Reflection on my experiences in this program

My perception of American culture and American English hasn't really changed in the last three weeks. Because of my former visit I already knew a lot about the culture and so nearly nothing changed for me.

What I have learned.

I learned a lot about language use in daily life, some differences between British and American English, and many about American culture. The difference between learning at home and in America is that you practice much more if you have to speak English most of the time. I have learned some about the culture and it will help me by by working or communicating with Americans, but I don't think that this new knowledge justifies the participation at this program.

The Culture of Music in Amerika

I don't know anything about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before, but I expected it like it is. More a memorial for the stars of Rock and Roll, than a museum. Of course it is informative too, but most of the exhibition are relics which a real fan have to see. It was a little bit difficult to understand the exhibition if you are not informed about this kind of music or the bands, also that the exhibition wasn't structured by time is irritating. I think, I'm the wrong consignee for this kind of museum, but if you are a great fan you will have a lot of fun withe the music, the video clips ,and all this personal items of your heros.

The museum is showing only a small part of American music culture, I think, but they showed how different kinds of music gets mixed and developed to a new culture, the Rock and Roll. You could see which artists had a influence and from which styles of music they came.

The artistes are often portrayed as heroes, because the fans should identify their self with their idols. This identification is very imported for being commercial successful. Bad the other side, the bad one, of a artists is very imported for promotion too, because only bad news are good news and a star above nobody speak is only a normal artist and not a star.

Religion in America

Crossword and the Mask have a great deal in common in the cultural sector, but they are celebrating their religion completely different. Crossword has a loud, entertaining show with great media use, whereas the mask celebrate their religion very meditative and traditional. Crosswords seems like a modern modern entertainment center, a combination of cinnema, concerthall and cultural center. Their is a kids club, info points and coffee stations. The mask has also class rooms, a gym and halls for different celebations, but everything is more traditional. In the community thing they vary in the point of their outside behavior. Crossword has a professional marketing, the Mask is more cautious. I think the kind of celebrating their religion is the most importend Point for the people to attend. The people which goes to Crossword wants' to get entertained and the believers of the Mask likes the meditative character and the guided rules for their live. This is also what the Mask demand from their members, to abide by the rules. Unlike the Mask, Crossword calls on their members to being committed to others, insight as well as outside their community. I think the Mask neither divide nor unite the larger Cincinnati community, because they work reclusive and become rarely perceived by the larger Cincinnati community. Crossword is more present in the general public because of their activities in the neighborhoods and their advertising, but I can understand the people which are afraid by their behavior.

Medical Care in America

After one hour work on this post my browser crashed and destroyed all my work. I will write it again but at this moment I have had enough.

health insurance coverage
disease
Cytogenetics / FISH Laboratory at Children's Hospital
chromosome analyses and gene mapping

Cultural Perspectives of the Wall

I haven’t learned anything new. I don’t understand the exhibit from the Paderborn Students. It was too abstract and I often couldn’t find a connection to the Berlin Wall. I know a lot of marks of the Berlin Wall, but all they showed was a tourist perspective. Mostly the descriptions couldn’t help me too.

How Children Play and Learn

The Children’s Museum in Cincinnati is a big playing area. In some sections you can find the curators intention, to teach something. The realization is very disadvantageous. In the Water Park section are a lot of physical things you can learn, like forces, torques, compression, speed, buoyancy, or lever principle but I think that the children’s need the possibility to see and compare things for understanding. For example the boats cold be out of different materials. They will learn that wood swims and metal doesn’t. Or the water bucket, if there is one with a single rope and other with a tackle the kids will learn that one is easier to lift. There are also a lot of pipes, connecter and ventiels for constructing pipe systems. The problem is that all this stuff is laing in the water, there are only tree fix sources and so the kids don't what’s to do with this stuff. Another problem is the height and width of the pool, we had problems to get the stuff in the middle. In the ball section it was similar, there are a lot of wheels and lever, but I don't think that the kids realized what happen if they apply one of them. There is a big box over their heads which can be filled with balls in different ways. By random time the box opened and it rains balls, the kids liked this most, but how should the kids understand how it works if there are no conditions. One boy puts balls he collected in the box by an evaluator, but after two or three balls the box opened and he doesn't know if he should run to the ball shower or to finish his lifting work. If I compare it to the Berlin children museum I have to say that his is more instructional.