AMD 4 Clark Sanford

Für meine AMD, ich spiele Videospielen. Ohne Ians Idee, habe ich keine Idee für meine AMD. I thought that Ian had a great idea to play video games in German, so I thought I'd give it a try. Danke für die Idee Ian! After spiele Videospielen auf Deutsch, ich denke, ich soll immer Videospielen auf Deutsch spielen. Wenn the characters sprechen, ich verstehe nicht so viele, aber es gibt subtitles kann ich lesen. Videospielen sind spaß no matter the language. The game I decided to download was Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare in German. In the tutorial I learned a few new words such as: angriff=shoot, zielvorrichtung=aim, Maus umkehren= inverted mouse. Picking up on a few words in the sentence I was able to complete most tasks. If you are not fast enough in some tasks, the character yells "Sie waren zu langsam," which of course means "You were too slow" :(

I did have a golden moment when I was playing though. One character said "Captain Price mochten sie sehen," and it was almost like they were speaking English because without thinking I knew just what they were saying. That was definitely a great moment in my new German video game career.

AMD4, Yuntao Chen

I have been watching the TV drama "Die Deutschen" by ZDF for the last week.

Photo from Amazon.de

The first episode is titled "Otto und das Reich" (Otto and the empire). It tells the story of Otto I or Otto the great, who for the first time united the Germanic tribes and formed the Holy Roman Empire. 

The TV drama started with the death of Otto I's father, Henry the Fowler. Through a series of power struggles, Otto I was finally able to inherent the power and established himself as the king of the East Francia. The focus of this episode came when Otto I was faced with the invasion of the Magyars in AD950s. These people were very fierce horse-mounted warriors from the eastern plains of Europe. To defend the homeland of the Germanic tribes, Otto I had to summon forces from all individual duchies (Saxony, Swabia, Bavaria etc). It is said that the moment when all of these German forces united under Otto I's banner marked the birth of the German state.

In the end, Otto I successfully defeated the invaders in AD 955 in the battle of Lechfeld. He went on marching into Italy later and was crowned as "Holy Roman Emperor". From then on the empire gradually evolved into today's Germany.

This program is interesting in two ways. The first one is the language immersion. Because it is more of a documentary than a TV drama, the conversations were kept fairly simple and with abundant narratives. This definitely helped me to understand a small part of the language. The second aspect is that I am able to learn more about German history in the meantime. The culture of today's Germany evolved from the aforementioned historical times. Knowing Germany's past should be able to help me understand contemporary Germany better.

Amd 4

I decide to listen to German music. I used the site Step into German to find the number one song on the German charts and it lead me to the song "Willst du" by Alligatoah. I watch both the music video, and looked at the lyrics. I could not find a good translation to the song however. There was a list in the video and the items on the list were: Roadtrip, Super 8-look, vintage accesoirs, Dreiecke, Literarische Referezen, ungepflegates Außeres, and alkohol konsum. Es ist sehr upbeat song und es sounded like a rap song. Ich like the song ober I wish I could understand what it was saying. I will post both the links for the music video and lyrics. If you are queasy then do not watch the music video, it shows the girl throwing up multiple times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opoDBF_b-fg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrLaKM885f8

AMD4 Jessie Huang

In the previous writing assignment, Aufsatz 2, wir schreiben eine berühmte. Jetzt ich lese Google feature eine Frau und ein calculator. I didn't know die Frau, und clicked on the picture. It was Shakuntala Devi. Ich lese sie on Wikipedia auf Deutsch. Shakuntala Devi war ein Wunderkind (child prodigy) und eine indische Rechenkünstlerin. She was known as “ the human computer”. Sie wurde in der südindischen (South India) Stadt Bangalore. Ihre Vater findt sie memorize numbers als sie war drei Jahre alt. 1944 zog (moved) sie mit ihrem Vater nach London. Sie Kehrt nach etwa 20 Jaren in London. The English Wikipedia gave more information about her being able to calculate the cube root of 61,629,875, und the seventh root of 170,859,375. 1977 compete sie mit einem computer to calculate the cube root of 188,132,517. And she won. She also calculated the 23^rd root of a 201-digit number in 50seconds… It’s amazing!

Lese Wikipedia auf Deutsch is fun weil it uses simple sentences all the time. I wish I found this before Aufsatz2. I then scanned the homepage of Wikipedia auf Deutsch. It’s fun. 

AMD 4 - Victor Wang

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is Wiki Crack, or in other words surfing the Wikipedia website. For this AMD, I decided to try surfing the German Wikipedia. The first thing that I tried to do was make sense of the main page. I thought it was really cool that I could translate "Hauptseite" as main page with the help of the German that I have learned so far ("Haupt-" from "Hauptfach," and academic major, and "Seite" is a word that we use all the time in class). I noticed that the page confirmed a stereotype of the German language: there are lots of VERY long words. There was a box that I had never seen before on the German main page that said "Kürzlich Verstorbene." Although I did not know what it meant at first, I eventually pieced together from the persons listed in the box that "Kürzlich Verstorbene" is the German equivalent of "Recently Deceased." It was a feature that I never saw on the English Wikipedia, or at least never had a whole section devoted to deaths. It seemed a little morbid.
After the main page, I searched for University of Michigan because of school spirit. I quickly found out that our school name was translated as "Universität Michigan." The page's most recent statistics were for 2012. I found that I could read most of the summary at the top of the article by piecing together all of the German I have at my disposal and using cognates. The page summarized U of M pretty well and there were lots of pictures. Finally, the very last section of the page mentioned that U of M has a partnership with a university in Tübingen. I immediately thought of Anna Adler from Vorsprung.

AMD 4; Sriram Sivakumar

Für mein AMD4, I tried to do alot of things. First ich sehe the tintin movie trailer in German. ich verstehe ein bisschen what was going on. Dann ich sehe Harry Potter 2 deleted scenes im auch Deutsch. Ich verstehe wenig as well, aber ich  struggled alot.

Hier ist beide links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvDNB97woVs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIBbHZPCKSg

Ich lerne a few words and expressions after watching these a few times over and over again.

I also changed mein facebook to detusch to figure out a few things and just for the fun of it. :)

These were some of the expressions and words ich lerne and some of the words I understood.

bis jetzt- Until now

findet sie beide- find them both sie imperative

Allgemeine Kontoeinstellungen - account settings

Bearbeiten - to edit

Suche nach Personen - Search for a person

Was machst du gerade?- What is on your mind

AktivitätenProtocoll - activity log

Bezeihungsstatus- Relationship status

Maschinenbau - Mechanical engineering

Startseite - Homepage

Dieses were some of the Worte and expressions I learnt from this AMD.

Danke!

AMD4, Michael Nizinski

For this AMD, I made a live mocha account. I did the lessons, which were very easy at the beginning and then became harder to understand because they really don't tell you what to do. I do think this is a great learning tool. You are able to earn money depending on how good you do and buy more lessons. Also you are able to check other peoples homework or lessen and see if they done in correctly in your native language and leave a rating and comment to help them which I thought was pretty cool. You are also able to record yourself speaking and they are able to help if you are speaking correctly and pronunciations. You also learn new words that we haven't covered in the class yet. I tried finding where I can speak to someone but it told me that the feature was coming soon. Which I think once it is available for use will be a great help to continuously talk to someone in Deutsch so I will be easier to remember the sentence structures.

Michael Miller, AMD 4- Deutsch Comedy

Für AMD 4, suche ich die Komödien von Deutsche Fernseher.  Ich finde ihre humor sehr interesting.
Ich hab a hard time understanding the dialogue, denn haben wir einen klein Vokabular.  Aber es ist sehr interessant für sehen Deutsche Komödie.
Ich sehe erste the Deutsch equivalent of "The Office" heißt "Stromberg".  There were no subtitles, so I understood very little. However, I can see a dry sense of humor portrayed through the acting and the few words I did catch.
After a failed attempt at understand pure German television, I turned to Deutsch-dubbed versions of American comedies such as "Two and a half Men", which seems to be much easier to understand, since I already have an idea of the story line.   Also, I could pick up on a few funny lines.  When Alan says "Ich lieb dich, mom" to his mom, after a pause, Charlie sagt, "Ich lieb dich." und die Mutter sagt, "Zu wenig, zu spät."  Und Alan's ex-Frau, Judith sagt "Alan, ich bin Lesbisch." after he rambles on and on about how they can make their relationship work.  The humor seems to translate quite well, despite the language barrier.  I wonder how funny Germans find American dubbed comedies, however. I was sad, however, that the theme song doesn't go "Männer, Männer, Männer, Männer, Mänlich Männer Männer Männer" :)

German Comedy

Celebrities - Vic Dorn
Dating - The Noodle
Education - German Yodeling School

For my AMD4, I watched some German Comedy clips on YouTube. I watched three of them by Loriot: Celebrities, Dating, and Education. Mein Favorit war Education denn it was funny how Germans are so serious about everything, and they were just studying how to yodel in this school. Students were mostly men, and all of them were like 40s-60s roughly.

"Holleree Dee Doodle Yirh, Deeree Dee Dee Doodle Dirh, Hollerah Dee Duhdle Doh, Holleree Doo Dirdle Dee, Deeree Deeree Dirdle Doo"

Above is the basic motif of the 'Archduke John Jodle'. How can we possibly be able to write this down just by hearing it? It's so hard!

It was an acquired experience for mich to watch German comedy shows because I didn't know when to laugh, and what was supposed to be funny…

Sesamstraße - AMD4 Victor Huls

Für diese AMD, ich sah (saw) etwas Sesamstraße Episoden über Ernie und Bert.
Heir ich werde ihn beschrieben. Erste: Entenwitze – Ernie und Bert.Diese Video beginnt mit Bert, wessen [whose] Lachen ist doof und ärgerlich [annoying.] Sein Freund Ernie und fragt, “Hallo! Was ist denn so lustig?” Diese bedeutet “What’s so funny?” Berts Antwort ist dies, “Oh, Ich lese gerade [just …reading] mein neues Buch über Ertenwitze!” Ente bedeuten ‘duck’ und witze bedeuten ‘joke.’ Then there are some jokes mentioned that do not make sense to me, like the one about yellow mailboxes and “Post Erten.”
Mein bevorzugter Witz ist:Kommt die Ente in der Supermarkt. Fragt die Verkäufer [salesman], ‘was suchen Sie?’ Antwortet die Ente, ‘Quack.’ Quack bedeuten auch in Deutsch ‘cheese curd.’  hahahahaha “ist das nicht super?” = isn’t that great?
Ich denke es großartig sein!  [I think it’s great]. Zweite:

Noch ein [another] video ist die “Mannamanna” Lied. There were wenige Wörter, denn die Musik. Aber, kann man nicht so gut hören die Musik, denn of the fart sounds.
“Hey du! Willst du mit unsern Liedsing?” which means, “Hey you! Do you want to sing with us?”Wenn findest du in(am/im/an/bei?) Karaoke, du kannst freundlich und gesellig sein. Vielleicht, wirst du werden [!?!] Glück haben, und ein date finden.

AMD 4 - Luc Hildebrand

AMD 4

Für Amd 4, lese ich rezepte aus “www.chefkoch.de”. Ich schreibe über meine Lieblingsrezepte, und ich machte ein Menü mit die Rezepte.

 

Das Frühstück

Pfannkuchen. Gemacht mit Kartoffelmehl, Maisstärke, Eier, Milch, Traubenzucker, und Pflanzenöl

-oder-

Eier mit Toast. Ihre Wohl von Rührei, Spiegelei,  oder zwei hart gekochtes Eier, und Weißbrot oder Vollkornbrot mit Butter.

Das Mittagessen

Die Vorspeise: Chili con Carne. Gemacht mit Hackfleisch, rote Chilischoten, Zwiebeln, Knoblauch, Kreuzkümmel, Chilipulver, Tomaten, Kidneybohnen, Zimt, Salz, und Pfeffer.

Das Hauptgericht: Gefüllte Pizzabrötchen. Gemacht mit Mehl, Wasser, Olivenöl, Salz, Zucker, und frische Hefe für den Tag. Für die Füllung es ist gemacht mit Kochschinken,  dünn geschnitten Gouda Käse, Olivenöl, Basilikum,  und Oregano.

Das Abendessen

Die Vorspeise: Cremige Kürbisuppe. Gemacht mit Kürbisfleisch, Möhren, Kartoffeln, Zwiebeln, Butter, instant Gemüsebrühe, Milch, Salz und Pfeffer

Das Hauptgericht: Ungarischer Gulasch / Pörkölt. Gemacht mit Gulasch vom Schwein, Zwiebel,  Knoblauchzehen, Tomatenmark, instant Brühe, Paprikapulver, Pfeffer, und Salz

Die Nachspeise: Fruchtiger Apfelkuchen. Gemacht mit Mehl,  gemahlen Mandeln, Backpulver,  Salz, Zucker, Vanillezucker, Butter, Eier,  Äpfel, Puddingpulver, Zimt, und ungesüßt Orangensaft.

AMD 4

AMD 4 Jake Prosyniuk

For the last week or two I have been using Facebook in Deutsch just to get used to seeing the language in my everyday life. At first I was completely lost, but now I am able to navigate the site just well as I could in English. I've grown used to seeing the "Willkommen bei Facebook" tab at the top of my browser, where I can flip over, type in my E-Mail oder Telefon und Passwort und Anmelden, oder Ich kann click "Passwort Vergessen?" I have become familiar with seeing "Was wachst du gerade?"on meine Startseite. Instead of being able to "Like," "Comment," oder "Share," Ich kann "Gefällt mir," "Kommentieren," oder "Teilen."

Where it would have said "SoAnd So posted 53 new pictures to their album Doing Something," it now says "SoUnd So hat 53 neue Fotos zu dem Album Machen Etwas hinzugefügt." Instead of being "Tagged," people are "Markiert." My profile isn't a "Timeline" sondern "Chronik." My Chronik says "Studiert hier: University of Michigan," "Wohnt in Ann Arbor" und "Aus Birmingham," und Leute kann see my favorite Musik, Filme, Fernsehsendungen, Bücher, und Spiele. I can look at "Fotos von Dir" und "Deine Fotos," and choose to "Als Profilbild verwenden." I still don't understand some of the things on my page, like Vergangene Veranstaltungen, which shows Events I've attended, but I don't know exactly what it means.

I don't plan on changing the language back anytime soon, I'm just going to keep using the Deutsch versions of websites so that the language becomes a bigger part of my life and is more natural to work with.

AMD4 Kevin Hergenreder

Nena - 99 Luftballoons

99 Luftballoons, uda 99 Balloons in Englisch ist ein popular Song in Deutschland. I tried to listen (hören) zu das Song and verstehen. I first listened to the song without looking up the songtexte (lyrics) in Deutsch or Englisch. I found that I was able to understand wenig von das Song. I think listened to the song while reading the songtexte in Deutsch. Ich verstehe mehr songtexte. 

Songtexte:

Hast du etwas Zeit für mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst du vielleicht g'rad an mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Und dass so was von so was kommt

99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Hielt man für Ufos aus dem All
Darum schickte ein General
'ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher
Alarm zu geben, wenn es so wär
Dabei war'n da am Horizont
Nur 99 Luftballons

99 Düsenjäger
Jeder war ein großer Krieger
Hielten sich für Captain Kirk
Das gab ein großes Feuerwerk
Die Nachbarn haben nichts gerafft
Und fühlten sich gleich angemacht
Dabei schoss man am Horizont
Auf 99 Luftballons

99 Kriegsminister -
Streichholz und Benzinkanister -
Hielten sich für schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen Krieg und wollten Macht
Mann, wer hätte das gedacht
Dass es einmal soweit kommt
Wegen 99 Luftballons

99 Jahre Krieg
Ließen keinen Platz für Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt's nicht mehr
Und auch keine Düsenflieger
Heute zieh' ich meine Runden
Seh' die Welt in Trümmern liegen
Hab' 'nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk' an dich und lass' ihn fliegen

As mentioned earlier, I found it very helpful to read the lyrics while listening to the song. The first verse discusses "99 Luftballoons, Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont" - 99 balloons, on their way to the horizon. The next few lines then go on to say that people look at the balloons as if they are UFOs from space. Fighter jets are sent up to attack - but they are only 99 balloons.

The next verse discusses "99 Düsenjäger" - 99 Fighter Jets (I had to use the internet to figure this one out.) After this "99 Kriegsminister" - 99 War Ministers (also had to use the internet for this) and then "99 Jahre Krieg" - 99 Years War (I was able to figure this one out all by myself!).

"99 Red Balloons" was later released in English by Kevin McAlea and became very popular, however the lyrics are not a direct translation. I did some research on the original version of the song and found that the band, Nena, released as an anti-nuclear protest around the time that Berlin was divided into East Germany and West Germany. Between the Deutsch and Englisch version the song has been number one in the charts in over ten countries.

Link for the Song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQYQTFudrqc

AMD 4, Ian Propper

Für mein AMD vier, I, once again, entered the world of Skyrim.   This time I started a new game and entered the character customization section. Ma character could be remodeled in several ways. The top options were “Braue” (brow), “mund” (mouth), and “Haare” (hair). Within each of these basic options there were several more detailed options. I decided I wanted to look like a dinosaur, so I selected the Argonier rasse (Argonian race) with schwarz skin tone. It took me a while to figure out what some of the options were, but some were easy to discern. Terms like “hautfarbe” (main color), and “gewicht” (weight) came easily, but others like “Nasen Höhe” (nasal cavity) and “wagenknochehöhe” (cheek bones) required a dictionary. I messed with the various pigment sliders, trying to figure out what each one meant, and I sort of got carried away. In the end my character looked like he had been in a severe Crayola accident.

It was not my finest work.

After adjusting my look, I continued on with the intro. The beginning of the game was far more plot driven, and so I was listening allot more than I was responding.  By listening in I was able to pick out that there were two other prisoners with me, one a thief, and one an earl. The thief was killed for attempting to run, and I was saved by a Drahe (dragon) who attacked the guards. It was awesome.

After fleeing from the dragon I picked up my first weapons an eisenswert (iron sword) and a Langbow (Longbow). Then I completed the games tutorial, which was significantly harder to do in German. Before saving and turning off the game, I checked my character’s stats. To my delight I found a really long word: “Krankheitsresistenz” (disease resistance). Though, after a google search, my find was quickly overshadowed by: „Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft“.