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

FALL 2024 Nr. 5

Welcome to the fifth edition of our RC Deutsch Newsletter which seeks to capture the Einzigartigkeit (uniqueness) of this semester because that’s how it is: each semester has ein gewisses Etwas (a certain something) that can’t be repeated. We also enjoy fostering a Gemeinschaftsgefühl (community spirit) through language learning and storytelling, and these newsletters can contribute to this as well. Hopefully you made lasting friendships and will look upon this time together with Vorliebe (fondness).

Lehrerinnen & Studis — Teachers & Students

This semester, we were delighted to welcome Louise-Hélène to co-teach the First-Year class. She was also teaching Intensive French (multilingualism rocks!). Carla co-taught the Second-Year level, as well as an Arts & Ideas seminar on creativity. Karein taught both levels, as well as a First-Year Writing seminar on walking. You were a group with beautiful names: Tabari, Fiona, Quinn, Gavin, Jacob, and Ingrid (aka Gretel in Hänsel and Gretel) in the First-Year; Cole, Emmeline, Giselle, Rachel, Nikitha in the Second-Year. After a few weeks of getting oriented and established in our respective groups, a nice rapport developed between you. One of the benefits of a small program is that we got to know each other pretty well as we transitioned from the seemingly endless warm days of Fall with its fabulous blue skies, golden leaves and ginormous Eichhörnchen, through the election jitters and flu season, to a grand finale of live performances. Here are a few fun facts we learned about you along the way. See if you can recognize your KommilitonInnen (classmates): one of you has lived at least nine lives; is a twin or has twin siblings; sings in a choir, in opera; sails, plays basketball, swims, dances; plays guitar, piano; carries a book to read at all times; has family from Germany, India, Mexico, Egypt. Here are some of the careers a few of you may pursue: plant biologist, civil engineer, English professor, sociologist, chemist. You’ve likened language learning to a puzzle, cooking, learning an instrument, and creating an artwork. Your reasons for studying German: family and friend connections, love of German film and literature, it’s not Spanish, desire to read Karl Marx in German, love of languages period.

Deutsch macht Spaß! — Co-Curricular Fun

Over lunch (which typically meant us eating in front of you), we covered a whole range of topics (in German) during our meandering conversations, from the mundane to quite profound: weirdest places you’ve spent the night, burial practices, favorite family holidays, your happy place, politics here and in Germany, an object you couldn’t live without, favorite books and movies, family traditions and recipes, phantom pain. An Arts at Michigan Course Connections grant allowed us to attend two memorable live performances: Humperdinck’s Märchenoper Hänsel & Gretel at the Power Center (“Knusper Knusper Knäuschen, wer knabbert an meinem Häuschen”) and the Berliner Philharmoniker playing Rachmaninoff (the rousing Toteninsel), Korngold, Dvorak at Hill auditorium. We made “RC macht Spaß” T-shirts and bags with the sunflower-goat logo, realizing that we now need a hockey stick, too!

Winter 2025 NR.6

This 6th edition of the RC Deutsch Newsletter showcases the semester’s Einzigartigkeit (uniqueness) and seeks to foster the German-language Gemeinschaft (community) we cultivated this term. Hopefully you made lasting friendships and will recall this time with Zuneigung (affection) or even Wehmut (wistfulness). Who knows when German can come in handy. You might be sitting in a foreign restaurant, as a former student recently was, trying to understand the waiter. She verstand nur Bahnhof (had no clue what he was saying) and fell back upon the one foreign language she knew: wie bitte? The waiter: “Ach, Sie sprechen Deutsch? Das hätten Sie gleich sagen sollen!” and she went on to order her Italian meal in German: ein Glas Käse und ein Teller Bier, bitte! (for those of you who remember this from Intensive One).

Eure Gruppe — Your cohort

First, your beautiful names: Bari, Brianna, Cole, Emmeline, Evan, Fiona, Giselle, Ingrid, Nathan, Noah, Paulo, Quinn, Saakshi, Siena, and Stefan. When we asked to complete the sentence “Studying German is like …” you answered that it was like “wandering in the dark; planting a tree and helping it grow; building a bridge to reach the other side of the river; driving through the country where everything is unfamiliar at first, and when you think you know it, it changes again; assembling a new storage area in the brain to make space to think like a German; doing math in my head, but every number is a different word; a game with all of the language pieces assembled through hard work; a journey through German language, literature, culture and history; completing an escape room with your friends; a love-hate relationship; learning an instrument that requires practice to appreciate its beauty; doing a million piece puzzle and only sometimes seeing parts of what it should look like; a riddle that always has a new piece to solve; like climbing a mountain that’s as tall as the sky and when you make it up to a small ledge to catch your breath and get some reprieve, you look around and see the beautiful landscape, only to be confronted with the fact that you will never get to the top. It WAS like riding a bike without knowing how to peddle, but now it IS like climbing up a mountain waiting to reach the peak.” Studying a language definitely pushes beyond the comfort zone—to a place where growth, resilience, and a broader understanding of yourself and the world begins. Each language expands you: “Wie viele Sprachen du sprichst, sooft mal bist du Mensch.” (Goethe)

Deutsch macht Spaß! — Co-Curricular Fun

German co-curriculars offered respite from the Ansturm of news as we held plätschernde Unterhaltung about topics more palatable and pleasing: the auf und ab of winter weather, odd coincidences, funny German words (Stimmungskiller, Zebrastreifen, Stubenhocker) and idioms (in der Schlange stehen, was ist dir denn über die Leber gelaufen?), the pros and cons of KI (AI), loud versus quiet families, and the German elections. Friday coffee hours were times to play scrabble, charades and other games. We created poetry from random tiles and played the surrealist Exquisite Corps parler game to generate silly phrases to draw and act out: Der dicke Dachdecker beherrscht den jungen Mann. Das rote Eichhörnchen denkt an ein Schloss. Conversations meandered from dies und jenes and time passed wie im Flug!

Bitte in Verbindung bleiben! — Please stay in touch!  

Let us know what you’re up to. Send us selfies, anecdotes, chocolates. We’d love to know where German takes you, but even if you say auf Nimmerwiedersehen (that’s it, I’m done), let us know about other exciting developments in your life. You’re welcome to join our Mittagstisch or Kaffeestunde in the future (same place, same time). It’s always a joy to have former students show up. Ihr seid Stammgäste. If you want to keep up with our program, join RC German LinkedIn, or check out the website (see QR code). Viel Glück und viel Segen auf all euren Wegen! Alles Liebe, Karein, Carla & Louise-Hélène