4 posts tagged “german”
I just took a test over on spiegel.de which was entitled, "Are You Smart Enough to Be German?".
While the overall "format" of the test on spiegel.de is pretty annoying - 33 questions, equal to roughly 66 pages and 66 clicks (if you never make a mistake) - something else struck me more.
Overall I question the usefulness of this test. Point taken, this is not the real deal but it's a sample of the kind of questions you have to answer on a test if you apply for citizenship in Germany. For example, there is a question which presents you with four choices (names of landmarks/districts) and you have to select the one located in Bavaria. I only guessed that one "correct" and had never heard of it before.
Another question of relevance - what are the colours in the flag/seal of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg? I guessed that one correct as well. Point is, why is that important in being German? Or my favorite question - the state capital of Hessen? Guessed that one correct as well, but why would anyone care?
Another thing I noticed was, that on 33 questions roughly a third or maybe half of all questions were about the West-Germany. Only a single question on East-Germany. Let's hope that the questions rotate, but how do they raise awareness for the former East-Germany? I don't want to be a nay-sayer nor am I one of those people who claims that the East was better than the West (not by far), but I still think people should be aware of the history - just like Hitler and the 3rd Reich. It's an integral part of German history and also part of our identity and who we are.
The score:
Gee thanks, spiegel.de. I am really glad, especially because I was born in Germany and have a German passport already! For full disclosure I will have to admit that I actually made two mistakes (31/33) - I misread a question and then clicked the wrong answer on another. But I sure hope I would still have no issues getting a German passport.You scored 33 out of a possible 33 points.
Well done! You would have no problem getting a German passport.
Regardless of my own score, I seriously doubt the effectiveness of such a test. Be it online, or in reality. After all, this is more in the trivia-category than anything else.
Ich baue gerade den Kernel für FreeBSD 7.0 (Release) neu und musste gerade lachen, weil das so entspannt läuft - ich weiss gar nicht wie das mal enden soll. Erstens geht alles, und zweitens hab ich eine DRAC (Dell Remote Access Console) im Server.
Und wenn man ungefaehr 30x (nach make installkernel) die folgende Meldung sieht ...
... dann darf man sie ignorieren.kldxref: file isn't dynamically-linked
(Edited.)
How many languages can you speak? Which languages can you read or understand?
I speak German, it's my native tongue. I speak English, sometimes with an American and sometimes British accent. I have a fair understanding of Spanish and Italian. Though my Italian is very, very weak and is limited to reading a menu and ordering wine. With Spanish I can get around.
I had Latin for a few years in school - so most of the time I know how to trace a word's origin and understand what's written on the walls of an antique theatre.
And last but not least I know a little Czech - in general I understand more than I can say.
