ABOUT GERMAN @ About
Your e-newsletter for German
1 December 2000 - Vol. 2, No. 46

* Advent und Weihnachten
* Kochrezepte - German recipes
* Menu and Dining Guide
* Chat news
* Weihnachtskarten - the real thing!
* Suchen und Finden
* History quiz coming soon

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WEB EDITION OF THIS NEWSLETTER - A Web edition of this newsletter
is posted each week in German Forum 1 in the read-only "Newsletter"
folder. The Web edition appears a few days later than the email edition.
You do NOT have to be a member of our Forum to view the Web edition
of the newsletter. Back issues of ABOUT GERMAN are also archived in
Forum 1 at: http://forums.about.com/ab-german/ (then go to the
"Newsletter" folder to find all issues of ABOUT GERMAN)
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Vielen Dank! Thanks for being one of the 7200+ subscribers to ABOUT GERMAN!
This special issue comes to you just as the Advent season begins!

ADVENT und WEIHNACHTEN
That magical time of year is once again here. I purposely delayed this
week's issue of ABOUT GERMAN until December 1, the start of die Adventszeit.
This edition also coincides with our new Web article about Advent and the
key dates of Christmas in German Europe. The first day of December is the
first of 24 windows that children open on their Adventskalender. (We have
links to virtual and real Advent calendars.) This year I have also added a
Christmas contents page that links to all the articles, glossaries and Web
links at our site. Learn the vocabulary and the history of a German
Christmas:

- http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa120100a.htm - Advent
- http://german.about.com/library/blchristm01.htm - Christmas Contents
- http://german.about.com/library/blcmasvoc.htm - Christmas Glossary


KOCHREZEPTE - GERMAN RECIPES
This week I've introduced a new feature that will expand in the coming
months: Kochrezepte, recipes for Austrian, German or Swiss dishes - auf
Deutsch! To help you learn the vocabulary of cooking, each recipe is in
German and English. Since European cooks use different units of measure for
recipes (i.e., weight rather than volume, metric rather than English, etc.),
we also have a measurement conversion page. Of course, none of our major
features lacks a glossary and we have a new German-English Kochglossar to
help you decipher the Rezepte.

We also encourage you to contribute your own recipes - auf Deutsch - to
expand our recipe databank. If you have a favorite recipe you'd like to
share, please email it to me and I will add it with the notation
"Contributed by..." Recipes can be in any category: Getraenke (drinks),
Salate, Nachspeisen (desserts), Hauptgerichte (main dishes) or any other
area of Germanic food and drink. We also offer a few Christmas recipes, and
you may wish to add to that collection as well.

- http://german.about.com/library/blrezepte01.htm - Kochrezepte
- http://german.about.com/library/blrezepte02.htm - Weihnachtsrezepte

I also want to mention that my fellow Guides Tatyana Gordeeva (German
Culture) and Rita Mace Walston (Germany for Vistors) also have recipes and
information about German Christmas customs in English.

- http://germanculture.about.com/ - German Culture
- http://gogermany.about.com/ - Germany for Visitors


MENU and DINING GUIDE
I must have had food on my mind in the last few weeks. Earlier this week I
added another new food feature. Our "Menu and Dining Guide" is a
German-to-English glossary of terms you'd find on a German Speisekarte.
Additionally, there are related dining items - such as "Trinkgeld" - that
you won't find on the menu, but would come in handy when you are dining out
in German Europe. OK, so you know that "Schweinefleisch" is pork or that
"Rind-" is a prefix meaning beef, but that is rarely the only thing that
appears in a menu listing. You more likely need to know what "Kasseler
Rippchen" are, what the heck's in a "Radler" or why you may not want to
order a "Peperoni-Pizza" in Germany. - I also welcome reader contributions
to our menu guide, which will also continue to expand, even though it's
already big enough to be in three parts.

- http://german.about.com/library/blmenu1.htm - Menu Guide


CHAT NEWS
If you like to chat - in German or English - we have some good news for you.
To coincide with our two German forums, we are revising our chat room
schedule, too. Andrea Ritz, our current chat manager has decided that her
new job duties in the "real" world won't allow her to devote enough time to
chat management, so we have asked Gabi West, one of our long-time volunteer
chat hosts, to take over as our new chat manager. Gabi was the main force
behind the Chat-Treff in Wuerzburg, Germany this past summer, when a group
of About.com German chatters had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face for
the first time. She and I have been discussing how we can make our two chat
rooms an even more inviting place - both for beginners and advanced/native
speakers. (Gabi is already conducting special chat sessions for beginners.
If you want to join in, you can find out about the times and details in
Forum 1.) As part of the effort to improve chat for people at all levels, we
will be better integrating our forums with chat. Gabi will be assisted by
several other chat hosts, and she invites applications for new hosts. Stay
tuned for more information in this newsletter about the new chat schedule
for beginning and advanced chatters.

I want to thank Andrea Ritz for all her help with chat over the past months.
She took on the job of chat manager before either she or I knew what we were
in for. As our first chat manager, she has done a great job, and we wish her
well in her endeavors. You can still find her online at
http://www.aritz.com/

- http://german.about.com/mpchat.htm - Chat
- http://german.about.com/library/blchatreff01.htm - Chat-Treffen in
Wuerzburg


WEIHNACHTSKARTEN
I hope you are aware of our German greeting and postcards. Now, in time for
Christmas, we offer an exciting new feature! In addition to sending our
e-cards via email, you now have the option of sending them as an actual
postcard via normal postal mail. If you sign up now, you can send your first
three postal cards for free! Your card and greeting will arrive as a real
card in a real mailbox. (Registration is free.) As always, you can still
send our German e-cards for free to anyone with an email address. And watch
for our new German Christmas kitty cards with music - contributed by chat
and forum host Marlene!

- http://german.about.com/library/blpostkarte.htm - German e-cards


SUCHEN und FINDEN
Have you tried our "Search" feature? At the top of any About.com page there
is a search button. When you are at the German Language site, you can type
in a key word (Stichwort) or phrase and search for it at our site. I use it
all the time myself! Even I have a hard time keeping track of the hundreds
of pages at our German Language site. The About-Suchmaschine can save you a
lot of time by giving you a selection of pages that contain the topic or
word you're trying to find. (You also have the option of searching the
entire About.com network of 700+ sites.) So, next time you want to find a
specific topic at our site... seek and ye shall find! (Suchet, so werdet ihr
finden!)

- http://german.about.com/


HISTORICAL EVENTS AUF DEUTSCH
Watch for a history quiz - in German! Soon we'll add to our quiz databank by
including a new Geschichtsquiz auf Deutsch. Soon you'll be able to test your
Geschichtskenntnisse in several areas. All of the quiz answers can be found
at our site.

Ich wuensche euch allen eine frohe Adventszeit!

MfG
Hyde
...............................
Hyde Flippo
About.com Guide to German
email: german.guide@about.com
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CHAT and FORUMS
Two German chat rooms and two German forums:

- http://german.about.com/mpchat.htm - German Chat (2 chat rooms)
- http://forums.about.com/ab-german/ - German Forum 1
- http://forums.about.com/ab-german2/ - Deutsches Forum 2

- http://membership.about.com/promotion.htm - FREE About.com Email Address
- http://membership.about.com/pwp.htm - FREE About.com Home Page

Copyright (c) 2000 Hyde Flippo

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