Truly German – Episode 02 – 14th August 2009

August 14, 2009 By 1 Comment

Truly German is a new podcast that talks about the news in Germany.  Sometimes this will by national news, maybe political, but we will also be covering some local topics.

We want to have some fun at the same time, so part of the podcast is our Länderquiz – in which my contestant has to guess in which Bundesland three different news stories took place in.

This week the topics are:

  1. Michael Schumacher cancels his comeback
  2. Merkel and Steinmeier to stage TV duel
  3. U55 in Berlin

The quiz covers the following stories:

  1. Runneburg tower to be repaired
  2. Customs officials confiscate 360 lollies
  3. HDTV to start in Germany

Please listen to the second episode and tell us what you think:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file

Filed Under: Truly German Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Teuro

August 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

“Teuro” was selected by the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache as the “Wort des Jahres” (Word of the Year) in 2002.

Teuro is a so-called “Portmanteau” and is made up of the words “teuer” (expensive) and “Euro”.

It refers to the feeling that people have in Germany that things became more expensive after the Euro was introduced at the beginning of 2002.

Part of the problem is caused by people dividing by 2, whereas the exact exchange rate was 1.95583.  But in many areas – eating out being one of the most common examples – the prices were noticed to have gone up considerably.  It is often commented, that the prices were almost the same figures in Euro as in DM – just with a different currency sign.

Another factor is that price rises since 2002 go much faster, as increasing a price by 1EUR is a lot more than increasing by 1DM.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

Filed Under: German Words Explained, Podcasts Tagged With: , , , , ,

Ryanair to fly to Lanzarote from Germany

August 7, 2009 By 1 Comment

Last week Ryanair announced that they will start flying to Lanzarote this winter from two airports in Germany.

Starting in October there will two flights per week to and from both Frankfurt-Hahn and Düsseldorf-Weeze, and Ryanair are promising low prices on the routes thanks to a 100% discount on airport tax from AENA, who operate the airport in Arrecife.

There are, however, two big “buts” to consider.  Firstly, the flights are currently only available until the end of March 2010.  Deputy CEO of Ryanair Michael Crawley is quoted as saying that the continuation of flights beyond that point is dependent on that discount being extended.

The other consideration that potential travellers should consider is the location of the airports in Germany.   Düsseldorf-Weeze is 75km from Düsseldorf, and Frankfurt-Hahn is a staggering 126km from Frankfurt itself.  It remains to be seen if the additional expense of getting to those airports outweighs the savings of the flight, or whether tourists will remain loyal to existing carriers.

Filed Under: Lanzarote, News Tagged With: , , , , ,

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