Kultur 1 Jake Prosyniuk

I thought the brochure was interesting because it brought attention to facts I was unaware of and addressed a silent identity crisis in America. I didn't know that Irish Americans are outnumbered by German Americans; even after growing up in the so-called "German Belt,"I have never felt a large German American presence. I thought it was interesting that many Germans originally moved to the upper midwest because it resembles the parts of Germany they're from. I also thought it was interesting that American businessmen with stakes in Wisconsin thought to print migration pamphlets in German just to bring immigrants in and increase business. I also think it peculiar that many Germans are fascinated by American Indian culture, so much so that there's around 200 "Indian clubs" in Germany. One mark of German influence that I never even realized existed was eating hot dogs and pretzels and drinking beer at the ballpark. I'm glad to hear that German is so widely used in Europe and even in America. I think it's interesting that Germans greet each other differently depending on the situation, but the book is wrong to say that Americans typically only greet each other with "Hello."

AMD 1 Jake Prosyniuk

I enjoyed learning about sport, specifically Fußball, from Sportschau.de und Sport1.de. Fußball ist huge in Deutschland, as it is in most European countries. The Bundesliga is best and most followed fußball liga in Deutschland, but there are auch several lower-level domestic leagues (2. Bundesliga und 3. Liga). Beyond those loyal to the local teams, many Deutscher are only interested in the Nationalmannschaft und UEFA EURO liga, wo viel Deutsch spieler compete for global and European titles. There is also the Champions League, where German club teams compete with each other to face off against international opponents. Bayern München, a sehr popular und talented Bundesliga club lost to the English Premier League's Chelsea in the Champions League finals of 2012. Many of Bayern Münchens spieler, including Franck Ribery (Europas Fußballer des Jahres 2013), will go on to represent Deutschland on the Nationalmannschaft in the 2014 Weltmeisterschaft. Deutschland recently won a series in Qualifikation zur Weltmeisterschaft against Färöer According to the Sport1.de Tabellenrechner, the best club in Bundesliga is currently Dortmund, with zwölf punkte; FC Bayern is in second with zehn punkte. Navigating the websites was somewhat difficult, but they follow much of the same format as American websites like ESPN.com or Yahoo.com, so I was able to poke around and learn more about the various levels of play.