Frohe Weihnachten! (Merry Christmas!)

Frohe Weihnachten!

Christmas - or Weihnachten - is the biggest holiday in Germany. Here are some links about Christmas in Germany:

1. About.com: Weihnachten – A German Christmas Guide
2. Wikipedia.org: Weihnachten
3. Wikipedia.org: Christmas Worldwide - Germany
4. Vistawide.com: German Christmas Traditions
   
5. WWW-Weihnachten.de (in German)


6. Fröhliche Weihnachten: Learning Songs & Traditions in German by Linda Rauenhorst (Google Books)


7. Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History by Joe Perry (Google Books)


8. How to Say "Merry Christmas" in German (Youtube video)


9. Impressions of Christmas-Time in Germany (Youtube video)


10. WeihnachtenTV (Youtube channel)

"What's so funny about German?" - Videos from the BBC

"What's so funny about German?" - from the BBC

The BBC has 10 short videos online from a German stand-up comedian taking a humorous look at the German language. Below is the first video in the series:



The main page for the videos can be found here: What's so funny about German?.

The comedian is Henning Wehn, a German stand-up comedian based in London, who calls himself the "German Comedy Ambassador in London."
(His official site is here: HenningWehn.de, which has more audio and video from him.)

Also, check out the rest of the BBC's German language learning resources here: BBC Languages - German.

Website: Vokabel.com

Vokabel.com describes itself as a website for "vocabulary training exercises." The website has vocabulary quizzes for words from various categories (like "Animals" or "Future Tense). The user can also create their own vocabulary quiz using the words they want to practice with.

When you select a category, you are given a word and then must type the translation into the box. You can choose either to be given either a German or an English word, for which you enter the translation (you  can also choose to be tested on French or Spanish words). The program provides the correct answer, and keeps track of how many you got correct, and how many you got wrong. You can choose to be retested on words you got correct. The author, Rene Kondratzky, states (in the Author's Welcome page) that this technique is meant to emulate the flash-card technique.

Note that the answers use only the "standard" characters, meaning that ü would be written as ue. 

You can also create your own test using your own words with Create Your Own Test. You can add up to 100 words to the test. You can also save your test for use later.

Also check out the site's Favourite Links page for language and travel links, and the Reference Materials for a bibliography (books used to create the quizzes, which may be of interest to you).

What did you think of the website? Post it in the comments below!

New German Telenovela: "Lena - Liebe meines Lebens"

For intermediate/advanced German speakers wanting to practice listening to German, try following along with a German soap opera or telenovela.

ZDF, a major German TV channel, launched a new telenovela this week: Lena - Liebe meines Lebens, adapted from an Argentinian telenovela. ZDF promises the show will have romantic and thriller elements. ZDF usually posts full episodes of a show up to a week old on the "Mediathek" section of its website. (For some extra help when watching, try using the closed captioning).

Did you watch the show? Did it help you practice listening to German? Post your comments below!

Online German Resources from Dartmouth College

A good place to look for German language (and cultural) resources are the websites of German departments at colleges and universities. (Also, check the German department website of a local university: some departments host events that are open to the public or have information about other local events.)

The Department of German Studies at Dartmouth College has several helpful online language learning resources. The department homepage is at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~german/.

Click "Read More" to read about the resources.

Oktoberfest

Today is the beginning of the 177th annual Oktoberfest in Munich! Even if you can't make it die Wiesn ("the meadow", where the Oktoberfest is held), you can still get into the spirit by checking out these links!

- Check out the official Oktoberfest website here: Oktoberfest.de to learn all about the fest, see pictures from the event, and even buy souvenirs online. Also check out their Oktoberfest dictionary - the Oktoberfest Lexicon - so you can learn to speak like a true Bavarian!

- Munich's official site also has information and pictures about the Oktoberfest here: Muenchen.de - Oktoberfest.

- For more general information about the fest, visit Wikipedia - Oktoberfest and Vistawide.com - Oktoberfest. Answers.com - Oktoberfest also has general information about Oktoberfest, and includes some videos.

- Take the "Oktoberfest Challenge" at BBC Oktoberfest to test your knowledge of all things Oktoberfest and learn some Oktoberfest vocabulary!

- For more Oktoberfest vocalary, check out: About.com - Oktoberfest in Munich.

Even if you can't make it to Munich, there are a ton of local Oktoberfests around the world (check out Wikipedia - Oktoberfest Celebrations for some Oktoberfest celebrations around the world) - and some are probably close to you! Trying searching "Oktoberfest" with the name of the city or state that you live in to see if there are any close to you!

You could also try hosting an Oktoberfest party for your friends! For music, try Alpenradio - Volksmusik. And don't forget the Bier and Lederhosen!

German Railway to Reduce Use of English

Another reason to learn German: the Deutsche Bahn is cutting back its use of English.

The railway company had been making loudspeaker announcements in both English and German, and had been increasingly using English terms for its services, like "Kiss and Ride" and "Call a Bike."

However, recent complaints has made the Deutsche Bahn reconsider its use of English, and return to using German. Riders had complained that they were getting annoyed by all of the announcements. But many complaints stemmed from worries that German is being marginalized due to extensive use of English.

This may reflect a larger trend. According to the website Sueddeutsche.de, the Minister of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, Dr. Peter Ramsauer, stated that "I know of no country on Earth, in which one deals with one's own language with such a lack of respect." (1)  

See the articles here:

Monsters and Critics - "German railways to cut back use of English"
Sueddeutsche.de - Deutsche Bahn: Call a Mietrad Bahn spricht deutsch

1. Original quote in German: "Ich kenne kein Land der Erde, in dem man so respektlos mit der eigenen Sprache umgeht."


What do you think about this? Post it in the comments below!

Website: LanguageGuide.org

A review of German resources on the "Language Guide" website.
The homepage is at: http://languageguide.org/; the German page is at: http://languageguide.org/deutsch/.

This site is basically a pictorial dictionary for vocabulary. You are shown a collection of clip-art like pictures on a page. When you hover over the picture with your cursor, the German word appears in a floating box and you have audio of a native speaker saying the word.

"Is German threatened by the English language?"

Listen to the BBC News - Radio 4 "Today" show's July 29th interview with Uwe Rau of the Goethe Institute on whether German is being threatened by the English language. (Clip is about 2 minutes long).

Listen here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8866000/8866495.stm

German Film: "M" by Fritz Lang

Watch a classic German thriller (with subtitles): M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder by the director/screenwriter Fritz Lang.




Click on "Read More" if the video is not showing above; the video should appear then.

The movie is from 1931, and is considered by Lang to be his finest work. The plot involves a hunt for a child murderer - both by the police and other criminals - in 1920s Berlin.