Kultur 8 Lemisch

Kultur 8
Ben Lemisch
These Kultur readings always serve to remind me how different American and German culture is. The draftophobia practiced by the Germans is unimaginable to me. The first thing I, and many Americans, do when the weather turns nice is roll down the windows in my car and stick my hand outside, letting it wrap around my hand and flow into the car. Riding in a car in the summer without the air conditioning on or a window open sounds like a form of torture to me. I also find it comical that in the instance on the train the other German passengers were insistent that all of the windows remain closed. In America even if someone does something the other people don’t like no one interferes with them. This case highlights the German tradition of keeping a finger in everyone else’s’ business.
The German vulnerability to drafts and open windows stands in stark contrast to their ability to withstand a Kreislaufzusammenbruch, or a circulatory collapse. Everyone else in the world dies when they get a circulatory collapse but the Germans only require a day off of work. From reading these two articles it seems to me that the Germans are a very stubborn but superstitious nation. They are unwilling to admit defeat to a real medical condition but are willing to take elaborate and uncomfortable actions if it could prevent them from falling ill in the first place. This highlights the differences between them and the United States.