Lifelong Learning – German

The Swiss writer Heinrich Federer (1866-1928) compared the three official languages of his native Switzerland French, Italian and German to musical instruments and landscapes:

Französisch klingt wie ein elegantes Streichorchester, Italienisch hat mehr Cello dabei und sonores Blech. Aber die deutsche Sprache ist Orgelspiel. Nicht daß sie süßer singt als der gallische und melodiöser als der römische Mund. Sie hat weniger vom Einen, aber mehr von Allem, sie ist reicher an Tönen, an Wandlungen und vor allem an Kompositionsmöglichkeiten. Französisch ist ein edler Park, Italienisch ein großer, heller, bunter Wald. Aber Deutsch ist beinahe wie ein Urwald, so dicht und geheimnisvoll, so ohne großen Durchgang und doch tausendpfadig. (…) im Deutsch kann einer in vier, fünf Minuten im Dickicht verschwinden. Darum, weil der Weg so schwierig scheint, suchen die meisten möglichst geradlinig hindurchzumarschieren, was eigentlich gegen die Natur dieser Sprache ist. (…)

French, he wrote, is like an elegant string orchestra, Italian has a bit more Cello in it and a sonore brass. The German language however is like an organ. Not that she sings sweeter than the Gallic or more melodiously than the Roman tongue. She has less from one, but more from everything, she is richer in shades, in metamorphoses and especially in the possibilities of Composition. French is like a noble park, Italian like a big, light, colourful forest. But German is almost like a jungle, so dense and mysterious, not with a great road through but with a thousand paths. (…) in German one can lose ones way in in five minutes and disappear. Thus, since the path seems difficult, the majority seeks to march through it in as straight a way as possible, which really is against the nature of this language. (…)

Taking Federer’s advice, don’t grow impatient with yourself on the meandering paths into the depths of the German language.

Bring your enthusiasm, your questions, your suggestions and your personality to our classes.

We will continue working with the (admittedly not very structured) book “Teach yourself German”, which I will supplement with my own material. I will try to implement as many practice situations as possible, while covering the basic structures needed to sucessfully communicate in German.

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