It's official...my German professor is bat$hit crazy.

[strategery blunder]

The normal topic of the lecture revolves around the activities of the local squirrels (and no, I'm not kidding). Frequently in class, he can be observed making statements such as "Das Eichhörnchen trinkt ein deutshes Bier" (the squirrel drinks a German beer), "Das Eichhörnchen freute sich über die Anklage von Scooter Libby" (the squirrel celebrates the indictment of Scooter Libby), et cetera.

When he's not lecturing about squirrels, he's lecturing on 1)his perverted version of Faust, which includes flaming black poodles:crazy:, or 2)Freud:crazy::crazy:.

Although I do find his occasional lectures on "der Faschist Bu$h" entertaining; at least we agree on something.:evilgrin:

OK, so today's assignment: read a Freudian theory handout, taken straight from a book Freud wrote, in German. Not even my tutor would be able to translate it directly. My German professor is officially bat$hit crazy.

So what the hell am I doing reading Freud's writings in German class? My tutor said, and I quote, "Having elementary or intermediate German students read Faust or Freud would be like having an ESL student reading Shakespeare. It just won't work."

I'm in Intermediate German I.:wtf:

[skygazer]

1. Deine Deutche Lehrer sind verruckt

Pardon if my verb forms are off - it's been a long time.

Yeah, sounds batty but kind of fun as long as you're able to pass the course! My German teacher was pretty wacky (maybe it's a perquesite for German teachers?) - but not so nutty (if you'll pardon the pun) to make every lesson about squirrels.

[strategery blunder]

3. Mein Deutschprofessor ist ganz verrückt.

1) "Dein," not "deine" in this case.
2) "German" and "instructor" gets crammed into one word.
3) Er/sie (she)/es conjugation of "sein" =ist. You have the "wir" or "Sie/sie (they)" conjugation.
4) You forgot the umlauts in "verrückt.";) ("ue" could substitute if you don't know how to type in an umlaut.)

But yeah, he's bat$hit crazy...fortunately he's too absent-minded to care about grading his students...no, wait, that's probably a bad thing.:crazy:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

2. "Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!"

[JVS]

4. Sounds perfectly normal to me.

I'm a grad student in German, so I've seen a good number of profs.

Now, Faust time.

[strategery blunder]

6. The funny thing...

Usually when he lectures on Faust, he points to comic book pictures...:rofl:

Seriously, are there flaming black poodles in Faust? Because he spends half his lecture describing them.:crazy:

[Sanity Claws]

5. Maybe the idea is for you read to get the gist

not to understand every single detail.

[ismnotwasm]

7. That would certaintly get my attention

At the least.
Great politics though-- "Der Fachist bush" He might be batshit crazy but he sounds entertaining.

[strategery blunder]

9. He is entertaining...I'll give ya that...

now if only there was a way to keep him ON TOPIC during class!

[Lady Freedom]

8. HAHA!! Ich habe echt cool Professorin!

Es tut mir Lied! Have to rub it in! Mine is anti-bush, party throwing (She is the German Club Adviser), super teach!!!

[Elidor]

10. Sounds like a cool teacher!

He's trying to make it as interesting as possible. Show us some German irregular verbs!

[strategery blunder]

11. He would be a cool teacher

if only I learned stuff that I hadn't already seen in elementary German classes...

That said...

Das Eichhörnchen hatte sich über die Anklage von Libby freuten, bevor KKKarl Rove den Richter kaufte.

[Elidor]

12. "The squirrel had itself over the accusation of Libby was pleased"

"Before KKKarl Rove bought the judge."

Man, those Google translation tools have a long way to go. It sounds much better in German. I've always thought it would be a great language to cuss somebody in.

[strategery blunder]

15. LOL

Google translations can be good for a laugh :)

"The squirrel had itself..." so the question would be:

Is the squirrel masturbating?:evilgrin:

Edit: In English, it would really sound like:

The squirrel had celebrated the indictment of Libby before KKarl Rove bought (off) the judge.

Doesn't sound as bad as Google makes it out to be, does it?

[bobbieinok]

17. hatte......gefreut

[strategery blunder]

19. Americans

Murdering every single European language since 1776. LOL.;)

[CBHagman]

13. Oh, the poodle's a legitimate topic in German class.

Especially when it comes to Faust:

http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5177

And I hate to break it to you, but there's also a reference to a poodle in Minna von Barnhelm, which you probably haven't gotten to yet. Fun awaits you! :bounce:

[jeff30997]

14. Ich bin ein Asshole!

[CBHagman]

16. The word is "Arschloch."

As in "Schwarzenegger ist ein ricthiger Arschloch."

[jeff30997]

24. Thanks for the tip CBHagman but...

I wanted english speaking DUers to get the joke.:)

[bobbieinok]

18. in late 50s at Rice, 2nd year German students read parts of Goethe's

Faust I

no way today's students could be required to do that

(and we walked 10 miles thru snow drifts to class)

[MrScorpio]

20. Natürlisch.

More stereotypically strange behavior from German speakers.

Was sonst ist neu?

[hopein08]

21. I've found that most language teachers are pretty crazy...

My high school French teacher's favorite verb to conjugate, etc. was "merde" which means crap. She constantly talked about farts, her bathroom habits, and other things I really didn't need to know.

My first college French teacher was from Texas (I was in PA) so it was interesting to learn French through a Texas accent. I think her specialty was actually Spanish. She made us sing songs two or three times a week in French, which was weird for a college class.

My second college French teacher was from Italy, so then I learned French through an Italian accent. She spent most of the time asking the class how we say certain things in English so she could explain the French word to us.

But I never got lower than a B in any of the classes, so even if they were crazy...it worked!

[GrpCaptMandrake]

22. Any of the posters to this thread

ever read Twain's "The Awful German Language?" If not, I promise you a laugh riot to last a lifetime.

An appetizer:

"Now observe the Adjective. Here was a case where simplicity would have been an advantage; therefore, for no other reason, the inventor of this language complicated it all he could. When we wish to speak of our "good friend or friends," in our enlightened tongue, we stick to the one form and have no trouble or hard feeling about it; but with the German tongue it is different. When a German gets his hands on an adjective, he declines it, and keeps on declining it until the common sense is all declined out of it. It is as bad as Latin. He says, for instance:

* SINGULAR
o Nominative -- Mein guter Freund, my good friend.
o Genitive -- Meines guten Freundes, of my good friend.
o Dative -- Meinem guten Freund, to my good friend.
o Accusative -- Meinen guten Freund, my good friend.
* PLURAL
o N. -- Meine guten Freunde, my good friends.
o G. -- Meiner guten Freunde, of my good friends.
o D. -- Meinen guten Freunden, to my good friends.
o A. -- Meine guten Freunde, my good friends.

Now let the candidate for the asylum try to memorize those variations, and see how soon he will be elected. One might better go without friends in Germany than take all this trouble about them. I have shown what a bother it is to decline a good (male) friend; well this is only a third of the work, for there is a variety of new distortions of the adjective to be learned when the object is feminine, and still another when the object is neuter. Now there are more adjectives in this language than there are black cats in Switzerland, and they must all be as elaborately declined as the examples above suggested. Difficult? -- troublesome? -- these words cannot describe it. I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective."

http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html

You'll never think about German the same way again. At least I haven't.

[Karenina]

25. Actually to really GET that essay

one has to be not only bilingual, but also have some in-country experience. It's a bit like "Shrek." The obscure references flew over the kids' head and the adults were laughing their asses off. The essay is 10 pages or so. When I first read it, the tears accompanying side-splitting laughter rolled freely halfway through the first page. The really remarkable thing is how TIMELESS it is. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in language. However, if you are bilingual, have spent any time in Germany and have NOT read it, you simply MUST DO SO NOW. It is some of the funniest shit ever written.

There is so much hilarity in the just first paragraph:

"I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in Heidelberg Castle, and one day I surprised the keeper of it with my German. I spoke entirely in that language. He was greatly interested; and after I had talked a while he said my German was very rare, possibly a "unique"; and wanted to add it to his museum."

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. I think your tutor's an idiot

Freud's prose is not very complicated, stylistically or grammatically. If he had you reading Hegel, that would be another story. They don't understand that shit in the original. But Freud? An intermediate German student should be able to tackle Freud.

And by the way, all German professors are batshit crazy.

[nemo137]

26. how do you pronounce "squirrell?"

please?

[sasquatch]

27. Fick Dich

:evilgrin:
Just kidding

[TrogL]

28. I just got back from rehearsal

We're doing Brahms Ein Deutsches Requium.

I've rolled so many R's my tongues numb and bleeding.

[RedCloud]

29. I support your Profe!

Just trying to jazz things up and at Intermediate level you should be expected to read "realia".

Freud is a fraud however.