Harry Potter in Berlin!!

I saw the below poster today and immediate got excited! Harry Potter with a live concert! Well I hope that’s what it says. I wonder if the movie will be dubbed in Deutsch, I wouldn’t mind if it was in English eh. Regardless, it will be an amazing experience to hear the movie music live!! We all need to go!

Perhaps by August 2018 my Deutsch will have improved so much so that I can view Harry Potter in Deutsch and not try to remember the dialog in English 🙂

Imagine if the below Ad is saying something completely different, I better jump onto my two favourite apps – Leo and google translate.

Photoautomats

Have you visited one of Berlin’s most icon self-service machines – the Photoautomat? They are really old and really cheap! There’s usually one in every suburb and they are constantly in use, especially in the evenings and on weekends. Basically you get 4 black and white photos in a strip, nothing that exciting but Berliners love them. Usually, you’ll see under the blue curtain a few pairs of arms and legs, there’s always a cheery bunch taking group photos. Even I’ve used one and it turned out to be really fun!! The photos make for good mementos and souvenirs.

I’m looking forwards to my next photo shoot in the Photoautomat.

Ich kann lesen!

Walking past advertising is no longer about pretty pictures, without realising I’m starting to read and understand a little of what is said in them.  Finally I feel like I am starting to use all the Deutsch I’ve been learning in  A1.1 and A1.2. The latest advertisement I’ve read is from Foodora, ok I didn’t get what « Nichts » was at first but our teacher cleared that up – « Nothing is better ».

The line at the bottom of the advertisement says « Order food that you love. » I’ll be clarifying tomorrow if « Bestelle Essen » is an imperative (we learnt about this today) and why there is a comma after the « Essen ».

Egg Punch?

In the theme of Christmas markets, have you been to Gendarmenmarkt’s Weihnachtsmarkt yet? I think it’s so beautiful. I’m sure I’ve already talked about this market in my previous post, and this post will make it a total of 3 Christmas market posts that I’ve written. I’m a little obsessed with Christmas markets eh!

Well at Gendarmenmarkt I was told that there was a eggnog like drink that I should try. I’ve never had eggnog so I was keen. So we rocked up to a Gluhwein stall and asked for a « Eierpunsch ». Gosh it looked so pretty, see the picture below, the whipped creme on top looked so inviting. Well to my ignorant taste buds it didn’t taste as good as it looked. I was very disappointed. My partner said the version in Italy is much sweeter, so I’ll make a comparison when I get the chance to try it there. I wonder what eggnog is suppose to taste like…hmmm?

Have you tried Eierpunsch yet?

My favourite Christmas Market, again

I can’t get enough of the Christmas market in the Kulturebrauerei. I’ve been there at least 3 times and this week I plan to go again. Last time I  discovered the best white Gluhwein, look for the stall  with a little house on it’s roof, they  only sell white Gluhwein. I distracted myself enough from the Gluhwein  to take some pictures. I love Christmas time here in Berlin, die Weihnachtsmärkte sind die Besten! (hope my Deutsch is correct, I’m trying!). Ok so I also haven’t been to the Christmas markets in other cities, so this is a naive viewpoint.

 

Fotos vom Kulturprogramm im Dezember

Liebe Teilnehmer,
 
es war ein sehr schöner Abend mit euch auf dem nostalgischen Weihnachtsmarkt am Opernpalais. Mit Glühwein und vielen Leckereien konnten wir uns final auf das Weihnachtsfest einstellen.
In diesem Sinne wünschen wir euch allen eine besinnliche und erholsame Weihnachtszeit.
 
Euer DeutschAkademie Team
 
#DeutschAkademie #Berlin #Kulturprogramm #DeutschLernen #MitSpaßzumErfolg #Weihnachtsmarkt

Funny Deutsch words

Before learning Deutsch there were a few Deutsch  words that use to crack me up (i.e. laugh) because they seemed rather inappropriate in the English sense. Such as: extra Dick kartoffel (a variety of potato in the supermarket), einfach (sounded like a swear word to my ignorant ears) and einfahrt (sounds like fart, yeh I know, that’s so immature).

Well now there’s one more Deutsch word that makes me laugh, every single time! That word is Flasche. All it means is « bottle », e.g. Wasserflasche. When said my brain immediately thinks « flasher! », very ridiculous.

I bet anyone German reading this article is thinking « silly English people » 🙂

 

Are you in Christmas Stress?

Check out the advertisement in Alexander Platz u-bahn right now. One, I can understand what is written because of the lessons in A1.2: Frank and Max are in Christmas stress. Yeh it kinda doesn’t make sense to me either, I’ll check with our teacher tomorrow in case I’m missing some nuance in the phrase.

Two, Decathlon is my second favourite shop in Berlin. The first being DM, you’ll have to read my post in October to see how much I love it. If you have not checked out Decathlon then you have to make a trip there pronto! It’s a massive shop with all kinds of fitness equipment and gear you can think of, they even have equestrian gear !! Last time I popped in they had renovated their floor plan to include a big display for bicycles, you can even test ride the bikes there. Best of all their products are reasonable priced and good quality.

 

Weihnachtsmärkte!

Have you been to the Christmas markets yet? I live in Prezlauer Berg and there’s a cute, cosy Christmas Market in the Kulturbrauerei. Ironically there are many Gluhwein sellers here, selling different types of Gluhwein. It’s worth coming here to sample a few. And if you’re drinking alcohol free then try the Swedish punch, it’s delicious and made with different fruit juices and spices. Since it’s so cold, my bf and I feel lucky that the Kulturbrauerei is so close by. I think we’ll be sampling the different Gluhweins quite often 🙂

In the below picture my bf is sipping on the Swedish punch. Find it and try it, you’ll love it!

Pronouns keep me up at night!

For the last 5 days I’ve been having nightmares about indirect pronouns and dative articles. I’m so overwhelmed. As a native English speaker, I’ve been overwhelmed by Nominative, Dative and Accentative articles until I started learning a month ago, and crickey. Gosh, I usually get confused by simple grammar like « what is an adverb? », So it’s been a steep learning curve. Thank goodness our teacher is patiently going over lots of examples. My advice to anyone is confused with the grammar concept, ie – what is a pronoun, what is the difference between indirect vs. direct pronoun, possessive articles, reflexive articles, etc. This research will help you grasp the grammar lessons in class much more easily.

Sadly I spent my Sunday afternoon getting my head around and why and when to use which. I am using my bf’s knowledge of Latin to help me