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The German Hug
It is not something new that Germans are considered “cold people”. Actually, it is a well-known and worldwide accepted opinion. Before coming to Germany to study, the first thing I did was Google the country and its people. And no need to guess, what I read mostly consisted of Germans being cold, not really preferring to talk in any other languages (“they won’t switch to English even if they know English”), obeying the rules, and probably never have the opportunity to make a German friend. Oh, I didn’t mention the fact that Bavaria, the southeastern part of German is considered to have even “colder” people. My future looked quite boring taking into consideration how spontaneous I am and how much I enjoy meeting new people. Just perfect.
It has been almost a month in Germany right now and long story short, I love this place and its people. The first person I met here was a German friend and the first thing he did when meeting me was give me a hug. Now that’s weird. Aren’t Germans supposed to be cold? Even in my native country the first time you meet a new person is to give them a handshake. And after knowing each other for some time we hug and kiss on both cheeks. But I learned that giving a hug is the way Germans meet other people and it took me some time to get used to it. And I even named it “German Hug”. Stereotype number one falls flat. Germans are not cold.
Germans prefer to speak only German(And we all know that life is too short to learn German right?). To show you how wrong this opinion is, I will describe a story briefly. I was on the bus and an old woman, in her 70s maybe, started to explain to me the station where I had to get off, IN ENGLISH. Now that is something I never expected. And almost everyone knows English here. Wherever you go, in a shopping mall, train station, university, on the streets, etc. there is someone talking in English. Even if they do not know, they will try to help you anyway. Another stereotype fails.
Germans obey rules. Yes, they do most of the time, but that doesn’t mean that they will never cross the street while the traffic light is still red. And nobody will shout at you for doing this. At least nobody did till now.
The reality is that the Germans are very nice people. Whenever you need help, you can just…
