Kultur 3

I just finished reading the article Teutonic Humor and was immediately reminded of a skit from Saturday Night Live with Mike Myers called "Sprockets". In it the character Dieter is a german talk show host who has absolutely no sense of humor and shows very little emotion. This is a very common stereotype americans have for germans. I find this skit hilarious nonetheless, but the article Teutonic Humor showed me that that's not exactly true of germans. They aren't necessarily grim and humorless, it's just that their jokes do not translate that easily to American humor. It's funny to notice the difference between senses of humor between different cultures. In my german art class last semester we had to watch a german film and although I could tell that a certain scene was meant to be humorous, I did not find myself laughing because it did not strike me as funny.

I also found the article about german fast food particularly interesting (because I love food). I thought it was cool that I actually recognized some dishes they discussed like the noodle Spätzle. My best friend has german heritage and she absolutely loved that dish and always got really excited whenever her family was making it for dinner. Also, I just had Shnitzel in one of the dining halls on campus for the first time the other day and found it delicious. If I ever went to Germany, I'd be sure to order that because it'd probably taste even better when made by an actual german chef.

The article about German beer made me really thirsty. I found it funny how common drinking is in that country and found myself wondering how many deaths germany has due to alcoholism verses the amount America has. Drinking is such a normal activity there that they even have beer in their fridges at work! The german culture is so different from american in that aspect. In America, if you drink at all during the day most people would look down upon you and probably assume you had a problem. It is not the norm here but in Germany everybody does it. But I also respect their devotion to beer because to them it's almost like an art. They must find American beer repulsive.