"Why live in Munich if you hate it so much?"

This question crops up over and over again in the online forums. Someone makes a negative comment or complains about the Germans and their funny ways, and then someone else replies with the immortal line...

"Why live in Munich if you hate it?"

The person who initiates the complaint is usually British. As we all know, the Brits are never happier than when they have something to complain about. The person who then fires the "clever" comeback is usually a local. I.e. a German who, quite rightly, takes indignation to his/her people getting a bashing.

Sometimes it's also an Australian who fires off the "why live here..." comeback. This is because, as we know, the Aussies are never happier than when they're whinging about the whinging Poms.

"If you don't like germans WHY in the hell are you living in germany for God's sake?"

Simple. It would be bang out of line for me to moan about the Jerrys with no first hand experience of Germany. I'm here to collect material to moan about.

Xenophobia is common in Blighty, true, but so is moaning and ranting. The English will moan about wherever they are. Like the lady with a virginia ham under one arm, moaning about having no bread to make a sandwich.

Sometimes you just don't have a choice.

People who would complain about Munich would probably boo a cure for cancer.

I'M British, I remember when I got off the train in Munich to start my job here last November after having studied and lived in London for the previous five years. I took a walk around, thought what is all the hype about, walked around the city centre for a day and to be honest I thought it all seemed unfriendly and very boring compared to London or for that matter even a smaller british city like Manchester. I have stuck it out and to be honest I want to go back to London or maybe live in Berlin now. I have learned to live with life here, but I don't like the local people, I think they're the most unfriendly and emotionless people on earth actually, and that includes the miserable bunch of Germans in my office not one of whom I have yet had a conversation with. The only nice people here in Munich are the Turkish community, who the Germans all hate.

And another thing, the British aren't anything like as xenophobic as the average German, who don't even communicate with people who are 'FOREIGN'. Having studied and worked in one of the most cosmopolitan and dynamic cities in the world (London), I can tell you that the Germans in Munich that I have met have ALOT to learn about welcoming foreigners into their country to work and feel home here. No wonder their economy is turning out to be a total failure in the context of globalisation.

@Mike: People normally tend to give you back the attitude you approach them with. Just give it a though, ease up and get yourself some life. Trust me... works - not only in London.

"Zu Gast bei Freunden"? "zu Gast bei" who?

If A) "The only nice people here in Munich are the Turkish community"
And B) Mike is in Munich
And C) Mike is not a member of the Turkish community
Then D) Mike is not a nice person

Oh...really...how did you work that one out then? Oh, by the way, I was in a cafe in Schwabing the other day and got talking to a nice, friendly bunch of young people on the next table. They were French.

let's bring this thread back to life!
I live here because... Well, how long does take until you can no longer consider it "living"?

When you are dead and in the cemetery? What else would you call it?