Germany 🇩🇪— Some Of The Interesting Things

My First Days In Germany

Disclaimer: The content of this article is just a personal observation without the judgment of right and wrong. Its intent is NOT to target any individual, group, or nationality.

New Country

New People

New goals

I landed in Germany on a rainy day, the sun was about to set. One of my family friends came to pick me up from the airport. I had already started missing Pakistan. When we both sat in the car, he offered me the Pakistani juice, and I was looking at the juice pack the way I never looked at it before back in Pakistan.

I got a bit emotional.

I hope you would like to read about how I came to Germany. You are very welcome to read here:

Anyways, every country has its own culture, norms, values, official formalities, etc. Things I observed in my starting days were strange to me because I was going through them for the first time, but those were normal for natives.

• Your Name will be changed

In Germany, people normally call you by your last name. On my first day at university, I went to the registration office, and the organizer there asked me:

Are you Mr. Javed?

I said No, and I started walking back. Then I thought:

I am not Mr. Javed but I am a son of Mr. Javed.

I went back and asked her:

Did you mean Raza?

She said yes. I thought okay, from now on I am Mr. Javed.

So listen carefully and always keep your last name in your mind. :)

• Never say it’s Done!

In Germany, when you say it’s done, people take it very seriously. For them, done simply means 100% done, not even 99.99999%. And if after saying done, you again changed something in whatever you said done for, it will be considered as decommitting.

Once an engineer got fired from the company because he said to the manager that he has finished his work completely and it was done. The manager communicated the same thing to the client. Later, there were some very small things left and they had to delay the delivery of the product, so they considered that the engineer broke their trust.

• Always check for the parking disk sign

Always check for the parking disk sign before parking your car. If you see the sign, always put the parking disk on your dashboard.

Otherwise, the officials will put the ticket on your front windscreen.

Once I forgot that, but now I never forget that. You can imagine why.

• Look for cyclists

While driving, always look for cyclists. Because they can come anytime, from any direction. And the thing to worry about is that:

Mostly they are NOT wrong!

• Never Wish Birthday in Advance

Never wish Germans their birthday in advance, they consider it very unlucky. Normally I can’t remember the birthdays of people around me, and it’s good otherwise I would have done this multiple times.

• Germany is closed on Sunday

On Sunday, shops remain closed in Germany. Even the pharmacies and grocery stores. If you go out on Sunday, you feel like you are the only one alive in the city. Shops are closed, and no cars on the roads, trams, and buses are empty, etc.

So if you plan to do some shopping and you missed Saturday. Then you would have to do shopping on Monday.

On weekdays, all shops will be closed at 8 p.m. In my first week here, it was summertime, so the sun keeps shining till 9 p.m. You can imagine how it looked to me seeing all shops closed at around half past 8.

I thought there is some strike going on, and I was shocked that these types of things also happen in Germany. Then I asked my roommate and got to know about the shop closing rule.

In Pakistan, sometimes people go out shopping after having dinner, so it’s exactly the opposite.

Yellow Light is Love

Germans always love yellow light in their homes, offices, etc. I asked one of my German friends and he told me that yellow gives them a somehow warm feeling. In Germany, there is cold weather most of the time, so they love to feel the warmth through the yellow light, but in my home country, it is again completely opposite. We love white lights, because there the sun always shines, and it’s always hot so crystal white lights give a cold feeling.

Germans actually hate white lights.

Closing Thoughts

So many countries in this world with many different likes and dislikes, rules and regulations, etc. But the good thing is we humans can adapt to the different environments very easily. I feel the famous saying

When in Rome, Do as Romans Do

working. The need of the hour is to respect the rules, regulations, and norms of the country you live in, while not forgetting yours. With that said we reached the end of the article.

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Thank you so much

Raza