無料ドイツ語リスニング教材、E-comオンラインドイツ語Videocast12月号

Ho, ho, ho! We have arrived at the monthly E-com Videocast in December.
And, as you can see, we are in the mood for Christmas.
Have you bought a Christmas Tree and also decorated it, too?
As you can see, we have made our E-com office here especially cosy for you.
Today, in Season Talk, I'd like to tell you about how the Germans celebrate Christmas
and in Culture Talk, I'd like to show you the Germans' traditional wooden mannequins or the traditional crafts.
So, let's get started!
It's Christmas.
Have you ever had the opportunity to celebrate Christmas in Germany?
Then you surely noticed that it's done a bit differently than it is in Japan.
Christmas is from 24th to 26th December and it is a celebration for the family and a time of peace.
Though, I must admit, the weeks before Christmas are anything but quiet in Germany.
It is actually quite stressful and hectic because all Germans are busy with it and
are getting all the Christmas presents for their family, their friends and yes, their relatives.
Peace and quiet doesn't start in the country until 24th December.
You spend the 24th December with your family.
Traditionally, the father buys the Christmas Tree at the Christmas Tree market in the morning.
You can see it here.
You can see this all over Germany in December.
These are places where they put loads of real Christmas Trees.
You can go there and choose the tree that you like most, buy it and take it home.
So, no plastic trees, but real trees, please!
Then the father brings this Christmas Tree home and then the children are responsible for decorating the tree.
They normally spend an hour or two doing that until the tree looks really perfect.
During this time, the mother prepares the Christmas Dinner in the kitchen.
You call this day "Heiligabend", Christmas Eve.
And the moment when you give each other the presents is called "Bescherung".
So, when this tree is fully decorated, you lay the presents under this tree
and then the presents are opened all together at "Bescherung"-time.
It's a little different in every family,
whether you have Christmas Dinner before or after opening your presents.
In any case, it's the greatest joy for children and families
that they can spend time with their presents after opening them, watch TV,
which is also very special at Christmas, or that they eat the tasty Christmas Dinner that the mother has prepared.
Yes, but Christmas lasts until 26th December.
What else do the Germans do?
Well, yes, you actually visit your relatives and family or lots of people go to church.
Jesus was born at Christmas,
therefore there are very many church services and Christmas services where people go.
Something else very very nice that you have surely heard of are the beautiful Christmas markets.
At Christmas markets, you can buy wonderful decorations,
pretty Christmas candles, traditional wooden figures,
that I'll tell you about in a moment during the next topic.
A highlight of these Christmas markets, besides the tasty food, is the so-called "Glühwein", mulled wine.
Have you ever heard of it?
Glühwein is a special Christmas wine that you can buy at the supermarket,
as well as, well, you can make it yourself.
But the very best thing is to drink this wine together with other people at the Christmas market.
It is drunk very hot and there are fantastic spices like cinnamon or oranges or cloves in the wine.
And in December it is already quite cold in Germany, therefore it is a lot of fun
to be together with other people at the Christmas market in this cold and to
drink this Christmas wine, or this "Glühwein", tasty, tasty.
You can have a look, on the Internet, there are often recipes for this mulled wine.
If you are lucky, you can find a recipe in Japanese and then make the mulled wine yourself this year.
Good luck!
In Germany, there is a great tradition of producing wooden figures and wooden decorations.
That is the so-called "Kunsthandwerk", artistic crafts.
The wooden figures from the Erz Mountains, the Erzgebirge, are especially famous.
The Erz Mountains are between Germany and the Czech Republic.
I've brought two of the most famous figures for you.
Da daaa, a nutcracker!
Have you ever seen one of these? Probably, or not!?
Well, the nutcracker's job is, if you put a nut in its mouth... ah, it's fallen out again,
if you put a nut in its mouth, that you push at the back and, "kkrrtsch!", it should bite the nut.
The Germans eat many many nuts at Christmas and of course they need a nutcracker for that purpose.
But, unfortunately, the problem is that the shells of the nuts are so hard that these nutcrackers break very quickly,
which is why you normally only have one of these nutcrackers as a decoration and not for cracking nuts any more.
It looks quite funny, doesn't it?!
You can get nutcrackers in very many different designs
and to crack real nuts, you then use a metal cracker
that can crack the nuts without a problem.
But, of course, it doesn't look as interesting.
Maybe you can already see it that there is some strange smoke in the room?!
That's because I would like to show you the famous "Räuchermännchen", a smoking mannequin.
This is one of the most famous figures.
The best thing about Räuchermännchen is that they don't just look cute,
but you can also smell the typical Christmas scents with smoking mannequins.
Inside the Räuchermännchen, I'll try and show you, inside the Räuchermännchen, there is a scented candle
that smokes especially much and that smells wonderfully of Christmas.
When you close the mannequin again, it looks as if it is smoking the pipe and the smoke rises.
Very very popular!
Well, where is the best place to buy these figures?
The best place to buy these figures is at the Christmas market.
There, there are very many stands where all sorts of figures, of course also of all sorts of qualities, are on offer.
The real traditional figures are quite expensive, but it is still worth buying them
because they are simply cute and are a part of Christmas.
Have a look on the Internet to see where you can find the nearest Christmas market to where you live.
I'm sure you may be able to find a nut cracker or smoking mannequin there.
So, good luck!
That was the last Videocast for this year.
What a pity, the year is already over again.
I hope you liked my fantastic outfit!?
And now it's time for everybody to relax a bit. The year is over, we can rest a bit,
but, last, I'd like to teach you something new in German.
And that is how people greet each other at Christmas.
So what do they actually say?
If you see a German at Christmas, you should say "Frohe Weihnachten!" to him.
That's exactly what I will wish you now, too: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Till next year, bye!