St Patrick's Day Food and Beverage

St Patrick's Day Food and Beverage

A food site called The Daily Meal has quite a lot of information about how this famous "alcoholiday" (if ever there was one! :) ) is celebrated in the good ol' USA.

Read this text to get answers to these questions:

1) What is a  re-used "Fat Tuesday" float?
2) What river in which major American city is dyed kelly green?
3)  Which New England city is considered America's most Irish city?

I'm not hanging noodles on your ears...

This is the funny title of a new book about idioms around the world. Some of the them are pretty humorous, even the German ones ;), especially when they are translated literally into English.



You can take a Guardian quiz here
I managed to correctly half of them. I could have guessed more had I thought like a Brit. That one about the British dinner, for example...

Have fun!

Germany vs USA

Today I was looking for a short video that explained some of the main differences between the school system in the States and in Europe. I stumbled upon a fun-to-watch youtube video channel where 2 guys talk freely about their respective countries.

http://www.youtube.com/user/walkaboutlanguages

From their main page:

What happens when you take a good'ole, Bible-belt, Mississippi conservative and an urbane, plurilingual, liberal, Euro-German and put them in the middle of San Francisco?

Germany vs. USA (GvU) explores the contrasts and joys of two unlikely friends, Jim and Alex, as they learn more about each other's cultures, languages, and the greater friendship between Europe and America. Insightful, whimsical, educational and always genuine (not to mention unscripted) the show aims to bring a slice-of-life perspective to viewers around the world.

Arnie's English skills

I know (some of) my students are studying for their midterm exam on Tuesday, so just in case you need to take a break from all your "learning", here are two rather amusing
links to distract you (or maybe inspire you to get back to your books immediately?!..)

http://www.isnichwahr.de/r80879022-schwarzeneggers-englishskills.html

http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/schwarzenegger/index.html


and I because this video is so educational and has a cross-cultural theme I need to include it as well...
http://www.isnichwahr.de/r89237268-warum-oesterreich-nicht-gleich-deutschland-ist.html

Now enough fun already! Back to grammar and vocab!

A Wetpaint Wiki I can recommend

Tim Howe is the perfect antidote to Frank Newman.
He's started a wiki, but you won't find anything about baseball in there or other American topics.

Tim covers the British bases, so to speak.

My first impression is a positive one. Tim's wiki is brand-new and full of interesting articles, links, comments, ideas, tips, and Britishness (Tim detests Americanisms, for example).

After surfing his wiki and blog for a few minutes I came to the following conclusions:
1. He seems to be a huge fan of the Daily Telegraph.
2. He has worked as a tramslator and interpreter (German<->English)
3. He is into Brit Pop.
4. He seems to be based in Munich.
5. He has a Polish wife (to "polish" up his English, I'm sure ;-)...

The "shocking truth" about English

Some of you will know Paul Smith and his great website aimed at German speakers struggling with the finer points of the English language.

http://owad.de/

OWAD stands for One Word A Day, by the way...

Paul has a nice little Guide to "Die häufigsten (und peinlichsten) Deutsch > Englischen Übersetzungsfehler und wie man sie vermeiden kann"

You can download the pdf or (first) view what he has to say online. There are some of my favorite "classics" in there that still make me laugh...

Enjoy!

You know you've been in Germany too long when you...

There are some interesting cultural observations here in this post I found on a newsgroup frequented by mainly American expats living in Germany. It would interesting to see how this list would differ if the subject were

You know you're in AUSTRIA when ...




You know you're in Germany when ...

- you hear "Na, Du" every two seconds
- porns are on normal television
- there is 60 kg of Butter on one Brötchen
- people eat potatoes every day and more than once a day
- all the doors in your house are always closed
- your bedroom has a half slanted ceiling
- everyone watches fußball (*soccer...), including 13 year old girls
and their grandmothers
- everyone takes out their textbook, planners and federtasche
(pencil case) before the teacher comes into the room
- everyone has clothes from "H&M"
- people press their thumbs for good luck
- people answer the phone with their name
- there is a countdown to the news broadcast

You know you haven't been in Germany long enough if you...

- haven't eaten a gyros
- don't know the times that the trains come and go from the local station
- don't know the exact location of every geldautomat within a 4 km radius
- don't understand the meaning of "Na?"
- get a cramp in your hand while writing a klausur (finals)
- are appalled by the number of sunglasses and shoes stores
- can't convert the 12 hour clock to the 24 hour clock super fast,
and you aren't sure whether "halb fünf" is 4.30, 5.30 or 2.50
- don't know which end of the flag goes up
- still exclaim about the markers that erase fountain pen ink


You know you've been in Germany too long when you...

- feel the need to underline everything with a ruler
- savour sunny days since you know how rare they are
- get used to see nudity on television
- think it's a big deal to touch the white line on the side of the
road when driving
- have a gyros breath more than once a week
- think of the train as your primary mode of transportation
- know more than 5 Bundesliga (soccer) teams
- no longer find the windows a wonder that open in two ways
- try to read a letter from someone at home and find it difficult to
remember the English words
- can describe what you mean better with German words even when
speaking English
- don't change the radio station when techno comes on, because you
know it's on all the other stations too
- can distinguish the multiple Krimi shows, from one another
- say "Ne" after a sentence
- can name more than 5 varieties of "Milka" chocolate
- don't leave the oven door open after baking
- eat meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner
- take naps for lack of anything better to do
- can't remember a English Word, so you look it up in German in the
English/German dictionary
- use "Geil" and "Genau" even in English conversations
- answer the phone instead of running away from it
- don't mind the mispronunciation of your name
- read the exact minutes in your watch instead of rounding to the
nearest 5 minutes
- cobblestone streets are not longer torturous to walk on
- forget your watch and miss it
- get angry that things are censored, if they are
- actually listen to the German translation instead of straining to
hear the original English of a televised interview
- can pronounce Umlauts properly
- know the difference between a "Schloß" and a "Burg"
- have many colored "Point 88 Stabiloo" pens in your Federtasche
(pencil case)
- are used to typing with the "y" and the "z" in opposite places on
your Computer


You know you're in Germany

...when there is cigarette smoke everywhere,
...when you have to pay to use a public rest room,
...when you have to pay a deposit for a shopping cart,
...when you have to bring your own bags, or baskets to take home the
groceries,
...when you listen to church bells to tell time,
...when you can't turn right on red,
...when it's sunset and the roll shutters come down on the windows,
...when you see signs on park laws that say "betreten verboten",
...when you go into a gas station, and magazines with naked women are
right next to the candy display,
...when even the TV-guide, or the daily news have topless women on
the cover,
...when you drive on the highway, and cars zip by so fast, you can't
tell what make or color they were,
...when strangers join you at your table in a restaurant,
...when restaurants accommodate dogs with a bowl of water, but they
don't have high-chairs for children,
...when you can't get ice in your drink,
...when you have to pay extra for ketchup at McDonalds,
...when you get charged for drink refills,
...when you're in a department store dressing room, and the sales
woman opens the curtain to check on you,
...when you are finished with your meal in a restaurant, and can
linger as long as you want, until you ask for the check,
...when you can see grown men urinating in public.

Originally posted in the forum by Wolfgang

The World According to the Simpsons

The World According to the Simpsons

It's about time I introduced one of my favorite radio programs of all time: Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders. It's hosted by Jean Feraca and in this show, her guests discuss the impact of the Simpsons around the world.

She always has intelligent people (professors, authors, and other non-yellow characters) on the show whose IQ must be double or even triple that of Homer S.!

The topics are often quite interesting, like this one about Bart and Marge and the rest of the gang, especially the cultural programs.

You can find Jean's blog here, where she discusses the latest shows.

The forum gives people a chance to add their two cents.

For this show the questions were:

* Are the Simpons really the typical American family?
* How do you feel about Homer and Bart as American ambassadors?


Then there are the related links which will keep you up way past your bedtime

* Official site of The Simpsons
* Wikipedia: The Simpsons
* The Simpsons entry in The Museum of Television Encyclopedia
* Matt McAllister
* Steven Keslowitz and his book
* Aeon Skoble
* The Simpsons Archive

I will end by quoting one Listener's Comments:

* John 7/19/06: "I think the Simpsons Cartoon demonstrates to the world that Americans have an insight into what's dysfunctional in our own culture by allowing the world to laugh with us at our beer guts and lazy intellect."

I think that says it all. Americans are not as stupid as they seem to the unsophisticated European.

Austria in English

Who is this famous Austrian?
If you're not sure, you can explore these websites, in English of course! and find out. Austrian web face to the English-speaking world.

I have also found out that you can get podcasts from Reality Check and Radio Austria International's Report from Austria, both of which will give you excellent listening practice since you sould be familiar with most of the stories.
Enjoy!!

First, read some stories about Austria or get the latest facts!

http://www.austriantimes.at/

http://www.austriantimes.at/?p=archive&s=search

http://www.bundeskanzleramt.at/Default.aspx?alias=english&init

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/

http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4082&Alias=wzo

http://www.austria.org/component/option,com_joomap/Itemid,29/

http://www.austria.org/

http://www.austria.org/content/view/113/141/

http://www.austria.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

http://www.help.gv.at/Content.Node/HELP-FC.html

and of course the nicest city in the whole wide world....Graz!
http://www.graz.at/EN


LISTEN!

Report from Austria,
the Week in Review
and Insight Central Europe
Report from Austria, a 15 minute news and current affairs program on the air Monday to Friday, keeps you up to date on what's happening in Austria with news bulletins as well as interviews and features from the world of domestic and international politics, business, culture and sports. Across the weekend, the Week in Review, provides a round up of the main stories of the week and Insight Central Europe presents Reports from Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and from Austria.

http://oe1.orf.at/service/international_en


Podcast
http://oe1.orf.at/podcast/


Ö1 Report from Austria
A 15 minute news and current affairs programme that keeps you up to date on what's happening in Austria. Across the weekend, the Week in Review, provides a round up of the main stories of the week.

Um diesen Podcast-Feed kostenlos zu abonnieren, kopieren Sie bitte diesen Link in Ihren Podcatcher:

http://static.orf.at/podcast/oe1/oe1_report.xml

FM4
http://fm4.orf.at/connected/202133/main

http://fm4.orf.at/stream

FM4 Reality Check Podcast
Behind the Headlines
Reality Check is Radio FM4s news program with interviews and analysis of stories from around the world. We go behind the headlines with in-depth coverage examining how stories develop and why they are relevant. From Tokyo to Washington, Cape Town to London, issues such as human-rights, new discoveries, orange-revolutions, every imagineable topic making the news today can appear on Reality Check. Hosted by Riem Higazi, Hal Rock and Steve Crilley.

http://static.orf.at/podcast/fm4/fm4_reality_check_podcast.xml

Um diesen Podcast-Feed kostenlos zu abonnieren, kopieren Sie bitte den oben angezeigten Link in Ihren Podcatcher.
Die Podcatcher-Software sucht dann das jeweils neueste Update und lädt es automatisch in Ihr iTunes oder Ihren Windows Media Player in einer separaten Playlist.
Wenn Sie noch keinen Podcatcher haben, finden Sie auf wiki.podcast.de eine aktuelle Übersicht über verschiedene Versionen.

Spiked!

He spiked his hair, she spiked the ball, and he spiked the punch.
Spiked has many meanings.



I ran across this British site while trying to find out more about gun control and I liked the refreshing way European and American writers were writing about the US, including Barack Obama, immigrants
and
"a day without immigrants"

and a long article titled "Why people hate fat Americans"

Hope you learn something about American culture!

Culture Guru:

A summary of Geert Hofstede’s ideas about national culture differences

Hofstede’s ideas were first based on a large research project into national culture differences across subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (IBM) in 64 countries. Subsequent studies by others covered students in 23 countries, elites in 19 countries, commercial airline pilots in 23 countries, up-market consumers in 15 countries, and civil service managers in 14 countries. These studies together identified and validated five independent dimensions of national culture differences:

1. Power distance:
the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.

2. Individualism
(everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family). Contrasts with collectivism (societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.)

3. Masculinity
versus femininity. The assertive pole has been called 'masculine' and the modest, caring pole 'feminine'. Studies show (a) women's values differ less among societies than men's values (b) men's values from one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from women's values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to women's values on the other.

4. Uncertainty avoidance:
a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth; 'there can only be one Truth and we have it'.

5. Long-term versus short-term orientation. This fifth dimension was found in a study among students in 23 countries around the world, using a questionnaire designed by Chinese scholars It can be said to deal with Virtue regardless of Truth. Values associated with Long Term Orientation are thrift and perseverance; values associated with Short Term Orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one's 'face'.


Power distance scores are high for Latin, Asian and African countries and smaller for Germanic countries.

Individualism prevails in developed and Western countries, while Collectivism prevails in less developed and Eastern countries; Japan takes a middle position on this dimension.

Masculinity is high in Japan, in some European countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and moderately high in Anglo countries; it is low in Nordic countries and in the Netherlands and moderately low in some Latin and Asian countries like France, Spain and Thailand.

Uncertainty avoidance scores are higher in Latin countries, in Japan, and in German speaking countries, lower in Anglo, Nordic, and Chinese culture countries.

A Long Term Orientation is mostly found in East Asian countries, in particular in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.



The country scores on the five dimensions are statistically correlated with a multitude of other data about the countries.
For example, power distance is correlated with the use of violence in domestic politics and with income inequality in a country.

Individualism is correlated with national wealth (Per Capita Gross National Product) and with mobility between social classes from one generation to the next.

Masculinity is correlated negatively with the share of their Gross National Product that governments of the wealthy countries spend on development assistance to the Third World.

Uncertainty avoidance is associated with Roman Catholicism and with the legal obligation in developed countries for citizens to carry identity cards.

Long Term Orientation is correlated with national economic growth during the past 25 years, showing that what led to the economic success of the East Asian economies in this period is their populations' cultural stress on the future-oriented values of thrift and perseverance.

What's Up with Culture?

ON-LINE CULTURAL TRAINING RESOURCE FOR STUDY ABROAD

This material was developed to support and enhance a student’s ability to make successful cultural adjustments both before going overseas and upon returning home from studying abroad. It was produced primarily for traditional-aged, undergraduate US-American university students. Those preparing to participate in a study abroad program will find the first seven sections useful while those who are about to, or have, returned home from an international program can refer to the final four sections.

The focus is generally on the concept of culture and how it impacts one’s ability to understand and function in a new and unfamiliar environment. It concentrates on the skills, attitudes, and behaviors which all study abroad students, regardless of their specific destination, will find useful.

There are many interesting aspects to this topic.

Here are a few that will get you thinking...

The things we say

Sources of American Culture


American_Values

Cultural_Categories

Sources of American Culture

Body Language

Communication_styles

Intensity_Factors

Common Reactions to Culture Shock

The Four Levels of Cultural Awareness

10 Transition Tips

Seventy-Five Long-Term Outcomes

Glossary

Bibliography