German Practice

...can be quite fun, if you do it right. I didn't want to lose my ability over the summer, so I've been trying to consume media in German whenever possible. Der Spiegel is online, which is a huge help. Youtube is another great resource. I've been watching Disney movies in German. Aschenputtel (Cinderella) is well suited to it, Die Schöne und der Biest (Beauty and the Beast) is equally good...and not even German can help Mulan II. It's a little harder to find originally German television/movies on Youtube, mostly because I don't know what to search for.

But it's not just speaking I need to practice. Reading and lit crit will be important as well. And since I already have ein Tractat vom Steppenwolf, von Hermann Hesse, that will be my starting place.

Es fangt an mit "Nur für Verrückte" als Einsatz. Ein gute Anfang, finde ich. Ein Übersetzung, so weit wie ich kann...

Only for crazy people

There was once a man named Harry, called the wolf of the steppes. He walked on two legs, wore clothing and was a person, but at the same time he was obviously a wolf. He had learned much from that which people of good understanding could, and he was quite a clever man. And yet there was something which he had not learned: how to be satisfied with himself and his life. This he could not do. He was an unsatisfied person. This was probably because he knew, at all times and from the bottom of his heart (or at least thought he knew) that he was not really a human being, but a wolf from the steppes.

Thank you, Hermann Hesse, for using relatively simple language. We'll see if I've bitten off more than I can chew, but I'm interested to see what happens with Harry. It will probably be very humbling to read a professional translation-which is why I'll be avoiding it, so as not to get discouraged.