If You Study German, You Better Love Commas

If you study German, you better love commas.  Forget the other unimportant punctuation marks such as periods, question marks, exclamation marks, semicolons, and colons.  Focus on commas, your deepest love.  Only then will you truly grasp the nature of clauses.  And, most importantly, you will be on your way to finding the mysterious verb and subject.  German is a kind of puzzle.  Perhaps that’s why the Germans produced so many great philosophers.  It’s a language that abounds in tricks and words that have many meanings dependent on their context or function in the sentence.  Ganz abgesehen, German can be great fun to read.  Get a hold of German for Reading by Sandberg and Wendel, and in 6-8 months you will read German fluently.  This wonderful text contains actual excerpts from the writings of:  Freud, Jung, Jaspers, Engels, and Schweitzer, among others.  Good luck!

About Robert M. Weiss
From an early age, I've taken great pleasure in reading. Also, I learned to play my 78 player when I was quite young, and enjoyed listening to musicals and classical music. I remember sitting on the floor, and following the text and pictures of record readers, which were popular in the 1940s and 50s. My favorites were the Bozo and Disney albums. I also enjoyed watching the slow spinning of 16s as they spun out tales of adventure. I have always been attracted by rivers, and I love to sit on a boulder with my feet in the water, gazing into the mysteries of swirling currents. I especially like inner tubing on the Rogue River in Southern Oregon. Since my early youth, I've been interested in collecting minerals, which have taught me about the wonderful possibilities in colors and forms. Sometimes I try to imagine what the ancient Greeks must have felt when they began to discover physical laws in nature. I also remember that I had a special passion for numbers, and used to construct them out of stones. After teaching Russian for several years, I became a writer, interviewer, editor, and translator. I continue to delight in form, and am a problem solver at heart.

2 Responses to If You Study German, You Better Love Commas

  1. adelind says:

    Another great german writer I appreciate is Junger! In addition to those you have already mentioned in your post

    Like

  2. Robert Weiss says:

    Adelind, I must confess I never heard of Junger. However, thank you for bringing this writer to my attention!

    Like

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