We don’t need to talk about German all the time here. Let’s consider a tongue known for its siren-like hold over language nerds: Welsh. I received Welcome to Welsh from a family friend who was majoring in linguistics when I was in 8th grade in 1990. He had it, and knew I would want it,… Continue reading Welcome to Welsh
Category: Language textbooks of yore
Let’s Go: tenth-century Germany
Long before Berlitz, Lonely Planet and Let’s Go – long even before Baedeker – there was this handy German phrasebook for travelers from Francia, with the German translated into Vulgar Latin: I can show you all this thanks to Wilhelm Braune’s Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, which is in the public domain. You might think this doesn’t look… Continue reading Let’s Go: tenth-century Germany
American girls won’t get up early to shine your shoes
Deutsch für Amerikaner, my mom’s old German textbook (copyright 1960) is an interesting social-history artifact. Here’s a passage where a university student from Germany discusses the American family he’s staying with. (All these people are fictional of course, but intended to be representative of their time and place.) WHO IS HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLD? The… Continue reading American girls won’t get up early to shine your shoes
On the German standard of living (ca. 1960)
As a graduate student, my mother had to take some German and her textbook was Deutsch für Amerikaner by C.R. Goedsche and Meno Spann, published in 1960. I’ve been leafing through it off and on. This week’s fiction in The New Yorker is all about people trying to express themselves in an intermediate German class,… Continue reading On the German standard of living (ca. 1960)