Yes, my cultural sensitivity training and experience says Germans (let's call him Heinz) are abrasive to Brits and Americans (John). Germans are very direct and mean what they say far more literally than John. Indirect questions and suggestions, that might sound like a very straightforward thing to you are nothing Heinz will understand. John: "Should we talk about this some more?" G: "No, I don't think that is necessary". If John takes up the topic again, Heinz will be annoyed with him, because John asked for his decision, heard his decision and ignored it.
If John criticizes Heinz in the usual english "irrelevant positive, important negative, irrelevant positive" structure, Heinz's takeaway will be "mostly positive with minor problems". All the while John meant the negative to be a major problem and just wanted to cushion the blow. If Heinz wants to convey criticism, he will give you just the negative, nothing else. Whatever isn't mentioned is OK. John will understand this as devastating criticism, because absolutely nothing positive was mentioned. But actually Heinz liked everything and just has this minor nit to pick... If Heinz likes everything he'll say "it's fine". John might be wondering why he didn't mention anything Heinz liked explicitly and if this is Heinz being passive aggressive.
There is a lot more to it, and of course there are nuances to it, e.g. Heinz might come from various German regions that differ in their usual behaviour and may even seem overly rude or overly friendly to other Germans.
If John criticizes Heinz in the usual english "irrelevant positive, important negative, irrelevant positive" structure, Heinz's takeaway will be "mostly positive with minor problems". All the while John meant the negative to be a major problem and just wanted to cushion the blow. If Heinz wants to convey criticism, he will give you just the negative, nothing else. Whatever isn't mentioned is OK. John will understand this as devastating criticism, because absolutely nothing positive was mentioned. But actually Heinz liked everything and just has this minor nit to pick... If Heinz likes everything he'll say "it's fine". John might be wondering why he didn't mention anything Heinz liked explicitly and if this is Heinz being passive aggressive.
There is a lot more to it, and of course there are nuances to it, e.g. Heinz might come from various German regions that differ in their usual behaviour and may even seem overly rude or overly friendly to other Germans.