Xenophobe's Guide to the Germans Paperback – January 1, 2008

This book gave me great insights into the the people that I was going to interact with over a 3 day conference in Germany. It also gave me insight into the culture behind the stories I learned at the Porsche museum as well as other places that I visited. This book was easy to digest. I went through it once reading, and another time having the my Kindle Fire HD read to me. I like that text to speech feature and I love this book. I highly recommend for anybody visiting Germany or just wanting to better understand their German friends.

As a former resident of West Germany for almost six years, I found this little book very interesting, especially since it addresses the culture since the reunification. Some information was completely new to me, so I found that very helpful. I like this series of books. They give very insightful comments about the uniqueness of the different cultures in a humorous manner that makes the information stick in your mind. Enjoy!!

This is an amusing enough entry into the "Xenophobes' Guide" series, but has -- as another reviewer notes -- a negative undertone that can get wearing. It's not that I think that everything should be sweetness and light. But this book does seem to emphasize the negative aspects of current-day Germanness at the expense of more endearing traits. Since the authors are German, they know whereof they speak and can do so without grating. Still, their view of Germanness seems to me more reminiscent of the Germany of thirty or forty years ago than of Germany today.

Great and humorous (in a German way)! I actually had the pleasure of meeting and spending about a week with Stefan this summer as he was a guide for a tour I was on. I didn't read the book until after I met him, but it is definitely insightful. Definitely recommend it!

I live in Germany, and I haven't witnessed everything the author talks about, but some of the points are dead on. It's hilarious and makes for a good conversation starter with the Germans, along with giving good examples to family who have never lived here of why Germans are nuts.

I made several trips to Germany in the 1980s, including working there for one year. I returned later with my new bride to show her the beautiful country I had talked about so often earlier. This book explains some aspects of Germans I still was puzzled by. It also was lacking in addressing cultural differences encountered when actually working there. Germans are diligent workers who are often literal to a fault. It is fool hardy to be in the parking lot at 4 PM on Friday. Nearly every weekend is a reason for a festival. Beer dispensers are always ready at work. Don't assume that co-workers who have worked together for years actually know each other's first name. Engineers are never wrong, even correctable, ORDENUNG would be disrupted. Polite suggestions are politely received and then totally ignored, since if you suggest you obviously have no power or authority to make changes or give orders! Learn their rules of conduct, respect rank, eat and drink with gusto, and never tell ethnic jokes except about Poles. Bavarians and Swabians are friendlier and drink larger beers. Learn the language fundamentals, including breaking long words into smaller segments which may make sense to English speakers. Never drive in front of a Porsche!! Enjoy Nature! Germans do!

Very informative and easy to read.

I've lived in Germany for nearly 20 years, quite regrettably I might add. I like reading anything that pokes fun at German arrogance, but so far I'm not enjoying this book particularly.I'm only about halfway through, but so far I am disappointed after having read the sample beforehand. The humor is extremely dry and, since the authors themselves are apparently German, I have the feeling that it was written with the typical German "let-us-make-fun-of-an-aspect-of-Germany-even-though-Germany-is-indeed-paradise-on-earth" every foreigner in Germany is familiar with. While I do recognize modern Germany in the pages I've read, this work simply isn't funny enough to be captivating. In the same breath, I absolutely cannot understand how all the offended Germans writing other reviews here could take offense to this book. It's about as edgy and mean-spirited as a lengthy Wikipedia article.

Livre très bien écrit, d' un très bon anglais, qui nous donne un aperçu de comment sont les Allemands, avec humour.

Great book

spot on.

Scritto in modo preciso e sintetico ma nello stesso tempo divertente.Rende molto bene vizi e virtù di un popolo molto rispettato ma poco amato.Posso solo consigliare insieme agli altri libri delle collana.Inglese non per tutti.

... wer kurzweilig mag, ist hier richtig. Es werden viele typische Dinge rausgearbeitet, die bei uns in Deutschland üblich sind. Ausnahmen bestätigen naturlich die Regel ;-)Wir haben das Buch für unsere Texanischen Freunde gekauft und untern Baum gelegt, weil sie bald das erste Mal nach Germany kommen wollen - ob das Buch dabei hilft weiß ich nicht. In jedem Fall gibt es einen schönen Einblick in viele Tugenden, die Deutsche aufweisen.Und Gerichte des Essens werden erklärt. Schön zu lesen, einfaches verständliches Englisch auch für uns Deutsche.Ich habe gesehen, dass es das auch diese Bücher für andere Länder gibt, da werde ich mir mal selbst was bestellen ..Also das richtige für jeden - mit einem Augenzwinkern - lach mal wieder ;-)