Kultur 6 - Die Tür geschlossen ist!

(http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,412990,00.html)

I'm not sure if it's because I am an American, or really just because of my personality but I often feel weird crossing the threshold of a door and unless I am sure I am invited in, I don't feel comfortable enough to just go inside.   I do find an open door inviting and have myself used it as a reasonable way to say, "Sure come on in." In fact in dorm life, or even in my current apartment situation, if my door is open it means you are more than welcome to come bother me. However, if my door is closed (in contrast to its normal position) I'm probably doing something like sleeping that I wouldn't want to be bothered during. I guess however, that the idea of knocking to gain entrance and that it should be one knock that's heard the first time, isn't really well.. surprising. Perhaps it's another demonstration of Germany efficiency - no excessive knocks needed. Just one and the job is done.

Upon further research I found this link for comparative differences between Germany and the USA with regards to doors and the like!

http://www.german-way.com/germany-usa-cultural-comparisons_5.html


Happy Easter,  Frohe Ostern!

Chrissy

AMD 6 - Bayreuth

Hallo Freunde.


Ich habe viele gesungen! I have been told to study up on a lot of German because, people believe that is what I will be singing most of later on my life. I am sure you are all familiar with this song :


That being said, for this AMD - I decided to read the website about the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, which was founded by Wagner himself and possesses a years long waiting list!


First Link Clicked? Spielplan - Which looked like a plan of plays, the season schedule perhaps? And that it was (http://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/deutsch/spielplan_455.html) - It listed days of the week I recognized, mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag, and so forth.  Also the Uhr - 18.00 Uhr, and the performance.


Next I clicked on the Link that said Tickets, no it really does say Tickets in English on their website.


I then deciphered this sentence :  "Eintrittskarten für die Bayreuther Festspiele können Sie schriftlich oder online bestellen. " - Which I believe means, tickets for the festival Can be ordered online or by.. writing?


There was link for "Presse" which I assumed to be press articles, and ACHTUNG! - It was. 
I attempted to try to read these articles but really the only I understood was " Bayreuther festspiele Live im Kino" - which make sense  since a lot of operas are getting broadcasted life in movie theaters. 

 

There was also this confusing image : 




Why gnome looking dude who looks stabbed in the back, I often ponder such questions myself. 








Other things I learned? Audi is a hauptsponsor of this event which I imagine means they are a main sponsor. 


I then clicked a link that said : Junge Freunde von Bayreuth - I could only imagine this would be for me!  I actually have no idea what it said, but seeing dollar amounts I imagine its some sort of group to promote the festival to younger people for the small fee or $100, small fee indeed. 


Einblicke : I have no idea what this means, but since it had a link to what looks like a tour of some sort I imagine it has something to do with that. 


I guess I'm really hung up on Wagner because my recital is April 7 (Stamps Auditorium, North Campus) - Samstag um 2 uhr.  und ich singe viele Wagner!


This to be exact :  
In fact, all 5 of them - a half hour of German. Yep.
And YOU ARE ALL INVITED, I know you're honored.


Alles Liebe,
Chrissy

Kultur 5 - Entschuldigung!!

Entschuldigung!!

Excuse me in the english language is incredibly common place. Whether said with an attitude in jest, such as "OH EXCUSE ME, WAS I IN THE WRONG?!" or with sincerity when perhaps you fell into the lap of someone on the bus after a rather sharp turn. However, in Germany, it would be a rather difficult treasure hunt to find someone who would commonly search for the words to pardon their behavior.

Upon a single google search, try "German rudeness", you'll find a million articles, or to be more precise 26,400,000.

Topics include culture normalities and, "Why are my German coworkers so rude to me? Is this normal?" And it seemed that in 2008, there was a resounding yes from the forum commenters. Or that it depended on what half of Germany (East or West) they were from.

The other opinion is that German's are shy with their emotions and aren't exactly touchy feely people which can make them seem ruder than they intend on being.

As for the old ladies, I do believe them to be the most vicious of the lot. For there are several times I've seen old ladies act "out of character". I supposed we should be happy they are still so feisty in their old age, but it can be a bit overwhelming!

Not really relevant, but I guess a tad here is a video of Rihanna's Rude Boy with the lyrics in German flashing on the screen as it goes by :

Time to get outside and enjoy das Wetter.

And maybe avoid rude people on buses!

Chrissy

AMD 5 - Baptism by Fire

Hallo!

This week I've been privy to a variety of German things, mostly by being in the right place at the right time. I work for UMS (please ask me about ticket things if you are curious) and worked the Show last weekend of Max Raabe, it was phenomenal! For a little back story on him his real name is Matthias Otto, he originally went to school for practically the same thing as me! He wanted to be a Baritone Opera singer, while there he used to go to flea markets and find old 1920's arrangements of pieces and wanted to perform them, thus he and his friends created the Palast Orchestra. They do old German pop songs, new german pop songs, old english pop songs and even some Britney Spears (no really). Not only was the performance an exposure in German culture itself. but working it in the beginning really helped me stretch my Deutsch skills! A lot of the people who attended were German, people from the German newspaper attended and people who spoke very little English were in attendance as well. As a result I picked up a lto of words from German conversations (though the diction was mushy sometimes and I didn't really understand all of it) and was spoken to in Denglish, having to decipher what their intent was. I t was really helpful to have german, and the few words I could speak I hoped brightened their day a little!



My Second experience with German is currently happening right now, although I am working in the league today under UMS I am experiencing a lot of German day first hand, watching the students prep their skits, music ensembles, practice their conversation skills and so forth. Some of them are years ahead of me and I marvel at their comprehension, it really does make me want to study more.

Things I think I should learn to say in German now?
MOHAWK - der Mohawk? (for apparently a lot of students had one for a skit)


Words to describe what I am witnessing?

Sie tragen schwarz hosen. Sie sind laut. Sie hören gern Rockmusik.

BUT NOT REALLY IT IS SO LOUD HERE WITH SO MANY LANGUAGES.

I hope all the patrons are ready to hear : "Laute BITTE!"

I'll update later if I find more interesting German things from today!

Tschüss!

Kultur 4 - Fahrrad fahren!

I think the spring bug has bit me, but as I was walking home and dodging cyclists I realized that I really missed having a bike, and when I saw that there was an article about cycling in the Kulturtexte, I was sold!

Bike paths sound way more inviting than the bike lanes we get in the states. They firstly, terrify me to be riding my bike that close to oncoming traffic and secondly they are often impossible to stay within, disappearing when you make turns or other difficulties. These lanes are often obstructed by street traffic, manhole covers, repairs and the like. There is even a youtube video on the impracticality of the bike lanes in NYC.

As a walking student bikers on the sidewalk can be frustrating at times, I have actually been hit by other people. Although, I can't say I blame them for wanting to join the safety of sidewalk land.

I feel that the introduction of these "mini-autobahns for two wheeled traffic" in the United States would effectively cut down on auto congestion and perhaps on oil consumption (although that is kind of a lofty goal). Mostly, because its safer, because the community rallies behind a good idea, and that in areas where it seems just a little too far to walk, you have options.

Perhaps it's too easy to get a drivers license here? Reading the licensing process in Germany sounds quite a bit more difficult. Though I do realize it is on a state by state basis here (Florida being one of the easiest states to get a license in - go figure). If all students had to go through such a rigorous process I think perhaps it would cut down on improper driving now.

I think that the efficiency of travel in Germany, can be broken down into two parts. That it is harder to gain the ability to drive, and that biking is safer and more appealing since the city design caters to it.

I wonder just how hard it would be, to enforce a safe area on already paved areas for cyclists?

Too bad my degree isn't in urban planning.

AMD 4 - Apfelkuchen

Hallo Freunde!

Ich koche aber ich liebe backen! For this blog I decided early this morning when already feeling the onsets of a sweets craving to bake from a German Recipe. I decided on an Apple Cake, or as the recipe listed Apfelkuchen. If you search German Apple Cake there are about ein hundert recipes to choose from and they vary by region and difficulty! There was one recipe that called for a kugelhopf - which I think is some kind of bundt cake pan ( I actually do own one of those thanks to meine Großmutter, however I didn't really want to experiment with it!) Luckily my glass measuring cup is in both metric measurements and regular cups and quarter cups, so the varying recipe was not a big deal. As I write this the kuchen is currently backen and smells, well.. delicious! I've taken some pictures of my journey from nothing to cake and have decided to share them with you, as well as the super easy english version of the recipe (and to be honest I checked a lot of this, and found it posted online the same way in English before I finalized anything because I was fearful of it tasting poorly!)


First I went to the store and bought Granny Smith Apples, I figured the tart taste would be nice with the sweeter cake mix.

Next I first mixed together 2 Eggs, and what came out to a 3/4 cup of vegetable oil. Once that was mixed thoroughly I added 2 tablespoons of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of Vanilla, 1 tablespoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 2 cups of Flour.

I started to peel and chop the apples now and was a little nervous because you needed VIER cups of them! That was 4 whole Äpfel!

A Lovely cup of apples, which you are supposed to "fold" into the mixture, here is where I thought that the best course of action would be to use my hands, little did I know that the batter was incredibly sticky and it would literally stick completely to my hands.


Luckily my roommate got home just as I was struggling and with a quick holler of "Helf mir!". Stephanie had used a spatula to get the mixture off of my hands and into the baking dish, well as much of it as we could. I mean, don't try this alone my friends.


Next I put in the oven - the directions called for it to be baked at 350 degrees für fünfundfünfzig minuten! I have at this point checked it at a half hour and although the top looked golden brown the inside is still a little raw!

.. Waiting is hard, very very hard.

Out of the oven now, waiting for it to cool enough to eat.


Okay it didn't look so great on a plate but it did taste fantastic no icing needed!

YUM YUM.

It was so so so so SO easy.

So please please ask me, should you feel the want to bake - Apfelkuchen!

Miss you all already! Enjoy your break, eat well!

Chrissy

Kultur 3 - German Fast Food

Ich mag fast-food.

Not as its own separate food group of course, but as a sometimes snack, and well because es ist schnell! Upon reading the article about fast food I was both reminded of the disgusting food trucks in the United States that I have happened across (the author doesn't exactly make everything sound appealing), and my time abroad. Well, that might be a stretch, I'm not exactly a Weltreisender. I've only been to Kanada and London. But the particular passage about french fries really rang clear! It seems that no matter where you travel everyone eats pommes frites differently.

In Kanada they have poutine, which is a lovely combination of french fries and gravy, often cheese, and I can't say that's always a regular here in the United States.

And upon my trip to London, it spread quickly through die Amerikaner that ketchup was not exactly vorherrschend. Nor was it free, at least not in the handfuls of ketchup grabbing type of society we grew up in. Perhaps in this way Europe, London and Germany both, conserve more and don't waste so much ketchup, alright that might be a bit of a stretch.

Because I wanted to know more about German fast food, I researched and found, that open face sandwiches are definitely a german thing (I just can't wrap my head around the insides not being flanked by two pieces of bread. And that Germans seem to constantly be inventing. Check out this article about a German Restaurant that is mostly automated!

Next I went to a travel guide for fastfood in specific areas, I chose Munich. It has now been set in my mind that there is, like in all places, quite a variety of "fast food" establishments in every country. They just might not all be exactly what we've come to expect!

Bis Morgen!

Chrissy

AMD 3 - German Cartoon from 1943

Guten Tag!

I started by watching a bunch of German Cartoons, but eventually became very interested in one called Der Schneemann (the snowman). It is a cartoon written in 1943 in Nazi Germany, and was originally made to rival Disney's Animations. This particular cartoon was created by Horst von Möllendorff and Hans Fischerkoesen. Der Schneemann is quite a remarkable feat when you think of when it was written, many people have attempted to draw parallels between the story line and Nazi Germany.

The story line is short, as it's only 12 minutes long. A snowman (very Frosty the snowman esque) is awakened when snow falls on him in the shape of a heart. He has a series of adventures and eventually stumbles into a cottage. Here he finds a calendar that reads "Januar", after flipping through it he becomes infatuated with der Monat Juli and hides himself in ein Gefrierschrank (ice chest) hoping to wait out until then. He makes it to Sommer and then proceeds to go outside and frolic. As predicted he beings to melt (german verb : schmelzen), and sings the only words uttered in the whole piece. The most profound line being: "Da ist der Sommer meines Lebens.." ( This is the summer of my Life ).

You can read a synopsis : here

Kultur 2 - Deutsch-Interaktionen

I would like to start by saying Die Wahrheit ist in Übertreibung gefunden (or truth is found in exaggeration). In my undergrad, Meine italien Professorin (who was also the Gender Studies Professorin), kommt aus Deutschland. She often griped about the differences between our two cultures and a lot of this floated back into my memory upon reading the articles online. The article that resounded most with me was "Brutally Honest". Meine Professorin often said, "You Americans ask how we are doing like you are saying Hello" (which is true), "In Germany if you asked someone how they are doing, you better wait for the answer." Other things she would mention is smiling at strangers, apparently, at least wehre she was fun, Germans find this particularly unnerving and will often think they have something on their face, rather than accept it as a friendly gesture.

From my personal experience, when working the front desk of a hotel chain, a German guest came into the lobby and saw the news on the Television. He then proceeded to give me his unsolicited opinion on everyone of the current events that popped onto the screen, from politics to arts and advertisements. I was at first a little taken aback to be receiving so many opinions from someone whose name I could barely pronounce, but in the end I found it.. refreshing.

I wonder perhaps if we could learn something from the abrupt honesty, if perhaps instead of spewing all our little white lies, that we just told the truth, would relationships be better?

However this "German Honesty" apparently hits a lot of people in a hard way, a search on those exact terms brings up a bunch of different articles about how Germans voice their opinions and that it might be jarring to someone not from their culture. Regardless, perhaps we should try being a bit more direct with one another as a social experiment, and see perhaps what happens.

Das ist alles Völker!

AMD 2 - An Experiment with Wikipedia

Hallo Freunden!

Today I decided to try to navigate Wikipedia ( Die freie Enzyklopädie) in Deutsch. My biggest surprise was first that the Haupseite (Main Page) has both a different layout and different international news! At the top of the German site it lists subjects, thankfully we've reached that in class for I could pick out all of them!

Geographie Geschichte Gesellschaft Kunst und Kultur Religion Sport Technik Wissenschaft

I decided to click on Kunst und Kultur to see what would happen next! (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Kunst_und_Kultur)

Using this page I saw that in linked to a buch of different articles as expected. It was really interesting to see articles about things in the United States. Such as

Das Apollo Theater im New Yorker Stadtteil Harlem!

I next went under the heading Darstellende Kunst und Musik. Under this heading there were links to many things which I recognized, (Film, Tanz, Ballet, Theater, Musik, Komposition, Musikgenre, Musikwissenschaft, Klassische Musik. Being a music major, (Yes I know this seems to be a common theme with me) I clicked ... Klassische Musik.

I was surprised to find so many english words and phrases intermixed with German on every page. It makes me want to explore all common used websites in their German equivalent. The tabs at the top had different things to choose from, such as lesen! I decided now to search for what I really wanted - Wagner. Scrolling up to the Search bar I saw the word in grey - Suche. Search!

( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner)

At the same time I decided to search the exact thing in the English equivalent.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner)

If you compare the sites it's impressive to find that they are constructed completely differently! Different pictures, different information, different way of compiling it. It shows that Wikipedia truly is a peer edited website, for on the same topic, is so different in two languages.

On the german version of the site there was a ton more information about his relationship with Hitler directly, which to be honest, I found a little bit surprising.

I played around on some other random artikels, trying to pick up as much information as possible. It's pretty amazing how much information you can learn even when just skimming an article in another language!

Give it a try!

Happy Donnerstag!

AMD 1 - Downfall

Movie : Downfall

Watched in German with English Subtitles.

Movie Depicts the final 12 Days of Hitler's life and is set mostly in his bunker.

The very beginning of the movie opens up with an interview with one of Hitler's Secretaries (in present day). The movie then proceeds to when she was first hired.

Hitler asks : Wie heisen sie?
Ich bin Traudl, Ich komme aus Munich.

I was pleased to recognize at least some conversational German!

The interesting part about this movie is that it shows Hitler as more than just the evil man we recognize him as in the history books.
He is given a more complex personality with some shades of grey. He is nice to the young girl, she replies she is zweiundzawnzig and gives her a job as his secretary. She is Traudl Junge. (Traudl Junge is the one whose memoirs the movie is based off of.. )

Fast Forward 2.5 Years ahead.

Russians begin invade the city on Hitler's 56th Birthday. Awaken in the Führerbunker (his bunker in the center of Berlin) to the sound of Soviet artillery.
They make their way towards the bunker and panic breaks out between the ranks. The Nazi's being to burn everything and "pack" to leave the Wehrmacht offices in Berlin. (I heard counting in the background as they burn things.. vier funf!)

Ein Professor Doktor Schenck worries about the soliders and civillains finding food after the evacuation. His worries fall on deaf ears as the other generals have chosen not to care. Hitler tells Himmler to leave now saying - gehts.

Hitler says he will even defeat them in berlin or meet his downfall. This is a writer's liberty at foreshadowing in the movie, even though we know, in the present that his downfall is inevitable. It is revealed at this time, that Himmler plans to negotiate with the Allies behing Hitler's back.

(Interestingly enough: Hitler's Models for his ideal German City in the Third Reich, include many centers of Art and Culture).

Hitler youth in the streets think they can fend off the Russians. This is where me meet a young boy named Peter. His father pleads with him to come home saying : You won't even be able to hold them off for - fünf Minuten!! Peter runs off from his father.

Hitler refused to evacuate civilians saying they deserve it, the others ask will happen to the Frauen und Kinder.

The Berlin Youth meet the Führer, who congratulates them on tank hunting and presents them with a medal (the iron cross)
Falsely telling them they will be German's heroes when this ends. He tells Peter that he wishes his generals were as brave as he is.

The women talk about where they would go if the flee, Traudl dejectedly states that she came for the job out of curiosity (she says in the
opening as old woman as well) - here she admits her family warned her not to go and fears they would not take her back if she fled there now.

At a party held above the bunker, Hitler's lady friend (Eventually Wife). Traudl talks about how right now everything feels like an Albtraum.
Right after a bomb explodes into the room - Gerda (traudl's friend) pleads with her to be Kalm, Kalm.

Schenck (ein Professor Doktor) is called to bring penicillin and morphine to the government district.

A general goes to see the führer because he is told he is to be shot for moving his command post
which he did not. Upon going to see the führer the guard stops him and tells him to Machen sie hier.

Meanwhile Schenck makes it to the hospital, they tell him it is now in Russian territory and there is nothing there
any longer, he proceeds anyway. Schenck enters the hospital and sees that in fact it does look empty. He enters a
room and sees a pile or corpses obviously killed and left by the germans, entering another room in the basment
he finds old civillian and infirm patients left to fend for themselves, sick and weak in bed -the Nazi's leaving them rather than worrying about them.

Meanwhile the general is promoted to commander of German's defense, he says he would have rather have been shot.

Peter, the hitler youth is with the soliders as they are getting killed in the streets, civillian women and children are dying
and the solider with Peter is soon shot in the head. Everyone around him is dying and he is watching people suffer.
He is probably only around 10 years old, soon all his friends in the Hitler Youth are killed as well.

Schenck finally makes it to the army hospital and finds doctors literally just sawing off limb after limb, watching them drop into a bucket.

Hitler discusses how to kill themselves. He talks about a cyanide pill, the girls ask for one as well.
Hitler obliges, saying he is sorry he couldn't give them a better present.

All this being said, this is about up into the halfway point of the movie. The rest you should probably watch. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. It was truly riveting and I actually enjoyed watching it.

Furthermore, it was truly exciting to realize how much of conversational German I understood and how I could pick out words we've already been using in class! And it's only week three! If you want to watch the movie Youtube has the entire thing uploaded online with English Subtitles you can find it here:

It is about 2.5 Hours long and is better watched uninterrupted.

It's sehr gut (which you will actually hear said in the movie) and will definitely help you hear vocab you already know, and Vocab you can't believe you already know!

Happy Friday the 13th.

Chrissy

Kultur 1 - Conjoined Music.

Being a music major myself, I am often interested in the blending of styles of music. I find the multicultural exchange between Texas' Spanish Music and German music very exciting. This kind of music, know as "Tejano" music is broken into a couple of sub-genres. The leading genre today is known as "conjunto." This music builds on the Mexican ballad form called "corrido" ( wikipedia entry ) and is then influenced by the the music of German immigrants, specifically the polka and introduces new instruments such as the button accordion.

This is not a small movement. There is an annual Tejan Conjunto Festival in San Antonio Texas that brings on a lively crowd. Nowadays its pretty hard to find a corrido without the use of the accordion as it has been synonymous with the musical flavor. You can find many kinds of Tejano music on youtube. A video snippet of the 27th year of the festival can be found here :

At the festival there were many live performances. Some of the music has even been spiced up to be more recognizable by modern music lovers. Last years festival was held in May. and even included classes on how to play the accordion and take care of the instrument. (Last years Schedule) - I am thinking that as a class we should probably all learn to play the accordion!

Upon further research I found that the "Father" of Conjunto Music is said to be Narcisco Marinez - (Find more about him : here)
In efforts to keep up with his accordion skills, many young Texans learned how to play the accordion from the German Immigrants. One such man was Flaco Jimenez, who has put out many CDs in this style of music. He even won a grammy with a Tejano that his father had written!

This music definitely gets you moving, and is a perfect example of how when cultures are accepting of one other, "beautiful music" can be made. Cheesy but true!

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Mein Lieblingswort ist kaputt.

Christine Reinard