Thursday, September 3, 2020

Tumblr Thread: The Universal Language of Public Transportation


These Tumblr users referring to German transit etiquette is something that lives in just about everyone who has to get to work in a tube full of other people. It's that balancing act of having to go through the rigamarole of being polite but also acting as if no one anyone else even exists. For some more fun discussions on culture, here's a tumblr thread on cultures colliding over how to measure time and space.

1.

Human - Guten Tag. NO MILY

2.

Text - Well she's obviously doing it wrong. You got to mumble "Guten Tag" in no one's actual direc- tion upon entering the waiting room. Then you don't speak a word (you gotta grab a maga- zine though, because if you're on your mobile people will find that asocial) until the doctor calls you and when you get back to retrieve your jacket you mumble "Auf Wiedersehen". If you say "Guten Tag" while sitting down it's either because you're passive-aggressively shaming the person you're talking to for

3.

Text - See also: when entering a crowded bus, tram, subway or train, you do not say a single word. You look for an empty bench. If there are none, you will have a neighbour. You stop at an empty spot and mumble something like "tschulli-ng" or "s-nch-frei?" to the person occupying the other spot on the bench. You nod in an upward direction. They reply a mumbled "türlich" while vaguely looking somewhere near your face and moving their bag if neccessary. You sit down, nod gratefully, and keep your

4.

Text - Welcome to Germany. This is how we express love. And if you're the one sitting at the window and you want to get off at the next stop, you begin to loudly rustle with your bag whatever, because that way you can signal the other person that you need them to get up without having to speak to them. None of these people are joking.

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