Floating Candles | Mistranslation Monday

One afternoon, not too long ago, I was browsing Pinterest with my girlfriend from Lithuania (as stereotypical ladies do). And as you can imagine (and as evidenced by my other Mistranslation Monday posts), mistranslations are quite common when us two non-German women spend the day speaking German with each other.

Anyways, as we were browsing Pinterest, my friend found a lovely centerpiece that we thought would be perfect for a winter wedding. It looked something like this:

After thinking about all the different flowers and greenery we could put in the water, we starting talking about where we could buy the floating candles - except we were speaking German, so we were saying schwebende Kerzen - the literal translation of "floating candles."

After typing schwebende Kerzen into Amazon, however, we couldn't find what we were looking for. Do floating candles not exist in Germany? Are they just unpopular? Are they illegal?!

About 15 minutes later, Marco (the German) came into the room, and I asked him, "Do you know where we can buy floating candles?" - except we were speaking German, so I asked, "Weißt du, wo man schwebende Kerzen kaufen kann?"

He looked at us both, obviously confused. then replied "Like in Harry Potter? Do you those really exist?"

These are the kind of floating candles Marco was picturing

Like with most mistranslations, his confusion only caused us to become even more confused. After showing him some pictures of what we were talking about, however, the confusion was solved.

Schweben does mean "to float," but unlike English floating, schweben can only happen in the air. Maybe a more accurate translation would be "levitating."

Things don't "float" on water in German. They swim. So, the candles we wanted weren't schwebende Kerzen, they were schwimmende Kerzen (or just Schwimmkerzen). Lesson learned!

These are the candles we ended up buying, and like many things sold in Germany, the German word for the item isn't even on the package. Instead, there is just English and French. The Germans are just left to figure it out, I guess (and foreigners are left to wonder).

Balls | Mistranslation Monday

After almost a month of internet silence, I am back with everyone's favorite type of post: Mistranslation Monday! Today's Mistranslation Monday is brought to you a single seemingly simple word, balls.

Over Christmas and New Year's, we rented a big house in Germany where both Marco and my families would spend the holidays together. This included both of our parents, both of our brothers, my sister-in-law, and Marco's practically-step-brother. It was a full house, and of the 8 residents...
1 was English/German bilingual
1 could speak German and very limited English
2 could only speak German
and
4 could only speak English.

With such a mix, conversations at the dinner table each evening were... interesting, to say the least. One of the best mistanslations that came out of this linguistic mess occurred on the second day of Christmas (that's right - Germans call December 26th "second Christmas").

On Second Christmas, Marco's practically-step-mother made a traditional Fränkisch meal, including venison with lingonberries, red cabbage, and pretzel dumplings. This story is about those dumplings, which look like this:

Since Marco's step-mother speaks very limited English, the way she translated the various components of this meal to my family was as follows.

Reh = Bambi (yes, she kept telling us throughout the meal that we were eating Bambi)
Blaukraut = Blue cabbage
Brezelknödel = Balls

"Balls" as a translation of Knödel was acceptable at first. She was obviously always referring to the food, and my family was all thankful that she was was putting the effort into speaking English at all. The issue was that Marco's father was picking up on the English that she used and would then repeat her peculiar word choices.

So during our Second Christmas meal, Marco's father was telling us all about how where he comes from (Bodensee-Region), noodles are the standard side dish for meals. Now that he lives in Nuremberg with his Fränkisch partner, however, (and I quote):

"Only balls!"

His delivery of this sentence made me burst out laughing, much to his confusion. And as I kept laughing, poor Marco was left with the task of explaining to his father that "balls" can also refer to a particular male body part.

Top 5 Translation Tools (German<>English)

Being enrolled in a German master's program, I do my fair share of reading and writing [in both English and German]. I also do a lot of translation work for my student job at the university. So, I would consider myself quite knowledgeable when it comes to online translation tools and websites.

If you have taken a German class, then your teacher probably told you to never use a translation website. Instead, you should use a German dictionary.

Sure, that is a good tip for gaining a deeper understanding of the German language, but translation dictionaries are quick, easy, and the best (or only) option for certain situations. So, whether you are also a student in Germany, do translation work, or just enjoy watching German YouTube videos, here are my top 5 favorite online translation tools.


LEO
For translating single words between English and German, Leo is my go-to. The article (der, die, das) and plural form of German nouns are always provided on the main results page (which is normally what I am looking for when I search for a German word). Also, by clicking on the table next to (most) words, you can see how to properly declinate/conjugate that word. To check pronunciation, just click the play button in front of the word.

dict.cc
If LEO fails me, then I turn to dict.cc. This is another standard, quality translation service. However, instead of writing [der, die, das] in front of the German nouns, they write [m, n, f] after it. It achieves the same purpose, but I prefer LEO's presentation.

Linguee
Linguee is the translation tool that I spend the most time using by far. Unlike LEO and dict.cc, which are just English<>German dictionaries, Linguee is a search engine that provides translation examples from translated texts and websites throughout the Internet. This makes Linguee really helpful for translating idioms and other non-literal phrases.

Google Translate
You should always be cautious when translating more than just a single word or phrase. But in times of absolute need, Google Translate can be pretty helpful for quickly getting a general understanding of what a longer text is about.

But, like I said, be careful...

Duden
Okay, Duden isn't a translation dictionary, but I had to include it. If you ever forget how to conjugate a verb or aren't sure of the correct spelling of a noun (darn Germans and their dialects), then Duden is the #1 resource. Also, you will make your German teacher proud by turning to a proper German dictionary instead of just typing it all into Google Translate.

Let me know if you use any German/English translation websites that I didn't include!

Intimate Dancing | Mistranslation Monday

Mistranslation Monday has been missing from the blog lately. Unfortunately, this is not because my German is getting better. It's more likely due to the fact that I took a vacation to the U.S. and have been speaking a lot of English lately.

So, today's Mistranslation Monday doesn't come from myself, but my lovely friend Adele from Lithuania.

As you may know, the German fiancé and I are currently planning our wedding. Since we will only have about 30 guests, we have been discussing whether or not there should be dancing at the reception. When Adele came over last week for coffee, I asked her what she thought.

[Note: we speak German with each other, so this is a translated version of our conversation]

"I would dance!" she told me.

"Really? You would feel comfortable dancing in front of our families, even if nobody else was dancing?" I asked.

"Sure, but of course I would bring my boyfriend on the dance floor with me, then we could dance as a team." She replied.

Or, at least that is what I heard. Marco, on the other hand, heard something else:

"Sure, but of course I would bring my boyfriend on the dance floor with me, then we could dance intimately."

"You're going to dance intimately in front of our families?" Marco yelled from the other room, trying to hold back his laughter.

For my German-speaking readers, here is what Adele really said: "...dann können wir in Team tanzen."

But due to her small grammatical error (in Team instead of im Team), what she said sounded the same as the German word for "intimate" (intim).

So, I apologize to all of our wedding guests in advance if Adele and her boyfriend make you feel uncomfortable with their intimate dancing at our wedding reception. :D

He's My Sponge! | Mistranslation Monday

I recently started tutoring two female German high school students in English. Seeing as I have no experience in talking to teenagers or teaching English, this has been an interesting experience to say the least.

During our sessions, I discuss all kinds of things with the girls, from dream vacations to embarrassing school stories. Since we only speak English, they occasionally come across words for which they don't know the English translation. So, after saying the German word, they will pause, waiting for me to say it in English before they continue with their story.

My German is good enough that this method works 99% of the time.

One day, as we were talking about boys (oooo la la), one of my students got caught up in telling me about a particular boy from her school.

"He can speak Russian and is just so cute. He is my... my... Schwamm!" she exclaimed. Or at least that is what I heard.

"Sponge? He's your sponge?" I asked, quite confused.

"No! Not Schwamm, Schwarm!"

I still didn't understand. Although I knew that Schwarm means "swarm" (as in a swarm of bees), it made no sense to me in this context.

"You know... I like him, and I go crazy whenever I see him!" she explained.

Aha! Suddenly I knew what she meant, and it made sense that I had never heard this word used before.

"Your crush?" I asked.

"YES! He's my CRUSH!!"

I guess I've reached that point in my life where I am more likely to discuss sponges than crushes. At least I have these girls to teach me all the German teenage vocabulary I am missing out on!

My Favorite German YouTube Channels

The most common questions I received after posting my Top 5 German TV Shows was whether the shows were available online. Unfortunately, many German shows are not available online (Germany is a little slow to the digital party). But do you know where you can always find free German-language content? YouTube!

If you regularly watch YouTubers, then you know that the platform has largely turned into a lot of attention-seeking 20-somethings creating video content for 13-year-olds. The German YouTube-sphere is very much the same. There are, however, some great channels with funny and original creators that are worth checking out for anyone that knows or is looking to improve German.

Kurzgesagt 

Similar to channels such as Vsauce and Minute Physics, Kurzgesagt produces thought-provoking videos about a wide range of scientific and philsophical topics from space exploration to Ebola. They also have an English-language channel with the exact same videos. So, if you are leaning German and want to check your comprehension level, you can watch a video in German, and then watch the same exact video in English directly afterwards.

Here's their video about fracking (and here is the English version):

Doktor Allwissend

This is my favorite German YouTube channel. The German fiance has actually gotten so used to me watching it, whenever he hears me listening to a video, he will immediately ask, "Wie geht's Doktor Allwissend?"

Doktor Allwissend translates to Dr. Know-it-all, and he makes informational videos in response to viewer questions. This is one of his more skit-like videos, which does not follow his normal format, but I find it hilarious (mainly because no German understands the name Courtney):

Die Klugscheisserin

Literally "the smart-shitter," die Klugscheisserin (Lisa) is a German woman from Berlin that takes on a stern German persona as she explains various ... things quite in depth. Oh, she is also the blonde woman from the video with Doktor Allwissend (above), which is how I found her.

Here is one of her videos explaining the 5 Nobel Prizes:

Nilam

As a woman, I do enjoy occasionally watching beauty videos. When this mood hits, I turn to Nilam, a beauty/lifestyle vlogger in Berlin.

Nilam does do some make-up and hair tutorials, however, she also creates a lot of recipe videos, travel videos, vlogs of her life in Berlin, and DIYs. Here is one of her recent vlogs in Northern Sweden:

Sami Slimani

If you are into the typical challenge/collaborations/storytime videos that are so popular on YouTube these days, then you should also check out Sami Slimani. If you live in Germany, then you have probably already seen Sami on TV at some point.

Here's a video of Sami testing out some "life hacks":

Honorable Mention: Flula

Since most of his content isn't in German, and he doesn't live in Germany anymore, I couldn't technically include Flula in this list. But he's too good not to include him.

If anyone is interesting in learning the strangest of strange German insults, swear words, and phrases, make sure to check out his "German with a German" series. Here is one of those videos, where he teaches you the term scheißfreundlich:

Is there anyone you think I should check out? Who is your favorite German YouTuber?

Oh, the Difference One Letter Makes

I dressed up for Halloween this past weekend for the first time in at least 4 years. I was Little Red Riding Hood, and Marco was my wolf. Since Germans stick to scary costumes (luckily the "sexy" costume trend has not made it over here yet), I used liquid latex and fake blood to make scratches along the side of my face.

We had to travel by train and subway to get to the Halloween party, and Marco had not yet put in his fangs and contacts. So, our friends kept commenting on how "cute" he looked, which is not what he was going for.

"Watch out," he said, "I'm a wolf with rapies!"

Yikes. Not sure what rapies are, but let's hope you don't have that! (Obviously he meant rabies.)

Oh, the difference one letter makes...

Since the party started early, we brought some Halloween snacks along too. I made spider cupcakes and jello [vodka] worms (complete with Oreo dirt and served in a flower pot). I was pretty proud of them (even though my spiders were missing 2 legs each).

The next language mistake of the night came a few hours into the party, when I was striking up a conversation with a guy that I had never met before, but who also goes to my university.

The details are fuzzy, but I wanted to ask him if he "had friends [somewhere or something]."

Unfortunately, my question started with the words, "Hast du Freunden..."

Before I could finish me was giving me a weird look and telling me, "Ja... ich habe eine Freundin."

Oh no. Oh no no no. I made the word friend (Freund) plural by adding an "en" instead of just an "e." So when I meant to say "friends," he heard "girlfriend." He thinks I asked him if he has a girlfriend, and now he is trying to end this conversation as quickly as possible.

Oh the difference one letter makes...

How was your Halloween this year?

Flying Kohlrabi | Mistranslation Monday

While in the U.S. last month, the German boyfriend saw his very first hummingbird! Hummingbirds only live in the Americas, so this was something he was quite excited about. Since my parents have a hummingbird feeder, we continued to watch a group of hummingbirds fly all over the backyard for our entire two-week stay.

As we were watching the hummingbirds from my parent's patio one morning, I tried to strike up a German conversation with Marco by saying the German word for hummingbird.

"Kohlrabi!"

I think this is what Marco imagined when I said that.

After a confused pause, Marco replied, "I think you mean Kolibri."

Oh yeah. Kolibri. Although, had there been a flying cabbage drinking sugar water in my parent's backyard, then that would have a been a first for all of us.

Colorful | Mistranslation Monday

-haft is a German adjective suffix. Examples of words with this suffix include dauerhaft (permanent; long-lasting), herzhaft (hearty), and grauenhaft (atrocious; morbid).  Today, however, I want to talk about the German word fabelhaft, which I always missheard as farbehaft.

Fabelhaft means fabulous or mavelous. It comes from the word Fabel (fable). Add on the suffix -haft, and it becomes an adjective which basically means "like a fairy tale."

Silly me has always understood the word fabelhaft as farbehaft, which is not a real word. To me, however, it meant "colorful" (Farbe = color).

I am pretty sure that I have been understanding the word as fabelhaft as farbehaft for years. Instead of using a word like "marvelous," I simply thought that Germans used the word "colorful" to describe wonderful things. It made sense to me!

This mistranslation was brought to my attention recently when the German boyfriend was proofreading one of my term papers. The paper was about a research project I did on food fotography in Hamburg. Wanting to describe a group of pictures as colorful, I used the word farbehaft in my paper.

As he was proofreading the paper, Marco called me over to ask "What is this word supposed to be? Do you mean farbenfroh?"

"Farbehaft. Colorful. Yeah, farbenfroh means the same thing," I replied, thinking that farbehaft was a synonym for farbenfroh.

"Ok. But farbehaft isn't a word. Are you thinking of fabelhaft?!"

Then he kindly explained to me the correct spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of fabelhaft, and I was left pondering all of the times I thought Germans were describing things as colorful.

Germany's Obsession with Titles

Recently, I saw a poster on campus for a lecture called Warum ich als Wissenschaftler der Bibel glaube (Why I believe the bible as a scientist). However, it was not topic that caught my attention. Rather, it was the man's name.

Here is a picture of the bottom half of the poster:

The name of the man who is giving the lecture is "Dir. U. Prof. A. D. Dr. Werner Gitt." His titles take up more space on the poster than his actual name! What the heck do these letters even mean?!

Well, let's take a look...

Dir. = Director
U. = Und (and - why is this necessary!?)

Prof. = Professor

A. D. = Außer Dienst (meaning that he doesn't currently work as a professor)

Dr. = Doctor

Really?! Are all of those letters really necessary? Do we need to tell the world our entire life stories via letters before our names? I mean, after all of that, I feel like I certainly do not need to see this man's resume. I already know his entire academic background: He got a PhD, worked as a professor, stopped working as a professor to become the director (of a university, I suppose?), and now he goes around giving speeches about why he believes the bible. Got it.

Coincidentally, I got an email invitation just a few days later to another lecture, but this time given by a woman. Her name was listed as:

Frau Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Eveline Goodman

Although not quite as long as Gitt's, it is the fact that Dr. is written two times here that really confused me. So, let's take a look at what this one means:

Frau = Mrs. (it kills me that Germans write this before "Dr." or "Prof." -- could you imagine going to the doctor and saying "Hi Mr. Dr. Smith!"? The Germans actually do that!)

Prof. = Professor

Dr. = Doctor

Dr. h.c.= Doctor honoris causa, which is an honorary doctor title

So, although it is not quite as telling as the man above's, Frau Goodman's title still gives us an insight into her academic and professional background. Curious about the honorary title, I looked up her Wikipedia page, which says that she was an Austrian Jew that survived the holocaust by fleeing to the Netherlands and went on to become the first female Rabbi in Austria. Amazing! But still, that is one long string of letters in front of her name.

What do you think about all these titles? Are they necessary?

Liebhaber | Mistranslation Monday

Liebhaber. What a beautiful word. Or at least I thought it was until an embarrassing situation with the German boyfriend happened recently.

Marco and I recently played the computer game Spore together. In the game, you can choose to make your character an aggressive killing machine by killing all other species. You can choose to be a peaceful ruler by simply studying the other species. Or you can choose to be something in the middle.

We had already played through the game once, and our character ended up somewhere in the middle. Since it was pretty fun, I wanted to play it through again, but instead get each of the other scenarios.

So, I told Marco that he can play as a Mörder (murderer) and I would play as a Liebhaber.

You see, Liebhaber is a compound word composed of Lieb (Liebe = Love) and Haber ("Have-er," like someone that has something). Love-Haver.

"You're going to play as a what?!" Marco replied in a tone of voice I wasn't expecting.

"A Liebhaber!"

"What do you think that word means?"

Like most new words I hear in German, I had simply guessed the meaning from its root words. Although, as I had already experienced with the word vermöbeln, this method is not very reliable.

Anyways, I don't always learn from my mistakes, and I had interpreted Liebhaber as "love-haver" - like someone who has a lot of love for something. Like a philanthropist or peacemaker.

I was wrong.

"A Liebhaber is a lover - like someone a married person has an affair with," Marco explained.

Oh... that's not what I meant.

P.S. I did look it up myself, and Liebhaber can also mean "enthusiast" (not just lover). But anyways, that is also not what I meant.

German Dialects vs. American Dialects

Dialects are a controversial topic in Germany. When raising a child, many parents are confronted with the dilemma of whether or not they should raise their child with dialect or raise them speaking Hochdeutsch (standard or "high" German). Although Marco must speak Hochdeutsch daily (both at work and home), he is still a big proponent of keeping dialects alive.

And I have to say that I am too.

So, one weekend, Marco and I decided to test our German dialects by taking an online German dialect quiz from the German news outlet Spiegel. Here are our results:

Marco

Marco comes from Baden-Württemberg, so you can already see that his results were pretty darn accurate. He placed the pin with the white dot in the middle on his hometown, and result #4, which the quiz guessed from Marco's answers, was less than 20 km away. Not bad!

Courtney

Although I am obviously not German, here are my results from the quiz. Since foreigners are always taught Hochdeutsch, it makes since that the quiz guessed I lived somewhere in the northwest, where Hochdeutsch is also the regional dialect.

Impressed with the results of this survey, I decided to search for something similar, but for Americans. Turns out, the New York Times offers an online American dialect quiz. I was pretty skeptical, since I do not think that dialects in the U.S. vary as strongly as dialects within Germany, but I decided to give it a shot anyways (and Marco did too). Here are those results:

Marco

English is Marco's second language, so it makes sense that his results are a little all over the place (except the South, thankfully). What was particularly weird, was that his #1 result was Honolulu.

Courtney

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and went to college in the city, so this turned out to be incredibly accurate. You can see some of the answers that best showed my Chicago-ness in the bottom picture (who pronounces cot and caught the same?!).

So although Marco and I both live away from our hometowns, away from where our native dialects are spoken, we have both been able to hold on to those dialects pretty well thus far. I hope it stays like that.

 If you take the quiz(zes) yourself, let me know your results in the comments below!

Vermöbeln | Mistranslation Monday

A lot of German verbs begin with the letters "ver." Verbessen means to improve. Versüßen means to sweeten. Verabreden means to arrange (a meeting).

The thing about all of these verbs (and most German verbs that begin with ver), is that when you take the "ver" away, you are still left with a German word. Besser means better. Süß means sweet. Abrede means understanding or agreement.

So, when confronted with a German verb that began with "ver" recently, I used this base to try to understand the meaning.

The instance occurred when Marco yelled at me, "Ich werde dich gleich vermöbeln!" For anyone that understands German, this probably makes it sound like Marco is an abusive boyfriend, but I assure you it was said in a joking manner. Anyways, I didn't understand the correct meaning.

When Marco said, "Ich werde dich gleich vermöbeln!" I heard, "I am going to turn you into a piece of furniture!"

So, I laughed and asked, "Like what? A table?"

"What?" Marco said, quite confused at my response. But after a moment he caught on to my logic and just started laughing.

"I don't think you know what vermöbeln means," he finally replied.

Turns out, vermöbeln actually means "to beat up" (most online translators actually give "lambast" or "thrash" as the meaning of vermöbeln, but I think beat up is a better translation for how Marco was using it, and who says "lambast" anyways?).

But as I said, I looked at the root of the word to try to figure out its meaning. When you drop the "ver" (and the "n" at the end), you are left with Möbel, which means furniture. So, I figured that vermöbeln would mean to make furniture. That's logical, right?

And now, as always when I make a Mistranslation Monday post, Marco and I continue to use this word as I had originally understood.

"Courtney, ich könnte dich gleich vermöbeln"

"Courtney, I could beat you up right now."

"Aber ich bin ein Mensch! Ich will keinen Tisch sein!"

"But I am a person! I don't want to be a table!"

Yo, Digga! | Mistranslation Monday

Today's mistranslation comes from a few years back, but I have been weary of writing it due to its not-so-appropriate content. But since I am still reminded of this one years later, I feel like I just have to share.

There are some particular slang words that people up here in Northern Germany use -- words that are not taught in the classroom. One of these I encountered at a bar one night, when I heard a group of friends repeatedly calling each other Digga.

I think you can all guess what word came to my mind when I heard them saying this. Since this word obviously began with a "D," however, my logical assumption was that it was a combination of two words:

Deutsch (German) + n*gga = Digga

When talking about it with my fellow America friends, we all agreed on the fact that this is the only logical explanation of what Digga could mean. So, we all continued to be appalled whenever we heard it used.

Then, I finally mentioned my interpretation of the word Digga to a German friend.

After they finally stopped crying with laughter, they explained to me that although Digga does have a similar meaning to what I was already thinking, the origin is much different.

Simply put, Digga is the Northern German way to say bro. The word is derived from the German word Dicker, which, in this context, means close friend.

Needless to say, I am very happy to know that the Germans are not running around the streets calling each other Deutsch N... well, you know.

You're Welcome | Mistranslation Monday

Although I had studied German for about 4 years, I wasn't very good at the language before studying abroad here in 2011. So when I first arrived, I was so terrified to speak the language with actual Germans that I put off doing things that required any level of social interaction with non-Americans for as long as possible. That included grocery shopping.

After living off of the cookies and apples given out at orientation meetings for nearly a week, I finally caved and walked to the local grocery store near my apartment. Luckily, picking out the items and getting to the register went quite well. Heck, even the checking out and paying went well, which I was quite nervous about. However, I was shocked at the rudeness of the cashier when she handed over my receipt.

"Bitte schön," she said with a monotone voice as she stared me straight in the eyes.

In my mind, "bitte schön" translated to "you're welcome." And saying "you're welcome" without someone saying "thank you" first is pretty darn rude.

My eyes squinted, and in a refusal to give this impolite woman the courtesy of a proper "thank you," I quietly uttered the American "mmmhm" and walked out of the store as quickly as possible.

Over the next month, I continued to notice this phenomenon throughout my everyday life in Germany.

When I ate in the school cafeteria, the lunchlady would say "bitte schön" as she handed over my plate of Schnitzel and Pommes. When I went for drinks in a restaurant, the waiter would mutter "bitte" as he placed the beer on the table. When I ordered bread in the bakery, the baker would exclaim "bitte schön" with a smile as she handed over my Franzbrötchen.

Looking back now, I do not know if I slept through the German lesson where it was taught that "bitte" or "bitte schön" is also a polite way of saying "here you go," or maybe it simply wasn't taught in the U.S. at all. Anyways, it took an embarrassingly long time to figure out that the Germans aren't rude. I'm just an idiot.

At least I know better now.

Free TestDaF Resources Online

Some of the most frequent questions I get through this blog is, "What advice do you have for passing the TestDaF?"

After passing the TestDaF with a pretty good score in February 2014, I do have a lot to say about the test. To read my top tips for taking the exam, check out the following links:

• TestDaF Tips
• Leseverstehen
• Hörverstehen
• Schriftlicher Ausdruck
• Mündlicher Ausdruck

For those wanting more, I have compiled a list of free resources that I found to be helpful in preparing to take the test. I will continue to update this list as I find more.

TestDaF Practice Tests/Exercises

• https://www.testdaf.de/zielgruppen/fuer-teilnehmende/vorbereitung/modellsaetze/
• http://www.godaf.de/?url=/de/probe/
• https://vk.com/testdafvorbereitung
• http://testdaftipps.blogspot.de/2010/01/mundliche-ausdruck.html
• https://www.hueber.de/sixcms/media.php/36/1699-FitTestDaF.pdf
• https://www.testdaf.de/teilnehmer/tn-vorbereitung_test.php?id=1
• http://www.fabouda.de/testdaf%20training/proben%20testdaf%2020.15/Schreiben.pdf

Training/Tips for the TestDaF

• http://deutschlernen-blog.de/tipps-zu-den-pruefungsteilen-von-testdaf/
• http://deutschtraining.info/course/testdaf-vorbereitung-online/

Vocabulary

• http://dl.keywin.org/4/5/459618e94d24dd01480589e44c6d4711.pdf

Further (offline) Material

• https://www.testdaf.de/zielgruppen/fuer-teilnehmende/vorbereitung/trainingsmaterialien/

Viel Glück!

Wet Dreams | Mistranslation Monday

Ever since moving to Germany, I love flipping through the weekly ads that come in the mail. Recently, we received a large advertisement from Hornbach, which is a large home improvement store. On the second page of the pamphlet, I saw this:

Not thinking before speaking, I said to the German boyfriend, "Feuchttraum?!" Is that the name of this light? That sounds awfully inappropriate!"

Confused, Marco came over to look at the ad and replied, "It says Feuchtraum, not Feuchttraum."

"Oh..."

The advertisement is for a moisture-proof light that is meant for use in a room with high humidity. Feuchtraum is a compound word made up of:

Feucht = damp
Raum = room

Instead of seeing the words feucht and raum, however, I saw:

Feucht = damp
Traum = dream

You can probably piece together why I was so shocked to see that word in a home improvement store's advertisements...

Before anyone says it, I have since learned that the proper word for a wet dream is feuchter Traum, but it is not unreasonable to assume that the Germans would make a compound word for such a thing.

Stupid Cow | Mistranslation Monday

This particular mistranslation may be one of the very first that occurred between Marco and me. In fact, this it was probably the spark for one of our first arguments as well.

Original photo: Heeland Coo by Arran Moffat

It occurred early on in our relationship, when my German was quite poor, and Marco was not always able to express himself coherently in English.

Although I do not remember exactly what happened, I am positive that I did something stupid like miss a class or drop a sandwich on the ground. Whatever it was, it led to Marco calling me a blöde Kuh.

Since I only knew how to translate this expression literally at the time, I understood it as him calling me a "stupid cow."

Calling anyone a cow in English is quite harsh, especially when that person is your girlfriend. I am sure anyone would agree that calling someone stupid is also quite mean. So, when I head Marco calling me a blöde Kuh, I immediately become very upset.

This was a reaction, of course, that my boyfriend was not expecting. You see, blöde Kuh can also be used in a light-hearted way much like Americans use the term "dork" with close friends and family members. But at that point, it really didn't matter.

Let's just say that he has since learned better than to call his American girlfriend a blöde Kuh.

Top 5 Novels for Learning German

If you are learning German, language tools such as Duolingo or Rosetta Stone can only take you so far. During my 5+ years of learning German, I have found that immersing myself in German films, TV shows, and books is a great way to improve language skills outside of the classroom.

Now, this list is not for those new to the German language. If you have been learning German for a few years now and consider yourself at the B1 level, however, then German novels can help you broaden your vocabulary, learn new phrases, and improve your overall reading comprehension. Here are my top 5 German book recommendations:

1. Liebe geht durch alle Zeiten: Rubinrot, Saphirblau, Smaragdgrün

by Kerstin Gier

Do not be fooled by the lame title -- this is not just a girly love story. Liebe geht durch alle Zeiten is actually a trilogy of young adult novels that I would consider science fiction/drama. The novels are about a 16-year-old girl named Gwendolyn Shepherd, who comes from a family in which some of the women posses a time-travelling gene. She finds out at 16-years-old that she has this gene as well, and then must deal with the consequences. The first book was even made into a decent movie for those that are looking for a low-budget German film to check out.

German Level: B2/C1

Links to Find It on Amazon.de:
Trilogy
Rubinrot - Book | Movie
Saphirblau
Smaragdgrün

If you are lazy and just want a good trilogy to read in English, there is a good translation of these books available on Amazon.com:
Trilogy
Ruby Red
Sapphire Blue
Emerald Green

2. Best Short Stories/Die schönste Erzählungen

by Franz Kafka

In 2011, just before I left to study abroad in Germany, I started freaking out about the quality of my German. I was worried I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone or that I would completely make a fool out of myself. So, I bought this book. I was around B1 level at the time, and I really loved the book's format. You can easily enjoy the short stories, and look over to opposite page, where the English translation is, whenever you do not know a word. This book in particular features five short stories by Franz Kafka, who is known as one of the greatest modern writers not only in Germany, but throughout the entire literary world. 

German Level: B1/B2

Find it on Amazon here.

3. Das Parfum

by Patrick Süskind 

I'm not going to lie-- I have only gotten through the first chapter of this book so far. This novel's English translation was pretty popular and was even turned into a film. So despite not having finished it myself yet, I feel pretty comfortable suggesting it. Since the story is set in 18th century France, I do think it uses some out-dated vocabulary, making it a little difficult for us modern non-native German-speakers. When you have a smart phone equipped with a translating app at your side, however, it is doable.

German Level: C1+

Find it on Amazon here.

4. Short Stories in German

 

Here is another short story/parallel text book that I quite enjoyed reading. It is mix of contemporary short stories by various authors, so you will probably find some stories more interesting than others. Overall, though, I liked the mix of stories in this book and recommend it to those that like having the safety net a parallel text book provides.

German Level: B1/B2

Find it on Amazon here.

5. Faust 

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Known as one of the greatest works of German literature, those really feeling up to the challenge should try tackling Goethe's most popular play. This version from Bantam Classics in particular is nice because it includes both the original text in German as well as its English translation. So, once again, you can attempt to stumble through the original text, and occasionally peek over at the English translation when there is a word that totally trips you up.

German Level: C1+

Find it on Amazon here.

Let me know if you find my list helpful, or if you have any German book recommendations for me in the comments below!