German Finale Dinner

All of my posts so far have focused on the technical side of the German language, but for my final post I wanted to do something special and delicious. I decided to test my knowledge and cook a German dinner for my mom and I using products brought back from Germany with German instructions. I made Pommes Frittes mit Wiener Schnitzel (French fries with breaded chicken) and Kroenung Salat (Paprika salad).

I started by pouring out the contents of the Wiener Schnitzel into a flat bowl per the instructions then took the chicken breasts and dunked them in the crumbs. Next I put them in the oil and butter, which have been simmering in a frying pan, for about 4 minutes a side.
                                                                        

 
















Now on to my salad, I first had to figure out the strange measurements. In Europe, they use the metric system, now imagine using the metric system but in German. ml is not written the same way especially when cooking. It is written EL so the dressing recipe called for 3 EL Wasser it meant 30 ml of water. I combined the 30 ml of water and 30 ml of oil in one jar with the contents of the packet inside and shook it. It combined beautifully and made a yummy vinaigrette which my mom then poured onto my lettuce.

The 3rd dish I was preparing was the Pommes frittes. They were the easiest by far, I just took some out of the freezer and salted them before placing them in the oven at 450 degrees. After they were in the oven, I cut up a lemon for the garnish.

Finally, I could plate my master piece!

This whole process was very useful and it has helped me improve my reading skills. Edward Swick stated that "You can easily learn the German names of food, beverages, and utensils" (31). I feel that trying to read the ingredients, with the fate of dinner hanging in the balance, helped me recognize words I already knew and to use context clues to infer the rest. In this last picture I can name the chicken (das Hauhnchen), french fries (Pommes frittes), salad (salat), lemon (zitrone), water (wasser), and glass (das glas) (Swick 31-32). 

All in all, I had a lot of fun cooking this great meal and being able to share it with my loved ones. I wonder what other traditional dishes are made by my peers and if they use another language for the ingredients? 

Swick, Edward, MA. The Everythig Learning German Book. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Avon: Karen Cooper, 2009. Print. The Everything. 

Writing A Letter

Writing a letter. This should not be an incredibly difficult task I thought to myself. I was wrong, and really wrong. When I sat down to type out an email to my Tanta Hildegart, my great aunt who lives in Germany, I was armed with a chapter in The Everything Learning German Book called Modern Technology in Germany.

I quickly stumbled across my first major problem which was filler words. These words include like, me, I, is and the (Swick 62). These are words that we don't think about using, they are automatic and the spelling has been ingrained in us since kindergarten. I was starting from scratch however and each time I needed to use one of these words, it required a painfully slow process of digging through the book to find it. Unfortunately, until I memorize the filler words this part of writing will not speed up.

The next problem was that I was unable to use a German keyboard to type out the email. Luckily, Edward Swick had a solution to this problem, "Type ae where you need ä. For example, spaet instead of spät. Type oe where you need ö. For example, schoen instead of schön. Type ue where you need ü. For example, Tuer instead of Tür" (168). This came in handy when typing the German word for "for" which is für. Instead of searching for an umlaut, ü, I could just type ue.




A third problem was how to conclude the letter. Edward Swick says that there are different types of conclusions; Auf Wiedersehhn means "till I see you again"; auf Weiderhoeren means "till I hear your voice again"; and Tschues which is a more casual good-bye. auf Weiderhoeren did not fit with the context of the letter but it would be appropriate on the phone. Tschues would be useful when saying good-bye to my cousins, but not saying good-bye to my great aunt. So with the last two omitted, this left auf Weidersehn to sign my letter with.

Typing out my German has proved more challenging than I thought but I feel that it has helped me with my grammar. I wonder if practicing variations of your goal has helped you achieve them faster?

Swick, Edward, MA. The Everythig Learning German Book. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Avon: Karen Cooper, 2009. Print. The Everything.  

Sit, Stay & Speak!

 We all know that high school is, to say the least, time consuming. Over these last few weekends I have been striving to dive deeper into the German language and I have finally discovered a plan to help me stay focused. I have dubbed it, "Sit, Stay, Speak". 1st you find a quiet place, your room or a library, and you sit. I have found that the combination of a chair in my room and some classical music makes for a perfect study environment. Then you stay, making sure you have a glass of water and some snacks. Finally you speak! The German CD is very helpful to talk to and while it can't respond to you, it will definitely correct you quickly. These one sided conversations have helped me with my pronunciation.

I have also expanded, with the advice from Edward Swick the author of The Everything Learning German Book, from Donald Duck and found a German cartoon called Die Ketchup Vampire. It takes place in Transylvania and is about a family of vampires who drink ketchup instead of blood. Peaceable, tomato-loving vampires beat sparkling vampires any day :) I have been watching this series to practice recognizing the words I have been learning. I have picked up some very important words that Swick believes are necessary to form more intricate sentences. He says that the ability to recognize these words will help develop conversation skills.

Edward Swick had a few additional tips to help with pronunciation: "There are a few things you have to look out for with certain consonants...sometimes the consonants change sound depending on their placement in a word, as you can already see from the pronunciation for the letter 's'" (Swick 36). After I read this I have been watching the German cartoons with German subtitles instead of English. After a few folges (German for episodes) I began to see the unique sounds the letter S can make in different parts of a word. An example of this is when the s is in the middle of a word, it makes the "sis" sounds as in Meister or master. When the s is at the beginning of the word it makes the z as in "zap" sound (Swick). So far the s has been the only pesky letter, but I wonder what else is in store!

I wonder what other sneaky letters there will be in the German language and if other language learners have had difficulty with tricky pronunciation?
 

Swick, Edward, MA. The Everythig Learning German Book. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Avon: Karen Cooper, 2009. Print. The Everything.  
 

Tools and Tricks

Hallo alle. Deutsch lernen, ist eiene Herausforerung! That is very broken German for "hello everyone, learning German is quite a challenge!" After one month I have learned the basics rules of grammar and many words which I can add to my German vocabulary. I was struggling a bit with some of the new information presented in chapter 4 specifically masculine nouns. As I was rereading chapter 1 and 2 to see if I missed anything, I saw it! "Nouns are always written with a capitol letter"(Swick,8). This has been very helpful when working with masculine and neuter nouns. It helped me clearly identify what words I was working with.

 Another helpful tool I found was through watching German films, with and without subtitles. With subtitles I have been able to put German words and pronunciation with the English word. Without subtitles I have been able to create a simulated German environment to submerse myself in. This tactic has helped me become quicker at recognizing phrases and words in an actual conversation. According to Mr. Swick listening to German radio, television and films will give the learner a much better idea of the current pronunciation.

Admittedly, Donald Duck is not the best pronunciation teacher but I have learned how to pick out the vocabulary words that I know and learn new ones. :)

I wonder how other language learners have conquered masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns?

Swick, Edward, MA. The Everythig Learning German Book. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Avon: Karen Cooper, 2009. Print. The Everything.

Mommy & Me & German

In my experience, trying to learn a language without being committed has lead to... nothing! Recently, I have tried to use the books and the movies to teach myself, but I was having little success and was struggling with correct pronunciation and actual specking. Never the less, the German language has always been an important part of my life and my childhood. Some of my fondest memories are of visiting my aunts, uncles, and cousins in Kempen, Germany. Over the next few visits, I found that my cousins were becoming increasingly fluent in English and I still only knew "Ich Leiben Dich" which is "I love you" in German. Something had to change. With this book I have been able to start slow and learned to recognize and understand words that "crossover" from German into English. The "crossover" words are words that look the same in both languages when written, even though they sound slightly different. In this book, Edward Swick wrote that learning a language is like learning to play a piano, no matter how hard you work, just learning the structure, phasing, and key signatures is not going to make you a master musician. He says you actually need to speak the language out loud or play the a real piano.Who knew!

I used this piece of advice and read the German aloud to myself. This was a great help for me and I feel I retained much more knowledge by reading aloud. As I was studying my mom and my Oma, who are both fluent in the language, offered their help. Together we worked on my pronunciation and accents and recognizing umlauts. My mom was a huge help and "Hearing the sounds pronounced by a native" (Swick, 13) changed how I was reading German and how I was speaking it as well.

So far, I have only learned the basics of German but using the knowledge I have accumulated I was able to read pieces of a letter sent to me by my Tante Hildegard. It was really important for me to be able to read and understand my Aunt's letter because it made me feel more connected to my family a world away. It is such an amazing feeling to be able to understand at least some of my family's native language. I circled and underlined the words I was able to read.

My next step in learning is to incorporate the CD. I wonder if other people find CD's helpful when learning a language?

Swick, Edward, MA. The Everythig Learning German Book. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Avon: Karen Cooper, 2009. Print. The Everything.