The Germans

The University Prison....exactly what people imagine the Germans to have

To counteract the chaviness of the Geordie Shore post I thought I’d do another post about Germany. I finished my exams last week and since coming back people keep asking me what Germany is like and are the Germans how people imagine them. They’re both pretty hard questions to answer. In some circumstances the Germans are exactly what I thought they would be. For the people who study German in Edinburgh, the relationship with the professors is a lot more Frauke than Sabine. They’re very keen on their titles and I received a pretty angry email informing me it was ‘Doktor Professor’ not just ‘Professor’, no first names in Germany. However, if you go and speak to them, most are pretty friendly. My exams were mainly oral exams and all my professors were understanding of my German skills (or lack of German skills), maybe not something people would expect.

I guess the stereotypes we have of the Germans in England are based around them being very orderly, lacking in sense of humour and general a little bit cold. The orderly part could be true, students seem to work harder than in England but as far as the sense of humour and coldness goes, I don’t think it’s true at all. The sense of humour might be different to ours, but it’s funny in its own way, a few Germans I’ve met have some great banter (once I explained what it was) and generally they’re pretty good company.

As far as the coldness goes, I think it’s more of a cultural difference. In England people will quite quickly be ‘best friends’, it’s the freshers week phenomenon of needing someone to hang out with. In Germany on the other hand it takes a bit longer. At first, personal topics are definitely out of bounds and everything is a little more awkward. But once you get to know them, I would say that it’s a less fake friendship than what a lot of people have in England. I guess a big problem the British find in Germany is that people are quite blunt. In England everyone uses small talk and even terrible things are described as ‘not bad’. In Germany they say what they mean and the concept of small talk doesn’t really exist. I read that in a translation of 'Paddington Bear’, the German version cut out conversations about the weather completely....it just wasn’t important to the story.

Being in Tübingen has probably taught me more about English stereotypes than German ones. People in Tübingen are pretty trusting, a lot of shops have stuff out on the street, the Germans see this as normal, my English friends and I always comment on how easy it would be to steal it......definitely says a lot about the English mentality. In general Tübingen is a nice place to live, it’s a typical middle class place, people’s only concerns are how organic their food is and how they can save the environment.  There are attempts to make it seem more dangerous, such as this excellent youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4aS8WQigBrU but really, it’s one of the safest places I’ve ever been in.  The guy in the video with the baseball bat probably just plays sports and anyway i’ve never seen any of them hanging around.

I think that the ideas people in England have about Germany are for the most part pretty outdated. The students are generally just like students everywhere and the stereotypes we have aren’t really true. Except for the towels on sunbeds thing....that’s still true.

p.s.  As much as I’m being nice about the Germans here you probably don’t want one as a boyfriend, according to the Dailymail (the encyclopaedia of truth) German men spend the least on Valentine’s day presents......just saying. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2098357/Valentines-Day-Date-man-Far-East-spend-jewellery.html