I have a question, did you ever say anything to your friends who spoke to quickly for you? I know as an American who is also a native English speaker, sometimes it is very hard to figure out when someone still needs me to speak more slowly unless they ask me to. They may have thought that you were able to understand much more easily than you apparently were able to, resulting in your frustration. I think that if you are willing to make friends with someone, you also have to be willing to realize that sometimes they make mistakes and aren’t perfect either. You may have also done some things that were culturally inappropriate during your time there, and they apparently didn’t simply stop talking to you because of that, so try to be a little more patient with others.

In America, people can be seen as extremely friendly at first, but then it leads to nothing in actual “you can count on me” type of friendship. In Germany it did take time to find friends, but nothing beats the time I did get to spend with them, and they were great friends to me. Also, in Germany there are different cultural influences for a German, and it just takes longer to find real friends. This is simply a difference, and I really don’t think it’s fair to write off all Germans just because of a few. I wouldn’t write off all Americans, Mexicans, or even from Spain as being rude just because I met a one or a few of them because I know that sometimes it’s just an issue of cultural expectations that are misunderstood.

I am studying in Germany and i feel pretty much the way your words sound. There is a little exp. which i wanna share and which would sum up my view on germans. I used to live in a hostel in Southern Bavaria. I made friends with lot of Germans, although it took a lil bit time. But one thing i always realised all along the way they were kind of superficial towards me. May be because, they knew i would leave the hostel after 6 months. I mean nobody involved in a real friendship with me. As the time moved on, i wud find myself not able to understand their discussions during dinners as they spoke german/bairish too fluent enough for me and din care even when they knew my lang. situation. They jus din care for me at all. If these were the best germans i met, you can imagine my exp. with the rest. Now, i have lots of foreign friends who are much more warm and care about me. They are spanish, mexican and some east europeans. Germans are a diff. race of europeans. Don’t need any german friend now.