Fall 2022 Nr. 1

Welcome to the first edition of our RC Deutsch Newsletter! The newsletter highlights new program initiatives and showcases student work. It also seeks to capture the particularity of this semester and foster a sense of community. Cultivating Gemeinschaftsgefühl is particularly relevant as we move through and beyond the pandemic.

Our Cohort

This semester began with a kind of Reise nach Jerusalem (musical chairs) while we sorted out class rosters and juggled in-person and hybrid teaching due to Covid-related absences. Intensiv Eins is “klein, aber oho,” making excellent progress as they memorize funny dialogues (ein Glas Käse, bitte?); discover with astonishment (or dismay?) that the simple article the can either be der, die, das, den or dem; and learn how to navigate everyday situations from ordering a Helles in a German Kneipe to knowing where to go and what to do (naturopathically) for Kopfschmerzen or Durchfall. Intensiv Zwei is a hardworking and wonderfully collaborative group that studies, eats and socializes together. They've discussed and debated topics from what is typisch Deutsch to youth activism, economic systems to ethical questions about das Gute und das Böse. German Readings is a tight-knit group taking a Tieftauchgang (deep dive) into the cultural history of Berlin, a city that is continually reinventing itself—verdammt zu werden und nie zu sein. They've been immersing themselves in diaries, films, essays and literary work about Berlin over the last century. 

We've been delighted by our student's commitment, creativity, energy and communal spirit. These images capture some of the moments and projects, in and beyond the classroom.

Highlights

We took advantage of every warm Altweibersommertag to gather outside in the EQ garden for co-curricular conversation and games. We observed the vegetables ripening, the leaves falling and the squirrels getting fatter while talking about all sorts of things in German. Several former and advanced RC German students offered one-on-one tutorial sessions to beginning students. We hope to continue this paid position to qualified students who have passed the proficiency exam. It’s a wonderful opportunity to gain teaching experience and give back to the program. Every month, we hosted a film evening. Everyone was invited to watch German movies (Lola Rennt, Mostly Martha, Goodbye Lenin) on the big screen, with drinks and popcorn, and the pleasure of each other’s company. We attended two UMS performances (Pina Bausch’s Rite of Spring and Berlin Philharmoniker), with a special guest visit from the orchestra’s liaison person. We had a lively conversation with German writer and journalist, Jochen Metzger, about podcasting, his research on subjects from procrastination to alternative treatments for depression. We also had many surprise appearances from former students at the Mittagstisch and Kaffeestunde, including a visit from RC colleague, Mike Zhai, who sang Schubert's Lied "An die Musik" for us. Coincidentally, listening to music is a fun and motivating way to pick up new vocabulary and phrases, especially slang and idioms. Singing along can vastly improve accent and verbal fluency. Check out these great lists of songs selected by RC students, as well as songs about German cities and the environment. Songs meant to forge a sense of community during protests for climate protection. Es gibt keinen Planeten B!

Looking ahead

We look forward to welcoming Dr. Louise-Hélène Filion to teach the Winter Readings course "German Graphic Novels and Migration." This course is specifically for students who passed proficiency, but current and former Readings students are welcome to enroll in the course as well. Finally, we are planning on taking students enrolled in our courses to Germany (Berlin, Heidelberg) in May if the energy crisis and war in Ukraine allow for it. Plans are still tentative, but those interested should consider getting a passport, talking to parents about finances, and applying for funding through the RC’s Brown Fund:

https://lsa.umich.edu/rc/funding/funding-for-study-abroad-and-internships.html

We're still brainstorming ideas to raise funds for our trip and are pooling our talents, connections and time. Any suggestions and contributions are welcome!

Stay in Touch

Please stay in touch (goertz@umich.edu and ccribari@umich.edu) and let us know what you’re up to. We’d love to know what you end up doing with German in the long term, but even if you don’t continue, let us know about other exciting developments. You’re always welcome to join us for Mittagstisch or Kaffeestunde. It’s a wahre Freude to have former students show up, especially if you’ve gone on to study in Germany and can talk with our current students about that. Einmal RC Deutsch Student*in, immer RC Deutsch Student*in. If you want to keep up with our program over time, please check out our RC German program website. We regularly update it.

https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/rc-deutsch

Liebe Grüße,

Karein und Carla

Ein großes Danke Schön to Sunayna Patel, Abigail Schreck, Haley Gipson, Audrey Rogers and Collin Gregerson for the beautiful artwork! And to Matthew Peale for the Spotify song list.

Winter 2023 Nr. 2

Welcome to the second edition of our RC Deutsch Newsletter! This newsletter tries to capture the particularity of this semester and reflects the Gemeinschaftsgefühl (community spirit) each of you helped create as you studied German with us. Hopefully you made lasting friendships and will look upon this time together with fondness.

Unsere Studis: Our Cohort

You came from a wide range of different places: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Illinois, China, and Pakistan, with a few of you claiming several homes, or none in particular. Your majors included everything from biomedicine, neuroscience, biology, and pharmacy to history, computer and data science, PPE, linguistics, philosophy, creative writing and international studies. We could have formed a band with the musicians (piano, trombone, saxophone, guitar, violin, clarinet) among you. Hobbies ranged from rowing, running, dancing and yoga to playing video games, photo design, robotics, cooking, drawing, baking, reading and traveling. And here are a few fun facts you might recognize, or not: first kiss was with a dolphin; broke his arm 5 times; swam with elephants in a lake; has 3 cats and 2 rabbits; has a fat cat named Oscar; was injured by a cow; has a tattoo of a dinosaur on her right leg; loves potatoes; adores all things Star Trek; has a twin; has 5 brothers; has two professional clowns in the family; shares her name with Chinese currency; and owns many historical artifacts. 191 were well-balanced between men and women, birthdays across the seasons, dog and cat lovers. 291 liked to socialize in the Greene lounge and were obsessed with vampires 

Lieblingswörter: Favorite German Words

das All (universe), Leidenschaft (passion), Nachtschnecke (slug), Lieblings- (favorite -), Krankenwagen (ambulance), spucken (to haunt), and words with an Umlaut like tschüss (bye), Süßigkeiten (candy), Glühbirne (lit. glowing pear, lightbulb), compounds with -Zeug (-thing), and the perennial favorite Eichhörnchen (squirrel).

Deutsche Sprache Schwere Sprache 

Fall 2023 Nr. 3

Welcome to the third edition of our RC Deutsch Newsletter! Each newsletter seeks to capture the particularity of the semester and to reflect upon the Gemeinschaftsgefühl (community spirit) you helped create as you studied German with us. We hope you made lasting friendships and look upon this time together with fondness. Of course, there is a German word for this: Gemeinsamzeit (togetherness or shared time)

Fun Facts: Interessante, witzige und überraschende Information üBer Euch

Your majors covered a wide spectrum: art history, music, BCB, German, data science, EEB, biochemistry, math, information science, environmental science, international studies, chemistry, physics, computer science, political science, economics, and still undecided. Here are a few things we learned about you through random conversations and your writing: you love mushrooms, snails, squirrels, rabbits, sleeping, soccer, Nirvana, and the outdoors. Some prefer the indoors. You make jewelry, juggle, blacksmith, collect cool pens and paper, write poems, love to read, play in late-night jazz clubs, ice-skate, meditate, jog, walk, play chamber music or in band, write for the Michigan Daily. These things might surprise, delight or appall you: one of you has a slightly longer left arm, arms that were broken 4 different times, a facial scar from a dog bite, a dog who eats spiders, a brother who is just 11 months older, a grandmother who birthed 17 children, a great-grandfather who was Al Pacino’s gardener, a strong desire to work for NATO one day, an unbroken 1286 day streak on Duolingo, friends on 6 continents. One of you is willing to do math to solve the Advent calendar every year, used to believe that all non-animated films were documentaries, accidentally said “Entschuldigung” instead of “excuse me to Derek Jeter a few weeks ago, liked to take apart desktop computers as a kid and play with magnets in the hard drive.

Semester Highlights: Höhepunkte des Semesters

After a rocky beginning with a campus-wide internet outage that made it impossible to access online schedules and course materials for several days, we settled into a groove, but not without a few bouts of covid and other ailments here and there. In September, Irene Butter, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor, social activist and founder of the Raoul Wallenberg lecture series met with German Readings students to tell her life story. Her words of wisdom: let kindness, not hatred, be your guide; never remain a bystander to injustice; believe in the power of the individual to bring about change. Her podcast Zeitkapsel won the first prize in Germany and some of our students helped translate it into English! We enjoyed a beautiful fall day in the Arboretum with Brotzeit treats from White Lotus, followed by a walk and writing circle in the forest. The long stretch of warm days in autumn, known as Altweibersommer, allowed the squirrels to get adorably, but perilously chubby. October saw the beginning of war in the Middle East, heated campus-wide discussions and demonstrations, as well as incidents of anti-semitism and islamophobia which go against the core of the values we hold true. This polarized atmosphere evoked a Weltschmerz (world weariness) about this moment in time, but we tried to tread lightly with Fingerspitzengefühl (right combo of tact and intuition), creating a safe space, and (hopefully) offering meaningful and often fun language learning activities to help pull us through. We like to believe that learning a new language, like travel, is “fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness” (Mark Twain). That might just be a Luftschloss (dream that only exists in your head). but it is true that while studying German definitely has its challenging moments —with verb-kicking conjunctions and nouns that are unrelenting if you haven’t learned the gender—it does open up new ways of being in the world. Once you discover words like Waldeinsamkeit, Gemütlichkeit or Fernweh, you might just start feeling, noticing and appreciating things you never had a word for before. If you don’t know what these words mean, look them up, expand your Wortschatz (lit. word-treasure) and, with it, your world!

Your Favorite Things about German: Eure Lieblingssachen über Deutsch 

“German is surprisingly poetic and my second favorite for creative writing” —— “I like the way German can be so literal, like Kühlschrank (cool cabinet)” —— “I like how it sounds. It has a natural rhythm that goes unappreciated when compared to the romantic or celtic languages, but I think it sounds better than those typical ‘beautiful’ languages” —— “German numbers written backward” — “That there are forest schools where kids learn outside” —- “Words for animals, like Igel (hedgehog), Eichhörnchen (squirrel) and Schildkröte (turtle) —— “Cool cultural practices like throwing plates on the floor at weddings or the tradition of Kindlmarkt (Christmas market)” —— “German writers like Kafka, Wittgenstein and Marx” — “Learning about Dadaism and German artists” —— “Concepts like Ostalgie (nostalgia for the former GDR) —— “I like how interconnected English and German are” —— “German dialects and different ways to say ‘hi’ —— “German techno music, politics, and LGBTQ history” — “That I can now communicate with my relatives”—— “That I can finally read the book on pirates I got way back in Kindergarten. It is in German and maybe I can read it now!” 

Stay in Touch: Meldet euch mal! 

Please stay in touch and let us know what you’re up to (goertz@umich.edu and ccribari@umich.edu). We’d love to know what you end up doing with German in the long term, but even if you don’t continue, let us know about other exciting developments. You’re always welcome to join us for Mittagstisch or Kaffeestunde in the future. It’s always a joy to have former students show up. Once an RC German student, always an RC German student. Please spread the word about our program. We would like to grow; not too much, but a little. If you want to keep up with our program over time, please join our RC German LinkedIn 

WINTER 2024 Nr. 4

Welcome to the fourth edition of our RC Deutsch Newsletter. Each newsletter tries to capture the semester’s particularity and reflect the Gemeinschaftsgefühl (community spirit) you helped create as you studied German with us. There’s a nice German compound for what we had: Gemeinsamzeit (togetherness time)! We hope you made lasting friendships and look upon this time with fondness.

Abby, Adam, Atharva, Charlie, Elio, Evan, Gabby, Kaes, Keanu, Liv, Maggie, Markus, Nathan, Nikitha, Olivia, Owen, Paulo, Roman, Seth, Taylor, and Yuan—and alumni or honorary guests who often joined us at the co-curriculars: Collin, Haley, Matthew, Naoko. These are things we learned about you through conversation or homework assignments: you love soccer, golf, Formell 1, swimming, drawing, photography, plants, trees, flowers, night walks, working out in the gym, playing baseball, cooking, making jewelry, reading books (often with a book, or two, in your hand), dancing, making music (a handful of you very talented classical and jazz musicians!). Things you have: a 7-foot long lizard, a Bonsai named Scully, 4 children, 22 housemates, an uncle with 18 cats, and two of you have a dog named Fred. Over the course of your studies, some of you have discovered that you love learning languages, and German in particular; others have come to a different conclusion, but found the experience transformative. Some of you started college with goals that remain strong; others have changed course; and one of you has found God. All of you have a handy little vocabulary booklet with all sorts of gems like Meerschweinchen, Zeichentrick, Schlagzeug and Bauchgefühl, and some of you will hopefully go on to travel, study and maybe even live abroad in a German-speaking country. “Sprachen öffnen Türen” and, as the German philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt once said, “Sprache ist der Schlüssel zur Welt.” So now you have another key to open new doors. See where they take you!

From the wars in Gaza and Ukraine to protest at home and the cosmic wonder of a solar eclipse—these are momentous times. Sometimes experiencing a dose of Gemütlichkeit in the Greene lounge on a late Friday afternoon, speaking German and playing scrabble or Werwolf, provides a respite from it all. A few of our favorite conversation topics (auf Deutsch, natürlich) were about phobias, dreams, childhood obsessions, recipes, accidents and best vacations. We also shared stories, such as one about a wounded owl in a cage whose mate, for years, brought it mice from the wild. Two new films, Zone of Interest and Origin, both with a German connection, played at the Michigan Theater and we had animated conversations about them. Our choice for RC Film Night this term, in anticipation of the upcoming elections in the Fall, was the tragicomedy Göttliche Ordnung about the woman’s suffrage movement in Switzerland. Schreibt es euch hinter die Ohren (take note!): Revolutions begin small and every voice counts! Carla taught her new course: “German Creative Expression Workshop: Making Podcasts, Films and Blogs.” Inspired by readings in philosophy, psychology and art, students made amazing short films about humor, beauty, love, memory and othering. Visiting artist B. love Davis spoke with the class about some of Germany’s greatest artists, Caspar David Friedrich, Käthe Kollwitz, Joseph Beuys and Anselm Kiefer. As has become our tradition (coinciding with the study of adjectives), we took an Ausflug to the UMMA to sit with an artwork and write about it in German. Keep on exposing yourself to art (and foreign languages!).

Always make room for creativity, beauty and play! See how Liv decorated her Vokabelheft and Keanu sketched out a map to memorize a monologue. Just so you know: German verb conjugation and compound words actually come in handy for 

Please stay in touch and let us know what you’re up to (goertz@umich.edu and ccribari@umich.edu). We’d love to know what you end up doing with German in the long term, but even if you don’t continue, let us know about other exciting developments. You’re always welcome to join us for Mittagstisch or Kaffeestunde in the future. It’s always a joy to have former students show up. Once an RC German student, always an RC German student. Please spread the word about our program. We would like to grow; not too much, but a little.  If you want to keep up with our program over time, please join our RC German LinkedIn and check out our RC German program website: https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/rc-deutsch.

Viel Glück & viel Segen auf all euren Wegen!  ❤️ Karein & Carla