Learn To Speak German

Test Your German Vocabulary Online

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:29:00 +0000

My new addiction: Vokabel.com. Don't be thrown off by the rickety, 90's-tastic look and feel to the Web site. It's actually an incredibly effective tool for learning new German words and bolstering your German vocabulary.

It's typing intensive because you actually have to type in the German version of the English word generated. (It's not multiple choice). So as with any typing it can, after a while, begin to strain das Handgelenk (wrist. I learned it on Vokabel).

Probably the worst of the stylistic downsides to Vokabel is the lack of an umlaut - you have to add "e" after whichever vowels you want to be umlauted. But that's fine by me because I don't have umlauted letters on my keyboard anyway.

I'm recommending this online German vocabulary test for one simple reason: it works. I learned new words yesterday that I found myself thinking about today, and even identified one in a book I'm reading in German.

So now test your German vocabulary online, and learn new German words here. Good luck!

The Following is a German Sentence: "Fuck Yuppies!"

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:28:00 +0000

Most days of last week a handful of students took to the streets of Berlin to protest higher tuition. I think they were also in solidarity with squatters, who I saw stopping traffic on Rosenthaler Platz. Anyway, I'm all apologies for the NSFW nature of the slogan pictured above, but I couldn't resist because it's a complete German sentence, using entirely English words.

That said, I think in many areas of the English-speaking world "yuppie" has jumped the shark. I'm not convinced most of the protesters could tell you what yuppies is an acronym for. Young, Urban Professional. Auf Deutsch? Juppie?. Just yoking.

"Fuck", on the other hand, is timeless and universal.

The 16 German States

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:39:00 +0000

I memorized the 16 federal states of Germany, called Bundesländer, and their respective capitals. So 32 things memorized. Actually, only 29 because Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen are all city-states. Each is the capital of itself.

About.com has a nice unmarked map of the German Bundesländer plus a list below the fold, making it easy to quiz yourself.

To learn the capitals, plus interesting facts about some of the states, here is a list of German Bundesländer

Moved to Berlin

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:20:00 +0000

Long time, no blog. I moved to Berlin. My German still sucks; I tried a course here and dropped out, just like in Austria. I'll objectively review those two German courses shortly. Compare, contrast - I have a lot to say. But in the meantime I'm studying on my own by reading German books and newspapers and memorizing German vocabulary, as well as speaking in German with the locals, who are so patient and generously correct my grammar, so I'm maybe slowly improving.

Thanks, readers, for your generous patience too :-) More updates soon!

German Alphabet Pronunciation Sounds

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Hate to admit it, but this is something I still need to work on...

The German Alphabet, with written and audio pronunciation guide.

Artistic Freedom vs Fascism in Austria

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:42:00 +0000

Austrian politician Jörg Haider was perhaps most notorious for making favorable comments about Adolf Hitler’s employment policies. But for many Austrians, the satire by comedy duo “Stermann & Grisseman” that aired on public television just days after the far-right leader’s death last October was over the top.

Read the rest of this piece about Jorg Haider's death on The Comment Factory.

My German isn't good enough to have understood everything, I relied heavily upon a friend interpreting what people were saying. It was a lot of fun though, and being able to understand some German was encouraging.

So read the shit out of my piece for The Comment Factory. You won't regret it.

A Wiener (...Zeitung)

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:33:00 +0000

My feature article on ties between Austria and the United States is currently the lead story on Austrian Times. There's also a print version in Wiener Zeitung this weekend.

Here's the money graph:

"If you want to understand Carinthia, you should travel to the south of Texas" said Matthias Bernold, a Wiener Zeitung columnist who covered the 2008 US presidential election. "It's very similar to Carinthia, where people are still very skeptical of immigrants and scared of losing their own heritage."

Read the shit out of the print version here.

Then click the link below to leave a comment. Comment till it bleeds.

Preparing for My Second German Test

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:13:00 +0000

I've got a record to maintain.

Last time, I got twenty-eight points out of thirty. Better than anybody else. My classmates pretend not to care when I make a point of reminding them of this accomplishment even weeks afterwards, but I know they've taken note. And tomorrow we have our second test. It's their chance to take me down. (Provided anybody cares to show up).

They might have a chance.

I haven't done homework for weeks. I can't motivate, and I'm also really busy. But I have shown up to almost all the classes. Tonight I have to study like a daemon and comfort myself that nobody cares as much as I do.

I also just ate a ton of chocolate. Supposed to be good for memory. Also bananas, because potassium is killer for tests. I've memorized all the irregular verbs. From binden (bindet --> band --> hat gebunden) to geniessen (geniesst --> genoss --> hat genossen).

But that's only the beginning (beginnt --> begann --> hat begonnen). Also on the test is a bunch of separable prefixes, special modal verbs, plus verbs with prepositions that switch cases from dative to accusative depending on the context.

This is gonna be a bitch. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: I'm starting to feel nauseous from all that chocolate. I'm also braindead tired. These sub-freezing temperatures are killing me. I just popped an ibuprofen and I'm done for the night, I'll briefly review the worksheets tomorrow before the test, and see what happens.

(How's that for lowering expectations!)

70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht in Austria, Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:22:00 +0000

Today and tomorrow mark the 70 year anniversary of Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass" when Nazi gangs rampaged on Jewish properties, killing 92 and deporting tens of thousands to concentration camps.

The SF Chronicle reports how the Jewish population in Austria has never quite built up its previous numbers. The article provides a brief history of Jews in Vienna, including an informative time line.

Click here to read the article now.

Also here's another article about Kristallnacht.

Is WordReference.com Better Than Leo.org for Translating German Words?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:15:00 +0000

I like Leo.org a lot but it just failed me.

We're doing an assignment writing an autobiography using a list words given us in the past participle. Along with their infinite forms, all these German words' meanings were gone over in class.

But I'm cheating and looking them up in English, to make sure I'm getting the definitions right (class is taught entirely in German).

So as I learned in class the word gekuscht is the past participle form of kuschen. To find the meaning I went to leo.org but pulled up nothing, they just offered a link to a forum page written all in German and didn't bother with it, I just wanted a straight English answer. I moved on:

Wordreference.com's German-English dictionary wins today. The meaning of the German word kuschen is "to knuckle under".

Not bad, Wordreference.com, especially considering you're the new kid on the German/English translation scene and Leo.org's been around forever.

Starting Intensive German Class in Klagenfurt, Austria

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:26:00 +0000

I did okay on the German language placement exam. There are eleven classes, and I'm in number 7. I'm not positive, but I believe this is B1, what's described as Mittelstufe I, or "Threshold Level". (I'm referring back to the list of German course levels offered at the University of Klagenfurt).

"Threshold Level" isn't exactly flattering. I'd prefer if I were in B2, "Vantage Level". But it sure beats A2, "Waystage Level" *shudder*. Glad I dodged that bullet of humiliation. And not making it to Vantage Level is fine. I'm plenty challenged where I'm at.

Like all the other levels, class is taught in German. I'm often lost which is hard but I'm positive I learn more every time I come out of there.

It's off to a rocky start, I missed last class so I will have to double up on homework this week. I'll manage. On the plus side, I really enjoyed the first assignment. We had to write the first and last sentence of a story on separate pieces of paper. Teacher then collected those pieces of paper, shuffled them up and redistributed them. So I had to compose a story from the following:

First sentence: Es war ein kleines Mädchen.

Last sentence: Jetzt brauche ich eine zweiten Kugel Eis.

If you're good, I will let you know what I came up with, plus all the red ink correcting my mistakes, in a not-too-distant entry.

Stay tuned!

Fascist Austrian Politician Joerg Haider Dies

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:16:00 +0000

Here's a German word you might already know: Schadenfreude. It's also an English word.

Joerg Haider died today. Gawker.com highlights a few of Haider's most fascist moments as:

...the extreme right wing Austrian politician who once said the Nazis had "an orderly employment policy" and referred to the concentration camps as "the punishment camps of National Socialism,"...

One commenter reacts:

My father was born on an abortionist's table in the summer of 1938 in Vienna, my grandmother failing to gain entrance to a hospital. One of the nurses spit at her while she was in labor and said, "We don't want your kind here." All of her family was killed, except her brother, and a few cousins who were part of the Kindertransport to England.

I respect Germany and its anti-fascist laws and genuine attempt to deal with the atrocities of the Holocaust. Austria has done nothing, and continues to elect these horrid apologist. I am glad that Haider died a violent death and I hope my dead relatives are laughing.

I live in Klagenfurt, the capital city of Carinthia where Haider reigned as governor until today. My neighbor just called me about the news and openly wondered if someone had actually intended for Haider to be run off the road. NPR reports that an investigation is under way while the AP writes, "Authorities said an initial investigation showed no signs of foul play."

CNN also reports Haider's death.

Read German language news about the death of Joerg Haider

Listen to German politicians and friends react to Joerg Haider's death.

Now, I really, really want to go to the funeral procession and take pictures. I have no idea when it will be. Does anybody know? Seems like tomorrow, which promises to be a crisp, bright October Sunday, would be nice. To help me in my online search, I need to look up the word for funeral in German. FYI: it's die Beerdigung.

Austrian History & German Language Lesson by HC Strache

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:34:00 +0000

In reporting the rise of Austria's far right, the Telegraph features an awkward video interview with the triumphant Heinz-Christian Strache, whose anti-immigration Freedom Party garnered a whopping 18% of the vote in Austria's snap elections last month.

Watch the video, you'll get a snack-sized German lesson by hearing authentic Austrian German translated into English.

You'll also get a history lesson. When asked to address the accusations that he's a Nazi, Strache says:

My party, the Freedom Part of Austria, has a democratic history since the year 1848

He chooses words carefully here because the Freedom Party was founded in 1955.

But he's right, it does go back further. The Anti-Defamation League provides us with a brief primer on the origins of the Austrian Freedom Party:

...founded in 1956, [it] is the heir to the League of Independents. Formed in 1949, the League was the direct descendant of the faction that promoted pan-German nationalism for Austria both under the Habsburgs and in the years following World War I.

In 1848 Jacobin rabble rousers ousted Prince Klemens von Metternich, at the emergence of a New Social Order and an era of democracy. So 1848 very well could be the birth year of the faction that would, over a century later, become the Austrian Freedom Party.

While Metternich was a despot of sorts, one can't help but laud his aristocratic disdain for the stupidity of the masses. Especially their tendency toward nationalism. Today, the political appeal of Austria's far right is based almost entirely upon nationalism, fear of foreigners, and populist tricks. Strache even gives props to Hugo Chavez, his ideological opposite but good enough as an insufferable chest thumper.

Fine. If Strache's into machismo, he should try this on for size: Metternich gave Napoleon his sloppy seconds before ruling most of Europe for half a century. Strache, on the other hand, is vying for minority parliamentary votes in a Wienerschnitzel-shaped footnote to Germany. His party may have a history steeped in nationalism, but it doesn't reach far back enough to claim anything vaguely glorious.

Furthermore, belonging to a party with a "democratic history" in no way precludes Strache from having the vilest of viewpoints and xenophobic policy platforms. Mentioning the date 1848 is a cheap trick to sway weaker minds that are impressed by anything "historic", but it hardly is a defense against Nazi accusations - he'll have to come up with something better.

How to Study for a German Language Placement Test

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:54:00 +0000

The placement test for the Fall 2008 German course is coming up in a few days, and I've been studying. They told me you shouldn't study for a placement test, but I really don't want to be stuck going over basics for a whole semester.

Here's what I've been doing to prepare:

Listening
Listen to Austrian talk radio. Ö1 Inforadio is a great news channel with lots of information and talk, you can click through and start streaming it right now if you want.

I need to listen more. In addition to good practice, it's a good gauge of my ability. I listened to it a few months back and didn't understand as much as when I tune in now.

Reading
I've been reading a children's book in German called Der kleine Nick. It's a German translation of the original French childrens' book called Le Petit Nicolas. It's simple, and funny, and the chapters are short. The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zietung called it, "Das beste Kinderbuch der Welt." Good enough for me!

Sure, even at this level the German is formidable. On a first read, I can only understand about 40% of what's going on. But my strategy for unpacking each chapter is simple and works really well: first, I note down each vocabulary word I don't know, about 70-90 words per chapter. Then I blow through my vocabulary list using the online German dictionary Leo.org, writing down all the definitions in my notebook. Then I study and try to memorize all the words. Then I read the chapter again and understand almost everything, at least 90%. It is very, very gratifying.

Plus, there's pictures. So click here to pick up a copy on Amazon.com right now and you'll be reading German in no time at all.

Grammar
I found excellent online charts of the four German cases and copied them into my notebook. I learned these in college but really need to freshen up, and About.com's charts are the best ever.

Speaking
I've been speaking to locals in German a little, but there are two reasons I don't think it will be so helpful for my placement test. First, the German dialect in Austria is so different from the high German that will be taught and tested at the university. Second, my grammar is really bad and while it's good to improvise and practice speaking, people don't correct my mistakes and worse yet I could be reinforcing some bad habits.

Now, my test is on Wednesday. If anyone has any more study tips please drop them in the comments below, and don't be shy!

Austrian Fascist Hearts Che Guevarra

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:08:00 +0000

Time Magazine covers the upcoming Austrian elections and profiles the hard right's rising star Heinz-Christian Strache:

Though he has built his career on dire warnings about the dangers of foreigners, Strache poses on his website as Che Guevara, donning the rebel's trademark beret and highlighting the last three letters of his name for anyone who misses the point. He praises Venezuela's left-wing demagogue Hugo Chavez and, in his campaign rap "Viva HC!", chants "Yes-We-Can" (in English), a reference to the campaign slogan of Barack Obama. That's an odd choice given that Strache is urging that some African immigrants be deported. "Austria! First!" he sings, backed by an unsettling crowd chant. "Our Homeland! Our people! Our culture! Our language! Is what I stand for, HC Strache!"

The Austrian right, including the party led by Jörg Haider, whose favorable comments about Adolf Hitler's policies led to international condemnation a decade ago, could garner 25% of the vote when polls open on September 28.

German Course in Klagenfurt, Austria

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:44:00 +0000

I signed up for a German course today at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. It cost 216 Euros (right now, that's US $305).

It's not an intensive course, just a regular "learn German" course that will last a whole semester from October to February. There will be two classes a week, each three hours long. If I want to I can pay a 33 to 100 Euros more for a supplementary course in conversation, grammar, phonetics, business German or test prep, but I probably won't because six hours a week is enough to spend in class.

All I needed to sign up was my passport and a wad of cash. I rolled out of bed, walked downstairs and over to the enrollment office next door, about 10 minutes before the office closed at 12pm.

After signing up, I asked the lady if she had any tips on how to study for the placement test. She looked surprised and said it's not something that you study for, it's just a test you take so the instructors know which level course to place you in.

I told her that I'd studied German in college so I'd rather get into the most challenging course. She said I'd do fine, and then to demonstrate she spoke to me in well pronounced high German and I understood 90% of it. She said something like, "you can already speak and listen in German, so your test will reflect that."

At this point I experienced a flicker of buyer's remorse. Do I even need a German course? Perhaps my regret was the outcome of her botched attempt at flattery. But then again I didn't really get the sense that she was trying to flatter me. In fact she'd been mostly cold, formal and impersonal the whole time.

Which made it all the more surprising when she followed up in English by saying, "you know, the best way to learn German is to fall in luhv."

Really, that's how she said it. A smoldering, baritone, "luuuhv". Kinda strange. Well, I do that often enough but it doesn't seem to help with learning German ;-) So I guess it's best that I take this German course.

The university's brochure says there are six different German Course levels (each with a strange name in English):

A1 | Grundstufe I | Breakthrough Level
A2 | Grundstufe II | Waystage Level
B1 | Mittelstufe I | Threshold Level
B2 | Mittelstufe II | Vantage Level
C1 | Oberstufe I | Proficiency Level
C2 | Oberstufe II | Mastery Level

Obviously, I want to get into the "Mastery Level". If I can do that I'll glide through original Nietzsche and stuff (I hope).

Realistically, though, I might test into "Proficiency Level" or even "Vantage Level".

If I test into "Waystage Level", I will cry.

A German Saying About The Weather, Translated

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:56:00 +0000

This year, the weather has been strange. Time for another German saying about the weather. Let's see if I can translate this. If not, hopefully our Austrian transplant Ramsey or our native Swiss friend Roman can help us out :-)

Here's we go:

Geht die Sonne feurig auf, folgen Wind und Regen drauf

Okay, I'm closing my eyes and not going to the German-English translator Leo.org for help. Here's my first take. I think this is a very, very simple expression about how when the sun is fiery, the wind folds under and the rain stops.

Now, let's see how close I am. First, I'm going to look up the words I'm not sure about:

geht...auf, well, I told you that I already studied German. So I know enough about German's separable prefixes to save time and look up the single word aufgehen:

aufgehen - to rise. Well, that makes sense :-)

feurig - I was right! It means "fiery" in German! Sweet.

folgen - to ensue, to follow.

drauf - to be on the ball

or it could be a shortened version of darauf:

darauf - upon

Hm. Upon the ball? The ball being the "fiery sun"? Ouch. I'm confused about drauf.

Let's try it anyway. How about something like, "If the sun rises brightly, it will be followed by wind and rain". (Here in Austria, truer words have never been spoken). I think we're good to go. And now I'm also way less confused about drauf. It's short for darauf and one of the infinite definitions of darauf generated by Leo.org was "afterward".

This was a pretty good German sayings sesh. If you want more, visit our master page of German sayings. Enjoy!

German Word for Juice: Apple, Orange, Lemonade & Tea

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:27:00 +0000

I recently blogged the German words for healthy foods. Now let's focus not only on the German word for juice, which is Saft, but on what seems to be a specialty at the market here in Klagenfurt, Austria:

Orange-Karottensaft

Can you guess what that means? Fresh squeezed and grated, it's delicious.

The German names of other typical juices are:

der Apfelsaft - apple juice
der Orangensaft - orange juice
die Limonade - lemonade
der Eistee - iced tea
die Saftbar - juice bar

As you might have guessed, the sometimes-sweltering Austrian August has made me thirsty. Speaking of which, hears another near-cognate:

der Durst - thirst

Have another juice you love? List it in the comments below!

Listen: German Language Radio Stations Online

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:11:00 +0000

Since I'm located in Austria and wouldn't mind better training my ear to the local dialect, I found a few Internet radio stations broadcast in the German language. I hardly understand spoken German, so it's a test of patience, but here's a list of German language radio stations from Austria.

I recommend Ö1 Inforadio. Lots of talk injected right into your brain if you believe learning a language is in part a process of osmosis. If I'm not mistaken it's the standard Ö1 that often plays classical music or fuzzy recordings of church music that has it's certain charm but mostly just not that stimulating. And besides, it's usually just instrumental so where's the language learning?

Click here to stream 24-hour non-stop Austrian German talk.

What Online German Translator Do You Use?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:24:00 +0000

I recently compared a couple online German translators, dictionaries, language forums. What is your experience with these online tools? Are there other programs out there on the Web that compare to these two?

German Sayings, Expressions, Proverbs & One-Liners Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:47:00 +0000

Here begins my occasional series on German Sayings, inspired by a recent post on a German language podcast blog. I'll devote another entry to reviewing that blog but what's important now is how she closed the latest post: "everything has an end, only sausage has two! :-)"

Even better in German:

Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei! :-)

Such encapsulated wit & wisdom is a fun and entertaining way to learn the language, and I'm driven to learn more and more German proverbs, let's begin:

Juni kalt und nass, lässt leer Scheune und Fass

So I had to look up half the words on Leo.org and I still don't get it. "June cold and wet" then what lässt means is beyond me. The word leer could mean anything, I'm gonna go with "windy", after that Scheune means "barn" and Fass means "barrel" so "...barn and barrel". Off to a pretty shaky start. All I know is it's a Bauernregeln which means "country proverb" and it's about the weather. So is this one:

Hat der Berg ein' Hut, wird das Wetter gut. Trägt er einen Degen, gibt es einen Regen

Easy. "If the mountain has a hut, the weather will be good. If it's got a sword, there will be rain". That makes absolutely no sense. On the upside, I knew practically all the words. But then the word I had to look up, Degen (which means "sword") is effectively the wrench in the works.

I've about had it with German expressions, more later and in the meantime tons of German proverbs here.

UPDATE: I'm now translating German sayings on a regular basis. Browse the constantly growing list below to find German sayings and their English translations, and follow me as I stumble through the process of translation. Sometimes I fail. That's where you come in and correct me. Or read the comments of people who correct me. It's great fun. So what are you waiting for? Click on any of the German sayings below!

A German saying about the sunrise.

Translate German Words Online with New WordReference.com in German

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:12:00 +0000

I begin this post with a confession: German is not my only love. Before German came Spanish.

It was Spanish that taught me about WordReference.com, an online dictionary that has frequently been an indispensable Web resource to me when professionally translating text from Spanish to English.

WR is also my go-to resource to satisfy any sort of vague curiosity about Spanish. So when I decided to really set my mind to learning German, I felt a bit lost without WordReference because at that point (like two months ago) they simply didn't do German.

Times have changed.

Not sure exactly when, but less than two months ago they up and rolled out an online German dictionary! If they'd only been an itsy bit quicker to the draw (like by about two months, or less) I probably would never have gone over to their formidable competitor in the German space, Leo.org.

It's for the better, though, because now I have two great online German dictionaries which do translations and forum discussions about translating words from German to English and from English to German.

What's the difference between Leo.org and WordReference in German? From my limited knowledge, here's a quick comparison between WordReference German vs Leo.org for English-German, German-English:

An immediate deduction (not observation, I haven't had time yet) is that the forum discussions in WR won't bear as much fruit as Leo, because WR in fresh out of the gate for German. Duh. But while we're talking about online language forums, the quality of WR's for Spanish was always exceptional in my experience, and while I don't know French and never go into the French section I am a good friend of the second-ever mod for WR for French and he's a bright guy so I get a sense that WR, in general, does bitching forums. Can't comment on Leo simply because I haven't been in there yet. But from what I can tell their online German-English, English-German dictionary is awesome, perhaps even better than WR was for Spanish.

Have you had a chance to use either one of these online tools? If so, what are your thoughts on the dictionaries and forums? Can you compare the two?

The 11 Healthiest Words in German

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:12:00 +0000

I translated Well's 11 healthiest food recommendations and turned it into a shopping list (pictured) theoretically fit for any Austrian or German supermarket.

It's actually two lists. First, I did as much as I could with the Berlitz German Compact Dictionary that I'd picked up in the London airport. That's the first list.

The second list reflects what I couldn't find in Berlitz and so went to Leo.ORG, a helpful online German-English dictionary, to translate the rest. Now I easily could have done the whole list with Leo, but I wanted to see how far Berlitz would take me. Hopefully this will give you a slight idea of what it's like to live by Berlitz, and decide for yourself if you want to consider buying it.

It's up to you, but if I could do it over I'd pass on the Berlitz and invest in a better German dictionary. But until I find one I'll rely on Leo it's free, and maybe take Berlitz with me when I go shopping but up to now the idea hasn't been appealing.

Oh and one more thing: when looking up these words I didn't always pay attention to each word's gender (der, die and das) because at this point I've been employing an improvised pidgin of German mixed with English curse words which is surprisingly effective. Where I'm at right now, trying to approximate coherent German grammar isn't even a specter on the horizon yet.

Let's start with the Berlitz dictionary's list of English words and their meaning in German:

beets - Runkelübe or Rote Bete "red beets"
cabbage - Kohl
cinnamon - Zimt
(pomegranate) juice - Saft
dried plums - trocken "dried", Pflaume "plums" (i didn't look up "prunes")
pumpkin seeds - Kürbis "pumpkin", Samen "seeds"
sardines - Sardine
frozen blueberries - eiskalt or gefroren "frozen"*, Heidelbeere "blueberries"
grater - Reibe**

*i asked the cashier and she had yet a different word for "frozen" but I forget what it was
**okay this wasn't on the list but you can take a great to plenty of the foods

Now here's the Leo list:

Swiss chard - der Mangold (has got to be healthy)
pomegranate (juice) - Granatapfel
turmeric - die Gelbwurz or die Kurkuma

Not bad, Berlitz. You only missed like two and a half from the list. Still, I gotta say pomegranate is the coolest because the German word reveals the biblical origins, in high school I learned that the apple in the Garden of Eden was a pomegranate, according to some scholars, so it's interesting that it's Granatapfel because Apfel means "apple" in German.

So anyway basically I got annoyed/bored/tired as usual halfway through the shopping experience but made off with a few of the items. One uniquely Austrian health food is the pumpkin seed oil, it's pitch green and they sell it bottled like olive oil. I've heard it's very hard to find in the US. It's got amazing health properties and I bought the oil instead of the seeds which incidentally also were available but pomegranate juice wasn't, although apple juice was.

Here's to your Health.

About This Learning German Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:25:00 +0000

Willkomen. I just moved to Austria to learn German. In high school and college I took a few German classes, but honestly I've forgotten most of it and at this point my ability is rock-bottom pathetic.

So my goal now is to be fluent in German by February 2009. Follow my progress, and you might end up learning German too.

How's this blog gonna work? Here's how it's not gonna work. I'm not just going to list a bunch of words and tell you to memorize them by Monday.

Instead, I am going to bring you intimately into the process of language learning, as it happens to me. That means, for example, that I'm only going to blog about the new vocabulary words that I think are cool. I'll tell you all about how I found them and why I think they're cool.

Now, of course, if you limit your German learning to this blog and only learn the German words that I think are cool, then it's a safe bet you'll end up speaking a pretty strange version of German.

Perhaps even stranger than Austrian.

But that's not the point. The point is, you're not here for the Absolute Source of German Instruction. Rather, you're gonna read this blog for texture, nuance, inspiration, motivation and, sure, a boatload of helpful resources for German students that I will tend to constantly link out to, like essential German modal verbs and their conjugations, for example.

But remember: this isn't a German textbook. It's a blog about learning German.

Which means that even more clutch than the resources I link to are the comments I make about those resources (cool vs uncool), and those resources will be newspaper articles, teevee shows, Youtube videos, new German-language social networking websites, personal anecdotes about living in Austria and notes about Austrian, Swiss and German culture - anything that's mildly interesting and also promotes German learning.

Even travel. I'll definitely post about travel to Austria, Germany and Switzerland, whether it's news about cheap flights to Europe or tips on how to stretch the Euro or Frank on a budget, top 10 beaches in Switzerland (just kidding - or am I?), etc. Because fundamental to language learning is exposure to native speakers, so it just wouldn't be right not to share with you my best advice on traveling to German speaking countries. Right?

Okay, all you have to do now is subscribe to my blog for free, sit back and relax. You'll be speaking German in no time.

Because if you Subscribe to my blog now for free, then you'll be privy to a torrent of helpful and amazing German Learning Blogging coming your way, right away.

So Subscribe now. It's FREE!