Kultur 10

Hallo!

I read the first 3 articles and watched the video for this Kapital, and I have to say that I love Mitch Hedberg. Also, I found it extremely odd that Fathers' Day in Germany consisted of hippie-circles with sack lunches. What kind of weird tradition is that? I also like the fact that the author of the article suggested watching the beast in its natural habitat -- this seems like it would be more fun than actually participating in the excessive drinking and violence.

The "Dinner for Who?" skit was funny, especially towards the end, but not something worth watching a kajillion times every New Year's eve. But now that I've seen it, I will be able to withstand the German interrogation. My question is, how do the Germans understand what's going on all the way through? Does every German know enough English to watch it and comprehend it completely? That's awesome.

This chapter's texts were pretty sweet, and a good read.

Kultur 9

I can't believe there is still a certificate system in Germany. What is the practicality of having a binder full of information on yourself in such a vulnerable situation?

Water damage, house/room fire, thefts, etc. could practically ruin a life. And to scan all of that into a computer? Oh sheesh, we're talking hours and hours of hard work for some bill receipts and pre-exam slips.

And to inhibit someone's ability to grill because of someone's inability to stand an at-most hour of grilled meat is absurd. I know back home, our family would grill every day during the summer. Brots are important! I couldn't deal with that if I moved there, I'd have to live somewhere out in the country or in a Stadt with a more lax enforcement of that law.

David

AMD 2 - Hell

I decided to Google some cool German movies to watch for this AMD, because, well, why not? And having an awesome movie to watch for homework is always enjoyable. So I stumbled upon this beauty:

Too bad it doesn't come out on DVD until April :(

So instead of watching it, I tried to soak up all that I could about German movies, kritiks, interviews with the director of Hell, and try to learn the vocabulary of the film industry.

Vocabulary:

I'm not exactly sure about all the translations, but I didn't want to cheat and use a translator or look it up. I tried to decipher it on my own, so here it goes:

Kritik - Critique, or review?

Darsteller - Stars, or starring

Laufzeit - how long the movie is

Kinostart - Release date

Im Kino - In theaters

Produzenten - Producers

Regie - Director? Writer? something to this extent

Drehbuch - Screenplay

Land/Jahr - Where it was shot and what year (Place/Year)

Genre - Genre. It translates into English perfectly

Titel - Title

Originaltitel - Original title (for films that get titles changed into English or different languages)

Verleih -This is something I'm unclear about. For Hell, it's Paramount Pictures, so I'm guessing that it has something to do with Studio

Endzeit is specifically used to describe the genre of this movie, and it has a pretty obvious meaning... "end times".

Postapokalyptischer - Post apocalyptic movie genre.

Die Welt wie wir sie kennen existiert nicht mehr. - The world we know exists no more. (roughly?)

It really bummed me out that I couldn't find a link to watch the movie. After reading a lot of reviews, the movie actually flopped out of the German Box Offices. Kind of disappointing, because from the trailer it looks to be similar to the Book of Eli or something like that. It should be interesting when it comes out on DVD and Blu-ray to watch it and see how much I can understand in one go.

Thanks for reading!

David

Kultur 8

Hallo Alle!

This Kulturtext is going to focus on the whole German education system, since I am very, very, deeply confused about it.

So after reading the article about the "old" German students (http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,408465,00.html) I realized that Catherine could, in fact, still be in school if she wished to be. I mean, she's still in school but she could be an undergrad like us!

So the part that really confused me was the fact that the third and fourth graders are evaluated

and placed into special schools that they are mandated to stay in (at least part time) until they're 18. This seems pretty odd to me, because from personal experience I know a lot of third and fourth graders are little hellions not thinking of the future. To think that they'd be put on track to vocational, mid-level college preparatory (like the US public schools), or higher level college preparatory schools...

And after they're prep'd for college, they stay in it for 12+ years? What is going on here?

Auf Widersehen!

David