There was a study done, which went to various countries and attempted to rate them on 'difficulty in settling in'. It's an odd topic. Having spent two decades in the military and continually in a move-and-adjust status....I developed my own personal way of settling in and just accepted things as something new to learn. The point of this study though....was certain countries are easier to adjust to, than other countries.
So how did Germany rate on this study? It's considered to be one of the most difficult countries to adjust to. Part of the blame? It's dished out to language. So I sat and pondered over the topic and how Germany fell near the bottom on this list.
First, I'll be blunt....having discussed this matter with people from at least thirty different countries, there's mass agreement (almost by all nationalities) that German is one of the more difficult languages to adjust to and learn. The die, der and das business (the forms of 'the') leads the way. But then you have the dialect issue where you might think you know German to some degree, and walk into a pub of Bavarians, and just give up after 15 minutes. The abbreviations? That's another little factor that makes you shake your head, with some abbreviations making sense and others not.
But onto the second and just as important settling in factor....driving. In 1978 when the German handbook was loaned to me for a weekend of study.....I sat there looking at approximately 300 different signs. Maybe a third of them made perfect sense....but there's probably 25 signs which relate to trains or crossings only....something that you rarely have to mess with in the US. Because of the rapid fire decisions you have to make while driving in Germany....it's essential you memorize the signs and the rules over priorities. I think most non-Germans arriving and getting into the license business are a bit overwhelmed.
The third issue is a curious one....Germans aren't the type to start up a conversation with a stranger....well, at least typically. I had a Ghanaian make this comment one day in a language class. He found that Syrians and other immigrant folks were more likely to start a stranger-to-stranger conversation, than Germans. I kinda agreed with that. Some Germans will say they have the cold-factor as part of the national culture business. Other Germans will just say that they are in some thinking mode....constantly, and chat only when necessary.
The fourth issue revolves around bureaucracy, which the Germans adapt well to, and master. Even Germans will whine about the 'red-tape' involved in simple procedures, and the various conflicts, and duplication that you run into. At some point twenty-odd years ago, my son's name (around age 7) got onto some county-listing in Kaiserslautern, and the county 'waste' office (the garbage empire) wanted him to pay into the waste-revenue 'pocket'. My German wife has little patience for bureaucracy, so she wrote them a letter to suggest that they'd made a mistake. A month later, the return letter came....'no' was the answer, he'd need to pay the garbage tax. So I ended up taking the 7-year old kid down and introduce him to the county clerk, with the letter involved.....explaining the guy that the kid only generates a shoebox of garbage per week....then asking if there was a mini-mini-mini container fee for him. The German clerk laughed....went into the system and corrected everything. Oddly, he never explained how the kid got onto this database for tax collection.
Finally, there's this issue of rules that you have to master. For example, there are at least fifty significant rules over garbage, recycling, and waste disposal that you need to master in the first sixty days after arrival. Some make sense....some don't. Mass transit and bus travel? I would suggest a minimum of seventy rules that you need to generally remember on a daily basis. If you get heavily into train-travel, there's probably over 200 factors that you need to remember on tickets, discounts, the restroom business, travel in inclement weather, and plan 'B' situations. Years ago, I worked with an American who was the type to carry around notebooks to note processes and procedures (yeah, he was an engineer). Upon arrival in Germany, he had a 150-page book which he wrote all the processes, procedures and rules down. At the end of four years and leaving....he had wrapped up two Germany-process-books, and started a third book. Some people can joke about it.....that Germans could make a 12-step process for something that ought to be done in three steps. I had an American associate who owned a dog and was paying the German dog tax. One day, the dog died. Going through the base vet, they disposed of the dog for him (a fee was involved). Well....about a year later, the German county office comes up and says you need to pay the dog tax and the late-fee. He responds 'no'.....the dog is dead. Well, they needed a dog-death certificate. The base vet wasn't exactly helpful on this requirement. So I asked the German 'helper' to the vet if she couldn't just make up a certificate out of thin air, in German of course, that just said 'Shep was dead'. That got the guy out of trouble, but it details how complex German society has developed into.
But you have to ask this question....is this settling in problem hindering immigrant minds about coming to Germany? The answer so far? No, it's not really a problem until they get here and start to grasp all the associated problems.
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