Kultur 4

Okay, the German people need to decide what I can expect when I get their because all this conflicting Kultur is getting pretty confusing. Should I expect the rule obsessed Germany that has a transit system that features no jaywalking and an honor system train (really I can't believe that)? Or should I expect the Woodstock era naked Germans who want everyone to just go buff to the beach? Germany to me seems to be a contradiction wrapped in a metaphor for the difficulty of understanding a foreign culture. That being said I liked a lot of what I learned in these articles particularly the bike one. I think if we had dedicated bike paths in the US a lot more people would bike as their mode of transportation. I would bike more now if I wasn't so afraid of being run off the road or the occasional driver side door swinging open. Leave it to the Germans to just put bikes in their place and leave it at that. I however did not like how specific I will have to be when ordering train tickets. If the German idea of customer service is selling me the wrong ticket I am going to have to stay on my toes. After reading these articles (like all the others we have read so far) I am excited to someday plan my own trip to Germany some day soon and experience it for myself. I especially am interested in trying to find more differences between the former Eastern and Western parts of Germany as the reunification of the country is a fascinating topic to me.

John Borger Kultur 4

Well Germany sounds like a lot different place than Ann Arbor, that is for sure. I love being a pedestrian in Ann Arbor simply because I can pretty much get away with anything. Whenver somebody is giving me a ride they normally complain about how everyone and their brother just steps out in front of oncoming traffic with the full faith that the car will come to a nice stop for them in the nick of time. Of course, I am one of those pedestrians and it looks like I would not fare to well in Germany. I thought it was funny how a couple of the articles both mention a young child charracter who more capable and believes to be more morally justified than the older tourist. I wonder how my dad managed to do in Germany with all of this. I'm sure he was fine but the idea of not being able to cross an intersection even if it is empty is a pretty rediculous idea to me.

Kultur4

The collection of articles really brings into light how different a country like Germany is, when compared to the US. Only certain cities here are very invested in public transit. Washington DC and New York are two oft-cited examples of American cities with dedicated public transit. Detroit, a city where I spent a lot of time in recent years, is completely devoid of just about any kind of public transit, with the exception of an anemic bus program and a “people mover” that has stuck around as more of a joke than anything else.

In German cities, bikes are a big deal, and it makes sense. They’re cheap and clean, and can get a person from A to B deceptively quickly if there is room to bike (something not often provided in America; cities here often lack bike paths). German people may real sticks in the mud when it comes to the application of traffic rules, but that’s their prerogative, and to be honest there’s nothing wrong with it. I saw the other end of the spectrum while I worked in Detroit over the summer. J-walking is a non-existent crime, and one can cross the road whenever he or she feels the real need to. Good for them if they want to enforce cross-walks and bike path rules. Anything to slake their thirst for order and regulation, and channel it into a more constructive manner than has previously been done is probably great for everyone.

I don’t have any real experience with trains or subways, having been on the DC metro several times, and having ridden an AMTRAK twice. Again, I think it’s great the Germans love to keep order in their society; more power to them, I say. After reading these, I kind of want to walk around some places like Ann Arbor or Detroit with a German exchange student and see what he or she has to say,,,

Kultur 4

Reading the article about pedestrians and cross walks, I couldn't help but think about how different it is from Ann Arbor. I wonder what native Germans would think about how we treat traffic lights. I also wonder how many expletives would be yelled if someone from Ann Arbor were to visit Germany. Hmm...

I love riding my bike, so I was very excited to read how popular bikes are in Germany. Unfortunately my hometown is not very biker-friendly. Maybe I'll visit Germany for the sole purpose of riding my bike around, but I suppose that would be kind of a waste. I'll also have to attempt to cheat the German subway and train system! But seriously, I find that very surprising. I guess it also provides some sick sort of satisfaction to those who avoid getting caught. That's probably not the reason why, but I'm sure it happens.

Kultur 4

I find it fascinating that something as seemingly minor as right of way for pedestrians both on the sidewalk and street could differ so much culturally. In addition to getting a little heated while reading, I was mostly curious as to whether German cyclists were treated as a vehicle or pedestrian; if regarded as a vehicle (which it sounds like they are, as the bike trails received an autobahn reference) pedestrians will always have the right of way. As the article explicitly stated that pedestrians have the right of way on the street, it seems childish that a driver would intentionally speed up and swerve around a pedestrian to make such a minuet point. It’s incredibly careless to speed within inches of a pedestrian to attempt to “teach them a lesson”; especially when that lesson is to obey the light up traffic man. For a country donned as “obsessed with logic”, doesn’t it seem incredibly illogical to accidentally kill someone (manslaughter) to enforce the much more minor infraction of jay-walking?

On a lighter note, I thoroughly enjoyed the articles on nudity. I had no idea that within Germany there exists a strong subculture of nudity. Even more entertaining was learning that East Germany, under an unyielding controlling regime, enjoyed and expressed freedom through nudity. In a twist of irony it now seems that East Germans formally under Communist control consider the Democratic West Germans prudes. I like.

Kultur 4 - Calen Jones

This week's Kultur articles visited some aspects of German culture of which I was completely unaware. It surprised me that Germans are so into bicycling, but perhaps more bizarre is the sense that the bikers' "right-of-way" is a license for rudeness and ignorance of pedestrians. Additionally, the strict guidelines for walking across the intersection during a red light struck me as a bit uptight, but then I remembered the crazy driving style of most Germans, and the obeying ways of Deutsch pedestrians made a little more sense to me in regards to safety. After reading both of these articles, I got the feeling that my habits as a pedestrian walking to class each day would be unanimously frowned upon by the German population; luckily, in Ann Arbor walkers often possess the right-of-way ahead of drivers.

The articles that described fare-dodging and logical thinking struck me as odd eccentricities of the German culture; however, these viewpoints exist strictly from an American perspective. Having been surrounded by these norms and values their entire lives, Germans may miss the point of asking "When is the next train?" because other Germans are well accustomed to the system. Germans visiting America are surely confused by a few American societal norms that seemingly portray no logic to them.

Kultur 4 - Ben Oztalay

The more we read about German culture, the more I'm surprised. It's cool to learn that bicycling is so well supported in Germany, and that it's such a common mode of transportation, but the cold attitude that bikers and drivers take to pedestrians was unexpected. There's quite a difference between Ann Arbor and parts of Germany! Here, pedestrians rule the city every hour, on the hour. Having said that, it sound like Germans are very safety-conscious. That's why you obey the red hand, and why there are separate bike sidewalks in cities. It's also why you can't start driving at all until you're 18 (you can start driver's ed and be on the road with an instructor when you're 14 in Michigan), and why the driving test and course are so serious. It's almost a joke here, at least in Michigan, so I'm sure that new German drivers are much better than new American drivers.
The prevalence of nudity also caught me off guard. Naked people in public tanning and frolicking just never really came to mind when I thought of Germany before, to be honest. The fact that there was/is such an organized movement is interesting, but I can see why nudity is on the fall lately.

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!