I Wish I Could Speak German . . .

[Canary42]

. . . because I would love to singalong with Beethoven's Symphony 9 (Ode to Joy). It always sounds so magnificent to me with a full male and female German choir belting it out.       Altogether now .   .    .  .    .    

Freude schooner Gotterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium
Wir bertreten feuertrunken
Himmlische dein Heiligtum

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vxZUnClmZnE

 

 

[ToraToraTora]

Lerne es, Deutsch ist einfach, mir altes China beizubringen.

[Canary42]

🤣

[ToraToraTora]

Viel einfacher zu lernen als Englisch

 

[Canary42]

Ich bin mir sicher, dass Sie Recht haben, aber ich bin wirklich hoffnungslos, wenn es darum geht, eine andere Sprache zu lernen.

Ich habe es mit Französisch und Deutsch versucht und bin völlig gescheitert.

Courtesy of Google translate so may be rubbish.

[ToraToraTora]

Basically German is logical, english is not, famously it's one of the toughest for a foriegners to learn.

[bookbinder]

Here you are, then. The lyrics to Ode for Joy. Viel Spass!

https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/ode-to-joy-lyrics-german-english/

[ToraToraTora]

I've worked in Mainframe Computers most of my working life. Guess what the Germans call a Mainframe? "Grossrechner" - see logical!

[Canary42]

Bookbinder: Thanks, but that's only half the battle, I need to learn the pronunciation.

Tora: True, and I'm sure that's why we do use some of their words (e.g. Schadenfreude, Weltanschauung) 

 

[jourdain2]

Yes, once you get used to the grammatical structure and master der, die, das, dem des - German is easier than English.

I was always better at German than French, but living in France obviously shoved that up to the top of the list in my brain and I forgot a lot of German. My sister, on the other hand , lived in Germany for a while and I've found that it comes flooding back and I can work out more than. basics

[jno]

nothing particularly easy about having to attach genders to everything, along with a variety of inflexions and declensions. Not to mention word order and compound words (catch the British using words like Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat). The English and the users of their language have very sensibly simplified all this.

[douglas9401]

The have indeed, jno, often to grunts and hand signals. 😂

[ladybirder]

I went to German Evening Classes many moons ago.  Just wondering if these still happen.

[Buenchico]

I'm surprised that nobody here has mentioned that 'Ode to Joy' is the official anthem of the European Union.  TTT would probably be appalled if you started belting it out, Canary42!

This flashmob video is slow to get going but well worth watching for the fantastic ending.  (Simply skip the first few minutes if you've not got a lot of patience):

[albaqwerty]

The sheer joy of the German language is words are pronounced as they are spelled, once you get the hang of that it's easy :))

Der, das are fine, die is pronounced dee. Throw in errant capitals and the wonderful split verbs and the past tense at the end of the sentence, it really is a wonderful language (no, am no being facetious)

I do have a concern with trying to romanticise ich liebe dich.

[ToraToraTora]

"I'm surprised that nobody here has mentioned that 'Ode to Joy' is the official anthem of the European Union.  TTT would probably be appalled if you started belting it out, Canary42!" - nope I love the tune, add it the list of many things that the EUSSR has abused in Europe.

[gulliver1]

I wish some on here could speak Authetic English, instead of that stupid  jungle Cockney rhyming slang.

[MargoTester]

My favourite German word - Krankenwagen - ambulance.

[brainiac]

German definitely is not 'einfach' - as my years doing a Modern Languages degree will attest.  The German exams were brutal!

Three noun genders, verbs piling up at the end of sentences, prepositions that take particular cases (and some that take more than one, depending) and their love of portmanteau words:

Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher, anyone?

[albaqwerty]

Descriptive race aren't they!?

They do not seem to walk on eierschalen etc etc