Monday, November 12, 2007
Dinner Party German Style
Living in Latvia has really made me aware of all the little cultural differences you would never see just traveling through a country. For example on Saturday I was invited to a dinner party because my German friend Thomas (who lived across the hall from me in the Latvian dorms two summers ago) was in town. I was told the party would begin at 8:00 pm so I left the house at 8:00 pm and headed to the store to buy a bottle of wine. While I was at the store my other German friend Katja called me and said are you coming and I was like yeah just picking up a bottle of wine. This was about 8:20. Then she said why are you so late and I was like um you said 8:00 and I explained that in the US when someone says 8:00 you show up fashionably late like 30 mins and she was like well in Germany when we say 8:00 we mean 8:00. Needless to say I was 45 mins late to the party and had all the Germans there wondering how we accomplish anything in the US if we are all late to things. Just another, in a long list of lessons about cultural differences!
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3 comments:
This reminds me of an episode of "Fawlty Tower" in which they have German guest and Basil is really concerned that no one "mention the War"...of course he ends up with a concussion and can't stop mentioning it...in the end he is doing a Hilter impersonation and goose-stepping around the dining room. As he is being dragged away by doctors the Germans look at each other and ask "However did they win?"...
The obvious answer to the German question is that they can't distinguish between work and socializing. No one showed up 30 minutes late at Pleasant Company to hawk the dollies and had a successful career.
But coffee at Starbucks? Or wine at a party? Does it really have to be served at 8:00and 00 seconds?
Cheers,
Yvette
This reminds me of a little family get together we had while my friend Selina was visiting. Since her husband is German and she lives in Germany, my cousin's wife asked if her husband was "some crazy latvian word that none of us could translate and i cant remember." After looking in the dictionary for ten minutes, she finally just explained what it meant, and it was basically some state of being where you like things to run like clockwork. She then explained how Germans are supposed to be like this. My friend agreed and explained how her husband gets really upset if they ever have to wait for anything, even for things like a table at a restaurant. So long story short: like you, i also learned a thing or two about Germans in Latvia!
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