Customer Reviews

Der, die, was?

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
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What happens when an American gets up close and personal with the German language? In September 1996, David Bergmann voluntarily moved from Chicago to Germany (the country of his 32 great-great-great-grandparents) for a year-abroad to go back-to-the-roots - both physically and linguistically. Since then, he has come to terms (almost) with the past-tense, cute yet tough umlauts", powerful prefixes, Doinglisch", idiosyncratical idioms, and the twelve (or was that thirteen?) possible plural-forms. Furthermore, he has tackled the eternal questions posed by English native-speakers of How do you ,du'?", Where's my Fahrvergnügen?", and Der, die, WAS?". Through it all, he has both confused and amused the natives. But most importantly, he discovers that German is not at all an awful language - as Mark Twain once wrote mistakenly - but rather an awfully cool one!

This book is a warm and witty book in homage to the German language written by someone who learned it the hard way.

Dieses Buch zeigt in einer sehr humorvollen Art, nicht nur wie schwierig die deutsche Sprach sein kann, sondern auch wie lustig. Sehr empfehlenswert!!

Dies ist eines der wenigen Bücher, die es geschafft haben, mich laut zum Lachen zu bringen. David Bergmann hat meine Welt verändert. Ich werde nie wieder ein Umlaut mit den gleichen Augen sehen können! Smilies als Umlaute- auf die Idee muss man erstmal kommen. Eine herrliche Lektüre, alle denen ich es verliehen habe, fanden es köstlich. Kurze Abschnitte im Buch sind prima um das Buch unterwegs, z.B. im Zug oder auch an der Ampel stehend zu lesen.

Wirklich uneingeschränkt empfehlenswert. Wer sieht schon die Schrebergärten als Ghettos an? Das kann nur Bergmann.

If you are a native English speaker faced with German as your second language and German culture and day-to-day attitudes, David Bergmann is your kind of writer. I read his 2nd book first and found it to be laugh-out-loud funny AND accurate. So this is sort of a review of that book. But the two are similar. I kept seeing my own first encounters with unique aspects of German life and additudes. I am also impressed with his command of the language. I have been speaking German daily for a LONG time but still learn new words from David. And new insights into German grammar. And attitudes. But just how many Americans ARE there who can read German for fun as a 2nd language. I also wonder how funny Germans find David's stories. Well one did - the German who gave me his 2nd book. Otherwise, I would not known about this remarkable, insightful writer. When do we see volume 3?