AMD 6. Abilene Emerson

I set my facebook to German for an hour or two and when I checked it, I found words and sentences that I knew and didn’t as well.

Ich weiß diese Worten

• Gefällt mir: I recognized this one because it was Dative, like Kapitel 6. I am the indirect object that likes.
• Vor [some number of hours] Studen: I found it interesting that its  “ago [time] hours”. 
• [some person] hat einen Link geteilt: Past Perfekt= green (geteilt= teilen to share); 

                                                I could also tell that link is ‘der Link’ by the accusative conjugation of ein.

• in der Nähe von: When some people post from ihre Handy, GPS can track their location. This basically 

            translates to ‘in the near of’, ‘in the area of’. Then after ‘von’ the page would indicate their
            location.

• Gefällt mir nicht mehr: Basically it is ‘this pleases me no longer’ 
• Celestine Schwartz hat ihr Profilbild geändert: More past perfekt. Accusative ihr because Profilbild = ‘das’
• Ver kann mich kontaktieren?: There are even Modal verbs used

Ich weiß nicht diese Worten

• Wiedergabeliste: This means play back. I looked up parts of the word and ‘wiedergeben’ means ‘to reproduce’ and ‘liste’ probably means list. So ‘reproduce’ ‘list’. Maybe implying that you can play the list again and again and reproduce the sounds
• Veranstaltungen: This means ‘events’ 

The words in the main menu, and settings menu were unusually the hardest to figure out. 

AMD 6

For my AMD 6, I decided to watch an American show which had scenes where they spoke German. The show that I watched was "Grimm." The show "Grimm" is "a cop drama—with a twist... a dark and fantastical project about a world in which characters inspired by Grimms' Fairy Tales exist." The show is typically either set in Portland, Oregon or Vienna, Austria. 

The episode I watched was "El Cucuy" (Boogeyman). In this particular episode there were multiple scenes that took place in Vienna, where they spoke only German. One of the longer scenes that took place in Vienna was when one of the pregnant characters goes to get an ultrasound. When I was watching the scene, the first thing I noticed was that the pregnant lady (a main character in the show) spoke terrible German, whereas the doctor (a random actress) sounded like she was a native speaker. For the most part I understood what they were saying, but there were some words that I did not understand. One of the many things that I understood was that the doctor said the baby was coming in "Frühling" which means Spring. There were also many words from our Kapitel 1-6 vocabulary that were used in this particular scene. 

From watching this episode I also picked up on some German words and phrases that I did not know before. Overall, I think that watching this episode was a great learning experience and it also showed that knowing German can advantageous in some American TV shows. 

AMD 6

About a week ago I got news that I would be working in Germany next semester. I'm super excited about this opportunity and just last week I had to put in my preferences for housing in München. Below are the descriptions of the company Wohnheime and as you can see, there is a lot of Kapital 6 vokabular in the descriptions.

AMD 6- South Park Thanksgiving

One of the suggestions for AMD1 was to watch an episode of South Park in German and write about it. I didn't do that on the first AMD, so I decided to do it now. And, since this it's thanksgiving break (well, maybe for another hour or so), I figured I'd watch "A History Channel Thanksgiving," one of my favorite episodes of all time.

The basic premise of this episode is that the first American Thanksgiving was actually an intergalactic peace treaty between Native Americans and Pilgrims. It sounds absurd because it's supposed to. The History Channel has a show called "Ancient Aliens," which makes silly and absurd claims that aliens somehow effected human history. Seeing the show, the creators of South Park decided to parody it in the most outlandish way possible. At some point the episode becomes a parody of the 2011 film "Thor," but that part is way too complicated to explain. 

I enjoyed watching South Park in German, and I'll probably do it some more once I'm done writing this. The dialogue is relatively simple, so I can actually understand some of what's being said without the subtitles, even if they talk really fast (English South Park is also spoken faster than normal). I highly recommend this activity for anyone trying to take a break from studying for their German final in the next few weeks.

AMD 6: Skyrim

Für AMD 6, ich habe Skyrim gespielt. Ich habe etwas Wörter von unser Vokabel gehört. Ich habe von den Anfang angefangen. Skyrim hat viele Rassen. Die Norden sind groß und stark. Die Khajit sind Katzen und kommen aus Elsweyer. Sie sind klug und schnell. Die Dunkelelfen kommen aus Morrowind und sie sind magisch. Ich war ein Dunkelelf denn ich bin ein elf nicht gewessen. Ich habe dass Geschlect bedeutet gender und Springen bedeutet jump gelernt. Ein Soldat habe mein Kopf fast geschnitten, aber ein Drache haben ihn gefressen. Ich habe mit die Rebelln gelaufen. Ich habe in ein Uhr 56 Gold gefunden.

Ich denke dass spielen dieses Spiele auf Deutsch, und schrieben über es, war ein gutes Idee. I will continue to play this game in German now, since I completed a lot of it in English already and I think that this will make it more interesting. Hopefully, it will help me improve my listening skills too!

AMD 6

For this AMD, I changed the language for Siri on my iPhone and had it give me directions in German.  I was driving to my friends house and I hadn't been there in a long time so I thought I should use my GPS.  The directions weren't too hard to understand but it helped a lot to have the visual part of the GPS.  I kept it in German for driving back to my house and tried to get used to following commands in German.  Overall it was a fun thing to do and a good way to be thinking in German over break! Although I probably would have gotten lost if I wasn't able to see where to go.

AMD6

For my AMD this week, I decided to polish up on my German sports knowledge. I was interested to see if I could come across any articles regarding sports topics that I would like being discussed in German. Therefore I tried to look up articles on the "Michigan Wolverines". Immediately I was directed to an article/photo gallery from March/April discussing the 2013 NCAA Basketball Tournament; one in which Michigan made a run to the national championship. I was able to comprehend what was trying to be said in each caption because of my prior background knowledge of college basketball in general, as well as my basic understanding of some German. Below I listed some of the words, phrases that made sense. Overall, from reading this article, I can tell that college basketball really isn't that popular of a sport in Germany. It gives an overview of the basics of much of what an average college basketball fan would be expected to know in America.

2013 March Madness



Amerika ist verrückt nach College-Basketball. = America is crazy about college basketball.

It then talks about how many large universities pack their stadiums, sometimes as full as 20,000 people. Then it shows Syracuse University as an example.

It then discusses how the championship is played in large football stadiums and last year 60,000 people watched Kentucky defeat Kansas in New Orleans

dem Basketballteam der Universität von Kansas. = Basketball team of the University of Kansas.

Titelverteidiger = Titleholder (defending champ)

Then it discusses the University of Kentucky and their large fan base. They did not qualify for the 68 team tournament, and are the fifth team not to win the title and not qualify the next year.

The next talks about how Kentucky's rival, Louisville is the favorite to win the tournament this year. 

"Top-Favorit nimmt dieses Jahr der Erzrivale, die Universität von Louisville, ein."

In Deutschland drücken Basketball-Fans den Gonzaga Bulldogs und Nationalspieler Elias Harris die Daumen. = In Germany, basketball fans root for the Gonzaga Bulldogs and national player Elias Harris.

Ben McLemore gilt als künftiger NBA-Star. = Ben McLemore is going to be an NBA star


Letztes Jahr setzte es gleich in der zweiten Runde eine Niederlage gegen die völlig unbekannten Lehigh University. = Last season Duke lost in the second round of the tournament to Lehigh University.



For the slide regarding Michigan, I wanted to understand everything that was said, so I translated it. And laughed when we were referred to as the "Most popular team in the economically ailing state in the northern United States".

It also talks about how we've been bad in recent years but could very well compete for a title this year (which we did)


Der Erzrivale der Wolverines sind die Michigan State Spartans und ihr Trainer Tom Izzo. = The rival of the Wolverines is the Michigan State Spartans and their coach Tom Izzo.

der darf nach Atlanta reisen = to travel to Atlanta


Then it discusses the Georgia Dome, it's capacity and and how many are expected to attend

AMD 6

So for this AMD I decided to watch an episode of South Park in German.  The idea came to me over break when I saw my fish and it reminded me of the episode of SP when Jimmy and Cartman come up with the fishsticks joke and how the only person that doesn't understand the joke is Kanye West.
Per usual, I understood what they were saying most of the time and I'm still getting used to the main characters' voices, but when they brought in Kanye West I was shocked.  It sounded nothing like him at all.  I don't know, he just sounded like an old man.
Other than that, I'm getting better at understanding what they're saying.  Watching South Park is a great way to pick up German slang.  There are some things that I've noticed: they use the same word for the f-bomb as they do for sh*t, "okay" for Germans also means "alright."
Anyway, I think I'm just a couple episodes away from not having to use subtitles.

AMD 6 Kevin Shock

Für diese AMD, ich habe "A history Channel Thanksgiving" aus South Park gesehen. Ich habe was ich verstehen in das Skript geschrieben.

Super nicht war.

Ich bin eine sechzehn Native Amerikanisch.

Bei thanksgiving ist es ein mort.

Es ist schwarz gehen.

helfe es lieber zu essen.

Auf dem Geschichte kannal laufen Thanksgivings specials.

Wo komm die "stuffing" hier.

Was genau?

Halt Maul!

Sind sie das? ... Das sind sie

you Jung sich war sehr aktiv.

ihr muss uns alles sagen was ihr wisst.

Wir sind die history channel.

das ist genick MTV für ein Tag.

It is too hard to write down an entire sentence, so I will just write down the words that I understand.

Pilger = Pilgrim

Ich verstehe denn  Professor Broflovski doch recht.

Ich gar nicht einkaufen.

Hast du Füllung?

Wo steht dir?

Wer hat das Fahrzeug zu gehört?

das konnen nicht sind

Wir mussen Professor Broflovski auftrieben.

Ihr hatte mit alle rechts. Ihr weiß was zu tun ist.

Drie hundred Jarhe lange.


ohne Cape Cod

ist unser = is ours

bis zuruch haben

ich bin kein Professor.

Du mussen wissen

Was sollen das?

___________________________________________________________

Ich verstehe nicht alles aber ich verstehe etwas.

AMD6

Ich habe South Park "Pinkeye" gesehe. Es war sher lustig. Die Leute auf SouthPark pinkeye erhaltet. People turned in to zombies and wanted to eat people's brains!

Oh mein Gott: Oh my God
arm: Poor
Hast du gesagt?: What did you say?
Sonnensystem: Solar System
Pink Aug: Pink Eye

Nachste, Ich habe South Park "Free Hat". Die Jungs wollen, um ihre Lieblingsfilme sparen. They start a group to try and prevent directors from re-releasing and changing classic movies.

geändert: modified
papier: paper
Meine Mitte: My center (Peace)
Frei Hut: Free Hat
Filmkopien: Film prints
Ich bin nicht brechen im George Lucas Haus: I am not breaking in George Lucas's House
Du gehörst zu mir: You belong to me

AMD 6 Graham Techler

For this AMD, I spent some of my Thanksgiving dinner talking casually in German with my uncle, who spent a little time in Germany and still speaks a good bit of German.
We talked mostly about different types of Thanksgiving food, and who passed which food to which person.
This gave me a good opportunity to practice both the Conversational Past tense (as I was talking about food that had just been given) and the Dative (since I was often referring to people having food given to them).

My uncle helped me out with some of this Thanksgiving vocab:
Turkey=Türkei
Gravy=Soße
Potatoes=Kartoffeln 
Ham=Schinken
Cranberry=Preiselbeere
Pumpkin=Kürbis
Pie=Kuchen
to thank=danken


     

AMD 6

I read a few articles from the website Ich werde ein Berliner.  I found the few articles I read to be very funny and satirical.  The blogs are about different topics in Berlin that are hip and mainstream there but blownup out of proportion.  For example, in the article "Going to the Movies,"  yes, I will agree that going to the movies is different in Germany than it is here in America, and that the seats in the theaters (that I've been to anyways...) are red and not all that comfortable.  But the author is pretty harsh about the conditions of the theaters and the types of movies shown.  Perhaps these are the types of places the hipsters of Berlin go to, looking for the most run down, obscure areas.

The article "Techno"  was really funny.  I am a huge fan of Techno, and the only two places to find this genre en masse is Detroit and Berlin.  The references are really funny if anyone is into the Techno scene, especially in the one upping section.  The author tries to make the people there sound like they are in a never ending battle of one upping each other.  One of the examples used was how one of the guys knowing Richie Hawtin (arguably, one of the biggest Techno DJs and producers), which I thought was funny, since I've met Richie Hawtin myself!  I could totally have one of these arguments with these Techno aficionados.  
The techno scene is indeed an old one, and the author acknowledges that by saying that Germans are always "following yesterdays trends."  I thought that was funny since the people in Germany definitely dress like they are in the 80s and 90s...

I'll definitely be checking out this blog more often!

AMD6

To get into the holiday spirit, I watched a South Park Episode titled "A History Channel Thanksgiving." My inner nerd was pleasantly surprised to find out that the episode was more of a parody of Thor than anything else.

During this episode, I tried to focus on finding the direct objects within the dialogue. Hearing the same order of words within a sentence (subject, verb, dativ, D.O.) repeated throughout the episode helped me memorize how words should be placed within a sentence.

There were a lot of example for the Conversational Past tense that furthered my understanding of them, even though that was the grammar topic for the last chapter.

Some vocabulary I recognized was leider, oder, fressen, brauchen, geschrieben, gesagt, Herbst, keinen, einen, wo, wir, Tag, sein, gesehen, ihren, gemacht, ganz nichts, doch, besucht, warum, mir, and Augen.

I will now have a relaxing break after being exposed to more German and knowing that there will not be a shortage of stuffing this Thanksgiving (you must watch the episode to understand).

Not your typical Cinderella Story

I decided to read der Brüder Grimm story of Aschenputtel, or Cinderella. It was very different then the Disney version…in this version the father does not die after remarrying leaving Aschenputtel to her fate, instead it seems that he completely allows and approves of the mean treatment of Aschenputtel by his new wife and step daughters. There's no fairy godmother, but instead it seems the spirit of her own dead mother watching over her helps Aschenputtel through the actions of different birds that live in a tree that grew on her mother's grave. Also, there's actually 3 balls in this one; so Aschenputtel und der Prinze hat drei getanzt. There's no "it all goes away at midnight" clause in the story as well, but Aschenputtel for some reason rushes off each time. The first two times Aschenputtel escaped from the Prince and by time her family got home she was back in her rags, but the third time he knew she would run away so put pith on the stairs to try to catch her, but got her shoe. This is where another twist in the story comes in; the step-sisters did each try to fit in the shoe, but instead of the comic and child friendly shoving of huge feet in the shoes to no avail, in this version the stepmother took each girl in another room and when their feet wouldn't fit, had the one cut off her big toes to get in the shoe, and the other had to cut off part of her heel. Each time the prince nearly fell for "the one", but the birds in the tree on the mother's grave told him each time to look in the shoe and he'd find blood, and that they weren't his true bride. So he went back to the house for the third time, and I'm hoping after washing out the shoe, put it on Aschenputtel, and it fit. The story ends with the stepsisters eyes being pecked out by the birds. Pretty violent/graphic, so I think I like the Disney version better.

It was kind of convienent to have read this today though since we just started the body vocabulary, in this story they had a lot of that vocab. For example, the stepsister's were black of heart (schwarz von Herzen). The other vocab used were Ferse (heel), Zehe (toes), Erbsen (Peas, which the sisters made Cinderella pick out of the ashes to eat), Pferd (Horse), Mädchen (Maiden), and a few phrases I recognized easily like "Am nächsten Morgen", the next morning. 

Willkommen!!

Welcome to our class blog!

We will be using this blog throughout the semester for two kinds of assignments:

1. Once per chapter, the homework plan will direct you to post a response to the culture readings for the chapter on the blog.

2. Roughly every other week, the homework plan will direct you to post here for your Abenteuer mit Deutsch (AMD) assignment. First you do a fun activity that involves German, then you post about it. You should spend an hour total on this (maybe 45-55 minutes doing something, 5-15 minutes posting about it). See Was ist ein AMD, AMD Ideen and Beispiele for ideas. This should get you excited about the kinds of things you can do!

Whenever you post something, please include your name and the name of the assignment (e.g. AMD2, Kultur5) as labels. See "Blog: How To" for more details!