German group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
Doitsujin
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Languages: German (N)
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Re: German group

Postby Doitsujin » Fri Nov 05, 2021 5:40 pm

I stumbled upon a 50-year-old clip from a German variety show with Peter Frankenfeld showcasing several German dialects.
(It's a sketch about a patron who left his wallet at home and can't pay his restaurant bill.)



If you're an advanced learner, you should be able to understand most of it.
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tungemål
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Re: German group

Postby tungemål » Tue Nov 30, 2021 9:28 am

I've actually been to Germany recently and used a lot of German.

Reading a book I stumbled upon this expression: ankreiden. Which makes me think of the English expression "to chalk something up to something", because ankreiden derives from Kreide which means chalk.

The meaning is similar but not quite. The German expression seems to have a negative tint, more like "blame": Diesen Fehler muss man jemand anderem ankreiden.

But they probably have the same basis.
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Kraut
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Re: German group

Postby Kraut » Tue Nov 30, 2021 1:20 pm

I know the French telephone pranks by Pierre Pechin, Thierry Le Luron and Jean-Yves
Lafesse but this German guy beats them all. His five-year old voice is incredible,it immediately creates empathy by the adults he rings up and dispells doubts they may have, because a child cannot really talk like that,then he subtly directs the conversation where he wants it

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_kleine_Nils

Der kleine Nils


Der kleine Nils ist eine Comedy-Figur. Nils (mit vollem Namen: Nils Maximilian Bartels) ist ein fiktiver fünfjähriger Junge, der überwiegend öffentliche, manchmal aber auch private Telefonnummern in ganz Deutschland wählt und mit erfundenen Geschichten die Angerufenen aufs Glatteis führt (Telefonstreich).


https://www.rtlradio.de/Audio/comedys/der-kleine-nils/

https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/derkleinenils
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Doitsujin
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Posts: 402
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N)
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Re: German group

Postby Doitsujin » Tue Nov 30, 2021 4:51 pm

tungemål wrote:The meaning is similar but not quite. The German expression seems to have a negative tint, more like "blame": Diesen Fehler muss man jemand anderem ankreiden.
According to the DWDS, ankreiden, originally referred to putting an item on someone's tab.
It's somewhat similar to the expression "etwas anschreiben lassen" (= to buy something on credit), which nowadays can only be found in very old novels.
I.e., the underlying idea is that someone figuratively puts an item on someone else's tab and holds them responsible for something that they may or may not be responsible for.

Several slightly different etymologies have been suggested for the English phrase "to chalk something up."
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Doitsujin
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Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N)
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Re: German group

Postby Doitsujin » Fri Dec 03, 2021 8:38 pm

Today, I stumbled upon an interesting article that highlights some pitfalls of gender-neutral German writing recommendations:

Old school versus new school: Wer gewinnt den Streit ums Gendern?

BTW, SWR2 have recently dropped a podcast about this very topic: Wann und wie ist Gendern sinnvoll? (Transcript link)
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Kraut
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Re: German group

Postby Kraut » Thu Dec 16, 2021 2:08 am

A doctoral thesis about the last plague epidemic in Prussia in the years 1709/1710 that devastated large parts of East-Prussia, it wiped out about 80 per cent of its Lithuanian population. The land was then resettled with Protestants from all over Europe: French-speaking Swiss, Salzburgers, Mennonites, French Huguenots ...
An analysis of how the pandemic impacted all fields of life.

Katrin Möller-Funck: Die Krise in der Krise. Existenzielle Bedrohung und gesellschaftliche Rezession im Königreich Preußen zu Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts. Dissertation, Universität Rostock, 2015 (PDF).

https://rosdok.uni-rostock.de/file/rosd ... k-2017.pdf

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro%C3%9F ... 8_bis_1714
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburger_Exulanten
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DaveAgain
Black Belt - 1st Dan
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Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
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Re: German group

Postby DaveAgain » Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:42 am

I've just come across a new German expression: "unkraut vergeht nicht".

I think a literal translation would be something like, "weeds don't die", dict.cc translates it as "a cat has nine lives".

Die Männer unarmten sich ein zweites Mal, dann sahen sie sich lange an.
"Ich befürchtete schon du wärst ... " Ludwig beendete seinen Satz nicht.
"Ach was, Unkraut vergeht nicht. Ich bin gestern hier angekommen", erwiderte Hans.

Quote from Der Pfad by Rüdiger Bertram.
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Dragon27
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Re: German group

Postby Dragon27 » Tue Jan 18, 2022 1:00 pm

Wiktionary offers an array of English "translations"
https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Unkraut_vergeht_nicht
ill weeds grow apace, bad weeds grow tall, nettles are never frostbitten

never seen any of these expressions myself (obviously, not a native), but on the English wiktionary page of the analogous Dutch expression there's a mention of the supposed Latin origin:
onkruid vergaat niet

Etymology
Literally: "weeds do not perish". An adaptation of Latin mala herba difficulter moritur.

Googling this exact expression doesn't give much in terms of actual sources (but it does produce some Latin proverb collections with translations in different languages - with variations like "mala herba non interit/perit"). Instead, google offers a similar expression with much more hits: "Mala herba cito crescit" (bad weeds grow fast).
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tungemål
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Re: German group

Postby tungemål » Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:14 pm

DaveAgain wrote:I've just come across a new German expression: "unkraut vergeht nicht".

I know this, because we use the expression in Norwegian. It must've been taken directly from German. Edit: it might've come from Dutch. Thanks Dragon27. Since "onkruid" has become "ukrutt" in the Norwegian.

What he's (ironically) saying is that you won't get rid of him that easily, since he is "weed".
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Kraut
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Re: German group

Postby Kraut » Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:18 pm

I normally don't watch German TV, but I came across this page today, and it's excellent for language learning: there is subtitles, audiodescription and adaptable speed ...
If you separate the subtitles you can get them translated and there may be a way to get the audiodescription put into text?

https://www.zdf.de/barrierefreiheit-im- ... e-100.html
example
https://www.zdf.de/filme/spielfilm-high ... oOption=ad
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