10+ Features of the German Mindset Foreigners Will Never Understand

Hi, my name is Pavel. A few months ago, I moved to Berlin to try to find my soulmate. I met several people, both romantically and out of friendship. And so, I tried to understand how they related to each other and how my behavior could cause strangeness and even alienate many of these people from me.

I want to share with awesome.club some of the secrets I’ve discovered about the lives of Germans, many of which they don’t even tell their family and close friends.

It is not very common to “arrive” in German women. If they are interested, they can approach and ask for their number themselves, without any extra glances or enigmatic gestures. Opening the door to some woman is not always a good idea. This type of behavior can be repressed, sometimes severely, if she feels the situation is inappropriate. Even if in your country this is seen as a form of courtesy, German women can understand it as a demonstration that they are not capable of doing it alone. Therefore, care must be taken with excessive zeal.

The work of the police is the most interesting. They attend courses on gender equality, where they are taught to refer to people correctly. They must also know how to talk to those who do not identify with any of the binary genders: male or female. Police officers learn that there are about 50 different genres and how to use more neutral and more appropriate language so as not to offend anyone. Otherwise, they could end up violating the rights of every citizen to self-identify. Anyone, too, can complain to the police if they feel they have been treated incorrectly, for example.

If you work in an office and want to hug a colleague, cheer them up, or congratulate them on some good news, it’s best to do so verbally. And that goes for both men and women. This kind of physical closeness can be seen as harassment, and many people don’t like it.

In fact, any display of affection in public is not widely accepted. If, for example, you are going to a friend’s party with your girlfriend, it is more advisable not to kiss her vigorously or hug her in front of others.

Yes, in Germany everyone tries to be tolerant: men can order stereotypically “feminine” drinks, like pink cocktails with umbrellas, and no one will make any jokes or mean comments. But if you pat a friend on the shoulder or give someone a warm hug, gossip about their “intentions” will spread through the city at lightning speed. Therefore, it is better not to show your feelings in front of unfamiliar people and restrict physical contact.

Even though they are in a relationship, Germans prefer to live apart and each rent their own house. For example, in Berlin, renting a nice apartment starts from 700 euros (3,600 reais). If a woman decides to move in with her boyfriend, she will normally pay a deposit for the place (about 5,000 reais) and both will share the rent equally. To think that the man will pay the rent alone, just because he is the man in the relationship, or because he who invited her, is not considered polite.

If you decide to go on a date with a Tinder girl, be aware that you probably won’t pay her restaurant bill. There’s even a chance she’ll even offer you a drink or something else. Of course, if she’s really interested. It’s no use arriving with flowers and wanting to pay for dinner: this is more likely to have a negative effect.

Marketers have started a fad for “healthy” and organic products that are not harmful to animals. So, on cheese packages you will find a stamp saying that the producing company uses milk from free-ranging cows, not those kept in captivity. Of course, such products have a higher price, but for Germans it is important to show the contribution they are making to the environment, even when they buy a simple cheese.

If your girlfriend, for example, is a vegetarian, which is very popular right now in Germany, especially among young people, you could end up putting your relationship in jeopardy if you decide to continue eating meat. Many people take this matter very seriously, and can end a relationship over this type of disagreement.

The germ cell cryopreservation procedure, for social reasons, is now popular among German women aged 18 to 28. More and more women are deciding to delay conception until their 40s in order to focus first on their careers and financial stability.

Germans find many ways to earn extra money. They can rent a 2-bedroom apartment in Berlin for €700, for example, and then rent one of the rooms on Airbnb to travelers for €400 for two weeks. During the summer they can easily cover the rent this way.

I discovered a secret from the Germans on how to get better reviews from travelers on Airbnb: on the day of the guest’s arrival, you just need to put a chocolate in the bed and a shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom. So, you will surely get positive comments.

Another way to earn money is through medical research. There is research on the effect of sleep on our lives, for example, in which you only need to sleep on the first night and, the next morning, answer a few questions. On the second night, you will have to stay awake and, the next day, again answer some questions. For your participation, you will receive around 300 euros (1,650 reais).

One more option, for example, is to participate in the trials of new drugs. For this type of study, they pay around 3,000 euros (16,500 reais) a week. More often, however, German students decide to just donate blood, not necessarily in good faith, but simply because they will receive a free diagnosis of their health, and they still receive around €60 ($330) for the process.

Another common thing that many high school students do is to buy some ice cream at the nearest market during school breaks, and then sell the product to their friends for a slightly higher price.

Another interesting way to earn money is to look for garage sales or flea markets and buy old comics for symbolic prices. Then you will have to find collectors and sell the finds for a few hundred euros, depending on the rarity of the collection you have purchased.

In order to save money, Germans can easily fall prey to fraud and cheating. Currently, in Germany, for example, there are more and more situations where a young “charming” knocks on your door to offer home Internet at unbelievable rates, which would be very advantageous compared to other offers.

He can convince you that this is a limited promotion of a brand, shall we say, well known. And all you have to do is register on a special website to start using the “benefits” of the program. However, as soon as you enter the site by phone or computer, crooks are able to gain access to your personal data and then sell it to third parties. And, of course, you will not receive any special offers.

If any pipes are leaking, you shouldn’t try to fix it yourself: it’s imperative to call a professional plumber to fix it. Otherwise, if there is a problem in the future, your insurance will not cover the damage. Professional services of this type can cost a few hundred euros. For this reason, German women are quite independent with regard to all household care, and certainly do not need the help of men to do so.

In addition, they also find diverse (and temporary) ways to solve routine problems, such as wrapping damaged tubes with toilet paper rolls. But to solve most similar problems, Germans opt for masking tape and a good laugh. Women just aren’t used to asking men to help solve such things.

Gifts without packaging are not considered gifts in Germany. Therefore, it is perfectly common to see packages at the post office very well packaged and with beautiful decorations. Men, by the way, seem to be even more concerned with the presentation of the gift than women.

They can easily add glitter, rose petals and wrap the package with colorful ribbons to send, for example, to your best friend. And no one will see evil in it. Women, on the other hand, often opt for simpler packaging to gift their boyfriends, if they don’t want to show the intensity of their feelings for them.

There’s a kind of “invisible” behavior rule that everyone follows when they go to the post office. For example, it is understood that you should not send more than 5 orders at once, as this will delay the queue too much. If you need to send more than 5 packages, it is better to return to the post office later or another day.

Another thing that really surprised me was finding out that many convenience store and small market owners open post offices in their establishments. They do this to attract more customers to their stores and they even receive a percentage for receiving and storing orders.

O Wasserkefir (“fermented milk water”), as it is known in Germany, or Indian sea rice, is a very popular drink among Germans. It has a bittersweet taste and is consumed as an alternative to milk-based probiotics.

Precision may be the Germans’ second name. And the obsession with eating the perfect egg really isn’t a myth. One of the tools used to make the “perfect egg” is the Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher, which in Portuguese would be something like “cause of the mark where the eggshell must be broken”. It allows you to break a part of the eggshell so that…