Interjections, the little words like 'oh' and 'hm', carry a lot of meaning in oral communication in all languages. How often do we focus on them in our teaching? For German, I recently read the poem 'empfindungswörter' by Rudolf Otto Wiemar. It impressed me with its simple juxtaposition of various interjections with the words 'the Germans'. It really has to be read aloud with appropriate intonation for full effect.

empfindungswörter
aha die deutschen
ei die deutschen
hurra die deutschen
pfui die deutschen
ach die deutschen
nanu die deutschen
oho die deutschen
hm die deutschen
nein die deutschen
ja ja die deutschen

Relevant links that might be of interest:

• Wiktionary has a collection of interjections in each language: German and English To find this in other languages, go to the main page of the Wiktionary in that language, and then look for an index of categories.


• The Canoo website has information and examples in German.


• The German Wikipedia site has even more information.

The Goethe Institute has a lesson plan on stereotypes that incorporates the poem by Wiemer.

Labels: all languages, English, german, inter-cultural language learning, lesson plan

Some online dictionaries (like LEO) offer audio files of words and some phrases. Atip's Proser is the synthesiser that is used by LEO, and by going to their website, you can also create audio files of whole sentences or short paragraphs. The pitch and speed of the various voices (three German, two American, one Turkish, one French) can be customised.

Some Australian speakers have an ingrained habit of having a rising intonation at the end of sentences. If transferred to a language like German, this has the effect of making them sound unsure of what they have said, or constantly in need of affirmation by the listener, as a rising intonation is more generally a marker of questions. I think that listening to a synthesised sentence with different voices and pitches could help students to become more aware of the falling intonation that is preferable at the end of sentences in German.

While not yet a true substitute for a native speaker, the technology behind synthesised audio files is improving, and this makes them useful for checking the pronunciation of unfamiliar words.

A much more frivolous (but fun) use is to put in a long tongue-twister. Challenge yourself or your students to beat the synthesised voice on "extreme fast"!

Labels: English, german, IT tips, teaching ideas

The German translation and English dictionary pages have been given a facelift. There are new tools there and I encourage you to try them out!

Other minor changes have been made throughout the site, including fixing an omission in the English version of the fruit bingo game. See the ESL Free Downloads page for more information. Just a reminder if you teach other languages - these bingo games only have words on the calling cards, so the sets can really be used for all languages.

Holidays are coming soon, and a major update of resources is planned. Check back regularly, and if you have your own website, please feel welcome to link to any of the html pages.

Labels: all languages, English, german, website, what-is-new

The bingo games for fruit are here! Thanks to those who made suggestions for improvements. Just go to German Free downloads or English (ESL) Free downloads to see preview screenshots and download the game sets in pdf format.

Labels: English, games, german, teaching ideas, website, what-is-new

I am not against language change! I embrace new vocabulary that is created for new concepts and things, and am fairly tolerant of regional variations in spelling, pronunciation and grammar.

I despair though, when change is wrought because someone found an aspect of language just too hard.

This seems to be increasingly the case with the use of the apostrophe in English, that humble, hard-working piece of punctuation; marker of contractions and possession.

Why does this come to mind now? Well, five years ago was the last time I had to renew my licence to drive a car, that is, my "Driver's Licence". This week I received in the mail a letter from Queensland Transport, with instructions about how to renew my "Driver Licence". Some time in the last five years, the word "driver" has become an adjective, evidently. A quick check of Google's index suggests that this aberration is only endemic in Queensland and Tasmania, so far. An alternate grammatical explanation would be that the words in "Driver Licence" were so closely linked, that they formed one concept, much like "birthday party". Nevertheless, my licence from five years ago is called a "Driver's Licence", so some official change in language policy has occurred.

However, using an apostrophe for possession is easy! Just consider this: "the licence of the driver". The apostrophe goes after the "r": Driver's Licence. If we have a noun ending in "s", plural or not, then the apostrophe goes after the "s". In all cases, an "s" is added if there isn't one before the apostrophe.

More examples: The school of the children - the children's school. The hat of Hans - Hans' hat. The bikes of the boys - the boys' bikes.

Long live the apostrophe!

Labels: English, punctuation