We're All Living in Amerika!

We're all living in Amerika.  Amerika ist wunderbar!
So sang famous metal group "Rammstein" in their song entitled "Amerika".  Now having spent some time in Rammstein's native land of Germany, I can begin to see their point.  America is everywhere--from the American military personnel I saw in the Frankfurt airport (question: do we really need army bases in Germany?  Are we trying to stop the Nazis from coming to power again, or something?) to the numerous signs in English which I mentioned in a previous post.

And our "food" (if you can really call it that) is everywhere.  What, you thought having a McDonald's, a Subway, a Burger King, and a KFC in every city was enough?  Think again.  There is a small restaurant chain here called "American Fried Chicken."  I also was fortunate enough to find "American sandwich bread" in the local grocery store.  (Unfortunately, after that first loaf of sunflower seed bread, I don't have enough teeth left to actually eat the American bread. ;) )

To be fair, there are other international restaurants here in Germany as well.  There's a sushi restaurant (which has a sign, in English, that reads "All you can eat"), a number of Italian restaurants (one has a sign that advertises "Coffee to go"), French restaurants, and Chinese restaurants.  But I guess it's the type of food that's advertised as being particularly American that irritates me a little.  I'm not saying I don't enjoy so-called "American" food every now-and-then, but do they really think all we eat is fast food and chicken?

I was told once, that when it comes to certain cultural knowledge, only certain pieces of information get exported.  Take, for instance, a conversation I had with a girl from Belarus a few months ago.  She was talking about how she likes her English class, and how they read all kinds of articles about interesting facts about English-speaking countries.  One article in particular was all about Americans' love-affair with hot dogs.  I learned from her that there actually exists in our fair country a "National Hot Dog Month."  I don't know if any of you have ever heard of said month before, but I know I hadn't, and I'm not quite sure why she needed to be taught that.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't think most Americans would particularly want to actively advertise to the world how many hot dogs they stuff their faces with every year.  So either it's the receiving country that decides which cultural information they will let their students learn, or else the hot dog companies have a large stake in indoctrinating Belarus's youth to buy their products. (Oscar Mayer, you devil, you!)

Then there's the story I heard from a Russian boy who told me that chicken legs are sometimes called "Bush's legs" (that's Bush as in former president George Bush Sr.), because apparently after the fall of communism, Russian markets became flooded with American chicken.  So the Russians think we eat a lot of chicken here-- er, I mean in America.  Oh the wonders that are capitalism and globalization!

I guess if it's true that you are what you eat, then we can all be Americans.  But the "Americolonization," as it's sometimes referred to, doesn't stop with food.  Now we have them listening to our music, watching our films, and yes, even wearing our clothes.  Just down the street from the American Fried Chicken in Giessen, there's a small clothing store that specializes in making you look like a rapper.  In the words of Ali G, "Booyakasha!"

  
If you don't like gangsta clothing, you can also shop at T.K. Maxx, the German version of T.J. Maxx:

Yes, Germans watch The Simpsons.

Not necessarily American food, but a few of many restaurants with at least some English words in the names.

And of course, the ubiquitous McDonald's:

 In Germany, a lot of other shops have taken the "Mc" prefix from McDonald's and attached it to other English words in an effort to make it seem like their service is quick and efficient.  This shop sells paper, notebooks, envelopes, etc.

So, there you have it.  Proof that Rammstein were not just being whiny little b*tches when they complained that America is taking over the world.  I think my next task will be to figure out why American things are so popular, other than the fact that America is totally awesome.