Kultur 6

I hope that it was an exaggeration that millions of Germans get their news from the Bild.  We form your opinion so you don't have to does not sound like the way a population should be getting informed.  If they are continually going on crusades against public figures, you would think that the people would dismiss anything they write.I don't think page one girl would be allowed here, but I'd really prefer to see her than Ex-Foreign Minister Joschka Fische.
Why not just leave the door open?  Do they have privacy signs when they don't want to be disturbed? Or perhaps lock the door?
It sounds like a good plan to separate everything.  That way recycling is much more efficient.  We have single stream recycling, which makes it easier to recycle, bu lots of things are still sent to the trash.  It sounds like the Germans don't have the can returners like we do, because everyone returns the can themselves.  Why even have a deposit if the people are going to do it anyway?

AMD 6

For this AMD, I watched the first episode of the German TV show, Stromberg.  It is the German version of The Office.  It is funny how many adaptations of that show there are.
The show took on some more serious issues than I have seen in the American version.  They openly make fun of a fellow employee's asthma.  Going so far as to make him smoke a cigar when her requests a parking spot that requires less walking up stairs for him.  This request is, of course, denied.
Going along with what we learned about sex shops and the like, a tech finds some inappropriate material on the boss's computer and they show employees drawing naked pictures on the whiteboard.  It is funny because that kind of thing would be found on cable here.
They smoke inside the building, I wonder if that is the case at most offices in Germany.
The other interesting parts were the commercial segments.  They used English in many of the commercials, just like we learned in class.

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.

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.

AMD4

For this weeks AMD, I changed the language on my phone to German when I went to bed last night and left it that way until tonight.  A lot of the words from class appeared.  Telefon, Wetter, Musik and Kalendar were some I had seen before.  New words I learned were Nachrichten, which means messages, and Einstellungen, which means settings.
In order to write an email, I had to first Entsperren (unlock) my phone.  Then select the Mail app and open my Eingang (inbox) and open an email.  I then chose antworten (to reply) to the email.  After ich schriebe sie, I chose senden (to send) it.
I had to change my Startseit (homepage) to dict.cc to look up words I didn't recognize so I could use everything, like the Rechner (calculator) or Aktien (stocks) apps.
It was an interesting experience having my phone like this and its good to know that I can figure it out in the case that someone ever pulled a prank on me by changing the language to German.

Kultur Vier

I would love it if we had similar bicycle paths here in Ann Arbor.  The bike routes on the side of the road always feel dangerous when I'm on my bike and aren't always there.  When I'm driving its even worse, always worrying about hitting a biker.  "Share the Road" never feels like a good solution.  The pedestrian walkways are no better for bicyclists, I never take my bike on the sidewalk.  First, because I know how annoying bikers are to me as a pedestrian, and second, because it doesn't even get you, held up by walkers, there any faster.
It would be great to see a German family in Ann Arbor with little impressionable children, as the crosswalk signs are generally ignored.  German personal injury lawyers must have a lot less work than their American counterparts.
Dealing with the person at the train station counter sounds infuriating.  This sounds similar to the way you have to talk with customer service agents at overseas call centers.  You must be very precise in saying what you want.
I wonder if there are agents on every train.  Last time I was in Chicago, I took four train rides, and purchased one ticket.  Fortunately, the only time that there was an agent in my car was the only time I bought a ticket.  Here the mentality is to risk it if you can get away with it, and no stigma attached to taking that risk. It is a game, and the train operators fault for setting it up in this way.
Einbahnstraße means "one-way street", that's pretty funny.

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.

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 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.

Kultur 2

It was interesting to hear about the honesty of the Germans in casual conversation. Speaking that way would be considered very rude here.  I wondered why we learned the word mollig to describes someone in class, because it seemed like there would never be a time to use it.  But it appears that Germans would not have a problem describing someone that way.  I wonder if the people at the receiving end of these kinds of descriptions get upset.  Or does this eliminate bullying, because there is nothing a bully would say that anyone else would not?
I liked the idea of being able to tell people that you don't want a particular food because you don't like it. I often get into trouble at dessert time because I don't really eat sweets.  A friend's mom loves baking and every time I went over, she insisted that I eat the pie or cake she made for dessert.  I had to pretend to enjoy them all so as not to offend her, but this would not have been an issue in Germany.
The other thing that I found interesting was the willingness, or even desire, to describe medical issues or pains.  In America, people hide this type of issue from one another.  It is seen as making excuses to discuss pains.
Complaining was something that I had already heard about.  There is a lot of tourism in Berlin, which is great for their economy.  But the people who live in the city complain about them, some places have signs saying things like, "Tourists go home" and "Sorry, no entry for hipsters from the U.S."  This article goes into more detail: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/17/us-germany-berlin-tourists-idUSBRE88C0ZT20120917

AMD1

Last Mittwoch, some friends and I went to the Heidelberg downtown and I made a point to look for aspects of German culture.  The windows inside are made of stained glass with names of German cities and a picture of something about that city included in each.  The architecture features lots of dark wood reminiscent of the half-timbered buildings from Medieval times, those which we typically associate with German buildings.  There are also other artifacts including a collection of beer steins.
My favorite beer there is the Weihenstephaner Heffeweissbier, which I now know means yeast wheat beer of Weihnstephan Brewery. Weihenstephan is the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world.  They are able to trace their history to the Weihestephan Abbey where the monks began brewing beer in 768 ad.  They were licensed by the city of Freising in 1040 ad and have been brewing continuously since.  When Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the area in 1803, he transferred the brewery form the monastery to Bayern.  It is now a state run company operated as a commercial brewery and learning center for a university in Munich.
Beir is served there in boots, or Bierstiefel as they are called in Germany (not das Boot).  To toast in German, the word is Prost, which literally means "may it be for you" or "may it benefit you".  According to the bartender, eye contact is very important when toasting in Germany.
I look forward to going to Germany and see how the experience compares.

Kultur 1

I appreciate a lot of the food and drink brought to America by German immigrants.  Among my favorites are the bratwurst and heffeweisen.  Sauerkraut could have stayed back in Europe.
It is interesting to see the two waves of German words that entered English.  The first wave being the origins of English.  Before the Norman Conqests in 1066, Old English had little Latin or French influence.   After 1066, German had little influence on the language until modern times, when a new wave of word exchange began between the two languages, bringing words like kindergarten and pretzel.
The meaning and controversy associated with Bambi was new to me.  I did not realize that it was initially an allegory alluding to the threat to Jews in Europe.  That is especially interesting considering some of the rumors regarding Walt Disney's feelings on the matter.
Smaller, American versions of Oktoberfest are additional great imports to American culture.  The season is fast approaching.  I hope to make it to the real thing sometime.