Kultur2

As I began reading the articles I instantly thought of my "brother" Mathias, a foreign exchange student from Norway, and his best friend Daniel (also a foreign exchange student) from Germany. The two would ALWAYS be in my kitchen bickering and arguing about who was from the better country, and Daniel would go on and on about how wonderful Germany was. However! Daniel was indeed a massive complainer, just like the article "The German National Pastime: Whining, Bitching and Moaning" suggests! Daniel would very frequently complain about American weather, beer, school systems, cars, you name it, and Daniel complained about it. The only thing is, I never once heard him complain about Germany, he always had a strong sense of pride whenever he would bring up his native country. What is also really funny, is my family always talks about how blunt Daniel was. "It must be a German thing!" my mom would say, and now after reading the articles it does seem to ring true! He had a tendency to be brutally honest, almost borderline rude. Now I see that what Americans may perceive as an insult could be perceived as just meer conversation to a German like Daniel. These articles really interested me as I read them, because I never knew for certain whether Daniels quirks were just his personality or a sort of nationwide cultural acceptance.