Flying from South Africa to Germany is always an interesting cultural experience. From the moment you board the plane, you hear a lot more German than English, see more backpacks than handbags and people dressed in “I am on holiday” clothes. It can be quite intimidating to be surrounded by so much German-ness all of a sudden and it usually takes me a while to ease back into German culture.
The other day, after we had disembarked our plane in Frankfurt, I had the privilege to witness the best and worst of German-ness while queuing for passport control.
Two immigration officers were on duty to check the passports of ~300 sleepy grumpy Germans, who had just landed from an overnight flight. Two officials for 300 passengers is not a German’s understanding of efficiency and having to wait more than five minutes to go through passport control seemed absurd. Very quickly people started complaining and loudly expressed their anger about this unacceptable situation… I couldn’t help but think back to the South African immigration line, where I am always prepared to wait an hour and thrilled if I get through in 30minutes! Somehow, people have much more patience in Africa to accept the things they cannot change – why get upset if that isn’t gonna speed things up at all? Rather hum a song to pass the time…
Just when I started to feel a little detached from the Germans surrounding me, I noticed the man in front of me who had his little son in a baby carrier backpack. The little one was getting grouchy (even he didn’t like waiting) and the father gave the son a dummy to calm him down. That worked for a few moments, until the son dropped the dummy and fell on the floor. Now in South Africa, that means the dummy is dead: it has to go in a box with other dirty dummies and can only get used again after being sterilised in a special dummy cleaning machine at home. This is not the way pragmatic no-fuzz Germans do it and so the father picked up the dummy, sucked it briefly and gave it back to his son. Easy.
Thank you, Random Stranger, for reminding me why I love this country. Thank you, South Africa, for helping me realise where a little change won’t hurt…
The other day, after we had disembarked our plane in Frankfurt, I had the privilege to witness the best and worst of German-ness while queuing for passport control.
Two immigration officers were on duty to check the passports of ~300 sleepy grumpy Germans, who had just landed from an overnight flight. Two officials for 300 passengers is not a German’s understanding of efficiency and having to wait more than five minutes to go through passport control seemed absurd. Very quickly people started complaining and loudly expressed their anger about this unacceptable situation… I couldn’t help but think back to the South African immigration line, where I am always prepared to wait an hour and thrilled if I get through in 30minutes! Somehow, people have much more patience in Africa to accept the things they cannot change – why get upset if that isn’t gonna speed things up at all? Rather hum a song to pass the time…
Just when I started to feel a little detached from the Germans surrounding me, I noticed the man in front of me who had his little son in a baby carrier backpack. The little one was getting grouchy (even he didn’t like waiting) and the father gave the son a dummy to calm him down. That worked for a few moments, until the son dropped the dummy and fell on the floor. Now in South Africa, that means the dummy is dead: it has to go in a box with other dirty dummies and can only get used again after being sterilised in a special dummy cleaning machine at home. This is not the way pragmatic no-fuzz Germans do it and so the father picked up the dummy, sucked it briefly and gave it back to his son. Easy.
Thank you, Random Stranger, for reminding me why I love this country. Thank you, South Africa, for helping me realise where a little change won’t hurt…
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