Heute haben wir in Kurs über das Mittelalter gesprochen. Wir haben gelernt, dass viele Leute Mittelalter Rollen gern spielen: Ritter, Burgdamen und Knechte.

…Ich verstehe die Idee gar nicht.

Ich interessiere mich für Geschichte, aber ich mag lieber lesen und nicht die Zeit erleben. Wenn ich an das Mittelalter denke, denke ich an Lord of the Rings oder Game of Thrones, aber mit 100mal mehr Bakterien… Ich würde nicht auf mein sauberes Bett und WC verzichten.

Nach dem Kurs habe ich realisiert, dass ich zu wenige Deutsch Geschichte kenne. Und dann habe ich ein paar Text über Heiliges Römisches Reich gelesen. Über Martin Luthers Reformation finde ich besondere interessant. Er hat die Bibel mit einfache Sprache übersetzt, gegen die Korruption von christliche Kirche. Er hat das gut gemacht, und eine neue Religion/Denomination geschaffen.

Aber Luther wird für Hexenverfolgung kritisiert. Ein interessanter Text von The Economic Journal hat eine wirtschaftliche Theorie über Hexenverfolgung gezeigt. Wenn Luther eine neue Denomination geschaffen hat, hatte er eine Konkurrenz in der bestehenden Kirche. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt haben Menschen von Klimaänderungen und Hunger gelitten, und möchten jemanden verantwortlich machen. Hexenverfolgungen sind gutes Business geworden. Je mehr “Hexen” sie finden, desto möglicher mehr Gläubige zu bekommen. Das ist vielleicht leider der Grund, warum deutschsprachige Länder die meisten “Hexen” getötet haben.

Lin

Das Foto zeigt die Anzahl der Opfer:

An dem letzten Tag von unserem B2.1 Kurs, unsere Lehrerin Ines hat ein lustiges Spiel gebracht, das heißt Activity.

In Activity, wir haben Karten mit deutsche Wörter, und wir müssen beschreiben, Pantomime aufführen oder malen die Wörter für unsere Mitspieler zu erraten.

In meine Meinung, Activity ist ein sehr gutes Spiel für Deutschlernen, weil wir mit viele Verbindungen neue Wörter lernen können. Eine Sprachforschung hat gezeigt: für ein neues Wort komplett lernen, braucht man 7 Verbindungen im Kopf. Zum Beispiel, Aussprechen/Klang, reale Objekte sehen oder fühlen, oder eine lustige Geschichte über das.

Activity ist lustig, wenn man mit lustige Leute spielt. Ich habe sehr nette und lustige Mitschülerinnen in B2.1, also wir haben sehr viel gelacht.

Foto vor dem Spiel – niemand ist rot von zu viel Lachen (noch)

Lin

Publish transportation in Munich is marked by rings, which are concentric circles rippling out from the city center.

There are two S-Bahns (S1 and S8) that goes to the airport, and they are designed in an interesting way. (In my mind I always picture the two routes shaping like Chromosomes). The two routes started from two opposite directions, meet in the city center with opposite direction, and goes up north to the airport together. If you are to take the s-Bahn from the city center, both platforms can have trains going to the airport.

Unlike the system in Taiwan where you have an electronic card and the gates automatically deducts the costs according to the length of your trip, Munich (Germany) do not have gates in public transportation systems. In the metro or train stations, passengers can purchase tickets from boxy ticket machines. There are ticket checking people on the train/metro/buses. They appear randomly, and if you do not have a valid ticket, you will be fined.

If you are travelling to Munich with friends, I suggest that you purchase a group ticket which is valid for 5 people. It is much cheaper than buying individual single tickets.

Overall S-Bahn system is quite convenient for travelling to the airport. However, if you have a flight to catch, I’d suggest that you look up plan B and C beforehand. Maybe the system is not too stable, maybe I am cursed. But out of the 6 times that I travel to/from the airport, it has failed me 4 times.

Last suggestion: download the DB (Deutsche Bahn) app on your phone. When delays, cancellations or change of route happen, the station always broadcast the information with German. But most of the time the language is not the issue, because when German messages come out of the old speakerphone, muffled and echoing, you will see the German people as confused as you. DB app usually has the newest possible update information.

transportation ring system:

Photo source: MVV official website

Lin

Everyone staying in Germany for a longer period of time needs to do the Anmeldung (registration). I’d like to share a story of my Anmeldung process.

After arriving in Munich, I settled in a place near Harthaus station (English pronunciation: heart-house). I knew I have to go to the local administration office to register. So (logically) I looked up “City Hall” on google maps. And I walked from Harthaus to a place called “Stadthalle” in Germering.

The Stadthalle Germering is a modern and big building, with really nice interior design, but it was empty. Seeing no information on where to anmelden myself, I asked the information center for help.

Me: “Hi! Ich möchte anmeldung…” (A1 level German)
Staff: [confused face]
Me: “Anmeldung” (showing the notes in my hand)
Staff: “Ah! Du musst ins Rathaus gehen” (Rathaus English pronunciation: haht-house)
Me: “But I just came from Harthaus…”
Staff: “I’m sure you have to go to Rathaus”

The same conversation went on for 5 more minutes with me feeling completely lost. Eventually they forced the intruder (me) out by insistently pointing to the opposite direction of Harthaus.

Eventually I learned that Rathaus is the name of local administration office. Rathaus exist in every town, and I just happened to live in the town that sounds like Rathaus but do not have our own Rathaus.

Lin

 One of the best things for studying in München is pretzel. 

I said that as an affirmative sentence, and I’m not the only one. I have met classmates who said the same about this twisted, heart-shaped bread.

The pretzels in München are called Brezn, and they are different from the soft ones from Auntie Anne’s. They are chewy like good European breads, and they are sinfully addictive when consumed with butter. All of my friends and family who have ever visited me in München got pleasantly surprised by a fresh-out-of-oven pretzel with half a centimeter thick butter in it.

You can eat them with white sausage, which is a specialty in Munich, or chew on it before your beer arrives in Oktoberfest. I grab a pretzel when I don’t have time to have lunch. People actually eat pretzel all the times. I see people gnawing on pretzels during rush hours on the train, for something quick and mess-less to eat. And I saw parents giving babies a piece of pretzel to chew on to keep them quiet and serene. 

Pretzels are quintessentially the bayerisch baby pacifier.

Lin

I’d like to share my experience learning German in DeutschAkademie in Munich.

I came in with a working holiday visa for a longer stay. For Taiwanese working holiday visa, one can stay in Germany for maximum a year. And to obtain the visa, one must have an employer or a language school to write a letter or provide a proof to the German Institute in Taipei before coming to Germany. Since my goal is to learn German, I looked for a good language course.

I found DeutschAkademie by a quick Google Map search. It has great ratings from Google Maps. One month of intensive classes at DeutschAkademie costs a bit less than 285. When I emailed them, they replied very efficiently, but eventually I choose another school for the first month because they accept credit card payment and DeutschAkademie would only accept cash or bank transfer, which are both hard for someone who is not in Germany yet.

From the second month I tried DeutschAkademie and never went back to another school. And here are several reasons why I stayed:

1. Cost-Value: Compared to schools that use fancy e-Whiteboards for teaching, DeutschAkademie uses only traditional whiteboard. However, with the help of recordings and teachers’ explanation, I found the setting sufficient and effective.
2. Hours: The program at DeutschAkademie is 3 hours per day, 4 days a week.
3. Teachers: All of my teachers in DeutschAkademie are young, but they are passionate in class, and not any less professional in terms of teaching.
4. Classmates: the students in DeutschAkademie are in general quite young. Probably because the tuition is more affordable for students and young professionals. That gives a very different atmosphere in class and in break time.

I will talk more about the teaching techniques in the next post. If interested, you can follow my other posts. J

Lin

▲ DeutschAkademie is located in the center of Munich, accessible by both S-Bahn and U-Bahn. And it has very good reviews.