Hey I'm Sean: 23/Cancer/Grad Student. Just a queer boy trying to repress the DeviantArt account he made in Highschool, and frankly trying to repress everything else. Twitter: @Fataceboy
Goethe-Institut did a web series a while back aimed at new arrivals in Germany and I like how it make sure to teach people that a lot of Germans are rude af
Well she’s obviously doing it wrong. You got to mumble “Guten Tag” in no one’s actual direction upon entering the waiting room. Then you don’t speak a word (you gotta grab a magazine though, because if you’re on your mobile people will find that asocial) until the doctor calls you and when you get back to retrieve your jacket you mumble “Auf Wiedersehen”.
If you say “Guten Tag” while sitting down it’s either because you’re passive-aggressively shaming the person you’re talking to for not saying “Guten Tag” (which is of course highly respectable, but weird if they did say it) or worse:
You’re trying to make small-talk.
See also: when entering a crowded bus, tram, subway or train, you do not say a single word. You look for an empty bench. If there are none, you will have a neighbour. You stop at an empty spot and mumble something like “tschulli-ng” or “s-nch-frei?” to the person occupying the other spot on the bench. You nod in an upward direction. They reply a mumbled “türlich” while vaguely looking somewhere near your face and moving their bag if neccessary. You sit down, nod gratefully, and keep your mouth shut for the rest of the ride. Neither of you wanted this. You wanted freedom. Don’t bother each other.
If an entire bench in front of you becomes available at the next stop, though, it is not the polite thing to free your neighbour and yourself up. No, you stay right where you are. The silent stranger next to you is your silent stranger now.
Welcome to Germany. This is how we express love.
None of these people are joking.
And if you’re the one sitting at the window and you want to get off at the next stop, you begin to loudly rustle with your bag whatever, because that way you can signal the other person that you need them to get up without having to speak to them.
Clearly, Finns and German were separated at birth because we Finns are exactly the same.
Swedes as well. Talking? Weird shit, tried it once, do not recommend.
Same in Estonia, though you don’t ask if the seat is free, you just sit down. Or if the person has insisted to sit on the aisle side with a free window seat next to them, you may stare in a passive-agressive way somewhere at them, but not sit down, unless you Actually Have To or are over 45 years old and Entitled™️.
Make fun of teen girls going through their “witch phase” all you want, but that is a young woman who has finally realized she is a powerhouse of spiritual authority who doesn’t need the world’s permission to manifest her desires. I would advise you not to fuck with her.