To those, living in Germany...

[Vetty]

Hi people,
beeing a student, some 15 years ago, I very much loved German literature . I loved Hermann Hesse, Patric Zuskind, Remark. Now my ideas of Germany are taken from the books I read to my kids like Michael Ende's " Jim Knopf und die Wilde 13 " and the stories my German teacher tells us at classes of her experience studiing there. What are the most fascinating things about modern Germany to your mind? what is worth seeing, reading, listening? Maybe some net resourse?

[Kitosdad]

Good morning Vetty. I really wanted to reply to your post yesterday, but I did not know how to respond.

I've been in Germany for nearly ten years now, and I've loved every moment of it.

Due to financial difficulties I have not been able to enjoy its splendours to the full, but I find deep satisfaction in my local area and the nearby city of Essen. Although it has not the tourist attractions of Berlin or Hamburg it nevertheless has its own very beautiful features.

Here I am surrounded, on the one side, by a virtual oasis of nature, and on the other, the hub-hub of a very small city. There are a couple of good libraries, and a modest museum. Not a lot to blow the trumpets about, but for me, it is an ideal place to live.

I'm sure this is not what you were really searching for, but I have tried to share with you my feelings about my home-town.

Kitosdad.
_________________
If you need me, I'm here.

[Vetty]

Good morning Kitosdad. Thank you very much for your description. It sounds very comforting. Is there anything completely different from the place you lived before?

[Kitosdad]

Indeed there is Vetty. Many things. Good policing, and oh so many Doctors and Dentists to whom you can turn in times of trouble or pain, and receive immediate attention.

My first heart-attack was attended to within minutes of my arriving at the Hospital. The care and attention was faultless. That isn't to suggest that the nurses in England lack the skills and attention required, but the National Health Service in England are put to shame by the efficiency of the German administration.

The cleanliness of the cities and small towns also show a marked contrast to England. The memories are so fresh as I only returned on Wednesday, and the contrast is so very obvious.

I could ramble on about the absolute abundance of trees, ( my pet topic ) but I don't wish to either bore you, or alternatively, appear a bit of an head-case.

Kitosdad.
_________________
If you need me, I'm here.

[Vetty]

Sounds like my idea of the country!

In a strange and mysterious way, all German people I met ( working and trevelling around) belonged to the medical professionals: doctors, nurses, health care specialists. As far as I know British medical system is mostly funded by the state and in Germany it's the system of private insurance, please, correct me if I am wrong. Maybe that's the reason of it's effectiveness

And how do the Germans satisfy the intellectual needs, visiting concerts or performing some amateur plays or reading, trevelling, doing some craft work? Do they care about their homes much, educate kids, comunicate with them and each other?

[Kitosdad]

Speaking personally, all of my medical expenses are paid for by the UK NHS via a repayment scheme that has been in force for quite some time. German residents are treated mainly as state registered but many have private health insurance also.
Non-residents must have a personal health insurance scheme, although most employers of English workers have this in place before they arrive in Germany.

German folk are mainly tenants, as private owners have to be extremely well-off, the properties being so expensive. There is no problem in finding rental accommodation anywhere, especially in the smaller cities like Essen. Home-owners, much like anywhere, take good care of their homes, but there are exceptions to this, as can be found anywhere. German parents, in the main, are extremely interested in their children's education, and many businesses flourish on providing after-school tuition.

The Germans are great travellers, and can be found in places that normally no white-man would dream of visiting.

There are numerous places of entertainment, and theatres abound with spectaculars being the main attractions.

Like every other city, individual cinemas are almost obsolete, Multiplexes being the norm nowadays.

All forms of public transportation are very clean, and extremely punctual.

The place that I visit daily with my dogs is the local cemetery, and it is unbelievably beautiful at all times of the year, especially just now with all of the big bushes in full colour display. A full-time staff of gardeners, and a squad of privately employed gardeners keep it so. Every grave is inspected on a regular basis, and those that are not being kept orderly have written notices sent to the relevant family, warning them to take immediate steps to attend to this matter. Non-compliers are given a statutory period to comply, and failing this, the grave site is cleared and the plot is sold on to the next family requesting a place in this particular area. The cemeteries are wonderful! They even have a public holiday to celebrate the " Day of the dead, " and on this particular evening the cemeteries all over Germany are filled with people. Every grave is bedecked with flowers and lit candles. It is an awesome display, believe me.

Well, that's about it. If you need any more information, feel free to ask.

Bill.
_________________
If you need me, I'm here.

[Jamie (K)]

I find it amazing that Germany can be so restrictive of people's business activities, and pay so many people to stay home and do nothing, but that the whole place nonetheless functions somehow, and functions quite efficiently.

[Kitosdad]

Jamie, you are quite correct. The Germans have a holiday for every event under the sun, and then some we have never heard of.

We Brits always had the impression that Germans were an hard-working nation. Perhaps they are, but first you have to get them to work!
_________________
If you need me, I'm here.

[Jamie (K)]

Not only that, but there are (or at least used to be) legions of Germans who stayed home, even for years, because they couldn't find jobs matching their qualifications. They preferred to stay home rather than take something "beneath their dignity".

Contrast this with people in the States. We support a class of people who perpetually sit at home and do nothing (under Clinton and Bush the government made that harder and harder, but Obama wants to make it easy again), but an educated American would rather stay busy than worry about his dignity. That means that during hard times (like now), you suddenly find very high-quality employees in menial jobs. There may be engineers or even people with MBAs working in the supermarket, or in burger joints, or on the sales floor of a computer store. Many of these people might be able to afford to stay home while they look for work, but they can't stand it. They want to be busy and out among people until they find the job they really want, so they take all kinds of jobs that highly qualified Germans would never take. In fact, in the US there's a genre of books that are written by guys with big-shot qualifications who would up working a "humiliating" job at McDonald's or Starbucks and found it changed their lives and careers when they got back on track.

Another interesting thing about Germany is that you have to be officially qualified for almost everything you do, and to practice most professions you have to be registered. In the US, if you think you can do something, you can just do it. Nobody stops you. If you have customers who are pleased, they continue to send you work, and they bring others with them. If the customers are not pleased, you usually fail and have to find a different profession. Except in professions where incompetence may threaten people's safety, Uncle Sam doesn't make you get qualifications or papers. In Germany you need a certificate just to bake cupcakes, as I understand.

[ForOneSucks]

Hello,

I have a question for Jamie (K).

May I cite the third paragraph of your post in another forum?

Regards.

[Jamie (K)]

Go ahead. I don't mind.

[ForOneSucks]

Many thanks.

[Vetty]

Good morning to everybody, thank you for sharing your observations and some more questions, if you don't mind.

Do you think it's a national or personal characteristic ( seeking for different kind of certificates and staying at home rather than looking for a job "beneath their dignity" ). I would say that in Russia there are both types of people and the question has always been very critical. I could say they are" two psycologically different camps " independently of nationality.

And another question. About sense of humour. The English are very proud of their very specific feature based on allusions, mockery, reminiscence and other "bad words". What about the German sense of humour? Is it somehow different? My idea of it is taken from the Zweig's novels but in reality I've never experienced it.

[Kitosdad]

Good morning Vetty. Germans do have good sense of humour, but I can neither understand or share it. Just like in England, it appears to revolve around holding wives, or girl-friends or mothers-in-law up to ridicule. Nothing changes eh!

Germans do have an obsession about certificates, as Jamie rightly states. If they obtain a qualification, then most won't accept anything lower than that which their qualification states.

My life revolves around twenty people, and I find them all humorous and generous in the extreme. My life could be a lot better though if I could find a job. The ever-sinking pound has just about brought me to my knees.

Kitos.
_________________
If you need me, I'm here.

[Jamie (K)]

I can't find the article now, but a few years ago the British press had an article about the problems encountered when translating a hit play from England into German. The play was about standup comedians, so it was practically all humor, and the problems hinged on the complications of translating English humor into German humor. In English the verb comes early in the sentence, so it's possible to lead the listener's mind in one direction and then suddenly end the sentence in some unexpected way to make people laugh. This doesn't work well in German, because the verb so often comes at the end of the sentence.

The translators, and the author of the play, realized that a lot of German humor involves telling long stories that start out normally and get more and more preposterous as they progress. The laughter comes when the listeners realize that the whole story is ridiculous. My great grandparents came to the United States from Germany, and generations later my family still uses this type of humor. Most Americans enjoy it, but some of them feel humiliated when they realize they were believing a story that wasn't true.