#dodeutsch

[germanyinusa]

Word of the Week: Augenschmaus

Have you ever seen a meal so deliciously made that looking at it made your mouth water? Or maybe you saw a person so beautiful that you felt as though you were looking at a work of art? This is what Germans would call an Augenschmaus.

The German word Augenschmaus is a noun that is a “treat” or “feast for the eyes”. This can be used in several ways. This eye-feast can describe a delicious, mouth-watering meal. In some cases it can even describe a place so beautiful that you just want to cry (perhaps a place like the Swiss Alps or a gorgeous lake at sunset). But men frequently also use Augenschmaus to describe a beautiful woman (in this case Augenschmaus would translate to what Americans would call “eye candy”).

So whether it’s a mouth-watering plate of food, gorgeous scenery or a beautiful woman, an Augenschmaus appeals to your visual senses.

[germanyinusa]

Word of the Week: Traumtänzer

Do you have big dreams? Do other people laugh at your dreams and sarcastically tell you to keep dreaming? Is your head always in the clouds? If so, you are a Traumtänzer.

The German word Traumtänzer comes from the words Traum ("dream") and Tänzer ("dancer"). Literally translated, this could describe someone who dances in their dreams but not in reality. But you don't have to dream of being a world-class salsa dancer to be a Traumtänzer (although some of you might)!

Anyone with a big dream can be a Traumtänzer. In many cases, these dreams are perceived as being "unrealistic", but here at Germany.info, we believe that many things are possible and therefore encourage you to follow them, regardless of how unrealistic they may seem!

A Traumtänzer could be a janitor who dreams of becoming president, an office worker who dreams of buying his own island or average people dreaming of living in big mansions, traveling to space, competing in the Olympic Games or retiring at the age of 30. In many cases, these dreams may seem impossible to reach, but there are always examples of people who did the "impossible". Thomas Edison, for example, made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb before he succeeded and made his seemingly-unrealistic idea manifest.

So if you are a Traumtänzer, keep dancing in your dreams and maybe one day you will dance when you are awake!

[germanyinusa]

Word of the Week: Rosenkrieg

With Valentine's Day behind us, let's take a look at a less romantic German word: Rosenkrieg.

If you know some German, you might be able to translate this word. Rose means "rose" and Krieg means "war". Rosenkrieg thus translates to "rose war" or "war of the roses". But what exactly is this - and how it have anything to do with flowers?

A rose may be beautiful, but a Rosenkrieg is ugly. This term defines unpleasant disagreements between partners, such as marital disputes, custody battles or feuds between ex-lovers. A Rosenkrieg is uglier than a simple disagreement; metaphorically speaking, it's a war between two people who were once lovers.

Like any love affair, a rose can be both beautiful and dangerous with its thorns.

But this context is a colloquial one. Rosenkriege can also refer to the actual Wars of the Roses that took place between two English houses (House York and House Lancaster) in the 15th century. Unless you're a history buff, you probably won't be using the term in that context, since that's a war of the past.

The Rosenkriege we're speaking of are ongoing and take place all throughout the world, unfortunately. And they can be pretty thorny.

[germanyinusa]

Word of the Week: Geduldsfaden

Do you ever have those moments where your patience is so thin that you could snap? Germans would say that their Geduldsfaden is tearing.

The word Geduldsfaden comes from Geduld ("patience") and Faden ("thread"). Everyone has a Geduldsfaden, but some people have a thicker thread than others. A Geduldsfaden describes someone's level of patience. If someone has a lot of patience, their "patience thread" is more durable than someone with very little patience. Of course, everyone has a limit.

When you are getting close to that limit, your Faden becomes tighter and thinner. When that limit is reached, your thread snaps in two pieces.

Perhaps it's screaming children, perhaps it's a nagging friend or maybe it's your incompetent employee who causes your Geduldsfaden to snap.

One of the first records of the term is found in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's autobiography Dichtung und Wahrheit (in English: From my Life: Poetry and Truth). The Brothers Grimm also used the term in their works.

In context:

Mir reißt der Geduldsfaden.

"My patience is wearing thin."

[germanyinusa]

Word of the Week: Muffensausen

When you are absolutely terrified of something that is about to happen, how do you describe your feelings? You might say you are "scared to death", "scared sh*tless" or "scared stiff".

In German, you would say that you are having Muffensausen. This ultimately means that you are so scared that you are losing control of your bowels.

The term consists of the words Muffe, which defines a sleeve using in piping or, in this context, your anus. The term sausen means "to swoosh by/out". It's not difficult to figure out what these two words mean when they are combined.

Germans use the term to describe feelings of fear or anxiety before a challenging situation. If you are about to take a difficult test, for example, you might be having Muffensausen. If you are about to jump out of a plane with a parachute, you might have Muffensausen as you look at the terrifying view below you. If you are about to go on a first date with someone you have a huge crush on, you may also be having Muffensausen.

Of course, we sincerely hope that when you have Muffensausen, you have them in a metaphorical sense and not in the literal one - otherwise it could get rather messy.

[germanyinusa]

#MyDeutschFail: Week 2

We interviewed German language learners of all ages to ask about their funniest language mistakes that they have made as part of our new #MyDeutschFail series. We will be posting each Tuesday with our favorite stories so be on the lookout!

[germanyinusa]

#MyDeutschFail: Week 1

Oh the joys of language learning! Anyone who has traveled abroad has been there—you listen to others and wait until you feel comfortable to insert a comment or story, you temporarily feel pride in your verbal accomplishment, and then you look up to blank faces of confusion—or worse, you are laughed at for a reason you couldn’t explain.

German is especially tricky. With a grammatical structure that shoots verbs to places they shouldn’t be and words so long and playful that you’d put money down that they are fictional, it takes some humility, time, and a fair number of mistakes to wade into the waters of fluency.

Popularity of the German Language

Despite German’s infamous grammar and word length, it is the third most commonly learned foreign language in European secondary schools after English and French. About 23.1 percent of secondary students take German in Europe, according to Eurostat. This percentage accounts for millions of students given Europe’s impressive track record of mandatory language learning for youth. Nearly 96.6 percent of students within the European Union learn a second language and 60 percent learn two or more.               

Worldwide there are estimated to be 95 million native German speakers, indicating that German is used far beyond Germany’s, or even Europe’s borders. There are 229 million German speakers, including native and non-native worldwide, earning it a spot in the top fifteen most commonly spoken languages.

Celebrating the Language-Learning Process via #MyDeutschFail

A popular strategy to language learning of any kind, but perhaps especially so with a more complicated language such as German, is keeping a sense of humor. Humor helps us acknowledge our shared humanity, and motivates us through our mistakes both big and small. We interviewed German language learners of all ages to ask about their funniest language mistakes that they have made. We will be posting each Tuesday with our favorite stories so be on the lookout!

[germanyinusa]

Word of the Week: Kater

If you've ever drank too much in one night, you're surely familiar with the headaches and nausea that plague you the next morning. In English, we call this a "hangover". In German, however, it is called a Kater.

The word Kater has two meanings in German, and they're completely different from each other. Most of you might know the word by its first definition (a "male cat"). But in another context, Kater also means "hangover".

While one Kater is cute and furry, the other Kater makes you want to scream in agony. When you have an alcohol-induced Kater, you probably want to stay in bed and wait for the headaches and feelings of nausea to go away.

It is not clear how the word for a male cat became used to describe a hangover, but some say it evolved from the Greek word Katarrh (which was also used in German), which describes a type of unspecific respiratory illness with mucus build-up. Of course, the symptoms of a hangover have completely different symptoms, but this is the closest word that many people believe this type of Kater could have evolved from.

In context:

Ich habe einen Kater.

"I have a hangover."