Kultur 6, Lori Roy

Actually, I was more interested in the article about recycling than in the other two articles. The fact that Germans have separate containers for all types of glass, metal, paper, and so on, further reinforces the impression I'm forming that Germans like things done "properly." (The second article about knocking firmly also reinforces this opinion. It is also reinforces my conception of the Germans as an environmentally-friendly people who eat organic food and care about where their waste goes. I'm also beginning to develop this idea, perhaps, of an "Old-World" Germany and a "New-World" Germany. I went to Germany when I was 15. (15 was longer ago for me than it is for most people in the class). While we were there, we saw many places that reinforced my "Old-World" concept of Germany: we went to tiny Bavarian towns, old castles, saw Lorelai Rock... we actually went to the old "Schloss" that Vorsprung talks about in Heidelberg. In places like that, there wasn't so much emphasis on recycling, at least that I saw. Granted, I think this was right at the beginning of sustainability movement, so perhaps if I went back to these places today, I would see more variegated recycling bins. The point is, however, that I think that the emphasis on recycling changes depending on where you are in the country. America is, of course, bigger than Germany, but let's look at New York state, for instance. There is a recycling center in the town where I grew up, but most people still have "burn barrels" and burn their trash (illegally) in the back yard, which is most certainly not environmentally friendly. My town is very much filled with rednecks and hicks. On the other hand, if you drive two and a half hours west, you'll hit Ithaca, New York, where I got my undergrad degree. People think Ann Arbor is environmentally-friendly, but it's nowhere close to Ithaca. In Ithaca, we had compost bins for organic waste in the dining halls. Our forks and cups for take-away food were made from corn, so they could be composted too. (Also, if you left them in your car on a hot day, they would melt). We had grocery stores where they didn't even offer bags to customers- you had to use your own reusable ones. The point is, however, that I'm sure you see as many variances in recycing habits in Germany as you do in the United States- it all depends on where you are.

I don't have too much to say about the first article. It reminds me somewhat of the American tabloids and gossip websites. People are always interested in other people's business, and other people's backsides as well. I'm curious about Germany's  level of interest in tabloids versus the other European countries, but that's about it.

What I am interested in, however, is my conception of the Germanic way of "properly doing things" and how it manifests itself in schools. I know in the United States, students frequently become overwhelmed with the amount of work they have to do. (This doesn't really have anything to do with the articles- it is just a segue... something I'm thinking about) There is an American mentality that approves of overworking and overwhelming yourself. To be successful in America is to have too much on your plate, to be in too many clubs, to work too many jobs, to be too stressed out. Ironically enough, if you have so much to do that you can't do it all, you are deemed successful. It means you're in demand and wanted and involved. This is something we see with college students a lot, and it often results in students not finishing homework. Very frequently, we just say, "I was really busy," and the professor says, "That's okay." I'm wondering if this the same in Germany. Would the excuse, "I was just too busy," work as frequently in Germany as it does in America, or would a German teacher say, "Tough luck. You should have managed your time better and worked harder." To me, this seems to be the "proper way to do things": to know how much you can handle and to do that and no more. I have the impression that Germans might view Americans as flighty and a little irresponsible based partially on our tendency to overwhelm ourselves.