Sometimes students say to me, "But you learned it so quickly--it was easy for you!" They hear that I became fluent in German in less than 6 months and they immediately think that I had it easy and I never made mistakes. I made lots of mistakes! Here is proof--an embarrassing story about how I mixed up my words and even though the situation turned out just fine, I was still pretty embarrassed.

Even better:  in this video you will learn how to differentiate the words that I mixed up so that you won't make the same mistake I did.

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Remember, in this situation, more is less...embarrassing. ;)

After the Grammy Awards last night one of my German students Facebooked me and proclaimed, "Sandra Bullock speaks German!" Apparently Sandra Bullock's mother was a German opera singer and Bullock grew up in Nürnberg and studied ballet and vocal arts and even sang in her mother's opera productions.

What makes perfect sense and is astounding at the same time is Bullock's German accent--perfectly representative of the area she grew up in.

Here's a video of Bullock accepting a Bambi award, an international prize awarded by the Bambi Committee for excellence in categories ranging from pop music to sports, classical music to charity.

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Netflix Streaming offers an ever-widening variety of German films and they stream with English subtitles, which is one of my most-recommended ways to learn German, second only to watching a German movie with German subtitles. One movie popped up in "Random Picks":  the rom-com What A Man.

Teacher Alex has a girlfriend named Cora, who walks out on him, and he takes a hilarious adventure to find himself, accompanied by friends Nele and Okke. It's a story you've seen before, however not like this! Plus, the film is set in Frankfurt, known for its sky-scrapers and scenic walkways long the Rhein River and that is exactly the feast for the eyes that you get in the first 20 minutes of the movie.

What a Man is rated R. There is a lot of slang and 'Umgangssprache,' so be prepared to hear some vulgar German.

The Weil construction is a tough one for English speakers. We say "because I said so," but the Germans say "weil ich es gesagt habe," or (translated directly) "Because I so said!" It's the exact opposite way in German. Watch this video and learn how to kick your verbs to the end!

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Be a verb-kicker!

Are you interested in learning more? Click here to find out about learning German online with a live instructor--at your pace!

Persian Ware, Made in Germany

Between 1820 and World War I, nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States. From 1840 to 1880, they were the largest group of immigrants. Though we had had immigrants from the German states as early as the 1670s, none of the groups were as massive as what was seen in the nineteenth century.

Though Germans were mostly eager to fit into American life, learning English as soon as possible, there was still a preference for German customs, foods, and household goods that reminded them of their homeland.

It's no secret that Germans have a lot of rules. One "rule" that has become more flexible in the last few years is what you can name your child and how you spell her or his name. Now you can even bypass the commonly-accepted French spelling of the name "Jacqueline" and go right for the German phonetic spelling of "Schaklyn."

Yes, really.

Here is an article about the process of naming your child in Germany and for all you German learners out there, here are a few ways to read this article and expand upon your reading skills based on your level. N.B. I recommend you print the article out and grab a pencil no matter what your level is.

Beginners:

Read the article and look for all the different names that are presented. Circle them. Then