germans!!!! (51)

just blame Hollywood and their domination and properganda within the movie world...

funny enough ....last night i watch the movie 300 spartus......what a load of crap!!!
they managed to throw up the word "anarchy"....in the vain that the word has been twisted it into present day....ironicly it is a greek word and means nothing of chaos...its merely a space of time inbetween government...ye hollywood mate...turn off your tv if you dont like it

Yes, it is sad to see how the American "culture" rolls out through the north of Europe. However, countries like the Scandinavian ones, are experiencing a much bigger impact from the english speaking countries (USA) because the movies and the telly is not syncronized. Germany is still very "German" in spite of what the iniciator of this topic thinks. Although it is a country that mostly english speaking people likes to make fun of, Germany is much more refined than just being the country manufactering machines etc...(I would any time prefer a Germen car to an English (haha) or American car. They simply are more beautiful, better driving, more comfortable and more reliable). The germans not only manufactor machines - from Germany you also have some of the best beer in the world and some very fine designers come from Germany as well - by the way, as a curiousity I can tell that the Apple logo is designed by a German!! Also some of the finest clothes are designed and created in Germany and if you compare Berlin to London and New York you will find buildings with more sophisticated design in Berlin.

Another thing: If your car breaks down in Germany - sooner or later some German will stop and help. They are probably the most helpful people in the world. But most foreigners don´t know, because they´ve never been there...

Hopefully the several thousand year old German culture will survive the influence from the american "culture"...and only experience it as a "fluctuation"...

Nobody(not even a yank!) can dispute the quality things that the Germans produce..........I myself have a German car. I was in Germany last year & will go back again this year. They are really nice helpful people,one of my best mates is a German;

The issue is not Germany............it's the U.S.P.( The United States of Plastic... )

I cannot get to grips with this topic. My mind keeps slithering all over the damn place - I can't focus and a lot of the replies in here aren't a lot of help either.

The OP was specifically remarking about Germany.

How come replies are about cars, recliner seats,movies and junk food? Is this how we see the US imposing its culture on Europe?

Not a very constructive post was it?

What do YOU think?

HA! Well the originator was basically correct; Germany is a confused and at times hypocritical about why; but then again many others in Europe are; the american virus infects us all to some degree not even mentioning other countries outside Europe; it is a virus spread over most cultures and is having a very negative effect on all of our cultures, traditions etc. etc. Sadly, as our various societies suffer from it, foreigners and tourists suffer some negative side effects. We seem to be actually loosing the "multicultural" aspects within a global community and are in danger of becoming like the americans...and all of our uniquenesses of cultures are being plasticized .....%(

I think that "culture" goes a lot deeper than: The beer, the cars, the clothes (hip-hop, rastafarian, disco or whatever) and recliner seats.

Why do you think that a particular country's culture is at risk because "the movies and the telly is not syncronized"?

I totally agree with you that culture goes much deeper.

Claiming me for saying that only the telly and movies are influencing the culture, is taking the words out of the context.

But, the most powerful source of influence today is the telly, and as the language is in english the adoption of the language and the ideas in the soaps and other broadcasts arrives with more impact and without chances of making the punch lines more "local" as they f.ex. do here in Spain.

Also because the countries are small and not have the funds to compete with the american entertainment industry the risk of an american over exposure is more likely to happen in the small countries.

Therefore I think the nordic countries much easier adapt the american culture...already now DK is wellknown as Little America...and that is for a reason.

As I finished my last post: The German (and the European) culture is way much older than the American - therefore hopefully the German culture will only adapt smaller pieces of the american and reject the rest. On sight. There are more than 200 commerical German TV channels, and there are channels focusing on Germans and germany as well, but I guess they are not seen by foreigners.

I don´t think that the German really wants to be other than German, but there is a more and more open window into the rest of the world now in Germany than never.

Thats what I meant by a fluctuation. The countries in Europe are still developing culture - but now with much more influence from all other countries in Europe.

Finally...not only bad stuff comes from the states. Here in Europe we have adapted som good ideas from the states - and culturwise we also have had some good inputs...and who knows what Europe would have been like without The Marshall Help.

we know that marketing strategies are a product of America. If we all are in the capitalism and free market world, we tend to drink what the americans do for the achievement of success.
The posistive atitude, pretending you are geat, not showing your partner or the other part your negative feelings about stuff actually do works...

Just like the americans learned a lot from the europenas, they can also teach the europeans...exchanging positive vibes...why not?We don't need to be arrogants, hypocrits...

I spent 6 months in the "eye of the hurricane", that is Los Angeles. That photo is me at the Dodgers Stadium. In LA you can "feel" the entertainment industry, it's in the air.

There was a time when we Europeans had also an unbounded faith in the future and overflowed with cultural confidence. For example, when Baron Haussmann planned and built the boulevards and buildings we admire today in Paris, he wasn't concerned about endangering the culture and way of life of the people back then; he had the conviction that he was making something better, that the future was better and he was building it. That European cultural self-confidence got lost somewhere in the 20th century.

Today we are too protective of our little ways, little old buildings and cultural artifacts, and we don't notice the world passing by (yes, I'm talking about China).