Attention, Americans! Survival Guides for Germany!

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Richard Lord in "Culture Shock": "Better don't be too friendly to a foreign person. The Germans will simply believe that you want something from them, or that you are not quite normal. Habits and behavior that are displayed by Americans when greeting someone, just raises their suspicion, at best they take you as just a superficial American. By nature, Germans are no sunny cheerful souls."

That part is true. I remember people I got to know from Europe telling me they thought that Americans were always smiling and being friendly as a way to trick them. They said it was called the "American smile".