4 direct questions you might get in Germany | DW English

There's a fine line between honesty and politeness and Germans are known abroad for not beating around the bush. Kate Müser and Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi explore the rather direct questions they've had to answer in Germany.

[kragth]

Eigentlich jeder hat als Kind die Sesamstraße geschaut und da heißt es nunmal „ Wer nicht fragt, bleibt dumm.“ Ganz einfach, also fragen wir :D

[deluls]

So here's a revolutionary thought: you can be polite and direct at the same time! Polite and direct aren't opposites.

[reginaprince]

Political talk isn't impolite in Germany, why on earth do you think so?

[Supppi]

It is not impolite to talk about politics!!!! who told you that?
It's strange not to talk about politics, even if you're still in school.

[msfogg-chkp]

Just to give you an example. I'm German and did a stay abroad in England for my studies. I was working in an office in London. for lunchtime i sometimes walked through this little park nearby. One time i somehow had a leaf in my hear and when i returned my co-workers just wouldn't tell me. when, after a couple of hours, i went to the loo and looked in the mirror, i noticed this and asked my colleagues why they didn't tell me i had this leaf in my hair all the time...they said, well that would have been rude. and i was like, noooo, not telling you is. i wasn't mad or anything, i just found it so odd and was really quite confused why they hadn't told me...i guess i prefer being honest and direct rather than being shallow

[bienle]

When I was in the USA I also got asked questions, that were not so great, like Do you have electricity? Do you live in houses? Do you have TV? Do you have cars? Ignorance is very widespread in the USA, and getting asked such questions is definetly also quite rude!

[Chocolettino]

It's not impolite to talk about politics.
I've lived in Germany for all my life and I've never met anyone that told me they thought it to be impolite.

[ponykuhxyz]

Tut mir leid, aber dieses Video ist echt schlecht. Allein schon, dass von der Annahme ausgegangen wird, dass das Gegenteil von direkt höflich ist, bringt mich auf die Palme. Das ist schlicht falsch. Das Gegenteil von direkt ist indirekt/ausweichend. Und in diesen Wörtern steckt KEINE WERTUNG. Trotzdem haftet dem Video ein unangenehm wertender Unterton an, verstärkt durch das pseudo-ironische Augenzwinkern von Kate Müser. Direktheit ist automatisch unhöflich und über Politik spricht man lieber nicht, es sei denn man fragt Ausländer/Migranten? Ist das euer ernst? In welche Cliché-Kiste habt ihr denn da gegriffen? Liebe Deutsche Welle, das muss besser gehen. So wird Deutschland schlecht repräsentiert. Echt peinlich.

[rumpelstilzchen]

I always hate videos like that like millions of people could be categorized that easily. And phrases like "politics is a tabu topic" are just wrong. It always depends on your age, social surroundings, etc.

[uktlcty]

Since when is talking about politics impolite in Germany? We do that all the time

[Zipcom]

If I'm curious about one's opinion, I ask him. That's the way to gain knowledge. If one doesn't want to answer, he can tell so. That's also no problem.
I also have never heard that talking about politics should be impolite. We talk about politics all the time. Maybe sometimes more as a rant.
To me it seems more that people from some other country's are not able to be honest about theirs own opinions. Politeness above honesty and sometimes above facts. The lie seems better than the truth. Smalltalk and nonsense seems more important than real content. That's what i call impolite.
And I simply don't get it why it should be that Impolite to ask someones about his age. I think that's only a problem for very superficial people. So, not answering this question tells also a lot.

[bzunow]

Having the honesty to ask direct questions is a positive and desirable quality in an ethnic culture so cheers to Germany!!

[silkedavid]

I very much relate to this, as a German living in Britain. Even my friend keeps asking me about the political situation in Germany and what the Germans think. One day I had enough and very directly told her: I've lived here for longer than I've lived in Germany, I moved in 2003! How am I supposed to know?

[GingerGingie]

As an American expat living in Germany, the biggest conversational hurdle for us is that Germans will not offer information, even if it's obvious that they know how to be helpful. They will answer you directly, but you must know and ask the right question. Leaning this the hard way (trying to navigate buocrocy, workplace, and the school system) we've opened up more and have started asking more direct questions.

Also, we found the age question to be very true! We're often asked our age. At social parties it's common for everyone to go around and state their age, usually the oldest and youngest ones are called out and commented on once the ages are tallied. It seems like that would be offensive, from my experience in the US, but they don't seem to mind it. It's more of just a curiosity than a judgement, I think.

[lunakarai]

I don't get how any of this is supposed to be rude. It's just curiousity. "Where are you from" does not mean you are any less German, it means somebody is interested in you and wants to know where your family came from. And about politics, it's mostly just ranting and comolaining and saying what should be done better. We learn about politics in school and it's very important to know about the political state your country is in, in my opinion. Of course that can be different in other countries, but in Germany questions usually just show that someone is interested in you and your opinion.

[timmurphy]

There's a lot to be said for politeness but in a way it doesn't stop people from being rude. In the UK politeness is exceedingly important but people have developed sneaky ways of being rude and nosey without breaking the rules. They feel very clever if they have managed to insult you without you quite being sure about it. I think this kind of behaviour is far worse than direct rudeness and it's cowardly too. Really decent people seem to find ways to be kind and friendly no matter what their culture is.

[RoboterHerzSchrittMacher]

the right answer would have been: "das geht dich einen feuchten kehricht an!" ^^

[vornamenachname]

It is not impolite to talk about politics. It is totally common as long as you don't want to avoid a political argument with someone who you know, wouldn''t change their mind. Also she looked confused at the question "what solution there could be". We don't expect you to know one we just want to know what you think what could improve the situation. You just can say "i don't know it's really complicated...". We also ask other germans who they are voting for because there are people who are open about it and you can hear the reason why they are voting for this party(actually a good way to get to know them better) and the reason why so many asked the US Lady who she voted for is because the whole campaign is also a big topic here in Germany and Americans celebrate their candidates like popstars very openly (thats the expression I got from what was covered) so it does seem normal to ask.
The Birthday thing. To celebrate and know ones Birthday isn't something specific German(I know she just stated how Afghanistan handles birthdays but it makes it look like we are only focused on our age). I also saw many US articles where the age is mentioned ot of context and it is probably used to name the person without writing their name the whole time. I actually never recognized that we ask about the age all the time but it feels actually pretty normal to me to know the age of everyone...don't know why we are doing this.
The "where are you REALLY from" is a question that should definitly stopped being asked...that's stupid and I am ashamed that this many still ask it.

[jol]

I'm from The Netherlands and the people in my country are probably more direct than the Germans. If you ask their opinion they will tell you the truth (not always in a polite way)

[tanyag]

When people ask you where you are really from they're talking about your ethnicity. Why is that a problem? They're not trying to say you're less of a German it's just the curiosity about one's heritage, because that might help them to get to know you better or get into further conversation. There's nothing rude about it. And if you were born in another country and even might have family there, I don't think it's false to assume, that you might know more about it's politics than they do. Oftentimes people find it offending when people from OTHER countries try to tell you something about YOUR country. So one just can't do it right, anyways.
Also the part about how politics are generally a taboo and the only exception is when you're from another country is just plainly wrong. People talk about politics all the time here, they're just not shy about it and it has nothing to do with whether you're german or not.