- cross-posted to:
- germany@feddit.de
- cross-posted to:
- germany@feddit.de
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Ich will jetzt nicht die micro aggressions kleinreden, die die Dame erfährt, sowas ist scheiße und wir alle sollten da aufpassen und einschreiten wenn man sowas hört, oder sieht.
Aber meine Güte, Frau. Das ist alles 0815 Kulturschock, wie es jeder erlebt. Oh mein Gott, die Läden sind klein! Und dass es Zeitzonen gibt, ist ihr wohl auch neu gewesen.
- JasSmith ( @JasSmith@kbin.social ) 43•1 year ago
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She uses words like “microaggression” repeatedly, so she’s practiced at finding offense where there isn’t any.
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She’s American, so she’s ignorant of foreign cultures and believes hers is superior. Anyone who doesn’t conform is an “ist”.
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Her German is weak. Many Germans do not speak English. She complains about having to take lessons.
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She moved to a small town and complained about small town problems. In small towns, people speak even less English, and are even less used to foreigners. Public transport is less accessible.
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Complains about Amazon delivery taking too long.
This is the most American whinge I’ve ever read.
Yup, the title of the article is incredibly misleading. She didn’t move to “Germany”, she moved from a big city to a small town that happened to be in Germany, then got surprised that it felt insular, like the vast majority of small towns in the world. You could move from a big city in the US to a small town in the US and have exactly the same experience.
Yeah, how would she react in a rural part of SK? She was probably staying in Seoul or Busan, of course a small German town would feel quaint in comparison!
I mean, yeah, Germany is certainly not the most welcoming country in the world, but wtf is she on about?
She literally complains about earning US$ from “freelance marketing gigs” (lol, is that code for “tiktok”?) and having to pay the exchange rate? I didn’t realize US$ was the official currency in South Korea? Also gas is expensive, yes, but last time I checked it’s basically impossible to buy something like a 50 mpg VW Golf in the US, so… (I suspect they’re driving a RAM2500 and wonder why nobody likes them, lol)
“We live in a small German town called Otterberg because of my husband’s job” vs “Also, we can’t afford to live in a city like Berlin or Frankfurt, which have more young people and other expats.” – What is it now?
I’m really looking forward to Stephanie’s report from Bumfucknowhere, Ohio, because I seriously doubt they can afford to live in SF or NY either.
For real, I read the article thought it was very obivous why she is struggling to adapt.
As for the microaggression point, I kept waiting to read about it in detail, but there was nothing.
She also complains about lessons being expensive, because she probably chose to go the Goethe institut route. But IRC you can get lessons for much cheaper or even a free vocational course at a Fachhochschule - although I suspect she’s not elligible for that, because her husband earns too much.
Of course, that would mean mingling with immigrants and muslims. Let’s be honest, that’s almost certainly one of the reasons she chose to go the more expensive route. This woman gives off “I’m an expat, not an immigrant” Karen vibes.
500 for a course is nothing compared to what I’ve had to spend to learn Dutch
The best thing is where she claims “state-sponsored integration programs offer language classes for free” in South Korea and the link goes to a page only listing youtube videos, duolingo, and books, udemy courses, etc. that are certainly not free.
For real. I went to Frankfurt am Main a few years ago and it was wonderful. The people were incredibly nice and were very patient as I stumbled my way through broken German and more often than not switched to English.
I get it can be a culture shock to live in a new country where you’re not a native speaker and where customs are different, but you can’t expect everyone to cater to you.
Talk about dumm Auslander.
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Finde es etwas schwierig solche teils generalisierenden Aussagen zu treffen, wenn man als Expat quasi alleine im Dorf zurecht kommen muss. Natürlich ist die Erfahrung drastisch anders als in Berlin, München oder Hamburg. Würde mal behaupten, dass das in vielen Ländern ähnlich wäre.
Ansonsten ist da halt sehr viel Gejammer auf hohem Niveau. Dass sie Day-to-Day Delivery haben will ist ja ganz nett, würde aber gerne mal wissen, was die für Einkäufe macht, dass sie mit nem Rewe oder Edeka oder sonst was nicht zurecht käme.
Finde es etwas schwierig solche teils generalisierenden Aussagen zu treffen
Das fällt mir bei denen generell oft auf, auch bei so Youtube Kanälen mit ihren Videos zu Unterschieden zwischen den Kulturen. Da scheint sehr wenig Bewusstsein da zu sein dass ihre Region in Deutschland nicht in allen Aspekten ganz Deutschland repräsentiert.
Ich bin NRW Stadtkind. Ich hab schon Kulturschock wenn ich Freunde aufm Land in Norddeutschland oder Sachsen besuche. Letzteres inklusive Sprachbarriere.
Auch als junger Mensch, hätte ich kein Interesse daran, mit Fremden Smalltalk über das Wetter zu führen.
Ich glaube auch in Dörfen in den USA verhält sich das genauso. Die gute hatte einfache falsche Vorstellung von uns.
Dass man als Expad nicht auf ein Dorf oder in ne kleinere Stadt ziehen darf ist wohl klar. Kann mir vorstellen, wie scheiße das für sie ist.
Es gibt aber auch lebenswerte Städte in Deutschland, wo man besser integriert wird und die “Mikroagressionen” weniger sind.
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“expat” Meinen Sie Immigrant?
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zieht weit weg von ihren Eltern “Warum sind meine Eltern so weit weg :(”
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“the man behind the counter said that my German should be much better even though I had been there for only a month.” Ist die wirklich in ein Land gezogen, ohne ein Fünkchen die Sprache zu können? Ich möchte mal sehen wie gut ich mit nem Wörterbuch einen Behördengang in Südkorea machen kann…
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zieht ans Ende der Welt in ein Kaff zwischen Wald und Sumpf “I miss the comforts of being surrounded by people like me — English-speaking working professionals from diverse backgrounds” Ach du jemine…
€: Falscher Strang :D
Hat doch niemand behauptet oder?
Sorry bin zu dumm. Dachte ist mein Strang :D
Passiert den besten :)
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I don’t understand how articles like this get published in relatively popular news sites like Business Insider. It’s basically “poor me, I am so sad.” without anything news worthy about German immigration policy, or statistics regarding German attitudes towards expats.
I am an American expat living in Austria and while I experience plenty of similar things, I really like it here, and enjoy many things about living here.
Maybe instead of German classes, she should work on finding a sense of humor and a tolerance for discomfort. My guess is she’ll go back to Sacramento and whine about plenty of things, likely for the rest of her life. Thankfully, though, we might not have to read about it.
Schade dass sie so auf dem Land zu wohnen scheint, ich glaube unter jüngeren/urbaneren Menschen hätte sie (was die Microaggressionen angeht) eine andere Erfahrung gemacht.
Und was sie da berichtet glaub ich ihr und ist einfach scheiße. So sollte man nicht behandelt werden.
Ein paar der anderen Schwierigkeiten… naja. Dass wir keine riesigen Supermärkte haben und Amazon statt 1-2 Tagen 3-4 braucht… joah. Wenn das eine zu große Umstellung ist, dann gehts halt vielleicht nur im ursprünglichen Heimatland.
A better title might be “Karen goes to Germany”.
Ich bin ja total überrascht, dass sie nicht darüber gemeckert hat, dass es in Deutschland kein Leitungswasser umsonst in Restaurants gibt. Aber sonst hat sie ja alle Karen-Punkte abgehakt. Ich hoffe, sie hat dem Manager von Deutschland mal ordentlich die Meinung gegeigt.
In her defense, she is very good at Meckern, so she’s already more German than she realizes.
This was a pretty weird article. I understand her frustration in learning the language, I’ve done it before and it’s rough. And I understand her frustration with not having support from the military due to her status, as well as the natural human experience of being far from family and missing home. But those aren’t Germany problems, those are either universal in any place you might move to, or they are the products of her own choices.
It also seems obvious that she brings her North American assumptions with her and is partly disappointed that Germany isn’t more like what she’s used to. She mentions driving, but yeah, it’s expensive to drive in Germany. If she chose a small town to live in that didn’t have good access to transit, that might be necessary, but it’s part of the cost of living there. She mentions big box store shopping, which made me laugh out loud, that’s a very North American perspective and even in the U.S. a lot of people would disagree.
Are there cultures more welcoming than Germany? Probably. My German isn’t great, I’ve definitely been criticized for my accent and lack of vocabulary. It felt harsh, but it was also true, and they weren’t impolite about it. Is it a reasonable expectation to land in a place and get free language lessons and be welcomed with open arms? Not really, and I would note that Americans probably wouldn’t do that either. Heck, in some parts of the country, your welcome would be considerably less polite.
Im Namen des amerikanischen Volkes entschuldigen wir uns für die Unruhe. Wie sagt man „Hauptcharaktersyndrom“ auf Deutsch?
Schonmal hier besprochen: https://feddit.de/comment/266229
Ach, die guten alten “reposter” Rufe, da fühlt man sich als Reddit-emigrant doch gleich richtig heimisch.
Oder du kannst mal drüben schauen was da schon kommentiert wurde. :-P
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Guessed they were an expatriate from the US. Was completely right.
A lot of it is just weird cultural complaints. Who’d have thought small towns in Germany don’t have big box stores, or that electronics are way more expensive. That’s really easy to have figured out first.
Germany is pretty much top of the countries i’d consider moving to. Though as a Scot living in the US it’s no longer super easy for me to move to Berlin.
I agree, most of it I would have simply expected because of having my eyes open about other countries (e.g. petrol prices). About her only complaint that I could empathize with was racism, not that Iʼve personally experienced it there (or from any German anywhere), but some Germans have told me their anecdotes.
Nah, I’ve met Brits, French people, and Koreans who are exactly like this.
The Germans once felt entitled to own the planet Earth, but were stopped by the British and Americans.
Did you just Godwin yourself?
I feel like a trespasser here, like I’m straddling two worlds. The first is the US-military community, which my husband belongs to, but I don’t. The second is the German-resident community, which I’m reminded on a daily basis I also don’t belong to.
First-world problems.