Progressively, I am liking my life here in Germany. Well, I still haven't got closer to being able to communicate in German but I think I am getting better.
Was invited for a birthday party of my German neighbor. I was initially apprehensive because I thought I would be amongst a bunch of Germans who probably would not be able to talk to me because of the language. Then I decided if I wanted to meet people, I had to take the plunge. I am glad I did go over there.
Since they were all University students, I guess a lot of them did know English which was good for me. In fact I had some good conversation with a few of them. I must say, I must have been like this exhibit in a museum coming from this unknown land called India. All the conversation was about how is it in India? But I didnt really mind it. It was good fun. One of the guys actually started asking me about Kashmir and Pakistan. I have never been the one to get offended by such questioning but I did think at the time that I would never ask a German about WWII.
In summary, I think this party was another insight into the German culture. It was different because all of the people over there were the young and probably not adhering to the German stereotype. But to me, it seemed, that these bunch of young people, they did realise the importance of knowing English in today's world. The older generation thought that if a person comes to Germany, he better 'sprachen Deutsche' or else he has no right to be here.
Therefore they are probably more accepting of other cultures and other people which is in effect something atypical of the usually perceived 'xenophobia' of Germans.
