Kapitel 5 Kultur - Emily Seidel

As always, the articles provided to read for the blog are from a very interesting perspective. In the article, "Rules of the Street: No Blood, No Entschuldigung", it was very enlightening to learn that Germans will very rarely pardon themselves if they bump into someone on the street. If you think about it for a little bit, you can rationalize that it is truly not necessary to excuse yourself every time you accidentally bump into someone in a busy area. However, the example the author used of an elderly lady simply elbowing someone out of the way to make room for her grandson does seem rather rude and, in my opinion, require an "Excuse me".

The article, "The Loneliness of the Klofrau: Toilet Training for Visitors", was also very interesting to me. While I was rather young when I visited Deutschland, it still struck me as very odd to have to pay to go to the bathroom. My father, who had been to Deutschland several times before, explained to me that it was just how things were done there and that it was very rude not to pay the Klofrau. Although I was grateful for a clean bathroom, it still seemed odd to have a woman sitting in the bathroom at all times. If I were ever to stay in Deutschland for an extended period of time, this would definitely take some getting used to for me.