Emily spoke of the stereotypes of Germans and Americans in regards to food in her blog post. Another stereotype that we both share is our consumption of alcohol, most notably, Beer. The article "Drinking in Germany" makes Germany out to be very open about public drinking, which I suppose fits the stereotype of Germans indulging in their hops. The article does claim later that laws were passed to outlaw public drinking in 1999, but public drinking is so strongly engrained into the culture that it remains acceptable. I think that says something about how seriously Germas take their drinking. It's certainly a different story here, especially on a college campus. I have wandered the streets of the student ghettos and the South University bars past Midnight and there's no shortage of uniformed officials handing out tickets and handcuffs. There are certainly groups of teenagers swilling beer from bottles and solo cups, but they generally don't make it too far without finding themselves in the glow of some blue and red lights.
Another difference in our beer culture is the varieties of beer and frequency of consumption as discussed in the article "An Obsession Explained." I always knew the Germans were very serious about their beer, but I guess I didn't think it was to this degree. I just feel like if a drink needs to be mixed in order to make it palatable enough to drink with breakfast, it probably shouldn't be had with breakfast. Maybe that's just me. I do agree, however, with the dislike of American beers and I'd be anxious to try some hardier German beers.
Whenever I talk with my German friends about the relationship to alcohol and the attitude to drinking in the US and in Germany, they always are very proud of their much lower drinking age. The common saying goes always "It is crazy that US allows their kids first to learn how to drive a car, and only much later - how to use alcohol "correctly"". In the common opinion, you first have to learn about the alcohol before you are allowed to operate any kind of machinery that might endanger human life. In my experience, German teens do enough of experimenting with alcohol as well, just it happens much earlier than here in the US, and is generally accepted by the parents, thus creating less "coolness" around the idea of just getting drunk as a college student.
AntwortenLöschenMy husband, who went to an exchange year in Germany when he was in highschool (at 16) was proudly sending home pictures in which he was tapping beer at the party thrown for him by his hostfamily.
Paradoxically, next to driving fast on the Autobahn, the beer/alcohol drinking freedom is the other 'sin', the usually law and order loving Germans would never allow to be touched by harder restrictions. However, the problem of teenagers getting drunk-unconscious (especially with so called alco-pops) is widely discussed in the media for years, and I think they planned some new laws especially for that, but I don't know how efficient they are.
AntwortenLöschenAlso, I wouldn't say at all that beer is generally worse in America -- quite the contrary: I've never seen such a variety of locally brewed good beers as here in Michigan!