Stammtisch (May 26th 2022)

We had a smaller group at Stammtisch this month, which provided a great opportunity for everyone to speak German with each other. Attendees who attended our other events this week expressed that they enjoyed themselves, while those who couldn’t be there were keen to attend future events. We had a couple of new faces as well as some familiar faces and everyone had a great time chatting about various topics while sipping on their drink of choice.

Written by Courtney Sole

Online Quiz Night (May 24th 2022)

The Auckland Goethe Society hosted our annual German Quiz Night—for the first time ever on Zoom! After being unable to host the quiz night in 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions, we looked forward to reinstating the tradition. Despite technical difficulties with breakout rooms, the night was a fun test of German trivia knowledge and teamwork. There was an excellent turnout with 55 attendees and 14 teams, with the winners set to receive goodies from the Goethe-Institut. We also enjoyed listening to the fantastic song requests for German music while marking was in process, such as “99 Luftballons” von Nena, “Mensch” von Herbert Grönemeyer, “Rockstars” von Malik Harris (German’s Eurovision entry this year), and “Eisgekühlte Coca-Cola (Tchio Tchio)” (a catchy children’s song). Bis zum nächsten Jahr! We hope to host the next annual quiz night in person for 2023.

Written by Eve Walter

Kaffee & Kuchen (May 22nd 2022)

In what is becoming one of our most popular events, the Auckland Goethe Society had another wonderful Kaffee und Kuchen at Gloria Jean’s Coffees on Lorne St (this time at a more traditional time of 2:30pm). We had both new attendees and regulars who had lively chats about everything from the best museums to visit, to what dialects are the most difficult to learn, speak and understand.

We are looking forward to seeing people again at another unconventionally timed Kaffee und Kuchen (due to Café opening times) at 10:30am on Saturday 18th June.

Written by Sofia Manai

Stammtisch (April 28th 2022)

Our third online Stammtisch of the year had great attendance once again! After introducing ourselves, we discussed topics on Essen (food), Filme (films), Hobbys und Reisen (travel). One of our members, Anthony, showed us his feijoas and pieces of artwork he had created.

The next Stammtisch will be hosted on Zoom on Thursday 26th May 2022, 6-7pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

Written by Vanessa Chong

Kaffee & Kuchen (April 23rd 2022)

Kaffee und Kuchen was our first in person event for 2022! 19 members and friends of the Auckland Goethe Society met at the Gloria Jean’s Coffees on Lorne Street at 10:30 am. We chatted amongst ourselves (auf Deutsch) while some of us enjoyed a morning drink and/or brunch. Our attendees enjoyed the return to 'in-person' and we plan for our next Kaffee und Kuchen to be in May.

Written by Shalin Shah

Stammtisch (March 31st 2022)

Our second online Stammtisch of the year had fantastic attendance. Due to the flexibility of Zoom, we had guests joining from outside of Auckland, and even one from outside of the country! After beginning with a general chat and introducing ourselves, we each joined different breakout rooms to discuss topics of: Essen (food), Filme und Bücher (films and books), und Reisen (travel).

Next Stammtisch will be hosted on Zoom on Thursday 28th April 2022, 6-7pm. Depending on the Covid-19 situation, we will be looking at hosting an in-person Stammtisch later this year. Stay tuned!

Written by Eve Walter

Game Night (March 22nd 2022)

For the first time ever, the Auckland Goethe Society hosted a game night on Zoom! This was a great success and fun-filled event for those who attended.

Our first game of the evening was Gartic Phone, where each person writes a sentence of their choice (auf Deutsch), then someone is randomly assigned to put their artistic skills to use and draw this sentence, and the next person has to describe what they have drawn. As you might have guessed, this had hilarious results, which you can see an example of below. One sentence “ein alter Mann, der seinen Schmetterling verloren hat” (“an old man who lost his butterfly”) became “ein Mann denkt an ein Cello” (“a man thinks of a cello”) which somehow ended up as “Kampf mit dem Teufel” (“fight with the devil”). All of us had a good laugh about our drawing skills.

Next up was the classic Stadt Land Fluss, where the players are given a letter and a list of categories for each round, and the aim of the game is to think of a word beginning with that letter for all of the categories. This was a challenge, but was also a very good test of German vocabulary and general knowledge!

Finally, we played the online version of the board game Codenames. This is a strategy game where two teams compete by each having a “Geheimdienstchef” (“spymaster”) give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. Whichever team guesses all of their words on the board correctly first wins.

We hope to host another game night in future, hopefully in person!

Written by Eve Walter

Stammtisch (Feb 24th 2022)

Our first (online Zoom) Stammtisch for the year was attended by a small but enthusiastic group of people, eager to practise their German speaking skills! We talked about types of food, our hobbies, what we did on the weekend and some of us learnt some new German vocab! Next Stammtisch will be on Thursday 31st March, 6-7pm.

VOCAB LIST:

  • Guten Rutsch = Happy New Year

  • die Zutaten = ingredients

  • der Rentner / die Rentnerin = retiree

  • insgesamt = in total

  • der Rechtsanwalt = lawyer

  • die Rechtsanwältin = female lawyer

  • isolieren = to isolate / to insulate

  • Was willst du am Wochenende machen? - What are you going to do this weekend?

  • schwierig = difficult

  • Wo hast du es gekauft? = Where did you buy it from?

  • die Enkeltochter = granddaughter

  • das Ingwer = ginger

  • das Rotschopf = ginger (hair colour)

  • das Klavier = piano

  • das Schlagzeug = drums

  • die Oktave = octave

Written by Vanessa Chong