Kultur2 - Henry Warrington

The articles on complaining in Germany take two different yet interesting views on complaining. The first one just sees the complaining as people complaining for complainings sake. Also the first article made me think of Americans because it seems like all people do now-a-days is complain about how America is going down hill, the government doesn't do anything, the economy sucks, etc. The only difference is that apparently Germans complain about nonexistant issues whereas Americans have reason to complain about our government and economy right now. The other view of complaining as helpful for continuing to improve is a great view to take. The following quote about two German executives is telling about Germany:

"When two Deutsche executives discuss their businesses, you hear complaints about various problems, despite solid growth and strong profits."

The fact that they still focus on the problems even when things are going well shows that they are always seeking to improve. Nowadays it seems like all you hear is how the economy is growing instead of the problems that we still have. If more people always sought to remove problems even when things are going well then the world would probably be doing a lot better right now.

Have I caught myself staring at a stranger? Sure have and it is especially awkward when they catch me doing it. I guess the biggest difference is that a German starer won't get that awkward feeling when they are caught and instead will just keep right on staring. It was especially interesting to hear about the generational differences and how the act comes from German Communism. Maybe as Germany gets more removed from the oppressive Communism then the staring habit will die down.

"How, after all, can honesty be rude?"

This above quote is definitely and interesting one. Most Americans would say that the truth can be rude. If someone asks you to hang out and you truthfully say you don't want to then that person might be offended. It must be nice to be able to say exactly why you do or don't want to do anything and not worry about offending someone as long as you are telling the truth.

Finally Germans' love of statistics is a pretty cool thing. While knowing all sorts of facts and figures isn't necessarily all that useful for life in general it is a good idea to know general sizes of places. Whenever someone asks me to approximate the population of the city I come from I'm always off by a good amount. I feel like if I knew how many people actually lived in my city than I could better approximate sizes of other cities and towns.