She uses words like "microaggression" repeatedly, so she's practiced at finding offense where there isn't any.
She's American, so she's ignorant of foreign cultures and believes hers is superior. Anyone who doesn't conform is an "ist".
Her German is weak. Many Germans do not speak English. She complains about having to take lessons.
She moved to a small town and complained about small town problems. In small towns, people speak even less English, and are even less used to foreigners. Public transport is less accessible.
I mean, yeah, Germany is certainly not the most welcoming country in the world, but wtf is she on about?
She literally complains about earning US$ from "freelance marketing gigs" (lol, is that code for "tiktok"?) and having to pay the exchange rate? I didn't realize US$ was the official currency in South Korea? Also gas is expensive, yes, but last time I checked it's basically impossible to buy something like a 50 mpg VW Golf in the US, so... (I suspect they're driving a RAM2500 and wonder why nobody likes them, lol)
"We live in a small German town called Otterberg because of my husband's job" vs "Also, we can't afford to live in a city like Berlin or Frankfurt, which have more young people and other expats." – What is it now?
I'm really looking forward to Stephanie's report from Bumfucknowhere, Ohio, because I seriously doubt they can afford to live in SF or NY either.
For real. I went to Frankfurt am Main a few years ago and it was wonderful. The people were incredibly nice and were very patient as I stumbled my way through broken German and more often than not switched to English.
I get it can be a culture shock to live in a new country where you're not a native speaker and where customs are different, but you can't expect everyone to cater to you.
Yup, the title of the article is incredibly misleading. She didn't move to "Germany", she moved from a big city to a small town that happened to be in Germany, then got surprised that it felt insular, like the vast majority of small towns in the world. You could move from a big city in the US to a small town in the US and have exactly the same experience.
Yeah, how would she react in a rural part of SK? She was probably staying in Seoul or Busan, of course a small German town would feel quaint in comparison!
She also complains about lessons being expensive, because she probably chose to go the Goethe institut route. But IRC you can get lessons for much cheaper or even a free vocational course at a Fachhochschule - although I suspect she's not elligible for that, because her husband earns too much.
Of course, that would mean mingling with immigrants and muslims. Let's be honest, that's almost certainly one of the reasons she chose to go the more expensive route. This woman gives off "I'm an expat, not an immigrant" Karen vibes.
The best thing is where she claims "state-sponsored integration programs offer language classes for free" in South Korea and the link goes to a page only listing youtube videos, duolingo, and books, udemy courses, etc. that are certainly not free.
I don't understand how articles like this get published in relatively popular news sites like Business Insider. It's basically "poor me, I am so sad." without anything news worthy about German immigration policy, or statistics regarding German attitudes towards expats.
I am an American expat living in Austria and while I experience plenty of similar things, I really like it here, and enjoy many things about living here.
Maybe instead of German classes, she should work on finding a sense of humor and a tolerance for discomfort. My guess is she'll go back to Sacramento and whine about plenty of things, likely for the rest of her life. Thankfully, though, we might not have to read about it.
I feel like a trespasser here, like I'm straddling two worlds. The first is the US-military community, which my husband belongs to, but I don't. The second is the German-resident community, which I'm reminded on a daily basis I also don't belong to.
"I miss the comforts of being surrounded by people like me — English-speaking working professionals" Hmmm, maybe she's just not cut out for international travel/living.
A lot of it is just weird cultural complaints. Who'd have thought small towns in Germany don't have big box stores, or that electronics are way more expensive. That's really easy to have figured out first.
Germany is pretty much top of the countries i'd consider moving to. Though as a Scot living in the US it's no longer super easy for me to move to Berlin.
I agree, most of it I would have simply expected because of having my eyes open about other countries (e.g. petrol prices). About her only complaint that I could empathize with was racism, not that Iʼve personally experienced it there (or from any German anywhere), but some Germans have told me their anecdotes.
This was a pretty weird article. I understand her frustration in learning the language, I've done it before and it's rough. And I understand her frustration with not having support from the military due to her status, as well as the natural human experience of being far from family and missing home. But those aren't Germany problems, those are either universal in any place you might move to, or they are the products of her own choices.
It also seems obvious that she brings her North American assumptions with her and is partly disappointed that Germany isn't more like what she's used to. She mentions driving, but yeah, it's expensive to drive in Germany. If she chose a small town to live in that didn't have good access to transit, that might be necessary, but it's part of the cost of living there. She mentions big box store shopping, which made me laugh out loud, that's a very North American perspective and even in the U.S. a lot of people would disagree.
Are there cultures more welcoming than Germany? Probably. My German isn't great, I've definitely been criticized for my accent and lack of vocabulary. It felt harsh, but it was also true, and they weren't impolite about it. Is it a reasonable expectation to land in a place and get free language lessons and be welcomed with open arms? Not really, and I would note that Americans probably wouldn't do that either. Heck, in some parts of the country, your welcome would be considerably less polite.
I am scratching my head trying to understand how this was published at all!? The only thing it has going for it is the clickbaitey headline. This entire article looks more like a personal blog post than a story published by Business Insider.
Ich bin ja total überrascht, dass sie nicht darüber gemeckert hat, dass es in Deutschland kein Leitungswasser umsonst in Restaurants gibt. Aber sonst hat sie ja alle Karen-Punkte abgehakt. Ich hoffe, sie hat dem Manager von Deutschland mal ordentlich die Meinung gegeigt.
Wobei !Germany ja eher für die Kommunikation mit internationalen Usern gedacht ist und die Amtssprache dort English ist. Ist doch ok, wenn man sich hier auch auf Deutsch darüber austauschen kann.
Die Art, wie Föderierung von Beiträgen auf Lemmy funktioniert (es werden ab 1. Subscriber auf einer Instanz rückwirkend die letzten 20 Posts geholt, und erst ab dann wird fortlaufend synchronisiert) macht Repost-Regeln auf Lemmy meiner Meinung nach sinnlos, da vorherige Posts nicht auf jeder Instanz verfügbar sind.
zieht weit weg von ihren Eltern "Warum sind meine Eltern so weit weg :("
"the man behind the counter said that my German should be much better even though I had been there for only a month." Ist die wirklich in ein Land gezogen, ohne ein Fünkchen die Sprache zu können? Ich möchte mal sehen wie gut ich mit nem Wörterbuch einen Behördengang in Südkorea machen kann...
zieht ans Ende der Welt in ein Kaff zwischen Wald und Sumpf "I miss the comforts of being surrounded by people like me — English-speaking working professionals from diverse backgrounds" Ach du jemine...
Add comment