Career vs. Family

Below is an interesting article about the declining birth rate in Germany and the perceived importance of career over family. What's even more interesting are the comments below the article.

A little background info: A few years back, the German government decided to offer women a substantial part of their salary if they have a child and stay home for the first year. Plus, the woman's company has to hold her job for three years if she wants to come back. Germany did this to ease the pain for working women to have kids. By the way, they think a tiny 8- or 12-week maternity leave time if CRAZY!!!

If you have a few minutes, take a look at the article. The comments are incredible!

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110217-33183.html?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=177

Billionen Does NOT Equal Billion

You must be super careful in Germany when talking numbers. Not only do they use the metric system for everything (no inches, feet, miles and gallons here), but they also have different words for very large numbers over a million. And they SOUND similar, but check out these crucial differences:

million = millionen
billion = milliarden
trillion = billionen
quadrillion = billiarden
quintillion = trillionen

So last night at my tax appointment when we were discussing my millions and billions of dollars I earned this year and want to invest, we had to clarify! (Just kidding.)

Alfons and I always joke about who made the right choice hundreds or thousands of years ago when we find big differences in our culture, such as these. While Europeans certainly made the right call embracing the metric system, which is WAY easier to learn, remember and use, I argued that America got this one right with the big numbers. After all, if you start with a million as #1, when you get to a quadrillion that would be #4, then quintillion #5 and so on. According to the system the Germans use, quadrillion and quadrilliarden are #7 and #8, which doesn't make much sense! Point for America!!!

When Did American History Start?

DISCLAIMER: I am not, have never been, and never will be a history buff. Please understand these opinions come from person who's history grades in school were below average and many assumptions are made. I share this as a typical, ignorant view point which is likely to have factual mistakes. I'm writing this for my memories and apologize if anyone thinks it's ridiculous! Bear with me and don't stop reading my blog. :-)

Today, I saw a castle near one of the companies I teach at and I made a comment to my students that we don't have any castles in America. I explained why that's something lots of tourists want to see when they come to Germany because the history is so rich here, unlike our little 250-year-old baby country!

After a few minutes of discussing Germany's history of kings and empires, one of my students asked how far back American history goes in the classroom. He asked if we learn much about the Native Americans...before the Europeans showed up. I thought about it and realized that I couldn't recall going past the 1700s in our basic American history books. I assume this may be in part because we don't have as many records of the Native American times. For example, since they wanted to live as part of the Earth rather than building it into something man-made, there's little infrastructure to analyze. And while there were probably lots of stories passed down from generation to generation, I assume there probably wasn't a lot of written documentation from that time that lasted through the centuries.

I explained that we learned about the relationships between the Native Americans and Europeans in school, but that the history of our "nation" as a group of people united together under one government or set of rules started after the Europeans arrived. The history of the land itself and the people who lived there, of course, goes back far earlier than that, but for whatever reasons, that's not included in most textbooks. Although I must assume there are TONS of other pieces of literature documenting the time, people, culture and experiences of those tribes.

My Request

This is a request to my readers who have lived overseas, particularly in Germany. Please leave a comment or send me an email about one memory you have from your time abroad. It can be a thought that was triggered by something I blogged about or anything that I haven't mentioned!

I've been sharing my stories and now I want to hear yours! Do tell!!!

Convenience Doesn't Exist

There is no German word equivalent to "convenience," which makes sense because nothing here is convenient. They translate the English word as easy or comfortable, but Americans know the TRUE meaning of convenience (although most take it for granted).

1. Need something last minute for a project due the next day? Wal-Mart is open!
2. Have kids in car seats, but need to cash a check? Drive-thru at the bank!
3. Hungry for a quick bite between work and school? McD's is everywhere!
4. Exhausted from a road trip, but you realize your tank's empty at 1am? No problem, the pumps take cards 24-hours a day!

Here in Germany, convenience is hard to find. Nearly all stores close at 8pm, very little is open on Sundays, only McDonald's and Burger King have drive-thrus (none at banks, drug stores, etc.), and you're required to recycle, but you have to haul the stuff to the recycling place on your own. Okay, so they pick up the paper and organic stuff outside your house, but plastic, cans, and glass must be taken to a recycling site, which could be a few villages away.

Believe it or not, without "convenience," life here is still good! You just need to plan ahead.

At the Corner of...

Heard a funny story that I must share! (Forgive me for the details won't be exact, but I'll improvise to give you the main idea.)

A German woman I met last night said her company lent 20 Mini Coopers to some foreigners to drive from Stuttgart into the Black Forest for an event the company was hosting there. Unfortunately, one of the cars had a problem and broke down after the event, so that driver hitched a ride from one of the other Mini drivers he knew. Neither one spoke German, but they knew they would need to remember where they left the car so they could tell the company when they got back to Stuttgart. They couldn't figure out what village they were in, but at least they found some street signs, so they wrote down that the car was at the corner of Umleitung and Einbahnstrasse.

When they returned to the office in Stuttgart, they were embarrassed to discover their broken down Mini Cooper was somewhere in the Black Forest at the corner of "detour" and "one-way street!"

Hello, Goodbye!

Expats are people who live and work outside their home country. They might be visiting for just a few months on a special project for work, they may be working for a year as an au pair (nanny) or they may stick around for decades and fully integrate into the new culture. Meeting other expats in your area is a great way to find English-speaking friends in a new place, so I've joined some online groups that schedule events once in a while for people to meet. I've made several very good friends in my first eight months through these groups and am really happy to get to know people from countries around the world!

Unfortunately, the reality of that situation also means that people don't usually stay here forever. Last week, I took a great friend to the Stuttgart airport and had to say goodbye since she's going back to the States. While we have Facebook and Skype to help us stay in touch down the road, it's not the same as going out for Chinese food or watching Harry Potter together on a lazy Monday afternoon when I don't have to teach. I'll certainly miss those days with her.

But with goodbyes, also comes more hellos. A friend of a friend has contacted me and she'll be moving from the States to the Stuttgart area in a couple weeks. We've exchanged a few emails as she prepares for her big transition to a new culture and I'm really looking forward to meeting her. Her brother is stationed here and I'm sure she'll be able to make friends through him, but I assume it'll also be nice to getaway for some girl time too!

I try to stay positive in this revolving door situation, so I just dream about the time when I'm making loads of cash down the road, and then I'll have the money and free time to visit all my old Stuttgart pals who live in fabulous places around the world!!!

It's Not My Fault!

Another big difference between German culture and that the States is the level of responsibility expected here.

1. If you leave your car or home unlocked and someone goes in to take things, it's your fault! Insurance doesn't have to cover the losses.

2. If you have a car accident because you were admittedly messing with the radio buttons or putting on make-up, it's your fault. Insurance doesn't have to cover the repairs.

3. If you come here from another country and don't know the rules for driving, but do something unintentionally wrong, it's your fault. You'll still get a ticket and/or get deported. There's no talking your way out of that one!

4. If you fall down in the grocery store because there was a puddle of water on the floor, it's your fault. You should have been watching where you were going! Nobody's going to admit they were so stupid as to slip on some water, and they CERTAINLY wouldn't sue the grocery store for it. They'd look like an idiot!

5. If you don't put snow tires on your car (which is a law) before the first snow or ice comes and you get in a car accident on a cold day, it's your fault! The insurance can, again, refuse to pay for the damages.

Their motto here is "ignorance is not an excuse!" That's pretty intimidating for someone coming into a new country will lots of unknown rules. Most new people make mistakes (knowingly or unknowingly), but are lucky and just don't get caught. Me, on the other hand, I had a German rules professional in the house letting me know what was expected and what I couldn't do.

For example, a few months ago, when I suggested driving with my American license for just a few days after my six-month grace period (if I didn't get my German driving license in time), I was told "NO WAY" because if I got in an accident, the insurance wouldn't cover it and I could be deported for not following the German rules. There would be no chance of explaining the situation that my German license was in the works and that I'd have it in a few days. A rule is a rule here and smooth-talking abilities are not helpful! While I had a hard time believing the consequences would be so drastic, I kept reminding myself it's always better to be safe than sorry. (And thank goodness I got my German license with just one day to spare!)

For these reasons, many Germans business professionals call the US the "Risky States of America," because any "Joe" can do something stupid (intentionally or unintentionally) and sue your company for everything it's worth! The US court system has forced companies to put "DO NOT..." labels on every product, even to describe uses that the product was not intended for. Why should a microwave box have to say "Do not put live animals in microwave?" How are companies supposed to think of every possible use for the product that crazy people might try and put a warning label on for it? Whose responsibility is it to use the product properly? Why should McDonald's have to say "Caution: Coffee is hot" on the window, when that's EXACTLY what you ordered...a hot cup of coffee!!!

While most Americans also think these types of lawsuits are crazy, the cases would never have gotten off the ground here in Germany. Most Germans teach their children to take responsibility for their actions and not blame others for their mistakes or accidents. It's quite a different mentality than the popular American blame game slogan "It's not my fault!"