Find two jokes and stories.

Looking at Germany from two jokes. Although I knew little about Germany before I went to Germany, I remembered two jokes about Germans deeply.

One is that if you lose a dollar in the street, the British will never panic, just shrug their shoulders and walk forward like a gentleman, as if nothing had happened; Americans are likely to call the police, leave a phone number after reporting the case, and then chew gum and leave; Japanese people must hate their carelessness. When they get home, they will review it repeatedly and never let themselves lose it again. Only the Germans are different. They will immediately draw coordinates and squares within 100 square meters of the lost location, and look for them one by one with a magnifying glass.

Another joke is that if there is a fly in the beer, Americans will immediately call a lawyer, the French will refuse to pay, the British will be humorous, and the Germans will clamp the fly with tweezers and carefully check whether there is bacteria in the beer.

I thought that in these two jokes, the German people's serious attitude and scientific and realistic spirit were greatly caricatured, but after I arrived in Germany, I found that these two jokes exaggerated the German character, but they were too distorted and vivid.

I went to Germany as a playwright with the crew of The Moon in Tokyo. The performance venue is Talia Theatre in Hamburg, which is one of the three major theaters in Hamburg. During the installation, there was a small international conflict between our lighting design and German technicians. In our lighting design, when climbing the suspender to install the chandelier, we used the inclined ladder brought from China, but the German technicians thought it was unsafe and insisted on using the inclined ladder with adjusting and balancing device in Germany. After they set up the miter ladder made in Germany, they carefully adjusted the four feet of the ladder to keep it on a horizontal plane to ensure the absolute verticality and stability of the ladder. After debugging, the German technicians were uneasy and tried again and again by hand to make it not shake at all. After such strict inspection, it is confirmed that 100% is stable before our lighting design is allowed to climb. In fact, the ladder we brought is also very strong. It has been used for more than ten years, climbing up and down thousands of times, and there has never been a problem. Moreover, the herringbone ladder is not high, and there is no danger even if it shakes. But German technicians insist on using their ladders, which is too authentic and rigid. In fact, if you think about it carefully, it embodies an extremely valuable spirit of the Germanic nation. The first is great respect and protection for workers. In Germany, there are not only numerous and extensive labor safety laws, but also very detailed and unique workplace laws. For example, the law stipulates that the indoor height of the workplace should not be less than 2.75 meters, the room must have windows that can see the outside (it is forbidden to work in a closed place), and sufficient space must be provided for each job (it is forbidden to work in a crowded environment). The most touching thing is that it even stipulates that the workplace must have fresh and clean air and a normal temperature suitable for the health of workers. Otherwise, it is illegal, and the staff can sue the owner. Even the air and temperature in the workplace are strictly regulated, let alone ladders. Abide by the law, which embodies the fine style of the German nation. The Deputy Consul General of China in Hamburg once told me a story when he first came to Hamburg: once, he overspeeded for a few seconds on the speed-limited highway in order to overturn a car driven by a German in front. After turning the corner, he found that the German car that had been caught up had been chasing after him for an hour and a half. After getting off at the Consulate General, he asked the German why he had been following him. The German said, I chased you for an hour and a half just to ask you a question: Why did you exceed the speed limit? The word "fear is fear of seriousness" in the world, and the Germans are so serious. A serious nation is the most promising one.

On this trip to Berlin, I bought a palm-sized Berlin Wall for 7 marks as a souvenir. Take it back to Shanghai and show it to your friends. But almost all my friends have asked a question: Is this cement block bought from Germany for nearly 40 RMB really a piece of the Berlin Wall? Could it be fake? I feel sad. Sadly, only my compatriots would ask such questions. We were frightened by the ubiquitous fraud that swept across the country. You can buy anything in Germany, but it is very difficult to buy fakes. If you were from China, what would his attitude be in the two jokes told at the beginning of this article? In fact, in the original joke, we are from China. But for the sake of China people's face, I deliberately concealed it. But hiding the truth is also false. To fake it, I ... I'll tell you! In the first joke, some people in China were so sarcastic: they said that China people lost a dollar in the street, and they would not be as careless as the British, call the police like the Americans, reflect on themselves like the Japanese, and look for it seriously like the Germans. Instead, he vomited on the ground and cursed: "Hum, who found out who bought the medicine!" So psychological balance. Ah Q's spirit is deeply criticized by Mr. Lu Xun, and there are such people around us, not ugly. The second joke is that people in China will not go to a lawyer like Americans, refuse to pay like French, be humorous like British, and be tested like Germans, but ... but ... someone will take the fly out of the beer, drink half of it and ask for compensation, then go to the second beer shop, secretly put the fly in the beer and continue to ask for compensation. This ... this ... this is not too bad for us in China, is it? Unfortunately, when I visited Japan the year before last, I did hear that some China students deliberately put cockroaches in noodles and demanded compensation from Japanese bosses. Although I know it's different. Germany comes from two jokes.