Austrian for foreigners

Some entertainment with chicken today. As always: Henderl is a smaller version of chicken. Hendl would be used where I am from. And Pipi is for chicks - small chicken, because that's the sound they are making. Enjoy! - And if you have a headache after, don't blame me!

Today something German: The great author Hermann Hesse. The line "Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne" ( "A magic dwells in each beginning ") is just so current. As I ran into many "Page not found" errors, I simply copy the URL and the text. Enjoy! http://www.hhesse.de/gedichte.php?load=stufen Stufen Wie jede Blüte welkt und jede Jugend Dem Alter weicht, blüht jede Lebensstufe, Blüht jede Weisheit auch und jede Tugend Zu ihrer Zeit und darf nicht ewig dauern. Es muß das Herz bei jedem Lebensrufe Bereit zum Abschied sein und Neubeginne, Um sich in Tapferkeit und ohne Trauern In andre, neue Bindungen zu geben. Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne, Der uns beschützt und der uns hilft, zu leben. Wir sollen heiter Raum um Raum durchschreiten, An keinem wie an einer Heimat hängen, Der Weltgeist will nicht fesseln uns und engen, ...

Today, the Viennese newspaper Die Presse published a quiz on the dialect used in Austria. If you read the blog and did the assignments, you should be easily able to complete the questions. Good luck! http://diepresse.com/home/bildung/5197542/Oesterreichisch-fuer-Fortgeschrittene_Was-ist-ein-Heckenklescher

Today we are talking about the great word "Surm". "Surm" is a noun and our friends over at Rind Vieh http://www.rindvieh.com/Dialekte/Oesterreich/Surm Say that this is a stupid human. However, they place it into the category of harmless words . Harmless words are for them abusive language for every day use. Interesting definition! "Surm" causes a lot of confusion, as in different people use it in different ways. We over here at "Austrian for foreigners" have the mission to make things clearer, or at least more fun. "Surm" is definitely one of these words that can provide that kind of entertainment. Simply looking to our authoritative friends over at Ostrarichi  , t hey have two variations: First they call Surm a meat heat: http://www.ostarrichi.org/wort-2245-Surm-Dummkopf.html Second they call Surm a confused person: http://www.ostarrichi.org/wort-15574-Surm-ein_verwirrter_Mensch.html User ant18ikes does the only thing t...

As you know, Austrians are very friendly people. Part of being friendly is to have manners. Having manners includes that you greet. You also know, that Austrians are super-efficient. As such, they have multi-purpose words: You can use the same word in multiple situations. One of these words is Servus. The word comes from the Latin servant of slave. According to Wikipedia "The phrase is an ellipsis of a Latin expression servus humillimus, domine spectabilis , meaning "[your] most humble servant, [my] noble lord." No subservience is implied in its modern use, which has the force of "at your service." Servus is the origin of the word serf ." - But that sounds very complicated. Servus is great, because you can use it to say Hi when you meet somebody. You can use it when you cheers with somebody. You can use it to say Good Bye. Or to put it with the words of the late and great Peter Alexander:  Every city has their own  parting words; in Paris you ...