A new blog

I am on vacation in Munich and have decided to devote my blogging to a new genre: a blog written in German. You can find it here: http://schlaflosingerman.blogspot.com

I've just learned something new

I have been reading Viktor Klemperer's "LTI" - study of Nazi Word Usage. Naturally it has been thinking about word usage in blogs. Thanks to wikipedia, I have learned a new technical term for what I would call "diction": "register." A "register" in linguistics refers to a set or subset of vocabulary and word usage used in a particular setting or milieu.

Blog Speak

Re-reading my post of ieri I am struck by how I already use the cliched diction of a blogger. Yuck.

Getting ready for German class

Sitting in a truck packed with computer equipment. I'll be working a little late tonight tracking a sphere. Not a big deal, but tonight I have German Gesprachsgruppe at the local vocational high school. I figure if I get out of here by 8 PM, I can still make the second half of class. So I've been sitting here looking up appropriate vocabulary online so I can explain why I was late for class, in German. This is just as well, as I find that I don't have a lot to talk about in class, unless I make an effort to do something during the week that is worth talking about. Last week we went to see "Das Leben der Anderen" - the terrific German film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture. That gave me something to discuss in my Monday discussion group.

It occurred to me yesterday that Catholics must have a similar problem when they go to confession: they have to have done something worth confessing.