WHEN we talk about German people, we tend to characterize them as punctual, disciplined and a little bit conservative. This is quite correct.

　　Let’s take a look at transit systems. German trains, when compared with Chinese, French or Italian trains, are quite punctual. In China, France or Italy, it’s not a rare occurrence for trains to be 10 or 20 minutes late. In Germany, travel plans showing the arrival and departure time for every stop are left in your seats, and every bus stop timetable marks the exact minutes of the comings and goings of the buses. More often than not, they are on time.

　　A typical example of discipline is the way that German pedestrians almost always wait for the green light before crossing the road. In Italy and France, pedestrians cross whenever there’s the slightest lull in traffic.

　　The German football team is another excellent example. The German team has long been regarded as a very disciplined group that plays as accurately as a well-tuned machine. This works well for the football team, but it adds to our impression of Germans being conservative and inflexible.

　　However this is just one aspect of German people.

　　Among German youths, there seems to be a very strong streak of anti-traditionalism. Almost every day I went outside I saw young people wearing punk hairstyles that resembled cockscomb. The cockscomb was sometimes worn so high that you could almost mistake it for a tree.

　　Young people do not hesitate to display their individualism. For every exciting event that occurs, the youths take to the streets in a display which quite often results in a skirmish between police and protestors. The traditional May Day demonstration is a fine example of this.

　　What’s more, most young people choose to spend their nightlife in a bar, drinking, smoking, and chatting. What’s struck me as unusual was the fact that most everybody in the bar scene smokes. The proportion of female smokers is rising, as many Germans admitted.

　　So while the older generation of Germans may uphold the conservitive stereotype, the younger generation seems to be breaking free of the mold.