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Culture Shock!
Culture Shock! Germany: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette
Discusses the German social and cultural traits that are most likely to confuse international visitors, including stereotypes, communication, food, wine, and shopping customs, business, and other aspects of life in Germany.
- GenresTravelNonfictionGermany
318 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1996
19 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 14, 2011
It's informative, but not really necessary to read unless you're moving to Germany. Although, now I kinda want to move to Germany, it seems my personality would fit in better there than America.
August 3, 2012
Oh dear, Lord, this was valuable while living in Germany, and specifically Bavaria.
This book was the beginning of an appreciation for foreign cultures, and why it is important to leave ours to see others.
This book was the beginning of an appreciation for foreign cultures, and why it is important to leave ours to see others.
May 31, 2018
4 1/2 stars ...
Living vicariously through my husband who is traveling to Germany for work... I love these books! (There is a whole Culture Shock series.) While they are meant for expats moving to foreign countries, they also help the savvy traveler become in tune with local culture and customs. It really is like a peek inside a foreign culture.
This book had the added bonus of being about Germany - the land of my forefathers. I was very curious to see which of my personality traits could be blamed on my nationality. :)
Living vicariously through my husband who is traveling to Germany for work... I love these books! (There is a whole Culture Shock series.) While they are meant for expats moving to foreign countries, they also help the savvy traveler become in tune with local culture and customs. It really is like a peek inside a foreign culture.
This book had the added bonus of being about Germany - the land of my forefathers. I was very curious to see which of my personality traits could be blamed on my nationality. :)
May 31, 2018
This book was first written in 1996 and the copy I read was revised in 2000, so 18 years ago. The bits about history are super, and I do appreciate the depth with which the author delves in his descriptions. But far too much has changed (blown up rather) in Germany this century (political, social, cultural, Angela Merkel, immigration, nationalism, EU, Brexit, etc) to expect a Guide to Customs and Etiquette to hold up.
January 13, 2010
I learned a great deal about German culture, customs, mentality and history. It helped me a lot to understand and respect better of my friends.
March 7, 2012
Really useful. Know what to expect in Germany.
Need to verify if it is still the case though:)
Need to verify if it is still the case though:)
March 28, 2015
This book can ruin some peoples desires to travel to Germany, as it make Germany look like a hard place to fit in and live and survive in when it's not.
June 30, 2019
Okay if you are moving to Germany
I bought this book before my holiday in Germany. It's really designed for a foreigner moving to Germany, not a tourist looking to learn about the history of its people.
I bought this book before my holiday in Germany. It's really designed for a foreigner moving to Germany, not a tourist looking to learn about the history of its people.
October 9, 2013
This book leaves nothing out--it looks at every aspect of German culture and explains what to expect if you're planning on living/working in Germany, or just visiting. Unless you're planning on living in Germany, it might be a bit more than you wanted to know. Still, it probably does a pretty good job of identifying differences between the German and American cultures.
August 2, 2012
I did not read from cover to cover, nor did I read the whole thing. I picked through and read the sections I wanted to read, in random order, some more than once. It’s fun, delightful, interesting, educational and a great read! I’m going to buy it!
October 29, 2015
A deep insight into German culture - from settling down, to meeting the neighbours and working with people. Germans are thorough people.
June 4, 2023
I'm sure my copy is dated, but I'm also sure that much of the book is still accurate. Cultures don't change overnight, or even over a generation.
Useful, though targeted more at the person planning to _move_ to Germany (e.g., for a job), as opposed to a tourist.
Now on to learning a little German for my trip in the next 3-5 years.....I hope!
Useful, though targeted more at the person planning to _move_ to Germany (e.g., for a job), as opposed to a tourist.
Now on to learning a little German for my trip in the next 3-5 years.....I hope!
January 11, 2019
The so-far nearly seventy volumes in this series aren’t really travel books (though they have some of that flavor) but rather beginners’ manuals on how to live and work in a foreign country. The list now includes not only obvious locations, like this one and France and Canada and China, but also the less obvious, like Bolivia, Sri Lanka, and Mauritius. I’ve gradually been working my way through them over the past few years, especially for countries and cities I’m personally familiar with. Some, like the one on Tokyo, are very good indeed, while others (like London) are pretty bad.
I spent some years in Europe as an army brat in the 1950s, back when Germany was still under Allied occupation and was just beginning to generate its economic “miracle.” I knew nothing about any of that at the time, of course, but I got along fine with the local kids I hung out with, as well as with military dependents and “dippies” from other countries. Germany has undergone several complete top-to-bottom social and economic changes since then, however, the most recent beginning with Reunification, and I suspect it now would feel like a very different place indeed, even to someone of my father’s generation.
The author is an American who went to Europe to work, met and married a girl in Frankfurt, and pretty much settled in for two decades, which means that everything he has to say about finding a job, interfacing with the people, dealing with official agencies (and the Germans do bureaucracy more thoroughly than almost anyone), and simply attempting to understand German-ness is the result of his own sometimes exasperating experiences. It all comes down, he says, to a German’s fundamental insecurity, the result of 150 years of war, imperial expansion, economic collapse, and well-founded lack of trust on the part of other countries.
The result of all that is a craving for control -- of social environment, change (as little as possible, please), and one’s possessions and immediate surroundings. There’s also a fair bit of xenophobia mixed in there, and it all produces an attitude non-Germans often regard as arrogance. If someone bumps into you in the street, they’re very unlikely to apologize; they’re more likely to pretend it never happened. Many people can’t admit they’ve accidentally dialed a wrong number. They’re far less interested in being liked than in being considered credible, which also affects attitudes in the service economy (which is generally terrible). At the same time, a German worker, whether a welder or an executive in an insurance firm, is almost guaranteed to be well educated and trained, completely certified, and incapable of doing a bad job. (Lord describes the window-installers doing a job in his apartment whose supervisor came back twice to double-check and approve their work.) There’s also a strong streak of formality in the German personality, . . . but once you start to make some real friends, you’ll begin to see quite another, and much warmer and more open, side of their national character. And in the decade and a half since the book actually was written, I know there have been increasing changes in the ways Germans think about and do things, especially among the younger generation or two.
In addition to this extensive and very perceptive psychological analysis, Lord lays out in considerable depth all the practical information you will need to function as an auslander in Germany: Housing, work permits, banking, eating rituals, media and the arts, and even how to set up your own business -- though he advises you to think long and hard about that last notion. All in all, this is one of the better volumes I’ve read in this series. By the way, while the publisher and the cover are different, the text in the 2008 edition is identical to the original 1996 publication.
I spent some years in Europe as an army brat in the 1950s, back when Germany was still under Allied occupation and was just beginning to generate its economic “miracle.” I knew nothing about any of that at the time, of course, but I got along fine with the local kids I hung out with, as well as with military dependents and “dippies” from other countries. Germany has undergone several complete top-to-bottom social and economic changes since then, however, the most recent beginning with Reunification, and I suspect it now would feel like a very different place indeed, even to someone of my father’s generation.
The author is an American who went to Europe to work, met and married a girl in Frankfurt, and pretty much settled in for two decades, which means that everything he has to say about finding a job, interfacing with the people, dealing with official agencies (and the Germans do bureaucracy more thoroughly than almost anyone), and simply attempting to understand German-ness is the result of his own sometimes exasperating experiences. It all comes down, he says, to a German’s fundamental insecurity, the result of 150 years of war, imperial expansion, economic collapse, and well-founded lack of trust on the part of other countries.
The result of all that is a craving for control -- of social environment, change (as little as possible, please), and one’s possessions and immediate surroundings. There’s also a fair bit of xenophobia mixed in there, and it all produces an attitude non-Germans often regard as arrogance. If someone bumps into you in the street, they’re very unlikely to apologize; they’re more likely to pretend it never happened. Many people can’t admit they’ve accidentally dialed a wrong number. They’re far less interested in being liked than in being considered credible, which also affects attitudes in the service economy (which is generally terrible). At the same time, a German worker, whether a welder or an executive in an insurance firm, is almost guaranteed to be well educated and trained, completely certified, and incapable of doing a bad job. (Lord describes the window-installers doing a job in his apartment whose supervisor came back twice to double-check and approve their work.) There’s also a strong streak of formality in the German personality, . . . but once you start to make some real friends, you’ll begin to see quite another, and much warmer and more open, side of their national character. And in the decade and a half since the book actually was written, I know there have been increasing changes in the ways Germans think about and do things, especially among the younger generation or two.
In addition to this extensive and very perceptive psychological analysis, Lord lays out in considerable depth all the practical information you will need to function as an auslander in Germany: Housing, work permits, banking, eating rituals, media and the arts, and even how to set up your own business -- though he advises you to think long and hard about that last notion. All in all, this is one of the better volumes I’ve read in this series. By the way, while the publisher and the cover are different, the text in the 2008 edition is identical to the original 1996 publication.
May 4, 2014
I always read the Culture Shock books before any foreign travel. Though meant for those relocating to a country, they give real insight into life as a foreigner in a new land. Much more valuable than a travel book!
May 12, 2013
I read this to learn a bit about the German culture for work. It served its purpose. I learned some useful tidbits.
April 3, 2014
info given in this book is quite helpful
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews