National German Exam

In January, all students of German II, German III, and German IV will participate in the AATG National German Exam. Chaminade students have historically performed very well on this exam, with many award winners and study trip nominees over the past few years. Check out the link below to view a sample test.

http://www.aatg.org/content/now-available-complete-nge-practice-exams

Language Tree

Last week we discussed the relationship of German to English and the many other languages of northern Europe. As mentioned in class, the relationship goes back thousands of years, to a shared common tongue across much of modern-day Europe. The first link, to a page of Professor Clark Ford at Iowa State University, includes the illustration of the language tree which we saw in class. The second is a link to the Wikipedia article on Indo-European languages. There's quite a bit of information there, but take a look at the information on Germanic and Proto-Germanic.

Language Tree

Indo-European Languages

Schottenfreude (From the NY Times)

The following article is a great illustration of the elegant way in which compound nouns in German can be used to express ideas that are very difficult to express in English. In fact, many German nouns take the place of entire phrases or clauses in English. The title itself is a play on the German compound noun Schadenfreude (happiness as a result of the misfortune of others) and the author's last name (Schott). Enjoy!

Schottenfreude

German News Spoken Slowly

To hear the day's news in slowly spoken German, follow the link below. You can listen to a slower version, or try it in Originaltempo! Click on the day's date to read the German transcript as you listen. Try to recognize the words you hear while you're listening. You can also find the Podcast in iTunes!

Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten

Nur Ein Wort

Follow the link below to see the music video for "Nur Ein Wort" by Wir Sind Helden which we saw in class last week.
Wir Sind Helden - Nur Ein Wort by Th3-Warlords