If you’re headed to Oktoberfest this year, be sure to check out the apron ties on the womens’ Dirndls. (Ja, Dirndl. 4 consonants all together. It’s the traditional Bavarian dress we all so know and (many of us) love. Here’s how to decipher whether a woman is committed or still on the market, plus a few more tips for your visit to Oktoberfest.

Click here to read the article on Spiegel.de.

When I lived in Lippstadt I had great neighbors. I lived in Lipperode, a village that belonged to Lippstadt. The fascinating single mom next door, the heating oil guy and his wife across the street, the lovely couple in their 50s on the other side, and next to them, kitty-corner from us, was Horst.

Horst had taken early retirement and was quite involved locally. He volunteered a lot, one of his positions being President of the village board for the protestant church. A Calvanistic church, to be exact. It was unusual for a village to have a Calvanistic church, but like many other German villages, it also had a Catholic church. Horst made sure to point out to me that the Catholics and the Protestants in Lipperode got along, they always have, and he was sure they would in the future, too.

Germans are incredibly direct. A German really will ask you if you've gained weight (Haben Sie zugenommen?), just as someone might ask if you have lost weight at another time (Haben Sie abgenommen?).

What's disconcerting for people from the States, for example, is that this question is simply a matter of fact for a German and by no means a judgement. Ask any American if s/he has gained weight, and you'll probably get an angry response. Here, that's simply a rude question. Weight is a hot-button issue here, and it's par for the course that someone might ask you if you've lost weight, and then

German pronunciation is very specific and there are enough rules to it that once you've learned them, you can pronounce the majority of German words, whether you know the meaning or not. English, on the other hand, has a mind of its own and it can be difficult for those learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Hey, some words are tricky even for native speakers.

And there is one thing that's very important to Germans:  not showing their tongues.

In five years living in and traveling through much of Germany I never once saw a kid stick out their tongue, nor an adult do the same thing in jest. They don't show their tongues. It's extremely rude to stick out your tongue at someone in Germany.

So when Germans speak English,

The Deutsche Welle now has multimedia project on their site that has researched Jewish Germans who have gone to other countries and collected their stories. It’s a fascinating project that tells stories from around the world.

Take a gander by clicking here.