AMD 3 - Emily Kaulius

For this AMD, I decided to do what many of you did for the last AMD; I read Mark Twain's "The Awful German Language" and "The Horrors of the German Language." I found "The Awful German Language" to be a unique mixture of hilarious and informative. I was chuckling while learning. Why can't all school be this way? Oh well...

Twain wrote of many of the things I have found to be incredibly frustrating about learning German. One of the first things he wrote about was the genders of nouns. I'm not completely new to this idea; I took French in high school. In French, there are only two genders, unlike German. In French, the genders of nouns actually make some sense. Most nouns that end in an "e" are feminine and those that don't are generally masculine. Simple. In German, as we have come to know, there are few rules with many exceptions.

I greatly enjoyed Twain's "The Horrors of the German Language." I know not every language translated perfectly into another, but I didn't know how hilariously horribly German literally translated into English.

As much as we complain about the German language, we tend to forget about how complicated the English language is. The same word can be pronounced different ways (like the word bow). There are all sorts of irregular verbs. Thank goodness we're not learning English as a second language. That's all I have to say about that.

AMD 3 - Calen Jones

For my third AMD post, I expanded on a topic we learned about in Kultur 3 - beer. I ventured over to http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/styles.html to gain a better understanding of how Germans ingrain beer into their culture.

An early topic of interest was how beer-making differed by region. The article explains how northerners in Germany trinken bier mit more malt, while southerners lieber hoppier bier. Additionally, each region has its own preference, from Cologne's Kolsch to the Kellerbier of Bavaria. While a variety of beers exist everywhere, regions have their own specialty; it struck me as they way sports fans in America root for their hometown teams. The only beer prevalent across Deutschland is the Pils, a light (color, not calories), hoppy beer of medium alcohol content.

Additionally, der Deutsch order their bier not by brand, as we Americans do, but by type. For example, they say, "I would like an Altbier please," or "Hast du ein Pils?" Germans also measure "heaviness" or alcohol content based on the amount of "non-water substances"- Deutschland laws allow between 11% and 14% non-water substance, which in turn affects alcohol content.

A favorite bier among certain regions ist das Bockbier. Bockbiers, common in Munich, are traditionally dark-colored, heavy, malty and smooth. Es ist nicht gut idee to trinkt schnell; you must drink it slowly. Types of Bockbier include the Doppelbock, Eisbock, Dunjelbock and Weizenbock.

Another type of bier ist das Oktoberfestbier, of which the only authentic kind is also brewed in Munich. Contrary to what one might expect, Oktoberfests are brewed in the spring (also called Marzen biers, brewed in March) and then age for three or four months to an amber color, and then they are drank in Oktober. The hoppiness and alcohol content help to preserve the bier over summer, and then the taste actually improves as fall approaches. "Oktoberfest" popularized as Germans needed to finish the country's supply of Marzen bier before it cased its fall beers; thus, a celebration of beer-drinking began in Oktober.

AMD3

Alright so for this AMD I decided to call mein Vater. He just got back from Deutschland and so I decided to try and ask him about his trip and such. Many of the questions did not quite make sense for the situtation but that is okay. Beyond asking him where he is from and where he went on his trip (things that I already knew), I couldn't really ask too much. Most things came out as: "Isst du was?" instead of something more appropriate for what did you eat over there?

While the conversation was mostly a struggle, it was good to hear from mien vater over fall study break. Turns out that he tracked down my sixth cousin (he is into that family tree stuff) and he had lunch with her and everything, so that is pretty cool.