If there’s one thing we love more than apps, it’s different cultures. We have a ton of language games helping people learn languages from all over the world. In this series, we look at some of the locations that fascinated us so much that we created language games for them. They are helpful for students, teachers, and travellers. Last week, we looked at Japan. This week, let’s take a look at Germany.
Germany is located in the central-western Europe which has a largely temperate seasonal climate and is famous for beer. Annually, a 16- to 18-day folk festival is held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Oktoberfest runs from mid or late September to the first weekend in October. It is considered as the world’s largest Volkfest (beer festival and travelling funfair) which is attended by more than 6 million people around the world every year.
The Germans, tourists and visitors enjoy amusement rides, sides stalls, games and a wide variety of traditional foods like:
- Hendl (roast chicken)
- Schweinebraten (roast pork)
- Schweinshaxe (grilled ham hock)
- Steckerlfisch (grilled fish on a stick)
- Würstl (sausages)
- Brezen (pretzels)
- Knödel (potato or bread dumplings)
- Käsespätzle (cheese noodles)
- Reiberdatschi (potato pancakes)
- Sauerkraut or Rotkohl/Blaukraut (red cabbage)
- Obatzda (a spicy cheese-butter spread)
- Weißwurst (a white sausage)
Getting hungry and curious with those foods? Aside from beer, food is also a great part of German culture and each region has its own specialty dishes . Germans love rich, satisfying and comfort food.
Now, let’s see what are the exciting activities we can expect in the event. The highlights of Oktoberfest include:
- Entry of the restaurateurs and breweries. A parade that showcases decorated horse carriages and floats of the breweries and the carriages of the other restaurateurs and showmen.
- Beer barrel tapping ceremony which declares the Oktoberfest as open. At exactly 12:00 o’clock, the lord mayor opens the first beer barrel with the exclamation “O’zapft is!” which means “It’s tapped!”.
- Since 1950, Costume and Riflemen parade is organised annually and has become one of the highlights of the Oktoberfest and one of the world’s largest parades of its kind wherein participants march in their historic festival costumes going to the festival grounds.
- Beers are served, but only those conforming to The Reinheitsgebot (“purity decree”), are designated as Oktoberfest Beer and can be served.
The Reinheitsgebot, sometimes called the “German Beer Purity Law” in English, is a regulation concerning the production of beer in Germany which limits the ingredients of beer in Germany to water, barley and hops. Later on, yeast became the fourth legal ingredient and for top-fermenting beers, the use of sugar is also permitted. Well, that means you will only be served quality and good tasting beers.
Are you thinking of joining Oktoberfest next year so you can enjoy German food and beer? Do you want to experience German culture?
But before you get there, it’s important to get yourself familiarised more of their culture and language so you can understand them better. Learning some German words and phrases will be helpful. There are a lot of language learning apps out there, but Overpass wants your learning to be fun and easy. Download Learn German Bubble Bath Game for free. In this fun and engaging game, you learn and practice reading German words and phrases. German Bubble bath consists of 63 language categories and over 600 vocabulary words spoken by a native German speaker so you’ll know exactly how each word is pronounced.
So whether you’re planning that trip to Germany or you just want to learn The German language, this app is for you. Give it a try and see you at the next Oktoberfest event!
Glücklich trinken!
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