Reflections on life in Germany, from an Auslander's perspective

My list of little observations about living in Germany:

1. Instead of clapping after a research presentation, Germans knock on the table. Apparently there might be a linguistic link as this might also be common in Austria and Switzerland.

2. Bring a birthday cake on your birthday and

3. Throw your own retirement party. In the US it is more likely that this will be organized for you and actually paid for by your employers.

4. Wurst-Salad (yum! er, yuck!). (Wurst is sausage, though it applies more widely than the term is used in English.) OK, so we have tuna salad and chicken salad...but it seems a line should be drawn somewhere for what is referred to as "salad." What looks like chopped up bologna is where I draw the line in calling something a "salad".

5. Smoking like crazy everywhere, particularly under "no smoking" signs in the University.

6. Kid-accessible cigarette vending machines on the sidewalks.

7. Three years of Kindergarten. Why doesn't the US steal this great idea? We already copied their research universities, might as well go for real Kindergartens, too.

8. Accessories required for Kindergarten: "gummis" (rain boots), rain pants, toothbrushes, etc. Kids really learn to be self-sufficient and prepared, and to have good oral hygiene.

9. Bathroom sinks in hallways--they look out of place, but are very convenient to have near the office.

10. Bags in grocery stores are not free. This would seem like a seismic shift in the US, but it needs to happen.

11. Weird cheapo grocery stores. I have to admit stores like Aldi and Lidl scared me at first: poor lighting, often no shelves, strange generic brands... But now I have found the good deals that pop up there periodically (Mexican week! American week! Italian week!), and I am a bit fond of them. I do miss nice grocery stores sometimes, but a short trip to Belgium takes care of that.

12. Bubbly water as default (which I like, too).

13. Cold cut sandwiches good for all 3 meals a day. Strange that Subway can be open for breakfast without changing its menu--it sells the same thing as bakeries, so why not?

14. Apartments are rented without a 1) Kitchen 2) lights 3) floors 4) sinks 5) mirrors.--plus you paint when you leave and pay for all non-rent costs additionally (eg, building maintenance). I don't really understand how this system evolved to really punish renters who have to invest a great deal in a temporary place!

15. No credit cards anywhere--well many places, but not at places you would expect like Ikea or an electronics store where the items for sale cost quite a bit. Funny with the MC support of the world cup "if you bring your Visa, American Ex, well or even your MC, you can't use it"! It does probably reduce the incidence of consumer debt, which is out of control in the US.

16. They write phone numbers with a different grouping mechanism here. Usually it is something like this: 73.56.67.4. Even stranger for an American here, local numbers are not required to have 7 digits, so if a phone number doesn't work you don't know if it is because you are missing a number or not, as there might only be 6 digits.

17. The verb is at the end of the sentence--do Germans have superior semantic working memory than English-speakers to hold all of the info in mind until the crucial verb is spoken at the end?

18. Germans keep both hands visible at the table when eating, it is rude to have one hand under the table (what are you doing with it???).

19. No over-the-counter drugs; cough syrup for kids is seen as child abuse by the pharmacist (though the doctor will prescribe it, no problem).

This will have to be continued in a future post, of course...

Technorati Tags: America, culture, expat, Germany

German vs. American Higher Education

The Uni here is going through a transformation. Traditionally German universities awarded the Diplom degree as the terminal undergraduate degree (or, in British terms, graduate--graduate students in the US would be called postgraduates in the UK). That is all changing. There will now be a BS and MS available, replacing the Vordiplom (pre-Diplom) and Diplom, respectively. The idea is to have the German system match that being used throughout Europe, and in the US, which would increase the mobility of university students here. Many outside of Germany do not know what a Diplom is, with the best translation being a Masters because of the thesis work required.

This change to, what I know as, the US system is fascinating. First of all, one hundred years ago, German universities were the top in the world and German was the lingua franca of science. Santiago Ramon-y-Cajal, in his Advice for a Young Investigator wrote that one must learn German to have an impact on science--publishing only in Spanish-language journals would have no impact internationally.

Second, the German educational system educated the first generation of American experimental psychologists, with Wilhelm Wundt as the founder of it all. My intellectual ancestors go back to the great German physiologists who most influenced modern cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

(Me and the big girl in front of a statue of Johannes Mueller in Koblenz)

Third, some great American universities, such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago, were modeled after the German system. The Diplom is founded on the idea that learning best takes place by doing. That is, one must engage in research to truly become educated about one's field. Johns Hopkins originally granted only graduate degrees because that seemed to be the American equivalent of what the German universities were doing, in contrast to the liberal arts degrees one studied for at Harvard and other such schools at the time. (Interestingly, Hopkins still does not require a Bachelors in order to be accepted into a PhD program.)

Fourth, the standard pedagogical technique in the classroom at places like Johns Hopkins was inspired by the German-style seminars. Again, it is the case of learning-by-doing. Instead of only having lecturers pour information into the brains of the students, through the ears, the seminar was created to have students learn by studying the topics with professorial guidance, and then presenting the overview to their classmates for discussion.

Now my colleagues here are asking me how multiple-choice exams are administered and graded, as the standard oral examinations will be unreasonable in the face of larger course enrollments and lecture-style courses!

Clearly there is something to be said for mobility, particularly in the European Union. However it is strange to see such an important tradition in higher education disappear, particularly one that has been widely emulated and transformed American universities into the research-focused institutions they are today.

Technorati Tags: America, Bachelors, Diplom, European Union, Germany, higher education, Johns Hopkins University, Masters, Santiago Ramon-y-Cajal, science, seminar, University of Chicago, Wilhelm Wundt