German Christmas markets and Advent season Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 4, 2011
Today is the zweite Advent (second Sunday in Advent) and there are about only three weeks left to Christmas. So, it is höchste Zeit (hight time) to tell you how Germans spend the Vorweihnachtszeit (pre-Christmas season). In Germany, the official pre-Christmas season starts on the ersten Advent (first Sunday in Advent). Germans render homage to…
Are you really ‘boring’ or just ‘bored’? – Using German “langweilig” correctly Posted by Sandra Rösner on Dec 2, 2011
I have recognized that some of you who practice their German on Facebook try to convey their feeling of boredom by saying: “Ich bin langweilig.” I assume that you simply wanted to express “I am bored.” But what you really said was this: “I am boring.” Whereas English distinguishes the precise meaning of whether you…
German characters: Alexander von Humboldt Posted by jan on Dec 1, 2011
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German Naturwissenschaftler (naturaly scientist) and his fields reached far over European borders. With his complete works, that took more than seven Jahrzehnte (decades), he created a new level of knowledge and reflection regarding the whole world and became a cofounder of geography as a empiric science. Alexander…
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…