Kann ich hat einen Cheezburger?

September 29, 2010 10:07 AM

I'm in what's supposed to be an immersive German language program, but my Internets are in English. Help me fix that!

As per my last question, I'm doing an intensive German language program in Freiburg until December. I'm in class all morning, and usually go out with friends in the afternoons. Then I come home and have an hour or two of much-needed alone-time, which I usually spend reading blogs/watching TV/checking e-mail/generally messing around on the Internet. All of the websites I frequent and shows I watch are in English, and this seems like a bit of a waste. Can you suggest to me German sites/shows that are similar-ish to what I like?

What I like in English:
Goofy things like LOLcats and Failblog/Failbook.
"Mommy" blogs, including dooce, Mighty Girl, finslippy, Flotsam, & amalah.
Metafilter
Certain TV shows: ER, Bones, Glee, The West Wing.
Funny/viral Youtube videos like Charlie Bit Me, Llamas with Hats, Bed Intruder, etc.


I would prefer to read things originally published in German, rather than translations of English material, though I supposed dubbed TV shows would be ok.


Vielen Dank!

posted by coppermoss to Writing & Language (12 answers total)

I'm sure you will get some good stuff, but this is something that everyone seems to go through... "I want my favorite stuff in Spanish/German/whatever." At the end of the day, a gigantic proportion of the world's internet media is published in English. People watch American shows dubbed or subbed, and so on. Basically, just try and find movies or TV shows in German that you like, but you're not going to be able to find the web in German.
posted by wooh at 10:29 AM on September 29, 2010

Do you really want to enforce your German language skills with a German I Can Has Cheeseburger?
posted by Brian Puccio at 10:31 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hopefully someone will show up with specific recommendations, but I can at least offer that a quick Google search shows that for mommy blogs, your relevant search term seems to be "Mutter blog" or "Mütter blog(s)." Here's a random article with links to some German-language blogs farther down in the article. You could check some out.

I read news on spiegel.de sometime. Reading your news in German is something I highly recommend. Of course, since you're actually there, you can get your hands on real newspapers.

Other than that... I dunno, google "lustige Videos" and try to find some good ones?

Cool question! My German is rusty - maybe I should investigate some of these blogs, too...
posted by mandanza at 10:44 AM on September 29, 2010

I think you'll find better quality watching German movies than German shows. If you haven't watched them already I'd recommend:

Das Leben Der Anderen
Lola Rennt
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes
M
Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht
Die weiße Rose
Der Himmel über Berlin

You could try watching Youtube.de instead of .com, which automatically sets language to german.

I liked to read Die Welt's website, which had both an English and German version
posted by JauntyFedora at 10:53 AM on September 29, 2010

I have a procedural recommendation. If you have a gmail account (or just a google account, I think), you can set your language preference to German, and that will set the Google home page automatically to Google Deutsch. When you need to search the web in English, you can just put English search terms in.
posted by colfax at 12:33 PM on September 29, 2010

I'm German but spend 95% of my time online on English-language sites. IMHO, Germans are good at "serious" content, like political blogs or news sites (Zeit, Spiegel, FAZ). They're not so great at silly/humorous stuff, especially not on the level of language proficiency you're likely to have when you're just a learner. A lot of German humor is in dialects, so that's probably not for you. I don't know any good (funny, non-judgmental) mommy blogs in German. I can't think of a LOLCats-equivalent, either.

TV Comedy might be a better idea. Check out "Türkisch für Anfänger" and "Doctor's Diary". They're modeled after contemporary american comedy series and (IMHO) not great, but quite OK. Some of the episodes should be available online. If you like unintentional humor brought about by very bad acting, you should definitely check out Lindenstraße. I've watched this series for as long as I can remember (it started when I was just 6!). It's extremely German and will teach you a lot about our national character. Also, Tatort (I don't like it but a lot of people do).
posted by The Toad at 1:51 PM on September 29, 2010

(Oh, and you might want to have a look at Loriot. Lots of stuff on youtube.)
posted by The Toad at 1:58 PM on September 29, 2010

Some German language website I enjoy:

SZ Magazin

jetzt.de

Ahoi Polloi

Nichtlustig
posted by snownoid at 4:03 PM on September 29, 2010

I've mentioned this series before in the answer to this question, but I love Wissen macht Ah!. It's an educational series that's fairly funny, and once you reach a low-intermediate level of Deutschsprachkenntnisse, it's easy to understand. The big words the hosts throw out are clearly elucidated, so you can pick up new vocabulary naturally. That's the idea, at least!

There are episodes online here, but I'd recommend downloading them through Miro.

I also have a weakness for streamable Nicktoons found at nick.de. They're dubbed but fun.

I second watching Türkisch für Anfänger. You can probably pick up some DVDs at your local library. I like that the language is very casual. It's occasionally hilarious. Vielleicht kannst du 'ne Folge auf YouTube finden...

I like checking out German-language webcomics. There's a lot out there, including:

-Heldentage, a classic journal comic auf Deutsch
-HIPSTERS, of which the current strip is "HIPSTERS vs. vampires"
-NICHTLUSTIG, a one-panel gag comic with a surreal edge
-Süsses und Saures, another great gag comic
-Paralleluniversum, with Crumb-esque scratchy art
-Sandra und Woo, charming tales of a girl and her raccoon
-Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof, which is girly and has great art
-Es wird ein Hase!, a slice-of-life comic

You can find currently updated comics listed through this site. Check out people's sidebars for other good stuff.

As far as YouTube goes, I like watching people's "Let's Play" videos auf Deutsch. There's something very amusing about watching a dude fail repeatedly in Zelda--and curse in English amidst the German.

Here's a huge playlist that contains some clips from German hidden camera-type shows. This isn't intellectual comedy by any means, aber... :)

If you like food blogs, Anonyme Köche is one of the best I've read in German. There are some gorgeous pictures.
posted by ElectricBlue at 4:42 PM on September 29, 2010

Upps, I forgot to mention 3min.

It's a German video upload site with links to short series and movie trailers and stuff like that. It's fun to browse, and the videos are bite-sized. There are commercials, but I find that German commercials bug me much less than the English-language commercials on Hulu. ;)

I like Ehrensenf in particular. If you poke around, I'm sure you'll find something awesome.
posted by ElectricBlue at 5:01 PM on September 29, 2010

humor.li is basically failblog in German. Watch out for the sketchy grammar and the slang that's way beyond leo's abilities.
posted by copperbleu at 2:23 AM on September 30, 2010

Beolingus has a higher capacity for slang than Leo, in my experience.

For low quality German humor, try Werner - Beinhart! It's from Northern Germany and partly in Plattdeutsch, so it is kind of incoherent but it is great when you are drunk at 2AM.
posted by DoktorFaustus at 10:48 PM on September 30, 2010