Kultur 5

I found the article about Germans and 'entschuldigung' very interesting. It's not hard to imagine that an entire culture can less prone to apologizing for minor physical contact compared to another culture. That said I think it would be a major culture shock for an American to go to Germany and be constantly pushed around without so much as a 'entschuldigung'. On the flip side Germans might feel weird about an American constantly saying sorry for what they consider a negligible offence.

I wasn't at all surprised about the high volume of sex shops in Germany. The subject of sex is still considered taboo in America and that's why Americans are often stereotyped as prudish. I think there are many strong negative effects on society because our culture's aversion toward sex.

I found the whole 'toilet lady' concept bizarre. I understand that no one wants to use a dirty bathroom but I feel like most bathrooms remain fairly clean with only two to three cleans a day. Why don't these workers have additional responsibilities in their workplace besides siphoning money from people to corporations?

Unsurprisingly I found the most interesting article on 'flirting' in Germany and it seems like the odds are either extremely stacked in a foreigners favor or vice versa depending on the German woman. If the German lady is fed up with the boring flirtation offered by her natives then she may be attracted to Americans. However, it seems more likely that any sort of explicit flirtation will end up backfiring. I can just picture Americans in a bar or club flirtatiously smiling at every German women that walks by and every German women thinking "What a creep!"

After reading the article about cliques and Kneipe's I wondered if the divorce rate in Germany is lower than it is in the U.S. It most likely is because the United States' divorce rate is absurdly high but my thinking behind the idea is this: in Germany one's girlfriend has not only a relationship with their boyfriend, but with her boyfriends' friends too. So if the girl doesn't fit in with your friends then shes out! Huge time saver!