Kultur 6

This chapter’s Spiegel articles have entertained and surprised me once again. Like everyone else, I found the Bild Zeitung article to be hilarious and entirely unexpected. I say this because I would never peg Germans, self described as logical, as avid tabloid readers. The best, and craziest, part of all is that avid is an understatement; many Germans actually use Bild Zeitung as a primary news source, knowing full well that it’s ridiculous, bias, and twisted. How can people obsessed with regiment and order (anal garbage sorting) lap up such bologna? Of course such things exist in the US (world weekly new, etc.) but it’s not as though any sane person would actually regard this as a news source. I guess we all need an outlet for the ridiculous, and for Germans this is manifested as page one babes.

Kultur 6

So these Kultur readings are only confirming my suspicions that Euriopeans are pretty crazy, at least the Germans. How can taking out the trash be that complicated? And do not even get me started about how strange it is that the German magazine has so mch revealing material inside of it. At least that is somthing to do with the KLultur and stuf, it just seems that the trash thing is rather inefficient. But I guess that we cannot really critioque the Germans right now  as they are pretyty much the fiscal leaders of Europe and are pretty much in control of the futrure of the Euro. Anyways, I look forward to visiting Germany to see how maccurate these Kultur assignments actually are. Until thjen I will just continue to think that Germans and Europeans in genearl are jyst a little bit off.

Apologies, this was typed with one hand.

Kultur6

And at last we come to the end of our adventures in German culture with Spiegel online. It was certainly fun. Turns out Spiegel is great for all kinds of things, even legitimate news! But I digress. At any rate, these articles were interesting, especially the one about the doors. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that Germany was split up during the Cold War, and espionage was a real threat. Officials wouldn’t want wandering ears to overhear anything that they shouldn’t be, and as a result doors remained closed. German obsessiveness when it comes to trash was not surprising. We have multiple trash bins here at UofM, especially at the Bschool. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Germany would have a similar system; it’s a very green country. I thought it was funny that the article mentioned how the cans issue was interfering with more pressing concerns, like the debt crisis, which Germany still has no desire to work with. Finally, I was actually shocked by the article about the press. Though I guess it could be taken has German adherence to freedom of press rights. It also makes sense that the shocking material wouldn’t matter to Germans, what with all their sex shops, but I just find it curious that they would be so interested in such trivial nonsense.

Kultur 6 - Calen Jones

Obviously, the most entertaining- and disturbing- article was the description of Bild Zeitung. While we in America have our tabloid magazines displayed prominently across Wal-Mart checkout lanes and sidewalk newsstands, rarely do you see the pedestrian seriously engrossed in its content. The Bild Zeitung, however, seems to capture the imagination of Germans nationwide with big, encapsulating "news", no matter how phony. For a country that is obsessed with organization, efficiency, pessimism and conservatism, this newspaper's success is utterly astounding. It almost appears to be an outlet for Germans to release any silly or light-hearted emotions amid their ernst lives.

On the other hand, the articles about German doors being closed and confusing trash cans typify my paradigm of the average German behavior. Though it is surprising to read that two or three knocks may be too many (considering my routine is four or five light knocks), it complies with the Germans' direct nature. Still, it seems a little harsh to get upset about one extra knock on the door, especially when the outsider has no idea about the going-ons inside the room. Finally, the organization of trash cans exemplifies German-style thinking; after a couple times, the trash cans probably seem better than ours or English ones; confusing train station tickets, however, would probably lose me every single time.

Kultur 6

The more I read about Germany, the more intimidating it seems. I feel like there would be a lot to keep in mind if I were to visit, and I would probably mess something up. Knocking loudly and more or less bursting into a room doesn't seem like the most polite way to go about opening a door that's always closed, but it might be the best. It's all about what you're used to, though, so I suppose it's to be expected in Germany.

The popular, smutty newspaper isn't totally unexpected for me after reading about the sex shops in the open. If you walk past a window of sex toys on the way to lunch, it's probably not a big deal to also walk past the Bild's front page girl. The fact that it exaggerates so much and is still taken seriously is surprising, however. I would think that Germans would appreciate a more literal and straight-to-the-point news source, so the Bild being so big seems a bit strange.

Germans also seem to take tradition seriously, although Germany is very progressive. They have one of the best garbage collection systems in the world, but they keep the tradition that it's closed on Sundays.

Kultur 6

Again, these Kultur texts were incredibly interesting. The one that I found the most fascinating was the article about how they keep their doors closed. It doesn't have to do with being rude; it's just how it is in Germany. I can see how it plays into the "German efficiency." Closing the door lowers the number of distractions, thus allowing you to get more work done. The fact that having doors closed is the norm in Germany is a true testament to how efficient Germany is. I also greatly enjoyed the picture of Dubya next to the article.

As far as the tabloid goes, it doesn't really surprise me. Every culture has their guilty pleasures and their smut. I feel like we get caught up in the "stereotypical German" and laugh.

Kultur 6

This chapters installment of Kultur learning was once again very interesting. I was not very surprised about the closed door article, in fact it makes a lot of sense to me; why would someone especially at work want to be distracted by everyone that walks buy and all the commotion outside? By removing the stigma of entering a closed door I think distraction is minimized and productivity is maximized, something that Germans would stereotypically be all about. Also, the garbage sorting fell in line with the other aspects of German culture we have learned about, being preoccupied with order and the common good would naturally lead to having serious recycling procedures. I think Germans would find the need to sort garbage twice, similarly to our system, a large waste of time. Finally, I was most surprised about the portion on the German newspaper, or should I say tabloid. It seems like obsessing over whether or not a politician gained a few pounds is not in keeping with the German emphasis on straightforwardness; being ok with telling someone that they gained some weight seems far off from ripping celebrities and politicians with photoshop for the same thing.