Living in a German family

I believe that living with a German family is certainly the best way of discovering the German way of life, customs, habits and the character of its people, but it must be remembered that the whole German race cannot be judged or misjudged by one's experience with a Single family. However, it seemed to me that German people are kindly folk, hard working, living a fairly simple life, eating and enjoying large amounts of wholesome rather than dainty food (which, I must add, I found very
agreeable and which fortunately seemed to agree with me) and consuming, the men anyway, enormous quantities of beer.
German people seem to appreciate culture, most of them took an interest in art, music, drama or literature to some degree.
Family life, that is a family existing as a Single unit, seemed to play a more important part than it does in England. In a German family the father is the most important figure: he is, and rightly so, the undisputed head of the family and is respected. Another thing I noticed was that the teenage girls were given rather less freedom than is usually found in England. This is not altogether a good thing because they tend to resent any restrictions put on them and use their parents' absence at any time as an opportunity to 'let their hair down' and go slightly wild'. The younger children, I thought,
tended to be spoiled a little, but this is certainly not peculiar to Germany alone.

Living in a German family / Words     
the way of life     die Lebensart
to discover     entdecken, kennenlernen
the custom     der Brauch
the habit     die Gewohnheit
to judge     beurteilen
to misjudge     verkennen, falsch beurteilen
the experience     die Erfahrung
to enjoy     genießen
the amount     die Menge
wholesome     zuträglich, bekömmlich
dainty     lecker
to agree with     bekommen
to consume     in s. aufnehmen, verzehren
anyway     in jedem Fall
to appreciate     schätzen, würdigen
to take an interest in     s. interessieren für
to some degree     bis zu einem gewissen Grade
the Unit     die Einheit
to play a part     eine Rolle spielen
undisputed     unbestritten
to respect     achten
the teenage girl     das Mädchen zwischen 13 und 19
altogether     durchaus
to tend     neigen zu
to resent     übelnehmen
the restriction     die Beschränkung
at any time     zu jeder Zeit
to let their hair down     s. austoben
to go slightly wild     aus der Reihe tanzen
to spoil     verhätscheln, verwöhnen
peculiar     eigentümlich, seltsam

    Living in a German family  /Questions
1.    What can one learn by living with a norm? [p le it rirtk* ♦« • -1 . '"» '"''''' a german family]?
2.    Is it right to judge a whole nation by ones own experience?
3.    Did this writer like German food?
4.     ['• intersted T^ °^ '^'^"" ^^'^ ''^ ^^-^ ^ family]
5.    Who is the most important figure in a German family?
6.    Is the freedom given to teenage girls a good thing?
7.    What are two meanings of the word "customs"?
8.    Is family life still as important in Germany as it used to be?
9.    Are you interested in art? If so which type of art?
10.    Should parents be present at teenage parties?
 

Discussion and essay topics / Living in a German family
1. How much freedom should teenagers enjoy?
2. Are books essential to a happy home?

Notes:
Das englische Familienleben scheint auf den ersten Blick nicht so herzlich zu sein wie das deutsche Kind es gewöhnt ist. Das liegt daran, dass der Engländer seine Gefühle nicht so offen zeigt. Die Kinder werden auch in England recht verwöhnt, aber auch gleichzeitig zu einer Selbständigkeit erzogen, die sich schon in jungen Jahren bemerkbar macht. Es ist nicht selten, daß junge Menschen ihr Heil in außereuropäischen Ländern versuchen.
In der heutigen Gesellschaft gilt die Mutter als gleichberechtigte Partnerin, und die alte englische Demokratie wirkt sich auch hier aus.