Ich spreche Deutsches wenig (Week 1)

     As the first few days have come and past, I have diligently tried to speak more and more German! Yesterday I spoke my first full conversation with a fellow German student worker at the university I am studying at:

Me: Hallo Yonick!
Yonick: Hallo Wilson!
Me: Wie geht es dir?
Yonick: gut, und dir?
Me: sehr gut, danke!

     In retrospect, this was obviously not too intricate of a conversation, but the amount of times I have had this exact conversation in America is beyond countless. Hopefully this is also just as common of a greeting conversation in Germany!
     As I have journeyed through the cities of Brühl and Bonn, I have found Germany to be very conservational in its natural resources. Until now, I never completely understood the immensely wasteful lifestyle that always seemed satirical about the American culture. The water in toilets is about 1/5 to 1/6 the amount, no one drives ridiculously fuel inefficient cars (including trucks, haven’t seen one here), and the lights in my host-home are essentially timers that will automatically turn off in a couple minutes so there is no way to leave the lights on (I have seen this in a lot of other buildings). While these just a few examples, this is something that’s significantly different from in America. When I visited China a couple years back I thought that the conservational nature of the country was because it was still a developing country, but this evidence in Germany debunks that theory.
     Another cultural situation I have learned about is a conflicting situation regarding the Turkish immigrants and the indigenous Germans. I found this remarkably interesting because there is also much conflict with the Turks in my father’s hometown in China. In both locations, the conflict essentially boils down to the fact that the immigrated Turkish populations not only do not try but also rebel against assimilating to the native culture of the indigenous population. However, this conflict is not as prominent as it was in the past, the Turks in Germany now are at about their 3rd or 4th generation and most of them simply don’t care for upholding their ancestral traditions and beliefs (I.e. Islam). In a current, optimistic, perspective, the immigration of the Turks brought great tasting inexpensive food to Germany, which has essentially assimilated these foods, such as dönner, into their local culture!