First for the boring stuff. Let me note, I am not only posting about my language skills so that you guys read the boring reports, but it is also for my personal use, so I can see how my language abilities have progressed.
Well, let me explain something real quick. When I am talking in a normal conversation with a friend, I usually talk before I think (if it's not with a friend, I usually will know the topic of the conversation beforehand and thus will have prepared myself with specific sentances). Anyway, after I talk (but before the next person talks), I run a quick grammar check on the sentance(s) that I just said. Of course, if I made a mistake, the mistake was already made.
Sometimes I'll quickly re-say the sentence in its corrected form. I noticed today that I spoke some real complex sentences without making grammatical mistakes. All the words fell in the right place, all the endings were right, and all the verbs were in the right form and time. Also, my Denglisch (German-English) is getting better. I can drop in English words and phrases and be fairly certain that everyone will understand them (I wonder if that makes me look more like a German, or more like an American...). Also, I'm starting to catch on with the "particles". "Particles" are little words that have no real meaning of their own (or have an unrelated meaning), but have a little flavor to the sentence.
Ok, end of boring stuff. Now on to other boring stuff.
Ok, so I was in class and we were going over when to use articles (the, a, etc). It's fairly similar to English (except "ich bin ein Berliner" is not the proper way for an actual Berliner to say he is from Berlin. "I am Berliner" would be correct. So, a little difference. Egal). Anyway, back to the story. Well, the teacher handed out a sheet, and we were going around the room taking turns reading it outloud. So, it came to my turn. My section was dealing with articles in front of countries ("die USA" but simply "Deutschland" and not "das Deutschland"). So, I was reading outloud, and my eyes were skimming the paper, and no actually reading. As soon as I thought I saw enough of a word, my eyes would move to the next word. So, one word was "die tschechische Republik" (the Czech Republic), however, I said "die technische Republik" which is "the technilogical republic." My dream country.
Anyway, so one night I was at someone's apartment, and we were playing a game. I won't explain the game, but it required that we write-down certain phrases. Somehow I spelled "Rome" (translation "Rom") with an umlaut (so, Röm). Of course, that's completely wrong. An umluat changes the pronunciation a lot (of course, never enough for it to be completely clear to the English-speaker. English-speakers suffer from "umlaut unhearability symdrome"). Anyway, Röm=Roem (when spelled without the umlaut). So, I don't think my friends will ever let me forget that terribly stupid, but wonderfully American mistake.
Today was "Rosen Montag". It seems to be a holiday for the sake of a holiday. Germans are smart. Cupid likes cats, Cupid hates cats. (Don't ask. If you want to understand, go to "The Guide to Love" on my personal homepage). Anyway, so, there were people dressed in all sorts of weird clothing walking around the streets. It was funny. I took many pictures. Sadly, I can't upload the pictures yet:-(. I think Rosen Montag *might* have had *something* to do with Lent. Who knows. I got a day off from class. So I am happy.
On Saturday I was at Heiko's birthday party. There was loud thumping music, so some people were "dancing" (note to the older readers, dancing is not salsa, mambo, square dancing, or tango. "Dancing" is odd rythmic body movements. Plain and simple). A couple people encouraged me to join the pulsing frenzy of people. Since I am such a conformist, I joined in. I must say it is quite the odd sport. I had never "danced" before. I quickly realized that my body doesn't move like other people's bodies. Obviously, I would stick out like a sore thumb. So, I decided to double the speed that my feet were moving at and move my body in ways that no sensible person would do (nothing indecent!). So, I didn't stick out like a sore thumb, but rather like a guy wearing shorts in the winter (sadly I wasn't actually wearing shorts, but I stuck out as if I were). I must say it was quite the workout. It made as much sweat as a good, solid run.
Another random thought. A week ago I was riding home from the Jesus Freaks meeting on the S-Bahn. I missed my stop, because I was talking with a few friends. So I decided to stay on the S-Bahn until the last stop, at which point it would turn around and drive back. Of course, since it was late night, the S-Bahn waited for 20 minutes at the last stop before turning back. So I decided that I would walk down the line a couple stops. Of course, it turns out that that line goes into the woods for a bit, and there is no sidewalk next to it there. So, I made my best guess to the general direction. However, the 20 minutes passed and I hadn't re-found the tracks. So, I missed the last ride home. Egal. It was a nice night. So, after losing my way a few times, I finally made it back. The only thing bad was that I needed to use the bathroom the entire time. I ran the last 20 minutes or so (the whole walk was nearly 2 hours).
Well, those were my random thoughts for today. Sorry about wasting your time. Cheers (not to be confused with "Tschüs").
-Mike
Archived comments:
Paula:
Can you give an example of a particle?
Ha ha, you can't dance. Well, maybe you just can't dance like the Germans do. Good move though, making up your own kind of dance. Maybe you'll start something.
mikepn:
Example of a particle... Ok, let's take the German word "mal". In translation it means "time". Einmal is "one time" or simply "once" (in German there is no silly other word for "one time", like "once" in English). Zehnmal is "ten times". Noch 'mal=Noch einmal="still one [more] time"="again". However, as a particle, it has no meaning of its own. Instead, it serves as a softener. If you want to give a super-rude command in German, simply say the direct object followed by the infinitive of the verb. "Die Tuer zumachen!" That is basically military-style talk for "close the door!". A little less rude is "Machen Sie die Tuer zu" or informal "Mach die Tuer zu" (litterally, "make the door closed). However, if you stick in the "mal", "Mach mal die Tuer zu", suddenly this goes from a command to a polite suggestion. Something like "Could you close the door?"
Particles serve as flavor and intensifiers. English seems to generally lack them. An example in English is "like". "That was like a really good movie!". The "like" is really meaningless here, but it serves to change the tone and feel.
~Mike
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