What does "kindergarten" mean? German words used in the English

GermanEnglishWords.com
This is a dictionary of some German words used in English (Germanisms), each with a literal or German meaning, English definition and actual sample sentence(s) from literature and the Internet.

A simple list can be found at http://german.about.com/library/blvoc_gerloan.htm

Remember, it's a little tricky because just because a word has been borrowed into in another language does not mean it has to have the same meaning. The word KINDERGARTEN is a good example. Let me quote from the dictionary above:

A kindergarten in German-speaking countries would actually be the equivalent of a PRESCHOOL in the U.S.
A U.S. kindergarten would be VORSCHULE in German.

And when you look up the word KINDERGARTEN in a good monolingual learners' dictionary like LDOCEONLINE you will learn the following:

kin‧der‧gar‧ten [See pronunciation table in "How to use dictionary" pages] [uncountable and countable]

1 (American English) a school or class for children aged five
2 (British English) a school for children aged two to five [= nursery school]

So as you see things are often not what they seem!

More on accents

Linguists Weigh Costs and Benefits of Accents

Listen to this interesting (and short) NPR (National Public Radio) piece about something we all have when we speak English...an accent.

American accent training

Watch some of these excellent videos to learn how to speak with more of an American accent. The teacher's name is Rebecca and she is brilliant!

Some are aimed at speakers of specific languages like Arabic or Korean, but others contain great advice for ways of improving your accent and sounding like a native.

A must for all serious language students, especially those who want to work on  "accent reduction".

Six Online Corpora

Ever wonder how a word has been used by native speakers?

All the time?

Well check out this amazing resource. I'm just getting to know it a little myself, but so far I'm very impressed.
American English, British English, Spanish and Portuguese.
http://view.byu.edu/

Is this the next great thing?

There's something about this new tool I really like.
Just type in a word or phrase in German or English and see what happens. I think you will like it!

Self-description:
Linguee ist mehr als ein Wörterbuch für Deutsch und Englisch. Durchsuchen Sie Millionen von Sätzen, die von anderen Menschen übersetzt wurden.

http://www.linguee.de/

Nik Peachey is just that!

Nik Peachey has hundreds of cool ideas how you can use Web 2.0 to learn and teach English better. I can't wait to explore them and his free e-book!


http://www.scribd.com/doc/19576895/Web-20-Tools-for-Teachers

Are you playing the piano?

I know it has been quite a while since my last post but things were, have been, and still are pretty busy at the uni. But if you're gonna have a blog, you gotta post, right?

So I'd like to kick off the season so to speak with something that has more to do with artistic expression than language and language learning, although many people say that music is the universal language.

http://www.thevirtualpiano.com/

It's so cool I have to be careful not to waste my entire Friday playing around with it. Just turn up your speakers and start making music. For those of you who had piano lessons at some point, you can jump right and start playing. Others can simply listen to their inner ear and express the music that is in there waiting to get out.

Austria is famous around the world as a Music Nation (probably not because of DJ Ötzi ...), so go ahead and start making music!

And when you are good and relaxed, pick up an English book or go to a website and read or listen to some English!

Have a great semester!

Frank

I'm not hanging noodles on your ears...

This is the funny title of a new book about idioms around the world. Some of the them are pretty humorous, even the German ones ;), especially when they are translated literally into English.



You can take a Guardian quiz here
I managed to correctly half of them. I could have guessed more had I thought like a Brit. That one about the British dinner, for example...

Have fun!

Inkblots

I found this pretty interesting, especially the comments people made on the article and the issue.

Germany vs USA

Today I was looking for a short video that explained some of the main differences between the school system in the States and in Europe. I stumbled upon a fun-to-watch youtube video channel where 2 guys talk freely about their respective countries.

http://www.youtube.com/user/walkaboutlanguages

From their main page:

What happens when you take a good'ole, Bible-belt, Mississippi conservative and an urbane, plurilingual, liberal, Euro-German and put them in the middle of San Francisco?

Germany vs. USA (GvU) explores the contrasts and joys of two unlikely friends, Jim and Alex, as they learn more about each other's cultures, languages, and the greater friendship between Europe and America. Insightful, whimsical, educational and always genuine (not to mention unscripted) the show aims to bring a slice-of-life perspective to viewers around the world.