mein deutsch Kurs - monnat eins

So we are ending the first month of german and can I tell you how fun and hard this language is? I thought learning french was a challenge. It's like easy math compared to german.

Here's why:

1. Artikels (articles) of words: feminine, masculine, neutral. Like in the latin languages like french, spanish and portuguese, BUT these don't have neutral. They also do not correspond to fem and masc in german. For example, the sun = le soleil in french (masculine) is die sonne in german (feminine). So you can't use instinct. There are a FEW ways you can tell if something is masc, fem, or neut but in reality, you have to memorize.

2. Plurals of words: So in english and those other ass-easy languages, to make something plural, you do something logical like add an -s. Well in german, you add either an -s, -en, er, -¨e, -¨er, -e, -, -nen, and so on. In other words, you not only have to know the word in german, its gender but also what it looks like pluralled!

3. W = V, V = F, J = Y, St = Sht, Sp = Shp, ch = almost sh, tsch = ch, ß = ss (sort of). I don't think I have to justify this with an explanation

4. capital Letters in the middle of the Sentence. Apparently, to distinguish nouns from adjectives. Yeah, because we really need to know.

5. numbers - here's where I somehow become a complete dyslexic and can't connect my sight to my brain. So when you want to say - 75, for example, you say "five and seventy". I thought french was hard with the 70-79 being 60 + 10-19, and 80 being 20x4 and 90-99 being 20x4 + 10-19. No, french has nothing on turning your brain completely inside out. You can't write a number while it is being recited because you have to leave a space between to fill it in. If you don't get this, try saying my phone number the way the french say it: 77-97-84-44 but in german: "7 and 70- 7 and 90- 4 and 80- 4 and forty...and then try to write that logically and neatly. Can't do it.

6. The making up of words by putting several together to make up the new word. Here's are some examples. I will put a line between the words put together:

- wollteppich - woll|teppich (woll = wool, teppich = carpet)
- herrenbekleidung - herren|bekleidung (herren = men, bekleidung = clothing)
- sportsbekleidung - sports|bekleidung (sports clothing)
- kaufhausplan - kauf|haus|plan (kauf = sell, haus = house, plan = map : store map)
- neunzhenhundertneunundneunzig - neunzhen|hundert|neun|und|neunzig = 1999

I will add to this but suffice it to say that instead of just making two words, they make a really long word that makes people who are learning freak out at its length. What I kind of like about it though, is that when I don't know the word, I make one up and sometimes, they understand!!!!

7. Nominativ vs Akkasativ vs. Dativ artikels - ah, this has continuously stumped my class. You have this in every language, but in german, the artikel changes IF it's a masculine word. And if it's a neutral word, you add an -s if you aren't using the word in the sentence. I won't try to give you examples or explain it, or else I will screw myself up and not be able to understand it myself. I am currently the only one in the class who gets when to use nominative articles, versus accausative, versus dative.

This is all I will post for now. Month 2, which I am still contemplating on whether or not I should do, will surely bring more of these posts!

My class, now 12, is still as varied as ever. The gay boys have decided to keep the nuns on their toes by writing and acting out dialogue that we have to make up. While everyone else's is a boring "I would like to find a computer to buy" dialogue, theirs was "I would like to buy sexy lingerie for my strip tease show" and "I am looking for cocaine and crystal meth" dialogues. Despite this, they actually made a significant effort to befriend the nuns, but the nuns wanted nothing to do with the tattoo-ridden colourful sassy men, so don't blame them. They are keeping the class entertained and not boring at all.