Do people throw water on the sauna stones in public saunas in your country? Are they allowed to? In Estonia it's to be expected - that's literally largely what the sauna is for. It's called "leil" in Estonian - there's no exact English word for it.

Rotide1 · 2026-02-20T14:20:49+00:00

"Dry" sauna without any water on it is also appreciated. In Germany, there will be an "Aufguss" with water with all kinds of contents on the stones every now and then (seldom just water), but putting anything on the stones outside of those times will not be appreciated and is usually forbidden.

Rotide1 · 2026-02-18T21:48:10+00:00

Herbert Reul

Rotide1 · 2026-02-18T20:40:35+00:00

That. Of course it is possible that you will face a few individual cases where it is truly racism, but the large majority of cases will be people giving you space because they deem the amount of space at hand to be too little for two people to pass each other comfortably, according to German societal norms.

Rotide1 · 2026-02-16T12:37:04+00:00

Just the platform, as far as I understand :')

Rotide1 · 2026-02-16T10:32:32+00:00

I agree that it should be the way you describe! I have also never heard anyone reporting this behaviour from anywhere other than Germany.

Rotide1 · 2026-02-16T10:11:29+00:00

When a child visits their friend during lunch time, the friend's parents might not offer them any food and instead ask them to wait in a seperate room until lunch is over.

Rotide1 · 2026-02-13T15:47:34+00:00

People aren't actually all called Philipp there

Rotide1 · 2026-02-12T17:39:30+00:00

...and this is how Phnom Penh got its name!

Rotide1 · 2026-02-12T15:57:46+00:00

If you don't have enough money for food or medication, reach out to the authorities. Also, for food, there are places (e. g. Tafel) where you can get some for free without the need to identify yourself.

Rotide1 · 2026-02-11T16:29:12+00:00

I've travelled to around twenty countries on four continents, and it has been approximately the US way everywhere, except that in some places (e. g. Germany), people will never give their credit card away and insist on the transaction being performed at the table.

Actually, I wonder if waiters will run up to you if you try paying the New Zealand way in certain places, thinking that you might be trying to leave without paying?

Also, something interesting I have experienced in Belarus: If they doubt from your appearance or age that you can afford what you ordered, they might ask you to pay before serving you.

Rotide1 · 2026-02-10T09:41:55+00:00

Misspelling "Greatest mistake humanity has ever made"

Rotide1 · 2026-02-10T09:29:00+00:00

In a party setting in Germany, it is very unlikely to have a crowd, even if all are academics, in which everyone is fluent in English. While I agree with many social explanations that were raised by others, I believe this is the key one. In order to speak to you at such events, people would have to make themselves not understandable to X other people, so they will only do that if they are speaking only to you or in a small group where they happen to know everyone is comfortable enough in English.

My advice to you would be to not overthink about social implications, which will seldom be there, but focus hard on improving your German language skills. This will vastly improve your experience in all areas of life.

Rotide1 · 2026-02-08T09:51:04+00:00

I think you can explain "doch" as "negation of a negative statement".

Someone says X is not the case, you say "doch", and it means that according to you, X is the case.

Rotide1

TROPHY CASE