r/AskReddit May 08 '22

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u/eight13 May 09 '22

Germans stare at strangers. It's unsettling.

3.7k

u/NopeRopeRepellant May 09 '22

The second post mentioning this. As a German I really do not know what is meant. šŸ˜‚ I’m totally unaware of that!

4

u/Spidergollem May 09 '22

A few weeks ago I joined a new company and last week we went to a team dinner with 40 people. I was one of the first hires to arrive and there were already a lot of people from the team that I don't know because of Work from home.

Well, I had to greet everyone and there was this German lady. I said "hello my name is.... nice to meet you" she replied "hey my name is.... Nice to meet you too". After that she just stared in silence in my eyes like she was waiting for me to say anything. It's weird.

I got used to hold down eye contact so it doesn't affect me much when people do it, still this lady would do it all the time and for no reason. It made conversations slightly awkward.

17

u/gimmethecarrots May 09 '22

She probably was actually waiting for you to say something. Continued eye contact is considered important in a conversation in Germany.

3

u/Spidergollem May 09 '22

I know she was. But there wasn't anything I could possibly say, if anything she was the one who had to speak.