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.

Kultur 1 Assignment

Kultur 1 Assignment                                                                                             Chelsey Lang 9-12-12

     Right from the beginning the How German is American article caught my attention. Many relatives on my father's side of the family have wondered if we've come from German descent. My last name Lang at one point very well could have had an "e" at the end, that was dropped during World War 1. Unfortunately no one has been able to trace my family's ancestry back far enough.
     Even though I did not make it through the whole article, the impression I got from it was how willing German immigrants were to embrace the American idea of freedom. While they did hang on to some of their roots they tried new things that they wouldn't be able to in Europe such as different religions. They also brought with them change for the better; supporting reform and improvement and even creating winning gymnastic teams. While German ancestry may not be so apparent now days it still has played an important role in America.
      In our book I found the Kultur segments to be very informative and helpful. I think it is not only good to be able to learn German, but also to be able to use it in the right context as native Germans do.

Willkommen!!

Welcome to our class blog!

We will be using this blog throughout the semester for two kinds of assignments:

1. Once per chapter, the homework plan will direct you to post a response to the culture readings for the chapter on the blog.

2. Roughly every other week, the homework plan will direct you to post here for your Abenteuer mit Deutsch (AMD) assignment. First you do a fun activity that involves German, then you post about it. You should spend an hour total on this (maybe 45-55 minutes doing something, 5-15 minutes posting about it). See Was ist ein AMD, AMD Ideen and Beispiele for ideas. This should get you excited about the kinds of things you can do!

Whenever you post something, please include your name and the name of the assignment (e.g. AMD2, Kultur5) as labels. See "Blog: How To" for more details!