🇩🇪 Honest Things Germans Say Straight To Your Face That New Zealanders Never Would 🇳🇿

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:05]Hey guys, welcome back to my channel.

[00:00:07]And if you're new here, it is so great to have you. I'm Antonet, a New Zealander living in the beautiful wine region of Lower Franconia, Germany. I've lived in Germany for so many years now and I have to say I've become very Germanized in a lot of ways, but as I always say, you can take the girl out of New Zealand, but you can't take the New Zealand out of the girl or the woman in my case. I've adjusted to German culture, German mentality. Nothing really phases me anymore. But I do see Germany through a different lens, a different lens to somebody who, say, grew up in Germany, was born and raised in Germany. In this video today, I'm going to be talking about some things that Germans have absolutely no problem just saying to your face. In New Zealand, these things may be considered quite rude, like things you would not just straight out say to somebody. You may think this, but you wouldn't say this to somebody's face. And in Germany, it's not considered rude to be honest, give somebody some honest feedback. And this is where expats in Germany, especially from English-speaking countries, can feel that culture shock, that real jarring culture shock of that was really rude. And it's because they don't fully understand German culture, German mentality. I've always said something I really love about Germany and something I find very refreshing about German culture is you always know where you stand with the German. There's no guessing. There's no like beating around the bush. Sometimes in New Zealand, you're not quite sure if somebody actually likes you or they'll just be nice to you because that's what we do. In Germany, it's just all laid out on the table. People tell you how they feel, what they think, and I like it. So, in this video, I'm going to be sharing a few little stories of things that have happened to me in the last few weeks. Actually, like the last month, these things have kind of accumulated.

[00:02:04]And these are just regular everyday German things. But to me, because I grew up in New Zealand, I am constantly switching my brain between Germany and New Zealand. And when certain things happen, I think about my initial culture shock when I first came to Germany, how I would have reacted to this or how New Zealanders or like my family members would have reacted if something like this happened to them. So, I have talked about the fact that my family and I last year adopted two adorable little kittens. They're no longer kittens now, but they are such a special part of our family. My kids absolutely adore them.

[00:02:40]My husband and I adore them. I've realized that if you are an animal owner in Germany, you have to expect to get a lot of opinions and feedback from people in your neighborhood because Germans do not hold back when it comes to giving you advice about animals. Most Germans feel as though it is their ethical right to tell you straight up if they believe you're doing something that is not in the best interest of your animal. And I think this is great. Like I don't see a problem with this. To somebody who is not used to this from a different country, it can come across as quite offensive if somebody straight out tells you something that you're doing wrong.

[00:03:23]So recently, our cats have been loving the outdoors. They are real hunters.

[00:03:28]They enjoy getting out amongst nature and just being free. The weather's warmed up. We just have beautiful vmy spring weather here in Germany. The problem with that is we have so many ticks. And I don't know whether it's like this all over Germany or just the area I live in or just our property, but we just have so many ticks. We've got a vegetable garden and the ticks just seem to gravitate towards this area where there is a lot of greenery around and our cats like to hang out up there. So, every day our cats are coming home covered in ticks, which is obviously not a good thing. We've just tried so many things to prevent the ticks. We've bought this special spray that you spray on the back of their neck. That didn't work. They hated it. It just didn't work at all. We bought these tablets that you have to like break up and put in their food. The cats didn't like them. They wouldn't eat the food. And so we found out that you can buy these collars, these special collars that you put on your cat for ticks. And I am well aware that collars can be quite a hazard for cats. They can be quite dangerous because, you know, the cats can get coarse up in trees and yeah, not good for your cat to wear a collar. Um, and so these particular collars were meant to be quite safe because they're made of this gummy material and if the cat gets caught in a branch or a tree or something, they just slide off and they're meant to somehow prevent the ticks. And so we put them on the cats and for the first day it was amazing.

[00:05:05]They didn't get any ticks. But we received so many complaints from people in our neighborhood. was almost like an emergency that people had to let us know that it is not safe for our cats to wear these collars. It wasn't surprising for me because I know that Germans do not hold back with things like this. But I did find it a little bit annoying because we had done our research and we knew that, you know, these collars were meant to be safe and everything. But still, we had a lady come to our door to tell us that it is not safe for our cats to wear the collars. We need to take them off. We even had a little girl come to our door to tell us that she saw our cats running around with the collars and we're not allowed to put collars on the cats and explained why it's really dangerous. Our son was also confronted by a lady in our neighborhood telling him to tell us that we need to take off the collars because it's not safe. And my son was so shocked and upset because he loves the cat so much and he would never ever do anything that he thought would harm the cats. And yeah, so we did take off the collars. There was probably a small risk that something could happen, even though these were specifically designed to not be dangerous for the cats, but I just could not deal with all of these people just telling us off for this. I just found it really interesting how confidently these people would tell us, "No, that is wrong." And especially when it comes to animal welfare and the safety of animals, that gave these people even more of a drive to need to tell us that, which makes complete sense. And they all had the best intentions, but it always is a little bit like, oh, okay, you feel a bit um stupid or I don't know, you feel as though you're being a little bit attacked. But yeah, I just had to kind of get over that. And yeah, as I said, we took off the collars. Everything was fine. We tried to explain that the collars are designed to be safe for the cats, but no one wanted to hear that. They just wanted the collars off the cats. Also, that reminds me years ago when my daughter was little, she's 13 now, so this was like many years ago now. We were by the river and there was a big flock of ducks. There was a swan and a whole lot of ducks. And we brought along some stale bread to feed the ducks because this is what we used to do in New Zealand. We would go to the park, Cornwall Park it was called in Hastings, New Zealand, and we would be feeding the ducks just stale bread and they loved it. They would all be flocking around and excited and everyone fed the ducks bread. I don't know if they still do it, but I remember a man coming over to us and said, "You cannot feed those ducks bread. It's very unhealthy for them."

[00:08:03]And kind of told us off like really sternly that we should never feed the ducks bread. And I felt so bad and so silly. And it was in front of my little girl and I just I will never forget that. So yeah, ever since that day, I've never done it again. And I've since learned it isn't great to give duck bread. It's not good for their digestive system. It's just another example of Germans having this like um uncontrollable urge to tell you off if they believe you're doing something that is going to harm an animal or not be at the best interest of an animal. And as I said, it's not a bad thing at all. It's not. I think it's just sometimes the way they say it, but I'm a New Zealander, so we sugarcoat everything. Um, it's just, yeah, that's one of these cultural differences. Last, but not least, something else that Germans are not afraid to tell you to your face is if something you are selling is too expensive and not worth the price. So, in Germany, or at least in the area of Germany where I live, we have a lot of flea markets. And at this time of year, there's like flea market after flea market like every weekend. Last week, I couldn't help but notice how confidently people would just tell somebody that their item they're selling is just not worth the price. And so this is like a whole bargaining culture that I am not used to or I'm used to it now, but it's not something that we do as far as I know in New Zealand. We don't have a lot of flea markets in New Zealand. And I just feel like in Germany there's more of this kind of bargaining culture where people can challenge you about the price and try and get the price down. And for me, this is so uncomfortable.

[00:10:01]I can't even like I can't even do it now. I've tried and I've failed miserably. I don't think I even want to.

[00:10:08]I saw a man and he wanted to buy this chainsaw and the guy wanted €50 for this chainsaw. It looked like it was really good quality, but what would I know? I don't know much about electrical things.

[00:10:20]Um, and the guy's face when he heard the price, he was just like, "It's not worth €50." And he was just trying to get the price down. He was like, "I'll give you 20 for this." And the guy was like, "No, no, no, no. It's worth more than that. It's like a really good quality piece." Blah, blah, blah.

[00:10:38]And he was like, "Okay, 35." And they made an agreement with 35.

[00:10:44]But it was like this kind of like angry back and forth. He finally bought this chainsaw for €35. And I mean, I don't know if he was happy because he still looked a bit annoyed, like it was too expensive, but he settled for the 35.

[00:10:59]And I don't know, it just fascinated me the just the whole communication between these two men. A lot of New Zealanders would struggle in the first place to bargain, but Germans seem to be able to do this so naturally. And it's like a skill. It's definitely a skill to have because, you know, people try and sell their secondhand stuff for way more than it's probably worth. And Germans will pull them up on that. It's like, no, no, no. I'm not going to afford for that.

[00:11:29]And yeah, I think Germans are very good advocates for themselves. They will definitely speak up if they don't feel something is fair or right. I mean, I think there can be a fine line. Maybe Germans could soften the way they say things sometimes in my opinion as a New Zealander. But I do think it's great that Germans stand up for what they believe in and what they believe is right. And if they see something that is affecting somebody else that they don't agree with, then they will speak up about it and tell you to your face. And going back to the cat situation with the little girl that came over to say, you know, it's dangerous for a cat to wear a collar. She obviously felt really passionate about this and she loved animals so much that she just needed to tell us. And she had obviously seen this from her parents.

[00:12:24]her parents. I'm just speculating. She's seen this and she has copied and she's built up this confidence at this young age, which I think is pretty awesome.

[00:12:34]When it comes down to it, it's just cultural differences. In New Zealand, we would think all of these things and they would be going around in our in our head and making us feel anxious if we saw something we didn't like, but we wouldn't tell that person. I think maybe like with the cat situation, we'd maybe tell somebody about it and it would somehow get back to you and it would be all gossipy and I just can't imagine a New Zealander like directly confronting somebody like that. Maybe some New Zealanders do, but it's not the norm in New Zealand and in Germany it is the norm. Anyway guys, I have come to the end of this video. I really hope you enjoyed it. And if you've got anything to add, any experiences you've had as a non-German living in Germany that you think relate to this video, I would love to hear your stories in my comment section below. If you're German and you're watching this, I'd love to hear from you. Honest feedback is always welcome here. Thank you so much for watching, guys. If you enjoyed this video, then don't forget to give it a big thumbs up. It really helps out my channel. If you enjoy my videos, but you're not actually subscribed to my channel, I would love you to consider subscribing. That would mean so much to me. Feel free to connect with me on Instagram, and I will see you again really soon. Bye.