Kultur 5 Andrew Kim

    I decided to write about the article, "No Blood, No Entschuldigung." I found it to be a very insightful piece and one that broadened my views of how politeness is measured in different communities. The article is not saying that Germans are innately rude or impolite, just that they are more used to dealing with every day physical contact that some of us are. I find myself to be a somewhat polite person, and when I bump into people while walking on the street I usually say "excuse me." However, in Germany this is usually not the case, as people accept the fact that everyone has somewhere they need to be and uttering formalities of politeness only slows both parties down. In America, even in the crowded streets of New York City, it is still commonly seen as polite to say "excuse me" if you bump into or jostle another person. This is a very contrasting scene to the German public centers. I thought it was enlightening, and if I ever go to Germany, I probably won't forget my manners, but I won't feel offended if someone knocks me over in an attempt to get to work on time... unless they draw blood. In which case, I will expect and "Entschuldigung!"

AMD5

For chapter 5 AMD I decided to listen to some more German music. I started out with Peter Fox and his song "Haus am See." I found it to be very catchy. It was definitely different from the type of music I'm used to listening to in English. It was more focused on the percussion line that was used, and there were definitely more uses of orchestral instruments rather than the typical music synthesizer/electronic type of music that is so prevalent in American music right now. I also liked the song because there were some lines I picked up from the limited Deutsch that I know, the most obvious being "Haus am See," or "house on the lake." Another good one was: "Wir grillen, die Mamas kochen und wir saufen Schnaps," which means: "We're grilling, the mamas are cooking and we're drinking Schnaps." I found this to be a very cool and laid back line and similar to some American songs. Anyways, I had a good time with this AMD. I got to expand my music taste to a more... German level.

Andrew Kim Kultur 4

I decided to post about the bike kultur reading this week because it reminded me a lot about Korea. When I went and visited South Korea, I came to the conclusion that transportation in Korea is very convoluted. When you aren't driving with reckless abandon through packed city streets, you're either biking around and competing with pedestrians or actually following the really round-about designated bike paths. When I read the article on how Germans get around, it sounded very similar. It must be extremely confusing having such complex systems for a contraption as simple as the bike.

Andrew Kim AMD4

For AMD 4 I decided to try out the livemoca live chat option. It was kind of awkward at first maneuvering around the website, but once I figured out that I needed to choose the "Ich mag Katze" option things sailed a little smoother. Not having a laptop made this endeavor a bit more awkward as I found myself using university computers to chat online with people in Germany. When I chatted at around noonish, I forgot that people in Germany are in a different time zone. I greeted the first person I met with "Mahlzeit" and he looked at me funny. I explained that I live in America and he just started laughing. Oh yeah, his name was Carl by the way. (maybe Karl?) Anyways, I decided to give chatting another go around midnight, and the person I connected with was just getting up from bed. I greeted them with "Guten Abend!" and they responded in kind. Altogether it was a very normal, but at the same time different (different language) experience for me.

Andrew Kim AMD2

Jimmy Valmer. Even auf Deutsch Southpark is still easily recognized. That stutter is so funny. Instead of saying a...a...a...a, Jimmy says im...im...im...im and that just had me on the floor laughing. If you couldn't already tell, I decided to watch Southpark auf Deutsch for my AMD 2. At first it was a bit weird watching Southpark in a language other than English. Aber, I could still make out the gist of what the episodes were about. Many of the usual English phrases are similar in Deutsch. For example, "Fuck" is ficken. Another funny line I learned was: Halt die Klappe! It means shut up! Now I've got another funny German phrase under my belt. I wonder what else I can learn from Southpark!

Kapitel 2 Kultur Andrew Kim

Until recently, I really had no idea what German culture was like. I'd heard tales from friends who visited Germany on vacation about how nice the people were and how beautiful the castles looked, but could honestly say I was clueless as to what the actual culture was like. I learned German vocabulary in school and practiced writing sentences but never took the initiative to read up on German culture. I'd always just assumed that Germany hadn't changed much in recent history and that it didn't really matter because I wasn't actually living there. 

I'd just like to say that reading those articles revealed to me that: a. German culture is not very distant from American culture (what I gleaned from the article on complaining) b. German culture has made gigantic leaps in all forms, be it political, technological, or even academic, and c. German people are good at writing funny, informative articles. 

It was weird to learn that most German people are very informed about their country. They literally know information down to the percent decimal. Not to mention the fact that they are used to telling the truth (something different from the US). However, they complain about every little thing because they are used to having things so good. This seems just like the US in that we're so spoiled here that we all have reasons to complain for the littlest things. 

Andrew Kim AMD 1

So for my AMD I was initially thinking about watching Southpark in German, which still sounds fun and interesting to do. However, at the last second I was talking with a friend about his favorite films and how his favorite director happened to be Quentin Tarantino. When Inglorious Basterds was mentioned, it dawned on me that I had a very good chance to review some German while at the same time watching a Tarantino masterpiece. I spent my Saturday night watching Inglorious Basterds on my friends projector in Deutsch. Needless to say, it was a good two and a half hours spent. Having only watched the movie once in English, watching it in Deutsch with subtitles was almost the same as watching it over again because I was trying to keep up with the dialogues and new language. It was fun, educating, and honestly just time well spent. I'm glad I decided to start my adventures in Deutsch with this film because it is and will be one of my more favorite films.

Kultur 1

    For starters, I would just like to say that my background knowledge of German heritage in America and German culture overall before reading this article was pretty much nonexistent. It would be an understatement to say that I was surprised to find out that over 15% of America's population claim to have German heritage. Throughout my years in grade school, I had friends that lived on air bases in Rammstein, Germany that came to Delaware for school. They would bring back tales about being able to drink at the age of twelve or learning all the German that they knew through watching Spongebob with subtitles. At first this sounded silly to me: how could an entire culture be founded on alcohol and Spongebob? But after reading this article, my eyes have been opened as to how much German culture and American culture are intertwined.
    I would not go as far as to say that the two are completely alike, however the similarities are there. For instance, many English words are spelled and pronounced almost the same as German words. These cognates are the obvious and very easy connection from German to American culture. Seeing as Germans established their own school, theaters, businesses, and other forms of culture when they emigrated to America, it's not surprising that a lot of their culture mixed in with the resident American population. For instance, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile is an easily recognized symbol of the hotdog, a food item that many take to be of American origin. However, many miss the point that Oscar Meyer is of German origins.
    I found it funny that my friends from Germany would always have something interesting to say about their times living in Germany. One would tell me that he would frequent beer gardens at the age of twelve and get as much alcohol as he could afford. I can remember thinking to myself, "How on earth did he manage to start drinking alcohol at the age of 12?" Through further reading of this article, it shows just how important beer is to German culture. Beer and breweries accompanied German immigrants on their journey to America as well, which is a large reason that German beer holds a heavy presence in America.
   I could write much more, but for now would be more interested in learning more about Germany, so with that I conclude this brief summary of what I got out of the article, "How German is American?"

Mein Lieblingswort ist Kuli.