Miss/Ms/Mrs

Dear Germans,
When communitcating/corresponding in English, and you're speaking to a woman who is either unmarried or you don't know her marital status, you use "Ms" not "Mrs." And if I'm talking to you and correct you, don't tell me that in Germany you say "Mrs" and continue calling me "Mrs. Griffin" because we are speaking in English, and that's not how we roll. For a country that's so concerned with English ability, it just amazes me that people wont accept this.

For some reason it bugs me. When we learn German, we learn that "Fraulein" is outdated, and that you just use "Frau" regardless of marital status. It's a cultural difference but sometimes these come to play with language and etiquette. Now, sometimes someone just doesn't know, and that's fair enough....maybe they didn't learn enough English to get the subtle differences with these things. I get that, because I run into it with German still...sometimes the little things count and it might not always be something you learned in class. But I think if someone corrects you and their a native speaker, you shouldn't argue with them because that's what's done in your native language. I've had this happen a few times. And for people using a high level of business English, you should have learned this already. No excuses.

Crap from Germany

*Disclaimer: I do NOT hate German music. There is lots of great music that comes out of this country. I could make a big list of German artists and bands that I love, but I’ll save that for another post.*

Since I moved to Germany five years ago, I’ve heard a lot of shitty music. Like most people that move to a foreign country, sometimes I just don’t understand why certain things are popular. But every once and a while, a song comes out that makes me wonder how anyone…ANYONE…from anywhere can possibly like it. Germany isn’t alone in this; Sean Paul reached #1 internationally. I think I notice the crap more in Germany though because I’m on the outside looking in.

Anyway, this song is one of those songs. How it has reached #3 on the charts, I have no idea. I suspect that someone has sold their soul to Satan. And yes, one of the guys’ names is ‘Frauenartzt’, which means ‘Gynocologist.’ Classy. It's actually so bad, it's kind of funny.




Oh, and to be fair and not seeming to rag on German music, I hate that Ke$ha song that I can't escape, no matter where I go. It's not that it's particularly awful. It's just that it's so repetitive and insipid. And it is played 10000000000x a day. ProSieben uses it in their promo spots, it's on the radio, MTV, cafes....it's everywhere. When I hear that song, I feel sad because I know that I wont be able to get it out of my head for the rest of the day, which is unfortunate because I don't like it.