Learn Pennsylvania German: It’s a real language, and it’s easy. Did you know that about 400,000 people in the U.S. and Canada speak it? And did you know that more than 1 million people in the Palatinate (Germany) speak a similar dialect? Don’t wait any longer … Doug Madenford offers a “Hiwwe wie Driwwe Online Class” (also available on youtube.com). Here are the lessons:
Lesson 1: Introduction (Slides Lesson 1)
Lesson 2: Greetings and Introductions (Slides Lesson 2)
Lesson 3: Where you live (Slides Lesson 3)
Lesson 4: The Alphabet and Pronounciation (Slides Lesson 4)
Lesson 5: Numbers (Slides Lesson 5)
Lesson 6: Personal Pronouns (Slides Lesson 6)
Lesson 7: Verbs and Conjugation (Slides Lesson 7)
Lesson 8: Irregular Verbs (Slides Lesson 8)
Lesson 9: Questions and Question Words (Slides Lesson 9)
Lesson 10: Telling Time (Slides Lesson 10)
Lesson 11: Days, Months, Seasons (Slides Lesson 11)
Lesson 12: Nominative Case (Slides Lesson 12)
Lesson 13: Possessive Adjectives (Slides Lesson 13)
Lesson 14: to know (Slides Lesson 14)
Lesson 15: Family Members (Slides Lesson 15)
Lesson 16: Describing what you like (Slides Lesson 16)
Lesson 17: Accusative Case (Slides Lesson 17)
Lesson 18: The Weather (Slides Lesson 18)
Lesson 19: Present Progressive (Slides Lesson 19)
Lesson 20: Modal Verbs (Slides Lesson 20)
Lesson 21: Negation (Slides Lesson 21)
Lesson 22: Colors (Slides Lesson 22)
Lesson 23: Future Tense (Slides Lesson 23)
Lesson 24: Clothes (Slides Lesson 24)
Lesson 25: Dative Case (Slides Lesson 25)
Lesson 26: Rooms and Furniture (Slides Lesson 26)
Lesson 27: Separable Prefix Verbs (Slides Lesson 27)
Lesson 28: Body Parts (Slides Lesson 28)
Lesson 29: Reflexive Verbs (Slides Lesson 29)
Lesson 30: Emphasis Verbs (Slides Lesson 30)
Lesson 31: Holidays (Slides Lesson 31)
Lesson 32: Adjective Endings (Slides Lesson 32)
Lesson 33: Comparative and Superlative (Slides Lesson 33)
Lesson 34: Two-way prepositions (Slides Lesson 34)
Lesson 35: Present Perfect Tense (Slides Lesson 35)
Lesson 36: Places in a Town (Slides Lesson 36)
Lesson 37: Command Forms (Slides Lesson 37)
Lesson 38: Asking and Giving Directions (Slides Lesson 38)
Lesson 39: Conjunctions (Slides Lesson 39)
Lesson 40: Passive Voice (Slides Lesson 40)
Lesson 41: Subjunctive Mood (Slides Lesson 41)
The following institutions offer classes:
Montgomery County (PA):
Pennsburg: Schwenkfelder Library and Archive.
Lehigh County (PA):
Allentown: S. Peter’s Ev. Lutheran Church. Beginners & Advanced.
Allentown: Cedar Crest College, Hamilton Blvd.
Emmaus: Public Library, East Main Street.
Macungie: Lower Macungie Library.
Emerald: Fire Company Building (may be not any more).
Slatington: Groossdaadi Grundsau Lodsch, 8662 S Loop Road (various classes of the PG Groundhog Lodges). Contact: Lee W. Haas (Haaptmann).
Berks County (PA):
Kutztown: Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center (One Room School House).
Kutztown: Shayna Kinner Childcare Center (for Kids).
Mertztown: Longswamp Township Building.
Mohrsville: Belleman’s Church.
Oley: High School.
Robesonia: Church Building.
Topton: District Elementary School.
Lancaster County (PA):
Lancaster: Mennonite Historical Society, 2215 Millstream Road.
Ephrata: Muddy Creek Library, Cat’s Back Road (“Katzebuckel”).
Lititz: United Zion Retirement Community.
Lebanon County (PA):
Schaefferstown: Historic Schaefferstown. Brendle Museum.
York County (PA):
Dover: Spring Grove Community Center. 860 Old Hanover Road.
We don’t publish any personal information or phone number here. If you are interested in attending one of the listed Pennsylvania German classes, please contact the institutions for further information.
Hi,
I wonder if you could provide me with a translation for 4 Penn Dutch words?
believing, discovering, succeeding, together
Thanks
Donna
glaawe, finne, naachfolyie, zamme
Are there any online classes? I would love to learn PA Dutch.
Also please, what does ‘Botschaft’ [as in the newspaper] mean?
Thanks,
Char
No online classes, but we are working on that. “Botschaft” means “message”.
In German, Botshaft means embassy, embasador. Messenger / message makes sense too. Good name for a newspaper.
Found the page and found It quite entertaining to read your newspaper. I do actually understand every single word it, but I have never learned to read and write it that way. I am German and grew up north of the area where the dialect seems to come from in Germany. I just learned it by using it from the first days of my life, but we do write and read German. Like the Swiss German, which I can only understand if they do write it down and it turns out to be German. SO it is very easy for me to understand as a native “Hessian” German
I worked a while in PA, but I have actually never had the chance to talk to a native Pennsylvanisch-Deitsch speaker.