Oktoberfest is celebrated annually in the city of Munich, Bavaria and generally takes place over the last 2 weeks of September and into the first weekend in October to take advantage of favorable weather. It is the world’s largest fair attracting around 5 million visitors every year!
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Salzburg is the capital city of the province of Salzburg in Austria. The city has an approximate population of 150,000 and is located along the Salzach River at the northern boundary of the Alps. The most prominent feature of its skyline is a fort or Festung located up on a hill. This iconic building overlooks the city and dates back to 1077! Salzburg is very popular with tourists year round owing to its beautiful old town or Altstadt, great café culture, and vibrant music and arts scene.
When a girl turns fifteen years old in many parts of Latin America her family throws her a special birthday party. Both the girl and the party may be referred to la quinceañera. This term comes from the number fifteen in Spanish which is quince. This age traditionally signified when a girl turned into a young woman. The closest equivalent in North American culture would be a debutantes ball.
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Part of learning a new language is also learning the culture that surrounds it. Here we will focus on German cultural norms surrounding meeting, greeting and addressing people in various situations. Keep in mind that the following are generalizations and there are always exceptions to the rule.
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I just finished reading The Power of Babel by John McWhorter. McWhorter is an American linguistics professor who has written many interesting books on various linguistic topics. As an African-American, he has a special interest in black American English and has written many books on the topic. The Power of Babel however is a general treatment on the history of the languages of the world. It is written for both linguists and laypeople alike and the author uses specific examples from wide reaching languages to show the amazing variety and complexity of human speech.
Read moreIdiomatic expressions or idioms are phrases that do not translate directly from one language to another and are often couched in the history and language of a specific culture. A good example of an idiom is, “it’s raining cats and dogs.” To a native English speaker it is obvious that people’s pets are not literally falling from the sky but to a learner of English this expression could be very confusing indeed!
Below are some useful idiomatic expressions. Integrating idioms into your everyday conversation is essential to achieving fluency in a foreign language.
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English and German are both members of the Germanic language family. All modern forms of these languages originated from a common ancestor language spoken in the region of modern-day Scandinavia roughy 2500 years ago. Linguists call this language Proto-Germanic. To demonstrate the similarities between these languages here are a few examples of the word apple:
apple (English), äpple (Swedish), Appel (Low German), Apfel (High German), æble (Danish)
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Learning a language today has never been easier for those who are unable to go and live in a foreign country to study their target language. There are numerous online resources available to help with listening and comprehension skills as well as to practice verb conjugations and build vocabulary. The challenge can be filtering through these resources to find the best ones. Below are my recommendations of podcasts, websites and apps that can serve as excellent supplemental materials. All sources are free unless otherwise indicated.Below are my recommendations of podcasts, websites and apps that can serve as excellent supplemental materials. All sources are free unless otherwise indicated.
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When learning a new language there are always those words that you just can’t seem to keep straight. They generally look or sound similar to each other and lead to recurring confusion and frustration. Here is a sampling of a list of commonly confused words I have put together for the use of my students.
Read moreBoth Spanish and German are gendered languages which means that inanimate objects are either male or female and in the case of German even neuter. However, gender in neither of these languages is totally arbitrary as in many cases the final letter or letters of the word can be a key indicator in determining its gender.
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