Long time no see

The collecting information process was much more succesful than the posting-that-information process.

To be posted by end of July:

1.) The history of German Sicherheit and its influence on post recession recovery

2.) Socialism as a Schimpfwort: A comparison of German and American social policies and why “socialism” is still a bad word in the US

3.) German healthcare system: A quick breakdown of how it is financed.

 

Bis Dann.

 

Why I’m here.

Before I launch into various directions of cultural experience and observation I want to let you into the special place in my heart I have always reserved for thinking about healthcare. Yes, there is in fact a place in my heart for this topic and health and health services have resided there in some way shape or form for the last 8 years.

In fact, ponderous thoughts on Health Care and general attitudes towards that all encompasing word health are what landed me in Germany this year in the first place.

This is obviously an extremely compliticated and multi-faceted topic, so I thought before I launch into what I’ve learned SINCE I’ve gotten here, I would share with you the thoughts  that GOT me here. In essence, we are now starting on the same journey so we can stumble together down the road of understanding.

I studied abroad in Vienna in the fall of 2008. While I was there I suffered from one mild cold (a virus that unfortunately hit my room mates harder than me), and had one random inexplicable bout of hives.

Before I share with you how such simple issues such as hives and a cold are handled in Vienna, I invite you to think about how those everyday events would be dealt with in America.

If you need help take a look at this typical American commercial:

This commercial offers a suprising amount of information about the American Way of health.

First, let’s look at the language. Both the text and subtext urge us Amuuricans to “power through” and use medicine to essentially kick the crap out of our cold. We are a nation of fighters, and heaven forbid you skip a day of work or whatever to take care of a cold… just take this over the counter medicine and fight back! Hell yeah!

And not only that, if you look at another 15 second spot you see that taking Dayquil will relieve ALL of your symptoms: fever, aching, sore throat, stuffy nose, lack of motivation, paleness, and bad haircuts.

These typical ‘kick the crap out of your cold and take back your day’ commercials are telling of American attitudes towards wellness not only in the language they uses, but in the simple fact that these commercials exist. The existence of this commercial not only confirms the existence of  this particular wonder-drug, but the existence of and unknown but possibly infinite number of other wonder-drug brands out there in the world available for anyone and everyone to buy. Just go to your local grocery store. Or gas station. Or your neighbor. And as you can plainly see, the only doctor involved in this decision is Dr. Mom (who always knows best) or Dr. Girlfriend/Wife… or the wise Dr. You.

So why is this relevant?

If you are an American, and you are reading this, you have probably seen one of these commercials. If you’re like me you probably have a shelf or drawer full of emergency OTC med that can fight against all possible daily ailments that might keep you from going to work: Ibprofen, cold meds, maybe gas-x, pepto-bismol, benedryl, TUMS… pretty standard bottom drawer/corner cabinet items, right? And if you don’t have them around the house, I bet you know where to run out and get them if you suddenly suffer from a mean round of diarrhea before an important presentation or an itchy ugly rash before a meeting….

Sooo, if you have proved yourself an American by nodding knowlingly to at least one, if not all, of the points made above then you will hopefully share in the shock that awaited me in Austria when I tried to deal with hives and my cold.

If you are an American, you too, would have been surprised that in Austria, neither the Walgreens equivalent, nor the grocery store, nor the store that is like the ‘cosmetics/health’ aisle of a walmart, carried anything remotely helpful for combating the evident, swollen, itchy, ever-growing hives on my face and neck. You too, would have been suprised that the cashiers looked at me like I was an idiot and an alien for even asking them if I knew where I could get something that could help me and offered no response to my question. You too, would have been suprised that when I FINALLY found a legit  pharmecy almost an hour later that the only response I got to ‘do you have anything that could help me with these hives? I’m afraid it is going to go to my throat and I need something now!’ was Do you have a doctor’s note?.

I’m sorry, what kind of back-asswards developed country doesn’t have benedryl available to anyone and everyone for times of crisis such as this? Why do I have to go to a doctor when I know exactly what I need when I need it?

This is when I knew that there was something very different about this country… and little did I know I had more learning in store.

Now we move onto the cold:

My roomate Brian experienced similar baffling frustration when he got the cold that only mildly attacked me. He developed a sinus infection with his cold, and knew exactly that he needed an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory nose spray and probably just some advil for his headache and acheyness. He told me this and asked me if I had any of these things to help him out. Unfortunately my precious supply of Advil was running low for the semester (and I found out the hard way that, just like benedryl,  you can’t just stock up at your corner store) and I had already used. With nobody in the house to help him out, and at the suprisingly urgent suggestion of our School Principal, Brian went to the doctor.

Sure enough the Doctor told him he had a cold and PRESCRIBED him that which we normally get pretty easily. Advil and Afrin. WIth Brian’s insistence that he had a sinus infection and not just a cold the doctor reluctantly gave him a Z-pack as well.

I fortuantly just had a little sniffle and a small cough. With little hope of success I nevertheless tried to find some relief for these symptoms at the local walgreen’s-esqe store and found nothing but spiced wine mix (for cold remedies) and salt water nose rinse.

I decided it wasn’t that important anyway and went to school. When I got to school with this little sniffle, my teacher seemed very concerned. She immediately sent me home and told me to heat up some wine, put an orange in it, wrap a scarf around my neck and go to sleep. When I looked at her with confusion and explained that I was really OK, she retorted with growing impatience that it was rude of me to come to school with a cold, lest I give it to my fellow classmates, and that I probably got it from partying too much and not sleeping enough, so I need to catch up on sleep before I get even sicker. Humph.

Twist my arm, I thought… I’ll go home! Fine! But as I turned to go I felt the stinging guilt of the American fighter saying I was being a baby, just suck it up and stay at school…

Without boring you for another 1,000 words on the possible implications of these encounters I will simply say that this is the moment I knew for sure, that this was a whole different health ball game. 2 years later I’m here in Germany to see if this very different attitude toward wellness and health comes from the people and is imposed on the health care system, or if the Health Care System of Germany and Austria has done something so wildly different as to make its citizens think about health the way they do.

What’ I’ve find out so far has been pretty cool. More stories to come… we’re just getting started 🙂

Welcome!

Welcome to Speaking Denglish!

The title represents the strange relationship and the seamless combination of 2 countries without the exclusion of either culture or language: speaking DEutsch and speaking English (I could had said germish but that’d be very Amuurican of me).

It’s an outlet for sharing the interesting cultural observations one can only make about a country by being an outsider. This year I have the distinct privilege of  being both a member of, and a stranger in, two important countries. I live my life speaking Denglish. and needless to say, I’ve learned a few things.

Before I share those thing, I have to tend to a broken shower. Yes, the handheld shower that curses bathtubs all over europe has snapped itself in two, and as an American who needs to take long, hot, showers twice daily, this is quite the castastrophe.

Stay tuned for more updates on Speaking Denglish. I will post here a lot more often and with short quibs, “did you know’s” and more twitter like entries, than full essays… but you can expect those too.

I am excited to share! For now… the shower.