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.