We were talking about Höflichkeit(manners and courtesy) the other day in German class and came up with some really great differences between German and American culture, but also some between Japan, China, Turkey, France, and other countries. I really do love the multi-cultural environment that we have in our German class, I’ve learned so much more about other countries during my time here.
So some big things between American and German culture that I found were personal space, classroom attitude, and the garbage of course.
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Germans, more so Europeans, definitely do not have the same feelings about personal space that we do. This relates more so to me in classroom environment, but when I’m sitting down in a row full of empty chairs, someone will naturally come and sit right next to me. Why do you do that, there is a whole row of empty seats, I like my space?!?! On buses or trains, people sit next to random strangers all the time without question. I went out to lunch today at a Döner shop and some random dude sat with me at lunch because there weren’t any seats available. I don’t see myself as arrogant or a loner, I just prefer my space. It’s a lot different I guess due to the lack of space around here…
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Relating to the space issue, I like sitting at the end of the row in class because I don’t like getting squished in the center of the row, however I hate it when people will just come in late and then ask to get by me, to sit in the center of the row. I find this rude and totally annoying while class is going on. This is just the prevalent attitude in class. You will have class scheduled from 4PM to 6PM, but class really starts at 4:15PM and ends at 5:45PM. People will walk into class every 10 minutes, late, and no one cares. Likewise, someone will be walking out every 10 minutes to the bathroom or to answer their phone. People will talk in class and carry on conversations regularly, no even quietly. I wouldn’t call it less respect, just a more relaxed environment. I hate it though, waaay to distracting.
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One of the other random things is garbage system. Everyone recycles here, it’s law I think. You have brown glass, green glass, white glass, old newspapers, general garbage, used wrappers, biodegradable stuff, metal, bottles, it goes on and on. Of course in America, we just throw everything away and it’s simple.
Some other random interesting things were the French dudes in the class even thought that Germans were very cold, because in France everyone hugs and kisses on the cheek as a greeting. Germans just prefer a strong handshake. Have I mentioned how hot French girls are? The Chinese girls in the class just kind of joked at how everyone was unpolite, which I could believe coming from their society. I’ll say it again, viewing the world from other’s eyes has taught me so much.