Hi @MRGermany I am English but I live in Germany (in NRW) I have been learning to speak German for a few months but I'm not quite ready to communicate just yet!
I live in The North West, not far from Dortmund. My Wife got a job here a few years ago so I quit my job last August and moved here last November. Learning German is a mixture of easy and almost impossible. My vocabulary is improving daily, but der die das melt my brain as do all the different versions of 'you'. I am determined to learn though, but have given up using apps like duolingo or Rosetta Stone. I'm starting proper lessons later this year. I am determined though. It was our local Schützenfest this weekend just gone and I would have loved to get involved, but I had no idea what was going on and felt like an outsider.
yes " shützenfest" is a Little strange and very traditional. many People who are in such a Group joined in thier youth and act like a family
Not from Germany but I like it there. Everytime I am there I have to order a swinehaux (spelling?) that is my all time favorite!!
Do you mean a Schweinshaxe @Bound4life? I love those too, I had an incredible one in Berlin that came with the most unbelievable crackling I have ever had in my life! I'm not so fond of the kartoffelkloß that usually comes with them though.
Yes @jemima. Schwein is German for pig and is pronounced very similar to swine. The Germans are rightly famous for being a nation who celebrates the pig.
This brings an up an intriguing point. To what proportions is male chastity spread across the Western nations? I'm guessing no such statistics exist sadly.
I would be interested in finding out as well. I am guessing it is very common in Germany as we have some of the top custom brands being made here such as Latowski, neosteel and steelworxx. Keuschheitsgürtel is a bit of a mouthful though, so I think I will stick to chastity device.
@knightservant but you still have your many words that mean different things. Tonight I learnt that Weiß obviously means white but can also mean Knows! And how can Läufe mean both run and Walk! But you are right, English grammar rules are incredibly complex and confusing.
The Fork Handles sketch by the Two Ronnies is an absolute classic by masters of the art of playing with language. Not only does English have words that sound the same but mean different things, to, two, too, we also have the double entendres where words and phrases can mean different things, some innocent but others quite rude. I am finding that German does a similar thing where you have to be careful what you say. The more I learn German the more I am beginning to understand my own language and realise how much of it is words that have been borrowed and changed from others such as German and French. One problem I am having is that in trying to learn verb tenses some of them don't even exist in English or I just haven't been taught them. I am also fascinated by how sentence structure is sometimes exactly the same but other times utterly different. I'm determined not to be a typical little englander and have the attitude that everyone else speaks English so why bother learning a new language. In fact one of the reasons I want to learn German is to distance myself from all the isolationist idiots who potentially could remove the UK from Europe in a few weeks time.
I read somewhere once that it was the following based on CB sales, I don't recall the exact company cited: 1. UK 2. Germany 3. United States
Wow I'm surprised the US is not top of that. Good on the Germans for having a thriving male chastity culture
I thougt that it might have been it jasmic cos it nearly look a bit like it. we both like pork as well and crackling.
Crackling is one of the holy triumvirate of foods stopping me being a vegetarian. Crackling, slow cooked roast lamb and bacon. If those three things were to stop existing then I would happily convert. Otherwise I'm doomed to being a carnivore for life.