(Part 2) Best products from r/germany

> cause hes also pretty intelligent, but he brushes it off, I feel like it puts pressure on him, rathe than encouraging him

Yeah, some people are like that. It makes you retreat back into your space instead of bolstering your confidence. Please trust your instinct on that.

Anyway. Back to him (and your family) trying to learn some German. Any stories, movies or video games he loves? Ask him if he wants to try their German version. My best English study buddy was Baldur's Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights 1 when I was just 12 or 13 and recently started to learn English in school. These games are rather text heavy and I kept a vocabulary notebook specifically for my Baldur's Gate gaming and Neverwinter Nights gaming. That also included the English only NPC mods for Baldur's Gate 2. I basically sat there in front of my PC with my dictionary and my vocabulary notebook.

I should note these type of games let you calmly read and pick a dialogue option(who, where, what, why, riddle, morality, choice) without packing all of it into cutscenes. They feature your typical dialogue boxes and await your input before moving on. Here is an example picture. Now I get that he is 14 and not every 14 year old is into retro games with old graphics so take these just as an example.

Does he like the Hobbit? WDR made probably one, if not the loveliest German audio-book version of this book. It's this version. Consider asking him if he is into audiobooks. It can help with the pronunciation and listening comprehension.

Edit: word

I don't think that you can expect any prices on Black Friday that would make a 10-month wait worthwhile.

If you want to buy in a local store, you can always try Media Markt or Saturn or Conrad, but they don't necessarily offer the best prices, even if they claim it's a special offer.

If you know what brand and model you are looking for, you can check https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/ProductCategory/2520.html?qd=kopfh%C3%B6rer for the best prices.

Do you want to buy over-ear headphones, wireless or cable, with or without noise-cancelling?

I personally have been using Sennheiser for many years, so if I had to spend up to 200 Euros, I would most likely buy them at amazon.de, and maybe this one https://www.amazon.de/Sennheiser-HD-599-ohrumschlie%C3%9Fender-matt-ivory-Wei%C3%9F/dp/B01L1IICR2/.

Bose Quiet Comfort of course are also very nice to have, but I haven't seen them on sale <200.

In any case, I would check them out in a store. Put some music/songs that you are very familiar with on your smartphone and plug the headphones into it. That way you can tell whether you like the way they sound as well as checking out whether the headphones feel comfortable to wear.

> I want to visit Berlin forsure but don't know if I should stay there for entire month or visit other cities

Berlin is big in the sense that it is spread out over a large area and sights of interest are scattered all over the place: you could certainly spend a couple of weeks in Berlin and still not see everything. Berlin has had a fascinating history from the 12th century onwards, and each era has left its mark on the city. I highly recommend Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Guides to get the most out of a big city like Berlin. As well as being packed with insider tips, history, art and architecture, they also have a comprehensive guide to everything from how to recognise a police officer to how to use the public transport.

Even so, a month is long enough to strike out and explore a bit. It depends on what you're interested in, but here are a few ideas that are easily within reach of Berlin:

• Potsdam (literally right next to Berlin)
  
• The Spreewald, around Lübben and Lübbenau; the home of the Sorbs, a Slavic ethnic minority, in an area of marshland with more canals than roads; the only place in Germany where the post is delivered by punt
  
• Dresden
  
• Leipzig
  
• Schwerin
  
• Hamburg
  
• Erfurt
  
  Prague is close enough if you spend a night or two there (not Germany, of course, but definitely worth a visit if you can manage it).

Most Germans use WhatsApp or Facebook for communication. A lot.
I would recommend the prepaid service by Congstar.
It uses the signal of Deutsche Telekom which is the best in Germany and you just pay 9 cents per message and call.
Internet "flats" are available for 7,90€ (200MB), 9,90€ (500MB), 12,90€ (1GB) and 19,90€ (3GB).
If you call a lot of people and maybe more than 100 minutes a month, they also have a pack for 6,90€ that contains 100 minutes, so you just pay 6,9 cents per minute, and after those 100 minutes, continuing at the usual 9 cents per minute.
The starter pack is at 9,99€ and you already get 5€ on your account! You can buy it on their internet page right here. The page is completely in German, but I can help you with the order if you need help.

And as a phone, I would just buy a cheap smartphone by Huawei. It's clearly a brand for cheap smartphones, but if you don't need a high-quality phone like an iPhone, it will fit you perfectly. My girlfriend just got this and he's really satisfied! But I'm not sure how much you are willing to pay. Tell me and I will give you more recommendations.

Any questions? Just PM me oder answer right here! :)

Mold is a really complicated issue, and usually it's both an issue with the building (responsibility of the landlord) and the tenant's use of the building (responsibility of the tenant). Yes, the landlord has to help you - but they will argue as much as possible that it's entirely your fault (through incorrect use of the building) in order not to have to do anything. Since the mold is primarily damaging to your health, however, it would be in your best interests to better understand the causes - that way, you can either change your behaviour, or have solid evidence that the landlord needs to do something to the building.

Yes, sadly, this often means a fair amount of work for you.

The TL;DR for mold is that mold grows whenever the relative humidity at the surface of the wall (or just below the surface) is at or near saturation (i.e. around 80-100%). You first need to determine where the humidity is coming from.

• Is it coming from the air in the room? Bathrooms are prime candidates for mold, as showering increases the humidity content of the air to near saturation. Buy a hygrometer (example - there are plenty of models on the market) and watch the relative humidity of the air. Whenever it exceeds 60%, open the window (assuming that the air outside isn't even more humid than the air inside - an inside-outside thermometer/hygrometer is useful here) until it drops below 60%. Those hygrometers in general are super useful for telling you when and how much to open your windows to ventilate - I've got one in every room in my house.
  
• Is it coming through the wall? Even if you keep the room nice and dry, perhaps the wall (is it an exterior wall?) isn't watertight, and water is seeping in from the outside. You can't determine this directly, but if the air in the room is always below 60% humidity and the mold keeps growing, this is a strong indication of an issue with the building itself (a leaky wall).
  
  You then need to determine why that particular spot on the wall is a problem.
  
  
• Why is the wall cold? You'll notice that mold needs 80-100% relative humidity, while I was aiming for 60% in the ambient air. The reason is that, if the wall is colder than the air temperature, then the relative humidity increases as you get closer to the wall (cold air can hold less water vapour than warm air). You'll want to measure the temperature of the wall - an infrared thermometer (example - again, there are plenty of models available) is good for this. Record the wall temperature throughout the year - see if there is a spot that's much colder than the rest, and how it varies with the outside temperature.
  
  The wall could be cold due to:
  
  
• An external reason, e.g. a lack of insulation in the wall (a so-called Kältebrücke)), or
  
• An internal reason: You leaving the window half-open (auf Kipp) for too long, and so the cold outside air is cooling the wall just above the window (which is why you should never leave your windows half-open for prolonged periods of time in winter).
  
  Once you've collected enough data to fend off the immediate "you just need to ventilate more" reaction, go to your landlord and demand that he send a Gutachter (surveyor / expert) to determine the cause. This will take a while - the Gutachter will probably need to take many measurements throughout the year to determine the cause of the mold.
  
  If your landlord refuses to send a Gutachter, then you should consult with a lawyer (or join the local Mieterbund) to see whether you can unilaterally reduce the rent you pay until the mold problem is fixed. Here is an introduction - reducing the rent is a way to pressure your landlord into doing something about the problem.
  
  > I think the windos are letting water seep in from outside for example. When it's humid outside the windows have water drops running down them in the inside.
  
  This is interesting. It could be that your window doesn't seal (so it's letting humidity in from the outside), or that your window doesn't insulate very well (so the glass pane is simply cold, causing the humidity present in the room to condense on the pane). Observe and record this when it happens - temperature and humidity inside and outside. You're trying to see if there is a pattern, and whether it depends on outside temperature or rainfall. Honestly, most of the time it's just a lack of insulation in the pane (combined with a high internal humidity) - which is not a problem with the building.
  
  > No extractor fans or vents in the kitchen or bathroom.
  
  You don't need it if you have an exterior window.
  
  > The windows seem to be constantly steamed up and when we turn the heat up the water drips off them.
  
  This isn't causing mold per se, but it's probably an indication that the humidity inside the apartment is far too high. Use the hygrometers (see above) to meausure it, and strategically open your windows to lower it:
  
  
• Open them for a brief period (5-10 minutes) at least twice a day in the winter, preferably when the outside air is cold and dry.
  
• Don't open them if it's raining outside.
  
• Never leave them half-open for a prolonged period of time (exception: at night in summer, unless it's raining - you neither want cold winter air, nor humid summer air from constantly entering your apartment).
  
• In the summer, only open them (for a little longer - 15-20 minutes) if the outside air is dry and cooler - e.g. in the morning and evening, unless it's been raining.
  
• If possible, open windows on both sides of your apartment at the same time - this drastically cuts down on the time necessary to replace the humid air inside the apartment.
  
  Worst case, buy a dehumidifier - although note that they use a ton of electricity to run, but they're a good last-ditch brute-force solution for getting your humidity levels down.
  
  Good luck! :)

I used to teach 1001-2001 at a major university in the US.

You're having trouble learning in the classroom? Are you spending at least three hours outside of class for every hour spent in class? That's the recommended amount of homework/ review work to do well in any college-level class.

Here are some other tips.

1. Turn on German music or German movies in the background. Netflix has a ton of German movies. You can watch recent German TV shows here: http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek#/hauptnavigation/startseite A German radio station with lots of news and German/ indie music is http://dradiowissen.de/ Turn on subtitles while you watch movies on Netflix. Write down words you hear that you don't know and then look up the definitions... using a paper dictionary, not an online one. (Studies have shown that people are more likely to forget what they read on a computer screen!) When you have a few free minutes on the bus or wherever, review the words that you wrote down.
   
   No matter what you do, make a point of doing this every day. I have an Austrian friend whose mom is a moderately famous Slovakian-born author who writes in German. Her (=the Mom's) German was admittedly lousy when she moved to Austria. However, every day, she made a point of watching a cooking show she liked and learned a ton of German from that. If you hate cooking shows, don't watch them. : ) In this case, the cooking show was helpful because there are a lot of repetitive actions and very useful nouns and verbs - food words are really important! : )
   
   
2. http://www.nthuleen.com/teach.html has a lot of great exercises. I also recommend http://www.amazon.com/Schaums-Outline-German-Grammar-5th/dp/0071824707/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1412112434&sr=8-9&keywords=german+grammar It's cheaper than Hammer's and also has a whole bunch of exercises to do. I've also heard good things about http://grammatiktraining.de No, it's not the communicative method. But if you ever want to remember all of the damned articles and endings, you're just going to have to sit down and do rote exercises.
   
   
3. Ask your instructors about any language immersion/ "Sprachbad" weekends that you can participate in or any "Stammtisch" nights. If someone speaks English to you, speak back in German.
   
   
4. Make a point of doing the orientation course before your semester begins next year. They are generally really good at exactly that - helping you get oriented. (Almost all of the social groups for the semester or year were cemented within a couple of days every time I went abroad as part of an exchange, so it's helpful for meeting people, too.) There will be people from other countries who will say, "Oh, Tubajewman! You are an English native speaker! Let's speak English; I want to practice my English with a native speaker!" You will have to put your foot down and say, "Yeah, but we both came here to speak German and not English, so let's speak German!"
   
   
5. These days, most universities also have "tandem programs" or "mentoring" via the international office. Sign up to do one, both at your home university and when you are away. In the US, you'll be responsible for making a foreign student feel welcome, and in Germany, someone will help you to get acclimated and settle in. People are usually paired with someone from a country or region where they share a mutual interest. In the US, I was given German tandem partners; in Germany, my tandem partners had studied in the US. When you get together, it's a good chance to practice speaking both languages.
   
   ETA - Reddit automatically changed my numbering. The stinkers! : P

Hey, I am sorry for your situation. Maybe my advice is really obvious and stupid, but do you have any preparatory book for the exam? I passed the B1 exam barely being able to speak, I just obsessively went through this book. You can finish it today if you try to focus, its not very long. I know that's only for B1, but there is also another version for C1. I got that one online for a friend that was also doing the C1 exam to enter uni here, and she passed it in the first try and I think her German was ok, not amazing.

Since its Sunday, and you can't go buy it outside, I just want to give you a small tip, that they're easily available on a Russian website, like the Russian Facebook. Best of luck, friend. I hope things work out for you!

First of all, Hannover is not in Siberia, you are not going to freeze to death instantly. Also you will get out of the plane, then you are inside the airport. You will really only be "exposed to pure nature" on the few steps between airport entrance and (I assume) your family's car, you would even manage that in Siberia, naked ;)

No really, I'd get a normal pair of long pants and a long sleeve shirt (nothing polar-approved, just stuff for an air-conditioned living room, like e.g. a jeans and a sweatshirt) that will suit you well on the long flight. And when you are here, you just go shopping based on what you need right then. A pair of shoes that are not sandals would be necessary, but it is pointless to buy such stuff (that needs to fit) on the internet. And you can also get to know downtown Hannover then.

So what can you buy already? Pretty much only stuff that either doesn't need to be cut perfectly because it is "strechy", or that is rather cheap and wouldn't be such a bad waste of money if it turns out to be crap.

There is such stuff like thermal underwear, aka ski underwear. I personally only wear that if it is really cold (well under freezing) AND I'm outside for a prolonged time. But you are not used to even cool temperatures above freezing with wetness, with also makes it feel colder than it is, so maybe you would want to buy such stuff. You can combine that with anything else easily or leave it away when it turns out to be too warm. Look on Amazon.de for "Thermo-Unterwäsche" (https://www.amazon.de/b/ref=sr_aj?node=3024361031), about up to 30 € for a shirt-and-pants combo should be ok.

Maybe you can also look for a pair of gloves, not the montrously thick ones for skiing, but thin softshell gloves (the thinner the better actually, makes them more usable, i.e. you can keep them on all the time), preferrable with a touchscreen finger, and which are resistant to wetness (even if you avoid walking through pouring rain, you will have to touch e.g. a wet handle or something, so they shouldn't soak everything up), maybe with a neopren layer on the hand insides. Would say you can get a decent pair for 10-20 €. (not endorsing anything, but just so you get an idea: https://www.amazon.de/Touchscreen-Handschuhe-Fahrrad-Handschuhe-Fahrradhandschuhe-Winddicht/dp/B01NAH8R2V/)

I'd also buy a few pairs of black cotton socks, they are for a few shoe sizes at once, so no problems with proper fit.

If you really want to look for shoes, I'd take a look at trekking shoes, they are good to wear every day, can stand wetness and dirt (especially if you avoid light colors!) and can be worn in- and outside, except with a suit of course. Shouldn't look too "offroad" of course, Hannover is not in the Himalaya either. Maybe something like this: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00Q7EUP4E/ (again, shouldn't be a recommendation for exactly this pair, there are a lot of shoes that look similar)
But you should try them out before, i.e. buy them now and let them be sent to where you live now, wear a few hours to decide whether you can walk in them, and if not, return them and buy a different pair. You can put them on in the plane, so it's not additional luggage. But one pair is really enough, at least for now. Maybe you want to buy sports shoes or rubber boots or some fine leather shoes for a suit later, but these will get you through most of the day.

I was slightly wrong though, it is 5, 7, 9 with the amount of spices. Anyway, here is a niner: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00BRWIO6W/

Here is a recipe, gotta live with grams though instead of cups :P.

• 100 g cane sugar
  
• 250 g honey
  
• 500 g plain flour (type 405 in Germany)
  
• 2 EL rape oil
  
• 2 EL cream / substitute with whipping cream
  
• 2 EL Lebkuchengewürz
  
• 2 EL cocoa powder
  
• 1 pack baking powder
  
• 1/2 litre Milk
  
  Sauce
  
  EL = Esslöffel, which is a spoon for soup.
  1 pack baking powder in Germany is always laid out for 500 g of flour and are mostly like 20g or so? Don't have one around right now, but that should be about it.
  I am not really sure, but I think you can substitute the flour with self raising flower if you leave the baking powder away, that should work if you make this in the US.
  
  Just mix it all together, no particular order. It helps to heat the honey a little bit in a water bath. Really, just a bit so it becomes more fluid. And use, uhm the clear honey, not the creamed, if you know what I mean. Next you need Oblaten, which are very thin wafers that are basically tasteless. The link is just an example so you know how it looks like, you can get them way cheaper in any discounter around this time of the year.
  
  Put some of the batter on one of those thin wafers and put it on a baking tray that is covered with some baking paper. Bake 15-20 minutes at 200°C or whatever that is in Fahrenheit.
  They taste best if you let them rest for a day or two. Let them cool out before you them into a cooking jar or other type of containers.
  
  You can also cover them with chocolate if you want to.
  
  This is the easiest recipe I know, there are many others, but I always use that and it's great.
  
  
  
  
  

There are plenty of things you could do:

• Read German literature classics (in English) and then discuss them. I suggest "The Sorrows of young Werther" by Goethe as a short and nice starter.
  
• Try to locate people of German heritage in your area (maybe white pages vs 50 most common German surnames?).Then see if they are in contact with their ancestors in Europe, if so organise talks (for the whole school), if not try to help locating them if they have some clues (old letters / pictures / a village name - we see this in r/germany all the time) plus Google.
  
• Study Germany/Austria/Switzerland geography. Maybe it's a bit lame, but it's a German club, isn't it?
  
• Organise your own German language course. You can buy some cheap used books in Amazon, plus you can take advantage of your fluent member.
  
• Contact the German embassy or your nearest consulate and see if they are willing to give you some materials.
  
• One thing that it's easy and free it's to write letters/e-mails to the tourism bureau of any German city or village you can think of, and they will send you brochures for free. Germans love planning and this was their way of organising their (weekend) trips before the internet was here.
  
• Buy this book and discuss it.

You can buy them on Amazon, though rather expensive. They do have a Spätzle Maker from Amazon Basics as well, which seems to be good value for money: https://www.amazon.com/Norpro-3128-Spaetzle-Maker/dp/B00004UE89/

The recipe is simply flour, eggs and lukewarm water. I add salt, pepper and chili flakes as well... Can post 'my' recipe if you care? It's actually super super simple to make, and done in a heartbeat.

I just made a huge batch of Spätzle. And I can only recommend getting one of these. All the other contraptions are far messier and bulkier and more expensive. I've tried them all and this simple thing works best.

As for Spätzle: Mix Eggs and Water in a bowl. You need as much water as you got eggs by volume. Add a pinch of salt. Add flour until you have the right texture. What you are looking for is a very wet dough which "climbs" up your dough hooks and yet still drips off. Since this is my grannies recipe this is all by gut feeling. Once you are reasonably comfortable with your dough let it rest for at least half an hour. then check the viscosity again. Add flour if needed.

Then you need to heat up water in a pot. It is absolutely important that the water is hot but you don't want hot steam. If you get hot steam you will steam the dough while you are making Spätzle.

Pass the dough through the contraption. Don't use too much dough at once because you want your Spätzle to cook evenly. Fish the Spätzle at the surface out of the water using something like this.

Drop the Spätzle into a pan with melted butter. You are not looking for a lot of heat. You only want to keep them warm. Ideally you will drop them into a pan of very dark roasted onions. That's how I prefer them. If you've got nutmeg, use some of that. If you feel like granulated garlic, use some of that.

As for cheese: use Emmental or similar cheeses. Do not use weird stuff like Cheddar. I made my last batch with equal amounts of Emmental and not-quite Parmigiano. If you feel your cheese isn't quite melting you can pop the whole thing into the oven at a not too hot temperature. Just enough to melt the cheese.

My girlfriend adds cream before the Spätzle go into the oven.

Be careful with the flour you use. None of the self-raising stuff.


There are variation of Spätzle without adding water to the dough. Those are very eggy indeed and I'm not too fond of those.

Reluctant Meister by the British author Stephen Green is a very recommendable read. It's about the German atitude and how it is informed by historical experiences. It also deals in German culture in a signifficant way; if you know little about it you will finish the book with real appreciation. Green is also both a neat stylist and has an honest love for the country and culture so it's no dry read.

Other than that, I would also second /u/sveme's suggestion, as I've heard great things about the book.

http://www.myspace.com/wearekingkong

good music, good parties. they even realesed 3 samplers (e.g. http://www.amazon.de/King-Kong-Kicks-Various/dp/B0023PR7J2)
if you do good music, contact them, so that they play you or you even get on their next sampler.

not really a label, but a good tip though

festivals are just too much to list. google will help

All you need is a VERY cheap plug adapter. Just plastic and metal, no electronics inside:

http://www.amazon.com/American-European-Outlet-Plug-Adapter/dp/B0036VJ1OQ/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1371195014&sr=8-7&keywords=euro+adapter

I bought a six pack before I moved here. Beware that these things are SUPER CHEAP (just look at the price) and it is not uncommon for the metal prongs inside to break. You would only need a voltage converter if you had chargers that did not operate on 220 (230)v.


Also, usually hotels have a drawer full of these at the front desk and are happy to loan you one for your stay. Good luck and enjoy!

There are searchterms you can use. Like "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" or "DAF" for short. This very reliably gets you the books you seek.

You get (a very small selection of) side-by-side English-German books (Zweisprachig) and some German-only.

The side-by-side include classics like "Shakespeare", here is an example:

https://www.amazon.de/dp/3423124857/

The German-only texts are often along the lines of something "pedagogically valuable", which can be delightful if the genre they are in happens to be your cup of tea. Here are some examples of that:

https://www.amazon.de/dp/3125620333/

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00QNRHT76

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00WUGDRHK

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00Q726XLU

Unfortunately available texts are heavy on the "detective stories", "children's stories", the "language student exploring a German city" and common "struggles with society".

Personally I would like to see more easy-to-read titles in other genres, like Sci-Fi and fantasy as well.

I'm working on an easy-to-read German fantasy book for A2/B1 level (planned) to be published this Christmas. For the moment it is still with my editor and some folks who are currently learning German at A2 level for feedback.

However, if you are interested in some Sword&Sorcery fantasy for learning German, just PM me. I might have some free copies to give away come Christmas.