Friday 10 December 2010

Ten things I love about Germany

I had the great privilege to get to know a very sincere and dynamic German woman by the name of Christine Hartmann. A golden opportunity arose, where as a South African I could write about what I love about Germany. This article is featured on her website, which she created as a networking platform to promote women entrepreneurs and professionals. I invite you to Frauenmesse.com to read my article. If you would like to leave a comment about the article, you are very welcome to do so here (below).

5 comments:

  1. I think it is very exceptional that you could name ten things to love about Germany. I personally would have a lot more difficulty writing such positive stuff without starting a rant about stolen bicycles and the 1974 World Cup. Well, Der Untergang is one of my favourite movies. So I guess that's one thing.

    But besides that, great writing cousin! You write articulate and structured. I guess the Germans already have an effect on you ha-ha. One small thing though. You wrote: "Even their national soccer team works..." In Europe, we say football - not soccer. Soccer is what the Americans call it and that is the reason why they are very bad at it.

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  2. Well, soccer is what South Africans call it too. Oh, I get the point...

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  3. I can't seem to get the link to the article to work. But like Thomas' comment about the Americans and 'soccer'; given that they will never really be any good at it until they recognise you can't call a sport a 'World Series' unless it really is (I refer of course to their baseball competition)!

    So, I'd like to read the article please...

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  4. Thank you, John. Christine Hartmann revamped her blog. I have fixed the link now, so I cordially invite you to read my article. Hope you enjoy it.

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  5. It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant I am! In my commercial life I travelled all over Europe and some but not all of the rest of the world; Germany was not my favourite, probably because I didn't spend enough time there; unlike Scandinavia, Italy, France and others, which I did visit (each) as many as two of three or more times a year. Your artful article has truly whetted my appetite, literally & figuratively, and apart from making me feel like visiting again, has revealed things about the country that I don't think I knew. On the one hand, I think that's immensely ignorant of me, on the other and with a realistic view on my own capacity to store stuff in my limited brain, it is perhaps not surprising. I noted, on a trip to China in 1994, that even the educated 'affluent' business class of the population, had not heard of 'Soap Operas'; I thought at the time that this was amazing, if not surprising. My knowledge of popular German Television (Tatort) is zero! Not that this is shocking, but popular media do become a part of popular culture in any country these days.

    The systems of childcare and schooling interest me greatly, on which I could espouse some views (from the UK perspective), but every other little nuance about the things that Germany what it is today, notably the organisation, the food and the untainted and naturally produced German beer, the cars (I grudgingly concede) and the autobahn, which I once travelled myself; a scary place at first and one that is an education, for us 70mph (yeah right!) restricted Brits, in speed perception; the ability a driver needs to develop in perceiving relative speed on motorways, so as to enable a high degree of safety in the process of changing lanes!

    The opener in the second of the ten things: "people die occasionally", somehow transcends everything else; transports you to another world. Germany is Utopia, where every aspect of life is organised to the very last detail. I simply lovely this.

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