Kultur 5

I am once again quite intrigued on some of the differences between the United States and Germany. I am a little surprised at how Germany don't really say "excuse me" or "pardon me," and I know they are not the only culture to do this. As an American this just seems rude and annoying though, almost like a lack of respect for others, even though I imagine most Germans don't see it that way. I was a little surprised about how open Germans are with their sex shops (although I already had a good idea that Germans were much more open about this than Americans are). If the Germans still function normally with the sex shops in place then I don't see a problem with them, I only have to wonder what parents say to their children if the children ask what's in that shop. The Klofrau was another thing that surprised me, because I see it as strange to tip a bathroom janitor, but Germans find it weird how much we tip waiters/waitresses here in the U.S., so it works both ways. I thought the flirting in Germany article was interesting, especially because it is almost the complete opposite of how Americans flirt. I'm sure there are many problems when Germans try to flirt in the U.S. and vice versa. The article about German women was also captivating. It was interesting being able to see all of these statistics about females in Germany, and how they make up demographics of Germany and in the workplace. Overall, I found most of these articles quite interesting and made me think about the differences between the U.S. and Germany.