Differences

I have mentioned that I am taking a German Class this year - it is really enjoyeable, and one of the neatest things about it, is the cultural aspects that everyone brings to the class. Our group is made of of me (the lone American), a couple of people from England, France, Brazil, Poland, South Korea, Peru, Hungary, and Chili. During yesterdays lesson, we kind of scrapped the workbook, and instead had a really enjoyable conversation (in German), about the differences that we all see living here, and the differences that we bring with us. I LOVE a good conversation, and this to me was almost as good as it gets. It was really fun to hear what people perceive as the priorities in a culture or the things that they miss or do not miss about their own homeland. Germany and France are right next to each other, yet the student from France thought that the priorities of a big car, and "stuff" here in Germany were much greater then that of in France. For me, I thought it was so funny, because from my perspective, the cars here are little, and there seems to be little emphasis on "stuff" here. I guess coming from France though, they felt that in France emphasis is more on food (in your monthly budget in France, you would opt for good quality and quantity of food instead of less quality, and a bigger car). One thing that was unanimous, is that everyone really likes Bamberg, but it was super fun to hear what people thought. It makes you wish that the whole world, would stop and have a conversation like that to understand each others perspective a little more - maybe the world would be a little more peaceful!