Dress: Kenneth Cole | Shoes: Phillip Lim | Necklace: One | Leggings: COS | Sunglasses: I.a.Eyeworks
As you already know, we’re really trying to learn German. What started as a vague desire not to be the expats with the shittiest Deutsch became one of our New Year’s Resolutions… and along with our new puppy, came a new goal: to be able to speak to six year olds in their own language about how “klein” and “süss” she is. But even with the Daily Deutsches and the weekly tutorials, we still find it hard to get regular practice. That’s where Duolingo, language learning software with a difference, is helping:
If you want to find out more about the story behind Duolingo, scroll down for founder Luis von Ahn’s presentation at TEDxCMU. Aside from his unique mission - using language learning to get 100m people to translate the web into every major language for free - I’ve already been impressed by the private beta version of Duolingo’s German program.
It’s simple, social (connecting to both Facebook and Twitter), works all your passive and active language skills – listening, reading, speaking and writing – and allows you to learn in manageable chunks, marked by a real sense of achievement. Plus, it pulls in real online content which is inherently more interesting than the usual textbook scenarios – so far, I’ve translated texts about Jeff Bridges, Ghostbusters and Nazis! Best of all, it’s totally free!
Duolingo are still gradually inviting new users – sign up over here.
The district is slowly waking up, but it should all kick off later this afternoon. If you can’t make it down to witness the action first-hand, stay tuned to watch it unfold live. If you’re unlucky enough to live outside of Germany, or freelance for foreign companies, and have to spend today *yawn* working, then you should at least be able to hear what the day sounded like, by checking out the audio uploaded to our SoundCloud group, Berlin Sound.
But now it’s Partei time. Bis später!
BANGER!
Lazer Sword’s deep roller “Sounds Sane” is back, on the San Francisco/Berlin duo’s debut album, Memory, out now on Modeselektor’s Monkeytown Records. Listen to snippets of the warm, club-hazy album below, and click here to buy.
Don’t know what to do with yourself now that the sun has finally hit Berlin? This Saturday, check out REFOUND Market, “where vintage and design meet”. The indoor-outdoor market is an offshoot of REFOUND, an exhibition that combines contemporary design pieces with antique furniture, and will feature works by 15 local designers together along with carefully selected vintage pieces. Shoppers can browse chic clothes and furnishings while enjoying a coffee, home-made pies and cupcakes in the sun. See you down there!
When?
Saturday 28th April from 12:00 till 19:00
Where?
Agora Collective
Mittelweg 50
Neukölln
Berlin 12053
Not content with having two lovely cats here in Berlin, we decided to keep things interesting and throw a new puppy into the mix! Maybe we’re mental, but after moving to another country, where we didn’t know anyone or even speak the language, we thought that looking after a puppy would be <ahem> a walk in the park. We didn’t count on the sleepless nights and constant playing, walking and training that make this pretty much a full time job. But when we look into those big bug eyes our hearts melt, and it’s all worth it.
This wasn’t an easy decision (especially with two cats!) and we only found Olive after six months of searching for a breeder who cared as much about their animals as we did. We first found Chien Royal, whose photos alone are worth checking out even if you don’t feel you can commit to the real thing. Unfortunately they didn’t have any pups left so they recommended Martina at Kleine Franzosen, whose dam had just had a litter. We waited ten weeks until Olive was ready to leave her mum, but thankfully Martina kept me up to speed daily with how she was getting on and posted lots of photos on her Facebook page so I didn’t miss out on her growing up. I really can’t thank her enough for all her help and advice – she’s clearly committed to breeding happy, healthy bullies, and making sure they go to the right homes.
Olive is now settling in really well (she can “sit” already!) and the cats even are adjusting to their new sister . If you fancy keeping up to date with Olive’s adventures, then you can check out her very own Tumblr here.
by Holly Sims
Daily Deutsch Doodles are a series of illustrations based on contributions to the #dailydeutsch Twitter hashtag, aimed at helping people trying to learn German.
Herrchen by Holly Sims who also designed the posters for, and did the face painting at, the Feeling Gloomy Berlin Bowie Special.
Photo by wil6ka
You have until 10th May to upload your photo to Lomography.de. Then the photographers of the best 10 images in each of the competition’s 138 regions will be given a La Sardina Special Edition Camera. The 10 regional winners with the most votes on sponsor Das Telefonbuch’s Facebook Page win a trip to the exhibition in Cologne, where the overall winners of “Menschen und Berufe deiner Stadt“ will be honoured. There, the big prizes are dished out: €10,000 for the overall winner, €5,000 for second prize and €2,500 for third prize.
Pretty good huh? You can find full details about the competition (in German) on dastelefonbuch.lomography.de. And even if you’re not a photographer, or you’ve (gasp!) gone digital, you can check out the awesome photos already uploaded to the Berlin gallery. Enjoy.
We’re relative newbies to the supper club experience, having only been to RollinRestaurant, and only once before, but even we could tell that this one was going to be special. Arriving at Schöneberg’s old timey saloon (and Mixology Awards Bar of the Year) Stagger Lee, we were greeted by our hosts Björn and the Pauls, looking dapper in black tie. They introduced us to a grand first course of gold-flecked oysters and champagne cocktails, and our eight fellow guests.
For this exclusive edition of RollinRestaurant, the guestlist was scaled down from the usual 40+ to just ten, and the menu expanded to seven courses, each matched to a cocktail created by Stagger Lee’s resident mixologist Jakob Etzold. The latter’s genius was in taking a key ingredient out of each dish and applying it to the drink, for example, taking the dill that topped our tartare of mussels and adding it to his mustard martini, The Log Lady.
I’ve included the menu below for your perusal/envy, but here are our highlights of a pretty highlight-packed meal. This dude’s personal favourite was spiced pork belly, accompanied by the awesomely-named peak black ale Dark as the Dungeon. As I sipped my single malt whisky, blended with homemade sugar, bitters and a smokey, dark ale from Bavaria, I remember thinking, this is how kings used to dine in, well, Game of Thrones times. “For sheer nom nom”, Zoë’s chosen the dessert, salted chocolate creme, and to drink, the Fräulein – a rum schrub topped with wild berries.
As ever, RollinRestaurant combined fine dining with warm company, and we feel privileged to have been guests at their most special supper club to date. You need to get in on this, so join the mailing list and cross your fingers for a place at their next event. I’m salivating at the mere thought of it…
It’s amazing that I discovered T-INA Darling, given my aversion to a) political music and b) bullshit nostalgia for olden, “better” times. And yet I recently caught myself eyeing a vinyl copy of The Fine Art of Living by the “Empress of Berlin Swing”, entranced by its psychedelic illustration of the TV Tower. When I later found the album on Spotify, I was surprised by its blending of (ew) sixties pop and swing with (yay) hip hop and dubstep – plus oddly palatable politicking. The lyrics tell a tale of gentrification and rising rents in Mitte, which is either the singer/producer’s own story or a super-tight album concept. Check out this video for the landlord-bashing track “The Law”, and if you like what you höre, you can catch T-INA DJing every Wednesday at Clärchens Ballhaus.
