why i am in germany

People often ask me why, of all places, I decided to come to Germany. This is a much more common reaction to learning that I am an exchange student than you might expect. There is an overwhelming attutide of: you could be in France, South America, anywhere? Why here?

Here are the reasons:


1.

"Kafka often made extensive use of a trait special to the German language allowing for long sentences that sometimes can span an entire page. Kafka's sentences then deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved due to the construction of certain sentences in German which require that the verb be positioned at the end of the sentence. Such constructions cannot be duplicated in English, so it is up to the translator to provide the reader with the same effect found in the original text.

"Another virtually insurmountable problem facing the translator is how to deal with the author's intentional use of ambiguous terms or of words that have several meanings. One such instance is found in the first sentence of The Metamorphosis. Another example is Kafka's use of the German noun Verkehr in the final sentence of The Judgment. Literally, Verkehr means intercourse and, as in English, can have either a sexual or non-sexual meaning; in addition, it is used to mean transport or traffic. The sentence can be translated as: 'At that moment an unending stream of traffic crossed over the bridge.' What gives added weight to the obvious double meaning of 'Verkehr' is Kafka's confession to Max Brod that when he wrote that final line, he was thinking of 'a violent ejaculation'. In the English translation, of course, what can 'Verkehr' be but 'traffic'?"

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