The North Germany TPF Meet-Up in May 2008

[fightheheathens]

tip: never order a beer from a neighboring town...
for example when in koln, do not say "I would like an Alt beer please" (alt beer comes from Dusseldorf)
no matter how good your german and cultural sensitivites, this is considered high treason....and alt beer tastes old anyway...

 

[Alex_B]

More like: "Zwanzig Biere bitte! *hic*"

Just say "Ein Bier bitte!" 20 times

 

[Alex_B]

tip: never order a beer from a neighboring town...
for example when in koln, do not say "I would like an Alt beer please" (alt beer comes from Dusseldorf)
no matter how good your german and cultural sensitivites, this is considered high treason....and alt beer tastes old anyway...

Drinking anything else than ALT means treason! Even in Cologne one should order Alt, even if this means you put yourself in serious danger.

Technically speaking Alt is top-fermented (obergärig), just like ale, which is the "old" way of doing it. Whereas boring modern lager is "untergärig".

I am definitely an ale and Alt person. Don't drink Kölsch, it is no good for you !

Beer is a serious topic in Germany!

 

[Alex_B]

Tip: For some reason they didn't like "high" German in Bavaria! :S (I don't even know what high German is... presumably they speak it in the mountains!?)

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.

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

Bavarian however, is a different thing in itself, it is spoken in Bavaria, also on the high mountains .. in fact the higher you get there the less High German you will hear. Bavarian has to be considered a secret language of Bavarians only which they speak to make sure that outsiders don't understand what they say

... ok, I guess I got carried away here, sorry

 

[LaFoto]

Quite well put, though, Alex. Quite well put!
And even though I live in Lower Saxony and was born in Westphalia, I speak only and exclusively "High German", I understand and read Low German, but I don't speak it.

And all these languages originate from Germanic languages and got divided before things like Old English, Old Low German, Old German, Old Nordic and so on began, i.e. over 1000 years ago. Low German and Frisian are quite different from each other. Frisian is a language of its own (hardly spoken by ANYONE any more).

And English got influenced by so many languages... it is a mere "potroast" of languages these days :greenpbl: ...

 

[Alex_B]

Frisian is a language of its own (hardly spoken by ANYONE any more).
And English got influenced by so many languages... it is a mere "potroast" of languages these days :greenpbl: ...

When I was like 6 years old I could speak Frisian fluently! That is because I spent months each year just behind the "Deich" and was playing with local children
I totally lost this ability However, from what I remember, it is in my eyes and as a language very close to what I know from English and from Westfalian "Platt" (no, don't "speak" that either )

And English is vastly still Anglosaxon plus French ... at least in the basic vocabulary for everyday things.

 

[Alex_B]

Just to make things worse.. there is always the old version of all this (old high German):

Ik gihorta dat seggen,
ðat sih urhettun ænon muotin,
Hiltibrant enti Haðubrant untar heriun tuem.
sunufatarungo iro saro rihtun

Enjoy

[edit: sorry, this is really off topic and not too useful to order beer in Germany .... ]

 

[LaFoto]

But don't we all LOVE the Hildebrandtslied???

OK. Now back to the planning of the meet-up.

You all get your How-To-Learn-German-In-30-Days CDs out and start to learn your lessons NOW. OK? And once you have learned so well and can order your Bier or whatever ... (no problem with "Alt" or "Kölsch" here in the North!!!), you can COME. Just come. There will be Alex, there will be me, there will be so many people who speak English, no matter if you speak German or not, just come and let's drink and sing and be merry (and maybe even take the odd picture ).

 

[tempra]

I just spent over a week going up through Germany from the south, and the correct way to order beer which never failed to work for me is "two beers please mate - make em the big ones"

Just got back from a weekend in Prague last night, and surprisingly they speak the same language there.

In the whole of my travels I only had four complaints, one from my wife, both kidneys and my liver.

2008 lets me make plans, need to find out if the kids are off school so the family can come, but we normally have a week away somewhere at whitsun.

 

[NoteGraphics]

I suddenly feel so... impure .. !!!

 

[Alex_B]

I suddenly feel so... impure .. !!!

I hope that is not because of our language talk and how the British were made from Britons, Germans, and French?

 

[NoteGraphics]

HeeHee .. Wait till I tell my Father he speaks some kind of german/french/briton language - he avoids Latin as he never forgave the Romans for invading !

Anyway - back to the meet plans - if there are enough people interested would it be possible to get some kind of group booking discount at any local hotels ? This could save folks quite a bit . . .

 

[Alex_B]

regarding thhe discount, if you really get a crowd together, that would be possible i guess .. never organised such a thing though.

 

[pacereve]

I've always wanted to go to Germany! Never really been outside of Canada. :blushing: I'll deffinately have holiday time stored away for 2008!

 

[jocose]

Heute bin ich sehr ungefähr gehend aufgeregt. Aber ich muss ehrlich sein, kann viel in anderthalb Jahren geschehen: Ich könnte ärmer sein als Schmutz, ich könnten meine Kamera brechen, oder, Schlimmstes von allen, könnte ich Interesse in Fotografie alle zusammen verlieren. Deshalb Annahme, die ich mir ihm leisten kann, und nehmend an, dass ich still in Fotografie bin, bin ich in für das Abenteuer!

Hat dies gearbeitet? Ich habe etwas anders als babelfish versucht: Http://www.freetranslation.com. Ich denke, dass es tatsächlich besser ist.