At work I took another tech support call. It's remarkably like taking tech support calls in America. You ask them questions to ask what they did wrong, and if they could answer them informatively they wouldn't be calling tech support. You end up having them email you an example, you fix the example, and you email it back with an explanation. In America, however, it's the person on the other end of the line who has a thick foreign accent and limited vocabulary; in Germany that's me.
Today in my German class we covered der/die/das gender determination rules and their exceptions. I was shocked to find out that the phrase I thought I heard the most from 2009-2011 (by a factor of about 10) is grammatically incorrect. "Keine Interesse" should indeed be "kein Interesse" because it's das Interesse, even though Interesse ends with an 'e'.
The election is a hot topic here, too. Almost every European I've ever talked to likes Obama. My Pakistani roommate says that almost every Pakistani he's talked to hopes that Romney will win the election. My classmate from Afghanistan doesn't care who wins. I'm kind of excited to see who wins, but I won't lose sleep tonight. I voted several weeks ago.
I would be interested to here the basis of their desire for one or the other candidate. Are our European and Asian counterparts informed on the issues of the election and how it may affect them on the international stage? Or on what else do they base their US political opinions?
ReplyDeleteI hope they're more informed than some voters here who seem to lean one way or the other based on more inconsequential reasons.
Sometimes I think that there should be a short quiz about each candidate and some current events to qualify you to express an opinion on which candidate is fit for the job (vote). If you don't know the candidates or the issues, how could you intelligently choose your representative?
-here, +hear
ReplyDeletehear, hear!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Europeans tend to like Obama because they say his policies are more like European policies. My roommate says Pakistanis want Romney because they don't like now America is right now (probably the foreign relations with Pakistan), a new president means something might change, and any change would be an improvement in their view.
Thanks Ben & Alex. I was wondering that, too.
ReplyDelete