Having been away for a few days I only just got the chance to read the Christmas edition of the German magazine Stern when the above advert caught my eye. It was advertising the Christmas Day film ‘Der gestiefelte Kater’ (Puss in Boots) with the sentence ‘Haben Sie Weihnachten auch ‘nen (that’s short for ‘einen’) Kater? … Read more
The 6th December is St Nicholas Day. There is an interesting article on Wikipeda about the history and legends but for German children there are far more interesting things to decide, like which plate to put outside their door! According to legend, during the night from the 5th to the 6th December, Nikolaus brings sweets, fruit, nuts … Read more
A few weeks ago I entered a competition for writing a story in 26 sentences in the order of the alphabet. I enjoyed it so much that I thought this would be a great idea for a German competition. So – Can you write a story in 26 sentences in German, starting the first one … Read more
Bernhard-Victor Christoph-Carl von Bülow would have celebrated his 90th birthday today. He was born on the 12th November 1923 in Brandenburg an der Havel in Germany and died on the 22nd August 2011. Under the name Loriot he was a famous German comedian, well known for his cartoons and sketches. If you’d like to check him out search … Read more
My friend Suzan St Maur challenged me yesterday to write a blog post with 26 sentences in the order of the alphabet. I like the odd challenge here and there, so here is my post, a conversation between a husband and his wife in 26 sentences from A to Z: “Angelika teaches German.” “But why should I learn German?” … Read more
I came across this lovely website the other day, the Beethoven Haus für Kinder . It is originally aimed at German children who want to find out more about Beethoven, but actually it’s just as good for adults. I’ve just spent an hour looking around and clicking on various items on the screen and reading interesting snippets. … Read more
In autumn lots of people think they would like to do some evening classes, get fit again, join the gym or learn something new, maybe a new language, maybe German. So they look around to see what’s available and then find they can’t decide: What shall I do, keep fit or learn German? Why not … Read more
In one of this week’s lessons, I let my students listen to a story about two frogs in a milk jug (from a lovely book of fables which I bought in Vienna two years ago and which came with a CD). Today I found the text online so that you can have a read: … Read more
The Goethe-Institut has published a new free online resource for learning German, called Unsere Straße (Our street). As you scroll along the street, you’ll come across different scenarios and if you click on them, you’ll see some situations with choices for you to make: There are also exercises for you to do, if you click on … Read more
I collected these lovely conkers yesterday and was wondering what to do with them. English children seem to be doing only one thing with them, and that’s playing conkers. I had never heard of this game until I moved to England. Instead we used to make things with them. All you need is a … Read more
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.