Greeting people in lifts / waiting rooms

Having lived in Germany for quite a few years now, I am used to the compulsory Grüß Gott and Auf Wiederschauen when you enter or leave any public space, such as a shop, or even the entrance way to an apartment building. Not being a regular visit to the doctor however, I usually forget when I enter the waiting room, only to be reminded when the next person to enter loudly greets everyone. There not being many high-rises in Munich, I rarely had to take an office lift (elevator). My new company has a large "Hochhaus", so I sometimes have to take the lift and was quite surprised to find that people say Grüß Gott and Auf Wiederschauen/sehen to strangers in the lift as well.

I have heard a few German friends (who work in a firm with a lot of English and American workers) complaining about how rude the English speakers are because they never greet you when they enter the room. The Germans generally find this very rude and even when it is explained to them that it is not done in our culture, they still find it uncomfortable.

Just a thought for those who find the staring difficult (although I have only noticed it from old people when on holiday myself).

So the question is, do you greet?

Hahaha...we're the rude ones...

Yes, I greet.

servus - always.

When in Rome...

I greet if everything is pretty much normal. When I regularly took the elevator in one of my old flats, I stopped greeting the miserable people who never greeted me or said goodbye, but otherwise, I greeted and goodbyed.

I always forget to greet and feel rude when the next person comes and does greet, but then I generally tend to be unthoughtful of others.

I usually just nod and say 'Whassssup!!!??'

Not quite a lift story but..
I know what u mean bludger. I have a collegue, whose office is a corner in one of our labs. Common courtesy tells me a 'Guten Tag' to announce myself is enough, then get on quietly with my work, as my collegue is suposedly working hard, and should not be interupted. ( i know i wouldn't want to be interupted everytime someone came to get a blow torch or something, chain of thought and all that.) Then last week he had a full on rant basically saying that not having a 'full on' conversation with him everytime i enter the lab was rude. Maybe its a german thing, or maybe my collegue just doesn't want to do any work!

If I adopt the German mentality does the mean I get to barge onto the U-bahn before the people have got off and knock old ladies over in the process?

and never give up ur seat for 80+ yr olds clearly clinging to dear life everytime the train goes round the corner. I cant believe the way most of the germans just stand and watch, rather than giving away their seat, my mum would kill me if i did that!!!

sorry, sounds like im on a german rant, im not... honest!

Just reply "Great Scott" and watch the reaction.

I definitely have to try that one.

And don't forget Malzeit overrides Grußgott from 10:30 til 14:00. Don't want to get caught out using the wrong greeting.

Well in the north everyone says 'Moin' and in central germany everyone says 'hallo' 'guten tag' 'tag' or 'malzeit' depending on the time of day and the situation.

It is considered rude not to greet people, and it is also that way when you start to eat or drink before everyone has been served, and it is considered rude when you leave the table before everyone has finished eating. Not saying 'Guten Appitite' before you start eating is also considered rude.

I personally dont find it absurd or strange that everyone greets everyone and that other things are considered rude that are not done in English or American culture. Actually now that I think about it, American and English culture are rather primitive and rude in some ways when you compare it to most other European countries!

I think that's the case in most countries. However, in Munich it is quite often the case that even with a party of 2 the meals do not arrive at even remotely the same time. Then you have the usual:

Her:"Go ahead and start"
You:"No, it's ok, I'll wait until yours arrives"
Her:"Seriously, it'll get cold"
You:"Maybe I'll just pick at the rice"

and so until until you feel the need to impale the next waiter who says "it'll be here in a moment."

History has proven that if I am out in any given group in Munich, it's my meal which will come last. The only addendum that I know of to this rule is that if Badger is eating with me, her meal will either be entirely wrong or missing vital ingredients.

'Tis a tough business this eating out.

To stay on topic, if I enter a room with people in it I will glance around and give them a "Grüß Gott" or a simple "Hey". Which is a good thing as now that I am in Sweden the "Hey" becomes "Hej" (pronounced the same) and it actually does mean hello In a lift I find the hello & goodbye's slighty disturbing sometimes. Lifts are for looking at your shoes, trying to silently release the fart that's been building (only if you are more than 2 strangers) and quietly slipping out at your stop with a muttered "Scuse me" (slipping out of the lift that is, not the fart, but you knew that).

On my journey back I had to stop for petrol near Cologne, and I said Gruess Gott to the guy who worked there, and he looked really weird to me... it took me a while before I realised that it's just a Bavarian thing to say that...

Yeah, I felt like a right hick at Berlin airport information when I said that. But the girl serving me just laughed when I said, "Oh yeah, I'm no longer in Bavaria" and said "Güten Tag" after.

Sparty, being Swabian I say it as well. "Grüss Gott" is used in the whole of sourthern Germany. I once called a company cause they haven't paid their bill yet and said me name and "Grüss Gott" as a greeting and before I said why I called the guy shouted at me "He can't help you there either, yours is just a shit company" and it took me a couple of seconds to figure out who He was Another popular answer of northern Germans is "Yeah, when I'll see Him".

But going back to the thread's topic:
I always greet when I enter a restaurant or a shop. I don't realise it anymore, only when others mention it. Whereas in Munich it is not that
often seen apparently. Friends from back home, where everyone greets everyone everywhere, feel the "unfriendlyness".

by the way it is "Mahlzeit". Mahl is the word for having food, kinda oldish. It is just mention that u should have lunch. Before you start eating you just say "Guten Appetit" or in the countryside they sometimes also say "Guten Hunger"

To my Northern German friends, they think Mahlzeit is hilarious. They told me once that it is like saying "mid-day time, mid-day time". Or our equavilant would be "lunch, lunch".

Great Scott, lunch lunch time.

A small departure from the topic title but does anyone here say "Gesundheit" to complete strangers who have a sneezing fit ?

In Süd Tirol (and I think Austria) they say Mahlzeit instead of Guten Appetit, which sort of makes sense. I think it is usually only in big companies that Mahlzeit is used as a greeting in the middle of the day. I am not aware of anyone using it in a any other context. I wonder if it sort of started as a joke and then took off.

I do and usually get a slightly surprised, slightly nervoous "Danke" back.

I miss all the "Great Scott's", "Mozart's" and "Chewing Gum's" we used to through around.

Those damn heathen northern protestants have no respect


The Bavarians always greet when entering a restaurant or shop in my experience. Maybe it is because Munich is full of Preiß'n

for what it's worth, in my "cross cultural" training that my company gave me before moving here, they said Grüss Gott is a typically Bavarian greeting not used much in the north and that a sneeze, much like a burp and, um, the other, is not acknowledged.

Well I live in the North, and say 'Moin' to everyone, not matter where I am in the county. When I am in NRW or Sachsen or somewhere else the people actually tell me they like it or think it is 'cute'. It is something different.

Grüß Gott and Servus are only Austrian and Bayern things. I dont know if anyone if familiar with the anomosity between Bayern and the rest of Deutschland, but they tend to hate one another. Kind of like Canada with Quebec or Spain with Catalionia. That might have been the reason for the strange look! I personally dont hate Bayern, but I would never live there long term! Just a Geschmacksache though!

Well Mahlzeit means 'meal time' literally, but at least in NRW and Niedersachsen everyone says it during lunch time as a hello. Between 11 and 14 no one ever says 'hallo' or 'tag'.

Stick to the fact jpp, not random guessing. You don't live here, you don't know what Bavarians think of the rest of Germany. You aren't Canadian and certainly not Quebecois, you don't have a clue what they think of each other.

I stick to "hayyoodooin?"

I can just say the Grüss Gott is not only a bavarian thung but applies for whole southern Germany.
Of cours eit is true that it is Bavaria and Germany and not Bavaria in Germany but u shouldn't forget Baden and Württemberg.
Oddly enough I am an Swabian Bavarian
We don't hate the rest of Germany, we are just different. And we make jokes about that, whereas the Preiss'n, no matter if they are from Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt or Japan are just envying us for our lifestyle

I am not random guessing, and I in fact do know how germans from other parts feel about bavarians and I know how bavarians feel about germans. I have been living in Germany for a number of years, and ask any (non bavarian) german what they think of Bayern and they will be happy to tell you! Ask any Bayerner what they think of the rest of Germany and they will tell you. In northern Bayern, they dont even like to be called Bayerner. They will become angry and insist that they are Franken.
And no, i havent lived in bayern but I have been there quite a lot. I had an interview in Allgäu and the company actually told me `Wir sind eine Firma aus Bayern und wir exportiern zu Deutschland und der Welt'. If you look to history, you will see about how Bayern wanted to become an independent country earlier in the last century. I have nothing against Bayern, but I am stating a hard fact here: the majority of germans and people from Bayern dislike each other.

And with Canada. I lived in Manatoba for some time. I have nothing against Quebec, in fact I have friends from Quebec City and I love Quebec. But ask many canadians what they think of the people from Quebec and as those from Quebec what they think of the rest of Canada and you can get into some pretty hot debates.

I am not taking any sides on either of these discussions, I am just telling you the facts. I was just trying to find a possible reason why someone would give a dirty look when someone spoke `Bayerisch' in other parts of germany, and so i presented this as a possibility.

When I lived in NRW I used "Hey" because that's what I use with pretty much everybody I've ever met in any country, "Gruss Gott" because it often just came out and also because they thought I was cute n' funny when I said it. I never used "Moin" because (1) it sounds silly to me and (2) that lot never said it once, it was always "Moin, moin" and I couldn't keep a straight face if I started sounding like a seagull. It's bad enough being here where people make the "Aw" noise all the time and sound like Sammy the Seal.

Lol. I always found 'Moin' cool. I never hear anyone use the double version of it, even though it is on a lot of signs around here.

I just do the polite eye contact and a quick nod. Other than that, if there are two of you entering the lift (works well on crowded UBahns) then you can play the old "Get your mate to scratch himself repeatedly and then ask him if the highly contagious genital rash has cleared up at last" game. Ala Ghost (one of the only decent things in the film)

Well I'm in Austria at the moment and Grüß Gott is just as prevalent here as in Bavaria or Swabia. It's tending to be replaced by Servus now though and is almost becoming a sign of a "Preuß" (or Piefke) to say Grüß Gott except in situations say like greeting a salesperson in a shop, or of course talking to your elders...
Saying nothing just ain't on.

I do greet in lifts and on the staircase.
Which created a strange situation when someone from a flat 2 floors below mine tried to gatecrash my birthday party but ringing my doorbell and saying that they were there for the housewarming.
I told them to bugger off because I'd been saying "Grüss Gott" to them for months without reply and they could simply forget drinking my booze and eating my food when a greeting wasn't good enough for them.
Maybe I've just been here too long... Mind you they were a bunch of medical students in a flatshare who were really loud and mean to the poor old dear living beneath them (and she's always very nice).
Servus is more casual and younger. You could always save time and buy a "Servus" t-shirt from Servus Heimat?
As for Mahlzeit, well there are some that think it is only for manual workers or civil servants. At least that's what a snobby German lawyer from Bonn told me at a wedding, but he was a tw@. For my workplace, not saying Mahlzeit would be as polite as having a pee in the middle of the canteen. Other workplaces may be and are different. And it is "bon appetit" and "'n guad'n" and "Guten Appetit" here too.
The Grüss Gott equator is probably similar to the Weisswürst equator - the South ends at Frankfurt (see also Semmel/Brötchen). "Moin" is from Hessen upwards.
Katrina

To me, it was strange reading this whole thread.
My experience has been the total opposite.

In the UK, everyone always smiled or greeted you when going into a shop/lift or said bless you when sneezing (like in a bus or summat).
Here, I experience it rarely.
People give me strange looks when (for example) I am walking through the corridor at work, and say 'Guten Morgen!' at them smiling. Their reaction is usually a surprised and baffled stare at me, whilst walking past, another reaction is surprise then a quick 'Guten Morgen' in return.
As for sneezing, I say bless you, and offer them a tissue if it's obvious they need one Once this guy opposite me was sniffling the WHOLE f-ing journey from HBF to Johannesirchen, so when we got to Daglfing, I said to him randomly 'Möchten Sie vielleicht ein Taschentuch?' He looked really surprised (as we all would) but took one, said thanks, and blew his nose (phew). I chuckled to myself.
And in shops, I find Bavarian shopkeepers especially grumpy (that whole non-service thing) and am surprised if anyone says Grüss Gott to me without having to be prompted by me.

One thing I can thing to explain our different experiences, is if you perhaps lived in a huge city before, like London or NYC, where I can imagine no one greets/talks to strangers randomly (NB - ungrounded assumption). Otherwise, maybe I have bad luck and all the (what I consider to be) unpolite people surround me, and you get the nice people

@UA In the UK I found that there is no social requirement to greet people in a lift etc., but that they often do because they're being friendly. Here there IS a requirement to say at least Guten Morgen but that's the sum of it and conversational exchanges rarely ensue.

On the nose-blowing I had a similar experience a couple of weeks back on the train to Salzburg. This bloke was sitting behind me and sniffing constantly. By Rosenheim I'd had enough so I turned round and asked (in German) if his parents hadn't taught him how to use a handkerchief. He looked surprised, answered yes, took one out and put it to use. A couple of minutes later he started to use his mobile and it transpired that he wasn't German but American...

hehe snotty noses are worldwide I guess

Are there no Americans from the midwest reading this thread? I don't find greeting in Germany strange at all except that I greet people a lot less. In my home town you have to smile at everyone you pass on the street. If you are in a neighborhood walking you are rude if you only smile. Everyone says hi or how are you doing. People here ignore me when I smile at them if they don't know me.

I'm a grad student here and all the germans say mahlzeit and gesundheit.

I don't think it has to be a huge city either. People don't greet either in Australian cities, for example, but they are generally friendly. I think it has more to do with the type of greeting we are talking about. I think everyone everywhere greets the shopkeeper when you go up to order something, even if it is a "hi", but generally we don't broadcast a general "good morning" to everyone in the shop when we enter the door. Well at least I never did.

Okay, while we are oh-so-slightly on the topic...

Who else comes from big country? Where driving down the gravel roads, you lift the fingers of one hand off the steering wheel in greeting to the driver coming towards you? Sometimes even reduced to just the index finger. I get such a kick out of doing that now when I go home.

Hey I'd forgotten that aspect of outback life

The same goes on the world over between motorbike riders. Always raise the left hand in greeting to a bike going the other way unless of course you're changing gear at the time so a nod of the head has to substitute. Or indeed unless you're in a country where they drive on the left and raising the right hand in greeting would have interesting consequences...

Anyway, this should always be done. And again, it just doesn't happen in towns. Suddenly the mateyness evaporates as you cross a city boundary and another bike is just another obstacle on the road.

Yeah in country Australia it is usually just the index finger. I also find it quite funny.