Language + Memes

Linguistic blog run by an ENTP. I’m a lower-intermediate self-taught German student🇩🇪 Expect the occasional humorous reblog :)

[nosflakeratu-deactivated2019111]

Someone: So what are your life plans/goals. you don’t seem to have a lot going on right now?

Me: …LEUTE FRAGEN MICH “IST DAS DEIN LEBEN?” JA DAS IST MEIN LEBEN! 

Someone: oh…OH So you’re learning German? that’s great! 

[polyglotten]

[foxlanguages]

The Language Learning Tip

I’ve improved my German in so little time that it almost seems impossible. Before I wouldn’t have dreamed about chatting with natives, but now it comes naturally.

Involve your target language into your daily living.

Write a little poem or journal entry

Listen to music

Watch an episode of any show

Get on YouTube and watch any video you like

Play Duolingo, memrise or any other app

Read an article, a chapter of a book or manga

Think in your target language

Stick post its to all the appliances in your house with their names in your target language

Listen to podcasts

Read the news

Talk to your friends and family in your target language even if just to say hi or thank you

Do anything you want, just don’t go a day without actually using your target language. Embrace that language as if it were your native one.

[great-tweets]

wait WHAT

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Wait, so… does -copter come *from* helicopter? 

[reverberereration]

Yep! This is called rebracketing. Another famous example would be “-burger”: the original food item is named after the German city, [Hamburg]+[er], but got semantically reinterpreted as [ham]+[burger]. Now it’s used as a suffix indicating a type of sandwich.

[priestessamy]

I love etymology!!!!!

[official-bremen]

someone: excuse me i was wondering if you could tell me when the bus arrives

me, german: ??????

someone: oh, right, sorry! excuse me, i, was wondering, if, you could, tell me, when, the bus, arrives

[alicelangblr]

Do you ever get to that annoying point in language learning where you’re not fluent enough to understand the language fluently spoken or written but you get bored by Duolingo and methodical learning activities? Because me too.

[poetepublic]

[brunette-cosette-deactivated202]

Comment s’appelle un garçon français qui porte des sandales?

[brunette-cosette-deactivated202]

Phillipé Phillopé

[violentlyawkward]

I can’t even speak French and this is funny.

[germanlanguagerocks]

[real-retail-stories]

[PLEASE KEEP ANONYMOUS BC I DON’T WANT TO BE FIRED]

I’m a bra fitter in the UK. Won’t name the store, but it’s one that’s internationally popular so occasionally we get people from abroad coming in to bulk-buy English bras because they fit better and are cheaper.

A few months ago a German woman, who didn’t speak any English, came in for a fitting with her two daughters to translate for her. What she didn’t know was that I speak near-fluent German because I used to work in Bochum as a primary school teacher.

I fitted her for an hour (she wanted a LOT) and she slagged me off the whole time - “she doesn’t know what she’s doing / she’s so young– have they given me an intern? I want a professional / I won’t take fashion advice from a girl that heavy / she’s not using european sizing, is she stupid” - and her daughters translated VERY favourably, both of them clearly quite uncomfortable with the situation.

I put on a brave face for the whole thing, pretending not to notice, and then as I was putting in her customer info (we keep a record of all our customers) one of the daughters complimented me for pronouncing their surname correctly.

I said thanks, and casually dropped into conversation - in perfect German - that I used to live in Germany and spoke the language.

Watching all the colour drain from that woman’s face as she realised what just happened, and seeing her two daughters quietly lose their collective shit behind her, was pretty glorious. Almost made it worth it.

[tchaikovskaya]

christian thought in its original form is about defending and sympathizing with the most powerless members of our society and i think its one of the greatest tragedies in human history that something like that was so thoroughly corrupted and weaponized by the very people it was supposed to fight against

[lingolden-deactivated20200629]

Romance & Slavic

[words-in-starless-skies-studies]

German Vocab: German Songs

Halt dich an mir fest - Hold on to me ~ Revolverheld

Erklär mir die Liebe - Explain love to me ~ Philipp Poisel

Chöre - Choirs ~ Mark Forster

Wenn sie tanzt - When she dances ~ Max Giesinger 

Ohne dich - Without you ~ Rammstein

Ich will nur dass du weißt - I just want you to know ~ SDP feat. Adel Tawil

Wenn Worte meine Sprache wären - If words were my language ~ Tim Bendzko

Kein Weg zurück - No way back ~ Wolfsheim

Unsterblich - Immortal ~ Die Toten Hosen

Lied vom Scheitern - Song of failure ~ Die Ärzte

Ernten was wir säen - Harvest what we sow ~ Die Fantastischen Vier

Still - Silent ~ Jupiter Jones

Gewinner - Winner ~ Clueso

Du schreibst Geschichte - You write history ~ Madsen

Lass die Musik an - Crank Up the Music ~ Madsen

Kompliziert - Complicated ~ Namika

Schönste Zeit - Most beautiful time ~ Bosse

Wovon sollen wir träumen? - What can we dream of? ~ Frida Gold

Ein Teil von mir - A part of me ~ Christina Stürmer

Alles brennt - Everything burns ~ Johannes Oerding

Schlaflos - Sleepless ~ Jennifer Rostock

Im Ascheregen - In the ash rain ~ Casper

Nur ein Wort - Just one word ~ Wir sind Helden

* @herzeleid-rammstein, I hope this helps <3

[justbadpuns]

Which country does bacteria like the most?

Keep reading

[official-german-translationen]

#Zorn

[official-german-puns]

In welchem Land fühlt man sich irgendwie eingeschränkt?

England

[mindless-mars]

“Sie werden sie töten um an Sie zu kommen!” Normal German sentence where every “sie” refers to a different person: “THEY will kill HER to get to YOU!”

[mindless-mars]

@official-german-translationen

[official-german-medienlandschaft]

But don’t forget all the other possible meanings! (If we just assume that the last Sie was a sie, which would not be formally correct but is used often)

“You will kill them so get to her”

“You will kill her to get to them”

“You will kill her to get to her”

“You will kill them to get to them”

“They will kill you to get to them”

“They will kill you to get to her”

“They will kill you to get to you”

“They will kill them to get to you”

“They will kill them to get to her”

“They will kill them to get to them”

Oh German you lovely thing!

[languagetrash]

reading dialect in your target language like

[keyroi-deactivated20210730]

Sitzt ihr manchmal auch einfach da hört Musik und existiert einfach?