Page 4 - GC-Jan-Feb-23

German Leckerbissen – Part 9

by Daniel Schwarz which are the vowels ä, ö, and ü, are
ne of the closest words to identified with two dots over them
tidbit in German is Lecker- called diacritics. These diacritics are
Obissen. Literally Leckerbis- just shorthand, and can also be re-
sen means tasty morsels or bits. The placed by just adding an “e” after
following may include some tidbits these vowels, such as “ae”, “oe”,
of German culture, foods/drinks, and “ue”. The Eszet or scharfes S
traditions, history, language, and (sharp s) is shown as ß, which looks
current events. similar to the Greek Beta symbol,
Postage stamp language – In and is used to replace double “ss”.
the olden days, before the internet Pronouncing the umlauts are as fol-
and texting, hand written letters and lows: Ä sounds like “eh” such as the
cards were the norm to communi- letter E in Edward; Ö makes the
cate. As can be seen on the photo of sound “e” and purse your lips into
a German postcard, flirting and ro- an O shape; Ü sounds like “ee” as
mance was even expressed clandes- you purse your lips trying to whis-
tinely using the simple postage tle, and sounds a little like the “ee”
stamps of the times. They were not in fee. The Eszet is just a long
just licked and placed, but placed to sounding s, such as in “see”. After
send a message. The title reads you hear a native German pro-
Briefmarken:Sprache, Postage nounce these, they will become
Stamp Language. The captions un- much easier to understand and use.
der the various stamp placement Deutsche Fussballmuseum,
combinations from top left to right aka-DFB-Museum in Dortmund –
and down are: Nichts kann uns tren- Soccer is the national sport of Ger-
nen! Nothing can take us apart; many, and DFB-Museum is the na-
Dein aus Ewig! Yours forever; In tional museum for German
herzlicher Umarmung! In heartful Football, which is soccer. This mod-
embrace; Nur Du machst mich ern architecturally interesting muse-
glücklich! Only you make me lucky; um opened in 2015, and is located in
Ganz Dein! All yours; Dein ist mein the center of Town next to the train
Herz! You are my heart; hab mich station. They say it is not divided by Musik theory in German - Mu-
sical note symbols are written on a
lieb! Love me. So maybe the simple floors, but by halves, for giving vis-
postage stamp is mightier than the itors the soccer experiences. Several 5 line staff, with note names A thru
G, called natural notes. For a piano
sword, and possibly even the pen. hundred thousand visitors enjoy the
Happy Valentine’s Day. high tech interactive displays along player, these notes are all on the
white piano keys. The black piano
German Alphabet – Languages with historical artifacts. On days
such as German use the Latin alpha- when the BVB Dortmund team are keys are designated by one of two
different accidental symbols in front
bet of 26 letters, however, German playing at home, guest fans flock to
has 3 additional letters called um- this gem of a museum. Its address is of the written natural note on the
staff. Accidentals are called sharps
lauts, and one more called Eszet. Platz der Deutschen Einheit 1, Dort-
These help to pronounce some Ger- mund, in the state of North Rhine- and flats and denote ½ note or pitch
higher or lower than the natural
man words more correctly, mainly Westphalia.
vowels in nouns. The umlaut letters, note, respectively, and which are
played on the black piano keys.
In German, the notes A – G are
pronounced the same as in their
written form, except the note B nat-
ural, which is pronounced like the
letter H, and B-flat is just B. The
sharp and flat notes are pronounced
as the natural note name plus the GERMAN AMERICAN MUSICIANS performed at the
suffix “is” for sharps, and suffix Annual Christmas German Mass at St. Louis Church,
“es” for flats. So, now if a German Main and Edward streets in Buffalo on Dec. 4.
says Fis, it means F-sharp, and Des
will mean D-flat. Hope that this
demystifies these German musical
terms for you.
SCHUFA – No, this is not
Shoofly pie misspelled. In Germa-
ny, this is the major credit bureau
that tracks all consumer credit data.
SCHUFA is the abbreviation of
“Schutzgemeinschaft für allgemeine
Kreditsicherung.” It is similar to the
three major credit bureaus in the
United States. Based on the data
collected, it creates a score and af-
fects a consumer’s type of loan and
credit that they can be approved for,
and at what terms. Everyone starts
with a credit score of 100%, and
gets lower as the consumer borrows
money, and pays their bills. A score
of 90% and above is considered a
good score. Everyone in Germany,
including long term visitors that
have a permanent address, bank ac-
count, Handy (cell phone), or ener-
gy suppliers under the consumers
name will have their data reported.
A Schufa certificate (SCHUFA-Bo-
nitätsauskunft) is a two part docu-
ment that is essential to have in
Germany, even to just rent an apart-
ment, or get a loan. One part is for
the prospective landlord, and other
to keep which sums up all data
Schufa collected. The certificate can
be ordered on-line, by mail, and also
at many banks for a fee. Again, this
is similar to our three U.S. major
credit bureaus financial reports. So,
no matter what country you are in,
paying your bills is monitored. You
can learn more at Support our Advertisers!
www.SCHUFA.de and
www.meineSCHUFA.de