France & Germany: Help!!

Mieka, my daughter and I traveled for 8 weeks in Western Europe and Czech Republic. The only countries I recall off hand where there were blacks was in Paris and Holland.

It is so sad that there are still places on this earth where racism is practiced.

I did see mixed couples here and there and also in Germany. I just assumed they were US Military GIs.

Since the majority of Germans speak English. I would think French would be useful to learn.

I feel you would be safe in either country during the day. My daughter and I are caucasian and we made sure we were in our hotel before dark.

I would say just go and enjoy! Don't be held in bondage by any fears.

GBU.

My husband is African and we have travelled extensively through France (where his sister lives) and Germany. He has never experienced any kind of racism or negative treatment. As a side note, we are a mixed race couple and have never felt out of place or uncomfortable in either country. We have heard about negative treatment of Africans in France but this stems more from them immigrating. As a tourist, I don't believe you will experience this.

I'm not sure how much this will help because we didn't talk to them specifically about racism, but a German friend of my friend met up with us in Berlin and she was half-German and half-African. Her mother was African-German (?) and neither seemed particularly jaded or mistreated. Of course, maybe I just didn't notice, or maybe it's because we were in Berlin which is quite a big city, but she seemed comfortable. Good luck in your decision!
(Personally, I would vote for France; it's my favorite. And there is a lot of ethnic diversity, particularly in Paris and in southern France. Maybe not as much as in, say, New York or Los Angeles, but enough.)

Mieka,
I have been to France three times and have experienced nothing but very nice people. The French are in general a much more tolerant people, a trait I wish more Americans had.

Everyone has different views, but only having been to Germany for a few days, I would recommend France.

As far as language goes, if at least you try to speak French, that's all that counts. My 20-30 word vocab did the job, no problem. The major thing in France is to be polite. During all of my trips I found the majority of the French people going out of their way to be helpful.

Go to France, you'll enjoy yourself

When i grow up in germany i had a lots of friends who where of mixed race it never was a issue in my small hometown. You might acually for sure see statues and signs in germany that will be offensive to you as a black person but please recall that mnay of those thing are a couple of hundred years old ( Mohren head in Coburg as a example)

Mieka there are Fantatic and bad people anywhere in the world, The majority of people in Germany and France are open minded and have no issues about race. the article ae mostly incident that happend in the former East Germany due to long years of unemployment and other factors. \Use common sense and trust your instict, be respectful of local culture you will have a blast.

Why are you not splitting your time between France and germany?

For language i choose German because In my experience the French if you cant speak Perfect french dont bother in germany people will have more of a tolerance in regards to someone making a effort to speak

I agree with Patricia. In three months you can have a good experience in both, the language experience I've had (mostly in Paris) was that if you didn't speak French fluently they didn't want you to try, but my German (1.66 years at college level) was complimented constantly even though I don't think it is adequate. Although I'm white I watch the treatment of people a lot. I never saw a difference in the way an Asian tourist was treated from an African or American in either country. I think you should go planning to both give and get good human relations and you will find what you are looking for.

In three months you can perfectly do both France and Germany. You will have sufficient time to experience both countries without feeling any time pressure. That way you'll be able to find out for yourself which one you like better. Personally I can tell you the countries are so different that there actually won't be a clear answer to that question. So do find out for yourself. If you avoid walking around alone in the suburbs of Paris or smaller Eastern German towns at night you'll be perfectly save! As to the languages: You'd need to know to read signs, ticket vending machines in both countries. So make sure you pick up the basic vocabulary of both languages...