AMD 6

For my AMD 6 I decided to google strange German laws. I always read random laws about the differet states in the USA and find them hilarious, and I feel like Germany alone is already a little strange so why not see if Germany has some as well?

After searching and finding some very funny ones I came across a website that had a list of hilarious rules here are some of my favorites:

1) It is illegal to build an office without a view of the sky.
2) It is illegal to tune pianos at midnight.
3) It is against the law to deny a chimney sweep access to your home if he demands it.
4) It is illegal to have the ashes of your loved one stored in an urn at home after cremation.
5) A pillow is classified as a "passive weapon" and hitting someone with one can lead to charges of assault.

I think the pillow being classified as a passive weapon is so funny. Leave it to the Germans to make a pillow a weapon. With all the pillow fights I had as a little kid I would be locked up for life on chargest of assault.

Kultur 6

The zwei articles that I thought were sehr interesting were the one about keeping doors shut and the one about recycling. Ich mag these articles weil ich kann relate to them. When ich war in Deutschland, I couldn't believe how much they separate their trash. I had the same reaction as the girl in the article. Would I get in trouble if I put something in the wrong place? Where do I put everything? It was sehr stressful! I found it interesting that it is just second nature to them. I'm not sure how long the Deutsch kultur has been doing this much recycling, but they sure have gotten used to it and are really good at it now. The other article that I thought was funny was the one about keeping the doors shut. I experienced this when I had exchange students living at meine Haus. They would always close doors behind them! We finally would have to tell them that they needed to leave the doors open. Then when I went to Deutschland, I had to deal with all the doors shut. I never knew if I could walk into someone's room or if there was someone in the bathroom. My host family probably thought I was strange for keeping my door open, but they never said anything. I think it would be interesting to find out why they do this. Is it for privacy? Is it just something that has been passed down from each generation?

Activity Ben Brady AMD 6

For my activity I decided to analyze a German poem. I looked at the 6th poem from Stefan George's collection, Das Buch der hängenden Gärten.

My friend and I were having a conversation after he came to see me in a Stravinsky opera. Stravinsky was a Russian, and the opera was in English. My friend noticed that the libretto was in iambic pentameter and remarked that it would be very difficult for him to set this himself, as he believes Russians can't write in iambic pentameter.

I mention this anecdote because the poem I am reading seemed to be a variation of iambic pentameter.

Jedem Werke bin ich fürder tot.
Dich mir nahzurufen mit den Sinnen,
neue Reden mit dir auszuspinnen,
Dienst und Lohn, Gewährung und Verbot,
von allen Dingen ist nur dieses Not,
und Weinen, daß die Bilder immer fliehen,
die in schöner finsternis gediehen,
wann der kalte, klare Morgen droht.

This German poet seemed to be able to write in a very close meter, with the main exception being verb infinitives endings "en" are considered unaccented enough to be equivalent to a rest in the meter. There is also the "und" in the third to last measure, but this can be felt as a pickup to "Weinen" which is the downbeat of the line. Shakespeare's iambic pentametric works often included such oickups as well. Bravo, George. I thought this meter was reserved for English verse.

AMD 6

For AMD 6 I decided to do some research on some of the many pieces of classical music that have come out of Germany. I like to play classical music on the piano sometimes and I've started to notice that I can read more and more titles of songs that are in German. Probably the most famous composers that came out of Germany were Mozart and Beethoven. For example, Mozart's chamber ensemble called "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" would translate to "A little Night Music." It was interesting to think about how many influential composers were from Germany and some of the best pieces of music ever written (in my opinion) originated there. I also learned that a lot of nice opera is a big part of the German music culture, like Mozart's "Requiem." I found out that back in the 15th century a guy name Oswald von Wolkenstein travelled across Europe and learned a lot of different music techniques and styles and brought them back to Germany, which led Germany to produce so many great composers and classical musicians.

AMD 6

It was very hard to understand what they were saying. I could get small bits and pieces but they talk so fast. I could understand what was happening but what they were saying was beyond me. Some phrases and words if they said them slowly I could understand like when Homer says, Ich liebe Bier, and helfe! I wish there were German TV shows that had English subtitles. As I learned Japanese I also watched a lot of anime so I was exposed to the language a lot and could pick up some things. I could understand somethings before the subtitles were fully there. Watching this also made me wonder about German culture and what Germans like to watch on TV. Lola Rennt was kind of dark and it didn't have much humor in it. There were some gruesome pictures. I wonder if a lot of German media is like that too. In Oh, Wie schön ist Panama there was a little rabbit in one of the pictures peeing on a bush. In America you would never see that in a children's book. Also in the K-Fee commercial it was kind of scary. Is that just how German media is? It makes me very curious to what their media is like.

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/

AMD 6

For AMD 6 I did some research on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (mostly just checking out his poems). Goethe was so influential the German Goethe-Institut is named after him. This website has some of his work (they also have translated parts): http://german.about.com/library/blgoethe2.htm
Goethe's poetry is usually longer than most poems I see, and they all have an underlying meaning within each one. A problem with translating poetry is sometimes translating a poem word for word doesn't achieve what the writer was always hinting at, and sometimes them meaning or theme of a poem can be lost by translation, but I don't really see this being too much of a problem with Goethe's poems. Some of his poems are quite dark, like Wandrers Nachtlied II and Totentanz. Overall, they are very interesting and it's cool to try and find out what each poem means. It is definitely helpful to have some of the poems translated as well, because some of the words are very difficult! Goethe seemed like a very intellectual and interesting person.

AMD 6

Für AMD 6, I decided to try to learn a whole deutsch song and try to sing along. This was sehr challenging!! Ich habe always liked a deutsch rap song called Monsta and think that it is so cool to hear rap in a different language. To go about this, I first looked up the lyrics.

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/Culcha-Candela-Culcha-Candela-lyrics.html

As I was looking at the lyrics, I noticed that I actually know quite a few of the words! I went through each passage and tried saying the sentences until it was pretty easy. Then when i finished each one, I played that part of the song and tried to sing along. It was very difficult because of how fast they said the words. This took me a very long time but in the end I actually did learn the whole song and am so happy when it pops up on my ipod and I can sing along to it! I think I will try this again soon and learn another german song.

Kultur-Texte Fünf

(So viel zu lesen!) If I swing by Bayern/München/Dortmund sometime, I'd be really intrigued to find out if Germans would say "Enschudigung" at all. The texts that I've read have left me with the impression that Germans are so pragmatic and "ernst" that an "excuse me" may be unnecessary for them (contrarily, I say that a lot). The two Germans I've met thus far have exhibited nothing quite like how the articles portrayed them as, though - maybe the stereotyping is on an older generation?

Und denn, zu meinem Unglauben (To my disbelief), Deutscher sind zum ersten Mal nicht komisch, unsympatisch (mit ihre Fahrräder, they would run over you en route to work/school) oder zu trunken! Sollt ihr wirklich glücklich für sie sein? With a sex store possibly a stone's throw away from their home, they sure know how to have fun and get things done whenever they please (good for them). Despite all this jocular talk, though, what stirs up controversy in one place is just a fuss elsewhere, as is with a lot of other values. It's one of those things people want to keep in mind before knowing the world and the zillions of cultures within it. My SOC class recently touched on teenage sex and it seems that teens in some European countries tend to start having sex at a younger age, and are yet less regretful and less prone to diseases. Perhaps it is no taboo, after all. (gets reprimanded by dad for being "zu offen")

Then I had my heart dragged through mud when I realized how difficult it can get to flirt a German girl (or to actually know I'm flirted by one) - ich kann überhaupt nicht mit meine Traumpartnerin ein Wort sagen and they talk of love in Germany as if it's an impossible thing! Okay then.

The article on die Klofrau is eye-opening, too; I thought only in a few countries would I expect someone to charge me for the services they provide in a john. There's quite a few in my country but that's all I ever knew.

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.

Kultur 5 Antonina Chekhovskaya

Klofrau... I wonder if there are any KloHerr?? Well, these cultural news are not surprising to me at all. Same thing happens in Ukraine except you have to pay upon entering not after you go, and rarely will they believe you that you don't have any money. No matter how badly you need to go, they won't let you in, very rare that they will have mercy on you. And it's not just Klofrau but Herrs as well, mostly Fraus thou. And, haha, I just remembered, when you pay, they will give you a small piece of toilet paper so you don't waste and they can only afford a small piece for you. Well, here in America, everyone locks the toilet paper so you can't steal. Also, even thou you pay in Ukraine, the toilets are always stinky for some reason, even if they are clean. I wonder how nice the toilets are in Germany. Toilets also stunk in Italy, that was my experience.
On another note... this whole smiling issue... Honestly, when my family and I moved to States, we wondered why does everyone always smile at you. K, it's good that people smile and are friendly, but a lot of times people are fake, that's what we learned soon. But I think I have adapted a bit of American culture, and smile more myself, but people still think that I am mean sometimes because my face is too serious... lol

Kultur 5

I remember the bathrooms that I had to pay to get into in Paris. A guy wearing suit was taking money from people to use the bathroom, and the one of the signs near the entrance said that the stall doors opened after fifteen minutes. My experience with the paying bathroom has not been pleasant, and I hope it could change when I visit Germany again thanks to the efforts of the ladies who work very diligently. Although, I am not sure if I would like to go back even for a vacation. I had never been very comfortable with the sexual openness of Europe. It's against my personal view on sexuality, but I will not go into details.

Also, I found the way the German people interact with others quite intriguing. I do not believe that trying to develop deep friendship first, which happens to be relatively less common in American way of amour, is necessarily bad idea. Cautious, yes. But never reckless. From personal experience, I found it very challenging to try to move the level of relationship to a more intimate one without being able to attain a level of trust and vulnerability to make each other feel comfortable. I find it to be almost a way of being courteous for the other person.

Kultur 5

I am once again quite intrigued on some of the differences between the United States and Germany. I am a little surprised at how Germany don't really say "excuse me" or "pardon me," and I know they are not the only culture to do this. As an American this just seems rude and annoying though, almost like a lack of respect for others, even though I imagine most Germans don't see it that way. I was a little surprised about how open Germans are with their sex shops (although I already had a good idea that Germans were much more open about this than Americans are). If the Germans still function normally with the sex shops in place then I don't see a problem with them, I only have to wonder what parents say to their children if the children ask what's in that shop. The Klofrau was another thing that surprised me, because I see it as strange to tip a bathroom janitor, but Germans find it weird how much we tip waiters/waitresses here in the U.S., so it works both ways. I thought the flirting in Germany article was interesting, especially because it is almost the complete opposite of how Americans flirt. I'm sure there are many problems when Germans try to flirt in the U.S. and vice versa. The article about German women was also captivating. It was interesting being able to see all of these statistics about females in Germany, and how they make up demographics of Germany and in the workplace. Overall, I found most of these articles quite interesting and made me think about the differences between the U.S. and Germany.