Kultur 1 - Scott Aldworth

Being primarily of German descent, I found How German is American? to be an interesting and informative article. My maternal grandfather and grandmother are both first generation German immigrants who settled in Long Island, NY; my paternal grandmother is a second generation German immigrant who's lived in Chicago suburbs her whole life. Both of these areas are the darkest color of red on the map, where there are over 20 Germans per square mile. Many German traditions - food, language, and beer - have stayed in my family to this day. I attribute this partly to the fact that my family is from highly-populated german areas, much like the communities described in the article.

I found it very interesting that Germans have an odd fascination with Native-American culture. Learning about a different country's interest in American culture is something that I have never really thought about. Since America is such a melting pot of different cultures, I feel that we often look outward for cultural influences. It is nice to know that Germans look towards ours for influence.

The article states that most German-American community groups - both secular and religious - were founded to preserve the German language among immigrants. As a result, German-English hybrid languages like Pennsylvania Dutch developed. My maternal grandparents speak a similar type of German-English hybrid but with only 10-15% German rather than the inverse that is so with Pennsylvania Dutch. I call them Opa and Oma, and my parents are called the same by my brother's children.