I love that. It's part of what's hilariously called the "Beamtendreisatz" (roughly, the three rules of public servants)
1. Das haben wir schon immer so gemacht (that's how we've always done it)
2. Das haben wir noch nie so gemacht (we have never done it like that)
3. Da könnte ja jeder kommen (then everyone would try it)
They're so German that they're very difficult to faithfully translate. Just imagine a grumpy older guy looking for every excuse not to do what you want him to.
Hey newbie, I'm sorry my comment hurt you. But you don't have to be able to read German to apply the charity principle [1] and be a decent human being. Love you, too.
What kind of person comes to an English speaking forum, drops a quote in a foreign language without any translation and pretends to not get called out?
