das ist so ein Kanal, der Videos bringt wie heute, wo ich so sehr Lust bekomme, mich mit dem RUclipsr für Stunden in ein Café zu setzen und über all diese Sachen zu reden und zu philosophieren. By the way, complaining in a more funny or sarcastic way like in the UK exists in Germany too, but this is usually done more in certain regions and often with strong dialect like Bayrisch, cause with the dialects you can express irony etc. often much better than in Hochdeutsch. So Bavarians are for me the masters of complaining in a humorous way... if you understand the hidden hints in the weird phrases, what is very difficult. Many other Germans don't understand the irony and therefore call Bavarians arrogant 😂
@@rainerm.8168 Hochdeutsch kann sehr ironisch sein. Besonders Corpo Deutsch is up to the task. Es gibt auch Sätze wie "Das hast du wieder toll hinbekommen." die auschließlich ironisch verwendet werden. Bei Ironie wird der Witz nicht ausgesprochen sondern impliziert. Damit braucht man einen gemeinsamen Wissen. Das kann kulturell sein, muss es aber nicht. Beispiel: Es hallt ein lautes Schreien durch den Flur. Wenn nach 5 Minuten ein anderer Kollege ins Büro kommt, wird mit den Worten "Herr XXX hat mal wieder gute Laune." impliziert, dass der Kollege Bescheid weiß. Obwohl er noch nicht mal den Schrei gehört haben muss. Aber der Kollege kennt das Temperament von Herrn XXX. Ironie ist auch eine Typfrage. Es gibt Menschen, die nocht nicht mal aus der Haustür raus gehen können ohne Ironie ("Was für ein wunderschöner Tag."). Während anderer erst mit einem Holzhammer oder blanken Sarkasmus darauf hingewiesen werden müssen. "Was für ein wunderschöner Morgen. Dieser sanfte Level 3 Hurrikan, der da im Hintergrund durch die liebliche Punk Musik ergänzt wird, während man von einem Auto angehupt wird." "Meinst du das Ernst?" "Nein!"
Brits complain about the weather, Germans about the Bahn. 😂 Having lived and worked abroad I often shock my fellow Germans PRAISING the country, the people, nature, my work, Deutsche Bahn or so. People can barely deal with that. And when I say that I am a free woman living in a free country and that NONE of my female predecessors has EVER been able to live like me, people fall silent and start thinking, and they consent after a few minutes. ❤
Living in Germany for 2 years I can confirm.. Deutsche Bahn is a different kind of beast. Even worse than my own country's public transport which was shocking for me. But if I look past that I'm happy overall in Germany. I think complaining is a kind of small talk in Germany compared to talking about the weather
I live in Croatia and mostly say good things about the country, because I take it at face value from my own experiences. People point out issues like corrupt politicians but they are probably more tuned in to that sort of thing. They are probably no worse than the current mob running UK anyway.
the bahn is a serious issue for those who rely on it at all times. and yea when you're used to living in the UK, or the US where public transport is barely functional it might seem uncalled for, but when you look at countries like japan, where public transport works so well that a ten minute delay will make national news, that helps put things in perspective. the trains ought to run on time. i for example got stranded on a tiny train station with no indoor area, at -17°C, because the train i arrived on was delayed and the train i had to switch to was already gone and it was the last one for that day. so i had the choice between A: roughing it on a bench at -17° and freezing to death, or B: take a detour i hadn't budgeted for, to get close to a friend i met online who happened to live close enough that i could still get there, so i could crash at his place. also relying on the bahn for your daily commute you loose hours of your life every week because trains seem to be deliberately scheduled so that you either arrive five minutes too late, or an hour early.
On the other hand, according to my daughter who married a German and lived in Munich for a few years, the busses are painfully punctual! She was always missing her bus, since she expected it to be a few minutes late from her experience in San Francisco... 😂
Regarding the German station clock. German station clocks run slightly fast and arrive at 59 seconds past each minute slightly early. They have radio receivers in them tuned to a long wave radio station called DCF77 … the clocks wait at 59 seconds past each minute until a prompt arrives from DCF77 telling them to move onto the next minute. In this way you can be certain the clock on a German railway station platform is accurate as they are corrected every minute. Time counts!
"Früher war alles besser" is also something you often hear from old people because they do not consider that it is them who changed, their body makes things harder, they had an easier time learning things when they were young than now, when they are old,... So they attribute less enjoyment of certain parts of life to the outside world when it is really them who changed.
We complain to signal that we’re not up to full working mode to the listener - thus implying that, were we not the victim of whatever we’re currently whining about, we would perform much better. Whatever we’re performing at.
Hey, an interesting insight! But not in regard to this video - I hope you know the bicycle route along the Main river, from Frankfurt to Aschaffenburg and beyond? It's amazing to ride given some sunshine, and because it's following the river it's flat, so you can ride very far without being tired.
Hey yes I do. Actually I rode to a schaffe burg once about 4 years ago. I was totally finished after that (I don’t have an E-bike). I think going to Selig Stadt is fine. That I would do in a day. I also went the way way to Mainz…also pretty heftig 😉
I like your observations and reflections. Some things I don't even find specific to Germany, but rather a general theme. For example: "Früher war alles besser." (Everything was better in the past). This has so many backgrounds, why it seems to us that everything was better in the past. On the one hand, after a certain time, we forget about things that were bad. The pain fades away. Therefore one remembers only the positive. This can be, for example, the working conditions - they were mostly physically heavier in the past. But you were younger and could cope with them better. Or let's take the example of the news. In my youth (far before the times of the Internet) you usually got news two or three times a day. In the morning on the radio, maybe a bit later in the newspaper and in the evening in the TV news. Thus the topics were limited to either large international or national topics or it concerned topics, which one had in its personal surrounding field or community. These were then discussed with work colleagues during a break or with family or friends after work. Other information, as what happened for example in another state, you often did not get and you have not dealt with it or was distracted by it. Nowadays this is totally different due to the variety of media and the amount you are about to consume. Every minute, breaking news is coming in and the broadcasters are spreading it with more and more shock potential in order to get your attention. This leads to an information overload and it is difficult to escape from it if you do not actively isolate yourself to a certain extent. Thus one has then the impression that nowadays much more bad things happen although it is rather in such a way that one did not notice this in former times only. On the other hand, one is then also mentally distracted by the things and can have difficulties to focus on what one actually intends to do. Finally, it is the mental stress that one currently has and one longs for "the good old days back", where one was not exposed to a stress level to this extent.
A reason for train delays are oftentimes occurring suicides on the tracks. Deutsche Bahn just doesn’t communicate it, and people think it’s the management‘s fault.
I agree. Once I was travelling on an ICE train to Munich and at a small station where the train went through at full speed a guy jumped onto the tracks. It took several hundred meters for the train to stop, there was some kind of "code" announcement and the crew went into emergency mode. They removed a ceiling panel and got out a ladder and some medical kit and got off the train. After a short time, there was an announcement about an accident. Within a few minutes an ambulance arrived and took away the jumper. We had to wait an hour before the train started again because regulations required that the driver is replaced and it took that long until the new driver arrived. One of the crew told us that the guy lost both his legs but was alive when the ambulance took him away, the doctor gave 50% chance of survival. Ever since then if I see a one-hour delay on the board I immediately think that it was probably caused by a suicide.
Good morning dear brit, another way to start a conversation is to tell a little Story about what makes you smile or laugh today. A funny Episode. Then the other guys often join in and soon everybody is in a happy mood. 😊
When I was in planning to move here from Canada a French colleague told me that when in first came to Canada he could only see positives things about the country compared to France and after A couple of years he started falling in the mold and began complaining about the roads, lack of quality public transport and so on. He told me that I would most likely have the same general feelings. He was right. I couldn't fault Germany for anything when I first came here. Everything was better than Canada. After 8 years I can say he was right. I do also complain about Deutsche Bahn 😂 and a few other things. . But in General I'm still very happy on how things are here. I'm not going back.
I am German and moved to the USA 24 years ago. Before that, I had lived in many other countries as well. After moving abroad I realized that Germans complain a LOT. What I never noticed before now really annoys me when I go home to Germany. People complain about Deutsche Bahn. Here in the States where I live, I would love to have Deutsche Bahn or any form of better public transport. Unless you live in a big city like New York there is really no way to live without a car. The last time I was in Germany I missed my connecting train due to a delay. I just went to customer service and they gave me a new connection. To me, that was no big deal, but everyone around me complained and would not shut up about it. Whenever I take the train in Germany now I make an effort to praise the people who work there or thank them for the service they provide. I see their faces light up. One worker said to me "You know, nobody has ever said that to me before." I never before thought of Germans complaining as a cultural characteristic, but after watching your video it does make sense.
My father told me a story he witnessed during his walk to work one day. As he walked over a lengthy bridge he saw a bicycle at the end of the bridge, which was parked in a way, that blocked most of the walkway. There were also 2 people standing and complaining to one another about the person who parked their bike like this. When my father approached he asked them: "What, did somebody block the walkway with their bike?" Those other 2 persons answered yes and were about to start ranting again, when my father said: "Why don't you just put it to the side then?" And put the bike to the side. If complaining is an end in itself it doesn't improve anything. We germans often complain just to complain. If there are actions to be taken it's better to take actions. If there aren't any actions you can take, why complain? It all boils down to the saying: "Change what you can't accept and accept what you can't change."
Maybe the quality of the products and services in Germany are good precisely because Germans are critical of faults so producers and providers are aware of the fault, and can then aim to resolve it.
Hello very observant brit, another good and thoughtful video which I'm looking forward to each Sunday. Do you have a problem with German sarcasm? The "problem" that you have to figure out for yourself if a remark is serious or sarcastic in Germany. We don't use a special "sarcastic" tone. It is one of the things making German Kabarett different from stand-up comedy. Until next sunday!
And when you've finally mastered the German Sarcasm, go to Austria and have your entire view of the language shattered. Though, I think a Brit may even have a slightly easier time there - it is a different balance of formal language versus humorous undertone than German German.
"people having Kreislauf", oh, I love you for that phrase! I mean, we all have Kreislauf (blood circulation); anything else would be incompatible with life as we know it.
I had to smile at your opening comments about the trains. I first came to Germany in 1980 and honstly, you could set your watch to the punctuality of the German railways and the overall efficiency of German culture and life in general. These days and I have to say very unfortunately since the railway networks were privatised it has gone from bad to worse. I will be flying from Düsseldorf on holiday next month and my Daughter will drive there with me and collect me when I return even though I have a free return ticket as part of my holiday deal. The reason is because they are striking and when they are not doing so the railways are so bloody unreliable that anyone who needs to catch a flight would be foolish to use the train.
On a note… I went by train from Düsseldorf to Northern Germany yesterday and am currently going back. Yesterdays delay was 40 minutes initially - somehow I still managed to get my next train, they really hurried up in between. Todays delay is a record of 147 minutes - and it still was the fastest option for me. I am not complaining. Just saying, as it fit today’s subject so well… 😂 I have to add that I am really thankful for the DB App. There were continuous updates so that it was easy to keep track of things while waiting. It’s a real improvement compared to former times. Because back then, trains would be delayed and often not even the DB staff could really tell you what was going on. So there - früher war auch nicht alles besser! 🙃
Thanks for joining in. I agree the app is pretty good. You can even track your progress in real time. I think when there are delays or cancellations the most frustrating things is not knowing what’s going on, so communicating things goes a long way
@@britingermany Definitely. I just left later and could use the time at the station (just another hour) without worrying about where I’d have to go and what to do next. And just 10 minutes ago a friendly staff member came to ask if anyone on the train needed help with anything. She explained to me in detail how I can get my money back via the app because of the delay. No complaints from me… it was unfortunate but by now I am happy to get home at all.
@@britingermany As I missed the connecting train by 2 minutes, I ended up with a complete delay of 168 minutes on a trip that was supposed to take 281… anyway, I arrived. Could have been worse.
I am one of the few Germans who hate, no, just dislike the complaining attitude of so many folks! I find that it can actually drag the mood down a lot. When I was in my twenties, I met a lot of people in my age group who wanted to live in a different country because they honestly thought Germany was so bad. Well, what can I say: they went - and apart from a very few of them, they came back and stayed here.
I think what makes Germany difficult to leave and easy to come back to, once you've been here, is the predictability. It is a very, predictable, stable nation in so many ways. And long term this is attractive, especially as one gets older. When you're younger, you want things to change every once in a while, you don't want to have to stay in the same place or do the same thing for five , ten, fifteen years, but as you get older , you start to appreciate it.
Aaaaaaarno! Gut gesagt! Habe beschlossen, dass einer von uns drei Musketieren in den Mai tanzen muss. Ben und ich sind glaub ich raus... das heißt Du musst!
Complaining is just something that is done without really thinking of to or being too emotionally engaged. In Berlin there is a saying wich is used instead of praising something that goes "Da kann man nicht meckern." The you can't complain. "Das war doch ein gutes Konzert." "Ja, da kann man nicht meckern."
I’m not German but live in Germany. I do complain about DB. I have never had a smooth ride. So I don’t use them for important journeys. 😂 Two years ago, my child had a serious accident needing an ambulance, surgery and hospital stay. I thanked each nurse who came into direct contact with my son. I also asked what I could/should do to help my son and them. They were all über shocked and gave my son extra nice treatment. I again thanked them personally when he was discharged, of course also donating to their Kasse. Also in an expat forum I frequent, they all complain saying customer service here is dead. I reply, were you kind, accommodating, humble and flexible in return? In other words, you get what you give! 😉
I can't understand people complain about Deutsche Bahn, I spent a week in Hamburg at the start of April this year and being able to get around the city by train was fantastic. Have been to London a few times and trying to get around that city was good but no where near as good as Hamburg. The trains are so much cleaner, I never had to stand for more than a stop or two and they where always on time and very regular too. I live in Belfast and Northern Ireland has the most useless train server I've ever used, it doesn't really cover the country and there are major towns and citys that don't have a rail line, so we end up using buses that go along small country lanes I guess it is all about perspective
The clue is in "get around the city" - that's local transport, and is the responsibility of the municipality, so it varies in quality. The main topic of German complaining is the Deutsche Bahn. In December 2022 they published a statistic on how many of the DB trains had arrived on time, on time being defined as "less than 17 minutes late". It was 66%.
"Manchmal muss man sich selber loben" : maybe because German usually do not praise. Especially at work. Not beeing reprimanded seems to be enough praise as even criticism is deemed positive. We do love our "konstruktive Kritik" which implies that you´ve done great, but there is always a way to improve. Maybe driven by our perfectionism? Complaining: it seems that people bond easier over things they dislike even hate than positive feelings. In my experience not specific to Germans more to humans in general with local differences in expressing it. My only explanation is that it is a relict from ancient times, when it was necessary for surviving to bond together when you have to fight against something, but not necessary for survival to "be happy and have fun". German sarcasm and humor: maybe you would enjoy Volker Pisper´s political satire. Ever seen it? Again a thought-provoking video. Thank you and I hope you will enjoy FFM on this beautiful long weekend.
Great comment and explanation 👍🏻 I’d heard that Germans don’t usually get much praise from their own teachers or bosses, so that saying makes a lot more sense, quite sad but in a way also not. It makes you tougher/independent and rely on yourself and your own inner thoughts as to if you’d truly done a good job or not. Not always hanging off or waiting for the praise of others to continue is a valuable personal skill.
@@undeadwerewolves9463 It depends. There is as much a chance to spoil your children and weaken them by praising them to much and handing out participation trophies as it is to destroy your childs self-confidence by never praising and only criticizing. It is a fine line.
3:42 nope no life threatening problems .. but involuntarily stuck and HAD to sleep in an ICE with summer clothes .. froze my ass off and all in all was about 9hours late with a trip that was ment to be 5hours
Thank you so much for, as always, a very interesting insight into living in Germany, but please believe me, in England at the moment anyone who refers to things being better in the past isn't indulging in a romantic view of something that never existed. It is sheer Hell here in England at the moment! Not only with rail strikes but doctors, nurses, and what seems to be the majority of our once world renowned NHS on strike. It is absolutely terrifying. And paying for private treatment doesn't necessarily work. You may find yourself worse than before, or discover the operation you need is totally beyond your means. It really is frightening at the moment and whilst I'm sure Germany has problems too, we seem to be in a dreadfully worrying situation in England.
Ok. Where are you living in the U.K. if you don’t mind my asking? I always hear sicher mixed things about the NHS. Maybe it depends on the particular ward/department which you have to deal with
@@britingermany I live in central London, but the situation appears to be pretty general. Bear in mind that the NHS has been starved of money for many years, and had to cope with the pandemic. The government asked us all to bang saucepans on Thursday evenings to show our appreciation, and we did, but nothing was done financially to rectify the financial situation, since then, which has caused staff to leave the NHS in droves. It is terribly underfunded, and now under-staffed. I don't have as much sympathy with the rail workers, but I really am frightened to death by the fact that we may be seeing the end of the NHS. Everybody I know, myself included, is having to pay for private treatment, but when it comes to operations that isn't always possible, because you're talking about thousands of pounds. People are now waiting years for hip operations, for instance, despite being in agony. And at the moment even critical cancer care is on hold in some hospitals.
@@alidabaxter5849 Richard Tice stated in an interview: Brexit was about stripping down all regulations (protection of labourship, environment, banking etc) and to convert the NHS into a private health system US style. From the Brexiteers point of view Brexit is a full success so far, I'm sorry for you all over there which didn't want this, for the others not. All the best to you with greetings from Germany
@@saba1030 Thank you so much for your good wishes - I need them! In London the majority of us did not vote for Brexit, and dreaded what would happen. I cannot understand how people could have been so stupid as to wish for the chaos that resulted, and what has happened regarding the NHS is only a part of it. With the most terrifying things happening in the world, we need to be part of a united Europe. And of course now the clock cannot be turned back. It is so depressing; originally the NHS was a miraculous achievement, and of course we wanted to join what was at the time called the European Union.
sometimes i think yopu dhould do ausio books you really have a calming voice and funny fact... most grown ups use audio books aside from listening during driving ... to listen to them to goto sleep easyer you may could get rich :) greetings from aschaffenburg
@@britingermany youre still in the uk? enjoy your holiday , already looking for the next video i just hope you have similar foods weather over there than we got ...FINUALLY here but it seems like its holding and germany seems to be officially in springtime..was really time :)
Hallo dear Brit - as always thank you for your thoughtful post. As far as I can see, an important (maybe subconscious) reason for all the complaining is to show that you are not so stupid as not to see all the shortcomings of the world around you, a sort of pseudointellectual snobism. Not sure if that was always the case or if it started in the wake of starting to deal with Nazism in the 60ies. At least, I remember (born in 1964) it seemed to be typical Nazism (or any other kind of -ism) to be happy about anything (your country, your culture...). By complaining about things you show your inner distance and critical thinking. Also you are quite right about the connection between complaining and starting to improve things. It makes sense, because being annoyed by something tends to make you get off your ass and do something - which you wouldn't if you choose to just get along with it and don't mind. I always think the Suebians are 'Germany's Germans' in the sense they exhibit the typical traits up to a T. In my experience they are the most complaining of the lot (consewuently a lot of movements against something (from Pietismus up to Antivaccination) stem from there. But they are also known for their efficiency and inventions, because they grumble and grumble and then sit down to come up with something better!
I couldn't agree more! The Suebians are playing in the champions league of complaining, which is kind of funny if you understand the Suebian expressions they are using. Another point is that in Germany, you take the good things for granted, so why praise them? In Suebian: "Nicht geschimpft ist gelobt genug" (it's enough praise if you don't complain). Also it is viewed as modesty if you don't praise. People are ashamed, if you praise them and it is overbearing if you praise your own work. Therefore it is much easier to complain about things which obviously don't work well.Which really pisses me off (as a German).
Very interesting, thanks a lot for sharing. I did actually mention something similar…but decided to cut it out in the end so it didn’t make the Final Cut. 😉
I'm watching this video on an ICE train that's currently 27 minutes late 😂 But I'm on vacation and I don't need to catch any connecting trains, do it doesn't bother me too much.
I am comuting by DB and allwasys praise them. Are they late sometimes- yes Are strikes annoying-yes But going by car would be much more inconvenient and expensive. I think DB is doing their best with what they have and you only feel more annoyed if something happens and you have no means to change that. By driving you car you have a false perseption of power over the situation, but actually you don’t.
in the build up i already know that topic for shitting on would be deutsche bahn. ^^ daily annoyances are a weak form of"suffering" (sufferings is shared between all humans) and are light enough topic to talk with strangers.
Is this video a complaint ? 😜 I've learned if something has the power to upset me more than two minutes, the problem is more often on my behalf. Not always easy but helps a lot. 😎
To understand the problem with the Bahn you have to commute to work. The long range trains run on another schedule than the Regionalbahn and the IC and ICE always have the rights of way. This is due to a decision to not integrate the both systems and push the money making "Fernverkehr" at the expense of the Regionalbahn that is used and needed by comuters
Having a critical attitude towards complaining too much is Allright. However - there is complaining and complaining. Sometimes absolutely justified but then just nagging about nothing. But even when justified I would advise "Would it be terribly difficult for you not to be so boring while complaining?"
I’m a German living in down under for 15+ years and I can confirm, that there is complaining for the sake of it and there is german complaining with a purpose, that almost always ends in improvement.
I’m American and have lived in Germany for 20 years. I feel this push from Germans about conformity. I have heard a lot, we don’t do it that way or we’ve always done it this way. Next time I response will be Maybe you should try it. I understand respecting their culture when in public. My sister-in-law was over and I wanted to have coffee at 11 and she said we don’t drink coffee now. I said so what! To me, I will do things in my personal life as I want as long as it doesn’t affect others. I’m not in public expecting people to conform to me. Oh yeah, there’s another, I know in the states, and I think Britts do it too, couples sleep under one large blanket. Each person has their own individual blanket. In my house, I use one large blanket.
A funny story. Some Swiss friends were travelling to Germany on the Swiss railway. They were sharing a carriage with a group of German men when an announcement came over the train's intercom. "Due to a problem on the tracks, this train has been delayed, for two minutes. We apologise for any inconvenience". At this point, the Germans burst into laughter and amazement. As a Brit, hearing this story made me think about the situation with the railways in my own country.
I've lived that story. More than an hour's delay on the German train, so it was given up by the Swiss SBB and everyone had to change trains in Basel. Then the Swiss train had a four minute delay in leaving the station and apologised, a cause for some hilarity amongst the German travellers. Mind you, the train got to its next station on time, they apologised for *leaving* late.
Really digging these cross cultural viewpoint series of videos you're doing, where you're talking about some of the subtleties of coming to terms with the local culture and trying to understand it. It's something I think about all the time! Before I moved to Germany, I always thought as a Canadian that we always complained a lot. But no, I think Germans are the world champions in this regard! What is amazing to me in Germany is the diversity of topics that Germans are able to complain about. Things that had never even occurred to me that one could be bothered by or complain about. A perfect example for me was one time when I was speaking to one of my older German neighbours. I was just making friendly chit chat, asking her about her day and what she was planning on doing during the day and such. She said she was going to have coffee with one of her friends who was going to come over. Then she started complaining about how that might not go so well because across the courtyard in our apartment block, some of our neighbours hang their laundry from their balconies instead of on the laundry line in the middle of the courtyard. And she was very much implying that the main problem was because they were "Arabic" or just basically immigrants. I very much failed to see how this might disrupt her nice afternoon of having coffee with her friend. Plus, as a working person who doesn't really have much time to notice things like this (let alone be bothered by it), my reply was simply "I don't even have enough time to worry about such things and didn't realise this could be something so bothersome so as to talk about". She shut up right away after that, when she realised that I as a hard working Canadian immigrant to Germany myself, had very little sympathy for her concerns. 😂 What I realised bit by bit after that is that a lot of Germans complain to vent, while us Canadians tend to complain to connect with each other through small talk. We almost never take seriously the things we complain about, it's meant to be more light hearted than serious. But as you said, Germans are quite sincere about their complaints and their complaints really bother them on what seems to be on a soul level. But I simply don't understand many of these complaints to be quite honest. I rather see them as "Jammern auf hohem Niveau", as the Germans describe it themselves 🤣
You should propperly take the age into account who is complaining. If elderlies complain, this can be because of slightly degenerated ability to think propperly, not because of any sort of dementia but a typically reduced complexity of thinking SOME elderlies have, especially if they had a boring life and many with a boring life piled up a lot of hidden deep frustrations, especially women who never did in their life what they really would have loved to do. My grandmother was also such a constant-complainer, also against minor problems with neighbours, but behind this was that she had never come to terms with traumas from war and a lot of unfairness that had come along with this. Elderlies never had support for mental issues like young people now maybe get, so their frustrations or even traumas transfered during their life into weird and maybe weird-complaining attitudes
That’s an interesting point about complaining to connect…although I think “misery loves company” is quite fitting in Germany as well the U.K. and Canada
@@nnjmbjl5415 this is definitely a good point about older people in general! Don't take my one anecdote as representative of all my experience with German complaining however - I've had plenty of other experiences in Germany that come from people of all ages, where they're simply complaining things I simply can't comprehend what there is to complain about.
I am a German who has lived nearly 20 years in England (Brexit made me leave) and I could not agree more! This complaining about all sorts of things is exasperating. I make it my job to remind this whiners how lucky they are.😄
Don't come to me complaining about Deutsche Bahn. I'm what we call "Pufferküsser" or "Nietenzähler", and I'll rip you a new one if you try. Specifically because Deutsche Bahn is one of the most reliable and best passenger transport I've experienced, second only to Japan Railways.
Especially in Germany there is no reason at all to say, well, everything was better in the past, what was better, the First World War, the economic crisis, the Second World War, the division of Germany, the losses of Königsberg, Pomerania and Silesia and the expulsion and flight , the blood sticking to many hands who followed a brutal regime unconditionally without thinking, all the Nazis came back to their posts when the Federal Republic of Germany was founded, so Germany still has problems in many areas, most of them are was only addressed with reunification, from then on Germany made the biggest leaps. We Germans have always been very enthusiastic about technology and unfortunately that is a bit lost and the German railways are unfortunately a symbol of this and are now reminding us of this loss.
Germans and cultural diversity are miles apart. When a youngster I had a German girlfriend Bettina, beautiful blonde and I do mean beautiful I was erm 17 she was 20 (something) and we had a awesome relationship but when it came to real life issues, she was stuck she was lost refused to budge I had a few African "good friends" and she refused to be in their presence below her. Then when I met her father he would always go on about we lost the war we should have won and Europe would be better for it? I studied history I understood the war and what Germany did, as much as have issues as to what we the UK did to Germany. He would always claim, we are brothers we are the same we share the same blood as in our royal family were German !! He hated the French with a vengeance something to do with history Napoleon perhaps? I never understood, but when it came to the Brits we defeated him we had something to unite us. Thing is I understood the Germans have a warped mind believe their better than everyone else above everyone else. I am no racist I try and respect everyone but when it comes to Germans? EU? The 4th Reich? Germans care about one thing and one thing only MONEY yet when it came down to it Russia and Putin bought them, corrupted
Hm? What is about to "get your train in time"? "Die Pünktlichkeit der deutschen Bahn" - a old and dirty myth. There is no professionality in the DB-Concern. At least not for "not money".... Hamburg - München ICE 189 € and over 7 hours.....wow...thanks... I take my car, thanks again.
"Deustche Bahn. Genießen sie ihr Leben. In vollen Zügen." Deutsche Bahn. Live your life to the fullest. Fullest train that is." Besonders interressant wird es, wenn Schwaben (Motto "Nix gesagt ist gelobt genug") auf Amerikaner in etwas geringerm Maße auch bei Briten (Motto "Be polite but don't mean it") treffen. Besonders wenn es eine Stressituation ist, bei der etwas funktionieren muss. Ich denke für Amerikaner und in gewissen Maß auch Briten ist Schimpfen (nicht Lästern) oder noch schlimmer Fluchen etwas Unhöfliches, das eigentlich nur ungebildete Flegel machen. Diese Idee gibt es zwar auch in Deustchland, sie ist aber wesentlich weniger ausgeprägt. Ich glaube der Unterschied kommt von der Idee, dass das Verhalten von Menschen durch Sprache beeinflusst werden. Jemand der gewisse Sachen (zBsp. Scheisse) nicht sagt, verhält sich "gut". Deswegen wird zum Beispiel Fluchen vor kleinen Kindern als "Böse" angesehen. Demenstprechend steigt hier der Stress. Im Gegensatz dazu steht beim Deutschen die momentane Sitation im Vordergrund. Man löst gerade ein Problem. Es funktioniert nicht so wie es soll und man lässt seinen Unmut raus (Die Scheiße funktioniert nicht). Mit dieser Maßnahme sinkt der Stress und Deustche können sich besser auf das Problem konzentrieren. Der kulturelle Austausch ist .... interessant. So steigt bei Amerikanern und in geringerem Maße auch bei Briten der Stresslevel (der aus der "Unhöflichkeit" ensteht), während der Deutsche fluchend weiterarbeitet. Regarding the point "selbst Loben". There are two main aspects I see here. First one you alreday explained. Who else will show your merits than you? There is another saying which only encapsulates this aspect. "Klappern gehört zum Handwerk" which can be roughly translated to "Rattle (as in being loud about your merits) is part of the craft". The other aspect is about being positive to yourself. You have done something and it was good. So don't be harsh on yourself.
Brits use exaggerated understatement to signify the opposite meaning. Something that's "not entirely satisfactory" is actually really really bad. "I suspect you're perhaps being a little less than completely straightforward" means "You're a damned liar." It's a face-saving device that allows strong meaning to be communicated without being directly provocative. I've seen it used and understood by the Irish, Aussies, Kiwis and sometimes Caribbeans. But Yanks, Canadians and Saffers take it literally and miss the subtext. The Germans - whose subtlety and interpersonal finesse aren't conspicuously foremost among their virtues - definitely don't get it. Ironic, because as a literary device, exaggerated understatement has its origins in Old Saxon. It survived in English but fell out of use in German.
It often depends on how intellectual people are, you‘re dealing with. It‘s not without reason that the >Hitchhiker‘s Guide to the Galaxy< or the Monty Pythons were such a success among intellectuals here. - But I agree, that in absolute figures average Germans, are less skilled in subtle humor. The younger generations often also don’t have a notion or lack the background to get jokes on a higher level.
You mentioned memories and rose tinted glasses and I do agree with you about this. However, this is not always the case as I just described about the trains. I was a soldier here and could not speak any German but one thing we did do was we all used to laugh about British Rail and how bloody awful it was not only because it WAS BLOODY AWFUL but because we could compare it to the Bundesbahn (German Rail). This is fact, not just nostalgic memories. We could also drive our cars, ride our motorbikes as fast as we liked on the Autobahn network. Gradually over many years bit by bit they have put restrictions on this to the point that it is no longer the free Autobahn that I used then compared to now.
The intro was there to lull you in gently with lots of caveats so as to avoid the “Go Home comments” which usually come with this kind of topic 🤣…so far I haven’t got one yet
@@britingermany A good intro states the thesis as soon as possible and then goes on to back it up with more details later. It's just annoying that a large number of RUclipsrs think that an intro is about not giving away any information too soon. Thanks for the response, I don't mean to target you personally, it's just a pet peeve of mine that I run into quite frequently.
Can you and all the other English people on RUclips stop going on about "Brit" and "British". You all call yourselves Brits or British. You all talk about your things being "British". But all you ever talk about is English things. Just say English. You don't speak for Scottish people and what you say never seems to have any relation to how Scottish people act, talk or behave. I spent seven years in Scotland. Being a foreigner I had simply not had the chance to question what all you "Brits" claimed to be true. On the first day in Edinburgh I discovered it was a all lies. Even if you never admit to it or don't even know it , all your talk of "British" is a lie. There is no such nation. Just a government that controls multiple countries. For the moment. On top of all this, how can you make any comments on the culture of another country when your own culture denies the existence of others or speaks as if they have no legitimate right to exist.
I’m guessing you did t watch the video but on the off HSBC’s that you did It would be helpful if you could give me some examples as to what I’ve said that is anti Scottish/Welsh/Irish…do you think the Scottish don’t use irony or sarcasm? Where there no strikes in Scotland when you were living there?
das ist so ein Kanal, der Videos bringt wie heute, wo ich so sehr Lust bekomme, mich mit dem RUclipsr für Stunden in ein Café zu setzen und über all diese Sachen zu reden und zu philosophieren.
By the way, complaining in a more funny or sarcastic way like in the UK exists in Germany too,
but this is usually done more in certain regions and often with strong dialect like Bayrisch, cause with the dialects you can express irony etc. often much better than in Hochdeutsch.
So Bavarians are for me the masters of complaining in a humorous way... if you understand the hidden hints in the weird phrases, what is very difficult. Many other Germans don't understand the irony and therefore call Bavarians arrogant 😂
Thanks a lot a great point about the Bavarians…I struggle to understand them 😉
True. Standard German (Hochdeutsch) is kind of averse to banter, irony etc
@@rainerm.8168 Hochdeutsch kann sehr ironisch sein. Besonders Corpo Deutsch is up to the task. Es gibt auch Sätze wie "Das hast du wieder toll hinbekommen." die auschließlich ironisch verwendet werden.
Bei Ironie wird der Witz nicht ausgesprochen sondern impliziert. Damit braucht man einen gemeinsamen Wissen. Das kann kulturell sein, muss es aber nicht.
Beispiel: Es hallt ein lautes Schreien durch den Flur.
Wenn nach 5 Minuten ein anderer Kollege ins Büro kommt, wird mit den Worten "Herr XXX hat mal wieder gute Laune." impliziert, dass der Kollege Bescheid weiß. Obwohl er noch nicht mal den Schrei gehört haben muss. Aber der Kollege kennt das Temperament von Herrn XXX.
Ironie ist auch eine Typfrage. Es gibt Menschen, die nocht nicht mal aus der Haustür raus gehen können ohne Ironie ("Was für ein wunderschöner Tag."). Während anderer erst mit einem Holzhammer oder blanken Sarkasmus darauf hingewiesen werden müssen.
"Was für ein wunderschöner Morgen. Dieser sanfte Level 3 Hurrikan, der da im Hintergrund durch die liebliche Punk Musik ergänzt wird, während man von einem Auto angehupt wird."
"Meinst du das Ernst?"
"Nein!"
@@shadowk6496 Very well. I suppose you could even express irony in Klingon.
Brits complain about the weather, Germans about the Bahn. 😂
Having lived and worked abroad I often shock my fellow Germans PRAISING the country, the people, nature, my work, Deutsche Bahn or so. People can barely deal with that. And when I say that I am a free woman living in a free country and that NONE of my female predecessors has EVER been able to live like me, people fall silent and start thinking, and they consent after a few minutes. ❤
Haha. Good on you! I bet you get a few funny looks though 😉
That's a really good point I'm trying to make myself from time to time.
With mixed results 😅
Living in Germany for 2 years I can confirm.. Deutsche Bahn is a different kind of beast. Even worse than my own country's public transport which was shocking for me. But if I look past that I'm happy overall in Germany. I think complaining is a kind of small talk in Germany compared to talking about the weather
I wrote my comment and then I read yours.... präzise ^^
I live in Croatia and mostly say good things about the country, because I take it at face value from my own experiences. People point out issues like corrupt politicians but they are probably more tuned in to that sort of thing. They are probably no worse than the current mob running UK anyway.
the bahn is a serious issue for those who rely on it at all times.
and yea when you're used to living in the UK, or the US where public transport is barely functional it might seem uncalled for, but when you look at countries like japan, where public transport works so well that a ten minute delay will make national news, that helps put things in perspective. the trains ought to run on time.
i for example got stranded on a tiny train station with no indoor area, at -17°C, because the train i arrived on was delayed and the train i had to switch to was already gone and it was the last one for that day.
so i had the choice between A: roughing it on a bench at -17° and freezing to death, or B: take a detour i hadn't budgeted for, to get close to a friend i met online who happened to live close enough that i could still get there, so i could crash at his place.
also relying on the bahn for your daily commute you loose hours of your life every week because trains seem to be deliberately scheduled so that you either arrive five minutes too late, or an hour early.
On the other hand, according to my daughter who married a German and lived in Munich for a few years, the busses are painfully punctual! She was always missing her bus, since she expected it to be a few minutes late from her experience in San Francisco... 😂
I like your observations and your ability to communicate. Schönen Sonntag noch😊
Vielen Dank und gleichfalls. Wird herrlich warm sein heute 🌞
Regarding the German station clock. German station clocks run slightly fast and arrive at 59 seconds past each minute slightly early. They have radio receivers in them tuned to a long wave radio station called DCF77 … the clocks wait at 59 seconds past each minute until a prompt arrives from DCF77 telling them to move onto the next minute. In this way you can be certain the clock on a German railway station platform is accurate as they are corrected every minute. Time counts!
Ok thanks for sharing. Wasn’t aware of that precision
@@britingermany watch the station clocks see them pause at 59” past each minute!
Thanks for sharing!
"Früher war alles besser" is also something you often hear from old people because they do not consider that it is them who changed, their body makes things harder, they had an easier time learning things when they were young than now, when they are old,... So they attribute less enjoyment of certain parts of life to the outside world when it is really them who changed.
Yeah I can understand that. Getting old is not that fun 🤣
@@britingermany You do know the famous "Alt werden ist nichts für Feiglinge"?
@@rainerm.8168 oh yes!
It was better because there were no immigrants from arabic states muslim shitty countries
Ich glaube du Recht hast
If nothing else, you have helped one guy on this planet. Seriously, take that as a thanks.
I certainly will do😀
We complain to signal that we’re not up to full working mode to the listener - thus implying that, were we not the victim of whatever we’re currently whining about, we would perform much better. Whatever we’re performing at.
Ahhhh good point! 😉😀thanks Stephanie. Have a great Sunday
your explanation fits the German character so well. I take it as the main reason that they complain.
Hey, an interesting insight! But not in regard to this video - I hope you know the bicycle route along the Main river, from Frankfurt to Aschaffenburg and beyond? It's amazing to ride given some sunshine, and because it's following the river it's flat, so you can ride very far without being tired.
Hey yes I do. Actually I rode to a schaffe burg once about 4 years ago. I was totally finished after that (I don’t have an E-bike). I think going to Selig Stadt is fine. That I would do in a day. I also went the way way to Mainz…also pretty heftig 😉
I like your observations and reflections. Some things I don't even find specific to Germany, but rather a general theme. For example: "Früher war alles besser." (Everything was better in the past). This has so many backgrounds, why it seems to us that everything was better in the past. On the one hand, after a certain time, we forget about things that were bad. The pain fades away. Therefore one remembers only the positive. This can be, for example, the working conditions - they were mostly physically heavier in the past. But you were younger and could cope with them better.
Or let's take the example of the news. In my youth (far before the times of the Internet) you usually got news two or three times a day. In the morning on the radio, maybe a bit later in the newspaper and in the evening in the TV news. Thus the topics were limited to either large international or national topics or it concerned topics, which one had in its personal surrounding field or community. These were then discussed with work colleagues during a break or with family or friends after work. Other information, as what happened for example in another state, you often did not get and you have not dealt with it or was distracted by it.
Nowadays this is totally different due to the variety of media and the amount you are about to consume. Every minute, breaking news is coming in and the broadcasters are spreading it with more and more shock potential in order to get your attention. This leads to an information overload and it is difficult to escape from it if you do not actively isolate yourself to a certain extent. Thus one has then the impression that nowadays much more bad things happen although it is rather in such a way that one did not notice this in former times only. On the other hand, one is then also mentally distracted by the things and can have difficulties to focus on what one actually intends to do. Finally, it is the mental stress that one currently has and one longs for "the good old days back", where one was not exposed to a stress level to this extent.
Totally! I do enjoy talking to my parents generation. It was in many ways a different era back then. How the world has changed
A reason for train delays are oftentimes occurring suicides on the tracks. Deutsche Bahn just doesn’t communicate it, and people think it’s the management‘s fault.
That’s tragic!
I agree. Once I was travelling on an ICE train to Munich and at a small station where the train went through at full speed a guy jumped onto the tracks. It took several hundred meters for the train to stop, there was some kind of "code" announcement and the crew went into emergency mode. They removed a ceiling panel and got out a ladder and some medical kit and got off the train. After a short time, there was an announcement about an accident. Within a few minutes an ambulance arrived and took away the jumper. We had to wait an hour before the train started again because regulations required that the driver is replaced and it took that long until the new driver arrived. One of the crew told us that the guy lost both his legs but was alive when the ambulance took him away, the doctor gave 50% chance of survival. Ever since then if I see a one-hour delay on the board I immediately think that it was probably caused by a suicide.
Traurige Sache, das.
Danke für Deinen Beitrag.
This also happens in Japan a lot😢
Here in Chicago we have an extensive commuter train system and unfortunately quite a lot suicides involving trains.
Good morning dear brit, another way to start a conversation is to tell a little Story about what makes you smile or laugh today. A funny Episode. Then the other guys often join in and soon everybody is in a happy mood. 😊
that's what I do usually, or just making a joke
Also a good way to do it 😀
When I was in planning to move here from Canada a French colleague told me that when in first came to Canada he could only see positives things about the country compared to France and after A couple of years he started falling in the mold and began complaining about the roads, lack of quality public transport and so on. He told me that I would most likely have the same general feelings. He was right. I couldn't fault Germany for anything when I first came here. Everything was better than Canada. After 8 years I can say he was right. I do also complain about Deutsche Bahn 😂 and a few other things. . But in General I'm still very happy on how things are here. I'm not going back.
I am German and moved to the USA 24 years ago. Before that, I had lived in many other countries as well. After moving abroad I realized that Germans complain a LOT. What I never noticed before now really annoys me when I go home to Germany. People complain about Deutsche Bahn. Here in the States where I live, I would love to have Deutsche Bahn or any form of better public transport. Unless you live in a big city like New York there is really no way to live without a car. The last time I was in Germany I missed my connecting train due to a delay. I just went to customer service and they gave me a new connection. To me, that was no big deal, but everyone around me complained and would not shut up about it. Whenever I take the train in Germany now I make an effort to praise the people who work there or thank them for the service they provide. I see their faces light up. One worker said to me "You know, nobody has ever said that to me before." I never before thought of Germans complaining as a cultural characteristic, but after watching your video it does make sense.
I think it’s so important to get different perspectives. Like you say it really helps to shine a new light on things. 😀
We complain the most bc OF THE FUCKKING MUSLIM REFUGEES HERE
complaints are the root of improvement.
My father told me a story he witnessed during his walk to work one day.
As he walked over a lengthy bridge he saw a bicycle at the end of the bridge, which was parked in a way, that blocked most of the walkway. There were also 2 people standing and complaining to one another about the person who parked their bike like this.
When my father approached he asked them: "What, did somebody block the walkway with their bike?" Those other 2 persons answered yes and were about to start ranting again, when my father said: "Why don't you just put it to the side then?" And put the bike to the side.
If complaining is an end in itself it doesn't improve anything. We germans often complain just to complain. If there are actions to be taken it's better to take actions. If there aren't any actions you can take, why complain?
It all boils down to the saying: "Change what you can't accept and accept what you can't change."
Maybe the quality of the products and services in Germany are good precisely because Germans are critical of faults so producers and providers are aware of the fault, and can then aim to resolve it.
Hello very observant brit,
another good and thoughtful video which I'm looking forward to each Sunday.
Do you have a problem with German sarcasm?
The "problem" that you have to figure out for yourself if a remark is serious or sarcastic in Germany. We don't use a special "sarcastic" tone.
It is one of the things making German Kabarett different from stand-up comedy.
Until next sunday!
Hello there. A very happy Sunday to you…I think humour is one of the most difficult things to master in a foreign language. I’m still working on it 😉
And when you've finally mastered the German Sarcasm, go to Austria and have your entire view of the language shattered. Though, I think a Brit may even have a slightly easier time there - it is a different balance of formal language versus humorous undertone than German German.
In Australia our trains often don't run on time or don't run at all, but they have drinking water dispensers !
"people having Kreislauf", oh, I love you for that phrase! I mean, we all have Kreislauf (blood circulation); anything else would be incompatible with life as we know it.
🤣🤣 I know…similar to “ich hab Rücken”
@@britingermany "Isch hab Zug"
I had to smile at your opening comments about the trains. I first came to Germany in 1980 and honstly, you could set your watch to the punctuality of the German railways and the overall efficiency of German culture and life in general. These days and I have to say very unfortunately since the railway networks were privatised it has gone from bad to worse. I will be flying from Düsseldorf on holiday next month and my Daughter will drive there with me and collect me when I return even though I have a free return ticket as part of my holiday deal. The reason is because they are striking and when they are not doing so the railways are so bloody unreliable that anyone who needs to catch a flight would be foolish to use the train.
yes I have heard that they used to be a lot more effecient
On a note…
I went by train from Düsseldorf to Northern Germany yesterday and am currently going back.
Yesterdays delay was 40 minutes initially - somehow I still managed to get my next train, they really hurried up in between.
Todays delay is a record of 147 minutes - and it still was the fastest option for me.
I am not complaining. Just saying, as it fit today’s subject so well… 😂
I have to add that I am really thankful for the DB App. There were continuous updates so that it was easy to keep track of things while waiting. It’s a real improvement compared to former times.
Because back then, trains would be delayed and often not even the DB staff could really tell you what was going on.
So there - früher war auch nicht alles besser! 🙃
Thanks for joining in. I agree the app is pretty good. You can even track your progress in real time. I think when there are delays or cancellations the most frustrating things is not knowing what’s going on, so communicating things goes a long way
@@britingermany Definitely.
I just left later and could use the time at the station (just another hour) without worrying about where I’d have to go and what to do next.
And just 10 minutes ago a friendly staff member came to ask if anyone on the train needed help with anything. She explained to me in detail how I can get my money back via the app because of the delay. No complaints from me… it was unfortunate but by now I am happy to get home at all.
@@britingermany As I missed the connecting train by 2 minutes, I ended up with a complete delay of 168 minutes on a trip that was supposed to take 281… anyway, I arrived. Could have been worse.
Great Video as always!
Thanks Nils 😀. Have a lovely Sunday
@@britingermany Thanks, you too!
I am one of the few Germans who hate, no, just dislike the complaining attitude of so many folks! I find that it can actually drag the mood down a lot.
When I was in my twenties, I met a lot of people in my age group who wanted to live in a different country because they honestly thought Germany was so bad. Well, what can I say: they went - and apart from a very few of them, they came back and stayed here.
Sometimes a different perspective really helps you to appreciate what you’ve got…or what you had
I think what makes Germany difficult to leave and easy to come back to, once you've been here, is the predictability. It is a very, predictable, stable nation in so many ways. And long term this is attractive, especially as one gets older. When you're younger, you want things to change every once in a while, you don't want to have to stay in the same place or do the same thing for five , ten, fifteen years, but as you get older , you start to appreciate it.
The funny thing is, you’re basically complaining about the Germans complaining :)
@@germansnowman I was going to say the same thing. Complaining about complainers is also complaining.
Today is the good old days of tomorrow. SCHÖNES LANGES WOCHENENDE
haha, I like that
Exakt! Gleichfalls lieber Arno
Me too 😉
Aaaaaaarno!
Gut gesagt!
Habe beschlossen, dass einer von uns drei Musketieren in den Mai tanzen muss.
Ben und ich sind glaub ich raus... das heißt Du musst!
@@sisuguillam5109 yea! Beweis Bilde please
Complaining is just something that is done without really thinking of to or being too emotionally engaged. In Berlin there is a saying wich is used instead of praising something that goes "Da kann man nicht meckern." The you can't complain. "Das war doch ein gutes Konzert." "Ja, da kann man nicht meckern."
I’m not German but live in Germany. I do complain about DB. I have never had a smooth ride. So I don’t use them for important journeys. 😂
Two years ago, my child had a serious accident needing an ambulance, surgery and hospital stay. I thanked each nurse who came into direct contact with my son. I also asked what I could/should do to help my son and them. They were all über shocked and gave my son extra nice treatment. I again thanked them personally when he was discharged, of course also donating to their Kasse.
Also in an expat forum I frequent, they all complain saying customer service here is dead. I reply, were you kind, accommodating, humble and flexible in return? In other words, you get what you give! 😉
Nice to hear you had a good experience at the hospital. Where are you from?
@@britingermany From the US but I have been here since 1999.
@@calise8783 It's strange you say that you never had a smooth ride. How can that be? Not every train is late.
I can't understand people complain about Deutsche Bahn, I spent a week in Hamburg at the start of April this year and being able to get around the city by train was fantastic. Have been to London a few times and trying to get around that city was good but no where near as good as Hamburg. The trains are so much cleaner, I never had to stand for more than a stop or two and they where always on time and very regular too.
I live in Belfast and Northern Ireland has the most useless train server I've ever used, it doesn't really cover the country and there are major towns and citys that don't have a rail line, so we end up using buses that go along small country lanes
I guess it is all about perspective
Definitely! I think your last sentence says it all 👍🏻
The clue is in "get around the city" - that's local transport, and is the responsibility of the municipality, so it varies in quality.
The main topic of German complaining is the Deutsche Bahn. In December 2022 they published a statistic on how many of the DB trains had arrived on time, on time being defined as "less than 17 minutes late". It was 66%.
You can't use local city transport as a reference. The criticism is about the regional and long-distance trains between cities.
"Manchmal muss man sich selber loben" : maybe because German usually do not praise. Especially at work. Not beeing reprimanded seems to be enough praise as even criticism is deemed positive. We do love our "konstruktive Kritik" which implies that you´ve done great, but there is always a way to improve. Maybe driven by our perfectionism?
Complaining: it seems that people bond easier over things they dislike even hate than positive feelings. In my experience not specific to Germans more to humans in general with local differences in expressing it. My only explanation is that it is a relict from ancient times, when it was necessary for surviving to bond together when you have to fight against something, but not necessary for survival to "be happy and have fun".
German sarcasm and humor: maybe you would enjoy Volker Pisper´s political satire. Ever seen it?
Again a thought-provoking video. Thank you and I hope you will enjoy FFM on this beautiful long weekend.
Great comment and explanation 👍🏻
I’d heard that Germans don’t usually get much praise from their own teachers or bosses, so that saying makes a lot more sense, quite sad but in a way also not. It makes you tougher/independent and rely on yourself and your own inner thoughts as to if you’d truly done a good job or not. Not always hanging off or waiting for the praise of others to continue is a valuable personal skill.
Yeah good point. I think that’s a large cultural difference between the U.K. and Germany
@@undeadwerewolves9463 It depends. There is as much a chance to spoil your children and weaken them by praising them to much and handing out participation trophies as it is to destroy your childs self-confidence by never praising and only criticizing. It is a fine line.
your interpretations makes very good sense, as ever!!
There is a Chinese saying: "memory is a painter with golden colour"
In retrospective many things look nicer.
Very true
3:42 nope no life threatening problems .. but involuntarily stuck and HAD to sleep in an ICE with summer clothes .. froze my ass off and all in all was about 9hours late with a trip that was ment to be 5hours
That’s pretty full on
"...having Kreislauf " made me roll!!!😂
Thank you so much for, as always, a very interesting insight into living in Germany, but please believe me, in England at the moment anyone who refers to things being better in the past isn't indulging in a romantic view of something that never existed. It is sheer Hell here in England at the moment! Not only with rail strikes but doctors, nurses, and what seems to be the majority of our once world renowned NHS on strike. It is absolutely terrifying. And paying for private treatment doesn't necessarily work. You may find yourself worse than before, or discover the operation you need is totally beyond your means. It really is frightening at the moment and whilst I'm sure Germany has problems too, we seem to be in a dreadfully worrying situation in England.
Ok. Where are you living in the U.K. if you don’t mind my asking? I always hear sicher mixed things about the NHS. Maybe it depends on the particular ward/department which you have to deal with
@@britingermany I live in central London, but the situation appears to be pretty general. Bear in mind that the NHS has been starved of money for many years, and had to cope with the pandemic. The government asked us all to bang saucepans on Thursday evenings to show our appreciation, and we did, but nothing was done financially to rectify the financial situation, since then, which has caused staff to leave the NHS in droves. It is terribly underfunded, and now under-staffed. I don't have as much sympathy with the rail workers, but I really am frightened to death by the fact that we may be seeing the end of the NHS. Everybody I know, myself included, is having to pay for private treatment, but when it comes to operations that isn't always possible, because you're talking about thousands of pounds. People are now waiting years for hip operations, for instance, despite being in agony. And at the moment even critical cancer care is on hold in some hospitals.
That's exactly what I read daily in the Times. How could it ever get as bad? Can't be all Brexit.
@@alidabaxter5849
Richard Tice stated in an interview: Brexit was about stripping down all regulations (protection of labourship, environment, banking etc) and to convert the NHS into a private health system US style.
From the Brexiteers point of view Brexit is a full success so far, I'm sorry for you all over there which didn't want this, for the others not.
All the best to you with greetings from Germany
@@saba1030 Thank you so much for your good wishes - I need them! In London the majority of us did not vote for Brexit, and dreaded what would happen. I cannot understand how people could have been so stupid as to wish for the chaos that resulted, and what has happened regarding the NHS is only a part of it. With the most terrifying things happening in the world, we need to be part of a united Europe. And of course now the clock cannot be turned back. It is so depressing; originally the NHS was a miraculous achievement, and of course we wanted to join what was at the time called the European Union.
sometimes i think yopu dhould do ausio books you really have a calming voice and funny fact... most grown ups use audio books aside from listening during driving ... to listen to them to goto sleep easyer you may could get rich :) greetings from aschaffenburg
well wouldn't that be lovely. Thanks a lot Bend
@@britingermany youre still in the uk? enjoy your holiday , already looking for the next video i just hope you have similar foods weather over there than we got ...FINUALLY here but it seems like its holding and germany seems to be officially in springtime..was really time :)
Hallo dear Brit - as always thank you for your thoughtful post. As far as I can see, an important (maybe subconscious) reason for all the complaining is to show that you are not so stupid as not to see all the shortcomings of the world around you, a sort of pseudointellectual snobism. Not sure if that was always the case or if it started in the wake of starting to deal with Nazism in the 60ies. At least, I remember (born in 1964) it seemed to be typical Nazism (or any other kind of -ism) to be happy about anything (your country, your culture...). By complaining about things you show your inner distance and critical thinking.
Also you are quite right about the connection between complaining and starting to improve things. It makes sense, because being annoyed by something tends to make you get off your ass and do something - which you wouldn't if you choose to just get along with it and don't mind. I always think the Suebians are 'Germany's Germans' in the sense they exhibit the typical traits up to a T. In my experience they are the most complaining of the lot (consewuently a lot of movements against something (from Pietismus up to Antivaccination) stem from there. But they are also known for their efficiency and inventions, because they grumble and grumble and then sit down to come up with something better!
I couldn't agree more! The Suebians are playing in the champions league of complaining, which is kind of funny if you understand the Suebian expressions they are using. Another point is that in Germany, you take the good things for granted, so why praise them? In Suebian: "Nicht geschimpft ist gelobt genug" (it's enough praise if you don't complain). Also it is viewed as modesty if you don't praise. People are ashamed, if you praise them and it is overbearing if you praise your own work. Therefore it is much easier to complain about things which obviously don't work well.Which really pisses me off (as a German).
Very interesting, thanks a lot for sharing. I did actually mention something similar…but decided to cut it out in the end so it didn’t make the Final Cut. 😉
Indeed we are taught that "Eigenlob stinkt" at a young age.
Don't debate (complain) - litigate!
I'm watching this video on an ICE train that's currently 27 minutes late 😂 But I'm on vacation and I don't need to catch any connecting trains, do it doesn't bother me too much.
🤣🤣there you go 😉
Showing my local hood in the pictures 💪💪💪
There is only one thing to say: Früher war mehr Lametta!
Loriot😉
@@britingermany You did your homework, allright!
I am comuting by DB and allwasys praise them. Are they late sometimes- yes
Are strikes annoying-yes
But going by car would be much more inconvenient and expensive. I think DB is doing their best with what they have and you only feel more annoyed if something happens and you have no means to change that. By driving you car you have a false perseption of power over the situation, but actually you don’t.
Very true. Plus traveling by train is in my experience much more relaxing
DB is brilliant. I lived in the UK once - enough said? Needed a mortgage to buy a ticket and crap (privatised) service.
in the build up i already know that topic for shitting on would be deutsche bahn. ^^ daily annoyances are a weak form of"suffering" (sufferings is shared between all humans) and are light enough topic to talk with strangers.
Is this video a complaint ? 😜
I've learned if something has the power to upset me more than two minutes, the problem is more often on my behalf.
Not always easy but helps a lot. 😎
Wise words! Wise words 😉
@@britingermany Indeed! Indeed! Best comment of all, including mine.
To understand the problem with the Bahn you have to commute to work. The long range trains run on another schedule than the Regionalbahn and the IC and ICE always have the rights of way.
This is due to a decision to not integrate the both systems and push the money making "Fernverkehr" at the expense of the Regionalbahn that is used and needed by comuters
Fair point 👍🏻
Wann immer ich mich brim jammern erwische: wir leben in Freiheit, in Sicherheit
Hear hear!
Durch meine Arbeit in der flüchtlingshilfe weiss ich zu schätzen was ich habe-gerade als Frau
Having a critical attitude towards complaining too much is Allright. However - there is complaining and complaining. Sometimes absolutely justified but then just nagging about nothing.
But even when justified I would advise "Would it be terribly difficult for you not to be so boring while complaining?"
Right…spice it up a bit, crack a joke
I can’t stop laughing at the DB ads on RUclips- travel without stress! Ha ha… as if 😂
For Fading Affect Bias see the comments on any RUclips video filmed before c1980
The biggest praise you can get is if you get told that they have nothing to complain
I just have to say this; I have a total RUclips crush on you!
Awww Thanks for letting me know 😉
I’m a German living in down under for 15+ years and I can confirm, that there is complaining for the sake of it and there is german complaining with a purpose, that almost always ends in improvement.
Thanks for sharing Steffen
@@britingermany I tell the Aussies, that’s why germans make the best cars 😂🤌
Früher war alles besser, sogar die Zukunft. (In the past everything was better, even the future.) 🤪
Quite right 😉
I’m American and have lived in Germany for 20 years. I feel this push from Germans about conformity. I have heard a lot, we don’t do it that way or we’ve always done it this way. Next time I response will be Maybe you should try it. I understand respecting their culture when in public. My sister-in-law was over and I wanted to have coffee at 11 and she said we don’t drink coffee now. I said so what! To me, I will do things in my personal life as I want as long as it doesn’t affect others. I’m not in public expecting people to conform to me.
Oh yeah, there’s another, I know in the states, and I think Britts do it too, couples sleep under one large blanket. Each person has their own individual blanket. In my house, I use one large blanket.
A funny story. Some Swiss friends were travelling to Germany on the Swiss railway. They were sharing a carriage with a group of German men when an announcement came over the train's intercom. "Due to a problem on the tracks, this train has been delayed, for two minutes. We apologise for any inconvenience". At this point, the Germans burst into laughter and amazement. As a Brit, hearing this story made me think about the situation with the railways in my own country.
I've lived that story. More than an hour's delay on the German train, so it was given up by the Swiss SBB and everyone had to change trains in Basel. Then the Swiss train had a four minute delay in leaving the station and apologised, a cause for some hilarity amongst the German travellers. Mind you, the train got to its next station on time, they apologised for *leaving* late.
very nice
Really digging these cross cultural viewpoint series of videos you're doing, where you're talking about some of the subtleties of coming to terms with the local culture and trying to understand it. It's something I think about all the time! Before I moved to Germany, I always thought as a Canadian that we always complained a lot. But no, I think Germans are the world champions in this regard! What is amazing to me in Germany is the diversity of topics that Germans are able to complain about. Things that had never even occurred to me that one could be bothered by or complain about.
A perfect example for me was one time when I was speaking to one of my older German neighbours. I was just making friendly chit chat, asking her about her day and what she was planning on doing during the day and such. She said she was going to have coffee with one of her friends who was going to come over. Then she started complaining about how that might not go so well because across the courtyard in our apartment block, some of our neighbours hang their laundry from their balconies instead of on the laundry line in the middle of the courtyard. And she was very much implying that the main problem was because they were "Arabic" or just basically immigrants. I very much failed to see how this might disrupt her nice afternoon of having coffee with her friend. Plus, as a working person who doesn't really have much time to notice things like this (let alone be bothered by it), my reply was simply "I don't even have enough time to worry about such things and didn't realise this could be something so bothersome so as to talk about". She shut up right away after that, when she realised that I as a hard working Canadian immigrant to Germany myself, had very little sympathy for her concerns. 😂
What I realised bit by bit after that is that a lot of Germans complain to vent, while us Canadians tend to complain to connect with each other through small talk. We almost never take seriously the things we complain about, it's meant to be more light hearted than serious. But as you said, Germans are quite sincere about their complaints and their complaints really bother them on what seems to be on a soul level. But I simply don't understand many of these complaints to be quite honest. I rather see them as "Jammern auf hohem Niveau", as the Germans describe it themselves 🤣
You should propperly take the age into account who is complaining. If elderlies complain, this can be because of slightly degenerated ability to think propperly, not because of any sort of dementia but a typically reduced complexity of thinking SOME elderlies have, especially if they had a boring life and many with a boring life piled up a lot of hidden deep frustrations, especially women who never did in their life what they really would have loved to do. My grandmother was also such a constant-complainer, also against minor problems with neighbours, but behind this was that she had never come to terms with traumas from war and a lot of unfairness that had come along with this. Elderlies never had support for mental issues like young people now maybe get, so their frustrations or even traumas transfered during their life into weird and maybe weird-complaining attitudes
That’s an interesting point about complaining to connect…although I think “misery loves company” is quite fitting in Germany as well the U.K. and Canada
@@nnjmbjl5415 this is definitely a good point about older people in general! Don't take my one anecdote as representative of all my experience with German complaining however - I've had plenty of other experiences in Germany that come from people of all ages, where they're simply complaining things I simply can't comprehend what there is to complain about.
@@indrinita > We almost never take seriously the things we complain about
I seriously doubt that.
I am a German who has lived nearly 20 years in England (Brexit made me leave) and I could not agree more! This complaining about all sorts of things is exasperating. I make it my job to remind this whiners how lucky they are.😄
haha good job 😀
Don't come to me complaining about Deutsche Bahn. I'm what we call "Pufferküsser" or "Nietenzähler", and I'll rip you a new one if you try. Specifically because Deutsche Bahn is one of the most reliable and best passenger transport I've experienced, second only to Japan Railways.
glad to hear there is a least one supporter here
You've clearly never been to Switzerland.
you should do a review on sharks club fkk :D
Especially in Germany there is no reason at all to say, well, everything was better in the past, what was better, the First World War, the economic crisis, the Second World War, the division of Germany, the losses of Königsberg, Pomerania and Silesia and the expulsion and flight , the blood sticking to many hands who followed a brutal regime unconditionally without thinking, all the Nazis came back to their posts when the Federal Republic of Germany was founded, so Germany still has problems in many areas, most of them are was only addressed with reunification, from then on Germany made the biggest leaps. We Germans have always been very enthusiastic about technology and unfortunately that is a bit lost and the German railways are unfortunately a symbol of this and are now reminding us of this loss.
I would agree with you but I think we tend to forget past trauma rather quickly
Germans and cultural diversity are miles apart. When a youngster I had a German girlfriend Bettina, beautiful blonde and I do mean beautiful I was erm 17 she was 20 (something) and we had a awesome relationship but when it came to real life issues, she was stuck she was lost refused to budge I had a few African "good friends" and she refused to be in their presence below her. Then when I met her father he would always go on about we lost the war we should have won and Europe would be better for it? I studied history I understood the war and what Germany did, as much as have issues as to what we the UK did to Germany. He would always claim, we are brothers we are the same we share the same blood as in our royal family were German !! He hated the French with a vengeance something to do with history Napoleon perhaps? I never understood, but when it came to the Brits we defeated him we had something to unite us. Thing is I understood the Germans have a warped mind believe their better than everyone else above everyone else. I am no racist I try and respect everyone but when it comes to Germans? EU? The 4th Reich? Germans care about one thing and one thing only MONEY yet when it came down to it Russia and Putin bought them, corrupted
Hm? What is about to "get your train in time"? "Die Pünktlichkeit der deutschen Bahn" - a old and dirty myth. There is no professionality in the DB-Concern. At least not for "not money"....
Hamburg - München ICE 189 € and over 7 hours.....wow...thanks... I take my car, thanks again.
Haha spoken like a true veteran
"Deustche Bahn. Genießen sie ihr Leben. In vollen Zügen." Deutsche Bahn. Live your life to the fullest. Fullest train that is."
Besonders interressant wird es, wenn Schwaben (Motto "Nix gesagt ist gelobt genug") auf Amerikaner in etwas geringerm Maße auch bei Briten (Motto "Be polite but don't mean it") treffen. Besonders wenn es eine Stressituation ist, bei der etwas funktionieren muss.
Ich denke für Amerikaner und in gewissen Maß auch Briten ist Schimpfen (nicht Lästern) oder noch schlimmer Fluchen etwas Unhöfliches, das eigentlich nur ungebildete Flegel machen. Diese Idee gibt es zwar auch in Deustchland, sie ist aber wesentlich weniger ausgeprägt.
Ich glaube der Unterschied kommt von der Idee, dass das Verhalten von Menschen durch Sprache beeinflusst werden. Jemand der gewisse Sachen (zBsp. Scheisse) nicht sagt, verhält sich "gut". Deswegen wird zum Beispiel Fluchen vor kleinen Kindern als "Böse" angesehen. Demenstprechend steigt hier der Stress.
Im Gegensatz dazu steht beim Deutschen die momentane Sitation im Vordergrund. Man löst gerade ein Problem. Es funktioniert nicht so wie es soll und man lässt seinen Unmut raus (Die Scheiße funktioniert nicht). Mit dieser Maßnahme sinkt der Stress und Deustche können sich besser auf das Problem konzentrieren.
Der kulturelle Austausch ist .... interessant. So steigt bei Amerikanern und in geringerem Maße auch bei Briten der Stresslevel (der aus der "Unhöflichkeit" ensteht), während der Deutsche fluchend weiterarbeitet.
Regarding the point "selbst Loben".
There are two main aspects I see here. First one you alreday explained. Who else will show your merits than you? There is another saying which only encapsulates this aspect. "Klappern gehört zum Handwerk" which can be roughly translated to "Rattle (as in being loud about your merits) is part of the craft".
The other aspect is about being positive to yourself. You have done something and it was good. So don't be harsh on yourself.
Sehr interessanter Perspektive. Danke für diese Punkte🙏
allesfotzenausermama. ScottishMannheimer aus viernheim, Edinburgh. German humour LIKE Scottish fitbaw ....is no luaghing matter. x
Brits use exaggerated understatement to signify the opposite meaning. Something that's "not entirely satisfactory" is actually really really bad. "I suspect you're perhaps being a little less than completely straightforward" means "You're a damned liar." It's a face-saving device that allows strong meaning to be communicated without being directly provocative. I've seen it used and understood by the Irish, Aussies, Kiwis and sometimes Caribbeans. But Yanks, Canadians and Saffers take it literally and miss the subtext. The Germans - whose subtlety and interpersonal finesse aren't conspicuously foremost among their virtues - definitely don't get it. Ironic, because as a literary device, exaggerated understatement has its origins in Old Saxon. It survived in English but fell out of use in German.
Saffers - South Africans?
It often depends on how intellectual people are, you‘re dealing with. It‘s not without reason that the >Hitchhiker‘s Guide to the Galaxy< or the Monty Pythons were such a success among intellectuals here. - But I agree, that in absolute figures average Germans, are less skilled in subtle humor.
The younger generations often also don’t have a notion or lack the background to get jokes on a higher level.
The past wasn't better, it was just less fucked up.
Hmmm that’s another way to put it
3 minutes in I am falling asleep..zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......................
Im Scottish.....i think only the british use the term English, or something. INSEL AFFE
I've been living as an ex-pat in Germany for 23 yrs and i still don't like the german "small talk". its miserably boring and i prefer to be alone
Have you tried dissing DB loudly in outraged tones?😉
@@britingermany yeah that's the thing. it's always negative energy or very boring topics. I never got used to it XD
How correctly observed. It's boring, boring, boring. You see, I just complained.....and it was boring. QED
You mentioned memories and rose tinted glasses and I do agree with you about this. However, this is not always the case as I just described about the trains. I was a soldier here and could not speak any German but one thing we did do was we all used to laugh about British Rail and how bloody awful it was not only because it WAS BLOODY AWFUL but because we could compare it to the Bundesbahn (German Rail). This is fact, not just nostalgic memories. We could also drive our cars, ride our motorbikes as fast as we liked on the Autobahn network. Gradually over many years bit by bit they have put restrictions on this to the point that it is no longer the free Autobahn that I used then compared to now.
We also used to have much more traffic deaths, soo...
My complaint is that you take two minutes of meaningless intro to get to the point.
The intro was there to lull you in gently with lots of caveats so as to avoid the “Go Home comments” which usually come with this kind of topic 🤣…so far I haven’t got one yet
@@britingermany A good intro states the thesis as soon as possible and then goes on to back it up with more details later. It's just annoying that a large number of RUclipsrs think that an intro is about not giving away any information too soon. Thanks for the response, I don't mean to target you personally, it's just a pet peeve of mine that I run into quite frequently.
@@IusedtohaveausernameIliked no probs. It’s understandable
Can you and all the other English people on RUclips stop going on about "Brit" and "British". You all call yourselves Brits or British. You all talk about your things being "British". But all you ever talk about is English things. Just say English. You don't speak for Scottish people and what you say never seems to have any relation to how Scottish people act, talk or behave.
I spent seven years in Scotland. Being a foreigner I had simply not had the chance to question what all you "Brits" claimed to be true. On the first day in Edinburgh I discovered it was a all lies. Even if you never admit to it or don't even know it , all your talk of "British" is a lie. There is no such nation. Just a government that controls multiple countries. For the moment.
On top of all this, how can you make any comments on the culture of another country when your own culture denies the existence of others or speaks as if they have no legitimate right to exist.
I’m guessing you did t watch the video but on the off HSBC’s that you did It would be helpful if you could give me some examples as to what I’ve said that is anti Scottish/Welsh/Irish…do you think the Scottish don’t use irony or sarcasm? Where there no strikes in Scotland when you were living there?
bla bla bla
I like the System which changed in UK better refugee police
Well, in germany even ICEs can get lost....🫡🤦 I don't think i need to say more. 😉🤣🤣
Americans don't complain, they sue