Kapitel 11 Jason Bui

Who would have guessed that even though the Berlin Wall was knocked down in 1989, that German is still "divided" to this day? The reading from kapitel 11 explained how there are still tensions between those in East and West Germany and North and South Germany. Although the country has been united for about 14 years, Germany is still separated in many other aspects.

The first article that I read was "Breaking Down the Wall in the Head." This article explains that to this day, differences between East Germany and West Germany still stand. In fact, a recent poll showed that "a quarter of West Germans wished the Berlin Wall could be rebuilt, while 12 percent of East Germans said they didn't want to live in a united Germany." This is attributed to the fact that many previous East Germans do not believe that they are truly free in this united Germany, but on the other hand, many West Germans feel like they are even more free without being confined by the wall. Personally, I do not really understand why East Germans would feel any less free in a united Germany. One previous East German's argument was that he lived with the fear of getting fired, rather than living without that fear in East Germany, where he was prohibited to speak badly about the government. This logic is not sound at all. His freedom of speech is taken away in East Germany and the fact that he could not be fired most likely interfered with the freedoms of some one else.

The next article I read was "Ostalgie." This article explained how most of Germany adopted things from West Germany, rather than East Germany. The only notable thing that remains from East Germany is the "Eastern Crosswalk Man." I do not really think that this is a big deal, seeing that most of East Germany was under communist rule and united Germany followed a more East Germany republic government.

The last article that I read was "Backward Southerners, Frigid Northerners: Germany's Real Divide." This article explains how the real divide in Germany was in between the North and the South. Apparently North Germany and South Germany are very different from each other. They both have different cultures and even different accents. Many North Germans tend to think that South Germans are stupid, dumb and lazy, whereas many South Germans think that North Germans are just boring. This is kind of like how in the United States, North and South are seen as being quite different from each other. Many people in the South have southern accents, as those in South Germany have an accent. Also, many people in the northern part of the United States tend to think that there are a lot of hicks in the South, like it is in Germany and the south tends to think of the northern states as boring and stuck up. I think that in every country, different regions of the countries tend to have their differences, but it should not stop them from sharing the same patriotism. Germans should be proud of united Germany.

Kapitel 10

Reading these articles that reflect on German culture are always interesting. After reading the articles: "'Dinner for Who?': Germany's New Year 'Procedure'," "Sorry, We're Closed: The Challenge of Spending Money in Germany," and "Booze Brothers: Father's Day Debauchery in Deutschland," it really made me realize how different Germany is from the US.

The first article that I read was "'Dinner for Who?': Germany's New Year 'Procedure.'" The article is about a German tradition of watching a British comedy skit, 'Dinner for Who?.' It explains how Germans watch this skit every new year and how they find it just as hilarious every time they watch it. The article then goes about describing the plot of the skit, while highlighting the key parts of the skit and noting they 'funny' parts of the clip. After reading the skit's summary, I was so confused on how the German's found this short skit funny. I had to watch it myself. I then pulled the clip up onto Youtube and realized that it was actually quite humorous. But although I found the film to be a little funny, I could not see how one could put up with watching this year after year. Honestly, it is not that special.

The next article I read was "Sorry, We're Closed: The Challenge of Spending Money in Germany." After reading this article I was in awe. I honestly do not know how people can actually survive living in Germany. Back home I find myself going to the 24/7 Meijer, or Taco Bell late in the night several time in the week. I could not image living somewhere without a store being open 24/7, let alone image a store being only open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In fact, I only go to the store when it's late into the night. My life would be so much different living in a world where everything convenient was closed by 7. Before reading this article I was growing fond of the country, but now I'm reconsidering how great Germany actually really is.   

The last article that I read was "Booze Brothers: Father's Day Debauchery in Deutschland." This article was by far my favorite. It explained how on father's day, the men get drunk (more than usual) and just have a fun time. It seems like a great time, and it's kind of like a St. Patty's day exclusively to men. Personally, I would love to participate in German Father's Day one day. In fact, the US should just adopt this German tradition and celebrate it along with the Germans. It would make Father's day more fun and it may even allow for closer bonding with the old man.

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!