Blogs from Abroad – Germany
By Jill Exler, founder, jexbo
DOING BUSINESS IN GERMANY: QUALITY IS KEY
Posted on August 1, 2008
PINK asked me to share with you what you need to know to do business in Germany.
In general, when we think of German products, we think of quality. This is mainly due to the attention Germans pay to manufacturing. Think of a German car: In general, they are considered luxury items not simply because of the price but also because of the workmanship.
If you are going to succeed in business in Germany, you must be as detail-oriented as the Germans. If you are selling something, you must know your product in-depth from the start. Saying "I'll look that up and get back to you" is a deal-breaker in many instances. The Germans will think, "If they don't know XYZ about their product, how can I trust them when they say ABC?"
Attention to Detail
The German attention to detail is found everywhere. If you buy a coffee machine in a box from a department store, the cashier will take it completely out of the box, check for cracks, plug it in to make sure it's in working order and re-box it before you pay for it. This is good in that you won't get home and find that you're missing something or that the product won't work. It's annoying because it is so time-consuming and, most of the time, unnecessary.
As Americans, we buy something and assume it will work. If we get it home and find there's something wrong with it, we return it. For us, it's a part of life. The Germans want to be completely sure things work correctly before they buy them.
The American Attitude
I own a Web-based business, and I hired a German company to do some work on my site. When their representative and I met, we had to decide which language we'd use together. Both of us are fluent in English and German, but his English is better grammatically than my German.
I waved away my German mistakes and said, "Life is too short to worry about my grammar in a foreign language." He looked astounded at my comment and answered, "That's such an American attitude. I work hard to make my English as perfect as possible."
High Level of Formality
Another American attitude that goes against the grain for most Germans is using first names. The level of formality here in Germany is something very foreign to Americans. When you're introduced to someone in Germany, shake hands with him or her and say your last name. The person will say his or her last name, and you will then either call this colleague "Herr" (Mr.) or "Frau" (Ms./Mrs.) so-and-so. As in (while shaking hands):
"Brown."
"Doe."
"Nice to meet you, Herr Brown"
"Nice to meet you, Frau Doe."
It's good to keep the attitude of "Not better, not worse, just different" when doing business in a foreign country. It may be more difficult in the beginning to do business here in Germany, but you can be sure that those early difficulties will be balanced by the assurance that things will work smoothly once you've gotten started.
Jill Exler is the founder of jexbo™. Here, self-published authors can sell their books cost-effectively and readers can find unique works quickly and easily. jexbo.com
To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "Jill Exler" in the subject line.
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THE FORMALITIES
Posted on May 1, 2008
Howdy from Germany! I'm very happy to have this opportunity to tell you what it's like to live and work as a foreigner in this beautiful country. I thought I should start off with the formalities, which are actually different here than in the U.S. This is a country where formalities are taken seriously, starting from a very young age.
It could come from the fact that German is one of those languages that has more than one version of "you." The informal "du," which you use with your family and close friends, is the English version of "thee," so we have an equivalent; we just don't use it anymore. There is also the formal "Sie," which is for everyone other than "du," and it's also the plural version of "you." As a foreigner, I am somewhat excused from following this strictly. If, for example, I mistakenly use the informal "du" when talking with my son's teacher, she would just think it was a grammatical mistake because German isn't my first language. It becomes tricky for my Austrian husband, though. When we meet other parents at school functions, my husband will whisper, "Do we 'du' or 'Sie' them?" I answer that I only get it right about 50 percent of the time, so he should do what he would do without me.
Another formality here is that I am virtually always called "Frau Exler" (Mrs. Exler), even by women I consider good friends and have known for years. If someone knows that I have a doctorate, they might call me "Frau Doctor." Because my husband also has a doctorate, I am also "Frau Doctor" by virtue of marrying someone with a doctorate. This can be handy if you forget someone's last name but remember their profession. It's perfectly acceptable to say "Hello, Mrs. Butcher" to the butcher's wife if you pass her on the street.
Before my son was born, I taught English in Frankfurt, and the school where I worked encouraged us to have our students call us by our first names. One man refused to call me Jill and insisted I call him by his last name as well. He told me, "If we didn't play in the sandbox together, and we don't have the same last name, we should not use first names when we speak together."
My son is growing up learning these formalities, and he not only shakes hands with his teachers, but also shakes hands with his fellow classmates as well. If he's invited to play with friends after school, he knows to shake hands with his friends as well as their parents, and his friends all shake hands with me when they play at our house. My son was called by his nickname, Ali, for his first two years of elementary school, and he used "du" with his teachers. In third grade, school in Germany becomes more formal (more on that in another blog), and he is now called Alexander and uses "Sie" with his teachers.
So as an American, I am happy to introduce myself to you as Jill, but if you do not feel we are close enough to speak so informally yet, you may call me Mrs. Exler.
Jill Exler is the founder of jexbo™. Here, self-published authors can sell their books cost-effectively and readers can find unique works quickly and easily. jexbo.com
To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "Jill Exler" in the subject line.
