Looking at German culture, I realize that my culture is not very different than German culture in some ways and very much like it in other ways. It may have to do with the fact that when Germany lost World War II that the allies reconstructed it and certain cities in Western Germany got rebuilt by the United States and allied nations. So a lot of the people who prospered under the Allies tended to model their culture after them. Where it varies quite a bit, would be in the area where it was under the control of the Soviet Union.
I am part Hungarian, Polish, Greek and Irish, so studying German doesn’t really have that big of an effect on my identity. It does make me think, though, about European history. And since all my backgrounds hail from Europe, it is interesting to see how Germany affected the history of Europe.
It changed my perspectives on German culture significantly. Not gonna lie, I held most of the American stereotypes about Germans: Oktoberfest, constantly drunk off beer, rude, etc. But listening to these interviews of real Germans, I realize that they’re normal people (albeit the fact that they get 40 days of vacation a year). The other important part is that not all of them are alike. North, South, East, West, are all different and that stereotypes of Germans are from different parts ever.
I didn’t really stereotype foreigners living in my home country. Except when I saw Russel Peters.
1 comment:
Michael,
I never before thought about what you wrote about rebuilt cities after WW2. I think, it's not quite the case as most of the city weren't entirely destroyed by the bombs. But the allied forced definitely had an impact on postwar Germany.
I think Germany and the US influenced each other in some areas and that is a good thing. That's why it could be important to speak German in the future.
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