Multi-Item Scale:

Item Text:

I feel closely connected to German culture. [Ich fühle mich der deutschen Kultur eng verbunden.]

Different Answer Format Tested:

Nein

Findings:

Question 4 was presented only to the five test persons who were either themselves born abroad or whose parents were both born abroad. Two of them “rather agreed” with the statement, i.e. feel a close connection to the German culture, the other three chose "partly agree".

First, the test persons were asked to explain why they "rather agree" with the statement or why they answered with "partly agree". Second, they were asked to describe what they understand by "German culture".

Test person 06, who already had difficulties with the concept of the culture of origin, also finds it difficult to describe what she understands by German culture: "The same as before only in German. Books humor, lifestyle. Discipline and reliability are qualities, but I don't associate them that way either." The other test persons (TP 04, 09, 11) also list "German virtues": "Straightforwardness, meticulousness, punctuality, order, structure" (TP 04) or "Accuracy, that one makes an effort, honesty" (TP 09). Test person 11 adds "the German virtues such as punctuality" to "rule of law, education, that this is possible for everyone" . Test subjects 04 and 08 first think of "Christmas, the holidays" and "how to celebrate Christmas, the Advent season is different and you eat different dishes at Christmas". For test person 04 "meat and potatoes" is typically German from a culinary point of view.

The test persons 06 and 11 chose the answer category "rather agree". Test person 11 feels connected to German culture because he lives here, "especially because I live in it. The German culture belongs to me just like the Kurdish culture. I cannot say 'this is German for me and this is Kurdish for me'". Test person 06 reports that she misses Germany when she is in France and vice versa. "You live in two countries" . She feels connected above all with the "openness" and the "respect for the other". Test persons 04, 08 and 09 chose "partly agree" and gave different reasons for this. Test person 04 simply feels less connected to the German culture than to the Chinese. She feels this connection through "friendships and the opportunities I have here to graduate, to study, the security here". Test person 08 learns more and more about German culture and the differences to her Polish culture of origin, but "I certainly don't know everything yet. I can't say that I know the German culture and therefore I feel I belong" (TP 08). Test person 09 still notices "that I actually come from somewhere else. Depending on how I move further away from the other culture, I have come closer to it here and can cope better with it".

The question did not cause any difficulties for the test persons. Except for test person 06, who has a general problem with the word culture in this context, all other test persons have an idea of what German culture represents for them and with which aspects they feel connected.

Recommendations:

Question: No changes recommended.
Answer options: The answer options should be formulated analogously to question 3.
Again, on the whole, test persons have no difficulty with the answer option "partly agree".
However, since it is the same unipolar scale as in question 3, the use of the middle category "agree moderately" is also an alternative for this question.