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May. 20th, 2010 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olmueWe're moving in three weeks, I have a cold, and my head is full of all kinds of things. Tonight, for example, I taught a mini class on Germany. It was an international excursion theme (the other two countries were China and Tonga). It was hard to boil the entire culture down into 15 minutes, but I thought I'd share things that maybe they wouldn't know going just as tourists. Things like:
The Autobahn is not the name of a single street, but rather the German word for freeway. Any freeway. But it's true that there is no speed limit. There are recommended speeds for populated areas, but there is no limit. However, to be able to drive on that freeway, you have to have a license, and between the required driving school and the license cost, you will be shelling out about $2000. So people on that freeway really do know what they're doing.
It's okay to be proud of your local Wurst and fly your flag of Franken over your garden, but you just don't plaster the world with the German flag like Americans do with theirs. (This is a result of the Nazi period and the nasty things that came out of that.) Unless it's a sporting event, like the world cup. But then, the flag means your soccer team, so it's okay.
Germans celebrate the first day of school (as in, first grade) by decorating large cones called Schultueten and filling them with candy. The kids take them to school where their parents and grandparents take pictures of them with the cones, and then after school the kids eat the candy. It's meant to sweeten their education. As a souvenir, I gave out little waffle cones filled with German candy I bought at Aldi.
There is a subset of the male population whose life's dream is to ride a Harley across the American West. And "die Indianer" is a popular topic for kids to be into, like a dinosaur fixation. All this stems from a classic children's series about the Wild West, written by a guy named Karl May who penned them to pass the time while in jail. He had never actually been to America when he wrote them, but they have become classics.
I ended up talking about the idea of Selbstaetigkeit (self sufficience). Germans encourage their kids to do a lot of things that we don't. Right now in the US there is a lot of hover mothering, I think. When my daughter was four and in German kindergarten (ie preschool), every kid had a day when they baked a cake all by themselves. The teachers used to bring kids to the bakery and give them money and have them go up one by one to the counter to buy some bread. Stuff like that. It's easier to teach kids to do things when they're at home and their mistakes are small. When you wait until they are already grown, well, it's kinda late because they need those skills. But I also had to explain that they aren't acting because they already know everything. They are learning through doing. And that's a useful intangible sort of souvenir to take back from the culture. You can teach by reading or by talking or whatever, but if you really want someone to know if what you're saying is true, you need them to try it out, walk around in it. You can't learn a skill until you actually do it yourself. And then those things that you may lack will come together. You'll develop the skills you need, you'll find the information you need, as you do stuff.
DH is sad that where we are moving (Idaho) has no Aldi. The closest one is in Kansas. :( So now it's like we're in our last weeks in Germany all over again, and he is wanting to stock up on anything and interesting Aldi has. I mean, what if we can't get Erdnussflips?? (Like cheese puffs, only peanut butter flavored). Um. Stocking up on chocolate might be a good idea, though...
So, anyway, there's your little bit of Germany for tonight. Gute Nacht!
The Autobahn is not the name of a single street, but rather the German word for freeway. Any freeway. But it's true that there is no speed limit. There are recommended speeds for populated areas, but there is no limit. However, to be able to drive on that freeway, you have to have a license, and between the required driving school and the license cost, you will be shelling out about $2000. So people on that freeway really do know what they're doing.
It's okay to be proud of your local Wurst and fly your flag of Franken over your garden, but you just don't plaster the world with the German flag like Americans do with theirs. (This is a result of the Nazi period and the nasty things that came out of that.) Unless it's a sporting event, like the world cup. But then, the flag means your soccer team, so it's okay.
Germans celebrate the first day of school (as in, first grade) by decorating large cones called Schultueten and filling them with candy. The kids take them to school where their parents and grandparents take pictures of them with the cones, and then after school the kids eat the candy. It's meant to sweeten their education. As a souvenir, I gave out little waffle cones filled with German candy I bought at Aldi.
There is a subset of the male population whose life's dream is to ride a Harley across the American West. And "die Indianer" is a popular topic for kids to be into, like a dinosaur fixation. All this stems from a classic children's series about the Wild West, written by a guy named Karl May who penned them to pass the time while in jail. He had never actually been to America when he wrote them, but they have become classics.
I ended up talking about the idea of Selbstaetigkeit (self sufficience). Germans encourage their kids to do a lot of things that we don't. Right now in the US there is a lot of hover mothering, I think. When my daughter was four and in German kindergarten (ie preschool), every kid had a day when they baked a cake all by themselves. The teachers used to bring kids to the bakery and give them money and have them go up one by one to the counter to buy some bread. Stuff like that. It's easier to teach kids to do things when they're at home and their mistakes are small. When you wait until they are already grown, well, it's kinda late because they need those skills. But I also had to explain that they aren't acting because they already know everything. They are learning through doing. And that's a useful intangible sort of souvenir to take back from the culture. You can teach by reading or by talking or whatever, but if you really want someone to know if what you're saying is true, you need them to try it out, walk around in it. You can't learn a skill until you actually do it yourself. And then those things that you may lack will come together. You'll develop the skills you need, you'll find the information you need, as you do stuff.
DH is sad that where we are moving (Idaho) has no Aldi. The closest one is in Kansas. :( So now it's like we're in our last weeks in Germany all over again, and he is wanting to stock up on anything and interesting Aldi has. I mean, what if we can't get Erdnussflips?? (Like cheese puffs, only peanut butter flavored). Um. Stocking up on chocolate might be a good idea, though...
So, anyway, there's your little bit of Germany for tonight. Gute Nacht!
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Date: 2010-05-21 04:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 12:51 pm (UTC)*cries* The local German embassy, of course! Aldi is a German grocery chain that's gone international. They started in Illinois in the US and have gradually spread out from there. They extend to the east coast, but apparently don't get any further west than Kansas at the moment. We shop there all the time, not just because of it being German, but because it's really inexpensive. They do a couple of funny German things--you can use cash and a debit card (and I think they do take Discover now, too), but no checks. Also, you have to insert a quarter to get a cart (you get it back when you return your cart). And you bag your own and buy your bags separately. It must make a large difference to do that, because things are significantly cheaper. And faster in the checkout line, too. And they carry a line of rotating stock in the middle of the store, apart from regular food, so one week you can buy grills, the next, digital cameras, the next, ice cream makers, etc. Most of their merchandise is local American (frex they carry the Kirkland brand I've seen at Cosco for some things), but they have their own brand for German stuff, plus they've been importing a lot of German chocolate. And after eating German chocolate I confess that I have a hard time with Hershey's because it tastes burnt to me. So moving away from Aldi will not only up our food budget some, but it will also snip our chocolate rations. *sniff* On the other hand, we might all lose some weight that way...
no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-22 12:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 04:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 06:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 12:35 pm (UTC)Oh--I mentioned your husband's grandmother last night as well. People loved hearing about her; it's probably what they liked best about my whole presentation.
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Date: 2010-05-21 11:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-22 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-22 11:09 pm (UTC)I'm sorry to hear that your husband is sad, I'm sure he'll find something that he likes in Idaho just the same. :) Be safe.