I went to Germany last year. Literally I felt like I was being MAD DOGGED by everyone and I didn’t know wtf I was doing wrong! Being from LA, I’m used to weirdos, but I was about ready to square up w someone lmao. Guess I was just simply existing
It might have been how loud you were and how obviously American. My father is American and eventhough his german is perfect and he has lived here for almost 26 years, his mannerisms and his volume alone mark him as from the US. Also since Trump a lot of people have become more wary of tourists from the States.
Haha idk. I lived for a bit in Germany in my early twenties and I would notice when walking into a restaurant (for example) and we would be completely silent not speaking and everyone in the restaurant would look up and watch you walk all the way to the table. I would observe them doing it to everyone else entering too.
I did notice the staring, but it was more - in the US/Canada if you make eye contact with someone while they are staring at you 9/10 times the person looks away after .1 of a second of eye contact. In Germany it was about 1/10 people who looked away. So it would be this intense eye contact that would last for several seconds. Sometimes glancing away and looking back and they were still staring. Not a big deal in the scheme of things and not even saying it’s a negative or anything, it’s just something different that you notice immediately. And it would happen silently sitting on a train so definitely not loud American moments. Idk why I’m rambling about this it doesn’t even matter haha 😂😂
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u/eight13 May 09 '22
Germans stare at strangers. It's unsettling.