AMD 6 - Matthew Simpson

What I'm going to try to do is write a quick summary of a few of the many interesting things we've learned about German culture in this course:

1) Beer. Germans like it. This is pretty obvious when you created a HOLIDAY to celebrate it. And not just one day, this is an entire week-long festival, Oktoberfest. If a German knows one thing, it is definitely beer.

2) Street smarts. From biking in the proper lane, to accidentally bumping into someone on the street, there is a strict code that all street-goers must follow or risk getting yelled at/receiving a German death stare. Also, DO NOT cross the street until the "little red dictator" allows you to do so. This is vitally important. Wouldn't want your lacking morals rub off on the children, now would you?

3) Sex shops. No big deal. Where something like this in America would be considered very raunchy, Germans deal with it like day-ti-day business. That's because in Germany, sex stores are a day-to-day business. There is even one in the Frankfurt Airport! Seriously? I just can't get over that...

There are many interesting things we've learned this semester from the Vorsprung text and the Kultur articles and this list of three by no means covers it all. These three items were simply my favorite points, the ones that I thought were just too interesting to ignore.

AMD 6 Cooper John

For my AMD I watched the Simpsons, however I was not able to watch the Bart version of the day. Considering Lisa and Homer's days though, there were many allusions to Lola Rennt, such as all of the running scenes (especially with Lisa) where the 90s tech music plays and she almost gets hit by a car. The two differ in the sense that the Simpsons follow three different perspectives of the same day while Lola Rennt shows 3 versions from the same perspective. The clock was also featured heavily at the beginning of each day, as well as the garbage truck ripping out the mail boxes, in the Simpsons, much like how Lola restarts her day with her sick mother talking on the phone. In both mediums you can also see how each small interaction of each character connect to the events of the overall day (like why Homer is not at the bar but then is in a chicken truck that happens to run into Marge and Lisa, and so on). I watched this with my boyfriend, who loves the Simpsons, and I was able to understand more than him, but we were both able to enjoy some parts (beer fed robot) and I was able to explain some of the little dialogue (not too too much though).

AMD 6 - One Piece

For my last AMD, I decided to watch and episode of One Piece (episode 525) with German subtitles. Being that the audio is in its original Japanese, it was quite an interesting experience having to listen to it in a language that I don't understand for the most part and reading the subtitles in a language I'm just getting the grasp of. For the most part I could understand the gist of what they were saying, but that's most likely because I saw the same episode a week earlier when it aired.

A rather humorous scene I found was when the rest of the Straw Hats were searching for three of their crew members (Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji) who had gone out to fight off a Kraken when they were on their way to an island 10,000 meters underwater and had gotten lost in the process. One of their crew members, the cyborg and shipwright Franky, suggests that he use his newly-installed searchlights to look for them in the dark depths.



A small excerpt of this clip in German goes as.

Franky: Lasst uns nach einen suchen. Ich habe jetzt einen Scheinwerfer.
Chopper: Was? Sind das deine Augen?
Franky: FRANKY...NIPPLE LIGHT!
Usopp: WARUM DA!?

AMD 6 - Kerrytown Weihnachtsmark

For my last AMD, I went to the Kerrytown Weihnachtsmark at the Farmer's Market last night. It was absolutely lovely! There were all sorts of Christmas decorations, tons of delicious German food (Glühwein! Bratwurst! Pretzels! Baked goods! YUM.), kids singing German Christmas carols, and a lot of people speaking German to each other. I was surprised and extremely pleased that I could actually understand some of the stuff they were saying too. My friends and I walked around, bought some awesome Christmas presents, sang along with the carolers, and ate/drank way too much. Such a great way to spend a Friday evening!

Also, on a similar note, I'm getting very excited for St. Nicholas day (night of December 5th/morning of December 6th). I grew up celebrating this holiday with my family, and waking up to find candy and little presents under my bed. Unfortunately, St. Nicholas doesn't visit me at college, but I'll still be thinking of him!

AMD 6 - Joe Schafer

For this AMD I watched the clips of the Simpons as well. One of the things I noticed is that Lisa called Homer 'Dad' instead of 'Vater'. I especially liked die Party Robot, 'Er liebt beir, aber er sollt Bier nicht trinken!'

Watching die Simpsons auf Deutsch was very enjoyable and I was able to understand most of it. I think I'll try and find a way to watch all the episodes in German and that should help me to both understand and comprehend the language better.

Similarities to Lola Rennt

• Marge gets in an accident with a very muscular man.
• Lisa running to the Lola Rennt musik.
• Lisa almost getting hit by a car while running.

Missed translations:

Dad to Vater

Brownie to Heinzelmännchen (Google Translate) The online dictionary didn't have a direct translation.

AMD 6 - Joe Schafer

Willkommen!!

Welcome to our class blog!

Throughout the semester, you will be posting here roughly every other week for your Abenteuer mit Deutsch (AMD) assignment. First you do a fun activity that involves German, then you post about it. You should spend an hour total on this (maybe 45-55 minutes doing something, 5-15 minutes posting about it). And make sure to add your name as one of the "Labels." See the links on AMD Ideen and Beispiele for ideas! This should get you excited about the kinds of things you can do!