Kulture 8, Richard Popp III

Draftophobia

I must say that I think this article is a bit absurd. I understand that in some cultures people have different quirks but I find it hard to believe that this is noteworthy. Enabling the article, if this is truly the case, then what the hell?! Why in the world would this be a problem. Where would this custom have come from. Many questions have been left unanswered and I'm skeptical.

You Have What

Again, I'm very skeptical of this article. It seems very weird to me that a country in Europe has its own small set of illnesses unique to their country. Europe is so jam packed in terms of population that I can't see this happening. I can see Germans being headstrong people about illness. That could very well be a cultural practice and with everything else I've heard about German living this doesn't seem to be so farfetched.

Sauna

Yes please! I constantly hear about how liberal Germans are with sex and showing off skin and it makes me jealous as an American. I don't think its a bad thing that Americans are publicly prude but we are... I think that its awesome that Germans are conformable with the human body. I digress. I wonder how popular they really are. In Italy, everyone goes home every work day for lunch. Upon first hearing this I was surprised and didn't think it was such a widespread tradition. Im curious if this is one of those things for Germans. It would be really cool to have such a communal tradition... a potentially dirty one but once at that.

German Students

This article makes it seem like being a student in Germany doesn't require you to study. I like to hear things like this. Although I don't think this is entirely true I think it could very well have a lot of truth to it. German has been known as a top the academic country for almost as long as education has existed and it doesn't seem correct that no one gets as education as a student but relatively to American education systems it could seem this way. We as students are pushed through the college academic system and into the working world. Whether it be by loan interest accruing or the dwindling work force demand our culture and government pushes us through as soon as possibly. Moreover, our culture pushes us through. To complete college in 5 or 6 year, undergrad I mean, is almost lazy. Our culture screams "you must get out there and make money!" Bummer for us I guess...