Re: Any Germans In Here?

Michael Muetterlein wrote:
Hi,
"T Jr Hardman" <blockspam_thardman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well, I suppose I can guess the answers I might get if I were to ask "aren't
you tired of all of these idiot spammers and crossposter idiots".

You don't need to ask.

A more interesting question, I suppose, is "what do the Germans think is an
interesting subject?"

no meta-discussion, please. To answer this question, you just need to connect a german newsserver, get a list of "de.*" groups and you get an idea what "the Germans" find interesting. :-)

I think that might overtax the poor google translator. I will perhaps give it a try...

I think you politely didn't mention that it's not sensible to think of "the Germans" as a monolithic bloc.

Really, over here in the States, we don't hear a lot about Germany. Usually
that is only in the context of official visits, or sports championships.
Where I am, we get maybe a half-hour of television from Deutsche Welle, and
that's on the community-college educational channel, and furthermore it's in
English. It also seems to be mostly neutral, and doesn't seem to have any
strong opinions. If they approve of something, it's not easy to discern. If
something bothers them, it's not easy to discern.

Would you like to watch german TV news and political talk, or what is it?

Possibly that would be interesting. Probably I wouldn't follow the issues or understand the concerns, where those concerns were about local issues or even generic European issues. But it would also be interesting to try to learn a little German language from watching news or drama in that language.


Are any of the stereotypes of Germans true? ;)

As many as stereotypes of Amis. I'm sure. ;-)

Well, we do have a problem with obesity. Occasionally a person will encounter an embodiment of stereotype. One day I was at the K-mart and found myself in line behind a woman who weighed probably 100 kilos, dressed in pink Spandex with a leopard-pattern belt, reading an article in the 'National Inquirer' paper about an Elvis Presley sighting. "I told you Elvis ain't dead", she said, to nobody in particular.

Fortunately this is not a commonplace incident.

The (American) stereotypes of course mostly involve drinking beer and
singing,

Typical for a stay in the Bierzelt on a german Volksfest. Too bad we cannot party every week. ;-) Well, in certain areas they really do- i.e. the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. And that's where the tourists go!

We have out little imitation Oktoberfest here in the States, it varies from region to region. In the same way that everyone pretends to be Irish when it's Saint Patrick's Day, for Oktoberfest everyone pretends to be German. It might be useful to have some idea if we're doing it right. ;)

fast cars and aggressive drivers

Well, we do not have a general speed limit on the Autobahn. That's all.
Make a survival trip: 2 days Mexico City by car. Then come to Germany, if you're still healthy enough for travelling. :-)

lots of bureaucracy

compared to what we hear from the U.S., I have to agree.

Well, the medical and insurance systems are becoming nightmares of paperwork, and the business community certainly is fond of forms. But generally dealing with the government is fairly easy and it's generally fairly fast and responsive. Getting a driver's permit or vehicle registration is generally fast and simple, though there has been some tightening of process since the World Trade Center incident.

Less stereotypical reports we get here are include: almost every German
speaks English,

Germans that grew up in the former GDR had to learn Russian. And some of the others may have decided to learn French instead of English.

they all have good educations

compared to what/where/when? Too many cannot continue education after junior high school: low average grade -> no opportunity for vocational training, bad job or no job at all, bad chances.

In the States, the public schools are available to anyone from about age 6 to about age 18. They are paid for by taxes, and because everyone demands lower taxes, they don't get what they don't pay for. Generally the public schools have real problems providing an education suitable for continuation in college. But if you will compare the world rankings for math and science skills, Germany consistently scores much better than do the States. We used to be able to put a lot of lower-achievement students into vocational/technical schools and these people were the backbone of the industrial economy. But we no longer do as much manufacturing, and as more people go to university, the quality of the graduates is thought to be suffering.

I'm rather curious about differing approaches to public education, as I see a real need for educational reform here in the States.

public health is very good

Depends. A personal health insurance is mandatory in Germany. Weaknesses in the system and incidents make headlines.

Mitt Romney, a Republican candidate for President, made health insurance a universal requirement when he was governor of Massachusetts. This isn't what one expects from a Republican, but he was able to save tax money by assuring that all of the citizens were charged at the same group rate, especially for hospital visits. Uninsured persons are usually billed at perhaps 3 times the rate for insured people; the insurance companies negotiate group rates with these hospital systems. Because uninsured persons often had to resort to the State for final payment, the State pays less under the new system. There's a lot of talk about adopting this model on the national level. I guess it's mostly working okay in Germany...

everybody eats health-food

...and everybody in the US eats nothing but fast food, yeah. Except for thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.
(if everybody in Germany eats health-food, how can all the McDo's survive then?)

Maybe it's all of the American tourists that eat there? ;)

Seriously, though, increasing numbers of Americans don't have time to cook at home, so they eat out. Usually if we're forced to eat fast food, we're looking for the best combination of price and quality. Generally whoever has the most food for the lowest price will get the customer's business. It's pretty sad; in the last decade or so, economic pressures mean that a lot of people work a lot of unpaid overtime. Also, because of technology such as cellphones, the division between work and private life is very vague, especially as global involvements and time-zone factors mean that the worker's dinnertime is the customer's mid-morning. It seems that there is always something to interrupt dinner, so we find ourselves forced to eat to live, rather than live to eat.

Of course, rich people can hire cooks or eat at decent restaurants. It's the poor folks who eat at McD's.


So far an overview of stereotypes. What's the name of the "average American native and consumer"?
Joe Citizen? Joe Sixpack? Adam Average Customer? ;-) In Germany, it's "Otto Normalverbraucher".

Otto Normalconsumer? Heh.

"Joe Citizen" or "Average Joe" is a sort of hazy statistical concept. He probably is a 44-year-old Protestant (probably Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican, etc) who misses Sunday service once a month, has a fulltime job that pays about $51,500 a year, and he's heavily in debt until you consider the equity in his mortgage. He probably has "some college", either a technical certification or a "liberal arts" degree. He's possibly in his second marriage and has two of his own children from the first marriage and his new wife probably has two children from her first marriage, but two of the four children are probably off in college, adding to the family debt. "Joe" probably works in an office, probably in retail or a service industry. "Jane" is more likely to be working at a slightly better job and to have worked there longer, but is also likely to be paid significantly less than is "Joe" but in the grand scheme of things she's probably actually more essential. She might be more likely to have college than Joe. Both are slightly more likely to be registered as Democrats.

"Joe Sixpack" is pretty much "Average Joe" but he has a drinking problem, is probably a bit more likely to have had trouble with the law (probably related to his drinking), and is probably more likely to be an Evangelical Protestant (Baptist or Pentacostal) or a Catholic, and probably doesn't have any real college time but is likely to be in the trades, a carpenter or mechanic or maintenance technician. He's more likely to have married only once or never at all, but if married he probably has more children than "Average Joe", and they probably cause him more heartache, because how well can you raise your kids if you're always drinking after work. Joe Sixpack's wife is probably less likely than Joe to have any real college hours or a degree, although she is probably more likely to continue working towards a degree. There's a better than equal chance that they are registered as Republicans.

Of course, these are also stereotypical, in a lot of ways, and probably much more of a national-level abstraction than a regional abstraction. My own county is mostly very well-educated, with a lot of policy and governance workers and lots of medical-scientific researchers, most of which are registered Democrats.


--
To study and not think is a waste.
To think and not study is dangerous.
-- Confucius, _Analects_, 2:15
.

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