Kultur 6

I was shocked to learn about the housing for University students in Germany. I cannot believe they only have room to house 19% of students. It did not say but I was curious whether they housed mostly freshman, or if upperclassmen got priority in the dorms. I can't imagine going into my freshman year at the University and having to find my own housing. I was even more shocked to learn most students just live on their own in an apartment, and are responsible for everything. I would be terrified to live alone, especially since most apartments are far from campus.

North campus is bad enough here, but at least we have the option of living in the dorms. It is crazy to think of how spread out things are there. How do you ever get a sense of community if you don't go through living in a dorm. Also most dorms are single rooms. I feel like having a roommate in college is a right of passage everyone goes through. I feel the German students are missing out with how spread out their campus is, and their lack of options for living space.

I also enjoyed reading the article about Germans closed doors. I would never walk into someones room without knocking first. Funny how even a closed door can mean different things in different cultures.

AMD 6

For my final AMD I decided to get in the Christmas spirit by researching Weihnachten in Germany.

Christmas day used to be January 6. One fascinating thing many Germans do is to write the initials of the Three Kings C,M,B plus the year above their doors on January 5 to protect their homes. Christmas celebrations do not end until January 6, because many germans believe this was the arrival time of the Three Kings. So Christmas in Germany lasts from December 1 through January 6!

On December 6 it is Nikolaustag or the Day of St, Nicholas. (who is not Santa Claus) The night before Sankt Nikolaus comes with gifts for children. You leave out a shoe where the presents are placed.

On Christmas Eve they children receive presents from Christkindl (the christ child) not Santa Claus. They leave letters for Christkindl on their windowsills. They believe the Christ Child sends a messenger to deliver presents. The messenger is an angel.

New Year's Day many people give gifts to people who help them during the year like the mailman, or garbage man.

Another huge tradition are the German Christmas Markets. They are the equivalent to farmers markets here selling homemade christmas goods and gifts. They sound wonderful!

I was surprised to learn that our tradition of a Christmas Tree or (O Tannenbaum) and the Carol Silent night (Stille Nacht) came from Germany!

Every year my family listens to the Nat King Cole Christmas album and he has two German songs on there. I never made the connection until now! Germans also began the advent calendar tradition.

Here is his version of O Tannenbaum. I know all the words and never knew I was singing in German !

http://youtu.be/o9TGU1QZywc

Frohe Weihnachten! (Merry Christmas:)

Kultur 5

The article about street behavior in Germany actually did not surprise me. I would say the Germans contact in the street is similar to how it is on black friday shopping in Chicago and daily life in New York City. I have been plowed over by many serious shoppers on black friday. Women more than men seem to assume people will move out of the way for them, so they never bother to move for anyone else.

The article about German sex shops was hilarious. I cannot believe they have one in an airport. I can just imagine how shocked visitors are when that is their first sight. It made me laugh to think about the 18 and up section in family video. It used to be a game with middle schoolers and high schoolers to see who could walk back their without getting caught. The local one was also shut down. German kids would clearly laugh at our immaturity since they have grown up with sex shops right next door to their favorite toy stores!

I found it very interesting to learn that men as well as women can get child-raising leave. I think that is a really nice concept. Here even the women do not get enough time or a part time option very often. I think it is wonderful that men can spend more time after their child is born. I also found it wonderful that more women are going to college and having careers and starting businesses. Good for German women to take a stand and demand equal pay and job opportunities! All the articles were really interesting this time!

AMD 5

For this AMD I watched part of the movie Lammbock a german comedy about two men whose business to deliver drugs concealed in pizza. Our friend Manni is one of the main characters Kai! The other character is name Stephan. The opening scene is Kai going on about Baywatch, while Stephan says he only wants to talk about serious topics. Stephan is studying for an exam (what exam I do not know yet) He seems to be more serious and trying to pull away from their risky deals.

The drama begins when they are going to get more of their supply when they realize their crop has Aphids (I had to look this up they are small sap sucking insects). Stephan thinks they can just fix it with essig (vinegar). Kai refuses to rely on that so they go to see a florist. The florist asks them if the plant is a useful plant or a ornamental plant. (they respond sehr nützlich:) Without knowing the name of the plant she cannot help them. They obviously cannot tell her so they go in search of someone else. They meet a random stranger in a "special" store, who tells them they can help him.

The next scene is Kai takes a childhood friend to be tested for HIV. They have to come up with a code name, Kai chooses Mr. Pink. You can tell he cares about her, and this was the only nice part of what I watched. Mostly this movie is very random with lots of drugs. It is the German version of Pineapple Express. I am not sure the movie even has a point haha. It was entertaining and helpful to recognize german words. (They were not using complex language so it was easy to pick up:)

Kultur 4

After reading the Kultur article I realized my Dad would stick out like a sore thumb in Germany. He has little patience to wait for traffic lights to change when there are no cars coming, or even when there are cars coming. He would undoubtably be run over by a cyclist, he thinks bikers are always getting in the way. I think it is refreshing to know how many people bike in Germany. What a healthy thing for themselves and their environment. I love to ride my bike, but unfortunately in my town we do not have many sidewalks. I wish we had our own bike baths so I could enjoy biking outside of my neighborhood more frequently. I was stunned to read the some German Universities have over 30% foreign students. I looked it up and the U of M has approximately 12.6%. It would be very neat to see that number grow. Last year I learned a lot from the few foreign students I met. I cannot imagine what interesting things I would learn if we had over 30% enrolled! It is very cool to think of how diverse their campus must be. I also enjoyed reading the optional articles about Germans being nude. It made me laugh when they think we are prudes especially after just passing Halloween on campus:) I wonder what they would think of us if they could witness that! I really enjoyed the articles this time!

AMD 4

For this AMD I decided to watch German commercials. It was actually difficult to find German commercials, but I managed to find several good ones. I first watched them without subtitles to see how much I could comprehend. It actually was not too difficult, because dialogue in commercials are not to complex. I mostly just had a good laugh, and got to experience "ich liebe es" the German McDonald's tune I'm lovin it :) One thing I noticed is that in several of the commercials they play English music which I found very interesting. I posted my favorites of the ones I watched!

Here is a German McDonald's commercial

http://youtu.be/aS3qoo0hzu0

I found a several commercials with the slogan "Was auch kommt hilft di immer," meaning I believe whatever happens we are always there for you. They are really funny.

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/6637003/HDI_hilft_dir_immer

I think we all know how to say this one:

Das ist mein Bier

http://youtu.be/XdgXZAs2dsI

This one has to be my favorite one. It was a man and a wife saying seemingly innocent boring comments to each other while a box at the top of the screen keeps counting up. At the end we learn he was counting the lies. I will not spoil the best lie at the end for those who want to watch it!

http://youtu.be/nmvhNmUXCSM

These last two just killed me so I posted them for fun:)

http://youtu.be/cUEkOVdUjHc

http://youtu.be/cUEkOVdUjHc

AMD 3

For the past two weeks I have been singing two German pieces, Vergebliches Ständchen, and Dein blaues Auge. Both pieces are Brahms pieces.

Dein blaues Auge was a poem written by one of Brahms friends, Klaus Johann Groth. The text is simple, but beautiful. My voice teacher always has me recite the text to make sure I am pronouncing the german correctly. I make sure to know the german first before I start learning the melody. I learn the word for word translation, which is not as beautiful as what the actual meaning of the text is. This technique helps me to identify more words with each piece I sing in German. It is easier to remember the meaning of foreign words when I sing in German because I am feeling the text, not just memorizing the words. Even singing in a foreign language there is a story to tell. I would not be able to express the song well if I was pronouncing the words correctly, but I did not know what they meant.

Here is the German, and then the English translation of the text

German :

Dein blaues Auge hält so still, Ich blicke bis zum Grund. Du fragst mich, Was ich sehen will?  Ich sehe mich gesund.   Es brannte mich ein glühend Paar, Noch schmerzt, noch schmerzt das Nachgefühl: Das deine ist wie See so klar Und wie ein See so kühl. 

English Translation:

Your blue eyes keep so still,  That I can gaze upon their very depths.  You ask me,  What do I want to see?  I see my own well-being.   A glowing pair burned me once;  The scar still hurts, still hurts.  Yet your eyes are like the sea so clear,  And like the sea, so cool and detached

Vergebliches Ständchen envolves a lot more text, so it proved much more challenging.  The text is too long to paste here, but I will summarize it.  It is a song that involves two different people: A man trying to quart a woman, and a woman who sees through all of his tricks.  It is very playful.  He calls her "mein Kind" and she calls him "mein Knab."  It is a very fun song, the first I have done where I play more than one character.  I love singing both of these pieces.  They are complete opposites.  I love how Brahms took two very different texts and composed music that fit perfectly with the pieces to make them come alive.  Singing in German is very new to me, and I look forward to getting better at it.

Kultur 3

My great grandma used to make the BEST Spätzle ( I just referred to them as noodles) in the world. I miss them so much! They take a long time to make, I remember her having to prepare the noodles days in advance. I would love to have them again. It amazes me that this is considered a fast food item. A lot of the items listed seemed quite complex and too delicious for a quick snack. I think I would be a frequent visitor at these Imbiss.

The guide to beer in Germany cracked me up. My favorite was when it described Berliner Weisse. Good to know that the locals would make fun of you for ordering this. I also found it hilarious that you can order a beer at the theater or even McDonalds. Some beers are even meant to go along with breakfast! It was very useful to learn bar drinkers etiquette (again with the eye contact!) so as not to embarrass yourself. I think I would have a hard time selecting a beer, I would be worried I was breaking some sort of social rule! It is interesting how many rules they have for drinking and ordering food. At a McDonalds in Ann Arbor I have heard friends order the most complicated thing without the worker even thinking it was weird, and there are not really rules to what you order to drink. I think it is funny how at German fast food places what they have is what you get, no weird orders. Also that when you order a beer at a bar you better choose wisely! I enjoyed reading about all the food, but I am unfortunately very hungry now.

Kultur 2

I loved learning about the negative aspects of German culture. These articles reminded me so much of my Dad's family. My great-grandparents were both born in Germany, and they have many of the qualities listed in these articles. My Grandma is always complaining about something. This summer she got foot surgery and they told her she had to wear tennis shoes all summer long. She complained multiple times a day about how annoying it was to wear tennis shoes in the summer. She also likes to remind me how lazy I am, how she worked three jobs so why do I ask my parents for money, and my personal favorite question, "why don't you have a boyfriend." Brutally honest, that is my Grammy. When my Dad's family gets together it is one crazy experience. I was also very interested in learning that die Musikhochschule are a new type of university. The music school at the U of M is actually partnered with more than one music conservatory in Germany. We are clearly lucky we have that kind of opportunity. These articles were very fun, I enjoyed reading them!

AMD 1

For my first AMD I watched an episode of the soap opera Verbotene Liebe (forbidden love) I could not figure out how to get subtitles so for the most part my summary is me guessing what was going on. One thing I thought was funny was that the theme song for the show was in English. Anyways here is my synopsis of what happened during the episode.

It followed three separate story lines throughout the episode. One storyline was about a girl named Marina I believe who found out her boyfriend was cheating on her with her sister Donna (or I think it was her sister, but they may just have been very good friends.) Marina went to live with her parents, and told Donna to stay away. Marina's boyfriend tried to apologize saying it was Meine schuld= my fault. There was also what sounded like "beste freund" or best friend in the dialogue.

Another storyline followed a guy desperately trying to woo a girl. The only thing I understood from their dialogue was when she said "oh bitte." I could tell their banter was funny by their expressions, but had no idea what was actually happening.

The last storyline involved a funeral for a male. A girl named Helena at the beginning of the episode is crying while looking at his picture. At the beginning I thought she was in love with him. At the end we find out through a flashback that she ran him over. In the very end of the episode she turns herself in at the police station. (The word Polizei was on the door.)

The show was very interesting. Watching it without subtitles made me really focus on what they were saying, and try to find words I knew. It was very difficult, but I enjoyed the show a lot. I want to watch more of this show, but with subtitles so I can pick up more vocabulary!

Kultur 1

Hallo!

Before I read this article I knew very little about German Americans and how they influenced a great deal of American Culture. I am German and also a Lutheran, but I was still surprised to find out how much German was still present within the Lutheran religion. (This article made me think of several questions I want to ask my dad about our German heritage)

Another thing that surprised me was the realization of what Oktoberfest has become. It is no longer a time to celebrate German heritage, it is just another excuse for Americans to eat and drink excessively. I even recall before I came to school my country club at home advertising for Oktoberfest without any mention of German culture. It is sad how we have forgotten to acknowledge the German origin of this holiday.

I am sure most Americans have no idea that a German American was the creator of santa claus, uncle sam, and the political donkey and elephant figures(at least I had no idea). I for one will always think of that now when I see these popular figures. There are many other things I learned from this article that shocked me. Who knew Bambi was a German story that was so controversial or that kindergarten was a German word? When watching the musical theatre department perform Brigadoon I never once thought about the German culture, I was just enjoying the story. It is incredible to me that everyday things, such as the oscar mayer truck, are not acknowledged for their German origins. I cannot wait to learn more about the German culture, and to hopefully spread the word about all of these unacknowledged German influences.

One more thing I cannot believe I live within 15 minutes of an Amish community and I had no idea they were German. Seriously I clearly have a lot to learn.

Gute Nacht:)