Kultur 5

The article with all of the stats was quite interesting if lengthy. I did notice the article was from 2005, so I'm not sure how that would affect the percentages. I was surprised by the divorce percentage in comparison with the number of weddings, but the other numbers were not too surprising, such as the income of women compared to men. I calculated the percentage, and it'd be around 52%. http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/statsWorld.shtml has the stats for 2011, and as you can see, it's around 39%. It'd be interesting to check up on all of these statistics and see how things have progressed!

The other article I found really interesting out of all the ones we had to read was the one in Vorsprung, about Hamburg, particularly because of all the musical references. I had no idea Brahms and Mendelssohn were born in Hamburg and I wasn't aware there were three symphony orchestras! When my orchestra went to Germany, we did sort of a flash mob concert on the steps of the Munich Opera House (ran off the bus, got out our instruments, played and got back on the bus). A crowd gathered and the elderly folk remarked to the chaperones how classical music is not appreciated half as much especially by young people.

One more thing! I think in many big, crowded, and busy cities, the "Entschuldigung" is omitted from the bustle of life. In Tokyo, certainly, no one bothered to apologize for bumping into me, that is.... everybody except a middle-aged American woman.