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.

Language in Ohio and Illinois

First week in the US takes me back in to the language. I need some days for "to acclimate" in the English language. I learned some differences between British and American English. The Americans were very amused about our British vocabulary like lorry or trouser. Very hard to understand was the Jersey slang in the musical Jerseyboys. The combination of singing and slang wasn't really understandable. But the music and the stage setting was grateful and combination of seeing and hearing allowed to follow the story. Also on of the singers in the Bluesbar "Blue Chicago" I couldn't follow. The black guy spokes slang too, but that was ok but the white guy spokes something that I couldn't identify as English. I think that I have learned a lot of new vocabulary and that I have negotiate the barrier of speaking English. I hope to improve my English in the following weeks more.

The Culture of Food

Pimpkins - the farmers market
Pimpkins is a small farmers market. Mostly they sell all kinds of fruits and vegetables, but you can buy more things like milk, bread, eggs, juice or honey. It's not called farmers market without sense. The pricing level is surprisingly low, often on the same level like Krogers or lower. The inventory is very rustic and useful, so you believe that it's fresh and healthy. By the cars that parks in front and the few people who shopped I would say the customers are mostly out of the middle and higher classes. The most are very health-conscious.



Kroger - the supermarket with different faces

The Krogers in Clifton is used by a lot of lower class people. It isn't very clean inside and you get the impression that there buy allot of Afro American people their food. But the Krogers near the malt is very nice. The products are presented in noble wooden racks and every thing looks very exclusive. The also have a section with health-conscious food.


Jungle Jim - shopping around the world

Jungle Jim is an international market. For almost every country or region they have a one section with specialty's and typical food. The store is really huge, I would estimate that is like three soccer fields. The range is compelling, for example there are hundreds of different kinds hot sauces. There is a lot of entertainment in the shop like firefighter cars, cabs or a huge Robbin Hood puppet show. They have allot exotic fruits and vegetables, so they have also health-conscious food. In Jungle Jim there bought people from many different countries their food, because you can buy things you won't find in other shops.

The Cultural Functions of History and Memory

The part of the exhibition that most impressed me was the transportation system and the standard, which they create for example for ships. In a corner of the exhibition you can find a drawing, I think it's created by the British parlement, which standarised the transportation from slavery by ship. The chose how many of them could be transported and how you have to place them. They do this because with every dead slave they lost a lot of money. Today we called this supply chain optimization, with the small difference that we do this for engine blocks and not human beings. I think that is the point which is very similar to the concentration camps in in WWII. The well organized logistics to afflict and kill people, but there are more parallels. On the one hand the fact that one group of people thought that they are superior to others, and on the others there are groups which support the victims in the underground.

If I compare the Freedom Center with German memorials and museums I have to say that the german ones has touched me more. There were much more emotions and a closer connection to the victims. It is possible that this impression is based on my nationality and the closeness to our history. I think the Freedom Center is designed very informative, it's a museum, and it's hard to compare withe German memorials.

Information is very impotent for prevent this in future ...

Cultural values in children's texts

The library we have visited isn't very different to german librarys. Spontaneously I imagine only one differenc, you don't need a key for the restroom. Likewise is also the way of sectioning the books by content and the seperation between child, teen and adult stuff. Also the playing and the reading areas for promote children's reading are very similar.



My first book I've choosen is titeld "OLD BEAR". It tells the story abut a bear which fell asleep when the winter comes. While he is sleeping in his dan, he dreams from his childhood. He dreams that it is spring and that he is a cab. Ther are big wonderful colerd flowers and he take a nap in a gigant crocus. In the developing he walks throu the sesions. In the summer it rainds bluberries, in autumn everything turnd into yello, orange and brown and in winter he is sitting in the snow and look up to the stars. After his long period of sleeping and dreaming he finally waeke up.

He left his dan into a beautful spring day and need some minutes to realize that he isen't dreaming anymore. The book was very easy to read, so I think it is for childs up to four years. The hole story is illustreted with colerful picturs, that makes it possible to understand the story without reading. The style of this book is like childbooks all over the world. A short story with nice picturs and a little bit text. But althougt the childs can learn lot of things, like the sesions, that animals take a winter sleep or that a cup grothe and became an old big bear.



My second choice is complytly different. It is a specialiced book for older childs. It explained how thigs get made. So the titel says everything: "See How It's Made - Clothes, Toyes, Shoes, Food, Drinks, Skateboards". Every produkt is explained on two double pages. On the first they tells something about historical background and the components. On the second there are the produktion stemp explained. Each step is explained withe a short sentence and a picture. The book is very informative. And it can answer a lot of the "Mam, who does it work?" questions.



The german Bratwurst has supriesed me, because it seemd more like if it is one year old. Also the illustraions in the Old Bear are supriesing me. I thought they are more then 20 years old, but they are only two.

1st Week, Monday 17 August

The most buildings are designed very practically. They are build in squared forms and outfitted with a low standard. But there are some new buildings which have brilliant design. Like the recreation center on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. There are also some constructions which should seem old, but I think it seemed more like movie scenery. I haven't seen much from the landscape jet. What I have seen are the parks on the campus and in the city. On the campus every thing is designed very well. They builded greened hills followed by flat parts. This is all crossed by allot of ways. You can find allot of sculptures on the campus. At night the most of them are lightend in an spectacular way, for example same are changing the color.

Mmost things are not so different to my expectaitions, because I know it from my last stay in the USA. But I was surprised by the size of the University of Cincinnati. The Franklyn & Marshall College in Lancaster which I visited last time was much smaller and more similar to Ilmenau. And although I know big Universities from Berlin, Cincinnati is impressive. In Berlin the faculties are shared over the whole town, so you can only find single big buildings and not such "University cities".

I have to do this

This is my first blog. Normaly I'm not interisted in spaming the Internet, but if this helps to improve my language skills I will although do it.