Conquering (my ignorance of) German

The optimistic title above, if truth be told, gives little sense of the reality that I remain largely ignorant of the German language today. That does not mean that I have not acquired a great deal of vocabulary. I learned much German during my five months, but little grammar. Still I have acquired a foundation of knowledge, however thin, and upon that foundation I intend to build.

The translation of the German in the podcast is:

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I loved my time in Germany. I am happy to be back in the USA. The students there spoke English while I spoke no German. That's all for today. Thank you very much and see you later.

Of course I could speak a whole raft of phrases and learned the numbers to 10,000 and beyond. Complete (and grammatically-correct) sentences represent my next frontier. But it is highly rewarding to speak to Germans who knew less of my language than I knew of theirs-- and to get by. That happened from time to time and to a growing degree as the Fulbright experience went on.

So here is the vodcast on "conquering the German language."

Why the Fulbright Program?

How does the Fulbright program work? What was (and is) its purpose? Founded in 1946, the program has provided 200,000 scholars over more than 60 years the opportunity to serve as cultural ambassadors building bridges of understanding around the world. In this video podcast I speak for a couple of minutes on the reasons for the program and the vital role it plays, particularly today, in forging understanding and international goodwill as well as in improving scholarship and teaching here at home.

Click here for the podcast (iPod video format)

Podcast Introduction: The German University System

In this first video podcast I share my musings regarding German students and the university system in Germany, based on my experiences at the Martin-Luther-Universitat in Halle (Saale).

Click here for the podcast (iPod video format)

About this blog

The "Fulbright Chronicles" is a repository of my series of brief (five to six minutes) video podcasts ruminating on my five months as a Fulbright Senior scholar, September, 2007 to February 2008. From this site you can subscribe to the podcast series, which will automatically load the series into iTunes. The series is iPod-ready as well. The videos can be watched on any computer with speakers and Quicktime, right from within the blog itself. Let me know if I can improve the site in any way.