Noisy Kinder
Noisy children no longer verboten in Berlin
Children in the German capital Berlin are to be exempt from strict laws on noise pollution.An amendment to the city's law now makes it "fundamentally and socially tolerable" for members of the younger generation to make a racket.
Berlin has become the first of Germany's 16 federal states to adopt such legislation.
But all Berliners - children included - must continue to respect the official quiet time at night and all day Sunday.
Until now, only church bells, emergency sirens, snow ploughs and tractors have fallen outside the stringent rules on excessive noise in Germany.
In Berlin alone, hundreds of complaints are made each year about noise levels in kindergartens and children's playgrounds.
Some day-care facilities have even been forced to close after local residents have gone to court in search of a quiet life.
Now Berlin's local government, the senate, has passed a law giving children the right to be noisy, the first law of its kind in Germany.
Axel Strohbusch, from Berlin's Department of Noise Protection, said it was "the first time we have it written in law that we have to consider the rights of children to shout and make noise while they are growing up and this must be considered by all the neighbours".
Germany's organisation for child protection told AFP news agency it welcomed the move, saying: "We live in a city and children should be allowed to play and make noise."
Vocabulary:
to be exempt from sth -
to make a racket -
a snow plough -
stringent (adj) -
(to make) a complaint / to complain -
to go to court -
I think the original law wasn't such a bad idea. Many parents let their children scream to their heart's content, no matter where they are.
Do you think the law was a good or a bad one?
See also a previous post about noise in Spain.
Comments
Parents can visit museums with their children, and they are looking the pictures, no running or playing like in Spain!!!!!!
We must learn it!!
Parents can visit museums with their children, and they are LOOKING AT the pictures, NOT running or playing like in Spain!!!!!!
We must learn FROM THEM!!
I tend to agree. I think children can be as noisy as they like in environments made for them - playgrounds, play parks etc; but should be taught to be quiet when in places outside of that environment. Alas in Spain....!
I was in Berlin last year too. I hadn't been there for about 18 years before that and so it was interesting to see the changes.
I'd like to go back to Munich too. It was so long ago and I didn't spend much time there, but I remember a very pleasant city.
I think today people is too much permissive with children than a few years ago. We've forgotten to establish some limits.
It was horrible!
I think PEOPLE TODAY ARE *TOO PERMISSIVE with children COMPARED TO a few years ago. We've forgotten to SET limits.
* too + adjectives
too much/many + nouns
verb + too much
When I was living at my parents' we had two neighbors who HAD TAKEN IT UP.
Would it have made a difference if they were professional pianists?
Before my experience with beginners in piano, that music doesn't annoy me...
It's about time I moved house.