◄ Ein Ausflug in die deutsch-deutsche Nachkriegsgeschichte

20. September 2016

German people

Geschrieben von Cindy Katila

Eintracht4ever on Wikimedia Commons

I'm an exchange student and I have been in Germany for 6 weeks now and in this time I've met a lot of different German people. Before I came, I had been told quite a lot about Germans and some of it proved to be wrong, and some of it completely true.
One thing I know Finnish people believe, is that Germans are very punctual. I think, that the punctuality of German people is a little bit exaggerated. I've already experienced problems with plane and train delays here. Coming late to class is taken more seriously in my school in Finland, than here.
Some people definitely still think, that because of holocaust and nazism in the 20th century, a lot of Germans still have a racist mindset. Of course there are racist people everywhere, but in my opinion this statement still isn't true at all. Germans actually generally seem a more open-minded and foreigner-friendly than Finns, even in small villages and tight communities. Germans seems to be a very multicultural country.
Schools here have some strict rules, that are very silly to me, but I thought that school here would be much more stricter than it is. In my head I had a picture of students sitting still and quiet in class room and listening to every word. This is not the case in my school. Also the student-teacher relationship here is quite casual, even though I thought it would be much more official, because people call their teachers "Herr" or "Frau" here. That was very weird to me at first, since I'm used to calling my teachers with nicknames and not using the polite form of personal pronouns.
Germans dress different, than I thought. I was told, that clothes here are more casual and even, that people don't really express their personality and style through clothes that much. This is not true at all. Young people here (especially in the bigger cities and towns) seem to pay great attention to the way they look and it's important to be wearing certain brands of clothes. There is much more variety in, for example, shoes and hairstyles, than in Finland.
There is also a conception in Finland, that Germans are honest and straight-forward to the point where it's actually a little bit rude. My personal opinion is, that Germans and Finns aren't really that different in this aspect. I haven't experienced anything out of the ordinary related to this during my stay here, at least not yet.
German people smile more. I've never in my life been smiled at this much by strangers, as I have here. In Finland we don't really smile or make eye-contact. People seem more approachable here. These are things, that I will miss when I go back home.
A lot of Finns think, that German is a very aggressive language and most people, to be honest, don't like it. I used to think the same, but now that I can understand the language better and I spend my whole day listening to it, my opinion has changed and I'm really beginning to like the way it sounds.
Finnish people told me, that Germans are football-crazy. This is 100 % true and much more true, than I had imagined. I was a little bit shocked by the football-craziness, when I came here. Especially when I visited the Dortmund stadion and saw the huge fan-shop for Borussia Dortmund.
I was suprised, by how environment-concious people here are and that many people take recycling and not wasting energz or water quite seriously.
As I'm a vegetatrian, in Finland I was asked several times: "How can you go to Germany, when you don't eat meat?" and some people made Germans sound like savages who only live on sausages and beef. This turned out to be another stereotype.
I think German people are in many ways different and they have habits, that are new to me. Some of them still seem weird. For example, saying "genau", "jawohl" and "gesundheit" every chance you get, drinking so much gassed water, Always needing to get "frisch Luft", hugging each other every time you see a friend, eating so much bread and potatoes, dubbing almost all the TV-programs, not eating a warm meal for dinner and more. But now that I've got to know Germans, I think we're deep down very similar people.

Kommentare

Lena Schöneck, 21.09.2016, 09:29

I'm really glad to read that you like it here so much. It's good to know that there are still people whose thoughts aren't just based off prejudices :)

Franzi Stamm, 21.09.2016, 09:44

Your text ist very interesting. I understanded very good. :)

Mirja Mayer, 21.09.2016, 10:09

Hello Cindy :)
Your Text is very good and very intresting.I read your Text with a smile. I think much prejudices are real but i dont really fancy football :D
I've been very intrested in your Text , you Do a good Job. I really have Respekt to you i dont know if i can go away from home for a year. I hope you enjoy the Trip and you have Found some friends :-) and sorry for my english it isn't the best :)

superkalifragelistigexpialigetisch, 21.09.2016, 10:12

Really, really nice text :D have a great time in Germany :)