Incoherent Scribblings

The Case for Gender

I think that any native English speaker that has ever tried to learn another language will probably agree with me that one of the most difficult things about learning said language is remembering the gender that belongs to a noun. (If said language determines the gender of nouns of course.)

It was not easy for me to learn the gender of nouns in French, but in some ways I believe that it has been more difficult for me to learn them in German. I feel that one of the main reasons that this is so is because, unlike French where one only has to worry about whether a noun is masculine or feminine, in German there is an “extra” gender: In German, a noun can be masculine (der), feminine (die), or neutral (das).

Unfortunately, there is little rhyme or reason to determining a noun’s gender. There are a few rules such as a noun that ends in “-ung” is feminine and a noun that ends in “-chen” is neutral, but that is about it. Some are fairly obvious, such as the gender for the word “Frau” (woman) is “die” or “Mann” (man) is “der”. However, there are also those words in German where logic completely fails in the assignment of gender; the most obvious case being “das Mädchen”. Here we have what I would think is an obviously female noun (Mädchen = girl). Nevertheless, because “Mädchen” ends in “-chen,” in German a girl isn’t a female, she is an it.

Many would say that it really isn’t such a big deal: All you need is practice, practice, and more practice. The more exposure one has through reading and writing will condition the brain and besides, how important is enunciating “der,” “die,” or “das” in everyday conversation anyway? Well, this is true to some extent. For the past three years I have been mumbling my gender in such a way that, for the most part, everything comes out “deh.”

But, if you remember correctly, I am getting ready to take the TestDaF and for such a test knowing a noun’s gender is imperative. A noun’s gender is a fundamental element to German language and grammar, and unfortunately if I do not know a noun’s gender, I have a hard time determining its case.

In my opinion, after gender, case is the second most essential component in German grammar and perhaps the most frustrating thing about learning German. Because,

[u]nlike English, German has retained case endings for nouns indicating the grammatical role that they play in a sentence. Without [these case endings] the meaning of a sentence would be unclear.

- from German Grammar in a Nutshell

So on top of having to learn three genders in German, I also have to learn its four cases: the nominative, the accusative, the dative, and the genitive. Each case indicates what part a noun plays in a sentence (the subject, object, etc.), and the case is determined by the verb or prepositions. However if that weren’t enough to confuse me, in addition to that, an adjective has to be decorated with an ending that is not only gender but also case dependent on the noun!

Though I understand the concepts, for me, German gender and case are muddled messes that I have to wade through every day and wonder when or if the proverbial light bulb will ever go off over my head and suddenly I will have miraculously memorized the gender of every German noun I have ever learned and will therefore no longer have any more problems with the case either.

Yes, I know it is completely unrealistic, but a girl can dream, can’t she?

Stitcher’s Excitement

Lots of pictures today!

First off, when I got home from school today I peeked into my mailbox and lo and behold… my needleroll exchange was there! I was mildly surprised to get it so soon. Although our official post date was yesterday, my partner mailed it late last week and despite the fact that it came to Germany from Canada, it only took five days to get here! The needleroll I received was self-designed and stitched by Christine V. and I think it is absolutely lovely!

I must take a moment to mention here that if the needleroll she sent me is a typical-sized needleroll at approximately 7 ½ inches long, the one that I made for my person is about 5 times too big! Hubby remarked that he hopes that my partner has a lot of needles!
So that was my first exciting bit of news, now for my second!

Today I finished all of the cross stitching on “Passing Admirers!” YEAH! Mini Happy Dance!

After lamenting the other day how I hadn’t had much of a chance to work on “Passing Admirers” lately, on Sunday I decided to put my Halloween exchange aside and spend some quality time with it.

I got about half of the underskirt done on Sunday while I stayed up very late and watched the finals of the U.S. Open. I found it difficult to concentrate when things got exciting during the third set, as I was really cheering for Andre. (For those of you who don’t know, I play tennis and have been a HUGE Agassi fan ever since he had hair!)

I worked some more on the underskirt yesterday and finished up this afternoon. I am so pleased with myself… now for the backstitching and beading. I hope the backstitching won’t take too long and there is only a little bit of beading… I think in total I have to add something like 10 beads.

Oh, and a small question: Since this is my first time beading, should I do it before or after the backstitching or work it into the backstitch flow? Also, I normally use a hoop, but is it better to stitch in hand when adding beads?

That’s it for today! Now off to do my homework.