Rilke & Olympia

The following poem is by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He wrote it in 1902. It is called "Herbsttag", a day of autumn, and it describes our mood when the days are getting shorter and we are still hoping for some summer that might be left.

Olympia, a student of mine, loves Rilke, and inspired by "Herbsttag", using it as a template, she wrote her own poem, titled "Wintertag".
Here we go.

Herbsttag
Rainer Maria Rilke

Herr: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los.

Befiehl den letzten Früchten voll zu sein;
gib ihnen noch zwei südlichere Tage,
dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage
die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein.

Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr.
Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben,
wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben
und wird in den Alleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.

Wintertag
Olympia T.

Winter,
Sei kurz und milde
Und lass uns deine Schönheit genießen
Gib uns sonnige, schöne Tage
Sodass unsere Haut
Endorphine produzieren kann
Halt die Straßen offen und sauber
Sodass wir unsere Fahrräder
Benutzen können
Und schließlich:
Bereite dich gut vor
Auf den nächsten Frühling



Doch und krass und super – Particles and Intensifiers

At one point early in their studies, German students grow more and more irritated with certain words that stick in sentences without an obvious purpose. The word doch is one of them.
People say, "Trink doch!" when "Trink!" would do.
Du kannst doch um 10 Uhr zur Party kommen. Why not just um 10 Uhr? The party will be great without the doch.
Other words of this kind are:
etwa
Hast du etwa die Fenster geputzt?
denn
Wohin gehen wir denn?
bloß
Sag bloß, du willst wieder ins Berghain gehen?
These words have a main job with a real meaning (doch means but, etwa means approximately, denn means because), but here, they take a second job. Here, they belong to a group of words, called "die Partikel" (plural: die Partikeln).
A Partikel (yes, it means particle) is a word that does not change – no inflection, neither different genders nor different endings, no conjugations – sounds like utopia, doesn’t it? Most common are the prepositions (in, auf, an, über, neben etc.)
In many cases we use a particle to emphasize certain parts of the sentence. In the examples above, the words etwa, denn and bloß express surprise or astonishment or curiosity, and in the case of the Berghain-goer a hint of criticism.
The particle doch works as an intensifier. The person who encourages you to drink, really wants you to drink. The doch says, "Drink for Christ’s sake and don’t be shy".
There are many intensifiers. They show up when the speaker is excited. In the German grammar vocabulary they are called Intenistätspartikel which sounds like a neutrino running wild. The German language recruits intensifiers from all types of words. Many of them are adjectives in their normal lives.
unheimlich (creepy), here: incredible
unglaublich (unbelievable)
ungewöhnlich (unusual)
wahnsinnig (mad), here awsome, incredible
Stretch the a to a waaaahnsinnig and you say "incredibly incredible".
irre (mad, crazy), here: incredibly incredible
total (totally)
ausgesprochen (distinct)
Simple particles are at hand, when you don’t want to exaggerate too much:
sehr
ganz
ziemlich (rather)
Each young generation creates its own intensifiers.
Two or three years ago, the word "krass" (extreme) was popular among the young in Germany. The generation before favored "cool". The word "geil" (lecherous, horny) lasted almost a decade until the mid 1990s and was extensively used by youth and children alike to tell everybody how enchanted they were.
Most popular among English-speakers seem to be the familiar "super!" and, of course, the evergreen "wunderbar".

Starting Sept 12: German Course for Beginners (A1)*

Fun, friendly, intensive - learn German for Beginners in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
You will reach  level A1*
The "Yorkville German Language Course":
- 14 lessons, Mondays and Wednesdays, each 90 minutes for beginners in a group with max. 10 students.
Rate: EUR 12.00 per lesson.
- Learning material will be provided – some from books, some I will develop during the course based on the needs and interests of the students.
- You will speak German as early and as much as possible. You will improve your comprehension, your writing and reading skills.
- FIRST LESSON FREE!
- The course starts on Monday, September 12, and ends on Wednesday, October 26, 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
- Location: "Gudruns Kulturraum", Böckhstr. 40, Kreuzberg.Call Bernd at (030) 34 71 99 75 or email bernducha@gmail.com

* A1 is a learning level according to the European Framework of Reference for Languages. After the course you will be able to understand and use familiar everyday expressions and basic phrases, introduce yourself and others and ask and answer questions about personal details, interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly.

Starting Sept. 12: German Course for Advanced Beginners (A2)

Körnerpark, Neukölln





Do you experience that you can introduce yourself, describe your apartment, even tell what you did last week, but you wish to have a real conversation with your neighbor or your German friends?
Maybe you have to talk to your landlord or – worse! – with someone from the tax department? Or you have to go to the Ausländeramt to get a visa?Then you are an advanced beginner.
Starting September 12, 2011 I will be giving a course for advanced beginners (A2)*.
The "Yorkville German Language Course":
* 14 lessons, each 90 minutes for advanced beginners (A2) in a group with max. 10 students.
* Learning material will be provided – some from books, some I will develop during the course based on the needs and interests of the students.
* You will speak German as much as possible. You will improve your comprehension, your writing and reading skills.
* The classes are twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
* The course starts on Monday, September 12^th , and ends on Wednesday October 26^th
* Location: "Gudruns Kulturraum," Böckhstr. 40, Berlin-Kreuzberg.The Price
* FIRST CLASS IS FREE
* 12 Euro per class, meaning 156 Euro for the remaining 13 classes, each 90 minutes (learning material included).

For contact and registration call Bernd at (030) 34 71 99 75 or email bernducha@gmail.com
* The European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) describes the level A2 as following:
Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.

How to curse the weather

to curse = fluchen (The intransitive verb fluchen means to say curse words.)
to curse = verfluchen (The transitive verb verfluchen means to curse someone or something.)
Wir verfluchen das Wetter.

It’s time to curse the weather. Here are some phrases. Match it with the phrases below

A) Das ist vielleicht ein Wetter heute. Nummer:
B) Ist das eine Affenhitze! Nummer:
C) Das ist ja wie in Sibirien. Nummer:
D) So ein Sauwetter! Nummer:
E) Ein Wetter wie im Bilderbuch! Nummer:
F) Da jagt man ja keinen Hund vor die Tür. Nummer:
G) Wenn Engel reisen, lacht der Himmel. Nummer:

1) Der Wetter ist sehr schön.          2) Das Wetter ist schlecht.
3) Das Wetter ist sehr schlecht.      4) Es ist sehr heiß.
5) Es ist sehr kalt.
6) Wenn du reist, ist das Wetter immer schön.

Welcome to the world, Spontanien

We rarely witness the birth of a new word. Yesterday, I had the honor to be the person to hear a new word, leaving the mouth of a human being for the first time. Now, I am sending out this word. I am its godfather, my student A. in Kreuzkölln is its creator. He was telling me that he is planing a Urlaub with his wife, eine kurze Reise nach Köln (nicht Neukölln) and then to the "Romantische Straße," a hiking and biking trail through a dozen or so old, pretty little towns in Bavaria.
"Buchst du ein Zimmer in einem Hotel in Köln?"
Antwort: Nein.
"Hast du eine Reiseroute?"
Antwort: Nein.
"Weißt du, was du sehen willst?"
Antwort: "Nein, wir fahren …" He searched for a word, and then it came out. "Wir fahren nach … Spontanien."
Please welcome "Spontanien" with a warm applause.
He wanted to say that all decisions he and his wife are going to make will be spontanious. The German word is "spontan." It is an adjective.
Das war eine spontane Entscheidung.
Ich besuche dich ganz spontan. (Which means, I will not announce my visit.)
My student followed the pattern of transforming foreign names into words that sound "German". We don’t say Milano, we say Mailand. We say Moskau and Russland, Schweden and Finnland and for many countries and regions we end their names with –ien, for example Kroatien, Spanien, Italien, Tunesien, Syrien, Sibirien etc.
So, a person who travels to a country or a region where he or she decides spontaniously what to see or where to stay travels to Spontanien.
A word with a similar connotation exists. It describes what people do in their vacation when they do not have enough money to travel. On sunny days they sit on their balcony, auf dem Balkon. They go to "Balkonien."
Ich hoffe, Ihr hattet so weit einen schönen Sommer.

Starting June 20th: German Course for Beginners

From June 20^th on, I will be giving a German Course for beginners. Everybody who has not learned or not learned much German is invited to join the course. It is level A1*.

• 10 weekly lessons, each 90 minutes for beginners in a group with max. 10 students.
• Learning material will be provided – some from books, some I will develop during the course based on the needs and interests of the students.
• You will speak German as early and as much as possible. You will improve your comprehension, your writing and reading skills.
• The course starts Monday, June 20^th, and ends Monday, August 22
• Time: 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
• Location: "Gudruns Kulturraum", Böckhstr. 40, Kreuzberg.For more information contact me, Bernd Hendricks, at (030) 34 71 99 75 or bernducha@gmail.com
  
  　
  * A1 is a learning level according to the European Framework of Reference for Languages. After the course you will be able to
  
  • understand and use familiar everyday expressions and basic phrases,
  • introduce yourself and others and ask and answer questions about personal details,
  interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly.
• Price: EUR 12.00 per lesson. The first, introductory lesson is FREE, thus, the course cost EUR 108.00.

Students’ wisdom on separable verbs and prepositions

My student N. recently said, "You need one verb and 20 prefixes, and you comfortably can speak the German language."
Nehmen wir lassen.
lassen = to let, to allow
Lass das! Wir lassen die Kinder bis 21 Uhr spielen.
For lassen we found 13 prefixes.
Separable verbs are with lassen are zulassen, auflassen, anlassen, ablassen, einlassen, auslassen, weglassen
Inseparable verbs with lassen are unterlassen, hinterlassen, verlassen, veranlassen, belassen, entlassen.
Who knows more prefixes for lassen?

Student S. has a good idea to explain certain prepositions.
an = vor + Kontakt.
auf = über + Kontakt.

Weight-lifters: weak verbs and strong verbs

I discovered that I am living three minutes away from the Brüder Grimm, the Grimm brothers who gave the world some of the most beautiful fairy-tales. They are six feet under at the cemetery in Schöneberg (picture), and I am living 60 feet above. So for me it is still a long way to go, but they are closer to us, the teachers and students of the German language, as we think. They not only collected and documented stories people told their children. They also contributed to the research of the German language and compiled one of the first German dictionaries. It was Jacob Grimm (1785 – 1863) who came up with the terms "weak verbs" and "strong verbs." You may have heard these terms and wondered if verbs are meant to be some sort of weight-lifters.
Strong verbs appear to us as irregular verbs. They change their vowel either when they are conjugated or when they are formed to preteritum (simple past) or to a participle.
Ich esse, du isst, er isst, wir essen, ihr esst. Preteritum: aßen. Participle: gegessen.
The verb trinken sounds like a regular guy.
Ich trinke, du trinkst, er trinkt etc. However, trinken changes in preteritum to tranken. Participle: getrunken.
Weak verbs are pretty regular, predictable individuals. They do not change their vowel. In preteritum they just stick a –t between verb stem and verb ending and as participle they are happy with a simple ge- as prefix.
Ich sage, du sagst, er sagt, wir sagen, ihr sagt. Preteritum: sagten. Participle: gesagt. So, why they are called weak and the others are called strong?
By mid of the 18^th century, German society – and with it the German language – underwent major changes. Jacob Grimm criticized the trend to standardize the conjugation of verbs as "language decay." The verbs that were not strong enough to withstand modernization were "weak" to him. The other verbs, the "strong" ones were untouched by time and fashion. We still speak and conjugate them, as peasants and noblemen did for centuries.
Jacob Grimm could not stem the tide. All new verbs that join the German vocabulary become weak verbs.
Ich e-maile, du googelst, wir surfen, er rappt, Sie shoppen, ihr skypt.

At the historical museum – dative or accusative?

Last Sunday (not this Sunday, but the one before), I went with a student and her boyfriend to das Deutsche Historische Museum. It is on Berlin’s main boulevard "Unter den Linden." The building is centuries old and big. Because it is also heavy with history it rarely moves around. In fact, it has not moved around for many years. Old Berliners I asked told me that they have never seen the museum on another place. That’s why it is in a state of dative. That’s why the street name has not changed. Would the museum have moved out of the street and then back into the street, dozens of (uniformed!) street sign administrators of the city of Berlin would have replaced the street signs "Unter den Linden" with an accusative "Unter die Linden."

die Linde = linden tree [bot]
plural, nominative, accusative: die Linden
plural dative: den Linden

The exhibition of the museum is about history and not about grammar, of course, but the panels explaining historical events should incorporate some grammatical rules.
After we sailed easily through the dark ages and survived the reformation, we got stuck at the Thirty Year’s War, more precisely at the panel about the war. It is depicted in the photograph above.
It is a great achievement of the panel’s author to use only a few words for such a long war. However, in my opinion he or she used too many adjectives and therefore, he or she got caught in the middle of the eternal battle between accusative and dative. We noticed the following sentence:

"Der religiöse Charakter des Krieges trat zunehmend hinter massiven machtpolitische Interessen zurück."

The author tells us that at the beginning the war was fought over religion. With the years, the religious character disappeared "increasingly" (zunehmend) behind huge power-political interests. We stumbled over two adjectives in that sentence, "massiven" and "machtpolitische." They are attributed to one and the same plural noun, Interessen (sing.: das Interesse). Following the tradition of the Thirty Year’s War, they do not like each other and they do not agree. However, following the German grammar rules they should. One – massiven – is in dative, one – machtpolitische – is in accusative. What happened?

The subject of the sentence, the religious character is moving, namely behind the huge power-political interests.

…trat hinter … zurück, zurücktreten hinter = to take second place to sth. (according the Oxford Duden German Dictionary)

Was it "in front of" the Machtpolitik, and then stepped around to get behind the Machtpolitik (movement = accusative)? In that case the author is convinced that in the beginning the religious reasoning for that war was real and that the fighting parties spoke the truth when they took up arms. Then, with time, power politics took over and the fighting parties pursued nothing else than power.

Or was it always behind the Machtpolitik (location = dative) and in the author’s eyes only a pretext for the war and as such fading with the years?
With one adjective ending (massiven, dative) the author seems to think one thing, with the other (machtpolitische, accusative) the other. Maybe, he or she was not sure.

I read in the Duden, the most important dictionary of the German language, that the phrase "zurücktreten hinter" always leads to a dative, no matter what intricacies we want to express.
Another explanation for the disagreement of the adjectives could be the missing comma between them. The author does not say that the interests were huge and power-political (the "and" can be replaced by a comma). He or she says that the interests were power-political anyway, but huge (and not small).
Nevertheless, the adjectives must agree, and "machtpolitische" needs an "n" at its end. There is nothing we can do about it except get rid of the adjectives themselves and replace them with verbs or nouns or with nothing at all.
Mark Twain said, "if you catch an adjective, kill it!" Done.

Thoughts for Food - Phrases using Food and Eating

Cafe St. Oberholz, Mitte

Recently, a student of mine heard co-workers in her office using the expression "eine heiße Kartoffel," when they spoke about a certain project. The project is difficult; her co-workers do not seem to be very enthusiastic about it and the phrase "die heiße Kartoffel," she figured, does not signify necessarily joy or happiness.
She has been noticing for a while that the German language uses terms of food and eating to express facts of life, wisdom, stupidity, anger or pleasure.
Many are spoken in certain regions, but understood throughout Germany. Some you will read here are from the region I come from, from the Ruhr valley and Niederrhein. However, most of them are used and understood in the entire country.

Oh, das ist eine heiße Kartoffel.
(Diese Sache ist nicht angenehm, heikel, ein Problem.)

Sie hat sich den Mund verbrannt.
(Sie hat etwas gesagt, was sie nicht sagen sollte. Jetzt hat sie ein Problem.)

Das ist mir Wurst (oder: Wurscht)!
(Das ist mir egal.)

Hast du Tomaten auf den Augen?
(Bis du blind? Kannst du nicht sehen?)

Du bist eine untreue Tomate.
(Du besuchst mich nicht mehr, du rufst mich nicht mehr an. Du bist kein guter Freund)

Man kann Äpfel nicht mit Birnen vergleichen.
(Das ist ein falscher Vergleich.)

Das kostet einen Apfel und ein Ei.
(Das ist sehr billig.)

Du musst in den sauren Apfel beißen.
(Ja, es hat Nachteile und es bringt dir Probleme, aber du musst es tun.)

Willst du mich veräppeln?
(Willst du einen Spaß mit mir machen?)

Das ist ein Salat hier.
(Hier wurde nicht ordentlich gearbeitet.)

Rede nicht um den heißen Brei!
(Sage die Wahrheit direkt und mache nicht so viele Worte.)

Jetzt aber Butter bei die Fische!
(Entscheide dich endlich! Oder: Sage die Wahrheit direkt und mache nicht so viele Worte.)

Das ist allererste Sahne.
(Das ist beste Qualität.)

Er ist dumm wie Brot.
(Er ist sehr, sehr dumm.)

Sie findet immer ein Haar in der Suppe.
(Sie ist nie zufrieden und findet immer ein Problem.)

Bist du aus Zucker?
(Hast du Angst vor dem Regen?)

Sie hat Kreide gefressen.
(Sie hat böse Dinge gesagt und jetzt, nachdem sie kritisiert wurde, sagt sie nette Dinge.)

Er hat die Weisheit mit dem Schaumlöffel gefressen.
(Er gibt vor, klug zu sein.)

Da wird der Hund in der Pfanne verrückt.
(Das ist eine große Überraschung!)

Das macht den Kohl auch nicht fett.
(Das Problem ist da. Was immer du tust, es verbessert nicht die Situation.)

Sie ist eine Skandalnudel.
(Wo und wann immer sie auftaucht, gibt es einen Skandal.)

Die Beiden haben ein Bratkartoffelverhältnis.
(Die Beiden haben eine sporadische Liebesbeziehung.)



Great Opening Ceremony for Europe’s Longest Building

A photo of the building the night before. It stretches many kilometers through Berlin.

(Berlin, April 1) This morning I had the honor to attend the opening ceremony for a new warehouse of the federal ministry of education. This building, situated near to the Janowitzbrücke in the heart of Berlin, is a marvel of modern architecture. It is considered the longest building in Europe, stretching many miles through the city. It was built with the most comprehensive sustainability standards; it will create its own electricity for air-conditioning and lighting with wind turbines and solar panels.
From April 1^st on, the "Wortstock" named building will be the first ever storage place for German compound nouns. These nouns are composed of many smaller nouns, and together they create a new meaning. Some are valued throughout the world for its poetry; many are famous for their intimidating length.
In a special pavilion inside the building, designated as a showcase for visiting statesmen, we saw smaller compound nouns as figurative as Handschuh or Handgemenge, and as witty as Ordnungsamt. In this pavilion the ministry presents also terms for people who the whole nation adores with pride: Fahrkartenkontrolleur (21 letters), a term for an extremely popular type of person in Berlin, or Integrationsfachkraft (21 letters), a term for the men and women who work in Job Centers and who are loved by millions of unemployed people for their compassion and listening skills.
I am very proud that I was part of this event. The invitees were the most accomplished creators of compound nouns, only eleven veteran bureaucrats from all levels of government. We all admire them, these knights of German grammar, heroes of clarity, masters of flexibility.
We took a bus tour to see a couple of long compound nouns. We had the chance to see a short version of the ministry’s name: das Bundesbildungsministerium (25 letters). We saw das Überwachungspersonal (only 20 letters) and das Versuchskaninchen (17 letters). Die Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung (speed limit) has 26 letters and is considered as the first compound noun that gave birth to a compound noun longer than itself. Motorists on the Autobahn who make the effort to read the sign bearing this word will not have enough time to reduce their speed which leads automatically to eine Geschwindigkeitsüberschreitung (30 letters!), a violation of the speed limit, and subsequently to a speeding ticket.
The officials of the ministry presented to us plans for an ambitious project for this summer when Germany will host the 2011 World Cup of women's football (or "soccer" – for my American readers). Twenty-four cranes will lift the word Frauenfußballweltmeisterschaft (30 letters) simultaneously and carry it to the Olympiastadion where it will be wrapped around several times, creating a gigantic bandage that symbolizes the healing power of sports.
After the presentation, we watched as several hundred workers began to assemble a masterpiece of German bureaucratic language, a word with 33 letters. We could only see the first dozen or so letters because of the curvature of the earth but we were told that the word will be "Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz." This is the name of a law that regulates student loans given by the government. The officials assured us that the government will use this word as a stick to beat every student who does not pay back his or her loan on time.
During the tour we were able to witness on TV the groundbreaking ceremony at the other end of the building where an extension is planned. We had to wait for the broadcast through satellite not only because of the service of Deutsche Telekom which is appreciated by the German consumers for its thoughtfulness and its aversion to rush into things, but also because the other end of the building lies already in a different time zone. The extension will be completed by April 1^st 2012. It will eliminate the Alexanderplatz and with this, the world-famous Fernsehturm will go, too. Its ball that has been hovering above Berlin for so many years will be integrated into the building extension and it will store words that run in a circle and have neither a beginning nor an end. Suggestions for these words are welcome.



Welche Farben?

Farbiges Kreuzberg. Graue Autos.

Hommos, Hommus and other nouns with two genders

Most Germans love it but the Duden doesn’t. In Berlin you can indulge in it at every corner but in the 1.216 pages of the standard German Wörterbuch you search for it in vain. Maybe, the experts have not agreed on its spelling while many agree on its taste. Hommos or Hommus is a dish made of cooked and mashed chickpeas with Olivenöl, Zitronensaft and Salz. For Americans this dish is from the Middle East; for Europeans it is from Nahen Osten (Near East) which makes sense, geographically speaking. On menus or signs in Berlin restaurants or Imbissstuben (yes, with 3 s) you can read as many spellings as there are recipes: Houmus, Hummos, Hommous, even Humus. Der Humus means topsoil and should be interesting for gardeners only, not to gourmets.

The leo dictionary engine comes up with two spellings: Hommos and Hommus.

Recently, we wondered during a lesson in Kunger Kiez (wo ist das?) about the gender of this dish. Is it die Hommus? Nein, das klingt nicht gut. Der Hommos? Das Hommus? Beides ist korrekt. This is not the only noun that doesn’t know its gender identity. There are several nouns that can be used with different articles without changing their meaning.

Zum Beispiel:
der/das Keks (cookie)
der/das Liter
der/das Virus
der/das Laptop (as long as it works; otherwise you can attribute a curse word)
der/das Dschungel
der/das Bonbon (candy)
der/das Radar
der/das Jogurt

Guten Appetit!

Was ist es ? (II)

Mein Schüler in Schöneberg hat ein weiteres Rätsel. Es hat ein paar Pronomen (die, ihn, sie):

Die Person, die ihn macht, will ihn nicht.
Die Person, die ihn kauft, benutzt ihn nicht.
Die Person, die ihn benutzt, weiß nicht, dass sie ihn benutzt.
Was ist es?
(Es hat nichts mit den Fotos zu tun.)

Fotos: Janowitzbrücke

Was ist es? (I)

My student in Schöneberg offers this riddle:

Die Armen haben es.
Die Reichen brauchen es nicht.
Wenn du es isst, stirbst du.
Was ist es?

raus, rein, runter, rauf

Sonntag, Berlin-Mitte:  "Alles muß raus" oder "alles muss raus" - was ist richtig?

drunter und drüber

Recently a student of mine stood at the window of the apartment she recently moved into with her boyfriend, looking four floors down onto the street, and mused about the many unt words that have to do with the world down there.

Unten, runter, unter, drunter.

Then she shrugged, and then they became un-words, Unwörter, words that are impossible to use or despicable just because they exist.

Why four words for what is down and never comes up anyway? Sure, they have to do with lower things (otherwise it would be about oben) but they belong to a different category of words, and they describe something different.

The word unten is a "Lokaladverb", an adverb that tells us where things happen, of a destination or a source of something.

Of course, there is oben but also links, rechts, da, drinnen, draussen.

There is a famous book that has four "Lokaladverbien" in its title. It is written by Günter Wallraff and Bernt Engelman and entitled "Ihr da oben – wir da unten."
Published in 1973, it tells about the class system in German society.

The word runter is an adverb that describes the direction of a movement. It is the short form of herunter. There is also a hinunter. The use of these words depends on the position of the speaker. The prefix her- leads to the speaker while hin- describes a movement away from the speaker.

Ahmed sieht Karls Mutter am Fenster.
Ahmed ruft: "Kommt Karl herunter?"
Karls Mutter antwortet: "Ja, er geht in 10 Minuten hinunter."

This is an ideal dialoge in some ideal high-German speaking areas of Germany.
In Berlin and many other places the dialog would be:
"Kommt Karl runter?"
"Er geht gleich runter."

The word unter is a preposition, leading to both, an accusative and a dative which means that unter never stands alone. It comes always with a noun.

Die Katze läuft unter den Tisch.
Warum? Die Maus sitzt unter dem Tisch.

The word drunter belongs to a group of words with the name "Pronominaladverb" which sounds like a new hot pharmaceutical product against cough. It is actually a short form of darunter. It replaces a group of words that is known to the speaker and the listener.

Siehst du meinen Pullover? Ich trage einen zweiten Pullover drunter.

The phrase drunter und drüber describes chaos, lack of organization in a room, on the workplace, in someone's life.

"Hier geht alles drunter und drüber," we have been hearing in train stations and on S-Bahn plattforms all winter and these days.

Ihr or Sie plus? How to address a group

How do you address a group of people who are not your close friends?
A student in Neukölln wondered last week why her teacher in her language school addresses the class with Sie. Shouldn’t the teacher say ihr?
Indeed, we address individuals with the formal Sie and the informal du. If we face a group we have to use the proper personal pronoun. We say ihr to a group of people we individually address with du. If we want to talk to a group of people we individually address with Sie, we say Sie as well.

Personal pronoun, familiar, singular: du
Personal pronoun, familiar, plural: ihr
Personal pronoun, formal, singular: Sie
Personal pronoun, formal, plural: Sie

When you ask a stranger on the street who is with friends, if he or she has a light for your cigarette ("Haben Sie Feuer?), don’t be surprised when not only he or she but also his or her friends start searching their pockets.
Since I arrived in Berlin, I have been noticing that many people say du to me although I barely know them. People I address with Sie quickly offer the du.
I assume Berlin is exceptional in Germany. Life is more relaxed and people are more casual than in other German cities. Also, Berlin is very international. It is easier for visitors to settle on a personal pronoun that appears to be more friendly, more intimate, more cozy. Be advised not to address your boss, police, bureaucrats or your landlord with du. They are less casual and often less relaxed and therefore, less amused. With Sie you are safe – for the moment.

Starting March 21st: German Course for Beginners

From March 21^st onwards, I will be giving a German course for beginners. Everyone with no or little proficiency in German is invited to join the course. It is level A1*.
* 10 weekly lessons, each of 90 minutes for beginners in a group with max. 10 students.
* Learning material will be provided – some from books, some I will develop during the course based on the needs and interests of the students.
* You will speak German as early and as much as possible. You will improve your comprehension, your writing and reading skills.
* The course starts on Monday, March 21, and ends on Monday, May 30 (no class on April 25), 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
* Location: "Gudruns Kulturraum", Böckhstr. 40, Kreuzberg.
For more information contact me, Bernd Hendricks, at (030) 34 71 99 75 or bernducha@gmail.com

*A1 is a learning level according to the European Framework of Reference for Languages. After the course you will be able to

• understand and use familiar everyday expressions and basic phrases,
• introduce yourself and others and ask and answer questions about personal details,
• interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly.

* Price: EUR 12.00 per lesson. The first, introductory lesson is FREE, thus, the price for the course is EUR 108.00.

What this blog is about

This is a service for my students in Berlin, for my skype-students in New York and Los Angeles and for all readers who are interested in learning German.

Hier findest du Informationen
- über die deutsche Sprache,
- über Kurse, die ich anbiete.
Hier findest du Notizen über interessante Themen, die in meinem Unterricht auftauchen:
- Probleme der Grammatik,
- neue, seltsame, lange, sehr lange und sehr sehr lange Wörter,
- Sprüche von den Straßen Berlins und was sie bedeuten,
- Verhalten auf den Straßen Berlins und was es bedeutet,
- was man in welcher Situation am besten sagt,
- Videos, Fotos, Texte für den Unterricht,
- Antworten auf Fragen, die ich im Unterricht nicht geben konnte.

Here, you will find notes and news from German class. You will read about questions and issues of the German language that have arisen from lessons I have given during the week.
- problems of grammar,
- new compound nouns of breathtaking length (for your collection),
- phrases, overheard on the streets of Berlin,
- observations of behavior and habits of Berliners,
- what to say in which situation,
- videos, photographs, texts for class and homework,
- answers to questions I was not able give in class.

Viel Glück beim Lernen!
Good luck with your studies!