Hmm…Der Spiegel? I don’t know if that is such a great choice for a relative beginner. Personally, I find Der Spiegel dry as dust…they can go on for 20 pages about some local election in some obscure village that only interests perhaps 12 people. OK, slight exaggeration, but that magazine does tend to be a bit long-winded, very heavy on political nuance, and not exactly a light read.
I would suggest Stern Magazin - it isn’t exactly highbrow, but it does a decent job at covering news and has some interesting features.
You could also try Tip Magazin that is a Berlin version of Village Voice/The Reader etc. Lots of local scene coverage, movie reviews, music reviews, etc.
At the link to Tip Magazine, near the top of the home page, I saw the following two sentences:
I’ve only had a week of German so far, but I’m pretty sure I understand what you just read! Can any German speakers tell me if this is the correct translation?
I take it when you follow the “here” link you go to a form to write your opinion on the topic, or maybe to a discussion forum where people are talking about it or something.
Stiltedness aside, does that look like the correct translation to you guys? (I’m not sure what “uns” means so I had to kind of guess around it.)
Yep - you nailed the gist of it…and “uns” is the German word for “us”…so the last sentence would be “Write us your opinion here” which provides a link to probably a form, or forum, as you guessed.
BTW, I think you have to register (for free) to get on that site, but I didn’t look very closely and only remember the magazine from back when I lived in Berlin. It was the magazine to read if you wanted to know what is happening in Berlin - plus it used to have page after page of people looking to hook up (in a micro font that required me to carry a magnifying glass, and was impossible to read unless you had a spotlight aimed at the page!) Also had good listings for apartments, some jobs and lots of organizations and clubs.
Here’s the website of one of the main German newspapers (a bit left-leaning i.e. pinko commie compared to American standards, not as dry as the aforementioned Spiegel)
and its magazine (updated every Friday, similar to e.g. the New York Times Magazine, has cultural stuff, a bit of this, a bit of that, and a cryptic crossword that’s too difficult for beginners, so don’t worry)
And last, but not least, the Telepolis website - Discussions about “webstuff”, cultural things, and various political subjects, this might be most in line with what you’re looking for. Occasionally they also post things in English
Here’s an opinion you can post at that webpage: Wer bei “Fruehling fuer Hitler” nicht lachen kann der hat keinen Humor.
Can you figure out what it means? I’ll bet you can. Good luck with your German studies! Let me know if you’re going to visit Germany. I lived there for years and I can give you travel hints.
I think you said “Whoever can’t laugh at ‘Fruehling fuer Hitler’ has no sense of humour.” I don’t know what “fruehhling” or “fuer” mean, but I’ll look it up later.
As to travelling in Germany, I do hope to someday, just because I hope to travel a lot over the years. But in fact, I don’t think the class I’m taking is going to help me much with speaking and understanding spoken German. Its a ten week crash course for reading literary and philosophical German.
I tried listening to some sound clips from a set of German lessons for beginners, designed to teach contemporary colloquial conversation. To my chagrin, I found I couldn’t make out a word of it–even when, in fact, I “knew” every word that was said! :smack:
'Saright. My “reading German” probably would give me a good headstart for learning spoken German someday.
