Hallo alle,
Das erste Blog ist mein lieblings Blog. Die Deutschen sind sehr interessanten. Ich finde ihre Abhängidkeit allzu verrückter als eine Zwangserkrankung-Person. Es gefällt mir das Anführungszeichen: "Certificates are holy. And if you don't have a signed, stamped document proving that you have received training in -- say -- slopping paint on the side of a house, or entering numbers in Excel, then you simply don't know how to do it." Ich habe gelacht. Ich würde sagen, dass ich organisiert such sein.
As for the other blogs, I would find myself totally annoyed with stubborn neighbors. It's my property--deal with it! Of course I wouldn't be that harsh because I do believe in being reasonably considerate.
I felt kind of bad when I read that Germans are still self-conscious of waving their flag. Of we all know that Germany wasn't at it's best during WWII, but the past is over. In fact, the present Germans aren't responsible for WWII so it's okay. I wonder what would happen if I waved the German flag in a house in Germany? :\
I would love to visit Austria and Vienna. It's so cultural and I would love to visit all the old buildings and libraries. (sigh) Just keep on dreaming.
Auf Wiedersehen!
Jonathon Parker
Posts mit dem Label Kultur3 werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Posts mit dem Label Kultur3 werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Dienstag, 21. Februar 2012
Sonntag, 19. Februar 2012
Kultur 3
This weeks readings were an odd mix of different topics, ranging from Germans patriotism, education, and bureaucracy, to Austrian history. The two most entertaining and interesting articles to me however, were those on bureaucracy along with Austria.
On Bureaucracy, the Germans seem to have a bizarre fascination with documenting and cataloguing everything. According to the article, this extends from the business, to government, all the way down to the individual. The tedious and meticulous cataloguing of every achievement and certification stands in high contrast to the American standard of more simple, to the point resumes and references. I wonder if this has to do with Germany traditionally being a more centralized state (since its actual formation in the 1800’s). I know this is kind of a leap, but the only place I’ve seen such gross over-use of paper cataloguing and record keeping was in the military—a highly centralized and bureaucratized institution. A bit of a stretch, but it makes me wonder about their political nature either way.
Similarly, it was nice to move away from Germany to highlight Austria in our cultural readings. The two readings on Austria shed a little light on both its cultural as well as political history. In the latter of the two, a brief synopsis of its territorial arrangement was given (empire to state to dependency to state again). As it is a German speaking state, one of only a few exclusively German-speaking states in the world, and with close cultural and historical links to Germany, I wondered whether there is any desire to unite with Germany? After doing a little further research, the answer is pretty much no. The annexation (Anschluss) is generally perceived as a terrible event in Austria’s past, in spite of having mixed support at the time. Although there has been right-leaning, pan-German political movements in Austria since WWII, the popular sentiment is primarily nationalistic and neutral, favoring an “Austrian” Austria, vice a German one.
On Bureaucracy, the Germans seem to have a bizarre fascination with documenting and cataloguing everything. According to the article, this extends from the business, to government, all the way down to the individual. The tedious and meticulous cataloguing of every achievement and certification stands in high contrast to the American standard of more simple, to the point resumes and references. I wonder if this has to do with Germany traditionally being a more centralized state (since its actual formation in the 1800’s). I know this is kind of a leap, but the only place I’ve seen such gross over-use of paper cataloguing and record keeping was in the military—a highly centralized and bureaucratized institution. A bit of a stretch, but it makes me wonder about their political nature either way.
Similarly, it was nice to move away from Germany to highlight Austria in our cultural readings. The two readings on Austria shed a little light on both its cultural as well as political history. In the latter of the two, a brief synopsis of its territorial arrangement was given (empire to state to dependency to state again). As it is a German speaking state, one of only a few exclusively German-speaking states in the world, and with close cultural and historical links to Germany, I wondered whether there is any desire to unite with Germany? After doing a little further research, the answer is pretty much no. The annexation (Anschluss) is generally perceived as a terrible event in Austria’s past, in spite of having mixed support at the time. Although there has been right-leaning, pan-German political movements in Austria since WWII, the popular sentiment is primarily nationalistic and neutral, favoring an “Austrian” Austria, vice a German one.
Donnerstag, 9. Februar 2012
Kultur 3
Kultur für Kapital 9
How I wish we have rules about quiet hours here in my dorm. (Actually we have one, but no one follows it)
I am interested in the article Love Thy Neighbor German Law Tells You How. Seems like in Germany, so long as you follow the local law of how you should behave in a neighborhood, you will be fine with your neighbors. But according to the article, seems like there are not many rules to follow. Basically you just need to be quiet during quiet hours, don't wash your car unless others don't have a problem with that, clean your garden and sidewalk.
I think it's not a bad idea to follow these rules because first of all, if you follow these rule, your neighbors are going to like you. Second, these rules help you to keep your house tidy and make your life healthier. So why not just do the law tells you to do and make friends with your neighbors?
My mother has been to Germany once. After coming back, she told me German sidewalks in neighborhoods are so clean that people can actually roll on it without worrying about their cloth getting dirty. I think it must due to the special law there.
von Yuwei
Dienstag, 24. Januar 2012
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!
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!
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