Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts

Friday, October 17, 2014

QUIZ on Germany and German Culture

CHECK THIS OUT.  ANSWERS GIVEN AFTERWARDS.  LET US KNOW YOUR FIRST SCORE.  

Which questions were interesting?

Which were difficult?

Are you motivated to retake the quiz for a better result?

(How many tries did it take for you to get 100%?  Me?  2x! ---rsb) 
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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Which country had the highest after-tax income in each income level since 1980


NYTIMES      Losing the Lead

This simple table summarizes our story on American living standards.

Percentile198019841988199219962000200420082010
95thUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited States
90thUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited States
80thUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited States
70thUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited States
60thUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited States
MedianUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesU.S./Canada
40thUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesNorwayCanadaCanada
30thUnited StatesUnited StatesAustriaAustriaNorwayNorwayNorwayCanadaCanada
20thUnited StatesCanadaAustriaDenmarkDenmarkNorwayNorwayNetherlandsNetherlands
10thUnited StatesNorwayAustriaNorwayDenmarkNorwayNorwayNetherlandsNetherlands
5thNorwayNorwayAustriaNorwayDenmarkNorwayNorwayNetherlandsNetherlands

Comparing Income by Country

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In 1980, the American rich and middle class and most of the poor had higher incomes than their counterparts almost anywhere in the world. But incomes for the middle class and poor in the United States have since been growing more slowly than elsewhere. Why? Among the reasons: This country has lost its once-wide lead in educational attainment. Other countries have increased their workers’ skill levels more quickly, helping create well-paying jobs. The United States also tolerates more inequality: The minimum wage is lower here. Executives make more money. The government redistributes less of it. By 2010, the poor in several other countries had pulled ahead. And Canada’s median income had reached a virtual tie with that of the United States. Since 2010, other data suggest Canada has moved ahead.
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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Why Can't Germans Say 'Squirrel'?

Why Can't Germans Say 'Squirrel'?

Natalie Wolchover, Life's Little Mysteries Staff Writer   |   March 08, 2012 12:30pm ET 

These creatures pose difficulties for Germans.
These creatures pose difficulties for Germans.
Credit: S.Cooper Digital | Shutterstock
"Squrrrrr … skraaaawl … squirruh … SQUOOW!"
As YouTube videos all but prove, Germans have a really hard time pronouncing "squirrel." After nailing the "squ-," chaos ensues.
In an episode of the British TV show "Top Gear," host Jeremy Clarkson jokingly suggested that asking people to pronounce the word would be a surefire way to identify undercover German spies. "No German, no matter how well they speak English, can say 'squirrel,'" Clarkson asserted.

Exceptions to the rule notwithstanding, why is the name of small, bushy tailed rodents so difficult for the Deutsche? [See video]
Carlos Gussenhoven, a phonologist — a linguist who studies the sounds used in different languages — at Radboud University in the Netherlands, believes the challenge lies in squirrel's syllable structure.
Linguists break words into clusters — groups of consonants that have no intervening vowels. In German, "-rl" is an end cluster, Gussenhoven explained. It comes at the end of a syllable, as in the common German name Karl, rather than forming a syllable of its own. Thus German speakers try to translate the two-syllable English word "squirrel" into the monosyllabic German sound "skwörl " in the same way that "squirm" becomes "skwörm."
But that doesn't sound quite right, and Germans know it. "Dissatisfied with this result, the German speaker tries to produce a real 'R,' of the sort you get in (Rock 'n) Roll, in the end cluster, wreaking havoc," Gussenhoven told Life's Little Mysteries.
He outlined the steps a German should take to pronounce "squirrel," and boy, does it sound like no fun.
"The solution is to say skwö first and then Roll. If the speaker then also manages to avoid saying (1) sh for [s] and (2) [v] for [w], and uses the vowel in the first syllable of getan  [German for 'done']  instead of (3)ö in the first syllable and instead of (4) o in the second syllable, and (5) makes the r like the English r and (6) the l like the 'dark' l of English, the result will be quite acceptable," he wrote in an email.
No wonder it's so difficult for Germans to nail the English name. Gussenhoven said "squirrel" is a shibboleth, a word notorious for the way its pronunciation identifies its speaker as a foreigner. [Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?]
Jessica Williams, a linguist at the University of Illinois in Chicago who studies second language acquisition, said that, based on YouTube, the issue may not be confined to Germans. "I notice that there are plenty of other videos that say the same thing about Arabic and Farsi speakers," she said.

Go on, then, native English speakers: Say "squirrel" and be proud.
 - - - - - - -
OK then, everyone.  Some of us "Amis" have our own troubles pronouncing the German word for "squirrel."   Give it a try:  "Eichhörnchen!"   (Literally:  little oak horn.)    
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Site to compare countries on various topics

HERE ARE THE STATISTICS AND ALSO THE SEARCH BARS

for comparing food and beverage consumption in Germany with that in the USA.

At the bottom is the option to check on other themes.
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