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I am myself an immigrant to this country, one that has had itequally easy, if not more. Lately, or perhaps for the last couple of years, I've struggled with ne
by amval 2mo ago
I am myself an immigrant to this country, one that has had itequally easy, if not more.
Lately, or perhaps for the last couple of years, I've struggled with negative feelings about the country. I do not like the direction things are moving politically and economically, nor how germans talk about politics, and the biggest reason to want to be in Germany is the very high living conditions one can have here. Culturally, it is hard not feel dettached when Germans themselves seem uninterested in cultural aspects that are normally a reason to want to learn a language (literature, films, etc). I can speak German, but maintaining it or improving it feels more like a chore than something exciting.
Anyway, this was a nice, positive read, and it made me happy to read it. It is often easier to focus on the negative aspects of things, while taking for granted the positive ones. Germany has a lot of good things going for it, and the power to be a better version of itself. A position lots of countries would wish they could be in. Sadly, this does not seem clear to the German political class.
- schmorptron 2mo agoYou make a good point about cultural things that would make one excited to learn a language. But I really struggle to imagine what could be done to fix that? Injecting more money into the film industry would just lead it to the same people at the top of it where they'll produce the same mediocre output as they have for ages. hmm
- vineyardmike 2mo ago> Injecting more money into the film industry would just lead it to the same people at the top of it where they'll produce the same mediocre output as they have for ages Not necessarily, if you apply discipline and intentionality. Canada famously created “CanCon” (Canadian Content) by law. They forced media in the country to be X% local, and that built out the industry by sheer necessity. The reputation was poor in the early years, but now a talent pipeline, local services, and industrial knowledge has built up and they have a thriving entertainment industry. Germany has the disadvantage against Canada which could benefit from speaking English and cross selling to the US and UK. But it can become a source of local pride and distinction. The French are very proud of their language, even though it’s also not heavily spoken internationally. The building blocks exist to successfully build cultural capital if it’s a priority.
- holowoodman 2mo agoGerman culture is imho stuck in a permanent subsidy slop problem. Basically every German film is written to appeal to the subsidy committee, not any greater audience. And it shows.
- soco 2mo agoSome of my favourite movies are German - Das Boot, or Lola rennt. Also series, like Dark.
- zelphirkalt 2mo agoWell, we sold our most prestigious film making location to the US fairly recently, a few years ago (Filmstudio Babelsberg). Not much good has happened to it since then. Admittedly, it was already not going too well before, but we can expect further decay at the hands of US investors.
- juvvel 2mo agoGerman films are mostly not great, but if one wants to get immersed into the language, music and literature are much better places. And also comedy. The language allows for some great puns.
- rob74 2mo agoAll foreign films are also dubbed, something I'm not a huge fan of, but at least you don't have to watch an actual German film to hear German... Also, BTW, there are some very good German films, but to enjoy most of them, you have to be able to relate to the cultural background.
- i_am_a_peasant 2mo agoA lot of good video games have decent German dubs, it was how I reached B2 German.
- aleph_minus_one 2mo ago> A lot of good video games have decent German dubs This in my experience only holds for AAA titles. For many smaller games, the German translation/localization is so bad that if one's English level is not insanely bad, it's even more comfortable to play the English version, and use a dictionary for lots of words (i.e. invest more time using the dictionary than playing the game) than tolerating the pain of how bad the German translation/localization is.
- i_am_a_peasant 2mo agoIdk, do you play those point and click adventure games from early 2000s? Syberia? Broken Sword? they’re decent. Deponia also good, Truberbrook. What I cannot stand are things that are medieval and then everyone refers to you as Ihr instead of du or Sie. Was that even a thing? Even the star wars games do it… which i guess it’s because jedi “knights”.
- aleph_minus_one 2mo ago
- soco 2mo agoArguably the average Hollywood productions aren't culturally stellar either, but I digress. To me what did it was having a kid in the kindergarten/school and everything related to that. You get to participate to all kinds of social setups (you could avoid them but what's the point), you get to watch German movies with them, German TV to chat about, you get into the daily lives of your co-citizens. Don't worry, they don't do much Goethe either, if that scares you. Just normal people doing normal stuff, maybe joining some (team) sports club and and and. It just works naturally.
- earthnail 2mo agoMay I ask where in Germany you live? It’s a fairly diverse country and your location would help for context.
- aleph_minus_one 2mo ago> Culturally, it is hard not feel detached when Germans themselves seem uninterested in cultural aspects that are normally a reason to want to learn a language (literature, films, etc). I rather disagree: Many German movies that are produced don't fit my taste (the reasons are a little bit off-topic), and there exist quite a few Germans who think similarly. I could come up with a list of German movies that I like, but this is something that would take a little bit of thinking/effort. On the other hand, in my experience/observation/bubble many Germans are quite interested in German literature. I could very easily come up with dozens of books of German authors that I like (of course, such a list would be strongly biased by my own taste). Thus I would claim that (native German) literature is much more deeply ingrained in German culture than (native German) movies, and I am really surprised that you seem to live in a strange bubble where nobody in it seems to be interested in reading belletristic books.