Comments by "Holger P." (@holger_p) on "Brit in Germany" channel.

  1. Germans always complain towards "I could imagine a better way of doing things", it's towards a fiction, and this can drive people to improve things. But this does not mean, you can improve things by moving, by "it's better in another country". Such a place is still hard to find, Switzerland or Norway is often named as competitors in quality of living. But in worldwide measure, Germany is still quiet on top of the list, gains by moving are rather small, more on the individual/special interest level. But some people forget, complaining doesn't mean "it's bad", it means "I can imagine better". Even in the best country in the world, Germans would find things to complain.
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  2. This was valid in 1918 and 1945 too. There are changes from time to time.
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  3. ​ @ernesto003plus that's Nonsense. Unless they blame you for not speaking english. But i travel all of europe without speaking most native languages and it works fine. It's more kind of optimism than forced expectation.
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  4. We don't see any development towards common policy, common laws, unification etc. This once was the dream. National interest is too strong. Becoming part of something bigger, feels like giving up souvereignity.
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  5. No you don't need to expect anybody is speaking your language, but you can expect anybody speaking English, that's a difference. Cause it's also polite of anybody else to be able to communicate, if they go abroad.
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  6. Income level is close to OK, but it's impossible to ever catch up with accumulated assets. The income difference is compensated by another magnitude of "Do it yourself", people paint their appartments themselves, have no "maids" or other services, there are less interiour architects or Yoga-classes. there are 74% of women employed in the West, compared to 86% in the east. The "One-income-couple" is a rather unknown model. And in return, the low pensions of women, you rather find in the west, because they were never or short time employed. Largest difference is: The existance and acceptance of Kindergardens.
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  7.  @Anri6547  This does not mean, the relatives in this family know what kind of toilet this girl has used in their youth. It is many things/assumptions never spoken out. An indian driving a car has at least to learn to stay in lane and not change tracks. They don't do that in India. It's a million little differences. "uncivilized" is a too hard word, but it's more differences when with americans. Altghough they have different door knobs and falling windows. There are things to learn.
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  8. Language is under permanent change. That's good. Writing "Sale" is more or less just a fashion, like the used colors have changed from 1980 to now also. Oktoberfest and house shoes are not endangereoud.
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  9. With a birthrate of around 1.6 Europe would go extinct. To not have a shrinking econonmy, we need these people. (although we would like to control their count) Culture is always a process in development and you can't freeze it.
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  10. It's the listener, who makes the decision, which case you are currently at. When I tell you "Loose some weight" it can be rude, or it can be a friendly concern about your health. You are rude by judging people, putting them in one box or the other.
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  11. Not to forget, the stereotype itself depends very much on the country you are in. The US stereotypes on Germany are completly different then the British ones. Such jokes like Prince Harry in a Nazi costume is so British, I guess it would not happen in US so easily. You can currently see the comments of British people on the visit of King Charles. ...it goes like "that german bastard" just to quote one.
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  12.  @davidsellars3924  I think a lower quality, esp. of vegetables would fall back on the entire shop. It would ruin the image, the reputation. It should never end with "this shop is selling rubbish". When Aldi started this used to be a little different. Cheap tiles, no shelfs, selling from the carton placed on the floor, and customer saying "I accept this, for the sake of a low price". This has dramaticly changed since kind of everybody is a discounter, REWE is not more expensive than Aldi, it just has more, and more expensive options, additionally. So the setup of "nice shops", with shelfs, and wood, and clean floor and lightning and smell has kind of influenced Aldi and Lidl to raise their standards. And all this beauty and cleanliness of the shop, has to correspond to the vegetables of course. Bad items are sorted out hourly. You need to attract people with those things also, cause this is cheaper in the long run, than lowering the price of cucumber.
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  13. But the experience you made, have the companies and the governement made also, and they learned from. The language bareer for immigration (no getting citizenship) has been lowered. And companies hiring what they can get, in the "everybody is better than nobody" manner. Beeing fluent in English, is a requirement to Germans also, on the other hand. Job ads can be considered a "wish list". Even if you don't fit 100% it's worth trying. But it makes many people hesitate. But see it through companies eyes: If they request very little, they got lot of applications, difficult to pick the best. With high request, at least there is an option to find somebody "I fullfill everything", even if they get somebody fullfilling just 70-80% at the end.
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  14.  @rekkorder  you nibble for correct words. OK, if you expect anybody to speak any foreign language it's English. If a German goes to Thailand, he speaks English, If a Polish goes to Brazil, they speak English. Of course there are people who don't speak English. But this ist first try and best guess. If any, it's English. Expecting is more in the meaning of "having good chances to find somebody to understand you". You don't try it with Russian in Brazil. So in Reverse, native English speakers get along without learning any language pretty good.
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  15. The problem is the idea, the "need of people" would be different in each country.
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  16. Sure, I coudn't either, and you are not very helpful in explaining it actually. For me both is very very bad and not good for anything. It both supports separatism, draws border to neighbors, does not treat all people equally. You can see it in front of each football stadium, fans of one team are more or less in war and hate against the other fans. I don't care whether this is patriotism or nationalism, it can raise war, that's a bad thing. By accidently beeing born in a certain place, that's not reason to be proud on, just to start with.
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  17. No, it's up to each individual to enjoy it or to call it a desaster. I don't see anything negative in it. You can look back with some sentiment, the same way as steam locomotives are lost over time.
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  18. As more ratings newspapers do, as more likely you will appear at one of them.
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  19. Once, when complaining lead to "I know how to do it better, and I do it", this lead to a lot of creativity and founding buisnesses. What has been introduced in the last 150 years into german culture, is risk-aversion. This really parallyses lot of people. Demand for security is too high.
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  20. Sure, as more distance you have to other, as more others have to think, "do we have to donate him a meal", "can we go to a more expensive restaurant together", Do we make you unconfortable when suggessting to go to cinema, maybe you cannot afford it. Many activities get complicated, if you are not in the same social layer. It's like meeting a blind guy. Should you offer help or not ? It's insecurity mainly.
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  21. This can indicate an illegal dealer, not wanting to leave any trace, not paying taxes ..
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  22. That's an indiscrete question.
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  23. The divide is nothing you can really see, it's only in some peoples heads. You will notice lower income levels maybe, but very subtile, by the absence of Gucci stores or Michelin star Restaurants. The implicit "luck" was the lack of money in the East in the 70ies and eighties. In that time old/half destroyed buildings or war ruins were teared down in the west and replaced by the style of that era (brutalism etc). When it came to repair the east in the 90ies, many 'almost ruins' could be saved. The awareness for history had changed.
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  24. Unfortunatly, people don't distinguish, if they have a job or not. Even when hiring a nurse from Marocco, and you see her on the bus, she is put in this league of "unemployed immigrants". And keep in mind, the sentiments are helt by just a share of the population. The number of people coming, or the number of people with working permission and beeing unemployed, you cannot "feel" by looking around; .. only by reading statistics. And if statistics and sentiments doesn't fit, people say statistic is fake.
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  25. But that's normal German history. Sometimes with move. The question is, did your ethnic group ever change, you staid, czech or slowenian, or german, or hungarian all your life I guess. In Germany about 30% of entire population got relocated in 1945, if you remember. My grandma is born in austrian hungary (50km south of Dresden), this was czech republic from 1919, annexed by the Nazis 1937, relocated 1945 (10km north actually), DDR from 1949 and change of state in 1989 again. Normal german biografie, with a 10km move.
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  26. Just been to Luxemburg from Dresden, that's really not a daytrip or weekend trip. It's a 10 hour drive. In a daytrip you might reach any place inside germany. But there is nothing like a best central place in europe.
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  27. France did end the identity of "Le grande nation" much better. Russia has the same dream of an empire, it is in war. So UK is at least on the better side. "Second fiddle to US" might be OK, but speaking it out loud is not healthy. I sounds desperate. The idea it would be good to be "one of a kind" is the core of the problem I think. Going together with others, see neighbors as friends, beeing better than others does more harm than good. This was/is the idea of the EU.
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  28. It really has changed by generation. If 25 year olds meet for the first time, they will use "Du" and since the 35 years olds don't want to be considered old, they do the same. A waiter makes you feel like you are part of the family, you belong here, if he's saying "Du". It would be really awkward du use "Sie" in a gym. The "Du" means you are equal and Germans like to be equal.
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  29.  @harry-james-books  did anybody say, you were wrong? No you were right, and only if you voted for brexit, there are the options of beeing Idiot or racist, not mutual exklusive.
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  30.  @danilomodus5651  It's not about getting "cheap workers", but as you say "get anybody" "whoever may apply" - and why not. There is no other option. But I don't see any relation to Brexit at all, that's done by some crazy nationalist, blaming Europe for anything going wrong in their country. That's a europewide phenomenon. If something good happens, it's due to the local governement, and if anything bad happens, it's to to Europe. This way Europe got a bad image. But it's based on such accussations.
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  31. If you come to work, you are not a citizen. If you become a citizen, you have to speak german. So a non-citizen, is always a 2nd class citizen, no matter if speaking german or not ;-)
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  32. With your arguments, any language on the planet, except English, is dying.
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  33.  @quarrelsound  aber alles verdient auch, gelobt zu werden, wie gut es bereits ist. Denn sonst jammern alle über den Mangel an Anerkennung.
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  34. It's a common use of "the Germans" or "the Americans" to talk about an average, or something that applies to 60% ...a majority. Comments "it doesn't apply to all .." are just annoying, everybody knows hat.
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  35. Avoid risk of your own is one thing. Blaming others for taking a risk is another level. One is to protect people from failure, the other is kind of "holding a criminal back from exploiting people".
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  36. Do it for yourself. And take the chance to have family support. But don't say you do it as respect for others. Impress yourself. For your nephews you may even become boring, if they have nobody to talk english to anymore.
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  37. Germans are more planful. They do things by intention. While Americans are more into taking a chance. They talk to 20 people, to find one interesting maybe. It's more this Try&Error attitude. But I will never getting over asking "how are you" and not expecting an answer. That's the most rude thing you can do. And if you expect an answer, it can be very indiscrete and intrusive. Just like asking "how is your bank account and have you got enough sex".
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  38. Is Scotland really considered a country ? For a German, this has more the feeling like beeing Bavaria. It's clearly ranked as beeing part of the country Germany. And "regional products" germans buy for ecological reasons only, as "not beeing transported more than 50km or so". maybe the "made in Germany" is also taken as sign of quality or supporting economy, but not as a thing of national pride.
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  39. That's not a sentence. Verb and subject are missing. For vacation I also don't learn the language of the country, most often I get along. As a German, I don't mind speaking english with people, I'm proud to be able to speak english and like to help. So blame me, not the foreigners.
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  40. A programmer should write a program, doing his jobs, at least the repetitive administrative ones. And you are entitled to earn the profit from that. The creative job is 24/7 anyway. You can't turn off your head, take problems home, and the best idea you get on a hike or while having a shower. That's scientificly proofen. That's why being paid by the hour is pretty much nonsense.
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  41. no such gigantism, selfishness, or whatever. You sound like Trump or Putin with fantasies of leading the world.
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  42. @ What happens, und what is perceived are completly different, und the perception is more "they are doing nothing". Even worse, only bad news are in the news. Everything good is taken as granted. Local politicians often use the trick, when it's positive, they have done it, and when it's negative, "they are just following EU regulations". That's why EU is perceived as 100% bad (to people, who don't see this trick). When I have no clue, I'm just the representative example, also most others have no clue ;-) But I talked about perception, not reality. Like "green deal" and EU ? People who don't like it put all their hate to the native green party, they don't see it's coming from EU. It's some kind of blaming or brainwashing.
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  43. As soon as a company has international affiliates it's more likely required. And it's tolerated Germans talk German with Germans ... until the first non-german walks in. It might be a little different, whether it's a company like Intel or Tesla, or a german based company like Volkswagen.
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  44.  @kaworunagisa4009  Well soviet ist like east germany. And there, recycling was a need, there was no way to buy new things. Today this is raising environmental awareness. But it's still in the German soul, cause all the ideas of throwing things away instead of repairing them, just started with globalization in the 90ies, the raise of china. A product made in Germany was always worth repairing, cause it's so expensive. But one made in China, is not.
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  45.  @kaworunagisa4009  Yes, but solution for this today is flea markets as mentioned, or more digital "ebay". It turns "someone might need it one day" into "someone might need it today".
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  46. Some things are simply to personal. You don't want to give all the details of your desease. Diarrhea would be such a "too much details" thing with too exact pictures in mind. So you give a more rough description of "something in the gastrointestinal tract", and you don't do it in Latin, but in German.
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  47. It's not possible to have no culture. People eat, they have theatres, they dress. Hence there is culture. "Russian from Russia" is more like an American expression, nothing a russian would ever use.
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  48. You will have a team at work. That's the top way to get in contact. Maybe you join a gym. Everything where you meet the same people more often can be source of relationships.
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  49. Definition is important, just every person is bringin in it's own, everybody a different one. There is no migration into germany, except an employer is hiring you. Anything else is Asyl and refugee. Of course inside EU there are no restrictions. Administration is are, Germany is an unattractive country, difficult language - and relativly low income for high skills. They kind of gave up to attract people, they try since the 90ies, with Indian programmers, who never came. So second best soluttion is, take refugees and educate them. Take the people who are already here.
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  50. I still wonder why british refuse to install one armed faucets. It's cheaper, only one whole to drill, only one crane to buy, easier to use, but they insist in these cold/warm separation. There must be some mentally wrong. Conservatism must be a real thing. I guess they still use shower curtains.
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