Is it considered rude not to say "Danke" when someone says "Gesundheit" to your sneeze?
This might sound a little stupid but I had to ask so please don't judge. Im an international student came here few months ago. So, it happens seldom that I sneeze in public, like yesterday in Kaufland and someone in front of me in line said "Gesundheit". The problem is that my whole system kind of refreshes when I sneeze and I don't know for a second or two of my surroundings. I noticed that the lady made a bitter face when I didn't say back Danke. I realized that it had happened a few times back as well but I never noticed. I dont usually have the habit as where Im from people do say "bless you" in my language but you usually dont say back anything. I asked my German friends and my German Praktika tutor as well whether its considered rude to not say back anything and I got mixed replies. On my side, I do have a habit to Nod as in saying thank you when someone says bless you or Gesundheit but Im too much in restart mode to say back anything that quickly.
Should I start to make a habit of saying back Danke? I dont want people to consider me rude if its too much against the social norms.