As in the past years, we will meet every Tuesday without fail to talk and exchange information in a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Even on the last Tuesday of 2011, some members were meeting to have a good time. So make it a point to join us once a week; all nationalities welcome to meet German nationals to keep up with English usage and make contacts.

Best New Year wishes from Max and Ralph

Hier ist eine Zusammenfassung:

Eine Cable Car in San Francisco faßt 60 Personen. Dieses Blog wurde in 2011 etwa 1.400 mal besucht. Eine Cable Car würde etwa 23 Fahrten benötigen um alle Besucher dieses Blogs zu transportieren.

Klicke hier um den vollständigen Bericht zu sehen.

Nobody was relly sure what you would say in English to express the meaning of this phrase, and so we did a bit of research in electronic translators and on the internet. These are the results:

• This is nothing to write home about, presuming that if you are abroad you want to tell others spectacular news or something you are proud of
• It is not the best slice of the bread, probably because people don´t like the ends of the bread
• It´s not the bee´s nees, whatever this may derive from.

So if you think you could help us on any of these language problems, why not join us every Tuesday in Berlin-Kreuzberg?

But is the German language much better? It is said that there, words are spoken as they are written. But what about “Ei“, the egg? Why do you pronounce it “ai” and not “ei“? And why do we have three genders, der, die and das? Why is the girl, “Mädchen“, neutral? Why is the bus male? Nobody will ever understand.

In English, there is a word “postpone” if you put a meeting on a later date. In Indian English, there is also a word “prepone“, a word that does not exist in other varieties of English. Which brought us to the German word “verfrüht“. You cannot use it in a context like “ich habe mich verfrüht”, meaning that I have arrived early. But there is the word “verfrüht” like “Es ist verfrüht, eine Entscheidung zu treffen”, meaning that it would be too early to decide on something.

English for Germans is difficult to learn because there are so many meanings to one word. But German is difficult for English to learn because there are so many rules.

If you would like to learn something about the oddities of languages, why don´nt you join our meetings on Tuesdays? There´s always something to talk about.

Not so! Berlin is full of visitors, mixing with those who stayed at home. A vivid city right in the middle of Germany and its capital!

Right in the center of this amazing city, Berlin Friends Club meets every Tuesday at 19.30 without fail to talk and joke, to pass on information and have a good time. So don´t worry, make it a point to join us. There is always someone there to give you a warm and cordial welcome.

- Amazing but the English word for the German “Schwermetall” is really “heavy metal”.

- We didn´t find a suitable word for German “krass” in the sense of “amazing”, but this was a bit too ordinary. What I found out from dict.cc is “far out”, and I think it suits best the colloquial meaning of the German word.

- The German word “Kitsch” is that unique that it is used in English, as well: “kitsch” and the adverb “kitschy”.

- You would exercise your climbing skills in the German “Hochseilgarten”. This is a “high rope course”, according to dict.cc, but leo does not give a meaning.

- “Räumliches Vorstellungsvermögen” in English would be “spacial sense”, according to LEO.

So you can see that there is always something to learn and talk about in Berlin Friends Club. Why don´t you join us on Tuesdays?

Applying in Britain means pointing out your abilities and job experience. This goes especially for the cover letter. From the cv, an employer must be able to take information about former employments to be able to rate the professional development of the candidate. So the job interview will focus on the advantages a company would have from employing a specific applicant.

The habit of attaching a passport photo to the cover letter, as is common in Germany, would be classed as unnecessary and even discriminatory in other countries. The same goes for private data as maritial status and the number of children. This is of no evident use for the employer, as he only is interested in the employee´s performance.

In Germany, an application is classed as incomplete without a testimonial of the former employer. In international standard, you would at the most provide one or two references. Some companies even want a reference only during the job interview and will not check on it if the candidate is taken into serious consideration.

So attention all Germans applying internationally: get informed about the standards and stick to them! And attention all expats applying for a job in a German company: Get informed about different standards!

More information and links concerning the topic can be found at http://lehrergehrke.wordpress.com .