GermanLost in translation

Geography• Capital = Berlin• Poulation = 81,305,856• Total Size = 357,021 square km • Type of Government = federal republic • Languages Spoken = German • Religions = Protestant 34%, Roman Catholic 34%,

Muslim 3.7%, unaffiliated or other 28.3% • National Symbol = black eagle • Currency = euro (€)

Places German is spoken

List of countries where German is spoken

Official languages• Germany • Austria• Switzerland• South Tyrol (Italy)• Luxembourg • Liechtenstein• Belgium

Recognised minority language• Czech Republic• Denmark• Hungary • Kazakhstan• Italy (Trentino)• Namibia• Poland• Romania• Russia • Slovakia• Brazil• Vatican City

Where German is spoken…Country German speaking population

(outside Europe)

Venezuela 10,000

USA 5,000,000

South Africa 75,000 (German expatriate citizens alone)

Paraguay 30,000 – 40,000

New Zealand 37,500

Namibia 30,000 (German expatriate citizens alone)

Mexico 200,000

Jordan 50,000

Chile 40,000

Canada 450,000– 620,000

Brazil 3,000,000

Australia 110,000

Argentina 1,400,000

Dialects • The history of the language begins with the

High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon.

• Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon was to fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire

German Dialects• Low German: spoken in the north, associated with

fishermen, sailors and other people dealing with the sea, also with pimps in Hamburg.

• High German: it is the most recognised dialect in Germany. It is also the most spoken dialect.

Culture

• From North to South there are around 300 theaters and 130 professional orchestras.

• There are 630 art museums• Germany is one of the major book nations, with

around 94,000 new books and re-editions each year. • The 350 dailies and thousands of magazines go to

show how lively the German media world is. • German films are a great success at home and abroad.

Food culture Klüße Schnitzel Bratwurst

Pretzel

Klöße• Is a potato mass. The potato gets grated and

then formed into spherical balls. These balls have toasted bread put inside to soak up excess liquids and to add a crunch when eating. These potato lumps are then put into a big pot and boiled.

• This is usually eaten with a roast as a Sunday meal or other.

Schnitzel • At it’s core, schnitzel is just a breaded cutlet

fried in fat and served simply with lemon, maybe a simple salad, cucumbers or potato salad. It is a blue collar lunch, a slightly more refined rendition of that Southern icon, chicken fried steak.

Bratwurst• Recipes for the sausage vary by region and even

locality; some sources list over 40 different varieties of German bratwurst, many of the best known originating in Franconia (today for the most part situated in northern Bavaria, but still culturally quite distinct), its northern neighbour Thuringia and adjacent areas.

• Thuringia is famous for its bratwurst and historically are the first to make it. They are renowned for them.

By Xenia Aoife-Jayne& Akshaya