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.

AMD 6

I decided to watch German vidoes that make fun of western culture. The first one that I watched was a parody of Germany's Next Top Model. The first part of the video was really funny because it was making fun of the Top Model franchise. At least to me, the pictures that are taken of the "models" are both demeaning and inappropriate, so I found it funny when the "picture" that they had of the girl was of her sitting on the toilet. When they started saying what I am guessing were "good things" about her picture, she started to smile. It got a lot less funny when they told her to put on a KKK outfit, and I really didn't like that part. The next girl was asked to put on a robot suit. I think that this show how absurd both America's Next Top Model and Germany's Next Top Model are. I didn't post the video on here, but if you want to see it, you can type in "switch reloaded offiziell: Germany's Next Topmodel" into youtube and the video will come up.

The second video was about a couple (maybe "trailer trash") either moving or visiting northern Alaska. I think that the video was making fun of Alaska, along with a few other things, and the real estate agent/ travel agent had a strange resemblance to Sara Palin. There was also a really weird part where they were hugging a concrete poll. I'm not really sure what they were doing there. The next part involved the couple going to a grill. The women brought out 2 full chickens. I'm assuming that they are making fun of how fat Americans are which I thought was pretty funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV4wmIwEuKQ

The website that I first tried to watch these on wouldn't let me, so I went to youtube instead. Anyway, they let me watch the ads, and I thought they were pretty funny. This one includes a little girl running around in a bunny outfit and children stealing candy from old people. :) http://www.prosieben.de/tv/switch-reloaded/video/clip/285876-werbung-deutsche-fussball-nationalmannschaft-1.3114742/

Kapitel 5

I think it is very impolite to not say excuse me if you bump into someone, and I bet those German ladies can do some serious harm. They are tough.

It is weird that someone has to pay to go to the bathroom. Going to the bathroom is just one of those things that should be free, like tap water. Isn't it a janitors job anyway to clean the bathroom anyways? And, what did I hear about a self-cleaning toilet? I want to tell my boss!

So, this short stare seems like an oxymoron. Without a smile seems creepy. There is no way in the world I would be interested in a guy if he was staring at me. That's weird. I do find it funny that someone wrote a whole book making fun of Germans. There are so many things to make fun of; maybe I'll read it sometime. Why are German men so weird? How is it not considered creepy to stare at someone across the room for a long time?

It is no surprise to me that there are more women in the 65+ age group because a) women live longer and b) I know a lot of young men died in the war. I do like how equal rights for men and women in guaranteed in their constitution. I am taking a women's studies class right now that focuses on women in China, but my professor made a good point that America doesn't have gender equality guaranteed. According to her, "All men are created equal" doesn't count. I disagree. It is a very good thing that women and men are starting to make the same money all around the world, including Germany.

AMD 5

I decided to attempt to improve my listening skills with this AMD, so I went to the top 40 list for Germany. http://top40-charts.com/chart.php?cid=12 It amazes me that of the top 40 songs, only 5-6 of them are in German. There was one that appears to be French, but I'm not sure, and the rest are English. I have heard before that many people from other countries know English, and this in a way, proves that. Practically every song on the American Top 40 chart is in English, and most of the people here only know English.

Anyway, I began listening to # 3 on the list, and the song annoyed the crap out of me, so I stopped. I then went onto #8. This turned out to be a very pretty song about holding onto a friend through the hard times. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand myself what was going on in the song. Actually, I understood very few of the words, but thanks to an online translation of the song, I could listen to the song and read the lyrics at the same time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om3lPqz750I http://lyricstranslate.com/en/so-wie-du-warst-way-you-were.html

The second song that I listened to is called "Himmel Auf." I is another pretty song. I could understand the first few lines of the song, then she started singing words that we don't know yet. Again, I followed the lyrics of the song while it was playing, and the lyrics are kind of strange. I think it is one of those things that the author wanted to happen, but there seems to be biblical undertones throughout the song. This is not to say that it is a Christian song, but she used the pain endured by Jesus in the Bible to show that pain that the girl in the song is experiencing. Overall, I really liked it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uddzl2MDE8 http://lyricstranslate.com/en/himmel-auf-when-will-heavens-open.html

Kapitel 4

While reading the first article about bicycles and getting hit by one, all I could think of is one of the many times I have almost gotten hit by a bike on campus. Anyways, it would be great if we had more bicycle lanes here, but it seems like everything is too far apart for someone to ride their bike. I mean, I live 30 minutes away. I can't imagine how long it would take me to get here everyday on my bike. This article does speak to the fact that most European countries have been public/ non-car transportation systems.

The second article about Germany and their dislike at stopping for pedestrians reminds me walking across any of the main roads around campus. People are constantly stepping out in front of cars. I am truly amazed no one has ever gotten hit. Anyway, the article was really funny. Who hasn't either gotten the evil eye from a parent or a talking to by a child at some time in their life? I know I have gotten both.

I think that part of the reason that so many Germans are engineers is because they are logical.

I can see a lot of people here taking advantage of the honor system, but apparently in such a logical country, they don't. How nice. It seems like it would take less effort to just put in card swipers.

On an added note, the “hoodlums” in this article are not doing nearly enough to make the rest of the population look good. Come on, steal something, and make the rest of the population feel good about themselves. It's the honor system. That should be the very incentive for you to not something you are supposed to.

AMD 4

Over break, my family and I went to Frankenmuth for the day. It is very obvious that Frankenmuth is in no way a true representation of Germany, but it shows German culture circa 1920 better than most other places. While my family was there, we ate lunch at the Bavarian Inn. My meal consisted of a lot of meat, bread, some cheese-stuffed circular things, and saurkraut. I can't stand saurkraut, so I didn't eat it. It reminded me of one of the articles that we read about the meals in Germany. I think it said that Germans believe in high fat and high calorie foods. Well, this meal definitely held up to those standards. In addition, the menu that I ordered from sometimes had the name of the food, and I could identify what a few of them met. There are a few reasons that I think caused me to not identify more. One is that the food I was ordering had complicated names that we don't learn in German 101. Another reason is that the southern dialect of German is different from the rest of the country. Also, the whole back page of the menu consisted of alcoholic drinks which I found very stereotypical of German culture.

After a bit of shopping by my grandma (and painful amounts of boredom for me), we went to a sausage place. At least we thought it was a sausage place. There was sausage, but most of the store consisted of alcohol, mainly beer. There was also German candy, and I bought some of that. Unfortunately, the towns attempt at being German did not stretch to their liquor laws. It was still illegal to sell alcohol to minors.

The rest of my day consisted of eating fudge (Is fudge German? I don't think it is.), and being painfully bored in Bronners. Anyway, I got to eat some good food, buy German candy, and I learned that there are far more types of beer in the world than necessary.

Organic Gummy Bears

It never occurred to me that people would mix beer and pop together. That just sounds nasty. Only Germany would define not allowing people to publicly drunk a violation of civil rights. Since I have to be argumentative about everything (sorry), it seems kind of strange to me that Germans are so health-centered, yet they drink beer as if it is honey from the promise land. I completely agree that foods that have pesticides are disgusting, but I also think that drinking beer in excess is very unhealthy. I am guessing the the people who buy organic food are not the same people who drink Kölsch on a daily basis.

I have a theory that Germans have a secret. They secretly are funny, but they hide it until they drink their Bockbeir. Then, their true selves come out. We discover that they really are a funny group of people. I know that my mom's side of the family are some of the most sarcastic people I have ever met, and their "humor" just increases with each passing jello shot. Maybe it is something in the blood of the Germans. Anyway, enough with my commentary. Who knew there could be so many different ways of being funny in Germany.

AMD 3

Hallo!

I decided to go for something a bit more educational for this post compared to my previous posts. I was looking forward on the assignment page, and I came across an optional reading in Chapter 4. The reading is basically about whether language causes speakers to think differently. This is a very interesting idea because language is an extremely necessary thing in society. Without language, who knows whether the wheel would have ever been invented. The article talks about how different languages and how the speakers of those different languages orient themselves differently. It also calls into question whether languages themselves cause people to think differently. For example, a group of Aboriginal Australians orient themselves in terms of "absolute reference frames." English speakers (and most other cultures) orient themselves in terms of relative placement. This means that when I say to move your hand to the right, they would instead say (in their own language, of course) to move their hand north. This doesn't seem like a very large deal. It actually is very important because this causes these people to always know where they are. This is far better than most English speakers, me included. For example, when I am on the diag, I still think that State St. is south than me. If I were standing on the diag, State street would actually be west of me, and I would still think this if it wasn't for the fact that three of the roads around campus are named for their direction. Someone who spoke Kuuk Thaayorre would never have this problem because they have always been taught to think that way. There was even an experiment where they asked people who spoke numerous languages to place cards that showed a progression (banana being eaten) in order. English speakers placed these cards in order from left to right (the same way we read), and Hebrew speakers placed those same cards in order from right to left (the way Hebrew is read). The interesting group was the Abroriginal people. They placed these people in all different directions, but these people would always place the cards in order from east to west.

Apparently, other languages have genders. I thought it was difficult to learn the two (or three if you count neuter). The Aboriginal Australians have to learn 16 different genders. That sucks!!

In addition, gender actually does impact how people think about language. "Key" is masculine in German and feminine in Spanish. When referring to a key, Spanish speakers (Key is feminine) use words like "golden" and "intricate," while Germans (Key is masculine) say "metal" and "useful." This shows that language really does change the way that people think of words.

Kapitel 2

Oh Germay!!!
The articles we read were very funny. The fact that Germans are known for complaining is actually amusing to me because it seems to me when my German friends visted the states, they seem to find the flaws in our system and praise their own country. Anyway, it is very funny to me that they complain considering how many good things they have including public tranportation and a good educational system.
The second article I read was about the staring. Since I have never been to Germany, I have never experienced this particular act, but I did find it very funny. Plus, it seems like a lot of Germans have blue eyes, so that must make it even more freaking. I do have a confession though: when I first looked at the opening picture, I thought that Grandma was holding a cannon out of her window. After a closer look, I noticed she wasn't.
Again, since I have never visited Germany, I have never experienced the fact that other cultures are much more direct than America. I did find the style of writing very amusing, and the American side it so true!! I know I scream NO!!! inside of my head even though I am very polite and say yes to whoever I am speaking too. The world would be much less complicated if we were just more direct. I have found in the last few months at Michigan that international students do seem to be much more direct than American students.
So, Germans like statistics. There are a lot of engineers, so I guess that makes since (yes, I know I am sterotyping). It is so true though. My German friends ask me something, and they expect me to give a full response or I get the "You are such and idiot!" look that I hate.
I really liked these articles; they made me laugh!!

Fussball!!

Guten Morgen!!!

Today, I watched Sportchau, Deutschland's equivalent to Sportcenter. The announcer ist sehr ausshend. They were talking about Fussball, which literally translate to football. I am guessing they were talking about soccer because very few people outside of the United States care about American football. The eins disadvantage of this video ist that der Herr sprecht Spanish, and there was a voice-over speaking Deutsch. This made a it a little hard to decipher which was German and which Spanish because I am not the best at either language. The Fussball players aren't bad ausshend either. :) Most of the video is about a guy named Raul, but I can't figure out exactly who he is. Apparently, he lived in a town, and he liked going to a coffee shop. I think he is also a supporter of youth Fussball. There is a man at the bottom of the screen that sprecht(d) at the beginning of the video is Spanish, and I think they are talking about him. I can't be sure of that though. There was another guy who sprechen to alot throughout the video, do they may be talking about him, too. The first guy definitely plays Fussball because I saw him in the video with a warmup on. I had to stop the video several times throughout to try to figure out what they were saying. The Deutsch that was sprecht(en) was at a much higher level than I could understand.

http://www.sportschau.de/sp/

I apologize at how horrible my German is in the post.

Tschüss!!

So Perfeckt

Hallo!!

Before I started this class, I asked people to send me German songs that they like (My high school had a large German exchange program, so I have a lot of Facebook friends who are German.). For this assignment, I listened to a few of the songs that they proposed. One of these songs was recommended to me by Lauren before she entered the class. I have listened to it before, but I listened to this again. This time, I tried really hard to understand what they were saying. From what I could tell, she was really sad about her boyfriend and her breaking up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyMT8MDaxqo&ob=av2e

Last night, I went over to my friends house, and we listened to German songs on Youtube. She went to German last summer, so she knows some popular German songs. We listened to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeMLX5gvscg The video is strange to me because it involves cheerleaders and football players, and Germany has neither. Much of the video is "so perfekt" repeating. There are other words, but the video is basically about how someone isn't perfect. Then, he hooks up with a cheerleader at prom, and he starts to like the world a lot more. I really like this song. It is easy to understand, and the words are easy to follow along to.

I also tried to have a conversation with one of my German friends, Julian, but it didn't work out. Our conversation lasted about 2 minutes, and then I didn't know anymore German.

Kapitel 1

Like 15.2 % of the population, I too am German. My mom's parents immigrated to the United States in the mid 1950's, and my mom's first language was German. She could speak fluent German until well into her adult life, and she had dual citizenship until she was an adult (either 18 or 21, I can't remember). Very few parts of German culture still exist in my family. One of those things is that I still call my grandpa, Opa. Another great advantage to having a German grandma is that the food the she cooks in AMAZING!!

It says in the article that many German immigrants came to the United States for economic freedom. This is true with my grandma and Opa. During the 1950's, Germany was still having economic problems from World War II, so he came over to make a living for himself. My grandma followed him because she was love. Initially, he was planning on going back to Germany after he made a living for himself here. He was seriously considering returning even later, around the time my mom was 16 (around 1974). He never did, and eventually, he received American citizenship. My grandma, even after living in the United States for close to 60 years, never became an American citizen. Both of them can still speak German fluently, and my Opa still calls his family quite frequently. They both grasped American culture, and they both contributed to American society by working most of their adult lives in the United States.

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Mein Lieblingswort ist dunkelgrau.