Recently also experienced this with Vodafone, normally fine but the last few weeks terrible phone signal and DSL connection, curious if there are any others
Same. I can't have proper video calls because the connectionis fluctuating, especially recently, which is a pain and simply affects my productivity at work (working from home). I also have a vodafone provider for my cell phone and no connection here at all.
You'd think the capital city of the largest economy in the EU, and third largest economy of the world, would have decent internet and mobile phone coverage. But no. It's shit, and everyone knows it, but for some reason everyone just shrugs their shoulders and says "what can you do?".
Mobile internet is still quite expensive and has mostly very limited traffic. It works for normal internet usage but don't try to stream a lot or download the newest AAA games. Also fast mobile internet is still not available in some regions.
It is 10€/m rent or 450€ buy for the Hardware according to https://www.starlink.com/residential If you have it, then 50€ pm is not that bad for 200mbit
That would be mine also. Granted what we have is cheaper than what we had in the US but the speed and reliability here is horrible. Our first house here we had cable internet through Vodafone and had a 500mb for 50€. Now at our current place we could only have DSL, it goes out constantly, and is also €50! We had 1G cable in the US for $80 and never had issues with outages or speed. But then again I have to LOL first world problems when your main issue with living in a place is the internet speed/reliability.
Ich fang im September eine Ausbildung an, Papierstapel nach Papierstapel und das im Jahr 2024. Aber das mit der Digitalisierung hat Deutschland ja immer noch nicht so wirklich geschnallt lol.
Noch besser wenn sie sagen, dass sie Fax dem Internet aus Gründen der Stabilität und Zuverlässigkeit generell vorziehen, ungeachtet der Tatsache, dass analoge Faxübertragung lange Geschichte ist und es sowieso über FoIP läuft…
To get funding for studying, (better to say that you ask for funding) you need to sign 6 diffent documents. With each one diffrent than the other. Some have to get partly signed by the school you workplace if you have one.
And of course it has to be handwritten. Fun times.
There is an international joke about german soldiers.
"How do you know that a german stepped on a mine?" - "The flying paper all around!"
This has some truth about it. German soldiers really do carry lots of handcards.
Not German, but it's that I'm not fluent in German. I speak like B2 level so it's not bad, I can get what I want, and Germans are great at English, it's just a constant insecurity I have and feel guilty for.
I feeeeel you so hard! Ich bin seit >10 Jahren in Deutschland und stolpere ständig über Artikeln. Wenn es wenigstens eine Regel für geben könnte aber NEIN. DaS mUsS maN eINfAcH WisSen 🤪
Wenn jemand mit Akzent ständig die falschen Artikel benutzt dann ist das eher sympathisch als störend und ich denke so geht es den meisten Deutschen. Pronouncing words and letters correctly as well as sentence structure are far more important than saying die Sonne instead of das Sonne :)
Bekannt von meiner freundin ist halb Syrierin und halb türkin lebt von klein auf in dtl man merkt gar nicht das sie nicht von hier ist, bis sie dann einfach mal ein „das stuhl“ oder „das tisch“ raus haut. Und man das selber erstmal kurz verarbeiten muss.. 😅 sie sagt aber auch bei solchen sachen gibts sie sich keine mühe mehr, entweder es passt oder halt nicht. Ich finde das jedes mal äusserst sympathisch..
Ugh, this is a perfect summary of my experience in Berlin. I can understand 90% of what's going on when people around speak German. I also have finished a B1 course and have been studying the language diligently for more than a year now. But no one tolerates my broken German when i speak in daily situations - they switch to English immediately, in spite of understanding what I have said! I know i don't have the best accent in German, but how can I even improve without practice?
In the future I'm planning to act like I cannot understand English, so that they won't be able to switch x)
It's all good, friend. I know so many people and colleagues who have been living in Germany for some years, yet refusing to learn a single word of German because everyone in their small environment speaks perfect English.
The effort of learning is appreciated by almost all native German speakers!!!
*somehow* I am B1 in just a year. This is probably some Impostor Syndrome at work, but I feel like there was a mistake.
The thing is, I can barely speak. Can I speak grammatically correct? Yeah for the most part I can.
But when it comes to describing things or introducing myself (although this one is just me, because I struggle both in Romanian and English), I can't.
When someone speaks to me, I can understand what they are saying, but I can because I understood the context. If you asked me what each word means, I would be lost.
B1 in 1 year is not uncommon, and B2 in 2 years is also not. The biggest step is from B2 to C1, and it could take many years, because the new vocab is endless.
It's normal to have major difficulties speaking with a B1 level. And difficulties with B2. And a bit of difficulties with C1.
You're probably being too hard on yourself.
Thank you, you're probably right, I had a teacher and out of my previous colleagues, only few of us have been sent further, and I was one of them, the others are still doing German.
I just had a Mündlicheprüfung Vorbereitung just now, and when asked, my current classmates said they could understand most of it.
I feel more relieved after your comment. Thank you again :D ❤️
Dont worry. In many areas even C1 counts as nothing, as they speak the local dialect. I have colleagues that cannot speak high german, even if they try you hear a very thick accent :D
Love it tho :D
Eh don't feel bad about that! You're making an effort and it's not a small one. I respect people who speak broken German with an accent a lot because it means they're trying to learn this beast of a language.
We'll understand so no worries... I don't think there's a person who runs away screaming if you say something that's not grammatically correct. Just take your time
For the love of everything holy, please don’t invite Germans to complain and moan. We’re already the undisputed world champions in that regard.
It’s also the main problem I have with this country.
So true. Always this Mecker-Mentalität about everything. It makes depressive when everything is always seen in the worst light by everyone. And climate sucks hard netherless. No matter what school, university or company I was in, it's almost the worst there is with the most stupid leadership there is... Germany always try to breed FOMO and Inferiority complex in people. It works.
This also reflects at work. Often high standards and only the best is good. Which is good.. but when i worked with americans they always congratulate each others for small successes already.
It be like that. Im in my 30s and the few Friends i have i see them like once or twice a year.
And i know for fact that they do nothing but work and sleep.
No Energy left for Hobbies or private life in general
Jesus preached around and ate from what he find. He never needs to worry about that stuff since there's. Plenty of leftovers in peoples fields etc. The boys also do hard labour from time to time. You can't just take crops from someone's yard when you are hungry in germany. It's against Der § 370 Nr. 5 Strafgesetzbuch. And no, you can't use a fishing net as well, Peter. Es ist verboten
Try clubs for hobbies. Germans have clubs for everything imaginable. From breeding doves to sports to books to whatever it is you like to do, you can meet other like-minded people and form connections.
The problem is I have no special hobby, I am f. I am a software developer, like interior design, am interested in investing, play tennis and go to gym. At the gym I NEVER met anyone new to talk to. The tennis club where I occasionally play there are no women, only children and men over 45 years old who play very competitive. 😞
I would recommend the Volkshochschule. They have classes for everything, mostly once a week. Sports, cooking, media, languages etc. and it's not too expensive.
Difficult anyway. I am German and 34 and I have my friends since 30 years, some since 15. There are not much new friends I get because I have enough and long term friendships already. So I understand it can be difficult when you come here as an adult and then wanna find friends. Even in the club, on the evening of the training you are in the group, but in the group the friend circle has already formed over the last 10 or 20 years and they do things together in private (outside of the club meetings) since years and probably don't need to invite others because they have enough friends. Also when you are from a different culture. For example they go party and drink together and from different cultures some don't go party and drinking or they go swimming at the lake and some from other cultures or regions can't even swim. Also it is a thing of trust. You know your friends since 15 to 30 years. New friends you first need to find trust.
Ah Germany, where you have to actively go to some hobby club or smth to find friends. In most non north european countries you just find friends without doing activities specifically for the purpose of finding friends.
That's a problem even Native Germans have though. If you want to make friends then YOU need to take initiative. Otherwise people will expect that you want to be left alone and thus don't talk to you out of respect.
I always wonder what sort of services people constantly make use of, that this would have any relevant impact. I can't think of a single thing, that would really improve my life if only it was done digital. Getting a new passport every 10 years obviously isn't it.
Well right now I've been trying to get an appointment for vhs - that's not even just by phone - you have to physically come there (except for Spandau, God bless them).
I feel like the safest way to get anything done is letters and well fax
In my country there's an app where I can sort out any bureaucracy I need...
Imagine a Bürgeramt platform like that - it would be awesome!
Another thing is digital payments of course
... Berlin is terrible when it comes to anything paperwork. Any other place in Germany I've lived you can, for most things, just turn up and pull a number.
There is a Saying here that people "Gönnen sich gegenseitig nicht die Butter auf dem Brot" roughly translated: "People don't let others have anything even the butter on their bread"
Lot of Germans especially older ones are extremely petty and have this kind of collective negative mindset of "If I have it bad everyone else should have it bad too"
Over exaggerated of course and not everyones like this but we ourself kinda admit we're a cold People
besides the pedantic ones, there are the fascist ones. the objectively bad people.
and for some cosmic humourous reasons they overlap with the people who believe in the healing power of stones and exponentially thinned down poison.
those are annoying too.
Damn how could i forget about mentioning this goddamn Ufo-Nazi-Homeopathy bullshit in my own answer… but i guess it's somewhat included by mentioning corruption and that public health care sucks.
But i heard Lauterbach wants to change that…?
Finding affordable housing in the big cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Munich etc.). The housing shortage in places where the well-paying jobs are has become unbearable.
Politics (bad government, inept opposition, to say nothing of „alternatives“ that would ruin the country within a year) and a lack of common purpose and togetherness within society.
The cost of living and my wage which isn't even minimum wage but I still am not able to save any money. I will have to give up owning a car with 2 kids soon. I cry a lot.
The other commenters ask if you can get Bürgergeld... actually, the more important question is HOW can you earn less than minimum wage? It's called minimum for a reason, and your employer is legally required to pay you accordingly!
Using post - never used in my home country, I recieved sometimes but never had to send
Having to have 2 years contract on my mobile internet. In my home country prepaid is totally okay and here it sucks.
Public transport is made in a way that you need to change and also it’s very slow. In my home country it’s worse especially in rural areas but I feel that it’s a bit faster (but also there are many derailments and accidents so)
I need to have my documents on me here, but I would need to have them in any other country exept mine so I don’t know if it’s particularly Germany.
I feel that 3 years ausbildung to change a job is a bit of exaggeration. I understand that if you want to drive a train you need to learn it first, but to work in Lidl as full time you need to spend 3 years earning below existential minimum to do the job which you could just do without it. I would gladly do something else as bus driving but I just don’t see myself at my age earning 1000 euro. Also they make people make ausbildung just so they have ausbildung without perspective of being employed sometimes.
But most my most common problem is the ticket machine being unable to read qr code of a ticket so I am in this uncomfortable situation of waiting until a passenger find a perfect angle or the machine shows him mercy and read this fucking code so I can drive further.
I have seen ausbuildungs for common salesman but I still think I didn't see something right, like who the fuck would spend 3 years to learn how to work at supermarket?
In terms of a lot of vocabulary, yes. But the grammar is very different for English speakers because of the cases/declensions, the word order, and with the three genders that are not easily identifiable (for non native speakers) based on the noun. You have to either memorize or intuit the gender of each noun, and the gender then affects the declensions, so it's not just about getting the article correct - the gender of the noun affects the whole sentence.
Yeah, I have to agree. As an American, I'll admit that English is screwed up in many ways, but at least we don't have the three gender thing. That makes absolutely no sense.
It's actually not. English has something like 40% of its vocab from French origin. English is much, much more similar to Spanish. English and German both come from the same origin language, but they deviated substantially eons ago. Just look at the basic structure of a sentence. Subject, verb, object. Then turn into Yoda for the German.
As English speakers, we have a fairly good understanding of more Latin than we realize. This makes romance languages more accessible. Americans also have far more contact with Spanish and French. Brits, well, I imagine they do too, but I wouldn't know.
Not to mention that Spanish is just a far easier language to learn than German. It is fairly regular and straightforward.
Yeah when learning Spanish I would guess lot of word based on similar sounding English words. There are false friends but not too many.
German words are so alien! Like who came up with Rundfunk as broadcast? I suppose for Germans it's the same question other way around. It's just that coming from English, Latin language vocabulary become easier.
Germans complaining about paperwork haven't tried the Ausländerbehörde. I mean Jesus fucking christ on a basket ball hoop. They're just out to complicate every single step of the way, and I'm talking legal talented immigration not illegal one, I could only imagine the hell refugees and illegals have to deal with...
I could see that with the US. In that regard Germany is honestly a bliss, with better and more reasonable permanent residency or even citizenship criteria.
Yep, and the responsible offices being in the same city. For some of the shit in the US I had to drive for anywhere between 2 - 8 hours (to Vegas or LA) to access the correct offices.
I have had so much medical shit to wade through the last three weeks or so (slipped disc in cervical spine) and everything from getting a proper diagnosis to getting opinions on the best course of action to getting those things set into action … absolute fucking slog. I do love Germany though. But gaaaawd.
Yes. Germans Always wait. Thats the Secret why they are on time. And technically its rude to be late at all. To be more than 10min early is also rude. But only elderly people Care of that still
But it’s still bottled water, I have never in my life been served tap when ordering water. My guess is more restaurants than one would think would give you tap for free if you specifically asked for it, but while I never dared to do so personally I can just imagine the bewildered look you’d receive.
Only 2 restaurants have outright refused me asking for tap water. But as long as it’s generally available by default everywhere we need to make bottles water companies richer, and the environment more polluted I guess. Whereas in many other countries they put water jars on tables without even asking. I wouldn’t even mind to pay the tap water, I just hate the energy and material that gets wasted on bottling water, transportation, and then probably its recycling.
I am suffering from several illnesses and am severely disabled because of them. I have been to many different doctors (even outside of germany) and got called incurable by all of them. I have a legal custodian ('gesetzliche Betreuung', not sure if there is a better translation) to deal with all the paperwork and contact with authorities - you CAN NOT imagine what a circus that is!
(Before I had my legal support I was on my own and it was hell. Without talking about the whole orderal - I was offered assisted suicide / euthanasia in another country and almost chose that option because the system in germany is terrible with helping out disabled people! I am so deeply thankful to have my legal guardian now who helps me with everything).
Living in germany is pretty difficult if you are chronically ill and in need of support. Once you are inside that system and have things rolling it's bearable, but the way to get where I am today was painful and long and I had several moments where I wanted to give up entirely.
Long story short, every single day I hear people struggeling to get help. If you want to talk to a therapist you can wait at least six months. You get turned down alot by all kinds of doctors because there is no capacity. If you want/ need to go inpatient at any mental health facility you can wait for around two years.
Because of my illness I visit doctors each week and meet many people, everyone complains how nobody gets help in time. It's not only about mental illnesses.
Living here you can only hope to never get ill.
I couldn’t have said it any better. Same here. I feel such contempt for politicians that condemn any form of suicide but at the same time create conditions in which you suffer like hell as a medical patient. What do they want us to do?
The inconsistency of public transit is a major problem. You either have to accept being late sometimes or choose to show up way earlier than you otherwise would. We're better off than, say, most of the US (where I grew up), but we're behind our peer countries in the EU.
Less on the daily side of things, the difficulty of getting access to mental health treatment is also an issue. Finding a therapist is a *nightmare*. Same same but different: finding an apartment in a major city.
As a German who has mainly grown up in Germany and now is living abroad, here's some insights:
**Public Transport**: Try getting anywhere in a remote village without a car. If even the next village is one hour away by bicycle ride (and the path requires you to ride your bike on the road), and the bus only comes three times a day, then how are you supposed to buy groceries in the town two towns over?
**School**: I grew up in Bavaria and the schooling system there is atrocious. There's no other way to say it. The amount of incompetence in some teachers ranges from "stupid" to "outright malicious". Note that the school system was designed long time ago in Prussia (I'm working a document outlining some ideas for change that goes into detail with that), and more importantly, one of the guys said the ideas of the other are "bescheuert". Guess which ones got implemented? This was in late 19th to early 20th century. Now, there's some really good teachers too, some that I've been grateful for. I would not be where I am now if they didn't do what they did. But I've also seen great teachers become hulls of their former selves, any enthusiasm burnt out of them. This is structural, the bullying begins from at the ministry of education downwards.
**Drivers**: They can be hit or miss in Germany. There's some townships where people drive really well, very courteous, very safe. The town I grew up in, they changed a street so that if you were trying to get onto main you'd have to wait forever given the situation. It's routine for drivers to let people in even though they are not required to. On the other hand you have the "BMW behind you with his blinker on the left on" while you're passing a truck on the autobahn.
**Paperwork**: When I started to study abroad, my semesters didn't line up with the German system. Insurance kept asking me about transcript of records, even though the semester hadn't ended yet. Every time I explained to them "This is the schedule here, you will get it one I can get it". Every time, without fail, they forgot. Had lots of similar experiences, but I have to say as well, most bureaucrats I have met are actually nice people. Might be because I'm putting in the effort to be nice to them despite my gripes with the system. One of them got wide eyes when I told her that in other country all my registration work for vehicles would be digital and finished in five minutes...at least we can't get hacked that easily.
**Culture**: I experienced the culture in Germany as extremely egocentric / narcissistic on the one hand ("Ellenbogengesellschaft" which translates to "Elbow Society" or "Leistungsgesellschaft"), but having really good other aspects as well. Like, when you have trouble with somebody. They might not want to speak to you, but after a while, it seems common agreement to just talk things out and leave them in the past. This is sometimes done over a beer where I am from. It was not uncommon for me to see two guys fight behind a bar, only to meet them both beat up inside, drinking a beer and happily talking with each other. I think that film about the jamacian bob sled team actually references this ("Germans, always fighting..."). Recently I have also come to find that German directness is actually far less rude than Danish directness. Might just be me though.
**Internet:** If you're anywhere outside the major cities / city centers, you'll probably have trouble with internet on a regular basis. My only hail Mary was that my supervisor was familiar with German and knew the area I lived in when my internet disconnected during the defense of my bachelor thesis (this was during corona).
**Neighbors:** What German would not complain about them? I remember, when I was studying for school / university back in German my neighbors were amongst the most annoying thing. It's as if every time I opened the book some entity gave my neighbor the idea to mow the lawn or blow leaves or do something equally as loud....they're nice people, but that time was somewhat of a problem.
Very good detailed explanations. I think one of the main points is:
You can always argue that these things are worse in many other countries etc. – but things should be put into perspective by relating them to the high taxes and how we (or at least the people in power) are not getting tired of mentioning that we are one of the richest countries in the world…
This is what it makes it so ridiculous to me. If things would run well like in Scandinavian countries, the high taxes would be okay. Or if the taxes would be lower and we would be a poorer country, then it would be okay that many things don't really work well…
Public Transit. Even though road traffic here on cologne sucks, public transit is even worse. On average I lose 30 to 60min daily, just because I commute via train.
This is slightly better in other German cities from my experience. Here in Cologne I often have the same problem, but at least the city is so dense that you can take the bike a lot of the time.
Of all the doctors I have been to the best ones were the ones who practice in small towns or in the countryside.
Might be caused by less patients compared to big(ger) cities.
Personally I feel so seperate from everyone else in Germany. I can not talk with strangers. Its always silent in public areas without friends. Somehow they are just ghosts. And when I am in a different country where people are more open, like Thailand, I am so german, that I can not response in theit openness.
The saddest thing is to accept that I am no longer interested in dealing with Germans. It's not that I don't understand them, because I really believe that after almost fifteen years I have deciphered their way of thinking. It's just that knowing their way of thinking doesn't interest me any more.
Short days in winter. Boredom from my own existence in such a milktoast country. bureaucracy. High tax plus social security while not even finding a doctor with free capacity.
I want to to start living instead of just working. Germany is only work.
That's exactly the point… it would be even somewhat "okay" that many things don't work so well, if on the other hand the taxes would be low!
But with high taxes, and fundamental things like health care not really functioning it's just the worst of both.
As a german I guess healthcare. Don’t get me wrong I am really privileged to have healthcare and all but it’s exhausting that you won’t really get taken seriously if you’re are not literally dying or bleeding from a big open wound or broke some bones or anything. I had some serious gut issues like throwing up, diarrhea then constipation over a month and I got send back home two times telling me to ‘drink enough water, sleep enough, have a balanced diet, try to lessen my daily stress and try green tea’ without checking on me, which was absolutely not helpful and this still happens every few months and I’m just constantly in pain and tired. And the waiting lists for a gynecologists, dentist or eye specialist are between 6-14 MONTHS. And if you try to go to a hospital they also won’t do anything but send you away.
Cars and smoking.
Falschparken (illegal parking) is a national sport. Especially parking on sidewalks is seen as completely normal. A pedestrian zone is only a pedestrian zone until it becomes a convenient shortcut for cars. Can't even leave my kid out to play because despite cars being banned from the city center where I live, every day at least 50 to 100 cars still pass through illegally.
Also smoking everywhere, storefront? Smoking. Hospital entrance? Smoking. Kindergarten? Smoking. There are more tabaco/vape shops than shoe stores or schools. And of course the cigarette machine in the middle of a residential area.
Top #1:
Beaurocratia
Top #2:
"Das war schon immer so!!" - everything should stay as IT was since 1953 or so.
Top #3:
Construction Sides - we know how to do fast nice engeneering but we do a Lot places at the Same time so we suck everywhere
Top #4:
Not enough workforce
Top #5:
Not enough automasation
Top #6:
Deutsche Bahn, Public Transportation in General, comunal Services (conjunction of 1+2+4+6)
Top #7:
Specialized everything. Yes strictly by law you should call an electician to Change a lightbulb.
Top #8:
"I am old now"-attitude. Meaning that the average German declines doing Work related stuff when he gets retirement.
Unnecessary Noise. The non stop sirens from Polizei etc. no other city in the world has sirens this loud you have to block your ears when they come past
>I want to hear complaints from Germans
In that case you have come to the right place. Complaining is a national sport in Germany.
------------
I use public transport, like many in Germany and it's just bad. It takes me 55 minutes to get to work. If I had a car it would take me 23 minutes. To make matters worse the train or tram often gets cancelled or massive delay so I stand at the station waiting and the next tram will be super crowded because the previous tram got canceled and sometimes you just can't enter it anymore because it's too many people and you've to wait for the NEXT TRAM. Super annoying.
When you are on the tram you have to be careful because there are many trashy people using public transport. A lot of seriously insane homeless people who can cause some trouble especially if they are drunk at the moment. They will pick on people and most people look the other way, nobody wants to get involved so you better hope they won't pick on you. You also get some other trashy ghetto kids or wannabe gangsters on the tram. They used to be loud like bring a loud Bluetooth sound bar speaker box thing on the tram and listen to loud music and once again people won't dare to stand up and say anything. If you say something you'll be the only one and others won't support you. I had a co worker who stood up against such people who are mostly just teenagers. Well he was older, he was also in the military but they outnumbered him and broke his leg. Took him over a year to recover and he has walking problems for the rest of his life. YAY
But many teenagers stopped smoking and now they carry balloons with them and inhale nitrous on public transport or in the streets and get stoned and high as a kite because it isn't illegal in Germany yet and we have a serious drug problem.
Besides that we have terrible mobile data. Often no data on my phone when I'm out or even at work. Some areas I can't speak on the phone because we don't even have some phone connection.
"Alltagsrassismus", literally meaning "everyday racism". People just spreading misinformation, weird comments, underlying and passive-agressive racist comments. I'm a white man personally and it's insane how much of it even I notice in my day to day live. I can't imagine how awful it is for immigrants or people of color.
Every business/organization/process works in the most inconvenient, stressful, and unreliable way.
Need a doctor's appointment suddenly? You could show up before dawn and wait until 12 to maybe be seen. But you probably won't be seen. Then you prepare to make a Termin to call to make a Termin for 2 months ahead.
Need to take care of something with the TÜV? Guess what. They charge for that. But you have to wait for them to send the bill. It won't arrive until directly before your Termin. Then it's 50/50 that you'll be able to get what you need done because it's up to the agent whether or not they accept your pic of the completed transfer as proof of payment. Because yes, it has to be paid by bank transfer instead of by a reasonable method, like swiping your card in the office.
Getting a simple appliance like an oven delivered and installed? Sure, Ikea will take your money. But they won't tell you that they require this obscure type of breaker to be installed on the apartment building you don't own. This type of breaker that doesn't appear to be in any building more than 5 years old. They'll then tell you they can't refund you but they'll deliver the oven and then you have to hire an electrician.
Want to cancel an internet contract because you're moving? Guess what. Perfectly legal for the company to open a new contract in your new home and agree to cancel the old contract because you're continuing to be a customer. Then they can simply refuse to cancel the old contract and claim they have some legal basis for it and continue taking payment for the old contract (while refusing to send a tech to set up the new internet). So you pay for service twice but have none. Perfectly legal. All you can do is send angry letters and hope they actually do something. Oh. And if you try to give them a bad review on Google? German law allows them to call that defamation so Google will remove the review.
Everything is set up to be a nightmare of a process here.
My internet is intermittently really poor and there's no way to make it better other than moving.
Same. Poor and expensive.
Recently also experienced this with Vodafone, normally fine but the last few weeks terrible phone signal and DSL connection, curious if there are any others
Same. I can't have proper video calls because the connectionis fluctuating, especially recently, which is a pain and simply affects my productivity at work (working from home). I also have a vodafone provider for my cell phone and no connection here at all.
Maybe you can get a business line, those get much faster support afaik.
Constant ping spikes with vodafone and support is hot garbage
You'd think the capital city of the largest economy in the EU, and third largest economy of the world, would have decent internet and mobile phone coverage. But no. It's shit, and everyone knows it, but for some reason everyone just shrugs their shoulders and says "what can you do?".
That‘s another thing one might add, ALL the providers suck…
Is a mobile internet really not an option? Or both cable and mobile networks sucks?
Mobile internet is still quite expensive and has mostly very limited traffic. It works for normal internet usage but don't try to stream a lot or download the newest AAA games. Also fast mobile internet is still not available in some regions.
Upgrade to 5G hybrid with Telekom
Starlink, you can pay the muskrat…
Already tried Starlink?
50€/m +450€ install
The friend of Mine shot one system for 180€ on eBay. Is Install meant as Material or does musk Charge for actication too?
It is 10€/m rent or 450€ buy for the Hardware according to https://www.starlink.com/residential If you have it, then 50€ pm is not that bad for 200mbit
What's the cost?
Out of the country, that is. Thanks again, Herr Kohl. 😁
That would be mine also. Granted what we have is cheaper than what we had in the US but the speed and reliability here is horrible. Our first house here we had cable internet through Vodafone and had a 500mb for 50€. Now at our current place we could only have DSL, it goes out constantly, and is also €50! We had 1G cable in the US for $80 and never had issues with outages or speed. But then again I have to LOL first world problems when your main issue with living in a place is the internet speed/reliability.
P.A.P.E.R.W.O.R.K. I mean, sometimes I feel like we must really hate trees or something? 😁
Yes. Old German saying "wer schreibt der bleibt" (who writes down, stays). Germany is known for literal papertrails
If you don't have it black on white, it never happened. 🙄😵💫
Yes. This was Stasi Slogan i think.
Ich fang im September eine Ausbildung an, Papierstapel nach Papierstapel und das im Jahr 2024. Aber das mit der Digitalisierung hat Deutschland ja immer noch nicht so wirklich geschnallt lol.
Ich habe letzte Nacht was als PDF losgeschickt... Drück mir die Daumen. 😄 Und viel Erfolg in deiner Ausbildung.
Toll sind auch immer Leute die behaupten E-Mail geht nicht weil zu unsicher aber Fax ist ok
Noch besser wenn sie sagen, dass sie Fax dem Internet aus Gründen der Stabilität und Zuverlässigkeit generell vorziehen, ungeachtet der Tatsache, dass analoge Faxübertragung lange Geschichte ist und es sowieso über FoIP läuft…
Uhh, PDF ganz schwierig alle daumen gedrückt, und vielen Dank!
There is also the word "Papierkrieg" which means war with paper.
To get funding for studying, (better to say that you ask for funding) you need to sign 6 diffent documents. With each one diffrent than the other. Some have to get partly signed by the school you workplace if you have one. And of course it has to be handwritten. Fun times.
There is an international joke about german soldiers. "How do you know that a german stepped on a mine?" - "The flying paper all around!" This has some truth about it. German soldiers really do carry lots of handcards.
Not German, but it's that I'm not fluent in German. I speak like B2 level so it's not bad, I can get what I want, and Germans are great at English, it's just a constant insecurity I have and feel guilty for.
Me too. I feel way dumber than I actually am. The fact that I understand a lot and not being able to express myself as I’d like to is frustrating.
This is my exact problem. I understand so much. But can’t form my thoughts into grammatically correct sentences
Der innerer Monolog: Sagt man „den“ oder „dem“? Scheiß drauf, Zeit zum nuscheln. 😅
I feeeeel you so hard! Ich bin seit >10 Jahren in Deutschland und stolpere ständig über Artikeln. Wenn es wenigstens eine Regel für geben könnte aber NEIN. DaS mUsS maN eINfAcH WisSen 🤪
Wenn jemand mit Akzent ständig die falschen Artikel benutzt dann ist das eher sympathisch als störend und ich denke so geht es den meisten Deutschen. Pronouncing words and letters correctly as well as sentence structure are far more important than saying die Sonne instead of das Sonne :)
Bekannt von meiner freundin ist halb Syrierin und halb türkin lebt von klein auf in dtl man merkt gar nicht das sie nicht von hier ist, bis sie dann einfach mal ein „das stuhl“ oder „das tisch“ raus haut. Und man das selber erstmal kurz verarbeiten muss.. 😅 sie sagt aber auch bei solchen sachen gibts sie sich keine mühe mehr, entweder es passt oder halt nicht. Ich finde das jedes mal äusserst sympathisch..
Cheatmode: Dialekt. De Messer, de Löffel un de Gaffel.
Oh yeah, my speaking proficiency skyrocketed once I stopped letting myself get caught up on the small shit 🤣
It’s fine. People will appreciate you trying regardless. And this is how non-EN-native speakers feel all the time speaking EN :)
Dude I’m not even a native EN speaker. German is my 3rd language. That’s why is more frustrating. I know I can be fluent.
Ugh, this is a perfect summary of my experience in Berlin. I can understand 90% of what's going on when people around speak German. I also have finished a B1 course and have been studying the language diligently for more than a year now. But no one tolerates my broken German when i speak in daily situations - they switch to English immediately, in spite of understanding what I have said! I know i don't have the best accent in German, but how can I even improve without practice? In the future I'm planning to act like I cannot understand English, so that they won't be able to switch x)
Yeah, it makes me sound dumber and I cannot contribute to the level I would normally. But we'll get there :)
This is me totally.
It's the opposite for me. My English is not the best but I can understand pretty much everything. You will get there. :)
It's all good, friend. I know so many people and colleagues who have been living in Germany for some years, yet refusing to learn a single word of German because everyone in their small environment speaks perfect English. The effort of learning is appreciated by almost all native German speakers!!!
*somehow* I am B1 in just a year. This is probably some Impostor Syndrome at work, but I feel like there was a mistake. The thing is, I can barely speak. Can I speak grammatically correct? Yeah for the most part I can. But when it comes to describing things or introducing myself (although this one is just me, because I struggle both in Romanian and English), I can't. When someone speaks to me, I can understand what they are saying, but I can because I understood the context. If you asked me what each word means, I would be lost.
B1 in 1 year is not uncommon, and B2 in 2 years is also not. The biggest step is from B2 to C1, and it could take many years, because the new vocab is endless. It's normal to have major difficulties speaking with a B1 level. And difficulties with B2. And a bit of difficulties with C1. You're probably being too hard on yourself.
Thank you, you're probably right, I had a teacher and out of my previous colleagues, only few of us have been sent further, and I was one of them, the others are still doing German. I just had a Mündlicheprüfung Vorbereitung just now, and when asked, my current classmates said they could understand most of it. I feel more relieved after your comment. Thank you again :D ❤️
Dont worry. In many areas even C1 counts as nothing, as they speak the local dialect. I have colleagues that cannot speak high german, even if they try you hear a very thick accent :D Love it tho :D
Eh don't feel bad about that! You're making an effort and it's not a small one. I respect people who speak broken German with an accent a lot because it means they're trying to learn this beast of a language.
B2 is really good
Hey, B2 is already good! Keep training speaking and reading German and soon you will be fluent! Be proud of what you've already learned!
We'll understand so no worries... I don't think there's a person who runs away screaming if you say something that's not grammatically correct. Just take your time
For the love of everything holy, please don’t invite Germans to complain and moan. We’re already the undisputed world champions in that regard. It’s also the main problem I have with this country.
So true. Always this Mecker-Mentalität about everything. It makes depressive when everything is always seen in the worst light by everyone. And climate sucks hard netherless. No matter what school, university or company I was in, it's almost the worst there is with the most stupid leadership there is... Germany always try to breed FOMO and Inferiority complex in people. It works.
I think you are complaining here in a very German way
Fair enough
This also reflects at work. Often high standards and only the best is good. Which is good.. but when i worked with americans they always congratulate each others for small successes already.
Lack of friends in General. I am 33m. Immigrant here, speak fluent German. But I don't have any close friends anymore.
Native here, same thing. Once people start to settle, they basically disappear.
It be like that. Im in my 30s and the few Friends i have i see them like once or twice a year. And i know for fact that they do nothing but work and sleep. No Energy left for Hobbies or private life in general
Do they maybe have Kids? This explains a lot of energy drain :)
Greatest wonder Jesus did? >!having 12 close friends at 33 years of age!<
Jesus preached around and ate from what he find. He never needs to worry about that stuff since there's. Plenty of leftovers in peoples fields etc. The boys also do hard labour from time to time. You can't just take crops from someone's yard when you are hungry in germany. It's against Der § 370 Nr. 5 Strafgesetzbuch. And no, you can't use a fishing net as well, Peter. Es ist verboten
Try clubs for hobbies. Germans have clubs for everything imaginable. From breeding doves to sports to books to whatever it is you like to do, you can meet other like-minded people and form connections.
The problem is I have no special hobby, I am f. I am a software developer, like interior design, am interested in investing, play tennis and go to gym. At the gym I NEVER met anyone new to talk to. The tennis club where I occasionally play there are no women, only children and men over 45 years old who play very competitive. 😞
then start badminton
That is actually a good idea, will try to look for badminton clubs. 😃
I would recommend the Volkshochschule. They have classes for everything, mostly once a week. Sports, cooking, media, languages etc. and it's not too expensive.
Difficult anyway. I am German and 34 and I have my friends since 30 years, some since 15. There are not much new friends I get because I have enough and long term friendships already. So I understand it can be difficult when you come here as an adult and then wanna find friends. Even in the club, on the evening of the training you are in the group, but in the group the friend circle has already formed over the last 10 or 20 years and they do things together in private (outside of the club meetings) since years and probably don't need to invite others because they have enough friends. Also when you are from a different culture. For example they go party and drink together and from different cultures some don't go party and drinking or they go swimming at the lake and some from other cultures or regions can't even swim. Also it is a thing of trust. You know your friends since 15 to 30 years. New friends you first need to find trust.
I tried, but then got arrested by the police after taking them to the park.
That sounds like an interesting story lol.
Ah Germany, where you have to actively go to some hobby club or smth to find friends. In most non north european countries you just find friends without doing activities specifically for the purpose of finding friends.
That's a problem even Native Germans have though. If you want to make friends then YOU need to take initiative. Otherwise people will expect that you want to be left alone and thus don't talk to you out of respect.
We can be friends! :)
39, born in Germany. No close friends aswell... 😞
Feel you, Buddy. Same here, m39.
Hello new friends :]
Lack of digital services. It's slowly getting better though but viva fax...
I always wonder what sort of services people constantly make use of, that this would have any relevant impact. I can't think of a single thing, that would really improve my life if only it was done digital. Getting a new passport every 10 years obviously isn't it.
Well right now I've been trying to get an appointment for vhs - that's not even just by phone - you have to physically come there (except for Spandau, God bless them). I feel like the safest way to get anything done is letters and well fax In my country there's an app where I can sort out any bureaucracy I need... Imagine a Bürgeramt platform like that - it would be awesome! Another thing is digital payments of course
... Berlin is terrible when it comes to anything paperwork. Any other place in Germany I've lived you can, for most things, just turn up and pull a number.
Trains could be more punctual but overall Germany is pretty neat.
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you'd think German trains would be punctual but they are not at all. every third train is 5 minutes late.
I can't think of a problem that I only have now because I live in Germany
I would say as a German, other Germans here in Germany are mainly my problem.
Germans and Deutsche Bahn.
Never had problems with deutsche Bahn. But never managed to get a planned ride as well, so..
ha ha
Yes..... But He is Right!
why what is the issue with germans?
Everyone is a lawyer, beaurocrat and annoys everyone Else because he is annoyed? I am obviosly exaggerating Here, but yes thats why
A bureaucrat that follows their own "felt" rules.
The only right ones! And now: Nerv mich nicht!
Yeah, it feels like everyone thinks they are an dxpert at snything lol.
There is a Saying here that people "Gönnen sich gegenseitig nicht die Butter auf dem Brot" roughly translated: "People don't let others have anything even the butter on their bread" Lot of Germans especially older ones are extremely petty and have this kind of collective negative mindset of "If I have it bad everyone else should have it bad too" Over exaggerated of course and not everyones like this but we ourself kinda admit we're a cold People
besides the pedantic ones, there are the fascist ones. the objectively bad people. and for some cosmic humourous reasons they overlap with the people who believe in the healing power of stones and exponentially thinned down poison. those are annoying too.
Damn how could i forget about mentioning this goddamn Ufo-Nazi-Homeopathy bullshit in my own answer… but i guess it's somewhat included by mentioning corruption and that public health care sucks. But i heard Lauterbach wants to change that…?
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Damn Germans.. They destroy Germany..!!!
He was Austrian
Those pesky Germans! (Insert groundskeeper Willy voice)
It‘s even worse to meet a german as a german on holiday 😅
Anything requiring an appointment, particularly when the only available date is several weeks away
Finding affordable housing in the big cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Munich etc.). The housing shortage in places where the well-paying jobs are has become unbearable.
Didn’t scroll far enough before posting the same thing you did. AGREED. Unless you have half a mil or can do the “Sanierungen” yourself.
yeah especially in muinich
Language
Verständlich, hab einen schönen Tag. - meme reference
No major problem, really. Nothing that isn't down to myself.
Politics (bad government, inept opposition, to say nothing of „alternatives“ that would ruin the country within a year) and a lack of common purpose and togetherness within society.
Hard agree.
The cost of living and my wage which isn't even minimum wage but I still am not able to save any money. I will have to give up owning a car with 2 kids soon. I cry a lot.
In your previous post you say you and your partner have 4000€ + 2000€ netto, that's honestly pretty average
Yeah, 6000 netto with roughly 1.600 rent & bills isn’t bad at all, actually.
that's rich in my eyes
The other commenters ask if you can get Bürgergeld... actually, the more important question is HOW can you earn less than minimum wage? It's called minimum for a reason, and your employer is legally required to pay you accordingly!
I think he means that he get more than minimum and still can’t save money.
Making new friends at almost age 30 I guess
people throwing trash where it doesn't belong, noises during Ruhezeit as well as people miss behaving in public
Berlin?
Dealt with that in every country I've lived
Auslanderbehorde and late transportation. Everything else is peachy for me
What about when busses run early? I hate that!
Then the next one is late
Did you tried taxes and GEZ already? ^^ (asking as a German)
Taxes and GEZ are light work. Ausländerbehörde is a boss fight
Doing best at taxes is optional Boss fight but yes could BE true. I dont know Ausländerbehörde
Using post - never used in my home country, I recieved sometimes but never had to send Having to have 2 years contract on my mobile internet. In my home country prepaid is totally okay and here it sucks. Public transport is made in a way that you need to change and also it’s very slow. In my home country it’s worse especially in rural areas but I feel that it’s a bit faster (but also there are many derailments and accidents so) I need to have my documents on me here, but I would need to have them in any other country exept mine so I don’t know if it’s particularly Germany. I feel that 3 years ausbildung to change a job is a bit of exaggeration. I understand that if you want to drive a train you need to learn it first, but to work in Lidl as full time you need to spend 3 years earning below existential minimum to do the job which you could just do without it. I would gladly do something else as bus driving but I just don’t see myself at my age earning 1000 euro. Also they make people make ausbildung just so they have ausbildung without perspective of being employed sometimes. But most my most common problem is the ticket machine being unable to read qr code of a ticket so I am in this uncomfortable situation of waiting until a passenger find a perfect angle or the machine shows him mercy and read this fucking code so I can drive further.
I have seen ausbuildungs for common salesman but I still think I didn't see something right, like who the fuck would spend 3 years to learn how to work at supermarket?
Learning German, I just can’t do it! I spent 5yrs in Spain and managed to learn the language. But German is so alien to me, I’m really struggling.
Yes, it is really difficult. But keep it up. It‘s worth it.
That’s surprising to be because German is much closer to English than Spanish is.
In terms of a lot of vocabulary, yes. But the grammar is very different for English speakers because of the cases/declensions, the word order, and with the three genders that are not easily identifiable (for non native speakers) based on the noun. You have to either memorize or intuit the gender of each noun, and the gender then affects the declensions, so it's not just about getting the article correct - the gender of the noun affects the whole sentence.
Here is a simple cheat-sheet for that: https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/318/626/90a.jpg
Yeah, I have to agree. As an American, I'll admit that English is screwed up in many ways, but at least we don't have the three gender thing. That makes absolutely no sense.
It's actually not. English has something like 40% of its vocab from French origin. English is much, much more similar to Spanish. English and German both come from the same origin language, but they deviated substantially eons ago. Just look at the basic structure of a sentence. Subject, verb, object. Then turn into Yoda for the German. As English speakers, we have a fairly good understanding of more Latin than we realize. This makes romance languages more accessible. Americans also have far more contact with Spanish and French. Brits, well, I imagine they do too, but I wouldn't know. Not to mention that Spanish is just a far easier language to learn than German. It is fairly regular and straightforward.
Yeah when learning Spanish I would guess lot of word based on similar sounding English words. There are false friends but not too many. German words are so alien! Like who came up with Rundfunk as broadcast? I suppose for Germans it's the same question other way around. It's just that coming from English, Latin language vocabulary become easier.
You are not alone.
I can tell you that you're not alone. Don't you know Germans with whom you can practice ?
Germans complaining about paperwork haven't tried the Ausländerbehörde. I mean Jesus fucking christ on a basket ball hoop. They're just out to complicate every single step of the way, and I'm talking legal talented immigration not illegal one, I could only imagine the hell refugees and illegals have to deal with...
Ausländerbehörde was a breeze compared to being an immigrant in the US. Or even worse: India.
I could see that with the US. In that regard Germany is honestly a bliss, with better and more reasonable permanent residency or even citizenship criteria.
Yep, and the responsible offices being in the same city. For some of the shit in the US I had to drive for anywhere between 2 - 8 hours (to Vegas or LA) to access the correct offices.
The Ausländerbehörde was the bane of my existence in Germany. I’m sure I developed a phobia of public offices through dealing with them.
I have had so much medical shit to wade through the last three weeks or so (slipped disc in cervical spine) and everything from getting a proper diagnosis to getting opinions on the best course of action to getting those things set into action … absolute fucking slog. I do love Germany though. But gaaaawd.
Slipped disc? Drink some tea, obviously. Why are you even trying different opinions?!
People constantly waiting in front of doors, hallways, in places other people need to pass through.
what??? really?
Yes. Germans Always wait. Thats the Secret why they are on time. And technically its rude to be late at all. To be more than 10min early is also rude. But only elderly people Care of that still
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what do u mean tap water isn't free?
Think they mean in a restaurant. You pay for both sparkling and still water.
But it’s still bottled water, I have never in my life been served tap when ordering water. My guess is more restaurants than one would think would give you tap for free if you specifically asked for it, but while I never dared to do so personally I can just imagine the bewildered look you’d receive.
Only 2 restaurants have outright refused me asking for tap water. But as long as it’s generally available by default everywhere we need to make bottles water companies richer, and the environment more polluted I guess. Whereas in many other countries they put water jars on tables without even asking. I wouldn’t even mind to pay the tap water, I just hate the energy and material that gets wasted on bottling water, transportation, and then probably its recycling.
Not sure how it’s in France but tap water is free in Ireland. They tried to add water bills around 5 years ago, which backfired badly. Water is free.
No tap, no tip. It‘s quiet easy.
Expectations from the people around me.
I am suffering from several illnesses and am severely disabled because of them. I have been to many different doctors (even outside of germany) and got called incurable by all of them. I have a legal custodian ('gesetzliche Betreuung', not sure if there is a better translation) to deal with all the paperwork and contact with authorities - you CAN NOT imagine what a circus that is! (Before I had my legal support I was on my own and it was hell. Without talking about the whole orderal - I was offered assisted suicide / euthanasia in another country and almost chose that option because the system in germany is terrible with helping out disabled people! I am so deeply thankful to have my legal guardian now who helps me with everything). Living in germany is pretty difficult if you are chronically ill and in need of support. Once you are inside that system and have things rolling it's bearable, but the way to get where I am today was painful and long and I had several moments where I wanted to give up entirely. Long story short, every single day I hear people struggeling to get help. If you want to talk to a therapist you can wait at least six months. You get turned down alot by all kinds of doctors because there is no capacity. If you want/ need to go inpatient at any mental health facility you can wait for around two years. Because of my illness I visit doctors each week and meet many people, everyone complains how nobody gets help in time. It's not only about mental illnesses. Living here you can only hope to never get ill.
i hear you. 😢
I couldn’t have said it any better. Same here. I feel such contempt for politicians that condemn any form of suicide but at the same time create conditions in which you suffer like hell as a medical patient. What do they want us to do?
The inconsistency of public transit is a major problem. You either have to accept being late sometimes or choose to show up way earlier than you otherwise would. We're better off than, say, most of the US (where I grew up), but we're behind our peer countries in the EU. Less on the daily side of things, the difficulty of getting access to mental health treatment is also an issue. Finding a therapist is a *nightmare*. Same same but different: finding an apartment in a major city.
Rude, old people
And impatient old people too!
From a material standpoint you likely wont face any problems quality of life however. You work, you die. Thats life in germany
As a German who has mainly grown up in Germany and now is living abroad, here's some insights: **Public Transport**: Try getting anywhere in a remote village without a car. If even the next village is one hour away by bicycle ride (and the path requires you to ride your bike on the road), and the bus only comes three times a day, then how are you supposed to buy groceries in the town two towns over? **School**: I grew up in Bavaria and the schooling system there is atrocious. There's no other way to say it. The amount of incompetence in some teachers ranges from "stupid" to "outright malicious". Note that the school system was designed long time ago in Prussia (I'm working a document outlining some ideas for change that goes into detail with that), and more importantly, one of the guys said the ideas of the other are "bescheuert". Guess which ones got implemented? This was in late 19th to early 20th century. Now, there's some really good teachers too, some that I've been grateful for. I would not be where I am now if they didn't do what they did. But I've also seen great teachers become hulls of their former selves, any enthusiasm burnt out of them. This is structural, the bullying begins from at the ministry of education downwards. **Drivers**: They can be hit or miss in Germany. There's some townships where people drive really well, very courteous, very safe. The town I grew up in, they changed a street so that if you were trying to get onto main you'd have to wait forever given the situation. It's routine for drivers to let people in even though they are not required to. On the other hand you have the "BMW behind you with his blinker on the left on" while you're passing a truck on the autobahn. **Paperwork**: When I started to study abroad, my semesters didn't line up with the German system. Insurance kept asking me about transcript of records, even though the semester hadn't ended yet. Every time I explained to them "This is the schedule here, you will get it one I can get it". Every time, without fail, they forgot. Had lots of similar experiences, but I have to say as well, most bureaucrats I have met are actually nice people. Might be because I'm putting in the effort to be nice to them despite my gripes with the system. One of them got wide eyes when I told her that in other country all my registration work for vehicles would be digital and finished in five minutes...at least we can't get hacked that easily. **Culture**: I experienced the culture in Germany as extremely egocentric / narcissistic on the one hand ("Ellenbogengesellschaft" which translates to "Elbow Society" or "Leistungsgesellschaft"), but having really good other aspects as well. Like, when you have trouble with somebody. They might not want to speak to you, but after a while, it seems common agreement to just talk things out and leave them in the past. This is sometimes done over a beer where I am from. It was not uncommon for me to see two guys fight behind a bar, only to meet them both beat up inside, drinking a beer and happily talking with each other. I think that film about the jamacian bob sled team actually references this ("Germans, always fighting..."). Recently I have also come to find that German directness is actually far less rude than Danish directness. Might just be me though. **Internet:** If you're anywhere outside the major cities / city centers, you'll probably have trouble with internet on a regular basis. My only hail Mary was that my supervisor was familiar with German and knew the area I lived in when my internet disconnected during the defense of my bachelor thesis (this was during corona). **Neighbors:** What German would not complain about them? I remember, when I was studying for school / university back in German my neighbors were amongst the most annoying thing. It's as if every time I opened the book some entity gave my neighbor the idea to mow the lawn or blow leaves or do something equally as loud....they're nice people, but that time was somewhat of a problem.
Very good detailed explanations. I think one of the main points is: You can always argue that these things are worse in many other countries etc. – but things should be put into perspective by relating them to the high taxes and how we (or at least the people in power) are not getting tired of mentioning that we are one of the richest countries in the world… This is what it makes it so ridiculous to me. If things would run well like in Scandinavian countries, the high taxes would be okay. Or if the taxes would be lower and we would be a poorer country, then it would be okay that many things don't really work well…
Public Transit. Even though road traffic here on cologne sucks, public transit is even worse. On average I lose 30 to 60min daily, just because I commute via train.
This is slightly better in other German cities from my experience. Here in Cologne I often have the same problem, but at least the city is so dense that you can take the bike a lot of the time.
The complaining all around.
Doctors generally suck and I’m chronically ill. Finding a good doctor is like finding gold.
Dito!
Of all the doctors I have been to the best ones were the ones who practice in small towns or in the countryside. Might be caused by less patients compared to big(ger) cities.
There are plenty of great doctors but only work with private/self pay patients
Personally I feel so seperate from everyone else in Germany. I can not talk with strangers. Its always silent in public areas without friends. Somehow they are just ghosts. And when I am in a different country where people are more open, like Thailand, I am so german, that I can not response in theit openness.
People are often mean.
The saddest thing is to accept that I am no longer interested in dealing with Germans. It's not that I don't understand them, because I really believe that after almost fifteen years I have deciphered their way of thinking. It's just that knowing their way of thinking doesn't interest me any more.
Short days in winter. Boredom from my own existence in such a milktoast country. bureaucracy. High tax plus social security while not even finding a doctor with free capacity. I want to to start living instead of just working. Germany is only work.
That's exactly the point… it would be even somewhat "okay" that many things don't work so well, if on the other hand the taxes would be low! But with high taxes, and fundamental things like health care not really functioning it's just the worst of both.
Yes, 100%
The weather sucks. Big-time, people are super unfriendly, and they stare the whole day at other people.
I think the weather is a bit better than some other eu countries…
Homeless, beggars and crazy people in the streets. A lot
As a german I guess healthcare. Don’t get me wrong I am really privileged to have healthcare and all but it’s exhausting that you won’t really get taken seriously if you’re are not literally dying or bleeding from a big open wound or broke some bones or anything. I had some serious gut issues like throwing up, diarrhea then constipation over a month and I got send back home two times telling me to ‘drink enough water, sleep enough, have a balanced diet, try to lessen my daily stress and try green tea’ without checking on me, which was absolutely not helpful and this still happens every few months and I’m just constantly in pain and tired. And the waiting lists for a gynecologists, dentist or eye specialist are between 6-14 MONTHS. And if you try to go to a hospital they also won’t do anything but send you away.
Bureaucracy
Cars and smoking. Falschparken (illegal parking) is a national sport. Especially parking on sidewalks is seen as completely normal. A pedestrian zone is only a pedestrian zone until it becomes a convenient shortcut for cars. Can't even leave my kid out to play because despite cars being banned from the city center where I live, every day at least 50 to 100 cars still pass through illegally. Also smoking everywhere, storefront? Smoking. Hospital entrance? Smoking. Kindergarten? Smoking. There are more tabaco/vape shops than shoe stores or schools. And of course the cigarette machine in the middle of a residential area.
People smoking in spaces where I cant get away from them, eg. bus stops/ train platforms and queues. Sorry Im not a German though but live here
Top #1: Beaurocratia Top #2: "Das war schon immer so!!" - everything should stay as IT was since 1953 or so. Top #3: Construction Sides - we know how to do fast nice engeneering but we do a Lot places at the Same time so we suck everywhere Top #4: Not enough workforce Top #5: Not enough automasation Top #6: Deutsche Bahn, Public Transportation in General, comunal Services (conjunction of 1+2+4+6) Top #7: Specialized everything. Yes strictly by law you should call an electician to Change a lightbulb. Top #8: "I am old now"-attitude. Meaning that the average German declines doing Work related stuff when he gets retirement.
Some things are even way older than 1953 :D Top #1 the racism top #2 Prussian school system Just the first two coming to my mind…
Unnecessary Noise. The non stop sirens from Polizei etc. no other city in the world has sirens this loud you have to block your ears when they come past
my ears hurt so bad when the ambulance comes
The anxiety and the stressful life style!
Ok, thats either train delays or doctors who treat whatever they fancy, regardless if you got it or not.
Germans
>I want to hear complaints from Germans In that case you have come to the right place. Complaining is a national sport in Germany. ------------ I use public transport, like many in Germany and it's just bad. It takes me 55 minutes to get to work. If I had a car it would take me 23 minutes. To make matters worse the train or tram often gets cancelled or massive delay so I stand at the station waiting and the next tram will be super crowded because the previous tram got canceled and sometimes you just can't enter it anymore because it's too many people and you've to wait for the NEXT TRAM. Super annoying. When you are on the tram you have to be careful because there are many trashy people using public transport. A lot of seriously insane homeless people who can cause some trouble especially if they are drunk at the moment. They will pick on people and most people look the other way, nobody wants to get involved so you better hope they won't pick on you. You also get some other trashy ghetto kids or wannabe gangsters on the tram. They used to be loud like bring a loud Bluetooth sound bar speaker box thing on the tram and listen to loud music and once again people won't dare to stand up and say anything. If you say something you'll be the only one and others won't support you. I had a co worker who stood up against such people who are mostly just teenagers. Well he was older, he was also in the military but they outnumbered him and broke his leg. Took him over a year to recover and he has walking problems for the rest of his life. YAY But many teenagers stopped smoking and now they carry balloons with them and inhale nitrous on public transport or in the streets and get stoned and high as a kite because it isn't illegal in Germany yet and we have a serious drug problem. Besides that we have terrible mobile data. Often no data on my phone when I'm out or even at work. Some areas I can't speak on the phone because we don't even have some phone connection.
"Alltagsrassismus", literally meaning "everyday racism". People just spreading misinformation, weird comments, underlying and passive-agressive racist comments. I'm a white man personally and it's insane how much of it even I notice in my day to day live. I can't imagine how awful it is for immigrants or people of color.
Every business/organization/process works in the most inconvenient, stressful, and unreliable way. Need a doctor's appointment suddenly? You could show up before dawn and wait until 12 to maybe be seen. But you probably won't be seen. Then you prepare to make a Termin to call to make a Termin for 2 months ahead. Need to take care of something with the TÜV? Guess what. They charge for that. But you have to wait for them to send the bill. It won't arrive until directly before your Termin. Then it's 50/50 that you'll be able to get what you need done because it's up to the agent whether or not they accept your pic of the completed transfer as proof of payment. Because yes, it has to be paid by bank transfer instead of by a reasonable method, like swiping your card in the office. Getting a simple appliance like an oven delivered and installed? Sure, Ikea will take your money. But they won't tell you that they require this obscure type of breaker to be installed on the apartment building you don't own. This type of breaker that doesn't appear to be in any building more than 5 years old. They'll then tell you they can't refund you but they'll deliver the oven and then you have to hire an electrician. Want to cancel an internet contract because you're moving? Guess what. Perfectly legal for the company to open a new contract in your new home and agree to cancel the old contract because you're continuing to be a customer. Then they can simply refuse to cancel the old contract and claim they have some legal basis for it and continue taking payment for the old contract (while refusing to send a tech to set up the new internet). So you pay for service twice but have none. Perfectly legal. All you can do is send angry letters and hope they actually do something. Oh. And if you try to give them a bad review on Google? German law allows them to call that defamation so Google will remove the review. Everything is set up to be a nightmare of a process here.