absolutely no concert etiquette at all. I legit almost got in several fights and I'm a very calm guy.

 

[HHJ]

I think that Murrkans have it relatively easy now in Yurrp, Trump or not. I mean with the internet and social media, young people in Yurrp are much more in contact with american culture and know that the biggest Trump haters are also found in USA.

After W's invasion of Iraq, now that was not easy for Murrkans in Yurrp as USA were seen as a country ran by war criminals, enabled by a hideous, retarded neo-Christian population.

I didnt have any problems other than some jokes here and there about Trump or whatever.

Some people (again Germans lol) kept trying to steer things in that direction when really I couldnt be arsed.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I didnt have any problems other than some jokes here and there about Trump or whatever.

Some people (again Germans lol) kept trying to steer things in that direction when really I couldnt be arsed.

Yeah some fucking retards in Europe who think Americans owe them an explanation for voting for Trump. Unlike W, Trump didn't do anything particularly bad on the world stage.

 

[HHJ]

Yeah some fucking retards in Europe who think Americans owe them an explanation for voting for Trump. Unlike W, Trump didn't do anything particularly bad on the world stage.

Well I feel like he was fishing for where I stood on it. He kept trashing Trump ( I didnt vote for him or care about it) and I was like Ok man cool. We'd talk about other shit but he'd kept doubling back and I got fuckin annoyed. Esp when your at a bar full of people and conversations can have other people join. Like fuck off dude hahaha.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Well I feel like he was fishing for where I stood on it. He kept trashing Trump ( I didnt vote for him or care about it) and I was like Ok man cool. We'd talk about other shit but he'd kept doubling back and I got fuckin annoyed. Esp when your at a bar full of people and conversations can have other people join. Like fuck off dude hahaha.

I don't know how i would handle that if i was American. Must be so fucking annoying.

 

[HHJ]

Still some Germans are cool. I went out with this girl who was visiting and she had long ass Holly Holm type hair. I like how when she got drunk shed get more aggresivley German hahahaah

 

[HHJ]

I don't know how i would handle that if i was American. Must be so fucking annoying.

I just tried to ignore it but it was getting to the point where I would have tried to disengage from the conversation entirely or just tell him BRO I DONT CARE. There is nothing that interests me less.

But from my reccollection it didnt go too much farther than that.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

My experience with Germans hasn't been great either. They can come off as very off-putting and appear like they couldn't care less about you, and most of them don't speak English very well - they dub all their movies. They are very direct like the Dutch, but without the manners. I remember here in Denmark I was at a Rammstein concert which was packed with Germans and I don't think I've ever been that close to filling an entire arena with uppercuts. Holy shit they were rude, no respect for personal space, completely arrogant attitude, pretended like you didn't exist, stopped tragic as they pleased and had absolutely no concert etiquette at all. I legit almost got in several fights and I'm a very calm guy. We Danes have way more respect for other people.

That's interesting. Personally I find that Germans are not direct at all. Even if they have a reputation for being direct. In my experience they are extremely passive aggressive and not frontal about things. At least in a work / professional setting.