You would think 'cause of that whole fascist thing they'd have more sympathy

I'm teaching a night class of German 101 to a class of 90% males and 70% freshmen. It has been a great experience so far and I'm probably learning as much as they are, especially as I've never taught 101 before. As an attention getter, I planned on teaching a basic German drinking song ("Bier her") because 1) Oktoberfest started last weekend, 2) Wisconsin (and all of its German settlers and their male freshmen descendants) have never been known to particularly support temperance. I told another grad student my plan she offered to lend me her mini-accordion so I could accompany them. She assured me that I could learn it fast enough to accompany them, so I accepted her offer.

I got it this evening about an hour before class and after a couple of utube videos I was able to play the chords (no melody) for the tune. I pulled it out in class and they seemed impressed, but frankly, no group of (mostly) teenage boys really sings very enthusiastically, even about beer. So I told them that they needed to sing it again loud enough so that the Italian class down the hall would know that the Germans had arrived.

They kicked it up a notch and we were giving it another round when there was a knock on the door. In walked the Italian TA who informed us that her students were taking a test and couldn't we be quiet. While my class was snickering I told her I'm sorry that it was just that Oktoberfest started last weekend but we were about done singing anyway. After she left I let my class know that this was a pretty typical reaction to the assertion of German culture. Better get used to it early.