Das Curry! Sehr Einfach!

Day 8: Urtier, primordial beast. This was one of my German professorin’s favorite words. She always translated it as ‘monster’, but other definitions are different. Any fluent speakers have any insights?

Day 16: Schauspielen! When I’m not quarantining and social distancing, I’m a trained actor! I do mainly theatre but also have done some small stuff in TV and independent film!

Kartoffellöffel: potato spoon! Always and forever my favorite word in German. #leadwithlanguages #deutsch #german #bilingual #Languagelearning #linguistics #kartoffellöffel #lieblingswort

Day 24: die Höhle. I’ve been binge watching Dark on Netflix, and honestly it’s my new favorite show. The word that constantly recurs is die Höhle, the cave. I highly recommend the show. If you love moody foreign films with a the occasional dash (or more) of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Secret Societies, and Time Travel, mixed with a juicy cop drama, then this show is so for you. And it’s all in German, so I can’t recommend it enough. I’ve watched it with and without English subtitles just to get a sense of the dialogue as it translates, and I’ve got to say it’s weirdly poetic and interesting. Anyway, Höhle!

We do, don’t we, Duo?

Day 10: Verschlimmbessern: to make something worse by trying to fix it. I think we can all relate. I had to look this one up, but it’s going to the front of my memory. I’m positive I’ll use it frequently!

Day 5: Rüpelhafte. The bar scene from Inglorious Basterds is a gem. My ear always pinned this word down when Michael Fassbender’s character was scolding a German soldier. Rüpelhafte is translated in the movie as ‘boorish’ but I’ve also found definitions meaning ‘lousy’, ‘bullying’, and ‘bawdy’. It also has a way of rolling off the tongue.

Day 13: Ja?! It fits so nicely at the end of a sentence. My favorite expression: Jawohl!

Grid population within a radius of 10km from the major rivers of France.

by @BorisMericskay

Day 20: die Geige, the violin! What are other good German instruments whose names are vastly different than their English translations?