Sunday, October 6, 2013

10 Awesome German Words

Danke, Robin Schneider.  Ganz lustig!    (Pass auf!)
(Lexical Gap)   Severed Words; Broken Hearts



10.  Backpfeifengesicht
  9.  Hosenscheißer
  8.  Schattenparker
  7.  Warmduscher
  6.  Sitzpinkler
  5.  Kummerspeck
  4.  Weltschmerz
  3.  Fernweh  (a bit like like Wanderlust)
  2.  Schadenfreude  (Avenue Q... Cinnamon Challenge?)
  1.  Sitzfleisch


Friday, October 4, 2013

Pohlmann: Für dich

Judith:  Ist dieses dein Pohlmann-Lied?  (Dein Link ging nicht.)




Tanz mit mir in Lederhosen

Mit Uwe Kind --
Versteht ihr das Lied?



Songtext:

Stämpfen, Stämpfen  Klopf - Klopf - Klopf ;    Arme, Arme, Kopf - Kopf - Kopf   x2  (Schneller x2 )


Refrain:
Schulter - Knie, Knie - Schuh,  Schulter klopfen ich und du!  
Schulter - Knie, Knie - Schuh,  Schulter klopfen ich und du!  
Wechselschritt, Wechselschritt,   Komm, mach mit!
Stramme Posen, stramme Posen, tanz mit mir in Lederhosen!   
Stramme Posen, stramme Posen, tanz mit mir in Lederhosen!


Hände Hoch!  Dreh dich um.  Watschen Watschen.  Guck ganz dumm.  (2x)   (Schneller x2)
Stämpfen, Stämpfen  Klopf  Klopf  Klopf ;    Arme, Arme, Kopf  Kopf  Kopf   x2      (Schneller x2 )

Refrain:

Jodeln..Jodelodeli Jodelodelio Jodelodeli Jodelodeli Jodelodeli Jodelodeli Jodelodeli


Linkes Knie, rechtes Knie,  laufe Schie, laufe Schie  -- x2                               (Schneller x2)
Stämpfen, Stämpfen  Klopf  Klopf  Klopf ;    Arme, Arme, Kopf  Kopf  Kopf   x2
Hände Hoch!  Dreh dich um.  Watschen Watschen.  Guck ganz dumm.  (2x)
Refrain:

Fingerschnappen, eins zwei drei ; Kicken, kicken, lauter Schrei!  x2            (Schneller x2)
Stämpfen, Stämpfen  Klopf  Klopf  Klopf ;    Arme, Arme, Kopf  Kopf  Kopf   x2
Hände Hoch!  Dreh dich um.  Watschen Watschen.  Guck ganz dumm.  (2x)
Linkes Knie, rechtes Knie,  laufe Schie, laufe Schie   


Refrain x 2
Refrain: Mit Jodeln dabei
-------------------

Was ist das Schuhplatteln?
  • 1030 im Kloster Tegernsee findet man eine Frühform eines Schuhplattlers fuer das Rittervolk. 
  • Die erste eindeutige Beschreibungen gibt es ab dem Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts.
  • 1809 sollte ein Freiheitskämpfer aus Osttirol sterben, aber er gewann seine Freiheit durch seinen meisterhaften Schuhplatteln-Tanz. 
  • 1812 in der Steiermark (in Leoben) wurde geschrieben : "..alles schlägt dabei in die Hände, auf die Schenkel, und sogar auf die Waden, tritt mit den Füßen, pfeift und lärmt nach dem Tackte..."
  • 1840 im Kreis Bruck an der Mur : "Die lustigen Burschen ... klatschen sich üfters dabey nach dem Takt in die Hände und ledernen Hosen..." (Quelle: Richard Wolfram: Die Volkstanznachrichten in den Statistischen Erhebungen Erzherzog Johanns. In: Volk und Heimat. Festschrift für Viktor von Geramb. Graz-Salzburg-Wien 1949, Anhang, S. 295)
  • 1860 tauchte das neue Wort Schuhplattler auf.
  • 1879 beschrieb A. Czerwinski (Im Brevier der Tanzkunst) wie ein Schuhplattler als Liebeswerbung tanzt
  • 1883 kam das erste Schautanz mit der Gründung der Ersten Volkstanz- und Trachtenvereine. [Die Tänzer tanzten nicht mehr nur fuer die Tänzerin, sondern fuer die Zuschauer.]

Und wo das?  ursprünglich (originally) in Bayern-Österreich-Ungarn -- und davon durch die Tanzvereine sehr verbreitet.  Das Schuhplatteln landete auch hier bei uns in Pawtucket RI  [im Haus des German American Society.] 

Auch in Australien tanzt man manchmal wie in Bayern.   HIER FINDET MAN DIE BRATWURST BROTHERS UND DIE SAUERKRAUT SCHWESTER, ja in Australia. 


Hier auch ein Video:  Haushammer Tanz.  Mit einem Stomp, 9-Hit, 12-Hit, und Endung: 

Ein Gespraech ueber den USA

Ein Radiogespraech:  Thomas Nehls, ehemaliger USA-Korrespondet des WDR - Moderation: Sabine Brandi © WDR 2012    WDR:  West Deutschen Rundfunks

Das TAGESGESPRAECH:  DIE USA IST KAPUTT

Es geht hier ueber die Warnungen der Tea Party, und ueber unsere fast kaputte Regierung.

Versteht ihr andere Sprecher?  -- Und wo waren wir politisch letztes Jahr???
(Can you understand some of the words from these various speakers?  -- And where were we politically a year ago?) 

Guten Morgen zusammen.  = Good morning everyone.
der Stillstand = shutdown
die Bevoelkerung = the populace
sprachlos =  speechless
gegen den Gesundheitsreform = against health insurance reform
ein gruenes Licht = a green light
unterwegs = en route
ein Aerger geben = to be an iritation
keine Rolle mehr spielen = of no consequense anymore
in der Tat = indeed
Anarchie = ____ !
die Schuldengrenzen = the debt ceiling
Moechten Sie etwas dazufuegen? = Would you like to add something to that?
die, die Betrieblich versichert sind = those who are insured through their employer
die Entdeckung = discovery
Sie haben doch etwas gegen den ersten schwarzen Praesident = They do indeed have something against the first black president
Wo sind die Erwachsenen? = Where are the grownups?
die Ungebildeten und die Dummen regieren das Land = the ignorant and dumb ones govern the country 
Wer wuerde auf wen zugehen muessen? = Who would have to approach whom?
Alles wird teuer = everything will become more expensive
So sagen die Experten = according to the experts

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Wer ist Angela Merkel?

POLITICS

The past that shaped Angela Merkel

Few would have predicted a political future for Angela Merkel who, many think, has little charisma and few skills to make it in the media age. ....
Data, facts and figures
It's important to know where Angela Merkel comes from to understand how she became who she is. Rarely in Germany's recent history has a politician been as underestimated as Merkel. In her TV first appearances, the daughter of a priest from the East German countryside had no concept of how to act in front of a camera. There was no missionary zeal, rather, she was a very pragmatic person.
Helmut Kohl and Angela MerkelWhen Kohl fell from grace, Merkel was ready to take over
"Merkel is not driven by ideology," says journalist Jacqueline Boysen who wrote a biography on her before she became chancellor. "She is able to take decisions based on data, statistics and facts." If reason and argument suggest a certain decision, Merkel can ignore ideology or limiting party programs, Boysen explains.
Pragmatism is what counts, and so, Merkel can also review and change her own positions. After the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, she made an about-face on her former pro-nuclear stance and began to promote the phase-out of atomic energy. Changing her position didn't lead to any political damage; quite the contrary: she has changed from being perceived as "Helmut Kohl's little girl" to becoming simply "Mom." In short: she's got a tight grip on her party and the government. And there are good reasons for that.
Lessons learnt in East Germany
For instance, there is her happy childhood and the teenage years in the former communist East Germany. Angela Merkel was no dissident, no opposition activist. She did experience the usual limitations of the socialist dictatorship but it didn't affect her. "There was no dark shadow over my childhood," Merkel once described her past. But what she probably did learn from those years was to be careful in how to deal with others. Living in the GDR taught her to be neither too opportunistic nor to dogged.
Merkel in 1992Angela Merkel in 1992 - 'Kohl's little girl'
Angela Merkel is a good listener. Others describe her as someone with good communication skills. She's got the reputation of grasping a problem quickly but taking her time to make a decision on it. "I certainly don't decide things ad-hoc," the chancellor says about herself. "I look at a process in its entirety and also look ahead where a possible decision would take me." It's the scientist in her.
No traditional political career
Merkel came to politics late. And rather by accident. She was press spokeswoman of the last GDR prime minister, Lothar de Maiziere, and it became her chance to realize her talents at organizing and communicating. She'd only joined the Christian Democrats shortly before that, but hard work and ambition got her very far, very quickly.
In Kohl's cabinet she became minister for environment and nuclear safety in 1994. It was an important political post and a fitting ministry for her as she holds a PhD in physics. Regarding the controversial issue of what to do with radioactive waste, she was certain that the risks are controllable and that there was no alternative to nuclear energy. It was only after the Fukushima accident that she changed that position.
When Helmut Kohl lost the 1998 election, the party was in shock. But not Merkel: She realized it was her chance to find a place for herself in the post-Kohl era. The new head of the Christian Democrats, Wolfgang Schäuble, made her Secretary General and when Kohl got entangled in a party donations scandal, it was Merkel who took him off his high moral pedestal.
Which direction?
Angela Merkel (photo: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images) The CDU follows her lead but many wonder where she'll take the party
In April 2000, Merkel became head of the Christian Democrat Party (CDU) and in 2005 she made it into the chancellery - albeit as head of a grand coalition with her party's main opponents, the Social Democrats. Nonetheless - Merkel was chancellor.
Today, she's been at the helm of the party for 13 years and chancellor for the last eight. Her rivals from within the Christian Democrats have all fallen one by one over those years. There's no question Merkel can lead - but the question is where exactly the party is headed under her leadership?
It's a question that many in the CDU are asking, concerned that the party is losing its edge and character; there are many who do not see Merkel as embodying the essence of the party she's heading.

Walled In -- (Einheitstag: 3. Oktober)

WALLED IN:  WHAT DID THE BERLIN WALL REALLY LOOK LIKE?

NOW THAT THE WALL NO LONGER EXISTS, HOW WAS IT RECREATED?  THANKS TO DEUTSCHE WELLE, WE NOW KNOW!

Eingemauert!  Der erste Film, auf Deutsch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlbAUFvh04k


Unity Day is a good time for us to check this out.

Was there anything that surprised you in these films?