Christine Burgmer | Blog

… that some German words are used in the English language?

German words that sound like English words can cause us a lot of problems, can’t they?  How would you translate ‘Bad’, ‘sensibel’ and ‘Rock’, for example …

It’s good to know that native speakers make mistakes, too!  Here a teacher posts some of the things his students have actually said.

Things like this …

I had a new student from Belgium.  Students were intrigued by him and the fact that he spoke several languages.  One of them asked him,

Has this ever happened to you?  You want to park your car and then see that one car is standing in two parking spaces.  What do you do?

Have you ever written a note and fixed it to the offender’s windscreen?  Well, some people have!  Click here.

Did you ever build with lego bricks?  What do you remember about them?  The Oatmeal has a nice little questionnaire to help you!

What does your e-mail address say about your computer skills.  The Oatmeal has the answer!

Well, this might seem strange, but flash mobs were completely new to me until yesterday.  So how did I hear about them?  Well, I first found this link, and then came across this link - and then I ‘asked’ Wikipedia for an explanation.  And here it is:

“A flash mob (or flashmob) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place,  perform an unusual act for a brief time, then disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.  The term is generally not applied to events organized by public relations firms, protests, and publicity stunts.”

This one gave me goose pimples (even though it’s an advertisement)!