Take it easy!
Have fun learning the German language in an easy going, fun atmosphere! Casually listen to popular German songs and sing along. Dover the meaning of poems, sayings or jokes by reading their translations in English or German. Tease your brain just a little while trying to memorize simple short phrases or when deciphering riddles in German and English.
Learn beginning German or improve your knowledge of the German language by reading interesting, humorous, and thought-provoking short stories written in English and German.
Facilitate your student's language learning: Help them remember how to speak, read, write, and understand German or English and use proper sentence structure when including cooking or baking instructions in your lesson plans.
Did you know . . .?
Kaffeeklatsch is a social meeting for coffee and casual conversations.
Although it may sound like name-calling, instead of saying "hello," Germans answer their phones by stating their last names.
In 1455, Johannes Gutenberg from Germany printed the first book.
Hitler was not a German but an Austrian native.
You will find slot machines in many German restaurants and bars.
Germans use a comma to separate whole numbers from decimals.
Dog owners in Germany often call their dogs, Schatzi.
One of the reasons English is difficult to learn is because English has many inconsistencies in pronunciation. For example: The written word "tear" can mean you're crying when you pronounce it /tɪər/ or you ripping something apart when you pronounce it /tɛər/. Another example is the word "wound." You could mean the past tense of "wind" if you say /waʊnd/. However, if you say /wund/ people think you are referring to an injury.
Did you know . . .?
The English language can use the article "the" for all specific or particular nouns, but the German language requires masculine, feminine or neuter case articles. Masculine nouns use "der," feminine nouns "die," and neuter nouns "das." For example, die Frau, der Mann, das Mädchen, der Hund, die Hündin, das Hündchen (the woman, the man, the girl, the dog, the puppy).
Because "case" (nominative, accusative, or dative) is very important in the German language, the German language can have some flexibility in word order, which the English language does not have.
Unfortunately for nonnative German language learners, grammatical gender does not relate to natural gender in the German language, and the use of the definite articles "der," "die" or "das" in front of nouns is quite arbitrary. For example, "der Tisch, die Decke, das Pferd (the table, the cover, the horse) doesn't mean the table is masculine, the cover is female or the horse is a foal. For these reasons, its best to learn all the German nouns together with their definite articles.