Stichwörter (Keywords):
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- Category: German vocabulary
You probably enjoy those lists of German words that can't be translated into English as much as I do.
They go around the internet again and again, but have you noticed they're usually the same words?
This word, schräg, never shows up on one, and it deserves to be on every list.
In this episode you'll learn all about the word schräg.
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- Category: German vocabulary
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 sometimes 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:
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Bis bald!
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Bis später!
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Bis nachher!
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Bis Samstag!/Bis um 11 Uhr!
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- Category: German culture and food
Frequently, very frequently I find myself confused by living in the US again. The culture is simply so different from German culture, which is where I began my post-grad school life. I couldn't put words to all of it, but then a friend of mine asked me recently, "Of all the places you've been, where did you have the most culture shock?" It took me weeks to sort out my answer. After considering the 21 countries and perhaps 18 states I've visited, I've finally got my answer.
In this episode we'll explore three specific cultural differences based on the Hofstede Insights, which are extraordinarily helpful in comparing cultural values.
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- Category: Listening to German
It's a 'scary' time of year and to go along with it, here is your Brothers Grimm fairy tale in a video.
You might not know Der Kobold in der Mühle, however it's every bit as eery as the other fairy tales.
What does Kobold mean?
A Kobold is a "house spirit," a German folk being who takes care of household tasks and sometimes causes mischief. Britannica.com has a fantastic description of a Kobold that includes this important information:
"...mischievous household spirit who usually helps with chores...He is temperamental and becomes outraged when he is not properly fed. He sometimes sings to children."
Can you imagine that kind of Hausgeist being your Gute Nacht Geschichte? Creepy! There are different interpretations of what a Kobold would look like and a lot of them are pretty disturbing.
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- Category: German culture and food
German table manners and etiquette might be like what you know, or they might be very different.
In German this is called Esskultur is the culture of food, dining, and manners.
For most Germans, Esskultur begins when they are in high chairs and their parents teach them to eat when the adults are eating, to wait until the adults are finished to be excused from the table, how to use a napkin, and how to use their eating utensils.
In the US, manners vary widely and the manners you learn depends largely on what your family has taught you.
We don't have one set of manners, and you can tell by the variety of food we eat, from barbecue to spaghetti and from falafel to Schnitzel.
So here are some rules to live by to help you understand how Germans dine and to help you avoid some pitfalls along the way. For these 9 rules, we'll assume that you have been invited to a friend's house or out to a business dinner.
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