German Culture

A lot of the notes here were taken down from a book 🙈

Things to do

• Go to bars to watch Tartot show on Sunday nights

Notes

• Important to follow the rules

  • e.g. Always wait for traffic signal to cross the street. If you don't, people might yell/lecture at you

• Sense of humor

  • Stigma that they don't have one, but it's just different

  • Dry, very timely (relates to the news of that week)

• People do research before purchases

• Emphasis on the value of products vs. the marketing of them

• Be punctual

  • Even for a party, showing up more than 15 minutes late might be offensive

• Insurance

  • There's an insurance to cover legal fees, should you ever need it

  • There's "personal liability insurance" that is pretty standard -- covers you in the event that you do anything wrong (i.e. break a friend's vase)

• Customer service isn't great in Germany

• Work is a place for work

  • Shorter work week, but more efficient when there

  • Not much socializing at work

  • Germans focus on work at work, and party when it's time to party

• Work week is shorter -- 36-40 hours per week, 7-8 per day

• Make sure to use the correct version of Du vs. Sind

  • Can get fined if you call a police officer Du

  • Professionally and older people are generally Sind

Links