Kultur 9

Germans absolutely love their bureaucracy.  Living there for three months last summer required going to offices that I could not have imagined existed.  I lived in one district over from the place where I worked, so there was the initial issue of figuring out which district's office I had to go to.  For work-related things I had to go to the offices in Koblenz, but for living-related things I had to go to Mayen-Koblenz offices.  This was very frustrating.

It is somewhat surprising to see that a culture that is so organized refuses to modernize.  Technology has made the need for paper obsolete, or at least it has for me.  Therefore, I was very disappointed to see that Germans had not embraced this technological advancement to make their daily lives easier.

No that I read about it, I never did see a German flag outside of official buildings and national landmarks.  Being a WW2 buff, it is very interesting for me to learn about this and the reasons behind it.  While they can be mislabeled as cold and evil, Germans are not so.  While talking to many of them about the war, they simply said that it was a terrible evil done to others, and that it so happened that leaders were German.  That s not who they were now.  Therefore, I do think that this belief is slowly dying.  Will it affect patriotism?  Perhaps...

AMD 3: Der König der Löwen

Der König der Löwen ist mein zweiten Lieblingsfilme von Disney.  I have seen this movie various times, both in Spanish and English.  It was even more interesting when I had the opportunity to watch it in German.

I understood most of the film and what is happening.  I was able to pick up on a lot of words, though not so much when Timon and Pumbaa are speaking.  Seriously, those two speak waaaaay too fast for me to pick up on it.  Another thing I noticed is that Zazu seems to use the term Hoheit when referring to the king.  This term means sovereign, or king.  The king is also referred as Majestät, or simply König.  It is interesting to see different uses of the term.

Here is a list of terms that I either learned, recognized, or was able to fully understand:

mit Essen nicht spielt - Zazu tells Scar to not play with his food

Aber wir essen die Antilopen - Simba asking Mufasa about the antelope in the Circle of Life

Das war sehr gut

Hyänen - plural of hyena

Wenn ich König bin, was bist dann du? - Simba asks Scar what his role will be once Simba is king

Er hat mich verboten. - Mufasa has forbidden Simbsa to go to the shadowlands

Elefantenfriedhof - elephant graveyard

Ich will gehts gleich König sein - translation of the song "I just can't wait to be king"

Ich habe keine Angst für gefahr - "I am not afraid of danger" - Simba

Das ist nicht komisch, Edd. 

Ich bin von Idioten umgeben - Scar to hyenas

den Tod des König - the death of the king

Seid Bereit - Be Prepared

Ich muß Hilfe holen - Zazu wants to go get help to save Simba

Bruder! Hilf mir! - Mufasa to Scar

Lauf weit weg und komm nie mehr zurück - Run away and never return

Tötet ihn - Kill him

Wenn du zurück kommst, töten wir dich! - When you come back we'll kill you

Es ist nur ein kleiner Löwe. - Pumbaa to Timon

Vielen Dank für eure Hilfe - Simba to Timon and Pumbaa

Ich habe aber was anderes gelernt. - I learned differently (regarding Hakuna Matata)

mußt du fressen, was wir fressen (they want Simba to eat bugs, not meat)

schleimig - slimy (after eating worm)

Mein Lieblingsgespräch in dem Film:

Pumbaa - Ich habe gefressen wie ein Schwein.  

Simba - Pumbaa...du bist ein Schewin.  

Pumbaa - Ach so.

Du kennst sie.  Sie kennt dich.  Aber sie will ihn auffressen.  Und...alle sind damit einverstanden? - Timon going crazy after Nala runs into Simba.

Weil es immer noch deine Pflicht ist! -It is your responsibility!

Natürlich.  Du bist Mufasas Junge.

Du kanntest meinen Vater?

Das ist nicht mein Vater.  Das ist nur mein Spiegelbild. - Spiegelbild = reflection

Siehst du, er lebt in dir.

Vergiß niemals wer du bist. Du bist mein Sohn und der wahre König. - Mufasa-cloud to Simba

Der König... ist zurückgekehrt.

Der Affe ist sein Onkel? -funny quote from Timon

Ich bin der König. Ich kann machen was immer ich will. -Scar being a prick with a capital D

mörder = killer (or murderer)

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Watching Disney movies ist sehr lustig.  I want to do it more often in German.

AMD: Deutsch Filmabend Discussion

I decided to watch the movie Armageddon in German.  I was talking to a friend back in Germany, and after having watched Armageddon (one of my favorite movies), I started talking to him about how he feels about voiceovers.  He said that the interesting thing is that different actors have their own German counterpart.  For example, the man who did the voiceover for Bruce Willis in Die Hard is the same man who did it for Armageddon.  This kind of establishes a continuity which I had never considered.  The German audience hears the same person, even though it is not Bruce Willis speaking.


One thing that I found very interesting was that apparently one of the Die Hard movies (I believe it was the 3rd one) had a different man doing the voice of Bruce Willis.  Therefore, people were outraged because it wasn't the correct voice.  It seems interesting how some translators can simply make money by having their voice tied to one specific Hollywood star.  It is definitely something worth noting, because I have been listening to Spanish dubbed movies all my life and had never stopped to notice that.  However, I do despise dubbed over movies.  I would rather listen to the original sound and read subtitles.


Funny how I go from watching a movie to writing about my conversation about movies in Germany with my friend.  I ended up saying nothing about the movie itself.  Although the discussion about the meteor was quite funny as far as wording.  They are very seriously speaking about the Meteorit.  It sounds funny to me for some reason.

Deutsch-ing my house

My roommate and I are both in this class, so we decided to start labeling everything in our house with post-its and their equivalent of German.  He has many more in his room than I do, but that's how I learned that Lichtschalter is the word for the light switch.  The kitchen has various there for the fridge, the freezer, and the ausguß, or sink.

This has actually made me not forget some of the words that I already knew.  We actually had the chance to correct each other when we made these.  For example, he wrote der Fernsehen for the television, but I was pretty sure it was Fernseher for TV, with Fernsehen being the action.  Turns out I was right.  With things like this we pretty much correct each other and we've been keeping our vocabulary up to date.

Kultur 7

After finally reading the Kultur for this chapter, I have come to the conclusion that this person is very frustrated by German culture or simply did not have a good time in Germany.  After having been there over summer, I can tell you that it is not that bad.  Supermarkets can sometimes be a bit unclean, but it's not as exaggerated as it says in the articles.

Next off, when it comes to driving in Germany, I have to respect German drivers.  These people need cat-like reflexes in order for them to not crash at very high velocities.  Then again, this makes them INCREDIBLY disciplined.  Coming from an island where everyone drives however they want, the difference is like heaven and hell.  People will only pass you on the left, they will slow down in zones with speed limits, and the driver will even yell at a passenger if he or she is being unruly towards another car (which happened to me, oops).  Drivers in Germany are very politely and should be treated with the same level of politeness.

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Mein Lieblingswort is gelb.