{"id":6672,"date":"2016-12-10T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-10T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-12T15:53:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T19:53:22","slug":"so-your-character-is-from-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriagracehowell.com\/staging\/6258\/so-your-character-is-from-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"So Your Character is From Germany … Featuring Fraise Fruitrouge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nIt’s time for this month’s So Your Character is From Another Country! This is a monthly or bimonthly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven’t checked out last week’s <\/span>So Your Character is From Belgium … be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nI’ve grown up knowing a lot of German people. My best friend as a child was of direct German descent. She, her eight siblings, and her parents could speak fluent German visited Germany on a regular basis, so I heard the language spoken pretty regularly. My piano teacher and her family was also German and they also spoke German semi-regularly. I’m also of German descent, so I have some of the facial features and ridiculously pale skin color as characteristic of Germans. I go into this knowing a lot about Germany, but I’m always in for learning more!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nDisclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\nHi, I’m Fraise. My name is French because I’m half French but I live next to Munich, the third biggest town in Germany (and the best, in my opinion). I’ve finished high school in 2015. I took some time off to travel and write before going to university in September 2016. <\/span>Munich lies in the south of Germany. I have been to Berlin and a few other places in Germany, but I’ll mostly refer to how it is here. <\/span><\/div>\n
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\nWhat do you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nWhat most people think of first when they hear Germany is the Oktoberfest, our annual beer festival. It takes place in Munich every September and yes, it’s big and very popular. There’s always a lot of visitors from all over the world, but locals enjoy it too. Oktoberfest is not only about beer (but it’s a big part). There’s also a lot of rollercoasters and basically, makes for a good and fun day out.  But the Oktoberfest isn’t the only thing we have.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Oktoberfest<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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\nOther celebrations include:<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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  • Germany is known for the great Christmas markets (Christkindlmarkt or Weihnachtsmarkt). <\/span><\/li>\n
  • Especially here in Bavaria (The state in the southern Germany where Munich lies), we have a Maibaum (Tree of May) which gets put up the first of May every five years.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
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    Tree of May<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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    \nA few landmarks: (We have loads, seriously, if you’re interested in that, read a tourist guide.)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    • Neuschwanstein is very very popular, built by the mad king Ludwig II and inspiration for the Disney Castle.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Rathaus M\u00fcnchen (Munich city hall)<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Brandenburger Tor, the Wall and the Fernsehturm (in Berlin) <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
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      \nTell me about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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      \nThere are so many places to see I can’t talk about them all. <\/span>The Alps are south of Munich. You can get there in about one hour, which means a lot of people use the weekends to go for walks in summer (or rock climbing our mountain biking for the really motivated ones) or for skiing and snowboarding in winter. Between Munich and the Alps there’s a lot of lakes which are nice for swimming or sailing. <\/span>Germany has a lot of old\/medieval towns and buildings. If you write about one specific place, make sure you do some research. Nothing easier than that with Google!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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      \nTell me about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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      \nGermans like to have big breakfasts. Bread, jam, muesli, same as everywhere else, but often there’s also cheese, ham, or sausages (what I personally don’t like).<\/span><\/div>\n
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      \nDinner in many families is no hot meal but “evening bread” (Abendbrot or Brotzeit in the south): bread wit<\/span>h sausages or ham or cheese, sometimes a salad or something to accompany. <\/span><\/div>\n
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      \nWe also have sweet dishes like pancakes or Germkn\u00f6del or Rice pudding or … which we don’t have for breakfast but actually as a meal.<\/span><\/div>\n
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      \nTell me about any different speech patterns in your country. Slang? Idioms? Words for things such as \u201cbiscuits\u201d instead of \u201ccookies\u201d?<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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      \nWe have a few dialects differing from region to region. People around where I live tend to speak a bit like Austrians, people around Stuttgart tend to speak a bit like Swiss people, then there’s the Berlin dialect, the Cologne dialect and so on. But everyone understands and speaks standard German.<\/span><\/div>\n
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