The Germans are too miserable and grumpy

Sky News: It's official - Germans are 'too grumpy'



Katrina

I help a wee girl with her English homework on Monday's (out of the goodness of my heart), However, as I have a touch of the flu and didn't want the children (brother there too) to catch it and ruin Christmas, I decided to phone and tell her mum I wouldn't be over. Sounding obviously worse than I am, I made my apologies. The response of the woman was not one of empathy but matter of fact, "will you be here next week"? Am I the mug here?

Yes Katrina, they are all grumpy!!

People always appreciate you more when they pay you to do it. If you are doing it simply out of the goodness of your heart, the woman doesn't realise what a star you are. I think you are the mug here Granny.

Where I come from, we help our neighbours without charge as you never know when you might need help yourself?

People around here find me strange anyway as I always have visitors from overseas staying. Locals have commented on many an occasion that I must be making a lot of money from this? Opa says it's not normal to have relatives staying more than an overnight visit and in Germany they would usually book into a hotel. My relatives would sleep at the bottom of your bed or on a floor, just to be able to visit.

I cannot and will not change my ways but I think the German people could do with an injection of humanity!

Granny, don't change your ways. If you do something out of the goodness of your heart, some people are bound to try and take advantage, but so what. Their problem.

As for relatives staying in a hotel!!! I would never let friends of family stay in a hotel!! I could not even suggest such a thing! I have given up my own bed in the past, and slept on the floor so that friends could stay.

I agree with Don, Granny! You stay just how you are.

Actually I'm beginning to think that my Herr Indoors is not actually German at all...we have people staying a lot on our floors (we keep spare matresses specially), he's not miserable, he's very polite in fact. And if he was any more chilled he'd be frozen.

Have we been living a lie all these years I wonder?

Katrina

I think you missed what I was trying to say. Of course, I believe that one should be helpful without asking for something in return. I do random acts of kindness all the time. However, I wonder at doing something nice for someone, continually doing them a favour, if it's not seeming that I'm appreciated for it. Once in a while, sure, but every week?

I held a door open for a lady this morning and the way she looked at me was evil: somewhere in the grey area between a scowl, a glower and a sneer.

On a positive note: my better half (german) is on a post exam trip to Brussels with her friends and has reported at being embarassed by the behaviour of her friends. She even topped up a tip! (8 people wanted to leave a total of €3: that's 50c per person, 2 abstaining because the portions were too small). Sigh... Only 82,999,999 to go.

i find it really strange sometimes... i'm not sure that germans are grumpy as such... most of my colleagues and german friends are cheerful enough and have sense(s) of humour...

but they can get very moody very quickly... for no apparent reason... that then leads to a general feeling of having to tip toe around them just in case...

I drilled a hole in the fence post between us and my next door neighbour, then fitted a bird house on top. Next day next door neighbour says "My wife asked me to ask you to take it down because there will be bird shit on the grass"

Sehr nett, gel?

Does your neighbour have any trees in her garden? That would also lead to having birdshit on the grass. Anything really excluding a no-fly exclusion zone.

I think the thing about grumpiness has something to do with them not being ones to hide their emotions. Having a bad day? Shit on everyone else. Shopassistant tired after the day: snappy and sucking-lemon-face.

I took a german young lady to england on the weekend. one of her first comments (2 bus drivers had at that point been her only exposure to british people in britain, about an hour into the trip) was "bus drivers are so friendly here". took some time for her to see that a general rule applies: "friendly = normal" and "grumpy = not normal"

as the dutch saying goes: "we reizen om te leren" (one travels in order to learn ) innit sparty?

In germany: grumpy = normal

Just the way it is: don't like it but can't change it.

I have got used to the rudeness! I actually think it is nice that the emotions aren't hidden behind 'reserve' and cheeky directness can be extremely funny if not taken seriously.

I lived with slimy Arabs who were supposed according to some hadith in the Koran to lie to your fellow men if it would huert their feelings to tell the truth.

Hence it was always fantastic in the Arab world and never fcuked up.

Are Germans really more miserable than other people?

Seemingly they are according to these:

Germans told to Cheer Up

German Joys

Topics merged by admin

Ahh I saw the first article this morning...did make ME laugh..dont know about the rest of germany though

I once helped a dotty old biddy across the road and all I got was her purse. There was bugger all in it so it was actually a good deed in the end.

other than the advertising campaign (which I've actually not seen) the first article (despite its famous author) doesn't seem to be anything we're not well aware of here. The second is just a blog.

i always start shouting at them if they dont appreciate it - then i feel better as they look utterly astounded that i dared to react to their grumpy nasty manner. either that or my german is so bad that they cannot understand what i am saying


lol i take it the pair of you arent very good company if she only had said a couple of things to you in an hour.

@butterbean


Famous author. Ooooooh. What's he famous for then? (I've never heard of the bloke)

you know what, my bad. For some reason thought he was related to Carl Bernstein. appears not...

I guess the climate doesnt help the general mood of the German, and also the fact that its so crowded here.

Normally a very happy go lucky person by nature, unfortunately I can somewhat relate a little to their mood when Im living in Munich.

grumpy and rude...yep sums it up most times...I usually start talking very loudly about how appalling I find their rude behaviour and lack of service...gets me the odd stare most times and not many German friends are willing to go out with me anymore as they think I am embarrassing

That said...I guess I come across quite moody sometimes at work (which I then am coz some idiot has bothered the hell outta me again)

you have to be joking. The climate here is great (everything is relative though of course)

So they have no problem restraining from smiling for their passports photos?

yeah? whats so great about it?

or are you from Siberia?

well im coming from probably one of the "friendliest" countries in the world, and they request you dont smile when having your passport photo taken

ok?

Really?

No...I lied!..

apparently!!!

The new campaign to cheer up Germany...

http://www.du-bist-deutschland.de/opencms/...tsAnzeigen.html

Although, to be honest, I think it's been tried before...

And a video release from the guys... Queue cheesy music, celebs and...

ACTION!
http://www.isnichwahr.de/redirect5002.html

du bist Deutschland!

I am thoroughly enjoying this thread!

lots of winter snow. Doesn't get dark until 5pm even in winter. Great autumns. Sometimes nice warm summers


close enough. Sweden (and UK)

So I'm on my way to work this evening and on having not had any dinner decide to pick up half a chicken on the way. Sitting on the tram, I opened the bag and started picking at it. A few minutes later, an older woman walks over from half a carriage away and basically yells at me, saying "Das ist hier kein Imbiss (this is not an eatery)". I asked her what her problem was and she tells me not to eat on the tram. I pointed out to her that there were no signs on the tram forbidding the consumption of food. She really lost her cool then and started yelling at me. So I asked her how it affects her if I'm eating. I must have repeated the question half a dozen times before she told me it was the smell of it. I told her to live with it. At this point, the tram stopped and she got off. As she got off she said "Scheiss Auslaender". I realised then that it was my stop as well, so I got off too. I was right behind her and told her that since the 1940's it hasn't been cool to be anti-foreigner. I know it was a bit of a low blow, but it was an unacceptable comment from her. I followed her for about 10 metres basically abusing her and then she jumped back on the tram, just as the doors were closing. I used my 'angry look' to full effect and I hope I scared the shit out of her and made her miss her stop.

Basically the point is, that this is not the first time that I've been yelled at by a complete stranger for something pretty trivial. I've been yelled at for crossing the road when the man was red, for taking my time at the cash register, for not ordering something at a bakery quickly enough - for all sorts of stuff. At first I used to just mumble an apology, but now I stand my ground. I have never been yelled at in any other country by complete strangers before I moved to Germany.

The thing is, if she had politely told me that the smell of my food was putting her off, then I would have put it away, but these people seem to have no idea of how the human psyche works. If you yell at complete strangers because they're annoying you, then they are far likely to be accomodating.

fucking quality mate!! normally dont aprove of following women to intimadate them but i accept these circumstances. Brilliant.

You know, you could get other people in the tram to be witnesses and just sue her for insults (Üble Nachrede, I think)...if she really said 'Scheiss Ausländer', then you can definitely sue her.

I know - but it's not something I would do. Anyway, she could have counter-sued with the stream of abuse that came out of my mouth after that.

Also, how do you detain someone like that to call the cops to charge them?? They can just walk off, and I'm not sure that physically restraining them is legal.

Oh, yeah, you've got a point there. And no, you're not allowed to detain her...unless you caught her red-handed stealing something or doing something really illegal...then you can restrain her.

@Hazza

It's this concept that many Germans have about Rechtshaberei.

I got yelled at...well me & treehugger got yelled at for kissing on a U-Bahn platform saying that we were obviously not from Munich and that it wasnt the done thing here, after treehugger translated for me and between the laughing, my only response was "Sorry Mum!".

I didn't realise you two lads were that close!

Edit- errrrrm, oops, my bad...I thought treehugger was a bloke all this time. I wonder who the bloke was that I was kissing who said he was treehugger then?

[img]http://www.flexbeta.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/tumbleweed.gif[/img]

I know a duck who knows better.

[img]http://www.keithball.net/gallery2/d/6357-2/CIMG3653.jpg[/img]

@IW

Post 35 is anything but tasteless. Give the new Germany a break. I think they've paid the price for what happened then.

It's about time the English started ackowledging their transgressions of the past. All I can say, is I found the English to be fucking grumpy too and a shitload didn't have anything against a bit of good, ol' Paki-bashing.

As with everything, both countries have a shitload of nice people. "Germans" are miserable and grump smacks of generalising though.

excellent post Ullyses.

tbh there are miserable and grumpy fuckers everywhere...wherever you go in the world you'll find them, despite what ideals we may have of our home countries.

sometimes I can't be doing with the amount of slagging the Germans get on TT sometimes, noone is forcing us to live in Germany, fuck off home if it's that bad.

You speak the truth, but fuck it, it's fun swapping stories about grumpy Germans. Especially their unique style of grumpiness. It's a different flavour of grumpiness in any given country, but we're all here in Germsamany, we're foreign so we get the choice cuts of grump, and we have TT threads especially for our whinges. You should just play with us or hop out of the sand pit.
So there.
*blows rasberry*

Your posts are so full of shit, that whenever you actually type anything of worth I only know when someone else mentions it. Cause all I read is, blah blah blah blah blah.

BTW, the Du bist Adolf Hitler is very probably from http://flickr.com/. They have a sortof contest going, initiated by spreeblick, to parody the Du bist Deutschland thing, and it's been linked from TT before somewhere. I like this one:

[img]http://static.flickr.com/30/49466483_65b50149be.jpg[/img]

Oh yeah, found it, and some critiques of it from Germans too: http://flickr.com/photos/44183649@N00/48110019/