I hope you are all doing great. I am fine and a little bit tired because we had one meeting after the other this week. I cannot believe we have already visited so many places! It makes me a little bit sad because it is almost time to go home… Nevertheless, I still want to enjoy Germany and Norway with my colleagues so let’s get started with Germany because this is the place where we are right now!
When I was in high school, I learnt German for three years. Fortunately, I still am able to talk a little bit German because this is the first language of Germany and my colleagues cannot speak German. More than 120 million people speak this language. It is the tenth most spoken language in the world.
The two most important key words of the German culture are: formality and punctuality. It can sound old-fashioned to you but Germans addresses to people as Herr and Frau all the time. Moreover, they speak a lot in the Sie form; this is a more formal form of the you form. They do this because they want to show respect.
On Monday evening, a man brought us to the hotel and he respected this rule too. On the other hand, he was not as friendly as the people in Belgium. He and his wife run a taxi company but they did not ask that much. We tried to talk but they seemed not to want it. We got to know that people do not talk that much in Germany.
A few hours after we had arrived, we went shopping in Berlin. This is the capital of Germany and it is the second largest city of the European Union. We noticed that we only got help when we asked the shop-assistant so. I liked this a lot because you do not get a suffocating feeling. The second remark we made was that the shop-assistants spoke excellent English! They are not the most polite people but they will always try to help you.
After our shopping, we were starving. We went to a local restaurant. Although the meals were down-to-earth, it was really good! Very common in Berlin are dishes with pork, goose, fish, cabbage, peas, lentils, turnips, and beans, pickle and potatoes. I ate the Schnitzel Holstein. This is a schnitzel topped with a fried egg, onions and carpers. This was served with potatoes and peas and I took a picture of this meal. Yummy!
When we had finished our meal, we went out and we saw Heidi Klum. I am sure
everybody knows her. She was born in 1973 in Germany but in 2008, she became an
American citizen. She is a German top model, actress and she has her own
television show. I took a picture of her while she was entering the room:
I liked this first day a lot. Later, Debra will post something about the economy of Germany so keep on following, guys!
Lauren
Sources:
http://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/culture-and-media/main-content-09/german-an-attractive-foreign-language.html
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/germany-country-profile.html
Three relevant real-life examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvyGsEeuFls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZAWygYoN30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfuB5ZuZtME
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