Germany & Eastern Europe

During this class we learn more about countries in which people speak german as Germany traditions like oktoberfest, the world´s larger beer festival in where of course people drink and eat the Germany traditional food as pork sausage and spit-roasted chicken during 16 days. The metaphor that describes Germany is the symphony, I guess because most of the people there is characterized by the precision and perfection.

The other countries that has german as language are: Austria, Switzerland and lichstenstein. Comparing Switzerland, Germany and Austria in Hofstede dimensions, we could saw that in most of the dimensions they have a high score except in PDD, where the three are below 50.

An interesting thing I learn from this class was te definition of Dutch, which I always believed was the same as german, but Dutch is the native language of Netherland, Suriname and Belgium population. It is characterized by being a combination of English and Germanic as teacher explain in his presentation.

Dutch culture: for this people the truth is very important, expressed as the main value of their culture. Family is the center of their life. Something very interesting is that is a culture that tries to view the woman as equal as the men in work environment but, for example in Belgium is more equal this aspect

Talking about business, is people very punctual as people in Belgium so they expect the same from others but still are informal when negotiating.

In the other hand, we have Eastern Europe composed by Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgary, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and others. The difference in Hofstede dimensions are more remarkable in the PPD where most of this countries are above the 50 and their indulgence level is very low.

GERMANY AND ECOLOGY

Germany has come to be during the last years  one of the countries with more awareness in terms of ecology. Frankfurt has been one of the most important due to they have more than the 50% of the surface dedicated to green areas. The buildings use 20% less of energy compared with other European countries thanks to their passive-house system that forces constructors to build under some regimes to make it possible.

Frankfurt is the city where people use more public transportation (almost 64% of them). The thing that calls more my attention is that because of government strict regulations to care about environment people have been taking more awareness about it and are integrating this new lifestyle with design, making the city something nice to live and visit. Being one of the countries  with more population, and is reaching more goals of the Kioto´s protocol than others where is supposed to be easier for the small ones.

The city has been created different initiatives that makes people know how to take advantages from energy, ventilation and others to make people familiarized with sostenible ways. 20 years ago they create their " green belt" which is a green space that surround the country and where the majority of the gardens are under protection. 

Source: http://www.empresayeconomia.es/actualidad/la-ecologia-alemana.html

http://especiales.elcorreo.com/vitoria-capital-verde-europea-2012/noticias/2012-07-03/frankfurt-centro-industrial-capital-verde-1147.html