South Africa Program 2017

GERMAN CULTURE

Throughout history and development of the human race, each nation has come up with different systems of defining and orienting themselves using their own concepts regarding sense, meaning and purpose. Cultures are the result of the creative achievement of mankind. German country also has its culture!

I do not know where to really begin but I will start at the beginning of what I have learned about German culture in Tübingen. Firstly I was amazed at the punctuality of transport, in South Africa even if you want to be punctual, chances are you might not because sometimes we have to wait for the taxi to get full before it leaves. Not only is the transport punctual but this has made Germans to be good with time-keeping, whereas in South Africa we have what we call "African Time" which means unpunctuality. In Germany, people make plans and they stick to them.

To take the Bus in Tübingen, one has to have a ticket, but they are not checked regularly. However people continue to buy them. For example no one checked my Bus ticket since I got here but I was told to carry it all the time. The people in Tübingen continue to buy tickets even though they are not checked regularly, to me this shows that the citizens are loyal.

In the Bus I saw young children traveling alone, this has shown to me a sense of security. People are also free to use their smartphones in public, I have seen this in the Bus station. Therefore it occurred to me that the crime rate in Tübingen is low and that Tübingen is the safe environment.

In Germany it is illegal to cross the robot with a red light, one has to wait for the robot to turn green to cross even if there is no car. This prevents car accidents from occurring. The traffic in Tübingen is also not bad, or maybe it is because most people use bikes. In the morning while people are going to work and children are going to school, there are no many cars in the road because most people use the Bus, some ride in bikes and some and a few use their cars. As a result car accidents do not occur frequently in Tübingen.

German people take off their shoes when they enter the house, at first I did not understand but I thought to myself maybe it is because of the snow. To Germans taking off shoes at the door it is a norm. One day I forgot to take off my shoes when I was getting in the house, my host mother told me to take them off so I do not make the house dirty from the mud of snow on my shoes. That is when I thought they are taking off their shoes because they do not want to make the house dirty.

German people are very resourceful. Some of them have built their own houses, some bake their bread and some make their own jam. On Sunday morning my host mother baked a nice fresh bread for us and in the evening she baked Pizza for us. If it was in South Africa we w

ere going to buy bread and Pizza. Most of the German people that I have met are very friendly and helpful. Except for the coldness and struggling with speaking German, I love German culture.

Boinette Selokela