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Tag der offenen Tür
Tag der offenen Tür

Open House!

Tag der offenen Tür

Das hier ist Ihre Einladung zum Tag der offenen Tür am 16. September.

This is your invitation to the GermanWithNicole.com 10th Anniversary Open House on September 16th.

Zur Anmeldung

When I lived in Germany one of my first jobs was teaching voice, piano, and music theory at a private music school. The owner had recently moved into that building, where he could have additional rooms for more private teachers, and I sta…

Hier sind zehn lustige Dinge, die meine Kunden gesagt haben.

Here are 10 funny things my clients have said.

1. der Wasserhahn
2. sein = to be. sein = his
3. ADUSO
4. sich verlieben in + Akk
5. Drogen oder Medikamente?!
6. Kichererbsen
7. der Schmetterling
8. etwas gebacken kriegen
9. der Öko-Spießer (use with caution!)
10. not Schwiegereltern, but...

der Stammtisch

der Stammtisch – an inadequate translation is “group of regulars.”

der Stammtisch

Today you'll learn:

• what a Stammtisch is in Germany and how it differs in the US,
• what you need to know before you go,
• how often to expect to attend a Stammtisch,
• where they take place,
• and something called Einmal ist keinmal.

Sind Sie bereit? Los geht's!

What is a Stammtisch?

A Stammtisch is different in Germany it is in the US, so let's start with the original Stammtisch:

• a regu…

Giving a tip in German is ein Trinkgeld geben or simply Trinkgeld geben.

It's different from the US, and in this episode you'll learn:

• how much to tip for a coffee
• how much to tip for an inexpensive, sit-down lunch
• how much to tip for a nicer dinner out

And you'll learn what to say when you give the tip.

A lot of people ask me this question, and if they have an idea of the answer, it's usually a vague "You round up, right?"

That's actually pretty close!

How to tip for coffee:

Let'…

Ope! Almost forgot to tell you this important thing about greetings in the Germanic cultures.

Although we have loads of people with German heritage in Wisconsin, and Charlie Berens has taught us the brilliance of the phrase "Tell your folks I says hi," here, this custom doesn't require as many elements as in the Germanic countries.

There, in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, it's different. And it's important. It's an important cultural custom that gets overlooked frequently if you don't know…

Frustration can run pretty high when you take a German class but you just can’t seem to speak it correctly. The baker in Germany doesn’t understand you so you have to point and the person you ask for directions switches to English.

So why is it that you have taken class after class or lesson after lesson, but you still can’t speak German?

There might be more than one reason, and here are five which are common themes amongst German learners.

Which one stops you from speaking German?

Reason …

How do you tell your friend you're going to see her soon in German?

There are so many choices, and in German they're not direct translations.

In fact, so many German learners get this wrong, I use this topic as a barometer to tell me how well someone speaks German.

Today we'll break down and put together the many forms of:

• Bis bald!

• Bis später!

• Bis nachher!

• Bis Samstag!/Bis um 11 Uhr!

You'll hear your homework for this week, too, natürlich.

N.B. The A1-A2-B1 German…

In August I visited friends in Ohio and their area is also Amish country.

We visited Behalt, an Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center, and I got to speak German with an Amish man.

I got to speak German with an Amish man!!!

I also learned that:

• most people have no clue about the Amish and Mennonite people.

• most of what we (think we) know about the Amish and Mennonite is incorrect.

• the Amish speak no Dutch!

• they're also not from Pennsylvania.

• they don't all speak Pfälzisch.…

Erfolg hat drei Buchstaben: t u n ![1]

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Success has two letters: do!

To be successful at speaking German, you need to speak, and trying to speak without any form or specific goal makes it more difficult. It’s important to give yourself a specific task or framework for speaking.

Most people simply try to talk about everything all the time. That won't help you. Why? Because you know a TON of English/whatever your native language is, however in a foreign language …

When you first learn German - or first start learning German - you say everything in the present tense. You learn only a little bit of the past tense, mainly the two verbs here, and then later you learn the Perfekt, or the spoken past tense (Ich bin gefahren. Wir haben ein Buch gelesen.).

This is the order you would ideally learn everything in:

Present tense --> these two verbs --> a bunch of the Perfekt

If you learn the past tense in any other order than that, it is out of order.

No excepti…