Reference point: Just moved to Berlin 7 months ago from Spain after 6 years there. From NZ, married to an Italian.
Title: Culture shock from 'Latin love' to 'Prussian order'.
If you are young and moving to Germany come with lots of cash. Remember heath insurance is obligatory and may affect obtaining permits, and your cash flow.
Germany has a way of making you feel small with it's monstrous institutions and rules: it's all about authority and power, ignore it.
Respect German translations into English: they may sound blunt.
Watch out for the Bavarian frankness and black humor - ouch!
Expect silence - Germans respect quiet.
Organise folders with all your immigration/household documents, make photocopies.
Remember you moved to Germany - that means German - learn it.
(From one who is tired of people complaining they don't speak English in Germany. Why should they? They don't speak Spanish in the UK)
Seek out good vege shops: food is important to make you feel good. Please don't take on their habit of walking and eating, not to mention in the U-Bahn. (Remember I was in Spain for 6 years, sit and eat if only for 20 minutes).
Learn German through the cold months on TV - just be listening some will float in.
Casually turning down an appointment with a friend may be looked down upon - I think Germans have high standards
and expect order at all times all their world is thrown into disarray.
Expect Germans to know best. Perhaps they just want to help you by suggesting a new way to do things.
They say 'aber' all the time which makes them sound like they think they know best. It's better to just laugh at them...they are too concerned with being precise to notice.
Germans can come across as being more like military robots than humans.
Expect everything to be wonderfully organised and
function properly: its bliss.
Germans are of their word. Things get down and things happen in this city.
They are not a 'performist' society and I like their direct manner.
There is no small talk on the street.
There is little street culture. a lot happens in people's houses.
Take all what I've said and test it because it isn't true...there is always another way.
Title: Culture shock from 'Latin love' to 'Prussian order'.
If you are young and moving to Germany come with lots of cash. Remember heath insurance is obligatory and may affect obtaining permits, and your cash flow.
Germany has a way of making you feel small with it's monstrous institutions and rules: it's all about authority and power, ignore it.
Respect German translations into English: they may sound blunt.
Watch out for the Bavarian frankness and black humor - ouch!
Expect silence - Germans respect quiet.
Organise folders with all your immigration/household documents, make photocopies.
Remember you moved to Germany - that means German - learn it.
(From one who is tired of people complaining they don't speak English in Germany. Why should they? They don't speak Spanish in the UK)
Seek out good vege shops: food is important to make you feel good. Please don't take on their habit of walking and eating, not to mention in the U-Bahn. (Remember I was in Spain for 6 years, sit and eat if only for 20 minutes).
Learn German through the cold months on TV - just be listening some will float in.
Casually turning down an appointment with a friend may be looked down upon - I think Germans have high standards
and expect order at all times all their world is thrown into disarray.
Expect Germans to know best. Perhaps they just want to help you by suggesting a new way to do things.
They say 'aber' all the time which makes them sound like they think they know best. It's better to just laugh at them...they are too concerned with being precise to notice.
Germans can come across as being more like military robots than humans.
Expect everything to be wonderfully organised and
function properly: its bliss.
Germans are of their word. Things get down and things happen in this city.
They are not a 'performist' society and I like their direct manner.
There is no small talk on the street.
There is little street culture. a lot happens in people's houses.
Take all what I've said and test it because it isn't true...there is always another way.
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