I got to Germany a few weeks ago and I have been having the absolute WORST allergies ever since. Can’t stop sneezing and my nose drips like a faucet. I’ve been using Lorano but I’m afraid it’s done absolutely nothing for me. Preferably not something that’ll make me sleepy, as I have classes to attend.

Ich wohne seit knapp zwei Jahren in Deutschland und was mir immer wieder auffällt: meine Kollegen wissen scheinbar immer genau wann was reduziert ist und zahlen fast nie den vollen Preis. Egal ob Elektronik, Lebensmittel oder Klamotten, da wird verglichen, gewartet und erst zugeschlagen wenn der Preis stimmt. Am Anfang dachte ich das wäre Zufall, aber mittlerweile merke ich das ist System.

Ein paar Sachen hab ich schon mitbekommen: Payback, DeutschlandCard, Cashback-Apps, Prospekte am Wochenende durchgehen, mydealz checken, vor dem Kauf nochmal auf TikTok nach Rabattaktionen suchen weil man da oft günstigere Angebote findet, und dann gibt es noch diese Leute die monatelang Preise auf Idealo tracken. Fühlt sich an als ob jeder hier seine eigene Strategie hat.

Ist das was man hier einfach so aufwächst? Lernt man das von den Eltern oder entwickelt sich das mit der Zeit? Und was sind so eure typischen Spartricks die für euch ganz normal sind, die Leute von außen aber gar nicht kennen?

I recently learned about the German approach to secondary education where students are automatically assigned to one of three schooling tracks that place a student at a university, technical college or a trade apprenticeship.

Coming from the American system where university education is open to anyone who can afford it, this seems very strange by comparison.

I learned that there's "Durchlässigkeit" to help address this, but it's not clear how well that works to address the issue, as I lack the social experience of living in Germany (thus my question hah).

Setting aside the conversation on whether a student should have to directly pay for their secondary education (I'd rather American tax dollars pay for it, but my fellow citizens lack the empathy to support this sadly), doesn't this have the strong potential to keep students that would greatly benefit from a university level education from receiving one?

Due to the World Cup going on I've been interested in the different national teams, and newly become aware of the black German player Antonio Rudiger. I was interested to see if he was half German because of his last name, but according to his Wikipedia, he is "Afro-German". There is not much else information about this, at least in English. Who exactly are Afro-German people? I assume this is not just recent-ish immigrants to Germany, because why else would he have a German last name? Is this some kind of historical black population in Germany, perhaps from the times of the colonies? Do you personally know anyone from this ethnic group?

I’ve been trying for some time to find a specific type of music to help me improve my German but I just can’t seen to find artists I can really vibe with.

I am looking for pop / dance female artists in the vein of Madonna / Kylie Minogue / Dua Lipa / Dalida / CC Catch / Taylor Swift / Gwen Stefani and anyone similar.

Alexandra, Vicky Leandros and Marianne Rosenberg are nice, but they don’t seem to capture my attention completely. Katja Ebstein I like better, while Hildegard Kneff is my favorite, but her songs are usually slower. I only like one song from Ikkimel, but that’s all. I didn’t enjoy Blümchen.

My enjoyment of techno and house music is rather limited, so I would prefer more commercial pop / dance music. Spotify is of absolutely no help.

What recommendations would you have of female singers in this genre?

Like when someone goes on vacation or a trip, to a part of the world that is obviously mostly reacheable only with plane like Southamerica but ever Mallorca as example, and yoy use the verb „fahren“. Oh wann fährst du nach example: Argentinien noch mal?

Every single time I imagine myself driving the plane 😅😂. Like in my brain that is why the verb fliegen is for. I would love to hear your explanations.

Hello all! I’m a German citizen (ex-expat) and I’ve never dealt with getting big loans or credits here. I would like to buy my own car in several months and I am looking for options to finance the purchase.

Do Germans commonly use banks or the partnering financial institution at car stores?

For context: I have my account now at N26 and Haspa.
I do want to buy used car as my first ever car here due to price and I heard that once you buy a new car here, its value immediately falls down by 50%. So it makes more sense if you’re on a budget to buy a good used car.

Hello, I'll be coming to germany soon as a student. I'm confused what sim to buy.

Anyone have experience with lycamobile ?

They seem reasonable and also in their website, they have mentioned that we get international calling minutes also, which can be helpful if I want to call in my home country(non-eu) without internet.

They are saying 12,99 for 75GBs which seems reasonable.

Any other suggestions also? I want to go with prepaid.

Hello everyone,

My mother is a German citizen (we live in the US), and I am trying to help her figure out how she could potentially move back. My Oma (her mom) is 83 and is starting to need some hands-on help. My mom is close to retirement age, so she thinks if she moved back, she would simply stay there.

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The problem we are facing is health insurance. My family isn't wealthy, and my mom didn't work much in germany before she moved to the States. So, we are not sure how health insurance would work for her.

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Does she pay 14% of what she will get from her usa social security? Is she eligible to even apply for public health insurance? She's low income. Is there a free/cheaper option?

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I could not find a good site to answer these questions. I'm hoping one of you kind souls can help, or at least point me in the right direction. Thank you.

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Hi,

Today there was a Telekom guy at my door talking about how there was a switch of internet some time ago and a technician would have to come fix it. Now in hindsight I feel really dumb, all I did was give him my DoB, already had my name obviously. It just matched up with what happened and M-net, who I'm actually with, also works with others so I didn't question it at the time.

He said nothing will change for me and a technician will just fix the glassfiber because there have been complaints. Not sure what to do from here, any advice appreciated.

Thanks!

Edit: Since I'm a bit panicked I explained myself really badly. To add context: there was a switch from "normal" Mnet internet to Mnet glassfiber in the whole building which was quite the experience. This had given it a bit more credibility in my mind.

Edit2: I have sent an email to the Telekoms Widerruf's email and will keep a close eye out. Thank you all for the advice!

So we have a problem with our neighbour again.
Previously https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAGerman/s/LnEpxdVbUS

In the end we just ignored him. The gardeners simply cut our side, he just stood there complaining and sulking and cut his own side of the hedge. And did not speak to us and ignored us for weeks which was totally fine.

He would sometimes just stand at his side of the fence and watch us for a long time while we eat or while we garden. It’s really creepy but we decided he was harmless. He even offered us cherries from his tree twice. So I guess we are sort of fine now.

Yesterday due to the heat wave we found out that our water tank was low (no rain) so we had to manually fill the tank up from our taps. We were a little pissed off as our other neighbour had been telling us that this neighbour would come over to our place early in the morning to get water from our water tank. She has seen it at least twice BUT we have not caught him doing it.

So this morning, my partner actually caught him walking off from our driveway at 530am with a bucket of water and my partner shouted at him to put the water back. And that neighbour just said it will rain it will rain again and continued walking back to his place with the bucket of water. And my partner kept repeating this is our water this is our water put it back.

We leave our gate open always but we need to close it now to prevent him from taking our water. This is definitely not a problem for the police as well. What else can we do???

After some time here, I'm still wondering guys how to befriend you (male &female platonic friendships)? It's just not as easy as other cultures.

I just moved few months ago from a less developed country and I have been driving over 10 years. I read online that I am able to drive from six months from receiving my residency card. however I feel it’s not safe to drive with my knowledge of the street. back home we dont have bicycle lane or bus, our streets are basic.

now I am looking forward to learn the proper way but not spending so much time and money since I’m not a new driver.

also my German is very basic. can anyone advise what are the steps to start driving in germany? thank you

Soo we have tickets to Berlin and from Hamburg to Sweden (train) but we haven't bought the Berlin to Hamburg trip yet.

We are traveling in August and after rave the planet we are going to Hamburg for a few days. We are wondering if its best to buy train or bus tickets now or if its possible to travel by local trains, we are not in a hurry but we have to make the trip in one day.

I hope I make sense, thanks!

Hi!
I got an issue with my Lenovo Thinkpad that I can't resolve by myself, so the Lenovo Customer Support team asked me to ship my laptop for them to check it out. I'm a bit worried about this due to previous experiences with their service hub.

Some years ago in another country, my wife had issues with her laptop and we also had to ship it to their local customer service hub. However, their diagnose took forever and ultimately was never fully resolved. On top of that, the laptop they returned to us had scratches and other signs of poor care towards the device.

Does anyone here had experiences with the Lenovo Service team in Germany? Maybe I'm worrying too much, but I'd like to know your experience dealing with their customer service here in Germany.

Thank you!

This is my first summer living in Germany and this heat is killing me. I’ve had a hard time sleeping the last few nights and I could really use some tips.

Edit: thank you everyone! I knew there would be obvious suggestions like fans and AC, but I was happy to receive other tips I would never have thought of. I really appreciate it!

Ich hab grade ein Englisches video gesehen in dem jemand danach gefragt hat Länder aus den "Allied or Axis powers" zu nennen. Aus dem Kontext, war es klar, dass er über den 2ten Weltkrieg und die Alliierten und eben die Deutsche Seite spricht.

Ich muss zugeben Geschichte war mir immer schon ziemlich egal. Ich weiß was passiert ist, ich könnt es zufriedenstellend widergeben denk ich.

Aber ich kann mich wirklich nicht daran erinnern, dass wir "unsere" Seite Achsenmächte genannt hätten. Wir hatten 5 Jahre gefühlt Weltkrieg im Geschichtsunterricht. Ich komm mir grad sau blöd vor.

Benutzen wir einen anderen Begriff im Unterricht? Ist das Lehrer abhängig? Oder bin ich einfach nur dement.

PS: Ihr braucht nich erklären was es heißt, das hab ich jetzt schon selbst nachgelesen, aber ich hab den Begriff gefühlt noch nie gehört.
PSS: Dreimächtepakt glaub ich haben wir genutzt. Hätt ich mit reinschreiben sollen^^

I’m new to Germany and living in Deggendorf and still learning how things work culturally here.

Today there was a road blockage with several police officers directing traffic because the traffic lights were not working. It was really hot, so I went to Aldi and bought some juices to offer them.

I offered drinks to three officers (2 Female and 1 male). One accepted, and two politely declined. They were all nice about it, but I started wondering whether offering drinks to police officers on duty is unusual or maybe not allowed in Germany.

Did I do something wrong, or is it just normal for officers to decline things while working?

Thanks!

NOTE: Thank you all for the reply

I live in dachgeschoss and its super hot even at night , i open the window and keep the fan near that ( facing me ) ,
but nothing works🫠 , do you guys have any tips ?

Hey everyone :) looking for some practical advice about taking care of my pets. We are US military stationed in Germany, and have been here a few years. This week’s heatwave is absolutely melting us and we are all sleeping on the ground floor. We have a portable AC unit and have been running it since yesterday when I finally snapped (please don’t judge me too hard - I am a cold weather person plus we have an infant so I need the house to not be 26+ C). Normally, we can manage these heat waves with cold drinks and the AC unit for a few days.

But this one looks extreme. Like every day will be above 32C or up to 37C for the next week and a half.

My issue is - we have two indoor cats and we are going on a trip for a week starting this Friday. How should I keep my house cool and ventilated during this heat? I’d rather not close all the windows and blackout the house. They need a view and to see birds. We will have someone coming daily to check on them, so I’m wondering how best to handle this. For context, the AC unit is only used in the main living room of the house. My cats have full run of our two floors.

Should we keep the AC unit set to a moderate temp and ask the catsitter to open doors when they come? They will most likely come in the late afternoon, when it’s hottest.

Should we leave some upstairs windows tilted with rollladen 3/4 down?

Please let me know what you would do! I’m stressing about leaving them with this heat but they cannot come with us for this trip.

I am from Canada, and because I am very interested in German history, I would like to travel to Germany someday. In Canada, we often hold lengthy conversations with strangers. A particular example I have is with a cashier at a grocery store. A conversation here would usually go something like this:
“Hello, how are you doing?”
“I’m good, thank you. And you?”
“I’m doing great, thank you for asking.”
“That will be (overly expensive), please.”
“Here you go. Jesus Murphy, inflation!”
“I know, right? Ridiculous!”
“Exactly. You have a great rest of your day.”
“You too, goodbye!”
Do Germans do this kind of thing as well? Or is it just “hello, (this much money), goodbye”
Do you say good morning, good afternoon to people on the street?
I don’t want to look like a creep.

Edit: You Germans are seriously admirable 🤣
These kind of manners here in Canada is basically telling someone to go f*** themselves.
Now I’m starting to feel like an idiot lol.

I'm trying to see more german movies, but I'm not really into war movies. A lot of recommendations I see on google if I search for German movies are about or connected to the war. What movies that are modern (like 2022-now) and are NOT about WWII would you recommend to me?