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.

AMD 5

As promised, I tried watching something a little less familiar to me in Deutsch, no subtitles. It was definitely a lot more difficult. I watched part of Episode VI of Star Wars, but not all because there's a lot of gibberish spoken and not as ample a sample of dialogue. I kept my ears open for the conversational past as that is the most recent new thing we've learned in class. I heard "getroffen" and "gesagt" as well as the narrative "sagte". Other sentences I caught were "Sag mich Yoda, ist Darth Vader meinen Vater?" and "Komm hier" and "Ich brauche deine Hilfe." I noticed "stand-by" was still "stand-by", and Skywalker was also pronounced the same, but "Jedi" was pronounced using the German "j". I noticed a lot of other phrases and words as well, but that is not so significant.

I skipped to the Yoda parts because I wanted to see how it would be spoken over in German. Just in case anybody is not familiar with Star Wars, Yoda speaks... strangely. He says things like "Judge me by size, do you?" and "Mourn them do not. Miss them do not." and "Luke, when gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be." The only example I caught was "Deine Vater er ist."

I also listened to the news clip in German read slowly that Mate sent. I don't know if the link will connect you to the exact clip I heard. I think in my clip, the reporter was talking a lot about Angela Merkel and the German economy. I kept on hearing "euro." I also heard "gegangen" and "gegeben", the past tenses. I also heard a piece about Japan and the tsunami with a mention of "bezieunge" in the middle. I'm guessing it had something to do with the effect the earthquake and tsunami of März had on Japan.

It was good to hear the news clip slowly. I didn't understand it completely, but I understood more of that then I did the Star Wars.

Kultur 4

Having had first-hand experience with almost being run over by German and Austrian bicyclists, it was very easy to relate to the first article. Bikers don't always stay in their lane on the sidewalk, though, so we foreign pedestrians had to keep an eye and ear out for bikers.

The "Fahrschule und Fahrrad fahren" article was quite interesting! It's scary sometimes looking at the car next to you and seeing a tiny 14 years and 9 months teen driving with their parent. Usually, they have both hands on the wheel and look as tense as a hungry lion, but you see the "I'm way too cool for you" young drivers too, and I wonder when they'll end up on an ambulance stretcher. In Japan, driver's ed costs about $3000 dollars now, and you also have to be at least 18 years to start driving. I don't know the system as in depth as the German system is described in the article, but it's probably just as complex. On a completely random note, I would love to drive on die Autobahn...

AMD 4 Die Aristokatzen

I watched The Aristocats auf Deutsch this time around. I stumbled on the German versions on Youtube quite accidentally, and as I had recently seen the movie in Englisch, I figured I would give it a shot. Similarly to the Janosche book we are reading in class, the sentences are simpler, containing ample familiar vocabulary, so comprehending was not difficult. At first I only picked up words like Katze, spazieren, finden, trägt, danke, Entschuldigung, vergessen, nein, Musik, Freund, heute, warum, schwester, verheiratet, wunderbar, etc. Progressing a little farther into the movie, I got some sentences like Kommen Sie hier (Sie command!), Wir haben einen Lift, Wir haben nur Katzen, Wo ich bin, Wo bist du, ganz allein in große Haus, sie sagte oft (narrative verb form!), Was is Frühstuck, Orange Straßekatze, Das ist mein, deine liebe kinder, sie brauchen einen Vater, ich weiß nicht was ist sagen soll.

Many of the above phrases are probably easy for most of us to understand, and with images to help, watching this type of movie in German is not difficult! I think I will try to tackle a non-Disney movie next time as well as one I have not memorized and see how it goes.

As I have sort of implied, watching the movie in German became progressively easier. At first, I think I was trying to catch every word and understand everything. This was much more difficult than sitting back a little and listening to the German and writing down words and phrases I caught. Pretty quickly, especially because I know the movie, I caught the longer phrases that made sense with the images on the screen.

I must say, my favorite part watching this in German was the "Katzen brauchen furchtbar viel Musik" song, which is the first link at the end of this post. In English, the words are "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat". It seems, however, that the German translation or at least the literal translation is "Cats need lots of terrible music." I am not sure if there is some other meaning for furchtbar... it is always interesting how songs translate between languages!

The first link below is a link to the entire movie in German. The second link, as previously mentioned is just one song from the movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQri7tM5pDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDaXf23sQq8

Kultur 2

I really enjoyed these articles, they made me smile not only because they're funny but also because I experienced this in my trip to Europe last Spring which included Germany! I wasn't on the subway and I didn't come back to the hotel at 3 am drunk, but there were times when I'd notice a couple of Germans, or at least German-speakers, staring at our group. It definitely weirded my friends out.

The "Brutally Honest" article was interesting because there is a city in Japan, I believe it's Kyoto, where there is a widely-known stereotype. Friends from Kyoto, my cousins living in Tokyo and my mom have all said the same thing. This stereotype is that when someone from Kyoto says something to you, they mean the exact opposite. "My, you've lost weight!" means "Wow, you're so much fatter than I remember!" and "See you soon!" means "Please don't ever come here again." American mannerisms in this area bother me especially when I'm meeting a bunch of people. I never know if they actually want to see me again or if they're just being polite. Then again, I think I'd rather have people be polite in that aspect.

AMD 1

Hallo! I read the article from the New York Times since the subject of the first blog assig really occupied my mind... it is really interesting to think about every aspect of every part of my life and wonder where it originates. Being part-Japanese, I've always enjoyed a mix of my American and Japanese backgrounds, with special holidays like Girls' Day and Boys' Day.

I have to admit I laughed at the image the description of Mr. Michaelis created in my head, but mainly I have just been surprised at the apparent reaction to the "Wild West" in Germany. Just like the author, I had absolutely no idea the extent of the obsession and the number of venues etc. there are, like the powwows. To me it reveals the power of the written language especially with the unknown, in this case America to the Germans. Karl May, even with his "tall-tale"s had the force to inspire this fervor...Although this must have seemed exciting and thrilling for his audience, I think the real thing or the reality of cultures in their purest sense is best.

I went to Austria and Germany in the spring on an orchestra trip, visiting Wien and Salzburg and Munich. I have to say Salzburg was my favorite especially in the super non-touristy areas...

Oh, one more thing, I had schnitzel like every day there... like three different kinds.

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.