Kultur 11

This chapter’s culture reading dealt with the interesting impact of East and West German reunification, as well as the formation of the German nation from principalities, to monarchy, and it’s turbulent periods of democracy and dictatorship. While certain parts dealt with the lingering divisions between East and West, what were most interesting to me were the multiple directions of German division.

While brief, the article on north-south division illustrated the subtle internal cultural divides often overlooked in countries. As it noted, the north and south can be antagonistic to one another over issues like religious differences, accent (or dialect, depending on how thick the accent is), way of life, and standard of living, among others reasons. The piece jokingly mentions that if the Allies had divided Germany north from south, the wall may still be standing.

In contrast to the north-south article, the Deutsche Welle piece on lingering reunification issues shows a different form of division. Here the author notes that sizable proportion of Germans would prefer to have never been reunited (10-14% isn’t a whole lot, but surprising considering the widespread discontent under the communist government). Similarly, the author notes dissatisfaction between the two regions over income and wealth redistribution.

What’s interesting between these two articles is that German cultural divides cannot be definitively articulated along one geographic axis, but instead among several. The readings also touched on youth protest movements as well as various socio-economic issues affecting Germans that further illustrate cultural splits beyond simply regional. In all, these were some of the most interesting culture articles so far I have read in German (Weil ich ein Geographie-Nerd bin).

AMD 6

Für meine neuesten AMD, eine Mitschülerin und ich entschieden uns im Chat für eine Weile zu sprechen. Wir hatten eine gute Zeit im Gespräch über unser Wochenende, und mit neuen Wörtern und Phrasen (besser als Sätzen?) Hatten wir gelernt. Sie wird wahrscheinlich zeigen, Teil unseres Gesprächs hier, also ich will Sie nicht langweilen. Mein Lieblingsteil war, als wir so ging Thema über ihre langsame Antwort. Es war sehr schwer zu erklären, wo wir falsch gemacht. Das machte alles noch verwirrender (bedeutet, „confusing“). Es war ein entspannter (=relaxed) Weg, um unsere Aufgabe zu fertigstellen.

Kayla ist viel besser deutsch als ich, also war es gut mit ihr zu arbeiten. Da sagte sie: das ist alles!

Lieblingswörter und Phrasen:

In der tat!
sarkastischen
Grillkäse

AMD 5

Ich für meinen AMD 5 Ich erforschte den Link zu der University of Texas auf dem AMD Idee Webseite. Es brauchte nicht mir, wo der Link sagte, es würde, aber ich habe immer interessante Dinge gefunden. Ein interessanter Link war der kulturell authentisch Bilden Wortchatz (Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon, auf englisch. Very difficult to translate, believe it or not.). Als Nerd bin, habe ich sofort navigiert Städte und Landkarten (=cities and maps). In diesen Links können Sie erkunden viele andere Themen Wortschatz (wie die Flashcard-Programm, aber detailliertere), die es mehr Spaß gemacht.

As the pictures I posted hopefully show, there are some pretty random things you can learn about. I’m not sure what a cooper is in English (bucket maker, it appears?), but now I know auf deutsch they are called Büttneren. Good to know. Moving on. More interesting to me were the pictorial depictions of city life and details, like the picture of a city map.

In all, these were fun, albeit strange in some categories to explore. I have included the link below for anyone who wants to play around on this web site. It’s good stuff.

http://capl.washjeff.edu/browseresults.php?langID=1

Kultur 10

I’ll go ahead and say it: this weeks readings were fundamentally unimpressive. Perhaps I enjoy the strange cultural nuances that separate countries, and therefore this weeks more subdued examples weren’t that interesting. Except for the fathers day piece. That was rather odd. The most intriguing article to me was actually the first on “Dinner for Two.” It’s interesting how certain movies, stories, and other entertainment can take hold in an entirely unintended audience. In this article they were talking more about a British movie that foundered in the UK, but exploded in Germany, but the same holds true for other transfers.

I’ve often wondered that about the many movies made in the US about other countries stories we have no connection to, like the Sound of Music as the article mentions. For example, how do the Germans feel about Steven Spielberg’s production of Schindler’s List? A famous, Oscar award-winning movie on a story completely separate from American culture, and yet so intimately apart of German society and history. My point is that you don’t really see other countries producing movies on the US (The Artist being an outlier), and it actually seems a little weird to imagine that they would.

Finally, the reason this article stood out (aside from a rather dull pool of competition) is the fascinating way individual cultures view one another. The misperceptions and “lost-in-translation” nuances make the study of other cultures so interesting, and I think this article captured it well.

AMD 4

For this weeks AMD, I was running a little low on time. For that reason, I took non-creative way out and attempted to read German news again. Ich habe gelesen, oder versucht zu lesen, einen News-Artikel über Mercator, den Vater des Atlas, Zu Ehren des 500 Wissenschaftler Geburtstag.. Als großer Geographie nerd (I’m glad the Germans have the same word for nerd as us), zog Dieser Artikel hat mir in sofort. Mercator war nicht ursprünglich aus Deutschland, aber es bewegt und startete seine Arbeit. Nach er einige Zeit im Gefängnis (=prison) für das Lutherische Verhalten (oder „Lutherei,“ wie sie es sagen) , zog er nach Deutschland. Sein Ziel (=goal) war, Katalog der Himmel (=Heavens) und Erde (=Earth) in einem Buch, das er als Atlas.

The article was surprisingly easy to read, except for a handful of words noted above. This was my first attempt to read an article that wasn’t necessarily news so much as a historical article. Perhaps that was why it was easier, as its tailored for a more general audience vice highly informed German newsreaders. Either way, I may keep reading short history pieces for AMD’s if they are this easily digestible.

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15779444,00.html

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.

AMD 3

Für diese Woche AMD, entschied ich mich auf Artikel Deutche Welle zu lesen. Ich habe versucht, dieses letzte Semester, aber nicht gut tun. Der Artikel, den ich gelesen habe, war auf den Unruhen (bedeutet „riots“) in Athen, und war nicht zu schwierig. Titel des Artikels, "Straßenschlachten in Athen - Regierung billigt Sparpaket", bedeutet in etwa „Streetriots in Athens as they debate cutbacks.“ Der Artikel sagte, dass Zehntausende („tens of thousands“) in den Straßen über Kürzungen protestiert, mit vielen Leuten und der Polizei verletzt. Auch hat das neue Abkommen die griechische Regierung Feuer („to dismiss;“ nicht brennen) vielen öffentlichen („public“) Arbeiter.

Ein späteres Stück mit dem Titel "Deutschland will Taten sehen" („Germany wants to see action,“ ich denke), erklärt, dass Deutschland am Anfang wird durch die Griechischen Regierungen Langsamkeit („slowness“) irritiert, und will mehr Aktion zu sehen. Auch wenn es ein kurzer Artikel war, brauche ich eine lange Zeit zu verstehen. Ich war immer noch schwer, überhaupt zu wissen, die Nachrichten.

Here is the article for anyone interested: http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15738489,00.html

-Cole