Kultur 1

While both interesting and informative, throughout my reading of the pamphlet one thought persisted: Does ethnicity play an important role in the everyday lives of any Western/Northern Europeans in America? My answer would be that for the vast majority, no, it doesn’t. This cultural submergence is by no means exclusive to Americans with German ancestry nor, do I believe, is it a harmful phenomenon. While the maintenance of cultural and ethnic traditions is a meaningful and enjoyable way to connect people to one another, assimilation throughout time is not only inevitable but healthy. I say healthy because this environmentally based assimilation is a form of human adaptation, without which mankind wouldn’t even be in situations in which other cultures would be encountered. Culture is what surrounds us linguistically, socially, ecologically, etc; as these conditions change so will what entails a communities sense of it. In a nutshell, culture is fluid. What we see as a "loss" of certain traditions is nothing more than the acquiring of the new. This isn't a travesty, this is adaption!

Willkommen!!

Welcome to our class blog!

We will be using this blog throughout the semester for two kinds of assignments:

1. Once per chapter, the homework plan will direct you to post a response to the culture readings for the chapter on the blog.

2. Roughly every other week, the homework plan will direct you to post here for your Abenteuer mit Deutsch (AMD) assignment. First you do a fun activity that involves German, then you post about it. You should spend an hour total on this (maybe 45-55 minutes doing something, 5-15 minutes posting about it). See Was ist ein AMD, AMD Ideen and Beispiele for ideas. This should get you excited about the kinds of things you can do!

Whenever you post something, please include your name and the name of the assignment (e.g. AMD2, Kultur5) as labels. See "Blog: How To" for more details!

John Borger Kapitel

Being a German-American citizen myself, I found this article very interesting. I am myself someone who has grown up without knowing that much about my culture, even though I am fifty percent German. While my dad is currently pursuing this culture, as shown by his upcoming trip to Germany, my brothers and I have not really been exposed to this as of yet.  I know that my family came here six generations ago, and like so many other German speaking immigrants, ended up in the Midwest. They were probably also guided to America by some form of advertising about land and such, possibly in a similar agreement that the banks had with railroad companies back then, but I can't be sure. What is for sure is that there has been a dramatic loss of culture within my family and taking this class is a way for me to retain what is still left and discover new frontiers on the culture boundaries. I do feel that the anti-German sentiment in World War One may have played a factor in the down playing of our culture throughout the generations. As the article said, this may be the root reason behind why so many Germans, despite their position in America, have let their culture go unnoticed. I know that for myself I used to be uncertain about telling people I was German because of the past and the jokes they would make. But one thing that I was glad to hear was that Germans did not make their "Little Germanies" and such over here in America. While I like the idea of visiting a Little Italy or something like that as a tourist destination, as far as community building, that really puts up some barriers between people. I am glad that Germans were able to integrate into life in America without forming exclusive pacts, somethings that I would like to retain as I continue my quest to rediscover my own culture.

John Borger German 101 Section 2 Mate Bojti

Kultur 1

I have no power here, but a little generator has given me enough electricity for internet. Candles can be epic.

The part from this article that got me thinking was around p. 17 where it talks about the "synthesis of Old and New World influences."

It seems to me humans always tend to associate with people more like themselves, and the most glorious and most destructive devices and such come from a collaboration of many people. Take the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, where all of the people being unified by one language commenced to build a very tall tower. Or look at the Greeks who, although they fought amongst themselves, were staunch together against their enemies.

Going along with this innate desire to be united is also the concept of fitting in... aka assimilation. Although immigrants tried to keep as many native traditions as possible, in order to survive in a new land, they had to adjust somehow. As is discussed in the article, there are two ways to do that: let go of your own culture or fit your culture into the existing culture. The German immigrants seem to have done the latter. The Aufbau was intriguing in particular as I noticed the "Japan News Club" newspaper in our house this afternoon! This is a monthly, free newspaper with all kinds of news, mostly local and mostly business. In any case, this is a good example of a cultural group staying connected to each other but embracing the new culture they live in.

What is so wondrous about cultures, or at least the cultures in America, is the homogeneity that allows us to enjoy a variety of traditions often without being aware that we are doing so. It was interesting to read about so many aspects of life (education, entertainment, business, politics) that have been affected by German immigration or that we have affected over in Germany/Europe.

Kultur 1 (and my biases)

First of all, I found the pamphlet to be very interesting and very true! Hailing from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I have spent a lot of time in Wisconsin, and Milwaukee in particular. There is definitely a German element within Milwaukee and many surrounding cities. This element expands to the U.P. as well. In my home town, there is a small community of friends that gets together every so often to maintain their ability to speak German well. My little sister, who goes to school in La Crosse, WI, also attends the city's very large Oktoberfest every year on the Mississippi River. So from my experience, I would say that America is pretty German! But, I am probably biased.

The more we talk about the German language in the context of area, the more it amazes me that there is such variability within a relatively small country (compared to the United States). Initially, I did not think much of how some regions have different words and dialects, such as different greetings. However, the variability within the English language seems to be comparable to the variability within the different German dialects. This seems strange given the differences in size. According to Google, we are about 30 times the size of Germany (though, that is not counting Austria). But again, I have only ever lived in the Midwest, and have not traveled to the West of the Midwest, so there is a very good chance I am biased as to how little English changes with geographical area.

That is all I can think of for now for my response to the Kultur 1 readings.
Tschüss!