Content note: This episode contains words and discussions relating to genitals. The words we use to describe parts of our bodies are often reflective of how we feel about these body parts. At the same time, these words we use can also affect how we feel and our relationship to these body parts, a case in point being perhaps the most intimate body parts, the genitals. In German, the word Scham ('shame') is part of multiple words that are commonly used to describe genitals and the pubic ar...
Mar 17, 2025
25 min
“Words are not just words. We do things with words.” And among the things we can do with words is express our attitude towards something. We can say things in a certain way to express it as a fact, or as something unreal, or to show that we want to be neutral about whether something is true or not. For these purposes and more, we have the subjunctive mood – in German, the Konjunktiv. In this episode I talk to Verena Hofstätter, a linguist and German teacher from Vienna. Together we take a div...
Sep 11, 2023
42 min
NOTE: In this episode, I say the following: "In simple terms, an AFAB queen is a cisgender woman who does drag as a drag queen." While AFAB queens are very often cisgender women, and the term is typically used to describe cisgender women doing drag, this is not necessarily the case for everyone. Anyone who does drag and was assigned female at birth can be considered an AFAB queen, and this can include trans men, non-binary people and more. Apologies for the confusion and the inaccuracy! ****...
Apr 17, 2023
39 min
Moving to a new country and starting a new life there is no small undertaking. There are some major changes that you can foresee, like having to get used to a new language, but there are so many smaller, day-to-day differences that you might not see coming and that can catch you off-guard. In this final episode of series 2, I talk to Dana Newman (YouTube "Wanted Adventure"), an American living in Germany. We talk about what it’s like to move abroad to Germany as an American, what culture shoc...
Jun 20, 2022
47 min
South Tyrol is an autonomous, majority German-speaking region in Italy bordering Austria and Switzerland. It's one of the few places outside of Germany, Austria and Switzerland where German is an official language, alongside Italian and Ladin. But while these three languages are all recognised today, it was a difficult road to get here - the people of South Tyrol suffered some dark chapters which had awful consequences for families and communities, throwing their identity as South Tyroleans i...
Jun 6, 2022
32 min
This episode is all about idioms in German! We look at a few German expressions, what they mean and where they come from. What does it mean if you plant someone, if you leave the church in the village, or if you throw yourself over the houses? And when is it good to be punched in the face? I talk to Vanessa Krebs about some of her favourite German idioms and expressions, as well as a couple of her favourite English phrases too. Content warning: Mention of the Holocaust. If you do not want t...
May 23, 2022
33 min
How can corporate language contribute to a company’s brand? Why do companies often have at least two different voices that they use to speak to the same customers? And how can organisations deal with the issue of gender-sensitive writing in German, maintaining the balance between inclusion, readability and aesthetics? In this episode I talk to Martin Dunkl, a public relations consultant who specialises in corporate identity. We talk about ways a company’s language can be used to build its bra...
May 9, 2022
41 min
How do people choose a first name for their child in Germany and Austria? What rules are there which determine the names that are allowed? And why has ‘Kevin’ become such an unpopular first name? In this episode I talk to returning guest Frauke Rüdebusch from the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache. We look at some of the most popular first names in Germany right now, which names are likely to be advised against or rejected by the GfdS and the registry offices, and some of the more unique and ...
Apr 25, 2022
45 min
How much does a language constitute one’s identity? Are you a different person when you speak a different language, or even a different dialect? If you speak multiple languages and dialects, which one is really you? In this episode I talk to Katie Resch, a PhD student at the University of Vienna. We talk about being bilingual, identifying with “Austrianness”, and the question of feeling and sounding fake when speaking in different dialects. Episode transcript: https://yellowoftheegg.com/tra...
Apr 11, 2022
33 min
Harsh. Angry. Rough. These are words that are often used to describe how German sounds. But why do many people have this impression? What about the German language makes it sound so hard? And does German sound different to native speakers than to non-native speakers? In this episode I talk to François Conrad, a researcher and teacher of linguistics at the Leibniz University Hannover. We talk about the five features of German he has identified as being responsible for the 'barking' nature of ...
Mar 28, 2022
35 min
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