Kultur 9

The first article I read was called "The German Certificate Fetish." I found this very very interesting because I had no clue about any of this. The kind of system they talk about seems very strict and very different from the USA. In the US while applying for a job you just give them your simple 1 page resume and maybe meet them and if you meet their standards then they will call you back for interviewing processes. I have obviously never experienced the German way of getting all these documents proving certain things about what you did in your life but I am leaning towards liking the US way better. I feel like there are definitely weaknesses in both systems. In the German system, if you lose or damage you binder in anyway, it would be so much work to try and get it all back together because it is just a lot of papers. Also, I feel like it is a really big hassle to get all these papers signed and authenticated after you do certain things. Now, weaknesses in the US system is that people can easily fake, or mislead someone by putting false things on their resume with no authorization that it is true. This is where the German system is better because you know everything they have authenticated in the binder is true and that they actually did do it.
The next article I read was called "German Law Tells You How." I think after reading this article that there may be a lot more mean or grouchy people in Germany if all these conflicts with neighbors are coming up in courts and such. All of the rules listed were pretty common sense besides the specific times when you must shovel, be able to make noise, ect. I'm not positive on this but I do not really know any rules about neighboring, I think the subdivisions in the US makes specific rules for things like if your are allowed to have a fence or not, and what kind of mailbox you need to have...at least in my sub I think they make these rules. Usually, I think that if you are nice to your neighbors and respect their presence, then they will also respect yours and there won't be many problems.
The last article I read was "Don't Fly the Flag." I didn't know that German's had such little patriotism but it kind of makes sense due to their past with Hitler, the Berlin Wall, ect. It is very different than the United States because here in the US at sports games, or parties, or even other random events the crowd will sometimes just start chanting "USA! USA! USA!" for a certain reason because they are proud to live here and be an American. I am one of those people. Also, before I even started reading this it made me think of the World Cup because the Germans have been known to put some pretty good teams together and from what I know the whole country is behind them, and later in the article they talk about this.
I really enjoyed reading these culture articles about Germany and I actually learned quite a bit of interesting things that I had no idea about.
(Sorry this is so late by the way. I think I was home sick the day we did this and when I was catching up on the homework, I must of missed this assignment, but here it is!)