Sprachgefühl: do you have it?

Someone recently mentioned to me that a key factor in becoming fluent in a foreign language is Sprachgefühl. Now this is one of these wonderful words that simply does not exist in English, but can be translated as a ‘feeling for the language’. If you’re immersed, e.g. living with, working with Germans/ French/Chinese/Japanese/ New Zealandese [...]

Who knew Hamburg and Auckland were related?

Doing a little research into German-New Zealand relations (the things I do for you!), I found out that Auckland, New Zealand boasts li’l ol’ Hamburg as one of its sister cities. In fact, Germany actually pioneered the concept of sister cities/twin towns/friendship towns.
It’s kind of interesting to see each language’s slight twist on thisidea. [...]

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.)

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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The Sprudel Question

In between providing me with blankets and reading material and feeding me soggy vegetables in inidentifiable sauce, the lovely Lufthansa lady who looked after me for 10 hours sometime during the last 48 also offered me many a drink. Being a responsible air traveller, I stayed hydrated with lots of oxygen accompanied by 2 [...]

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 [...]

False friends (video)

My pop quiz on some common false friends/falsche Freunde/faux amis for people trying to learn Deutsch. I know I’ve slipped up on them, especially at 6.30am.

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Johnny Cash spoke German!

Well, at least once he did, in around 1978. You see, that was the year he sang I Walk the Line in German, the lyrics of which go a little something like this: “Wer kennt den Weg, den Weg zurück?”. Which kind of misses the spirit of “Because you’re mine, I walk the [...]

Casting from pods!

Miss V is mobile! That’s right. If you so desire, you can watch me and my antics on the train, eating lunch or going for your morning run (warning: this may be a health hazard).
I finally got my 19th-Century brain around podcasting, so if you click here you can access Miss V in the iTunes [...]

Schon vorgeglüht?

Today, discussion of another cool and oh-so-appropriate German word: Vorglühen. Now, you Germans will surely know what I’m getting at (and it’s not the literal translation), but Englischers might be a little confused. The literal translation of ‘vorglühen’ is ‘to preheat’. But this is not what I am talking about. Oh no.
When you go [...]