Chris Abraham » germany

Modern American Men are Not Pre-Adult They’re Post Marriage

Chris Abraham — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:47:10 +0000

Kay S. Hymowitz argues that too many men in their 20s are living in a new kind of extended adolescence in the controversial Wall Street Journal essay, Where Have The Good Men Gone? Here’s an excerpt:

Not so long ago, the average American man in his 20s had achieved most of the milestones of adulthood: a high-school diploma, financial independence, marriage and children. Today, most men in their 20s hang out in a novel sort of limbo, a hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance. This “pre-adulthood” has much to recommend it, especially for the college-educated. But it’s time to state what has become obvious to legions of frustrated young women: It doesn’t bring out the best in men.

When men are accused of being pre-adult and not “manning up,” most of us saw our dads (and moms) “manning down” in divorce.

Never mentioned as a cause for us to say, “marriage, hell no!”

Some pre-adult men choose Xbox, but all my friends choose travel, work, passion, the arts, their businesses, and lots and lots of hopeful dating; however, many of us who are very successful and who have thrown off the shackles of convention are becoming more and more like our friends in Germany, Holland, and throughout Europe who will probably have a child before ever choosing marriage — or not.

And will probably end up being pursued rather then being the pursuer when it comes right down to shacking up for having babies — or not.

OMP with Phoebe Kreutz Turned me on to Let the Sunshine In

Chris Abraham — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:30:01 +0000

I never really fell in love with the Hair song, Let the Sunshine In until I had an experience in Berlin very similar to this one (yes, Berlin is totally awesome no matter what you think):

Orchestre Miniature in the Park AKA OMP only plays music that mentions either the sun or summer. My friend Elisabeth King gigs with them. They only play children’s and toy instruments. One day a couple-few years ago with Phoebe Kreutz (she loves Berlin too) popped in an joined OMP in singing Let the Sunshine In, from Hair, in Berlin, and it was so awesome I was done. Mind you, the video I linked to is not the right one, it is from an ad hoc outdoor gig at Ostkreutz in Berlin, but you get the idea — I know I have it recorded somewhere on YouTube myself, but I am still looking for that.

Sigh.

Before that, I already knew Ms. Kreutz because OMP loves to play her song All Summer Long (but be sure to also check out Phoebe Kreutz’s version of All Summer Long as well)

And here’s All Summer Long by Phoebe Kreutz

And here’s a really gorgeous version of Let the Sunshine In that I think takes place in Washington Square Park:

And here’s OMP playing All Summer Long:

And here’s the version of Let the Sunshine In from the movie Hair:

“Berlin” Lyrics by Klaus Hoffmann

Chris Abraham — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:58:08 +0000

Mein gespräch, meine lieder,
Mein haß und mein glück,
Mein tag, meine nacht, mein vor, mein zurück,
Meine sonne und schatten, zweifel, die ich hab,
An dir und in mir bis zum letzten tag.
Deine straßen, wo ich fliehe, stolper und fall,
Deine wärme, die ich brauch, die ich spüre überall.

Verkauf dich nicht,
Berlin,
Jung bist du nicht,
Du alterst so schnell,
Buckelst zu sehr,
Trägst an den geldern der freier so schwer.
Die werden gehn,
Dich sterben sehn,
Berlin,
Geliebte berlin.

Deine ecken und winkel, deine höfe ungezählt,
Wo der dreck und die armut nach veränderung bellt,
Dein rausch am morgen
Riecht nach haschisch und bier,
Und rotz fällt gelassen auf gassen von dir.
Deine märkte, die weiber, ihre ruhe, ihre list
Und manchmal ein witz, der mich in den magen trifft.
Verkauf dich nicht,
Berlin,
Jung bist du nicht,
Du alterst so schnell,
Buckelst zu sehr,
Trägst an den geldern der freier so schwer.
Die werden gehn,
Dich sterben sehn,
Berlin,
Geliebte berlin.

Deine häuser mit fluren,
Wo man prügelt, wo man lacht,
Wo man, wenns dunkel wird,
Neue mitbewohner macht.

Deine räume, in denen der schlaf ungern kommt,
Weil die luft zum atmen fehlt,
Wo der sensemann wohnt,
Doch wo du freisein erfährst in dieser großen stadt,
Obwohl sie einengt und preßt und viele mauern hat.

Verkauf dich nicht,
Berlin,
Jung bist du nicht,
Du alterst so schnell,
Buckelst zu sehr,
Trägst an den geldern der freier so schwer.
Die werden gehn,
Dich sterben sehn,
Berlin,
Geliebte berlin.

Mein gespräch, meine lieder,
Mein haß und mein glück,
Mein tag, meine nacht, mein vor, mein zurück.
Dein halbtotet bahnhof, wo ich unter denen steh,
Die morgen, schon morgen in bessre städte gehn.
Wo ich dich verlassen will,
Immer wieder, immer noch,
Ich schaff den sprung auch,
Ich schaff den sprung doch.

Snowing Snowy Berlin and a Murder of Crows

Chris Abraham — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:04:29 +0000

The day after Returning to My Second Life in Berlin, there was a lot of amazing snow and Berlin was under a cozy white blanket. Little did I know that Berlin was completely caught unawares and while I was walking gently hither and thither while taking this video, my colleagues from around the world, en route to a conference, were stuck out. Well, let’s not go there, let us just enjoy a walk in the snow in Berlin and then a massive number of black ravens in the white snow (and everywhere else): A Snowing Snowy Day in Berlin on 9 December 2010 and A Murder of Crows on the Snowy Snow of Berlin in December:

Took a walk from my Berlin apartment to Berlin-Hauptbahnhof across lots and lots of snow and beneath a snowy snowfall. It is quite beautiful even in the middle of the city. Even the snow couldn’t muffle the ubiquitous sound of city construction and pile-drivers. From snow to crows to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof to one stalled Porsche 944 getting ready to tow another broken 944 through the snow. A very cool little Berlin snow-covered vignette.

When I was walking back from grocery shopping at the Berlin-Hauptbahnhof Kaiser’s and Rossmann, I came upon this murderous land war of Berlin ravens or crows or whatever they are — very ominous and very foreboding and also maybe a terrible omen. Is this a good omen or is it an open at all?

DC Capital Bikeshare Bikes

Chris Abraham — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 01:14:12 +0000

I am watching people in a white panel van restock DC Capital Bikeshare bikes to the vending rack.

My friend Celina reminded me that it is essential to avoid these little red bikes like the plague. Why? They don’t ride their bike to work, they may not own a bike, they almost for sure won’t have a helmet on. They may be drinking-and-cycling drunks, post party.

Capital Bikeshare bikes (one pictures here) are basically worse than Flexcar and Zipcar. Except for one terrible thing: if you hit a Capital Bikeshare bike you’re at fault, either in jail legally or in crisis when it comes to your reputation.

You will always be vilified if you hit a biker, even if it is a dormant rider who hasn’t been on the road in years or decades, doesn’t know the rules of the road, or the laws of cycling engagement.

Mind you, in Berlin, there is a culture of the bike, like there is in Germany, Holland, and in much of Europe. The US, and Washington, doesn’t have this culture ingrained.

That said, I completely endorse the DC Capiaol Bikeshare program. And I endorse the makeover of Washington, DC, to encourage biking and bicycle commuting.

Just expect that there are no omelettes made without breaking a few eggs and I am terribly afraid that these eggs are going to actually be heads and those heads will be under cars right next to Capital Bikeshare bikes.

Memories of My Goethe-Institut Berlin Days

Chris Abraham — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:39:28 +0000

I stayed in an apartment off-campus but I must tell you that the Goethe-Institut intensive 8-week course is phenomenal.

They lavish programs and cultural opportunities at you and offer tours and have a great space to study and a library.

The schooling is very traditional with overhead projectors and white boards but the teachers are the best and my fellow students were educated and very international. It was an amazing experience.

Students range from college-age through 40 or so. What a great experience!

The Dinner Party to End All Dinner Parties

Chris Abraham — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:23:23 +0000

(Alas, this is my final blog post for Rosetta Stone under my current blogging contract. Hopefully they’ll keep me on and I will continue to amuse you with my struggles, my trials, and my tribulations with German-learning. Please visit the Language Journeys Rosetta Stone blog and check out all of my posts)

I have a little corporate apartment in Berlin, in an unfashionable neighborhood called Moabit, right across from the main train station, Berlin Hauptbahnhof. My business partner, Mark, also spends half of his year—the warm months—in Berlin. He fell for the city while an exchange student in high school and he’s fluent in German.

While Mark and I have known each other since 1988 as college undergrads in DC and as fellow rowers, Mark and Frank, a Berliner, are best friends. They’re like two peas in a pod. A big part of their friendship is dinner partying. Mark and his girlfriend and Frank and his girlfriend routinely gather at Frank’s apartment and create the kind of urbane feast you assume only exists in romantic comedies—feasts prepared by idealized men who really don’t exist.

Mark and Frank have always been generous to me—partially because I’ve been friends with Mark forever, but mostly because I’m outrageous and highly amusing to sophisticated Berliners. When I first arrived in Berlin to live, I was completely new and a community novelty. Since I was a newcomer, the artists, writers, and diplomats who would attend these haute cuisine dinner parties were very willing to turn off their ability to be charming and funny in their own language, German, so as to make me feel comfortable. After I’d been there for six months, though, I was no longer novel. No matter how well Germans speak English, they’re always at a disadvantage in their second language. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been let in on a joke by Frank, in English, and it never translates. Language is culture. Learning a language like German through Rosetta Stone TOTALe is just an entrée into the culture that lies behind it. So, while learning German allows me to understand what people are saying, spending time with them—like at a dinner party—is what helps me learn what people actually mean. It enlightens me as to their humor, their nuance, their subtext, and their cultural innuendo.

Before I left Berlin in May, we had a dinner party. It was the rare harmonic convergence when Frank, Mark, and I were all in the city at the same time.

When everyone arrived, I stood up and said I didn’t want any of them to speak English for my benefit, and that I would do my best in German. I quipped that it was my goal in life to be able to be charming in German at a dinner party, to which Wolf, a friend, responded, “How do you expect to be charming in German when you’re not even charming in English?”

See, I told you that Germans aren’t funny in English—it must’ve lost something in translation.

In preparation for my debut speaking German at a dinner party, I decided to bone up on my foodie vocabulary in much the same way one might study Business German before attending a first meeting. As you know, my sole and single-minded goal for learning German in the first place is to continue to be invited to Berlin dinner parties. So, for me, learning small talk in German is as important as learning finance-speak might be to hedge-fund managers who’ve come to Frankfurt in search of investments. Serious business.

As the risotto simmered, it was my job to greet people at the door. When friends meet in this scene, things are super-informal. When you meet someone you love and adore, you don’t say, “Guten Abend! Wie geht es Ihnen?” When I greet my buddies I usually use the contracted form of “Wie geht es dir?”: “Wie geht’s?”—“How’s it going?” With my female friends, I tend to class it up a bit, while keeping it informal: Abend (evening) or hallo (hello), and then a kiss on the cheek and maybe a hug.

Frank has wired his apartment for sound, and a high-capacity iPod serves music to set the mood of the soiree. Socially, Berlin dinner parties are very casual affairs. A level of pomposity is reserved for the quality of the food and the care with which it is prepared. Germans are obsessed with organics, which they call Bio. But, Berlin itself is a hyper-casual town and all of our guests and hosts, including yours truly, sport the Berlin uniform: jeans, T-shirt, and a hoodie.

Nobody cooks saltimbocca alla romana, risotto with scallops, and jamón serrano like Frank and Mark in the kitchen. Tonight, fate brought us the risotto, a rich buttery combination of risotto rice, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and pan-seared sea scallops.

During dinner, the conversation generally sticks close to the food, especially food like this where es schmeckt gut is the phrase of the night, meaning the food tastes good. Likewise, at this dinner, everyone wanted to know where to get all the ingredients and wines at the meal. “Wo bekommt man das zu kaufen?” or “Woher hast du das?” Which are, basically, “Where can you buy that?” or “Where did you get that?”

The amazing thing was that I could understand the small talk. Since words like Parmigiano-Reggiano are the same in Italian, they were good points of reference. I found I could follow the food preparation, too. In der Pfanne kochen means fry it in the pan. Leicht aufgeschlagene Sahne is lightly whipped cream. I didn’t learn all of it from Rosetta Stone, but once I unlocked German a little bit, my confidence grew and I started learning things on my own.

After dinner, Frank brought out after-dinner drinks and two decadent deserts. One could choose either the moelleux au chocolat—amazing little chocolate lava cakes with some whipped cream, gelato, or das Eis, served in ramekins—or my favorite, zabaglione, an exceedingly light custard, whipped to incorporate a large amount of air and served with fresh figs.

After dinner, when the wine took hold, is when the real conversation happened—when it always happens. When the tongue loosens.

You know the saying that it’s impolite to discuss religion and politics in mixed company? Well, in my experience, this is not the case in Europe. Everyone wanted to know what I think about the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, of course, about US health-care legislation and education. Since all Germans are entitled to government-subsidized health care and education, including college, our pay-to-play system always comes up.

Since Frank’s sons are just at the right age to be deep in the public-education system of Germany, there was also a lot of chat about the strict system of tracking children as young as ten or eleven into being either university bound, by way of the Gymnasium prep schools, or into one of what used to be three tracks: Realschulen (middle), Hauptschulen (lowest), and Gesamtschule (comprehensive school).

By midnight or one, the party began to wind down and the guests picked up their rag-doll sleeping children, threw them over their shoulders, and headed out. Looking back at the evening I realized I’d spent all night speaking my new language! I may not have been as witty as the Berliners but I was able to follow the conversation and even understood a few of the jokes. Next trip, maybe I’ll attempt to be amusing in German and then I’ll be a novelty once more.

A Meeting With Swiss Billionaires in Zurich

Chris Abraham — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:50:01 +0000

: Image by szeke via Flickr

[Originally posted at the Rosetta Stone Language Journey blog] It was a rare time—my business partner, Mark, and I were in Berlin, and we had scored a meeting with the Zurich-based investment company that had funded two of our clients.

As you may know, the primary languages in Switzerland are German and French, though Italian and an ancient Latin language called Romansch are official languages as well. Well, in Zurich, the Swiss speak German, and very formal German at that.

Mark and I scheduled our flight to Zurich half a day early, so we wandered around the old city until our meeting at two in the afternoon. We gave ourselves so much time—enough for a tour of the city and lunch, a full morning of it—because punctuality is demanded in Germanic countries. Tardiness is a strong sign of disrespect and a missed appointment can be curtains. And, if you’re later than ten minutes, you’d better call and have a brilliant excuse.

While the Swiss do speak German, it is Swiss German (Schweizerdeutsch). It’s often pretty unintelligible to speakers of Standard German—to the point that Swiss-German speakers on TV or in movies are regularly subtitled if shown in Germany. In Zurich, it didn’t seem to be too bad, though.

One thing I needed to remember is that the Swiss, even when speaking Standard German, have a somewhat different vocabulary than that used in Germany. For example, a formal hello in Switzerland is Grüezi, replacing Guten Morgen, Guten Tag, and Guten Abend in German. If you’re greeting a group, you can use Grüezi mitenand.

Mark prepped me before we arrived, noting that Swiss business meetings are formal and I should greet everyone with a quick, firm handshake (no fish hands or mad fist pumps) while looking them in the eye. Also important while doing business in Switzerland is to respect rank, hierarchy, and title. Mark is Herr Harrison; all other colleagues are referred to likewise—Herr Schmidt and Frau Spitzer, for example. The protocol is similar to that in the US military, so if you’ve ever served in the armed forces, you’ll be well-suited to conducting business with the Swiss.

We greeted the two gentlemen, or Herren, with salutations like, “Guten Tag, Herr Schmidt. Nett Sie kennenzulernen.” In German, that’s the formal way of saying, “Good afternoon, Mr. Schmidt. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

At that point, Mark asked if perhaps the meeting might be conducted in English for me: “Herr Abraham hat gerade angefangen, Deutsch zu lernen. Würde es Ihnen passen, dieses Gespräch auf Englisch zu führen? Sonst kann ich für uns ohne Probleme dolmetschen.” In English, that means “Mr. Abraham has just begun learning German. Would it be all right with you to do this meeting in English? Alternatively, I’ll be happy to translate.”

While English may well be the lingua franca of European business, it’s disrespectful to assume that all meetings will be conducted in English. Herr Schmidt and his colleague had every right to say no to the request. As the Swiss are also highly gracious, the two men’s desire to be generous trumped their possible awkwardness negotiating in a second or third language. In the end, they both spoke very good English.

The meeting went OK, but we weren’t adequately prepared for Swiss-German billionaires! Why? In the world of Swiss and German business, one needs to come well-equipped with proposals written in German and English, illustrated and bound, and circulated along with an explicit agenda well before the meeting. And, during the meeting there should always be a presentation. Unfortunately, we didn’t prepare anything for the meeting, believing this to be a meet and greet, not a pitch. But, Swiss business is much more formal than that, and I won’t make that mistake again.

At the end of the meeting, I thanked Herr Schmidt, I shook his hand with very few pleasantries, and we left. It wasn’t so much curt as it was efficient, though I must admit that I’m used to meetings in the United States, where there’s a lot of lingering, grabbing coffee or a drink, and then maybe going back to someone’s desk for a post-meeting debrief or chat. That day in Zurich, we arrived, we greeted, we met, we parted. And then, there Mark and I were, in the early dusk of an ancient city, still hopped up on adrenaline.

What Mark told me afterward was interesting. Conducting the meeting in English, he said, has certain advantages from a relationship standpoint because English has neither hierarchy nor formality built in. That said, maybe our billionaire investors would prefer to be spoken to in a way that reflects their success and standing. We’ll never know, but this experience taught me that the more I know of the local culture and language, the better off I’ll be. [Originally posted at the Rosetta Stone Language Journey blog]

Is Abraham Harrison a Model for Global Workforce?

Chris Abraham — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:25:39 +0000

I few weeks ago, Mark Harrison, CEO of Abraham Harrison, took part in a think tank in Casekow, Germany, at the Corpus Operis castle. The subject of Mark’s talk was how Abraham Harrison recruits, manages, and maintains a staff of over 40 within the loose confines of a completely distributed, global, virtual client services company. Mark McMillan wrote this very insightful piece about Mark’s contribution to the conference over at the Talent Function blog: Virtual Admiration – Abraham&Harrison (A model for global workforce). (Via Marketing Conversation)

This week at Corpus Operis in Casekow, Germany, I had the pleasure of meeting Mark Harrison, the CEO of Abraham&Harrison (“A&H”). A&H is a global social media marketing and public relations company [see the framed video below for a pleasurable description of what they do]. The company has a workforce of approximately 35 people operating in 5 continents, 12 countries, in 11 languages, and on 1 Internet. The A&H workforce are predominantly independent contractors, completely virtual, and global. This emerging workforce model is not uncommon, many aspire to build a business like this, but it is unusual to find someone actually doing it. So, let’s hold Abraham&Harrison up to the sun and see what we can learn.
Mark runs the business from his endless summer lairs in Mauritius, an island off the coast of India, and Berlin, Germany. He runs the company with one of his best friends, Chris Abraham who operates from Washington, DC. The business is three years old and has an international client list full of names that you would recognize.
Since the beginning Mark and Chris have consciously shaped a company culture to sustain the business lifestyle that they want. Mark was taking a well-earned sabbatical in Tanzania. Chris had started a PR company and it had grown past the overwhelm level. He asked Mark if would help him run the business. Mark’s response, “Yes, IF you agree that I am free to live wherever I want. My freedom is what I value most. I’ll do it if we agree to run the company as a virtual company.” And so, the first seed of the A&H workforce culture was planted. Mark and Chris have worked hard, with their team, to establish and embody a culture that delivers results for clients while maintaining the lifestyle that the workforce WANTS. Here are some highlights to the A&H workforce approach:
All Accept that Freedom = Responsibility. With a virtual, contracted workforce, there is inherent freedom. There is no boss watching you. No one can see if you have showered, or if you do your laundry at 2:30 in the afternoon. The “virtual risk” is that workers will not work and that it will take a long time to figure that out. The virtual model requires workers who are self-motivated and who accept responsibility for getting the work done. The virtual risk is mitigated by the inherent pressure of being an independent contractor. Since there is no guarantee of a next project, contractors tend to work very hard. Actually at A&H, contractors tend to work too hard. This is a big concern of Mark’s and he regularly protects his contractors from themselves. There is no notion of a 9 to 5 work day but everyone is grounded in the responsibility for selling and delivering work.
Recruitment via Nepotism. Effective recruiting is particularly essential with a virtual, global workforce. Mark proudly relies on nepotism as a primary recruiting tool, “In our environment, our workers feel great responsibility for the people that they introduce into a project. It reflects on them and that produces a very results-oriented energy.” Leadership by Capacity (not by role). Mark and Chris have deliberately created a culture that emphasizes people’s strengths. Team members are encouraged to take projects and tasks that fit their strengths. At times this means that Mark and Chris step aside and let others lead tasks that typical executives would insist on doing. Since they leverage all cloud-managed business applications, the tasks of the business are available for everyone to see. There is total transparency to the work at hand.
Currency Awareness. The A&H corporate lexicon includes the word “currency” which has a different meaning than monetary value. Currency refers to each person’s set of prioritized value drivers that they want from their work at A&H. For example, someone’s currency might look like:
Team Member 1 = freedom, money, the opportunity to play and create
Team Member 2 = predictable pay, time with kids, no emergencies
Team Member 3 = power, respect, responsibility, trust
Mark and Chris make a point of knowing what is most important to their staff and they talk about it openly. It is a bit like how people throw around the Myers-Briggs identities [INTJ, ENTJ, etc...] to describe themselves. Currency awareness pervades decision making at A&H: how they assign projects, how they schedule meetings, how they communicate with each other, etc… The currency concept provides them with a roadmap to create a sustainable workforce.
Total Communication. We rarely get to see our digital co-workers. They live in our phones and in our computers. And aside from an occasional astronaut quality visage through Skype, we don’t have the opportunity to read body language. And global co-workers work when we are sleeping, or when we are bringing the kids to school. How do you keep everyone on the same page? A&H approach this by putting everything in the digital cloud. All calendars, documents, spreadsheets, project plans, go into the A&H cloud. Everyone can see what everyone is doing, and has done. And, they cultivate a cc / bcc / reply-all culture so there is a forensic record of everything. To make this system work, Mark and Chris make sure that they are very accessible to their teams. The most impressive thing is that they actually have an articulated communication protocol. This approach also presumes that people know how to leverage email-rule functionality so that inboxes don’t become overwhelm boxes.
“No-Emergencies” Culture. If a leader or client has a work style that seems to produce a steady stream of last minute emergency meetings, then it spreads out of control. If it gets enabled consistently, then it becomes a feature of the entire culture. And make no mistake, it erodes the quality. Mark and Chris work hard to mitigate this by embodying and enforcing a no-emergencies culture. At A&H everyone buys into an agreement that meetings are only booked with at least 1-day advanced notice and meetings should never be more than 1 hour. This policy takes discipline and it does require Mark and Chris to push back on clients on a regular basis. Emergencies do come up, but at A&H they almost always real versus personality-driven emergencies.
As you can tell, I am a big fan of A&H and their leadership team. They are living the virtual, global company dream in a real way. The conscious, overt crafting of a culture that provides a holistic lifestyle for its workers is an inspiration. Can large organizations learn from the A&H example? What happens when you design the company to produce engagement?

Immerse Yourself in Streaming German Radio

Chris Abraham — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:55:43 +0000

My latest blog post for Rosetta Stone came out today, Listen to Reinforce Your Comprehension so please check it out — and please pop me a comment over there:

I’ve learned that the only way to really learn a language is to soak yourself in it. I try to maximize my exposure to everything German as often as possible. One of my favorite ways to do this is to catch as much native content as possible.
The Deutsche Welle (DW), slowly spoken news report offers straight news, reported in German but at a much slower pace. It’s the same news that’s reported to Germans by DW, Germany’s international broadcaster. It is a great resource because it offers language learners a better chance to comprehend what’s going on.
When I am working during the day or when I’m getting ready for bed, I have started tuning in to German radio stations as ambient noise in the background, something I can focus in on or ignore based on what I am doing. Luckily, I am near my PC during the day, so I can stream German radio all day long. I have a few favorites, and they’re all newsy: Deutschland Radio (news and culture from Berlin), Deutschlandfunk (News from Köln), and Info Radio (24-hour news from Berlin). You can find everything else including pop, rock, hip-hop, and of course what Germany may be best known for, techno and electronic, online via useful radio directories such as Live-Radio.net and Listenlive.eu.
Since I am so devoted to learning German, I have taken this whole immersion thing one step further when it comes to listening to German on the “radio.” A couple months ago I picked up a Squeezebox Radio from Logitech. The Squeezebox can stream Internet radio from around the world, including by German city, through a series of built-in directories. So, I have all the aforementioned stations programmed in as well as my favorite Berlin music station, MotorFM, making listening to Berlin radio as simple as punching one button on a funny, red clock radio.
I recommend spending some time listening to news or other German radio, be it slow or not, as often as possible, even if you can’t comprehend most of it. Focus on what you can understand — on words or phrases. Let yourself melt into what German sounds like. The more time you spend learning German with Rosetta Stone, the more you will comprehend when listening to the German news or watching TV, or, hopefully, interacting with German speakers.
In my next several posts, I will continue to talk about my language learning experience and adventures in Berlin. Please let me know in the comments what you would like to know more about, where you would like me to go on this blog, and what you think.