Kultur 3 - Alcohol and Humor in Germany

The articles were very interesting and they helped find out more things about the German culture. In Germany the legal drinking age is 16 for beer and 18 for liquor. The law is not as strict as in the United States and it is not really surprising for me. As I have lived all my life in Greece, I grew up with the Greek idea that did not restrict you from consuming alcohol at any age, and while the legal age in Greece is 18, the laws are very loose. Its somewhat similar with Germany because of the fact that the legal age for beer is 16 and, lets face it, its not very likely that anyone would consume alcohol before they turn 16, so its pretty much as if there is no restriction at all. To be honest, I believe that this law is more successful than in the United States, since young people have the chance to taste alcohol and understand all its consequences really fast.

My opinion, as I have noticed until now, is that considering alcohol in the United States illegal until someone turns 21, makes people want to try it more and more, and attracts under-aged people only because it is illegal and therefore tempting and cool. I am sure everyone has noticed people who have stated they want to drink at parties just to get drunk although the taste of alcohol does not give them any pleasure. I believe that this is what people in Germany are able to understand. By consuming alcohol from the age of 16, by the time they turn 18 or 19, people understand the consequences of alcohol. On a personal basis, I remember myself tasting beer for the first time when I was in 10th grade and I did not like it. My summer vacations in Greece after I graduated from high school were connected to night life, and it is normal to have shots and drinks with your friends, and it is not always enjoyable since there are always times where you exceed the limits. However, this chance of consuming alcohol made me understand what I like from it, and why do I actually drink and so I reached a point of understanding alcohol is not that special and I know how to protect myself from its dangers. There is a great majority of people of my age who think like this in Greece, and because the law is similar to Germany's, I suppose that German people think alike and that is why the German law seems very rational to me. As I read the articles, I believe that banning alcohol from public places would not make a big difference, because the legal age does not change and people can still drink at bars and pubs, so it would not make a big difference except for forbidding people to have their drink anywhere they enjoy it.

As for the German sense of humor, I have been to Berlin and Munich before, and the German people's behavior is so similar to the articles. They seem moody, serious and pessimistic, but in reality, they use this image to produce their own style of humor. The loud lighthearted humor of the Bavarian people shows that German people may not be as cold and serious as they seem. The wittiness of the Hamburger humor style and the sarcasm of the Berliner humor shows that the Germans take advantage of their cold image and use it in order to be funny. In my opinion, this is what makes their own humor and culture unique compared to other European countries that share many common characteristics.

Tschuss!!

I liked reading the article about the German sense of humor. It's interesting that the style of humor varies in different areas of the country. I most prefer understated/witty humor, like the Hamburger. I also found the Mealtimes in German-speaking countries article interesting, as it touches more on what an average German would eat in a day. (I quickly bore of hearing about Bier). I'm curious as to what der Quark tastes like, a unique German dairy spread. I didn't know that on special occasions or weekends many Germans enjoy coffee and cake around mid-afternoon. I was also a little surprised that the Germans are organic-food obsessed. I guess it makes sense if their selection of fruits and vegetables is as bad is the article makes it sound.

I found the first article interesting, particularly how it started out. When I visited Munich, we walked around biergartens and we drove by where the Oktoberfest tents are set up. It was interesting reading this and being able to picture what they are talking about. Also, they say if Germans are stereotyped they'd be in lederhosen, which although it is traditional garb, I noticed some people wearing them around the larger cities, although it didn't seem to common. It also wasn't weird to see people drinking beer during lunch at the cafe's around a square, like the article said, it's the national drink. I wasn't aware of all the different types of beers. I couldn' t help but laugh at the fact that it gave a "hangover risk."
In the second article about the problems of the drinking, I feel that there are similar discussions in the U.S. over the safety of drinking, but beer is so ingrained into the German way of life I find this to be a much more difficult task in Germany.
The last article I decided to read was the organic Germany. When you are in Germany, everything is non-invasive of the surrounding environment it seems. When you get into the country side it is fresh air, or at least in the parts I was in. Also, there are few stores that supply everything like Wal*mart. They have a bakery, then there is a farmers market type place. I wish that it was easier to buy organic food in the U.S. as easily as this article says, because the gene minipulation in the U.S. food is freaky. I am all for the German eco-centric society!

Capping the Bottle

So a little known fact by Americans is that the drinking age in Europe, aint as high as it is here. The drinking age ranges from 16-18 and not a year higher, while in the United States of America, we have to wait until we're the ripe old age of 21. Take it from me, the drinking age in this country shouldn't be any lower than 20, I learned that from experience, but in Europe, it's just different. I lived in France for 6 months, and here's what I learned in my travels...

1. They don't have spread out cities like we do where you have to drive to get places. Worst case scenario, people take cabs to get across town, but they live in walking-distance cities because they're OLD and weren't built for cars to begin with...Bars are right down the street from where you live, or even underneath your apartment, and no car is required to get there. So, they don't have to worry as much about drinking and driving whereas in the states, it seems like 9 out of 10 bars aren't anywhere nearby nor cab distance, unless you live in a 'big city.'

2. Kids have been drinking wine with their parents since like, forever. They learn responsibility slowly and don't see the glamor of binge drinking like college kids of the U.S. They share a bottle of wine with their friends, and generally get the bubbly drunk instead of reaching the obliterated fight phase we see to see all too often on game days. Even when I did drink beer in France, we drank in the park and in the afternoon casually, and rarely got to the point where anyone was drunk. At the bars, liquor is syruped down (NO PURE SHOTS) and pints were expensive. So most drinking was done in houses over long periods of time (it was only the Americans that seemed to puke)

3. Bars are open until 2am, but clubs are open until 5am. Clubbing is HUGE in Europe while here, not so much. Clubs offer free champagne or shots for women often but it's never enough to get drunk. The mainstay of club is the giraffe or what I believe is called the 'tower' in the U.S. You split the bill with some friends, and you share a tower of beer, and everyone is happy and bloated.

The biggest difference is STILL, however, that you can drink in public in Europe (except Spain), and you CANNOT do that here. It's widely accepted there, and public intoxication is only a problem if it gets violent. Who cares about some drunk stumbling around singing their football chants. It might be a problem, but not a big one like it is here because so many kids are drinking underage, and in excess.

Now Germany has three drinking ages...

At 14, a minor can consume AND possess wine and beer as long as they are in the company of their parents.

At 16, a minor can consume AND possess wine and beer WITHOUT their parents

At 18, as adults, they can drink whatever they want.

Talk about easing children into a culture of drinking. SO, I read the articles, and found 'Capping the Bottle' particularly interesting, seeing as I spent time in Europe and never got in trouble for drinking in public, and I never got carded, ever. I agree with the article in the respect that punishing everyone for the problems of a few is unrealistic. Placing a ban on public drinking may not be the way to go, but finding solutions to the problem like banning drinking on public transit, after certain hours of the day, or on government property like parks seems like the better way to go than to punish the working man who has a beer on his walk home from work in the evening. The problems reside in the fact that, in order to push bans for public intoxication and public drinking, they'd have to change the laws on how police can enforce the law. Overall, everyone is just worried about the civil rights of the drinker. I mean, drinking is a HUGE part of the culture in Germany, as it is in the U.S. too, so the law needs to find a way to keep citizens safe and happy without stepping on the toes of civil rights.

Food, drink, and other tastes of culture

Guten Abend!

I started this week's kulture post by reading "An Obsession Explained", which offers an amusing description of various types of authentic alcoholic drinks. Oh, and remember to toast those around you! Of particular worth in this article was the various descriptions of how hung over you will be after imbibing the various drinks. To quote:

"Berliner Weisse is served mainly in an around Berlin and you really shouldn't allow yourself to be seen drinking the stuff. It's an embarrassment. At just 2.8 percent, the alcohol content is low and it is often served with a straw. Popular in the summer, it is served with a disgustingly sweet syrup that makes it green or red.

Hangover risk: Inapplicable. If you drink enough of this stuff to get a hangover, it's your own damn fault."

^That largely set the tone for enjoying that article. As drinking does not actually appeal to me however, the descriptions of the various drinks did not stick with me well.

The next article I read was "Capping the Bottle", which provided a nice counter-weight to the first article. This article discussed, among other things, the movements to tighten-up the public drinking laws in Germany, as public intoxication has strong correlation to increased incidence of crime. (Not a shocker at all...) Unsurprisingly, the idea of banning public drinking is as well-received in Germany as the prohibition was in the US. So the article describes various other measures they use to try to reduce public intoxication.

The final choice article I read was on Eco-centrism in Germany. That is to say, a movement in Germany towards organic foods. As a person who is going into medicine, and likely to major in chemistry, I have to say I can definitely agree with the philosophy- the amount of damage you can face from the chemicals used in food is both surprising and disturbing. [Tangent] An example of this is use of growth hormone to increase the size and weight of animals. Some of these growth hormones stay in the meat after it has been cooked, and has some effect upon consumption in people. This can force a body to grow beyond intended dimensions for the person, and this usually can (and indeed does) result in increased incidence of joint/bone/tendon issues. [/Tangent] Long story short, Germany gets a thumbs-up in my mind here.

After this, I moved along to the mandatory-reading articles, starting with Optimists are Idiots. I actually did not know how to take this article when I read it. On the one hand, I prefer to follow a philosophy of "hope for the best but expect the worst", so I could see a certain level of pragmatism to it. On the other hand... I had a hard time imagining that I could take this article as literally as it presents itself. (In other words, while I could believe there is a certain level of bias against excessive optimism, I could not believe it was as negative as it was represented.

As for Teutonic humor- Upon reading the article, I felt I would probably appreciate the Berlin or Hamburg varieties of humor the most, though again I felt it was probably more blanket-stereotyping, and not perfectly representative.

And thus ends this week's run on culture!

Tschuess!

Willkommen!!

Welcome to our class blog!

We will be using this blog throughout the semester for two kinds of assignments:

1. Once per chapter, the homework plan will direct you to post a response to the culture readings for the chapter on the blog.

2. Roughly every other week, the homework plan will direct you to post here 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). See Was ist ein AMD, AMD Ideen and Beispiele for ideas. This should get you excited about the kinds of things you can do!

Whenever you post something, please include your name and the name of the assignment (e.g. AMD2, Kultur5) as labels. See "Blog: How To" for more details!