Saturday, April 28, 2012

Ein Zwilling kommt selten allein, mit Lindsay Lohan

Wenn ihr Lust hättet: Hier Teil 1 von 14. Natürlich muss man sich an die neuen Stimmen gewöhnen. Das dauert bis durch Teil 1.

Ah: König Drosselbart! Ein Lieblingsmärchen

Hier, Teil 1 Wer sagt das? ,,.. .auf ein fröhliches Wiedersehen, Prinzessin Allerliebste" Wer antwortet so? ,,... auf ein Nimmerwiedersehen, Herrn König."

Der letzte Samurai -- von rapper, Blumio

Mensch! "Hey Mr. Nazi" habe ich von Blumio früher hier inkludiert, und er bringt uns ein kleines Stücklein von jenem Lied hier wieder. Hier besuchen wir Blumio in Düsseldorf, in seinem Gegend. (Ein "Little Japan," sagte er.) Toll. Es gibt sogar einen Japanischen Garten. Viel Spaß.

Was denn, nach der ABI ?

Keinen Plan nach der Oberschule? Universität? Militär? Ein Praktikum aussuchen? Bei www.abi.de gibt es verschiedene Videos. Ich habe sie bei YOUTUBE gefunden, und finde die behilfsreich. Doof? Vielleicht etwas auch, aber interessant. HIER IST DER LINK ZUM 3 MINUNTEN LANG FILM "ICH HABE KEINE AHNUNG" (I'M CLUELESS...) Jetzt kennen wir die Reporters. Nun, was könnte hier passieren? HIER EINEN WEITEREN FILM, "ERFOLGREICH BEWERBEN" (Successful Applications) -->Und, gefällt ihr auch den Sakko? -->Man findet viele mehr von diesen Videos, auch im Abi-de portal bei YOUTUBE. Viel Spass dabei. Lass uns wissen, was ihr dort lernt!

Friday, April 27, 2012

TED Income Inequality Makes Us All Suffer

Here's another TED Talk, this one by Richard Wilkinson. I share this to help illuminate the task ahead, to help get our nation back on track, as only young folks can. It also is a way to respond to an earlier comment on my ARMAMERIKA post earlier this month. What does income equality do?
First, it's important to see where we stand as a nation when it comes to which the differences between those at opposite ends of the income scale.
Right, the USA is at the high end: We're one of the world's least equal countries...well, only little Singapore keeps us out filling the top spot. I include several graphs below, so that they can be referred to, despite when they're off the screen. Listen to Mr. Wilkinson, as he builds a compelling argument that the degree of our social and health-related problems in the USA is related to the economic inequality here; in fact, it is (unfortunately) as much as 10 times higher than those countries which have less disparity!
I wish this graph showed up larger: It's a killer.
Per fellow-blogger Christa Hasenkopf, "A recent report by UNICEF, entitled “The Children Left Behind” (pdf here), summarized the state of equality among children in 24 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Basically, the study asked the question: Take a kid from Country X from an average income family, then take a kid also from Country X but from a low income family. How do they compare when it comes to material well-being, academic success, and health? Here are the results (image from a New York Times opinion piece by Charles Blow):
So of 24 nations, we rank dead last here? To the obvious question as to whether our average might just be so much better than others, that it suggests we're still better off in the USA, blogger Hasenkopf focused on the education statistics, and provided a link to the 2008 Fact Sheet from the Alliance for Excellent Education, based in Washington DC. In summary (page 2 of 2): "The United States has an average number of students who perform at the highest proficiency levels, but a much larger proportion who perform at the lowest levels. ... The difference between the science scores of 2 students of different socioeconomic backgrounds is higher in the US than in almost any other country OECD 2007b). Four of the five member countries that have higher proportions of immigrants than the US also have higher national scores than the US." I'm sorry to say that, as a parent and teacher, I can feel a significant change in the past 25 years. Citizens in our nation seem collectively to consider themselves "more deserving" than their skills might have prepared them to be, and thus feel "overly-entitled," and thus willing to sacrifice character qualities required for a healthy society, to "help themselves to the till," so to speak. As Wilkinson says, they have done so at others' expense, as well as at the expense of our society's health and social well-being. The GNP ranking (= measurement of a nation's "Gross National Product" per person) is empty, meaningless, and even counterproductive. After all, it bears so little relationship to satisfaction, opportunity, health. So why do we continue using it? Well, do you suppose it's because it's the one ranking where we appear at the top? Those statistics which offer more realistic measurements are of course resisted. We are not accustomed as a nation to see ourselves ranked at the bottom. --> So, how did you take Mr. Wilkinson's oft quoted sentiment: "If Americans want to live the American dream, they should go to Denmark.” (Richard Wilkinson) That may be a topic for another posts.

PHAETON for sale

How does it feel to be behind the wheel of a Phaeton? Let's see what CHICAGO CARS DIRECT says about that. Cost? Comparison? Value?

Der Salzprinz

Noch ein Maerchen, denn ich sehe sie so gern! Hier, aus 1983, aus der Tschecheschen Republik Der Film dauert anderthalb Stunden. (1.5 hours)

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Der Froschkönig -- am Theaterfest vorgespielt

von den Gebrüder Grimm Hier sehen wir diesen schönen Märchen! Es gibt noch 4 Szenen, die bei YOUTUBE einfach folgen. Und dann, hier wird der Anfang dieses Märchens gelesen. Man kann gleich den Text folgen und mitlesen.

Romulus der Große

Hier ein Theater Vorschau

Strewwelpeter: Die Geschichte von dem schwarzen Buben

Deutsche Welle über Till Eulenspiegel

Hier war der 1. Deutschsprachige Beststeller. Till wurde 1300 nahe Braunschweig (Niedersachsen) geboren. Es gab 94 Streichen (there were 94 pranks) ! --Wo ist das Till Eulenspiegel Museum?

Ein Männlein steht im Walde, ganz still...

-- Er hat ein Purpurroten Mäntelein (little coat) an. Noch einen Version dieses Liedes: Hier laut vom Publikum bei einem Fettes Brot Konzert gesungen: THEATERFEST '12: Aber bei Grimm gibt es ein Märchen: Drei Männlein im Walde....aber ich habe noch nichts davon bei YOUTUBE gefunden. Die Geschichte ist eigentlich sehr lustig (und ist Frau Holle ähnlich). Vielleicht später gibt es etwas.

Die Rote Zora -- vom 2012 Theaterfest, die Oper

Monday, April 23, 2012

WWII Pilot, und Lebensretter

Hier die Geschichte; bald kommt den Film? Alles spielt auf dem Bauernhof meinen Dänischen Verwandten in Kaustrøp-Møllegåd, Jutland, Dänemark.

HIER DIE MP3

--> Habt ihr etwas davon verstanden?

-->Und was machen sie jetzt in Heidelberg?

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Hustle Hard

OK different school; different test. Same message. Let me know if you find this motivational . . .



Science tests are next to invade our schedule.

Reflexiv Verben: O, wie sauber ich bin

Sing mit!

Ich wasche mich jeden Tag...



... ich rieche gut!

Ich wasche MIR die Haare.
Ich wasche MIR das Kinn.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Austrian Tycoon slated for 5th Wedding in 9th Decade

Austrian Times April 17, 2012


Billionaire supermarket and property tycoon Karl Wlaschek, 94, has unveiled plans to marry girlfriend Ricki Schenk, saying jokingly that he hopes to have more children.

According to Forbes, Wlaschek is the fifth-oldest billionaire in the world after Walter Haefner, David Rockefeller Sr., Albert Ueltschi and Kirk Kerkorian. He's worth an estimated 4.4 billion euros from the founding of the Billa supermarket chain along with a property business, and, after Red Bull energy drink billionaire Dieter Mateschitz, is the 2nd wealthiest person in the Austria.

Asked why he was getting married now, he said he wanted to have more children – "I would say another five or six children, at the very least." Wlaschek already has 4 children and 4 previous marriages to his name. The widow Ricki, has no children. When she was asked if those rumors were true she said with a laugh: "I am not sure, after all I am not so young any more." She declined to reveal her age, adding that she doubted that children were in her future, but she confirmed: "The wedding will take place in the next few days."

The couple met at an event in Vienna and they realized that his last wife and her former husband had both died on the same day.

The engagement was announced at the 5-star Schloßhotel in Velden which Wlaschek owns, and where he was also the guest of honor.

ARMERIKA

Are we overlooking signs that point to how "THIRD WORLD" a nation we have become?

Take THIS VIEW from a reporter from East Berlin, who brought her family on long-term assignment to Hollywood.

She found that life here isn't celebrated. No enjoyment. No delightful outdoor cafés (despite California's celebrated sunshine). Nobody takes vacations! (Do you?)

She pinpointed a curious and bewildering 2-hour maximum limit on kids birthday parties. (What's with that? The author projected that parents all had to get back to the grind after so many minutes off; potentially all afraid that they might have missed that magic phone call?)

Worse, she found that folks tended to celebrate the significant moments in their lives with their most transient, recent of acquaintances, in fact each year, celebrating with a new crowd; something she called an addictive poison, as if the only person who ever really matters is oneself.

She found so many here who are poverty stricken: Unemployment, homelessness, and the desperation that goes with that are beyond anyone's wild imagination here; certainly well beyond what has been reported.

She was baffled that rented items are not respected, such as furniture in furnished apartments; is it out of desperation that we have become a throw-away culture?

She found that, in order to have a good credit rating here, you had to be in debt. Since her family was up to date on all of their bills --as is typically German-- they needed to pay a rental premium each month for high-risk renters, in the sum of $100/month.

She found that we use archaic --third-world-- banking procedures. Rather than bank transfers, her family had to pay in person for rent and utilities, and by check -- which they had to buy after withdrawing funds over a series of days in amounts reaching daily maximum limits; then stand in line to hand these funds in.

She found that we've become a land of tattoos, jeans, and other icons of old, perhaps in an attempt to hold onto, or to keep alive, images of who we once were, such as the now all but abandoned Hollywood Walk of Stars. (Are there still any film studios operating in Hollywood? Well, yes: one is still there.)

She found broken concrete sidewalks and unsightly overhead electric wires everywhere. She was surprised why the unsightliness doesn't bother us, and why we don't insist on upgrades. Is our nation truly broke?

She found people who acknowledged how much of their innocence they'd recently lost, due to outcomes of recent wars, to 9-11, to various shooting incidents in even the smallest, safest communities.

She found that, while work-places may be multi-cultural, each individual returns home each night to their own culturally exclusive neighborhood: The Melting Pot concept is an absolute myth.

She found non-educated dreamers, who pinned their hopes on a call-back or a lucky lottery number, including one, who could not comprehend that she, as a German, grew up speaking another language, called German, on another continent, in a country called Germany.

-->Horrors! How many of these types are there amongst us?! How much of this do we want published in the Sunday Newspapers around the world?

What can we do ?!

Please include your own suggestions!

Meanwhile, here are a few of mine:

1. Let's all take our education seriously! Let's be desperately involved and interested in LEARNING!

2. Let's be efficient and ambitious, so that we can legitimately ENJOY the time that we "take off," by planning great (not just mindless) things to do with those precious minutes.

3. Well, let's make those minutes add up to hours/days/weeks, so that we too can go on enlightening vacation (where we too will find that we do some of our most creative thinking while on holiday).

4. Let's realize that politics matters, and that ignorance isn't bliss.

In fact, one of the comments that this article garnered was reference to this song "Little Emma", from Hannes Wader, about folks who continue to reelect politicians who choose to turn their backs on their needs. -- Do you understand the lyrics (particularly those in bold -- the refrain)? A small storefront in Germany is often called a "Tante Emma Laden," and these have all but disappeared in recent years.

"Das erinnert mich an das Lied "Emma Klein" von Hannes Wader.
(Vielleicht sollte man es mal ins englische übersetzen: :lol:)..."

Strophe 4:
Nun hat die Bank schon zugeschlagen
und ganz schnell, fast über Nacht
das Haus samt Laden abgerissen
und `nen Parkplatz draus gemacht.
Der gehört dem Superkaufhaus
und das wiederum der Bank.
Doch das schärfste ist, dass Emma Klein
vor Kummer sterbenskrank
und bettelarm, sich noch immer
zu den Unternehmern zählt,
am Wahltag die Partei
der eignen Unterdrückung wählt.

Refrain:
Will nur mal fragen
sagt warum schlagen
so viele Leute
gestern wie heute
den eignen Interessen
voll ins Gesicht
und merken es nicht?


"Na ja, immerhin wachen jetzt einige auf. :daumen: Viele Grüße, Petra"



Classic!

Mendocino -- von Michael Holm (1973)

Ein Ohrwurm?



Songtext
Auf der Strasse, nach San Fernando
Da stand ein Mädchen wartend in der heißen Sonne.
Ich halte an und fragte wohin,
sie sagte, bitte nimm mich mit nach Mendocino!
Ich sah ihre Lippen, ich sah ihre Augen,
Die Haare gehalten von zwei goldenen Spangen.
Sie sagte sie will, mich gern wiedersehen,
Doch dann vergass ich leider ihren Namen.

Refr:

Mendocino, Mendocino
Ich fahre jeden Tag nach Mendocino.
An jeder Tür klofpe ich an,
doch keiner kennt mein Girl in Mendocino.

Tausend Träume bleiben ungeträumt,
und tausend Küsse kann ich ihr nicht schenken.
Ich gebe nicht auf und suche nach ihr,
in der heißen Sonne von Mendocino.

2x Refr.

Annett Louisan: Pärchenallergie

Bist auch du allergisch gegen Pärchen?



--> Und warum das?

Songtext

Ich bin allergisch gegen Pärchen
ich will keine Pärchen sehen
Weil seitdem du von mir weg bist
mir Pärchen auf die Nerven gehen
mir wird ganz schlecht wenn sie sich küssen
Und sie in dunklen Ecken stehen
sich an ihren Händen halten müssen
dann muss ich leider sofort gehen

CHOR:
Ich bin allergisch gegen Pärchen
bleibt mir mit Pärchen bloß vom Hals.
Sie nennen sich Hase oder Bärchen
ich dreh' mich weg und klopf auf Holz.

Haben die denn eigendlich kein zuhause?
Können die sich nicht einfach mal verziehen?
Ich brauche dringend meine Pause
von eurem doofen Dopamin?
Manche vertragen keine Nüsse, Oliven oder Selerri.
Bei mir ist es einfach 'ne gewisse akkute Pärchenallergie.

CHOR:

Ich war vor langer Zeit ein Pärchen,
jetzt will ich keine Pärchen sehen,
weil seitdem du von mir weg bist,
mir Pärchen auf die Nerven gehen.

CHOR x 2

Thursday, April 12, 2012

KRAFTWERK


Kraftwerk, the German group whose members were early adapters to the world of the computer, at the Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday. More Photos »
By JON PARELES [Published: April 11, 2012]

In fact Kraftwerk has been far more predictive than obedient. It can rightfully claim to have done some cultural reprogramming of its own. Back in the 1970s Kraftwerk conceptualized itself as the Man-Machine and started writing songs about what technology might do to — and with — the modern mind. It can now claim a direct influence on all sorts of electronic and computer-driven music, while its lyrics clearly envisioned our computer-mediated daily lives.

Tuesday’s concert was the beginning of Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, with Kraftwerk performing eight consecutive albums on eight nights for just 450 people per show. Only Mr. Hutter remains from Kraftwerk’s original lineup; the other current members are Henning Schmitz, Fritz Hilpert and Stefan Pfaffe. Onstage the quartet stood at keyboards — playing some of the music’s components live — in front of a very active video screen with images that sometimes sandwiched the musicians between the planes of eye-popping three-dimensional geometry and typography. (Concertgoers were handed 3D glasses on the way to the museum’s atrium.)

The featured album on Tuesday was “Autobahn,” released in 1974. At the time Kraftwerk was just becoming an electropop band. “Autobahn” was the only song with lyrics, and the version of it that became an international hit single was edited down from a suitelike 22-minute track. But its repeating synthesizer lines, impassive vocals and recursive lyrics were already enmeshed with the technologies of transportation, media and music — recurring Kraftwerk subjects.

Mr. Hutter sang about “driving, driving, driving on the Autobahn,” while a song on the radio goes, “We’re driving, driving, driving on the Autobahn.” The screen showed scenes of a superhighway filled with Volkswagens and Mercedes-Benzes; one had KR 74 as a license plate.

Kraftwerk revisited the “Autobahn” album rather than reproducing its exact timbres and proportions. It held on to its instrumental passages and the generally somber melodic lines of the album’s other tracks but played them from a changed perspective — for instance, trading the album’s upbeat hints of 1950s and ’60s rock for something more steady-state. The most transformed track was “Morgenspaziergang” (“Morning Walk”), which in 1974 juxtaposed synthesized burbles and tweets — oscillator birdsong — with its tune played on a wooden flute. Now the tune came from a keyboard, true to the latter-day Kraftwerk.

The “Autobahn” album was only about one-third of the concert, which exulted in the Kraftwerk catalog up to 2003 (to up the album “Tour de France Soundtracks,” which ends the series on Tuesday). Songs from the 1970s and ’80s — “The Model,” “Computer World,” “Techno Pop” — have lyrics that could be from the 21st century. And Mr. Hutter’s vocals, which he has been feeding through various filters since the 1970s, were precursors of the deliberately robotic pop that blankets current Top 40 radio.

Meanwhile Kraftwerk has kept up with ever-advancing music gizmos, and with its ever-proliferating musical heirs, by enriching and retrofitting its old songs, rhythmically and occasionally verbally. “Radioactivity” named problematic nuclear power plants in Chernobyl; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Sellafield in Britain (though not, yet, Fukushima Daiichi). “Trans-Europe Express,” which would find its way into hip-hop via Afrika Bambaataa, now had ballooning bass; “Computer Love” had its original glimmers of disco pumped into a solid 4/4 club thump.

Kraftwerk’s reworkings don’t sound imposed on its songs or as if the band were playing catch-up. It’s more that the songs already held these implications, which were just awaiting notice and a savvy follow-through. Kraftwerk released “Computer World” in 1981, and it has been living in that world for three decades — a world of constant upgrades and updates. That leads to a retrospective that’s not satisfied just to look back.

Great Press continues. Check these out:

HIGH-DESIGN FANS COME PRIMED FOR A RETRO FUTURE (New York Times)

KRAFTWERK DIARY DAY ONE: ELECTRONIC PIONEERS PLAY 1974'S 'AUTOBAHN' (Rolling Stone)

KLAUS BIESENBACH ON KRAFTWERK'S PERFORMANCES AT MOMA (Huffington Post)

KRAFTWERK IN NYC: DECADES OF INFLUENCE ON DISPLAY (WBUR – NPR) YES! DO LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE!

MAN, ALIVE TO MACHINE POSSIBILITIES (New York Times)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Werner Herzog's Film "Little Dieter Has To Fly"

1997 Hier, Folge 1 (auf Englisch):



Zitate aus der 1. Folge (quotes):

“I had this vision. Death didn’t really want me.”

“I’m not a hero. Only dead people are heroes.”

“I knew hunger as a child. After the war, we tore off wallpaper. My mother would cook the wallpaper and we would eat it, because there were nutrients in the glue.”

"I saw thinks that made no earthly sense at all."

"Finally things got better. I saw the first sausage in the display window in years. Everybody stopped to admire it. But nobody could afford to buy it."

About his apprenticeship as a tool and dye maker:
"I learned how to build church clocks... and be a blacksmith. What a tough apprenticeship I had. How many hours? I had this boss he was an old man... He had these hands. Many times he would come up, he would hit me in the face. I would be passing out. We (apprentices) worked from 7 in the morning until late at night, including weekends. We made 50 cents /month. It was truly horrible, but we stuck with it. Later on, in Viet Nam, that’s the first time I recognized that, without this tough-tough man, I could have never made it.”

Sunday, April 8, 2012

über GAPP, von Annie

I held the application in my hand; the person in the glossy photo smiled up at me. The girl in the photo was to become my German exchange partner. After months of e-mailing back and forth, the excitement and anticipation to meet had really built up. She and fifteen other students from her school were coming to my high school to stay with other students and their families.

In late March of last year, we boarded a bus headed to Boston Logan airport to pick up our partners. The bus ride was filled with suspense. How would we make conversation? What were they really like? These questions were whizzing through my mind as I watched rain splashing against the bus windows; an hour after we arrived at the airport, the group of Germans emerged from customs and into the terminal where we waited with eager anticipation.

During their three week stay in our homes and at our school, the strangers became our best friends while earning a place in our families. Their presence reminded me of the vast world that exists outside my own and my role as an active part in that global community. The smiling face in the glossy photo had become my “sister” and best friend. The bond that formed between our two groups is inspiring and has influenced my views of society and human relationships.

At long last, June arrived, and with it and the opportunity to visit our exchange partners in Germany. From the time of their departure just two months prior there was much planning and growing excitement. On June 16th, 2011, while every other student was getting ready for final exams, our group boarded a greyhound bus to J.F.K airport. After hours of driving, and flying, we arrived. I was extremely tired, but my excitement kept me alert. We had stepped out of the plane and into our new lives for the next three weeks. We were all faced with the trepidation of having to live in a new country, with a new family, while going to a new school, and communicating in a different language. It was the ultimate test of my character and my knowledge.

During those three weeks in Germany, I learned a great deal, not only about the country itself, but about others and myself. Living in this completely new environment, I learned to adapt to and face new challenges with a positive attitude. It opened my eyes to the views of another culture and country. My perspectives changed as I learned about the various ways that different people view things. That experience peaked my interest in other languages and my curiosity to learn about the world in which I live. The exchange was one of the greatest things that I have ever experienced. It had a huge impact on my life and positively changed my character, my perspectives, my aspirations, and ambitions.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Tausende OSTEREIER in einem Ostdeutschen Baum



March 21, 2012 Volker Kraft decorates a tree with 10,000 Easter eggs in his garden in Saalfeld, Germany. The Kraft family has been decorating their tree for Easter for more than forty years. Kraft's apple sapling sported just 18 eggs when he first decorated it for Easter in 1965. The number increased year by year; and by last year, the sturdy tree was festooned with 9,800 eggs, artfully decorated with everything from sequins to sea shells. This time, Kraft has reached 10,000 - and he says he's stopping there. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)

--> Wo im ostern Deutschland liegt Saalfeld?

SADIE, unsere Preisgewinnerin!

JAMESTOWN PRESS
Road to the Rhine: NKHS freshman wins trip to Germany
Sadie H... posts high score in state, top 10 percent out of 23,000 students in U.S.
BY MARGO SULLIVAN
Sadie H..., a freshman at North Kingstown High School, has become the first Rhode Islander in a decade to win a summer trip to Germany, according to the American Association of Teachers of German.


Sadie, 15, will travel overseas this summer and will attend a gymnasium, which is the German equivalent of a U.S. high school. During the trip she will live with a host family. On weekends, she will visit historic and cultural landmarks.

“I’m hoping to go to Rheinland Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate) where I was born,” she said. “I’d like to see Berlin. It’d be really cool to see the Black Forest where all the fairy tales come from.”

Sadie, daughter of Phil and Bonnie H..., was born in Germany while her father was stationed overseas. Her father is a professor at the Naval War College in Newport. The family moved to Jamestown three years ago. Before coming to the island, Sadie also lived stateside in Boston, Alabama and Alaska.

Sadie lived in Bitburg, Germany, near Luxembourg, until she was 3, but didn’t start learning to speak German until last summer. She was awarded a scholarship from the North Kingstown High School German Club to study at summer camp.

The scholarship is given to an eighth-grade student and was offered for the first time last year, according to Ruthann Baker, North Kingstown High German teacher.

“I was the only one who applied,” Sadie said. She had been studying Spanish at Lawn Avenue School, but when she heard about the summer program scholarship, she decided to go after it.

“I thought it would be great to learn German because I was born there, and my mom speaks German,” she said. (Her mother learned German while studying at Wake Forest College and traveled to Germany as an exchange student.)

Sadie won the German Club scholarship and traveled to Minnesota in July by herself – as an unaccompanied minor, her mother said. And although she could have opted for a weeklong camp, Sadie stayed in Minnesota for about a month. She was determined to learn enough German to pass the beginner’s test.

“This camp gave me the equivalent of German I,” she said, meaning she learned as much as a student who had completed one year of high school German. “I wanted to be able to pass the course and leave with more than (knowing how to say), ‘My name is Sadie. I speak German.’”

Sadie went right into the second level of German at North Kingstown High, and she has been able to handle the assignments.

“It was easy,” she said.

At camp, Sadie signed on for four weeks of near immersion in German language and culture. The camp was a miniature German village with German street signs and German architecture. Also, the campers could speak English to friends, but the counselors only spoke in German and would not answer any questions in English.

She and the other students literally had to sing for their supper, she said. The counselors would not let them eat until they sang “We are hungry” in German. Fortunately, she liked the food. They ate sausages, German pasta, salads and bread.

She also attended classes at the camp.

“We had three one-hour classes each day,” she said. Much of the instruction was conversational German, but the students also learned grammar.”

Sadie wrote a children’s book in German as one of her projects. “It was about a fish that got lost,” she said. She also helped produce a German video and a German podcast.

Sadie wants to consider a future career with the U.S. state department. Although she’s young to be thinking about college, she is sure about continuing with her German studies.

Sadie is among 44 students nationwide to win the all-expenses paid trip, funded by a grant from the Federal Republic of Germany.

“This program gives students the chance to experience Germany firsthand by living with a German family and attending school,” said Keith Cothrun, the executive director of the German teachers’ association. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The scholarship competition started in January with a test – the 2012 National German Exam for high school students. Some 23,000 students nationwide took the exam.

“I placed in the top 10 percent, so I was given a chance to apply for the scholarship to go to Germany,” Sadie said. Sadie’s test score was tops in Rhode Island in her category.

Then she was evaluated on her writing. She was asked to write a letter in German to a prospective host family. She also produced short essays, also in German.

“I had to write about myself,” she said. For example, one assignment called on her to spell out everything she hoped to gain from the summer study program abroad.

She also wrote an essay in English about German-American foreign relations, her mother said.

Finally, Sadie passed a one-on-one interview conducted all in German with Professor Norbert Hedderich, chairman of the University of Rhode Island’s foreign language department. He directs URI’s German summer school program and serves as president of the R.I. chapter of the German teachers’ association.

The interview lasted half an hour, she said. “We pretty much talked chitchat,” she said.

The details of her itinerary are to be announced, she said, but she will board a plane June 27 at Newark International Airport and will live in Germany for a month.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Die Lorelei von Dani Fine



Und? Ist das nicht ein feines Lied von Herrn Fine?

Ich bin stolz auf (proud of) dich, Dani!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Lauras Stern...Hier Folge 30, der UMZUG (The Big Move)

Ich finde diese Serie sehr süß. Laura steht sehr auf Sterne.




Der Stern hilft alles, und auch der Schutzhund.

Uwe Kind: 2-way Prepositionen



Sind alle wechselhafte Präpositionen dabei?

Wir gehen gern INS Kino.
OK, warum denn ist Gino IM Kino (und warum ist Vater IM Theater)?