Volunteers with the YMCA like me get to enjoy 4 seminars every year (with the same group of about 25 other volunteers), totalling 25 days. I may have mentioned a seminar in October – I’ve since had another in January (both 5 days) and just recently our 10-day seminar took place in Berlin, with a relatively large amount of things to say about it, and Berlin. (More will follow this post I expect!)
Our group of 25 volunteers (from all over Germany) was joined by two others, one from a region in western Germany, the other made up mostly of volunteers in Berlin.
We all take the train to get to our seminars, usually 4/5 hours for me, so it was nice to only have to travel just over an hour to get to the one in Berlin. We stayed in a hotel-like youth hostel belonging to the Berlin City Mission, who give a warm evening meal, clothes, hygiene products, medical care, and a mattress for the night to those that need. (I assume they are partly funded by the hotel.) At one point during the seminar, we visited the basement where these guests come and food is served, and the rooms in part of the hotel/hostel where they can sleep.
After arriving on Monday 7th March, we played a few games to get to know each other. The following day, we were taken on tours of Berlin in groups by the leaders of the seminar. On the Wednesday, we visited an old section of the Berlin wall, which divided the city during the last decades of the GDR (German Democratic Republic/East Germany), and a museum about the Berlin Wall. We also attended a devotion at the ‚Versöhnungskapelle‘ – reconciliation chapel – which included remembering one of the victims of the socialist regime who died on the 9th March years ago, Herbert Mende.
There was a morning devotion at 8:00 every morning, a Bible study time after breakfast, and a devotion again at the end of the day. Mainly the participants did the devotions, which always included some singing.
We had the rest of the day on Wednesday free to do what we want – I lingered about the museum a bit longer, looking at a few things I’d missed, and then headed back to the ho(s)tel where I think I wrote a postcard home, and relaxed. Some people were out ‚on the town‘ til 2am every morning, but I preferred to rest and relax quite a lot, and save my strength for being back in Frankfurt (Oder).
On Thursday 10th, I was part of a group that visited a Stasi (the secret police of the GDR) museum, on the site of the old Stasi headquarters in Berlin – another group visited an old Stasi prison. The main focuses of the museum visit were Erich Mielke, head of the Stasi for decades, Stasi gadgets used for collecting information (cameras, microphones, hidden in everyday objects, such as satchels and watering cans) and the end of the Stasi, including the HQ being stormed. There was also a talk about education in the GDR, showing how children were taught to think that the evil ‚West‘ wanted to invade peace-loving East Germany, which was quite shocking. But I also found it quite surprising how/how much the Germans (including those who had lived through the GDR) laughed about the story books children had to read, for instance, as part of a state which aimed to ‚know everything‘ about its citizens and keep them doing exactly what the state wanted. I wondered whether they laugh as a way of distracting themselves from the reality of it all, or something like that...?
On Friday 11th, we visited the (most visited government building in the world,) the Reichstag, near the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg gate), for which we needed to be security checked before going. We heard a very good talk about the proceedings of the German parliament/government, and then went onto the roof, where there were very good views of most of Berlin’s attractions and sights.
On Saturday 12th, we played a virtual game (but in the real world) to help us to better understand how politics works, or the difficulties there can be. The game took place in a pretend town with a high proportion of immigrants, with a proposal of introducing books in the language of the immigrants to the library in vast quantity. We chose roles as members of the political parties (following their policies as closely as possible), or as members of certain commitees that were for or against the proposal, and common citizens. I felt I could’ve made more of an effort to try and convince people during the game, but didn’t (and I also found the language of persuasion in German a bit difficult at times, I haven’t argued something in German in a long time!). At the end, there was a meeting of all citizens in the town hall, with speeches and counterarguments, and a vote at the end, which was slightly more in favour of the books, but there were lots of varying proposals from different groups with their particular interests.
Many people found it quite hard coming back out of the role they had been in during the game, and being their ‚normal self‘ again, which made us think what everyday life must be like for people that really work in politics. We also found a particular person with a particular character can have a lot of influence on how the game develops.
On Sunday 13th, we had the day free, with instructions to visit one of many possible church services in Berlin. Along with quite a few others, I went to a church service in a cinema (the seats couldn’t have been better), which was quite normal, apart from pieces of piano music being played at the start and end of the service, and part-way through, which I certainly wasn’t used to, but it didn’t especially bother me.
On Monday 14th, we prepared for talks with politicians or their staff, which took place that evening and the whole of Tuesday. They were really quite interactive, with lots of opportunities for individuals to ask questions and discuss things. And they were all very good, I found. The six I attended were: Data protection/saving for security reasons, Child poverty in Germany, and then on the Tuesday Islamism in Germany, Criminal Law for young offenders, Christians and(/in) politics, and finally Germany’s involvement in Afghanistan. I very much enjoyed translating for a girl from Swaziland who struggles with such fast German – though I’ve noticed my English is not as good as my German in these cases, some words I have to think about a lot to retrieve.
For part of the day on Tuesday (15th), we prepared ‚acts‘ which we then presented in the evening, as a kind of evaluation of the seminar – our group looked at the accomodation and food, and did a sort of circus-like act with several parts; mine was juggling, but it went quite wrong as it was quite dark on the stage, and I couldn’t see the balls properly. There were lots of other (more) entertaining acts, such as a musical, as an overview of the whole seminar, songs, drama, a picture story, video in the form of an interview with the leaders, which twisted their words, also a do-it-yourself game where everyone together illustrated trying to escape from inside a wall (a human chain), which was fun, reviewing what we’d learnt about the GDR.
Needless to say, despite some problems, food and accomodation were excellent, with yoghurt and fruit cocktail on offer alongside the usual bread, jam, cheese and sandwich meat, and for lunch and dinner many foodstuffs to mix and match from, and lots of salad on the side.
On Wednesday 16th, the tenth day, there was a service followed by lunch, and then it was off back to Frankfurt (Oder), and a restful afternoon before continuing with work the following day.
Berlin, Socialism, GDR, Stasi, Reichstag, German culture, Language,
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
73 things I’ve learnt since I’ve been here...
It’s l o n g (and not just stuff I’ve learnt, in hindsight), so I’d advise finding sub-headings that interest you. These are, in this order:
What I’m like
Live-ability
Interests, Free time
The cold here
German language (and keyboards)
Culture (clash)
Money
Driving and other Germany bits and bobs
Just for fun
Other very important stuff
It has to be said, I’ve changed somewhat.
What I’m like
1. My family is SOOOO important to me.
2. I have had, am having, and will have a good life.
3. After spending years trying to keep in ‚touch‘ with half the world (whatever that’s worth...?), I’m pretty much all about quality not quantity in my relationships. I can’t and therefore won’t try keeping in touch with everyone, nor expect the same 'in return'. No pressure.
4. I’m keen on honesty in relationships, including about how important a relationship is.
5. If you don’t have time for me, you can just tell me so, I probably won’t be offended.
6. (In my opinion) talking face2face is kilometres better than communicating through pixels (phoning/skype being a convenient middle ground). Seeing smiles, and not smilies, is good for communication!
7. I’d much rather be asked, in future, what presents I would like, if someone wants to give me a present. It being a surprise is not as important to me, I don’t think, as enjoying receiving something very useful or longed-after.
8. I don’t think much of presents at Christmas: What’s a present if you feel you had to give it? (A present, I hear you say...indeed...but I think it would be more appreciated if there weren’t an expectation/pressure to give one in the first place.)
9. I have high standards, but am not a perfectionist – or if I was, that ship is sailing.
10. I like doing things all in one go, particularly big things, and dislike interrupting something before the end.
11. If there’s something more that could be said, I tend to want to say it.
12. I’m not exactly talented at interrupting and/or saying goodbye to people. This is perhaps not that appropriate for the German culture, where interruption seems to me to be more acceptable and widespread.
13. Self-deprecation no longer floats or sinks my boat.
14. I’m a happy kind of guy, optimistic.
15. I now laugh out loud sometimes, particularly at that thing with William and the milk...
16. I don’t think I’d be unhappy working as a cleaner, or postman, or whatever – a job where I have my mind free to think stuff over, pray, do what I like.
17. I don’t understand why Christian songs have minor chords.
18. I like singing songs I spontaneously put my own words to.
19. I don’t dislike simple food.
20. I prefer savoury to sweet food, and don’t really like eating sweet things that much (perhaps a result of eating too many sweets as a child).
21. If I don’t plan to be on the early side of ‚on time,‘ I will be late.
22. That being said, German punctuality is catching.
23. Given my time management (bad) habits (much more than just punctuality), it could’ve been a disaster if I’d gone straight to University after Sixth Form.
24. I have been much too busy in life, and need to learn to rest properly
Live-ability
25. One day my life will be OVER (I’ve not learnt this particularly, but realised a bit more).
26. A lot can happen in a day, but a year is not a long time (in my opinion). Perhaps in ten years I’ll say a decade is not a long time either.
27. Doing your best is not doing the most (especially at the cost of the best and most important). I can’t do everything.
28. One can organise things on a to do list into four boxes: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, neither nor. I found it helps.
29. The tactic of doing less important and/or urgent things first, as I know I’ll have to do the important and urgent things afterwards anyway, is not so great.
30. Don’t just say you’ll do something, do it; don’t do something you said you wouldn’t; think before you say you will or won’t. I’m not great with integrity.
31. Saying no is ok, a lot of the time.
32. Sometimes, you’ve just got to let it go. But sometimes, you’ve just got to stick with it, and be grateful, enjoy it, and feel fulfilled.
33. Self-discipline (this one’s out of a book, had to be) is doing what I can do today, in order to achieve tomorrow, what I couldn’t today.
34. I’m responsible for everything I do; it’s my choice, which advice I follow, and which I ignore.
35. Fear of making mistakes can be a big mistake. AND we’re human!
36. A nap, or even just lying down for 25 minutes after lunch, can do you a lot of good when youfeel tired.
Interests, Free time...
37. I love singing, especially with Tensing! (see post about my weekly routine for more about Tensing)
38. Aged 19 my voice seems to have ‚unbroken‘ – I can hit much higher notes than a year ago, though that may be something to do with having bad singing technique. I enjoy it anyhow...
39. I love playing football, and feel stupid for pretty much stopping in year 7 at Bishop Luffa.
40. I enjoy playing volleyball; thankfully, so do the Germans (more so than the British).
41. I love running, especially not in a straight line, and all the more especially through woods, well good fun.
42. I’m not so passionate about photography/taking photos as I thought (small number of photos on this blog bear witness to the fact).
43. TV can eat up your time like you’re in slow motion (and, er...often you are, or in no motion). I’m glad I was raised without broadcast TV programs at home (I’m having to learn to be disciplined aged 19).
The cold here
44. Heating stays on most of the day here (in the CVJM youth house anyway).
45. When you get ‚used to‘ (or as used to as one can) -20°C for a while, anything around or above 0°C feels warm (perhaps a bit potentially dangerous...)
46. In –20°C, girls‘ hair starts to freeze and go white. Crazy.
German language (and keyboards)
47. <German keyboards have the ° sign on them (perhaps as temperature can be more critical to them). They are qwertz keyboards, with ü, ö and ä, and, to my confusion at times, no pound sign. As the apostrophe is a lot less common in German, you have to use shift to type it, otherwise you can#t make yourself understood.
48. German Inverted commas work „like this,“ if you hadn’t already guessed.
49. In the German language, one says „four-and-twenty“, not „twenty-four“. Although I never experienced this at school, I still have problems with this now I’m in Germany, and have to watch out I don’t misorder numbers and understand 24 as 42.
50. My handwriting has got worse – my r’s and v’s are very similar, and (typical of your average, perhaps somewhat traditional German handwriting too actually) my n’s and u’s are resembling one another more and more.
51. German language has drawn so much influence from English that they now say downloaden („to...download“) and updaten (you’ve guessed it, you’re a language genius!).
Culture (clash)
52. British humour is, as far as I can tell, quite similar to German humour (with sarcasm particularly). French humour, however, is rather different to both – I can now spot French humour when I ‚use‘ it, but not describe exactly what it is. The main difference I found between French and German humour is that I find French humour funnier...which doesn’t help much.
53. The Germans have lots of fancy dress parties, with themes (e.g. for my joint Birthday party, ‚come dressed as twins,‘ or TV shows/Films, and plus the usual dressing up ideas).
54. As a foreigner, it feels like there’s a barrier to feeling perfectly comfortable in understanding what is said in some social situations; as for going to the bank for the first time, or worse still, the pharmacy, you soon realise you would do well to learn all relevant vocab, plus a bit extra, in your own time beforehand.
55. In the German culture, people tend to speak very directly to one another; I sometimes don’t.
56. After 4 or 5 months, the novelty of living somewhere, in a new culture, new wears off, and it doesn’t strike me at all that everyday is not ‚normal‘ (in my opinion, it’s never normal, just we think it is cos we’re used to it!)
57. In the German culture, you’re ‚allowed‘ to be (what in the British culture would be considered almost aggressive and really) critical of how things are done (particularly if there’s a feedback session at some event, also quite a German thing I think). I quite like that. Constructive, like.
58. Germany is coool. I might live here later. (This is no reference to the cold.)
Money
59. Not properly keeping track of how much money you’re spending where is a bad thing.
60. Ebay might just save less money than one can earn in the time spent looking through items, comparing the environmental impact of shipping from Hong Kong or the USA*, watching, bidding, bidding again, and again, and again, on items, paying, and leaving feedback. And that’s the fifth attempt, the first at which you weren’t outbid – simply because the auction ends at 3:46 am. Perfect. (* - I was joking, it’s just I sometimes give shipping's environmental effects a thought.)
61. I have in the past been somewhat alarmingly influenced by a drive to save money, even in very small amounts.
62. This feels (perhaps unnecessarily) rather controversial, but nonetheless: I’m not as Fairtrade as I used to be.
Driving and other Germany bits and bobs
63. It’s legal to drive around without a left wing-mirror in Germany (after perhaps smashing the one off the CVJM minibus whilst reversing out of the (fairly narrow) gate).
64. Should a volunteer smash the left wing-mirror to bits on the gate driving the minibus out, one doesn’t have to pay, thankfully (250€, madness!).
65. Should you be done for speeding in Germany (not deliberately, I just didn’t see the 60 (km/h!) sign, only the 80 beforehand) you pay 10, 15 or 20 € fine, nice and small, compared to the UK. :)
66. One has to pay small library fees in Germany; it’s worth it though, as you get the due date of borrowed items AND total value printed on a receipt you’re given, which makes you pretty grateful you had to pay so little (total value of my last set of loans: 203€). And library loans last 4 weeks.
Just for fun (but ‚truthful‘, I’m afraid)
67. Going five months without a haircut (from very short hair I’ll admit) is fine.
68. Going five months without a comb, also from very short hair, is just about ok.
69. Childhood habits die hard, such as tearing your nails...but I’ll get there one day, nails, you’ll see!
70. It’s great fun jumping from the tall ladder to your bed onto the floor when wearing a green top hat, and you feel it rise up a bit off your head, and then land back in place a split second after you land.
71. German joke: „Mum, what’s for dinner?“ „Mashed potatoes, sprouts and pooh, dear.“ „Eurgh, yuk, SPROUTS!“
Other very important stuff
72. My sister Emily makes awesome cards and calendars and has a creative gift in this area, in my opinion.
73. I may well have a lot to learn, still.
What I’m like
Live-ability
Interests, Free time
The cold here
German language (and keyboards)
Culture (clash)
Money
Driving and other Germany bits and bobs
Just for fun
Other very important stuff
It has to be said, I’ve changed somewhat.
What I’m like
1. My family is SOOOO important to me.
2. I have had, am having, and will have a good life.
3. After spending years trying to keep in ‚touch‘ with half the world (whatever that’s worth...?), I’m pretty much all about quality not quantity in my relationships. I can’t and therefore won’t try keeping in touch with everyone, nor expect the same 'in return'. No pressure.
4. I’m keen on honesty in relationships, including about how important a relationship is.
5. If you don’t have time for me, you can just tell me so, I probably won’t be offended.
6. (In my opinion) talking face2face is kilometres better than communicating through pixels (phoning/skype being a convenient middle ground). Seeing smiles, and not smilies, is good for communication!
7. I’d much rather be asked, in future, what presents I would like, if someone wants to give me a present. It being a surprise is not as important to me, I don’t think, as enjoying receiving something very useful or longed-after.
8. I don’t think much of presents at Christmas: What’s a present if you feel you had to give it? (A present, I hear you say...indeed...but I think it would be more appreciated if there weren’t an expectation/pressure to give one in the first place.)
9. I have high standards, but am not a perfectionist – or if I was, that ship is sailing.
10. I like doing things all in one go, particularly big things, and dislike interrupting something before the end.
11. If there’s something more that could be said, I tend to want to say it.
12. I’m not exactly talented at interrupting and/or saying goodbye to people. This is perhaps not that appropriate for the German culture, where interruption seems to me to be more acceptable and widespread.
13. Self-deprecation no longer floats or sinks my boat.
14. I’m a happy kind of guy, optimistic.
15. I now laugh out loud sometimes, particularly at that thing with William and the milk...
16. I don’t think I’d be unhappy working as a cleaner, or postman, or whatever – a job where I have my mind free to think stuff over, pray, do what I like.
17. I don’t understand why Christian songs have minor chords.
18. I like singing songs I spontaneously put my own words to.
19. I don’t dislike simple food.
20. I prefer savoury to sweet food, and don’t really like eating sweet things that much (perhaps a result of eating too many sweets as a child).
21. If I don’t plan to be on the early side of ‚on time,‘ I will be late.
22. That being said, German punctuality is catching.
23. Given my time management (bad) habits (much more than just punctuality), it could’ve been a disaster if I’d gone straight to University after Sixth Form.
24. I have been much too busy in life, and need to learn to rest properly
Live-ability
25. One day my life will be OVER (I’ve not learnt this particularly, but realised a bit more).
26. A lot can happen in a day, but a year is not a long time (in my opinion). Perhaps in ten years I’ll say a decade is not a long time either.
27. Doing your best is not doing the most (especially at the cost of the best and most important). I can’t do everything.
28. One can organise things on a to do list into four boxes: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, neither nor. I found it helps.
29. The tactic of doing less important and/or urgent things first, as I know I’ll have to do the important and urgent things afterwards anyway, is not so great.
30. Don’t just say you’ll do something, do it; don’t do something you said you wouldn’t; think before you say you will or won’t. I’m not great with integrity.
31. Saying no is ok, a lot of the time.
32. Sometimes, you’ve just got to let it go. But sometimes, you’ve just got to stick with it, and be grateful, enjoy it, and feel fulfilled.
33. Self-discipline (this one’s out of a book, had to be) is doing what I can do today, in order to achieve tomorrow, what I couldn’t today.
34. I’m responsible for everything I do; it’s my choice, which advice I follow, and which I ignore.
35. Fear of making mistakes can be a big mistake. AND we’re human!
36. A nap, or even just lying down for 25 minutes after lunch, can do you a lot of good when youfeel tired.
Interests, Free time...
37. I love singing, especially with Tensing! (see post about my weekly routine for more about Tensing)
38. Aged 19 my voice seems to have ‚unbroken‘ – I can hit much higher notes than a year ago, though that may be something to do with having bad singing technique. I enjoy it anyhow...
39. I love playing football, and feel stupid for pretty much stopping in year 7 at Bishop Luffa.
40. I enjoy playing volleyball; thankfully, so do the Germans (more so than the British).
41. I love running, especially not in a straight line, and all the more especially through woods, well good fun.
42. I’m not so passionate about photography/taking photos as I thought (small number of photos on this blog bear witness to the fact).
43. TV can eat up your time like you’re in slow motion (and, er...often you are, or in no motion). I’m glad I was raised without broadcast TV programs at home (I’m having to learn to be disciplined aged 19).
The cold here
44. Heating stays on most of the day here (in the CVJM youth house anyway).
45. When you get ‚used to‘ (or as used to as one can) -20°C for a while, anything around or above 0°C feels warm (perhaps a bit potentially dangerous...)
46. In –20°C, girls‘ hair starts to freeze and go white. Crazy.
German language (and keyboards)
47. <German keyboards have the ° sign on them (perhaps as temperature can be more critical to them). They are qwertz keyboards, with ü, ö and ä, and, to my confusion at times, no pound sign. As the apostrophe is a lot less common in German, you have to use shift to type it, otherwise you can#t make yourself understood.
48. German Inverted commas work „like this,“ if you hadn’t already guessed.
49. In the German language, one says „four-and-twenty“, not „twenty-four“. Although I never experienced this at school, I still have problems with this now I’m in Germany, and have to watch out I don’t misorder numbers and understand 24 as 42.
50. My handwriting has got worse – my r’s and v’s are very similar, and (typical of your average, perhaps somewhat traditional German handwriting too actually) my n’s and u’s are resembling one another more and more.
51. German language has drawn so much influence from English that they now say downloaden („to...download“) and updaten (you’ve guessed it, you’re a language genius!).
Culture (clash)
52. British humour is, as far as I can tell, quite similar to German humour (with sarcasm particularly). French humour, however, is rather different to both – I can now spot French humour when I ‚use‘ it, but not describe exactly what it is. The main difference I found between French and German humour is that I find French humour funnier...which doesn’t help much.
53. The Germans have lots of fancy dress parties, with themes (e.g. for my joint Birthday party, ‚come dressed as twins,‘ or TV shows/Films, and plus the usual dressing up ideas).
54. As a foreigner, it feels like there’s a barrier to feeling perfectly comfortable in understanding what is said in some social situations; as for going to the bank for the first time, or worse still, the pharmacy, you soon realise you would do well to learn all relevant vocab, plus a bit extra, in your own time beforehand.
55. In the German culture, people tend to speak very directly to one another; I sometimes don’t.
56. After 4 or 5 months, the novelty of living somewhere, in a new culture, new wears off, and it doesn’t strike me at all that everyday is not ‚normal‘ (in my opinion, it’s never normal, just we think it is cos we’re used to it!)
57. In the German culture, you’re ‚allowed‘ to be (what in the British culture would be considered almost aggressive and really) critical of how things are done (particularly if there’s a feedback session at some event, also quite a German thing I think). I quite like that. Constructive, like.
58. Germany is coool. I might live here later. (This is no reference to the cold.)
Money
59. Not properly keeping track of how much money you’re spending where is a bad thing.
60. Ebay might just save less money than one can earn in the time spent looking through items, comparing the environmental impact of shipping from Hong Kong or the USA*, watching, bidding, bidding again, and again, and again, on items, paying, and leaving feedback. And that’s the fifth attempt, the first at which you weren’t outbid – simply because the auction ends at 3:46 am. Perfect. (* - I was joking, it’s just I sometimes give shipping's environmental effects a thought.)
61. I have in the past been somewhat alarmingly influenced by a drive to save money, even in very small amounts.
62. This feels (perhaps unnecessarily) rather controversial, but nonetheless: I’m not as Fairtrade as I used to be.
Driving and other Germany bits and bobs
63. It’s legal to drive around without a left wing-mirror in Germany (after perhaps smashing the one off the CVJM minibus whilst reversing out of the (fairly narrow) gate).
64. Should a volunteer smash the left wing-mirror to bits on the gate driving the minibus out, one doesn’t have to pay, thankfully (250€, madness!).
65. Should you be done for speeding in Germany (not deliberately, I just didn’t see the 60 (km/h!) sign, only the 80 beforehand) you pay 10, 15 or 20 € fine, nice and small, compared to the UK. :)
66. One has to pay small library fees in Germany; it’s worth it though, as you get the due date of borrowed items AND total value printed on a receipt you’re given, which makes you pretty grateful you had to pay so little (total value of my last set of loans: 203€). And library loans last 4 weeks.
Just for fun (but ‚truthful‘, I’m afraid)
67. Going five months without a haircut (from very short hair I’ll admit) is fine.
68. Going five months without a comb, also from very short hair, is just about ok.
69. Childhood habits die hard, such as tearing your nails...but I’ll get there one day, nails, you’ll see!
70. It’s great fun jumping from the tall ladder to your bed onto the floor when wearing a green top hat, and you feel it rise up a bit off your head, and then land back in place a split second after you land.
71. German joke: „Mum, what’s for dinner?“ „Mashed potatoes, sprouts and pooh, dear.“ „Eurgh, yuk, SPROUTS!“
Other very important stuff
72. My sister Emily makes awesome cards and calendars and has a creative gift in this area, in my opinion.
73. I may well have a lot to learn, still.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)