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!

Throughout the semester, you will be posting here roughly every other week 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). And make sure to add your name as one of the "Labels." See the links on AMD Ideen and Beispiele for ideas! This should get you excited about the kinds of things you can do!

Kultur 1

The "How German is American?" article was interesting on multiple levels, but what was really interesting for me was the sections on immigrants and German population clusters in the US. Coming from the Midwest where the article cites there being a higher percentage of German population, it put things in perspective for me. I never thought that I lived in a place with more German families, but upon consideration, a lot of families I knew were either Polish (my town is predominately Polish), or secondarily German. Michigan itself has Frankenmuth, which is known for being a very Bavarian style town. My brother and his wife used to live in Wausau, WI, which after reading the article makes me understand my sister-in-law's obsession with German things.

Ann Arbor, although not predominately German, has a large German culture as well. Recently I went to the last German Park on August 27th with a friend, and it was a bit of a culture shock. The entire event was based on drinking beer, dancing to accordion polka music, and eating German food. The entire site was set up specifically for this event, including the parking lot and log cabins and fences that surrounded the area. Not only this, but the entire site was in the middle of nowhere about 20 minutes outside of Ann Arbor. This calls to the reference in the article about German spirit being very rooted in the forest, which Michigan and Wisconsin both obviously are.

Another cool part of the article, personally, was the explanation of Pennsylvania Dutch culture and immigrants. I recently found out that I was Pennsylvania Dutch, and the only thing I knew about it was that it was a vaguely Germanic sort of origin. It also made me think of Bethlehem, PA, where a good friend of mine lives. It is very based in Moravian culture, and the entire town's old culture is based around the old Moravian college and churches, which still have an active culture. My first impression of this town was that it seemed very Germanic, and very "little European" feeling, but in the middle of no where.

What also struck me is how distinctive "German American" culture is as opposed to just German culture. There seems to be a strong nationality among German Americans, but it is different from Germans also, though both intertwined. It's a very unique thing, and is kind of warm and inviting.

Wortspiel und Heterogenität

My dad raised me to appreciate terrible puns. Since German is my fourth language, the opportunities for wordplay (Wortspiel!) are endless. But it takes a particular audience to follow puns that depend on multiple language. Let alone find them funny. But to me there is a certain value to it when you think about world view. As the article puts it, "such examples of verbal creativity demonstrate that borrowing from a foreign language is a communicatively enriching process".

As the "We kehr for you" ad demonstrates, it is possible to capitalize on cross-cultural Wortspiel. While Americans are often faulted for turning some truly absurd notions into money, our incredibly connected world makes it difficult to avoid thinking about foreign cultures, and whatever crossover occurs helps to strengthen respect for those from different backgrounds. Some are concerned about cultures blending uniformly, but when has that ever occurred? America is starting to look like a linguistic experiment. "The influence of German and other languages on English is not a source of concern among most 'language mavens.' In Germany, on the other hand, there are many who lament the increasing use of English-derived words in technology, business, advertising, and everyday speech". The modern American stereotype has very little tradition compared to Europe. It is callous to ignore the near-annihilation of Native American culture, but interesting to note that their many separate tribes and ways of life in comparison to modern American culture, which is based on differences and free thought. "American culture" has connotations similar what to "German culture" had (before it was commercialized in the US, natürlich). The article discusses heterogeneity in Germany before its unification.

Obviously cultural exchange fascinates me. We had exchange students when I was little and I've never recovered. :)

Kultur 1

Hallo!

For me, "How German is American?" was a great topic for our first culture blog post as it's a question that has been on my mind since the class has begun. The more I learn about German culture the more similarities I find to my own life, as well as the lives of many of my friends. This may be a unique scenario, but it seems to be happening too often to be a singular event.

The article spends a lot of time discussing how German culture has "submerged." I think that this is a good term to describe the process, but perhaps not in the same context that the article is using it. There are a lot of implications of a disappearing culture, however I think that this disappearance is not German influence going away, but rather becoming an accepted set of social norms in American society. Concepts like research universities, sports integrated into schools, the Republican and Democratic symbols, "Uncle Sam" and even the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile have simply become standard parts of society. The fact that we see them as normal instead of seeing them as particularly German ideas doesn't change their history and I personally believe that it doesn't diminish their relation to German culture. Again, in a different context I believe that "submerged" is a good term, but perhaps "integrated" might be a better one. A good example of this is when the article quotes Milwaukee as the "most unconsciously German city in America." I believe that this applies to a lot of places in the U.S., (...however I must admit that I haven't traveled nearly enough to back that statement up with very much evidence).

Ich komme aus Posen, Michigan. Posen is a small, very Polish/German village which explains a lot of the German parallels I find in my life, and likely why I feel so connected to a lot of the cultural aspects of the article and the class as a whole. Many of the different topics discussed can be found in my town (e.g. ...it's not absolutely crazy to see an Amish person on the side of the road).

I'm excited to learn more about this culture and maybe even learn more about myself in the process.

Tschüss!
Luke Bruski