Archive for November, 2011
German tradition: The Abitur – More than just taking annoying examinations (pt. 2) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 30, 2011
The Abizeitung and Abi-Shirts In order to remember the time of the Abitur, German students usually make a journal and T-shirts. My schoolfellows and I made an Abi-journal under the motto “imprisonment”. We treated each student as an inmate of a prison (our school) and drew up ‘psychological profiles’ which revealed the particular characteristics and interests of students as…
German tradition: The Abitur – More than just taking annoying examinations (pt. 1) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 28, 2011
I’m quite sure that you cover the topic “German school system” at an early stage when you learn German as a foreign language in school. Thus, you may already know that the Abitur is the secondary school leaving examination in Germany, which allows you to apply for university. But I’m not sure if any of…
Tradition: How Germans celebrate the adolescence of young people Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 24, 2011
In the years of the separation of Germany (1949-1989/90), the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) refused to nominate a state religion and propagated a non-religious Weltbild (worldview), instead. Thus, the East German government neither supported Christian ceremonies that celebrate the reception of a child or adolescent into a society, e.g. communion and confirmation, nor…
Tradition: How Germans celebrate a child’s first day at school – Einschulung Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 22, 2011
A friend of mine, who studies French, is currently in France, where she teaches French students German. In one of her first lessons she wanted to find out to what extend the students were able to communicate in German, so she showed them a picture and asked them to describe what they could see. Although…
Some simple facts about Germany Posted by jan on Nov 21, 2011
Germany is located in the heart of Europe. It has nine Nachbarstaaten (neighboring states) and it naturally borders the Nordsee (North Sea) and Ostsee (Baltic Sea) and the European Alps in the south (The borders to all neighboring states are open, by the way. The only exception is Switzerland). With its 357.111,92 km², it is…
German cooking: “Grünkohl” – Kale Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 17, 2011
Grünkohl (kale) is a very popular dish for the Adventszeit (Advent Season) and Weihnachten (Christmas) in Germany. And I also like it very much. It is one of my favorite dishes. As someone of you asked how to prepare it, I’d like to address myself to this topic. First of all, you need to…
German movies: Lola rennt (Run Lola Run) Posted by jan on Nov 16, 2011
The movie „Jeden Tag, jede Sekunde triffst Du eine Entscheidung, die dein Leben verändern kann.“ („Every day, every second you make a decision that could change your life.“) You can say that this Satz (sentence) is something like the credo of this fast-paced movie made by Tom Tykwer in 1998. The story of the movie…