AMD 3 - Attempting to speak German

For AMD 2, I practiced German by watching a soccer game and listening to the language. For AMD 3, I thought that it would be a good idea to actually speak German on my own. To do that, I called my cousin in Greece. She graduated from the University of Mainz in the field of law three years ago, and she speaks German fluently. While we were talking I told her to help me practice my German by starting a conversation with me. I tried to say everything we have learned in class, even the really basic sentences as "Wie heisst du? Wie alt bist du?" and I must admit it was really funny for both of us, and my cousin certainly had not seen that coming from me. She asked me what is my favorite color by saying "Was ist deine Lieblingsfarbe?". I even told her about my favorite foods and my favorite clothes, which is one of the most recent things we learned in class. When she answered my questions she frequently said: "ich glaube dass..." which as she explained later means "I think that...". Initially I was confused because I thought "dass" was actually "das" and it did not make a lot of sense to me, but she explained that they are different words and she spelled it for me. My cousin did not want to get into detail with th conversation because she said did not want to confuse me, but she did promise that she is going to have another conversation with me in German when I learn even more things!

Tschuss!

Fast Zu Krass by Caput

For my AMD post this week I decided to go and watch a music video of a modern popular German song. In my previous posts I have watched videos of professional orchestras play great classical works but I decided to go in a completely different direction.

I went online and looked for Germany's top 40 billboard songs of the year this past year and came across "Fast Zu Krass" by Caput as the number 5 song on the list. It would be classified as rap/hip hop. I was able to pick out some words and or phrases such as schnell, spazieren, Mein klasse deine mama. I also found it interesting to find words that we commonly use in the english language such as mama, sex, lady just to name the first ones that stood out. After listening through the first time with my eyes closed just listening for familiar words I then listened a second time this time looking at the lyrics while listening to the song. My next and final step was to translate the chorus of the song from German to English and this is what I came out with:

"I answer .. everything ..
... is almost too crass
I rap .. for ..
Think we do that .. almost too crass

This is not so .. .. mostly it .. apparently ..
.. the whole .. .. in the head with "passeirt"?
... Come Apart
Internet .. in Catalan with the ..
My better .. and .. no ..
What love "bedeucher" try .. because ..
You slop .. the site .. faster
My class your mama ..
You .. .. more .."

I found this very interesting and I found it even more interesting how this genre of music has made it into pop culture over in Germany. Fun assignment!

Einstein's German World

For my third AMD I began reading the historical text Einstein's German World by Fritz Stern. The introduction addresses how in the decades leading up to WWI, Germany was on the ascent to preeminence in Europe. "The only other country at the time growing with similar dynamic energy was the United States...the American century began as the German one ended." The late eighteenth century saw a cultural renaissance in Germany, especially in scientific achievement. 1770-1830 is termed the "Age of Genius" or "Geniezeit." I found this particularly interesting about the word "genie":

"The word “genius” in German has a special overtone, even a tinge of the demonic, a mysterious power and energy; a genius - whether artist or scientist - is considered to have a special vulnerability, a precariousness, a life of constant risk and often close to troubled turmoil."

It's always interesting to learn about the unique connotations of words in other languages, when there can be no precisely equivalent translation.

Thedor Fontane wrote:

Gaben, wer hӓtte sie nicht?

Talente – Spielzeug für Kinder.

Erst der Ernst macht den Mann, erst der Fleiss das Genie.

or

Gifts, who is without them?

Talents - mere toys for children.

Seriousness makes the man, application the genius.

Over fall break my friend Michaela and I called our friend Doro. Doro lives outside of Frankfurt and Michaela has vonage so we called and talked to Doro in German for about an hour. She helped me with some of my pronunciation with things that we have learned. She also taught me how to say new words that are their lingo, which I am unsure of their spelling. But before we were able to talk to Doro we talked with her mom who answered the call. Michaela let her mom know that it was us calling, and I noticed like I have in the past that they answer the phone and state their last name. Then I asked, "Wo ist Doro?" "Ist sie in der Stadt?" Doro's Mutter replied, "Nein, sie ist in ihre Zimmer." Then we talked to Doro and I told her what I was learning in class and used as much German as I could in the conversation.

Nur Noch Kurz Die Welt Retten

Having never heard a German song before, I scouted the German Billboard charts to find popular Germany songs. The top few songs were actually not German, but rather Spanish (I think) and English. But I finally found one that sounded German and I decided to check it out.

The song is called "Nur Noch Kurz Die Welt Retten," which I believe translates into "Just Save the World Quickly" by Tim Bendzko.

http://youtu.be/4BAKb2p450Q (can't embed the video)

Anyways, they say you know when you've masted a language when you can understand songs in that language. Well, all I can say is that I'm not really a master of German, yet. Yet. I actually thought he was singing in French for a while...

I played the song a few times, and I caught a few words. Like, "so viel" (a lot). Then I pulled up the lyrics and kind of followed a long while the music played...

"Muss nur noch kurz die Welt retten
Danach flieg ich zu dir.
Noch 148 Mails checken ver weiß was,
Mir dann noch passiert,
Denn es passiert so viel."

in English...

"I only have to quickly save the world,
And then I fly to you.
To check 148 mails who knows what
will happen to be afterwards,
Because a lot will happen."

I think this song will get stuck in my head considering how many times I've played it...

Ich trinke ein Bier

What better to do as a cultural activity of a German, than drink a beer (don't worry, i'm 21).

So here's my hour long drinking recap: Schneider Weiße is tasty and delicious. First discovered by a friend now living in Germany, we were able to convince an Ann Arbor liquor store to carry this beer on the regular (The Party Center on 1612 Jackson Rd, just as Huron splits into Dexter and Jackson heading West towards 94) in case anyone is interested in trying it. I've had the original and the Hopfen Weiße, and they're both awesome beers. So here's the facts, Schneider & Sohn is a Bavarian brewery that was founded in 1872. They produce wheat beers which, if you haven't had one, are just simply better beers (maybe i'm biased). They come in low alcohol content, to really high alcohol content, but generally hover around 5.3%. The aroma is fantastic and there are so many different ingredients that make up these beers, it's hard to pick one out that it particularly better than the others. Overall, compared to the American wheat beers i've tried, it looks like Germany has won the match again. Germany 2, America 0.

Willkommen!!

Welcome to our class blog!

We will be using this blog throughout the semester for two kinds of assignments:

1. Once per chapter, the homework plan will direct you to post a response to the culture readings for the chapter on the blog.

2. Roughly every other week, the homework plan will direct you to post here for your Abenteuer mit Deutsch (AMD) assignment. First you do a fun activity that involves German, then you post about it. You should spend an hour total on this (maybe 45-55 minutes doing something, 5-15 minutes posting about it). See Was ist ein AMD, AMD Ideen and Beispiele for ideas. This should get you excited about the kinds of things you can do!

Whenever you post something, please include your name and the name of the assignment (e.g. AMD2, Kultur5) as labels. See "Blog: How To" for more details!