I've been wanting to do a FPP about Loriot for a while now, but haven't because, well, it's nearly all in German. I can, however, post this piece, which transcends language.
If anyone has video (from the same 100th Anniversary of the Berlin Philharmonic event) of his arrangement of the Blue Danube Waltz for 8 string basses, I'd love to see that again. posted by hippybear at 12:42 PM on May 26, 2010
Videos of cats are the most useful learning tool for me. Cats tripping balls with a calm German voiceover.
"Die meisten kommen regelmaessig." lol.
And you also find catnip chemicals in cat pee? Echt? :P posted by edguardo at 12:49 PM on May 26, 2010
not_on_display, I think it'd have to be zl,ng: zu lange, nicht gelesen. (Comma instead of semicolon because Germans tend to use commas there where we would not.) posted by Michael Roberts at 12:49 PM on May 26, 2010 [3 favorites]
Some 200 million people speak German in one degree or another, but I doubt that even MetaFilter collectively knows each and every one of them.
Or did you mean this to be one of those hilarious references to Hitler? Because that certainly hasn't been beaten to death on the internet. posted by cmonkey at 12:54 PM on May 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
So, ich soll Metafilter benutzen, um mein Deutsch zu verbessern?
And you know wer noch Deutsch gesprochen hat?
Du sollst das Obst und Gemüse nicht anfassen, bitte!
cmonkey: Was wurde getan, wird wieder geschehen, es gibt nichts Neues unter der Sonne. (Also, and I'm just saying this because I care, there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing.) posted by entropicamericana at 1:10 PM on May 26, 2010
I took German for 3 years in high school and it was mostly fun. Though Frau Schulte would often go on rants in German which nobody could understand. Other than some very basic grammar and vocab, the main thing I remember is the German States Song, to the tune of She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain and in vaguely geographical order, going clockwise:
The German dub of Top Secret is actually a lot funnier than the original English. They play with regional dialects a lot in the dubbing process, and the result is hilarious. posted by hippybear at 2:26 PM on May 26, 2010
Danke schoen, ich habe fuenf Jahre Deutsch gelernt aber habe ich viel vergessen. posted by nathancaswell at 2:35 PM on May 26, 2010
I used to remember the dative prepositions by singing them to the tune of the blue danube waltz... amazingly google shows that I am not the only one.
Ja, nathancaswell, wir gelernten das auch. (I probably said that wrong.)
We actually also had another song to the tune of She's Coming Round the Mountain:
Ich bin Auslander und spreche nicht gut Deutsch,
Ich bin Auslander und spreche nicht gut Deutsch,
Bitte langsam, bitte langsam,
Sprechen Sie doch bitte langsam,
Ich bin Auslander und spreche night gut Deutsch. posted by kmz at 2:47 PM on May 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
The German dub of Top Secret is actually a lot funnier than the original English.
I once watched the French dubbed version of Batman because I had a theory that Michael Keaton would eventually say "Je suis Batman! posted by nathancaswell at 3:05 PM on May 26, 2010
Astro Zombie's quote is from KITH Brain Candy. Translation of Mark's "Scheißt" [sic] which should have been "Scheisse."
Sowieso... Danke schön, vkxmai! Bin eben zurück von einer Reise in Deutschland, und habe es gerne, deutsch zu üben. posted by ethnomethodologist at 3:12 PM on May 26, 2010
Also, I'd love to see the spot with Lady Gaga saying "Ich bin Lady Gaga, und ICH LIEBE RTL" on RTL but it's not on youtube. Stupid Mylie Cyrus says it in English, including pronouncing it "are tee ell." Dumb bitch. posted by ethnomethodologist at 3:15 PM on May 26, 2010
I don't think rebellions count as civil wars in terms of what the article was covering - just states getting all fighty with other states.
There have been a lot of rebellions, and only a few covered in history class - Rhode Island had the Dorr Rebellion in 1841, for instance. posted by Slap*Happy at 3:24 PM on May 26, 2010
Astro Zombie's quote is from KITH Brain Candy
Indeed it is. As soon as I read that, my brain replayed the scene. Funny how all those films in english making fun of german can blend together in one's memory. posted by hippybear at 3:29 PM on May 26, 2010
I met this skinhead neo-nazi type and I was forced to be nice to him because he was a friend of my landlord. Anyway, he found out that I had taken some German in High School, so he asked me to teach him something in German. I had forgotten most of what I had learned, but I told him that "Mein Schwanz ist kaput" means "I hate (insert ethnic slur)". It was amusing to see him running around all day saying "Mein Schwanz ist kaput!" and not having any clue. I don't think he ever found out. posted by ambulocetus at 5:22 PM on May 26, 2010 [4 favorites]
Former German instructor here. Very nice writeup. My students used to love watching Die Simpsons auf Deutsch and then the same episode in English. (and usually the German version once again to catch what they missed the first time).
Forgot to mention my favorite online dictionary… dict.leo.org posted by readyfreddy at 5:57 PM on May 26, 2010
Forgot to mention my favorite online dictionary… dict.leo.org
It is in the second dictionary link! It was the one I started using (before dict.cc and WordRef were big) back in 2000 or so. posted by vkxmai at 6:16 PM on May 26, 2010
My junior-high German teacher wowed us all with a videotape of TV commercials in German.
To this day I remember: "Katzen wissen was Sie wollen... das neue Brekkies." some years later. posted by Wild_Eep at 6:30 PM on May 26, 2010
I am moving to Germany in the fall and at present have only been learning the language for a few weeks. This looks incredibly useful. Thanks! posted by kyrademon at 11:12 PM on May 26, 2010
I feel I should be passing out flyers with these links, here in Switzerland. It would be ever so lovely if the Swiss would learn to speak real German! A pity the Swiss are so hard to understand, their German generally sounds nicer than Hochdeutsch. But the accents are just way too variable. posted by Goofyy at 12:33 AM on May 27, 2010
My students used to love watching Die Simpsons auf Deutsch
Ugh. Ich hasse Die Simpsons auf Deutsch! Homers Stimme klingt total komisch.
Forgot to mention my favorite online dictionary… dict.leo.org
Weirdly, dict.leo.org has gone downhill since they recently redid parts of it IMHO. Aside from the interface, I don"t know exactly what they changed, but it now commonly has problems figuring out minor variations of words that it previously would make suggestions for.
Apropos trusty dictionaries, I just want to mention the Pons Bildwörterbuch, which is a pretty cool visual reference for beginners.
Linguee.de is also a pretty interesting concept, and although it's corpus seems limited and it's translations (often) a bit questionable, it has it's uses.
A German Metafilter-like site would be awesome, but I am thankful for this Metafilter so my want is not so large. Someone here once posted a link to a smart (imho) German satire site: http://www.ahoipolloi.blogger.de/ --also something to be thankful for. posted by impuls at 4:33 AM on May 27, 2010
Die Simpsons auf Deutsch
Isotopenspielregel! posted by cronholio at 4:55 AM on May 27, 2010
Someone here once posted a link to a smart (imho) German satire site:
That was in one of my original links on the FPP up top! posted by vkxmai at 10:09 AM on May 27, 2010
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zl;nl
posted by not_on_display at 12:16 PM on May 26, 2010