AMD 6

For my sixth AMD, I decided to set my phone to German, making sure that I remembered the steps I took to change the language, just in case I don't recognize particular words when I went to change it back.  At first it was pretty easy to navigate through, since the icons that represented functions in English remained intact.  Several words were easy to identify without the icons, such as "Fotos," "Temperatur," and "Was heute geschehend" (What's happening today).  Things went south however, when I got a phone call from my parents.  Although I was able to pick up the call with no trouble, spending time on the phone for a good 12 minutes made me forget about the steps on how to change the German settings back to English.  After failing several times trying to find the the location on the phone where the language settings could be altered, I stopped for a minute, relaxed, and decided to use my head for once.  Beginning by pressing the "Menu" icon, I went into  ""Einstellungen," which I realized meant "Settings;" from there I easily found "Account Einstellungen" (Account Settings), Sprache (Language), and from there I made it to "Englisch."

Hallo? Hallo?

Although this was a somewhat "unpleasant" experiance, I am still currently messing with other forms of media, such as Facebook, and putting them in "Deutsch," and navigating with the "new" language.

AMD6

For this weeks AMD, I changed the language on my iPad's Siri to Deutch and tried to converse with her.  She had some difficulty understanding me at points (but I'm blaming this one Apple voice recognition technology and not my language skills!) but for the most part I was able to successfully ask her questions and get answers.  Her favorite color was odd, she said "Meine Lieblingsfarbe ist... naja, eine Art Grün, aber mit mehr Dimensionen." I guess computers see things differently than us.

She didn't respond well to my affections.  When I said "Ich mag dich," she replied, "Alles klar."  When I told her "Du bist meine bester Freundin," she responded "Wenn du darauf bestehst."

We got into a bit of a fight then, and she refused to answer me anymore...

AMD6

  Für die AMD6 habe ich die Simpson's gesehen. I watched the episode "Auf diese Lisa können sie Bauen." In the episode Lisa misreads a price tag and buys an expensive Bauen (purse). I was able to pick up multiple vocabulary terms, for example there was a part where the grandpa said "Geld zu geben" and then gives the Simpson's his money. The grandpa also said "Ich habe...Präsident geschrieben, which from chapter five I know means he wrote to the President. Also when Lisa goes to the cash register to the cashier said "fünfhundert dollar." and Lisa becomes frighten for the expensive price and a lady waiting in line says was ist los? which I recognize from a Lola Rennt worksheet. (What is the matter)  I enjoyed watching the clip and I wasn't completely lost which was really cool!

Kultur 5

For my Kultur 5 reading I focused on "No Blood, No Entschuldigung," "German Erotica: The Land of Beer Sausage and Sex Shops," and "Toilet Training for Visitors." It was very interesting this time around to read about how different German culture is from American culture in the aspects these articles focus on. It is certainly interesting how open German culture seems to be about sex and sex shops. A welcomed change from a too-prude, overreactive American culture. Still though, it struck me as odd that the shops could be literally anywhere - including in the middle of a mall. I also was amused by the fact that Germans don't say "excuse me" often at all. It seems to fit in with the German stereotype of being serious and a bit rude (even if that is untrue) and is in stark contrast with overly apologetic America. Finally it was odd to learn that in many German public bathrooms there was an attendant that you are expected to tip. It just seems weird to have someone staying in a bathroom all day, making sure it stays clean and fresh... Although there are plenty of places in American that I wish did have this service!

AMD 1

Asher Strayhorn AMD 1
     For the first AMD, I chose to watch a bunch of Teletubbies auf Deutsch.  It was soo entertaining and seemed to be sort of helpful.  I learned loads of random infant-like things to say or things infants should know.  Die liede were in Tinkiewinkies Tasche.  Die Wolke schweptet in dem Hausburg?  Green really is grün.  Schnee=snow.  Teletubbies seems like a good way to reinforce first language learning in infants and possibly second language learning in older kids, possibly infants too.  You hear a healthy amount of simple things and you hear the Teletubbies repeat most of it.  Ich liebe 
Teletubbies auf Deutsch.

Kultur 1

     I really enjoyed reading about German Americans.  How they've lost a lot of their culture over the years, where they settled, and why they came to America.  I may havwe learned more if I weren't such a slow reader, but that's all I got to.  I found it somewhat interesting that there are so many Germans in the U.S.  Even being from an area densely populated with Germans, I still would have thought more English people would live here, how ever small England is.  One of the reasons it was surprising probably had to do with the fact that they have merged so much culturally now with other European Americans.  They've come to be simply "American", as the article described German Americans' own thoughts about their ethnicity.
     The stuff about the history of German immigration and where they moved in in the U.S. was the other part I read.  Northern Midwestern states was where they settled.  The (farm)land was something they were really after in order to have property to pass on to their offspring and the terrain reminded them a little of European terrains.  This opportunity for land was one major factor of the mass immigration from the mid 19th to early 20th century.
     The article probably went on to say other things about the German American transformation to simply American.

Kultur 5

I found the "No Entschuldigung" article to be quite funny. Despite having brushed up against a few people in a crowded room or on the street, or stepping on a few feet getting off in a hurry, I try to say "Sorry" if I can. Yes, I have missed saying it a few times, and- as I'm sure Germans could attest- nothing happens if you don't say sorry in these kinds of situations (at least not in my experiences). I honestly think that Americans are too concerned of clearing their conscience of any wrongdoing. However, what wrongdoing is there in accidentally rubbing shoulders with someone on the street? Are you supposed to stop them and plead for forgiveness? Maybe I too have just "come to terms with more day-to-day physical contact", as the Germans have. However, I don't think I would be comfortable plowing through a crowded room like and Arctic ice-breaker. 

Kultur 5

For the article "Women in Germany", I was not too surprised to learn that women's' rights are at a level similar to those in the USA. The only difference between the two seems to be that fewer women have high ranking careers in Germany compared to men. This article seemed to be the only one that showed similarities between the USA and Germany. I found it interesting that although Germany can seem similar to the USA, there are many different parts of their culture that clash with ours. For instance, in the way Germans flirt seems much less aggressive and more committed. I have heard of Klofrau's in the US but they definitely do not seem to be as common as they are in Germany. I was also surprised to read about the street etiquette in Germany. Its not too difficult to give a quick apology for getting in someone's way so it seems odd to me that they don't.

Kultur 5

I found the articles for Kaptiel 5 Kultur assignment interesting choices. From what I have read before, I got the sense that Germans have different cultural behaviors than I am used to, but I think the fact that they rarely say Entschuldigung. Saying excuse me has been something that's been drilled in my mind since I could speak, and is just a concept that is so familiar to me, out of politeness if nothing else. So, I cannot think of it being acceptable not saying it. As for the article on the sex shops, I find it humorous how casual Germans are about them. It's true though, about the location of them in US cities, well from what I've seen in NYC. They aren't hidden or in bad neighborhoods, but they are not as open as German ones, as described in the article. I also think it's funny to read about flirting in Germany. I always hear about my best friend's experience with German guys, and now I wonder if they are the way the are because she grew up in America. It's also a good thing to know if I ever plan on going to Germany. The Klofrau is something I have heard of though. Many of the restaurants I've been to in New York have "sanitary assistants", but instead of tipping only 30 cents or so, they expect to be tipped at least a dollar. Granted, it depends on the quality of the restaurant. Lastly, I found the statistics and other facts about women in Germany was very interesting to read about. 

Kultur5

For the Kultur 5 I read the article No Blood No Entschuldigung, If I had gone to Germany before reading this article I would of probably felt very disrespected, and my visit would not been pleasant. Now that I know Germans do not tend to say sorry for a simple bump in the shoulder, when I go to Germany, I will understand that for them a push or any light physical contact is not a good enough reason to say "entschuldigung". I will avoid saying that word, (unless of course I see blood) just so I won't be targeted so easily as a tourist. The second article I read was Flirting with Fräuleins, Hunting for Herren.  I thought this article was really funny I can just imagine a German woman getting offended by a tourist complementing her, or a German man getting overly excited because an American girl sparks a conversation with him. I also thought it was very interesting how flirting changes in different regions of the world. Alike languages, flirting actions can be misinterpreted and misjudge easily.

AMD 5

For my fifth AMD I went to youtube, and since on my free time I look up tutorial videos on how to do hair and makeup. I decided to mix pleasure with work and watch a hair tutorial in German! I typed in Deutsch Haare, and a video titled Wellen mit Glätteisen und Welleisen, which means waves with straightening iron and curling iron. As I was watching the girl said it was chic and sommerlich, which is coincidental since Kapitel fünf talks about weather and sommer is summer, so I am guessing sommerlich is summery. I was able to understand a few terms like Gummiband which I remember Katy said meant rubber band back in kapitel eins. After watching the hair tutorial, I decided to watch a nail tutorial that demonstrates how to do ombre nails schnell (fast) und einfach (simple). Although I do not understand everything at the begining of the video she says "heute" which is today, so I am guessing she says today I'll show you....
From the vocabulary I have learn so far, I was really surprise that I was able to understand a great part of the video, and got very excited. Since the video showed every step as she explained it was easier to relate her actions with words that I know. It was a fun AMD!

Kulture 5

I remember when I was in Germany and wherever I went I always asked how to say sorry, however when they told me about entshuldigun I gave up fairly quickly and resorted to pardon with a french accent, that way they would think I'm french instead of american.  One thing that I did really like about Europe in general was how friendly and open the people were, and how it is not awkward to have so many sex stores, or to go to them. Whereas over here we are a lot more conservative. I also liked how it was much easier to talk about sex and it was not an awkward conversation to have with people you didn't know terribly well. However, even with people you know well talking about sex can be and awkward conversation. While I was in Europe I looked at a few sex shops, one of which was three levels, and I always found it really interesting to see what the Europeans were into. I personally still do no understand the candy bras or panties because the candy will just get wet from trying to eat it and then make everything sticky. Also, who has the patience in that scenario to eat all the candy. There is lingerie that does a much better job. Anyway, I appreciated the Europeans openness. I also experienced how forthcoming the women can be, and in some cases I felt like I had to be the conservative one and that the girls were the ones making most the moves. Not to say it was just me, I think it was just because of the culture, and possibly because I was foreign. 

AMD 5

Apart from pretzels and bratwurst, I was curious about other German food. Some German folk tales are even about food, like Hansel and Gretel, and after WWI and WWII there were huge food shortages where many people were starving. In the north, there are a few traditional soups, such as eel or vegetable stew. In the center there are a lot of bread and cereal made from Buckwheat and Rye, one favorite dish is pears, green beans, and bacon. I at least do not understand how pears and bacon can go together, in a meal. The middle of the country is famous for its white asparagus and its pumpernickel bread. However, it seems that the Germans like their pork, for instance there is a mustard ham that is famous all over Germany. Additionally, Germans love their sausages. This disappoints me a little bit because I do not eat pork, and it's a little saddening when most of a countries signature dishes involve pork because then I cannot try them out.

However, they do have a Black Forest cherry cake and a cherry brandy from the Black Forest area. I would really like to try these because cherries are very big here in Michigan since Michigan is the largest cherry exporter in the world. This could be due to Germans who came over here because there is a large German population in Michigan.


http://www.foodbycountry.com/Germany-to-Japan/Germany.html#b

AMD 4

Today I read a few articles on how Germans feel about having the best performing economy in the eurozone, and how they feel about bailing out other countries, most notably Greece. The first article I read said that only 53% of Germans seemed to be against the bailout, which to me was very surprising because I expected there to be many more Germans. However, the last article I read, which was not dated, quoted a German man saying that about two thirds of the people in Germany oppose the bailout, which to me makes more sense. I am curious however if they know how much they rely on these other countries, mostly like Spain and Italy, and if that plays a large roll in their decision. Because, if all the other major economies are not doing well, then Germany will most likely follow because they rely heavily on exports. Another interesting thing was that A.M. was starting to lose favor within her own party over the bailout issue, and there are almost enough people in her party that are voting against the bailout, that she will possibly have to start relying on the opposing party to keep bailing out Greece.

One of the most interesting things I learned though, was that while all the other economies around them have been seeing declines and recessions, Germany has seen growth. The reason stated was that due to some prior reforms when the global recession began, Germany quickly turned it around by cutting some pensions, and in return has enjoyed continued growth. This growth has accelerated since many companies are now moving to Germany since they have lower taxes, and the economy has not felt the hardship as those around it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/26/us-eurozone-germany-poll-idUSTRE81P0BW20120226
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/germans-edge-key-greek-austerity-vote-nears-829606

AMD5

For this AMD, I changed the language setting on my Facebook to Deutsch. I could understand most of what was going on because I recognized some of the words, but I was also able to follow along by remembering what the different phrases originally were. This also helped me to learn some new words. Some of the phrases are: like = gefällt mir; comment = kommentieren, mutual = gemeinsame. It wasn't too difficult to use facebook in this form, but after awhile I started to forget what the different phrases meant and had to rely on the location that they appeared on the page. I really liked this AMD assignment since it helped me to learn some new vocabulary!

Kultur 5

I think I'd like visit the German Countryside.  It seems like it would be nice.  Ich finde aggressive crowds in the city to be not a lot of fun.  I wonder if the standard personal space distance is closer to that of the US or that of Latin America, that latter makes me very uncomfortable.
I would definitely be embarrassed to be seen walking out of a shop like that.  The online equivalents of these shops that are popular in the US for this reason, I wonder if that is less true in Germany.
They make it seem like bathroom attendants are only in Germany, I've seen them in a bunch of places in the US.  They sometimes sell candy, whic always seemed weird to me, for whom does being in the bathroom make want candy?  It would not be fun to be in Germany and have to use the bathroom without any cash, do they accept major credit cards?
Flirting in Germany sounds great for guys, they don't have to do anything. Just a quick glance and then it's on her.  It sounds like a terrible time for foreign women, I wonder if that was by design by German women to prevent foreign girls from coming in and stealing their men.
They could be doing this because they are now working more.  It is encouraging to see that Germany is making such great strides towards employment equality between genders.  Perhaps that is part of the reason that their economy has weathered the European credit crises so much better than many of its EU neighbors.

AMD5

I looked up Deuglisch in wikipedia.
German-spoken area now keeps absorbing new words directly and some Germanized English words.
1.Ich musste den Computer neu booten / rebooten, weil die Software gecrasht ist.
For here, German take word reboot and add standard German ending -en to it to make a new verb.
And gecrasht is made to be a perfekt tense of crash, with seine( ist here). 
2.Hast du schon die neueste Firefox-Version downgeloadet / gedownloadet?
schon-already, and gedownloadet for download in English.

The Pseudo-anglicisms seems more interesting to me since I will probably make that mistakes by using wrong words. 

Smoking[20]

dinner suit

I also listened to a song called "Denglisch" produced by a cappella group Wise Guys.
 They are totally irrelevant! So if I didn't know this before going to Germany, ''no smoking'' won't remind me with formal dress for a event..And it might happen that everyone is well dressed up except me, who might be wearing jeans as always..

Kultur 5

As you are well aware these articles are pretty up front and don't beat around the bush however this one takes the cake so far. I had absolutely no idea that Germany had so many sex shops throughout the cities. I always have known about the beer and the open air markets and even some of there department stores but never this. I also find it weird that Germans will use sex shops as a point of reference.Another thing that I found quite interesting was the Kolfrau. At some of the very upscale places in the US you have bathroom attendants its rare but they do exsist, but they don't even expect a tip. I found it weird that they expect a 30-50 cent tip whether your at a formal place or informal. When I was in Germany I also noticed that they do tend to avoid saying sorry and or excuse me. These articles help enforce the fact that Germans are a touch off kilter.

Kultur 5

In the first reading, 'No Blood, No Entschuldigung', the sentence that Germans are inherently rude really surprises me since I was always considering Germans as a polite symbol. The descriptions about how they plow grimly ahead on the way and how they react after stepping on one's feet are really interesing. In the last paragraph, the writer use a sample of being jabbed by a bitter old lady who wants to clear place for his grandson to again, demonstrate the impoliteness of germans.
Besides, the sex shop culture is really impressive since Germans are even more open to the sex shop. The author says sex shops are located all over the Germany, and the location of sex shops are not restricted to be away from a respectable institution like church. But the traditional opening hours are really inconvenient and one might have to wait until week days to shop.
It's good to know that I need to bring plenty of coins with me when go to the toilet in Germany. Since the Klofrau is paid poorly and the earning from toilet attendents takes a large part of their earning, coins are significant to them. And too much or too little is no good, 30-50 cents are appropriate.

Kultur 5

Once again I found these articles quite interesting. I have no idea what to make out of the Klofrau. I truthfully think it would be annoying to have to pay for public restrooms whether they might be clean or not. On the other hand though I can see how even though it's a lowly job, its still a job and they are still making money. I don't know what jobs these bathroom attendants would be doing other wise. Though if I lived in Germany I would not want to be a Kolfrau and spend my whole day in a bathroom. Also I do find it odd that sex shops are just a normal thing for Germans. I just find the whole idea kind of odd because it is completely the opposite of what we do here. Even talking about sex shops is weird. It makes me wonder how Germans respond when their small children ask about these shops. I suppose they are pushed into have a birds and the bees talk just a bit early! The other article I read that really struck me the most was what comes off to tourists as rude, but is actually a comfortableness with lack or personal space. I find it interesting because I've heard stories of in Japan people will cram onto trains until they are completely full, but this seems to be a different kind of closeness. Germans are just very blunt and have things to do, and I think quite literally, they don't let anyone stand in their way.

Kultur 5

I read the article about the Klofrau. I found it so interesting that they actually have this as a job. Here in America being the garbage man was already bad enough, but cleaning toilets of drunk people at a bar would be much worse, considering what you would have to deal with. Although I do like the concept of this job because I have a phobia of public bathrooms. There is something about them that is just so dirty and cannot seem to get past that. Although when I went to a restaurant called Quartinos, in chicago, they had this similar custom.  know Quartino's is an Italian restaurant but I am assuming they wanted to make it as Italian as possible. I know Italy also has a "toilet lady," and the restaurant had this adaptation of it. As i began to remember on my trip to Europe most every country I visited had this as a job opportunity. I guess it must be a European custom to do so. Even though the article did mention the small decrease of the job opportunity. I found this article to be very interesting and showing us more about the German culture and how the country works.

Kultur 5

I thought that the article, "Street Rules: No Blood, No Entschuldigung" was pretty interesting. Up to this point in the course, I have begun to view Germans more and more as robots who are obsessed with statistics but are lacking in emotions. This article has basically concluded my hypothesis as correct. If someone were to storm through crowds, elbowing people, and not caring at all in the United States, that person would get yelled at and possibly hit for their rudeness. It is funny and fitting that Germany would be the complete opposite. People there do not care and willing shove people in order to get to where they are going on time. I can completely see this happening in Germany too after everything else that we have read about the country. It is weird to imagine a world where people walk through each other as so peaceful, but I guess that the Germans understand one another. I just hope for their sake, that Germans visiting America don't walk through New York City elbowing and shoving people to get them out of their way.

Kultur 5

I was pretty surprised that Germans don't say Entschuldigung that often. To me, that seems very rude since in America we are taught to be polite to people and not just jab someone in the ribs and not say sorry or excuse me. Flirting in Germany seems so strange. It seems kinda creepy to just stare at her for a moment and that's it. I always thought that Germany was similar to America but the more articles I read, I realize that has some big differences.As for the article on German sex shops, this is the first thing that popped into my mind was...

...and I'll just leave it at that.

Kapitel 5 Kultur

These readings didn't quite peak my interest as much as others in the past have, despite some of the attention grabbing headlines! Of course there's always something to be learned and a few points did stick out to me.

First of all, I didn't like the depiction of the U.S.'s prudishness in the "German Erotica: The Land of Beer, Sausage and Sex Shops" article. I understand where these stereotypes come from, those who are very conservative are pretty vocal about it, but in cities, sex shops are not nearly as rare as this article makes them out to be. Ann Arbor has Bongz and Thongz as well as the Safe Sex Store, and I'm sure that's not it. When I lived in Chicago there was no scarcity of erotica supply shops. Of course, in the suburbs things are a little different, but I'm sure the same can be said about Germany's cities vs. their more rural areas.

I really love the idea of the Klofrau. I'll give her all of my spare change in exchange for a clean bathroom. Public restrooms are some of my most feared and avoided places in most cases, so to have the assurance of a recently cleaned toilet is a great idea to me. It breaks my heart to hear that the profession dying out.

I didn't take much from the "Women of Germany" excerpts. I read through it, but I think it was just too many dry stats in a row for me to handle. 

The "Bekannte oder Freunde" bit from the book was the most interesting to me out of all the readings we had for this chapter. It's just strange to me that forming a friendship is so formal, when to me, friends are some of the most informal people in my life. The idea that there is even a ceremonial drink to mark the occasion is so odd! I like it though, as I've always had a few very close and important friends and I feel like German culture places emphasis on the importance of the few people that are considered Freunde, not Bekannte. 

Kultur 5

The article about women in Germany was very interesting because I couldn't help but compare it to the little I know about French culture. I'm not by any means an expert but it seems to me that when it comes to women in the workplace the French are a little more sexist. I think this is the same in German but in France there are different names for male and female professions. For example, a male postal worker is facteur but a female postal worker is factrice. Also, the French sometimes are very typical and refuse to make any distinction at all in the word spelling and simply add "femme (woman)" to the end of the profession to make the distinction. (Example: un ingénieur (male engineer), une femme ingénieur (female engineer)) This however differs in French speaking parts of Canada where they have adopted different spellings for female occupations. Obviously we don't have a distinction like that for most professions in English. I know there isn't perfect gender equality here, but I like to think that it's pretty close. I've read articles that suggest thinking differs from language to language. Like that article we read earlier said a German speaker may think of bridges as beautiful and elegant because bridge is a feminine noun but to a French speaker bridges might be powerful and sturdy because bridge is a masculine noun to them. I'm not calling these languages sexist of course, but it does make me think that gender inequality may stem from these simple nouns.
Anyways, I think this is a great achievement for German women. It really amazed me to learn how progressive women are as far as getting an education and entrepreneurship. It's comforting to hear that there isn't much of difference in earnings between men and women. There is a difference, but it's rather slim, 99% wasn't it? It reminded me of an interview I heard of a woman, Lilly Ledbetter, who held a position at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company  in Alabama. She shared the highest position in the company with two other men but was paid significantly less just because she was a woman. She calculated that she had lost out on an enormous sum of money because of pay discrimination. Eventually the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into affect because of her story.

Kapital 5- Kultur-Texte

For my Kapital 5 assignment I read about flirting in Germany, and how hard it can actually be to "hook-up" with a German if you are a foreigner.  Due to the differences in culture, it is especially hard for an American man or woman to properly attract the attention of a German woman or man.  There is however, a proper way to flirt in Germany and it is up to the foreigner to learn this way if he or she wants to succeed in having an international relationship.  For the most part, us guys show interest by way of a studied, concentrated look.  The look should be brief and fleeting -- and then the man's job is done.   It is important not to come up to the girl asking, "Hey baby, want to dance?" as this is seen as being overly forward/aggressive and will put the German female out of her comfort zone.  It is then up to the female to decide if she wants to come up to him or ignore him, because with German-on-German flirting, the power rests solidly with the Fräulein. 

It is important to recognize the differences between your own country's take of flirting when compared to Germany's.  If you are able to find the differences and adjust to them while visiting there, you may just have a shot of picking up a German man or woman, depending on whatever floats your boat.

Kultur 5

I think it's interesting that the articles said flirting in Germany is so subtle, but that the sex shops are so open.  In America, it's the opposite.  Flirting here is extremely overt, to the point of sometimes being vulgar.  However, here people are very shy about porn and sex shops.  I've never really liked how America at large treats the whole sex issue, because it seems very hypocritical--people are judgmental of sexuality, but still condone the hook-up culture.  I think I like the German view of it better.

AMD 5

For AMD 5, I chose to write about the Wikipedia article on Denglisch, and how the influx of English words has made an impact on the German language.  Much like the importation of Latin and French words in the past, the importation of English words has made the German language much more expressive, much like how Spanish and French words have impacted the English language here in America.  Germans mainly except an English word if it represents something that a proper German expression can’t because it doesn’t exist; mainly due to the fact that most newly introduced English words are expressions from the modern world and are as new to English speakers as they are to German speakers.  Words such as “computer,” “I-pod,” and “software” are all English in nature and unlike the other languages, the German language takes these words as they are, without finding a translation for them.

As I had said earlier, this is much like how the English language in America easily adapts words that come from other languages; words such as "taco" and "guitar" from the Spanish language, and words like "brunette" and "cafe" from the French language.  Perhaps it has something to do with the Germanic tribes that German and English came from that explains this eagerness to adapt other nations' words.

AMD 5

     For this AMD I decided to see what Reddit had to offer about Germany. There are many subreddits that are helpful from a linguistic and cultural standpoint. For example, some Germans will post things like, "As a German, this is how I imagine American teenagers" and then a ridiculous, satirical post will follow.
      Other posts are questions submitted by Americans or other non-Germans and  a wide variety of answers are provided. For example the question "What would be the German equivalent to 'I know, right?'" and several answers such as "Aber echt!" and "Ja, total!" were given. Now, I'm taking a leap of faith and trusting the internet here, I'm not sure it's always right, but it's nice to think that it is. Some people ask advice about where to travel to Germany and where can you get the best beer in Austria, etc.
     A subreddit that caught my eye is called Learn a New Language - German. Most of the posts on this subreddit tend to be about grammar and general questions about the German language.

     Have you ever wondered what a German safety video is like? Better yet, have you ever pondered the do's and don'ts of forklift operation? Well, if you're not squeamish today is your lucky day. (Seriously. This is not for the faint of heart. This video is extreme. NSFW (literally). Perhaps this is an example of crazy German humor. But yes, it's crazy. I can't tell if it's serious or not. I did learn a lot though.)
Forklift Driver Klaus

AMD 5

For this AMD, I decided to watch the movie, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. I have been learning about Fascism and Authoritarian leaders in both my History and Political Science classes recently so this movie interested me greatly. The movie is based off of the true story of Sophie Scholl, her brother, and many of their accomplices who were a part of the anti-Nazi White Rose in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. This movie chronicles the last days of Sophie Scholl's life as she was captured, tried, and executed by the Nazis.
The plot of the movie is that Sophie Scholl and her brother decide to post anti-Nazi fliers around their university. Unfortunately, they are captured. At first, they both deny having posted the fliers. However, eventually Sophie cracks and admits to the crime. Instead of pleading for mercy, Sophie bravely argues the wrongs of Nazism to some of the top officials of the Party. She rooms with a captured Communist woman who helps her get through the whole ordeal. Sophie and her brother refuse to give up the names of their accomplices, but the Nazis decide to arrest a man named Christoph Probst just to weaken their spirits.
Eventually, the three of them are tried in court. Probst pleas for his life and freedom because he has a wife and three young children. Sophie and her brother, however, argue against the whole Nazi process in front of the high court and many high generals. They tell them that every Nazi in the room will eventually be sitting in a court pleading for their lives. Probst and the two Scholls are sentenced to execution that day.
I liked the movie very much. It was cool to be able to see what I am learning in my other classes in a film and to have it be in German. Watching a movie that took place in Germany in German definitely makes it feel more authentic. I would recommend this movie to anyone.

AMD 5

For this weeks AMD assignment i decided to watch one of the most famous German movies of all time. There was only one problem though the whole movie was in German which means i retained about 30-45% of everything that was said. The name of the movie is Das Boot which directly translates to the boat. The main plot of the movie was easy to follow. It is told from the viewpoint of Lt. Werner who has just been assigned war correspondent on the German Submarine U-96. To make a long story short the boat just rips around the ocean and sinks convoys. Allied forces bomb the submarine while it was stopping to rearm and refuel with a German merchant ship the SS Wesser. To be completely honest I wasnt a big fan of this movie even if it was in english I dont think I would care for it. However it was a good experience to see what normal german dialogue is truly like.

AMD5

Ich habe der Artikel "Denglisch" gelesen.

I never thought of other languages having a term for the mixing with English in the same way that Spanish does with "Spanglish."  Probably because here in the States we encounter Spanglish more than we would encounter Denglisch.  It was interesting to me to read how a lot of German speakers resisted the trend towards incorporating English much in the same way that many Americans resist the inclusion of Spanish in the vernacular.

I think this trend is an example of how the world is changing as it becomes more globalized.  This is indicated simply by the types of words that are Denglischized, which are mostly computer terminology. Computers, and more specifically the internet, have become the hub for cultural transmissions, so it makes sense that most of the mergings of language would happen around computers.

AMD 5

I found the Denglish article to be very interesting.  German is like English in that it accepts words from other languages. That is one of my favorite features of these languages, a feature I believe are weaker for not having.
When I started reading, I thought it was funny that more instances of German words appearing in English.  Then I realized that a great deal of English vocabulary comes from the same place as German.  In fact, up until 1066, the version of English spoken, Old English, was closer to German than modern English.  I cant wait to try to read Beowulf again in the original Old English once I've learned a little more German.
The advertisements made in Denglish are quite interesting, and reveal a lot about how interconnected the German economy is with those of other nations.  Advertising agencies even display employment ads in English to stress that knowing English is a job requirement.
The last sentence of the article was of particular interest to me, the code-switching book.  As borders continue to become less and less defined, the prevalence of code-switching seems poised to keep growing.  I wonder when it will hit a critical amount that the worlds languages begin to blend into one.

AMD 5

For AMD 5 I read the wikipedia article on Denglish -- English creeping in on the German language. I find it interesting that German seems to be more susceptible to adopting foreign words than other language and cultures seem to be. As the article says, and as we read about in past Kulture readings, and of course as we encounter as we learn new words, German has a lot of words borrowed from both French and English.

It's interesting to me that most of this English influence appears in technology and advertising. If they borrow an item from America -- Microsoft computers, fast food, even facial cream -- they borrow the name, too, rather than coming up with something new. And a lot of it seems to do with convenience, for example, using "gedownloadet" rather than "Aktualisierungen werden heruntergeladen". It's easier to write and easier to say.

I can understand those who are upset about these changes, though. As a native speaker of English, I've always felt some sort of strange connection with the language and I've taken the time and effort to learn how to use it correctly, and I appreciate when others do the same. It also kind of breaks my heart when people don't do the same, (u, ur, 4, 2, r, etc. all kill me) so I definitely get why some people are resisting the change. Change in language, however, has and will always be occurring, no matter how much myself and others may want to resist it.

I also found this article amusing because I find the opposite happening in my own life as I'm learning German. The best way for me to make things stick is by using those words or phrases frequently. I refer to my cat as kleine Katze always, and my boyfriend hates when I litter my sentences with new German words he doesn't understand.

The two language, although very different, have enough similarities to really lend themselves to integrating unintentionally with each other.

AMD 4

For AMD 4, I decided to follow the suggestion and check out livemocha.com. I set up an account and started clicking around and immediately fell in love.

I chose the "study" option rather than the "conversation" option to start, but I'm definitely interested in checking out their conversational resources later. The first thing I noticed and really liked are the additional tips in English that accompany each new word or phrase. These little one or two sentence bits are really helpful, especially to clarify any confusion that may arise from interpreting the phrase from the given photo. I really like the method of associating a picture with a word or phrase. I also really like that you can pick and choose vocab from each section once you've completed it to sort and save into different flashcard decks. This makes it super easy to study smart by being able to focus on only the words I'm really struggling with, which is the only complaint I've had about the ctools flash cards.

The review lessons were also really helpful. The cover the vocab in every way! There are questions where you hear the phrase in German and have to match the correct picture and questions where you hear the phrase in English associated with a photo and have to choose the correct German phrase. There are questions where you have to read the German phrase and choose the correct photo. Making all of these different associations and practicing seamless translation has really helped these words and phrases stick, which is great because I feel vocab has always been my greatest struggle. I understand how to put sentences together in theory in my head, but I sometimes have trouble finding the words to say it!

The writing section is also really helpful. Its great to get feedback from native speakers and other people learning on the website! Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to record the speaking part, but I did practice the phrases, which was nice practice, but it would be better if I could figure out how to get some feedback!

Overall, I really like livemocha.com and would recommend it to anyone trying to learn a new language.  The social aspect of it makes it a really efficient way to practice within a community, which is super helpful if you're learning a language independently and great additional practice to formal instruction.

AMD 5

For this AMD I decided to change my phone's language to Deutsch. It got very annoying since when I tried to text, the auto correct change everything to German. Needless to say, my friends didn't understand what I would text. Most of the words were easy to infer what they meant. Such as Telefon, Kontakte, and Kamera. I was surprised how many words are in English like Bluetooth, GPS, and Display. For some reason those stayed in English. I could understand most words like Mobilfunkdaten is mobile data or Flugmodus is airplane mode. It was easy to change the language back to English so that was good.

AMD 5

For my 5th AMD assignment i listened to and reserched the orgins of the German national anthem, and was pleasently supprised at how much i could understand. The anthem "das Deutschlandlied" which translates as 'song of Germany,' has been used as the national anthem in full or part since the year 1922, however since world war 2 and the fall of the Nazi's only the third stanza is commonly used my favourite line in the anthem is 'Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der welt' which means Germany Germany above all, above all in the world! I found this paticulary amusing.

AMD5

I actually found my Adventure mitt Deutsch this week to be quite challenging. I went to the German Clubs game night, and while it was really fun it was kind of daunting when we played Tabboo auf Deutsch. I am proud because I got 2 points for my team! It was just difficult because some of the words I have no clue what they were and the other ones I did know, you couldn't use the basic obvious words to describe it. The first card I got was Millionär to which I said Bill Gates (it also helped because the song Millionär was playing in the background). Next I tried to get Spider-Man, and I used my vocab from when we brought in show and tell objects -- Die Superheld! They didn't figure it out but now I suppose I could have also said Grün Goblin. The other card I got a point for was The Simpsons so I said Lisa und Marge und Flanders und Doh!! Overall I had lots of fun, though I wish we would have played Settles of Catan, Ich liebe das Spiel!

AMD 5

Well I watched the movie called the Unknown starring Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger. Well first of Diane is from Germany, but the movie also takes place in Berlin, Germany. Throughout the movie there are a couple scenes where you hear German. In one of the scenes you hear them counting and of course that was familiar to me, it was cool being able to understand. Another scene Diane Kruger asks, "Alles klar?" I quickly recognized this because in class Katy always asks that, meaning is everything clear? It was nice to see German being incorporated in the movie. Also since the movie took place in Berlin it was cool to see the scenery and the different sites.

Kultur4

I thought the article The Red Dictator was incredibly interesting. In Ann Arbor, I encounter two  electronic crossing signs on a daily basis. Most of my crossing is done either at zebra crossings, or in random places in the street (of course, if the way is clear). So it comes as, coincidentally, completely foreign to me to respect the "little red dictator" as if the sign is a living police officer. Of course, after reading the previous Kultur blog articles, it doesn't surprise me that 1) they do respect the crossing laws as much as they do, especially in the presence of others and 2) German drivers will speed up to scare the law breakers, yet also have so much respect for the rights of pedestrians at zebra crossings. However, I believe that it is reflective of German society as a whole- very orderly with social incentives to act one way or another. 

AMD 4

For this AMD, I watched a documentary in german about the late Karl Richter (I mentioned him in my Bach post). Richter was a German conductor, organist, and harpsichordist. While he is often lauded as one of the greatest interpreter of Bach (specifically for his directing/conducting of the Münchener Bach-Chor and Münchener Bach-Orchester), he was also a prodigious instrumentalist. At the age of 23 he was appointed as an organist for the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, one of the most prestigious organist positions in the world- partly because the Thomaskirche was the church where Bach was Musical Director in the 1700s. His renditions of Bach's greatest works (the Passions, the Mass, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, etc.) are known by Bach experts as intense, deep, and expressive. One thing that makes Richter so unique is that he did not conduct Bach in a Romantic manner, as many of his contemporaries did. He avoided drastic fluctuation in tempo, and kept the sound balanced throughout the orchestras that he conducted. Richter died of a heart attack in München in 1981, at the age of 55.

Listening to the documentary and reading the subtitles, I was able to pick out some of the subjects we have gone over in class. What I found really interesting was how different the construction of sentences in german is compared to English. It seemed as though what was being spoken was incredibly scrambled, when compared to the english sentences. While I notice this in class, I was surprised by the degree of which it can seem "scrambled". 

Kultur 4

I found the Kultur readings this chapter to be quite amusing. It's much different to hear about how serious they are about not Jaywalking, something that is a common occurrence here in the states. In particular I liked the article that suggested that punks (typically not the most law abiding people) obeyed the traffic signals and that a five year old child may lecture you if you cross the street at the wrong time. I also thought it was amusing how the Germans will answer you questions logically and correctly, but not necessarily give you the answer that you need. I pull that trick all the time when trolling my friends, so I thoroughly enjoy that their is a nation built around this type of logic. All the Kultur readings for this chapter really stressed and reaffirmed that German is a very orderly country, where everything must be done correctly and rules are expected to be obeyed. It's quite refreshing considering all of the B.S. that goes on here in the US.

Kulture 4

While the articles mostly described transportation in Germany, there was a very evident underlying theme of uniformity and order. I found it quite funny that there was a help group for people who were messy. I think German kids who come over here my develop heart problems after a few years from all the unease they would get from our messes. I also really enjoyed how Germans will not cross the street if they do not have the right of way. This is very different from what I was taught since in the Middle East pedestrians never have the right of way and you frequently have to run across eight lanes of highways that has no lines for lanes or speed limits (that are obeyed). I also find it quite humorous and enjoyable that people will speed up to scare pedestrians who try to cross the street without having the right of way. While I do enjoy a lot of order in my life, I do think it's a bit much that if you were caught on the train without paying or crossing the street when you're not supposed to, that everyone around you would stair at you or try to reprimand you on the spot. While I was in Europe (especially Geneva) I learned very well how to avoid getting caught without paying for transportation, and memorized how and where the police would check the trams.

For my kulture vier assignment i read the article 'Two wheeled Teutons'. This article was interesting to me because i was not aware just how much Germans enjoy their cycling and how temperamental they get when someone disregards the sacred 'bike lane' code! I personally think these bike lanes are a great idea as firstly they allow and encourage people to get on their bikes and get exercise that they wouldn't otherwise be getting had they have been driving their cars, and secondly they are a great way of reducing carbon emissions. I particularly like the idea that when in a major cities such as Munich, Berlin, or Frankfurt, you can simply dial the appropriately named 'call a bike' number, enter a few details and have almost instant access to two wheeled bliss!

AMD 4

For this weeks AMD i decided to change the text settings of my phone while i was having a conversation so that they all read in german. At first it was hard because I had multiple conversations going on. Once i got really into them I started to notice that more and more words seemed to be familiar to me and I could easily understand about 60% of the messages that were coming in. And when i would send messages they were noticeably shorter than usual but I was able to get my message across. The people I was talking to was impressed at how well i could convey what I was saying once I told them that I was doing it for my German class. I only did this for 45 min or so before it was to hard when trying to send a long text talking about someone else in the future. I wasn't sure about the conjugation of all the verbs for the prescence tense.

Kultur 4

I found all of the articles interesting. However the thing that shocked me the most and made me think about how cool it would be to visit a big city in Germany was the street pong. It is a ingenious idea to get people to not jay walk. I mean who doesn't want to sit there and play a video game basically while they are waiting for the traffic to switch directions. I also found it interesting that cars in Germany will speed up if they see someone jay walking. I also found it kind of weird that they have the "honor system" when it comes to using the buses and whatnot. In the US you have to pay because most people wouldn't even think about paying if we had an honor system. I want to go to Germany and see how what it is like to ride on the ICE trains. All the trains where I come from go like 20mph and i usually are carrying freight. Also I have never ridden on a passenger train so i think it would be a good experience.

AMD Vier

Looking to do something different for my fourth AMD I decided to go to the Duetsch Wikipedia page and look up the article on Bier. While I already knew much from both the Kultur reading earlier this semester and my own research I still learned a few interesting facts about Bier in Duetschland and how it is perceived. I was surprised at all the different categories they have for Bier; the Wiki page lists 12 categories of ales and 8 categories of Lager. Additionally it is interesting to see their beer tax system and how much stronger many of their beers are compared to ones in the US. Some Bier in Duetschland can have alcohol content as high as 16% or more with one brewery even offering a Bier with 57.5% alcohol by volume! Suprisingly I found out that Germany is actually the second leading drinker of Beer in the EU, behind Czech. I also found it intersting that the German Bier page listed all of the vitamins found in beer, something that the English beer page doesn't even mention. All in all, reading the article confirmed much of the knowledge that I had already learned but I still did find some interesting new facts about Bier in Duetschland!

Kultur 4

In the second reading, I would be really caught into an embarrasing situation if  I bought a wrong ticket for the wrong train... I would never understand why their logic is so unusual. How come people would tell you to buy a ticket for a wrong train? That's really confusing! Wish I would ask enough information before I do everything so that I won't get stuck in those awkward situations.

In the third reading :There's No Such Thing as a Free Ride", it's good to know that we soll nicht assume to be able to abuse Teutonic trust in German. Although there's a so-called honor system in Berlin and most cities in Germany, you will be caught if they found that you were out of ticket or even not a right ticket. They might take you as performing Schwarzfahren and charge you penalties (€40) or even heavier. That's not a small amount money for anyone! And the author must have tried to explain but failed since he wrote in the passage that we soll nicht think about acting like an innocent foreigner to avoid penalties, because people in Germany are not likely to accept excuses.

AMD4

I was trying to learn the German culture through the Internet. At first I was considering to watch a movie or listen to music but I really get tired of that. I came up with the idea of knowing what kind of jokes they have and they'd love to say. After I looked up from the websites, I have the following jokes which I think they are fitting my laughing point! Wish they could bring you some happiness too!

1.Hänschen sitzt bei seinen Hausaufgaben: "Du Papa. Was ist das für ein Satz: 'Es ist kein Bier im Haus?'" Stöhnt der Vater auf: "Das ist kein Satz - das ist eine Katastrophe!"

I can see how much Germans love biers!!

2.Lehrer: "Als Alexander der Große so alt war wie du, hatte er schon die halbe Welt erobert."

Schüler: "Na, kein Wunder, der hatte ja auch Aristoteles als Lehrer."

3."Wenn ich im Bus sitze, schließe ich immer meine Augen. Ich kann alte Menschen nicht stehen

sehen."

4." Meine Frau und ich waren 20 Jahre sehr glücklich." "Und was ist dann passiert?" "Dann haben wir uns kennengelernt.."

Kultur 4

I found the article "Illogical Logic" quite funny.  The example with the customer and the ticket agent made me laugh.  The writer claims that the reason for incidents like this is that Germans are "too" logical.  It was explained that Iain did not specify if the "next train" was necessarily the "next train to his destination."  If I didn't know any better, I would say that the ticket agent was being extremely sarcastic, or making a joke.  If this were to happen in the states, I would say the ticket agent was a smart aleck.  This is only one example of how a German could be "too logical" which leaves me wondering when else an incident like this could occur.  The article tells us not to assume that a person in Germany will make any logical jumps for you.  I probably take a lot of these for granted in the states, which would probably leave me in uncomfortable, if not precarious situations in Germany.

AMD 4

I decided that I was going to re-watch Das Boot ("The Boat") in German with English subtitles.  Das Boot is about a German Lieutenant in World War II and his time with his crew in a German U-boat.  The movie does not have much plot, but it served to portray the harsh and often monotonous life of a soldier in the German Navy.  The film uses lengthy scenes to help the audience understand the days that the crew would have to wait for a sighting of an enemy vessel.  The life of the movie comes from its battle scenes.  Das Boot also delves into Nazi history a bit.  I've read a book called "The Wave" by Todd Strasser that was written as a metaphor to the rise of the Nazi Party.  The book tends to explain that the Nazi party gained momentum through strong promises from an enigmatic leader, resulting in the emergence of zealous followers who blindly swore allegiance to the party's ideals.  However, Das Boot suggests differently; the crew members including the lieutenant often ridiculed their Fuhrer.  As the audience, we are innately opposed to the idea of supporting the soldiers of the Nazi Party.  We realize that quite a few of the soldiers were not loyal to Hilter, but to their country and continued to follow orders.  I definitely felt sympathy towards the crew of the submarine, considering their long hours of labor and cramped living space.  

Kapitel 4 Kultur-Texte

My first thought after reading this Kulture-Texte was "Endlish! Jemand versteht die Bedeutung von die Fahrräder!" I'm a big bike fan myself, so I was excited to learn about the Germans' love 
biking, too. My favorite part is how much they cater to bikers. My home town doesn't have much traffic, so 
even though it wasn't particularly bike friendly (we didn't have our own lanes, and the designated "bike path"
was equally as welcoming to pedestrians) there weren't many other that were there sharing the road. Since
moving too Ann Arbor I've had to learn to share the road with a lot of people. I've been spoiled, and I don't
like it, so I've taken to walking a lot more. In a dream world, bikes would have their own road. Deutschland
ist das Land meiner Träume!

I also found it interesting how closely followed the pedestrian cross signs are. I've lived in both Ann Arbor
and Chicago, spending the majority of my time as a pedestrian, and in both cities jaywalking is not only
common but almost expected (to my irritation as a driver, but I love it when I'm on foot).

Kultur 4

Once again I believe the Germans have a few things right that many other places in the world do not. For example having a huge network of bike lanes that most people use. It is so amazing and green that so many people take part in it, just like here in Ann Arbor in a certain sense. The main difference is that bike riders have the right-of-way. Another thing Germans have right is their views that jaywalking is socially unacceptable. I came from a very busy tourist town and many of the people who would around downtown were terrible. Driving in that area was already bad enough with the traffic with out having to worry about hitting people so I really like the way German drivers speed up and narrowly avoid hitting jaywalkers. That'll teach 'em! Anyways, as for the other articles I found them not nearly as interesting, though I did like how German works on the honor system for trains and are usually very organized.

Kultur 4

I found reading about the different laws and cultural aspects of Germany very interesting. Growing up close to NYC, I traveled there often, and there would be, and still are, many times where I would cross the street while the stop sign was still up. Had I traveled to Germany without reading this article, I most certainly would have done the same thing. As for the bike lane article, I find it awesome how 'green' German cities are. I know in most of the cities I've been to if you travel by bicycle, you either get out of the cars' ways or you get run over, which seems to be quite the opposite of how things work in German cities. It really just surprises me how different things are in German cities than cities like New York or Chicago. In order to even get through to the trains in New York, you have to buy a Metro Card and swipe it, and thats for every time you enter a new subway station! I guess though it's like that in New York because people would not be as honorable about traveling as in German cities. I never really considered the issue of logical answers not always being the right ones either. Being around a German family a lot, I never ran into issues like that, but it is definitely a good thing to know about before visiting Germany and asking for help. Finally, I was unaware it is a stereotype for some Germans to be unorganized/messy. I found that article too short to really understand what it was talking about.

AMD 4

This weekend was actually quite interesting because I had originally planned to watch a movie with the German Club, that is until the malfunctioning DVD-Spieler attacked! Instead I ended up going to the Heidelberg with a friend to eat, and I have to say I was thoroughly impressed! The atmosphere of the restaurant was very rustic and from the moment you stepped in the door it was completely different from any place I had been to. I was very thrilled when the waitor sat us in front of the big Bavarain crest. At first I was a little iffy since truthfully the descriptions under the food didn't sound too appealing, but it was actually turned out to be very good. I had the Wurstwich with the Boar and Apple wurst and Spaetzle on the side and it was delicious! My friend let me sample her Rouladen and potato cakes which were both amazing. Overall I was very pleased with my experience at the Heidelburg and I can't wait to go back for more yummy German food!

AMD4

For the AMD4 assignment, I watched an episode of the show "Scrubs" in German. The episode I watched "My Nightingale". For the previous AMD, I also watched an episode of Scrubs in German. I definitely understood more of the dialogue this time and was able to follow what was happening more of the time. I was able to recognize some of the vocabulary we have learned so far, and guess at what some of the other phrases meant from the context in which they were said.

Kultur 4

From the Brennpunkt Kultur, I think its a really great thing that schools in Germany place such a high importance on being multi-lingual and studying abroad in order to make their citizens more well-rounded. I found it interesting that it is such a hassle in Germany to own a car, but it is probably good since it encourages people to walk/ride a bicycle. I have heard before that the German railway is an excellent form of transportation and that it is quite popular/well used. From the articles, I was surprised to see how popular bicycle transportation is. Also, the roadways in Germany seem to be have more strict rules that are actually enforced compared to the USA. It also seems that taking the German underground subway can be rather tricky. I think that its a great quality of the Germans that they are so organized in every aspect of their lives, so I thought it was funny that the disorganization of the street signs in one city was so significant.

AMD 4 James Murphy

For my fourth AMD assignment i watched some videos of one of Germany best and most famous soccer players, Michael Ballack. Ballack is one of Germanys greatest ever players representing his national team on 98 occasions scoring 42 times, as well as captaining them in both European Championships and World Cups. Ballack is from Görlitz, a town on the eastern most point of the country sharing a boarder with Poland. Ballack started his carrer at Chemnitzer FC a German third division club before moving on to a glittering carrer making apperences for FC Kaiserslautern, Bayern Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and Chelsea, clocking up a total of 421 appearences and scoring 104 goals. Ballack has always been a fans favourite at both club and national level constantly provding high levels of performance and professionalism. Ballack announced his retirement from soccer in October of 2012. I have attached a video of his top 10 goals, definatley worth a watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ-eIcjDpbo&feature=related

AMD 4

For my AMD, I decided to turn my Facebook language to Deutsch for the whole day. I was actually surprised to see that many of the words were the same as they are in English, like "status" or "chat". I am assuming that these are new words that were incorporated into the German language like "Overheadprojektor." However, I have learned a lot simply from knowing how to navigate Facebook, but with different words for my activities. For example, when writing a status, instead of it asking "What's on your mind", it asks "Was machst du gerade?" which means "What are you doing?".  There are a few of these little differences on the Facebook page that now helps me understand German culture a little bit better. Also, I learned a lot of new vocabulary, like "Nachrichten", "Orte", and "Gesponsert". I think that I may keep my Facebook language to German for a few more days. It is pretty fun.

AMD 3

For this AMD assignment, I watched an episode of the show "Scrubs" in German. The episode I watches was "My Overkill" (Staffel 2, Folge 7). I have seen this episode before in English, so I was able to follow along somewhat and understand what was happening while hearing it in German. I was able to recognize some of the vocabulary we have learned in class and the nominative vs. akkusative forms of the dialogue. There were a few parts where the dialogue was a bit fast, but for the most part I was able to keep up.