Ask a German

A repository for intrinsically valuable information

Re: Ask a German

Postby Piter Lauchy » Tue Jan 12, 2016 8:17 pm

Cordslash wrote:How wide spread is that kind of fear of being seen as intolerant, if it really is a thing at all?

It definitely is a thing, but I think more and more people realize that the only people constantly reminding Germans of their horrible past are Germans themselves. The rest of the world has stopped giving a shit a long time ago, in the sense that they're perfectly aware that Germans aren't minority-hating monsters (anymore).
Personally, I feel as distanced from the holocaust as any other person my age from a different nation. While we obviously must never forget that such a thing happened, I didn't have anything to do with and do not need to act out of a false feeling of responsibility.
I think a lot of people of my generation (I'm 24) feel that way now, partly thanks to the internet. At least all my friends do.
So yeah, the shame thing will still go on for a while, but I don't think it'll be very present anymore when the time has come for me to tell those damn kids to get off my lawn.

Unfortunately, the more distance there is to WWII the more people feel comfortable being racist dicks again, but since those are pretty much in every nation, we don't need to feel particularly bad about them, in my opinion.

CarrieVS wrote:
Piter Lauchy wrote:
Anglerphobe wrote:Where are you in line for the British throne?

Since at least half of my ancestors aren't actually German, probably nowhere.


It doesn't matter how few German ancestors you have - the question is only whether any of them are Sophia of Hanover.

Well, I do have her hair.
  • 13

The Oatmeal wrote:Live life passionately and love everyone like they are family, because Jesus is always with you. Jesus loves you seriously bigtime. He'd hug you until your eyeballs exploded out of your skull if he ever met you. He'd windsurf across oceans of dead Nazis which he personally slaughtered just to tell you that your new haircut is the bee's knees. [...]
Praise Jesus, especially when it's sunny outside because Jesus would totally be cool with you praising while you get a nice tan.
User avatar
Piter Lauchy
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:33 am
Location: Bier und Wurst
Show rep
Title: Idk, someone give me one

Re: Ask a German

Postby BROWNRECLUSE » Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:57 pm

What's with the terrifying national obsession with David Hasselhoff?
  • 8

Tesseracts wrote:In this age of falsehoods and lies, it's comforting to know some people are genuinely idiots.
User avatar
BROWNRECLUSE
Jedi Knight
Jedi Knight
 
Posts: 4142
Joined: Sat Mar 07, 2015 8:55 pm
Location: Inside your ear canal
Show rep

Re: Ask a German

Postby LaChaise » Tue Jan 12, 2016 10:06 pm

BROWNRECLUSE wrote:What's with the terrifying completely understandable national obsession with David Hasselhoff?


FTFY

I mean, look at the guy, how can you not love him?

  • 8

"Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV?"

"I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life."
User avatar
LaChaise
TCS Necromancer
TCS Necromancer
 
Posts: 1720
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2013 2:00 pm
Location: France
Show rep
Title: Lust in Translation

Re: Ask a German

Postby Piter Lauchy » Tue Jan 12, 2016 10:10 pm

BROWNRECLUSE wrote:What's with the terrifying national obsession with David Hasselhoff?

What LaChaise said. :D
No, seriously, I think he made kind of an impact with that particular song during that particular time.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of his music, but find him hilarious. Dude doesn't take himself serious one bit and... I don't know, he's just a fun guy.
  • 9

The Oatmeal wrote:Live life passionately and love everyone like they are family, because Jesus is always with you. Jesus loves you seriously bigtime. He'd hug you until your eyeballs exploded out of your skull if he ever met you. He'd windsurf across oceans of dead Nazis which he personally slaughtered just to tell you that your new haircut is the bee's knees. [...]
Praise Jesus, especially when it's sunny outside because Jesus would totally be cool with you praising while you get a nice tan.
User avatar
Piter Lauchy
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:33 am
Location: Bier und Wurst
Show rep
Title: Idk, someone give me one

Re: Ask a German

Postby LaChaise » Tue Jan 12, 2016 10:18 pm

No seriously. Hoff is love. Hoff is life.



And he now made the top of my list of Davids I least want to see die.
  • 5

"Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV?"

"I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life."
User avatar
LaChaise
TCS Necromancer
TCS Necromancer
 
Posts: 1720
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2013 2:00 pm
Location: France
Show rep
Title: Lust in Translation

Re: Ask a German

Postby Piter Lauchy » Tue Jan 12, 2016 10:20 pm

LaChaise wrote:No seriously. Hoff is love. Hoff is life.


Oh God, yes. How can you see a video like that and not love him?
Edit: Whoops, I just basically repeated what LaChaise said in his first Hoff post. Ah well. The Hoff is immune to unlove, baby.
  • 6

The Oatmeal wrote:Live life passionately and love everyone like they are family, because Jesus is always with you. Jesus loves you seriously bigtime. He'd hug you until your eyeballs exploded out of your skull if he ever met you. He'd windsurf across oceans of dead Nazis which he personally slaughtered just to tell you that your new haircut is the bee's knees. [...]
Praise Jesus, especially when it's sunny outside because Jesus would totally be cool with you praising while you get a nice tan.
User avatar
Piter Lauchy
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:33 am
Location: Bier und Wurst
Show rep
Title: Idk, someone give me one

Re: Ask a German

Postby LaChaise » Tue Jan 12, 2016 10:25 pm

And now for an actual question: I'm from Strasbourg so I'm well-acquainted with Baden-Würtemberg. I also spent some time in Berlin, München and Köln. Did you travel around and if so which is your favorite Land/city and why?

Also, where can you find the most delicious food? I'm only really familiar with food from the Schwartzwald and Bavaria.
  • 9

"Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV?"

"I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life."
User avatar
LaChaise
TCS Necromancer
TCS Necromancer
 
Posts: 1720
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2013 2:00 pm
Location: France
Show rep
Title: Lust in Translation

Re: Ask a German

Postby Piter Lauchy » Wed Jan 13, 2016 12:02 am

LaChaise wrote:And now for an actual question: I'm from Strasbourg so I'm well-acquainted with Baden-Würtemberg. I also spent some time in Berlin, München and Köln. Did you travel around and if so which is your favorite Land/city and why?

Also, where can you find the most delicious food? I'm only really familiar with food from the Schwartzwald and Bavaria.

It won't surprise anyone, but I'm actually rather home-dwelly, so I haven't been around much. I'm originally from the northernmost thing in Germany, island Sylt, and have lived my whole life in the north, currently Oldenburg. And well, it might seem boring, but those are my two favourite places (Sylt only out of nostalgia, as it's horribly tourist-infested). Hamburg is pretty cool, too, but I don't like big cities in general (the only exception so far being London).
I really like Oldenburg because while it's not a tiny city, all important places are close enough to reach by bike in like 10 minutes from where I live. It's got the perfect size for me.
It's also really progressive, due to two universities and therefore a lot of young people being here. Great atmosphere overall.
Sylt is a different story. It's my birthplace and where I made my bestest of friends, where I went to school, where I first got my heart broken and so on. It was my home for the first twenty years of my life.
However, as mentioned above, it's a popular holiday destination, which by itself wouldn't be bad. Unfortunately, those people tend to be rather Trumpy. Rich assholes, is what I'm getting at. Also, I don't really have any ties to that place anymore. My friends are studying in different parts of Germany and my family doesn't live there anymore except for my father, to whom I don't have much contact.
Still, I'm happy about every chance I get to go there. Nostalgia is weird.
Sorry for all the boring personal crap, but those are my favourite places and why. :D

As for the food, depends on what you like. Here in the north, the sea food is amazing, of course. Sadly, I'm not the biggest fan of it. For me, Bavaria is the ideal place, food wise. Heartattack-inducing and orgasmic.
I've heard that in Berlin you can get the best Döner. I've been to Berlin, but I can't recall eating Döner there. It has to have some truth to it though, since I've heard it fairly often by now.
That's pretty much all I can tell you. I'm not a Gourmet by any means.
  • 8

The Oatmeal wrote:Live life passionately and love everyone like they are family, because Jesus is always with you. Jesus loves you seriously bigtime. He'd hug you until your eyeballs exploded out of your skull if he ever met you. He'd windsurf across oceans of dead Nazis which he personally slaughtered just to tell you that your new haircut is the bee's knees. [...]
Praise Jesus, especially when it's sunny outside because Jesus would totally be cool with you praising while you get a nice tan.
User avatar
Piter Lauchy
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:33 am
Location: Bier und Wurst
Show rep
Title: Idk, someone give me one

Re: Ask a German

Postby cmsellers » Wed Jan 13, 2016 12:52 am

Piter Lauchy wrote:I'm originally from the northernmost thing in Germany, island Sylt, and have lived my whole life in the north, currently Oldenburg.

So when you say most of your ancestors weren't Germans, were they Danes or Frisians?
  • 8

User avatar
cmsellers
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9316
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:20 pm
Location: Not *that* Bay Area
Show rep
Title: Broken Record Player

Re: Ask a German

Postby Piter Lauchy » Wed Jan 13, 2016 1:01 am

cmsellers wrote:
Piter Lauchy wrote:I'm originally from the northernmost thing in Germany, island Sylt, and have lived my whole life in the north, currently Oldenburg.

So when you say most of your ancestors weren't Germans, were they Danes or Frisians?

Nope. East-Europe. My father's side is probably from Poland (my last name ends in -ski). And my grandmother on my mother's side was a refugee from Sudetenland.
  • 9

The Oatmeal wrote:Live life passionately and love everyone like they are family, because Jesus is always with you. Jesus loves you seriously bigtime. He'd hug you until your eyeballs exploded out of your skull if he ever met you. He'd windsurf across oceans of dead Nazis which he personally slaughtered just to tell you that your new haircut is the bee's knees. [...]
Praise Jesus, especially when it's sunny outside because Jesus would totally be cool with you praising while you get a nice tan.
User avatar
Piter Lauchy
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:33 am
Location: Bier und Wurst
Show rep
Title: Idk, someone give me one

Re: Ask a German

Postby NathanLoiselle » Wed Jan 13, 2016 2:38 am

I had a german chocolate once. She was delicious.
  • 6

User avatar
NathanLoiselle
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 4484
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:49 am
Location: You'll Never Know!
Show rep

Re: Ask a German

Postby JamishT » Wed Jan 13, 2016 7:00 am

So recently I was looking for some sweet new tunes to listen to on Spotify, so I typed in "German Pop" because I have this condition where I could listen to Taylor Swift all day with no negative side effects and I also wanted to hear some German. The most enjoyable poppy sounding artist I could find was Annett Louisan, but I know there's gotta be more than that. I'm looking for more of a dancy-pop sound then most of her stuff, do you have any recommendations?

Also, my first language was a dialect based on Deutsch (called Pennsylvania Dutch), but it's way watered down from High German and I've mostly forgotten it. I guess that's more of a statement than a question...
  • 8

JamishT was a heck of a guy,
With a devilish twinkle in his eye.
With his hand-picked flowers,
And his feel-good powers,
He made all the girls blush and sigh.
User avatar
JamishT
TCS ModerBlobber
TCS ModerBlobber
 
Posts: 5579
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:31 pm
Location: KC, MO, AMERICA
Show rep
Title: The Wannabe Adult

Re: Ask a German

Postby Piter Lauchy » Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:27 pm

JamishT wrote:I'm looking for more of a dancy-pop sound then most of her stuff, do you have any recommendations?

I'm not really a Pop guy, and I barely listen to radio, so my expertise on this is non-existent.
There is also the fact that the majority of German music is heavily focused on lyrics. German just doesn't sound pleasant, so in order to have people listening to your stuff you always have to have a message.
You just don't get Dancy-Pop with lyrics like "Let's party hard all night" or "Dem bitches are fine" here. Music like that that's popular here is almost exclusively from the US or UK.
The most popular German music at the moment is of the Singer-Songwriter genre, which isn't known for its danceability.
Then there's Schlager, to which the English-speaking countries don't have an equivalent, I think. It's music that you have to be either old or drunk for to enjoy it. One of my all-time favourites is the Pur Party Hitmix, which is a medley of some of the most fun Pur songs:

Play this at any German party and the crowd will go wild.
Some other notable examples would be Cowboy & Indianer, Skandal im Sperrbezirk, Verdammt, ich lieb' dich or Wahnsinn.

Two German bands that I personally love are Die Ärzte and Ganz Schön Feist.

Die Ärzte is a Punkrock band that exists since the early 80s and is one of the most popular German bands here. Their most famous song is probably Schrei nach Liebe, an anti-nazi song that features this awesome refrain:
Your violence is just a silent cry for love
Your combat boots long for tenderness
You never learned to articulate yourself
And your parents never had time for you
Wohoho - Asshole!

The song made a big return last year, due to "Aktion Arschloch", an initiative whose initial goal it was to get the song into the music charts in order to set a sign against xenophobia, what with the whole refugee crisis.
It got so big that Die Ärzte themselves, Finetunes, Amazon, Google, Apple and Universal Publishing all gave their profits from that song to Pro Asyl.
Normally, Die Ärzte is a lot more focused on fun, with songs like Ich ess' Blumen, Hurra or 3-Tage-Bart.

Ganz Schön Feist is rather unknown. They make (Acoustic-)Pop with mostly funny lyrics, although they have a few thoughtful or romantic songs. I've heard a non-native speaker say that she didn't know German could sound so nice when she heard this band.
Some of my favourite songs by them are In Momenten wie diesen, Immer wenn der Wind sich dreht, Du willst immer nur ficken and Killama.

Man, I hadn't planned on writing such a long response, but well, here we are.
  • 8

The Oatmeal wrote:Live life passionately and love everyone like they are family, because Jesus is always with you. Jesus loves you seriously bigtime. He'd hug you until your eyeballs exploded out of your skull if he ever met you. He'd windsurf across oceans of dead Nazis which he personally slaughtered just to tell you that your new haircut is the bee's knees. [...]
Praise Jesus, especially when it's sunny outside because Jesus would totally be cool with you praising while you get a nice tan.
User avatar
Piter Lauchy
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:33 am
Location: Bier und Wurst
Show rep
Title: Idk, someone give me one

Re: Ask a German

Postby LaChaise » Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:49 pm

Wooh boy, I hadn't heard die Ärzte in years. My gf is getting kinda desperate at me dancing in my undies. XD
  • 7

"Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV?"

"I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life."
User avatar
LaChaise
TCS Necromancer
TCS Necromancer
 
Posts: 1720
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2013 2:00 pm
Location: France
Show rep
Title: Lust in Translation

Re: Ask a German

Postby cmsellers » Fri Jan 29, 2016 8:18 am

here, Piter Lauchy wrote:Got a 2.3 with 1 being perfect and 5 being a fail. No idea how grades in US universities work, that's why I'm stating this; A-F is only in school, right?

Do German universities grade on a curve? And the curve is centered on a middle grade?

(Most colleges in the US these days courses are designed so that the average grade will be somewhere between B+ and an A, depending on the teacher and the place. At least based on the times a professor has stated their intent for the grade distribution explicitly.)
  • 3

Last edited by cmsellers on Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
cmsellers
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9316
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:20 pm
Location: Not *that* Bay Area
Show rep
Title: Broken Record Player

PreviousNext

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

cron