intothegrove

[intothegrove]

Part 3 - Holzleute fear Humans

I woke up to the feeling of my mom gently shaking me awake, like I remember when it was Christmas morning and she knew all the good things under the tree would have us in joy for the rest of the entire week. I opened my eyes expecting to see the sly smile and sparkling eyes that always accompanied the rousing. But she wasn’t there. I looked around the room. Das zimmer hat vier Schreibtische und vier Bette und zwei große Fenster. Das Bett directly below my own had the klein body of Adalee, their white-blonde hair splayed across their pillow. I started remembering where I was. And how I got here. It felt like waking up from a dream into another dream. I didn’t know where reality ended and fantasy started. Das zwei Bette across from us were empty and pristinely made. I looked around for Elu und Da’ari but all was quiet. I began to descend the ladder to the floor when I heard a soft voice, “Guten Morgen.” Adalee’s white-blonde eyelashes had fluttered open and were looking up at me while they remained laying on their pillow. Their eyes had changed to a sort of pale Lavender. However, other than their odd color they no longer had the glow or the shimmer like some of the other souls had. “Wie geht’s? Mein name ist Adalee, was ist ihr name?” Ah, I hadn’t met this one yet. So, Adalee had at least 4 souls, so far. I replied... “Hallo, mein name ist ___. Guten Morgen.” "Oh, ihr name ist sehr schön." Adalee replied as the slowly pushed themselves up and out of bed then started straightening the blankets until it was just as pristine as Elu and Da'ari's. Just as I thought their names, the dark-stained große Tür to the room opened revealing them both. "Oh! Guten Morgen!! Wie geht's!?" Elu was beaming. His long dark hair had been pulled free from the braid he plaited last night and swung freely around his hips and just the tips of his long pointed ears could be seen sticking out from the dark glistening waves. "Sehr Gut, Danke!" Adalee beamed back, "Und Ihnen?" "Nicht schlecht, nicht schlecht! Danke!" He smiled and sat at one of die Schreibtische. "You must make your bed every day. It's one of the rules." Da'ari said as she passed me and began straightening my own blankets. Oh, I didn't realize." I replied and began helping to straighten them out. "Und Ihnen? Wie geht es?" She looked at me as we finished. I could tell she wasn't just asking, she was also testing to see if her charm was still having effect. "Ich bin Gut, danke. Und ihnen?" I replied "Sehr Gut. Let's try to get a couple more words in your head for the morning." she turned and pointed to the window, "Was ist das?" "Das ist ein Fenster" "Gut, und das?" She pointed to a bed. "Das ist ein Bett." "Gut, und das?" she shifted to a desk. "Ein Schreibtisch." Silently, she pointed at the floor. "Der Boden." it took me a short moment to 'remember' the answer. She nodded in approval. "We'll do that with some other things throughout the week, just to make sure it's all coming through. Now, you better get your clothes on, we have a long day ahead. First we introduce you to deine Professoren and then we have to get you to your home and back before the portal closes. It stays open a little longer today, but we must still hurry otherwise get stuck in the human world." "Would that be schlecht?" I asked "For me, yes. I am of the Holzleuten and the human world weakens us a bit. Also, it's historically known to be bad to be caught by a human. They would often try to steal away our women believing they were the cause or the cure of plagues." I lifted my eyebrows, "I had no idea! But then, why did they send you to get me?" "Well, for one, we are cousins. Through our mother's lineage..." she said simply. "Wait, my mom is a.... a... Holzleuten?" "Nein, deine Mutter ist nicht eine Holzfräulein. Sie ist ein Moosfräulein. Therefore, you and your sisters are also. But still.. you are dawdling. We can talk more while you get dressed and we go. Like I said, we have a lot to do!" I nodded and pulled my clothes out from the drawer under der Bett. and headed toward the changing room. Most of the vocabulary and contents of this part of the story can be part in Chapters 2 through 5 of German DeMystified by Ed Swick Kobold, Holzleuten, and Moosleuten are all German 'fairy peoples". Although I'm using them for this story they won't match up with their myths. So don't take this as a sound source of information on them. Any other vocab that isn't listed in those chapters are simple common terms I already knew in German - feel free to Google translate as necessary! Finding this and feeling confused? Read this post for an explanation.

[intothegrove]

Part 2 - Kobolds Are Interesting People

"Was ist Ihr name? - Wie heißen Sie?” The boy asked again.

“Umm...” I looked at Da’ari and she lifted her eyebrows at me expectantly. I scrunched up my face and tried ‘remembering’ how to answer... "Option 1 - “Mein name ist _(put your own name here)_?" Option 2 "Ich heiße ___?”" - it came out more like a question than an answer, but Da'ari looked pleased and I looked back at the boy who seemed content with my answer as well. The black glittery powder must've worked! I don't know how I knew what to say, but it seems like I got it right! "Ah, Mein name ist Elu. Da'ari ist meine Schwester." I looked back and forth between the two and finally realized they looked almost exactly alike. Twins! Then I looked at the other kid in the room. They had a nervous look on their face. I couldn't quite tell what gender they were. They had white-blonde hair sharpley bobbed just below the ears and large blue eyes that seemed to emit a sort of glow. Everybody stood in awkward silence for a minute and I realized they weren't going to introduce them unless I asked. My face scrunched up in concentration again... " Option 1 - "Wer ist das? Option 2 - "Was ist ihr name?" Option 3 - "Wie heißen Sie?"" "Das ist Adalee." Da'ari answered for them, "They have many souls, or how humans say multiple personalities. It's common among the Kobold's kind. Although all their souls will answer to the same name, they can each have very unique personalities which may surprise you sometimes. Unfortunately, it also causes them to seem to have short term memory loss.. So, they may repeat themselves a lot. If they talk at all. We have a lot of Kobolds in die Schule because it takes them a little longer than others to remember their studies." Adalee blushed and shrugged their shoulders as if they could hide behind it and then suddenly stood up very straight and looked directly into my eyes. Their pupils dilated a little and the outer rim of their iris changed from the glowing blue to a shimmering green. "Hallo!" they said in a high joyful voice "Ich heiße Adalee! Das ist mein bett und das ist mein Lampe and das ist mein Heft" they pointed to their things speaking very quickly. "Und Da'ari ist meine Freundin und Elu ist mein Freund und..." they took a deep inhale before continuing, "...wo ist Ihr bett?" They stopped so quickly it took me a second to realize they were waiting for an answer. Da'ari pointed at the top bunk across above Adalee's and waited for me to reply to them. "Option 1 - "Mein bett is da." Option 2 - "Mein bett ist heir"" "Oh, yay!" Adalee smilled wide revealing slightly pointy teeth and hopping happily. Then another shift happened, they stood still and became very stern. Their tilted their head slightly and their eyes clouded over completely black. "Was ist Ihr name?" "Umm..." I was starting to wonder how many souls Adalee had and how many times I would have to answer the same question, but I guess this would be great practice... " Option 1 - "Mein name ist ___" Option 2 - "Ich heiße ___"" "Wo ist Ihr Haus?" ""Mein Haus ist in Mannheim, Deutschland." This answer comes from the intro part of the story, don't worry if you answered with your true location. As long as your German was correct!" "Oh." Adalee said simply, then turned around to one of the desks, sat down, and started writing as if the interaction had never happened at all. I smiled but held back any laughter in case it might be percieved as an insult. I had decided that Adalee was cute, even if I did have to repeat myself a dozen times over. I suddenly realized that the five "head staff" that I has seen earlier never actually told me who they were. I turned to Da'ari and Elu to ask, thinking of the one with bright red hair first... "Wer ist die Dame?" I asked, then added "The one from earlier?" "Das is Professorin Gwynn. She is the head of die Schule." Then I thought of the man with the handsome smile and asked, "Wer ist der Mann?" again adding clarification, "The one with short curly hair?" "Das ist Herr Hahona. Er ist ein Lehrer." I didn't notice the other three people in the library room well enough to ask who they were, but if they were all ein Lehrer oder eine Professorin like Professorin Gwynn und Herr Hahona then I would likely see them again and be able to ask later. I started to look around the room we were in and noticed the large windows at one end of mein Bett. The sky was a dark indigo and I remembered that Herr Hahona had said it was late. Even though it had only been noon when I went to the park and Da'ari pulled me through the red-berry bush. I looked around the walls for eine Uhr but couldn't see one, so I asked... "Wo ist eine Uhr?" Elu turned to his own desk and pulled out a small one handing it over to me. The face of of it had several small marks looping around and around like a coil until it met in the center where the center dial was. and then two smaller dials on either side of the center one. Each dial ticking at seemingly random paces or shifting from one side of die Uhr to the other side in one large swoop. In confusion I ask... "Was ist das?" "Das ist eine Uhr." Elu said sounding a little confused himself. "Time here moves very differently than the human world." Da'ari swooped in to save the day again, "It would be far to complicated to explain it all tonight. But that is die Uhr we use here in Irminsul. In human time it's about 10 o'clock at night. So, we should all get to bed. Your pajamas are in that left-side drawer just under das bett and the dressing room is behind the deep red curtain. I'm sorry we didn't have time to grab your own things, but the portal was only open for a few hours. We can try again another day." She turned and climbed into the bunk above Elu's. Elu seemed to understand and agree. He braided his hair down before climbing under his own blankets. "Gute nacht!" Adalee called from their desk, their eyes had turned blue with a shimmering green outline again. Another day!? I thought to myself suddenly remembering that I had a mother and two sisters waiting at home for me. I wondered if in Irminsul time it wouldn't be as long, since it seemed to pass faster here? I pulled out some plain white pajamas from the drawer under das Bett and changed into them in the dressing room. As I crawled up into my own blankets I noticed that although the looked as thin as a sheet they were weighted, and where I felt cold they would turn warm, but where I felt too warm they would turn cooler. I laid down and fully embraced how comfortable I was which made the entire situation somehow much more bearable. I actually felt... happy? Was this some magic from the blanket? I turned to look at Da'ari who had a small smile on her face. It was definitely the blankets. I smiled, myself, and called out just as Adalee had, "Gute nacht!" Within seconds I was fast asleep. Most of the vocabulary and contents of this part of the story can be part in Chapters 2 through 3 of German DeMystified by Ed Swick Any vocab that isn't listed in those chapters are simple common terms I already knew in German - feel free to Google translate as necessary! Finding this and feeling confused? Read this post for an explanation.

[intothegrove]

Part 1 - A Start

This part of the story has no real vocabulary or grammar. It is simply a way to introduce the setting of the story.

Yes it’s a bit long, but I wanted a decently good set up first. Apologies.

The main character is roughly 12 years old, give or take. I’m going to try my best to keep them as undefined as possible so YOU take their role... just remember you’re like... 12-ish years old.

It has been three weeks since we moved to Mannheim, Germany. A small city on the South-West side of the country where two rivers meet.

My mother had always wanted to move here, and despite knowing absolutely NONE of the language she got a job doing some sort of tech stuff for a Medical company. Apparently the position was in such high demand that they paying her to attend intensive language courses to learn. But those courses weren’t offered to the rest of us. Now me and my two sisters are all stuck in Germany for at least 4 years without being able to make friends or even go buy a snack at the convenient store down the road while mom is away at work and school for over 40 hours a week.

We are supposed to start going to our own language classes in a couple days in preparation to start the school year in August. I tried to look up some stuff on Google yesterday but everything was talking about “cases” and “conjugations” and “akkusative”!? I have no idea how we’re supposed to figure this all out in the months before getting thrown into an entire school of kids that only speak German.

I looked over at Brooklyn, the youngest of us, stacking brightly multicolored wooden blocks on top of each other haphazardly. She’s only two and barely speaks English, so I bet this is all going to fly by her with no problem.

My older sister, Katie, lounged across the entire sofa chatting with one of her friends back home, Mark. I could tell by the amount of eye-rolling and sighing that she was probably complaining about the same thing I was lamenting over in this very moment. Mark had actually been pretty excited for us, he had been taking German as a second language in school and he liked it. He thought the fact that German had a “neuter” gender was super progressive and awesome.

He was probably trying to buck-up Katie’s morale about it all right now, too. Kinda hard to do when Katie had been in Spanish classes since her freshman year of high school. Which is still better than my own background in pretty much nothing but Japanese from anime and manga. At least Spanish also has gendered words. I don’t think being able to call people an idiot in Japanese was going to help me at all.

Out of all of us, I was the worst off. At least, that’s how it felt to me.

I looked back at my phone and mindlessly scrolled the social media feed for a few seconds, not really paying attention to what was flying by, before finally turning it off and wandering outside.

For the last few days I had been walking down to a nearby park, sitting on benches, and watching people like a weirdo. Sometimes I would try to figure out what they were saying by watching what they were doing, but unless they were talking to a toddler... I had NO clue what was going on. So, I would wander into the little wooded area to watch the ducks wandering around or poke at whatever weird bugs and things I found in the flower beds.

I was exhausted of all things German and it was hot and muggy out, so I didn’t bother sitting on any bench and eavesdropping on any arguing couples. Instead, I went to go sit against one particularly large tree that was kinda close to the edge of one of the two lakes in the park. On the other side I could see a dock and pier with people throwing fishing lines over the edge. A lot of swans and ducks swam around trying to snatch up their own fish and bugs. I wondered if any of them ever got accidentally hooked by a fisherman.

A few ducks nearby spotted me and swam over, but I had to apologize to them because I didn’t bring anything to eat. I showed my empty open palms as if they could understand what I was saying. After a few minutes staring at me, they finally got the hint and plodded away to look for somebody who might have brought better provisions... or any at all.

As I watched them waddle away I heard a clicking sound from behind me in the trees. I turned my head but couldn’t really see anything around the large tree trunk. Soon I realized the clicking sound wasn’t clicking... it was somebody “psst”ing to get somebody else’s attention. My curiosity peaked, I leaned over basically laying in the dirt and grass to peer around the edge of the tree and see who it was.

“Yes, come over here! Hurry!”

They were speaking English!? The German accent was thick, but that was definitely English they just spoke in. I looked around in bewilderment. I couldn’t see anybody. At all.

“No fool! Just you. Come over to the ... the... der Busch. This bush.”

The voice was indeed coming from a bush.  A bush with lots of clusters of little red berries all over it. I had saw it a couple days ago and was tempted to eat some, but didn’t because I didn’t want to potentially die.

“Hurry!” the voice urged.

“A-are you talking to me?” I finally spoke up.

“Natürlich!!” they groaned and said some other things in German that I couldn’t catch, ”Yes, now hurry!”

I slowly ascended from the ground, plotting my escape in case this was some weird kidnapper or something - but how did this kidnapper know I spoke English? I eased over to the edge of the bush trying to see who was speaking, but still... nothing. There was nobody around.

“You cannot see me as for now. But it will wear off soon, so we must hurry. Come! They wait!”

“Who is ...?” I started to ask but felt a warm hand on my wrist before being yanked down. Down through the bush with all the little clusters of red berries. Down through the grass that surrounded the base of the bush. Down through the dirt and the soil that the bush’s roots snaked through. Down down down...

Until we .. hit ground? I stumbled forward as if to catch myself from the fall. But I wasn’t falling. Once the adrenaline settled a bit I looked around. I stood in what looked like a court room, or maybe a library? Every wall was a bookshelf of a deeply stained red wood, polished until the bright light from the modest chandelier in the ceiling’s center reflected off of it.

There were desks, about six feet wide, lined up in two rows on either side of the room, and, as I continued to turn, at the front of the room one very very large desk behind which sat five people. All wearing black or blue-grey robes. The person in the middle with gold ropes coiled around the front and a matching wide-brimmed hat that nearly blocked out their face.

They all sat staring at me.

The voice I had heard earlier spoke from beside me. Talking to the people behind the desk, but of course, I couldn’t understand a bit of it. As I stood befuddled, not sure what to do, a faint smoky outline of a person began to appear where the voice was.

Starting with the tips of the fingers, toes, and the nose and moving inward until a petite girl with very long, wavy, jet-black hair, long pointed ears, and shiny brown skin stood beside me. When she had finished talking, the person in the wide-brimmed hat nodded their head and the girl left the room.

“Umm...” I started but they stopped me.

“Do not worry. She has told us that you do not yet speak German. It is another obstacle we will have to overcome quickly. Fortunately we, the head staff, can speak English decently well... at least enough to let you know what is going on before getting you settled in.”  She lifted her head enough that I could see her looking at me with vibrant hazel eyes. Her hair was thick fiery red coils that were nearly as voluminous as the brim of the hat was wide. “This place is called die Große Schule der Irminsul Nation. We provide both basic and extended education for those aged 6 and older...”

“You brought me to a school!?” I interrupted with a laugh, “You’re a Wizard, Harry.” I imitated poorly, but they did not seem amused. My laughter faded, but I still thought it was funny none-the-less.

“Yes, they brought you to a school.” She continued, “However, Harry, you’re not here to make feathers levitate. While most of our students are studying the basics such as the alphabet, reading, maths, and yes even material manipulation that the average human-person would call ‘magic’... you are here to learn about diplomacy, politics, history, law, and military tactics.”

She ended matter-of-factly yet leaving me standing dumbfounded.

“What?” I managed to croak out.

To her left a man with short curly black hair and deep reddish-brown skin spoke with an Australian accent and a handsome smile, ”We can delve into teaching you your history later, for now know that you are one of the next in line to inherit the throne. Because of this, you must begin formal education to make you a suitable Monarch and leader for our nation.”

“I’m German royalty!?” I stammered

He chuckled, ”No! You are of the nation of Irminsul as the schools’ name implies! It is in a different existential plane from Germany and we have portals all over the human world, however our main national languages are Huaxtec, Wiradjuri, German, and Punjabi. All Irminsul royals must know how to communicate in at least one of their nation’s languages. Now, it is late, you have a lot to accomplish, and you need to get an early start tomorrow, so we will help you get to sleep and get started in the morning.”

“It’s only noon...” I started and felt myself pulled suddenly to the left. Through the books, through the glossy wood shelf, through the wall... and then I stumbled trying to catch myself as I came to a stop in a much smaller room with four beds and three kids about my age standing around in pajamas. One of them was the petite long-eared girl from earlier. They all stopped what they were doing and watched as I tried to brace  against air and balance myself from being yanked through a wall.

“Oh! Hallo!” came a surprisingly deep voice from a boy who was bent over brushing out very long black hair. He flipped his head back sending his waist-length hair flying overhead. “Wie heißen Sie?”

The long eared girl from before looked at me, “He asked what your name is. My name is Da’ari. I’ve been asked by the Head Staff to help be your guide for your first years because I’m the top of my class. But, I’m not going to be your translator forever, I’ve got my own studies to worry about, you know?" She pulled out a small pouch from a desk drawer near the beds and then sprinkled some sort of fine sparkling black powder from inside it around my head and chanted words over and over. 

“There. I’ve put a charm over your brain so that you will start to pick up the language. Unfortunately, they haven’t discovered a way to make languages instantly known,. However, this will help... you’ll just have to try to think hard and ‘remember’. It will eventually come to you as if you knew it the whole time.”

[intothegrove]

Was ist Das? - What Is This?

WHAT is this? - I’ve started this blog as an alternative to flashcards while I’m studying the German language.

It is a Role-Play based storyline where the reader has to interact with the script to test their language knowledge.  As you progress through the story you will be presented with situations, scenarios, and questions that you have to respond to in German.

It is NOT - a German-teaching Blog. There will be NO German lessons here. It is a supplementary tool to use alongside the German you’re learning from another source.  The content for each piece of the story will be based on the subjects presented in textbook German Demystified by Ed Swick

WHY  - I hate flashcards. Not only do I hate making them, but I don’t think they’re particularly useful in the format they are often presented in (with single-word direct translations). Flashcards are tedious to make, tedious to use, and only good if you want to do direct translations forever (not good for actually speaking a foreign language.)

So, I wanted to create something that was a bit more interesting (even though a bit silly)  - more interesting to make, more interesting to use, and hopefully better linguistic results in the end. 

HOW can I use this? - If you’re studying German and like fantasy stories, feel free to use the story exactly as is written here. You’ll read along with the story and when you get to a portion where either you have to ask a question, answer a question, or make a comment - write down your answer somewhere, like a piece of paper - then, with your mouse pointer highlight the blank portion of the blog that follows the script (I’m going to try to insert the answers in a font color that matches the background of the text so it’s rendered “invisible” until it’s highlighted.)

Apparently Tumblr doesn’t like font color options, so I was unable to make the answers invisible. (From what I can see). I’ll leave it as is for now, but I’m pretty disappointed. I might move the entire project to a different website. How unfortunate.

 If you aren’t studying German or don’t like fantasy stories, you can take this idea apply it to whatever language you’re learning. (I plan on doing this for my Japanese studies as well) and write your own blog-story!

Um, Index please? -  The content for each piece of the story will be based on the subjects presented in German Demystified by Ed Swick. I will try to note the chapters and subjects that each part of the story contains so if there’s something you haven’t studied yet, you can look in that chapter of the textbook.. So, if you’re using the same book - you can learn alongside me! If you want a copy of the book go here... no it’s not an Amazon link. Because I don’t want to support a company with such terrible employee treatment nor a company that ultimately runs other companies out of business.

SIDE NOTES - You may feel some of the scenarios and dialogue are repetitive. That’s because I’m going to try to drill learning topics at least seven times to help with long term memory. I don’t think only drilling it once will help you remember it days later.

You might think the story is not novel-worthy : that’s because I’m not a novelist. I’m some rando on a computer typing whatever nonsense hops into my head... there’s probably gonna be typos and ridiculousness. So you better drop your expectations of a New York Times Best-Selling script... not gonna happen.