You already know six German words, maybe more

 

At a recent meeting of our language lovers club, I gave an introductory session on German. I started by asking who knoew no German. I asked if they could think of one word of German. Silence. So I asked, do you know any names of cars or food.

The answer which came from the audience surprised me. I had not thought of it. It was the name of the car Volkswagen. That was a great example. Voks, meaning folk/in this context, belong to fol,. The w pronounced like a W. The English words, fol's wagon. A vehicle for the people, a cheap car for mass production.

I was delighted to add this to my existing list.

I already had two popular examples in mind. Kindergarten. kinder is child. Garden is garden.

 So that is two word, three words if you count the combination. Child. Garden. Kindergarden. 

Doesn't everybody know this already? Some people had forgotten it and were pleased to be reminded that they knew as many as five words. Others spoke English as a second language. The analysis of the word was new for a Hindi speaking guest in London, It was also new for a Chinese speaking guest who I met at Toastmasters in Singpore, now working and living in Korea.

For those with a wider vocabulary, several words come to mind.

Schwarz, german for black, in the name of the opera singer, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Kopf is head, so the family name's meaing was a black haired person. The most common surname in German is Smith, the same as in England, naming the trade which would have been popular years ago. Schmidt, smith. Schneider is tailor.

Blau is blue. 

More sophisticated words include ersatz, false, synthetic, pretend. 

Sunday Feb 18 th 2024 the subject is Japanese. You can visit our online speakers' language club LILT. The timings are 

 USA Central time and Belize and Central American time 7.30am, 

USA New York 8.30 am, 

UK 1.30 pm. 

France 2.30 pm (14.30). 

India  7pm.  

Indonesia (Jakarta time) 8.30 pm, 

Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, th Philippines and Western Australia, 9.30 pm (21.30).

For the Zoom login, contact Carolyn Street on Facebook with a personal message, or find her or me though Advnacity Toastmasters International club.

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