Can we talk about Germany for a bit?

[MrBrightSi]

REALIST123 said:

Trabi601 said:

Seriously, I think you're seeing what you want to see, interpreting things in the way you want to interpret them.

Edited by Trabi601 on Monday 17th October 08:26

Perhaps that's what you're doing? Why is your opinion/experience worth more than anyone else's?

It's why i refused to wade in further.

I lived there for a few months and yes, Trabi is right. The German people are wonderful and lovely kind and open when you get to know them with an odd coldness and fetish for work that i can't appreciate.

However, the problems i had been told about before i returned/went and heard of on the news while i was there, all involved the "New Germans" The city centres i visited were full of very dodgy men who were implicated in drug dealing, assault and muggings.

How can i not take that on board for my own preservation.

The towns and places i went without these men were wonderful picturesque experiences of what Germany should be. I miss Saxonian egg custard style cake.

[del mar]

FN2TypeR said:

del mar said:

I was there Garmisch in August, and I was not raped or attacked either.

However it wasn't much different from driving along Commercial Road in Tower Hamlets - I was shocked by the sheer volume of Muslims there you expect to see them in inner city areas but not in small mountain towns.

The scenery was lovely but I certainly would not want to live there.

How can you tell they are Muslim just by looking at them out of interest?

You're joking surely ?

Do they have a funny walk - no that's not it
Do they all wear red noses - no that's not it either.
Do they wear specific religious clothing that makes them stand out from the crowd - getting warmer....


Trabi.

I did consider that August maybe a holiday period for say Saudis and other rich Middle Eastern countries, that perhaps go to this region in the Summer ? The area around lake Eibsee was full of Niqabs and Hijabs - women were wearing gloves! Yes I fall on the other side of the debate to yourself, but the family we went with certainly weren't on my side, and they were surprised.

That said there was a lot of German spoken by them and all the places we ate we visited had the menus in Arabic.

[TheLordJohn]

del mar said:

You're joking surely ?

Do they have a funny walk - no that's not it
Do they all wear red noses - no that's not it either.
Do they wear specific religious clothing that makes them stand out from the crowd - getting warmer....

Ignore him, he was calling you a racist. In a round-about sort of way...

[Trabi601]

TheLordJohn said:

Ignore him, he was calling you a racist. In a round-about sort of way...

If the non denominational headgear fits...

[scherzkeks]

MrBrightSi said:

The German people are wonderful and lovely kind and open when you get to know them with an odd coldness and fetish for work that i can't appreciate.

A fetish for work? I am a white collar professional in Germany, and in my line of work they love Americans/UK/Anglos because they have a "better work ethic."

Germans like vacations, I have met very few that enjoy work.

[Hugo a Gogo]

they like finishing work and getting straight out the door at 5, and taking a couple of weeks off sick for a 'Kur'

when I first came here all the shops shut at 2pm on Saturday afternoon, 6.30 through the week, only the Turks etc would run kiosks that stayed open

but they do have a great respect for trades, Meister bakers and Meister hairdressers etc, Engineer is a title treated like 'Doctor' (and they LOVE doctor and professor titles)

Edited by Hugo a Gogo on Tuesday 18th October 15:48

[MrBrightSi]

Really?! see i got told that we Anglo's have poor work ethic and honestly did feel quite lazy in comparison to the guys i lived with out there. They would go to work and stay overtime, return home to the house and be ready to do some extra bits on the house till 8/9pm. I just wanted to have beer and a fire and enjoy the bread.

[scherzkeks]

Hugo a Gogo said:

they like finishing work and getting straight out the door at 5, and taking a couple of weeks off sick for a 'Kur'

when I first came here all the shops shut at 2pm on Saturday afternoon, 6.30 through the week, only the Turks etc would run kiosks that stayed open

but they do have a great respect for trades, Meister bakers and Meister hairdressers etc, Engineer is a title treated like 'Doctor' (and they LOVE doctor and professor titles)

Edited by Hugo a Gogo on Tuesday 18th October 15:48

Yes, the Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. needs his Kur.

[FN2TypeR]

del mar said:

FN2TypeR said:

del mar said:

I was there Garmisch in August, and I was not raped or attacked either.

However it wasn't much different from driving along Commercial Road in Tower Hamlets - I was shocked by the sheer volume of Muslims there you expect to see them in inner city areas but not in small mountain towns.

The scenery was lovely but I certainly would not want to live there.

How can you tell they are Muslim just by looking at them out of interest?

You're joking surely ?

Do they have a funny walk - no that's not it
Do they all wear red noses - no that's not it either.
Do they wear specific religious clothing that makes them stand out from the crowd - getting warmer....

Not at all, you are making vast assumptions regarding a person beliefs - obviously such indicators will help, but you never mentioned them in your original post. Of course many people who follow certain religions don't always wear traditional clothing of course, especially in less religiously conservative countries like Germany.

Here's what is likely a scary website for somebody narrow minded like you:

http://www.lovehabibi.com/muslims/white-muslims/

White people who follow Islam, OH THE HUMANITY.

[Hugo a Gogo]

more of those right-wingers who don't hurt anyone
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ger...

[anonymous-user]

MrBrightSi said:

Really?! see i got told that we Anglo's have poor work ethic and honestly did feel quite lazy in comparison to the guys i lived with out there. They would go to work and stay overtime, return home to the house and be ready to do some extra bits on the house till 8/9pm. I just wanted to have beer and a fire and enjoy the bread.

In my trade, motorsport, the Brits are always the ones grafting long hours. The Germans are OKish, the French

When we race at Dijon, they kick us out of the circuit in the evening so they can shut the place down until morning, it's the only circuit in the world I've worked at that does this.

[Trabi601]

I worked for a German company for a few years.

They were very efficient at getting out of the office to the nearest bar. Certainly wouldn't say they had a fetish for work!

[Liokault]

jsf said:

MrBrightSi said:

Really?! see i got told that we Anglo's have poor work ethic and honestly did feel quite lazy in comparison to the guys i lived with out there. They would go to work and stay overtime, return home to the house and be ready to do some extra bits on the house till 8/9pm. I just wanted to have beer and a fire and enjoy the bread.

In my trade, motorsport, the Brits are always the ones grafting long hours. The Germans are OKish, the French

When we race at Dijon, they kick us out of the circuit in the evening so they can shut the place down until morning, it's the only circuit in the world I've worked at that does this.

When I was in Saarlouis, the works council gated the Brit contractors as they worked way over mandated hours.

Now I'm in Munich, the biggest pain I have is a project team who work really long hours, but then take every third week off to settle their working time account.

[Digga]

jsf said:

In my trade, motorsport, the Brits are always the ones grafting long hours. The Germans are OKish, the French

When we race at Dijon, they kick us out of the circuit in the evening so they can shut the place down until morning, it's the only circuit in the world I've worked at that does this.

And therein lies my deep mistrust of the 'official' French productivity figures, especially vs. UK. Somehow, somewhere, the numbers are either being fudged or otherwise propped up by (unsustainable) public spending.

[paulrockliffe]

Digga said:

And therein lies my deep mistrust of the 'official' French productivity figures, especially vs. UK. Somehow, somewhere, the numbers are either being fudged or otherwise propped up by (unsustainable) public spending.

I've wondered that too, the last thing I read about it was along the lines of it being so hard to get rid of staff in France that there was far more investment in technology and automation, particularly in smaller businesses, compared with the UK. No idea if that's the answer, but it makes some sense and fits with the high productivity, but high unemployment.

I wonder if you adjust the per-capita productivity figures to include the unemployed, how does it look then? Actually, a quick google comes up with this, which seems to answer that question. https://fullfact.org/europe/factcheck-are-british-...

[krallicious]

Liokault said:

Now I'm in Munich, the biggest pain I have is a project team who work really long hours, but then take every third week off to settle their working time account.

Öffentliche dienst? I would love to work under the TVöD rules. If I did, I would only only be working until around 3pm on Thursdays.

[skyrover]

Digga said:

jsf said:

In my trade, motorsport, the Brits are always the ones grafting long hours. The Germans are OKish, the French

When we race at Dijon, they kick us out of the circuit in the evening so they can shut the place down until morning, it's the only circuit in the world I've worked at that does this.

And therein lies my deep mistrust of the 'official' French productivity figures, especially vs. UK. Somehow, somewhere, the numbers are either being fudged or otherwise propped up by (unsustainable) public spending.

Yep... It's essentially bks

[FredClogs]

skyrover said:

Digga said:

jsf said:

In my trade, motorsport, the Brits are always the ones grafting long hours. The Germans are OKish, the French

When we race at Dijon, they kick us out of the circuit in the evening so they can shut the place down until morning, it's the only circuit in the world I've worked at that does this.

And therein lies my deep mistrust of the 'official' French productivity figures, especially vs. UK. Somehow, somewhere, the numbers are either being fudged or otherwise propped up by (unsustainable) public spending.

Yep... It's essentially bks

Productivity is a ratio of in vs out, in simple terms hours worked / GDP for a nation.

I've worked all over europe, in Japan and on projects with people in the states.

It doesn't surprise me that in terms of bang for buck the French, Germans and Americans beat us hands down and the Japanese are woefully inefficient. But guess in which countries I spent most time in the office/lab? That's right, Japan and the UK. Its not strictly about what you put in that matters.

[Digga]

FredClogs said:

Productivity is a ratio of in vs out, in simple terms hours worked / GDP for a nation.

And therefore has the potential to be subsidised by gratuitous public spending.

[Hainey]

FN2TypeR said:

del mar said:

FN2TypeR said:

del mar said:

I was there Garmisch in August, and I was not raped or attacked either.

However it wasn't much different from driving along Commercial Road in Tower Hamlets - I was shocked by the sheer volume of Muslims there you expect to see them in inner city areas but not in small mountain towns.

The scenery was lovely but I certainly would not want to live there.

How can you tell they are Muslim just by looking at them out of interest?

You're joking surely ?

Do they have a funny walk - no that's not it
Do they all wear red noses - no that's not it either.
Do they wear specific religious clothing that makes them stand out from the crowd - getting warmer....

Not at all, you are making vast assumptions regarding a person beliefs - obviously such indicators will help, but you never mentioned them in your original post. Of course many people who follow certain religions don't always wear traditional clothing of course, especially in less religiously conservative countries like Germany.

Here's what is likely a scary website for somebody narrow minded like you:

http://www.lovehabibi.com/muslims/white-muslims/

White people who follow Islam, OH THE HUMANITY.

For some of us, when we hear hooves we think horses and not zebras but you however seem to be desperate to try and twist Occam's razor to a point of absurdity.

In summation, I'm pretty sure you could start an argument in an empty house