Language Learning & Technology
Vol. 7, No. 2, May 2003
LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN TELECOLLABORATION
APPENDIX A
E-mail 1 (October 19, 2000)
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Dear ERIC
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It was very interesting reading your homepage and getting to know you a little bit through it.
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This week it was the beginning of the semester and today our first class of English started.
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Here at the Justus- Liebig- University most of the classes are really crowded, like our English-
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class. You have a choice of signing up in a list during the summerbreak to make sure you get in
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the course of your choice, but my friend and I couldn't decide what courses to take until the last
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minutes, so we were not on that special entry list. Luckiely we got still accepted (about 15 people
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had to leave) and now we are here to introduce ourselves to you.
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Well, lets start with my friend.
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Her name is CATHARINA, called CATHARINA or from me OLGA. She is sitting right next to
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me. We are doing this project in team work, because firstly there weren't enough partners of
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yours to match with the number of students from us and secondly because we are such good pals
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that we usually try to do everything together.
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She is 21 years old, lives near Giessen in LA, yes seriously in LA - Langenaubach . It is quite a
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small village with about 2000 inhabitants and there is not much to do. That's why she mostly
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hangs out in the surrounding with friends, having fun, laughing, watching TV, doing some
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sports. She is now trying to convince me to tell you that she plays squash, well, I'm not really
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convinced, I guess she is rather trying to hide from the ball. JUST KIDDING
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CATHARINA is really good looking, always dressed in fancy cloth, but no skirts. Oh, she has
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something hardly anyone has, it's really cool!
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She sees everything twice, two boys instead of one, two bottles of Coke, not one, cool, eyh?!?
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I'm the typer for today, not that I'm better than her, with my two fingers search system of typing.
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My name is ANKE, I'm the same age as CATHARINA, 21 but we mostly kinda behave younger.
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We love to laugh, to giggle, to have fun - everywhere we go, so mostly we are the loudest out of
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class and the wildest on the street, the fastest in the car.
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…the loudest out of class… you asked us what we study. We both study Math and English to be
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a teacher on high-school and we are in the 3rd semester, that means the 2nd year.
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University is not that hard over here, we mostly enjoy it.
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Wir müssen jetzt in Deutsch weiterschreiben und sind leider noch nicht zum Verbessern unserer
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Fehler gekommen, da die Zeit schon rum ist.
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Sorry, das nächste Mal gibt es mehr in Deutsch.
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Nochmal zu mir, ich höre auch gerne Musik und versuche immer wieder verschiedene
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Musikinstrumente(Gitarre, Cello, Klavier) auszuprobieren und sonst habe ich wieder mit
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Kampfsport angefangen- Shotokan Karate, was ich schonmal mit 14 gemacht habe.
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(Now we have to continue writing in German and unfortunately we didn't get to correcting our
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mistakes because the time is up. Sorry, next time there'll be more in German. Back to me, I also
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like to listen to music and I'm always trying out different musical instruments (guitar, cello,
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piano) and otherwise I've taken up contact sports again - Shotokan karate, something that I did
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when I 14.)
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Ach, wir sollen ja noch einige Fehler von dir korrigieren, also uns ist nur ein grosser Fehler
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aufgefallen. In deiner Web-page hast du gleich am Anfang in einem Satz "weil's Manchmal"
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geschrieben, das gibt es in dieser Reihenfolge nicht, es heisst "aber manchmal" und du weißt
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bestimmt selbst, dass man im Deutschen in einem Satz nur Nomen, Substantive gross schreibt.
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Aber mach dir keine Sorgen, wir haben bestimmt auch viele Fehler gemacht.
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(Oh, we're supposed to correct some of your mistakes, so we noticed only one big mistake. On
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your web-page you wrote "weil's Manchmal" right at the beginning of a sentence, that doesn't
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occur in this order, it should be "aber manchmal" and you certainly know yourself that in
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German one only capitalizes nouns, nouns in a sentence. But don't worry, we certainly made a
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lot of mistakes, too.)
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Mehr das nächste Mal (more next time)
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Bis dann (until then)
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ANKE und CATHARINA
E-mail 2 (October 19, 2000)
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Hello ANKE und CATHARINA,
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It's nice to hear from you for the first time. I am glad you liked our home page, I spent a
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lot of time working on it! Your english is very impressive. My german is not nearly that good so
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you're probably gonna have a lot of errors to correct. I actually had a hard time finding many
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errors in your e-mail. I guess I will begin by correcting a few of your english errors.
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Error: "This week it was the beginning of the semester..."
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Correction: "This week was the beginning of the semester..."
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Error: "We both study Math and English to be a teacher on high-school..."
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Correction: "We both study Math and English to be high school teachers..."
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Jetzt werde ich einbisschen auf Deutsch sprechen. Habt ihr unsere ganzen Webseite gesehen? Es
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gibt viel Information ueber unsere Lebens und Uni. Habt ihr die Bilder von unsere ganzen
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Klasse gesehen? Es ist sehr nett. Es steht auf: http://language.la.psu.edu/ger201/Landkarte.html .
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Habt ihr Bilder von sich selbst oder die klasse? Vielleicht konnt ihr die Bilder an unsere Klass
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schauen. Du hast gesagt dass, CATHARINA spielt Squash. Was ist das? Ich weisst nicht ueber
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Squash oder was es ist. Es tut mir leid, aber die Seit fuer unsere Klasse ist um. So muss ich jetzt
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gehen.
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(Now I will speak [sic] a little in German. Did you see our whole website? There's a lot of
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information about our lives and the university. Did you see the pictures of our whole class? It is
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very nice. It is here: web address. Do you have pictures of yourself or the class? Maybe you
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could show the pictures to our class. You said that Catharina plays squash. What's that? I don't
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know anything about squash or what it is. I am sorry but the time for our class is over. So I have
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to go.)
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Spater, (Later)
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ERIC
E-mail 3 (October 26, 2000)
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Hey ERIC,
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we wrote such a long mail to you this morning, and then ANKE closed the
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program...
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She writes a new message now.
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I just wanted to correct your errors, but for doing this I have to read
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your email again.
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We will correct them next Thursday.
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Well, you don't know squash?!
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I explain it to you... But in German!
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Also, Squash ist ein Ballspiel mit einem Schläger... Squashschläger. Man
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ist in einem geschlossenen Raum und schlägt einen kleinen Ball gegen
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eine Wand. Er kommt dann immer wieder zurück... Man kann es entweder zu zweit
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oder allein spielen.
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(So, squash is a ball game with a raquet… a squash raquet. You are in an enclosed space and
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you hit aa small ball against a wall. It keeps coming back at you… You can play it as doubles or
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singles.)
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That's it.
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Ciao, bye, tschüss, CATHARINA
E-mail 4 (October 26, 2000)
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Hi ERIC,
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after having written you an e-mail for about 45 minutes the whole long
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letter just disappeared. :-( :-(
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In it we wanted to tell you about the student-party yesterday night but
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haven't had enough time to do so, so we didn't. (What a sentence!)
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Anyways, we got a task from our teacher, I guess you got the same:
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To talk about literature.
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Well, lets do so:
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I think it is kinda hard to express my thoughts to a peson from which I
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have
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only received just one letter. (I know it's no ones fault, we just have to
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little time).I don't really know how you think, what you think,... Usually
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I wouldn't tell kinda "strangers" my feelings, even if it is only about a
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book, because it is kinda personal.
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But well, we don't have any other choice, do we?
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We got two books from Mr. Müller-Hartmann last week: "Ben liebt Anna" and
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"If you come softly! to read through. First I read "Ben liebt Anna", it
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was really easy reading for me, because this book is mainly written for grade
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6 to 8ers.
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After starting "If you come softly", the title seemed quite interesting.
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Loooking through the book, I noticed that it can't be that hard either,
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because of the big letters in which it is written. Reading was as I
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thought, quite easy with no vocabulary problems, but still the book kinda
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hit/struck me.(But i didn't really get the title thing.)
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Compared to "Ben and Anna" I could really identify with the main
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characters, even I never had a problem with racial differences. (Here in Giessen
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aren't so many black/colored or whatever the political right declaration of
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people with black skin is, and the Turky and Russan people kinda already belong
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to us, so that in my group of friends no one would ever care if I had a "not
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German" boy-friend). You know, I used living in Canada as an exchange student and there I
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remembered the situation described in the book - falling in love for the
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first time. I was 15 saw the boy first time in high-school. I became a
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really weird feeling, nowing that I liked him, but not why - the same
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feeling the girl feels in the book,.... Exept we never made it that far. I
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only knew him for a few weeks, not much talking to eachother, but already
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knowing that I liked that person quite a lot. Than I went on a weekend
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trip to Edmonton and when I came back, Kyle had killed himself.
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I wonder what the book tries to tell you? For sure it tells you to think
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about racism and that people no matter of their skin color might have
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similar feelings anyway. But what does the end tries to tell you??
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For me, already influenced through that thing that happend in Canada can't
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really imagine of anything other than: try to live in the moment, tell
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people when you like them,...???
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What do you think?? And what does the title tell you?
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Well, back to "Ben liebt Anna", really cute, but thinking back I have
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never experienced anything like this in my childhood.
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Looking at the language, he really uses interesting expessions, even he
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comes from Hessen (it's a Bundesland, like Pensilvania) where I live and
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through this should use quite similar vocabulary.
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I think you really see that the book was written about 20 years ago.
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If you`d like any examples please tell me in your reply.
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Do you know any interesting English books, just for reading and thinking
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at home?
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Have you heared of "the celestrian prophecy", I really liked that book.
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Ich muss dir ja auch noch etwas in Deutsch schreiben, obwohl meine
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deutsche Schriftsprache am Computer meist schlechter ist als mein Englisch.
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Wir haben deinen Text gelesen und du hattest einige Fehler gemacht.
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CATHARINA verbessert sie dir in ihrer e-mail.
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Wenn ich eine ganze Zeit in Englisch gedacht habe, ist es total schwer für
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mich auf einmal in Deutsch weiter zu schreiben.
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Ach, da fällt mir ein, du wolltest wissen ob wir Fotos von uns haben.
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Momentan noch nicht, aber wir werden uns drumm kümmern. Du hast auch nach
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einem Klassenbild gefragt. Also, bei uns ist das keine Klasse, sondern
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eher ein Kurs. Wir kennen uns alle nicht, kommen aus verschiedenen Städten und
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sehen uns auch nur ein Mal in der Woche für so ca. 80 Minuten.
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Freundschaften werden da eher selten geschlossen, folglich gibt es auch
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kein Bild.
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(I still have to write you something in German, although my writing in German on the computer
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is typically worse than my English. We read your text and you made several mistakes. Catharina
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is going to correct them for you in her email. When I have thought in English for a while, it is
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totally hard for me to suddenly continue writing in German. Oh, it occurs to me that you wanted
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to know if we have pictures of ourselves. Right now we don't, but we'll take care of that. You also
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asked about a class picture. Well, our course isn't a class [NB: this is the German word for a
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group of pupils a the elementary or secondary level. Unwittingly, Eric uses it to refer to the
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group of people in his university course, causing some confusion here.], but rather a course. We
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don't know each other, we are from different cities and we see each other only once a week for
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80 minutes. We seldom make friends [with people in our university course], therefore there is
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also no [class] picture.)
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So unten auf der Seite kommt noch eine kleine Auflistung über meine
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Person, die ich mal von einer Freundin (über sie) zum Zurücksenden bekommen habe,
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kannst sie wenn du Zeit has mir auch zurücksenden mit Angaben über dich.
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(Below you'll find a little list of information about me, that I once got from a friend to fill out and
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send back to her, if you have time you can also fill it out with information about you and send it
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back to me.)
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>NAME: ANKE
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>
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>AGE: 21
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>LIVING ARRANGEMENT: mum, dad, sis and my dog Alfi
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>FAVORITE TV SHOW: Commedy
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>FAVORITE BOARDGAME: its a card game: Skat
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>FAMORITE SMELLS: coffee, my boyfriend (when I have one)
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>PERFUME/COLOGNE: cool waters by Davidoff and ... ... by Adidas
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>WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD: Lonliness, fear
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>BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD: When you fall in love, to arrive in
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Canada
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>FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK:Hip Hop (right now)
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>WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK WHEN YOU WAKE IN THE MORNING?
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What's the
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>time?
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>ROLLAR COASTER - SCARY OR EXCITING? The more scary the more exciting as
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>long as I don't get sick on them.
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>HOW MANY KIDS: 0
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>FUTURE DAUGHTERS NAME:??? might call her "Kyle" as well?? FUTURE SONS NAME:
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>Kyle
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>FAVORITE FOODS:it really depends on my mood CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?
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>Chocolate all the way
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>DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE? I DO!!!!!
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>DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? No
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>STORMS SCARY OR COOL? Cool, it whisles around my house (I live 30m off the
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>ground) WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? GM- Opel Senator, 1989 with 100ps
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>IF YOU COULD MEET ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE? J. F. Kennedy
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>FAVORIT ALCHOLIC DRINK? None
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>WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN? Cancer
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>WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE POET? I don't have one (No Fear poems)
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>DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCOLLI? yep
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>IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED WHAT WOULD IT BE? Scientist or a
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cop
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>IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR WHAT WOULD IT BE? I can, but I don't
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>want to HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? I think so
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>IS THE GLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL? Half full :-) depends on what it's
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>in the glass
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>FAVORITE MOVIE(S):The Crow, Pulp Fiction, Eiskalte Engel ARE YOU A RIGHTY,
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>LEFTY OR AMIBIODEXTROUS? Lefty
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>DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? I try
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>WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Blankets
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>FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? HOCKEY and Material Arts
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>BEST VACATION: what does it mean? Like holidays? Canada
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>PLACE üOU MOST WANT TO VISIT: after being a stuardess (visited lots of
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>places) maybe Japan, Thailand,Laos SAY ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO
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>SENT THIS TO YOU: I miss our parties from 1995/96 and the summer of 99 (
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>Cowboy, cars and guys)
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Used to be my host sister
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>PERSON YOU SENT THIS TO WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND: I'm not even sure
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>whome I'm going to send this to
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>PERSON YOU SENT THIS TO LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND: Frank, cause he doesn't
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>like things like this.(quite good friend of mine)
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>
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>
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>Now you know a bit more about me and my interests. Hope you liked it.
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Take care
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Hope to here from you soon
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ANKE
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P.S. You can also use my hotmail adress to send me any other e-mails
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Are you interested in some funny forwarded e-mail-junk :-) like pictures
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or jokes??
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>
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>
E-mail 5 (October 26, 2000)
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Hey ANKE and CATHARINA,
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Wow! that was a really long letter you sent me ANKE. And the profile was very interesting. I
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will try and fill that out for myself and send it back to you so you can know a little more about
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me. Perhaps then it will be easier for us to discuss our personal feelings about the books we read
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since you'll get to know me a little better.
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One mistake that i noticed you made in translating was when you said "political right." I
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understood what you meant, but in English this term is "politically correct." Wie sagt man das
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wort auf Deutsch? (How do you say that word in German?)
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CATHARINA... Danke fuer ihre erklaren von Squash. Es klingt wie ein sehr spass Spiel.
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(Catharina… thank you for your explanation about squash. It sounds like a really fun game.)
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OK, jetzt soll ich ein bisschen ueber "Ben liebt Anna" und "if you come softly" sprechen. Ich
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meine dass "if you come softly" zu kontrovers fuer kleine kinder ist. Als ich ein kleine Kind
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war, habe ich keine kontrovers Maerchen gelesen. Ich war zu jung zu die Konzepte verstehen.
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Aber jetzt koennte ich sie verstehen. Ich meine dass "if you come softly" ist nicht ein typisch
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american Maerchen, es ist zu kontrovers. Ich finde "ben liebt anna" sehr interessant. Es war ein
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bisschen schwer fuer mich zu lesen, weil ich viel woerter in dem Worterbuch finden um zu
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verstehen.
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(OK, now I should speak a litte bit about "Ben loves Anna" and "if you come softly". I think that
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"if you come softly" is too controversial for little kids. When I was a child, I didn't read any
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controversial fairy tales [sic]. I was too young to understand the concepts. But now I can
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understand them. I think that "if you come softly" is not a typical american fairy tale [sic]
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because it is too controversial. I think that "ben loves anna" is very interesting. It was a little bit
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difficult for me to read because I had to find a lot of words in the dictionary in order to
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understand it.)
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Es tut mir leid, aber die zeit ist um fuer meine Klasse. (I am sorry but the time for our class is
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over.)
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spater, (later)
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ERIC
E-mail 6 (October 30, 2000)
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Hi ERIC,
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well we were told to write eachother at least twice a week, so here is my
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second letter to you.
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First an apollogy (please don't mind my spelling problems).Sorry, haven't
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had any time to look for an apropriate picture, but I'll keep on
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looking.
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So I think I have written enough about the two books (not really-SMILE)
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so I'll continue to tell you something about my life and through this about
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Germany. The weekend was great. I don't really know how "real students" spent their
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time at weekends, probably learning,drinking, smoking and such, but I'm
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not a typical person. Neither a typical girl (I know how to drive my car and
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how to repair things or built a garden house), nor a typical student (not
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drinking or smoking, hanging out with different people).
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Anyway, Friday I spent with a friend of mine at the movies. Have you seen
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the movie "Shaft" (I belive it was in your theatres probably in February).
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I think the movie was pretty good for an action movie, they never have a
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story or a plot, neither had Shaft, but it had lots of action and thats why I
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watch these kind of movies. Well it had a small story line, the color
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problems, doesn't it remember me of something??? AHH year, the books I
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read. (SMILE)
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What kind of movies do you like? I loved Pulp Fiction, when I was younger
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I liked "the crow" and now my favourite movie is "Eiskalte Engel" and
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"Matrix" well "Blade" was good too, hmm and "8mm".It's not that I only watch
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movies, but with friends it is a not expensive, warm and coasy thing to do. Going
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to movies is pretty expensive in Germany. It costs about 7$ per person.
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Anyway after the movie we went home to my place and looked at pictures I
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made during my visit in Canada and my job as a stuardess. At my house it
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is no problem to bring boys over, my parents really trust me. They even want
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me to bring them over so they know with what kinda people I hang out.
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In Canada I experienced something totally different. My host parents
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slogen was: NO BOYS IN THE HOUSE. They didn't want to be responsible for any
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thing that could happen between boys and girls. They didn't minded me having
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boys as friends, but when they came over only in the living room with an open
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door. It was new for me, cause my parents never had any problems with me
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and a guy in my room with a closed or even locked door. (They even told me
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sometimes to better lock the door, because of my nosy little foster
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brothers that time).
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In Canada I have heared of many family handling the boy-girl thing as my
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host parents did, what about the US? Are your parents cool with these kind
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of things or scared??
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Back to my weekend. Saturday I cooked supper with another friend of mine
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at home, was lots of fun, except the eating part. Didn't taste that
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delicouse. After we met a boy I got to know in hospital ( last November I fell down a
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wall (6m) and broke my pelvis as well as my right arm twice). Anyways that
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boy lost his leg in a motorcicle crash. We three met and had a real good
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time driving around Giessen, listening to very loud techno and hiphop
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music talking and singing. We found a nice playground to hang out a bit, taking
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more and acting foolish! wow, we had a blast.
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I see you can notice that I really don't like to do normal stuff every
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day. I don't have a problem goiing in a pub, but not every day!! Well I don't
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drink at all, that makes me very different here in Germany. So many young
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people see this as their weekend activity.
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Not only drinking, many of my former friends started doing drugs as well.
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I think that is really sad. Drugs as the meaning of your life??? Not my
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meaning. Sunday I visited my cousine near Heidelberg, a really beautiful city
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around 230km south from Giessen. He taught me how to play guitare.
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Well gota go
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Hope you enjoy reading my letters
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ANKE
E-mail 7 (October 31, 2000)
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Hey ANKE and CATHARINA,
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Thanks for writing me. I would like to reply to all the questions you've asked in your e-mails, but
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first I have to write about the stuff that we are reqquired to talk about.
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Meine Lehrerin meint dass "Disney hat das deutsche Kulturgut gestohlen, als er die verschiedene
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Märchen wie Aschenputtel und Schneewittchen verfilmt hat." Was meinst du ueber diese Idee?
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Weisst du ueber Disney und was es ist und was es macht? Ich glaube dass Disney die Maerchen
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gestohlen hat und politisch korrekt gemacht. Aber in den USA sind politisch falsch Maerchen
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nicht akkzeptiert. Vielleicht ist es eine kulturelle Reflexion von den USA dass wir nicht so viel
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Kontrovers Maerchen haben.
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(My teacher thinks that Disney has stolen German 'cultural goods', when he filmed different fairy
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tales like Cinderella and Snow White. What do you think about this idea? Do you know about
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Disney and what it is and what it does? I think that Disney stole the fairy tales and made them
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politically correct. But in the USA politically incorrect fairy tales are not acceptable. Maybe it is
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a cultural reflection of the USA that we don't have too many controversial fairy tales.)
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Aschenputtel von Grimm ist viel gewalttätiger als Cinderella von Disney. Es ist so weil
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Disney nicht möchten , dass die Kinder Gewaltätigkeit sehen. Disney ist nicht unvereinbar, weil
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sie gleichbleibend ist. Disney fuordert "Mortal Kombat" und "Pokemon" und verschiedene
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gewalttätiger dinge nicht, weil sie zu viel Gewalt hat. Was meinst du ueber alle diese dinge?
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(Cinderella by Grimm is much more violent than Cinderella by Disney. It is so because Disney
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doesn't want children to see violence. Disney is not [?] because she is consistent. Disney does
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not promote "Mortal Kombat" and "Pokemon" und different more violent things because they
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have too much violence. What do you think about all these things?)
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I think it's really amusing that the racial problems in the movie "Shaft" reminded you of
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the racial problems in "if you come softly." That's very perceptive of you. :) Unfortunately i
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havent seen that movie yet, but i want to. I also liked "the matrix" very much. When you see all
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of these american movies, are they translated into german? or do they have subtitles? or are they
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just in english? I am curious to know about that. I did see "the crow" a long time ago, however i
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didnt like it very much.
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So deine lieblingsfilme ist "Eiskalte Engel"? Was ist das? Ich weisst nicht ueber es. Ist es
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ein amerikanische Film oder deutsch? Ins Kino gehen ist einbisschen teuer in den USA auch. Es
35
kostet ungefähr $7 hier auch. Hast du deutsche Filme gern? oder nuer amerikanische Filme?
36
Ich muss jetzt gehen.
37
(So your favorite movie is "Eiskalte Engel"? What is that? I don't know about it. Is it an
38
american film or german? Do you like German films? Or only american films? I must go now.)
39
40
wiedersehen, (good-bye)
41
--ERIC
E-mail 8 (November 2, 2000)
1
Hi ERIC,
2
3
zuerst möchten wir Deine Fragen beantworten:
4
(first we would like to answer your questions:)
5
Die Übersetzung von "politically correct" ist "politisch korrekt".
6
(1.) The translation of "politically correct" is "politisch korrekt".)
7
Du hast das Buch "If you come softly" ein Märchen genannt, wir würden es eher eine
8
Geschichte (story and not fairy-tale) nennen.
9
(2.) You called the book "If you come softly" a fairy tale, we would probably call it a story (story
10
and not fairy-tale).)
11
Ob Disney dt. Kulturgut gestohlen hat? Also ANKE und ich sind da nicht so kleinlich. Wenn
12
jemand ein schönes Buch, Märchen oder Schriftstück liest und dies gerne verfilmen möchte,
13
finden wir, dass er es tun soll. Disney hat dem Märchen ja auch einen anderen Namen
14
gegeben, und somit gezeigt, dass es amerikanisiert worden ist.
15
(3.) Whether or not Disney has stolen German 'cultural goods'? In this respect Anke and I are
16
not so small-minded, if someone reads a beautiful book, a fairy tale or a story, and would like to
17
film this, we think that he should do it. After all, Disney gave the fairy tale a different name and
18
thereby indicated that it has been americanized.)
19
Was ist Disney? Vielleicht kannst Du uns darüber genauer aufklären, bis jetzt dachten wir,
20
dass Disney früher eine Privatperson war und jetzt zu einem wirtschaftlichen Konzern
21
geworden ist. Stimmt das?
22
(4.) What is Disney? Maybe you can clarify that more precisely for us, until now we thought that
23
Disney used to be an individual and has now become a company. Is that right?)
24
Wir sind an unsere Märchen gewöhnt und wir halten die "Gewalt" irgendwie für normal. Sie
25
rückt die Märchen ein bisschen weiter in die Realität. Wir finden es in Ordnung, wenn
26
Kinder Märchen zum Einschlafen erzählt bekommen, denn sie lassen die Kinder über das
27
Gute und Böse in der Welt nachdenken.
28
(5.) We are used to our fairy tales and we think that the "violence" is somehow normal. It makes
29
the fairy tale a little bit more realistic. We think that it's ok, if children are read fairy tales at
30
bedtime because they make kids think about good and evil in the world.)
31
6.) As you wrote only politically correct fairy-tales exist in America. We think this is also okay.
32
To show children a "beautiful world with no crime in it" is a very nice thing to do, especially
33
living in parts of America where the real world seems like the german fairy-tales.
34
7.) We wonder wether you personally think the same about German fairy-tales, or if just your
35
teacher told you to write so, because almost everybody from your class did so.
36
8.) You asked us wether American movies get translated into German.
37
Yes, they get translated. We never have subtitles but because of the American soldiers living in
38
Germany, we have a few cinemas which show movies in their original language.
39
9.) The English name for "Eiskalte Engel" is "Cruel Intensions".
40
10.) Now we correct some of your errors:
41
Fehler (mistake): Es klingt wie ein sehr spass Spiel.
42
Verbesserung (correction): Das Spiel scheint sehr viel Spass zu machen.
43
Es klingt wie ein sehr spassiges Spiel
44
45
Fehler (mistake): spater
46
Verbesserung (correction): Bis später
47
48
Looking forward to hear from you.
49
50
CATHARINA and ANKE
E-mail 9 (November 2, 2000)
1
Dear ERIC,
2
3
we just read the parts from Ben libet Anna that your teacher put into the net. Wow, they are so
4
different and we think it really changed important messages through the politically right
5
translation.
6
Why can't kids swim naked in America?
7
Deutsche Kinder sind schlauer, die wissen, dass man in nassen Sachen später friert.
8
(German children are smarter, they know, that later on one will freeze in wet clothes.)
9
Why isn't it allowed for kids to hug each other and feel each other's warmth?
10
In Deutschland dürfen sich kleine und auch grössere Kinder umarmen und Küsschen geben, das
11
ist etwas Normales in unserer Gesellschaft und auch für Kinder sehr schön.
12
(In Germany young and also older children may hug one another and give each other a little
13
kiss, that is something normal in our society and also very nice for children.)
14
15
Well time is over
16
We got to go
17
18
Bye Bye
19
ANKE and CATHARINA
E-mail 10 (November 2, 2000)
1
Hey ANKE und CATHARINA,
2
I'm really not surprised to hear that your school doesn't have much school spirit. Perhaps
3
school spirit is more of an american kind of thing. However, you do still have a great deal of
4
spirit for your sports teams in germany like soccer teams for example. Atleast this is how it
5
seems from what I've seen on TV. Perhaps you even have more "spirit" for your soccer teams
6
than we have for our sports in America.
7
8
Anyway, now I'll address a few of your questions from your "Cinderella" e-mail:
9
10
Ich stimme zu mit dir ueber Disney und die Maerchen. Ihr sagte: "Wenn jemand ein
11
schönes Buch, Märchen oder Schriftstück liest und dies gerne verfilmen möchte, finden wir, dass
12
er es tun soll. Disney hat dem Märchen ja auch einen anderen Namen gegeben, und somit
13
gezeigt, dass es amerikanisiert worden ist."
14
(I agree with you about Disney and fairy tales. You said: "If someone reads a beautiful book,
15
fairy tale or a story and would like to film this, we think that he should do it. . After all, Disney
16
gave the fairy tale a different name and thereby indicated that it has been americanized.")
17
18
I'm not sure how to say this expression in german, but in english when i agree like this i would
19
say "I couldn't have said it better myself." Perhaps you do have a phrase like that in german? if
20
so what is it?
21
22
Ihr willt mir einbisschen ueber Disney aufklären. Ihr habt rechts dass Disney war ein
23
Mann aber jetzt ist es ein wirtschaftlichen Konzern. Vielleicht ist es ein kontrovers Konzern,
24
weil es viel Maerchen gestohlen hat. Und viele Leute meinen dass Disney nicht morale ist, aber
25
ich finde das nicht. Disney ist ein sehr wichtig Teil von der amerikanische Kultur.
26
(You want me to explain a little bit about Germany. You are right that Disney was a man but now
27
it is a company. Maybe it is a controversial company, because it has stolen many fairy tales. And
28
many people think that Disney is not moral, but I don't think so. Disney is a very important part
29
of American culture.)
30
31
You asked what i thought about the german fairy tales and how politically correct they
32
are. Of the fairy tales that i have read they are all more realistic than politically correct, but
33
perhaps in germany that is what it means to be politically correct. Here in the USA everyone is
34
very sensative and easily offended so companies like Disney have to be very careful to make
35
their stories politically correct or they will be criticized.
36
37
Bis später (see you later)
38
--ERIC
E-mail 11 (November 9, 2000)
1
Hi ERIC,
2
3
Am Montag abend hat uns unser Prof eine andere Version von Cinderella gezeigt. Der Film hieß
4
"Ever after", und wir gehen davon aud, dass Du ihn auch schon gesehen hast. Für mich und
5
ANKE war es schwer, politisch nicht korrekte Stellen zu finden. Wir fanden den Film sehr
6
"amerikanisch". Jedoch merkte man, dass der Film nicht so alt sein kann, da die
7
Hauptdarstellerin sich nicht "unterbuttern" lassen hat, auf ihre Rechte bestanden hat und sich
8
selbst beschützt hat. Sowas sehen wir als moderne politische Korrektheit.
9
(On Monday evening our prof showed us another version of Cinderella. The movie was called
10
"Ever after" and we're assuming that you have seen it, too. For me and Anke it was difficult to
11
find politically correct spots [in the movie]. We found the movie to be very 'American'. However,
12
one could tell that the film can't be that old because the leading actress didn't let herself …, she
13
stood up for her right and she … We see this as modern political correctness.)
14
15
We think that emancipation is very difficult. Women were surpressed for a very long time. Now,
16
they want to be treated like men, but they are still women. It is a very hard subject to talk about
17
and it is easy to be misunderstood. We think everybody, no matter what race, culture or gender,
18
should be respected for what he/she is - human and not be harrased. But still there are
19
differences and that is good. We were not made for physical labour - you were not made to be
20
pregnant.
21
Anyway I hope you understand what we mean.
22
23
Have you seen the video some white police men made harrasing black people. It was on the news
24
in Germany yesterday. They let dogs bite blacks and when they were crying on the ground they
25
just kicked them again and again.
26
Wir denken, daran kann man sehen, dass es eigentlich egal ist, ob ein Land seine Märchen
27
politisch korrekt oder realistisch oder wie auch immer erzählt. Nicht die Märchen lassen
28
Menschen so etwas tun, es ist die Gesellschaft um sie herum.
29
All diese politisch Korrektheit wirkt "wie ein Tropfen auf einen heissen Stein" und hat eigentlich
30
keine Auswirkung.
31
(We think that this incident shows that it really doesn't matter if a country tells its fairy tales in a
32
politically correct fashion, realistically or however. It's not the fairy tales that make people do
33
something like that, it's the society around them. All of this political correctness is just a drop in
34
the ocean and really has no effect.)
35
36
We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
37
Eine wörtliche Übersetzung hat noch den gleichen Inhalt. (A literal translation has the same
38
meaning.)
39
40
"Ihr willt mir einbisschen über Disney aufklären."
41
Ich werde Euch über Disney aufklären. (I will explain Disney to you.)
42
43
Bis später, (see you later)
44
ANKE + CATHARINA
E-mail 12 (November 9, 2000)
1
Hello ANKE + CATHARINA,
2
3
Ich habe "Ever After" auch gesehen. Es gefaellt mir weil es sehr gut Musik Hat. Ausser dem
4
politische Korrektheit, was denkst du ueber den Film? Gefaellt es du oder nicht? warum? Ich
5
verstehe deine Gefuehle ueber Manner und Frau und Gleichheit (equality). Ich stimme mit dir.
6
Manner und Frauen und alle sind gleich (equal) und muss die selbe die Grundrechte haben.
7
(I have also seen "Ever After". I liked it because it had good music. Aside for the political
8
correctness, what do you think about the movie? Did you like it or not? Why? I understand your
9
feelings about men and woman and equality (equality). I agree with you. Men and women are all
10
equal(equal) and must have the same basic rights.)
11
Although everyone is not the same person, they are all still created equal and have equal rights.
12
13
I am curious, what is the german cultural translation of the word "equal" or "equality" in this
14
context? I assume the word gleich isn't necessarily correct.
15
16
Ich habe den Film mit der weisse Polizei und der Schwarze und der Hund gesehen. Ich weiss
17
nicht so viel ueber es und was ist passiert. Vielleicht die Polizei sind rassist oder nicht. Wenn
18
sie beunruhigen alle und nicht nur die Schwarze, sind sie nicht racist aber dann sind sie schlechte
19
Polizei. Wenn sie nur die Schwarze beunruhigen dann sind she rassist. Alle Polizei sollen
20
niemann beunruhigen.
21
(I have seen the film [sic] with the white police and the black man and the dog. I don't know so
22
much about it and what happened. Maybe the police are racist or not. If they harass everyone
23
and not only blacks then they are not racist they are just bad police. When they only harass
24
blacks, then they are racist. All police shouldn't harass anyone.)
25
26
Hast du ueber die amerikanischen Presidential Election gehort? Ich sehe es sehr viel im Fern,
27
aber jetzt haben wir keine Erfolg. Es gibt sehr viel Ungewissheit in America von dieses Wahl.
28
Hast du viel Nachrichten ueber es in Deutschland? Was meinst du?
29
(Did you hear about the American presidential election? I am watching it all the time on TV, but
30
now we have no success [sic; he probably means 'results']. There is much uncertainty in
31
American from this election. Do you have much news about it in Germany? What do you think?)
32
33
Aufwiedersehen (good-bye),
34
--ERIC
E-mail 13 (November 13, 2000)
1
Hello ANKE und (and) CATHARINA,
2
In diesen Briefe werde ich ueber die zwei Filme "Nach fuenf im Urwald" und "American
3
Beauty." Meiner Meinung nach beide sehr gut sind aber "American Beauty" gefaellt mir viel
4
besser. Welche Filme hast du besser gefunden? und warum?
5
(In this letter I will [talk] about the two movies "It's a jungle out there" and "American
6
Beauty". In my opinion both of them were very good, but I like "American Beauty" much better.
7
Which films [sic] did you like better? And why?)
8
Beide Filme haben vieles gemeinsam. Zum Beispiel einige Themen wie: Familie
9
Probleme, aufwachsen, erste Liebe, Elternschaft, und Fröhlichkeit. Diese Ideen sind nur meinr
10
Meinung, stimmst du zu? Welche Themen findest du in beide Filme?
11
(Both films have a lot in common. For example several topics like: family problems,
12
growing up, first love, parenthood, and happiness. These ideas are just my opinion, do you
13
agree? Which themes do you find in both films?)
14
Ich finde, dass "American Beauty" viel mehr Themen als "Nach fuenf im Urwald" hat.
15
Zum Beispiel einige Themen in "American Beauty" sind: Sexualität, Schönheit, was normal ist,
16
Heirat, und genießen im Leben. Diese Themen machen "American Beauty" einen komplexen
17
Film. Findest du den Film schwer oder einfach zu verstehen?
18
(I think that "American Beauty" has a lot more themes that "It's a jungle out there"does.
19
For example several themes in "American Beauty" are: sexuality, beauty, what is normal,
20
marriage, and enjoyment in life. These themes make "American Beauty" a complex movie. Do
21
you find the movie difficult or easy to understand?)
22
Ich kann eine wichtige Quotierung von "American Beauty"nicht vergessen. Es ist "Today
23
is the first day of the rest of your life."
24
(I cannot forget an important quote from "American Beauty". It is "Today is the first day
25
of the rest of your life.")
26
27
That quotation sounds kind of silly but actually when you think about it, it is true. I think it has to
28
do with the theme of enjoying life and being happy because you should live every day like it's
29
going to be the last day of your life. That's what Lester Burnam does in the film. I was very
30
surprised that despite all of the things going wrong in his life, he remained a very happy and
31
loving person.
32
33
In "American Beauty" war die Rolle der Jane ein Bisschen wie die Anna in "Nach fuenf im
34
Urwald." Sie sind das gleiche Alter und haben probleme mit Liebe und Familie. Am Ende
35
"Nach fuenf im Urwald" sind Annas Problema mit familie gelöst aber das geht nicht fuer Jane
36
am Ende "American Beauty".
37
(In "American Beauty" the role of Jane was a little bit like Anna in "It's a jungle out
38
there". They are the same age and have problems with love and family. At the end of "It's a
39
jungle out there" Anna's problems with her family are solved but that's not the case for Jane at
40
the end of "American Beauty".)
41
42
Bitte erzaehlst was du ueber diese zwei Filme denkst...
43
(Please tell me what youthink about these two movies…)
44
45
Bis spaeter, (see you later)
46
ERIC
E-mail 14 (ANKE to Eric; November 16, 2000)
1
…well we will write you as well a few thoughts about the movie “nach 5 im Urwald”. We didn’t
2
like that movie either. We think we do not need to watch people using drugs on TV. We are very
3
strict against any of this. We think movies are supposed to make you laugh, to forget a bit af
4
reality, to make you sad or whatever, but not to show you that drugs are something normal, that’s
5
running away is cool and o.k. We think IT IS NOT.
6
And we think we do not apprechiate watching movies or reading books in which the problems of
7
society get presented as something normal! Do you think so too??? Anyway, I’d rather watch a
8
political correct Cinderella than any of this movies!
9
Thorugh media it is possible to influence people, why do they get influenced in the wrong
10
direction???
11
Well hope you can tell us your thoughts about that matter…
E-mail 15 (CATHARINA to ERIC; November 16, 2000)
1
…Anke mailt Dir heute auf Englisch und ich auf Deutsch. Wie geht’s Dir denn? Wir sitzen hier
2
gerade im Computerraum und sind im Internet. Du hast den Film „American Beauty“ doch
3
bestimmt auch gesehen, oder? Wir sollen dir nämlich heute darüber schrieben.
4
(Today Anke is writing to you in English and I am writing in German. How are you doing? We're
5
sitting here in the computer room and we're online. For sure, you've also seen the film
6
"American Beauty", haven't you? We're supposed to write to you about it today.)
7
Also, wir fanden den Film ein bisschen lächerlich, da sich ein erwachsener Mann wie ein
8
Teenager aufgeführt hat. Aber wir fanden es schön, wie sich sie Beziehung von der
9
Hauptdarstellerin und ihrem Nachbarn entwickelt hat. Meinst du, das sich ein erwachsener Mann
10
wirklich in so ein junges Mädchen verlieben kann? Sie war ja so alt wie seine
11
Tochter...Außerdem ist der Vater von dem Nachbarn etwas komisch, zuerst denkt er, sein Sohn
12
sei schwul, dann will er einen anderen Mann küssen.
13
(Well, we thought the movie was a little bit ridiculous, because a grown man acted like a
14
teenager. But we really liked how therelationship between the leading actress and her neighbor
15
developed. Do you think that a grown man could really fall in love with such a young girl? After
16
all, she was as old as his daughter…the father of the neighbor was also a little bit funny, at first
17
he thinks that his son is gay, then he wants to kiss another man.)
18
Irgendwie alles ein bisschen komisch. Und die Drogen dürfen natürlich auch in diesem Film
19
nicht fehlen... Na ja, wir denken nicht, dass dieser Film so sehr der Realität entspricht oder was
20
meinst Du?.....
21
(Somehow everything is a little bit funny. And, of course, the drugs can't be left out in this movie
22
either…in any case, we don't think that this film corresponds to reality all that much or what do
23
you think?…)
E-mail 16 (November 20, 2000)
1
Hi ERIC,
2
3
we did write you a letter last thirsday, did you receive it? We wrote it from our privat mail
4
system.
5
Anyway we did wrote you one letter in German, one in English that we both didn't like any of
6
the two movies. They were boring and they were full of drug abuse.
7
I can't take anyone serious who is a pot smoker or an alkoholic.
8
Well they spoke about sexuality and life and so one but in such a boring way. We cann ot
9
understand you acctually liked American Beauty. It was so hard for me watching it to the end as
10
well as for CATHARINA.
11
We think there are better ways to present themes like love, parent-kids problems and so on as in
12
this movies described.
13
By the way, we think it is sad that you only write us about the thinks the teachers tells you to.
14
Are you interested in us or only on your mark you will receive at the end of the year. We have
15
heard that your course it four times a week. Don't you have time to write us anything personal?
16
Wir würden gern mehr über dich erfahren. Wie du lebst, wie deine Eltern sind, was du isst, was
17
du an Kleidungsstücken trägst, warum du den Film American Beatuy magst. Verstehst du das?
18
Sonst wird unsere Komunikation total langweilig. CATHARINA und ich haben diesen Kurs
19
gewählt um eine Person in America kennenzulerenen und nicht nur seine Ansichten über die
20
Fragen seiner Lehrer.
21
(We would like to learn more about you. How you live, what your parents are like, what you eat,
22
what kind of clothes you wear, why you like the movie American Beauty. Do you understand
23
that?Otherwise our communication will be totally boring. Catharina and I chose this course in
24
order to get to know a person in America and not only to learn his opinions about the questions
25
his teachers ask.)
26
Es würde uns freuen wenn du mal etwas über dich erzählst.
27
(We'd really like it if you could tell us something about yourself.)
28
29
Bis dahin (until then)
30
Ciao ANKE und CATHARINA
E-mail 17 (November 23, 2000)
1
Hi ERIC,
2
3
wir fanden es sehr schön, dass ihr eine Gliederung mit einer Arbeitsaufteilung ins Netz gegeben
4
habt.
5
Wir stimmen mit euch überein und werden die Woche über unsere Aufgaben bearbeiten. Wir
6
haben beschlossen, die Einleitung und den Schluss ganz in Deutsch und den Hauptteil ganz
7
in Englisch zu schreiben.
8
Weiterhin werden wir die Con-arguments direkt nach den pro-arguments aufführen.
9
For Example: II B .... Janet und Anna sind fröhlicher als die Frauen aus dem Fernsehen.... (pro)
10
....Sie benehmen sich aber nicht altersentsprechend.... (con)
11
We would very appreciate you doing the same.
12
(we thought that it was really nice, that you all posted an outline of the essay with a division of
13
labor in the Internet. We agree with you all and will work on our tasks in the course of the week.
14
We have decided to write the introduction and the conclusion completely in German and to write
15
the body of the essay in English. Furthermore, will we put the contra-arguments directly and the
16
pro-arguments. For example: II B …. Janet and Anna are happier that the women on
17
TV….(pro)….However, they don’t behave appropriately for their age….(con)
18
We would very much appreciate you doing the same.)
19
Falls ihr Hilfe mit eurem Deutsch braucht, schreibt eure Fragen bitte auf unsere Privat e-mail-
20
Adresse xxx@xxx oder
21
yyy@yyy Wir helfen euch gerne und hoffen, dass ihr unsere Fehler auch verbessert.
22
Ihr habt in eurer Gliederung einen Fehler gemacht:
23
Es heisst nicht: auf dem Fern
24
Richtig: aus dem Fernsehen
25
26
Vielleicht könnt ihr das verbessern.
27
(In case you need help with your German, please send your questions to our private email
28
address xxx@xxx or yyy@yyy We’ll be gald to help you and hope that you also correct our
29
mistakes.
30
You made a mistake in your outline:
31
It’s not: auf fem Fern
32
Correct: aus dem Fernsehen
33
34
Maybe you could correct that.)
35
36
Since CATHARINA and I don't have any access to first class it might take us until next week to
37
write a reply to you. We hope you can understand that. Hopefully you do agree with our
38
arguments and theses and we will do this project as a real team.
39
40
Wir müssen uns noch über den 2. Teil des Projektes Gedanken machen. Wir sind da auch mit
41
eurer Aufteilung und Aufgabenstellung einverstanden. Wir werden euch unsere Einstellungen
42
über Amerika schreiben. Ihr werdet uns antworten und Thesen richtig stellen, the same for us.
43
(We still have to think about the second part of the project. For this part we also agree with your
44
division [of labor] and the task. We will tell you our perceptions of America. You will answer us
45
and correct the theses, the same for us.) You will send us your thoughts about Germany, our
46
culture, boys, girls, racism, family, identity,... and we will answer you how things really are.
47
Okay?
48
So see you next class.
49
Have fun.
50
51
ANKE and CATHARINA
E-mail 18 (November 30, 2000)
1
Dear ERIC,
2
3
we are not very much impressed with your work!!
4
It is not possible to give us an outline to work on and then suddenly change it after a week.
5
You know as CATHARINA and I wrote you we don't have access to the conmputers from at
6
home and not to first class.
7
We think you don't do any partner work with Germany at all. You do have our privat e-mail
8
adresses and you could have send us a notice of this change right away!
9
We worked over 4 hours on our excepts, and dear ERIC, we do not have class every day so we
10
work on it on our spare time.
11
Actually we wrote you, if you have any problems with our work, it is your responsibility to
12
change it. You made the outline and we took your word that it is going to be as you wrote it.
13
As to your outline, as you have noticed we wrote the Schlüsse (conclusions) in German and we
14
are not going to rewrite them in English. If you really need them in English to get a better mark,
15
please do so and change them by yourself, we are happy with them being in German.
16
Further more under point 3 Neudarstellung (new representation) you didn't put a name. Or is
17
this excerpt not even the last and you are planing to change it again??????
18
Well we wrote something for point III but in English, cause our Schlüsse (conclusions) are in
19
German. If you have a problem with this either please feel free to translate them in German.
20
As well ERIC, we thought we were supposed writing each other at leased twice a week, we were
21
interested in your life and thoughts, but we noticed that you don't seem very interested in
22
anything of us. It is a pity, we had fun on this project, but only with only getting few mails from
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you and no private ones at all we don't think that it can do any good for our language or for our
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cultural exchange. We need to read some letters from you to get a picture of the part of America
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where you are living in, and ERIC, if this is too much for you, you might have thought about it
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before taking that course.
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A waiting your favourable reply to your earliest conveinience
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Have a nice day
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ANKE and CATHARINA
E-mail 19 (December 7, 2000)
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Hallo ERIC,
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wir wollten dir noch einen kurzen Brief schreiben und sagen, dass uns die Web-Page sehr gut
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gefallen hat. Es war schön mit euch zusammenzuarbeiten. Vielleicht lässt du ja nochmal was von
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dir hören...
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(Hello Eric,
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we just wanted to send you a short letter and say that we like the web page very much. It was
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nice to work with you. Maybe you’ll drop us a line sometime…)
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Have a nice day.
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ANKE + CATHARINA
