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Are you always on the lookout for some quirky German learning ideas? How about 18 ideas?
According to Kleiner Kalender (English version: Cute Calendar) each day of the month is also a special – and sometimes worth celebrating – day.
I’ve picked 18 of those days to give you some fun ideas for practising your German – enjoy!
1 January New Year’s Day – Neujahr
This is, of course, the day when you make your New Year’s resolutions. As a German practice task, write down your resolutions in German. Need some ideas? Check here!
3 January Fruitcake Toss Day – Tag des Stollen-Werfens
Stollen is far too nice to be thrown out. Apparently, the idea is to throw out any that have become hard. I’d say to avoid that, sit yourself down with a lovely cup of coffee and a piece of Stollen and write down which German cakes you like to eat and why. Alternatively, if you really have to throw yours, write down why you won’t eat it anymore.
4 January Trivia Day – Trivia-Tag
Your task today is to think of 3 to 5 bits of useless information (maybe about yourself, although I know it will be hard to find useless info about my readers ☺), then try and translate it into German.
5 January National Bird Day – Nationaler Tag des Vogels
How many types of birds can you name in German?
7 January Old Rock Day – Tag des alten Gesteins
For anybody who is interested in old stones it might be a good idea to find the German words for particular stones. Alternatively, go for a nice walk and set yourself a task ‘I will not speak English until I have counted xx (insert number depending on how far you can and are willing to count in German) stones on my way.’
8 January Bubble Bath Day – Tag des Schaumbades
Enjoy a lovely bubble bath while reading a German book.
10 January Houseplant Appreciation Day – Ehrentag der Zimmerpflanze
Do you have any plants in the house? Do you know what they are called in German? Find out or find German websites which tell you how to look after them.
11 January Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend’s Day -Spring-in-eine-Pfütze-und-bespritze-Deine-Freunde-Tag
This sounds like great fun, and if your friends also speak German – even better. or jump into the puddles with your children and teach them how to count in German.
Alternatively, watch and/ or sing this song:
13 January Make Your Dream Come True Day – Lass-Deine-Träume-wahr-werden-Tag
When you started learning German, did you have any particular dreams about what you would be able to do one day? Maybe you started because you wanted to go to Germany for a holiday, or to study or work. Maybe you wanted to be able to read a special book. How close are you to that dream? Use today to reflect on what you have achieved and/ or write down some new dreams, like being able to do something by the end of the year.
15 January Wikipedia Day – Wikipedia-Tag
For today’s task go to Wikipedia and find a page about something that interests you and read it. Then see if that article is also available in German and read that, too. Or you could do it the other way round. Find an article in German and afterwards read it in English.
20 January Penguin Awareness Day – Ehrentag der Pinguine
Who doesn’t like penguins? Here is a link for you to read about penguins in German:
Pinguinwissen
21 January National Hug Day – Weltknuddeltag
I just love the word ‘knuddeln’! So today you can learn how to pronounce and conjugate it. Then make a lovely sentence with it ☺
23 January National Handwriting Day – Nationaltag der Handschrift
This is a perfect day to practise some German writing. Either write something in German or find an interesting German text to copy BUT don’t use your computer! Write the text in your best handwriting!
24 January Beer Can Appreciation Day – Ehrentag der Bierdose
Buy a can of German beer, open it, drink the beer and wait for the German words to appear ….. well, maybe not ☺
But you could use the time to read a German text, listen to some German music or watch a German video.
25 January Opposite Day – Gegenteiltag
Depending on how advanced your German is, you will at some point have written things about yourself (what your name is, where you’re from, job, age, family, pet etc… or a lot more advanced). Today’s task is to write something like that again, but write the opposite! You can either change your identity (good for thinking of different vocab to the words you normally use) or use ‘nicht … sondern …’ (Example: Ich heiße nicht Angelika Davey sondern Joe Blogs). What will you write?
27 January Chocolate Cake Day – Tag des Schokoladenkuchens
Bake a chocolate cake using a German recipe (depending on how much German you understand either written in German or English), or find some interesting information in German about chocolate or chocolate cake. Or cheat and buy a cake and see if there is any German text on it. Whatever you do, don’t forget to eat the cake!
Or watch our video where we talk about this recipe: Saftiger Schokokuchen
30 January National Inane Answering Message Day – Tag der sinnlosen Anrufbeantworter-Nachrichten
Go on, write a senseless answerphone message in German!
31 January Backward Day – Rückwärts-Tag
Just for fun, read a German text backwards, or write something in German – it will really get you thinking! Do you think it’s doable? Try it!
There you are, 18 quirky ideas for practising your German. Which one are you looking forward to do, or (once you’ve done them) which one did you enjoy the most?
If 18 ideas aren’t enough for you, you may wish to buy my book which has 365 ideas, one for every day of the year!
Available as paperback
And also for your kindle
