Native German Speakers

[Perishh]

I know there are a lot of guys on this board from Germany/Austria. I've been learning German for about a year and a half now and I'm really starting to get the hang of it. I know you will have heard of Bushido and probably have an opinion of him, however I've listened to his songs a lot and its really helped me learn. I can usually understand 80% of his songs and only pay real attention to his heartfelt songs, though I am still never too sure how grammatically correct they are. His new CD has some great songs like this one. I was wondering if you could tell me how much of this is slang or poor German. I've read the translations and they are usually too literal. I would prefer it to be translated into proper English grammar than actual word for word translations.

http://youtu.be/e3Kcw-ZR5pM

Are songs like this not worth taking note of sentence structure?

 

[Jan [MTW]]

In this song are just whole senteces with correct sentence structure!
Not that much of slang inside. If you have any questions about the text or translations feel free to ask!

 

[Perishh]

Wow thank you dude! I'm amazed that its mostly correct German grammar. I checked this out today as a translation... it seems close but even I can see there are discrepancies with the translation:

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/waerst-du-immer-noch-hier-would-you-still-be-here.html

I'm kinda confused as to the meaning of 'Wärst du' though. If its future tense would it not be 'Würdest du'?

Also can you check out this song, I think its pretty correct as well...

 

[Jan [MTW]]

"Wärst du" is acutally conditional tense and translated as "would you be".
I am just listening to the 2nd song. Mostly complete, correct sentences.

In the translation are some little mistakes like :
Would you still be here I wasn't this rapper anymore?

It has to be :
Would you still be here if I wasn't this rapper anymore?

But it's almost correct!

 

[Perishh]

Conditional. I hadn't heard that before but because I had heard the word 'war' I assumed it would be past tense.

Some things that I still get confused by in german are these, i hope you can clear it up for me.

wenn - means 'if' right? and so does 'ob.' But 'ob' is used more like an option for example... ob du willst - whether you want.
wann - is used to represent a time - wann ist man zufrieden
denn - means because when used at a start of a sentence (I find this one the most confusing cause it seems to mean multiple things. or am I over thinking it?)
dann - means then as in, not the english use - then I did something, but more 'in that case'

Wow i'm confused already. they all sound so similar and there seem to be multiple meanings associated with some of them. Its probably the biggest thing that slows me down in German.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

dude, Buschido is probably the worst stuff to learn German from...

those turkish wannabe gangsters have not only fucked up grammar but also a horrible accent that immidiately shows "..." well, don't wanna say that, cause people could think it's racist...let me put it this way, if you hear someone with that accent you know his main free time sport is to go out in groups and threaten/beat up weaker people (smaller groups)...possible stab them as well...

try to not sound like that.

(I mean, if I wanna learn english I'd not try to learn it from the average english chav)

 

[Jan [MTW]]

wenn - means 'if' right? and so does 'ob.' But 'ob' is used more like an option for example... ob du willst - whether you want.
wann - is used to represent a time - wann ist man zufrieden
denn - means because when used at a start of a sentence (I find this one the most confusing cause it seems to mean multiple things. or am I over thinking it?)
dann - means then as in, not the english use - then I did something, but more 'in that case'

denn - means always because

the rest is correct.
You should look up "Adverbialsätze".

 

[Perishh]

Dude, Buschido is probably the worst stuff to learn German from...

those turkish wannabe gangsters have not only fucked up grammar but also a horrible accent that immidiately shows "..." well, don't wanna say that, cause people could think it's racist...let me put it this way, if you hear someone with that accent you know his main free time sport is to go out in groups and threaten/beat up weaker people (smaller groups)...possible stab them as well...

try to not sound like that.

(I mean, if I wanna learn english I'd not try to learn it from the average english chav)

Haha true... because I'm unfamiliar to the language I cant really pick up the dialect or the accent. Honestly if you could point me in the right direction of someone/something that could help me out further that would be great. I have already done multiple audio lessons but have run out of material, music or otherwise.

 

[Jan [MTW]]

should help alot!

 

[Lasse Lammert]

haha...
well, most German stuff IMO is gay as fuck, but some of it is actually proper German.

search for "Unheilig" or "joachim Witt".

"Schweisser" are great, so is "knorkator"....Knorkator are actually fucking awesome

 

[Perishh]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQPjJWs-lVw

should help alot!

yep I think I got all of that!

 

[Jan [MTW]]

haha. Knorkator is cool shit!

 

[Lasse Lammert]

some Knorkator clips:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MBGuzg8YcA&feature=fvsr[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOeugwd4vqs&feature=related[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS2JvfCwiQg&feature=related[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nvEWPA9UXE&feature=relmfu[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDmR1pPzU_c&feature=related[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyvmfPHackE&feature=relmfu[/ame]

 

[Perishh]

You guys are obviously both great at English. Do you feel you can be as descriptive in German as you can in English? Do you have to be more careful of wording when speaking in German as well as it can be taken as impolite or rude otherwise. I've noticed you use the word 'mal' for that reason sometimes...

 

[Jan [MTW]]

You guys are obviously both great at English. Do you feel you can be as descriptive in German as you can in English? Do you have to be more careful of wording when speaking in German as well as it can be taken as impolite or rude otherwise. I've noticed you use the word 'mal' for that reason sometimes...

If i understood your question right the answer is : no. If I want to sound polite it doesn't have something to do with being careful. It's not hard to sound polite i you want so. It's not like that I have always to think about what i say next to not sound impolite or rude as you said.

@ Lasse : Only a few more minutes and you posted all the Knorkator songs!

 

[Lasse Lammert]

no, it's actually the other way round, German is much more precise than english.
it's actually so precise that MANY Germans of lesser education don't understand the subtle differences between certain words themselves....

example:

"anscheinend" und "scheinbar"

it does not mean the same thing, but most Germans use it like it did

in english both mean "apparently" but in German there's a slight difference...

"anscheinend" means apparently in the sense of "looks like as if...it probably is" and "scheinbar" means "looks like it is, but it's really not".

or another typical one:

"das selbe" und "das gleiche"....
in English it's both "the same", but in German there's a difference..

das "selbe" means "the very same thing" as in "it's the actually pair of pants he wore" "das gleiche" means it's the same type/make/model(color whatever, but it's not the pair he's wearing atm....

it's for example impossible "das selbe essen zu essen" cause that'd mean that you're both chewing o the same chunk at the same time...like in a disgusting kiss BUT both would have to swallow the same chunk as well..which obviously works only if both have just the same ONE throat"....but you can eat "das gleiche Essen", then it's both mashed potatos with steak or whatever.

and there are tons of those things, so many Germans just use the "average joe's German" which is rather dumb and doesn't think about those subtle differences...but if you're doing it right there's hardly any room left for interpretation, German is extremely precise.

and then there are the gramatical things everyone is doing wrong...most common:

als/wie (as/than)..it's the same as in english, but many germans don't get the difference...I've never heard en english person say "I'm bigger as you, this is as tall than that"...Germans do it all the time...morons.

and another one:
the word "brauchen" HAS to be used with "zu" ALWAYS!
still many Germans say "du brauchst heute nicht kochen"...which annoys the fuck out of me
correct is: "du brauchst heute nicht ZU kochen...usually my reply is "wer "brauchen" nicht mit "zu" gebraucht, braucht "brauchen" garnicht zu gebrauchen"
again it's the same in English, but noone's saying "you don't need cook" cause it's fucking stupid...everyone knows it's "you don't need TO cook"

 

[Jan [MTW]]

and there are tons of those things, so many Germans just use the "average joe's German" which is rather dumb and doesn't think about those subtle differences...but if you're doing it right there's hardly any room left for enterpretation, German is extremely precise.

and then there are the gramatical things everyone is doing wrong...most common:

als/wie (as/than)..it's the same as in english, but many germans don't get the difference...I've never heard en english person say "I'm bigger as you, this is as tall than that"...Germans do it all the time...morons.

and another one:
the word "brauchen" HAS to be used with "zu" ALWAYS!
still many Germans say "du brauchst heute nich kochen"...which annoys the fuck out of my...usually my reply is "wer "brauchen" nicht mit "zu" gebraucht, braucht "brauchen" garnicht zu gebrauchen"

I agree with you so much! I find it fucking annoying when people do those mistakes and don't (want to) understand that's so dumb what they're actually saying.

 

[Deus.exe]

Dude, take it from an Australian living in Germany. German is a really fucked up language to learn. I've been here almost 10 years and I still get shit from my workmate about my Gramman (der/die/das/den/dem/des = THE). You do not want ot be learning from Bushido. If you really want to know an easy way to learn german, watch the Simpsons in german (or Family guy / Southpark, basically anything you are really familiar with). If you know the original language episodes well enough you can peice together the dialogue in german. That's the way I learnt the language.

 

[Felix Neumann]

Check Wachturm from SODOM

http://youtu.be/UAAnSPR1ZaQ

And Die Stumme Ursel!

http://youtu.be/B-s8xwPpLpE

 

[Fragle]

yeah, i'd suggest watching movies in german, especially ones you're already really familiar with.

learning german from bushido is kinda like learning english from wu tang clan or similar ^^

great explanations lasse, btw! although i don't agree with the zu brauchen thing....technically you're obviously correct, but tbh i know nobody who talks like that...ok, actually most people around here would say something along the lines of brauchst heit nix gekoch...but that's what you get from living in the south haha


oh, another great band/singer would be herbert grönemeyer. while i CAN NOT STAND his music AT ALL, his lyrics tend to be quite good, somewhat deep at times, and generally well written.