Tag: language
Using German Numbers – A Travelers’ Guide
So how cultural can numbers really be, you ask? We learn them as a kid and just use them. Well there are differences on how things are presented and used in Germany. Here is a guide to them from an American expat’s point of view.
Learning Through Travel – Indie Travel Challenge
Week 3 Prompt: Have you ever studied or taken classes on a trip? What did you study, and perhaps more importantly, what did you learn while on that trip? What would you like to learn on your travels this year?
The Beautiful German Language
When you ask someone to list the most appealing languages, German is quite unlikely to be in that list. This is unfortunate. Perhaps it is not flowy and melodic like the romance languages nor as flexible as English, but there is an elegance in the perceived perversity.
German Stereotypes
Germany is a great place to travel. In the past few years I have taken several organized tours to other parts of Europe. In doing the research I notices how few if any tours there seem to be for English speaking people throughout Germany. It makes me wonder if there are just some wrong preconceptions of what Germany is like. What are the ideas that most people seem to have of Germany?
Fun with Translation: Animals Edition
Here are some more insights into the oddity of the German Language. The last “Fun with Translation” was indeed so much fun that I decided to do some more. German is often quite descriptive in naming things. The idea of smushing words together to describe something quite exactly is a germanlanguagetrait. This gives some interesting translations of animal names when you go directly into English.
Expat Life: The Benefit of Languages
Language and culture are very closely linked. Knowing a language gives you such insights into that culture. Liv offers this piece about how she learned Turkish and the benefits of it
Fun with Translation
If you spend long enough in a different language, the two begin to blend and mix in different ways in your head. I sometimes find odd connections that come up when trying to understand a new phrase. Usually if I don’t know a phrase I think about the literal translation in English and often get a laugh. Here are some of my favorites.
Distance
One of the few scenes I remember very clearly from watching Sesame Street is of a monster describing near and far. He would wander into the distance and shout “far” then rush toward the camera and shout “near”; all with music and such in the same vein as the old school Mahna mahna(*). This is the idea of “going far away”, “having a long way to travel” or “living near your loved ones”. Travel seems to be all about this distance.
