Archive for 'Traditions'
Endangered German Dialects Posted by Constanze on Feb 28, 2017
On 21st February the world celebrated International Mother Language Day – otherwise known as Tag der Muttersprache in German. On this day the hashtag #TagderMuttersprache was popular on Twitter, and when I clicked on it there were plenty of German articles about Bairisch – Bavarian! Bavarians are famously proud of their language and culture. Even…
German Culture In The USA Posted by Constanze on Feb 22, 2017
Guten Tag! When you think about countries relating to the German language and culture, the first (perhaps only) countries that come to mind are Germany and Austria. But there are, in fact, many countries around the world that have German as a second or minority language, with towns & cities that have German roots. Today…
Untranslatable German Words: Wichteln Posted by Sten on Feb 9, 2017
In the pre-Christmas time, many groups throughout Germany practice an old tradition: Das Wichteln. But what is that? Find out here, in another post in the awesome series on untranslatable words in German that Constanze started on this blog! What does Wichteln mean? Wichteln is a tradition where all participants get a gift for someone else in the group. Mostly, the originality…
German Christmas Quiz 2016 Posted by Constanze on Dec 21, 2016
Guten Tag! As it’s my last post before Christmas I thought it’d be fun (educational fun… haha) to get into the Christmas spirit with a German Christmas quiz! Throughout the years the team here on the German blog have written some great articles about Christmas time in Germany. So, first of all, make yourself a…
Christmas Vocabulary in German Posted by Larissa on Dec 6, 2016
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… which is why I’ve decided to write a post with useful vocabulary you need to know when talking about Christmas! I’ve included links to other Christmassy posts which you’ll find further down. Weihnachten Christmas der Heiligabend …
Zeit für eine Geschichte – Weihnachtsmann-Edition Posted by Sten on Nov 26, 2016
Christmas is coming! And with it comes the Weihnachtsmann (“Christmas Man” – Santa Claus) to Germany. Today, he arrived at the Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) in Leipzig, Germany. Here is a little story of his arrival, plus some vocabulary to train your German, much in the spirit of the Zeit für eine Geschichte series I made last year. Click here for that…
All You Need to Know about the Elfter Elfter – Start of Karneval Posted by Sten on Nov 12, 2016
On the Elfter Elfter (eleventh of the eleventh), Carnival officially started around the world, including Germany. But what do Germans even call their Carnival? And what happens on Elfter Elfter? Find out here: 5 things to know! 1. Different names for the same Whether you call it Carnival or Mardi Gras – you mean the same thing…