stressed Toblerone

/19/ hobby artist and travel enthusiast/ Probably also gonna post some language stuff I speak German and English, and I'm learning French and to a lesser extent Italian🌸

[marener]

Hello! I haven't posted in quite a while but I thought that I'd like to share some of my favourite pics from a (more or less) recent trip to the mountains.

Hope you have a nice day!

[marener]

Little Venice collage🌞 The first three days of our stay were rather cold, foggy and gloomy. However, on day 4 the weather finally had heard our pleas and got a lot better. It was still very cold, but much more bearable than the days before. We thought that we'd escape the big tourist masses during wintertime but the week between christmas and new year's seems to be just as bad when it comes to mass tourism. But it is understandable, seeing how pretty Venice is! I hope you all have a nice weekend and happy new year!💞

[marener]

'Georgian Vibes' On a road trip from Mestia to Kutaisi, Georgia

[marener]

'ησυχία'

[marener]

'Warmth' Sunset on a ferry ride from Patras to Ancona

[marener]

‘Yearning for the warm blue of the Atlantic'

Sintra, Portugal 🇵🇹

[marener]

‘British spot wrapped in Greek ambienté’

Jersey, Channel Islands 🇯🇪

[marener]

'Luftig zum Himmel hoch zu fliegen, In kühner Ahnung irgendwann Die Erdenschwere zu besiegen, Zog mächtig dich zum Himmel an' - Ernesto Perren Meiringen, Switzerland 🇨🇭

[marener]

DAS VS. DASS

Distinguishing between 'das' and 'dass' is one of the hardest challenges when learning German, and it's hard even for us native speakers! It's especially difficult for learners whose native language is English in my opinion, because both usually simply mean 'that'. However, not exactly the same kind of 'that'. In this post I'll try to show you how to distinguish these two by showing you what I usually do when having to choose between 'das' and 'dass'. 'Das' Article "Das Haus ist gross" "Er geht, das Mädchen folgt ihm" In these cases, 'das' is used as an article, however, it can seem a bit tricky after a comma. But when you can match the 'das' as an article to a noun, always write it with one s. demonstrative pronoun "Das ist gar nicht gut" "Sie sagte, das sei normal" In these cases, 'das' is a pronoun and the subject of a sentence, so 'das' can replace a noun and acts on its own. You can always check whether it is a demonstrative pronoun by asking (let's take the first sentence as an example) "wer/was ist gar nicht gut?" "DAS ist gar nicht gut". This one is the hardest to spot for me actually but after a while (and after refreshing German pronouns) it gets a lot easier. relative pronoun "Das Haus, das einen grossen Garten hat" "Das Kind, das den Nachbaren gebissen hat" Here 'das' refers to an object/the subject in the  previous sentence part, in the examples above to "Das Haus" and "Das Kind". You can check that by substituting 'das' by 'welches' i.e. instead of "Das Kind, das den Nachbarn gebissen hat" "Das Kind, welches den Nachbarn gebissen hat", if that works then you're dealing with a relative pronoun which is very similar to the English version: "The child who/that has bitten the neighbour" 'Dass' Conjunction "Es geht nicht, dass er sie so behandelt" "Dass du mir nicht vertraust, verletzt mich" 'Dass' is only used in one instance; to link different parts of sentences, so it's similar to words like 'und' and 'oder' but unlike those to which link two main clauses, 'dass' always links a main clause with an subordinate clause, so unlike 'das' it does never depend on a noun. Unlike i.e. a relative pronoun, 'dass' can be shifted within the sentence as a whole, although it always stands at the beginning of the subordinate clause. Whenever I need to choose between 'das' and 'dass' in an essay or such, I try to first go through all the possibilities including a noun (article, relative pronoun, demonstrative pronoun) and if none of these can be applied, I am only left with 'dass'. And tada: that's how I try to not get confused with 'das' and 'dass', however, I am sure that there are other methods as well which are super helpful :^) Have a nice weekend, everyone!

[deutsian]

Thank you kindly to @athenastudying for the tag :)

1. What languages are you/have you studied?

I’m studying German and making a start on Russian and Czech any day now (as I’m preparing to do them at university). I am also currently studying another language which I’m not revealing till September, and I’ve tried French before but that was toooo difficult. I also occasionally look at Luxembourgish.

Oh also at some point I keep meaning to start with Gothic but the grammar got me being like nopeity-nope.

2. How long have you been studying?

German for just over 1.5 years, Russian and Czech still TBA and the disclosed language only a handful of days :)

3. Did you learn through class or self-study (or both)?

German, both, but mostly self-study. I mainly used class as a source for getting mistakes corrected and having an external source of motivation as well as access to proficient German speakers. Czech & Russian will be through class also, whereas the undisclosed language is entirely self-study.

4. Why did you decide to learn this language?

German = I heard a German song and I liked it. That is genuinely the reason. I liked how it sounded and thought ‘hey wouldn’t it be cool to understand what’s being sung’ and here we are now!

Russian & Czech = Primarily so that I can one day hopefully read original Russian literature, and Czech.. can’t explain why, it just fascinates me. (Same reason for the undisclosed language).

Gothic = Honestly it looks fucking cool.

5. What was a major highlight/milestone in studying this language?

Oh goodness um. I suppose, when I went to Germany and managed to get through a week with almost entirely using in German that was a pretty amazing milestone. I went to museums, shopped and dined, visited other tourist attractions, watched German TV, went to the cinema [no subtitles!] and even attended a live performance. The performance was on my final night of being there and I’m gonna be honest and say I very nearly literally cried of happiness when I left because I was just so proud of everything I’d achieved to get to that point.

6. What was the hardest thing about studying this language?

Hmm. The German R is an absolutely ridiculous sound and should be banished. Also still trying to figure out the correct preposition to use… basically in any situation.

As for the undisclosed language, lol the grammar is just so extensive.

7. What resources did you find most useful for studying this language?

I learnt pronunciation primarily through listening to music and I learnt grammar by googling around, looking at examples and then replicating the grammar point in my essays. Dartmouth German Grammar website is pretty good as is the book Aktion Grammatik!. Aside from that, I use dict.cc, dict.leo.org, linguee and Duden for dictionaries, and I acquire most of my vocab nowadays through reading newspapers (or books), watching German TV shows or via memrise.

8. Any top tips for studying this language?

Conquer the grammar as quickly as possible, because there’s honestly not that much of it (only 6 tenses, 3 moods, 4 cases of which 1 is not really used in speech, adjective endings can be easily learnt with patterns, verb conjugations are sOSOsooOOOo easy compared to most languages) and then you can just focus on building up your vocab. Of course, immersion as well :-)

9. What’s your next major language goal?

Well I’d like to be on the cusp of B1 by mid-September for my undisclosed language; it’s a long shot but it might happen if I get off my ass.

As for German, hmm i don’t really know; which is my problem right now. I don’t have any concrete goals and so I spend time feeling like my German is shit but then I don’t actually know why I feel that way or what to focus on. I am considering giving reading more German literature a go and (google it) following the 'first 20 hours’ principle to see how much my reading skills and German improves within 20 hours.

10. Anything we can do in the tumblr community to get you there?

Name me some German books written within the last 20 years or so that are interesting and cheaply priced (or…free…in…areas of the internet…). Also you can like tell me how the f— you get to B1 cause I forgot how I did it with German it just kinda happened.

I shall tag @languagecollector @salutonriano @lernen-sie-deutsch-mit-mir @languages101 @gutrazdaofficial and god im sorry i know there are loadsss of you who regularly reblog my posts but its gonna take me ages to type you all out, but if you’re one of those people just write the post and then credit me ;)

[marener]

Erstmals: dein Deutsch ist absolut fantastisch und ich habe die ganze Zeit gedacht, du wärest Muttersprachler :0 Und zweistens: welche Genres magst du so? Falls du Fantasy magst, würde ich dir "Tintenherz" und andere Bücher von Cornelia Funke empfehlen (habe sie selbst nicht gelesen, aber sie sollen wirklich sehr gut sein) und z.B. "Eragon". Falls du z.B. etwas eher "moderne" Bücher magst, so kann ich dir "Das Kind, das in der Polenta kocht" wärmstens empfehlen, aber achtung: Der Schreibstil ist wirklich sehr unkonventionell! Und falls du auf Liebesromane stehst, kannst du mich einfach fragen, da hab' ich genug Vorschläge😂 Leider kenne ich mich vor allem mit älterer deutscher Literatur aus (und vor allem auch Schweizer Literatur), also falls du irgendwelche Vorschläge von dieser Seite haben willst, keine Angst zu fragen!

Ps: du machst wirklich tolle und hilfreiche Posts, und ich hoffe es macht dir nichts aus, dass ich die Antwort in Deutsch geschrieben habe! (Und dass sie so lang geworden ist😅) Ich hoffe du hast einen schönen Tag und bleib' dran :)

[marener]

German Politics Vocabulary

Nomen/nouns:

die Politik - politics

die Macht - power

der Politiker (die Politiker) - (male) politician

die Politikerin (die Politikerinnen) - (female) politician

der Staat (die Staaten) - state

der Präsident (die Präsidenten) - (male) president

die Präsidentin (die Präsidentinnen) - (female) president

der Staatschef (die Staatschefs) - (male) head of state

die Staatschefin(nen) - (female) head of state

die Präsidentschaftswahl(en) - the presidential elections

der Kandidat (die Kandidaten) - (male) candidate

die Kandidatin(nen)- (female) candidate

die Demokratie(en) - democracy

die Republik(en) - republic

die Diktatur(en) - dicatorship

die Militärdiktatur(en) - military dictatorship

die Monarchie(n) - monarchy

die konstitutionelle(n) Monarchie(n) - constitutional monarchy

die Oligarchie(n) - oligarchy

die Wahl(en) - election

der Wahlbetrug (die Wahlbetrüge) - election fraud

die Wahlstimme(n) - vote

die Abstimmung(en) - referendum

der Wahlsieg (die Wahlsiege) - election victory

die Wahlniederlage(n) - election defeat

die Wahlnacht (die Wahlnächte) - election night

das Parlament (die Parlamente) - parliament

der Parlamentarier (die Parlamentarier) - (male) member of the parliament

die Parlamentarierin (die Parlamentarierinnen) - (female) member of the parliament

die Mehrheit(en) - majority

die Minderheit(en) - minority

die Partei(en) - parties

die Demokraten (pl.) - democrats

die Republikaner (pl.) - republicans

die Liberalen (pl.) - liberals

die Konservativen (pl.) - conservatives

die Grünen (pl.) - green party

Verben/verbs:

wählen/seine Stimme abgeben - to vote

jemanden (akkusative) wählen - to vote for somebody

gewinnen - to win/to succeed

die Mehrheit gewinnen - to win the majority

verlieren - to lose

die Mehreit verlieren - to lose the majority

Adjektive/adjectives:

politisch - political

mächtig - powerful

kompetent - capable

demokratisch - democratic

links - left

rechts - right

liberal - liberal

konservativ - conservative

Nützliche Sätze/useful phrases:

“Ich habe den falschen Kandidat gewählt!” - “I’ve voted for the wrong candidate!”

“Die Präsidentin ist sehr kompetent.” - “The president is very capable.”

“Der Staatschef hat am meisten Macht.” - “The head of state has the most power.”

“Die Wahlen waren schon lange fällig.” - “The elections were long overdue.”

“Die Demokraten und Republikaner teilen nicht die selben Ansichten.” - “The democrats and republicans don’t share the same values.”

“Viele junge Leute nehmen nicht teil an Abstimmungen.” - “Many young people don’t vote in referendums.”

(I wanted do a vocab list on politics for quite a while now, I hope you like it! Again, recommendations on what to improve are very welcome, I hope you have a nice Sunday!)

[marener]

French Travel Vocabulary

noms/nouns:

le voyage - journey

le bagage - luggage/baggage

la valise - suitcase

le sac à main - handbag

le sac à dos - backpack

le carrousel - baggage claim

le passeport - passport

le visa - visa

la carte d'identité - ID card

les documents de voyage (m) - travel documents

l'avion (m) - airplane

l'aéroport (m) - airport

le vol - flight

la porte - gate

l'escale (f) - layover

l'arrivée (f) - arrival

le hall d'arrivée - arrival’s hall

le départ - departure

la salle de départ - departure lounge

le guichet - ticket desk

le train - train

la gare - train station

la gare centrale - main train station

le quai - platform

le billet - (rail road) ticket

le guichet - ticket counter

le bac/le ferry - ferry

le bateau - boat

le port - port

la croisière - cruise

l'hôtel (m) - hotel

l'auberge (f) - hostel

la nuit(ée) - overnight stay

la réservation - booking/reservation

le changement de réservation - transfer

verbes/verbs:

voyager - to travel

aller à l'étranger - to go abroad

changer de l'argent - exchange currency

voler - to fly

dédouaner qc. - to pay duty on something

prendre le train/aller en train - to take the train

rater le train - to miss the train

changer de train - to transfer to another train

arriver - to arrive

partir - to depart

conduire - to drive

attendre - to wait

passer la nuit - to stay overnight

coucher à l'hôtel - to spend the night at a hotel

réserver - to place a reservation/to book

découvrir - to discover

se perdre - to get lost

adjectifs/adjectives:

en retard - late

annulé(e) - cancelled

réservé(e) - reserved

quelques phrases qui pourraient aider/useful phrases:

“Où se trouve…?/Où est…?” - “"Where’s..?”

“J'ai perdu mon passeport.” - “I have lost my passport”

“Sur quel quai part ce train?” - “On which platform does this train depart?”

“Rien à déclarer” - “Nothing to declare”

“Combien coûte le/un billet?” - “How much does a ticket cost?”

“À quelle heure arrive le prochain bateau?” - “When will the next boat arrive?”

bon voyage! - have a nice journey!

(This is my second vocab list, aka the German one just translated to French, again if you have any recommendations to improve it, please tell me! And if you want me to do any vocabulary lists on certain topics in either German, French, and maybe Italian, then don’t hesistate to ask. I hope you all have a nice weekend!)

Thank you for all your corrections so far!

[marener]

German Travel Vocabulary

Nomen/nouns:

das Gepäck - baggage der Koffer - suitcase die Handtasche - handbag der Rucksack - backpack Gepäckrückgabe - baggage claim

der Pass - passport das Visa - visa die Identitätskarte (ID) - ID card die Reiseunterlagen - travel documents

das Flugzeug - airplane der Flughafen - airport der Flug - flight das Gate - gate die Ankunftshalle - arivalls hall Ankunft - arrival Abflug - departure der Ticketschalter - ticket desk

der Zug - train der Bahnhof - train station der Hauptbahnhof - main train station Bahnsteig - platform die Fahrkarte - (railroad) ticket der Ticketschalter - ticket counter

die Fähre - ferry das Boot - boat der Hafen - port die Kreuzfahrt - cruise

das Hotel - hotel die Herberge - hostel die Übernachtung - overnight stay die Buchung - booking die Umbuchung - transfer die Reservation - reservation

Verben/verbs:

reisen - to travel ins Ausland gehen - to go abroad Geld wechseln - to exchange currency

fliegen - to fly verzollen - to pay duty on

den Zug nehmen - to take the train den Zug verpassen - to miss the train den Zug wechseln/umsteigen - to transfer to another train ankommen - to arrive abfahren - to depart

fahren - to drive warten - to wait

übernachten - to stay overnight buchen - to book reservieren - to place a reservation erkunden - to discover

sich verlaufen - to get lost

Adjektive/adjectives:

verspätet - delayed gestrichen - cancelled verzollbar - customable

gebucht - booked reserviert - reserved

Hilfreiche Sätze/useful sentences:

“Wo ist/liegt …?” - “Where’s …?”

“Ich habe meinen Pass verloren.” - “I’ve lost my passport”

“Auf welchem Bahnsteig fährt dieser Zug (ab)?” - “On which platform does this train depart?”

“Nichts zu verzollen” - “Nothing to declare”

“Wie viel kostet eine Fahrkarte?” - “How much does a ticket cost?”

“Wo kann ich eine Fahrkarte kaufen?” - “Where can I buy a ticket?”

“Wann kommt das nächste Boot?” - “When will the next boat arrive?”

(Ay, this is my first vocab sheet, and I’d love to get some recommendations on what to do better. However, I hope you enjoy it and have a nice day!)

(Also Germany voted yes on same-sex marriage, it was finally time and I am so happy!🇩🇪)

[deutsian]

Hey, it’s a good list, but in terms of recommendations I advise putting the plural forms of the words in brackets - e.g. der Rucksack(äe) or (Rucksäcke) - because German plurals are so irregular it makes life harder for people if they’re not in the list xD

[marener]

Aa thank you so much for that recommendation! German plurals are gonna kill me one day🤔, so I'll make sure to add them, thank you again!

[marener]

German Travel Vocabulary

Nomen/nouns (plurals in brackets):

das Gepäck - baggage der Koffer (die Koffer) - suitcase die Handtasche (die Handtaschen) - handbag der Rucksack (die Rucksäcke) - backpack die Gepäckrückgabe(n) - baggage claim

der (Reise)Pass (die (Reise)Pässe) - passport das Visum (die Visa) - visa die Identitätskarte(n) (ID)/ der Personalausweis (die Personalausweise)- ID card die Reiseunterlagen - travel documents

das Flugzeug (die Flugzeuge) - airplane der Flughafen (die Flughäfen) - airport der Flug (die Flüge) - flight das Gate (die Gates) - gate die Ankunftshalle(n) - arivalls hall die Ankunft (die Ankünfte) - arrival der Abflug (die Abflüge) - departure der Ticketschalter (die Ticketschalter) - ticket desk

der Zug (die Züge) - train der Bahnhof (die Bahnhöfe) - train station der Hauptbahnhof (die Hauptbahnhöfe) - main train station der Bahnsteig (die Bahnsteige) - platform die Fahrkarte(n)- (railroad) ticket der Ticketschalter (die Ticketschalter) - ticket counter

die Fähre (die Fähren) - ferry das Boot (die Boote) - boat der Hafen (die Häfen) - port die Kreuzfahrt (die Kreuzfahrten) - cruise

das Hotel (die Hotels) - hotel die Herberge (die Herbergen) - hostel die Übernachtung (die Übernachtungen) - overnight stay die Buchung(en)- booking die Umbuchung(en) - transfer die Reservation(en) - reservation

Verben/verbs:

reisen - to travel ins Ausland gehen - to go abroad Geld wechseln - to exchange currency

fliegen - to fly verzollen - to pay duty on

den Zug nehmen - to take the train den Zug verpassen - to miss the train den Zug wechseln/umsteigen - to transfer to another train ankommen - to arrive abfahren - to depart

fahren - to drive warten - to wait

übernachten - to stay overnight buchen - to book reservieren - to place a reservation erkunden - to discover

sich verlaufen - to get lost

Adjektive/adjectives:

verspätet - delayed gestrichen - cancelled verzollbar - customable

gebucht - booked reserviert - reserved

Hilfreiche Sätze/useful sentences:

“Wo ist/liegt …?” - “Where’s …?”

“Ich habe meinen Pass verloren.” - “I’ve lost my passport”

“Auf welchem Bahnsteig fährt dieser Zug (ab)?” - “On which platform does this train depart?”

“Nichts zu verzollen” - “Nothing to declare”

“Wie viel kostet eine Fahrkarte?” - “How much does a ticket cost?”

“Wo kann ich eine Fahrkarte kaufen?” - “Where can I buy a ticket?”

“Wann kommt das nächste Boot?” - “When will the next boat arrive?”

(Ay, this is my first vocab sheet, and I’d love to get some recommendations on what to do better. However, I hope you enjoy it and have a nice day!)

(Also Germany voted yes on same-sex marriage, it was finally time and I am so happy!🇩🇪)

[marener]

Georgian

I'm going to Georgia this fall and I want to study the language a bit over summer break, does anybody know some books or apps they could recommend to me in order to help me learn some Georgian? Thank you already in advance!

[langblrmusicproject]

Langblr Music Project

I guess I should make my introduction now now that I have a few songs posted!

My name is Brooke and my langblr is @languagemoon This blog is designed to share music from different cultures and languages all over the world for language immersion, cultural appreciation, and enjoyment! I will often provide the original lyrics, a translation, and a transliteration (if applicable).

I have a wide variety of music in other languages that I collect and enjoy for myself personally, so I thought I’d share that with the rest of langblr, as there are so many gems around the world that many people have yet to discover.

I really hope that you guys enjoy this blog, and recommendations are always welcome! Also if you could help share this post and spread the word around, I would be eternally grateful!~

-Brooke ♡

[marener]

‘Golden night’

Timişoara, Romania