E-Book, Englisch, 170 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-7562-6351-6
Verlag: Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)
coming with cultural notes as well as exercises and solutions that help you master the language. Further, these are not traditional kiddy songs. Instead these songs talk about finding excuses for missing homework, about how miserable it is to live with a know-it-all big brother, and the pains of going clothes shopping with your parents. The lyrics are madcap, preposterous, a tiny bit brazen and impudent. Furthermore, the tunes are really catchy. All the members of Schtärneföifi are professional musicians, so you'll hear straightahead rock as well as funk, hip-hop, house, rumba-calypso, country-western and even salsa.
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Weitere Infos & Material
Introduction
by Paul Schreier The book in your hands provides a most unusual way of learning a language. Our first book, Die Schweizermacher: A Swiss German Tutorial, was based on the most popular Swiss movie ever made, and the book has been very well received. We have now expanded that concept to work with songs from the most successful Swiss children’s music group, Schtärneföifi. But please don’t be misled by the fact that these are children’s songs; they have enormous appeal for adults, and they make an excellent vehicle for learning a language. Really, isn’t that how little kids often learn a language, through songs and games? I came upon Schtärneföifi in a round about way. In my attempts to find resources to help me learn Swiss German, I did a web search, and among the hits was a link to a song entitled “Züritüütsch”—Zürichdeutsch, or Zurich German, the dialect from that region. On that link I found the lyrics and was fascinated. The song is a whimsical homage to the local dialect, making potshots at all the other Swiss dialects. I decided right then I had to have the CD, so I ordered it online just on the basis of that song. When the CD arrived, however, I discovered that all the songs except for “Züritüütsch” were written for children, and I wasn’t sure what I got myself into. But as I listened to them, I found myself enjoying them very much. You see, these aren’t the traditional kinds of children’s songs you’re used to. They don’t present a sugar-coated world of fairies and soft cuddly animals. These songs talk about finding excuses for the homework you didn’t do, about how miserable it is to live with a know-it-all big brother, the pains of going clothes shopping with your parents, and why you shouldn’t torment animals. These are songs that meet the kids in their real world, where they live. The lyrics are madcap, perposterous, a tiny bit brazen and impudent. Furthermore, the tunes are really catchy. You have to realize that all the members of Schtärneföifi are professional musicians who have worked in rock groups for years and only came to form this group by a strange set of circumstances. They never expected the group to last this long, but now they’ve achieved cult status along with some of their songs. Their songs take inspiration from a variety of genres. Of course you’ll hear straight-ahead rock, but there’s also funk, hip-hop, house, rumba-calypso, country-western and even salsa— no surprise given that the group recorded part of one album in Cuba and got infected with the Latin rhythms. In fact, my co-author Harry is a salsa aficionado, and he tells me that one of Schtärneföifi’s songs, “Seiltanz” (“Tightrope Dance”) gets regular spins at Zürich’s premier salsa club, and the audience loves it. These songs introduce the young audience to a variety of musical styles, and it also helps keep the adults interested, as well. After all, don’t your kids put on a song and play it and play it and play it... And don’t you often get really sick of hearing it? At least with music from Schtärneföifi you won’t reach that point quite as fast! And the band recognizes that it’s the parents who make the CD purchase at that age, so they need a product that’s somewhat appealing to adults, as well. Some of Schtärneföifi’s songs have become cultural landmarks in just a few years. I’ll bet that every Swiss youngster—at least those in German-speaking Switzerland—knows the phrase “Ohni Znacht is Bett” (“To Bed Without Dinner”) with its chorus call “Haicho, Haicho!” (“Come home, come home!”) first as a Schtärneföifi hit, and they probably know all the lyrics by heart, as well. As a language-learning tool these songs are great. The vocabulary is interesting and down to earth, dealing with daily matters. The members of the group report that they’ve received countless requests from local grade-school teachers for the music and lyrics. In response, they posted this material for some of the most popular songs on their web site (www.schtaerne5i.ch) and have since published a book with that information. The fact that several band members have formal training as educators also helps make the songs interesting. Before I continue, I’d probably better say a few words about the group’s name, Schtärneföifi. Translated literally it means “five stars,” but in acutal use it’s a polite curse, perhaps equivalent to our “darned it!” I’ve heard that in its formative stages the group had to come up with a name pretty quickly, they were all living/ rehearsing in or near Zurich’s 5th District (Kreis 5) and so landed on a wordplay with that number. Besides, there are five members in the group, and they’re all stars. Their only real lament is that they’ve picked a name that nobody in Switzerland can spell! There’s one huge drawback to this using these songs as a language instruction—until you learn enough Swiss German, you won’t begin to appreciate the rhythm, rhyming and joy of the lyrics. It would be a nearly impossible task to take the Swiss German lyrics, translate them into English and have the same rhythmic and rhyming effect. In fact, we felt that a detailed translation best serves the purposes of this book. So when you read through the English lyrics you might be tempted to think, “Gee, these lyrics seem pretty silly, who can make any sense of them?” Well, sometimes they’re just a play on words, and there are lots of people who enjoy them, as attested to by the fact that the group has sold thousands and thousands of CDs. Also note that while the translation into German is very close in terms of word order, we have taken more liberties with the English at times to make the translation more understandable. You won’t necessarily find a 1-to-1, direct word-order translation, but the translations do give you a far better flavor for what the actual meaning is. Many songs include some exercises that illustrate some special constructions that appear in that song. We supply solutions to the exercises at the back of this book. If you are looking for a comprehensive grammar for Swiss German, we suggest you take a look at our previous book, Die Schweizermacher: A Swiss German Tutorial (details on www.thelanguager.ch). We hope that, with the help of this book, you will reach a point where the Swiss German lyrics are enjoyable to you. Maybe, with luck, you’ll soon be singing along. I guarantee it, in any case you’ll be humming the tunes. See, can’t learning a language be sort of fun? Introduction
by Harry Fuchs Some years ago my children came home from a Schtärneföifi concert they had gone to without me. They brought home a CD and started playing it over and over and over again. My children had learned all about the Repeat button on the CD player, so I was used to hearing the same song repeatedly. I found that when I’d walk by their room that I quite liked the music, but when I carefully listened to the lyrics I was a little bit confused. What’s the educational value of singing about a fireman who lights fires so he has something to do, or a song that tells kids that the most important part of a car is its horn? In any case, my children identified very much with these stories. Somehow I got around to liking them, and in the end my children definitely taught me to enjoy these songs! To learn Swiss German, you must rely mainly on your ears because it’s difficult to reinforce what you’ve learned by doing written assignments alone; besides, Swiss German isn’t a written language. This book and its exercises aren’t intended to help you learn how to write Swiss German but rather to use the songs to learn vocabulary and structures useful in everyday speech. Further, because we expect that many readers of this book have some background in High German, we also include a section that focuses on the differences between the two languages. Knowing these transformations makes it far easier to understand Swiss German. Why did we choose music from the most popular childrens’ band in Switzerland ever? Because language is music, and by listening to these songs you can hear the words as they really sound. Another big advantage is that Schtärneföifi is one of the few bands that sings in Züritüütsch, which many consider a standard of sorts in that it is spoken by the majority of the Swiss and moreover understood by almost everyone in the country. The German have an interesting phrase to describe a tune or melody that gets in your head and just won’t let go. They refer to it as an Ohrwurm, an “ear worm.” I bring this up because you’ll discover that some of these songs will become Ohrwürmer and the choruses will fly around in your head—but that’s the best way to master words and phrases. Don’t be afraid to sing along with any children you might hear. You might not get an opportunity to visit a Schtärneföifi concert or see their musical production, but if you get a chance it’s a fascinating experience. The band makes the event very interactive. The members invite children to act out the song lyrics, such as by imitating a rescue helicopter flying...
