Studying German has really helped me to appreciate different things. Most importantly and obviously, German culture. German culture has always fascinated me. Admittedly, at first, because of Nazism and the history of the country. I didn't really learn that many new things from German culture in this course that I hadn't know before. The few things I did learn were more mild eccentricities that Germans might have. The history sections were more review than anything else. The fun and interesting thing was seeing how diverse Germans as a whole are. While I knew that not all Germans wear Liederhosen I didn't know that the one's who don't feel so strongly about it. I found out, also, that a lot of other AMericans are interested in Germany and its culture. That there was not a single mention of techno music is kind of surprising.
My own culture I know, naturally. It is interesting that Germans find it as interesting as they do. Being exposed to it day in and day out I guess I'm just used to it. I obviously knew there were differences between German and American culture. I didn't know that we were that much nicer than they are.
This course didn't do much for my view of foreigners living in my country. If we're to take the German example of hating Turks then I'm kind of glad I didn't pick any of that up. This class didn't really do anything for my own identity either. I did have a crisis at one point thinking: WOW, i need to go to Germany HEUTE!
If this course, besides teaching me German, served a good purpose it was that it got me excited about going to Germany and really compelled me to make the decision to go. I've been there twice before but, still, going back and being able to see some of the things that I, admittedly unwillingly, had to study will be fun. In retrospect, however, the one thing that I regret about the course was its almost complete lack of German literature. We could have read relatively easy things or maybe German works in English. Who knows? Anyway, overall, the course was something which I'm glad I took and don't regret it at all. I've come away with bonds with new people. Some of whom are interesting and some of whom are, well, not. I guess, in that sense, this did have some impact on me. I even got to meet an Irishman, who knew!
Danke, alles, für ein lustig Semester!
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Bruno,
It's good that you want to go to Germany. That means, that you, at least to some extend, enjoyed what you had to learn in class.
I am making fun of the Lederhosen because it is really a regional thing and it is like someone would say "all Americans wear Cowboy hats" because some people in the middle west do.
I'm surprised that so many people associate Germany with Techno music. I personally know more Americans that like Techno than Germans. Of course, we had the Love Parade but I think that the reason most people went there wasn't the music but more making party drinking alcohol ans stuff like that.
We really haven't covered much literature in class. The reason for that is that it is a language class. You should be more fluent in a language before you start with literature (as it is a special case of text anyways). German 203 will definitely have more literature in there. If you go on improving in German you will soon be able to read literature.
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