Langenscheidt Basic German Vocabulary

I've sometimes looked up lists of the most common one or two thousand words in use in German, but not managed to turn that into a useful technique for advancing in the language because a list of words on the internet takes some amount of processing and effort to successfully transplant into a brain.

I am trying a similar thing however with Langenscheidt's Basic German Vocabulary; it seems that they have done some of the work for me.  Strictly speaking, it is not a list of the most common words; familiarity and usefulness in everyday conversation were also considered.  It's hard to tell how much of a difference this makes to the selection of words.

The words are organised into 24 topics - each with basic and less basic words.  In total, it has 2000 'basic' words and 2000 less basic.  So it includes sections on personal pronouns and conjunctions, which may not be useful for non beginners, as well as 'public life' , 'actions and activites' and 'everyday life'.  As someone who has been slowly learning German for a number of years, however, there was barely a page from the 400 or so pages that didn't contain at least a few words I was unfamiliar with, and very few of the words strike me as being unnecessary for general usage.  For me, going through the book would be less of case of hugely expanding a vocabulary and more a very solid filling in of the gaps.  The book is large enough to be thorough and small enough not to be off-putting.  The edition I have, at least, is very easy to carry about and spend some time with when you have a few minutes.

Each word has a sentence as an example of usage and a translation of that sentence into English.  The example sentences are in general well-chosen, but in some cases unnecessary.  There is no real need for an example sentence for the word 'policeman', but we are given one.

The book is not entirely thorough and s certainly no replacement for a dictionary.  The entry for 'bescheid', for example, notes that it can be used with the verbs 'geben', bekommen, sagen and wissen but only gives an example sentence or definition of the verb with 'geben'.  Maybe 'geben' is the only usage that comes within the top 4000 in usage.

I think it would be perfect as a set of flash cards - this would match the way I like to learn and further reduce the effort involved in forcing the set of words into my brain.

I think this is a very useful resource for beginners and also good for intermediate learners looking to flesh out their vocabulary.

The joys of learning German in Berlin

I woke up at 7:45 this morning; painfully early for me and I hadn't slept too well; to get ready to go to a German lesson before work.

It was really cold, my breakfast was cold, I couldn't make tea because a friend was asleep in the living room slash kitchen, so I had a glass of cold water.  I sat in bed began to think of excuses not to go, but what little dedication I have pulled me through.

I put on my coat and cycled to the café where we meet for the lesson.  I was the first there.  I put my belongings down and went to order a drink to warm up where the employee greeted me with an almost-smile.  Now was my first chance of the day to use the skills I was patiently working towards.  "Ich hätte gern einen Americano bitte" I said in my best German.

"Want anything else with that?" he replied.  Sometimes I don't know why I bother.

Thrown in at the deep end

Germans are much more mean when they want to challenge someone from the beginning.

Whereas in England you would be thrown in at the deep end (and only of the pool), in Germany you would "ins kalte Wasser geworfen/geschmissen werden".

And whereas where an english person might jump in at the deep end, a german would "ins kalte Wasser springen".

I imagine this to be in the arctic, through a hole that an inuit had dug to go fishing through.  Maybe it's not so bad though.

Two Beer Please

My German friend said it never crossed her mind, but when ordering multiple items in a restaurant or bar, you don't always use the plural.  For example:

One beer please = Ein Bier bitte.
Two beers please = Zwei Bier bitte.

A more interesting example?  So how about two glasses of wine?   And the logic breaks down...

Two glasses of wine, please = Zwei Glas Wein, bitte,
Two glasses of wine, please = Zwei Gläser Wein, bitte.

Yup, both are fine.  That's weird.  If I'm wrong, please let me know.

Throats and Necks

I was familiar with Halsschmerzen. A sore throat, right?

Yup, but der Hals is literally the neck, but in the context of pain, means throat. So what word does one need in order to describe a nice English neck pain? It seems that Nackenschmerzen is what you are looking for.

 Also, I am told that Germans don't brownnose, but rather, brown neck. The interwebs have little to say here, but it appears that Germans looking to get in with their superiors get even more intimate than that.

-r Arschkriecher is a word and kriechen is to crawl. Like I said, intimate. I think I'll be able to remember the word 'kriechen' now though!