My new goal is for my little family to learn the story and songs of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), and then go see a live performance of it.
Here's why this is the perfect plan: I already like some other Mozart operas (Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni), and have found that they're good for reinforcing my knowledge of Italian. Meanwhile, the kids enjoyed seeing Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Met, and Die Zauberflöte is even better for kids!
So now I'm going through the text of the various arias -- looking for which ones illustrate which points of German grammar -- so that I can coordinate this with my German lessons. Yep, that's the sort of thing I do for fun. :D
The funny thing is that I've gotten totally obsessed with German lessons lately. The first two years I was here in Zürich, I was constantly lamenting the fact that I don't speak German -- but I couldn't stand to open my German book and work on a lesson. I really wished I could scrape together the motivation to do it! Then I finally decided that I need to make it a priority, and guess what? Now that I'm making progress, I don't want to do anything else!
It's weird.
I hardly feel like blogging or reading the Internet (I'm still working on the follow-up to this post). I also have a list of friends that I'd really like to invite over to my place, but (as usual) it's a wreck, and -- bizarrely -- I don't even feel like going to IKEA and picking out more furniture to finish organizing the apartment! I just want to sit down with my German book and do another lesson.
Um... Be careful what you wish for....?
The Adventures of a Friendly French-American ExMormon Atheist Mom Living in Switzerland!!!
4 comments:
You could browse the Web in German. That might satisfy two compulsions at the same time. :-)
P.S. Check out this funny and endearing version of the Queen of the Night aria ("Der Hölle Rache"). I'm sure your kids will be impressed.
Hey MoHoHawaii!!!
I do sometimes. Google "helpfully" automatically redirects me to the Swiss German version of the site, and it's not always obvious how to switch it back...
Thanks for the vid -- very cute! I'll be sure to show it to my kids. :D
We need to get together so that maybe your zeal can rub off on me!
- wry
Hey Wry!!!
I was just thinking of getting together with you!!
While I've been buried in German, my poor little apartment has been buried in an unspeakable heap, but the course is almost over and we're coming up for air. ;^)
I'll be emailing you in a couple of days about when we should get together. :D
Post a Comment