Kultur 6

Sex, Smut and Shock was interesting article. No magazine here in America would ever be allowed to do that without a lot of controversy. Europe is just so laid back and chill, especially Germany. I like how the magazine also draws a line. That's good. The article "German Privacy" was also interesting. I'm someone who would be quite tentative and be afraid to disturb them. These articles are all really great advice for if I visit Germany. "Division Hell" was amusing to me. Like the idea of someone trying to install there own telephone software is hilarious. I'm pretty sure no one could do it. Four different receptacles for waste seems slightly like overkill but I guess it's not. But like the example of the wrapper smeared in ketchup? What bin does it go in? German universities don't assume responsibility for housing? That really sucks. You have to share an apartment with people you don't know and they probably will kill you. I wish Bursley had a communal kitchen. The pictures of Tübingen are really pretty in the book. It would be cool to study with at Tübingen. It seems like a very historical city.

AMD 6

I decided to do German Crosswords for a fun thing to do. The first one is Thanksgiving themed. I couldn't find a way to get lines to show up on the pictures so that you could see I actually did them. The first word I found for this one was Brötchen it was the easiest to find. I'll give the Englisch translation for all of these words too.
 Amerika= America, Batate= sweet potatoes, Brötchen= rolls, dankbar= grateful/thankful, Erbsen= peas, Ernte= harvest, Essen= food, Familie= Family, Füllhorn= horn of plenty/ cornucopia, Füllung= stuffing, Gemüse= vegetables, Herbst= Autumn/ Fall, Indianer= Indian/ Native American, Kartoffeln= potatoes, Mais=corn, Pilger= pilgrim, Preiselbeeren= cranberry, Pute=turkey, Segen= blessing, Soße= gravy
Ich bin neunundneunzig Prozent sure Deutschen don't have Erntedankfest, only in Amerika. 
Amerika, Batate, Brötchen, dankbar, Erbsen, Ernte
Essen, Familie, Füllhorn, Füllung, Gemüse, Herbst
Indianer, Kartoffeln, Mais, Pilger, Preiselbeeren, Pute
Segen, Soße ("Sosse" in search)

After finding this Holiday word search I decided to look up Weihnachten Wörter auf Deutsch. Advent calendar is just der Adventskalender aug Deutsch. I think these calendars are a big deal in Germany because the German Club at my high school always sold these. An angel is der Engel which isn't too hard to remember. A bell is die Glocke, candles= die Kerze and Christmas carols are das Weihnachtslied which makes sense since das Lied= the song. The christ child is also really easy to remember because its just das Christkind. Christmas markets are der Weihnactsmarkt. Mein Vater ist in Deutschland im Dezember geflogen. He says the markets are really big and cool. I would love to visit one of those as well if I ever go to Deutschland. I want to study abroad in the Fall so I can experience Oktoberfest and Christmas!! The Christmas tree= der Tannenbaum. I know this is a German custom that has been added to Christmas tradition. I remember in German class in high school and we had to sing "O Tannenbaum"! I think Silent Night "Stille Nacht" was originally wrote in German. It is such a pretty song!

Kultur 5

The first article "Rules of Street" was interesting in that no one apologizes by saying "Entschuldigung". I guess that is kinda how Germans get the stereotype of being mean and scary between the German stare-down and how ruff they are. The article "German Erotica" was pretty funny. I didn't think people were that stingy when it came to sex shops. Of course in Hartland we don't have one but I'm pretty sure there are two here in Ann Arbor. America should have bathroom attendants. I can't handle how gross some bathrooms are so they better clean them well if I'm going to pay to use the bathroom. "Scoring a German" was an interesting article. I wonder how my Uncle got my Aunt seeing as she is German and if you didn't know her you would think she is scary and intimidating. I'm bad at flirting in general so flirting in German would probably be disastrous. In the article "Women in Germany" it mentions that women live longer than men, I thought that was a common thing. I think the life expectancy for women in the USA is higher than for men. Overall there was a lot of interesting tidbits of German women. Its sucks that women still have lower pay but I thought it was cool how Dads also get time off to help raise their kids. I did't know Hamburg was Germany's largest seaport and second largest city. When I travel to Germany someday I would love to visit Hamburg. It seems to be filled with so much history and interesting attractions. Also I now realize why a Hamburger is called so, because it originates from Hamburg! That celebration seems nice but kinda awkward, like I'm ready to take the next step in this friendship let's get a drink and use du now instead of Sie.

AMD 5

So I read the Wikepedia article about Denglisch. I thought it was interesting how Englisch Wörter are being used in Deutschland but there is no crossover of English using Deutsch Wörter. I can understand why people would be mad that Deutschland is switching over to using predominantly more Englisch with advertising. It would be like everyone started switching to Spanish in the USA. So many people would get mad but less people in Deutschland care because English is such a predominant language worldwide. I never knew the wort "Handy" was Denglisch, I just thought it was always like that. In the section labeled "Denglish in popular culture" I thought it was amusing about the songs that asked what is happening to my language [Deutsch] and as the song progresses the lyrics become more Englisch. I think its a good form of propaganda. I also never knew that Germans had different grammatical rules which makes sense but now I'm worried about my essays because I'm pretty sure I used apostrophes which just doesn't happen in Deutsch. Overall I think the article was interesting and I found some of the Denglisch Wörter lustig. Zum Beispiel dowloaden und gecrashen sing lustig Computer Wörter.

Kultur 4

I would really hate to be run over by a bicyclists. An Autobahn for bikes seems like an efficient idea. I didn't know Germany was such a stickler when you can cross crosswalks. The idea of losing a leg because of a cyclist is a terrifying thought. It's official. I'm never crossing the street when the "Red Dictator" is shown. That sounds really annoying. I don't care about other trains I want the train that I can ride. That is interesting that Germany uses the honor system but I'm some one who would buy a ticket. I could never try and sneak on. Is Einbahnstraße a common street name? Wow why are there 136 Goethe-Institue? I love to ride my bike. If I wasn't living on North campus I would use mine. Maybe next year I will have my bike. I have never been on a train but with all the options it seems nice.  Wow getting a driver's license in Germany seems like such a pain in the ass. I'd rather just bike. Wow Frankfurt is a really important and interesting city. I would love to visit it someday.

AMD 4

I decided to sign up on LiveMocha and see what it was like. I decided to learn about the weather for my first lesson. I learned some new vocabulary like bewölkt which means cloudy and heiß which means hot. I also did the seasons. I liked the activities they had you do. The flashcards were nice and I liked how they had example sentences. The seasons genders are easy to remember. They are all masculine. I only have the starter pack but it may be useful to use when studying for the final exam. Overall I like this website and I think I'll continue to use it. Tell Hartmut thanks for sharing! Danke!

AMD3

I decided to just write sentences to practice for the upcoming test. I thought this would be a good way to kill two birds with one stone. And I thought I would make it a fairy tale to make it more interesting.

Einmal auf ein Zeit, war da ein schöner Prinzessin. Sie ist achtzehn Jahre alt. Sie heißt Sarah. Sie hat blaue Augen und braune Haare. Sie liebt Essen essen. Sie isst Äpfel und Bananen und Trauben von die Obstkategorie. Sie isst gern Suppe, Hähnchen, und Nachspeise. Ihre Lieblingsnachspeise ist Eis. Die Prinzessin hat Zeit für Freizeitaktivität. Sie besucht ihre Großeltern und fährt ihr Rad. Sie singt und tanzt gern. Sie kauet keinen Kaugummi. Die Prinzessin wandert um die Stadt. Sie liest gern in die Bibliothek. Sie siehst gern die Bilder at die Kunsthalle. Sie schwimmt mit die Meerfrau. Sie trägt schöner Kleider denn sie ist eine Prinzessin. Aber trägt die Prinzessin Shorts und Turnschuhe auch. Sie liebt eine Prinzessin sein. Das Ende.

Kultur 3

The first article I read was "An Obsession Explained". I found it really interesting about all the different types of Bier and how it can mixed with Cola and Lemonade. Also the fact that 115 liters of Bier is consumed per person is crazy. That is so much Bier to drink. I also wondered what Deutsch Bier would taste like. I have only had a sip of Bier here and it sucked so I'm curious as to if I would like Deutsch Bier. The next article I read was "Eco-Centric Germans: Organic Food Obsessions". The fact that 70% of Germans would never eat genetically modified food can be seen as strange, especially in America in which most of the selection available is genetically modified. Although it is getting easier for Americans to buy organic food with Farmer's Market and some organic food stores. Everyone in Germany must be really healthy if they mostly eat organic, they probably don't have chemicals in their bloodstream like us Americans do. The last article I read was "German Fast Food: Forget the "Mett", Try a "Frikadelle". I definitely now know to never try Mett when I go to Germany, like never ever. My Dad, who has been to Germany on multiple occasions, has made Wiener Schnitzel for us with Spätzel though. Germans seem like very depressing people to be friends with. But I liked the ending about making money off of your stupid idea and demonstrating what could happen. That sounds harsh calling Germany A "humorless nation". The Berliner's aren't the nicest funny people. I don't think their humor is for me. Out of all of them I think my humor fits best with the Bavarians. I hold my fork in my left hand and knife in my right even though I'm right handed. Mittagessen is the main hot meal for Germans, in America dinner is the main hot meal. It would be weird to use grams or liters to measure things with. I think it would be fun to travel to Heidelberg and I would't mind going to Mannheim. Mein Vater would be more interested in Mannheim because he is an electrical engineer.

AMD 2

I read the Mark Twain articles. The first article I read was "The Awful German Language". I thought it was funny when he went through three German teachers, each one of them dying. When I was taking German in high school I always got annoyed that there were so many exceptions to the rules and that there were more irregularities in German. I like his comment that you never find out the verb in a newspaper for a sentence because they run out of time writing the rest of the sentence. Parenthesis in English are habits of inexperience writers while in German it is a sign of practiced pen. It was funny when he mentioned the many ways to say my friends and how it would be better to be friendless in Germany. Schlag has about 13 different meanings and their entirety is considered a full definition. Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen is the longest word I have ever seen. Some of the sentences in "The Horrors of the German Language" sound so awkward and make no sense at all in the english translation. He's so sarcastic in this article. Of course Mark Twain is known for writing satire. I thought these articles were super interesting and I will now be forced to pay attention to the faults of the german language.

Kapitel 2 Kultur Post

I found the articles to all be really interesting. I thought it was interesting that Germans want to know the population and area of the city you are from. Most people in America don't care what it is like, more of where it is in relation to them. I found the brutally honest article very amusing. Asking questions like "have you gained weight?" or saying "I don't like fruitcakes and figs gives me rashes" are definitely things we would not say in America. But I do like how straight forward they are about everything  You don't have to analyze and ask yourself if they meant what they really meant because they did. The Germanic stare down kinda creeped me out. I definitely would be uncomfortable with someone just staring at me. I also liked when the British friend of the author asked "Would you like to take a picture?". It would definitely be a sassy remark I would make. And how your neighbors would talk about your party life and all you are thinking is "get a life" that made me chuckle. On the first article I thought it was funny how Germans would agree with you that they complain too much and then argue why they do so. Germans seem to be very argumentative and like discussions. It would be interesting to have a conversation with one. I think I have some German heritage so I guess I'm apart of 57 millions who also claim so. Also when they were talking about the different universities it was interesting that they had separate schools. Would they share a same campus like the University of Michigan does? That would make it harder to transfer careers if you have to attend a completely different school.

AMD 1

For my AMD I decided to look at some modern German music. I had some knowledge of these songs from my brother who likes to listen to them. The first is Gott is ein Popstar (God is a Popstar) by Oomph!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0JfEhNOg3A The music video has a lot of symbolism on top of being weird. I think a lot of German music videos are weird. The first verse of this song is almost exactly like the Lord's prayer which is interesting (we could analyze this from a literary point of view but I don't want to). Some neu words are der Bösen is the devil, Versuchung = temptation, Himmel= heaven. The next song is by Rammsterin. It is called "Ich Will" or "I want". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4K6ZxDwi34 A band at my high school actually performed this song at Deutsch Day at die Universität of Michigan. A lot of the song is easy to know because it repeats ich will like every line. Some new words are Phantasie= fantasy, die Ruhe = energy, and the word verstehen is one we already learned which is the verb to understand. The last song is Neunundneunzig Luftballons by Nena. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsU8fRvTeCI I like this song a lot. Some new words are Kreigsminister= war minister, Feurwerk= firework, und fliegen= to fly.

Kultur 1

While reading the article I learned a lot of new and interesting things. I never knew that Germans had such an interest in Indians. I don't even know if Americans have clubs dedicated to Indians. I also never knew that Dutch was used to describe German people. I thought Dutch was an entirely separate category from German. Milwaukee being "the most German city in America" is weird. I would never have imagined Milwaukee to be the most German but when you refer back in the article in how Germans settled in wooded areas that reminded them of home, it makes a lot of sense. The idea of New Graus becoming "little Switzerland" makes me think of Frankenmuth, Michigan which is like a "little Germany".

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