Pricetag a.k.a. Mom a.k.a. Margaret (mprice) wrote in schlosseberbach, @ 2006-02-22 15:43:00 |
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By: Innervoice_chan
Posted: February 22, 2006
Notes: It's been a while since I posted one of these! :)
Past posts:
Ch.1, Nationalism and Identity
Ch.2, Character
Beliefs and Values
The Germans prize Bildung, meaning education and culture. Showing off what you’ve read and what you know is not gauche. It is a way of participating in the nation’s cultural life and taking pride in it.
Modesty in regard to education will not be interpreted by them as hiding your light under a bushel, but as an admission of ignorance. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.
Germans have unequalled enthusiasm for their cultural heritage. For many English people, culture is what the advantaged do in their spare time, and the idea of reading Shakespeare or Samuel Johnson for fun is rather remote. For the average German this isn’t so.
Not to have read the whole of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason would surprise them (how could you allow yourself to miss out?), and they will have read Goethe and Schiller and Shakespeare with passionate, if uncritical, interest.