At the furthest end, however, one simply has to walk through the park on quite a broad path. I always walk on the edge of the path, allowing plenty of space for other people to pass by. That day, I saw five people in their thirties walking towards me. All in a row.
As the men and women approached me, I thought that they must surely see me (especially since all my coats are bright red) and that one of them would walk behind the others to give me space. After all, they seemed educated enough to manage that.
But, no. They continued to walk straight ahead and the man at the end closest to me actually banged into my shoulder as they walked past. Not a word of apology.
Of course, I turned round and asked if it was impossible for him to walk behind someone else because otherwise he would feel like a loser. I genuinely believe that many Germans cannot psychologically tuck themselves in behind someone else because they would otherwise feel "second best" and thus "a loser".
These people couldn't understand the fuss and one man said, "Why are you so het up? It's Sunday." As though that excused bad manners.
Move forward to a couple of weeks ago, when I was walking in the nearby countryside. I'm on a rough road that leads to some isolated houses. Wide enough for cars. Ahead of me, I see an older couple walking together. But get this...the woman is in front and the man is directly behind her. All that space by her side and he is walking behind her.
I don't get it. When there is plenty of space to for people walking in opposite directions to pass by each other, the husband walks behind the wife. When there is no space left for a single person to pass by a group of people, that group of five people simply have to walk side by side and even bump into the single person that they've been able to see coming for at least 100 metres.
I don't get it.
People just do not understand Abstand. I get annoyed when people eavesdrop on my phone calls when I speaking in English. It boils my blood.
ReplyDelete