True. But if you are in their position and are trying to buttress society against dissimmilation and degeneration you have very little to fall back on besides your heritage. Which for most of Europe is chrisitianity even if in the dim distant past. Germany of course could elect to revert to a more recent heritage, but that would probably go down like a lead balloon.

- Peter.

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I'm sure someone could find anything to support anything.
Translation: Our society works good enough that you left yours to find a better life in ours- so please leave your non working ideas back home so that our society doesn't emulate yours and instead stays at the same level you found it- better than the one you left. Whenever a person leaves "home" it says it was so bad the person thought it was hopeless and they could not change it for the better. Now they come to the new home and want to make it like the old home.
Name a society or "culture" that is the same an another. I think Germans (and most everyone) would welcome any outside group if they assimilated. With nearly 70% of the USA population not wanting a mosque at ground zero it's a good indication you already are living in such a society.

Originally Posted by Craig
I agree, although I do find the term "Christian values" especially ironic.

Personally, I don't want to live in any country where the leader can refer to a specific religion's "values" without having rotten fruit thrown at him/her.

What he means is that he wants to live in a county that allows people, who disagree with what someone SAYS, the ability to throw rotten food (or whatever) at another person as punishment for their free speech and for that type of behavior to be perfectly acceptable. ( Just so long as no one throws anything back at him for what he says or types... )

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“I didn’t really say everything I said.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Yogi Berra ~

So, like, Merkel wants to put these people into camps?

No, she wants them to assimilate or go back to the country of origin. This began to rear it's head when the east and west reunited and the economy took a poop, partialy because of the unemployed east Germans created a labor glut. Turks were encouraged to come during the boom years when there was a labor shortage, and most Germans did figure that they would eventually go back from whence they had came. Most did not, and there was not a lot of cultural assimilation.

One might remember, this an exclusive American term, at least for the most part, being thrown around at any given day for any given purpose.
What we have here, is a translation from German into a digestable American language news article.
Maybe by now you already get what I am hinting at. To help you lighten up on your prejudice, it may very well be possible that no such thing was actually spoken.
German language is ususally very precise in its expression. In many cases not directly translatable, therefor often replaced by "catchphrases".

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Then it would be interesting to see what she actually said.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

A mono culture has its benefits. There is less debate over issues when the majority thinks and behaves the same way. Fewer special interests. That brings with it a certain amount of efficiency. You have to admit the Germans and Japanese are quite a bit more efficient than we are. However their cold hard logic has in the past led to major miscalculations. Lets hope this doesn't devolve into "assimilation police" making raids in the middle of the night.

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Yep, and wear a yellow arm band. So here's our plan- you be in charge of the underground and I'll come up with a code breaker scheme. After the major offensives we'll dress in drag and be able to cross enemy lines so that we can filter into the subjected enslaved civilians ( a bit of a downcast look and carefully placed mud on the face helps us blend in- DON'T SHAVE for three days) and create a internal resistance revolt. We can communicate in pig latin to fool those trying find us. Ready!?! Break!

I hope you are correct, the fewer people who use the words "christian" and "values" together, the better I like the world.

A mono culture may well have some practical benefits, but I would have no interest in living in one.

English is a more precise language than German and translating from German to English, other than colloquialisms, can be quite accurate.

I've often wondered about that. Given the technical nature of much of what Germany has achieved and the literature / artistic emanations of english. I don't speak German but would be interested to see some examples. Can you provide?

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

English is comprised of many more words than German for starters, so the speaker has a broader choice of words and can be more precise. German tech jargon relies on word stack upon words while in English we have a descrete word. English is the defacto language of science.
A friend who grew up in a German speaking household here in PA claims there are only 500 words in the German language.

I never had any trouble in German class and I am bad at languages. German is Latin based like most other European languages and shares a lot of smiler terms and words with the others including English.

Technical compound words can sometimes be fun, they love compound words. In that respect English is a more precise language, we have actually words for technical terms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinderkennzeichnungs-_und_Rindfleischetikettierungs%C3%BCberwachungsaufgaben%C3%BCbertragungsgesetz

http://www.spiegel.de/0,1518,,00.html
Someone who speaks German dig the article up, I'm not that good. I don't think the translation is wrong though, Christ is Christ its the same in both languages.

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