This is my first entry for my Deutsch 10-11 portfolio.
Zuerst, let me share to you how I chose my learning resource. I have little background of the German culture or anything German, except for the ubiquity of the German Nazis and Adolf Hitler in History, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the Arts, the extremely popular German beer, the Germans’ rigidity, and the band Tokyo Hotel. I chose German as my minor mainly because I want to learn another language apart from the roster of romance languages that the Department of European Languages is offering. And as a personal reason, I do like the sound of the German language; its strong and peculiar sound attracted me (more than Italian, which is my major).
I wanted my learning resource to be inclined with music or movie, the two things that mollify my odd self. I immediately thought of Tokyo Hotel, I remember listening to their music when I was in high school, however, I find their music too mainstream now. Harry Potter also came up, but how will I connect it with the German language? With Viktor Krum and Durmstrang, I suppose. Yet there has to be something better.
In my Italian class, my amica gave me a pdf copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter e La Pietra Filosofale) while waiting for our professoressa, and that’s when I decided I will acquire a copy of it in German. Now, I have a copy of the whole Harry Potter novels in the German language. I’m starting to read the first book which is the Harry Potter und Der Stein Der Weisen. I know it would take a long time before I can fully understand the whole series but these have been a part of my life, especially my childhood years. I am immensely determined to read it again, and how awesome to think that I would, in a new language.
For now, as a newbie learner of the German language, this would greatly help my pronunciation and context reading skills. It is beneficial that I already know by heart the story of Harry Potter. Reading the translation in German could also prepare me in my translation class, and know how the Germans interpret this novel. Also, I might have a glimpse of the German culture by how the translator had put the novel into their context.
Unterstützen, I would also like to share the German that inspired me most. My migliore amico said that I should watch Schindler’s List for me to become more inspired in my German class and gave me a copy of it. However, I was only able to watch it this weekend. It is a critically acclaimed 1993 American film about Oscar Schindler who saved more than one thousand Jews during the Holocaust. This film showed that despite the cruelty of most Germans at that time, one person stood out and made a difference, saving a thousand lives and the generations that lived after them.
Zuletzt, it is proper to end my first entry of my portfolio with an inspiring quotation from the Schindler’s List:
whoever saves one life saves the whole entire.
For now, Auf Wiedersehen!