Cultural differences between UK and Germany

When I first arrived here there were a few shocks for me, and I wondered if anybody else had encountered these.

When renting a property I was surprised to find that it was completely empty, no kitchen, no light fittings, no carpets, no curtain rails, nothing. I thought this was a one off but thats how they rent here.

Hidden speed cameras, my first ones were hidden behind the yellow signs as you come into a town, I later found this is common practice, If you see the yellow town sign you should be doing 50 kmph.

Being fined for not registering a new address. When you move from one place to another you have a certain amount of time to go and register (nobody tells you this) If you fail to do this in a timely fashion you pay a fine.

Driving (right for right) If you are driving along a road and there is no yellow diamond sign on this road then the traffic coming from a junction on your right has right of way. You must stop and allow him out. (nearly had a few accidents with this one)

Cyclists. Cyclists have right of way over everything, If you walk on a track marked for a cyclists expect some harsh words. but if its not a cycle track they will still expect you to move out of the way, and on roads they are extremely dangerous especially in summer when they will ride two or three abreast totally blocking a road.

Shops closed. When I first arrived here shops used to close at 4pm on Saturday and were closed until 9 or 10 am on Monday Morning. After living in London this was a complete shock.

Putting the rubbish out. When I lived in London all rubbish went in one big bin which was collected every thursday, when I arrived here I had to get used to the different bins and segregating the rubbish accordingly. Many tellings off from other residents.

No English food, I was surprised when I went shopping that I couldn't buy any English food in the shops, no teabags, no vinegar, no cheese, no bread everything was different. I could buy Chinese, American, Turkish, Italian, French, even Russian cuisine but nothing English. This suprised and angered me, after all we are in the EEC and you can buy German, Italian, French goods in British shops, not only can you but I believe an EEC mandate makes it compulsory for UK traders to supply EEC goods.

Escalators, In London when travelling on the underground it is common practice when traversing the escalators that people would stand to oneside allowing other people to walk or run up and down the escalators, no such courtesy in Germany normally they just stop dead on an escaltor and if they have baggage it is next to them instead of in front or behind them completely blocking access, How many trains i've missed because of this.

Red traffic lights. Not so much a problem in cities but here in Gross-Gerau a red traffic light does not mean that the traffic will stop. How many times my light has turned to green and I have started only to have to make an emergency stop.

These are just a few of my observation of the differences in culture, anybody have anymore to add?

I agree. That habit of taking everything and the curtain rails is particularly weird.


I'm not sure why this would anger you, as a shop can only sell what people will buy. In fairness I have found about as much English food in German supermarkets as visa-versa. You can buy tea-bags (not your standard stuff, but Earl Grey, etc.) everywhere, HP brown sauce (edeka) and cheddar cheese (tegut). There's other stuff too. German bread isn't exactly common in the UK, nor are German cheeses. Even German sausages are not a common sight.

One thing I have noticed is that the smaller towns tend to sell mostly local produce, whereas similar sized towns in England sell Spanish onions, Egyptian potatoes and Floridian oranges. This is typical of all of Europe, and not a snub of British goods.

The dogs and cigarette smoke in restaurants is a big difference that bugs me. Also the general lack of hygeine and safety in homes and businesses. No smoke alarms in hotel rooms, none of those blue light fly killers in take aways, bakeries that have wasps crawling all over the cakes (blegh!). I have no idea how I would escape from my fourth floor apartment in the case of a fire, and installing fire alarms is almost pointless as I know that nobody below me has them.

Maybe angered was to harsh a word to use, perhaps I should have said frustrated me, especially as I could find Irish cheddar (not anymore) but couldn't find any other UK cheese.

I have to agree with you about the level of Health & Safety here, I know for sure it is well below the statutory regulations laid down in the European health & Safety manual (known as the six pack) for example in Uk companys all visitors must be given a notice of what to do in the event of an emergency.

The wearing of hats and gloves when dealing with food.

Lack of Fire extinguishers in buildings

Wearing of High visibility jackets when dealing with traffic.

All of these things seem to take an age to be implemented here in Germany but in UK they were implemented almost immediately and stiff penaltie issued by brussels for no compliance of the regulations.

Also Applications for jobs must have a photograph and a difference in pay for men & women doing the same job.

East Fresian tea-bags are supposed to be very good. As I can't stand tea, being typically English of course, I can't confirm this.

Teebeutel - Ostfriesen - Schwarzteemischung

Thanks Chris but I now have a very good supply of Tea, I get 300 PG Tips Tea bags for 6.00€ from the local Indian market, I can also get Sarson s vinegar, mint sauce and Hp from them.

And more recently have found I can order food direct from UK from www.Britishcornershop.co.uk quite reasonable prices.

Don't forget Steve's shop. In our area, he drives around in a van once a month and sells via the internet.

I really miss proper English cheese too. Here in NRW I can buy Dutch,French,Greek,German or Danish Cheese, but no English. When I asked a colleage why no shops (even big ones) sold it. I was told that British food stuffs werent considered good quality and that we (english) didnt have a good name fur cuisine. Also does anyone know where I can buy bacon like in England?

I can honestly say that the cultural differences have never bothered me at all. I choose to live in another country so I cannot expect the Germans to bend over backwards to accomodate me and my quirks. If I can't get brown sauce, I buy curry sauce, good in a different sort of way.
We've covered this topic before until we are blue in the face, we live in Germany, if we want Britishness, we must move to Britain...or the Costa del Sol

You can buy brown sauce. We were at a Grillfest last evening and they had HP there.

I used to buy HP brown sauce from the E-Center (Edeka) in Coburg. It was labeled as "English Steak Sauce", however.


I think there's a middle ground between complaining about everything that isn't like back home, and not complaining about anything. I generally prefer living here to England, but there are many areas where there could be improvements. I push for change in England, so I'm not going to be any different here in Germany .

I find it strange that all Mercedes-Benz & top end BMW cars have no indicators as standard

And the lack of common courtesy from most German drivers, you know what i am talking about, when you wait for cars to come through, as there is not enough room on the road, or letting some one out of a junction there is absolutely no hint of a thank you from them this used to make my blood boil, but now i just live with it.

No orderly queues for anything.

The list is endless but as said before if i wish to live here, i cant complain to much.

Tony

Actually I didn't intend this to be a thread for complaining, (I did all that as things happened to me and I found it didn't do much good). I just wanted this to be to a place to point out the cultural differences, and the things that you found really suprising. As has quite rightly been stated if I want to live here I should accept these things, and I do, but I still like to share my experiences.

Heres a couple of the good differences.

Cigarette vending machines on nearly every street corner, not vandalised or destroyed and the contents stolen. You'd never see that back home.

No Rubbish on the streets.

Less crime in general.

No drunken yobs on the steets, trains or busses at night.

I dont consider cigarette vending machines on the streets to be a "good difference". Maybe we need to start vandalising them then, so as to get them all removed! The cigarette vending machine phenomena is another sign of the lethal grip the tobacco industry has on the german economy and society here. Not good!

No drunken yobs. Never been to Berlin then?!? Try walking around Berlin`s Prenzlauer Berg. Plenty of yobs there. But yes, on the whole theres less of that crass yobbish drunkenness here than in UK.

As regards the HP sauce. Well I dont miss it. I think it tastes disgusting!

Sorry about my previous post, late night and a few glasses of wine too many have added to my lack of brain cells.
I also think the cigarettes machines are a bad thing, there is one at the end of my street and everyday I see very young children helping themeselves to cigarettes.
Also as to lack of rubbish on the street, maybe people new to this country think so, but after being here for a long long time I can´t help notice how much rubbish is being thrown out now, bottles, cans, mcdonalds packets etc. it reminds me of the UK 20years ago. It´s getting worse all the time. Germany is no longer the pristine tidy country it was, unfortunately.

I didn't mean that cigarette vending machines were a good idea, as an ex smoker I dislike them as much as anybody. I meant the fact that any kind of vending machine can remain untouched. Coming from Liverpool I can say that if there were a couple of these on the streets of Liverpool how long do you think they would last.

As for rubbish on the streets I guess maybe because I don't live in the city that the site of rubbish all over the place is less of a problem.

I found all of these things odd as well...


I would add to that the hypocritical way in which people here are SO concerned for their health and still smoke like chimneys and just won't accept that it is damaging their lungs and the ones of the people around them.

Terrible service in shops

Impossible to get hold of sandwiches and tv diners in supermarkets!

Having to pay for trolleys and carrier bags

Never finding empty seats in buses or the tube because people here think is ok to use the spare seats to put their bags/coats and don't think of putting them away when someone approaches to take the seat.
I never saw that happening in London, people just take the stuff on their lap or move it for someone else to sit down. I miss basic British politeness!

Tiny school children travelling always alone to & from school. In my daughter's school all the Brit kids get taken to school and picked up by their parents but all the German kids are always travelling alone.
Why? Berlin is not exactly a 'safe haven' for kids, near the school there's been quite a few 'kidnap' incidents as well as kids almost being run over, so... Do Brit parents care more?

I've got the opposite culture shock, going to Spain, Madrid in particular, couldn't get more opposite than the Spanish and the Germans. Takes a me a bit to get used to each, got home late (by Germany standards anyways) and it was like the sidewalks rolled up, shhh you'll wake them up it was only 10 o'clock. For the Spanish 10 is when the evening begins! Was in Mini Mal and returned some empties and was told as of next week the bottles can't be bent or labels missing or they won't accept them. Had a cyclist complain because I pulled over on the cycle lane to drop some DVDs off. (note rental DVDs are a bitch to copy, heavy use means the computer has a hard time reading it)

You go to check in at the Madrid airport and it looks like the local bar, paper everywhere, forget sorting your garbage, all paper belongs on the floor! but I think http://www.madridman.com/madridman.html put it best


And I should add for drivers Red means gun it not stop! Leaned that one the hardway.

sounds like the Scousers have the right attitude then if they`d make short work of any cigarette machines that appeared. Bring them over here and let them loose on the streets!

In Frankfurt there`s a main street with lots of traffic which has a sign up that says "FEINSTAUB". Not sure if its just a kind of subtle joke about the current Feinstaub-Obsession, or a genuine warning. Probably the latter. People here not being that into subtle humour. And theres a cafe nearby which now calls itself "Cafe Feinstaub"!

Terrible service in shops: - yes Ill endorse that, who wouldnt.

As for TV dinners: I dont want Europe swamped by that cheeseburger and Freedom Fries/tv dinner barbarism! Thats not food.

Schoolkids travelling alone to school: actually I think thats admirable. Much better than the American/British "school run" in SUVs. That just makes kids fat, clogs up the roads - and most important of all - bad for the UMWELT!

Apart from the aforementioned dogs and smoke in restaurants the biggest thing I find is the shopping - on 2 counts.

Firstly no Sunday shopping is a real pain when you might not have any other opportunity duiring the week. Legally it appears there can be the occassional "Verkaufsoffenersonntag" - and the local town (Dueren) is heaving on each blue moon this occurs. I blame the politicians!!

The second thing is the standard of the supermarkets. Very few match up to those in the UK I find and the local one here - Real,- - is abysmal - although ironically they stock Irish Cheddar - the nearest thing to a UK product!!

Fortunately I can be in Belgium in half an hours drive and the Carrefour there is an altogether different standard.

To be honest, I have never really came across much German foodstuff in the UK either. What gets me however, is when some of my people come over from the UK and wonder why there are no fish and chip shops or foodstuff that for me is typically British. We are in Germany, its a different culture in mre ways than one, plus not having the so called comforts of home, the ones that I took for granted, make my trips back home that bit more interesting.

Great idea, makes people take the trolley back & not leave them all over the car park or just shove them in the general direction of the trolley stop & anyway you get you money back! And I seem to recall paying a £1 (refundable) for a trolley in Sainsburys/Asda last time I was home! Carrier bags are only €0.6 anyway & it makes you reuse them.

Bascially if your side of the road is blocked you will have to wait. Nobody will let u thru, nobody will say thank you. But if the other side is blocked and you wait to let an oncoming car thru you will get a thank you. It's an unwritten rule. Although I bet there is a rule saying who should let who thru.

As Kennya said, one is entitled to point out things that on first arrival to Germany seemed odd, let's remember that, it is not a question of which country is better, it is a question of what things we individually found shocking or irritating regardless if they are 'better' than in the UK or not!

When the bag tax was introduced in Ireland about 5 years ago there was public uproar at first, but when people actually realised thet plastic bags were the main cause for the filthy reputation "the dirty Irish" the country had, the idea of paying for bags was not so bad after all. A year after its introduction, there was 95% less bags to be seen on the footpaths & roads...


I don't know if its a question of caring more, I reckon its a mixture of over-caring and being outright silly.
The school-run is the biggest cause of rush-hour traffic-jams in the UK. Why put kids onto a bus, when you can spend a good hour of quality time with them sitting in a traffic-jam every day? Obviously parents in Germany have copped on to that problem


This used to make me angry too, but then I realised that a huge percentage of people on the Road in Germany are not actually German ... Just because there are German plates on the car does not actually mean there are Germans in the car

Sure, but they're all English!

I don't know if it's just this case I had today but I wouldn't do this back home.

After class today, a mother called and said her kid (aged 7) could wait outside the school and sit on the wall, next to a busy road and pavement, while waiting. It was a nice day sure but, as I said to my boss, if anything happened to her, it would be the mother's fault as she gave her permission. I was horrified! Anyone could have gone by and taken the kid away! My boss looked at me as if I had two heads. Is this normal here?

One difference that always makes me laugh (difference to the US, that is. I have no idea if it's the same in the UK):

At a grocery store in the US, when you put your stuff on the conveyor, you just leave a couple inches space between your stuff and that of the person in front of you. Sure, there are dividers, but nobody ever uses them, and actually, anyone who does receives odd looks.

In Germany, the person in front of me will have always put a divider after their stuff, and if I don't put one after mine, I can see the person behind me getting really anxious (like I might accidentally buy her carton of sauerkraut).

But if you don't put the divider there the checkout person will just carry on swiping things regardless of the amount of space you leave.

Thankfully, Germany does not belong to those countries where there is a potential paedophile lurking on every street corner, waiting to pounce upon any child they manage to find alone on the street...

I am by no means saying Germany is a totally safe-haven for kids, but when you compare the odds of things happening to a child in Germany to those of a child in the UK, it would certainly appear that the fear of something happening to a child is much greater in the UK than it is in Germany.

I would say your Bosses reaction was quite normal. He or she was probably thinking "Kids are noisy, dirty, and expensive... who the hell would want to kidnap one??"

Yes, I suppose Germany is alot safer than lets say Belgium...

Lots have kids have been abducted and murdered here, there always seem to be incidents of this being reported in the media. I dont think thats really all that different to UK. There are pedophiles in all countries. I think the difference is that the british are currently obsessed with the issue, seeing pedophiles lurking everywhere. Its a kind of parallel to McCarthyism in the 50s, reds under the beds and all that. Anything with remotely sexual overtones sends the brits into a panic.

Agree.

I would image that kiddie fiddlers are distributed pretty equally around the world. In the US and UK, though, there is, in my opinion, an extreme obsession with sanitising every aspect of life so that it be 'child friendly'. The chances of someone snatching a child of the street are so incredibly remote, I see no reason not to let one sit out on the curb (not to mention it gets the little brat out of your hair for a while).

I would not say that 'lots of kids have been abducted here'. You just hear about every one that has because it sells papers / raises TV ratings.

That game is the only thing that makes German supermarkets bearable. See how close you can get your stuff to the person in front or behind before they panic and go for the divider.

Yea, I have to admit to loving watching the person behind me squirm. As we get closer and closer to the cashier, you can see the steam pouring out of her ears as her brain tries to process what is happening. This usually ends with her emphatically slamming the divider down just as the cashier starts in on my stuff.

REALLY??? I hear about abductions and murders of kids here in Berlin all the time...


That's more like it!

As I said, it is not over protection or histeria even here in leafy Heerstrasse (Berlin-Charlottenburg) there have been very close calls of guys pulling the kids from over the fence and still the parents seem willing to risk it as long as they don't have to spend 15 in the bus every morning with their own kids, God forbid!
I for one don't find my daughter's company unbearable and feel good knowing I do my best to protect her...

Obviously the Berlin authorities are doing a good job in keeping Berlins problems away from the rest of the German media...

Is this normal here?

Yes, it's normal for a 6 year old to go to school across busy roads or on the bus alone. It was one of the things that shocked me when I first moved here.

... and far away from the Berlin media, as well, at least as far my memory serves me.

It's all quite interesting what you have put as "cultural differences". I am from Germany myself, but living in England with my English boyfriend. A lot of the stuff which you have put down as what you experienced in Germany, I have actually experienced over here as well: People who cannot wait to put the divider between mine and their groceries, young kids who have to make their way to school and home alone, general lack of hygiene in take aways or other public places ( I never knew what a stomach bug is until I moved over here), etc. I find that I do complain a lot about certain things, especially the state of the trains (as I am commuting every day) and the constant delays or seemingly random cancellations (without giving any reasons), or the health service, or the cider-drinking yobs, the plastic- bag- mania etc etc. My boyfriend can find just as many things to say about Germany. At the end of the day, I chose to live here.

whats the "plastic bag mania"??

give me 6 cent, and I'll let you know

It's the same as Magen-Darm-Infektion in Germany.

It's what people say they have when they can't think of anything better to say.

I never knew about Kreislaufkollaps until I moved here - to be honest I'm still not sure what it is.

A friend of mine had one last week!

He was in his flat, got dizzy and just fell down all of a sudden. He was slurring his speech, too, and had to call an ambulance (which was difficult given the slurred speech).

They told him to drink more water and less coffee and sent him home.

I think the english word for that is "drunk". Slurred speech is usually associated with a jar too many

I think Lapoota72 has summed up my memories of the UK pretty well, still not sure what the plastic bag was all about, but it sums up a picture of a woman carrying a dozen Tesco's carrier bags.

All the things written here are the same things I used to moan about when living in Germany, but you do find once you"ve moved back to the UK that you actually miss some of them. Not that I would move back, but there are things I miss.

When I'm chatting to people and it comes up that I lived in Germany, it's quite funny how ignorant some people who have never been there are. Quite often get asked if they walk into a restaurant and put there bag on a seat 4 hours before they plan to eat there like they do with the sunbeds on holiday. Or comments about the women having hairy armpits and legs, I always find myself defending the country even though I moaned about it when I was there