Frau meets Deutsch

Learning a language is much easier if you actually use the language, get to know the culture better and do stuff on your own. My own experience is that I learned English at school, but then I started to watch a lot of stuff on YouTube, watch as many movies as possible in English and read in English and became top of the class. 

This masterposts consists of my favorite German things. I added some more stuff, so not all of this is what I am usually interested in, but they are mainstream and classics that everyone knows. 

I’ve always wanted to do a masterpost of german stuff I would recommend to those who want to learn German or more about the german language :)

So, stay tuned for my personal recommendations! (links are bold)

Listening

Radio:

N-JOY (northern Germany)

1LIVE (Northrhine-Westphalia) (these two are only the hitradio stations, for younger people. If you want something else, look through the different stations of the WDR and the NDR)

DASDING.de (the livestream is easy to find)

SWR3 

MDR Sputnik 

Kiraka (for the kids)

Podcasts:

Ohrenbär: stories for children

Sanft & Sorgfältig (cancelled, but you can still listen to every episode): the hosts, musician Olli Schulz and comedian Jan Böhmermann discuss lots of different topics (they are funny and down to earth, but speak very fast, so this one is nothing for beginners)

German music:

Pop/Rock: Sarah Connor (Album: Muttersprache)  Andreas Bourani Silbermond Olli Schulz AnnenMayKantereit Spotify Deutschpop playlist

Rap/Hip Hop: Alligatoah Namika Kollegah K.I.Z.  Karate Andi Genetikk Cro Dendemann German Rap Playlist 1  German Rap Playlist 2 History of German Rap

Reading

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) (really a lot of coverage of diverse topics)

taz.die tageszeitung  (more progressive)

Die ZEIT (really huge tbh, but interesting stuff about so many topics)

Spiegel Online (one of germany’s most famous news magazins)

Die Welt (more conservative)

BILD.de (boulevard press, but the language is easy and the articles aren’t too long I guess) 

BuzzFeed Deutschland 

Watching

News

tagesschau    tagesthemen (ARD)

ZDF heute       ZDF heute-journal 

TV shows

Die Sendung mit der Maus (For children. Information and entertainment. It’s a classic and pretty much everyone’s childhood)

Wissen macht Ah! (For 9-12 year olds whose childhood was Die Sendung mit der Maus and who are not ashamed. I used to love this show.)

Tatort (a crime series, THE german classic. Every bigger german city has its own team. I personally recommend Münster)

heute-show (Satire in the style of a News TV show with an audience. Inspired by the Daily Show. Hosted by Oliver Welke, starring many other German comedians, check them out if you like them. 10/10 would recommend.)

PussyTerrorTV (Cabaret by Carolin Kebekus. Not the most famous thing but I love it and she deserves to be on this.)

NEO MAGAZIN ROYALE (Late night. Hosted by Jan Böhmermann. For younger people, as I said he speaks very fast. Don’t watch this if you don’t understand satire. Also featuring Dendemann from earlier on this list. Listed because it’s one of my favorites. If you want to get to know the style of the show, some of the songs are in English (x) (x) (x))

I would love to show you Circus Halligalli, it’s one of the best things on german television and very funny, but its rights belong to ProSieben, a private TV station, which means you cannot watch it online. But here is what came before: NeoParadise (late night and comedy, starring Joko Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf)

(yeah, the only stuff I watch on TV is news and comedy.)

YouTube 

Rocket Beans TV they someohow brilliantly manage to blend the lines between TV and vlogging which is really cool, check them out!

SPACE FROGS / SPACE RADIO two guys from Berlin. Comedy, commentary on different topics, cooking, gaming and much more.

theclavinover  synchro, music, comedy and more

Sarazar gaming 

Joyce Ilg a nice vlogger

LeFloid news coverage and commentary, talks VERY fast

In the last part of this series, we’re dealing with the neuter nouns.

Neuter ALWAYS:

all alphabets (s A, s B, s C)

all colours (s Blau, s Rot)

all languages (s Deutsch, s Englisch)

all nouns derived from infinitive verbs (s Laufen, s Kaufen)

all nouns derived from adjectives (s Gute, s Schlechte) 

all nouns beginning with Ge- that represents a collection of something (s Gebirge, s Gewässer)

nouns with the diminutive ending -chen (s Mädchen, s Zettelchen) -lein (s Fräulein, s Kindlein)

nouns with the ending -ett (s Tablett, s Ballett) -in (s Benzin, s Nikotin) *-ing (s Doping, s Multitasking) -ma (s Thema, s Schema) -ment (s Experiment, s Kompliment) EXCEPT: the noun “Moment” which can be both masculine and neuter depending on it’s meaning (masculine when it means “in that instant”, neuter when it means “factor/circumstance/aspect”) -o (s Auto, s Büro)

USUALLY:

nouns with the ending: -um (s Museum, s Studium) BUT: r Reichtum, r Rum

lingvo.info is a cool, free website all about European languages & linguistics in general.

There are four main sections to the website:

es geht um die Wurst - the sausage is at stake - it’s now or never, it’s neck or nothing

die Wurstigkeit - sausage-y-ness - a noun that describes the feeling of not caring about something

Das ist mir Wurst - that’s sausage to me - I don’t give a shit

der Schlaf = sleep

trunken (short form of betrunken) = drunken, intoxicated, inebriated