Counting Down the Days to a Year in Germany

Hi everyone! I’m Salem, and this year I’m going to be blogging about my experiences in Germany with CBYX. A little about me: I’m a rising junior. I’m a total bookworm. I love the arts, especially creative writing and music. I’ve been a broadsword fencer since the day I turned five. I was born in Maine and lived there until I was nine before moving to Minnesota, and I’ve been to about half the states in the U.S. I think you can learn something different about life everywhere you go. 

And that’s a big part of why I applied to CBYX—I’m amazed by how unique each region of the U.S. is, and I feel like I gain a new perspective whenever I travel, but I’ve never been to another country before. I figure if you want to start making a difference in the world, you’ve got to let it make a difference in you, so I can’t wait to learn about all that Germany has to offer, and I won’t need to wait long now.

            As I’m writing this post, there are dreiundfünfzig (fifty-three) days until the 2024-2025 CBYX year begins, and I couldn’t be more excited. Soon I’ll be in Germany, spending time with my host family, making friends, learning about German culture… and speaking German!

            So while I wait to get acquainted with all the new people and places on the upcoming journey, I’m getting acquainted with the German language. I’m lucky that there are so many available resources: I enjoy DeutscheWelle’s course Nicos Weg and the Easy German YouTube channel, not to mention my good old-fashioned textbook.

            But one of my favorite ways to learn German, and one of the most fun, is listening to music! Of course turning on a Spotify playlist isn’t enough to reach fluency, but listening to German music can help with pronunciation and if you already have some vocabulary it helps you learn new words from context. I thought I’d recommend four favorite German bands of mine that can help you count down to your own year abroad as you study. 

1- Subway to Sally-

They might have an English name, but almost all this medieval folk-metal band’s songs are in German. Their song Seiben not only feels like a walk through a strange and spooky fairy tale, it’s a great way to make sure you’ll never be lost for words if someone asks what your favorite number is, because I guarantee it will be 7 after this gets stuck in your head.

2- Rammstein- 

How could a list about German music not include this iconic band? With 13 albums, there’s more than enough to last you all the way to language camp, and though it might not be the most conventional way to learn to count to ten in German, listening to Sonne on repeat has got to be the most memorable.

3- Kraftwerk-

If you have to drill lists of numbers anyway, why not add a quirky electronic beat under it and get dancing? So if you need to change up your study routine, Kraftwerk’s song Numbers is perfect- and the rest of their wonderfully weird catalogue might just have you hooked.

4- Mo-do-

You probably still remember the nursery rhymes you learned in preschool and kindergarten that taught you everything from your ABC’s to how to tell which of your toes was the little piggy going to market. You also probably feel too old to sit there learning nursery rhymes. Mo-do has the solution with their version of Eins, zwei, Polizei, a classic German kid’s song turned EDM. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you still remember it in the nursing home- or if you find yourself singing it with younger host siblings nonstop.

As I finish writing this, there’s only another achtunddreißig days until I leave, which feels almost too fast to keep track of. But if you’d like to keep track with me, check back soon for another post- soon, I’ll be able to tell you all about language camp!

For now, enjoy listening to some awesome music and counting down the days to a year in Germany.