Elena shares her eye-opening experiences and the biggest culture shocks she faced upon arriving in Germany. From navigating the healthcare system to understanding public transportation, Elena’s story provides a unique look at daily life in Germany. Learn about the stereotypes she held about Germans before her move and how her perceptions transformed as she immersed herself in German culture.
my name is Elena where are you from from Ukraine from lugans and how long have you lived here for it will be 2 years what have been some culture shocks that you’ve experienced when you arrive to Germany I thought that here medicine is on a high quality I was shocked and not uh in a good way because the doctors were not really supportive I had problems for example with my back and everything what I had it’s only a prescription for two kind of pills which only reduces the pain and not heal my problem I called to my kinesiologist from K and he helped me online even better than here the second shock we heard that Germans are very punctual and punctuality everywhere but Doan this I don’t know it’s a joke on people I think how I should be punctal if I can’t plan my time
31 Comments
Oh yes. Deutsche Bahn is a nightmare
Germany is not was it used to be 😁
Wholeheartedly agree! (I am German)
Both issued degraded along the last decades but were more or less irgnored, until we arrived at the unfortunate state they are in now.
Keep in mind that wealthy people aren't as affected by this, they are insured privately so doctors treat them differently, and they don't use public transport as they own cars – yes, that's a simplified statement.
They complain a lot but they STAY.
burgergeld, kostenlose Wohnungen, Kindergeld, usw.
Deutsche zahlen
Doctors Assistant and I agree!! We have to stop thinking, that we are so great and start to thrive to become better.
Kinesiologist 😂😂😂. Yeah. No junk science in German hospitals. Shocking.
“If I can’t plan my time”. The US medical system has me drowning in medical debt and refusing to help with good. Like…
German problems stem from foreigners who flood the country and EXPECT "free" stuff. Sounds familiar. Germany needs their own Trump.
I don't want to be unfair to her, but as far as the doctors are concerned: she seems to have a back problem that her doctor (kineosologist) in Kiev already knew about, so no special diagnostics were necessary. Besides, it always depends on the doctor, you can hardly blame the whole system. Perhaps a physiotherapist would have been better here. And here, too, there are private doctors if you think you want to pay a better one.
And because some people here consider the private healthcare system to be better: talk to women from the States for example who have given birth in Germany (and perhaps had complications). Here, everything is covered by health insurance, including intensive medical treatment if necessary. My first child had a heart defect and had to be operated on (by a paediatric heart surgeon who is renowned throughout Europe). Apart from worrying about the child, it was good not to have to worry about how much everything would cost.
In the USA, you can get rid of a lot of money by giving birth – which is very difficult for some women.
This disrespectful pos is complaining about Germany? Back to Ukraine
You know that these Ukrainians got BILLIONS from the German taxpayers, because they are refugees of war.
Many of them arenot grateful, but only complaining that they are not getting champagne and caviar.
If you go to the jobcentre / social welfare offices, you will find lines of luxury cars with Ukrainian number plates. They are all there to claim social benefits.
And then go onto YouTube to complain.
THEN GO BACK TO UKRAINE!!!!
I am soooooo done with Ukrainians receiving all the aid from the German government and only complaining complaining.
Most ungrateful, entitled people I have ever met.
I'm German and i agree. The health care is not very good (still way better than the US though) and the public transport is very overpriced for what they offer.
That's bullshit! Never got pain relief medicine besides iboprophen from my german doctors. They are really responsible with opioids pain relief medication, and antibiotic medication.
we have 1.3 Millions Ukrainian refugees – they have the exact same social standards like germans -n 70% of Ukrainians do not work – living on german social subsidies – now they complain about our healthcare ;-)))
90% of the Ukrainians in Germany are not working anything, all get free medical healthcare but she is complaining?
Damn you ukranian ladies and your beauty 😍. Damn
Yeah and I can tell you our medical system will get even WORSE when we take in the whole world and pay all medical costs for them, without them paying into our social systems!!! Demographic change is a big factor, but illegal immigration will cost us our wealth. My international friends working and paying taxes here are so tired of this, I am tired paying so much taxes for people who have never worked a single day!
Deutsche Bahn just sucks big time, gets also worse every year.
Go to Turkey , the best medical tourism is there
Dann direkt zurück in die wunderbare Scheißukraine. Hier hocken Bürgergeld kassieren und Scheiße labern ist genau was wir brauchen.
It's because our money is given to foreigners like her.
Thats why there is no money for our people, our Infrastructure…
Just go home and everyone is fine.
🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
They come to Germany thinking it's like the 90s Germany or something. A lot has changed to the worst. The quality of life is not on par with the cost of living. And now it's the industry doing a steep decline…
This is very correct ,every complain I take to my doctor only get a pain relief (ibuprofen) but not finding out the main cause of the problem 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Come to Pakistan
Seems, it's time for her to go back. I mean, her life is saved by us, having her here and working for her, so she gets Bürgergeld and free accommodation. Please do us a favour and LEAVE.
About Medicine I thought a lot of times that one day I will die like everyone 🤷♀️ so that because in Greece or German this is expensive!
I mean, I am thinming of moving to Germany as a doctor, As i come from India i have expereince to numerous cases & patients issues , Somewhere the large population helped me to gain enough clinical experience & some rural areas there are lack of equipments, which i may not face in Germany, which will help make my diagnosis more precise; Therefore i wish to work there , make a name there so that people won't complain about their issues and treatment , I just wamt to have a peaceful lifestyle ( One can't expect that as a doctor in most of the cases , but still i guess the workload and stress would be much easier than in India. I am open to critisizm and comments. PEACE
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Deutsche Bahn should scratch Deutsche 😊
God bless Elena, I know exactly what she's talking about. As an American who's lived in both Germany and Ukraine, I can attest to the challenges she mentioned here about life in Germany.
As much as I love Germany, it was quite difficult navigating German health services and it also turned out to be very expensive for me. My exchange program provided us with international traveler's health insurance, but in my experience it was completely useless. I had multiple doctor appointments while living in Germany and had to pay extremely large amounts out of pocket despite my insurance coverage. Furthermore, I worked with Ukrainian refugees while I was studying there, and a lot of them had similar experiences with the health care system like Elena mentioned here. I remember some of them even returning to Ukraine temporarily just to see their doctors out there! As for the Deutsche Bahn, while I think it's generally better than what we have for public transport in the US, it would be extremely frustrating when there would be constant delays and you'd run the risk of missing a connecting train, or they'd cancel your train entirely and you'd be stuck at one station for an extended period of time.
As for my time in Ukraine, I worked there before the full-scale invasion (2018-2019). Despite the social and economic problems Ukraine was dealing with even then, I was very impressed with the quality of health care and public transportation out there. I didn't see as many doctors there as I did in Germany, but my experience with Ukrainian medical services was nevertheless very good. Granted, I used private clinics, and my Ukrainian friends and colleagues mentioned that the quality of private clinics is generally a lot better than state-run hospitals (which seems to be the case in a lot of countries). Public transportation in Ukraine was excellent, some of the best of any country I've been to. The national railway system works very efficiently and even though there could be delays or cancelations, I never had any issues with it (plus as an American there was something really cool and unique about riding the trains in an Eastern European country like Ukraine).
Well, the problems Germany has is based on the masses of migrants. And yes, this includes you as well, Elena. Medical treatment is on a high standard, Deutsche Bahn is on a low standard, caused by 20 years of Merkelism.