Days of Nations

Monday was Bastille day in France. So, if you watched the right television, or happened to be in Paris, you would have seen the most spectacular display of fireworks over the Champs-Élysées. In fact, Europe does a pretty good run in National Commemoration Days. The Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day, [...]

It’s my party and I’ll wein if I want to…

Hello out there in Verständnis World. I hope you’re all enjoying the rapid onset of my very first European summer. Well, today you have even more reason to celebrate, as it’s my birthday! While I’m not celebrating it in traditional NZ style - with fairy bread and cheerio sausages, and a game [...]

Fußball vs. fútbol… it’s on.

While I prepare the red, yellow and black face paints for Sunday, check out hamburg.de’s coverage of the 2008 Fanfest in Hamburg’s very own Heiligengeistfeld. There was dancing, there was laughter, there were (almost) tears… check out the tense moment at 1:10.
Go Deutschland!

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Polyglotastic!

I’ve just had word that the biggest (or only?) Polyglot Scrabble Tournament in the world is taking place this year in Spain. This is apparently the first event of its kind, where the world’s most cunning linguists can meet and defeat, playing Scrabble in many different languages. And they are promoting it so [...]

Unterwegs!

You’ll have to bear with me here, as I am about to undergo the 30+ hours’ travel that it takes to get to New Zealand. You see, I am paying a quick visit to family and friends on those little islands down there, and it just so happens that it is pretty much the [...]

Breaking news about the passing of our beloved umlaut

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 [...]

Get some Irish in you!

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).

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Spring ist gesprungen!

… well, not really. Yet. But there is certainly a little something something in the air, if you know what I mean. And I think because of the whole six-months-of-winter in Northern Europe thing, Germans really get into spring in a big way. All with the daffodils and walking in the park in gumboots and [...]

Learning a new language! (video)

Join me observing the habits of the Bloggerus Germanicus, a rare breed of blogger found in Germany, and learning a new language… HTML!

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A good Rutsch to all!

This year for the first time I was wished einen guten Rutsch on New Year’s Eve. This puzzled me a little until I figured it was another of those German sayings that has no literal meaning.