Most of the time you were on point - wow. I wish I could say "squirrel" in english as good as you say "Eichhörnchen" in German. The one I noticed where you had difficulties to pronounce it correctly was "Kuchen" (cake) vs. "Küche" (kitchen). There you often said "Küchen" (kitchens) instead of "Kuchen" (cake). The other word I noticed was "Mandeln" (almonds) - there you spoke it like "Mendeln". Just comparing to "Kartoffeln", where you correctly spoke the "a" letter within. In regards of the translation I noticed you translated "Umfeld" to "environment". I'd say "Umfeld" is rather "surroundings" - more specific to a small, local area. Environment would rather be "Umwelt" - so just one different letter... Besides this your pronounciation was really impressive. 👍🏻 Maybe another word to try - match box -> "Streichholzschachtel" or its diminutive form (e.g. little match box) -> "Streichholzschächtelchen". Or make a short video in German on a topic you like to speak about. It for sure would help to get into the flow...
Happy Friday. 🙂 Thank you for the notes. Cake and kitchen are extremely hard for me. Good tip on Umfeld. Also I never New the different between that word and Umwelt. They sound similar when pronounced, but now that I looked them both up I see how surroundings is a better fit. I like the video idea and I am currently trying to pronounce little match box without success.
@@thestaceyminks If your attempts on "Streichholzschächtelchen" are fails so far I'd recommend you seperate the different logical parts on purpose and put them together again piece by piece after you're satisfied with the beginning parts: "Streich - holz - schäch - tel - chen". 🤪after reading that I found I wrote "Streicholscöchtelchen" in the unedited first attempt - so you see, you're not alone. Fingers can be just as obstructive as tongues - even to a native speaker in their own language. Btw: if I get to a tongue twister or my tongue refuses to do as told by my brain I always use _one_ word to restore order to my vocal system: "Heu - wä - gel - chen" (Heuwägelchen - little cart filled with hay)😁💛. Helps me all the time. Maybe you have a similar tool in English.
Hi Stacey, you found interesting "Eselsbrücken" (literal translation for a quick laugh: donkey bridges) or mnemonic bridges to emulate our pronounciation quirks👍💛. Deriving the "ts" from a snaredrum sound is quite ingenious - never thought of that myself. The "ch" sound is a little difficult, I agree. But there are three things to say about it: 1) even we Germans pronounce it differently when for example referring to china - you may hear the cat hissing sound, a "k" sound or even an "sch" sound, depending on the local region you live in; 2) some words, especially medical terms, that start with a "ch" are exclusively pronounced as a "k", eg. "Cholesterin" (cholesterol). So you see that there is always an exception to the rule... 3) Be glad your husband isn't Dutch or Swiss, because in those countries you'd also have to add a snaring guttural sound to the "ch"😉💛. A great way to learn the Umlaut "ö" is to listen to a children's cartoon "Benjamin Blümchen", an elefant character who constantly says "tööröööööö" (emulating the elefant's trumpeting sound). Look it up and listen to it and you'll be a master of "ö" in no time. If you have to say "Eichhörnchen" just remember that besides native English speakers noone is able to properly pronounce "squirrel" either😁💛. But you could add to the complexity of pronouncing "Eichhörnchen" if you add "-schwanz" to it "Eichhörnchenschwanz" (a squirrel's tail) and then listen to it in a Bavarian's dialect: "Oachkatzerlschwoaf" (have fun trying *that* one). In regards to "schon" and "Ofen" a tip that might help to improve might be to consciously force yourself to stay a little longer on the "o" than you normally would, so that your pronounciation goes a little in the way you would say "ohne", You missed a little on "Kuchen". The "u" is more like the English exclamation when being surprised, as in "ooh". "Umfeld" is more like "surroundings" - "environment" translates as "Umwelt", difficult words because they almost sound the same when spoken rapidly...💛 🤣Your examplary sentences were on the edge of tongue torture for you, I guess🤣. But they really sounded quite good! In all your efforts please remember that non English speakers have similar problems with your mother tongue, most of all with the "th". And it becomes an almost unachievable task if you add an "s" to it like in "youths" And I can only congratulate you on overcoming any inhibitions of talking German.Yes, it is difficult and yes again, you might sound a little funny sometimes. But that's totally ok! More often than not you'll hear "Sie sprechen aber gut deutsch" and people will recognize and applaude your effort to speak their language. And don't get discouraged if you meet one of the idiots the world unfortunately has to endure who tries to put you down - just flip them off mentally! Second to final I want to renew my recommendation of Lauren Angela's channel: Lauren Angela _ auf Deutsch. She's a Floridian married to a German with an interesting story and a top notch German pronounciation. Watch her videos and maybe contact her for tips or collaborations. She's a very nice person and after really tanking for a while in regards to views and subscibers her channel literally exploded in the last month or so. But I'm very sure she'd be happy to come into contact with a fellow American who is a little behind her in the department of German language skills. And finally: I don't want to come across as the stereotypical German smarta** with my comment but I felt you invited your audience to put your German skills to scrutiny. So that's what I did. I didn't want to be obnoxious, though. If I failed at that, I apologize. Have a nice rest of the weekend and a nice upcoming week.💛💛💛
Awww the fun German expression. I love them! The so called donkey bridge is a new one for me. Interesting about the “ch” dialects. Here in our local dialect it is more of a “sch.” I actually didn’t know there was exceptions to the “ch.” Funny you mention Benjamin Blümchen as my husband just brought the cartoon up yesterday for the first time as he use to watch it as a child. Thanks for the tip, I’ll give it a go. The Bavarian squirrel is a tongue twister. Lol. Hard fail! 😂 Thanks for the U and O tips! You weren’t the only person to mention “Umfeld” vs. “Umwelt” Although surrounding can also be swapped with the word environment in English I must admit they sound so similar I think I mixed them up. 🫠 Tongue torture is a good explanation. Lol. Maybe I should ask for sentence recommendations from native Germans and then try to speak. Good point that it works both ways when other people are learning English. “ths” can be hard even as a native. I would always tell my students to make a “th” sound stick your tongue out of your mouth about 1 cm and then try to make “S” sound. It feels funny and looks funny, but it helps get the correct sound and air flow feeling. Once you get use to it you can move your tongue back in behind your teeth. Actually I have to admit chatting with everyone in here has made me feel more comfortable pushing to have more conversations and I’ve noticed it’s not only made me happier, but helped me to connect more in the last couple of months. People have been more warm and inviting to me. I think non-natives just need to get past the fear of German’s are cold. People have been so much warmer since pushing harder even when I misunderstand something here and there. We was most definitely allowing for feedback. There is always a some for constructive criticism here. How else can someone improve? So thank you for taking the time and I value it! Have a wonderful weekend. 💛💛 P.S. Sometimes it takes me a while to answer because I want to really take the time to read and think about comments such as yours, but I’ll be back to respond in due time. 🫣🙂
Say it out loud in German: " Hirsch heiß ich ." Laugh or grin now when you realize how difficult the German language is to understand, because if you speak German loudly and quickly you will understand something different! What did you understand?
You might find it helpful to practice pronouncing the German alphabet. It's an everyday skill if you want to ask "Wie buchstabiert man das?" In practicing it you are reviewing some of the letter-sounds that are really different from English. Ah, bay, tsay, day, ay, eff, und so weiter. If I say the ABC, maybe I over-pronounce some of the German sounds, but at least I am reviewing how they differ from English. When I visited Germany was long before the internet, but new here on UA-cam you can find videos including children's songs about "das deutsche ABC," oder was ähnliches.
Happy Friday Jim. 🙃 This is a great idea. I did it often in the beginning, but a refresher would be good. Actually I started learning German with just a book that explained how thing sounded phonetically. Sometimes I find it more useful than mimicking things I hear online.
@@thestaceyminks Thank you for your kind response. I'm sure your German is improving quickly. The year was 1964. My hometown buddy and I, after two years of college, signed up to be Werkstudenten at a factory in Wuppertal. We were 20, so born during the war. I had only studied German from a couple phonograph records, but was super motivated. The ABC was one of the first things I learned. We signed in to our Kolpinghaus, a kind of dormitory. The Heimleiter spoke to us only in German but he spoke slowly and it seemed clear enough. Most Germans had that skill, to speak clearly. I suppose I made many language mistakes, but I enjoyed that as a kind of reversion to childhood.
In 1964, although I had never studied German in school, I had one superpower, two years of studying Latin I was not surprised by the role of case endings in German. I was told that many Germans studied Latin to improve their understanding of German grammar.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope you’re as happy wherever you are now as your experience here in the 60s. It’s interesting how you came to Germany at that time to learn German as I know a couple one of which fled East Germany at that time and went to the US. They on the opposite side never spoke German together or taught there children because they didn’t want people to know they were German at the time. It’s always nice hearing people’s stories and how different they were for everyone. I know many German’s learn Latin, however never knew it was also to improve there native language skills. Interesting.
@@thestaceyminks, thank you for your kind words. Yes, my experience visiting Germany almost 60 years ago stands out vividly in my mind. I never returned to Europe. I read or study German a little still. I have a hobby of speaking English clearly to foreigners, similar to what Germans did for me. The foreigners definitely notice! My big dreams now relate to science and maybe some travel in the USA. I appreciate your reports from Germany!
11:05 You are confusing “environment” and “personal environment”. “Um” in German refers to what is around you. UmWelt= The world around you UmFeld= Your immediate surroundings (Your street, your work colleagues, your circle of friends, in which social circles you move ... etc.) But has nothing to do with the global world.
you do pretty good Stacey, you are near to be fluently ...... but, you always will have an american accent. I am bavarian and I know always who is from saxonia or frankonia, or worse, from the "Schwarzwald" area (my cousin lives there, she has a terrible accent), and I am aware that everybody (native german) will know that I am from bavaria 🤗 accent is ok, Stacey 👍
Thank you. 😊 I love all the different dialects in German. We have it also in the US, but I’m not so aware of it as I am here. Here it seems each dialect has way more inquire vocabulary then we do in different e regions of the US. I even have a little “Badisch” dictionary full of local dialect. Maybe not the best way to perfect high German though. 😉
@@thestaceyminks this is correct, well, I know some areas (not far from me) very small towns and I have problems to understand them, anyway when they talk together.
You did fine so you are ready for the "Z" Challenge: "Zwischen zwei Zwetschgenbäume zwitschern zwei geschwätzige Schwalben" Try and have fun. Another tip and basically the next step in order to make you sound more native...try to skip the vowel in the last syllabel = native speakers are skipping the vowel of the last syllabels all the time in basically almost every word with an "-en/-eln" ending ...like for instance Hafen = Haf´n, Ofen = Of´n, Mandeln = Mand´ln, Zwiebeln = Zwieb´ln, spucken = spuck´n, Kuchen = Kuch´n...I think you get the idea.. it is kinda like as like as in English when "is not" is becoming "isn´t" where you drop the last vowel as well. and speaking of the last syllabel ..when the word ending/last syllabel is "-er/ern" that becomes an unstressed "a/an" sound ..like for instance ...Gestern = Gestan, Schwestern = Schwestan, lästern = lästan, feiern = feian, bedauern = bedauan...Übersetzer = Übersetza, Meter = Meta, Peter = Peta, keiner = keina, Teller = Tella, Hamburger = Hamburga, Berliner = Berlina, Vater= Vata, Mutter = Mutta, Männer = Männa .. also that with "-er" is as like as in English when you pronounce "mother, father, matter, bummer, manner"
As american grown up in Germany i must say: All in all very good!
Most of the time you were on point - wow. I wish I could say "squirrel" in english as good as you say "Eichhörnchen" in German. The one I noticed where you had difficulties to pronounce it correctly was "Kuchen" (cake) vs. "Küche" (kitchen). There you often said "Küchen" (kitchens) instead of "Kuchen" (cake). The other word I noticed was "Mandeln" (almonds) - there you spoke it like "Mendeln". Just comparing to "Kartoffeln", where you correctly spoke the "a" letter within. In regards of the translation I noticed you translated "Umfeld" to "environment". I'd say "Umfeld" is rather "surroundings" - more specific to a small, local area. Environment would rather be "Umwelt" - so just one different letter...
Besides this your pronounciation was really impressive. 👍🏻
Maybe another word to try - match box -> "Streichholzschachtel" or its diminutive form (e.g. little match box) -> "Streichholzschächtelchen". Or make a short video in German on a topic you like to speak about. It for sure would help to get into the flow...
Happy Friday. 🙂 Thank you for the notes. Cake and kitchen are extremely hard for me. Good tip on Umfeld. Also I never New the different between that word and Umwelt. They sound similar when pronounced, but now that I looked them both up I see how surroundings is a better fit.
I like the video idea and I am currently trying to pronounce little match box without success.
@@thestaceyminks If your attempts on "Streichholzschächtelchen" are fails so far I'd recommend you seperate the different logical parts on purpose and put them together again piece by piece after you're satisfied with the beginning parts: "Streich - holz - schäch - tel - chen". 🤪after reading that I found I wrote "Streicholscöchtelchen" in the unedited first attempt - so you see, you're not alone. Fingers can be just as obstructive as tongues - even to a native speaker in their own language.
Btw: if I get to a tongue twister or my tongue refuses to do as told by my brain I always use _one_ word to restore order to my vocal system: "Heu - wä - gel - chen" (Heuwägelchen - little cart filled with hay)😁💛. Helps me all the time. Maybe you have a similar tool in English.
Sehr gut ! 😂
Hi Stacey, you found interesting "Eselsbrücken" (literal translation for a quick laugh: donkey bridges) or mnemonic bridges to emulate our pronounciation quirks👍💛. Deriving the "ts" from a snaredrum sound is quite ingenious - never thought of that myself.
The "ch" sound is a little difficult, I agree. But there are three things to say about it: 1) even we Germans pronounce it differently when for example referring to china - you may hear the cat hissing sound, a "k" sound or even an "sch" sound, depending on the local region you live in; 2) some words, especially medical terms, that start with a "ch" are exclusively pronounced as a "k", eg. "Cholesterin" (cholesterol). So you see that there is always an exception to the rule... 3) Be glad your husband isn't Dutch or Swiss, because in those countries you'd also have to add a snaring guttural sound to the "ch"😉💛.
A great way to learn the Umlaut "ö" is to listen to a children's cartoon "Benjamin Blümchen", an elefant character who constantly says "tööröööööö" (emulating the elefant's trumpeting sound). Look it up and listen to it and you'll be a master of "ö" in no time.
If you have to say "Eichhörnchen" just remember that besides native English speakers noone is able to properly pronounce "squirrel" either😁💛. But you could add to the complexity of pronouncing "Eichhörnchen" if you add "-schwanz" to it "Eichhörnchenschwanz" (a squirrel's tail) and then listen to it in a Bavarian's dialect: "Oachkatzerlschwoaf" (have fun trying *that* one).
In regards to "schon" and "Ofen" a tip that might help to improve might be to consciously force yourself to stay a little longer on the "o" than you normally would, so that your pronounciation goes a little in the way you would say "ohne",
You missed a little on "Kuchen". The "u" is more like the English exclamation when being surprised, as in "ooh".
"Umfeld" is more like "surroundings" - "environment" translates as "Umwelt", difficult words because they almost sound the same when spoken rapidly...💛
🤣Your examplary sentences were on the edge of tongue torture for you, I guess🤣. But they really sounded quite good!
In all your efforts please remember that non English speakers have similar problems with your mother tongue, most of all with the "th". And it becomes an almost unachievable task if you add an "s" to it like in "youths"
And I can only congratulate you on overcoming any inhibitions of talking German.Yes, it is difficult and yes again, you might sound a little funny sometimes. But that's totally ok! More often than not you'll hear "Sie sprechen aber gut deutsch" and people will recognize and applaude your effort to speak their language. And don't get discouraged if you meet one of the idiots the world unfortunately has to endure who tries to put you down - just flip them off mentally!
Second to final I want to renew my recommendation of Lauren Angela's channel: Lauren Angela _ auf Deutsch. She's a Floridian married to a German with an interesting story and a top notch German pronounciation. Watch her videos and maybe contact her for tips or collaborations. She's a very nice person and after really tanking for a while in regards to views and subscibers her channel literally exploded in the last month or so. But I'm very sure she'd be happy to come into contact with a fellow American who is a little behind her in the department of German language skills.
And finally: I don't want to come across as the stereotypical German smarta** with my comment but I felt you invited your audience to put your German skills to scrutiny. So that's what I did. I didn't want to be obnoxious, though. If I failed at that, I apologize.
Have a nice rest of the weekend and a nice upcoming week.💛💛💛
Awww the fun German expression. I love them! The so called donkey bridge is a new one for me.
Interesting about the “ch” dialects. Here in our local dialect it is more of a “sch.” I actually didn’t know there was exceptions to the “ch.”
Funny you mention Benjamin Blümchen as my husband just brought the cartoon up yesterday for the first time as he use to watch it as a child. Thanks for the tip, I’ll give it a go.
The Bavarian squirrel is a tongue twister. Lol. Hard fail! 😂
Thanks for the U and O tips!
You weren’t the only person to mention “Umfeld” vs. “Umwelt” Although surrounding can also be swapped with the word environment in English I must admit they sound so similar I think I mixed them up. 🫠
Tongue torture is a good explanation. Lol. Maybe I should ask for sentence recommendations from native Germans and then try to speak.
Good point that it works both ways when other people are learning English. “ths” can be hard even as a native. I would always tell my students to make a “th” sound stick your tongue out of your mouth about 1 cm and then try to make “S” sound. It feels funny and looks funny, but it helps get the correct sound and air flow feeling. Once you get use to it you can move your tongue back in behind your teeth.
Actually I have to admit chatting with everyone in here has made me feel more comfortable pushing to have more conversations and I’ve noticed it’s not only made me happier, but helped me to connect more in the last couple of months. People have been more warm and inviting to me. I think non-natives just need to get past the fear of German’s are cold. People have been so much warmer since pushing harder even when I misunderstand something here and there.
We was most definitely allowing for feedback. There is always a some for constructive criticism here. How else can someone improve? So thank you for taking the time and I value it!
Have a wonderful weekend. 💛💛
P.S. Sometimes it takes me a while to answer because I want to really take the time to read and think about comments such as yours, but I’ll be back to respond in due time. 🫣🙂
Say it out loud in German: " Hirsch heiß ich ." Laugh or grin now when you realize how difficult the German language is to understand, because if you speak German loudly and quickly you will understand something different! What did you understand?
👍👏
Hi Arno - Grüße in den sonnigen Norden 👋🏻
@@Opa_Andre Hi Andre! Grüße aus dem Nord
Ufer des Bodensees! 😉
@@arnodobler1096 Darf ich mich im wahrsten Sinne des Ausdrucks mal dazwischen quetschen? Viele Grüße an Euch beide aus Giessen😉🙇♂
@@flamedealership Hi, natürlich. Grüße zurück
@@flamedealership Auch von mir viele Grüße nach Giessen
You need the make a video about the German customs that have now come back with you
That’s a great idea.
You might find it helpful to practice pronouncing the German alphabet. It's an everyday skill if you want to ask "Wie buchstabiert man das?" In practicing it you are reviewing some of the letter-sounds that are really different from English. Ah, bay, tsay, day, ay, eff, und so weiter. If I say the ABC, maybe I over-pronounce some of the German sounds, but at least I am reviewing how they differ from English. When I visited Germany was long before the internet, but new here on UA-cam you can find videos including children's songs about "das deutsche ABC," oder was ähnliches.
Happy Friday Jim. 🙃 This is a great idea. I did it often in the beginning, but a refresher would be good. Actually I started learning German with just a book that explained how thing sounded phonetically. Sometimes I find it more useful than mimicking things I hear online.
@@thestaceyminks Thank you for your kind response. I'm sure your German is improving quickly. The year was 1964. My hometown buddy and I, after two years of college, signed up to be Werkstudenten at a factory in Wuppertal. We were 20, so born during the war. I had only studied German from a couple phonograph records, but was super motivated. The ABC was one of the first things I learned. We signed in to our Kolpinghaus, a kind of dormitory. The Heimleiter spoke to us only in German but he spoke slowly and it seemed clear enough. Most Germans had that skill, to speak clearly. I suppose I made many language mistakes, but I enjoyed that as a kind of reversion to childhood.
In 1964, although I had never studied German in school, I had one superpower, two years of studying Latin I was not surprised by the role of case endings in German. I was told that many Germans studied Latin to improve their understanding of German grammar.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope you’re as happy wherever you are now as your experience here in the 60s. It’s interesting how you came to Germany at that time to learn German as I know a couple one of which fled East Germany at that time and went to the US. They on the opposite side never spoke German together or taught there children because they didn’t want people to know they were German at the time. It’s always nice hearing people’s stories and how different they were for everyone.
I know many German’s learn Latin, however never knew it was also to improve there native language skills. Interesting.
@@thestaceyminks, thank you for your kind words. Yes, my experience visiting Germany almost 60 years ago stands out vividly in my mind. I never returned to Europe. I read or study German a little still. I have a hobby of speaking English clearly to foreigners, similar to what Germans did for me. The foreigners definitely notice! My big dreams now relate to science and maybe some travel in the USA. I appreciate your reports from Germany!
11:05
You are confusing “environment” and “personal environment”.
“Um” in German refers to what is around you.
UmWelt= The world around you
UmFeld= Your immediate surroundings
(Your street, your work colleagues, your circle of friends, in which social circles you move ... etc.)
But has nothing to do with the global world.
PS.: Welt= World - Feld=Field (ergo) UmWelt/UmFeld
you do pretty good Stacey, you are near to be fluently ...... but, you always will have an american accent. I am bavarian and I know always who is from saxonia or frankonia, or worse, from the "Schwarzwald" area (my cousin lives there, she has a terrible accent), and I am aware that everybody (native german) will know that I am from bavaria 🤗 accent is ok, Stacey 👍
Do not mistake schwarzwald with Swabia 😏
Thank you. 😊 I love all the different dialects in German. We have it also in the US, but I’m not so aware of it as I am here. Here it seems each dialect has way more inquire vocabulary then we do in different e regions of the US. I even have a little “Badisch” dictionary full of local dialect. Maybe not the best way to perfect high German though. 😉
The local dialect is Badisch which I think is different than Schwäbisch or correct me if I’m wrong. 🙂
@@haroldzentner2663 thats correct, badisch and schwäbisch is different 👍
@@thestaceyminks this is correct, well, I know some areas (not far from me) very small towns and I have problems to understand them, anyway when they talk together.
You did fine so you are ready for the "Z" Challenge:
"Zwischen zwei Zwetschgenbäume zwitschern zwei geschwätzige Schwalben"
Try and have fun.
Another tip and basically the next step in order to make you sound more native...try to skip the vowel in the last syllabel = native speakers are skipping the vowel of the last syllabels all the time in basically almost every word with an "-en/-eln" ending ...like for instance Hafen = Haf´n, Ofen = Of´n, Mandeln = Mand´ln, Zwiebeln = Zwieb´ln, spucken = spuck´n, Kuchen = Kuch´n...I think you get the idea.. it is kinda like as like as in English when "is not" is becoming "isn´t" where you drop the last vowel as well.
and speaking of the last syllabel ..when the word ending/last syllabel is "-er/ern" that becomes an unstressed "a/an" sound ..like for instance ...Gestern = Gestan, Schwestern = Schwestan, lästern = lästan, feiern = feian, bedauern = bedauan...Übersetzer = Übersetza, Meter = Meta, Peter = Peta, keiner = keina, Teller = Tella, Hamburger = Hamburga, Berliner = Berlina, Vater= Vata, Mutter = Mutta, Männer = Männa .. also that with "-er" is as like as in English when you pronounce "mother, father, matter, bummer, manner"