German National Pastime&The Germanic Stare Down

In the German National Pastime article, it is mentioned that Germans like to complain to an excessive extent. This is not the first time I hear about this. Although I have met a few people from Germany and traveled there before, I do know well enough to tell so. Maybe I have to immerse myself to the culture more to get a feeling about it.

In another article, The Germanic Stare Down, I learned that Germans had been through a lot during WW2 and the cold war era, so people learned to be protective about their neighborhood. It is an interesting fact to learn about because I have heard that Germans are one of the most individualistic peoples in the world too. I wonder how did these two traits play out as it is for Germans today.

For Brennpunkt Kultur, I learned about the types of universities  in Germany. I have heard that Germany's education system has all the students broken down into different systems in the early stage of their student lives. Now I really know about what the types are and do feel that the universities can really lose their competitiveness if they still keep being elite institutions due to the pressure of global economy. It seems like a good thing that there are more types of universities now there. However, too many universities is a problem too. My country, Taiwan, is suffering the problem of having too many universities since early 2000s because it creates an "inflation" of higher education, and people end up not valuing the diploma as much. Also, too many college students means fewer technicians in practice. In the long run, it will become a burden rather than an advantage.