> Then there was me, the only Europoorean at the table, and I put my regular card with a picture of a small kitten on the plate. The waiter complimented me on my card with a smile and I kinda cherish that. American flexes are weird to me, lol.
A true German would have put down cash, and seen that as a flex perhaps. (Or at least would have done so in the past. I haven't lived there in a while.)
Doing something out-of-context also reminds me how the English put each other firmly into their class system by their accents. So how / where you grew up will follow you around your whole life and colour your interactions.
However, if you come in with a foreign accent--say German-- that overrides this clue, so it's easier for you to interact with both working class and upper class people with less weirdness than the natives have to endure.
> A true German would have put down cash, and seen that as a flex perhaps. (Or at least would have done so in the past. I haven't lived there in a while.)
Things had changed quite a bit here. Card usage is now a default everywhere(including those pesky shops that used to put a "cash-only" signs).
Only hardcore grannies now use cash these days, but even I see a lot of oma/opa pulling out their Sparkasse cards at the counter.
In Singapore, we even have a 10,000 Dollar bill as legal tender (about 7.5k USD at the moment), and nobody would think you are a criminal for using it.
Though these days people would think you a bit eccentric, perhaps.
During hyperinflation following WW1, we had a 100,000,000,000,000 (100 trillion) Mark bill in Germany. But I think it was only enough to buy some groceries or so.
A true German would have put down cash, and seen that as a flex perhaps. (Or at least would have done so in the past. I haven't lived there in a while.)
Doing something out-of-context also reminds me how the English put each other firmly into their class system by their accents. So how / where you grew up will follow you around your whole life and colour your interactions.
However, if you come in with a foreign accent--say German-- that overrides this clue, so it's easier for you to interact with both working class and upper class people with less weirdness than the natives have to endure.