♚❤LEARN/TEACH GERMAN❤♚

[spencer]

To all people who are in my classes: I'm having some family problems at the moment and I haven't had any time to prepare classes. I hope I'll be able to send them out on Friday. c:

[Schneemaehne]

Well, I hope you all had great fun baking! Thanks to I-am-Titanium and the generel Christmas-madness I decided to make another info/learning post about the holidays. I hope you'll enjoy it!

Saint Nicolaus Day - what's this?
If you are a child in Germany, you won't have to wait till Christmas to get a little gift - on the 6th of December St. Nicolaus is going from town to town to give little presents to the good children.
So, what do you do? Children will polish their shoes on the evening before and put them in front of the fireplace or the main door. If the shoes are well cleaned and the children have behaved good the whole year, St. Nicolaus will ride by in the night and drop some candies, sweet fruits and nuts in them. In modern days, you might also get a small present, like a keychain, some Christmas decorations and the likes.
If you have been a naughty child, St. Nicolaus will leave no presents but a so called Rute - a short wooden stick. It should remind children of their bad behaviour and that they might get - quite old-fashioned, I admit - a few hits on their bottoms with it if they don't try to be better. In some areas St. Nicolaus won't travel alone, he will have Knecht Ruprecht with him. And where the saint is nice and helping and kind to all the people, Knecht Ruprecht is a real meanie! He will beat naughty children with his stick, frighten them or even put them in his big sack and carry them away!
Of course, this is not done nowadays. My mother still knew Knecht Ruprecht from her childhood days. It was my grandfather, all dressed in rags and wearing a mask and he would come and scare her and her younger siblings. As my uncle was a horrible boy, he got a Rute each year while my mother and the other kids got nuts and oranges.
As with many of these smaller holidays, there a huge differences in how to celebrate them in different regions of Germany. Where I came from we had a special baked good that would only be given out on St Nicolaus Day. From others I know that they do not only put their shoes out but also a bucket of water and some carrots - as St. Nicolaus stops to hide the gifts, his horse can rest a bit and still its thirst and hunger.
If you want a really detailed report about this, I can suggest this one to you: http://www.wissen.de/nikolaustag
(It's completely in German, sorry!)

But here are my tasks for you:
1) Find out why it's St. Nicolaus who brings the gifts! As a Saint he has done many good deeds but there are a few which are the reason you'll put your shoes out
2) Imagine you have a German pen pal or exchange student. Ask him about how he or she is celebrating St. Nicolaus!
3) In turn, we Germans have no idea about Thanksgiving with all its turkey-goodness. Imagine you have to describe it to a German pen pal/exchange student - what would you tell him or her?
4) Try to translate one of the following short poems about this holiday. Maybe even learn it by heart!
(scroll down for the poems)
5) Surprise your friends or family members! Maybe if you polish your shoes and have been nice, St. Nicolaus will come to you, too?

St. Nicolaus Gedichte (poems):
1.
"Glöckchen klingt von Haus zu Haus,
heute kommt St. Nikolaus!
Kommt durch Schnee, kommt durch Wind,
kommt zu jedem braven Kind."
2.
"Nikolaus, Nikolaus, Heiliger Mann,
zieh die Sonntagsstiefel an!
Reis damit nach Spanien,
kauf Äpfel, Nüss', Kastanien!
Bring den kleinen Kindern was,
die Großen, die lass laufen,
die können selbst was kaufen!"
3.
"Von drauß vom Walde komm' ich her;
Ich muß euch sagen, es weihnachtet sehr!
Allüberall auf den Tannenspitzen
Sah ich goldene Lichtlein sitzen;
Und droben aus dem Himmelstor
Sah mit großen Augen das Christkind hervor,
Und wie ich so strolcht' durch den finstern Tann,
Da rief's mich mit heller Stimme an:
"Knecht Ruprecht", rief es, "alter Gesell,
Hebe die Beine und spute dich schnell!
Die Kerzen fangen zu brennen an,
Das Himmelstor ist aufgetan,
Alt' und Junge sollen nun
Von der Jagd des Lebens ruhn;
Und morgen flieg' ich hinab zur Erden,
Denn es soll wieder Weihnachten werden!"
(These are the first stanzas from the well-known "Knecht Ruprecht" or "Drauß vom Walde"-poem by Theodor Storm. It's a real classic, though most people only know the first verses. Here's a full version: http://nikolausgedichte.net/drauss-vom-walde/)

Still want more?
Try this funny children's song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyXUwGcg-Y0
I'd daresay I'm an adult now but I still love to sing it. You can find the lyrics here: click me!

As always, if you have any questions or need help with the translations, feel free to PM me!

[friendshapedbox]

*Username: ~Hikaru & Kaoru~
*German Level: none
*Why do you think you are at this level?: 'cause i suck
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[Tsuru Lunares]

INFO FOR MY CLASSES

I'm not sure If I can upload some new lessons this wednesday. And this has two reason.

First reason: the weather is extremely bad here. We have Ice everywhere and I don't know how long Internet will work on my Computer. I can enter the internet through my mobile phone though, but uploading lessons with a mobile phone is really bothersome.
I hope it get's better soon because if it starts to snow now, too, then everything is ruined and I'm sure nothing will work properly anymore >.<

The second reason is, that I'm really busy with studying for a test which I have on wednesday. Usually I prepare the lessons tuesday afternon to evening, but when I'm studying this isn't possible.

greetings
Na-chan

[I am Titanium^-^]

Bump

[spencer]

My classes will be open again on Tuesday, I know I promised you guys to send out the stuff on Saturday, but I'm in a rush because of Christmas right now.

[Schneemaehne]

Hi guys!
Have you seen this week's Weekly Oekaki Challenge? If not, check it out:

Challenge #50: Your favorite place - show us your favorite place in the world! This could be the world's best vacation spot, or your own cosy bed! Wherever you love to be the most.

Sounds good, doesn't it? My favourite place would be in a library, but I image a lot of people might think of their hometown as well. Following this thought I have made up a little exercise for you! It has been a bit quiet in this thread, so maybe some of you will enjoy it. As always, if you have any questions or want to chat about your findings, feel free to write a PM to me!
So, my exercise for this week is all about...

... Berlin!
I guess you all know that Berlin is the capital city of Germany. It wasn't always like this! But maybe your teachers will tell you all about it in school, so let's do something more fun!
Just as in the challenge from Tess, a lot of people think of Berlin as their favourite spot in the world. Not only ordinary peeps like you and me but also a lot of artists. There are so many wonderful pictures, poems and songs about this city! Today I picked out three songs for you. I would like you to do the following...

1) Listen to the songs and choose one of them. I tried to put them in order with the first one being the easiest and the last the most complicated.
2) Just listen to it. Afterwards, make some notes - what do you think the song is about? Berlin, of course, but what else? Is the singer sad about leaving it or happily celebrating with his friends? Is he singing about his favourite café or how he grew up there? Try to gather as much information as possible from listening.
3) On the second link, there is the original German lyric. Have a look at it and try to translate it. If you think it's too long, just take some passages out.
4) Compare your translation with the English one I provided in the third link. Then have a look at your notes again - were your first thoughts correct? How much and how well did you understand the whole thing? Try listening to it again with your newly acquired knowledge.
5) Any more questions? I'm happy to help

Here are the Songs:

1) Rosenstolz, "Irgendwo in Berlin"
Click here for the song
Click here for the German songtext
And here for a fan-made English translation

2) Roger Cicero, "So geil Berlin"
Click here for the song
Click here for the German songtext
There is sadly no English translation. At least I could not find one. Please PM me and I will try to write one for you.

3) Seeed, "Dickes B"
Click here for the song
Click here for the German songtext
And here a fan-made translation to English

I have to admit, I do not like the fan-translations that much, there are some mistakes in them. Maybe you can do better

[Schuyler]

Ah, I forgot all about this thread. How are the classes going, if you're still doing them? Maybe we could try getting a little "deutsches Gespräch" going among the students to bring some life to the thread again. c:


I haven't posted anything in ages, but thanks for all the German exercises/cultural stuff, Schnee! I gave the second song a shot with a translation, although there are a few parts I'm not sure of and one line I just couldn't seem to work out ... at all ... *hangs head in shame*

I must say I find it easier to do English-German translations than German-English. For some reason, when a direct word-for-word translation doesn't work, it's always hard for me to think of how a German sentence would make sense in English, even though I can usually figure out the meaning easily enough. x'D Anyway, linking instead of posting it here in case I did horribly in case someone else wants to give it a try without any hints: viewtopic.php?p=82779170#p82779170 . If one of you lovely German speakers has a free minute, I always appreciate any corrections or advice. ^^


On a side note, I have also have a quick question. There's a family in German whom we (my family and I) have been friends with for years, and the dad's name is Joachim. Even after all this time, we still can't figure out how to say his name correctly, and I would feel really silly asking when I've known them pretty much all my life and should probably be able to say their names by now. x3 I wouldn't be surprised if it's not even a German name (are there any German words with "oa" in them?), but I'd still like to ask: does anyone here have an idea how to pronounce "Joachim?"

[Schneemaehne]

Haha, thank you! And great thanks for trying the task - I guess it was harder than I thought!

Your translation is greatly done and you really managed to capture the original, slightly ironic undertone of it. I answered in your thread with a more detailed "review"

And I am surprised to hear that you think German to English is harder! When I learned English quite a while ago I always liked it better to have the "foreign" langauge as original and put it in my "own" language. Because understanding it was easier than actually trying to put figures of speech or special vocabs into a language which was not my mother tongue. How do you other guys think about this?

I think Joachim is originally, way way back in history a Hebrew name. But it's very common in Germany, so I would consider it a typical "German" one. It's easy to pronounce if you know the trick:
Yo-ah-him
i would write it. It's hard to find any English word which has the German "ch" in it, even just in a way of speaking. BUT I just hopped into youtube again (I'm using this far too much!) and found an interview with the German football trainer Joachim Löw. Right in the beginning they call him on stage and - as you can guess from his horrible accent! - the speaker is German. So at I think 0:23 you can hear it spoken
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHoCBU4TJRk


Hope I could help and good night to ye all,
Schnee

[Schuyler]

Yeah ... I'm really late with this answer, but thanks for the feedback! c:

I would also expect it to be the other way around, but it just feels like more work translating German to English. Maybe because I never had to consciously learn English phrases and I know so many different ways to say the same thing, I have a harder time putting together exactly the right English words to express a particular idea from another language? ... If that makes any sense. I mean, I really don't know why. Probably just my brain being weird. xD I guess we also didn't practice German-to-English translations in my classes as much as English-to-German. Our questions would usually be things like "How do you say 'how old are you' in German?" and not "Wie sagt man 'wie alt bist du' auf English?" So maybe it's just a lack of practice, lol. I do think it's good to learn both ways, though, so you can really understand and use the language effectively.

Oooh, so that's how you say it. I think we pronounced it more like "Yow-hem" or something. He was too nice to correct us when they came to visit a while ago, but I knew we were probably saying it wrong. x'D Thanks, and that video helped a lot. Now I just wish they would drop the annoying dub so we can hear the speech in German.