One thing that baffles me about #Germany is how it manages to be so outward looking and so insular at the same time.

One thing that baffles me about #Germany is how it manages to be so outward looking and so insular at the same time.

Like, seriously. The German news are actually quite focused on what's going on in the world, it takes up quite a bit of space in reporting. German media also run their own news agency, DPA, so reporting quality is actually quite ok.

Culturally, Germany is a sponge. Whatever comes their way, Germans soak it up. Not everybody will like everything all at once. But chances are good there's a large enough followership to make it stick. Whether its music, shows, food, fashion or holiday traditions.

Not to mention the language.

German has been soaking up foreign words and concepts since forever at an incredible speed. Fenster, Pullover, Roboter, City, Handy, Skyline, Döner, Alman and so on.

And the more elite and trendy you want to appear, the more you "need" some foreign vocabulary to sound posh. It's "Cardigan", not Strickjacke. "Pulled Pork", not Spießbraten. "Burger", not Frikadelle. "Sanssouci" und nicht Geltungssucht.

And the "Fernweh". A lot of Germans don't seem complete unless they have a place they can like more than Germany. Their "home away from home". Whether they travel there every year on holiday, or just daydream about it. It's just so common.

There's an entire German TV genre "German inherits a location somewhere foreign and falls in love with the place".

From Karl May to Rosamunde Pilcher, this is traditional.

Yet at the same time, Germany sometimes feels like an island.

Quite a bit of this is due to language. Germany is large enough to have a lot of mainstream material translated into German. News, TV shows, movies, novels, games.

Many Germans learn some English at school. But without practice, it atrophies. Many Germans shy away from English movies or novels. Even more so for non-fiction.

You might not even notice, with English being good enough for Instagram or texting.

This has led to the curious phenomenon of Germans experiencing the world through the eyes of other Germans.

Like, it's a common enough thing for Germans to do public presentations of their travels.
https://rausgegangen.de/frankfurt/tags/vortrag/
And there are of course documentaries and books - often by Germans, in German. In the context of travel.

There's actually a huge amount of expats from everywhere in Germany. Germans could ask them about their countries, invite them to share their knowledge and insights.

But they normally don't. Even when language isn't a barrier.

The curiosity often doesn't run that deep, or so it seems to me. Other countries are a destination, a fancy, a threat, an opportunity, a place needing help.

But not somewhere to learn from. Not somewhere to look for solutions. Not a place where people might be more competent. More skilled. Have better ideas. Be more technological advanced.

Germans know best. There's no FOMO to be outthought. For many Germans, it's unthinkable.

Not to mention the language.

German has been soaking up foreign words and concepts since forever at an incredible speed. Fenster, Pullover, Roboter, City, Handy, Skyline, Döner, Alman and so on.

And the more elite and trendy you want to appear, the more you "need" some foreign vocabulary to sound posh. It's "Cardigan", not Strickjacke. "Pulled Pork", not Spießbraten. "Burger", not Frikadelle. "Sanssouci" und nicht Geltungssucht.

But they normally don't. Even when language isn't a barrier.

The curiosity often doesn't run that deep, or so it seems to me. Other countries are a destination, a fancy, a threat, an opportunity, a place needing help.

But not somewhere to learn from. Not somewhere to look for solutions. Not a place where people might be more competent. More skilled. Have better ideas. Be more technological advanced.

Germans know best. There's no FOMO to be outthought. For many Germans, it's unthinkable.

And it shows shamefully in so many ways.

Like the hiring of foreign nurses. There's a huge shortage in Germany. And, frankly, a lot of the practices in Germany are not good.

Yet the expectation is "I hope they will be up to German standards and regulations". To think they might actually be more competent, know more, have been trained to a higher standard? Unthinkable.