Archive for April, 2020
Maypoles: A Summery German Tradition! Posted by Sten on Apr 30, 2020
Tomorrow is a big day in the German-speaking world. On May 1, it is time to put up a Maibaum (May tree, or maypoles). But what is a Maibaum, and why are they aufgestellt (put up)? And what will this tradition look like with the Coronavirus going around? What is a Maibaum? The Maibaum is a pole or a Baumstamm (tree trunk)…
Baby Naming Laws In Germany Posted by Constanze on Apr 29, 2020
Guten Tag! Today I thought we’d look at Germany’s baby naming laws. Firstly, what is a naming law? A naming law places restrictions upon what parents can call their children. These differ from country to country, with some countries having more relaxed laws than others. For that reason, I thought it would be interesting to…
Yiddish: Can You Understand It? Posted by Sten on Apr 23, 2020
Perhaps you have seen the Serie (show) Unorthodox on Netflix. When the first words were spoken, I heard a strange familiarity, yet only recognized certain words. Yiddish is a mix of different languages, with unmistakable German roots. What’s the story of this interesting language? And how is it expressed in Unorthodox? Let’s find out! What is…
The German Prefix ‘Un’ Posted by Constanze on Apr 22, 2020
Guten Tag! Today we’re going to talk about German nouns that start with ‘Un’. Like in English, there are many adjectives in German that begin with ‘un’ to signify lack or negation. Some examples include the words unbequem (uncomfortable) and unverständlich (unintelligible). In both English and German, removing the prefix ‘un’ from these examples would…
Untranslatable Words: Die Hiobsbotschaft Posted by Sten on Apr 17, 2020
If you get very bad news, how would you say that in English? Germans have a word for it, and it has quite the interesting origin story. It is the Hiobsbotschaft. Let’s have a look! What does Hiobsbotschaft mean? A Hiobsbotschaft, sometimes Hiobsnachricht and historically Hiobspost, is a Botschaft (message) with very bad news for the Empfänger (recipient). In other words, an Unglücksnachricht (message of…
Change Of Routine (German Simple Past Tense) Posted by Constanze on Apr 15, 2020
Guten Tag! How is life looking for you lately? I think it’s true for the majority of people at the moment that routines have changed. Certain things that we used to do, we aren’t doing any more, and new habits and routines have formed in their place. In this post I’d like to show you…
The Corona Chronicles in Germany Part 2 Posted by Larissa on Apr 7, 2020
Here is an update to what is happening in Germany and what the new Maßnahmen (measures) are. You can find part 1 of this article here, to compare how things have changed in the space of just a few weeks. Seit 23. März gibt es eine Ausgangsbeschränkung in Deutschland From the 23rd of March there…