Has anyone seen the BBC documentary 'Make me a German'???

[worldcitizen]

Here is a German article about it

Die Welt: Make me a German-Leben wie echte Deutsche. Ein Briten-Experiment.

[NayFindus]

Oh hang on, I know the answer to this one:

Well can't you Nay?

It's like lazy, ill informed journalism.....

[KellyHopter]

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about now Nay.

Maybe try this thread again another time world? I'd wanted to discuss it, I'm sure others would too

[worldcitizen]

What part do you NOT get Nayfinder I have abvioulsy not watched the documentary as I am in germany myself and do NOT have BBC and didn't even know about it before and the German article has been pointed out to me as an email link by a friend!!!!!

So, I would like to have some chat and exchange here on mumsnet with folks who maybe have seen it and also would like to chat about it.

Is this so difficult to understand????

I am disgusted by you. Sorry. I am off now. Good night.

[worldcitizen]

Thanks kelly I have reported this and have asked MN to move to 'living overseas'.

[NayFindus]

Okay. Inform me KHopter.

Why are you/worldcit so keen to up poor documentary and post lots links to it? When you could be citing Ken Robinson on Ted or something equally good instead?

[NayFindus]

Wow. I'm quaking. You didn't get positive feedback and have reported. Sheesh.

[NayFindus]

Oh and p.s.

Everything about the documentary was in the first link, the one you posted in German to arouse peoples interest. Which appears to have failed. I do hope turning it into a bun fight works better for you, you sound desperate.

[NapaCab]

Wow, I've seen some bonkers posting on here in my time but Nay takes the biscuit! Mad...

[KellyHopter]

Nay, are you ok? Genuine question.
I've not noticed you be like this before but truly you're being very very very odd.

[KhloeKardashian]

Very odd posting going on.

[worldcitizen]

Hahahahaha Thanks znaika that made my morning

[OliviaIsOffTheGinMumsnet]

Does any one here need to the talk guidelines?
We have moved this to our living overseas topic
Thanks

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

What a very strange thread Nay turned this perfectly ordinary OP into

I saw the documentary - the premise was a bit odd - the family took stats from a marketing agency on the exact average things that market research indicated "Germans" did, and tried to live precisely according to that average - down to leaving 2 of their children behind in the UK to be closer to the "average" number of children per family. Everything was very much staged around that - there was no real attempt to hide the fact everything was staged.

The thing that struck me the most was the fact absolutely everyone spoke English the whole time :o Imagine if a German family had tried to live as Mr and Mrs Smith, the "Average" Brits - somehow I think they'd have had to speak English, unlike "Herr and Frau Müller" - who never attempted to speak any German yet said they were sampling life as typical "average" Germans :o

I also think this documentary could have been made in the UK with British people trying to live (for just 2 weeks, which is all this family did) according to a marketing company's research findings of the exact average Brit, with equally unrealistic results :o

It was all a lot of nothing really - a lot was made of the woman staying home with the 2 year old, yet the child was barely ever with her and she was filmed doing the supermarket shop alone while her husband was at work - presumably she left the toddler with the camera crew :o Don't think they got any more in depth knowledge of what really makes Germany tick than any 15 year old on a 2 week school exchange programme, probably a lot less as of course the 15 year old would be living full time with a German family and trying to speak the language!

It was a fluff programme really - I expected it to be more annoying (live in Germany) but it was a bit of nothing really, not much to it.

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Moving this to "living overseas" was a weird move on the part of MNHQ, given Living overseas is hidden away in an obscure corner of MN and only those who have bookmarked it, because they live overseas, ever go there... Those who live overseas are of course the least likely to have watched a BBC TV programme...

[Pachacuti]

I saw the first five minutes, translated it as "we wanted to see whether we could have a free holiday in Germany and pass it off as a documentary" and switched over.

[worldcitizen]

Hey MrTumbles thanks for that. I was reading the comments on that BBC blog page, and what struck me was how many people there have commented about them not having recognized "their Germany" at all and they also have critisized the choice of city as well.

I myself get so angry sometimes about picking and choosing very specific regions and turn this into something like all Germans are like that.

I was asking myself where would they send people of other countries in the UK to try "to be a Brit"?

[GoshAnneGorilla]

I am baffled that it's ok to spout racist propaganda, as Nay has done. but a perfectly reasonable thread gets shoved to the hinterlands of MN.

FWIW, I found the programme very superficial and the way the man was cooing over the factory workers (when it seemed pretty similar working standards to a UK factory) was infuriating.

[worldcitizen]

Thanks. I actually had so much to say and was having so many questions I wanted to ask and add a few things, as at the moment I am in the midst of making a few life decisions in terms of relocating OR staying in Germany...

[FrauEnglischLehrerin]

I also watched the programme and found it mildly entertaining.

world I think the regional separateness of Germany is probably something that is barely appreciated by the majority of Brits, including the makers of this programme. I live on the border of two Bundesländer, and across the border they have different public and school holidays, a different curriculum in their schools, a different predominant religion, a different political party in government, different banks, and so on. If they made a similar programme and sent a German family to live in, say, Bristol, then probably people living in the Scottish highlands wouldn't recognise much of their lives, either.

There was one moment where the British bloke asked his German dinner guests their opinion of Britain, they replied with something negative and the Brit was completely shocked and said "don't hold back, will you!" That made me laugh. Otherwise you really didn't miss much.

[worldcitizen]

Hey FrauEnglish thanks for that.

[RowanMumsnet]

@GoshAnneGorilla

I am baffled that it's ok to spout racist propaganda, as Nay has done. but a perfectly reasonable thread gets shoved to the hinterlands of MN.

FWIW, I found the programme very superficial and the way the man was cooing over the factory workers (when it seemed pretty similar working standards to a UK factory) was infuriating.

Hello

It was moved here at the OP's request. We are generally quite happy to move threads to where the OP wants them (so long as it's not obviously 'wrong', ie moving a non-AIBU to AIBU).

It's not 'OK to spout racist propaganda' at all - do please report any posts you think we ought to look at.

[worldcitizen]

Hey,

I requested for it to be moved to 'Living Overseas' as I felt it would attract more people who would be interested in this thread and would have something relevant to say.

It was unbearable to continue to have the thread up all-together to be honest, as the coments were way below the belt.
Anyway after erasing some of the comments, it actually sounds much better than it actually was.

It made me truly very upset and not in the mood to discuss at all anymore.

So thanks to the other posters and your comments

[GoshAnneGorilla]

Frau - that's interesting. I'd about regional differences, as in "things are a bit different in Bavaria", but didn't realise there were such variations between Lander.

HQ - thanks.

[FrauEnglischLehrerin]

There's a thread in Telly Addicts about this programme, although the discussion seems to have more or less finished. People with strong ties to Germany seem to be saying that the programme didn't altogether represent what they thought of as typical for Germany, but those who knew less about Germany have taken it more as gospel. Par for the course, naturaly, but still rather frustrating.

I actually found the part of the programme about the success of the Mittelstand quite enlightening. I used to teach at a company that made plumbing fittings - the factory was located in a village with 600 inhabitants and employed 400 people. One of my students told me they had supplied fittings to the White House. Is it politics that has caused British manufacturing to dwindle?