The North Germany TPF Meet-Up in May 2008

[Jzero]

Thank you for extending your invitation to me, it is a bit early right now to commit to plans in 2008 but yes... I'd certainly like to attend. Sounds like a fine idea and I see that this is not the first such meeting. As far as stereotypes go, well...I am Israeli, therefore Jewish, and also a German national (meaning I have dual citizenship - Israeli and German), how's that for a stereotype concoction?

J

 

[LaFoto]

As long as you mark the meet-up on the last page of your new calendar for 2007, where there already is the overview calendar for 2008, it is good. That's all you would need to do for now (and maybe put away a bit of cash every month towards that end) ... I'll go into serious planning/organising with the beginning of the next-after-this-coming New Year to come.

And the more international the better! You know. So anyone with dual citizenships is more than welcome, they just add to the internationality !

 

[hovis]

Well if there's room for one more, and work doesn't get in the way, I'd be up ferret, as they say!

 

[Matty-Bass]

This is really crazy. The last year or so, my parents, (my dad's parents being immigrants from Germany) have discussed going to Germany sometime. Interestingly enough, May 7 is my birthday and i will be 17, so this could pose an interesting thing to bring up after Christmas! :mrgreen: You just might be able to meet me!

 

[LaFoto]

Keep in mind that it is in May of 2008 - not next year. Only the year AFTER the next!
And hovis, there is room for AS MANY as will want to come!!!

 

[LaFoto]

Bumped for H.

 

[Xmetal]

Ok boys and girls it's official:

I'm doing Germany!, I landed a full time job 3 weeks ago and i'm going to bend over backwards to save money/annual leave for this event!

Attention Fellow Aussies I will be organising the travel and logistics for this so if you are definitely going to come along please PM me and let me know so I can get quotes for travel, etc... Thanks!

 

[LaFoto]

YaY!

YaY!

YaY!

 

[ferny]

I'm doing Germany!, I landed a full time job 3 weeks ago and i'm going to bend over backwards to save money/annual leave for this event!

I someone were to fiddle with this quote and take parts out of context you wouldn't come off good.

 

[LaFoto]

Oh well, ferny, as long as it means he's coming over for the big one-week-meet-up (and you too, maybe?) anything else no longer matters ...

And Ian: I must let my friend know (who once was in Newcastle/OZ or at least not too far away from it; she knew the place when I told her that is where you're from) that you are coming, she'll want to host you (and you can then put up with two teenagers and two toddlers, heehee).

 

[hamburger]

Errm, not really in the mountains. Hochdeutsch ("High German") is the official language in Germany, supposedly best spoken and pronounced somewhere quite in the middle of Germany around Hannover (OK, one might argue) and every German does understand it and most Germans do write it

Niederdeutsch or "worse" Plattdeutsch, or lower German is a slightly different language, which, just like Frisian which they speak at some parts of the northern coast, is in parts VERY close to English! It in fact emerged from the old language of the Saxons (those people who invaded England to annoy the Romans there) and is mainly spoken (not by many anymore) on ancient Saxon terrain. This means Lower Saxony and Westfalia.

Not to mention Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Pomerania...
As a native Hamburger, I spek Platt to an extent, but it is a foreign language to me. My English is better than my Platt - in Platt that's "Mien Engelsch is beter as mien Platt".
So yes, Alex is quite right about the similarities between English and Platt.
I could fill you in on some of the linguistics here but we don't want everyone to snooze off, do we now?
(Try www.plattmaster.de for further info).

Hence you can roughly make an equation:
Lower German = English - French (Norman they called it )

or:
English = Lower German + French + centuries of isolation on an Island which somehow wrecked the pronounciation

tee-hee, I like that!

Bavarian however, is a different thing in itself,

Oooooh yeah....
My daughter is currently in Australia, a Hamburg group travelling together with a Bavarian group. One of the organizers kept tripping up and talking of "the Germans and the Bavarians"...

 

[Tangerini]

I'd very much like to attend and am starting to plan for this too
The only hiccup I've run into so far is figuring out whether or not getting my husband's passport would jeopardize his standings here in the US.

 

[GoM]

Um

Crap.

I want to go. I really do. But there's a preeeetty good chance that I'm going to be at (photojournalism) school as part of a catch-up-for-first-year thing for next May and June....



I was looking quite forward to this as well, as I was planning on getting over to the UK to visit family and I'd just hop over from there, but evidently...not gonna happen

Have fun!

 

[Xmetal]

Made it past 3 month Trial at work, Yee!

I'm still in the running, need to work out how much it's going to cost as i'm planning on buying a newer car in the next month or so.

Das Leben ist gut.

 

[LaFoto]

Can't say anything about airfares from there to here and back, but I can make accomodation as cheap as can be for you (given you want to stay with a family of six, two teenage children, two toddlers?) - so in that case das Leben could be even better .