A little interwebbal research has shown me that Hamburg, Hansestadt, HH, meine Perle, is not the only Hamburg on this green Earth. In fact, I was able to find evidence of 13 (thirteen! Oooh, I hope you’re not superstitious) different Hamburgs around the world. Okay, they’re not so much around the world as in the [...]
Miss V takes post-it notes as a vocabulary-learning aid to the next level. Who knew you could have so much Spass with stationery?
You remember me Schlumping around on Hamburg’s public transport? Well check out this take on Hamburg’s HVV network: in English! It’s pretty hilarious – my favourite is “Adjustingen”. (Click for the full-size map. Thanks to Klaussi for the link. Edit: Thanks to Scott for the heads-up about the broken link, now fixed.)
No, it’s not a disease! You know when a song is (as we say in English) “stuck in your head”, going round and round (like a record baby)? Technically, it’s when a melody becomes trapped in what’s called the ‘phonological loop’, which rehearses what you’ve heard over, and over … and over again. But the [...]
I come on to German finger puppets with these slick pick-up lines. P.S. Frohe Ostern!
LOLCAKAOPULIA members unite! The umlaut, oh holy gracer of vowels that so enriches the German language, is once again in danger. As the technologically challenged Miss V attempted to create a podcast (apparently it’s one of those fancy new technologies all the kids are using these days), just look at what they did to my [...]
I explain once and for all the mysteries of that odd sound coming from the mouths of Kiwis. **due to technical difficulties, this video from last week could only just be posted now. Enjoy the belated goodness!**
St. Patrick’s day is coming up, and I was surprised to learn that this O most holy of days is not celebrated (widely) in Germany. So, Deutschies and Ausländer alike, brush up on the Eire with this nifty quiz (which must have been written by someone super cool).
So I put in my two cents (or gave my mustard, as the Deutschies say) about German as a modular language. But that was about verbs. Mmm, yes. Nouns (of the compound variety), in German, are a completely different (and somewhat maligned – by Englischers at least) phenomenon. Mark Twain wrote an essay called “The [...]
All Germans know and love the Kinderlied ‘Alle Meine Entchen’. I decided to bring it to life with the help of some friends. The lyrics (so you can sing along, karaoke style): Alle meine Entchen schwimmen auf dem See, schwimmen auf dem See. Köpfchen unter Wasser, Schwänzchen in die Höh. (All my little duckies, swimming [...]