“Merry Christmas“
Hi ihr lieben,
It’s January, you blink once, and it’s the 24th of December. The time in between … eternal and an instant at the same time. Our time is weird like that.
Blink again and it’s summer 2021 and we’re all on some beach somewhere, or in a forest, or in a city doing what the oracle predicted. And you’ll be like:
“Damn, I can’t believe it’s already June. But wow… a lot has happened and mein Doitsch ist viel besser!”
Yeah… I clearly had some wine :). I originally wanted to write something festive to wrap up the calendar, but there’s actually no need for it… because you all did it!
Your comments from yesterday were just unbelievable – so loving, heartwarming, funny, joyful, hopeful, empathetic and witty. I was really really happy after I read all of them.
And this confirms a suspicion that I have been holding for a long time – that people who learn a foreign language tend to be … good people.
Of course this is a gross generalization and blah blah blah but in order to actually try to learn a foreign language you need to have a certain degree of open mindedness. You can’t take yourself overly seriously. And there’s something humbling about stumbling through a sentence at the early stages – we have to accept being “vulnerable” in these moments. We also get to experience that other people really don’t care that much about us being perfect. What matters is that we get along and can exchange ideas. So trying to read a foreign language, or hear it or write it or speak it when we’re not good at it yet is a “low-ego” experience. And that’s great.
I mean… not that ego is bad.
It’s fun to feel proud about having reached fluency. But you can’t get there without feeling stupid, untalented and embarrassed about making like 5 mistakes per sentence.
So if you’re at that stage… savor it! It has value, no matter if you ever get fluent.
And if you’ve made it to fluency… flaunt it, show it around :)!! But remember that it’s not your “cool” self that got you there. It was your humble self.
Did I mention that I am drinking wine?
Seriously though… all you are awesome and I am really happy and honored that you come here to read about German.
Thanks a lot for following throughout the years, or year and thank you for making the 2020 calendar as epic as the other. If not epicer.
I hope you enjoyed it and I wish you a relaxing, calm Christmas season (or rest of the year season, if you don’t celebrate Christmas :)
Vielen Dank für alles
und frohe Weihnachten!
Ps.:
“darkmode” is now officially a thing. I did some design around it and I actually kind of like the look of it now.
If you don’t know what that is… it switches the background to black and the font to white and it can be relaxing for the eye. I don’t know how many of you will actually use that, but yeah… the switch is on the left of the menu bar on desktop and I’ll add it to the mobile menu as well in the coming days.
It’s not perfect yet, so some pages might look weird. Particularly, I didn’t adjust the quizzes so far. But yeah… I hope at least some of you use it :)
I would like to say thank you for all the generous payers of Daily German to sponsor my course it is really great of you .Hope you get whatever you want in your life:)
Wow Emanuel!! Your comments here are so spot on. It is so meaningful to me that I can’t think of where to go from there. Learning a language is such a humbling experience and anytime any of us learn something new we are going to make mistakes. We (your readers and learners) have committed to at least try. To err is human and we are all in it together. Happy New Year to you and all your fans and thanks for all your work and efforts.
Frohe Weihnachten !
Es tut mir leid dass ich diesen Artikel frueher nicht gesehen habe.
Ich wuensche dir ein tolles 2021 Jahr !
Danke.
Danke, wünsche ich dir auch :)
Lieber Emanuel,
Dankeschön für den Adventskalender. Ich wünsche dir und deinen Lieben einen guten Rutsch! Bleibt gesund und optimistisch. Bis zum nächstes Jahr.
Danke , dir auch und bis 2021 :)
Thank you so much for all the work you do. You make learning fun and intriguing. All the best to you and all your readers for the coming year.
:)
Didn’t 100% work, but you get the idea. Thanks for the best advent calendar!
Wow, is that a wine bottle and two glasses?! That’s awesome :)!
Vielen Dank für deine geilen Wörter! Ich have so viel gelernt besonders über Indo-European! Frohe Weihnachten and ein gutes neues Jahr aus Vereinigten Königreich.
Danke, dir auch :)!
Uff, die Mails kommen seit fast einer Woche nicht mehr, jetzt muss ich einiges nachholen…
Vielen Dank für noch einen tollen Adventskalender und ein wundervolles Jahr für uns Deutschlerner. Dir ein frohes Fest und einen guten Rutsch!
Echt?! Das ist komisch! Aber ich wechsele im Januar eh die Sendemethode (die aktuelle ist zu teuer). Vielleicht klappt es dann wieder.
Frohe Weihnachten!
Excellent “wrap up” of the Advent calendar and a wonderful introspection into what is necessary to learn a foreign language! Thanks for the great content and Merry Christmas + a Happy 2021!
Frohe Weihnachten, Emanuel!
Frohe Weihnachten! For 2021 I wish you what the oracle showed me – Wein, Bier und Spass. Enjoy!!
Merry Christmas Emanuel, and thank you for the advent calendar.
Frohe Weihnachten!
Thanks for everything you’ve done for us, the struggles you’ve put us through, the horrible and hilarious jokes, and the painful process of synapse building as we learn German. You’re the best!
Frohe Weihnachten und ein glückliches Neues Jahr
Sound words! Happy Christmas and a safe and very happy year in 2021.
Frohe Weihnachten Y’all!!! Emanuel, dude, dark mode? Amazing, I think you’ll be drawing a whole new audience.
Thanks again for all your efforts.
What, you mean like Coder kids :)? Should I make it less dark, maybe? Like a dark gray as background? I’m not using dark mode usually, so I have no experience with it (besides google chrome… I use dark mode for the browser). Anyway… frohe Weihnachten!
Stumbling and enjoying it. Thanks for your humor as i learn.
Frohe Weihnachten, frohes neues Jahr, und vielen Dank, lieber Emanuel!
I just now noticed… is that really a cat in front of a bottle of Champaign?!
Frohe Weihnachten!
Emanuel, Ich wünsche Dir ein frohes Weihnachtsfest, ein gutes neues Jahr, und vor allem eine gute Gesundheit.