Do and Don'ts while living in Germany:An American's Prespective

DO AND DON'TS
DON'T cross a street against a green light unless you want to get screamed at by those in the east and stared at hard by those in the west....even if there are no cars in sight.
DON'T expect anything called "service" when shopping.
DO expect to wait in long lines. Even going to an international retailer such as Ikea for things for your apartment will make you wait in line for at least an hour. I am not kidding. I once waited 1 hour and 20 minutes on a Saturday afternoon. A Thursday morning wait was a little over an hour. It is ridiculous, even to the Germans who are use to it all.
DO expect delays in the east, sometimes lengthy, when taking the train. This happened way to often in my numerous trips between Berlin, Dessau and Halle. "On time" seems to be something from the past as the equipment seems to be older and in a poorer state of repair.
Ride your bike at night in Dessau without a working light, DO expect the police to jump out of the bushes onto the sidewalk/bikepath with a HALT sign stopping you for the crime of riding without a light.
DO expect little old irate men to try and run you off the bike path if you are riding on the wrong side of the street in the wrong direction (Dessau).
DO buy a Bahn Card which reduces your train fare by 50% for one year if you are going to do any traveling at all in Germany by train. Note: March 2003 Update-This is no longer a good idea because on 1 January 2003 the system was changed and the discount is now only 25% with many restrictions and new rules concerning the trains you can ride. Once again, far too many rules for most normal people. Please read a story below about how the rules changed a recent trip!
DO expect to pay outrageous fees when using their cash machines. It is referred to as GeldAutomatic and not ATMs as is common in most other parts of the world. 4-5 Euro per transaction is common.
DO expect to hear your cell or mobile phone called a "handy". Seems Germans have a really hard time saying "cellular".
DO hand over your money first before receiving your Imbiss (street fast food) ordered food as in the East they take the money first and THAN they will hand you the Doner (Turkish fast food) or Bratwurst.
DON'T even think about using the Internet on Sunday as anyplace that might have it will be closed anyway. (There are rare exceptions such as in Berlin.)
DON'T even think of coming and working in Germany if you don't smoke or those that do annoy you. Even when you politely ask people not to smoke in your apartment or while you are eating in a restaurant, most will ignore you. (I honestly think they can't process that you would ask such a thing.)
DON'T expect to meet a lot of fellow Americans. Those days are long gone and the only ones you might stumble into are in smaller places like Bamberg where there are still smaller US Army units stationed. March 2003 Update: There will be even fewer still has I beleive the US will shut down most of its remaining bases in Germany and shift them east to friendlier, pro-American countries such as the Czech Republic or Poland. Presently, the US still has 71,000 troops plus their dependents in Germany. That is no small number and has a huge ecomomic affect on their communities. As hard as it is to imagine, people here are even talking about bringing up both American commanders and President Bush on war crime charges if they invade Iraq. Perceptions here are so radically different than what most American's understand. If I was a 20 something, single American trying to make my way through the abyss here, I think I would be overwhelmed. February 2004 Update: Seems I was correct. Read the article at bottom of this column. "US plans to cut troops in Europe by a third" - Feb.3 2004
DO expect to find English spoken at Irish bars and Germans pretending to be Irish. (This can be quite funny at times.)
DO expect to hear "...because that's the way it is" often and "there is nothing we can do about it" even more often.
DO expect to pay an outrageous sum of money to use a Telecom payphone. Avoid it at all cost and try to find a overseas call shop. I found them in Halle, Erlangen, Nurnburg and most places I traveled, usually around train stations. Since December of 2001, the cards you buy from these shops will no longer work on the German Telecom phones but will work on private lines or over your "handy" (cellular/mobile phone).
DON'T expect someone's work to be done by another person while that person is gone on their one month holiday.
DON'T expect someone to answer your email during the weekends or while on holidays or for someone else to answer them while they are gone.
DO expect people to be open and friendly the farther north you go. In the south, you are an outsider and always will be. I have come to the conclusion that people are actually quite selfish and worried only about themselves. Even my German students who are from northern cities such as Hamburg indicate they have many problems in their own towns and villages as "outsiders" in their newly adopted southern homes.
DON'T expect people to speak English or make an effort to do so. Even the young with many years of English in upper class towns like Erlangen refuse to engage you in English. I have found they can write it very well but few have had the practice to speak, nor do they really wish to. March 2003 Update: Due to the building anti-American feelings here, over the past month people actually tell me to speak German (in German of course). These are the same people who I have communicated with in the past in my broken German and some English. There is a real hate building here against anything American.
DO expect to be told that you should speak German after only 4 months in the country.
DON'T expect many of your students to have any knowledge of the "outside" world no matter what their age. It seems after the cold war ended, their focus is on themselves, their friends and family. Although not unlike many/most students in the USA, it is a radical change from German students of past years.
DO expect to be told that there are 51 states in the US. This became a question I asked every class after I discovered that almost without exception, this was the answer given. Some text book obviously stated this and after that, it becomes fact! I actually have had several students along the way tell me I was wrong! (They have been told that the District of Columbia is a state and this information is actually in the German edited version of the Microsoft Encyclopedia. Can't argue against Bill I guess...isn't he always right??!!)
DO expect them to tell you about their yearly holiday but it will often be the same place, story and people year after year. They go to their compounds that have a hundred or more other Germans.
DO expect them to tell you about their gardens. They love their gardens! (Many use garden like Americans would say yard.)
DON'T expect younger people in the east to have middle names. Most won't as this was considered a religious/Christian idea and as they were good communist, they did not give their children middle names. This is what I was told in Dessau finding an entire class without middle names.
DO expect to go to work and see a sign saying "Attention English Teachers" and everything below it to be in German.
DO buy "The Guardian" (British) or the "International Herald Tribune" for English newspapers. The Guardian is probably a bit easier to use with students. The IHT is compiled from the NY Times and Washington Post.
DO expect many language schools to have only a few members of their support staff who can speak English, especially in the East.
DO expect these same schools to pay you around 12 Euro per teaching session (usually 45 to 50 minutes long).
DO expect to be confused or overwhelmed by the country's 1,100,000 laws.
DON'T expect anyplace to have non-smoking areas. Germany is a country of smokers! March 2003 Update: Current statistics indicate that not only is Germany an aging economy but within 30 years the population will drop from 82 million people to 60 million. Lots of people on pensions but no "new blood" to pay the taxes for these "non-productive" seniors. Without a change in immigration laws, the population is heading down fast.
DO find the magazine "Spotlight" which is a great publication in English for German students.
DO expect the Turkish population to speak better English than the Germans. Notice I said "speak" as they will speak with you, most Germans, especially in the south will not.
DON'T expect to sell your used things easily as Germans don't buy or sell things with signs and moving sales. You see people buying used things but they are usually from the east such as Poland. It seems they would rather travel 200 kilometers to buy something used than buy it from their neighbor.
DON'T expect to find 7/11s on every corner (actually there are none!). The closest thing you will find is the convenience store at a gas station. Some will be open 24 hours.
DO expect to take cheap, all inclusive holidays for only 300-400 Euro to places like Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia and Greece. March 2003 Update: Turkey has raised its visa for Americans three times this past year, starting out at 45 Euro and now being 100 Euro!! In my last trip there they even tried to charge me 135 Euro for being one day over my visa date! Germans of course incur no visa fee when traveling to Turkey.
And for God's sake DON'T arrive on a Sunday, as NOTHING will be open, including the hotels!