This might not be the typical expat blog, written by a German expat, living in the Philippines since 1999. It's different. In English and in German. Check it out! Enjoy reading!
Dies mag' nun wirklich nicht der typische Auswandererblog eines Deutschen auf den Philippinen sein. Er soll etwas anders sein. In Englisch und in Deutsch! Viel Spass beim Lesen!
You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?
There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!
Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!
Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!
ABOUT ME: Born in the USSR; lived in 4 countries; have a degree in philosophy; media analyst; sailing skipper; yoga instructor; own an online business since 1999 (Elenasmodels•com)
According to the language learning app Duolingo, English remained the most popular choice among learners in 2023.
The top-10 most studied languages worldwide:
English
Spanish
French
German
Japanese
Korean
Italian
Hindi
Chinese
Portuguese
The map above shows the most studied language by country.
Duolingo provides learning apps to study over 40 languages, ranging from English, French, and Spanish to less commonly studied languages such as Welsh, Irish, and Swahili.
All in all, in 2023 English remained No. 1 most studied language in 122 countries on the app.
In 2023, Korean jumped past Italian for the No. 6 spot in the rankings. A large part of the increase is attributed to the fandom surrounding Korean music and movies. South America has seen a surge in learners taking on Korean, as has India.
Russian, which previously held the No. 10 spot, was ousted from the top-10 by Portuguese in 2023.
After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the popularity of the Russian language in the world dropped, with courses of Russian closing in many European countries. The popularity of learning the Ukrainian language, vice versus, increased.
Almost 40% of those learning Ukranian list their top motivation as a way to connect with other people, said Duolingo’s content editor Cindy Blanco: “It is a way people may show solidarity during the war.”
Cindi Blanco.
The top countries that had the most users learning Ukrainian were the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Poland. Next on the list was, surprisingly, Russia — and, unexpectedly, Ukraine itself, where many former Russian speakers no longer wish to converse in Russian in their daily lives.
One of the most prevalent trends among younger users was their interest in learning less common languages: much of the interest in Ukrainian was driven by ‘Gen Z’ users.
Growing interest in Asian languages has been also strongly influenced by younger learners: 86% of the people learning Japanese and 76% of those learning Chinese were under 30.
In 2024, the company expects that Asian languages will continue growing in popularity.
After the onset of the Israeli-Hamas war, interest in Arabic and Hebrew is likely to change as well. It will be interesting to see whether this will affect the top-10 ranking in 2024.
I have lived here for around 2 years now and here are three things I really appreciate..
1. German directness: hands down, this is one of the most special and well embedded German character. People tell things to your face. That doesn’t mean, they don’t bitch behind your back; but still the 99% of the things will be told to your face. This comes very handy in a professional environment. You exactly know what is expected from you and how good or bad you’re doing. And this thing is very hard to get used to but once you get used to it and then you go to a different place, it becomes very easy to spot a lie (at least for me).
2. Respecting other’s time: before coming to Germany, I never really knew the “value” of my time and rarely used the phrase “you’re wasting my time”. 2 years now and I say straight to person’s face if he/she is late and doesn’t have a valid reason. I cannot say how much I appreciate this thing. They say, time is money- and Germans follow it to the core (deutsche bahn- hear that? :P). P.S. I love DB but there’s always some fun to make fun of them :D
3. Order/regulations and more order: I give it to a new person that its a pain in a** for first few weeks. But once you get used to it, this is one of the better aspects of German society. Sometimes though it comes with a drawback, where the person is so much used to orderly and regulated living; that in a strange situation its very hard to adapt. Ordnung muss sein!!
I teach regular people how to start freelance writing even if they failed English at school and have no experience in business. I’m also an Expat living in Germany.
I’m going to come at this from a British perspective, based on my experience of living in Germany and having a long term relationship with a German.
(Please remember this is all tongue-in-cheek and I love the Germans a lot :) )
01: Schultüte (School Cone)
The first time I went to meet my girlfriend's parents in Bad Dürkheim we took part in the socially awkward tradition of going through family photo albums. You know the kind, where you smile and nod and go, "Oh yeah....wow. Really? Cool." and try to figure out what expression you should have on your face.
As we were going through childhood photos I stumbled across a picture of the first day of school, where every child was stood holding a strange large cone (almost as big as the child themselves) covered in decorations.
Nobody else looking at the album seemed to react to the photo, but before they turned the page, I had to ask them to hold on and explain this weird phenomenon to me.
Apparently on the first day of school it's normal to give your child a three kilogram cone filled with stationery, sweets and treats. They must then proceed to walk around the school on their first day holding said cone. And, then, they're allowed to open to the cone once they get back home after the first day of school (they very thing the items in the cone were created for).
Nope. Still don't get it.
02: Polterabend (Smashing Porcelain Before You Get Married)
Before getting married, a couple will post the date of their Polterabend in a local newspaper, much like a classified advert.
People in the surrounding village or area (read: total strangers) can then turn up to your event - seemingly hosted in a car park or wide open space - with their unwanted porcelain products such as toilets, sinks and cups, and donate them to you.
You then, as a couple, process to smash all of the porcelain into tiny pieces for the amusement of your friends, family and total strangers as they watch.
Once all of the porcelain has been broken, the onlooking masses get drunk and eat food while you and your partner spend the rest of the evening sweeping up the porcelain and tidying up the mess that you've made.
03: Being Naked
It’s incredibly un-British how often German people are naked.
Not long ago I was on Skype with my Girlfriend while she in the bath (not for that reason). And, in the 10 minutes we were on the call her: sister-in-law, brother, mother, nephew and other brother all came into the room and had a shower.
People love to be naked in local saunas and, well… just in general, really.
I’ve seen more German penises in my life than I’d care to admit.
04: Directness
I’d like to admit I’m rather English: I talk around specific subjects, if someone is clearly enjoying an awful new outfit I don’t mention it, and unless it’s one of my really close friends I don’t tend to speak my mind.
I’m a regular ol’ Hugh Grant in Mancunian clothing.
In Germany, they haven’t gotten their heads quite around that concept.
Wearing an awful t-shirt? They’ll tell you.
Been a bit of a dick? Oh, they’ll tell you.
Put on a little bit of weight? Yeah, they’ll god damn well tell you.
In one respect it’s quite nice because you always know where you stand. But, in other cases, you’ll come away with a crushed soul.
05: Wanting All Their Money Back
In England, if I lent my mate £5, I’d be quite happy if he bought me a beer and we called it quits. If I lend someone £1 and the only have 50p to give me back, then, okay, that’s fine by me.
But Germans have a way of being incredibly precise with their money and how much they want it back.
“Have you got that 2 Euro 38 I lent you for the S-Bahn the other day, James?”
“Erm, I’ve got 3 Euro.”
“Let me just see if I have 62 cents to give you in return”
What scary is that’s not an unusual conversation to have! Take my extra 62 cents and be done with you.
06: Stopping At Every Pedestrian Crossing
I met my girlfriend when we were both on the Camino de Santiago. (That’s a big hike across Spain.) Which meant we’d do a lot of walking through villages, cities and the countryside.
What always confused me is why she had to stop at every street crossing and wait for light to turn green. The Spaniards, and every other tourist, would just saunter across when there were no cars coming. But she insisted on waiting.
Then I got to Germany and found out that’s what everyone does. You get the German stare, which is the equivalent of an English tutting noise, whenever you cross on a red light.
I was later told a story by her father when he was in Paris for work. It was late at night, there was no traffic, and he stood waiting at a red light. He was then accompanied by another man who also stood waiting for the light to change. He turned to him and said, “So, you’re German too?”.
There was never a truer word spoken.
07: Not Talking About Money
Unless they’re asking you for the 71 cents back, it’s a taboo to talk about money in Germany. Especially with people of an older generation, or even of my generation.
I used to joke with my girlfriend that she was rich because of where her family lived. And, it was always met with a brief, “Heh…yeah” and then shrugged off. Then, when I found out one of her friends was given a stupidly expensive car for his 18th birthday, I also made a joke met with the same response.
People don’t like to admit they have money. They could be sitting in a mansion on the side of a hill overlooking wine country, while their butler cleans their Bentley, and still be adamant they’re not well off.
I learned from a Podcast, and later from some friends here, that it’s not unusual for people to lie about their income on official documents!
Edit: I updated and expanded this answer over on my Blog because I had so much fun writing it. You can check it out here
