My Shiny New Favourite German Words.

Living in a flatshare with German students, and working in a mildly crazy "Team" of teachers means I get exposed to a lot of German words that they don't exactly teach you in university. This is just going to be a short post of the best ones I've come across so far, enjoy, learn and repeat. If possible, adapt into your own language's vocabulary and use on unwitting natives in your own country.

1) Gammeln. 

      This is a fantastic verb which according to dict.leo translates as "to bum around". To avoid any awkward confusion, its better explained as what you do when you spend the best part of your day in jogging trousers/pyjamas, a hoodie and your biggest, fluffiest socks (or hausschuhe). You might venture outside, but only to the local Aldi. Being seen by friends in that state is embarrassing, but no worries, I can now at least explain the excuse for my state.

2) Weinchen. 

      Wein is...well, wine. "Chen" is a quirky part of the German language; a suffix one can add to the end of most nouns to indicate that its smaller. So weinchen is a small amount of wine. The lovely girls that live in my building taught me this word very quickly, and its a key bit of vocab before a night out with them.

3) Ätzend.

     This is a word that loosely translates as "god-awful". So not very positive but it sounds cool!

4) Wichteln.

     This is the german term for "secret santa". It is named after a small implike figure in Germanic folklore called a Wichtel (or a wight in English, not to be confused with their evil purpose in Tolkein's books) who slyly do helpful things around the house at night. Cute, eh?

5) Voll die Spassaktion!

     Couldn't possibly not put this in! This is a phrase one of the girls in my building (she'll know who she is, if she reads this) uses all the time, usually after instantaneously planning a flat party and accidentally inviting a bus load (literally, once) of people. It means "what a fun activity", but sounds way cooler (!) auf Deutsch.

6) So ist das Leben.

     A favourite phrase of one of the friendliest (if slightly crazy) teachers at school, it means "such is life" and I hear it roughly 3 times a day when at school, usually more though. Generally used at the end of a debate with another teacher but directed at me, for unknown reasons.

7) Ebenso/gleichweis

     These words mean "you too!". So if when you're leaving a shop you say to the cashier "schönen Abend noch" (have a good evening) he or she will reply with one of the above. The first time I heard gleichweis I misheard it as "ja, ich weiss", (yes, I know) which I thought was a bit dismissive, but being a scared little foreigner with no trust in her own german language ability I didn't question my own interpretation for a while. 

8) Schwätzen

    The dialect that is spoken around the area of my school uses this little gem in place of "reden" (to talk). Longer and considerably harder to pronounce and conjugate, but hey, convenience isn't high on the list of priorities when it comes to German dialects, and personally I prefer it. It's cute, don't you agree? 

9) beknackt

     I'm not sure what this literally translates as but it kinda means like 'messed up', or 'daft'. But don't quote me on this. I have yet to venture to use it myself. 

10) Pennen

        Slang for sleep, means the same as "to kip" in English. 

Hope you liked this! Next blog post up: Christmas in Trier - Voll die Spassaktion!!

The Chronicles of Beth and Getting Down the Mountain

First of all, sorry for taking so long to finish a post! I have about 3 on the go at the moment but hey, I finished this one!

Anyway,
Funny title, odd subject.

So I've alluded to it in previous posts, but the thing that triggered this post is related to the location of my school. Drawing the short straw, location wise, it is up a mountain in a small (but very friendly) village.

In the bigger town at the bottom of the mountain is a train station, which has been mentioned before in this post. Every morning I catch the train there from Trier, then get a lift up the mountain to school. Every afternoon, I frantically try and find some way of getting back down the mountain. This has varying degrees of success and has resulted in a number of "escapades", for want of a better word.

Of Taking the Bus with the Students
The most common involves me giving in and paying to take the bus down the mountain...with all the pupils. You wouldn't think this is such a big deal, but for the kids in my school it apparently is. I did it once in my first week, which was awkward enough but the good thing was hardly anyone knew who I was, so apart from a few curious looks and a half hearted attempt by one of the older students to find out who I was (I'd like to think he wasn't flirting) interest was quickly lost and I made it to school in one peice. 3 months later however, and my english club causes me to take the bus with a variety of kids from my school, including several I'd taught that day.

The bus falls completely silent apart from a few stifled giggles. Slowly, slowly, the kids creep up the bus, until I feel breathing on the back of my head. I oh-so-casually turn my head around, and there are about 20 students standing right behind me. Awkwardly I smile. The boldest shouts "Hallo Miss Thomas!" before they all explode into giggles and rush back to the end of the bus. Sigh.

Of Overly-Friendly Bus Drivers
Scenario 2 takes place exclusively on Tuesdays, when I finish after the second lesson at 9.45 am. A few weeks ago the only bridge over the Saar in the town where I take the train went under construction, so the normal 11.26 coach was replaced with a minibus. The first week it didn't show up, meaning I had to wait another hour for a bus to a completely different town with a station, where I then waited 45 minutes for an hour long train ride, returning home at 2pm. In total it took me 4 and a quarter hours to get home, nearly 3 times the amount of time I'd spent teaching.

The next week however proved more awkward, when David the 42yr old minibus driver (and owner, he was quick to add) appeared to take me down the mountain. Cue a few weeks of increasingly more uncomfortable bus rides, with questions that became more and more personal as time went on and I'd been subjected to complicated, bitter and seemingly endless stories of how and why his marriage failed. The week before last he turned to me and suggested I seemed like an interesting person and a nice change from his wife. I replied with "oh" and sat in awkward silence til we reached the train station.

Readers will be pleased to know I have since found alternative transport down the mountain on Tuesdays :)

Of Getting Caught in Snowstorms.
My school is officially the highest point of Saarland, which means I was told very early on that it is one of the worst places in the region for snow. Cue last Friday (7th of Dec), when my lift told me that by 10 am that day the snowstorm that was causing havoc in France was about to hit us, so school would probs finish early.

Before we even got to school, the snow had started, and by 9am we had 6 inches of snow. Saarland has this stupid rule that no matter how much it snows schools cannot officially shut, so its the parents' choice if they send their kids to school or not. Anyway, cue CHAOS.  By 9.45 we were verging on a foot and a half and it wasn't slowing down. Told very sternly to flee the school by my teachers, I ran to the bus stop. And waited. And waited. After nearly an hour and resembling a very life like snow(wo)man, I remembered I had a number for the bus company. Rang up to be told "Leider sieht es nicht so gut aus" (sadly it's not looking good). I trudged back to the school, to the surprise of my teachers. An hour or so later and I managed to get in the car with a teacher heading down the mountain.

Due to the careful driving of said teacher we made it to Merzig. During the trip he regaled me with his stories of living in the Student Village in Swansea uni on his year abroad and the crazy, liver-poisoning antics of his flatmates. Ah, freshers.

I made my way to my friend Katie's flat in Merzig, where bless her she put me straight to bed, me being half girl half icicle by this point, and brought me soup, pretzel, cheese and copious amounts of tea. Bliss.




These sorts of escapades sound rather annoying but hey I will always take them in good spirits. No matter how cold, irritated or mildly traumatised I am when I get home to Trier, being able to come home to lovely people and the knowledge that that evening I won't be spending alone on a beautiful but rather sparse mountain watching tv all evening makes it so, so worth it.