Episode 1: Stereotypes about Germans, Music by Leave Earth
20. Mar, 2007 
15 Comments
Stereotypes about Germans, Music by Leave Earth
the typical German?
This is our first episode of the myGermany Podcast. In this episode I discuss some cultural facts about Germans which account (partially) for some of the stereotypes that we English speakers have about them. Also, I talk about some of the stereotypes that the Germans have about American and the British…and no, they are not always pretty! Here is a nice resource for understanding a bit more about Germans, have a look at the very comprehensive online guide the Germany Survival Bibel published by der Speigel
Leave Earth
And I was going through Amazon and found some cool stuff that you might like to have. Just browse the carousel and if you’re interested, click on the product.
Last but not least, this episode features a lovely and atmospheric song called Too Fast by the German band Leave Earth. Hope you enjoy it and please do check out their website. As always, I look forward to your comments.
Hey Mr. Taural! I think your voice works pretty well for this type of thing. It has a nice, young, professor-ish feel to it. I also liked that you were able to use the word nutjob—haven’t heard that in a few years.
There was a bit of white noise that muffled your voice, but that just may have been my laptop.
It’s interesting for me to listen to you doing a bit of comparing stereotypes between German and English speakers. After living in the East for the past few years as a Westerner, I tend to forget that there are many differences between Western nations itself. Overall it kind of made me miss living in Germany myself. I’ll be looking forward to visiting there later this summer. I for one will be glad to be stereotyped as American as opposed to just another round-eyed, white-skinned, blue-eyed, blond-haired Westerner.
I’ll listen to the next one tomorrow!
Peace!
Yes, the first podcast was a learning experience as regards capturing and working with the audio. I made some mistakes in the first two, but think that number three sounds ok. The fourth will be even better!
thanks or listening tom!
Love it!!!!
I’m completely thrilled this is available. I have several co-workers who travel overseas & need this information.
Ganz toll, Taural!!!
Great podcast! Loved the staring part!
Hi Candice
glad you had a chance to listen to the podcast! Yes, the stereotype issue is one that I’ll probably be picking back up in later episodes, since it’s such a big topic.
-taural
Great podcast with some really useful and interesting info. Thanks a lot. Keep up the good work!
Hi Martin! many thanks for the kind words. I love your blog about Geo- caching. What a cool hobby!
-taural
Very interesting. This stuff deserves to be more widely known to prevent prejudices.
Here in Australia the Dutch are more of a presence than the Germans. A common view is that the Dutch are arrogant and rude. Now I see that is a misinterpretation of their penchant for honesty and directness, just like their German neighbours.
ILove the site, I’ll be back for more soon.
So glad I found your site, and thanks for all the good work. While I have only listened to the first four podcasts so far, I have found that the time and effort you expend come through as a super product — well worth listening to over and over again.
Last year, my husband and I took our first trip to Germany — staying at the home of my German cousin and her husband in Baden-Wuerttemberg. (They speak fluent English, I speak a bissle Schwabisch, and my husband knows only English.) My cousin, her husband, and I each wanted to take a brief nap before dinner; my husband wanted to take a walk. So we made plans to meet my husband outside a small inn at 7 PM — SHARP! (Or should I say — German Time.) We were outside at 6:55, but no husband. At 7 PM, still no husband. At 7:10, my cousin’s husband said, “We must go in and order without him. They will stop serving soon.” He opened the door to the inn and immediately shut it. “Augh,” he said laughing. “You will not believe this.” He opened the door again, allowing us to go through. In the bar area, sitting at a long table with 18 other men, was my husband — laughing and talking (one man translated). He had been befriended by a German hiking club, and they were all enjoying their time together. This was such a rich experience for my husband. It broke all the stereotypes that he had heard about the German people being austere.
Very good information.
I absolutely love your podcasts! This is so helpful not only to foreigners/expats but to Germans as well. It’s always difficult to reflect upon your own culture and it helps to learn how other people see you.
A couple of years ago, I spent 9 months in Canada and I had major problems with peoples’ “superficiality”.. that’s at least what I took it for at first. Friends would say something along the lines of “Hey, we should definitely go and see the new Eastwood movie.” – and then often enough, they’d never mention it again (let alone actually going to the movies). It took me quite a while to realize that people in North America are just very enthusiastic and that they don’t mean every word they say exactly the way they say it.
Your podcast could’ve spared me a lot of frustration.
but I worked it out after a while and adapted eventually, using words like “awesome”, “great”, “appreciate” and “nice” a lot (while often enough smiling to myself and thinking “..right..”). ;o)
If you don’t mind, I’d like to recommend your website to a professor for intercultural communication at my former university..let’s hope it’ll help many many exchange students to overcome their culture shock more quickly.
Thanks again for this wonderful podcast, especially this episode is just great (and I mean it this time)!!!
HI Nyah!
it really makes me happy to hear that people are enjoying these podcasts. I’m not always able to put them out as often as I would like, but hearing from people like you really motivates me!
I think it’d be cool if you recommended this podcast to your ex-Prof. Thanks for taking the time to leave a nice long comment!
Viele Grüße,
Taural
Hallo Taural,
I am an American (from the New York metro area) who recently discovered your podcast series. I am listening to episode 6, and have really enjoyed the series so far. I am looking forward to catching up. My girlfriend and I have had fantasies of expatriating to Deutschland, so I hope to hear about expatriation. I imagine you’ve probably already covered this, but I’m so far behind! I guess right now is probably not a great time for this due to the world economy, but it is nice to think about. Anyway, keep it up.
Vielen Dank!
Ian
great to hear from you Ian. I just had a visit with a listener who is interested in moving over here to GErmany himself. It’s a big step, but certainly one that I’m glad I made. There’s a lot to consider and I think that you are spot on about it being a good topic for a podcast (or 3). Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the podcasts (I’m very far behind on putting out some new ones)
-Taural