Dialect

In many parts of Germany and Austria it's not enough to speak standard German - Hochdeutsch - you may also need some understanding of the local dialect. It's more than just variations in accent, some words are different. Listening to regional radio broadcasts or watching TV can help tune the ear but speaking probably needs the experience of living in a place for some time. I came across an interesting Austrian article on the subject of the need for migrants to learn dialect as well as standard German - Der Dialekt als Hindernis beim Deutschlernen in DiePresse.com

Wer in Kursen Deutsch gelernt hat, scheitert dennoch oft im täglichen Umgang mit Menschen, die Dialekt sprechen. Experten empfehlen daher die Einbeziehung regionaler Dialekte in die Ausbildung von Migranten.

Football and more

Die deutsche Nationalmannschaft ist bei ihrem ersten Spiel erfolgreich in die Fußball-WM in Südafrika gestartet.

To read more and for an interview with the German team's trainer Joachim “Jogi” Löw visit Deutschland Online This online magazine offers much more than football. For instance there is a conversation with the president of the Goethe-Institut Professor Klaus-Dieter Lehmann about language and identity "und warum es sich lohnt, Deutsch als Fremdsprache zu lernen."  Some video material is available and also information about courses for learning German.

Vocabulary learning tips

I managed a whole week without connecting to the internet once but I did still use a computer to help with vocabulary revision. I use Teachmaster which is a free download from http://www.teachmaster.de/ (See also the earlier entry in this blog). I had copied my installation of Teachmaster onto a memory stick along with some vocabulary files so I was able to run the program straight from the stick without loading it onto the borrowed laptop that I had with me while I was away from home and office.

The vocabulary exercises I use are home made with words or phrases in English used to prompt for the German equivalent. Teachmaster uses a series of virtual card boxes (Karteikasten). Everything starts off in box 3. If your response is correct it is promoted to box 1 the first time and everytime your response is incorrect the word or phrase drops to box 5. You can choose then to work with just the vocabulary that's in the lower boxes, the aim being to promote the vocabulary one box at a time by getting it right.

What I did last week with anything that landed in box 5 was repeatedly work with it to promote it up to box 1. I realise now that this might not be the best way to learn because I was promoting the vocabulary through the boxes using short term memory. A longer interval might have been a better way of handling 'doubtful' vocabulary. Fortunately, I tested myself with the same material again the next day.

There are several methods for using the learning program and I've rather ignored some of them recently. What I probably should be doing to learn new vocabulary is use the Patience method which also gets a mention in Sebastian Leitner's Buch So lernt man lernen.

I've found it difficult to access the manual on the Teachmaster site. The English version is still "under construction" and the German pages will not load for me but I did find I had a hard copy from a previous version of the program so I'll quote an extract here.

Der Clou [die Patience-Lernmethode] besteht darin, dass die Vokabeln in einer ausgeklügelten Reihenfolge relativ häufig wiederholt werden. Ein Lerndurchgang is beendet, wenn alle Vokabeln einer Lektion alle vier Ebener durchlaufen haben.

I have used Teachmaster for many years and the one improvement I would like to see is an ability to include pictures so it could also be used to create electronic flashcards.

Redensarten-Index

I was intending to list a few German idioms such as jemanden auf den Arm nehmen which is the equivalent of the English to pull someone's leg. I decided to enter this as the search phrase in Google and discovered there is a wonderful website for just this sort of search. Redensarten-Index lets you enter words or phrases for your search and when you find an entry you can also get it translated into a choice of languages including English. What I found helpful is the examples of the phrases in use. Redensarten-Index describes itself as Wörterbuch für -Redensarten -Redewendungen -idiomatische Ausdrücke -feste Wortverbindungen.

The home page has quite a few useful links, including one to a quiz with two levels of difficulty. If you need some explanation of Sprichwörter then try die Liste erklärungsbedürftiger Sprichwörter There's also a collection of links for German language sites for learning German (Deutsch als Fremdsprache).

Learning takes effort

Learning German does take some effort. I'm not certain that organise my efforts adequately, particularly since blogging draws me to a range of different sources and ideas and away from prolonged practice. Reading is where I notice the difference most. Browsing presents me with lots of material that I skim read. If something interests me I will read the piece more thoroughly and perhaps look for some other sources on the same topic. Reading German novels does provide some balance because I'm working with the same material for a sustained period.


The effort required for study may not be so obvious to those making the transition from school to university as is implied by what is reported of Baden-Württenburgs Wissenschaftsminister Peter Frankenberg - Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung 23.3.2010 - Es müsse Studienwillige klar sein, dass Studieren mit Anstrengung verbunden sei.

This was in an article discussing possible changes to the length of degree courses, making some four years rather than three. Some are arguing for a "College-Jahr" and I quote

Konkret ist daran gedacht, ein naturwissenschaftliches und geisteswissenschaftliches College-Jahre anzubieten, das Abiturienten auch die Möglichkeit gibt, sich der Vielfalt naturwissenschaftlicher oder geisteswissenschaflicher Fächer zu orientieren und mögliche Mängel der verkürzten Schulbildung aufzuholen.

The Fachhochschulen have particular problems with students coming to them without an adequate grounding in maths and that has led to a higher dropout rate.

Einige von ihnen böten schon lange Sommerschulen an, um Defizite - etwas bei den mathematischen Grundlagen zu überbrücken. Das gilt vor allem für Mathematik und Naturwissehschaften. Nicht alle Schulabsolventen seien über Schulmathematik hinausgelangt und wenig vorbereitet auf mathematisches Denken.

The full article is available from FAZ for a small fee.

eating disorders and healthy diet

Discuss the causes of eating disorders and the importance of a healthy diet. Now there's a good topic for any one learning German.

What immediately comes to mind is http://www.was-wir-essen.de/ which has a section on Gesund Essen. Following through to the Empfehlungen you'll find plenty of recommendations and links to other information sources.

What comes to mind with eating disorders - Essstörungen - are anorexia - die Magersucht - and bulimia - die Ess-Brech-Sucht. The latter illustrates some confusion about how to write words in German. It used to be Eß-Brech-Sucht but the ß has been replaced by ss and it is sometimes written as a single word without hyphens i.e. Essbrechsucht, or else as Ess Brechsucht. The easiest place to go for background reading is Wikipedia de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essstörung and that will also give you information about that wonderfully German sounding expression Binge Eating (note the capital letters). A further sources of information is Onmeda where you can look up all manner of things to do with health and illness. Bulimie and  Magersucht are both to be found via the Krankheiten A-Z  page.


Germany seems to have clubs and associations for everything and eating disorders is no exception. Take a look at BFE Bundes Fachverband Essstörungen e.V. They have a useful quick check page which, I think, will help with the discussion over the causes of eating disorders, so take a look at Test: Bin ich essgestört? and there are also Links für Betroffene und Angehörige. The following quote is from the BFE site

Essstörungen gehören in der westlichen Gesellschaft zu den häufigsten psychosomatischen Erkrankungen – mit mehr oder weniger deutlichem Suchtcharakter. Essstörungen äußern sich durch ein gestörtes Verhältnis zum Essen und zum eigenen Körper.

The numbers of people affected are much higher than I had expected. The figures for Germany are:  anorexia 100,000 people (90% young women) - bulimia 600,000 - binge eating about 2% óf the population. Warum sind Kinder aus sozial benachteiligten Familien fast doppelt so häufig betroffen wie Kinder aus der oberen sozialen Schichten?

Deutsch Kurse im Internet

I've tried to provide a range of resources on Jeckylls Heft and courses were going to be the next big entry. But I've been beaten to it so take a look at this entry in deutschlernen-blog.de I might yet do something that is more suited to those with English as their first language.

First student in the family?

Being the first in your family to go to university can be difficult. Not that I know personally because I didn't get to be a student. Statistics certainly show that if you come from a working class background then you are less likely to read for a degree. I certainly had encouragement from my family but that came from the realm of wishful thinking. They wanted the best for me but had no idea how to help me get there. And I never really knew what I wanted to achieve. Lack of clear goals coupled with the naturally laziness of a teenage boy would never get me anywhere. I certainly would not have thought I'd be learning German as an adult. I only just scraped a pass in the exams (GCE O-level back in those days) and was encouraged to take science subjects because those had given me better results.

Why am I blogging about something so far back in my past? Only because I watched an interesting video report from 3Sat about a support organisation set up to support and advise would be students from a working class background. Arbeiterkind.de is an internet portal for anyone trying to be the first from their family to get through higher education.

Als Arbeiterkind an die Hochschule

Die Initiative "ArbeiterKind." ermutigt Abiturienten zu studieren, auch wenn die Eltern dies nicht getan haben. Die Idee stammt von Katja Urbatsch. Sie ist auch ein sogenanntes Arbeiterkind.

You can watch the video featuring Katja Urbatsch - it's just 3mins27secs.

Do you think it's more difficult for kids to get to university if no-one from their family has been?

Puzzled by words

Take a list of ten or so words with two syllables and split them into two syllables with hyphens indicating the missing portion. For instance, Brücke  would become Brü- and -cke. Mix them up and set them out in a list. The task is to reassemble the words at a later date ... and put the definite article in front i.e. der, die, das. This idea for a Silbenrätsel was something I found in DaF-Blog. Click here to see the puzzle. To see the answers click on zum ganzen Beitrag or the title.

DaF-Blog also has some ideas for working in pairs to share and practice new words. Take a look at Individuellen Wortschatz repetieren There are plenty of other ideas and materials available on DaF-Blog so if you are already at intermediate level and serious about learning German then it's time for you to take a look

Digital Learning

I've been busy in the office today setting up a simple wiki so a small group of people can work collaboratively to set up a knowledge base on social justice issues and share ideas from a Christian perspective. A wiki is just a simple web-page with an edit button so anyone who is a member can edit or add pages and leave comments. Wikis seem to be used quite a bit for groups learning languages as well so I'd love to hear from anyone with experience of using one in learning German.

There seems to be a special day for just about everything nowadays but I've just found one that I've never heard of before. Apparently 24 March is Digital Learning Day. Full details from Tag des digitalen Lernens

Die Welt von heute ist nicht die Welt von gestern und das Lernen heute ist nicht das Lernen von gestern. Arbeiten mit dem Computer findet sich in fast allen Berufen, Arbeiten mit dem Computer findet sich in nur wenigen Fächern an den Schulen. Kann das so bleiben? Wir meinen nein, denn wir haben die Aufgabe die Schülerinnen und Schüler auf die Welt von heute vorzubereiten. Wir müssen Unterricht und Schule neu denken, denn die Zeit bleibt nicht stehen.

So here is a question for you to answer when you've looked at the website: Was finden Sie wichtig und warum?

Hobbies, DIY, gardens and even jokes

Hobbies - always a favourite topic set for students learning German. Yesterday I wrote about Koch Atelier and that led me on to explore some of the other things available from the same source. So go to http://www.hobbyatelier.de/ if you want some tips on setting  up a workshop, doing some decorating and all manner of things. If you are looking for creative ideas for making decorative objects or working with textiles then perhaps you'll find something useful in http://www.dekoatelier.de/ For furniture and everything to do with interiors there's http://www.wohnatelier.de/ Gardens are dealt with in http://www.gartenatelier.de/ and you'll want to know all about cleaning so try http://www.putzatelier.de/ If you don't find that funny then go for http://www.witzatelier.de/

You might also try the online magazine series
http://www.hobbyedition.de/
http://www.wohnedition.de/
http://www.gartenedition.de/
http://www.kochedition.de/

Plenty of useful insights into German homes and gardens and hobbies. Wonderful sources for learning German words and phrases to describe everyday objects. Please share your views on this by leaving a comment.

Computers - love them, hate them

Sitting alongside a novice while they got started with a new laptop today reminded me how confusing things must be if your knowledge is very limited. The first instruction in the very brief manual told them to go to the start menu. Fine if you are still using XP because there's a big button at the bottom left that has the Windows logo and the word start but on Windows 7 there's a big round button with no words. How does anyone know to go there rather than anywhere else on the screen?

But this site is about learning German so where might you go for computer and information technology language. I've already mentioned the TV series neues (see my post Computers, Internet and Politics) but if you're after a website to keep up to date then try heise online I have also come across NetComputer Lernen (NCL) which is an association of senior citizens offering advice and training. Perhaps we need more like that in the UK.

For free online videos on computer issues go to PC User Video This really is a significant video portal offering access to hundreds of videos. Why didn't I look at the video on Windows 7 before now?

You could also try some of the online stores for more vocabulary e.g. pc-superstore.de or http://www.dell.de/

A source I quite like is the online presence of a magazine CD_Austria because you can use there archive to view magazine articles in full. They also have some tutorial material that you can download. An example is Microsoft Word für Einsteiger and you can download it as a PDF file Step by step instructions are always a useful language learning aid.

Local and regional food

I mentioned the government initiative dat.gov.uk in my Sunday post and looking at it this morning I found this suggestion from James Shedden

Take the farmers market to the web - have a searchable map of local food producers. Often small producers or farm shops don't have websites so finding out about them can be difficult. For example try finding a fish shop outside of a city these days....

If you want to add your support to the suggestion then you could comment on the article on data.gov.org

I don't think there is anything like this on German websites but I did find some interesting advice on food and nutrition which includes an encouragement to buy regional produce - bunt ist gesund.

Der hessische Agrarstaatssekretär Mark Weinmeister hat die hessischen Verbraucher aufgerufen, frisches Obst und Gemüse aus der Region zu kaufen. „Gerade bei frischem Obst und Gemüse aus der Region ist der Vitamingehalt besonders hoch, da die langen Transportwege wegfallen. Buntes Obst und Gemüse ist zudem reich an Pflanzenfarbstoffen (Flavonoiden), die gegen Bakterien und Viren wirken und entzündungshemmend sind“, sagte Weinmeister. Wer frische Produkte aus der Region auf dem Markt kauft, tue seiner Gesundheit Gutes.

Another site I want to explore further is was wir essen I was please to see it has lots of info on food production as well as the usual health and nutrition advice. This would be a good source for learning German vocabulary about food and food production.

Do let me know if you come across any more useful sites about food - über Lebensmittel

Computers, Internet and Politics

I still have my first computer bought in 1980 and stored in the attic. With only 16KB of RAM (yes, KB) and the only storage a built in cassette tape recorder it took ages to do anything. There really wasn't much software around and I ended up writing my own programs. Try writing a compiler in just 16K! Things have moved on amazingly and I can barely keep track of progress, though I do try.

Sometimes I manage to link my interest in computers with learning German. One source of information is 3Sat neues and I subscribe to the RSS feed so I can watch their video podcasts Das Computermagazin. There's also the neues.blog

I've only just caught up with the last two episodes. The first of the year included an interview with a blogger called Markus Beckedahl. This is a really massive blog that can help you keep up with what's happening on the internet and political responses to the net. I'm now following netzpolitik.org and the quote below is from its Über dieses Blog page

netzpolitik.org ist ein Blog und eine politische Plattform für Freiheit und Offenheit im digitalen Zeitalter. Thema sind die wichtigen Fragestellungen der digitalen Welt und wir zeigen Wege auf, wie man sich selbst mit Hilfes des Netzes für digitale Freiheiten engagieren kann. netzpolitik.org wurde in einer Vorläuferversion 2002 gestartet und ist seit 2004 in der jetzigen Form online. Alles andere erschliesst sich aus dem Inhalt.