More German than many Germans

比许多德国人更“德国”

In 2017, after I finished the third year of my Computer Science studies, I decided to do an internship in Europe. So while I was applying for the Erasmus Scholarship, I also started looking for internships. In the end I got the scholarship, which helped a lot with the visa process, and I also found an internship at a company in Hamburg.

2017年，在我完成计算机科学专业大三学业后，我决定去欧洲实习。因此，在申请伊拉斯谟奖学金（Erasmus Scholarship）的同时，我也开始寻找实习机会。最终我拿到了奖学金，这对签证办理大有帮助，我也在汉堡的一家公司找到了实习岗位。

I had never been outside of Turkey before. So I had also never really talked to people from other countries. What I knew about Germans came mostly from the Turkish people who moved to Germany in the 60s for work. Those people came back to Turkey almost every summer and told us about their life there. Most of what they said was the same as what you can read on the internet, the stereotypical German.

我此前从未离开过土耳其，因此也从未真正与来自其他国家的人交流过。我对德国人的了解大多来自上世纪60年代移居德国工作的土耳其人。这些人几乎每年夏天都会回到土耳其，向我们讲述他们在德国的生活。他们所说的大部分内容，都和你在网上读到的关于德国人的刻板印象如出一辙。

People who don’t laugh, who are cold and unfriendly, who always follow the rules, who speak a language that sounds too harsh, and so on. And of course, someone always brings up the Nazis.

比如：不苟言笑、冷漠且不友好、总是循规蹈矩、说着一种听起来很生硬的语言等等。当然，总有人会提起纳粹。

Apart from the people I talked to in the interviews, my first real contact was my German flatmate. Before I arrived he showed me the room on Skype and we agreed on it. When I landed in Hamburg, he picked me up from the airport. That was a great start, and during my three months there we chatted in the kitchen almost every evening for half an hour.

除了面试时交谈过的人，我真正接触到的第一个德国人是我的室友。在我抵达之前，他通过Skype向我展示了房间，我们达成了租房协议。当我降落在汉堡时，他到机场接了我。这是一个很棒的开始，在那里的三个月里，我们几乎每天晚上都会在厨房聊天半小时。

I had a lot of questions for him and he always answered them properly. On the weekends he picked up his girlfriend and they either stayed home or went rowing. Their relationship looked very healthy to me. She was studying medicine, so sometimes she was working at her desk on a Saturday while my flatmate played Witcher 3 right next to her. I never heard them argue about anything.

我有很多问题想问他，他总是认真地回答。周末他会去接女朋友，他们要么待在家里，要么去划船。在我看来，他们的关系非常健康。她当时在学医，所以有时周六她会在书桌前学习，而我的室友就在她旁边玩《巫师3》。我从未听过他们争吵。

Near the end of my internship he told me that he and his girlfriend were going to Africa, so I would be alone in the flat for a week. When I asked him what I should do with the keys, he just said to drop them in the mailbox. That much trust after such a short time really surprised me.

实习快结束时，他告诉我他和女朋友要去非洲，所以我得独自在公寓住一周。当我问他钥匙该怎么办时，他只是说扔进信箱就行。在这么短的时间内建立起如此程度的信任，真的让我感到惊讶。

We had a last dinner together and I told him things were going well at the company and there was a chance I could come back to Hamburg. I was lucky with my flatmate and I was also lucky at work. I had a great team. They taught me new things, gave me responsibilities the other summer interns didn’t get, and included me in all the team events. The offsite we had outside the city is something I still remember today. And I was getting all of this while earning minimum wage.

我们一起吃了最后一顿晚餐，我告诉他我在公司进展顺利，很有可能回到汉堡。我很幸运遇到了这样的室友，在工作中也很幸运。我有一个很棒的团队，他们教我新东西，让我承担其他暑期实习生没有的机会，并让我参与所有的团队活动。我们在城外举办的团建活动至今让我记忆犹新。而且，我是在拿着最低工资的情况下获得了这一切。

I was really surprised by how friendly everyone was. We weren’t just working, we were having fun. Everything I had heard about Germans until that point was gone. It was the best summer of my life.

大家如此友好，这让我非常惊讶。我们不仅是在工作，更是在享受乐趣。在那之前我所听到的关于德国人的一切偏见都烟消云散了。那是我一生中最美好的夏天。

My lead was happy with my work and offered me a job right away. I could work as a freelancer from Turkey while finishing my studies, and if they were happy with my performance I would get a full-time contract. That is what happened.

我的主管对我的工作很满意，并立即向我提供了工作机会。我可以在土耳其以自由职业者的身份工作，同时完成学业；如果他们对我的表现满意，我就会获得全职合同。事实也确实如此。

In April 2018 I got my contract, even before I finished my studies. The next month something nice happened. My German flatmate emailed me and asked when I was coming back, because he already had a room for me for the summer. The company was going to give me a place to stay, but I couldn’t say no to him. Right after my last exam, before I even had my diploma, I moved to Hamburg at the end of June and started working full time with the same team, living with the same flatmate.

2018年4月，甚至在我毕业之前，我就拿到了合同。接下来的一个月发生了一件暖心的事。我的德国室友给我发邮件问我什么时候回来，因为他已经为我留好了暑期的房间。公司本来要为我提供住宿，但我无法拒绝他的好意。在最后一场考试结束后，甚至还没拿到毕业证，我就在6月底搬到了汉堡，开始与同一个团队全职工作，并与同一个室友住在一起。

On my first day there were candies and balloons on my desk. Everybody was happy to see me again. One colleague who knew my interest in Apple gave me a German flag pin he got at WWDC18. He said he tried to swap it for a Turkish flag but couldn’t manage it. I was already happy with the gift, because it meant he was thinking about me while he was in California.

上班第一天，我的桌上放着糖果和气球。每个人见到我都很高兴。一位知道我对苹果公司感兴趣的同事送给我一枚他在WWDC18大会上得到的德国国旗徽章。他说他曾试图换成土耳其国旗，但没能成功。我收到这份礼物已经很开心了，因为这意味着他在加州时还惦记着我。

When you start living in Germany you have to register your address. When I went to the public office, the clerk told me I had already lived in Hamburg before. I said I had done a summer internship a year earlier. He just said: Welcome back! That was the moment I felt like I was coming home, not moving to a new country.

在德国生活必须进行地址登记。当我前往公共办事处时，办事员告诉我，我以前在汉堡住过。我说我一年前在这里做过暑期实习。他只是说：“欢迎回来！”那一刻，我感觉自己像是回到了家，而不是搬到了一个新的国家。

My first months were mostly about finding a flat and figuring out how things work here. Since my German wasn’t good enough, my colleagues came with me to flat viewings after work. When I had a problem with my electricity provider, a colleague came along and did all the talking. When I moved to a different place a year later, a German colleague rented a van and helped me carry everything.

最初的几个月，我主要是在找房子和摸索这里的生活方式。由于我的德语不够好，同事们下班后会陪我去看房。当我遇到电力供应商的问题时，一位同事陪我一起去，并帮我处理了所有沟通事宜。一年后我搬家时，一位德国同事租了一辆货车，帮我搬运了所有东西。

At the time, the company was one of the biggest internet companies here, with around 2,000 people. Sometimes I saw the C-level in the kitchen getting their own coffee or even washing their own glasses. They had assistants, but the assistants helped with work instead of acting like servants. We also had a CFO who rode a very old bike to the office.

当时，这家公司是当地最大的互联网公司之一，拥有约2000名员工。有时我看到高管们在厨房里自己冲咖啡，甚至自己洗杯子。他们虽然有助理，但助理是协助工作，而不是像仆人一样伺候人。我们还有一位首席财务官，他每天骑着一辆非常破旧的自行车来上班。

Whenever we had a team event or an offsite, the organisers made sure they knew everyone’s dietary needs. Vegan, vegetarian, halal, no alcohol, allergies. So everyone would have something to eat and drink.

每当我们有团队活动或团建时，组织者都会确保了解每个人的饮食需求。无论是纯素食、素食、清真、无酒精还是过敏源，他们都会考虑到，确保每个人都有吃有喝。

When I was doing a good job, my lead kept telling me to take vacation instead of working more. When I was sick, he told me to stay home until I felt better. I didn’t even need a doctor’s note. It took me a while to notice this was not only a work thing. You get on a bus or a train here and nobody checks your ticket. I wasn’t used to this level of trust.

当我工作表现出色时，我的主管总是劝我多休假，而不是多工作。当我生病时，他让我待在家里直到康复，甚至不需要医生证明。我花了一段时间才意识到，这不仅仅是工作上的事。在这里坐公交或火车，没人会查票。我还不习惯这种程度的信任。

Across from our office there was an Italian restaurant where we went for pizza sometimes. The pizzas were very tasty and huge, and it was the only place that sold half a pizza. At lunch I saw people in suits eating there, and right at the next table people from the construction site nearby in their work clothes eating the same pizza. Nobody looked at the other table and nobody thought it was worth noticing except me. That is the part that stayed with me. It was completely normal, and it was normal because a man who spent his morning on a building site can afford an Italian lunch and eat it like everyone else.

我们办公室对面有一家意大利餐厅，我们有时会去那里吃披萨。那里的披萨非常美味且分量十足，而且是唯一一家卖半份披萨的店。午餐时，我看到穿着西装的人在那里用餐，而隔壁桌就是附近工地的工人，他们穿着工作服吃着同样的披萨。没有人会去打量对方，除了我之外，没人觉得这有什么值得注意的。这正是让我印象深刻的地方。这完全是正常的，而之所以正常，是因为一个在工地上忙碌了一上午的人，完全负担得起一份意大利午餐，并像其他人一样享用它。