Archive for 'Culture'
German Sayings + Expressions 27: Feeling Old Posted by Sten on Jan 9, 2020
It’s 2020! Finally, a new Jahrzent (decade) – but for a lot of people that second 2 in the year gives them a feeling of being… old. Perhaps rightfully so. The Mauerfall (Fall of the Berlin Wall), which sparked German reunification? Almost 31 years ago! The end of the Zweiter Weltkrieg (Second World War)? 75 years this…
German Word of the Year 2019 Runners Up Posted by Constanze on Jan 1, 2020
Guten Tag! Each year, the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS) – The German Language Association – picks a word as their Wort des Jahres – ‘Word of the Year’. This is often a word related to a prominent topic in the country during the year, and is usually interesting from a linguistic perspective, too. The…
What’s for Dinner with German Christmas? Posted by Sten on Dec 29, 2019
German Christmas has a lot of interesting traditions. But when it comes to Essen… We are just not that traditional about it, it seems! Where other cultures have traditional Christmas dishes, like the French bûche de Noël or Venezuelan hallacas, the Germans don’t. While we make dozens and dozens of Weihnachtsplätzchen (Christmas cookies) and other sweets to cover the…
The Origin Of The Snow Globe Posted by Constanze on Dec 25, 2019
Frohe Weihnachten (Merry Christmas)! We’ve looked at a huge range of German Christmas traditions on the blog over the years, and if you want to indulge yourself simply click the tag Christmas for them all to come up! In fact, many Christmas traditions as we know them today originated in Germany or Austria. These include…
My Top Three German Songs of the Decade! Posted by Larissa on Dec 17, 2019
I remember the first time I recognized a German song that I knew the words to. It was in a clothes shop and I started singing along to the music in my head, without realizing that it was in a different language. It is amazing how music can help you learn a different language. Carrying on from…
German Word of the Year 2019 Posted by Constanze on Dec 11, 2019
Guten Tag! Today we will look at the Wort des Jahres in Germany. Each year, the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS) – The German Language Association – picks a word as their Wort des Jahres – ‘Word of the Year’. This is often a word related to a prominent topic in the country during the…
The Curiosity of the German Word “Orange” – Part 2 Posted by Sten on Dec 5, 2019
Last week, I talked about the curiosity of the German word “Orange”, since the pronunciation of the word differs when you refer to the color or the fruit. See the post for that. But there is something else curious about this word, or well, a related one (thanks Allan for the comment!). This little addendum…