SLOTH

@flyindutch

Don’t insult my intelligence…

…or my grammar. The differences between English & American grammar are for the most part negligible…at least in this context. Your difficulty is rooted in the fact that you are not a native speaker. I believe that you can speak English…but until your proficiency is such that you’re not running to the dictionary/thesaurus in order to express yourself (or understand my statements), you will always have some difficulty in communicating regardless of which side of the Atlantic you are on.

Face-to-Face meeting…Name the time & place…with the caveat that I travel a lot & it would be better if you chose more than one date…& with enough time for me & my staff to plan.

The “general interest” that you spoke of that Germans have I would more liken to being rudely nosey. Interesse ist was anderes. Deutsche leute sind extrem neugierig. Punkt. The fact that you don’t acknowledge this brings your objectivity into question. You have either not been here very long, have no (or limited) personal contact to native Germans, or are completely in denial. Germans stare, they ask questions that would be seen as rude in nearly any western society & love to meddle in the affairs of others. Spend 1 hour standing around inconspicuously at your neighborhood “wochen Markt” & the old people there will inform you about every sordid detail of your neighbors lives (& how they would do it differently). Their “interest” in other cultures & societies does not have the same foundation as the genuine human fascination that other western countries show their visitors.

Germans are NOT true socialists. They just like covering their own ass. A German’s wet dream is a situation where everything is protected from loss (versichert). Driven by a fear of change & lack they (try to) insure EVERYTHING! Admittedly their national work & health insurance systems are the envy of world (for now). However, abuse of these systems by the people who use them is rampant. Young people see Harz IV & Arbeitslosengeld as entitlements to be used as paid vacation between career choices. There are people who “need” it…but they make up a small percentage of the actual cases. The only reason these programs still exist is because of the fear instilled in the electorate that they MIGHT need these services one day. Old people suck the healthcare system dry by going to the doctor every 20 minutes (until they implemented praxis gebühren) because they feel that they’re earned it. Both systems will collapse under their own weight (& the lack of tax money to support them) in the next 5-10 years (Der Landeskirche auch)…if not sooner in the event of a catastrophic health event.

I understand German society…that doesn’t make some of their characteristics valid. The wall between East & West Germany was initially psychological (Propaganda kreig zwischen Wochenshau Ost & West) then physical (die Mauer). East Germans wanted to believe that they had living conditions equal or better to those in the West…They were wrong…but they were also lied to by the leaders of their society. It soon became impossible to keep the “truth” from the citizens of the DDR. They knew to a certain extent (when they had contact to the West) that they were lied to…how much was unimaginable until the wall came down. Germany currently lives with an emotional “Mauer” (wall) to the Western world. They want to believe that they are at par with the English-speaking world they admire. They are not. They are about 10-20 years behind. I’m speaking of the day-to-day lives of the average German. Compare 2 demographically equal (gender, race, age, etc.), equally educated, equally employed people living in Gemany & any English speaking (1st World) country. ANYONE WHO IS NOT FLUENT IN BOTH ENGLISH & GERMAN, HAS NOT SPENT AT LEAST 2 YEARS IN AN ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRY AND GERMANY IN THE LAST 5 YEARS IS IN NO POSITION TO MAKE STATEMENTS CHALLENGING MY ASSERTION!

Isn’t it racist to assume that “brown people” (Black American, Turkish, African) with money didn’t earn it legally. Even if you CLAIM now that you don’t think so, most people do. The VW guy in my example doesn’t care that I do a job that’s “worth more” than what he gets paid. If he did, then he would acknowledge what I have invested in my career. He might think that Lawyers, Basketball players, & CEOs (managers) are over-paid. The fact of the matter is that he can’t do what they do as well as they do it, he didn’t invest the same time & energy & accordingly isn’t “worth” as much for his work. It’s actually 100% fair. When I fly, I get on the plane first…because I’m one of the airline’s best customers. Is that fair? Of course it is. It’s a privilege that is open to everyone willing to do what it takes. Fly 75,000 miles in a year & you can do it too. But wait, you have no reason to fly that often. Furthermore you have better things to do with your money that to fly a lot. The average guy who flies to Mallorca once a year isn’t loyal to one airline…he flies with the cheapest…it’s what’s most important to him. Instead of carrying around my receipts showing how loyal I’ve been with 1 airline, I carry my platinum card. I went to school, VW guy went to parties. I trained & perfected my abilities. VW guy went to an internship for a job he KNEW did not pay as much as mine. Fair?...100%.

A school who decides in the 4th grade what my future “caste” will be is not free-thinking & therefore cannot teach what they are not (Just like a country that has always been a monarchy cannot teach another country to be a democracy). A school is unlikely to challenge the “matrix” constructed by the establishment that gives them their funding. Spend some time at a privately funded German school & you will see a drastic difference in curriculum & thinking.

The Ladenschlußgesetzt (the federal laws that let stores be open for business only when the government allows it) was antiquated when it was created. Unless you are married & so well paid that your spouse can stay home & raise the children (or collect welfare), laws where all stores close at the same time is impractical (if you get off work at 5 & the stores all close at 6:30, should all single working people be expected to go shopping in this 1 ½ hour period?) Germany wasn’t that kind of society anymore after the war. The law was a poor attempt to level the playing field between large & small businesses in an attempt to discourage competition. Most affected workers are paid hourly. The more they work, the more they get paid…they don’t suffer due to longer business hours. A business owner (with a sensible business model) who is open longer can make more revenue…he doesn’t suffer due to longer business hours. Consumers want to spend their money…the longer stores are open the more money they can spend….they don’t suffer due to longer business hours. Consumers can only buy goods & services when the businesses are open. Here is where the Achilles heel is. If Aldi is closed & Real is still open, Real gets my money. In the beginning everybody played by the same rules & nothing changed…like a cartel. The internet changed all that. The internet never closes, doesn’t belong to a union, & doesn’t discriminate. The dramatic rise in internet shopping (particularly eBay) could not be ignored & more importantly cut in to shop owner’s profits. Longer hours on Thursdays & Verkaufsoffener Sonntags became regional wars to attract shoppers to other cities. Even when the German government let the individual states decide, it didn’t get rid of the law…they just don’t enforce it (didn’t want to give away any power…so they could reclaim the restrictions at a moment’s notice). With their new found freedom, at first, stores kept things the way they’ve always been because no store wanted to be the fool. They all said it would never become popular & no hours changed. As soon as 1 store took the risk & became an overnight profit king (mist, alle laden machen in 30 minuten zu & ich muß einkaufen…a-ha Kaufland hat bis 22 uhr auf) the others copied the one with the success (standard German business model…copy someone else’e idea…being original is FAR too dangerous). Hip-Hop clothes used to only be available to people who knew someone in the U.S. Then the internet, now there is a hip-hop store in nearly every major German city (even national chains are starting to sell “street” styles.) I understand unions far more than you give me credit for. They are there to protect the rights of their members. Extending the hours of existing legally operated business does not alone threaten workers rights. It just means that greedy business owners have to hire more workers & are afraid to take that risk. Furthermore, the most people affected by the law are not a member of any union. It serves no social or working class purpose. Just like stores & businesses that close for “Mittag” it’s an idea that hasn’t been relevant since 1933.

Unless you believe that Southpark is a documentary, “Jew” by itself is not a curse word in American English & rarely used because the proper adjective form is “Jewish”. It’s FAR more common to hear German youth use “Jew” as a curse word.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/943953.html

How ironic. What’s more ironic is that you try to justify German jealousy of pre-WW II Jewish society by pointing out that “other people were jealous of them too”. Unfair stereotypes of Iranians living in France do not make the Iranian election valid. The German government sent the SA (military stormtroopers) to stand with giant signs outside Jewish businesses in an attempt to keep Germans from spending their money there. ("Deutsche! Wehrt Euch! Kauft nicht bei Juden!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Israel%27sDepartmentStoreboycott.jpg

Hast du was von Kristallnacht gehört? Don’t be too lazy to gain wisdom…I’ll even feed it to you with a spoon…

“Typisch Deutsch”. It doesn’t matter who created the phrase, it matters what it means. It is certainly nothing positive. It means typical negative German behavior & mentality that everybody knows about but nobody does anything to change. No German wants to be seen as “typically German”. If you don’t believe me, go up to a German today with a smile on your face & after they’ve done something (anything) say “Typisch Deutsch”. Do it 5 times: 1st to someone old enough to have fought in WW II, 2nd do it to someone during a Fußball (soccer) game, 3rd do it to someone with at least one Dr. degree, 4th do it to someone under 25, & 5th do it to someone from the former East Germany. Let me know if they take it “too seriously”[sic]…or which hospital I can visit you at after attempt number 2.

I’m not sure what you want to show me with the German U21 soccer team. They won the championship, but that alone is not relative to my comments about “Typisch Deutsch” behavior as well as Germany’s past & present identities. The championship title doesn’t change how a foreigner gets treated on a German train (Deutsch Bahn) or that they get denied entrance to dance clubs (Disko). It doesn’t make Customer Service people less rude & it doesn’t make German bureaucracy more pleasant. I’m not talking about what happens in the various European sports leagues. I’m not talking about the Eurovision song contest. I’m not talking about what the Bundestag does or its relationship to No. 10 Downing Street or The White House…I’m talking about what happens every day on the street in front of YOUR HOUSE! When what takes place THERE changes…what the world thinks of Germany will change.

“it is difficult for other nationalities to understand Germany”…difficult, but not impossible. It is more difficult for Germany to understand & face itself. I didn’t just come here yesterday & I did my homework before I came. I have studied Germany’s complex history in an attempt to understand the many behaviors & contradictions that I could not reconcile. Germans were very paradoxical to me. After more than a decade I understand WHY they are the way they are. That doesn’t mean that everything they do is OK, but it means I understand the underlying causes. Most people don’t, not even the Germans themselves because the subject matter of their past, present, & questionable future is very painful to them. Sadly they would rather let “Shit Happen” than to decide their own fate with the choices they make.

Societies that don’t think “forward” & don’t keep up, unfortunately die out.

Anyone looking here for tips before they move to Germany already has positive reasons to do so (Love, money, etc.). They want to know if there are OTHER things that they should know BEFORE they come or make the decision to come. I don’t feel it’s my purpose to tell the obvious positives (castles, sausage, historical buildings, etc). That’s all available on Wikipedia. What isn’t available is that your working class neighbors will hate (be bitterly jealous of) you if you buy a car that 2 price classes better than theirs or have an apartment with more than 2 bathrooms. You are not saying that my statements are wrong; you just think I’m being too hard on them. Not fair for you to decide that for other people. If the facts are right let the readers decide for themselves if Germany is right for them. Trying to cover up the realities of RESIDENT life in Germany is evil.

RN

P.S. No English speaking person calls a cell phone a Handy, No English speaking country broadcast (or even knows) “Dinner for one” & Additionally: you watch a movie in a “Drive-In”, hang lights on an “Evergreen”, die from a “Shooting”, & “Oldtimers” have feet… not wheels.

ronniesneffe 30 Jun 2009, 12:07 - Report