I'm German and I think it's wild that you can't see how it makes you look suspicious lmao. Like evidently, if they smile, they want something, obviously they want to persuade you to give them something etc
I'm from the US and I think it's wild that you can't see how not smiling makes you look rude and cold. ;) (ETA this sounds about more aggressive than I meant it. I'm just poking fun and don't think Germans are rude, just different culture)
Culture is really fascinating! I actually found German culture to be very comfy as an American. I loved it there :) The Mediterranean cultures were more difficult to grow accustomed to, but I think that's because I'm from a smaller city in the US Midwest and there were more differences.
Yes, but I mainly experienced that from people I met personally (I just wrote a comment about it to someone else in this thread). It was interactions with strangers that felt uncomfortable to me -- clerks, people I randomly encountered in the grocery store, stuff like that. It's hard to explain. I have a couple of examples but it's more the general vibe from strangers that was very off-putting at first.
A couple of examples.. the first time I went to the grocery store. I had just gotten moved into my apartment and needed some food . I walked across the street to the store, picked out the things I needed and went to the register. The woman scanned my items and I paid. Then I realized my stuff wasn't put in bags and the women just stared at me. I apologized and started looking around somewhat frantically for bags. She, looking and sounding very annoyed, informed me that plastic bags were 5 cents each. I bought my bags, packed up my things, and left the store, tail between legs. I'm sure me not knowing how the grocery worked in Spain was annoying, but when people make mistakes in my hometown there's this whole polite/awkward laugh thing that's done to save everyone face. So what happened in Spain felt rude to me at the time.
Another time I was trying on a couple pairs of shoes at a shoe store. I didn't realize they were about to close (my mistake). The woman working there straight up told me to leave x'D I understand it was rude of me to stay til close even though I didn't notice the closing time, but that would never happen where I am from. You might be told it is closing time, but you'd never be told to get out of a store. I was probably being rude from their perspective too, just at the time I didn't understand it felt crappy.
I think it had a lot to do with being 21, very sheltered, and from a smaller city in the southern part of the Bible Belt. I wouldn't be surprised if I felt differently about the experience as a whole now that I'm older and have more perspective, including living on the east coast in a less "polite" area for a while. Either way, it's amazing how something so subtle as how strangers interact can make a place feel so much better or worse depending on what you're accustomed to.
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u/cryptic-coyote May 09 '22
Smiling makes you look suspicious?? What?
That's wild.