study abroad experience

Today I'm writing about my lerning progress during this language program. I' ll combine the last two blog entries, beacause the themes are similar.

Our days here in Cincinnati were divided into two parts. In the morning we had a study trip to a museum or an another cultural highlight of the State of Ohio and in the afternoon we discussed several issues belonging to the theme of the study trip. After we discussed these issues and later on we written our blog entries to sum up the day. These blog entries was rectified by our teachers Ruth and Jody and they gave us hints about the using of formal and informal language.

What have I learned in this three weeks? In my opinion my English bettered in speaking, writing and understanding slangs, because our persons in charge, Debbie, Ruth, Jody, Chuck, Jason, Gary, and Nick, were around us nearly all the time, so I could train my listening by having small talks and discussions about different topics.

The most important knowledge, which was given to me in these three weeks, was the process of adjustment in a new country, the different stages and feeling in the stages. In my opinion this is a very important knowledge, because you can carry this experience to any other country in the world, so it probably would be easier for me, if I'll leaving my home country. I also learned to orient myself in a new country.
An another experience is the language, of course. I learned much about the using of formal and informal language. Formal for writing the blogs, informal for speaking to native american citizens.

In Germany, we haven't such a language program with blogs and so on. We have traditional language courses with themes about economy and engineering, but this is almost boring. You sit in the classroom, listen to the teacher, who isn't even a native speaker, and don't learn something else as vocabulary.

In the last three weeks we learned much about the American culture and the every day life in the U.S, whether if it was a barbecue, a museum, a brewery, a church, a mosque, a mall, a lake, and the campus of the UC, so thanks a lot for this great time!

The culture of music in America

Yesterday we visited the world famous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland to learn more about the history and the bands of this kind of music.

When you drive along the Rock and Roll Blvd in Cleveland, you directly would be lead to the museum at the lakefront of Lake Erie. In front of the Building is a little stage and famous Rock and Roll songs are played. The exhibits are distributed on 5 floors, but they are more or less ordered.

At first, you start in the basement where you are introduced to Rock and Roll by a film. This film describes the development of Rock and Roll, shows some famous bands, and is commented by some musicians. After the film you can learn more about the influences of the bands and the 500 songs, that "changed the world". Furthermore, you can see the different clothes from the stars, also Elvis' car is showed. This floor was the most interesting floor for me, because you learned most about Rock and Roll on this floor.
At the second floor you will see guitars and learn more about the architectures of music. There's also a video shown: "Video Killed the Radio Star". This film shows the use of new medias and some sections of music videos.
"Pink Floyd: The Wall" and explainings of jukeboxes and mixing boards are displayed on the 4th floor. This was also interesting to see how this technical units are acting.
The 5th and 6th floor is the special exhibition area. It was given to Bruce Springsteen. You can see there different exhibits from him. For instance, clothes, handwritten songbooks, guitars, and so on.

They divide in the different styles of Rock and Roll only in one location. That's a pity. That was at "The Beat goes on" location. You could choose different styles and the matching bands were showed on the display.

I think in every culture music plays a big role in daily life, but most of the songs, which are written, come from America, so America can be seen as the biggest publisher of music at all. The songs describe the life, problems, and experiences, that are wrapped in lyrics, of the american citizens.

The musicians are often portrayed as heroes. This could have several reasons. On the one hand, they get the take-off back from the street and make good music, so they are paragons for other people.

On the other hand, the hype of the media could cause the heroism of the musicians. A good example for the hype about musicians and a whole style of Rock and Roll is the Grunge. Grunge turned from an underground movement to a new way of life in the 90's. One reason for the hype was the band Nirvana with it's famous frontman Kurt Cobain. The media caught attention to the band and the style they were playing, so essays in the Rolling Stone magazines were written and the style becames famous, bands sprouted out and become heroes. After the suicide of Kurt Cobain the hype about Grunge stopped. The documentation "hype" shows this theme how the media turned Grunge into a new way of life.

Religion in America

Today I'll write about the religion in America. To get insights, we went to the Crossroads Community Church and to the Cincinnati Mosque.

The Crossroads Community Church is completely different from churches in Germany. In this church were no crosses and Chrisitan sights like in a traditional church. There is also a kids club and some working groups are offered. The service took place in a hall, that seems to be a concert hall with a stage, huge displays, cameras, a band, free coffee, free wifi and so on. It was like religious entertainment. They introduced with a song and everybody was invited to sing this song with the band. After that, we should greet our neighbors to have a little smalltalk to them. The show goes on with an interview and a speech of the prayer, and a finishing song.
I think this church is for people, who aren't so conservative like other Christians. There's a light atmosphere in the hall and the speech of the prayer, who was also a very good speaker, isn't starchy like in other churches. He take one phrase out of the Bible, analyze the structure and give examples to his interpretation. The songs are compatible to the program the prayer mentioned.
The church invokes people help people, who are in trouble, for instance the church gave manpower to the people in New Orleans to built up some new houses for the homeless people, or went to India to prevent childrens from prostitution and slavery.

The Cincinnati Mosque is an another religous place in Cincinnati, but in my opinion it is not like an traditional mosque. You can find there an educational and sports building next to the mosque and they also offer courses, where you can meet new people or study a new language. I think the community of the mosque is well accepted in Cincinnati, because they're open minded to everybody.
The religious service at the mosque is little bit different than Crossroad's. In Islam, praying is a component of the daily life, so you should pray five times a day. At certain the times the so called Imam prays in the mosque each day. On fridays is an extra service, where a prayer speak in the mosque.

There are some special events in the Cincinnati Mosque, for instance a basketball tournament, where other Islamic communities from the U.S. are invited to enjoy a good time with like-minded persons.

I think, both communities are well accepted in the larger Cincinnati community and unite the this community, because they are open-minded. Everybody can get there and listen to the speeches of the prayers. Furthermore, you can sign up in different courses or working groups to get involved to these communities.

Medical Care in America

Today we went into a general purpose pharmacy and a high tech genetics laboratory in Cincinnati.

The high tech genetics laboratory determine your genotype on genetic diseases, so they find out out, if you have a genetic defect like the Down's syndrome or something else. There are different tests for each genetic defect, for example the test called FISH. With different color schemata they find out, which illness you have. These methods are very expensive. If you need the full program of research, you usually have to pay up to 3500$. That's the problem for the lower-paid-jobs. Those people cannot use this option to fight against the disease they have.

In the Walgreen's pharmacy you can self-medicate yourself by choosing the drug you need. This is very dangerous, because you can pick up the wrong drug for your illness. You can get there everything what you need for your personal health care, for example toothpaste, shampoos, bands and so one, but they also offer fragrances, Make-Up, Snacks, and drinks.
The drugs are offered in huge shelves, so you can loose the survey very easy, for instance there are more than 70 pain relievers and more than 60 so called "Cold and Flu" medicines. They also offer generics. That are duplicates of official drugs, which are cheaper than the original remedy. This store is for the poorer people, who have to help themselves without professional research.

In my opinion, everyone should get an insurance like in Germany. On the one hand it's better for the health of the people and on the other hand it's better for the social welfare, because everybody have the right on health care, but this can cause economic problems in terms of the insurance fee and so one.

The Wall

Today our destination was the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

We saw an exhibition about the fall of the Berlin Wall there. This theme is often discussed in Germany, so I learned nothing new about the fall of the Wall, but the exhibition was very interesting, especially the way the theme was brought to you. It was a photographic exhibition. The students, that designed this exhibit, searched the famous scenes at this time and took photos from this time at the present time to see whats changed in the last years.

In Germany the exhibits about the fall of the Berlin Wall would be a little bit different. There would be some pieces of the wall and some pictures of the fall with a text at the exhibit.

I think, that the Wall in some mind still exists, but this depends on the person, their experience, and the houshold, where the person comes from. Some students in Ilmenau also speak evil about the eastern citizens and the eastern states, but when you don't react to these people, they would stop this speaking.

The people, who was born in the western part of Germany, possibly would worsen the East, because they think, that the West is much better than the East.

The people, who was born in the East, may say, that the western men are perfidous.

I don't have such prejudices about the people. I make my own decision about the people, wherever they come from.

Feel like a child

Today we went to the Cincinnati Children's Museum. This museum is not a normal museum - it's an interactive one. For instance, the children can learn several things about technology, nature, other cultures, and physics through learning by doing there.

The whole museum is a huge playground that combines activities with seperate themes with special designs, so the kids can imagine, that they are in a cave, because it looks like a cave. There are also special stages for the different ages of the children, e.g. some climbing activities in the cave are especially designed for children, who are in the preschool age. This section was for older and younger kids.
A station for older kids of the age from 6 until 9 was the cultural section. The kids there could inform the different clutlures, fit the clothes from native americans, or playing with some instruments from other cultures.

In my opinion, the water stage was the best stage at the museum. This was a huge watercycle, where the kids could follow boats they set into the water and do some other activities.
These boats passed different passage: a rain passage, the watergate, the fan station, and so on. On each stage the children had to do some activities. For instance, on the watergate they had to put boards into the feature, if they want to sunk the boat.
The other activities were a simple kind of a watermill and the opportunity to design a pipelinesystem. Most of the kids stayed beneath the pipelinesystem and played at this stage with the boats and the fountains. That's a pity, because they could learn more on this watercycle, especially at the pipelinestation.
This also depends on the parents. Some of them took a walkthrough with the kids at these station and some just sit on the bench near the station and watched the children playing.

Language in Ohio and Illinois

After spending one Weekend in Chicago, I"m writing about the language, that is used in Ohio and Illinois.



The usage of the language is very different in the U.S. Some citizens speak in slang, so they have their own words and spelling. They"re sometimes difficult to understand, If you're new in this states you have to acclimate for a few days.
But some are also don"t speak slang, their language spelling is quite clear and easily to understand.
I noticed, that one phrase stuck out when I was in Chicago at the weekend. They often use "take care" instead of "see you" for saying good bye.

In Germany are also some language differences between the regions. You can divide them in four big groups: southern, eastern, western and northern accent. For my personal opinion, the southern accent like the Bavarian slang, is most difficult to understand. The Bavarian slang has its own words and spelling. Even a native can't understand this slang. The simplest slang for me is the western slang, for instance the Rhenish accent. They may have its own words and its own spelling, but is easily to understand them.

I think you must divide the situations. When the people are in formal conversations they may use the formal language for speaking. But when they are at a barbecue aso, they use slang.

My English also changed a little bit. At school I learned British English. So I have to adjust my spelling a little bit to the American English.