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In the spring semester before
we leave, we'll get together in GRMN 308 for two class hours
every other week to prepare for the trip. We'll start with
reading Germany: Unravelling an Enigma, an exploration
of major German cultural differences, and will continue with
viewing a small number of German films.
We'll practice everyday interaction and survival
in a dialect which over the centuries has preserved some rather
weird sounds and grammatical idiosyncrasies.
We'll highlight history from Tacitus's portrait
of the "noble Bavarian savages" to Hitler's Beerhall Putsch
and the founding of the modern Free State where, according
to the rest of Germany, "the clocks still run differently"--two
thousand years of history during which Bavarians have been
proudly guarding their autonomy and quirky characteristics
that culminate in today's triad of "Beer, Baroque and BMW."
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