this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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I'm white af, but, as an American, I didn't get treated as rudely anywhere else in Germany than Berlin. Still had a great time overall in the city, but, not really in a rush to go back.
My friend and I were standing at a bar mulling over the menu, just kind of murming to one another over what drinks we wanted while we were waiting for the bartender to finish up with his other customers. It wasn't busy, but he was attending to other people. When he was finally done, he approached us and I said "Hi how are you?" with a smile. He didn't say a single word to us, just took the menus from in front of us and put them on the back shelf, and then turned away.
So we left. Our money clearly wasn't good enough there, and we spent it in another bar across the alleyway instead.
There's probably the problem. Don't ask a german "how are you", they will interpret it as the start of a conversation, not a greeting. You might either get weird looks or a detailled personal and medical history of that person. In food service, you get to the point. A "Excuse me" or "Can we order please" is a way better way to initiate an order.
Well berlin is certainly a different place than the rest of germany. They are famous for their "berliner schnauze" like new york or paris are famous for honest and/or rude people.
I mean, it's still a place I'd tell people to go visit. The bars/restaurants are awesome, and the (not so distant) history is sobering. I found the Stasi museum hella interesting/terrifying.
I'd just mentally prep people before-hand for the, ah, "bluntness" 😂
As a Dane I’d guess they didn’t realize Americans use it as a greating and so assumed you to be initiating a conversation unrelated to ordering, possibly with bad intentions.
It would be a little like starting the conversation with a “how is your mother”, it would signal way more familiarity than was had, come way out of left field and be generally unwanted when you are working if you don’t have time to stop for the conversation that would ensue.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think you did anything wrong necessarily, it’s just a cultural difference that likely causes misunderstandings if none of the parties are aware of it. I’d liken it to a Eurpean going to a restaurant in the US, not tipping anything and how both parties may feel the other party to be rude after the fact if the server let their dissatisfaction show.
I could of course be wrong and they may just have been an ass, plenty of those in tourist heavy areas for sure. Just something to consider if it could have been the case.
What did that mean ? I'm not sure how to interpret. Why would the barkeep do something like that ?
My friend and I just assumed he could tell we were American and didn't want to serve us. We didn't stick around to ask. And he didn't tell us off or to leave or anything, but just more blatantly ignored us.
Like I said, overall still good time. Everyone else was nice and happy enough to chat/serve us (or at least appeared to be lmao)
So, shitty service one place but fine across the street ? And Berlin kinda sucks?