LESSON NOTES

Advanced Audio Blog S3 #22

Fairy Tales in Germany

CONTENTS
2 German
2 English
3 Vocabulary
4 Sample Sentences

# 22
COPYRIGHT © 2012 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 GERMAN

1. Es waren einmal zwei Schwestern, die hatten in ihrer Kindheit zu viele Märchen
gelesen. Äh, oder so ähnlich… Egal, jedenfalls, kaum etwas erinnert mich so an meine
Kindheit wie Märchen! Zu meinen Lieblingsmärchen gehörte „Die Gänsemagd“, die
Geschichte einer Königstochter und ihres Pferdes Fallada. Ich weiß nicht, wie oft ich die
Verfilmung in meiner Kindheit gesehen habe!

2. Umso erstaunter war ich, als ich letztens feststellen musste, dass die 7-jährige Tochter
einer Freundin weder „Rapunzel“, noch „Frau Holle“ und schon gar nicht „Die
Gänsemagd“ kannte! Da haben sich die Gebrüder Grimm so viel Mühe gemacht und all'
die wunderbaren Märchen aufgeschrieben und die Kinder von heute kennen sie
trotzdem nicht?! Gehören Märchen nicht mehr zur Allgemeinbildung dazu? Die meisten
Kinder glauben heutzutage wohl, der Herr Disney hätte sich all die tollen Geschichten
ausgedacht! Dabei sind Märchen schon viel viel älter!

3. Schon 1812 sammelten die Gebrüder Grimm Volksmärchen und veröffentlichten sie in
einem Buch. Doch auch schon im Mittelalter, also bevor Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm sich
an ihre Märchensammlung machten, wurden Märchen von Generation zu Generation
mündlich weitergegeben. So verschieden sie oft auch sind, einiges haben Märchen
doch gemeinsam. Da wären zum Beispiel Tiere, die sprechen können und sogar von
den Menschen verstanden werden, und Hexen und Feen, die zaubern und nicht auf
dem Scheiterhaufen landen. Was ich aber an Märchen besonders toll finde, ist, dass am
Ende immer das Gute belohnt wird und das Böse seine gerechte Strafe erhält! Klar, total
unrealistisch sagen jetzt viele. Aber, ist es nicht auch mal schön, ganz unrealistisch an
das Gute zu glauben?

4. Nun, fragt ihr euch jetzt, was aus den Schwestern vom Anfang dieses Blogs geworden
ist? Tja, die sind mittlerweile erwachsen und glauben fest daran, dass im Leben alles,
was man tut, auf einen zurückfällt und dass man für seine guten Taten auch belohnt
wird. Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute…

ENGLISH

CONT'D OVER

GERMANPOD101.COM ADVANCED AUDIO BLOG S3 #22 - FAIRY TALES IN GERMANY 2

1. Once upon a time there were two sisters who had read too many fairy tales in their
childhood. Ehm... or something like that. Doesn't matter, anyway, few things remind me
of my childhood as much as fairy tales do! One of my favorite fairy tales is "The Goose
Girl", the story of a princess and her horse Fallada. I don't know how often I watched this
as a movie in my childhood!

2. I was all the more surprised when I had to realize a short while ago that the 7-year-old
daughter of a friend neither knows "Rapunzel" nor "Mother Hulda" or even "The Goose
Girl"! The Brothers Grimm went to so much trouble to write down all these wonderful fairy
tales and today's children still don't know them?! Aren't fairy tales part of a general
education anymore? Nowadays, most children probably believe that Mr Disney invented
all these great stories! However, fairy tales are so much older!

3. Already in 1812 the Brothers Grimm collected the common people's fairy tales and
published them in a book. But even already in the Middle Ages, that is before Jacob and
Wilhelm Grimm got to work on their collection of fairy tales, fairy tales were passed on
verbally from generation to generation. As different as they are, fairy tales do have
several things in common. For example animals which can speak and are even
understood by humans, and witches and fairies, who use magic and don't wind up at the
stake. But what I especially like about fairy tales is that at the end, good is rewarded and
evil receives its just punishment! Clearly there are many now saying that that's totally
unrealistic. However isn't it nice to believe in the good sometimes, totally unrealistically?

4. Well, you're now asking what happened to the sisters from the beginning of this blog? By
now they're grown-up and believe firmly that everything that you do in life will come back
to you and that you are rewarded for your good deeds... and if they didn't die, then they're
living on today. [traditional German phrase that ends fairy tales, equivalent to 'they lived
happily ever after']

VOCABULARY

Ge r man English C lass Ge nde r

es war einmal once upon a time expression

Scheiterhaufen pyre, stake noun; masculine, der plural is the same

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 to perform magic,
zaubern verb weak verb
conjure

Fee fairy noun; feminine, die plural: Feen

Hexe witch noun; feminine, die plural: Hexen

er gibt weiter, er gab

weitergeben to pass on verb weiter, er hat
weitergegeben

mündlich oral, orally

Volk people, nation, folk noun; neuter, das plural: Völker

heutzutage nowadays adverb

Bildung education, formation noun; feminine, die no plural

Magd maid, female servant noun; feminine, die plural: Mägde

böse evil adjective

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Vi e l e Mä rch e n fa n g e n m i t "Es w a r H e xe n w u rd e n d a m a l s a u f d e m
einm al" an. S ch e i te rh a u fe n ve rbra n n t.

Many fairy tales start off with "Once upon a Witches were burned at the stake at that
time". time.

G e d u l d e d i ch n o ch e i n w e n i g , i ch Fe e n , R i e se n u n d Zw e rg e si n d
ka n n n i ch t za u be rn ! Fa n ta si e w e se n .

Be patient for a little while more, I can't just Fairies, giants and dwarves are beings of
conjure things! our imagination.

S i e si e h t a u s w i e e i n e a l te H e xe . Bi tte g e be n S i e d a s a n i h n w e i te r.

She looks like an old witch. Please pass that on to him.

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Am D o n n e rsta g , d e m 8.9., h a be i ch Im bra si l i a n i sch e n R e g e n w a l d g i bt
n o ch e i n e m ü n d l i ch e Prü fu n g . e s n o ch u n ko n ta kti e rte Vö l ke r.
We n n i ch d i e be ste h e , bi n i ch m i t
In the Brazilian rain forest there are still
d e r U n i fe rti g .
uncontacted peoples.
On Thursday, September 8th, I have one
more oral exam. If I pass that one, I will
graduate.

H e u tzu ta g e ka u fe n e i n i g e i m Fo rm a l e Bi l d u n g i st n i ch t a l l e s.
In te rn e t e i n , a be r frü h e r g i n g d a s
Formal education isn't everything.
n i ch t.

Nowadays many people shop online, but

that wasn't possible before.

Im Mi tte l a l te r h a tte n vi e l e Le u te D a s G u te u n d d a s Bö se be fi n d e n
Kn e ch te u n d Mä g d e . si ch i n e i n e m e w i g e n We ttstre i t.

In the Middle Ages, many people had Good and evil are in an eternal
servants and maids. competition.

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