AMD3

For the third AMD, I was thinking to watch a German Movie but it seemed not very interesting cuz I would focus more on the content of the movie instead of learning the language itself. So I decide to analyze a lyric word by word, sentence by sentence. I keep listening to different Deutsch songs but <Das Beste> is my Lieblingsongs by now. And I suddenly realize that many words seem familiar now!
<Das Beste>

Ich habe einen Schatz gefunden,     precious!

und er trägt deinen Namen.            wear
So wunderschön und wertvoll,       very beautiful

mit keinem Geld der Welt zu bezahlen.     money
Du schläst neben mir ein,       einschläfen  =sleep

ich könnt dich die ganze Nacht betrachten,   why not kenne?

sehn wie du schläst,

höere wie du atmest,

bis wir am morgen erwachen.      wake up
Du hast es wieder mal geschafft,

mir den Atem zu rauben,          cannot breathe

wenn du neben mir liegst,

dann kann ich es kaum glauben,

dass jemand wie ich,

so was schoenes wie dich verdient hat.
Du bist das Beste was mir je passiert ist,

es tut so gut wie du mich liebst!
Vergess den Rest der Welt,       forget the rest thing in the world

wenn du bei mir bist!                when you stay by my side

I have searched for the Deutsch Spongebob but es gibt nür videos mit kein "subtitles".
Could you send me a link if you have any great episode in Deutsch with subtitles so that I could watch a short one every day! :)

Danke!

AMD 3

For my third AMD I decided to listen to several songs by Nena because I always liked the song 99 Red balloons. I started by listening to 99 Luftballoons (my favorite favorite song bythem) and continued to listen to Du Kennst Die Liebe Nicht, Was Hast Du in Meienem Traum Gemacht, and Rette Mich. It was very fun being able to listen ot these songs in German and get a feel for how German music was constructed and how similar many of the songs were musically to rock music in America. Other than 99 Luftbaloons, which I had already listened to before, my favorite song was Was Hast DU in Meinem Traum Gemacht. Ihad some trouble piecing together some of the lyrics but from what Iwas able to gather I thought it was hilariously creepy. Unless my translation was completely off, the song was about Nena asking how someone got into their dreams, and stuck themselves into their heads. What were you doing in my Dream? Why were you in it? Those lyrics are creepy, absurd, and even a little dark. I was very entertained. Additionally I also looked into the lyrics of 99 Luftballoons a little more and never realized how dark it was, very befitting of German stereotype. The song sounds so happy and up beat but the lyrics talk a bit about war and standing in the Dust of a City. I'm surprised that I never paid more attention to the lyrics... I guess that I just enjoyed the beat and music and never paid attention to the lyrics. All in all, I enjoyed listening to the Nena songs and I think Imight look into listening to more German Rock in my free time.

AMD 3

For this AMD I read the article on how language impacts the way we think. I found this article really interesting. Like people on the opposite side of the debate, I had previously thought that all humans thought the same for the most part, and that differences in thought we have are due to cultural differences, no difference in language. After reading this article, however, I now believe language has a great effect on how we think.

This article got me to examine how my thought process has changed now that I'm learning a new language. I'm still pretty fresh in my learning of German, but I'm already noticing changes in the way I think. For example, the gender of the article in German is something English doesn't have and therefore I haven't really considered before. It also seems to be one of the things I'm struggling with most because we don't have it in English. Another change I've noticed is because of the German case,
I now consider where the noun is in the sentence and how it functions. Had I learned German earlier in life, my lessons in English class about subjects and direct objects maybe would've gone a little smoother the first time around.

These are just mild changes I've started to notice as I work on learning German. I'm looking forward to noticing more changes in the way I think as I get a better grasp on the German language.

AMD 3

When I took German last year at my high school we had to sing a nursery rhyme that was called A,B,C Die Katz lief I'm Schnee. It was a cute German song. It was about a cat in the snow. I have provided the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1IKa3TsOuY 

This is actually from Kinderlied which is an album of most of the german nursery rhymes. It was funny hearing what they were singing about and being able to pick out some of the words. 

Bruder Jacob was another one of the songs we had to learn. It has a good tune and it is from the same tune as Farashaka, a french nursery rhyme. The link for this one is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv1rS-1GB30&feature=related

The last one I remember listening to was Grün, Grün, Grün sind Alles Meine Kleide. This was a color song to learnt the colors and it came in handy for pronunciation. The link to this song is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysrNgpicP44

Hope you enjoy them!

AMD 3

For the AMD 3 I spent time looking through the required book "Oh, Wie Schön its Panama" in an attempt to see how much I could now understand. I was able to hear what a lot of the words sound like in my mind, but some of the meaning was difficult to capture. I know it is about a little bear (ein kleiner Bär)  and a little tiger (win kleiner Tiger). It was interesting to see how German publication represents dialogue as well because instead of the " " marks the use a different double arrow symbol. At the same time, I liked how the grammar was similar with the punctuation (i.e. use of commas). Since we have just learned about the verb essen in class, I was able to understand the way it was used in relation to Möchten. I was also able to know what food the author was referring to without looking at the picture (der Fisch). Doing this also helped me solidify my knowledge of the use of "nicht" vs "kein" which I know is an important concept for me to conquer. A lot of the vocabulary we have learned in Kapitel 3 was evident, for example die Brücke, or a bridge, is a word we recently learned. It's so nice being able to understand so many different concepts in Deutsch!

Kultur-texte 3

It was very nice to get more of an understanding of the food culture within Germany. The most interesting part of these reading was first reading the article about the many types of German fast food that seem to be prevalent around the country then reading the article about the growing obsession over organic foods. I guess this shows the two sides of the coin: the tourist side and the resident side. I assume that for those visitors looking for the "authentic" German experience, the fried sausage and stale bread route is the way to go. The Currywurst description is my favorite....

Currywurst

Don’t get your hopes up too much -- this is no Tikka Massala and it doesn’t taste anything like curry. Basically, it's a Bratwurst (see above) which has been sliced up in a special machine with a dollop of luke-warm so-called curry ketchup ladled over it, and if your lucky with a dusting of mild curry powder and the obligatory half slice of dried out white bread.

It is also cool to read about the different taste in humor across the country, yet with all these reading Berlin is starting to sound like a rather heavy city.

Kultur 3

The article that really caught my interest was the Spiegel article "Teutonic Humor". I thought it was incredibly interesting to have a "stereotypical sense of humor" based upon the region of the country. I have not come across this kind of stereotype before. American humor is incredibly diverse, there really aren't stereotypes. Furthermore, when someone says "British humor", I have a fairly good idea of what they mean; however, I don't necessarily recognize that there is a difference between the humor of London and Liverpool. I was able to see many parallels between the humor of the different parts of Germany presented and humor that we recognize in America. The Berliner's humor seems to me most like that of American "city-folk", while the humor of the Bavarian reminds me of what traditional (traditionally rural) Americans would view as funny. One could argue that slapstick, obvious humor is traditional humor, and as such it doesn't surprise me that the Bavarian has this sense of humor. 

After reading the article, I feel like I would most enjoy the humor of The Hamburger. I have been told that I have an incredibly dry sense of humor, and I think it's pretty obvious. My "jokes" (I hate using the word joke because I don't ever have a traditional punchline) are usually based on blunt, sarcastic, or ironic observations that I point out to others in deadpan. This may be the reason why shows like Seinfeld and The Office are some of my favorite, because they are grounded in observational comedy. For me, the most subtle "jokes" are the ones that make me laugh the most. 

AMD 3

This week, I thought it would be useful to practice the German I have learned so far. As it so happens, several members of the clarinet section in the MMB who either are pursuing German as a minor, or as a part of a double major- most of whom are upperclassmen with several semesters of German study completed. We practiced having conversations, of course. Additionally, we would refer to parts of our pregame and half time show in German. For example, when we would play "Varsity", we would call it "Schulauswahl", or when our director would tell us to go to "Five in Front" (before we play the first "Hail to the Victors valiant") we would say "fünf davor". We played "Eye of the Tiger" during our half time show, so naturally we called it "Tigerauge", despite the fact that it wasn't the best translation. Overall, these small injections of German made an intense 3 day practice week in preparation of the most important home game of the year a bit less menacing. 

On an unrelated note, we beat die Spartaner. So that was great!

Kultur 3

I found the articles about German humor the most interesting. I like to think that I have a good sense of humor, I find mostly everything humorous. I never have gotten the appeal of Marcell the Shell however. Anyways, a lot of people don't even get my humor. For example, whenever my brother and I get into a hot car we always yell "Flames!!" because, you know, it's so hot that it's like fire. It's hilarious, we crack up every time. But whenever I try to explain that to someone else I get the occasional courtesy chuckle, but it's never amusing to them. Maybe it's because I love TV. So much of my humor has been influenced by Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Louis C.K., etc. I shouldn't even begin to talk about this, I'll never stop. I wish we had Karneval here. That would literally be a dream come true for me. I love jokes. I like to think that I have an extensive repertoire. So extensive that I'd be able to go to Germany and get laughs in any region? Probably not. But I know I have better stuff than that hunting joke.

AMD 3

For my activity, I decided to search up a few German dubbed "How I Met Your Mother" episodes.  I started watching the series a few weeks ago so I was familiar with the content.  The show's pace proved to be too fast for me to keep up with.  However, there were a few instances where I could recognize vocabulary we used in class.  Colors were brought up a lot.  The first few episodes had objects like the blue french horn and the purple giraffe.  I also noticed that a few of the words were not completely translated.  There is a part in the first episode where the character Barney Stinson introduces Ted to a girl at the bar by saying "Haaaaaaaaaaaave you met Ted?"  I would have thought the direct translation would be "Haben Sie trafen Ted?"  However, the episode in German said "Haaaaaaaaaaaave Sie trafen Ted?"  I thought it was funny that they still use a bit of English for the show's more prominent catchphrases.

Kulture 3 James Murphy

For my Kulture 3 assignement i read the article "Beer, Brewskies and Liquid Bread", I found this article both amusing and insightful. Having visited Germany in the past i have seen first hand just how big 'Bier' culture and production is, however i was still shocked to read that that Germany was home to 1,274 breweries, constituting about three quarters of all the breweries in the European Union!! Despite the big drinking culture in Germany it is interesting to note that they do not have much of a problem with underage drinking. In an article i read in the mail online, Germany registered very low on underage binge drinking figures, in my opinion this is because German children learn to handle their alcohol more responsibly at a younger age due to the social, friendly, relaxed nature of Germanys 'Bier' drinking culture.

AMD 3 James Murphy

For my third AMD assigment i did some delving into popular German cuisine. Germany certainly has some 'verrückt' dishes, the most unusal dishes i could find were, blood dumplings and tatar! (raw meat spread on toast) and egg butter! Neither of which sounded paticulary appitizing! The main staple foods of a common German diet tend to be meats, cheeses, vegatables, and fish, similar to the the US. Different regions in Germany often have 'Spezialität' dishes, this is especially prominent in the south of the country in regions such as Bavaria and Swabia where foods such as Sauerkraut and pretzels are paticulary popular. The national dish for Germany is currywurst and sauerbraten.

AMD3

I read the article about the language study and whether different languages have impacts on how one thinks. I found this pretty interesting because I have thought about this question a fair amount in the past. For instance, there are some eskimo languages that have over 50 words to describe the snow, and some tribal languages that do not have a word or adjectives for time. The two differing opinions here were that language changed the way people could think, and that everyone is capable thinking about the same information, but choose not to. However, I agree with both these ideas and consider the later view as a special case of the first statement. Firstly, I do not think that knowing a certain language will deprive someone of a specific piece of knowledge, therefore I would agree with the second school of thought. However, if my brain was trained in such a manner as to use certain senses or specific schools of thought right immediately then I would say that the way I think has been altered by my language. Therefore, I would agree that everyone can talk about a certain piece of information and understand it, but how one comes to this realization of the object or intellect is a path dictated by the constraints of the language. Thus, if my thought process to arrive at the same idea has been altered then I would say, strictly speaking by definition, that a person's thought process was altered by the language and thus his thoughts are influenced by the language. 

AMD 3

As it turns out my hall as an obsession with the cartoon South Park. So I found it only fitting to sit down on youtube and watch a few of the episodes in German and see how much of it I could actually understand. I was somewhat surprised as to how much i could understand and what I waste sure i could see what it meant from what they were doing in the cartoon. Of course one of the most famous lines in the episodes was " Oh main Gott! Sie haben kenny getötet." which of course means " Oh my god they killed Kenny! I thought it was kind of funny when it came to the theme song because it sounds nothing like the original and was way off key. Id have to say that Cartman has the best voice in German and by best of course I mean the funniest. He sounds even more nasally. Overall I could tolerate watching it in German because most of the shows on US tv that other countries take and turn into there own it never is close to as good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bui9EACljC4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gVrILwdxSM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqGR4JSHrUY&feature=relmfu

AMD 3

I decided since the cable I get in my dorm has a German channel to watch that. I watched a German home improvement show called Do It Yourself S.O.S. (don't get way it has an English name when the people in it only spoke/wrote in German). They were making a pillar, that could be in a house, that had water flow down the sides.  I'm not really sure what it would be called. The show also had a small table with a rectangular hole, with a fabric on it, in the center for putting books and magazines in. Its a neat design, I must say. Interestingly, the music the show played was mainly American music like Footloose and Green Day's American Idiot. They only played one or two German songs. I could understand a fair amount of words they were saying and also could infer some words general meaning from knowing what they were referring too.

AMD2

After watching a few German comedians, as well as some practical joke films I realized that I did not find their sense of humor to be terribly funny. In comparison to American humor, German humor was not as up beat and the people did not seem to have the same amount of energy as American comedians. The German comedians seemed more reserved and lacked much of the body language present in American comedy that gives jokes much more emphasis. Another thing is that the German comedian talked much more about stereotypes from around the world which it seemed the audience did not entirely understand. The German jokes seemed targeted at people who travel and are decently educated, rather than the average person. American humor is based more around actions and everyday experiences that everyone can relate to, like racial stereotypes or sex, but German humor required the audience to have to think about the joke and have prior knowledge about the world, which many Americans lack. As much as I do enjoy an American comedian sweating bricks and watching him crawl all over the floor explaining how his kid acts when his diaper is full, I found the German sense of humor more interesting. Mostly because it does require that bit of intellect and when you actually have to put some energy into understanding the jokes it is much funnier and a bit more rewarding in my opinion. I am a very big fan of sarcasm and the fact that sarcasm requires one to think about what was just said, to firstly figure out if it was sarcasm and then what is meant by it, is much more enjoyable than being told jokes about something vulgar or a common experience that is often too overdone in the first place.

A couple links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=nOtyvaXKEAg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76Gw6OFFMW4

Kultur 3

There is such  large difference when it comes to Germany and America and the way that they view drinking whether that be underage or public drinking. It is not unusual to see parents ok with their children drinking at a much younger age than most parents here would even dream of there kids drinking at. This does however have a positive affect it reached children to have respect for it and not take advantage of it when they are older like a good majority of kids in the US do which leads to alcohol poisoning, and MIP's...etc. When they said that Germany has 1,274 breweries it kind of blew my mind thinking about the size of Germany. When I was in Germany it was apparent that they are much more comfortable with there alcohol consumption you would see people drinking out in public and kids much younger than me were also drinking as they mentioned in an Obsession Expressed. I did find it a little weird, however, how they are trying to buckle down on the public drinking.

Arielle, Die Meerjungfrau

This weekend, I learned that there was a TV show called, "Arielle, Die Meerjungfrau".  It is a TV version of the Little Mermaid in German.  The first episode is called, "Hilfe für das Walfischbaby", "Help for the baby whale".
In the episode, Flounder and Arielle find a baby whale and decide to take care of him.  He is hiding, so, to get him out, Arielle says, "Komm her zu mir", which means, "come to me".  She calls him, "Du bist das kleinest Baby."  It means "you are the littlest baby", which is funny because he is still pretty big.
They spend the episode hiding the whale from Sebastian and King Triton.  But he comes out when hears a great concert happening.  His singing voice is too loud for the theater and breaks the stage.  King Triton is very upset when he realizes that Arielle was hiding this from him, "Was hast du sagen?", "What do you have to say?"  She replies that she is his mother, "Er hat mich zu seine Mutter."
Later on, Arielle is attacked by sharks, and the little whale saves her.  Everybody is thankful and helps him find his pod.  They all live happily ever after.

AMD1

I am very interesting in cars, and since Germany has a very good history of car engineering I watched some videos on car history in Germany, as well as cars on the autobahn. It was interesting to find out that German car companies became famous soon after WWII since they were the most developed in car manufacturing. The biggest of these early companies were VW, BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes. It was around that time that VW came out with what was nicknamed the beatle. Still today, the beatle is the most sold car in history and has a huge following of people who remake old beatles and just mess with them in general. Additionally, in the 50s BMW came out with the 3 series which today is BMW's best selling car and an enjoyable drive. Also in the 50s, Mercedes made the first production super car, which was iconic for it's gull wing doors that have been implemented in some of Mercedes newer models as a tribute to that car. Around this time Porsche as well came out with the 911 which today is one of Porsche's flagships and very popular among car enthusiasts. I am not entirely sure however about the fact that a German invented the first car because I have heard different stories about the invention and whereabouts of the invention of the first car. As for videos about the autobahn, they were not terribly interesting because it was just some cars driving around. So it appears that in order to truly experience it, one must actually go there. Below is one of the videos I watched, I skipped from video to video so I do not have them all.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKpw5YvGjEQ

Kultur3

I read the articles "Capping the bottle" "German Fast Food" and "Yo dude what about the Turks?"
The first article surprised me, since drinking is a big part of German culture I figured it was a natural habit that did not cause problems to society, From the reading I learn that isn't quite the situation. Now that I am aware of the consequences of drinking heavily in Germany I agree that regulations should be established. Limits should be set on how much is fine to drink in public, like the occasional beer and what is just unacceptable, and leads to misconduct. I'm not a big fan of American fast food and after reading the second article I doubt I'll be a fan of German food, Fried sausage does not seem appealing to me and neither do vinegar fries. The third article demonstrated the type of Turkish food there is and Germany and how to order it. Turkish food consisted of large amounts of meat and also did not seem something I'd look forward to trying. Well maybe just a Doner.

AMD3

 Being that it is October for this blog I chose to base my activity on Oktoberfest. Over the weekend I went to shake and steak and ordered a Oktoberfest burger. It consisted of a beef patty with black forest ham, swiss cheese and tangy mustard all enclosed by a toasted pretzel bun. I've ate german food before, but this burger has been by far the best I've had, specially because of the bun. Apart from eating the burger I also watched you tube videos relating to Oktoberfest. I ran into one called "Das Beer Boot," which is a German/English parody song, with a cool beat and some German vocabulary. I also watched   videos that talked about what you will find if you went to Oktoberfest. Dozens of breweries, variation of food, and large parades. Oktoberfest is now one more reason why I want to go to Germany.

AMD3

For my AMD3 I decided to watch all the Harry Potter Trailers in German and then watch them in English with German Subtitles. Through out all the trailers I recognized a few words such as Schule, Guten Tag, and other vocabulary words we have covered. I noticed though that the magical words such as Hogwarts and Spells like Petrificus Totalus were the same. As the trailers progressed it was interesting hearing the German voice overs, towards the more recent movies it sounds as if the voice actor for Harry hadn't quite hit puberty yet, and it didn't quite match. Other times the trailers were narrator and I didn't get to hear the actors voices. I have to admit that German did make the trailers seem much more intense. During the first trailer when Quirrell screams "Troll im den Kerker!!!" I laughed so hard! One thing I found very interesting was how the names of the movies were translated, for example Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was Harry potter und die Kummer des Schreckens. One thing that watch the trailers really made me wonder was how they managed to translate Tom Marvolo Riddle into the anagram I AM LORD VOLDEMORT. It turns out that they changed Tom's name to Tom Vorlost Riddle which would understandably anagram to Ist Lord Voldemort. I find this extremely clever because I would have never thought about how difficult it would be to make all the anagrams work for every language the Harry Potter Books have been translated into.

Kulture 3

I read "An Obsession Explained," "Capping the Bottle," und "German Fast Food."  I thought the two articles about drinking were particularly interesting because they took ideas I already had about German culture and either reinforced or modified them.  For example, I knew that Germans prized their beer, but I wasn't aware of a lot of the subtleties in production and in consumption that the articles pointed out.  I'm not a huge expert on different types of beer either, so it was interesting to read their tongue in cheek descriptions of the German varieties.  I found it pretty amusing to read their description of Berliner Weisse in particular, because that was the drink I zeroed in on when I was in Berlin (hey, it was cheap) and now I'm a little embarrassed at having ordered it (repeatedly).

Kultur 3

For the 3 Kultur articles I decided to read An Obsession Explained, Capping the Bottle, and Illogical Logic. I thought that it was interesting reading about the Bier culture in Germany. I knew that the German stereotype of drinking is existed but I never realized how many breweries they had; 1,274 breweries churning out over 5,000 beers? Sign me up please! It was also fun to read about how lax the German law are in regards to public drinking and the resistance the public had to regulating public drinking. As someone who enjoys drinking Bier it was baffling to read how liberally the German's take drinking, even allowing for drinking in public. The final article, Illogical Logic really amused me. It seemed to really fit into the previously learned stereotype that German's take everything seriously and at face value. I couldn't help but think of the YouTube video of the Party Pooper we were shown in class when I read that German's would tell you the literal next train, not the next train that your ticket was valid for.

Kapital 3-Kultur-Texte

The readings are presenting the eating and drinking habits of th Germans. I really like the sentences how it describes Germans waddling around with a glass of beer. Only after I read the articles, have I realized how much Germans love beers. They take it nearly as a substitution of Wasser. The first article also mentioned how FIFA attrats Germans but also gives a wrong information to visitors that es gibt merely a couple of beers in Germany. Honestly, I don't like the feeling with hangover so my favorite beer must be Kölsch. However it is risky as well since it is usually served in small size cups, which, to some extent, is encouraging people to drink more by substituting cups more frequently.
And I really like the fourth article which is talking about "fast food culture" of the Germans. I would love to try Bratwurst if I go to Germany for World Cups. Pommes looks interesting to me. It's equivalent to the fries in U.S. But no Essig is offered and we pay for the ketchup and mayonnaise if we want, which is quite different from here. I would love to try Zigeuner Schnitzel und Spätzle too. It makes me feel hungry to read these articles in the morning.
From the article "Official! World's funniest joke", I did not get it why people would rate "very funny" for the joke in the beginning...But the Europeans do laugh for this joke? It's sound understandable when the article claims that they more enjoy jokes with serious topics such as death... I think I should go there at least once to see how different their "laugh points" are from mine. :)

Kulture 3

Reading these articles was much more exciting than the previous articles because I could relate much more from my trip to Munich. Firstly, the beer in Munich is phenomenal and the biergartens are possibly one of my favorite things in the world. I don't mind that eating half a rotisserie chicken is probably twice my daily allowance of salt, it is delicious and simply makes me crave more delicious beer. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to experience many types of beer, but my first impressions left me wanting to go back. Moreover, I really enjoyed the article about the kabobs because they are everywhere in Europe and one of my favorite fast foods. The doner kabob is essentially the same as the shawarma in Egypt and other middle eastern countries  but I was very excited to see them around Europe with better quality ingredients. I preferred the spicy sauce on mine every time and would usually take two of them down very happily. I was also pleased with the article about German humor. I can see how their humor would be like the article described it, and I personally prefer sarcasm as my first language. I hope that after learning a few years of German I will be proficient enough to get some of their humor. I also see how this article tied into the previous article about German complaining. Not only do they complain about their buildings, but they use insults to each other as jokes and give their buildings insulting names to add to the humor. 

Kapital 3 Kultur

For the three articles of choice I decided to read an Obsession Explained, Capping the Bottle, and Eco-Centric Germans. I knew Bier played a big part in Deutsch Kultur but I had no idea there were certain niceties to be observed before drinking or so many different breweries and types of Bier in Deutschland. I skimmed of the list of Biers since I do not plan on drinking any. After reading the first article I thought it would be interesting to see how they could possibly be trying to ban public drinking. It seems impossible since Bier plays such a big part in the Kultur, but it was interesting to discover that not everyone in Deutschland drinks. A stereotype got to me there! The last article I actually found the most interesting because I believe that the Germans have this right. I wish that America was set up more like Deutschland and that organic foods were readily available and eaten by everyone. Actually I'm quite jealous of them, though it was sad finding out the other options are often moldy. Yuck!

Kapitel 3 Kultur

The three articles I chose to read were "An Obsession Explained: Beer, Brewskies and Liquid Bread", "Eco-Centric Germans: Organic Food Obsessions", and "German Fast Food: Forget the "Mett," Try a "Frikadelle." 

From these articles, plus the information from "Mealtimes in German-speaking countries", it's pretty obvious to me that I'd have a hard time eating much in Germany as a vegetarian. However, since the Germans are also so into organic food and sustainable eating, I feel like I'd have less of a moral struggle giving up my vegetarianism for German eating than I would for meat eating in America.

I love how much the Germans love organic food. Here, I still get eye rolls and scoffs for my organic preference, although since moving to Ann Arbor I have way more people on my side than I did at home. I've often dreamed of living somewhere where everyone else shares my love of all things organic and where organic is the norm. It seems Germany is the place of my dreams!

I also know how the Germans must feel, having people think they're not funny just because their humor is missed. I, much like the people in north Germany, love dry wit and deadpan humor. I appreciate understated humor, and I know what a disappointment it is when its missed and mistaken for a lack of funny bone.

Kulture 3

It was interesting to learn that a high majority of the German population would much rather have organic food than processed. With all that we here about their love for beer, it was kind of surprising. But then we learn that they take their consumption of beer seriously, and that most of it is made with natural ingredients and has few byproducts. It also probably helps they they have the organic food readily available within their supermarkets, where as here we can only find organic food priced way more than than regular stuff, or in fancy expensive organic stores.
On the other hand, apparently not everyone is so health conscience. They have many types of fast food available in Deutschland. They have like 5 different types of hot dogs. Whats sounds most appealing is the Zigeuner, Schnitzel, Krakauer, und Hähnchen with  a side of Pommes. I don't think I'd ever willingly eat Mett, I rarely eat meat that is under medium well. Completely raw meat sounds sickening... The Döner sounds good though, topped with Knoblauch and a side of Salat Komplett. I thought it was funny for them to describe the salad as a sniper, in order to get people to eat healthy. I burst out in laghter when I saw the title of this article "Vee Have Vays of Making You Laugh". But it was a nice read. It was good to find out they're not 100% serious all the time, and that they have a sense of humor.

Kultur 3

The beer article was interesting. The stereotype of Germans walking around with a beer in their hand has always been what I thought Germany would look like. I never knew that Germany made so many types of beer. 5,000 different types seems insane. Its funny how the first food quality act passed in Germany (or the Holy Roman Empire since that included the German states in 1516) was to make sure the quality of beer was good. Even then they appear to be obsessed with beer!
It seems like tightening public drinking laws would be a good idea. Is there a drinking age in Germany like here in America? I've always been curious about this.
I now see why Germans complain so much. They are so pessimistic that the it would make anyone think their country bad. They need to lighten up and be a little bit happier,

Kultur 3

The articles I read for Kultur 3 were pretty entertaining. I did enjoy reading about the different types of German beer, and I had no idea there were so many! I'm interested to talk to my friend living in Vienna to see if she has had any of these as well as suffered from any of the hangovers described. I did not find the article about the Fast Food ordering in Germany interesting though. The process was described as overwhelming, but to me it does not seem so in comparison to ordering at Zingerman's Deli. Also I had no idea that there were all of the different types of Schnitzel and Brotwurst. It's humorous how this is the German equivalent to fast food whereas America's version is hamburgers and chicken fingers. One of the articles mentioned the proper mannerism for drinking, which includes looking in the eyes of the people around you and lifting your glass to cheers. If this is not done its believed one will be cursed with seven years of bad sex. My best friend and her family introduced my family to this superstition over Thanksgiving last year, and now my family over exaggerates it every time someone makes a toast or cheers. The different types of humor that was explained in one article was interesting. I found the fact that there are so many stereotypes of people and their sense of humor more funny than the actual jokes in the article. One part that made me laugh though was when the article discussed the humor of the Hamburger, and how it's all about the irony of those 'up north'. The part about 'up north' reminded me of Michigan and how many people from Michigan say they're going up north for vacation, which really could mean just an hour north of Ann Arbor to 8 hours north. That is still a concept I have difficulty understanding from being out of state. Lastly, the article regarding the pessimism in Germany and German people was kind of redundant. We read an article like that before, and I think there is only so many times one can read about the German stereotype of being overly pessimistic. However, it was still an enjoyable read.

Kultur3

The beer article was dull to me.  They tried to spice it up by adding humorous comments regarding the hangovers, but it failed to redeem the rest of the article.  I did, however appreciate learning about the various types of beers made in Germany.  Weissbiers and Dunkels are already two favorites of mine, and I would love to try a german Bockbier, as I already like American Bocks.
As far as public drinking goes, since we do have laws banning it here in Michigan and I cannot imagine what things would look like without them, it seems like something worth pursuing.  It would help cities stay cleaner, and is proven to discourage violent crime.
It is great to hear that the Germans are excited about local foods, because that is better for everyone.  It was interesting to hear the final sentence.  The Germans, being so interested facts and statistics, I would think would not make a claim like this.  There has not been a large amount of research to substantiate the claim that organic foods' nutrition content is any higher than that of conventionally grown food.
Coming from an American perspective, I would say that the pessimists are the idiots.  Optimism gives you the ability to see the opportunities that are around you and take advantage of them.
Finally, the humor part makes me very curious to go to one of those comedy nights and see how it really sounds.

AMD 3

For my AMD, I watched the movie Europa Europa with English subtitles. It is the story of a young Jewish boy's survival during WWII. His name is Solomon Perel, nicknamed Solek. Early in the movie, he becomes separated from his family and ends up in a communist orphanage in the Soviet Union. When the Nazis invade the Soviet Union, Solek is captured, but he says that his name is Joseph Peters and was captured by the Nazis. He speaks German and Russia and becomes a translator for the Nazi army. He earns the nickname "Jupp" and is called a good luck charm after several victories by the Nazi infantry that he is with. The Nazi commander decides to adopt Jupp because he is childless himself and sends Jupp to the the Nazi Youth school in Berlin. There, Jupp is hailed as a hero. A girl, Leni, becomes close to Jupp, but he rejects her after she makes an extremely anti-semitic remark. Jupp soon fears for his life when a Nazi official comes in who specializes in detecting Jews. The official uses Jupp as a demonstration and after measuring him, claims that Jupp is a perfect Aryan. Jupp then again is fearful when the Gestapo calls him in looking for his papers. He buys some time by saying that the papers are in Grodno, where the orphanage in the Soviet Union was. The building where the Gestapo was is then bombed by the Allied forces and Jupp is safe. Towards the end of the war, Jupp surrenders himself to the Soviet Union during a battle. He tells them his story, but they do not believe him because they claim that he does not look like a Jew. Just as he is about to be executed, Jupp's long-lost brother recognizes him and saves his life. Jupp then moves to the new state of Israel. The movie ends with real Solomon Perel in old age singing a Jewish folk song.
I enjoyed this movie a lot because I like movies about WWII. I thought Solek's life was fascinating because of the lengths that he went to survive the Nazis and Soviet Union. I would definitely recommend it to other people.

Kapital 3-Kultur-Texte

I found the article "Eco-Centric Germans: Organic Food Obsessions" to be really interesting. In Southern California, where I live, there is a push towards organic food taking place. In the recent years, new small-scale organic markets have appeared while fast-food restaurants and other inorganic places have had trouble keeping business going. One of the main arguments why mass organic food production cannot happen right now is because it costs too much money and our society is not affluent enough to survive off of it. So, it was very interesting to read this article that showed that organic farming is possible, even on a national scale. I am in-favor of organic farming and buying locally-grown foods. I hope to one day be able to visit Germany and participate in a culture that is now the front-runner in this type of farming, production, and consumption.

AMD 1

For AMD1 I stalked the Vienna State Opera and Vienna State Ballet to see what they are up to this season. The Vienna State Opera is like the Metropolitan Opera of Austria except it's far more enriched with tradition.

First I went through the Opera and Ballet season and they it should be a good one! The Vienna State Opera produces so many operas each year. With the excepetion of June and July you can basically go to a performance each night of the year. However, it doesn't look like they will be producing any new works this season. I assume this is because of the economy. It is a far greater risk to produce a new work rather than revamp a classic like Ariadne auf Naxos (the Opera Program at U-M will be doing this opera in March!).

The Ballet could be described as more forward thinking because they present the traditional works as well as  some very new and innovative pieces as well. One is a ballet version of Carmina Burana. This is usually a massive choral and orchestral piece, but companies sometimes create movement to go along with the text. (Michigan Opera Theatre did this last year with a Cirque du Soleil theme and a professor in the School of Music directed it. I heard it was amazing.)  Here is a link to the trailer for the Vienna State Ballet's version:

                                         Carmina Burana

One final thing that I think is so incredible is the Opernball that happens each year at the Vienna State Opera house. They create one massive dance floor by extending the stage all the way out into the audience. They ballet schools do a small presentation as well as the professional company. Then they give a small presentation with some notable opera singers. This event is definitely on my bucket list.

AMD 2

For this amd I read Mark Twain's "The awful German Language". For it to have been written so long most of his humor and annoyances still stand. I must say, I am kind of scared to go further in language. Most of it is caused by the problems he had with the 4 cases. We only learned zwei, and just barely scratched the surface with those. He was an accomplished writer, and still had trouble with the grammar. Something else that was relatable was the part about the gender of each noun. There is no formula, nor rule (if there was a rule, there would be more exceptions than actual uses, as Twain pointed out). So a newcomer must first learn the noun (remember to capitalize it) then learn and remember the gender. The part about the Fishwife was really funny. I also like how he stated that sometimes nouns and people get over described. Zum beispiel: The English woman translates into die Engländerinn, which in turn translates into the English she-woman. What's funny about this is that the adult woman is over described, but if it were a female child, she would be described as it (das Mädchen).  As we haven't gotten this far yet, I found it interesting that each body part has its own gender, it does not take that of its owner. Another part we haven't really explored yet is really long German words. Normally in English, words combined are separated by a hyphen or shortened with an apostrophe. In German, they are just thrown together, and the beginner is left to decipher the word piece by piece. He also touched on adjectives. With only 2 cases, there are soo many forms to learn. But when we learn the other 2 cases....its going to be frightening.

This is just a few pieces that i found interesting. Here is the link for those who didn't get a chance to see it. http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html

AMD 3

For my third AMD post, I watched the German movie "Goodbye Lenin!," which was played on a Sunday night at my residence hall.  The movie tells a story about how a young man named Alex who

in 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after an eight month-long coma, must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.  Taking place during the reunification of East and West Germany, the young man, Alex, tries to portray the world around his mother as one that is still in the control of the Socialist (although there are giant Coca-Cola build boards outside her house).  In the end, she tells her son that she always wanted to go to West Germany with her husband, who left due to harassment by the Socialists, but stayed to keep the remainder of her family safe from "The Party."  As a history buff, I really enjoyed the historical aspect of this movie and its portrayal of a communist world vs. a capitalist one.

Kapital 3-Kultur-Texte

I left reading the article “Germany Looks to Tighten Up Public Drinking Rules,” with a thought of irony and amusement.  As most of the other articles that I have read concerning Germany show, Germany is known for its beer and its people are perhaps second only to the Irish when it comes to the stereotypical drunk foreigner portrayal.  This is the country that is responsible for Oktoberfest, the holiday that in most eyes is seen as an annual party with lots of beer.  I am interested in seeing how this proposed prohibition (no pun intended) on excess amounts of alcohol will play out in the coming months.

Kapitel 1 Kultur-texte

What an enlightening read!

I really appreciated the fact that they included the map of German immigrants across the United States in the article. I expected New York to have a large population of immigrants, but the real surprise are the large numbers of German immigrants in the Midwest, California, Washington, and Texas. One line that was particularly fascinating to me was the fact that Germans sometimes looked for land in America that resembled the land of Germany such as the forests of Wisconsin. Also, the German fascination with Native Americans was interesting to read. The article mentioned the many publications and clubs in Germany that resulted on account of the contact between Native Americans and German speaking immigrants, but I wish it had talked more about why this obsession came about.

The Turner movement around the country and especially in Milwaukee is a great example of how the German culture thrived and continues to thrive in American society. I have always been impressed with the fierce dedication of European countries, especially Germany, in their constant rethinking and innovation in terms of the way we look at ourselves and society.

Another highlight of this article was the brief explanation on the origins of Bambi. Prior to reading this article I had a little knowledge of Bambi even though I have never seen the Disney movie. It is very interesting how this story came from such a dark place yet was molded into something for children.

AMD 1

I watched the first act of The Magic Flute in German on youtube. It was about an hour and 10 minutes. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlhbFk2GbcY It has English subtitles. I give the performance 5 stars but this specific video about a 4 simply because the audio and subtitles are kinda off during the second act.

The most famous part of this opera is in the second act, and is the Queen's second aria, which is "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" (The vengeance of hell boils in my heart) often shortened to "Der Hölle Rache" it starts at about 1:28:00, which includes the 2 minute speech before the actual song. It is sung by Diana Damrau

(SPOILER ALERT) For those who wish to view the opera later.

The first act is about Tamino, a prince, who is tasked with finding the Queen of the Night's daughter who was "abducted" by Sarastro. It opens with the prince being attacked by a snake. He is aided by three witches who serve the Queen. Here we also meet Papageno, a bird catcher. Who lies to Tamino and tells him that he saved him. The witches return, and show the prince a picture of the princess. He falls in love instantly ( Ich bin in Liebe- I am in love.), and is tasked with finding her. The witches reveal Papageno's lie, but he is given a chance to redeem himself by being told to aid the prince. They then herald the Queen's arrival (Sie kommt, Sie kommt, Sie kommt- She comes). Who then tells Tamino about her grief, and then requests his help herself (Rettet meine Tochter- Rescue my daughter). She says if he can find her, then he can have her love. Tamino is then given the flute (Die Zauberflöte), and Papageno is given a chime, which will help them on their journey. We then meet the three boys, which tell Tamino that he will succeed if he fights like a man. Pamina, the princess, is kept by Monostatos, who serves Sarastros. On his journey, Tamino meets a man on holy ground, who tells him that he was bewitched by a woman, and will never find his love if he continues as his, with hate in his heart. While there, Tamino learns that Pamina is alive (sie lebt- She lives). He then plays his flute in the hopes that she will hear it (Pamina mich hören- Pamina hear me). Shortly after we meet Sarastro. Who gives a speech on how women need men. Tamino is then put through the Temple of Trials.

I enjoyed the storyline, except for the subtle, and not so subtle, hints of sexism. I am sure that this is not part of German culture now, as this play was written by Mozart. I also enjoyed being able to pick out and here certain verbs and nouns that we learned, some of which I have listed. This has to be my favorite interpretation of the piece, because of the actors (Frau Damrau ist fantastisch, she has the voice, and acting abilities to pull of the part.), but mainly because of the stage set. It is set up as a moody, dark atmosphere, which it think was originally written for. When it is shown in a more colorful, comedic set, it loses some of the "oomph". And alot of the words can be made out, even if you don't know what they mean yet.

Kapitel 2 Kultur Text

I started off with the articles concerning Germain complaints. As an outsider looking in, I would see them as a people who are very ungrateful and take things for granted. But after a little enlightening, i learned that they have their reasons. One of which, the most respectable I think, is that they are always striving for improvement. They see a flaw in something, and they're thinking of a way to fix it. I then looked at the staring blog. My favorite part was "“Late night last night, eh? You got home at 3:08 a.m.”". This was funny, because where I'm from someone watching you like this was never a good thing. I enjoyed the honesty blog the most. Their culture, which may seem, rude to some, I think is more effective socially. It greatly reduces the chances of misunderstandings. It cuts back on the false images put off by people. And most importantly, you don't waste your time with someone or people who don't care about you. You know who your friends are; and you know when someone is being nice, the genuinely mean it.

Kapitel 2 Kulture text

While I was in Germany, I unfortunately did not have much time to spend with the locals since I only had a weekend to experience Munich. However, this trend of not being complacent or appreciative of their surroundings does not surprise me too much. Europeans were in general more concerned about themselves and less concerned about others than we are in the US. It is much more of a dog eat dog world than in the US. Additionally, Europeans do not have all the cultural norms we have - and are much less prude - such as not being completely honest so we don't say something rude, offensive, or politically incorrect. I'd bet they don't even know what the term "politically correct" is. For these two reasons of being much more blunt and more focused on their own well beings than we are here in the US, I can understand how Germans would complain much more than Americans. I however do appreciate this quality much more than what we have in the US. Instead of not being honest to each other for fear of hurting someone's feelings, it would be much more productive if people could learn how to take criticism constructively, or not be so self-conscious that everyone has to refrain from speaking their mind to appease someone's insecurities. However, I would probably get tired of hearing their complaints and in the end voice my own complaints about their complaints, but I still view that situation as better than what we have here in America.

Kapitel 1 Kultur Text

This text tells the story of early the German settlers and how their culture intertwined with the culture already present their. So where is German culture? It may seem to be not as present as say Italian or Irish, but it is still there. The reason it may seem to be not there is because as in Germany, much of the culture is different in many places of the country. As such, when settlers came over here they spread their culture to different parts of the country. With religion for example, many Germans follow different sects of religion, such as episcopalian, lutheran, baptist, and German Reformed. So there are many different things that go along with German culture. Much of it is still present today throughout parts of the country, some of it is just more recognizable than others. Zum Beispiel, the language and culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch. This is rooted in German culture, but isn't as recognizable because the word "Dutch" in America is usually related to the people of Switzerland. Then there is also Oktoberfest. Which has become much more than just the celebration of german heritage over the years.

AMD 2

For the second AMD I chose to read Mark Twain's essay "The Awful German Language." I really enjoyed reading this essay; it was really funny, especially for someone trying to learn the German language. I took a stab at learning German in high school, but got frustrated with all the exceptions and cases, which were something completely new and foreign to me, and gave up pretty quickly.

This time around I'm ready for the challenge, and the way we've been learning in class is proving to be more helpful to me than the methods from my last class. This essay also helped make light of a lot of the frustrations I'm dealing with. Even Mark Twain struggled with case and knowing what "sie" actually means in a sentence.

The direct translations provided by Twain had me laughing out loud, especially the one demonstrating the separable verbs. Although I'm trying to learn not to directly translate in my head, I still do occasionally and the sentences produced from translating German back to English are rather amusing.

For the most part, even though I enjoy studying German, I have to agree with much of what Twain said, although I'm not as big a fan of Schlag and Zug as he is. I find them more confusing than useful.

Kapitel 3 Kultur-Texte

On my trip to Germany my uncle took us to a German restaurant called Waldgeist, which is located in a small german town called Hofheim. In this restaurant all the plates being served were ten times bigger than they actually were at a normal German restaurant. It was quite funny because it seemed like an adaptation from the American culture. Of course the specialty is the Bier, Wiener Schnitzel, und Bratwurst. Obviously I didn't finish my plat but I did enjoy this restaurant who is also very informal and a town delicacy.

AMD 1

My Trip to Germany

       I spent some time clicking around the Germany page on lonelyplanet.com and found myself growing increasingly excited by the idea of actually taking a trip there. I've always toyed with the idea, but now with the resources to study abroad, toying with the idea can become putting the idea into action.
       From what I read, I think I'd most enjoy Germany in the off season, traveling mid-September because how can you travel to Germany without attending Oktoberfest? I'd also love to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair. Conveniently, when I'd most enjoy Germany corresponds nicely with the school year and although I don't know where exactly I'd like to study yet, I know no matter where I end up I'll have a wonderful time and of course I'd do a lot of traveling within the country in a feeble attempt to see it all.
     'An Evening at Charlottenburg Palace' Palace Tour, Dinner and Concert by the Berlin Residence Orchestra is an event in Berlin that sounds right up my alley. I'm a big fan of shopping and an even bigger fan of chocolate, so both Alexa, the giant mall and Fassbender & Rausch, the chocolate shop are on my to-do list.
       I think what I'm most excited for is the natural beauty of Germany. I love spending time outside, and Germany has plenty of breathtaking nature to explore. And because the Germans work so hard to preserve this nature there are plenty opportunities for me to study Environmental Science in a beautiful, new, and exciting country.

AMD 2 James Murphy

For my second AMD assignment I did some reserch on Germany's most famous "Komponist", Ludwig van Beethoven. As a listener of classical music, i have always been a big admirer of Beethoven's work. Beethoven was born on the 16th of December 1770 in Bonn, Bonn is a city on the banks of the Rhine River and was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990, however it was in Vienna that Beethoven's music carrer began to take off, and he began composing. His best known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 32 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets. He died on 26 March 1827 at the age of 56, however his legacy has lived on, and is commonly reguarded in not only Germany but the rest of the world as being one of the best and most successful composers of all time.

AMD 2

For my AMD post I decided to watch a recording of  a fußball game between Duetschland and Argentinien on 15 August 2012. I've never been a big soccer fan but it was very interesting watching the match between the two countries. It was hard to make out a lot of what was being said but I was able to pick up on a few key words. Despite the difficulty understanding the announcers it was very interesting to see the Germans react to the game and view the camera pans over the crowd. Soccer culture seems much different from Football culture here in the US and it was fun getting a view of the predominant sport in Germany and around the world. Unfortunately Germany lost the friendly 1-3 but it was still fun to watch and learn a little about Soccer and the Germans in the process!

AMD2

This weekend, since the marching band did not travel to Purdue for the football game , several of us went in small groups. I went with several other clarinets. While in the car for the 5 hour drive there, I brought along one of my all time favorite books: Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen (Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None), by Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche was born in 1844 near Leipzig in the German Kingdom of Prussia. He is probably the most well known German philosopher for his notable work in existentialism. However, many people who are unfamiliar with his work do not realize that he is also one of the greatest writers of both prose and poetry Germany has ever produced. His writing is somewhat dry- it isn't a book I would recommend, simply because it can be not understand any of what he means.

I much prefer the book he published previous to Zarathustra, Die fröliche Wissenschaft (The Gay/Joyous Science). While Zarathustra is written in a manner that is similar to a novel (in fact, many compare its layout to that of the Bible- a mock Gospel, in a way). Die fröliche Wissenschaft, on the other hand, it written entirely in "sections" that are aphorisms- short, pithy statements that are easy to remember. Each section has a heading number, a topic sentence or question, and a response. For example, one of my favorite aphorisms is "Section 270: What Saith Thy Conscience? "Thou shalt become what Thou art." While many of these aphorisms can be several paragraphs long, many are also one sentence long. I much preferred the format of Die fröliche Wissenschaft and I feel like I was able to learn more in reading it compared to Zarathustra. I would indeed recommend it.

AMD 1

For my first AMD assignment i watched various Fusßall videos of the German national Mannshaft! I found these videos incredibly intriguing as they show just how big Fusßall is within the German culture this is highlighted in the video which shows german fans supporting and cheering for their team along with none other than chancellor Angela Merkal!(who is an honory member of division 2 side FC Energie Cottbus). This craze for the sport has been imbedded in the culture for many years, just like basketball and american football has been in the US, and i find it interesting to compare the two sporting cultures as well as the dedication of fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjCoUvqSqBs

AMD zwei

The downside to being a history major, and in all of my wisdom taking 3 300-level history courses at once, is that every weekend we have hundreds upon hundreds of pages of reading to do. This Donnerstag, as a respite from a very light hearted (sarcasam) autobiography of a woman who worked as nurse during WWI, and after my New England Patriots had given Peyton Manning the thrashing which he deserved, I found myself on the German Channel of the campus cable.  The show that was on was something about supped-up drag racing cars. Now, I know next to nothing about cars (my extent being one pushes the pedel on the right and if nothing happens, one calls AAA), but I was shocked by what I saw on this show: A West-Virginia redneck, who's name, no lie, was Billy-Bob, who spoke fluent German.  Apparently this man so specialized in supping-up old Volkswagon's that he has taught himself German in order to connect and discus with other automobile lovers like himself. Just goes to show you never know how people will surprise you.

AMD2

Ich höre Musik in Deutsch am Wochenende.

Ich finde ein Weihnachtslied although Chritsmas is two months away from now. It's called "Schnuffels Weihnachtslied". Since it was sung by kids, the song sounds very sweet and is full of happiness. I think it might be a good way to learn German by listening to the songs sung by kids cuz they pronounce clearly.

Part of the lyrics are
"Ich bin happy, wenn Du an mich denkst
Ich hab für Dich ein ganz tolles Geschenk
Und ich zünde eine Kerze an
Und dann wart' ich auf den Weihnachtsmann "
I could  feel the excitement that kids have, waiting for the Santa Claus!

The second song I recommend is "Das Beste" from Silbermond. Very different from the first one. This song is somewhat moving cuz the singer is singing to express her gratefulness for her lover. My favorite sentence is: Du bist das Beste was mir je pasisert ist, es tut so gut wie du mich liebst! It's been so exciting to listen to the German songs and I was so surprised when I found so many words that I've learnt!!

AMD 2

Well when I was in 9th grade I went on a trip to Germany. During this trip the World Cup was going on. One of my favorite soccer players, Michael Ballack, is from Germany. I was so excited that I was in his country. More than anything I wanted to watch him play, but of course it was sold out. That year I also remember that Germany played Italy. Since my family is italian and my neighbors our german we decided to watch the game together. I have never felt so much tension in one house. Well let me finish by telling you that Italy won that world cup. But, I do remember my german neighbors screaming "Scheiße."That was my first german word :)

AMD 2

For my activity, I decided to try and learn German vocabulary by writing lyrics with a German friend, Carly.  It turned out to be extremely fun, but our lyrics didn't seem to make sense.  We tried to have rhyming lyrics, but with our limited vocabularies, we came up with a few nonsensical songs.  Most of them seemed to be a cluster of random nouns and colors...

Wir haben ein rote Hund
er isst das Ananas... und
ich sage "Guten Morgen!"
er sagt "das Lied ist beschissen."

To be completely honest, this is probably the best we've come up with... and it probably doesn't even use proper grammar.  However, we figured that a lot of songs we knew didn't really use proper grammar and our lyric writing exercise could help us with learning vocabulary.

It didn't...

...BUT it was extremely fun, and I hope to write some better songs in German by the end of the semester!

AMD 2

Ich spiele das Darts dies Wochenende.  I played with my friend who studies German here.  We made a point of only speaking German during the matches.  My contribution was counting the score after each round, which required me to call out numbers von nul bis zwanzig, and mark down numbers von dreihunderteins bis nul.  I used phrases like, "gut Schuss" (good shot) und "schlecter Schuss"(bad shot).  I would go for the dreimalig zwanzig during the early rounds.  The game must be won on a double, I won the final game on a Doppeleins.  Meine Freundin had the best single turn with a score of fünfundneunzig.  My favorite phrase was, "Ich habe gewonnen!"

While playing, I only listened to what she said in German, and was able to pick up a few cool phrases unrelated to the game.  I learned that "diese Wiedergabeliste ist fantastisch" means, this playlist is fantastic.  And, "wann ist Ihr Vorstellungsgespräch" means, when is your interview.  It was great to have a chance to practice in such a low pressure environment.

AMD2

Mittwoch Abend my friend Samantha and I went to the Berlin There, Done That event hosted by the Max Kade House. I truthfully think it would be scary to live in a place that's dedicated to speaking only German, but my friend doesn't. I do suppose if I were to become better at speaking German it wouldn't be as scary. The food that they had at the event was some of the best food I've had since I've been at U of M. The mac and cheese was delicious and the potato cakes were amazing. I'm not really a sauerkraut person but the bratwurst in it was really good. We had to go around to different stations, I found the tie-dying fun and interestingly enough I found out that I've been pronouncing "Tschüss" with too much a "T" sound. There was one station that involved trivia about many famous German people, and surprisingly I recognized a lot of them from class! Overall I had a lot of fun at the event and I learned not only more about German, but German here at U of M.

AMD2

For my post, I decided that I wanted to listen to some popular German music that is out today. So, I looked up Germany's Top 40 list. Unfortunately, all of the songs were in English, even though I haven't heard really any of them. I went back to google and found a list of 100 Popular songs in German that are out today. I listened to the first five songs. They were: "Gloria" by Joachim Witt, "Bin Dann Mal Weg" by Blumentopf, "Hoher Als Der Rest Der Welt" by Massiv, "The Diamond Boy 2012" by Massiv, and "Irgendwie Anders" by Tonbandgerät. All of these songs came from different genres, just like American music. I am now assuming that Massiv is popular in Germany because he was on the list several times and made the Top 5 twice. He is a rapper, not my favorite. I did like "Bin Dann Mal Weg" and "Irgendwie Anders." "Bin Dann Mal Weg" is more rock than all the others. "Irgendwie Anders" was poppy and catchy. The band that plays "Irgendwie Anders", Tonbandgerät, sounds a lot like Matt and Kim. Overall, I enjoyed exploring the music from Germany; it is cool to see what other countries like in music and what the whole music scene is there.

AMD2

Since there is no better way to learn a language than to be totally emerged in it i changed the language on my phone and on my computer to german. At first it seemed to be overwhelming and it still is i can understand about half of the words clearly and the other half I'm lost at first glance but the longer that i look at the more it makes sense considering a lot of the words have a stem word which we have already learned. Where it gets really confusing is on the internet where i usually take things for granted i no longer do. But as of right now i feel like i understand the language a little better because it isn't in the classroom. Yes the book can help a lot but there is no better way than to jump into the language and try to accomplish my task even if that measn navigating something which is usually a piece of cake in german. I think from now on once a week I'm going to switch the language settings over for an hour or two just so i can get a better grasp of what "real german" is like.

AMD2

Since I spend a lächerlich amount of time on Facebook, I figured that would be a good place to practice German.  I changed my Facebook language to German and have been trying to navigate it that way since.

Some things on there were already familiar to me, such as "Wohnt in ____ " "Studeirt ____ " or "Aus _____ " in people's info sections.  Also, it has been helping to reinforce my memory for the days of the week and the names of the months (otherwise how will I know if that party invitation I got is for friday or saturday?)

I enjoyed seeing familiar things in a different language, such as the "like" button saying "Gefällt mir" or  notifications being "Benachrichtigungen"

Some phrases weren't as familiar, but I've been able to work them into conversations with my friends who speak German, such as "Was machst du gerade?" ("what are you doing?" which is the prompt in the status-update box).

AMD 2

I decided to read Mark Twain's essay "The Awful German Language". My roommate thought I was a weirdo for chuckling at some of the things Twain mentions on how strange German is. A lot of the stuff he brought up like 3 different "the's" or how some nouns have a gender when they shouldn't I agreed with. The example I found pretty funny was the turnip and young lady,

"Gretchen.

Wilhelm, where is the turnip?

Wilhelm.

She has gone to the kitchen.

Gretchen.

Where is the accomplished and beautiful English maiden?

Wilhelm.

It has gone to the opera.".

That seemed to sum up the language well, basically illustrating how confusing and how complicated their grammar is.
On a side note, when Twain wrote, "Now there are more adjectives in this language than there are black cats in Switzerland" I didn't realize Switzerland was known for its black cats.
I think Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen is my new favorite word. I don't think English has words of that length or even close to that length. That word alone looks like it is a sentence and someone forgot to put spaces between the words.

AMD2

For AMD2, I listened to German songs that are currently popular. The songs I listened to were: Schau nicht mehr zurück and Lila Wolken. A lot of the songs popular in Germany are in English so I also listened to a few other German songs that are not as popular. These songs are: Sleipnir and 99 Luftballons. Some of the popular songs include She Wolf (Falling to Pieces), Stardust, Summertime Sadness and Feel Again. The song, Gangnam Style, is also quite popular. The first song, Schau nicht mehr zurück, is about how the singer is not going to look back on the past but instead look forward to the future. The second song, Lila Wolken, is about being young and living life to the fullest while still young. The third song, Sleipnir, is about a battle. The fourth song, 99 Luftballons, is about the cold war and is a song of protest. Also, I was surprised at how many words I was able to recognize in all of the songs.

AMD1

For AMD1, I read the article, "Kurzer aber heftiger Herbststurm sorgt für Schäden in Berlin" in German. The article is about the damage inflicted by a recent Autumn storm in Berlin. According to the article, the storm caused a tree to fall on the train tracks in Berlin and interrupted the normal train schedule. Another tree fell on a house, there was damage to other buildings and there was flooding in the streets. The storm occurred between 15.40 and 17.30. There were a lot of words I did not recognize, but I was able to find some verbs and adjectives that I recognized which made it possible to guess what some of the words I did not know meant. Some of the words I did not recognize were: heftiger, lahmgelegt, sowohl, and rollen.

Kultur 2

For the article, "The German National Pastime", I found it interesting that the amount Germans complain is so much larger than in the US. I have always thought that people in the US tend to complain a lot, so I cannot imagine how much the Germans must complain if the person who wrote the article noticed such a significant difference between the two countries. For the article, "The Germanic Stare Down", I thought it was interesting that this particular aspect of German culture has stayed around for so long after the 20th century. In a way, its good that Germans feel such a strong civic duty to their fellow countrymen, but I also think that this particular characteristic of Germans could get to be overbearing and rather annoying. Also, when I visited Germany, I noticed that people definitely seemed comfortable with staring. For the article, "Brutally Honest: Have you gained weight?", I think it is good to an extent to be so honest so that people will not misinterpret what you say, but I think that this brutal honesty does not need to extend as far as the article says it does. For the article, "By the Numbers: An Obsession with Statistics", I think that this is a very good quality in the German culture. Germans seem to be very knowledgeable of not only the statistics of places, but also with history and current events.

AMD2

For this activity I listened to the German National Anthem. To my surprise I was able to distinguish a lot of terms that I have learn through classes so far. For example The opening starts off as Germany, Germany above all, above all in the world. I recognize the "in der Welt" and learned what über alles, meant. I also was able to grasp Vaterland since I know vater means father vaterland will mean father land. I distinguished what Ihren alten schönen Klang, "their old beautiful chime" since ihr, alt, schön, were all words we have learn in class. In one part it states "Deutsche Frauen" which of course I know it means German women. I liked listening to the anthem it had a fun, marching beat to it and was pretty easy to understand parts of the lyrics.

Kultur 2

As I was reading the article "Have you Gained Weight?" I found it to be funny and quiet different from what my culture is like. I couldn't help but compare and contrast between Mexican culture and German Culture. In my culture people tend to beat around the bush and find out why a person is gaining weight by asking other people or asking questions that might lead the person to admit they've been gaining weight. In Mexico if you were to ask someone directly why they are gaining weight a person would get offended and perceive your comment as rude. Unlike Germany where it is normal for people to be blunt and not get upset over the comments.
In the article "The Germanic Stare Down": Watcha lookin' at Granny? I found it interesting because unlike the first article this one I can relate to my culture. Alike old Germans, old Mexicans feel a sense of watching what occurs in their neighborhood and being alert and positive citizens to their countries. In Mexico, specially in the villages you will see old people peeking out the windows the same way the article described the Germans. Also the Subway scenario is also likely to happen in Mexico since we are known to love gossip, mexicans tend to stare at what others are wearing to later talk or comment and of course gossip.

Kultur 2

As I read through the articles, what I found quite interesting is that these "Germanic" qualities seem more to me like "Eastern European" qualities. I see many of the same qualities (constant complaining, the blunt statements, the staring) from my relatives in the former Yugoslavia. I would assume that this has a lot to do with the fact that most modern Eastern European governments were once Communist, just as Germany was (pre-Unification). It seems that each time my overseas family skypes my parents, they have something new to complain about. Be it the government, their health, the weather, there's always something new (and almost always minor) to complain about. They can also be incredibly blunt with their statements- a trait that I share. It seems that they don't have the patience to beat around the bush- they say what they think. That can be either a very good trait, or one that is very bad (especially for Westerners who don't expect it). And if there's anything that is evident throughout Eastern Europe, it's the staring. My grandmother is a huge perpetrator of this. We like to laugh about it, that she has no shame- regardless of who it is, where we are, if something interests her for whatever reason, she stares. During my last visit to Macedonia, I noticed the stares as well. People see Americans or hear English being spoken, and their first inclination is to observe. As creepy as it is, I think it is beneficial for all of us to just observe the people and happenings around us once in a while.

AMD 2

     A couple weeks ago a video of a guy named Flula was posted onto Reddit. It was basically a video of him complaining why it's stupid to shoot fish in a barrel. You already caught the fish, why do you need to kill them? It was very funny but now I appreciate the humor even more after reading the Kultur 2 texts. Flula is everything that is German. He starts out every video extremely distraught. Usually saying something like "So I haf dis DJ friend. And he say to me, 'Flula. You are preaching to the choir'...What? There is no choir here. And I would not preach to it". He complains about everything! One of my favorites is when someone tells him he is the cat's pajamas. He takes it as a death threat.
     It's strange to think of idioms that are so common in  English being a puzzle to people who are not native speakers. Because really, a lot of them don't make sense. A lot of them have strange origins from the Middle Ages. One of my friends gifted me a book of strange English sayings. Most of them say "This phrase originated in the courts of Queen Elizabeth"or something like that. For example the phrase "Put your best foot forward". Apparently footwear was a sign of how well off you were. So at fancy parties, you would present yourself putting your best dressed foot forward. Neat, right? So most of these sayings at one time made sense, but English speakers don't use them without knowing their origin. So Flula's hilarious confusion is alright by me. I'd be certainly confused if I was him.

     Here's another Flula video!

     Hier is a website with German idioms that might confuse me. One of my favorites is "bis in die Puppen gehen" which literally translates to "to go to the dolls". What on earth could that mean? Apparently it means "very lengthy"...Ich verstehe nicht...

AMD2

For my blog I read up on a famous German that has made plenty of waves in American sports; Dirk Nowitzki.  For those of you who don't know, Nowitzki is a basketball player that came overseas from Germany to play in the NBA in 1998, and is arguably the best European basketball player (if not the best non-American basketball player), since the inception of the game.  A 7-footer, Nowitzki is notorious for being a center that can also hit the 3-pointer when open.  He has a gentle giant attitude, yet at is determined to win every game.  This attitude and will-power helped him and his team, the Dallas Mavericks, win the NBA championship in the 2011 Finals, as well as the Finals M.V.P. award.  He is with the team to this day, heading into his 15th season later this year, serving as an inspiration to the kids of his homeland in
Germany.

For more information on Dirk Nowitzki: http://espn.go.com/nba/player/bio/_/id/609/dirk-nowitzki

Kultur 2

"There's the positive, clean, efficient, functioning country that visitors see -- and there's this incredibly awful place the locals live in."

I found the articles, "The German National Pastime" in particular, to be hilarious reads.  I love how the blog goes on about how the German mindset is concrete, and how German's will defend their right to complain.  Of course as readers, we have to implement a bit of skepticism when reading these, even though these articles are humorously honest at times.   I can't say I have much experience with my German friends giving me stare downs.

Overall, what I gathered from the articles is that the average German conversation is a bit more... obtrusive than an American one.  Brutal honesty dominates German talk; the open expression of medical problems is a good example.  

Kultur 2

#Deutschlandproblems

The article about German complaining was fascinating. It seems like Germany is pretty cushy yet the residents don't see it that way. I think Health insurance, great public transportation, and 4-8 weeks of paid vacation is pretty nice. Maybe Americans have lower standards....who knows.

I would be mortified/so creeped out if someone made it their business to stare at me for long periods of time. That kind of behavior would warrant some major backlash and confrontation in the U.S. I love the line "Smiling and winking, on the other hand, might get you a date. " Some people wish it was that easy.

Brutal honest would be a shock to the American system. Yet I love how we have this unwritten language of passive aggressiveness/rudeness. This line was particularly funny: "We're having a party, please do come," means "We feel rude not inviting you in front of these other people, but surely you'll have the grace not to show up." 

But really...who doesn't like Wagner?! I mean, rainbow bridges to Valhalla??? Yes, please!!!

Metropolitan Opera Ring Cycle

WATCH THIS VIDEO!!!