Kultur 6 Antonina

Germans have a great system for recycling. It might be too many bins but they seem to be organized. It is weird thou that you can not throw garbage away on Sundays..... and color coded...that's too much.

So which is right, knock and come in if the door is closed or knock and wait? I understand Germans being private, it's like that in Ukraine. For Americans of course that would be weird but not many things in America are private, people share and know to many personal things too fast.

AMD 6 Antonina

Die Simpsons. I understood quite a few words and a not a lot of sentences. Here is one :),  "Ich liebe bier." "Meine Addresse ist eins, zwei, drei Fake street." It's funny how they insert English words and the cop does not know what fake means. lol. "Mein ferrari. Neine problem." ".... ist tot." This is quite of an action episode.

I listened to Liebst du im Schonheit written by Clara Schumann.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ7EsOvuc8k

I understood a lot. If you love for beauty, don't love me. Love sun, "Sonne." If you love for youth, don't love me. Love spring, "Fruling" "Der Jung ist jedes jahr." - It is young every year.  If you love because of love, love me then.
This is like a GERMAN 101 song. :)

Kapitel 6

To be honest, I am not quite surprised with the things that I have read in the articles.
Some German friends that I know have all claimed to have lost virginity at the age of 16 by the latest. I do not believe that it is just Germany; it has become rather a social norm in almost all of Europe. On the populist media magazine, I guess I could see some differences in American magazines such as the Times and Newsweek. The American magaziens tend to be more political than those of other nations, and I think that's the way the popular means of information should be. Each person must be held accountable for one's belief rather than having others feed them what they could be brainwashed to believe. The closed door thing was somewhat unusual, but I think this is because Germans like to make previous arrangements before they actually meet(being a bunch who do not particularly enjoy surprises).

Kapitel 6 Kultur-Texte

The Bild Zeitung seems like my kind of tabloid. I know that I, like many Americans, prefer to hear about the news in a comical light. The events of the world, particularly political ones, are going to be reported with some distortion one way or another, so why not embrace it and at least enjoy the parody? As long as the basic facts are presented, I consider it enough news for my satisfaction.

Many American news networks criticize Comedy Central for The Daily Show with John Stewart, but honestly, that type of show is all that many people can bare to watch that involves current events. Germany embraces the fact more readily, and I appreciate it.

Kultur 6

Wow, hearing about the Bild Zeitung really makes me think about how different of a culture we have here in America in regards to censorship. Although, when it comes to celebrities it reminds me of a lot of the magazines we have here. It is kind of amazing all of the different things that can go into one magazine and how the publishers are able to have so many readers. Sure the magazine is a lot of made up gossip, but it sure does make things interesting to read!

I have to wonder why germans always have their doors closed! I'm sure it can cause some confusion, especially us Americans, unless you're used to it. I could never imagine always having my door closed. My door is almost always open. The only time I really close it is when I'm trying to sleep so it keeps the light out. And even if I have it closed for some odd reason, my friends know that they can just walk in. They don't have to knock. Although, I'd probably feel a little different if I didn't know the people who were barging into my room well.

I have to wonder why the Germans like to be so orderly when separating their garbage. Sure, I understand separating plastics from glass and from paper, etc. but why need to be so picky and go as far as separate them by color!

Kultur Sechs

Die Zeit fliegt, und dieser Woche ist schon the last week of class.

I woke up this morning in a fine mood after but it was compromised by a wacky acquaintance with Joschka Fischer. For a good laugh, I watched this video zum xten Mal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWgwJfbeCeU (man, look at this guy's resemblance to Mann Fischer! Maybe he can teach Mann Fischer something about keeping fit.)

The door-is-always-closed article is spot on about what I have to expect for a closed door in an American office: knock it 'til they respond. I sometimes feel bad for "interrupting," though, and they say I'll have to knock so hard in Germany. Jokes aside, I am guessing that this is something Germans came up with after the years of war and insecurity. I may be wrong. And the door is always closed for Bush. As it should be.

I find the article about garbage cans interesting but kind of feel bad for those who have just moved into the country - it must take them a bit to figure out where to dispose of their garbage in the land of precision, huh?

Homer's day

I love The Simpsons, and it was interesting to see a German dub of it.
Unfortunately, I was only able to see Homer's version of the day as
other two were not available for viewing. Before I start, however,
I must say that the movie is reversed to avoid a copyrights complaint.

While I was studying the grammar without pronouncing every word that I was
seeing, I did not know how differently German sounded relative to American
English. Because it is a show based on the satirical nature of average American
family, what Homer and Marge were saying sounded very unnatural. It did not
at all seem like what German-speakers would say in such awkward situations(although it
is highly likely that they wouldn't put themselves in those situations first). Perhaps
they have a slight more dull lives than Americans do.

Kapitel 6

The first article I read was about knocking on the door of someone you need to see. It basically says you have to be loud, which is basically the exact opposite of what we are supposed to be here. I mean, going to see anyone inside an office is usually a scary experience that no one wants to do. I would probably never see anyone.

The second article was about recycling in Germany. I can actually relate to this article. My mom recycles everything she can, but we don't have recycling at my house. Because of this, we have to take out recycling to the Ann Arbor recycling center. At their high point of attempted organization, there were a lot of bins. Ironically, they never made people separate plastic and cans. Each bin was clearly marked with what could (and sometimes what could not) go in. You would think this would make it easier to organize. It didn't.

The next article was about the gossip magazine in Germany. I didn't have much thought on this one. I do find it funny that there is a reference to the World Cup at the end. It seems like there has been a lot of stuff about the world cup in the articles we've read this year.

Kultur 6

This weeks articles were not overly surprising, but they were pretty interesting. The first article about Bild Zeitung was quite funny, because there are similar publications like it around the world, like National Enquirer. They post outlandish and crazy stories to garner attention and to sell more copies of their publication. The privacy article didn't really offer much insight, but I believe it essentially boiled down to just saying to knock loudly once and then proceed on in so you don't end up annoying the person you are about to see. I did find the garbage article interesting because I would find it really annoying have to always look at which trash receptacle I need to throw my stuff in. I know in some recycling bins you throw everything into one can so you don't have to worry about anything because it is sorted somewhere else. I do have to give my admiration to the Germans though for their environmental concerns and accountability! In the other two articles I thought it was interesting how most Universities in Germany don't have dorms for their students, but it makes sense in older cities where there isn't a lot of room left to build around the University. I also thought it was cool at the end of the Tübingen article it said that they are associated with Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Kultur 6

The article about the closed doors was really interesting. I always think that's an awkward situation when you're supposed to meet someone, like a professor, but their door is closed and you don't know what to do so you don't interrupt them. It seems like it would be easier if they left the door cracked or something if they weren't busy so you wouldn't feel bad about possibly interrupting them. I don't think I would do well in that situation where you don't know how you should go about knocking. The recycling article was interesting too, I didn't know they were that into proper recycling. It seems weird when you contrast that article with the one where they just write about sex scandals and stuff and have sex shops everywhere; on the one hand they seem very clean and environmentally conscious but then very liberal about other things.

Kultur 6

It still surprises me how open Germans are about sex and the display of what Americans would call "vulgar acts". The media is not as censored there as it is here. I find it kind of weird though since it's like the opposite of what you would think. Like with the garbage receptacles, you expect Germans to be very uptight and organized and clean. It seems as if the display of the body is a separate media from everything else. I think this shows how multi-faceted humans can be, on the one hand they are hardcore environmentalist and on the other hand they have sex shops on any old street corner with didoes in plain sight.

Kultur 6

I found the German Privacy article the most interesting and entertaining out of all the articles we had to read. I would definitley not fit in, in Germany when it came to knocking on doors. I come from a family that is very open and my parents usually did not like it when me and my brother even closed our bedroom doors. In the summer, spring, and fall my mom usually has our deck screen door open for fresh air to get in.

Even at college I live in a house with 6 people and if we are home our door is usually unlocked (which may not be the safest thing) but I enjoy people just being able to come in and visit. Since i've grown up with an open door policy in my household I have an issue with knocking as well. My housemates tend to get annoyed with me because whenever their door is closed (mine is usually open) I instead of knocking just open the door and walk right in. I think its easy to say I would make some Germans very angry.

AMD Sechs

Instead of talking about the menu of a German restaurant, I google'd "deutscher Zeitung" this time ("German newspapers", actually) and found something great.

I clicked on Ruhr Nachrichten (Ruhr News) in Dortmund (wo meine Kusine mit ihrem Verlobter wohnt). Ich bin glücklich, dass ich sehr viele Wörter verstanden habe. Anyway, this is article that I read is about Whitney Houston's film posthumously released, even news about famous people in trouble find their place in some newspapers.

Certain German words look like English as they are online (thank you, Captain Obvious), but I still learnt words such as "den Tod" (the death), Kokain (cocaine), und so weiter - hope you've learnt some as well, like I did! Alles Gute.