Konjugation Galore!

Hallo! The German class last Saturday was AWESOME! It was my first day with Frau Nerri (The teacher/Die Lehrerin). I was originally scheduled to take the Intro Deutsch in another class but chose to be with Frau Nerri instead.

Nevertheless, I joined the class which is on its 3rd meeting! I was a bit excited for she speaks fluently in German/Deutsch. One thing that surprised me was that, she seldoms speaks in English, instead, she monopolizes the discussion with phrases and statements in naked German! :-D

At first, she entered the room and bombarded us with questions about our assignments (at least I know what she was talking about back then haha!) but when she started asking individually, I was trembling and can't even speak even using the local dialect!

Fortunately, I was able to cope up fast with the help of my classmates and Frau Nerri herself. She was good but she left us something to do at home! Konjugation galore! Among the basic statements I learned are listed below. :-) Enjoy!

Communication in the classroom

Asking About he Meaning of the Word

Was heisßt "book" auf Deutsch? + Das Buch
Was bedeutet "Jahr"? + Auf Englisch "year".

Asking about the pronunciation of a word

Wie spricht man das?

Asking for the spelling of a word?

Wie schreibt man das?

Asking if something is correct?

Ist das richtig?
Stimmt das?

Saying you don't know something

Tut mir Leid, ich weiß es nicht.

Saying you do not understand something

Ich verstehe nicht.

Asking someone to repeat something

Wie bitte?

Asking someone to speak more slowly

Sprechen Sie bitte langsamer.

Die Lehrerin sagt...

Bitte wiederholen Sie.
Bitte lesen Sie.
Hören Sie bitte zu.
Buchstabieren Sie das bitte.
Lauter bitte.
Stehen Sie bitte auf.
Schreiben Sie das bitte an die Tafel.
Öffen Sie bitte das Buch auf Seite...
Noch mal bitte.

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Hehehe. Kind of difficult to read but the pronunciation is quite straightforward. They are pronounced as they are spelled most of the time. That's what I like about the German language. Thanks for dropping by! Bis zum nächsten mal!

Julius

Beat That! All German Nouns are Capitalised and have Gender!

Although I have been reading German text for quite a while, its just recently that I have noticed that some words are always capitalized and some are not. Searching for the part of speech to which they belong, I realized that all of them are NOUNS! (Stupid me hehe). In the same instance, I have also discovered that all German nouns have gender (German like other European languages is a sexist language ) I have been trying to get formal studies with this language though but never got the time to do so.

But then I braved the challenges of my busy work schedules (graveyard huh), and started traveling to and from Manila (Quezon City) just to attend regular Saturday Extramural classes in German! "All for the love of language," as my bestfriend Roda always say. =)

Although some parts of Switzerland ("Schweiz" in German) are German-speakers, they do not employ this standard rule by which German people have constantly praticed in their ortography. Hmm...

Well, I have collected some samples in here and you may want read them below for your personal information hehe. In the words of Hyde Flippo (regular contributor of German.about.com):

German nouns (a person, place or thing, Substantive) are very easy to spot: they always begin with a CAPITAL letter! German is the only world language that capitalizes all nouns. Although there has been debate over the years about doing away with this rather inefficient practice, for now ALL German nouns must begin with a capital letter. Whether we are talking about a simple tree (ein Baum) or Deutsche Bank, any noun is capitalized in German.

The other important thing for English-speakers to understand about German nouns is the matter of gender. Just as we learned about the pronouns in the previous lesson, German nouns parallel he, she and it (er, sie, es) by also being masculine (der - DARE), feminine (die - DEE) or neuter (das - DAHSS). We can see the parallel very clearly by the ending letters for each article/pronoun: der = er, die = sie, das = es.

Der, die and das are the same as "the" in English – the DEFINITE ARTICLE. In German the definite article is much more important than it is in English. For one thing, it is used more often. In English we might say: "Nature is wonderful." In German, the article would be also be included: "Die Natur ist wunderschön." So knowing which article to use becomes even more important!

Whew! Hail to that not-so-amazing-discovery hehe. =) There are more to come as I take on the journey to the wonderful world of German language! Hmm... I am considering Russian as well in the next cycle. =)

Julius

Drinking joins smoking as cancer risk

THE DANGERS OF ALCOHOL AND CIGARETTE SMOKE

Its pretty interesting to note that most people who are in the business of providing care to the ailing population are the first one who violates what they preach. =( I just got this information from and have thought of our family doctor who is a REAL cigarette addict. I must remind you people that smoking and drinking is something worst which you can do to your body. (I drink a lot hehe) but then I don't smoke lest allergies will start erupting and manifesting on my already devastated skin! =) Read on the interesting news from CNN below. Enjoy!

Julius

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LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Along with smoking and chronic infections, alcohol consumption is an important cause of several types of cancer, researchers said on Monday.

Excessive drinking raises the risk of cancer of the mouth, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon and breast. It may also be linked with cancer of the pancreas and lung.

"Alcohol is underestimated as a cause of cancer in many parts of the world," said Dr Paolo Boffetta of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France.

"A sizeable proportion of cancer today is due to alcohol intake and this is increasing in many regions, particularly in east Asia and eastern Europe," he added in an interview.

Boffetta and Mia Hashibe, who reviewed research into the link between alcohol and cancer, found the more alcohol consumed, the higher the risk of developing cancer.

But they advised people to drink moderately, rather than give up alcohol completely, because of its protective benefits against cardiovascular disease.

"Total avoidance of alcohol, although optimum for cancer control, cannot be recommended in terms of broad perspective of public health, in particular in countries with high incidence of cardiovascular disease," Boffetta said in a report in The Lancet Oncology journal.

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