I Am A German Native Speaker.

Kafka was Czech actually. But Prague belonged to Austria/Hungary at that time. German is spoken in Austria, also today ;) (Believe me, I am Austrian! ;))

And yes, he did write in German, although he knew Czech as well. But he's been more confident in German.

I don't know much about German cinema, but I did enjoy the movie Metropolis! And I read Goethe's Faust. Oh, and Kafka! He was Austrian, but I believe he wrote in German, if I'm not mistaken. That's pretty much the extent of my knowledge of the German arts, not much, I know.

hmm. i can't remember hearing it in a VW-ad..

no problem :)

It's neither "kh" nor "sh". It's difficult to describe.. It's a bit like a cat's hissing.

There are dialects that say it like "kh" or "sh". As far as I know, but I'm not an expert on regional dialects, people from the area of Berlin say "Ick" (kh sound) a lot. Some people also say it like "sh", but it's quite uncommon.

In general, "ich" is said similarly in most German speaking regions.

here's a video with a lot of "ch"s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCrNZRJHK7o&feature=related />
Good luck!

Aguirre,the wrath of god & fitzcarraldo are awesome

I haven't payed much attention to his work so far, I've only seen "Woyzeck" as far as I know. But I'll try to watch some other movies, considering that you think he's fantastic..

Werner herzog is a fantastic director

No problem :)

I'm not sure about the exact date, but around Sept. 20th to Oct.5th. It may begin and end some days earlier or later. (It always starts on the next Saturday after Sept. 15th)



As for Fasching, it starts on Jan 6th, but all the comedy shows and things like that usually take place some weeks before Fasching's end on Ash Wednesday.