German Word of the Year

Every year the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (Association for the German Language) puts out a top ten list of the word of the year. These words are meant to reflect significant cultural or historical turns and trends in areas such as the worlds of finance and technology. Words from recent years include the verbs "twittern" (to tweet) and "googeln" (to google), as well as "Finanzkrise" (financial crisis).

Ask your students which words they would vote for the Wort des Jahres 2010, and compare the lists. You might be surprised at the similarities.

So take a look at the picture gallery for the GfdS's 2010 Worter des Jahres to see which words made the list this year. While many of these words and their cultural contexts may be challenging for students, particularly in beginning classes, you can still work through challenging words (Eurorettungsschirm, Stuttgart 21) to give students an idea of what words are shaping the German language today.