BEOLINGUS Dictionary

The BEOLINGUS dictionary is a useful German-English dictionary from TU Chemnitz. You can see examples of words in use and you can hear the pronunciation for many words. It's also possible to incorporate it into websites and there are add-ins for most browsers. Though I have yet to try it out, there is a facility for practising vocabulary.

New words

I've starting learning how to use the Natural Language Toolkit (see http://www.nltk.org/) and then started looking for corpora and other resources in German. One of the sites I found Die Wortwarte which shows the very latest in new German words. There were 20 listed today. Click on any of the words and you can see them used in context. For more resources for German than visit the ACL wiki

Occupational haphazard

Every job has its own peculiar vocabulary or uses more common words in a different way. And, of course, many jobs involve tools that you may not be able to name in your own language. I regularly follow the BR Alpha careers series Ich mach's

Mehr als 350 Berufe im Dualen System, dazu kommen Lehrstellen bei Behörden und der Bahn, außerdem locken Fachschulen mit ihren Abschlüssen: Doch welche Ausbildung in Betrieb und Berufsschule ist für wen richtig? "Ich mach's!" bringt es auf den Punkt.

The latest podcast was Siebdrucker/in and one of the words I heard used was die Rakel. I imagined this would be spelled Rackel and when I couldn't find that in my Oxford-Duden I tried Rachel. I don't often get caught out on spelling but I was this time. I found the correct spelling by looking up Siebdruck in Wikipedia. Apparently Rakel comes from the French racle. In screen-printing - Siebdruck - it's has a rubber edge and is used to press the ink through the screen - in other words, it's a squeegee. In other forms of printing die Rakel is metal and I think it's sometimes called a doctor blade and makes sure there's not too much ink on the roller.

The previous podcast from Ich mach's was Binnenschiffer/in and there were a few words that stood out for me. To unload a ship is löschen. Upstream is zu Berg and downstream is zu Tal. An example of usage is Am 23.03.2010 waren wir mit unserer Harmonie auf der Elbe zu Tal. Es war ziemlich windig - The example is from YouTube.



I couldn't listen to the sound of diesel motors all day so it's not the job for me but inland shipping is important in Germany and involves the best part of 5000 vessels.

Crossword Puzzles

I included a crossword puzzle gadget in my post on 26 May. These are a good way of learning German vocabulary and a fun way to play with words. Some puzzle types are particularly amusing - lustige Silbenrätsel. Here are some examples of clues and their answers:

alpine Etage	Gebirgsstock
diebische Eisenbahn	Raubzug
Hauptkirchen-Nähmaschinenmarke	Dompfaff
Plantage bei einer Festung im wilden Westen	Fortpflanzung
Schreibstube für unterwegs	Resiebüro
verrückter unbestimmter Artikel	irresein

For a range of puzzle books take a look at http://www.raetsel.de/

Moving

For the last few weeks I've been putting books in boxes and have even let several hundred go to charity shops. I've kept my German books but most are already packed. Not much time for reading - or blogging just now. We've been almost nine years in our current house and it's surprising how much we've collected that we now don't think we'll need. We're going to move in mid-July. The house we are moving was let until earlier this week and now we've got it back we are busy stripping wallpaper and decorating.

I don't know much about moving house in German speaking countries nor the vocabulary I need to talk about it. So I've done the usual and looked online. I found a series of checklist that can be viewed online and printed or else download as PDF files. The link to find these is http://www.ummelden.de/ratgeber/checklisten0.html and as it says at the start of this page:

Einen Umzug zu organisieren ist nicht so einfach. So ein Umzug erfordert nämlich geschick in der Planung und in der Ausführung. Besonders nützlich und deshalb beliebt sind unsere Checklisten, mit denen Sie Umzüge einfach und bequem planen können. Umzug leicht gemacht!

The checklists cover viewing the new home; organising the move; telling banks, insurance, etc. about your new address; notifying the authorities. The same site also offer Umzugtipps.

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.

Flash Cards

quizlet.com lets you create and share your own online flash cards as well as providing plenty of Germany vocabulary with which to learn and test yourself. You can read about quizlet's features or just dive in an give it a try.

If you want to pick and mix and save yourself some typing then it looks like you can lift some of the entries from other people's flashcard sets.

Eyes

When I had my eyes examined in February my optician was a little concerned about the readings she got when testing for Glaucoma so I had to book another test. That was today and all is well. I'm much relieved but realised there are some limits to my ability to discuss this in German. Glaucoma has a very similar name in German - das Glaukom - and this is also know as der grüne Star. Der graue Star is the cataract, also called der Katarakt.

Last week I was watching some videos about training for jobs from the series Ich mach's and two had some relevance to the subject - Augenarzthelferin 30.03.2009 and Augenoptiker 14.09.2009.  If you want to watch or download these go to BR-alpha Ich mach's and look down the list for the download you want. To start the download: Right click on the down-arrow button and choose Save Target As ... if you are using MS Internet Explorer or Save link as ... if you are using Google Chrome. The guidance in German is: Download starten: Rechte Maustaste und "Ziel speichern unter ..." wählen.

Here's some German vocabulary to look up:

• der ophthalmologische Prüfplatz - der Phoropter - das Ophthalmometer - das Augenrefraktometer - der Sehzeichenprojektor - der Probiergläserkasten
• die Brille - die Brillenfassung, das Brillengestell - der Brillenrand - die Brücke, der Steg - der Nasensteg, der Seitensteg - das Brillenglas - das Brillenetui - der Bügel - das Bügelscharnier
• die harten/weichen Kontaktlinsen - die Aufbewahrungsbehälter - das Pflegemittel, das Reinigungsmittel
• das Auge - das Oberlid - das Unterlid - die Augenbraue - die Pupille - die Iris, die Regenbogenhaut - der Augapfel - die Hornhaut - die Netzhaut - die Wimper

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).

Tourismus

Tourism is a major industry and also a major topic for conversation for anyone learning German. Here's a list of topics that students are expected to talk about or discuss at AS level (exams taken by 17 or 18 year olds in England )

• different types of holidays and holiday activities
• what's important when choosing a holiday
• what can be stressful about holidays
• pros and cons of tourism e.g. impact on destinations,cultures, global environment and climate
• impact of tourism on the German economy

A useful starting point would be making lists of vocabulary that you might need under these topics and some useful phrases. For instance, for types of holidays and holiday activities you might list: Strand & Sonne - Wellness, Spa & Beaty - Aktivurlaub & Abenteur-Touren - Sportlich Aktiv - Radreisen - Wanderreisen - Kanu/Kajak. But you also need to note what are the attractions of these types of holiday and to whom they are likely to appeal. If you are looking for entspannen und wohlfühlen then perhaps that would suggest lounging on the beach. However, vigorous activity helps some people relax and feel good.

As ever, a good source of general information is Wikipedia http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourismus and this quite lengthy entry will tell you about Gesellschaftlich Bedeutung - Kulturelle Auswirkungen - Auswirkungen auf Umwelt und Natur - Wirtschaftliche Bedeutung. I found it particularly interesting that they also handle sustainable tourism, fair trade and problems likely to arise in the future - Sanfter und nachhaltiger Tourismus - Fairer Handel im Tourismus - Zukunftsprobleme.

When it comes to the impact of tourism on the Germany economy I have two suggestions beyond Wikipedia. The first is a report from Deutsche Welle earlier this week Traumziel Berlin: Touristen bringen Aufschwung in die Hauptstadt which is accompanied by a brief video to watch online or download as an MP4 file. The second appears to be someone's dissertation (Diplomarbeit) presented as website http://www.tourismus-dahme-seengebiet.de/  This is not as specialist as it sounds and you can easily pick out sections that interest you - for instance, Bedeutung und Trends des Tourismus in Deutschland. You can see some of the section headings in the image of part of the site navigation.

When you work with websites like this, make sure you pick out key vocabulary and highlight a few facts and opinions that you think might be useful. You might also consider the consequences of the world economic situation on tourism in Germany. A couple of short articles might help with this - Deutschland wird wieder entdeckt and Deutschland ist der beste Verlierer And here are a couple of questions for you: Ist der Kurztrip im eigenen Land die Antwort der Deutschen auf die schwerste Wirtschaftskrise der Nachkriegszeit? Warum ist Deutschland als beste Verlierer genannt?



I'll leave it to you to do some research on what can be stressful about holidays. The key word to search for is Urlaubstress but you might try combining several in one search. Pick  any of the following Panne, Flughafen, Auto, Krise to include with Urlaub and/or Stress.

Panne

Ich hatte eine Panne - My car broke down or My car had a puncture. Die Panne can be breakdown or puncture but it can also be used in the sense of slip-up or mishap or, to use a more colloquial English term, a cock-up.

My interest is often grabbed when I come across vocabulary used in a slightly different way and today I found an example of Panne being added to another word. It appears in a report about a mix up with the records of organ donors in Britain. The article appears with the headline Datenpanne führt zur ungenehmigten Organentnahme in Großbritannien and within the article you'll also find IT-Panne. Below the article in heise online you'll see links to other Datenpanne.

Searching online, I found Software-Panne and Bankkarten-Panne and some amusing YouTube videos of things that have gone wrong on television e.g.  TV Pannen aus dem Deutschen Wetterfernsehen - Lustige Clips und TV Pannen

Sport auf Deutsch

Here are four topics for discussion under the general heading of sport and exercise:

• Traditional versus 'fun' sports
• Reasons for taking part in sport/physical exercise
• Factors influencing participation
• Links between physical exercise and health

A useful starting place is the Deutsche Olympische SportBund (DOSB).

Regelmäßige sportliche Aktivität beeinflusst Gesundheit und Wohlbefinden positiv. Der DOSB bietet Fitness für einen gesunden Lebensstil. >>>

And you could visit their Fun und Spiele page for a series of light hearted tests and quizzes including - Und welcher Fitnesstyp sind Sie? - Wissen, wie's läuft. Das Fitness-Quiz - Der Fitness-Test.

For more German fitness vocabulary than you will ever need there's a Fitness-Lexicon von A-Z

There are three main areas on fitness. First there is http://www.richtigfit.de/. Older people like me can benefit from http://www.richtigfitab50.de/ . Both have long lists of Sportarten. For young people and sport visit http://www.dsj.de/.

You might also want to find out what anti-doping measures are being taken.

Viel Spass. Sport macht fit.

Addictions

Richard, who goes to the same German conversation class as me, plans to put his German to the test by sitting the AS exams this year. So we're going to focus our discussion each week on one of the exam subject themes. Next week we'll talk about addictions - alcohol, smoking, drugs, dieting and eating disorders.

The issue is very topical - ganz aktuell. American actress Lindsay Lohan, who narrowly avoided an untimely death because of  her drug and alcohol addiction, has just given an interview in London. She said that her heavy misuse had not helped with any of her problems. To read about this in German see Lindsay Lohan bereut ihre Sucht öffentlich in kreiszeitung.de

I need to revise some vocabulary if we're to talk sensibly next week, so I've looked back at my old notes to find some words we might want to use.

addicted to	süchtig nach
compulsive	zwanghaft
self-destructive	selbstzerstörerisch
the yearning for	die Gier nach
to consume (put away)	einverleiben
compulsive behaviour	das Zwangsverhalten
to become a slave to	sich versklaven lassen von
to go to pieces/ruin	zu Grunde gehen

My notes had the last as zugrunde gehen but that changed with the new Rechtschreibung. If you want to say "go to ruin by means of" then you would have to add an. Which leads on nicely to what preposition to use following an adjective, noun or verb when talking about addictions.

dependent on	abhängig von
to lead to	führen zu
to resort to	greifen zu
to get free of	loskommen von
addicted to	süchtig nach
necessary to	nötig für
access to	der Zugang zu
a surplus of	ein Überangebot an
to have a tendency to	neigen zu
the sale and possession of	Der Verkauf und Besitz von

Perhaps you could add your opinion as a comment, preferably in German. Was kann man für Süchtige tun, um ihnen zu helfen? Hilft Aufklärung und Warnung? Sollen die "weichen" Drogen legalisiert werden? Ist der Konsum von Alkohol ist ein größeres Problem als der Konsum von Drogen?

Shop for new words

TV shopping channels are a great source for new vocabulary. The television shows communicate in fairly simple language and they are backed up by slick websites. Adverts and sales media are always useful for language learning. Because they seek to generate sales they readily get their message across ... not that I've ever been tempted to buy.

Take a look at HSE24 for a range of products. Click on TV if you want to see any of the programmes. Have you noticed how shoppen has replaced einkaufen in modern German? Do you shop online or buy from TV shopping channels?

Karneval

We really miss out on some fun in the UK. Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday just doesn't compare with Mardi Gras or its German equivalents Karneval - Fastnacht - Fasching. I've just had an email reminder from http://www.deutschlern.net/ that this time is also known as die fünfte Jahreszeit and also die tollen Tage. This is a period for dressing up and celebrating in the street, particularly in the cities along the Rhine. Dressing up sounds a bit silly, and there's certainly plenty of silliness and drinking. Deutschlern.net hits the mood exactly right when they say: Die Welt steht auf dem Kopf und ein paar Tage lang ist alles erlaubt.

"People dress up" also seems a weak translation of die Leute verkleiden sich and I miss the word used in Shetland that offers a more precise description - "guizing" - same root as "disguise". Guizing in Lerwick involves about 800 men dressing up and processing through the streets before burning a full size replica Viking longship at the end of January each year and Up Helly Aa has to be the nearest British equivalent to Karneval.

Click here for the audio slide show illustrated above. It has slow speech and lots of pictures and various aids to understanding, including exercises to test comprehension and vocabulary.

Exercises from Finland

I've just work with some exercises on Michis Übungs-Site and realised I was not as good as I should be with some of the exercises on verbs. It shows I haven't put in enough practice but the really useful thing is it shows some areas where I need to do some revision. If your results in an exercise are a little disappointing don't lose heart but use your mistakes as an incentive for revision or further learning. There's no point in beating yourself up, the whole point about correction is learning to be correct.

The site I was using as a reasonable range of grammatical exercises. Many take the form of supplying the missing word or words in a sentence (Lückentext) but there are also some where you have to put words in the correct order (Zuordung) and others take the form of a simple quiz (Kurzantwort-Quiz). Under the heading Sprache you'll find some exercises on writing letters and on invitations and how to reply. Wortschatz has some thematically organised exercises to test general vocabulary and a useful set on Redewendungen - colloquial expressions.

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

Deutschlern.net

Jeckylls Heft has links to exercises from many sources. What I plan to do is review these occasionally. I'm also conscious that I need to work through exercises myself. When you learn German your motto has to be üben, üben, üben! - practise, practise, practise!

What I like about Deutschlern.net is the way it uses video and other images to help with learning. So today I looked at some exercises for Fortgeschrittene based on reports about the recent extremely cold weather in Europe. They were not particularly difficult but would help with revision on the associated vocabulary.

When you first go to the site you are asked to register - anmelden. This is easy. Just choose a user name, enter a password and confirm it. You don't have to give any other detail if you wish not to. However, I do recommend giving an email address in case you forget your password.

World Religions

Some time last year I found an interactive animation about three significant world religions found in Germany - Islam, Judaism and Christianity. I was convinced it was on the Planet Schule site but couldn't find it. That's why I ended up blogging on time travel. As soon as I'd published that post I found it. It was there all the time so why I didn't find it I'll never know. I'll let the blurb speak for itself

Wer arbeitet in einer Moschee? Welche Feste feiern Juden? Begleite Jasmin, eine angehende Archäologin, bei ihrer Entdeckungsreise in die Welt von Christentum, Judentum und Islam. Wohnhäuser, Moschee, Kirche, Synagoge und eine Bibliothek bieten Informationen zu den Religionen. In einem Quiz kannst du dein Wissen erproben.

The page where the link is hidden is http://www.planet-schule.de/sf/iq-shuttle/index.html Just one more way of adding to your vocabulary. Let me know what you think.