I moved to Germany and regret it | Hacker News Reader

I moved to Germany and regret it

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31 pointsmarvinblum94 comments

Bizarre. What a very California thing to write. What was this person expecting exactly? A red carpet? A personal guide? Gift wrapped tax forms?

And honestly, how is California so much more easy and welcoming? When I tried to move to SF, it felt pretty damn unwelcoming to me with multiple people telling me the city was “full,” even old friends.

News flash, moving to a new country takes curiosity, patience, flexibility and hard work.

Thanks, you saved me the trouble writing that. It's like Trip Advisor "They don't sell hot dogs".

The author could have written about churros "I bought a churro, i didnt like it, not even the cinnamon flavor could change my mind"

She is also writing from an incredibly privileged point of view. Taking language courses for 500USD and more is not something most people can afford and is really the exception. There are many courses for foreigners, some are even free or subsidized by the government.

As someone who learned German, forgot it and re-learned it, it's also a terrible method to learn a foreign language, unless you're really motivated by speaking with other newbies.

The best approach with the most evidence for sucess is Comprehensible Input[-1], which requires nothing more than access to content you want to consume in the language of your choice

Ironically this was the most helpful youtube and twitch ever were for me, since I find mainstream German TV to be pretty bad (I find the same, or worse, with American TV to be fair)

German TV really is quite bad on average. You have publicly funded stations with an average viewer age around 60 and private TV stations producing scripted reality trash.

I don't think that it's true that the experience listed is a complete given: I lived in a town outside Stuttgart when I was young and my mother had an extremely hard time of it along the lines of the article, where despite spending a lot of time trying to learn German the local government officials would refuse to even slow down their speech or use simpler language constructs to effectively communicate with a new learner of German. They were basically hostile and uncooperative because she was an immigrant even though she was visibly trying.

Compared to when I lived in Zurich essentially all government officials were willing to even just entirely speak English after briefly suggesting we speak German and only rolling their eyes slightly that I wasn't competently able to. Navigating the system there as a "first year resident" was zero problem by comparison.

I'm an American in a different (large) part of Germany (who also lived there before) and I had the opposite, I basically had to ask the foreigner office to speak German with me when i went early this year (they just defaulted to English to be inclusive - I'm not perfect in German but i can speak rapidly and clearly enough that it's never a bother). They were also largely non-German ethnically, but born and raised there, so maybe they had a larger degree of empathy.

I'm rather pale myself though and am there as an engineer, so maybe there's some bias or racism built in that you experienced which I wouldn't know that much about :|

Yeah government officials.. You don't wanna deal with them. Not even as a native german. Hasn't gotten better with the new refugees.

> Compared to when I lived in Zurich essentially all government officials were willing to even just entirely speak English after briefly suggesting we speak German and only rolling their eyes slightly that I wasn't competently able to. Navigating the system there as a "first year resident" was zero problem by comparison.

Switzerland has 4 official languages in a very small territory and even more dialects variations so there is that.

I once had a coworker who was from Switzerland, and his wife was from Lichtenstein. They told me their dialects are so different, that there are words and constructs that they each use that the other doesn't understand, even after being married for 10+ years.

California emigrants often think they are the most important person in the room in other US states too, especially in the US South. "I'm from KAH-LEE-FOOOR-NEEA!"

God forbid something isn't done like in California, even if much easier/rational.

> Bizarre. What a very California thing to write.

Harsh. And also misleading. I hope it comes as no surprise that some countries are easier to migrate to than others. In fact it has been measured.

    Title: Where Expats Struggle Most to Get Started

    https://www.internations.org/press/press-release/d-40346

    Quote from page: "The Expat Essentials Index reveals the 52 destinations that make life abroad easiest and those that make life most challenging for foreign residents. The index is based on data from the Expat Insider 2022 survey by InterNations, the world’s largest expat community with over 4.5 million members."

Wanta to guess which country those 4.5 million that expat survey ranked hardest to move to?

I totally get that she feels unwelcome in a small village. I think even Germans from a large city may feel it? I'm from the Netherlands and recently moved from a middle to large city in the Netherlands (here that's about 120K inhabitants) to a village of 2000 inhabitants. People here generally don't speak any English, and are much more conservative in their opinions (i.e. blackface must be black, you outsiders uncomfortable with our 100 years old traditions should just stay away from here), imagine her moving here...

I think there are probably towns in the US where she will feel the same btw. Is it really about Germany as the title suggests? Feels like a generalization.

Is Zwarte Piet still common there?

Last i saw the government would no longer subsidize any sinterklaas (NL version of xmas) event or parade where the traditional Piet costume was used. They now dress as "Soot Piet" and instead of blackface it's more of a coal-worker-after-a-long-day look.

Definitely he or she is still very black here.

In many places zwarte piet now has charcoal smudges over the face, because she or he climbs in and out of chimneys to deliver presents to kids.

Strange fact, on Curacao zwarte Piet is painted extra black and Sinterklaas is painted white [0], at least on some occasions.

[0] https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=curacao+zwarte+piet&iax=ima...

Original black face will go away (which makes me happy), but not over night.

Not only a small village in Germany, which would by itself be already pretty hard to feel welcomed if you don't speak the language, but a village that has the nuisance of a foreign military base nearby.

The villagers probably have been dealing with all sorts of issues from that, then comes a new American, same as all the old ones, wanting to chit-chat and talk about the weather... Newsflash: Germans might not be into that kind of small talk.

Can definitely agree on that.

We germans publicly joke about the fact that visiting the older part of your family in those "nice small villages" is always one hell of a culture shock, to put it friendly. Which starts with not saying anything about what they have for political opinions and questions regarding your choice of clothes, sexuality and job.

They probably even have their own town slang. Not any "high german". This is 100% comparable to the political landscape that you have in America (city vs farms outside).

"We germans publicly joke about the fact that visiting the older part of your family in those "nice small villages" is always one hell of a culture shock"

I recently heard a term for this, forgot what it was. It happens when young people move into a large city, live there for a while, become quite liberal (what else is there to do, when so many very different people live close together, than to respect everyone's differences) and then interact with their very conservative parents. It is indeed a culture shock, some conversation topics become so sensitive they are best avoided. I guess it happens everywhere.

I felt very welcome in small villages in Germany as a Brit.

I'm not left wing though, that's probably 90% of it. There are reasons that these people choose to live far away from metropolitan centres, it feels completely reasonable to respect that.

While I generally agree that small cities with elderly population are more problematic, and Otterberg might be an instance of that, I found it interesting, that they definitely vote left-leaning[1]. The red "SPD" are the social democrats, "CDU" are more conservative christian democrats.

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otterberg#Politik

German politics really can't be broken down into simple left versus right honestly.

There's an entire demographic who votes green simply because they want nicer forests to drive their BMW through, and if you want to go for the oversimplification route, die Linke are boomers who want the USSR back and AFD are zoomers who want the third reich back.

They don't have first past the post so they're not tied into an us vs them dichotomy

While local politics are difficult to judge from afar, I generally wouldn't consider the SPD left for a long time now. I'd recommend not putting too much weight on the (local) voting results.

Small, rural towns are pretty much the same everywhere - America, Germany, wherever. They don't like modernity too much, they tend to be very conservative, they tend to keep to themselves and they don't like outsiders.

Maybe she's never been stationed near a small town in the United States? I used to be stationed at Camp Lejeune, which is located in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The locals are downright hostile to the Marines. One day I lost it on a shop owner who treated me like dirt and muttered some comment about those goddamned marines upon which I spun around on my heel and pointed out he sure doesn't mind taking their money! When I got back to base I told the NCO authorizing leave passes about it and they put up a sign warning Marines to not visit that store. After losing a substantial amount of business the guy started singing a different tune.

Anyway, all that is to say small towns are different and they're not as accepting of outsiders. Even in the United States.

This was so snowflake-y, it really made me cringe. Please don't think she is typical of Americans abroad or even military families. I've lived in Korea over many years and have known several Koreans who studied or worked in Germany. They all told me they absolutely loved it there and were sorry to leave. While Germany doesn't run as smoothly as Korea (almost no place does), the general quality of life is comparable.

The article should really be called I moved to small German town and regret it.

Not really. Everything she described - the feeling of being unwelcome, comments about your language skills (even when you're learning and trying), being stared at, the utterly ridiculous bureaucracy - all of these experiences are true. Even in a big, supposed modern city like Berlin. Even when interacting with young people.

Source: Been living in Berlin since '19

I have not experienced any of these in HH. Even the bureaucracy wasn't that bad honestly.

Note to Germans: Do not even attempt to defend your country's hospitality industry.

It is goddamn atrocious and often times worthy of a Little Britain skit.

Would you kindly elaborate?

I'm german.

Berlin is the worst place that you can land in germany. Germans who come to berlin get a complete culture shock. There is "Berliner Schnauze", it describes that people just hurl slurs around on the first occasion. Someone from berlin told me that it is "Not holding back your emotions and being truthful" - he phrased it very positively. Berlin is one of the few citys in germany where a large organized crime scene exists and is considered massively unsafe by german standarts. Young people are even worse since they have normalized all of this.

Try going to Karlsruhe, Göttingen or other univerity cities. They are the big modern cities of germany and you will feel accepted there as an obvious foreigner. ("big city" by german standarts).

In addition, being obese is a good way to make a bad impression on germans. Since one of the biggest national virues here is (self) discipline.

Hope that this helped some people form a better understanding.

>Try going to Karlsruhe, Göttingen or other univerity cities. They are the big modern cities of germany and you will feel accepted there as an obvious foreigner. ("big city" by german standarts).

Lübeck as well?

You assume that I haven't traveled the entire country. I have. I've been to many places that you describe and have friends in those cities. Student towns are sort of a bubble, they don't count.

The rest of Germany as you put it isn't any better. I've had people tell me Berlin is _shockingly better_ compared to $insert_name_here.

To be fair to the parent, all the people I've met who reported a good experience living in Germany stayed far away from Berlin.

Californian misses California, wants things to be like California. I can see how this would cause heartburn in smaller-town Germany, particularly if there’s not a reservoir of good will towards the military presence there. But I suspect it would cause similar heartburn in a smaller town in the Deep South or New England. And being removed from family and social ties can be crippling if you’re used to strong connections. Going “elsewhere” is hard if you can’t or won’t embrace the differences. People can tell when somebody’s not comfortable which makes they less hospitable. And “you look/sound different”, unfortunately, occurs everywhere.

Odd the military doesn’t have spouse/family programs as they’ve been moving people all over the world for decades and facing similar problems. There’s a whole lot of rules and restrictions to live as an expat and that’s also where the military should help out. Can’t retain if the family’s dissatisfied.

So I've been living in Europe for the last few years after leaving SF and haven't experienced any of this.

Are there frustrations when moving to a new country? Absolutely. If you go in expecting every local government agent to be grateful for your USD shekels, you'll be sorely disappointed when you find out they'll make 10x as much effort to speak English as you do to speak their language - but 0 x 10 is still zero.

But if you're polite, persistent, and committed to integrating - I've never failed to find a welcoming community in at least three different countries now.

In truth, my least favorite people to meet now are "American Expats" or instagram influencers - at least fresh ones. You've been abroad for ten years? Let's talk, you probably have some perspective. You're still trying to figure out where Trader Joe's is? You're probably not that interesting.

If you're traveling - enjoy, be polite, you'll be fine. If you're _moving_, it's on you to make the effort and be a part of the community, not the communities job to acclimate to you. Join a few meetups, facebook groups or whatever the latest trend is - meet people with like minded interests, and it works fine. If you're surprised to find occasional micro-aggressions in small towns, well... bless your heart.

> If you're surprised to find occasional micro-aggressions in small towns, well... bless your heart.

There's reasons plenty of people prefer cities over large towns. At least in the city, people will have the decency to just directly tell you to go fuck yourself. Saves time.

This is my take as well. I hate to say it but one of the best things of living abroad is the Americans i have to deal with in my life are pre-filtered.

If you've moved here and stayed at least through the winter, you're probably pretty great compared to the average.

My cheatcode was to listen to well enunciated German Hiphop/Rap. You learn to parse sentences quickly and you get so much god damn cred from youngins by knowing K.I.Z., and so much respect from your cohorts by knowing Deichkind and Peter Fox.

So wait... she moved to germany, a country that speaks well.. german... moved to a small village... been there for a year and a half... and still hasn't learned english well enough to be able to normally communicate?!

I live in a smaller chicken-shaped country two countries down from germany, and the situation here is the same, especially with americans. While some older generations have issues with our language due to.. well... yugoslavia issues, young people (new..ish immigrants) usually at least try to learn the language as fast as possible (with maybe one group excluded). But americans? Five, six, ten years here, and unable to order a beer in any other language than english. Yes, I know all waiters in the touristy city center know english, but come on, you came here, at least try to adapt.

>a country that speaks well.. german... moved to a small village...

Beyond that, many of the older peoples, especially in villages, speak their dialect of german. for them "German" may even be a SECOND language (albeit very similar to their dialect for the vast majority..)

Languages are dying every day, but these are some of the last bastions of a Sprachbund.

Hmmm… maybe there are some details she is leaving out, but it seems like she decided to be a military spouse abroad on hard mode:

- There are typically base services that support spouses in ways that she griped about — taxes, language instruction, health insurance, cheap gas, big box stores (PX, AAFES), etc.

- She and her husband get a substantial stipend for housing near the base — that is, they don’t pay rent for what will likely be a very nice place by local standards. Plus they can buy stuff at US prices at the base stores. Complaining about prices seems odd.

- She seems to have a shitty attitude. It’s not a surprise that folks aren’t responding well to her.

- Side note: I wonder if she’s actually having marriage problems, and she’s projecting it onto Germany. Her husband does not seem to be helping her much with being a military spouse (e.g., by telling her about base services), and that’s a culture shock of its own.

I was looking for a service member to point out the official support. Some of her complaints did sound quite strange.

Wow, it's rare to have American hubris summed up in one article so succinctly. The total absence of self-awareness almost convinced me that this was satire.

This is more of a west coast phenomenon. (we employ the pejorative coastie where i am from)

Us flyovers would span the gamut more from "Wow It's so clean" to people who might just be massive neo-nazis..

Yes, this sort of solipsism thrives on the coasts where people are So Very Sure how Very Smart and Very Correct they are. Not that all US coastal people and cultures are like that, far from it, but the level of population and prosperity that breeds the resulting insularity comes along with it.

Totally relate to their experience as an expat in Germany. The microaggressions can really pile up and cause frustration. In last year's oktoberfest, a random drunk German dude (with his gang) was shouting racial slurs at us (group of Indians) to get out of our seat and bus. we just switched places to the front seat of the bus. The other passengers were totally unbothered by this and remained silent. I don't expect them to defend us or fight a random drunk dude for us but atleast say something in solidarity to us. It felt really powerless and shitty to be a victim of such blatant racism.

They most likely didn't say anything out of fear of becoming the target of the group. What happened to you sucked, but groups of men that are shouting racist things and are obviously drunk are just a huge risk for anyone.

I totally understand, which is why I expected them to say something comforting TO us (after we switched seats), not the aggressors

Not a fan of the whiny tone. It's not anyone else's job to make you feel welcome. The same goes for immigrants anywhere, including America.

As an immigrant to the US myself, it took me close to 10 years to “Americanize” and get adjusted to the US cultures and norms. And this was while I was living in a diverse city. Expecting to adjust to a new country in 18 months in a small conservative town is unrealistic at best.

I'm English, and a few years ago I spent a LOT of time in Germany (2 weeks out of every 5 in Leipzig, for almost 3 years) and I always felt enormously welcomed.

My German was terrible but I tried, however many people also wanted to try speaking English with me so often we had a broken English/German exchange.

I loved shopping, it was a great time to learn new words and experience people.

Playing table tennis, and sharing beers, with the locals, and going to the lakes and parks, also helped a lot.

The cheap beer combined with the deposit scheme, oh lordy.

>The cheap beer combined with the deposit scheme, oh lordy.

Not to mention no legal closing hours and cornern... always a hoot.

This article is incredibly disingenuous (if it's not totally satirical) in portraying her actual perceived status in Germany society and how that effects her experiences in Germany. She is not just an expat; she is not living an expats life in Germany. As the dependent of a US servicemember stationed in/around K-Town she is not at all exposed to what would be considered the traditional, expat experience. Looking beyond even the Status of Forces Agreement that provides her with the ability to be in the country "visa free", hold a job, and even provide her certain civil protections, there's the access to DoD resources and community, as well as the monetary subsidization she receives for living "on the economy". Her husband gets a substantial OHA (~$1,700 - $2,000+ per month in that area [1]), but even beyond that: they are stationed *across the country* from the places she says she can't afford to live...that's not how that works. That's not how any of this works.

1. https://www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Overseas-Housing-Allow...

I'm an American in Germany and most of what she says I find invalid, sorry. California's still there if you want that.

Are you of Asian appearance though?

No, unless you count slavic as Asian. Mostly commonly I am thought (after they hear the accent) to be Irish - I'm a mutt of every country which can't get a tan.

Anecdotally but I have a lot of expat friends here (large city which isn't Berlin) and the only ones who spoke of racism from Germans were the Turks (which is quite ironic, since the people they look down upon are more kurds than turks.. but this is another can of worms)

Can you elaborate on what you mean by that "the people they look down upon are more kurds than turks"?

Yes, but I will be wrong, so I will attempt to be brief.

Turkey was built upon coerced secular westernization of a dying empire, to turn the sick man of Europe into a Progressive and Modern state, by any means Necessary. It is a country forged in War and in Peace by Atatürk, a man who even the most staunch western racists still often pay respects to.

This is a nation which, in its infancy gave women the right to vote before most western countries (it took the swiss until 91..), which banned the wearing of the veil on women in public spaces, whose very word for Secularism is taken directly from French (Laïcité), which is an extreme form of secularism even in the West.

They have swung the full gamut of political beliefs, even to the point that eastern devout muslim farmers started voting communist

But in very rough generality -- The Kurdish people have most always been on the, "backward, islamic", etc side which the west looks down upon when painting with a wide brush, whereas I find more of the ideas of Tolerance and Egalitarianism, etc in some of my Turkish friends from the west coast cities than in native Europeans.

Obviously there are issues like Cyprus, and the refugee crisis really polluted the thought pool here, but this is just my 2c.

> I'm half Korean and half white, and I'm unfortunately treated differently based on my looks

> I can't wait to feel welcome again in my home country

She's talking about being treated differently based on looks and then suggesting that The United States of America is a better option. Maybe that's her personal experience, but it sounds completely absurd as part of a critique of another country.

Sounds like 1/3 of it being unprepared (and a bit unwilling to change), 1/3 being a small town and 1/3 being just Germany

> Each course in the sanctioned six-course program can cost upwards of $500 apiece and requires almost as much time as a full-time job.

Why are you doing a 'sanctioned' course if you don't intend on staying? Just go with Duolingo? But if it has a high number of hours per week then $500 sounds ok

> In-person shopping takes forever because there aren't big-box stores

> certain products, such as electronics, cost considerably more than in the US.

That's... weird. I never got the 'considerably more' unless you're importing something directly maybe, or maybe it is the kind of Walmart knicknack

> That's... weird. I never got the 'considerably more' unless you're importing something directly maybe

You're kidding, right? Just look at literally every time a new Apple product is announced on HN, people complain about how much more expensive it is in than in the US. For example, the base model Macbook Air M2 is $1299+tax (on the HIGH end, that tax could be 10%, so $1429) and 1599 Euros in Germany, which is $1730. $300 difference, that's pretty significant. And Apple isn't the only company that prices things that way.

In EU the store provides 2 years warranty by law. And you can return any product bought online within 14 days. They cannot sell it as new again. That's the reason for the cost.

Now when you consider that eastern Europe has these prices too, where salaries barely crossed 1k euros per month (that's gross, in both senses of the word).

And generally reading how people make 200k and similar salaries seems just unfathomable to me xD it's not like we have cheaper stuff here, there are cases when groceries are cheaper in Germany and Switzerland than in eastern Europe. Same goes for rent, at least outside big cities.

Taxes and other factors aside, Apple is happy to price their products in a more profit-oriented way (let's put it like this)

> That's... weird. I never got the 'considerably more' unless you're importing something directly maybe, or maybe it is the kind of Walmart knicknack

One random example (randomly choosen manufacturer, first product the shop displayed):

https://www.lenovo.com/de/de/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadx1/t...

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadx1/t...

Displayed price of 2229 € (includes 19% VAT) vs. $1391.40. Big enough to be called "considerable"?

That's really weird and a big difference so I decided to look more into it

The US site says "Starts at USD1391.00"

If you scroll down and see the different modules, see the 1st column, the 2229 EUR and the one in the US site

EU model: i7 3.7GHz, 16GB ram, 512GB ssd, Windows PRO

US model i5 3.4GHz, 16GB ram, 256GB ssd, Windows HOME

It's also mentioning the US site is on sale Est Value $2,319.00 to $1,391.40

So you see this seems to be an exception

There was probably a good article in there somewhere, but the way this one was written seemed almost intended to incite derision.

That's Insider for you. They're often more concerned with doing exactly that than doing good journalism.

I wonder how the experience would be with a German speaking very little English in a flyover state. Korea is really small so you can always find a community you "belong" to in a 100 miles radius. If you are in Ottenberg you are in the middle of a national park with no big cities around.

Ask somebody from the west coast or north of Maryland how they were treated in the (deep) south, particularly if they’re not of Northern European extraction and you might get similar stories. People dislike difference, and some are just more open about it. Ask Okinawan’s about the us military presence.

Otterberg, not Ottenberg, it's 5km north of Kaiserslautern which has a population of 100k. In a 100 mile radius, 160km, you find Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, hardly the middle of nowhere.

The only thing more crime than this whining existing is someone paid her to write it. barf

This is a super weird article.

She looks like a typical American tourist in the photo, even if we ignore the camera etc she's the largest person in the picture. Of course people look at her, she's novel to them.

"Microaggression" is an attempt to reframe this as being an issue with Germans, not her. As the outsider it's on you to belong, not the other way around.

Basically all of her complaints are classic "American on tour".

Genuinely difficult to distinguish from satire.

In principle, many problems arise from cultural differences alone ..

"The Culture Map: How to Navigate Foreign Cultures in Business"

https://ahalbert.com/reviews/2023/06/04/the_culture_map.html

HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36190015

"In this chapter she starts with a merger between an American and German financial company. The Americans described the Germans as too hierarchical, with a focus on titles and chain of command. The Germansin turn thought the Americans were too hierarchical - the boss said turn left and everyone turned in unison.

This disagreement happened Germany is more Consensual (Big D) in decision-making - decisions are made by groups in unanimous agreement. Once consensus is reached, it is final. In contrast, the US is a Top-Down (Little d) decision-making culture. Decisions are made by individuals and propagated downwards, but they are not final - decisions are flexible and may be changed."

Boohoo...

Not belonging is very much the experience any immigrant faces. Immigrants into the US are no exception.

And if she's complaining about not belonging for her looks, ask how Muslim Americans and Muslim Canadians feel in the early 2000s, or how a lot of Asian Americans and Canadians feel currently with the geopolitics riling up the racists.

So residents of a small german town that has a large US military base, made her, a US serviceman's wife feel unwelcome?

I think it's pretty much the same story worldwide, and not only for US bases; anywhere there's a large imposed foreign presence, local residents will not entirely embrace it's members.

Love it when it's an "expat" when from the US or the UK, but an immigrant for all other countries.

It’s an expat from and an immigrant to. In the case of the us, these government works hard to keep track of their expats for tax reasons. You can state your point of view with the use of either term.

Seems very entitled to me. I wonder if the author ever considered how people who have lived in a small town feel about someone who insists on showing up, being catered to, and not assimilating?

Realize there is some level of resentment of servicemen as well. I was a dependent in the 80s abroad.

I am also an American and so sensitive to small unfriendlinesses, but I find them no worse in visiting a far city like Chicago than in most countries.

Have not been to Germany in a while. It used to feel quite straightforward to me and much friendlier than I expected with a modicum of effort. Perhaps more jaded now in the post internet era but who knows.

Still this feels like the snowflake version of the Ugly American viewpoint.

This is likely merely cultural misunderstanding.

I've noticed that when Americans come here to the Netherlands, they take offence at the things that natives don't. Dutch people don't take offence at those things because there's no need for pretence around caring for people, it's genuine, and a given. Without the _show_ though, it looks like rudeness to Americans.

People calling her a snowflake should consider that she lived as an ex pat in South Korea as well and had a better experience. It's not like she never stepped foot out of California until she went to small town Germany and is complaining. She's directly comparing her experience in some cases to her experience in south Korea.

Integrating into small German towns can be hard even for Germans...

And big German cities are affordable with a US military salary, but you'll probably have a flat and not a McMansion with a front and back yard. But not working (no relationships with locals) and not having an expat community to fall back to is rapidly depressing.

I also moved to Germany and bailed after 6 months. Unlike this article, I didn't care about the people or language, I was there to make some money and move on, so it wasn't a place I wanted to integrate into to begin with. The people in Germany, on average, don't like foreigners and don't want them around. That's true in Europe in general and definitely true for Germany, so I'm not sure what the article's author is really surprised at. That said, what made me move after such a short time though is that I'm 100% sure the same bunch of old money that supported the Nazis is still there today running things. Once you meet a few of the rich ones and see how arrogant and stupid they are, you realize immediately that their society is structured so that these people will remain on top no matter what. And from this fact you know all you need to about who you are really working for, and by extension, who their grandparents supported.

What country are you from if I may ask?

This is the most American thing i've read in a long while. Seems that she wants a small German town to be a large American town and is shocked that it isnt.

BREAKING NEWS: Small town Germans not effusively welcoming to representative of foreign military, yuppie wife who expects place to work like California.

Why is this ragebait on HN?

What does half korean, half white even mean? It doesn't look like people in South Korea have high melanin level on average.

Well then, good bye!

How is this journalism?

It's not, it's Business Insider. It's journalism-flavored entertainment.

Sadly also true for most MSM outlets today.

the entire piece seems like something from the onion.

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