6 Kultur-Texte

Sex, Smut, and Shock: Bild Zeitung Rules GermanyThis magazine founded by Axel Springer in 1952 basically seems like an outlet to bash celebrities and talk about nonsense. The paper's motto is  "Bild Dir Deine Meinung" basically means "we form your opinion so that you don't have to" and that is exactly what it does. I takes regular news and twists it to no end. It could be a simple report that then becomes world changing and life threatening. Its content includes comments on Chancellor Angela Merkel's backside and other pointless and stupid things like that. It also seems to include "soft porn" so it seems like this is definitely a good German read. 

German Privacy: Come On In, My Door is Always Closed
Contrary to German culture, we as Americans approach door opening in a very polite and often non assertive way especially when the door is closed. If we se a closed door we quietly knock awaiting an answer. According to this article if we were to do this in Germany we would have to know three times in this manner for the person to annoyingly yell come in at you and then you would have to have a tense encounter with the pissed off person waiting in the room. From the article I learned that one must knock firmly once and simply open the door and just because it is closed doesn't mean that you aren't allowed in.

Division Hell: Worshipping the  Garbage Gods
Upon first reading the title I did not know what to expect in this article. Turn out Germans love to separate garbage as it was described as a "religion" in which the "Garbage Gods" part of the title now makes more sense. If in Germany you will find one garbage receptacle with four different compartments all coded for different types of waste. i like this idea because it promotes recycling. Growing up in California I was highly dismayed when I came to Michigan and found that there are no  recycling bins on the streets and only waste baskets. I would always feel so bad when I had to throw my plastic Gatorade bottle in the trash, it just never felt right. On the other hand the German approach to waste division does seem a little confusing when you have to distinguish your waste between green glass,  brown glass, white glass, paper,packaging, organic waste, and metal.