Funny Video

    This was the funniest video I found about the German language. My favorite joke about Germany is the idea that the language is much harsher than its neighboring languages like Spanish, English, French, or Italian. Of course, this stereotype hinges upon the average perception of a German as a stern, commanding person, not helped by the fact that German is less similar to the Romance languages common in Western Europe. My girlfriend tells me that she thinks it's impossible for German to sound elegant, and she's surprised whenever she hears it spoken normally. Personally, I think German sounds a lot like English in terms of tone. It's spoken at roughly the same pace, has a few loanwords, and can express varying levels of emotion/formality. I don't ascribe a certain character to German like the video does because I've been studying it for years. I've heard the language used in a variety of different contexts, from spoken word to song, and from formal to silly. It's not a language that's necessarily stern to me, although I appreciate its practicality and ability to create new words out of smaller ones.

    This is an example of German humor that I have found, in the form of a comedy sketch, like SNL. I haven't seen any examples of German humor, and it's fascinating to see the similarities and differences to American sketch comedy. I found it to be very surreal, and I thought that the way the sketch went off the rails and ended before the surgery even began was quite funny. I also thought the rhymes the children learned about what not to touch were interesting tidbits of German culture.