AMD 6

In preparation of my group's Aufsatz's, I looked through German news broadcasts on youtube. I focused on how they presented the stories, and how they greeted the viewers in the beginning. I was confused at the opening in the example video, where I believe the anchor said something along the lines of "Meine nam ist _____, tagsschau....." The anchor spoke really quickly.

I haven't watched many news shows lately, but for some reason, the German news broadcast is very serious and schnell. The anchor seemed to just breeze objectively through the news. Even the US News has more personality than this. It seems like Gemany could really use Ron Burgundy.

The Anchor seemed to be able to breeze through all the news in the 2 minute clip. I'm not sure what it is about the tagsschau channel, but it looks like they just want to go through with news quickly. No weatherman, no person to announce the lotto numbers, no onsite reporters to commentate; what is it with this programme?

No matter, we'll just take the format of the American news in our Aufsatz skits. There is the Australian news channel called Australia Today where the entire staff have much more personality and fun. I'm guessing that's banned in Germany or something. Zu Schlecht.

-JaLu

AMD 4

I actually am heavily interested in partaking in the German Study Abroad program diese Sommer at the Goethe Institute. I feel summer of Freshmen year is the only opportunity I'll have to take a trip like this, and I definitely feel it would be a good idea to knock out the LSA language requirement without spending so much on U of M out of state tuition. The only thing for me to decide would be where I would go. 

I narrowed my choices down mostly to Schwabisch Hall, Munchen, or Freiburg. I looked up all the resources that the manager of the project, Khali, gave me, as well as some information on the respective cities along. 

Schwabisch Hall looked appealing because it was the cheapest option that also had the most U of M students, but I feel that residing in a town of only about 20,000 people would be a bit boring. Being surrounded in nature and quiet is nice and all, but I really feel I should go to a city of some sort if I wanted to fully experience Germany as a country. 

Freiburg looked appealing because of the weather. I looked at the conditions of this city, and it said that because of the cool air from the nearby Swiss Alps that combines with heat of the area, Freiburg has just as good weather as California. The fact that Freiburg also is clsoe to France, Belgium and other European countries makes this place perfect as well. Hopefully, I'll find a good group of U of M students going here. 

As for Munchen, this area looks appealing as well. There is cheap dormitory housing and I won't have to live in a guesthouse, so that is nice. Munchen also is a populous city that shows plenty of culture that looks unique. I feel this place is just as appealing because of the famous Beers, attractions, and proximity to other European countries. 

I'll definitely talk to Khali about my options, and will further my research on which place to study abroad to. 

Kultur 9

So many rules in Germany! I'm not sure how the Germans just live about their lives doing what they want when there are so many unwritten taboos. The passage about the German Certificates seems pretty intimidating; I would have to present proof of everything! This seems especially annoying since everyone does it, so I'm sure employers would just skim through your files, looking more for completion than merit. But I feel if I lived in Germany, I would probably get used to life like that. I personally am not a fan about submitting papers upon papers of achievements and proof, but I guess if that's how the Germans do it, let it be.

But as for the unspoken neighbor etiquette, I guess there is nothing wrong. Of course, those are how the rules are written, but I'm not sure if its practiced. My RA says that the hall has quiet hours starting at 11pm, but that doesn't stop some of my friends from blasting music or chanting randomly at 1 AM while I'm trying to sleep or get some work done. I guess I would find the rules of neighbor etiquette extremely strict, until I actually run into a terrible neighbor who just breaks all the rules (Cough cough some of my hallmates)

As for the patriotism taboo, I guess that's just how it works in Deutschland. The Germans seem to be a very strict, ethical people, so I feel they would be the people who would hold a generations worth of guilt that lasts into the day. I'm sure as the world adapts, Germany will be prouder and prouder to wave their flag. However, I still find it astonishing that the Germans are afraid to wave their own, traditional, non-swastika tricolor, while plenty of Americans in the South are not afraid to display their Confederate flags.

-JaLu

AMD 3

Ich habe die letzes ein Uhr dreiBig Minuten fur die Film, Inglourious Basterds gesehen. While this portion of the film has a decent amount of French and English, there is the famous Bar Scene. I loved watching this scene, and still noticing a very significant amount of the German spoken by the characters. Without the subtitles, was kind of lost and would only pick up some of the small phrases and verbs. With the subtitles however, I could anticipate the vocab and pick up key phrases or verbs. I would have to say that the subtitles greatly helped me keep along with the nouns, verbs, and prepositions in the scene. I can't seem to understand all the subordinate phrases, but I've been learning German for less than a year now.

I watched this movie the summer before I came to the Universitat of Michigan and didn't understand any German. Rewatching this now, I'm surprised how many words that ring in my head that I am familiar with.

I watched about 1 hours 30 minutes of the film, leaving off from the last 1 hour of the film I watched

Link to video: (Couldn't find using this websites video link for some reason)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdsgqQg0InI

-JaLu

Kultur 8

It seems like the Germans have a lot in common with Asian than with the other European nations when dealing with sickness. The article Draftophobia noted that Germans have a strict aversion to open windows and other drafts because they somehow cause sickness. It doesn't seem to be just draft either; the author did mention that many Germans did not appreciate him having a fan in a hot workplace either. I know for a fact that my parents, and especially the Korean cultures, don't like draft or long-timed fans either. My parents usually never let me open the windows on car rides. The difference would be that my parents actually used Air Conditioning. I do have much experience with no open fans in a room though; my parents usually made note that fans during the night time were bad. I believe I also read how the Korean Culture thought leaving fans on overnight while sleeping or for long periods of time lead to death; the change in air pressure from the fans would cause the body to suffocate or something. Considering that we experience changes in pressure many times (just being outside, climbing in elevation, and being in an airplane) this logic doesn't seem that sensible.

As for the Germans having their own rituals and aversion to modern medicine, I can relate that to my life as well. My parents seemed to have their own herbal Chinese methods to recuperating from illnesses. I was surprised to see my roommate took anti-cold pills or aspirin when he was sick this past week. When I had a cold, my parents gave me this weird Chinese cough syrup or herbal medicine and then just set me on my merry way to continue coughing my sinuses up. Still, I seem to have a very strong immune system and only get sick maybe twice a year at most, so I guess I can attest to my parents ways.

I've tried a sauna once. My friend said it was good for you after a workout, and he set the sauna for 10 minutes. By 8 or 9 minutes we literally just gave up and walked out. I don't think I'm a big fan of it, just willingly allowing yourself to sweat and suffer from high temperatures. When I visit Germany, sauna visits probably won't be a top priority on my list.

AMD2

For my second AMD activity, I chose to watch two episodes of the Simpsons (~45 Minutes) in Deutsch. Of course, I really didn't know the words too well, but the episode still made a good amount of sense because I could actually see what was going on. I simply googled "Simpsons Deutsch" and actually found a Live-Stream that streams episodes of the Simpsons constantly. I waited until a current episode finished, and watched the next two. 

My first impressions of the episodes were that the voice actors weren't casted based on similarity to the American voices. Homer Simpson especially did not have his memorable, iconic voice. I feel the German Homer was so much more sophisticated and smart just because his voice sounded at least somewhat educated (bad for his character). I also notice in cinematography when the film would cut quickly to one character making a speech, and then quickly back to the action on the film. This was meant for the one liner jokes that made the episode funny. I was unable to laugh along since I can't fully understand German, but it was cool being able to notice when the episode is trying to be funny. 

The first episode I actually kind of remember because I do somewhat recall seeing it in English years ago. I forgot the jokes, but the premise was that Lisa was in a crossword puzzle contest. She beats everyone and gets to the finals, but then loses because a person tapped her on the shoulder when the contest began. She then learns that Homer bet against her, and began pretending Homer didn't exist out of spite. In a heartfelt ending, Homer hire the a crossword puzzle maker to make an apology to Lisa in newspaper.

The second episode also centers around Lisa. This time I believe she wants to hang out with popular girls at school, and lies that she has Konzert tickets for "Lakota Dakota," a spoof for Hannah Montana. When she admits to the popular girls she didn't have the tickets they chase her down to beat her up. They have the classic cartoonish run around town. I remember in one hilarious scene that I could understand, Lisa quickly changes clothes to disguise herself in trendy attire to escape the girls. They stop and say something along the lines of, "Sie sind letztes Jahre Schuhe!" and the girls comment more on the attire, with one girl saying "und es ist Lisa!" as if thats the least important thing to the girls, before they continue chasing. In the end, like classical cartoon morals, Lisa learns she doesn't need to hang out with the popular girls to be happy. 

For picking up on German, unless the sentences were super simple, I mostly remembered the adjectives and verbs. I do recall alot of "ubers" if there is anything to note. Hoepfully I can recall at least most of the episode as I learn more and more German to pick up in my speech.

Here is the link to the German simpsons Livestream: http://www.livestream.com/dsgerall

Kultur 1

The Germans seem to be most interested in two things with the American Food Culture: Desserts and Holidays. By scrolling down, the list continued from Halloween to Thanksgiving to American Christmas. And for some reason, these foods were all types of desserts. I guess American main dishes aren't good enough for the Germans (then again it's mostly just Hamburgers and Hot-Dogs). Butterscotch chips, Cupcakes, Cakes, Chocolate, and Cookies are the listed dishes. The slow cooker and Crawfish also make appearances, so I guess the Germans do like Seafood and never really used a hot pot.

As for the article about lines, I'm pretty sure its an exaggeration. It seems like all of these German Culture articles by der Spiegel are meant to be funny and satirical of the German culture. I remember in 3rd grade when I visited my relatives in Germany over the summer that most of the people were quite polite and did not push me around in the lines. If the Germans truly want to see how bad lines get in society, they should look to the Asian countries like China. I remember waiting in line for the Bullet Train in China and most people were cutting to ask random arbitrary questions and sometimes people would throw stupid tantrums. I'm probably sure Garlic won't stop these people either, unlike the Germans.

I browsed through the 365 Dinge book. The first item that sparked my interest was how they openly advertised a nightclub (h20, dante, oder matrix) as number 8. I haven't really looked through brochures, but it doesn't seem like nightclubs are advertised that often. Similarily, I'm not sure how #49, a tattoo parlor, would ever appeal to tourists. But, as expected of Germany, there are many drink tasting bars like numbers 34,9, and 20.

AMD1

Fur meine ersten AMD activity of German 101, I decided to look at some songs of the seemingly popular German metal band "Rammstein." I cannot say that I am a fan of this type of music (I don't like metal that much), but I can actually understand some of the German lyrics. The most distinct song for me was their song "Ich will." I thought this song simply meant something like "I will" when I first listened to this song before I took German, but it feels odd knowing that the singer is repeatedly shouting out "I want"in his terrifying, deep German voice.

Other words that stuck out are mostly the pronouns: mir and mich. I also heard the word verstehe, so I'm guessing the song is about how the singer willt people to understand him better. 

I also listened to their song "Amerika" where the opening lyrics are "We're all living in Amerika, Amerika, its wunderbar" but the music video and some following lyrics show that this saying is probably sarcastic or ironic. I'm actually not sure if they are trying spoof nationalism with words like "kontrollen" "weiBen Haus" and "Mickey Maus" or they are trying to appeal to escapism that we're not living in high-income places like America because the music video depicts seemingly poor or tribal people in Africa or Asia

 

For the most part, I didn't really understand the songs messages, but the titles of the Rammstein songs are pretty simple. Keine Lust: No Lust, Mein Land: My Land, Engel: Angel, Mein Teil: My Tale. When listening to these songs, I really only picked up some words in the chorus. The music videos seem to be taking a common theme though: spoofing the life of greed/control/oppression in the current society through caricatures or extremities. (Ex: No Lust shows a bunch of greedy, fat people singing about how they have no desires)

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