Germans and Americans Talk

Cornelia's DaF-Blog recommends 'Germans and Americans Talk', a project from the University of Texas. This is a series of interviews covering a range of themes highlighting some cultural differences. Most of the interviews are available as audio files with transcriptions and English transcriptions. There are also some vocabulary sheets. Cornelia points out that some of these are a little dated and she also brings us up to date on the use of du rather than Sie in workplaces in Switzerland and discusses the use of credit cards. It's worth reading what she has to say in Germans and Americans Talk - Interkulturelle Vergleiche and she gives a link through to the Unversity of Texas project.

Podcasts from FAZ

Yet another source of audio podcasts, this time from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. They can be found at  http://www.faz-podcast.de/ or you could subscribe to the RSS feed As well as downloading there is also the option to listen to the podcasts online.

They are not produced very often but the range of subjects covered is quite wide and interesting. Length varies between 7 and 17 minutes. I've just listened to one about climate change and I think this would be suitable as a listening exercise for intermediate level students.

Mammoth undertaking

Is it possible to bring extinct species back to life? I've just listened to a fascinating podcast on the subject - Schöpfung, zweiter Versuch - Das Mammut kehrt zurück.

Sie streiften in riesigen Herden über die Steppen der Nordhalbkugel, bis sie vor 10.000 Jahren, am Ende der Eiszeit, plötzlich verschwanden. Für immer, so glaubte man. Doch was, wenn es Wege gäbe, sie wiederauferstehen zu lassen?

What I heard was the second of two podcasts from the Deutschlandfunk series, Wissenschaft im Brennpunkt. I regularly download these from the RSS feed for the series but each is about 30 minutes long so quite demanding to listen to and I tend to be a couple of months behind with my listening fitting it in when I’m doing something else, like ironing my shirts. I quite enjoy listening to reports like this as they make scientific subjects reasonably accessible. What I had not previously realised was that if you click on the title above the blurb from the RSS feed you get the text for the whole programme. That does make it much easier to check out parts that were of particular interest and also to do some vocabulary work. The links for the two programmes are here Teil 1 - Teil 2 Instead of subscribing to the RSS feed you could look at the  recent programmes listing.

While I'm fascinated by the research being done, and this report includes something of the work of George Church, I'm not certain about the desirability of bringing extinct species back to life. Sind Sie für oder gegen?

Martin Luther and the German language

Martin Luther, famous for his part in starting the reformation of the church in Germany, also had a significant affect on the German language. His translation of the Bible effectively created a standard version of German where none had previously existed. Many German expressions stem from his Bible translation.

There's a very useful mp3 file about Luther, including his influence on the language, that you can download from the University of Erfurt and there's an accompanying PDF file. The mp3 file is very clear and lasts about 10 minutes.

These two files are examples of the sort of test foreign students have to take to ensure that they have sufficient knowledge of the German language to undertake study at a German university. This type of examination is known as DSH - Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang. Many of the universities give examples of the requirement and many of them include an mp3 file. These are ideal for listening practice and there's a reasonable range of topics. I discovered these thanks to deutschlernen-blog.de Uli Mattmüller. He has even sorted out those with mp3 files DSH-Prüfungsbeispiele mit mp3-Dateien

Controversy

Once again a useful tip on Cornelia's DaF-Blog under the heading Kontrovers. This points to Deutsche Welle articles and accompanying 5 minute audio pieces which present different topics from two different view points. Its always useful to get the main points and counter-arguments on any theme and learn how to express agreement and disagreement. I'm publishing this without checking in detail so do let me know what you think of Kontrovers.

The wrong trousers and old clothes

What do you do with your old clothes? I guess many of us take them to charity shops if they're in a reasonable condition. I'm not certain there's an equivalent in Germany so let me know if I'm mistaken.

I did come across something about collecting clothing on a German church website

Was tun, wenn die Hosen nicht mehr passen oder einfach nicht mehr modisch sind. Bloß nicht wegwerfen, sagt Bettina Körtge vom Diakonischen Werk Jerichower Land. Tragbare Kleidung nimmt die Diakonie in Burg gerne

Burg is a town in Sachsen-Anhalt. There's an audio report accompanying the piece so take a look at http://www.ekmd.de/aktuellpresse/nachrichten/20018.html and learn German words about to do with helping the needy - Bedürftige