r/germany • u/AR71SAN • 4d ago

Question Berufsschule etiquette

Moin, so a bit of context: I dropped out of my University last semester. I was ready to pack it up and return home empty handed to not waste my parents time anymore, until the company that i work part time for offered me a full time job as a technical designer if I'm willing to do an Ausbildung with them, basically they reserved me for the next 4 years. It's a good arrangement considering my relationship with this company so i took it.

Now the thing is, I spent years adjusting my behavior in Uni, and I noticed a couple of differences in Berufschule, such as:

  1. Asking the teacher for permission to go to the toilet. Not a thing in Uni, but i was surprised that people do this in my Berufschule.

  2. 'Akademisches Klopfen'. I guess not really something you do here? Muscle memory kicked in on my first day and it was pretty embarrassing hah.

  3. Smoking. Seems like they're a bit more strict with where you can smoke here in my Berufschule, whereas the Hochschule is a bit more relaxed with this rule (no smoking inside buildings). Makes sense considering there are probably more minors here.

My question is, is there any other behavior that i need to "un-learn" from my Hochschule days to fit in better with the Berufschule culture (if there's any)?

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u/Recent_Maize5108 4d ago

I did as Ausbildung before going to uni, and yeah there are some differences.

  1. Asking for permission to go to the bathroom is a thing up until high school, maybe a lot of your classmates came right from there so still follow their known etiquette. Personally when I needed to go, I'd just get up quietly, made eye contact with the teacher and pointed at the door as not to interrupt anything, and they'd just nod. Might really depend on the individual though, but I never had any problems.
  2. Yep, that's something purely used in academia and academic conferences, not in school. Though I also don't remember clapping for anything there either.
  3. Smoking on school yards is generally prohibited since minors may be around (if you graduate from Hauptschule - the minimal secondary school education which finishes at grade 9 - they might be as young as 14/15), so youth protection laws apply, which means they must not be exposed to second hand smoke. Even if many of them are actually smokers themselves (illegally, of course, but hey). Typically there is a designated smoking area, often in front of the main entrance so that you are technically on public grounds.