This blog is in English, but my life in Austria is primarily in German. Because of that, I do use some German words in this blog, primarily to describe things that I either don't talk about in English or that have no real English equivalent. I try to link to English Wikipedia articles or other sources describing these words, so that my English-speaking readers (Hi, Gram!) can follow along, but many of these words come up so often that I forget to do so. So here's a list of German words that come up frequently in my blog:
Auslandssemester - your time studying abroad
Bayern - Bavaria
Bezirk - city district; Magistratisches Bezirksamt or Magistrat - district administrative office
Bundesland - province
Danke - thank you; variations include Vielen Dank, Herzlichen Dank, and (everyone's favorite) Danke schön
Deutsch - German; auf Deutsch - in German
Deutschland - Germany
Dirndl - Austrian traditional dress for women; it's a less-slutty version of the German beer maid's costume you see around Halloween
Donau - Danube River
ERASMUS - study abroad program for Europeans
Gymnasium - secondary school that puts you on track to go to university; there are also other types of secondary schools that focus more on vocational training
Heim, Studentenheim - dormitory
Kaiser - emperor
Matura - the exam you take at the end of Gymnasium in order to prove that you are indeed ready for university
Mülltrennung - trash separation; it's the way recycling happens in Austria
Österreich - Austria; Österreichisch or Dialekt - the style of German spoken in Austria
Oida! - Dude!
Piefke - derogatory Austrian word for a German
Scheiße - shit
Schlager - German-language pop music from the 1970s that's still pretty popular, in a semi-ironic, semi-sincere way
Straßenbahn (ß = ss) - streetcar; Austrians also sometimes say "Bim," I think, but I am waiting to hear an actual Austrian say this before using it myself
Tracht - Austrian traditional clothing
U-Bahn - subway
Wien - Vienna; Uni Wien - University of Vienna; Wiener (male) or Wienerin (female) - resident of Vienna
Wurst or Würstl - Austrian sausage
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