Sister Cities’ personals site: found!

Remember last week when I was joking about towns seeking partners on an online personals site? Well, it exists! And here’s the link!
My favourite is Coventry, Rhode Island, which makes sure it doesn’t get lost amongst all the other Coventrys of the world with: “There are a number of Coventrys in the US. This [...]

Macking on the Macken: Miss V, getagged

Some time ago I was ‘getagged’ by Missy Cola. She threw me a Stöckchen by virtue of which I must reveal to you, the reader, 6 (six) of my Macken. And I have a perfectly good reason why it has taken me 65 days to take up this challenge. Two, in fact! First, I wanted to give the game a Miss-V lingua-twist, and do it in both English and German. Two, I didn’t know what either Stöckchen or Macken meant (‘little stick’ - like one you would throw to a dog - and ‘pet peeve’/‘quirk’, respectively).

Here are the rules:

1. Provide a link to the person who threw you the stick. (Check!) (Setze einen Link zu der Person, welche Dir das Stöckchen zugeworfen hat.)

2. Outline the rules in your blog. (Check!) (Erwähne die dazugehörigen Regeln in Deinem Blog.)

3. Explain 6 unimportant things/habits/quirks. (Erzähle von Dir 6 unwichtige Dinge/Gewohnheiten/Macken.)

4. Pass the stick to 6 more people through a link at the end of your answer. (Gib das Stöckchen am Ende Deiner Antworten an 6 Leute durch Verlinkung weiter.)

5. Leave a comment on each chosen person’s blog/website letting them know they’ve been tagged. (Hinterlasse bei der jeder der gewählten Personen einen Kommentar in ihrem Blog/Website, dass sie “getagged” wurden.)

Discovering Neuseeland: German culture in NZ (video)

Join me as I report live from New Zealand, and uncover some pockets of German culture along the way.

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False Friends Mark II: en Español

Looking to broaden your linguistic horizons? Try the faux amis thing in Spanish!

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Typical Miss V overconfidence - I thought: “Spanish! Que facil!”. Then I got 42%. Shame.

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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 [...]

Txt ok & ‘wont hrt kids’

Remember when I looked into the increasing use of SMS language recently? Well, the plot thickens. A recent University of Toronto study says that using text slang will not hinder kids’ linguistic development, but rather presents an “expansive new linguistic renaissance”.
Hmmm, I’m not so sure about that. While SMS abbreviations may not statistically [...]

Attention World Travellers!

I thought that since the readers of the blog seem to be worldy folk, that you all might like to test your knowledge of various countries’ names auf Deutsch. Achtung: it’s not as easy as it seems!

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Only in Deutschland!

Although my interest is usually sparked by matters of a linguistic nature, my first thought when I discovered the world’s first automated restaurant was: “That is, like, SO totally German!” No waiters, no bad service, no need to tip. You order your food from a computer and it is delivered to you via a [...]

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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