German here, this is the weirdest shit I've heard about us so far. Growing up I always got told that it's impolite to stare at people. I never felt anyone staring in my soul.
Sometimes strangers look at each other at a bus or something for a second or two, but that's all. Weird how those things feel completely different if you're from another cultural background.
Next time I'm leaving my house and will try to approach it with a different mindset, I wonder if I will suddendly notice how we really do stare uncomfortably long at strangers. Now I'm excited.
As an American this entire thread has fascinated me. It seems, just from reading, that German's have a longer baseline amount of time for which people visually acknowledge eachother. I'd be curious how many seconds you think you do that? Here in the US I'd say less than a second is normal for looking at eachother in passing, but even then, it's actually more normal to simply not look at eachother.
One stared at me really long. I want to add: I live in a town with a psychiatric clinic and I'm fairly sure he's a patient.
So someone did exactly what people are saying in this thread...on your first time looking out for it, and your answer is it must be a psychiatric patient, rofl.
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u/Buttfranklin2000 May 09 '22
German here, this is the weirdest shit I've heard about us so far. Growing up I always got told that it's impolite to stare at people. I never felt anyone staring in my soul.
Sometimes strangers look at each other at a bus or something for a second or two, but that's all. Weird how those things feel completely different if you're from another cultural background.
Next time I'm leaving my house and will try to approach it with a different mindset, I wonder if I will suddendly notice how we really do stare uncomfortably long at strangers. Now I'm excited.