Kultur5, Norman Lam

I found it interesting that Germans are used to physical contact when walking in the streets, because this is somewhat similar to Hong Kong, where I grew up in. In Hong Kong, people seldom apologize for physical contact in the streets, and I am sure that the scene of people rushing into the subway during rush hours is more horrible than that in Germany and many other countries. Occasionally, Hong Kong people might scowl at or quarrel with one another if someone bumps into someone else on the sidewalks in a rude way.

In my four years here in America, I have grown accustomed to the politeness of Americans. However, sometimes I still feel awkward when someone apologizes to me at the slightest contact, or when I cannot even feel that someone has touched me. It makes me feel like I am compelled to apologize upon the slightest contact with someone as well.

I also found the article on German “toilet ladies” very interesting. Coming from Hong Kong where it is generally free to use all restrooms, I was very intrigued by my experiences in Germany when I found out that everyone had to pay to use the restrooms. Furthermore, I was confused about the amount I should tip the sanitary assistants when I saw them in restrooms in tourist districts. However, I have to commend them for their efforts - in general the German toilets that I have been to were indeed very clean.

AMD2, Norman Lam

Ich watched a video on the Deutsche Welle Youtube channel heist “Eurokrise - zahlt Deutschland genug?” twice, once in Deutsch and again in English. Sie ist basically a debate among journalists und scholars whether Deutschland should pay more Geld to stabilize Europe, or whether Deutschland should only pay more when those countries in need have shown more concrete progress on fiscal reforms.

Ich actually found it very hard to catch what sie sagen, aber Ich caught phrases like

“und das ist das Problem für Deutschland", “Disziplin ist sehr gut”, und of course words such as “aber”,“nicht”, “Politik” and “schnell”.

Although the topic is interesting to me, es ist nearly impossible for me to grasp what they are saying as there are no subtitles and they are speaking very fast. I will make sure to find another video with subtitles next time.

Video link for reference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaudxTMwR_c&feature=plcp&context=C3cad356UDOEgsToPDskLHfAj1S0KWj6ZotejSfVUJ

Kultur2, Norman Lam

I found the articles very interesting, especially the one about the culture of complaining. I enjoyed reading them because I could compare the author’s view with my personal experiences in Germany.

During my one-week stay in Germany in 2010, based on my conversations with the staff of WHU and daily interactions with the Germans, I had the impression that Germans were very disciplined and straightforward. Particularly, the Dean of WHU pointed out that punctuality was extremely important to the Germans and even the slightest bit of tardiness would be frowned upon. I think some points in the article are consistent with my experiences, such as the German emphasis on social norms and order, and being honest and direct in conversations.

However, I don’t really agree that Germans tend to complain more than people in other countries do. For example, having lived in an Asian community, I do not see Germans complaining much more than some people living in Asia do. However, my view could be inaccurate, as I did not have the chance to spend more time in Germany.

To conclude, I generally agree with the interesting views of the article. I just don’t think we should view these cultural aspects in such negative light - in fact, some of them have their own merits too in maintaining the social order of the country.

AMD1, Norman Lam

My friend Maik is an international student from Germany and currently a freshman at the University of Michigan. He knows that I am learning German and he said he would try his best to help me if I have any questions. Since I have learned some vocabularies in chapter 1, I recently have been trying to come up with things I want to say in English, and then challenge myself by translating it into German and asking for his correction. Of course being a native speaker, he sometimes will give me words that I have not learned in the class yet (which did confuse me a little bit). However, I am glad to have his help after all, as it's fun and really helps my learning. Some examples I would like to share are as follows:

"Please write on the board"

My tranlation: Screiben Sie auf die Tafel, bitte!

His answer: Schreiben Sie bitte an die Tafel

"I can’t open my eyes"  (as I was too tired in another class!)

My translation: Mein Augen nict auf

His answer: Ich kann meine Augen kaum öffnen

Kultur1, Norman Lam

Being without any German roots, I still find this article very interesting yet informative. In short, this article made me think about issues such as the preservation of German heritage and the influence of German immigrants on America.

I was curious to read that the next generations of German immigrants into America would gradually become monolingual with English and have their German-American identity submerged. Attempts by institutions such as Grundsow Lodges to preserve Pennsylvania Dutch in communities had failed as a result of greater mobility and the loss of rural isolation across America. It is interesting to see that in other countries such as China where I am more familiar with, different minorities and settlements have been able to preserve their dialects and heritage a little bit better even after the unification of the country and promotion of Mandarin as the official language.

The article improved my knowledge on the huge amount of influence German immigrants had over the history and development of America. Just recently, I have learned that the Brooklyn Bridge in New York was designed by a German immigrant (John Augustus Roebling). In addition to that, I learned from the article that Thomas Nast created and popularized the important American cultural icons such as the Santa Claus, the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey.