Monthly Archives: November 2011
The Capitol of Christmas
The doom and gloom of November is behind us now, and Advent season has arrived. All over the continent, thousands of Christmas markets are setting up: tiny ones in small villages and enormous ones in the great cities of Europe. …
The German adverb mal is one of those highly useful, largely untranslatable words that foreigners can’t get right. Das Mal means time, and mal also has to do with time–it even means “times,” as in drei mal drei, three times …
An Easy German Cake
So you’re new to Germany, but you want to bake a real German cake. Or maybe you’ve wandered into the baking aisle at Globus, and you can’t figure out what half the ingredients are for. Here’s an easy coffee cake …
The other day, Heidi and I happened upon an entire professional football (soccer) team walking down to a game. Somehow or other, that incident brought us to today’s word. Der Schmaus is a feast–an especially tasty meal that is eaten …
The Guest Who Wouldn’t Leave
When I arrived in Germany, I had a heart-to-heart with passport control at the airport. What if I needed to stay past ninety days? He told me, and our conversation ended with the friendly warning: “Take care of this, or …
Der Kreis is a circle. Der Teufel is the devil. When you’re trapped in a hopeless situation and can’t get out of it no matter which way you run, you’re stuck in a Teufelskreis: a Catch 22 situation or a …
The Kinder Egg
The Kinder Egg is a uniquely European treat. Made by the Italian company Ferrero since 1972, they’re a huge seller in Germany to kids and collectors alike. Collectors have been known to shake, weigh, and listen to their eggs before …
The other day, my daughter commented on how confusing the mir ist construction can be. In lots of cases where we say, “I am,” in English, Germans say mir ist or ist mir — “it seems to me.” So, they …
What Happened to Two Minutes of Silence?
Foreigners find it almost shocking that Germans dance in the streets on Veteran’s Day. It’s the anniversary of the end of World War I. How can that possibly call for a celebration? First of all, Germans certainly honor their veterans. …
Yesterday, I read this promise in an insurance advertisement: “Wir lassen Sie nicht allein” — “We don’t leave you alone.” Having been besieged before by insurance agents who wouldn’t stop calling, I found the sentence a little alarming. But a …