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icantfindaname posted:When did you start learning English? Also, how much harder is it really to learn english than say French or Spanish? We start learning it at 5th grade, mostly - there are some school projects which start teaching the kids bilingually fromg grade 1, but they are rare. Since most of the computer stuff I was fiddling around with as a kid was in english, I had little struggle with english in school and thought I was prepared for the 2nd foreign language we learn with entering 7th grade (french or latin in my school). I thought french would be easy since I already knew english but hell was I mistaken. Now it's just english and german for me with a word or two of french strewn in  krakened posted:Do a lot of people speak English as a second language there? Which leads me to this: nearly EVERYONE here learns english at school - but then most people don't really get to train their english skills so many people will have forgotten most of it. This also leads to many being shy on using their english - but I'm quite sure that anyone you talk to in english will at least try their best to talk to you, just be prepared for funny grammar and pronounciation
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Sep 24, 2009 09:26
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Sheik Yerbouti posted:'sup Berlin and civil service buddy? Krakened posted:We would also like to visit the gothic cathederals, but have no idea where to start. Which state in has the most popular cathederals and architecture? Is there any one building that you would recommend anyone to go and see? Krakened posted:Where are the best pubs and clubs in Germany? Hamburg has many cool pubs and clubs in Germany's most notorious red light district (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reeperbahn), Hamburg is a very beautiful city anyway. Munich is a bit more upscale I would say, but I've only been there once. Krakened posted:Do a lot of people speak English as a second language there?
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Sep 24, 2009 09:29
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Come to #deutschgoons everybodyAlecEiffel posted:What I initially wanted to ask in my first response to this topic was... A dish wand. AlecEiffel posted:Und ist Freiburg eine gute Stadt? Ich planne da zu studieren / an Austauschprogramm teilnehmen. Yes. Freiburg is the best city in Germany. I studied there for a year. Feel free to PM me or e-mail me if you have specific questions: liamrosen@gmail.com ruehrfisch posted:I'm German and often visit my boyfriend in the US (lols LDR), and everytime I really miss the small snacks and cakes from the bakery. Also, to me it seems that there's a LOT of additives in everyday food - toast is "soft" for weeks after opening, there's EDTA in noodle salad, stabilizers in chocolate milk, artificial flavours and colouring almost everywhere. And why are deli meats always super-processed and why are pastries/cakes technicolourful instead of fresh and simple? I have no idea. I felt that there were just as many food additives in Germany as there were in the US. Look at the ingredients of your Brötchen at the chain bakeries sometime. Small shops are dying out and being swallowed by Aldi, Rewe, Treff, and the like. It sucks ---------------- Liface fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Sep 24, 2009 |
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Sep 24, 2009 09:31
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sn00ke posted:What do you think of Andrea Merkel? I'm taking a Western European course and she seems like the blandest person with the most boring agenda ever-not that any of the other candidates are any better. Angela Merkel was Helmut Kohl's protegé ("Kohls Mädchen" - "Kohl's girl" was the nickname the press gave her) in the 90's. I think that's why she cultivated the same style as he did: Looking dumb, acting smart - sound's better in German: "doof gucken, schlau machen". She seems to be bland, yes, but who actually knows her as a person? I believe German politicians are traditionally less, well, 'colourful' as Americans or the French perhaps. The fact that her political agenda seems boring is mostly tactics, as she is definitely a very able politician who also knows how to fight. However, the Christian Democrats (the conservative party) are the significantly stronger party after four years of a grand coalition with the Social Democrats. Merkel tries to make the coalition's successes appear as her/her party's achievements while the Social Democrats struggle to find their niche. When the liberals come out strong enough on Sunday, we'll most likely be seeing a Christian Democrat/Liberal Democrat coalition. Concerning your second question, it depends on how you define right wing. There are the center-right parties CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union and their Bavarian sister party) which are very moderate. They have a relatively stronger focus on security (The current CDU-minister of the interior seems to be a bit of a nut, but I have a lot of respect for him), family values and Christian religion. I think when you compare them with the GOP-mainstream however, they are pretty liberal. Farther to the right there are pretty much only extremists and total nutjobs. The Republicans seem to be the ones who potentially violate the constitution to the least degree. The NPD, which is probably the most successful of the far right, has won seats in some states but they are marginal on a federal level. Their political goals can only be described as completely delusional, their party is heavily infiltrated by the Verfassungsschutz and I believe a lot of their members are quite literally retarded.
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Sep 24, 2009 10:08
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Liface posted:I felt that there were just as many food additives in Germany as there were in the US. Look at the ingredients of your Brötchen at the chain bakeries sometime. Small shops are dying out and being swallowed by Aldi, Rewe, Treff, and the like. It sucks Don't forget that lots of German "chains" are actually small regional grocery chains (apparently, Treff is southwest only, I've never seen one) that feature mostly products (many seasonal ones) from small no-name suppliers, nowhere near comparable with Walmart, Safeway etc. Plus, one of our downtown Aldis here just closed and a local organic food market moved in instead :D Oh, and I just looked at my breakfast Brötchen from Aldi: Wheat, water, yeast, salt (with iodine), tartric acid esters of mono- and diglycerids (fatty acids for emulgating), dextrose, rapeseed oil. Nothing bad if you ask me...
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Sep 24, 2009 11:37
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I think this thread might have reached a critical mass; it seems that there are more Germans than foreigners asking questions about Germany :P I've only skimmed through the pages but I don't think any of the Germans in here are from the area I live in (Cologne), so if anyone cares for my spin on things, I am game. A few things about me and Cologne: I study English and History at the University of Cologne as well as work smack in the center of city, spitting distance to the cathedral. By "spitting distance" I mean people come into my GameStop and ask for batteries for their cameras so they can take pictures of themselves making dumb expressions in front of the cathedral because we are the first store they will see. Kölsch (the local brew) does indeed taste like water but then again, no on can "not like" water, so it's all good. I prefer proper beers but what can you do. Cologne also happens to be the quasi "gay capitol" of Germany, which most attribute to Cologne being a very open and friendly city. While this might be true for the LBGT crowd, the relatively huge success of fear-mongering right wing groups in the local elections cause me to doubt that foreigners have as easy of a time here. ruehrfisch posted:Oh, and I just looked at my breakfast Brötchen from Aldi: Wheat, water, yeast, salt (with iodine), tartric acid esters of mono- and diglycerids (fatty acids for emulgating), dextrose, rapeseed oil. Nothing bad if you ask me... If you eat Brötchen from Aldi for 15 cent a pop, you are part of the problem. Not only do they taste like poo poo, they also force actual bakeries to change their recipes to compete for prices. loving Backwerk all over the place and their food tastes like vomit. Katana Gomai fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Sep 24, 2009 |
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Sep 24, 2009 14:12
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Hm, I guess I should have asked for more specific information about the german attitude to boardgames. I mean, is it something families do? Do friends regularly get together for a boardgame-play? Is it something where people just pull out a boardgame when they can't think of something else to do, when friends are already there? Is it a general thing, like if you have German friends and pull out a boardgame they'll be cool with it, or is it still a niche thing like it is in England, where most people will think you're a nerd, but it's just a much bigger niche?
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Sep 24, 2009 15:03
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Katana Gomai posted:If you eat Brötchen from Aldi for 15 cent a pop, you are part of the problem. Not only do they taste like poo poo, they also force actual bakeries to change their recipes to compete for prices. loving Backwerk all over the place and their food tastes like vomit. Wow chill =P, I don't even usually eat Brötchen (I like my bread dark and crusty) but my mum buys them sometimes since Aldi is closest. Also realistically, "actual" bakeries don't make money from simple breads/Brötchen anymore anyway, it's all about the sandwich stuff ("belegte Brötchen") that are pricey but convenient.
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Sep 24, 2009 16:34
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Do you have any more of these 'strange but cool' laws that are in Germany? I know of the one where you're not allowed to use your lawnmower on a Sunday, are there many others? Also, do you know of any good website on cooking German food? I want to make the decent Semmel Knodel I had in Munich but no luck so far 
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Sep 24, 2009 17:00
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How much truth is there to the stereotype that German products and artwork have a desire for maximum technological precision?
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Sep 24, 2009 17:19
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roomforthetuna posted:Hm, I guess I should have asked for more specific information about the german attitude to boardgames. I mean, is it something families do? Do friends regularly get together for a boardgame-play? Is it something where people just pull out a boardgame when they can't think of something else to do, when friends are already there? Is it a general thing, like if you have German friends and pull out a boardgame they'll be cool with it, or is it still a niche thing like it is in England, where most people will think you're a nerd, but it's just a much bigger niche? Many families and friends get together regularly to play boardgames and I don't know anyone who outright hates them or has never played one. In fact I think everyone of my friends own at least one. Mind telling why this interests you, seems like a very specific question?
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Sep 24, 2009 17:37
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I've lived in Austria (Salzburg) for almost two years and hate it. My German is ok but its irritating how class based a lot of the population are. I work in an Irish pub and we have to deal with ever present put downs about our job and nationalities as well as having to jump through a million hoops just to get anything done as we are Ausländer. I need to leave soon as it's just depressing, can German goons compare this to Germany? Also how is the job market in regards to I.T. and Project planning and Management? Cheers.
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Sep 24, 2009 18:43
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It's just because I like that sort of boardgame, and in most of the UK (ie. outside the biggest cities) finding enough people for a relatively complicated Euro-game is a challenge. Since I've played a fair bit on Brettspielwelt, the fact that probably more than half the players there are German (while a lot less than half the world is) made me curious how much of that was because the site is German, and how much was because Germans just do play such games a lot more. You can probably just about get UK people together for a game of Pictionary or something involving dice, but unless you're in London it's a chore to even find one person to play, say, Caylus or Puerto Rico with. So I was curious whether, if I were to move to Germany, I'd have an easier time with that. (Not planning to move to Germany just for that, of course!) Edit: this is not an invitation to declare how you have TEN!! British people who'll play boardgames with you, just assume I was exaggerating a little bit. roomforthetuna fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Sep 24, 2009 |
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Sep 24, 2009 18:48
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ruehrfisch posted:Wow chill =P, I don't even usually eat Brötchen (I like my bread dark and crusty) but my mum buys them sometimes since Aldi is closest. Also realistically, "actual" bakeries don't make money from simple breads/Brötchen anymore anyway, it's all about the sandwich stuff ("belegte Brötchen") that are pricey but convenient. Didn't mean to come off that agressive, cheapo bakery stuff is just a pet peeve of mine. I used to work at a gas station for about half a year which made me realize that all of these self-service bakeries as well as all gas stations and grocery discounters get their poo poo from the same company. And it doesn't even taste good :/
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Sep 24, 2009 19:37
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Does anyone still speak rotwelsch? Additionally is there still a deep-rooted presence of itinerant/vagabond culture? Do people still do herrentag? If so, have you guys done it? How common is mensur and have any of you participated, witnessed or known a duel or dueler? Please forgive me if I appear to have the impression of perceiving Germany as some sort of pre-20th century era. I'm mostly curious to know if modern Germany (and other European countries for that matter) still hold on to deep-rooted traditions and cultural particularities.
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Sep 24, 2009 20:00
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Here are a few questions. 1 - There's a style of writing that originated in Germany that's very ornate, almost like calligraphy. I think it was used in the 1500-1700 period. What's the name of it? 2 - My last name is Amspacher, which I'm pretty sure is just an altered version of Ansbacher. As Ansbach is a town, and most probably where my ancestors came through, I'd like to know a little mroe about it. Seems like a small, Bavarian town and not much more. 3 - Are there still Mennonites and Anabaptists in Bavaria? If so, how do they interact with the rest of Bavaria? 4 - How the hell do you guys remember all of the genders and conjugations of German? Further, which books would you recommend for learning German? I know that might be a hard question for you native speakers, but I thought I'd throw it out there. abelwingnut fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Sep 24, 2009 |
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Sep 24, 2009 20:08
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Abel Wingnut posted:Here are a few questions. It was actually used much longer, into the 20th century but since it is no more taught at schools (for quite some time, my parents, who were born in the 50s, can't write any Sütterlin), it might die... quote:4 - How the hell do you guys remember all of the genders and conjugations of German? Further, which books would you recommend for learning German? I know that might be a hard question for you native speakers, but I thought I'd throw it out there. You know, we just know how to use genders and conjugations - but to be fair and a bit more serious, there are plenty of native Germans mixing dative and genitive, some words have different genders in certain dialects (e.g. "Butter", or "Teller") and especially on the internet a lot of people misuse the abbreviations of our general pronouns. As for books - I have no idea, maybe someone else can help out here... Polonium fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Sep 24, 2009 |
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Sep 24, 2009 20:13
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Polonium posted:Maybe I'll answer some more questions later (right now I'm hungry), but I believe you're thinking of Sütterlin. I was actually thinking of Fraktur, but thank you. Jesus, Sütterlin is dizzying.
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Sep 24, 2009 20:18
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Nasenbiber posted:Hey, I study at the Freie Universität, nice avatar btw. did you see Zappa plays Zappa back in may?  I wanted to go see ZpZ in May, but it was expensive. I kind of regret it now.quazi posted:How much truth is there to the stereotype that German products and artwork have a desire for maximum technological precision?  Well, I guess it's true to an extent. We are proud of our "deutsche Wertarbeit" (German quality workmanship).  I'm an Engineering student, so I'm a bit biased about this, but you see signs of that strife for precision everywhere. In Germany, you don't get a traffic sign just saying "slow" as in Britain, for example. I don't think that there's a lot of countries in the world with more traffic signs than here.Krakened posted:Do a lot of people speak English as a second language there?
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Sep 24, 2009 21:28
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If one were in Germany, speaking otherwise competent German but using the neuter form of everything, are there any (or many!) instances where this would make you hard to understand, or offensive, or would it just make you sound funny, like someone visiting England would sound a bit funny but perfectly comprehensible if they were to say "the table, she is wobbly"?
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Sep 24, 2009 21:42
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Abel Wingnut posted:4 - How the hell do you guys remember all of the genders and conjugations of German? Further, which books would you recommend for learning German? I know that might be a hard question for you native speakers, but I thought I'd throw it out there. There was a study done where they made up German-sounding words, then asked native speakers to identify whether the word was der, die, or das. The respondents agreed with a staggering level of accuracy. The ability to assign genders to German words is learned through growing up listening to and speaking the language. No one who has ever learned German as an adult will ever have this ability. They may develop their skills over time, but they will never be 100% on nouns which they have not learned through rote memorization. Liface fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Sep 24, 2009 |
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Sep 24, 2009 21:42
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Abel Wingnut posted:4 - How the hell do you guys remember all of the genders and conjugations of German? Further, which books would you recommend for learning German? I know that might be a hard question for you native speakers, but I thought I'd throw it out there.  Maybe a Linguistics or German Studies goon can clear this up. roomforthetuna posted:If one were in Germany, speaking otherwise competent German but using the neuter form of everything, are there any (or many!) instances where this would make you hard to understand, or offensive, or would it just make you sound funny, like someone visiting England would sound a bit funny but perfectly comprehensible if they were to say "the table, she is wobbly"? 
Sheik Yerbouti fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Sep 24, 2009 |
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Sep 24, 2009 22:01
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CommieRabbit posted:How common is mensur and have any of you participated, witnessed or known a duel or dueler? My half-brothers were students in the 80s and did that stuff and there are "schlagende Verbindungen" (duelling fraternities) in every city with an older universitiy. @ Sheik Yerbouti: Yeah, your main building is one ugly motherfucker but at least you don't have to haul your rear end all the way to Dahlem every day. Edit: I can get to Ernst-Reuter-Platz in 10 minutes per bike ^^ loose-fish fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Sep 24, 2009 |
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Sep 24, 2009 22:08
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Nasenbiber posted:@ Sheik Yerbouti: Yeah, your main building is one ugly motherfucker but at least you don't have to haul your rear end all the way to Dahlem every day. I'm living in Buckow, so Dahlem isn't far from here, but it's about one hour to Ernst-Reuter-Platz
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Sep 24, 2009 22:13
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Going on about Bavaria. Has it always been part of Germany? I know their traditions and such are more of Austrian root. Which I guess can be argued. But I was always told they were more Austrian than German. Or hell, their own country. Is it like Texas compared to the US? That wacky place that wants to succeed? Although I am sure it is much more awesome. Only example I could think of Does your military have any foreign involvement? How do you feel about the illegal immigration? Lots of Turkish there.
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Sep 24, 2009 22:33
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Christoff posted:How do you feel about the illegal immigration? Lots of Turkish there. ) It varies. Usually, the first generation of Turks that came here in the 60es is the most integrated, but there are a lot of younger Turks rejecting German culture and living in closed communities. In some parts of Berlin, there is some resentment against Turks and immigrants in general. Those usually are the boroughs the right-wing extremists are active in as well.I like the fact that Berlin is so multicultural, and it contributes to what makes the city unique, but I don't really know first-hand how it is in other parts of Germany. Sheik Yerbouti fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Sep 24, 2009 |
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Sep 24, 2009 22:46
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Sheik Yerbouti posted:Berlin has the largest Turkish community outside of Turkey in the world. (Döner Kebap in a pita bread was invented here I've noticed anti-immigrant sentiments wherever I've gone in Germany hand Holland, for what it's worth. The Turks (and Moroccans, in Holland) are treated basically like Hispanic people are treated in the USA. There is a huge focus on crimes by immigrants, so if a Turk kills someone, its "Scheiss Türken" but when its a strapping German lad, people barely bat an eye.
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Sep 24, 2009 23:06
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Liface posted:There was a study done where they made up German-sounding words, then asked native speakers to identify whether the word was der, die, or das. The respondents agreed with a staggering level of accuracy. Do you happen to have a link to this study? Sounds pretty cool.
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Sep 24, 2009 23:17
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Ich moechte in Deutschland in Finanzdienst fuer ein paar Jahre arbeiten. Ist mein Ziel moeglich? I'd like to work in Germany in the finance sector for a few years. I read that Germany has one of the highest number of banks per person. I wonder what the working culture there is like? Deutsche Bank or Commerz Bank would be dream roles. Alternatively the German equivalent of my current organisation, Bundesanstalt fuer Finanzdienstleistungaufsicht (BaFin). This would be easier with the blessing of my employer. My plan is to start on a working holiday visa (and work in any field necessary to first improve my language skills) and then move to resident/work permit. As a university educated Australian citizen, I understand that this should be easier for me than most other people. Native German speakers tell me my German is good enough to work in Germany, but I'll have to learn technical terms that are relevant to my field. I hear there are organisations that do their work in English anyway, is this true? To the poster who asked about IT, apparently Germany has a skills shortage in IT so it shouldn't be too hard to get a job in that field. Do any posters have any knowledge about the finance sector? Also, I am of Chinese descent, so I wonder if there would be any issues. I note that I saw heaps of Japanese people in Duesseldorf when I was there in 2008. I also saw an Asian guy working on deutsche Bahn which I thought was pretty cool. Maybe Asians are model minorities? Comments? I've done a good amount of research on toytowngermany.com but I'd like to hear opinions of expats from locals. My other question is, what do Germans think of Australia? Who tells you about this place before you come here? I ask this there are lots and lots of German backpackers in Australia. They tell me that people in Australia are really friendly, which implies that German people aren't. I think they're referring to a more formal or less expressive culture, perhaps. I note that people making these comments are younger people, though. What are your comments? Thanks for this thread! Danke fuer deine Hilfe!
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Sep 25, 2009 01:18
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I can answer a couple of these questions, although not the important (work-related) ones, it's not really my field. Maybe some German goon with a background in the finance industry can help out there. Generally, being of Asian descent shouldn't be a problem in Germany. There are the oft-mentioned areas (parts of Eastern Germany usually get thrown around for this) that have a fairly high percentage of people who vote for far-right parties and a higher number of hate crimes, but in general you should be safe. Given that you are interested in working in the banking field, you'll probably end up in either Bonn (BaFin) or Frankfurt (also BaFin and pretty much all banks) anyway and those cities are safe. They also have fairly large Asian communities, which is comparatively rare in Germany as most immigrants here come from the Balkans, Turkey, Eastern Europe and then to a lesser degree the Arab countries and Africa. Asians, at least in the public discourse I have witnessed, don't feature as a separate entity, so, no, they aren't model minorities, mostly because when Germans think minorities, they don't really think Asians. Australia to us is, for the most part, very far away, exotic and full of kangaroos. Well, there's more to it, but the way it's usually presented is with beautiful nature, lots of outdoors activity in nice, warm weather and easy-going Australians. Australian politics or domestic issues don't feature in the media very much. And yeah, German culture is probably more formalized in a way and Germans tend to seem fairly rude and cold at first, probably because they are fairly direct. This also very much depends on the region you are in, Cologne and Hamburg would for example be a fairly noticeable contrast. Also, don't be put off by what many Germans perceive as a perfectly normal service attitude, which involves ignoring the customer and being sort of cranky. It doesn't happen everywhere, but compared to my experiences in the States or Asian countries for example, you do notice the difference.
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Sep 25, 2009 03:24
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My brother was stationed in Bamburg for a year or so. He said: a) If you get into a fight with a Turk he will eventually pull a knife. Confirm/deny? b) You can order a beer mixed with coca-cola and it costs more than a beer does. Confirm/deny?
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Sep 25, 2009 05:38
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Sheep-Goats posted:a) If you get into a fight with a Turk he will eventually pull a knife. Confirm/deny? No, that's just baseless racism. quote:b) You can order a beer mixed with coca-cola and it costs more than a beer does. Confirm/deny? Yep, there's a tax on mixed drinks because politicians thought they were too popular with teens. They have yet to figure out that the recipe is not too hard to figure out if you're into way to sweet beer.
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Sep 25, 2009 05:56
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THE_Chris posted:Do you have any more of these 'strange but cool' laws that are in Germany? German Civil Code Section 961 Loss of ownership of bee swarms Where a swarm of bees takes flight, it becomes ownerless if the owner fails to pursue it without undue delay or if he gives up the pursuit. Section 962 Right of pursuit of the owner The owner of the swarm of bees may, in pursuit, enter on plots of land belonging to others. If the swarm has entered an unoccupied beehive belonging to another, the owner of the swarm, for the purpose of capturing it, may open the hive and remove or break out the combs. He must make compensation for the damage caused. Section 963 Merging of bee swarms If bee swarms of more than one owner that have moved out merge, the owners who have pursued their swarms become co-owners of the total swarm captured; the shares are determined according to the number of swarms pursued. Section 964 Intermixture of bee swarms If a bee swarm has moved into an occupied beehive belonging to another, the ownership and the other rights in the bees that were occupying the beehive extend to the swarm that has moved in. The ownership and the other rights in the swarm that has moved in are extinguished.
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Sep 25, 2009 09:17
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As for the bavaria, austria questions. If you compare germany to the us, bavaria is texas, austria is canada.
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Sep 25, 2009 13:25
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How do Germans today feel about the House of Hohenzollern? Wikipedia tells me that some German monarchists gather at Wilhelm II's burial place in the Netherlands every year, but I imagine they're a tiny fringe group.
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Sep 26, 2009 03:47
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CommieRabbit posted:Does anyone still speak rotwelsch? Additionally is there still a deep-rooted presence of itinerant/vagabond culture? I had to look up Rotwelsch on Wikipedia and I would say, no, no one actually speaks such a dialect anymore. There are quite a lot of regional dialects but no itinerant culture with an own language. Where I come from (Northwestern part), we don't call it Herrentag but Vatertag (Father's day). It's actually a Christian holiday but the celebrations usually mean that you go on a bike trip with your male friends and drink enormous quantities of alcohol. On that day, there are three times as many traffic accidents. Mensur is not common. Dueling fraternities have become very rare. My old gp had the 'Schmiss' (the scar you receive during Mensur), he's the only person I know who had been in a dueling fraternity.
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Sep 26, 2009 10:23
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I posted this in the German thread as well. If you want to get a good idea of some German culture peculiarities, as well as some old Brits that complain more than everyone else in the world, look no further: http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=20048&st=0
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Sep 26, 2009 11:38
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Contingency Plan posted:How do Germans today feel about the House of Hohenzollern? Wikipedia tells me that some German monarchists gather at Wilhelm II's burial place in the Netherlands every year, but I imagine they're a tiny fringe group. It's not something that sane people have really deep feelings about - generally people will be vaguely aware that Wilhelm II was a pretty terrible emperor and bears quite a bit of the responsibility for World War I and the increasing tension leading up to it, but there's not some kind of common deep-rooted seething resentment. If I'm at all a representative pick and/or am not completely wrong about the people I know, generally the first reaction to this kind of question will be confusion as to why you'd be expected to have strong feelings as though the Hohenzollern were a relevant family now. How do Americans today feel about Woodrow Wilson? I have to imagine any educated American will have opinions of his achievements and failures and faults and redeeming qualities, but serious emotions? It's not like he's going to be reelected in 2012. There are no monarchists with any degree of influence or public presence in Germany today, which also means nobody has to bother with being especially anti-monarchist. Much of the old nobility still exists, of course, and they still marry among themselves a lot - check out the current head of the Hohenzollern, for example - but they're of no political importance in and of themselves, and don't seem to be trying very hard to change this. CommieRabbit posted:Does anyone still speak rotwelsch? Additionally is there still a deep-rooted presence of itinerant/vagabond culture? Unfortunately, no. Pretty much all uprooted and driven out or eradicated by Nazi repression and the Holocaust. quote:How common is mensur and have any of you participated, witnessed or known a duel or dueler? There are a few fraternities that still do it, but it's not something most students come in contact with (neither, in fact, are traditional fraternities themselves, although this depends somewhat on the university and the field you're in). Occasionally one is startled to be reminded of its continued existence, but that's about it if you're not involved in one of the rare societies where it's still relevant. It also involves more safety gear etc. than it did in its heyday.
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Sep 26, 2009 11:46
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I have a pretty specific question about Flensburg - hope someone can answer. I'm from Denmark and I'm going there on the 25th of October to see Tina Dico at Deutches Haus. Unfortunately, since it's a Sunday, the last train back to Denmark leaves at 9pm, so I have to spend the night in Flensburg to get on the first train at 5:49am. Are there any 24 hour pubs or something there, or will I just have to find a bench and hope not to get robbed or arrested? Also, I'm thinking of bringing maybe €20-30, is that enough? The tickets for the show are taken care of.
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Sep 26, 2009 13:24
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elwood posted:As for the bavaria, austria questions. One of the most frustrating things for people from the other parts is getting lumped in with Bavarians, on which 99% of all stereotypes are based because they seem to get 99% of the tourism. It's like being from New York City and being asked whether you're wearing cowboy hats at the rodeos there while swinging your lasso.
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Sep 27, 2009 03:01
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