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.

For my Chapter 6 AMD I watched “Eine Stadt sucht einen Morder”, which is a German classic and the very first of the serial killer genre. Considering the immense popularity of serial killer movies and the history of long lived series of this kind (Scream, Saw, etc.) I was really impressed when I found out a German director was the pioneer of this field. Apparently Alfred Hitchcock was a follower of Fritz Lang’s work and inspired by his particular directorial style. Knowing this, it was really cool watching Lang’s movie and seeing particular features (such as use of shadows) that later inspired and were used by Hitchcock. Now to the German. I watched the movie with the subtitles and can’t imagine I would be able to understand much without them. Additionally, I’ve found that if I know what’s about to be said, I can hear and pick out certain words and phrases that I otherwise couldn’t. I’ve also noticed that it’s very difficult to pick out words/hear what’s being said if I’m not familiar with it. With that being said, I really do believe that it’s immensely important to work on my verbal skills and pronunciation, as this will facilitate greatly in conversation. All in all, definitely a movie worth watching.

Kultur 5

So far I’ve really enjoyed the Kultur articles (specifically those drawn from Spiegel Online) and this chapter was no exception. They’re short, entertaining, and best of all illustrate the sometimes slight, but always numerous, cultural disparities between Germans and Americans. The funny thing about this week’s selection was that, though humorously and artfully done, many German stereotypes were confirmed. Everyone has heard them and knows them well; Germans are boring, rude, and have a strange affinity for S&M. Though it was explained that German courtship and flirting is much more reserved, apologies/excuse me’s are unnecessary if no harm was done, and that sex shops aren’t a big deal and can be found nearly anywhere; to an American these behaviors would still come off as boring, rude, and freakish. Admittedly, if I were to be thrown into Germany and were to encounter these social scenarios (specifically the male to female interactions and street courtesy); I would very likely perceive them as rude and dull. On the flip side, for the above imagined and completely unrealistic scenario I would also be fulfilling my American stereotype (ignorant and arrogant) by not bothering to learn about where I’m traveling. I suppose the only way to ward off the unpleasantries of cultural clashes would be to actually educate yourself on the people and cultural to which you’re about to be exposed.

AMD 5

For this Chapter’s AMD I did the suggested activity and read the “Denglisch” Wikipedia article. As oblivious as it may sound I didn’t realize how much English is working its way into the German language. Certain phrases/words I was already aware of, such as “E-mail” and “Downgeloaden” but what really surprised me was the infiltration of English grammar. Using apostrophes for possessives is a small change but still more significant, I think, than single words being integrated into the language. Though it may seem strange that German may be evolving slightly with the increasing popularity and power of English; those offended and/or unhappy which these changes should bear in mind that evolution within a language is inevitable. After all, both English and German originated and adapted from Latin; so those unhappy with sullied German need bear in mind that German (& English) are just sullied versions of Latin.

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.

Faz.net

For this chapters AMD I explored www.faz.net; the website for the German newspaper Frankefurter Allemeine Zeitung. I was a little skeptical as to how successful of an activity this would be ie. how much I’d actually be able to understand, but still thought it was worth trying. Once there, I was able to understand enough German to navigate the pages from the “Politik, Sport, Finanzen, Technik und Motor, Wissen, und Reise” tabs and even read a few headlines and phrases from articles. Most of the headlines had components and phrases I recognized but there were few I could read completely. A couple were “Nicht ohne ihn in Berlin”, “Wir sehen uns in Tokio”, and “Mainz singt, Deutschland lacht”. Even though it’s not as if I could sit and read any of the articles, it still was fun to try to pick out sentences or guess the meaning of them. I’d like to try and periodically visit the Frankefurter for practice and to see if I am able to notice my German improving. If anyone’s looking for an AMD activity try this site; it’ll be fun to see/use what you know so far.

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!

AMD 1-Shrek auf Deutsch

For my AMD eins assignment I watched the movie "Shrek" mit English subtitles. Admittedly my first reaction was laughter. Having the familiar characters and voices of Shrek speaking in German turned out to be unexpectedly funny. Following my initial bout of immaturity however, I was very pleased have been able to recognize a decent amount of words. Though this "decent amount" works out to be the vast minority of the movie's vocabulary, it was encouraging just to have any amount of word recognition. For example, a couple common phrases that were easily recognizable and came up multiple times were "Wie heissen sie? Ich heisse...." and "Wo kommen sie? Ich komme aus...". Experiencing this kind of application for the small amount of German learned thus far was surprisingly satisfying. Though a movie will be nearly twice as long as the 45 minutes required for this assignment, I highly recommend it to others for future AMD assignments. So much German at once will end up being a bit exhausting but it really is a fun way to utilize (and even realize) the knowledge you've gained.