The German Language discussion

This is where you can introduce yourself.

Hi, I'm Rachel. I first became interested in German through German musicals, and ever since then, I've absolutely loved the language!

My German is not very good yet, but I hope to take a class over the summer. :D

Hi, I'm Polina. I just love german poetry- it's such a beautiful language! (I love everything that has anything to do with german culture and art though :D) I've been learning it for eight years and this spring I'm going to study in Germany for a term so I hope I'll learn it even better.

Yay, another member! You've been learning for 8 years? Impressive! Do you have any tips?

I haven't tried any German poetry. Do you know of any (not too hard) poetry that might be online?

I hope you have fun in Germany!

hi I'm leonor and I'm learning german for 2/5 years, so its not very good yet

What do you mean by 2/5 years? Do you mean 2/5 of a year, or am I just especially slow this morning? *blush*

Anyways, welcome to the group!

Well, about tips I just have to say you have to be really very into it- I mean to read in german, to watch german movies and to enjoy it, because otherwise it just seems too hard to learn. I learn by heart entire phrases because thisway it's easier to speak and write correctly.

There's a lot of german poetry here.
http://gedichte.xbib.de/
Personally, I prefer Goethe, Heine and Eichendorff. I especially love Goethe's "Naehe des Geliebten" and Eichendorff's "Mondnacht".
http://gedichte.xbib.de/gedicht_Eiche...
http://gedichte.xbib.de/Goethe_gedich...

Wolltest du dass wir auf Deutsch sprechen? Meiner Meinung nach waere es nuetzlicher ;)

Rachel (aka. Kaiserin Sisi) wrote: "What do you mean by 2/5 years? Do you mean 2/5 of a year, or am I just especially slow this morning? *blush*"

yup

Thanks! I've been doing some German movies, and as I mentioned above, musicals. It's been helping quite a bit, actually, although my German is pretty bad. :P

Thanks for the links!

And I started a thread for speaking in German. :D

Leonor, that's about how long I've been learning too. I started in July.

Rachel (aka. Kaiserin Sisi) wrote: "Thanks! I've been doing some German movies, and as I mentioned above, musicals. It's been helping quite a bit, actually, although my German is pretty bad. :P

Thanks for the links!

And I ..."


ah wait I was wrong it was not in july that I started, I started when I was 11 I think, now I'm 13

Ahh, so you have a bit more experience than I do.

Are you learning it in school, or are you teaching yourself?

Ich moechte aus Schule Deutsch lernen, aber gibt's keine Klasse.

school but its going really slow...among 3 foreign languages and other stuff, I dont have much time to study...

3 foreign languages? What others are you learning?

My school only lets us take one!

I'm learning english, french and german ( I will eventually learn italian)

My school offers French and Spanish, and I'm taking Spanish, since I didn't want to take another introductory course (I had done introductory Spanish the year before).

I plan on taking a lot of languages once I get into college.

Marco wrote: "Guten Tag! Ich heisse Marco und ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch. Ich habe gelernt Deutsch aus Schule :P"

hallo marco, mein deutch ist sehr besser als mein französich bist du in NCIS/cSI lovers (ich glaube) auch?

Marco wrote: "My school is a specialist language school, so we offer classes of: French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian, Russian"

What school is this?

Marco wrote: "My school is a specialist language school, so we offer classes of: French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian, Russian"

I'm so jealous mandarrin is sooo cool and russian is my dream language (i know, weird but thats my opinion) and I dont think I have to tell u my opinion about italian

Hungarian is my dream language. :D

so, in total how many languages do you speak (well and learning) ?includinng ur mother tongue

(both of u)

Rachel (aka. Kaiserin Sisi) wrote: "Hungarian is my dream language. :D"

its hard to find someplace to learn right?

filipino?impressive

whats your favorite?

hmmm I speak portuguese, which is my mom tongue, I speak english (you can tell me how well), french, german a,nd as everyone here, spanish

My native language: English
Languages I'm learning:
-Spanish (I'm better than most of the kids in my class, but that's just because I like the language and am willing to do things outside of class; I can write pretty well, but I'm not fluent yet)
-French (not very good yet)
-German (bad)
-Hungarian (worse than German)

ah so youre learning hungarian!!I have noidea of how it sounds...

Oddly enough, I'm youtubing some Hungarian stuff right now. XD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5KVdE...

beautiful!(by the way, that guy sings really well!)
if u want to listen to portuguese this is the best I could find

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOgT8Y...

I am in love with him. XD He was only 19 there.

Hungarian is a very under-appreciated language. :P

That sounds really cool. I think I have a song in Portuguese on my iPod by Andrea Bocelli. I'll see if I can find it.

That's a really helpful link. Thanks!

I love the sound of German too. It gets me so mad when people call it an ugly language!

I thought I'm the only one who loves how it sounds :D I find it very sweet with all these "ch" and "sch" :D

I've always liked the "r"s. ;)

Rachel (aka. Kaiserin Sisi) wrote: "I am in love with him. XD He was only 19 there.

Hungarian is a very under-appreciated language. :P

That sounds really cool. I think I have a song in Portuguese on my iPod by Andrea Boce..."

are you talking about this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwfbTV...

this is a great one, (if u want me to translate it, i can)

Yes! That's it! If you want to, that would actually be really great!

Marco wrote: "I listen to German songs a lot :) Listen to Nichts in der Welt by Die Arzte, love that song."

Off to youtube!

Marco wrote: "Some Germans would say for example, "Ich liebe dich"

either /eesh leeb deesh/

OR /eekh leeb deekh/

I prefer the first. The throaty kh sound is something I don't particularly like ehehe :P"

So either of those pronunciations is okay?

Ok, that's good. I have a lot of trouble trying to say the kh pronunciation.

The first one is more typical for the south part of the country (I prefer it to the second one too) and the "eekh" is more the northern pronunciation.

Marco wrote: "Well, you'll need them for Spanish ;)"

When is the "kh" pronunciation used in Spanish? :S

I thought that was just supposed to be a throaty "h". :P

well, its kind of rough but its something like this:

(to) feel in us
(to) feel in us
a reason
for us not to be alone
and in that strong hug
(to) feel the sea
in our voice
crying like those who dream
(to) always sail
on our love's red sails
far away the crazy boat loses north

(italian)

in your eyes
a water mirror
life's sailing
without even a goodbye
and meekly
maybe at sea
I become foam and may find your eyes' sun
it hangs lightly, my love
far away the naked boat sailing swiftly

(italian and ends)

it s not perfect but some parts are really hard to translate and this is the best i could

Marco wrote: "It's a similar sound."

I can get the throaty sound. I just can't get the solid "k" sound in the back of my throat, if that makes any sense. My tongue won't do it. XD

Leonor wrote: "well, its kind of rough but its something like this:

(to) feel in us
(to) feel in us
a reason
for us not to be alone
and in that strong hug
(to) feel the sea
in our voice
crying like those who dr..."

Thank you! That's a nice song! :D

Marco wrote: "Then just do the sh sound. In Spanish, if you can't do the throaty sound, just pronounce it like an h.

general /he-ne-ral/
naranha /na-ran-ha/"

Thanks!

I can get the throaty "h" sound, just not the throaty "kh".

I've noticed. Our teacher will randomly switch around the accent he uses. The Castilian one is interesting.

That's what I like about Hungarian. The pronunciation is pretty much consistent, at least from what I've heard.

( wouldnt it be easier if there was a group for Foreign Languages instead of several groups, each one for one specific language?just saying... )

There are two, actually. Both of them are dead, though.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/list_g...

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...

ummmm....k then......

would you like to create a group?