Kultur3 - Joe Oliver

I picked the zwei articles about alkohol in Deutschland und the article about organic food for meine Kultur Hausaufgaben this Woche.

First, ich found viele similarities between die Deutsche people und meine Familie. Mein Vater is very interested in Biers und the different types of Bier. Ich bin used to just hearing Bier vocabulary words thrown around in Bier commercials in Amerika. Germans really seem to know all about it and be somewhat snobbish about was ist in their Bier, or how it was made, much like mein Vater.

The pessimism part definitely auch reminded me of meine Familie. A certain relative of mine likes to cut the rest of us down any time we are happy about something, much like the article says people do in Deutschland. Also, meine Mutter is sehr skeptical of anything modern und new, such as genetically modified food, und auch intelligent Handi.

I found it sehr interessant to see how the attitudes of food are similar/different in other countries. For example, wir always say that "Breakfast IS the most important meal of the day," whereas the Kultur on Seite neunzig says that "SOME Germans think it is." That struck me because something ich have always accepted as fact without really thinking about it is now clearly more of an opinion.  But we also have the trend towards organic food in Deutschland, much like we see in Amerika in places like Ann Arbor.

The last thing that was sehr interessant to me was the article about banning Alkohol in public. (Yet another example of a different social attitude about food (oder drinks) in Deutschland. It's considered normal to drink in public and to drink much more than wir consider normal in Amerika.) Anyway, there was a quote towards the end where Schulz said "Prohibition is not a lasting and peaceful solution. It requires too many police officers. Anyway, drinkers are citizens too, with the same rights we all have." It reminds me of an argument against the large war on drugs in Amerika; namely that so viel Geld, so viele lives und so viel effort are spent prohibiting drugs. Ich watched a documentary about this once, (ich might fit in in Deutschland after all), and viele people said that the cost of the war in people's lives, in manpower, und in money is more than the damage it would do if there was no prohibition. It seems to be the more popular opinion in Deutschland that prohibiting a drug (i.e. Alkohol) that sometimes leads to violence is not worth it. It seems like sie haben a more laissez-faire attitude about what people do to themselves and in their spare Zeit in that case. Ich am curious about how other hot political issues in America translate to German, und how their general opinion differs from ours. 

Kultur 3

Ich finde der erste articel serh lustig. Being British I know quite a bit about beer, and I remembered the conversation conversation where we talked about how the Deutsch are only allowed to have 4 ingredients in Irhe Bier. The formality of Bier trinken is quite interesting. It's really funny how we did read this today, because over the weekend I was at a ballroom dance team party, and a girl told me about how if we don't make eye contact when we cheered that whoever didn't will get 7 years of bad sex. I also really enjoy the hangover risk section that went with each Bier. After such a funny first article, I found this second one rather sad. A ban on public drinking would be a very sad thing. I understand the upside being less crime, however the drinking is a huge part of their culture and I'm glad they are fighting the bans. I already knew a lot about the European obsession about organic food from a Finnish foreign exchange student that my friends had live at their house. She would talk about how everyone in that area all hate GMO's and unnatural food. I would be surprised however if feelings wont eventually change, when the demand goes way above the supply. Ich finde der third article very helpful since I want to travel to Deutschland. Although the Author doesn't have much nice things to say about the many of the dishes. The Bockwurst, Bratwurst im Brötchen, Hähnchen, Krakauer. Ich mag Pommes, und Spätzle. The Turkish food also sounds the delicious the Doner sounds so good especially with the sauces. Again I'm not surprised about the article at all it again illustrates the brutal honesty of the Deutsch. How they will tell you exactly how they feel about ones plan. What this article says is no matter what the Deutsch say about your plan and one just needs to tell them to lighten up. This article goes through the areas of Deutschland and talks about their sense of humor. Found the Rindelanders Karneval celebration very interesting, and how they have their joke sessions televised around the nation.

Kultur 3

I do not find it interesting at all that Germany holds three fourths of breweries in the European Union considering that Beer is the main drink in Germany. I do find it interesting that Germans just crack open a beer at work because in the United States people would get into a lot of trouble because of that. I found part about the hangovers kind of funny.

I also do not find it interesting that Germans eat mostly organic foods because generally Germans shop in fresh markets and they buy their groceries almost everyday, if not every other day. They always buy fresh loafs of bread and only enough milk for a day, unlike Americans who buy gallons at a time.

I like the idea of the quick food stands that sell traditional German foods instead of always eating something like McDonalds when a person is on the go.

Although Germans do tend to burst peoples bubbles, I like that they are not optimistic. I tend to be that way as well, I don't like to wait and hope for the best. I like straight answers. It may sound like they are being mean, but at least they are honest.

I like a Berliners sense of humor because they generally make snide comments, that are truthful, but funny as well. I did not realize that so many Germans had a sense of humor. I pictured Germans to always be serious.

I really do like the way that Germans set up their mealtimes because it seems to make them live healthier lifestyles. Most Germans are not overweight, unlike Americans.

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!