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 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.

Kapitel 2 Kultur

I found the articles on German culture to be both an interesting and insightful look into the German culture. Almost immediately upon reading the articles my mind drifted back to my Oma and all the odd habits that I perceived she had. She would always seem to be in an awful mood, she drove my Dad crazy, and she would perpetually stare me down whenever I would help her with housework in her older years. As a kid I always thought that she was a grumpy lady and going over to her house was a real drag. Of course, as I got older I realized that she actually had quite the sweet side and was a very nice person. The articles "The German National Pastime," "Brutally Honest," and "The Germanic Staredown" hit the nail on the head with the way I perceived her traits. It was interesting to read articles explaining German culture and to see that they supported my own conclusion that her seeming bitterness was just a cultural divide.