Kultur 8 Benjamin Oztalay

These articles continue to surprise me, maybe with the exception of the sauna fascination in Germany. Germans seem to be rational and straightforward about many things, but to blame a draft for such serious illnesses seems a bit silly. I suppose when you grow up in the culture, though, it's easy just to follow suit with it. It would be nice to know where that belief started, I'm sure it has its roots in a credible source.

I suppose the breezes problem ties into the strange German illnesses, as they both involve health issues and are uniquely German. Maybe the sudden acute hearing loss and other diseases are caused by a particular lack of breeze. The tendency to not take medications in Germany and its correlation with the lower amount of sick days does make sense, as the population as a whole would be hardier. Considering that Germans seem to be more logic-based (this idea is becoming unhinged in my mind), though, one would think that they would want to take medications.

The eternal students in Germany also surprised me. I would have thought that German students would finish their degrees quickly, instead of taking several years to complete their first semester. However, the article seemed to point out that it wasn't just the students that don't take higher education seriously, since the students sometimes have to create their own curricula. This makes me wonder what the reputation of German university graduates is outside of the country, if they're trying to get a job.