Plenty of German words have made their way into the English language — kindergarten, gesundheit, zeitgeist, kitsch, kaput, poltergeist, angst — just to name a few. Even words like über, Wunderkind, and Schadenfreude have become trendy among hipsters and urbanites. This definitely makes learning German vocabulary all the easier for me (grammar is another thing …
Category: Expat Life
Expatriate Blogging
When I settled into Hamburg this past Fall, I sought out expat blogs in Germany just like I sought out my favorite markets, routes to work, and routines of daily life. Plugging into a community of other expatriates – whether it be the network of research fellows in my program, the other students in my …
Sprechen Sie Englisch?
One of the “perks” of being the only native English speaker at work is that I am often approached by colleagues to double-check their written English for research abstracts or articles.* Although it sounds like a pain, I actually kind of like it. Since independent research can be, well, independent, I welcome the opportunity to …
Creamy Lentils with Potatoes
Awhile back I bought myself some German cookbooks. Although I regularly read wonderful food blogs in English (e.g, Everbody Likes Sandwiches and Pinch my Salt), I find it difficult to translate both the measurements and the English into German — especially for those items that I would not recognize even in an American grocery store. …