Differences between German and British manners

Being German, I find it fascinating that so many people on both sides of the Channel are so fascinated with the differences between the Brits and the Germans. Coming from a German perspective, I don't think there is any other country whose manners the German media is so obsessed with. Similar feelings seem to exist in Britain with big Sun front pages about German misbehavings once in a while covering all aspects of life (see "two world wars, one world cup" for example).<p>I also like how they used the lack of a German word for smalltalk in the article. Whenever I explain differences between German behavior and Anglo-American behavior to Americans/Brits I tell them the German language has no words for smalltalk, jaywalking, and date rape to set the tone for my explanation. :)

Am a Dutch student currently studying in the UK, and many of these differences are true indeed, and possibly even larger between Dutch and English people than between Germans and the English.<p>'Thanks', and 'please', are used in Dutch only when there is much to thank for (saving someones life, or at least possessions or the like). While in English they are part of almost any question or exchange, no matter how trivial.<p>Another one is 'how are you doing', which in Dutch is used to express concern/interest between close friends, or towards a stranger looking extremely distressed. While the English use it almost instead of the neutral 'Hi' between people who met once before. At first it made me wonder whether I looked alright (yes I shaved and showered, and all :).<p>So yes, they take getting used to, and a common mistake for Dutch/German people probably is (it was for me) thinking that they are meant as strongly as one is used to. But it does not take long to get used to.<p>Call it a cultural bias, but I slightly prefer the Dutch/German way, as it takes up less time, makes it more straightforward to find out what people think (fewer understatements as well), and does not deflate the meaning of the terms used as much...<p>(strangely enough the English don't use different terms or pronunciations when there is more to thank for, than the usual, making it hard to judge the extent of gratefulness / problems, etc)...<p>Anyway, at home they think I am very polite now, thanks :)

&#62; "In a lift or a doctor's waiting room, talk about the weather in German? I don't think so," she says.<p>What a ridiculous article. Of course Germans have inane conversations about the weather and other trivialities. You know what the German word for "small talk" is? It's "small talk".

I used to think smalltalk was annoying and useless. I was most of the way out of that attitude by the time I lived in Germany, and was thoroughly rid of it by the time I left.<p>Growing a new social circle in Germany is a complete bitch in large part because people really are less superficial and more direct. The <i>"etiquette of simulation"</i> makes everything <i>so much easier</i>. I'm not saying it's all that easy to get to know people in my home country, Ireland, but there is at least a place where talking to total strangers will not get you funny looks, the pub.<p>And dating, oh god, dating.<p>I miss Germany.

<i>"For their part, the British have what House calls the "etiquette of simulation". The British feign an interest in someone..."</i><p>Or sometimes you're making small talk with someone because you actually are interested in them, and just want to keep the first minute or two of the conversation light for whatever reason. Maybe you haven't seen them in a while and do want to catch up on really general things, or the weather really has been odd lately, or you can't think of anything to say right away and having some stock questions gives you a chance to get your bearings.<p>Just because it's a bit formulaic and routine doesn't mean all small talk is insincere.

« <i>The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says.</i> »<p>When will this idea that because Language X doesn't have Y, the idea Y represents is alien to X speakers finally disappear ?<p>Although language <i>does</i> have an influence on one's thinking habit, this idea is a gross misrepresentation of very complex phenomena.<p>There's no word in French for the verb "to need". There's no future tense in Finnish, nor are there any articles. There are no perfective verbs or declensions in English.<p>Yet, if an idea is intelligible, chances are you can express it in any language, and translate the result in any other.

Can we please kill that stupid “X has no word for Y!” snowclone? Please? (Or at least get people to do some basic research before they say something stupid like that.)<p>As some light googling will reveal (or thinking for a few seconds, if you are, like me, a native German speaker), German does indeed have a word for small talk. There is „Plausch” (that’s the noun) and “plaudern” (and the verb). I suspect that there are also a few other words in regional dialects. („Schwätzchen”, maybe.) There is also „Tratsch“ but that’s more along the lines of gossip and usually between two people who know each other.<p>I do suspect that small talk is rarer in Germany but I would like to see a quantitative study confirming that, not (what seems like) idle speculation from a Professor who doesn’t even know that her own language has a word for small talk.

"The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says. It is so alien that in the German translation of A Bear called Paddington - Paddington unser kleiner Baer - it was omitted."<p>Klatsch? Gerede? I'm pretty sure Heidegger's Gerede comes pretty close to what we call "small talk".

<i>For their part, the British have what House calls the "etiquette of simulation". The British feign an interest in someone...<p>From a German perspective, this is uncomfortably close to deceit.</i><p>IMO, this is one of the reasons the Germans lost the war. The English speakers are by nature sneakier.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1_(flying_bomb)#Deception" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1_(flying_bomb)#Deception</a><p><a href="http://www.suite101.com/content/allied-misdirection-fooled-german-defenders-in-world-war-two-a339014" rel="nofollow">http://www.suite101.com/content/allied-misdirection-fooled-g...</a>

Even UK and German attitudes to IT secruity and social are very different. I was fascinated to see that Germans are far more likely to block Twitter in the workplace that Brits: <a href="http://twitpic.com/52e4cm" rel="nofollow">http://twitpic.com/52e4cm</a>

Sounds pretty similar to articles I've read comparing American speech with Russian.

Hi. I'm German and the word for small talk is "Schwätzchen"

I like when British people say "we should have a proper catch up" and they mean exactly nothing...