Hier ist ein Ausschnitt (excerpt) aus einer Sendung des Schweizer Fernsehens.
To give you the gist:
Es geht um Überstunden (over time) für die Stadtarbeiter, über Strafen (fines) für nicht frei gekratzte Autofensterscheiben (for driving with car windows that have not been cleared from ice and snow) und über gesperrte Eisenbahn-Tunnel (closed train tunnels, I think they talk about the St. Gotthard-Tunnel)
Listen how some of the speakers use only Standard High German and some speak Standard High German with a more Swiss German sound.
Well, nothing really! Johann Sebastian Bach’s rare worldly Cantata is just the opposite of a Valentine’s day music. Which seems natural in a way, as Germans do not have the reputation of being, to put it mildly, overly demonstrative when it comes to matters of the heart.
In this cantata’s aria #4, an exasperated father wants to make it clear to his daughter that it is time to look for a husband, become more serious and she absolutely has to kick this bad coffee drinking habit of hers. She on the other hand says:
Ei! wie schmeckt der Coffee süße,
Lieblicher als tausend Küsse,
Milder als Muskatenwein.
Coffee, Coffee muss ich haben,
Und wenn jemand mich will laben,
Ach, so schenkt mir Coffee ein!
In other words “Oh! How sweet coffee tastes, sweeter than a thousand kisses (makes you wonder, how Tim Horton’s coffee would compare), sweeter than muscatel. I have to have coffee, coffee and if anyone wants to refresh me, just pour me some coffee!”
(Grammar points: Look for the two modal verb constructions. Which are the meaning carrying verbs in those sentences? Die Antwort finden Sie hier.)
So she definitely is not into the Valentine’s Day “hysteria” (no offence meant, it’s just a different cultural perspective) that seems to grab all of North America in the short month of February. In fact even today, Valentine’s Day is not such a big thing in the German speaking countries. Since however, there is a lot of money to be made for florists, jewellers and restaurants, mention of this date in the media is becoming ubiquitous. However, I am not sure how much it has taken hold in the consumer psyches yet.
Übrigens, wussten Sie, dass Kaffee im 17. Jahrhundert in Preussen Schmuggelware war? Nur dem preussischen Staat war der Import von Kaffee erlaubt. (More at German Wikipedia).
Die Kantate wurde ca. 1734 komponiert, um in diesem Leipziger Kaffeehaus, rechts an der Ecke, aufgeführt zu werden:
Finally! I found a website that will show you interactively how to produce certain sounds! Just click on the speakers. You need Flash 7 or higher plug-in to view the animation. Follow this linkto the University of Iowa website to explore the world of phonetics and articulation.
So, you are taking a German class, because you are moving to the German speaking part of Switzerland and you assume they speak German there. Well, you are right, kind of.
A Norwegian lecturer in Zürich writes:
Swiss German has its own pronunciation, many different words, its own grammar, and most Germans have difficulty understanding this funny language. The German-speaking Swiss write standard German, that’s true – there is no Swiss German official language (but still some literature, e-mails etc. using the dialect). The Swiss can also speak standard German very well, but to them it’s a foreign language that they have to learn how to use when they start school.
Blumenwerbung bedeutet “Werbung für Blumen”. In diesem Video-Clip geht es um Werbung für den internationalen Blumenversand von Fleurop.Die Firma Fleurop ist aus der Schweiz.
Der Video-Clip ist vom britischen Regisseur Anthony Minghella, der einen Oscar für den Film “The English Patient” bekommen hat.
Der Clip ist in drei Sprachen: Schweizer Deutsch, Französisch und Englisch. Schauen Sie zuerst den Clip an und lesen Sie den Text erst später. Den deutschen Text können Sie hier als Word Dokument lesen.
Können Sie die Personalpronomen im Akkusativ finden? (Tipp: Denken Sie auch an Präpositionen!)
Learn and donate! For every correct word, 10 grams of rice are donated atFree Rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Several languages are being offered: German, French, Italian, Spanish and English as well as other subjects.
Look for this button at the bottom of the right sidebar, under the Quizlet link to Free Rice. Click the link and then select the subject.
This is my first voicethread, which I hope you will find helpful.
It consists of two parts: part 1 – the image, and part 2 – the text, with my added video comment for both parts. You can click on the small “windows” to get from one part to the other.
You can get a Voicethread account for free and comment in writing, in a voice comment, or a video comment. You may also doodle on the image and point out certain functions in the sentence that you would like to have elaborated further. This could be the start of interesting class discussions. Let me know what you think of this Voicethread tool.
OOPS! In the video I talk about the “song” while I am actually talking about the “illustration of the song”, which, of course, is something entirely different and the information about the illustrator somehow went missing too.
The illustration was done by Tomi Ungerer, an illustrator from Alsace, best known for his erotic and political illustrations and -what a combination- children’s books.This illustration was featured in “Das goße Liederbuch“. You can visit his official website here.
Warnung: Bitte bekommen Sie keinen Herzinfarkt! Ich verliere nur ungern Studenten. Machen Sie sich auf ein lautes Geräusch im zweiten Teil gefasst. Finden Sie heraus was das ist.
