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... one the career. The family, or does the student, or maybe the government! Well the student does initially she told me because they decided on how well they do in school, but if they do not do well they are limited to in advancement, but ultimately the government decides based on test scores, and who gets what kind of schooling. Following this we talked about the working age for children, now as we know here you can start working at like fourteen. However she said in Germany you do not see many young people in the stores or business working unless it is family owned, this could have a lot to do with the fact that they do not get their licenses until eighteen years old and the family would rather them worry about school work.
I was interested in knowing if teens do many of the same things that we do here and if Germany has some of the same problems that we have here for example drugs, pregnancy. Sylvia said yes they do have night clubs but they are called discotecks and they are usually opened until three a. m. As far as for teen pregnancy, she said that this is more of an uncommon thing but she does not thing that a teen daughter would be sent off in the middle of the night for it, socially she said that they are still in the nineteen forty's and that violence would still shock them, but gangs are slowly developing but they are not dealing with large scale war in schools like we are. She said that the children in Germany tend to live up to their parents expectations more so there then in the United States, she explained that a teen pregnancy would prevent that child from getting an education at a better school.
No one really wants to go to a trade school so teens usually prevent things like this from happening to follow their goals. I proceeded to ask her about some of the leisure activities that teen or adults like to enjoy because this is what I found my journal article on. The journal article looked at the difference in what activities men and women like in the German culture. The report found that three of the five most liked and disliked activities were the same for both men and women (Athanasou and Kirkcaldy, 1995). Athanasou and Kirkcaldy also said that women rated dancing and guitar amongst their favorite choices where as men included table tennis and endurance running, but both sexes showed strong dislikes to aggressive sports such as wrestling and boxing.
Over all the report showed that there are distinctions between sexes in preference for specific leisure activities (Athanasou and Kirkcaldy, 1995). She said that she would have to believe this as being true just like it probably would be in America that women do tend to take to the less violence sports such as dancing or swimming. So after talking about the young we decided to talk about the old. She told me that usually when parents get old the children tend to look after them, but most of the old people are very independent, if there is no family usually churches try to help them out or even the government. I asked her if old people were expected to be listened to and if they were to be well respected? She said yes very much so children are taught at a young age respect and the elderly, I figured that just by all the formal and informal ways to address certain people they are looked up to, and are acknowledged for being wise and knowledgeable.
The article that I found in Time magazine was about murders that actually took place here in United States and the bodies that had been recovered. The case was called The Spokane Murders where a man went around and was murdering prostitutes. The tie that this all has to Germany was that they were also investigating the murders of twenty-six prostitutes near the U. S. Army base in Germany. I asked Sylvia if she remembers hearing anything about this and she could not recall of hearing about anything, but then again she try not to watch the news too much.
From murder to religion I asked Sylvia how important religion was and if was basically the same as here. She said yes, that for the most part they are mostly Protestant and Catholic and that there is also a strong influence of Lutheran as well because Martin Luther King was from Germany, Mormons and Witnesses are there as well. She said that most people dont really belong to a church until they need something like a baptism or wedding, because the tithes for a church are removed right from a worshipers pay and with taxes so high to begin with Germans tend to try to avoid church tax. I asked how are the religious holidays usually celebrated and she said that they have parades or walks and that the Germans usually have the day off, just like here in America. The last religious question I asked her was if people can marry outside of their own religion and she said yes that for the most part that is not a big deal but some religions do not like it. To end the interview I started asking Sylvia just how much she liked living in Germany and what she would change about it.
She said that she likes living there very much; the small communities are so great. She told me that some Germans would drive p to two hours just to get to work so that they do not have to live in the town. Most Germans are very tidy and community oriented, they do have problems like our but just not as extreme. She said that she is very comfortable living there and that it is great to just be able to let the kids go outside and play and not have to worry about the dangers like we do in America, she feels very safe. Since she has lived in America for a while and she still has two brothers and a father here I asked her if she could change one thing about American culture to make it more like German what would it be? She changes the way families are raised.
She thinks that we need to teach the children here a little more respect, and then maybe that would take care of some of the other problems that we have here today like the violence in the schools. So I asked her if she could change one thing about German culture what would it be, and she laughed when she told me this but she said she wished they would where deodorant, so that way we would not have to send her Secret anymore no but seriously she would like for people to be a little friendlier she said a lot of people tend to be formal and that makes them seem to be cold although that may not be the case, but they are just raised to be very reserved. She told me that she does have a few friends of a different culture but not that many most of them are German. When asking her if she was surprised by the different cultural behavior she said that everything in life holds surprises, and that is what makes life interesting. All in all I think that this was a great project to do I feel like I really learned a lot.
The questions were ones that I would not talk about in a normal conversation with her and it was interesting to know the answers. I dont get to do a lot of traveling so learning about somewhere else besides New Jersey is always interesting to me. I thought that it was neat that some of the examples that you used in class applied to this culture, and it was great to hear that coming from someone who lives there. I have learned that there is a lot more out there then just what I know from living here and if I could some day I would love to travel there. Doing this project made me want to interview others from different cultures and find out how they are all different from each other. I think that now when I do come across some of another culture I will ask them some of the questions I asked Sylvia so that I can have a better understanding of the world around me.
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Free research essays on topics related to: german culture, teen pregnancy, men and women, leisure activities, journal article
Research essay sample on Men And Women German Culture
