Kultur 9 - Jenna Malzahn

For Kultur 9 I started out by reading "Bureaucracy Gone Awry: The German Certificate Fetish", which was concerned with the drastic amount of certificates that the German population needs in order to successfully apply for any type of occupation. I found this really surprising considering how environmentally friendly they usually are in relation to food production and the use of any pesticides; so the extreme necessity for paper documentation of their whole life caught me off guard. I feel like this is quite a dramatic method for an attempt at merely securing a career because the documentation needs to span from elementary school until the present including every possible specific that could have attributed to it. I would expect this to make the process of applying to a job longer and considerably more miserable because any possible detail from your whole life could be picked at. Instead of simply focusing on the merits of the individuals that applied and all of their talents and skills the debate concerning who was hired could be determined from their grades in first grade spelling. I'm sure that is not what actually occurs but the possibility still persists to be there and I find that quite worrisome. On the other side the need for all of this paperwork also establishes that the majority of the German population is extremely organized which is an incredibly beneficial aspect for anyone to have. I believe that to be the one aspect that America should try to duplicate in the workforce, but maybe through a different method.    

I also read "Love Thy Neighbor: German Law Tells You How" and am completely surprised by how serious any infraction could be taken. In America I've heard of stories with nasty neighbors and feuds that can arise but to have such a wide-spread code enacted seems to stem from much more serious issues. It might be the fact that I am not aware of how many neighborly feuds are taken to court in America but the sheer amount in Germany and overall general tendency for it, I just find shocking. So I guess it does make sense why such specific rules have been established concerning neighbor interactions but the cultural difference that it creates between Germany and America is too vast for me to quite wrap my head around. Based on the culture I am accustomed to I consider it to be extremely outrageous for car washing to be banned and for barbecues to only be allowed to occur once a month. While I do believe that one needs to be mindful and considerate of their neighbor, I still find this to be taking it a little too far. These two articles depict obvious differences that exist between both cultures but I think they merely stem from extremes being taken, mostly by Germany, in the attempt to accomplish the same goals.