I'm going to Germany! Who else has? What should I know/bring/do?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This will be the climax of my young life. I’m going to Stuttgart in june-july with my German class, on the GAPP program. (I’m 3rd year.)

What should I know about the people and culture that German class may not have taught me?
(I’ve been warned that they’re very blunt. Great, I say, people should say what they think. But the Germans here right now say that they think Americans are very friendly. This implies that in their country, I’ll find unfriendly **and ** blunt people.) I want to make lots of new friends, but have heard that if I’m too friendly right away, I will be seen as insincere.

What’s special in Stuttgart that I should make a point of seeing? What kind of gift should I bring my host family? I can’t think of anything special that’s local to Oregon.

I hope I won’t be seen as a clueless American since I’m apathetic and therefore ignorant about politics.

I hope I have the courage to speak 100% in German, and not rely on my exchange partner’s likely English fluency. I feel fluent while talking with other Americans learning German, but far from it with actual Germans.

2

Bring some preserves, fruits or Oregon wine (if you’re old enough to buy it). Those would all be considered nice gifts and not too extravagant. I’m sure you’re host family will be friendly or they wouldn’t have volunteered. I’ve not explored the Stuttgart area but have heard there are some nice museums and of course the Black Forest is nearby.

Insist on speaking German while you’re there. If they want to speak English invite them to come visit you in Oregon where they can get plenty of exposure. A sincere interest in the language and culture (and maybe the food) tempered by a little sensitivity can get you a long way. Don’t be directly critical of what you don’t like; it comes across as whining. Sounds like you have all of the enthusiasm you need. Now you just need to relax and have a great time.

Have fun!

3

Muwaha! The first time I can be useful on this board. I exchanged with a family in Heide just two weeks ago, and it was quite the amazing experience. A few things I picked up–

The adults are more polite, but the youth enjoy very much talking about how much Bush sucks. It grated on my nerves, but I stayed quiet out of respect for my Germans. Not that I’m pro-bush, I just don’t like complaining about it. But this was only a problem when the more…vocal people in my exchange group spoke up.

Their hospitality is amazing. I felt right at home. They did everything they possibly could to make me feel comfortable–even picking up a box of generic “American Cookies” (which sucked) to make me feel at home.

Take your shoes off, you swine. Shoes come off when you walk in the door.

Clear your plate, and only take as much food as you can eat. It’s rude to leave food on the plate.

Germans aren’t remarkably attractive =(

Learn to ride a bike. It’s very important.

About gifts–I made a thead on it a month ago. Feel free to search for it. I’d love to, but I’m a guest member. What they really loved from me was this fantastic coffee table book full of pictures of Birmingham (my town). Find something with more pictures than words.

Keep your wallet nearby, and if you plan on carrying a backpack with you, keep nothing in the outermost pockets. I had a friend whose wallet was stolen out of her backpack’s outer pocket.

If you see someone playing music on the street (and you will), you are not obligated to give them money. However, if you sit and listen, or take a picture, you’re supposed to give them money.

Bitte. Danke. Entschuldigung. Es tut mir leid. Scheiβe. The five most important things you will ever learn in Germany. Especially Scheiβe.

Try the Beck’s beer. It’s a favorite among the teens, and for a reason. It’s sweet, and delicious.

4

Get a mullet, practice tapping a toe to prog rock, invest in denim and don’t ask how come all the city centres seem pretty modern.
btw, Stuttgart are 3rd in the Bundesliga so, if you like footie, get along.

5

Sorry for the stupid question, but how old are you then? Obviously most recommendations are a little age-dependent. And no, this is not only about drinking ;), but also things like your interests, money, how well-guarded you will be…

6

I spent some time in Germany last year (Munich and Ulm) and here is the bulk of my “wisdom”:
At the streetside bakery stand, get the “pretzel dough rolls” (I should know what they are properly called), they are incredibly good.
Even if you are “food unadventurous” like me, feel free to order almost anything, there seems to be a shortage of “disgusting German food”.
Never pass up a chance to try a new beer, Germans are some brewing mofo’s! (Schneider Weisse original anyone?).

Can you tell I am a fat guy?

Unclviny

7

What, you missed Blutwurst? And I once inadvertently ordered braised kidneys by just going with the daily special in a small restaurant. Blecch! But in general I agree. Also I like ForumBot’s suggestion of a coffee table book, particularly as Oregon has, IMHO, some of the most beautiful scenery in the USA. But if your funds can stretch that far I’d bring some foodstuff as well for them to try.

8

unclviny and ShibbOleth: it’s a shame, but I don’t think I like German food. (Except fondue.) I went to the Rheinlander in Portland, and didn’t really like it. I’ll probably lose some weight in that month. :wink: But I’ll definately try to be adventurous.

Kellner: I’m 17.

London_Calling: Uh, I don’t get it.

ForumBot: Thanks.

9

I’m going to Germany for three fun filled weeks in August-September. With two kids, my husband to visit his grandmother.

Here are some sticklers that I’ve learned from 15 years of living with or working with Germans:

A good firm handshake is important.

Punctuality is very important. If you are late for anything, it is punishable by a scowling german. ( Death would be more kind.)

German foods are traditionally heavy. Breakfast and Dinner are lighter fare
( usually lunchmeat and the best bread you will have anywhere. Lunch is the big meal of the day.) Then again, YMMV. I stay in a smaller town.

I highly advise taking some Tums and correctal/laxative along to help things along.

Unshaved pits and legs are de rigeur. Smelly pits are encouraged. ( You will notice in the stores that the deoderant section of the store has a fine layer of dust.)

The toilet paper is complete garbage. ( Like the cheap napkins here.) Smush a couple of rolls of Charmin with you.

Their ‘kleenex’ is like the really good paper napkins that your mom never buys because they are too expensive. They are a bit of a confliction in the face/butt department.

Manners are everything.

Zhere are vhays of doink everysing und *you must follow ze rules. * Und if there are two germans watching you do somethink, zhey will both tell you you are wrong and that each of them know the correct way (the most correctest way of *ever * of doing it) und zhey vill argue about who is more right until you finally quietly walk away looking for something to kill yourself with ( which will be the wrong way to kill yourself, according to your two german onlookers, who are now taking a beer and cigerette break.) Welcome to my life. There’s no turning back.

However, you will never meet a harder working people on the planet. And harder drinking and smoking people on the planet, outside of the rest of the EU.
The household toilets there are not the same as here. They are called shelf toilets. Everything operates the same, but ( ha…I said but!) there is a little shelfie thing instead of the curving bowl you are use to . Your poop lands on this and is washed away by the water downward. It saves water, apparently, but is rather funky to get use too. A rather funny look at these toilets: Here

You don’t drink water out of the tap. ( I’ve never noticed anything wrong with the water there and it isn’t arsenic ridden that we’ve been able to get out of the relatives.) they drink bottled carbonated water over there. I beleive it is called " Vasser mit gas" or " mit fizz." I could be wrong.

For some reason that has never been fully explained **David Hasselhof ** and **Cher ** are extremely huge over there. Has been, talentless acts seem to find a following there.

You do not put your feet on the trainseat across from you if it is empty. That is a big no no. I am still scarred by the man that yelled at me for putting my aching, tired, exhausted feet up on the seat across from me.

May I highly recommend a tongue in cheek ‘tour guide’ language book: Wicked German
The more you know of the culture, the funnier this book is. It is not meant to be taken any other way than as poking fun.
The word " fahrt" means “trip” :slight_smile:

10

Bottled carbonated water is “Mineralwasser”, plain bottled water is “Stilles Wasser”.

This is outdated, but that

is sadly true. German popular culture in general is nothing to look forward to. On top of that, even though every American show will make it to German TV sooner or later, only the worst are kept and rerun constantly. We had Baywatch running till one or two years ago. freiheit, try not to laugh too hard when you’re watching TV over here.

And for a reason. Who knows what you’ve been stepping in? There’s a simple workaround: Pick up some discarded newsprint (you’re bound to find it on every train) and spread it on the seat first.
Generally speaking, freiheit - Germany has its odd idiosyncrasies like any other country, but there’s the old basic rule: Don’t be a jerk.

If you stick to that, there won’t be any serious problems. Welcome to Germany!

11

This is true … for our equivalent of trailer trash.

This is true … when you are on a train or in a public lavatory. German toilet paper is the same quality as in other civilized countries. Charmin is available, so no need to bring it.

While this type of toilet still exists (it is called Hochspüler), most toilets in buildings from later than 1970 have “Tiefspüler”. While they are not equivalent to the strange poo-aquarium-thingies in the US, there is no little shelf and your excretions are submerged in water.

Yes you do drink water out of the tap. Tap water is subject to very stringent controls and can be drunk without problems. However, most Germans prefer carbonated water for drinking, therefore they drink “Sprudel” or use a carbonating device (called “WasserMax”) to carbonate tap water.

David Hasselhoff was huge for a while, but only among 50-80 year-old housewives or trailer trash with unshaved armpits. We enjoy Cher for the camp.

Now for the real advice:

  • Germans seem unfriendly because many of us do not subscribe to the “small talk lies” commonly used. From our end, Americans appear shallow.

When we ask somebody “How are you? (Wie geht es ihnen?)” it is not a synonym for “Hello”. We are really interested. Therefore, when you ask a German “How are you”, they will not answer “fine, how are you?” but tell you how they really are. Then you will notice the German liking for talking about illnesses :wink:

  • Bush-bashing is a fad at the moment. Try not to enter a discussion. Say something like “War is unfortunate. It would be nice if a peaceful solution could be found, but that often does not work, as you can see in other places, e.g. former Yugoslavia”. One of the reasons for the Bush-bashing is that the current generation of adult Germans is for the most part violently opposed to war (because of our unfortunate past).

  • the pretzel-sticks mentioned earlier are called “Laugenstange”. They are very good indeed.

  • I think you will have a lot of fun, you seem to be open-minded and have the right attitude.

Have a safe trip!

Myriam (in a small town near Düsseldorf)

12

Well, I’m German and I usually didn’t like the “typical German food” served in US restaurants too much, so you might like it better over here. Not trying to put down US restaurants, what I mean is that if you’re putting up a “traditional” German restaurant abroad you have to concentrate on “traditional” dishes and those are a little bit hard to stomach - heavy on the meat and sauces etc.) Of course, there are restaurants like that over here, but there’s also a large variety of restaurants that serve things that aren’t quite as heavy-handed.

You might want to tell your exchange family about what you like/dislike beforehand, because every time I had an exchange student over, my mom especially made typical dishes which we’d not eat under “normal circumstances”. Since you’re in Stuttgart, I’d recommend at least trying the Spätzle which is the regional speciality (kind of a noodle dish - comes as an accompanying dish or on it’s own with cheese).

About the sights: I’ve only been to Stuttgart once but I remember they had a couple of castles/palaces that were rather nice to visit. And you could always root for a visit to Munich which isn’t that far away (about two and a half hours or so).

Other than the aforementioned Bush-bashing (which gets on my nerves, too) and the sometimes rather rude customer service people I guess you’ll find that most Germans aren’t really blunt or rude, just not as “in-your-face-friendly” as Americans sometimes tend to be. Of course, we have our share of idiots, too, so if you encounter one of those, please don’t think we’re all like that.

Oh, and I’d advise strongly against the mullet. Regardless of which country you’re going to visit. Mullets are the work of the devil. So is David Hasselhoff’s music who nobody in their right mind would listen to and fortunately doesn’t anymore. If you need to be warned about sucky music in Germany (we DO have a lot of it, unfortunately), for the love of all that’s holy stay away from Scooter (Warning: obnoxious techno music behind that link)

Have fun on your trip!!!

13

I was in Bavaria (with a brief side-trip to Weimar) for two weeks at the end of August/beginning of September, and didn’t have any memorable difficulties or culture shock. The only thing that was tricky was that most German restaurants are seat-yourself. Even though I knew this, I had difficulty convincing myself that it was really okay to just sit down where I liked and tended to stand awkwardly in the entrance area until some staff member asked me if I needed anything.

On the water issue: if you want tap water in a restaurant, you have to say so specifically. It’s not SOP to give everyone a glass of tap water for free, and if you say you want “Wasser” you may get the more popular/expensive mineral water instead. But I don’t see any reason to order tap water since you’ll probably have to pay for it anyway. If you’re desperate to save money don’t order a drink at all, and if you are willing to spend money on a beverage you might as well shell out a little bit more and get something more exciting than tap water.

People will speak English to you. This happened to me all the time, even when I initiated the conversation in German. After the first few days I decided I’d just keep speaking German as best I could even if the other person responded in English. However, it is reassuring to know that if you meet with some crisis there’s likely to be someone around who’s relatively fluent in English.

You may have to pay a few cents to use public toilets, especially in tourist-y areas or in stations. These places are usually pretty nice, clean, and well-maintained though, so you are getting something for your money.

I have to disagree with ForumBot on the attractiveness of Germans. I think their women averaged better-looking than American women, although I noticed fewer stand-out beauties, and the men struck me as usually being considerably more handsome than most American men. As is the case in many European countries, people didn’t dress quite as casually as Americans often do when off-duty. When I was in Germany one interesting fashion trend for women was dyed-red hair or streaks. And I mean red hair, ranging from scarlet to purplish to an almost natural looking deep auburn. I wouldn’t have made note of this if it had been only teens and young women or only in Munich, but I noticed small-town middle-aged Hausfrau types sporting the look and even one elderly lady with hair that matched her bright red pantsuit!

14

Based on a few weeks in Munich (I’m a US citizen):

  1. Bring lots of cash (German marks). Credit cards are much less useful there than in the US.

  2. Beverages are never very cold and often ice is unavailable. If you ask for ice, you will be lucky to get two cubes. People may point out to you, between puffs on their cigarettes, how unhealthy it is to consume cold beverages.

  3. There are many, many gorgeous women there.

  4. The food is fantastic.

  5. “Munich sausage” is just cold cuts.

15

It’s been a few years since you’ve visited (or I’m being “whooshed”). Most large towns have an ATM or two that will accept your bank card, if you want to go that way. Either way the Mark has gone the way of the Dodo. Make sure you get Euros in exchange.

16

For those who are german dopers, I apologize for offending you.

My experiences with the Hasselhof, smelly germans are strickly from a smaller town ( not trailer trash, just …uh…well, I won’t post it here as they are inlaws, nice people.) I know that the older relatives like Heino…need I say more?

17

No need to apologize, after all, he WAS #1 in the charts, I guess we’ll have to take some flak for that :smiley:

18

Some information on Stuttgart:

City site
Tourist information

In Stuttgart itself you might want to drive up to the rim of the valley that the city centre is situated in, perhaps go up the television tower to have a wide view. If you are interested in cars you might want to visit the Porsche museum, the Mercedes-Benz Museum or the garden shed where Gottlieb Daimer built the first motorcycle, the first car and the first motor boat. In the vicinity of Stuttgart the palace at Ludwigsburg is worth seeing, as well as some nice smaller cities like Marbach and Tübingen.

About an hour to the south of Stuttgart is the Swabian Alb, and about two hours to the SW is the Black Forest - in case you class has a day or three to spare to take a walk…

19

TAKE ME WITH YOU!!!

I miss Germany so much! I lived there from 1990-1993 (age 9-12), and I want to go back!

I don’t remember much about Stuttgart other than the airport and that that’s where we often went shopping, but there are a lot of great places just a short distance away. Lahr, my german “home town”, is probably only of interest to me, but it has a lovely abandonned Canadian military base( WAAAAAHHHHH!!!), as well as a nice downtown area and is near the Geroldseck castle. Freibourg and Strassbourg (actually in France) are also very nice to visit - both have HUGE Gothic cathedrals. I recommend to take the time to huff and puff your way to the towertops -the view is amazing!

The Alsace region of France also has a lot of great vineyards and castles and great little villages that look like they never bothered to step out of the Middle Ages. The Haut Köneingsbourg castle is nice to visit, as it is mostly whole and has a good tour. It’s also close to an eagle hatchery that you can visit, and the not-so-famour “Monkey Mountian” where you can actually pet monkeys. Heidelberg is nice too -again, another great castle with a fantastic view.

IIRC, the drinking age is 16 in France and Germany, so you probably could indulge, but be safe about it! Also, even if you are not of legal age, you are allowed to bring back bottles of wine (at least to Canada - I brought back 2 when I visited in 1996).

PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU!!!

20

Remember also that Germans are rightfully known for being very law-abiding people. The little peccadillos that we expect to get away with in the states are heavily frowned upon there. Should you be so bold as to dash across a busy street, for example, you are likely to get run over by a Porche, after which a kindly old lady will lecture your still-twitching corpse on the value of observing the laws against jaywalking.