Thursday 24 July 2014

palm greasing

This morning I stumbled upon another small difference between living in Germany and living in UK.

The summer holidays have started or are at least about to start.
Kids say good-bye to their teachers, maybe only for the next six weeks, maybe they are leaving school.
In the UK (and I guess in the US as everything vaguely commercial seems to originate from there) you can buy a "Thank You Teacher" present for this occasion. These start with relatively sensible things like greetingcards up to chocolates and even personalised items (pinterest has whole boards for this, check it out if you are nosy).



If you would do so in Germany (and I´m sure it is done nevertheless) you are actually entering the realms of illegality. In Germany teachers are public servants, employed by the state, and therefore every gifting can be seen as corruption.
Another interesting little difference - no wonder I always looked a bit sceptical at all the "Thank you teacher" merchandise.

2 comments:

  1. interesting... but a little weird. i understand little gifts when teachers leave a school, go on a longer (baby) break or when the class is finishing school. doing this every year? dunno... i'd stick to apples :D

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  2. If a teacher gets chocolate from all his/her students there is no need to buy chocolate ever again.

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