The Germans are too miserable and grumpy

Very true, you can find more of them here...

http://flickr.com/photos/tags/dubistdeutschland/

I love this... (I can actually hear him saying it)

Well it's true that there are miserable fuckers everywhere, but I have yet to encounter another country where complete strangers will yell at you over every triviality.

And the "Fuck off home" comment is getting a bit tired on TT, don't you think??

I hear you in the sense that there are Germans who think the whole "Du bist Deutschland" campaign reeks of Hitlerite Germany. I don't know about you, but it really perturbed me in the beginning that Germans felt bad about being proud of their country. I managed to get out of them eventually that they were happy to be German as opposed to being proud. Happy because it means they get a decent education, social welfare, etc. I still think though that Germany needs to start moving forward again. I think Schröder got the ball rolling by standing up to the US and in so doing taking Germany out of their shadow. The Germans have a lot to be proud of . Great cars, great infrastructure, Munich, great composers, philosophers, I could go on.

@IW

I love you too!

@Marshbot

Why should I ignore it? People are too apathetic these days. I want to argue. Give me your best shot baby!

Well, you're no fun today!!!

Exactly Ulysses, don't be apathetic, feel free to complain about any rude locals that rub you the wrong way! None of this 'wah wah but we came to Germany so we should just be happy and bake them cupcakes" carry on. Whinge my pretties, whinge like you've never whinged before!

And hey, I didn't say ignore it, I just said you should play with us and not kick over our sandcastles. Well, to be more precise, I said that to Thunderpants.. but never mind.

Sorry I forgot to add my disclaimer...

Should you get beaten up in a dark alley in Munich, it was due to a TT post you should've thought about. Ulysses, however, takes no responsibility.

No, I prefer Thunderpants' "Fuck off back to where you came from!"!

Yes, yes, we know... or else you'll kung fu our heads into oblivion bla bla. Come on, something new eh?

No, I'll just ask you when New Zealand last won the Rugby World Cup.

I'd just like to insert here that "Thunderpants" is my new, all time favorite username.

carry on, folks...

my work here is done

And here I was wondering where you have dissappeared all these days !!!

Pfft world cup, the only one that counts is the Bledisloe and we pretty much continously hold it. Second in importance is the Tri-nations, and SA's record is as dismal as Australia's in that regard

Ah, that's one of those jokes where folk that follow sports such as rugby (and who care about it) are supposed to go "ooooh, why you little..! grrrr" then get all miffed and try to come back at you with some kind of dig at your sports history and so on.
But since I wouldn't know who, when or what won any Rugby World Cup, your cheap shot missed by at least a mile. I only watch rugby for the beer drinking, see.

Reasonable attempt though. 3 points. Anyhoo - about those Germans.

Timmeh trips over Ulysses' cunningly placed foot and falls straight into his arms.
Ew, is Ulysses trying to bite his face off or are they pashing?? (Avert your eyes, people, it's not gonna be pretty either way.)

Oh, and I second Thunderpants as the current champion of usernames.

Bah, its not bad, slagging off the germans is half the fun of living here! I don't think anyone takes any of the generalizing too seriously in any case - everybody will eventually have the chance to meet at least one nice german!

I've met 2. I guess I'm hogging.

@Ulysses - the above is sarcasm

And you call yourself a God-abiding(God being Zinzan Brooke of course) Kiwi? I thought rugby was religion down there? Ah, I see, you're a blasphemer which is why you have been condemned to a period with ze Germans.

At least over here, you don't have to watch rugby to drink beer, the difference between beer here and urine isn't just the temperature, and you don't have to compete with the sheep here for attention from the men!

Never!


Yes honey, you definitely are hogging. So it's you who took mine!

Dammit!!
I wrote in my last post that to save you the trouble of your next joke I would say 'baaaaa' now, but I deleted that bit cos I thought I was going a bit overboard and wanted to get back to complaining about grumpy Germans.
Curses. Knew I should have left it... I hate when that happens.

Fuck the Germans, I'm South African, Kiwi bashing is more fun!

Yes, so far you're doing very well, love. Good work.

*pinches Ulysses on cheek, avoids flying kung fu kick in response*

I just realised Thunderpants is a chick. I gotta meet this "womaan"!

I'll bring this back on topic. I find it rich that the Germans complain about their unemployment when in all seriousness, it is nothing compared to elsewhere. Their unemployed just don't want to effing work.

Just out of curiousity (honest) I googled sheep shagging & first result is about Australians...coincidence??? I think not!

We don't do kung fu honey. That was Cantona and goddamn impressive it was too. We do food poisoning and biting of ears. Much tastier...

NZ is just a province of Australia

Only as much as Africa is the arsehole of Europe, innit?

Yeah, you right, we are just full of shit!

Urrrrhm, any idea how many applications I sent out until I got my job? Why did I bother when I didn't want to work? On topic: Germans are too miserable and grumpy at times just like everybody else, but if your word for nipple were breast-wart you wouldn't be happy all the time either.

@Sarabyrd

I wasn't referring to skilled professionals. Sure, if you want to be picky about what job you do, that's great. I was pointing to the fact that if you want to work in Germany, there is work, it just probably won't be in your line. I did construction work in London because I needed the cash. I dug fucking holes in SA. Back-breaking work that was.

Point is, in Germany, you can still be choosy. In many other places, you can't. Hope we have that clarified now.

WHAT??? the German word for nipple is breast-wart? BREAST-WART!? as in "mommy has 2 breast warts and so does daddy" and "please baby, <insert appropriate Ohhhh verb> my breast-warts more!"?

WTF? what is the matter with these people??!!??

signed,
angry German language student

Brustwarze, yep

Well, I just googled Thunderpants for fun only to learn that it is a movie with the red-haired kid from Harry Potter. Didn't know that...

"An 11-year-old boy's amazing ability to break wind leads him first to fame and then to death row, before it helps him to fulfill his ambition of becoming an astronaut." say what??

Amazingly I also learned Brustwarze earlier today in a German class. Also, learned that "stillen" means to breastfeed which I found interesting since the adjective form, still, is completely different. I got the long explaination on where stillen comes from, but I'm not up to retyping it here. Something to do with having enough to drink.

I dont think Post 35 is soo tasteless. Although I'm german, I really can lough about it.
This one is scaring me much more :-(

ah just skimmed through here. just wanted to second the nod to thunderpants' user name (though in my head Ive already turned it to thunderpantys) anyhoo and say welcome to theClown. If you'd like, you can introduce yourself to TT or just be nosy (like me) and read other people's intros.

carry on the rest of you, fcuk off, etc. etc.

xoxxo
jml

Related to the original topic (and perhaps this should be a new thread), what other city/country in your opinion is grumpy?
I'll start: Zurich makes Munich look downright cheerful. Also, China is at best grumpy. (Unless you speak Chinese, in which case it's loads of fun!)

Hmmm, another grumpy country? France. I was there this past Sept and got yelled at in a dept. store, had clothes thrown at (along with some more yelling), was pointed and laughed at when I tried to speak the little French I knew and got the finger from a homeless person. But seem to get nicer the further south you go. Unlike Italy when the further south you go, the more shit you get stolen from you.

Question though, does the phrase 'customer cervice' exist here? So sick of being stared at by groups of sales ppl when it's obvious that I'd like to buy something and instead of getting help, I get glares. Or when, god forbid, you have a question to ask. So sorry to disrupt you from folding that sweater, but I'd like to buy something so that you can continue to keep your job and fold those stupid sweaters. Arghhhh! So frustrated.

But yes, they seem to be grumpy people here and my friendly Canadian spirit is slowly dying! Is it so wrong to smile at strangers?

God, i know! I hate the german attitude that there is no need to help customers because they always come back anyway. Its horrible! And like waiters, they hate you! Sales people want you out as soon as possible, shop owners get pissed if you just walk in to their store, and yes, you are right, youre cursed to hell if you show the slightest inclination to question something because everything should of course be perfectly obvious and you should get it yourself. sheesh.


Yes, it is. I mean, i learned that the hard way. Smiles here mean you want to bud into their perfect private german lives and how dare you acknowledge eachothers existance! How indecent. And if you do, you are labled a damn american. Hmph.

Is it the weather? I mean, I guess if I had to live in this weather I might develope an icicle up my butt too...

Ah chica ..welcome to Germany. I still smile and say hello to strangers especially the german fraulines...

" Sales people want you out as soon as possible, shop owners get pissed if you just walk in to their store."

Its really stupid but it keeps me happy. If I get the unfriendly shop keeper treatment, I just very audibly hum a few bars from the worst most catchy crap song I can think of then leave the shop safe in the knowledge that they will be pissed off for the whole day as they can't get the bloody tune out of their head. I'm sorry if youve had to cope with a grumpy salesperson with a tune stuck in their head.

Mind you to be honest I suddenly found shopworkers much more frindly when I started using Sie instead of Du