The German Film Festival 2019 is opening in Brisbane tomorrow. A wide selection of contemporary films will be on offer. It’s a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself in German culture, learn the language and for the expats among us to enjoy a bit of home comfort.
Watching movies helps to learn a language
Teaching children German, I encourage all of my students to go and see one of the family movies showing over the two upcoming weekends. As we know, time in class is often too precious to watch an entire film. Part of learning a language is to hear it and develop a good ear for it, and watching a movie is a fun way of practising that.
Jim Button and Luke the Locomotive Driver
One of the movies is JIM BUTTON AND LUKE THE LOCOMOTIVE DRIVER, a wonderful memory of my childhood. We would spend Sunday afternoons eating freshly baked cake, sitting on the lounge and watching the “Augsburger Puppenkiste”, a marionette theatre company. The theme song, the “Lummerlandlied” (I can still hum it to this day) would come on. The next moment the curtain would open and off we went with Jim, Lukas and his locomotive Emma on an adventure. It is a beautiful adaption of Michael Ende’s book “Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer ”.
The “Augsburger Puppenkiste” – Jim Knopf
Jim Knopf, the movie
Recently, when I went home to Germany, I had a chance to watch the newly released movie version of “Jim Knopf” that came out in 2018. I must admit, I was skeptical, loving the TV series from the 70s so much, but it turned out to be a very good film. I can highly recommend it for families with younger children.
My choice of movie
The movie I have chosen to watch with my children is HELP, I SHRUNK MY PARENTS. It’s a modern comedy for the family that is showing in the Valley this Saturday. I hope, lots of my students will join me at the German Film Festival 2019. Watch, learn and eat popcorn!
On MondayDie Zaunkönige and their siblings celebrated Rosenmontag (Rose Monday), the highlight of the German Karneval. While in Cologne – one of the carnival strongholds in Germany – the carnival fools were waiting for the storm to subside, we were busy making colourful masks. Part of the “crazy” street carnival is to wear costumes, dance and watch the famous parade of fantastical floats make its way through the city.
Instead of my usual group of school children I had basketball players, a
striking pink unicorn, a panda who must have escaped the zoo, a scary
ghost and even an elf attending class.
4 March 2019 – Children celebrating Karneval
All of them
got right into the party games which included musical chairs, balloon races,
dances and tennis and not to forget the ever so popular musical statues. To
keep these hungry creatures happy, we fed them doughnuts. Traditionally it
would have been Berliner Pfannkuchen, a similar pastry filled with jam.
The kids had so much fun celebrating Karneval that we extended our usual session by almost an extra hour.
At Die Zaunkönige we offer small, interactive, friendly and fun German classes for children (ages 6+) in Brisbane. The classes are taught by a qualified native German teacher. You can find us at Cannon Hill State School on Thursdays after school.
ENROL NOW or book a free trial class! For more information, please contact ANNETTE BLAKENEY at 0466376 038 or email: annette@deutsch-bne.school or visit: https://www.facebook.com/DieZaunkoenige