AMD 6 -Ashley Britt

For the last AMD, I watched the Simpsons videos. Actually, I was only able to watch Bart's Tag as the other links were unavailable. I am definitely finding it much easier to catch words and phrases in Deutsche now. With videos such as this, I can listen for the words and phrases I know and then use the video to help fill in where I don't understand. Words and phrases I understood included Frühstück, Frühling, tot and Ich liebe Bier. Poor Bart had a rough day, but I would argue that the Robots was equally as bad. Overall, I enjoyed this AMD.

Recycling Kultur 6 -Ashley Britt

I actually quite enjoyed the article on recycling in Deutscheland. I think recycling is very important from an environmental standpoint, so the topic struck a chord with me. Their system is interesting. Here at UofM we have separate recycling binns for bottles, paper, and trash, but we don't have sub-categorized binns to separate green glass from brown glass (atleast not usually). While Americans do recycle, they don't usually aren't picky about which binn they put their used items in. Most of the time, even products that are obviously paper get thrown away if they have food remnents or some other substance on them. We wouldn't have as difficult a time deciding where to place our remnents as the Curry Wurst guy did.

Kapital 5 -Kultur 5

I found the article on the Klofrau to be very interesting. In America, no one would ever dream of having to pay to use a public restroom. Then again, we don't have people who's job it is to stay in the restrooms all day making sure they stay nice and clean. While we have custodians, they generally are paid to clean areas outside of just the restroom.

I also read the Rules of the Street article. In my opinion, it makes perfect sense to say excuse me to every single person you accidentally bump into on the street. This is not because I feel like being rude is a good thing. Its just inevitable. Many Americans, I think, would disagree with me on that though.

AMD 5 -Ashley Britt

For this AMD, I chose to read the wikipedia article. I have always noticed that English incorperated many words and phrases from German, French, and other languages, but I never really considered this incorporation going the other way around. I was actually quite surprised at how much English is found in Deutsch "slang." I am not surprised, however, that the slang is more accepted by the younger generations than the older. This is, I would have to believe, true of most any culture. Its definitely true of English slang. I have found myself having to explain different English slang words to my grandparents, and even to my parents (though to a lesser degree). I am also not surprised that advertising utilizes alot of this Denglisch. Most of the listed companies are geared towards the younger generations, so it makes sense that they would "speak their language" in a way. The one usage that surprised me was that of banks. I would not have expected them to conduct more business in English/Denglisch than in Deutsch.

Kultur 4 - Bikes and Crosswalks

Guten Tag,

German cyclists definitely have more right of way than American cyclists do. It is particularly noticable around campus. I guess that you have to consider the fact that in these instances, most of the time they aren't riding on bike paths, but on pedestrian walkways.

Strictly obeying stoplights is definitely not something that Americans do. Even our driving laws allow right turns on many red lights. While I can appreciate the safety reasons behind this strict obedience, in my own opinion, I don't deem that it is always neccesary. The example of the rebellious teenagers late at night waiting for the light to turn green is an instance where I would personally have just crossed the street if there really were no cars in sight. If there are little kids around, I can understand setting an example by not crossing. While an adult is perfectly capable of deciding when it is safe to cross the street, a little kid may not, so their obedience of crosswalks is more of a necessity than the obedience of an adult.

Tschüss,

Ashley

AMD 4

Guten Tag!

For my 4th AMD, I decided to change my Facebook language settings to Deutsch. I was able to recognize many of the words. For the words that I did not recognize I was able to guess their meanings based on previous knowledge/experience with how the different Facebook features work. I also have a couple of Deutsch freunden on Facebook, and it was fun viewing their pages and being able to understand some of their posts from the vocabulary we have learned in class. I actually like having my language set in Deutsch alot. I may just have to keep it this way.

Tschüss,

Ashley

Food and Being Funny - Kultur3

Hallo,

While doing the kultur reading, I found it interesting that Germans are thought to be some of the funniest people in the world. I was also a little surprised at how low on the list Amerikaner were. In the article which described how the humor styles of the different regions of Deutscheland compared, I would have to say I am most like the Rhinelander. Granted, i'm really not the best joke teller myself, but when I hear a joke, its always good when it has a funny punchline.

According to the Eco-Centric article, most Germans prefer natural,organic food over genetically modified food. I think that it is great and wish more Amerikaner felt the same way. Like the USA, however, non organic products still exist in supermarkets across Deutscheland.

After reading the article on fast-food, I really want to eat in Deutscheland. Almost all of the foods listed in the article sounded really good. The Mett was the only one I didn't particularly like, mostly because I don't like onions. Ketchup and Mayonaisse on fries, or chips as they are called, sounds like an interesting, yet possibly delicious combination that I would definitely be willing to try.

Tschüss!

Lola rennt

For my AMD for Kapitel Drei, I chose to watch the rest of the Lola rennt movie that we watched the beginning of for a homework assignment. Ich höre gern der Musik in der film. It was very catchy. I noticed too that the lyrics for most of the Musik in the film are in Englisch. Like Elizabeth, I too recognized Franka Potente from the Bourne Trilogy with Matt Damon. I feel like this movie was very similar to that trilogy. It is a very fast paced action film with lots of plot twists. The fast pace is definitely enhanced by the Musik, which has a techno feel to it in the running scenes, and even the transitions between camera shots adds to the effect. I like the creative use of cartoons and the snapshot effect of various characters that Lola encounters in the film. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and would recommend it to mein Freunds.

Disney in German

Hallo!

Ich heiße Ashley!!

I decided to watch the German translations of music videos for songs (most of them from Disney movies) of which I knew the English versions. It was interesting to hear how the German versions followed the melody of the songs, but the English translations of the German lyrics were different from the English lyrics I’m used to. One in particular which stood out to me was “A Whole New World” from Aladdin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FsGqhbBb8w&feature=related

The German version of the song is “In meine Welt” (or when Jasmine sings “In deine Welt”), which means “In My World” (“In Your World”).

I also listened to “You’ve Got A Friend” from Toy Story. I immediately recognized “Du hast ein freund in mir,” not because it’s the name of the song, but from the vocab and speaking that we have done in class and have learned thus far.

I also watched a clip from Lion King. Most of the German I didn’t really understand, but there was one spot where Simba fragte Timon und Pumbaa “Was ist das?” As simple a phrase as it was, I was excited that I understood it.

I really enjoyed the listening I did for this Adventure in Deutsch.

Tschuss!!

Kultur 1 -Ashley Britt

Hallo!

While reading "How German is American?", I found it interesting that alot of the land in the Washington and surrounding areas was actually marketed towards German immigrants. It was mentioned that advertisements for these land areas were sometimes written in both German and English. I was also surprised by the fact that log cabins, which I always assumed were an American style home, actually originated in Europe!

In the section of the article discussing Pennsylvania Dutch, I was once again surprised to learn something that contradicted my original thoughts. I had always been lead to believe that "Pennsylvania Dutch" and "Amish" were synonymous and thus interchangeable. Turns out that "Pennsylvania Dutch" is actually a language, and only a very small portion of the people who speak this language are actually "Amish."

Perhaps the most interesting part of the article for me was the "Shaping Culture" section. I never would have guessed that Bambi was originally written for adults to warn of "the growing threats confronting European Jews in the period between the World Wars." This is more than likely due to the fact that Disney adapted the story to confront a different issue, and did so in a kid-friendly manner. Something that wasn't terribly surprising to me was the number of words in the English language that either are originally German, or have German influence. I guess this is partly due to the fact that I have two cousins who have taken German language classes while in high-school and have pointed out to me many words or phrases that they have learned which are similar both in English and in German. Many of the words were listed in the article.

Speaking of the cousins I mentioned, they are actually a big reason for why I wanted to take a German language class. They both have had a great experience learning German language and culture, and their enthusiasm for the two actually made me somewhat jealous. I wanted to be a part of the excitement, so that was why I signed up to take this class. I am very much looking forward to this semester and all it brings!

Auf Wiedersehen!!