Blog Episode 6 English - Test your own knowledge of German

Linguistic knowledge is to a great extent based on knowledge about culture (at least from my point of view as a pragmatic linguist).

As promised in my blog post, here is a little quiz for learners of German. This is not for beginners (in fact, I hope there is at least a little something you don’t know - after all, my point is to show how complex and culturally dependant linguistic knowledge is and how much it takes to get beyond the seemingly smooth surface of 1:1 translations…).

At the beginning of the year I had a illuminating conversation with an elderly gentleman from England. On hearing what my profession was he laughed and commented: “Oh yes, I am also learning English - I am only beginning to understand it, though!”

Here you go: How much do you know about German food, politeness, and superstitions? And do you understand German when it is highly idiomatic?

If you want to check your answers, see below:

Would you like to have the PDFs for your own teaching? If so, lease let me know.