Help an American with German class!

[kylehaas]

This thread is mostly aimed at native German speakers, but if you live in countries around Germany or if you are currently in Germany, I guess that could help as well. I am a German III student in college and I've had 5 years of German. We were given an assignment today to make a presentation over at least 8 current news events which are big headlines in Germany. I was really hoping that some of the native Germans on here could ask their parents or just watch the news and tell me what is currently on everyone's minds. I think I need to go broader than, say, the crises in Japan. I need headlines which are specifically German, or at least European. Thanks ahead of time for your help!

 

[Moghild]

The major topic in news was of course the earthquake in Japan as well as the nuclear accident in the atomic plant of Fukushima. The next topic were the attacks of the UN force (France, USA and Britain) against Libya and Gaddafi. After that we were informed about the negotiations between the Deutsche Bahn (German railways organization) and GDL (trade union of train drivers - Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer) because the train drivers were on strike and the election results of Sachsen-Anhalt. That was all I can remember of.

 

[kylehaas]

Thank you very much! If just a few more people are able to contribute, I'm sure I'll have all the information I need.

 

[Wizerzak]

I'm sure this German news site can help.

I personally have been doing German for 2.5 years now and that sounds pretty hard....

 

[Kuschel-Drow]

Yep, that's it so far. (and don't forget the Tsunami)

Another great topic on the news is that our Governer Angela Merkel who wanted to gain energy from atomic plants for another few years now said that this decision is being set out (? omg... my English sucks today) for three months to do deep security checks at our atomic plants.

Also, seven of the oldest German atomic plants will be taken off the energynetwork and closed down. Some forever, others for at least these three months.

God I hope you understand what I want to say xD

And then... well... dunno if it still belongs to the Japan-crisis but... a lot of German people tried to leave Japan, they had to pay up to 7000€ for a freakin' ticket, if they even got one. That's on the news too.

And... well a lot of shit you probably hear everywhere in the world. The only things that are German-only topics are the election, Angela Merkels decision (well probably just to BE voted in the election hehe) and the strike of the GDL. ^^ And maybe that Germany refused to take part in the war of Lybia.

Uh... mhm... well... shall I try in German? xD

 

[kylehaas]

Is Germany really not "helping the Allies" with Libya?
I think that's awesome. It's about time someone stood up and decided not to deal with the US's bullshit.

 

[Kuschel-Drow]

Hehe nope, Germany is not.
We do not want to get involved into another war...

Oh hey and back to the news... don't forget this one... (oh god you can't imagine how much I hate being German because of all those crybabies...)

KNUT THE F****N' ICE BEAR IS DEAD! -.- Flowers are laid down at and in the zoo of Berlin. People are crying and stuff...

PEOPLE DIED AND ARE STILL DYING IN JAPAN AND GERMANS ARE CRYING FOR A FREAKIN' ICE-BEAR! Gosh I can't believe it, REALLY, that makes me sooo sick atm... -.-"

 

[Mazor]

KNUT THE F****N' ICE BEAR IS DEAD! -.- Flowers are laid down at and in the zoo of Berlin. People are crying and stuff...

Fuck yeah, best news for a long while.

Always hated that fucking bear.

 

[Cuelhu]

KNUT THE F****N' ICE BEAR IS DEAD! -.- Flowers are laid down at and in the zoo of Berlin. People are crying and stuff...

Fuck yeah, best news for a long while.

Always hated that fucking bear.

don't lie, I can see you crying.

There has to be a reason people liked it so bad. Was it a mascot of some kind?

edit: ah, it was that rejected bear from years ago. It lasted longer than it's fate wanted.

 

[Mazor]

Tears of joy.

I never understood why, but German media hyped the fuck out of this bear a few years ago. He was everywhere and even haunted people in their dreams.

 

[kylehaas]

What was it? A polar bear?

 

[Mazor]

Yeah, a polar bear at a zoo in Berlin.

He really was a huge thing in Germany.

 

[kylehaas]

Cool. That's exactly the sort of news I wanted!
Something that Germans got all excited about, that most people wouldn't care about at all.

If anyone else can think of anything like that, please post it!
Also, vielen dank!

 

[Kuschel-Drow]

The thing is... Germany hypes for every fucking shit that no one else in the world would care for... -.-"

So well... there's no actual hype other than Knut...

And I think you're looking for actuall news, no? ^^

 

[kylehaas]

Well, stupid hype is good BECAUSE its particular to Germany. My teacher wants us to talk as much about unique news as possible. I've got a feeling many of my classmates are going to ignore him, so if I am the only one that comes up with legitimate German news, I'll get a better grade.

 

[Kuschel-Drow]

Well... because of the whole Knut the fuckin' polar-bear thingy people are now discussing if it is right to keep polar-bears in our zoos... The usual thingy...

It's so damn typical German. If the burgund-wine doesn't taste then all wine is crap!
If the Emmenthaler-cheese doesn't taste, all cheese is doomed!
If a German is too stupid to ride a bike, then all bikes are shit!

Gosh... I wish our people would use their given brains for just a little more than just to have it... -.-"

It's like... oh hell a poisonous spider ran away from someone who kept it! Should we really allow our people to keep animals like that any longer? This really, really sucks...

Once, a huge internet provider here in Germany thought, porn was bad for the people, so they denied any access to the known porn-sites for their users... I think you can imagine that people didn't like it. xD Well they had to revoke that about two weeks later anyway, but still... People are all about the same over here. xD (Ah well not that I even use porn-sites at all... ^^")

But the funniest thing about Germany is that people complain all the time, every day they get up and start complaining until they go to bed in the evening. They complain about the weather, they complain about politics (without even moving their lazy asses to the elections - this has to be mentioned) they complain about prices, they complain about restirctions.... but only LITTLE of them actually REALLY protest against anything. If they would, they could not complain anymore...

It's not that I hate my country or something, but most of our people are really strange. xD A lot of nations love our country (I wonder why ^^) and we just got voted for as the most liked country in the world (btw THAT off course has been on the news too xD) but still... There are times where I wish that I would live on the other side of the world, far, far away from here. ^^

Other than that... our climax is fine, our vulcanos keep quiet, we do not suffer from earthquakes nor floods (at least in the part that I live in, the south knows the flood too well) and we are allowed to drink soft alcohol or smoke at the age of 16 (at least if it's not in public places) and we can do whatever we want once we grow 18. xD (too bad I'm far older by now... ^^)

Oh yeah and before I forget... Another thing on the news these days is about football. Our Clubs are changing and exchanging, hiring and dismissing their trainers like hell at the moment. Even one of the trainers that was said to be taking drugs is back on bussines again. (Christoph Daum was his Name I think... *scratches head*)

And now... I'm saying good night for today. 0:30 am over here so... *waves goodbye* Let's see what the news come up with tomorrow.

 

[kylehaas]

Haha!
America is that way too, a lot of the time.
One bad thing happens and the whole system has to shut down.

~~UPDATE!~~
Well, my project is due tomorrow.
Can anyone think of anything else?