Author: Michael Schmitz

Polonäse Blankenese

An interesting phenomenon I discovered in Germany is a particular compulsion and connection to a processional circle...

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Treppenwitz

Treppenwitz is a German word (derived from the French l’esprit de l’escalier) which literally means ‘staircase joke’....

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German in Germany: de-active listening

It’s Christmas, my first Deutsche ‘Weihnacht’, and the Germans are all talking … German. This is it....

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Teaching English in Germany

I was teaching a group of engineers in Düsseldorf—my first group class—and there is nothing more German...

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For the Love of Amber (Bernstein)

In the north of Germany, along the shores of the Baltic and North seas, it is still...

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Lustige Wörter

For me, one of the highlights of learning German with SmarterGerman is getting to know some of...

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The Villa Hügel & Krupp Stahl

Meta Description: Just outside Essen, and right alongside the railway tracks (appropriately) lies a stately manor house...

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Big Trouble in Lower Saxony

In genereal the train network in Germany is very good. It will get you to most places...

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Die Langen Kerls

As far as Prussian King Frederick Wilhelm the First was concerned, size mattered. For his army, that...

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Is Learning German in Germany the Smartest Approach?

Fleeing the ‘tyranny’ of a heavily monolingual culture in pursuit of an additional language is not a...

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