illustrations: Berk Karaoglu
You might be familiar with German as the mighty code used by ridiculously inquisitive forms and just as nosy club bouncers. In this article series, we are challenging that rather unfavorable notion by collecting some of the juiciest bits this vocabulary has to offer. It’s only natural that this quest has eventually led us to feature some quirky dirty talk. This listicle might therefore be a bit less practical than our previous editorials featuring casual German, some fine German insults, and unique German words of happiness. But if either wacky sex stuff or just bizarre compound nouns is your thing, you’re about to get lucky!
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by Michalina | Most Popular Posts, Stories
photo: Deutsch for Dich
Earlier this month marked my third year anniversary of living in Berlin. Though I have a permanent WG in Schillerkiez (the best Kiez in Berlin), a handsome German boyfriend with no interest in polyamory (the holy grail!), and a close-knit group of hilarious friends, I still don’t feel like a true Berliner.
Why? Because I don’t speak German.
I can read and understand most things, but every time I try to say something other than “Tschüs!” I freeze.
When I was visiting family in the USA a few months ago, I was amazed at my charisma. I was cracking jokes with the Waffle House waitresses, articulately asking for directions to the nearest Target and politely inquiring where the Kombucha section was in Whole Foods. I couldn’t believe how confident and shiny I was, not just around my family and friends, but out in the real world. Who was this girl? In Berlin, I shrink inside of myself every time I have to speak German with anyone. Upon returning and feeling my shiny-self dull more and more, I decided that learning German was no longer some frivolous thing expats like me talk about doing, it’s something that I needed to do order to let my true self shine.
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by Guest Author | Stories
illustrations: Berk Karaoglu
The iHeartBerlin team has always been an international cluster of fellows, so we do relate a lot to any struggles you might be having with the German language. I for one can still clearly recall the time that everything I attempted to say in this glorious language was met with a very confused and sometimes almost apologetic ”Wie bitte?”. But still – your Berlin experience gets even more holistic once you’ve mastered German, so we’re trying to encourage you as best as we can. After we’ve explained some of the most common examples of ”casual” German and enabled you to make lots of new friends with some exquisite German insults, the time has come now to present you with 10 words relating to the feeling of happiness that have no ample equivalents in English.
by Michalina | Stories
illustrations: Berk Karaoglu
It’s the first thing someone wants to know when finding out about a new language: before learning how to say hi, or or how to introduce yourself, you want to learn how to curse. I’m sure there is a sociological angle to it, but science aside, swearwords are just amusing. Looking into the magnificent world of German swearwords, one isn’t at all surprised with the creativity levels the country of Goethe and Schiller has. We’ve collected some of the most noteworthy examples, that will have you regret every time you’ve called someone an idiot instead of an ass violin.
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by Stella | Stories
The Berlino Team
Despite your motivation or ability, learning a new language can be a drag: Until words start making sense, what you experience is constant confusion. The need of a language becomes even more imposing when you’ve moved to the country in which it is spoken: no matter how willing people are to speak in English to accommodate you, awkward situations where you don’t know what is happening in daily life are inevitable: the lady talking to you on the street, the cashier at the supermarket, the signs all around the city.
Berlino Schule, the newly created language school by the team behind Berlino Magazine, is ready to meet the challenges that make learning German unattractive, while keeping their price very very attractive: only 4 Euro/hr. They are devoted to providing a friendly atmosphere for their students, where they can feel as adults learning and not school kids. The groups are small in each class, and the staff keeps exploring new, innovative ways in order to make learning more effective and fun. We had the chance to speak with one of the Berlino founders, Andrea D’Addio, about how he came from running a blog about Berlin to running a language school and how to improve your German learning experience.
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by Stella | People
illustrations: Berk Karaoglu
Contrary to a popular belief, communicating in the German language does not necessarily equal having to study extremely long grammar structures for hours on end. I mean – that may be useful when you’re applying for the German citizenship, but in casual everyday life conversations you’re better off mastering a few magic keywords that, although absent from the typical German as a foreign language curriculum, will polish your small talk game with the sought after air of nonchalance.
UPDATE: If you like this feature you will be happy to learn that we published a sassy little book featuring this and many more language pieces available at various shops all over Berlin. Learn more here.
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by Michalina | Stories
photo: Susanne Nilsson / CC
As I was growing up, verbal interactions in any language other than Polish were a pretty rare occurrence in my town. So when in 2014 I got a chance to spend my summer vacations at my brother’s in California, I couldn’t contain my excitement at actually being able to use English on an everyday basis. But it wasn’t before I experienced Berlin that I really got to know an environment truly fitting for a cosmopolitan spirit; I’ve realized that my typical day in Berlin comes with more linguistic challenges than I’d face in an entire year had I not moved here.
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by Michalina | Stories
Learning a new language might prove difficult, especially when this language is German; pronunciation, declension, past tenses to mention but a few. Granted, every language has its own difficulties and challenges. However, the most difficult part in learning a language is not coming in terms with the basic rules of grammar, syntax or vocabulary, but maintaining regular contact with it beyond the few hours one spends in a classroom weekly.
The traditional teaching method would expect the student to improve his language skills by discussing rather mundane and/or out of touch topics and doing grammar exercises off a textbook. While that can prove efficient to a certain extent -annoying as it is, learning a new language avoiding grammar is impossible- it does not bring one’s language skills to the next level. By “next level”, I refer to the level, where the student is not exclusively dependent on a traditional course and a teacher, but they integrate them organically as one of their many tools in their attempt to elevate their language level.
In order to bring our German language guides to the next level as well, we spoke with someone who is an expert on the topic. Sela is the founder of the language school Sprachsalon in Neukölln and has had her fair share of experience with learning and teaching languages. We sat down with her and discussed some advice on how to fine-tune your German skills.
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by Nikos | Stories
illustrations: Johanna Dumet
It all started one fateful Tuesday morning as I stood in my bathroom. The previous night I’d submitted the manuscript of How to be German 2 to my publisher and I considered my German Integration project finished. I was integrated. Standing in the bathroom, I looked below the mirror to a shelf where I saw the toothpaste tubes Elmex and Aronal. They knew, that I knew, that it is wrong to use the same toothpaste for both morning and night. This is not the German way, for it is obvious that your teeth have different cleaning needs depending on the time of day. Logisch. Right? You wouldn’t use the same shampoo when showering at night, as when showering in the morning, would you? Exactly.
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by Guest Author | Stories
When I first arrived in Berlin a little over a year ago I knew I would encounter plenty of cultural shock. I had no idea, however, that dating in Berlin would be a 9 on the damn Richter scale. My current self wishes she could have warned her past self to brace herself. I was in for a shake up.
The first time I went out in Berlin, I came home feeling convinced that something was seriously wrong with me. No one tried to hit on me the whole night (or so I thought.) Could they smell the American on me? Was I not wearing enough black? Were my dance moves not robotic enough?
Now don’t get me wrong, there are definitely some positive sides to being a female at a Berlin nightclub. Chances are your butt won’t be groped, your drink won’t be spiked (because having a drink bought for you is highly unlikely), and you won’t have to listen to cheesy pickup lines such as, “would you like some fries with that shake?”— (yes, someone has actually muttered these words to me.) I can’t speak for other nightlife around the world, but going out as a female in the US means you’ll likely spend the majority of the night deflecting unwanted attention. I had normalized this behavior so much that when I didn’t have it, I started to wonder if something was wrong with me.
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by Guest Author | Party, Stories
