Sag's auf Deutsch!

I'm trying to get back into learning German, and so lately I have been watching more TV.  I was recently watching an afternoon soap, Alles was zählt, when I saw this commercial featuring celebrities in Germany who are not of German descent:

It's a great public service announcement that encourages people to learn German.  At least, that's what I gathered from my limited language ability.  You see, the problem with this commercial is that it's ALL IN GERMAN.  The people this announcement is trying to reach aren't going to understand it.

Thank goodness for YouTube. Someone thought to add German and English subtitles*! It's too bad this version is not the one you'll see on the RTL channel.

   *You may have to watch it on YouTube to see the subtitles.

The German Bachelor

In the U.S., The Bachelor is a popular reality TV program whose main personality is a successful, good-looking, 30-something guy who spends a lot of time at the gym and tanning, and whose business can apparently withstand him leaving for a few months while he jets around the globe with about twenty beautiful (though often crazy!) 20-something women all vying for his attention.

I just finished watching what seems like the German version: Bauer sucht Frau (Farmer Seeks Wife).  Take Brad, the last American bachelor, and put him way out in the country (so he is too far away and too busy to get to the gym), add 50+ pounds and about 10 years, and you've got your Bauer!  The women who are interested in him do not have to be models, but they do have to be able to write him LETTERS telling him about themselves.  I think the German version brings a little more reality into its reality show.

Home Sweet Home

my new view

I finally got into my apartment last Friday! That means, though, that I didn't have internet service until last night, and five days is a really long time!!!  I have been in Germany for ten full days now, and, well, it has been really cold and wet, but it is beautiful and green. Here are a few things I've learned so far:

1.  You need a Euro coin to use the shopping cart at the grocery store. At the local EDEKA grocery store, the carts are locked together at the handles. There is a slot in the shopping cart handle, and when you put a coin in, the lock is pushed out.  When you put the cart back and push in the lock, the coin comes back out. So, if you want your money back, you will put the cart where it belongs...after, of course, you have bagged your own groceries...in the bags you brought. :) I think it's a pretty good system. I haven't asked, but I bet they have fewer cars in the parking lot with dings on them.



2.  Washing clothes is complicated.

...and that's just the washer. The dryer doesn't actually dry the clothes in the typical (American) sense--it just takes out the water somehow (and you have to empty the water bin after a couple of loads).


3. There is no such thing as free TV.  Even those three stations you can get without cable will cost you.  If you have a TV, you have to register it and pay 17 Euro (about $25) A MONTH.  Yikes!

4. Not everything is more expensive.  Even with a horrible exchange rate, I found a cell phone plan that is comparable to my plan in Texas, but it is cheaper. At the grocery store, water, drinks, juices, and local produce are all cheaper, too.  I've read that the German government subsidizes farms that grow real food (unlike the U.S. government, that subsidizes the inedible stuff that becomes HFCS and the like). 

5.  There always seems to be some kind of festival.

old town Oberursel the day of the Weinfest

St. Ursula's church in Oberursel right before the downpour disturbed the Weinfest

Telenovelas

I started studying German (again) last fall, but it's just been in the past few months that I have really kicked it into high gear.  I've always heard that if you know a second language, learning a third is easier.  I'm not buying it.  Learning German is hard work.

The only advantage I see to having already learned another language is that I know how I learn best.  One thing I found that really helped me strengthen my ear for Spanish was watching telenovelas.  I can't say that I know enough yet to strengthen anything in German, but I'm learning a lot watching a German telenovela. Yes, the Germans have telenovelas, and they  follow the same format as their Latin American counterparts: boy meets girl, but then boy loses girl many times thanks to some terrible/meddlesome people and unfortunate circumstances.  However, in the end (and there is always an end),  the bad guys get what is coming to them, and the good guys live happily ever after. FIN.

Telenovelas are great for learning a language.  Since you don't have to focus on the plot (really, we all know the plot already), you can concentrate on what's being said.  So, I've been watching Lena - Liebe Meines Lebens on the German channel ZDF (the website has captions, too!).  I have to admit that this one comes with an extra load of cheese, but it's entertaining.  Besides, where else are you going to learn words like Lösegeld (ransom) and Hirntumor (brain tumor)?