I entirely agree that vital information, such as that regarding medicine, should be available in as many languages as possible, but I think this should be a matter of public service, not consumer service.

While I see how this “unfriendliness” you have encountered in Germany can be bothersome (the example with the gym is really bad), I think this “economic culture” where the consumer isn’t king is ultimately a sign of a more equal, less capitalistic society.

For example, travelling as a Western tourist in tourist locations around the world (from Southern Greece to Thailand), you would often find people working in restaurants, hotels and shops that cater to tourists to be very service-minded. Large cities like Cairo are exceptions, since they are less dependent upon tourist money: they don’t need you(r money) as much.

Or, another example: when the economic recession hit Sweden recently (a country that an American would probably find as un-service-minded as Germany), articles started appearing on how young people’s attitudes were changing towards becoming more “service-minded” (which was applauded by right-wing commentators) — since the rising unemployment meant people became more dependent on keeping the job they had, they had to be more subservient and put up with more. So while Germany and Sweden may have less “friendly” service, there is less of a class divide, more of a social security net, stronger unions guaranteeing worker’s rights and so on. Being rich in the US might be better than being rich in Germany, but being poor in the US is far worse than in Germany — and this ties into service “friendliness” towards consumers.

So, essentially, being service-minded is a sign of subservience, of the lower classes bowing to the upper classes. In the US, you have a greater class divide and a more deeply capitalistic, consumerist culture than in many European countries. A society where the “consumer is king” necessarily means that “cash is king”, since the worth of a consumer is tied to his spending power. If you’re rich in a capitalist society, and if peoples’ jobs and livelihoods depend upon your spending habits, of course you’re going to encounter “friendlier” service personnel. But they aren’t friendly for the sake of being friendly or helpful (as between equals), they’re friendly because they have to in order to encourage you to consume, so that they can keep their jobs. They’re friendly towards you because of your (percieved) worth in economic and class-related terms.

Particularly intriguing was the behavior of waitstaff; I often had waiters/waitresses forget my order (sometimes repeatedly) or seemingly ignore my table (before or after having ordered) for upwards of 20 minutes (this in a very small restaurant, with myself being the only customer in some of these stories). My hesitating analysis is that the business/service culture in Tanzania, or at least in Dar, is simply much more relaxed than in the United States; instead of a sense of, “The customer must have what he/she wants a.s.a.p.,” there was a sense of, “I’ll get around to your food/drink/etc.; let’s just relax a bit in the indefinite meantime.”

Waiters in the everywhere else interrupt your meal to ask you how everything is going and if you need another drink = way to get a bad tip (if they even tip there ha!).

I much prefer the former.