Thanks again to everybody who has already registered for our Stammtisch next Monday, 23 April at The Broad Chare in Newcastle. Alongside the fabulous English menu, the chefs have added Gulaschsuppe, gebratene Schweinshaxe mit Kartoffelbrei und Sauerkraut und Apfelstrudel for our group. We will meet at 6.30pm in the bar and dinner starts at 7pm. If you haven’t booked yet, but want to join us, let me know by Friday. Also if you’ve booked and can’t come along, please let me know as otherwise we’re reserving too many tables and the Broad Chare does get busy.

We have also received a book recommendation, which has been warmly recommended for any German newcomer in the UK. It’s aptly called ‘Grossbritannien’ and was written by Thomas Kielinger (Verlag: C.H. Beck, ISBN: 978 3 406 57849 6). The ‚Welt’ correspondent apparently provides an overview of English history, in particular its relationship with Germany. It examines in detail the special character traits of the English and how that can create misunderstandings for those with a German background. According to our reviewer this has been explained very clearly, is written extremely fluently and entertaining, which makes reading of the 260 pages extremely easy and quick.

Another Stammtisch follower is German born Christiane Williams who lives in Teesside. She has recently written a children’s book in both German and English, which has just been published. It’s about a little girl that spends an afternoon baking with a fairy. The books are suitable to read to children from the age of 4 years. The book will soon be available on Amazon and in the iBook Store, but you can also check it out directly at the publishers: English Version, German Version.

In Leipzig, language school owner, three times dad and master story teller James Parsons is developing a new audio book both in English and German called ‘Gabriel und die frechen Affen’. This project will be financed through crowdfunding and if you want to find out more and/or support James in his activities, visit the website: http://www.startnext.de/gabriel

The Guardian recently had a survey entitled ‘Will language skills help you stand out in the job market?’ Visit the Guardian website for this article, but we would also be interested in your views.

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/language-skills-job-market?CMP

See you on Monday!

I would like to invite you to our next Stammtisch, which will take place on Monday, 23 April at The Broad Chare in Newcastle. It would be great if you could come along and welcome nine Germans who will visit the region from Brandenburg. The Broad Chare is obviously a great venue for the best British food has to offer and they kindly agreed to have a German food option for our Stammtisch group. We will meet at 6.30pm in the bar, with dinner from 7pm onwards. The Broad Chare also has an excellent selection of local and German beers. I need to know who will come along so that we can reserve enough tables in the restaurant – so quick email would be great.

Thanks again to everybody for their food recommendations:

• Toby discovered that the Lidl in Consett also has an in-store bakery and make there a fine Graubrot, which is apparently fresh and very delicious.
• Here in Tynemouth, the Deli Around the Corner, now stock Doughwork’s Russian rye bread every Friday and Saturday.
• Since October 2011, Edinburgh has its very own German restaurant – the Frankfurter Eck, which is run by Joseph and Kristian. I’ll be popping up there soon to try out, but if anybody has been, let us know. On a Sunday, the Frankfurter Eck have a Bavarian Sunday, with all the traditional dishes you’d expect.
• And a German butcher/chef called Stefan Kölsch works at Donald Russel in Aberdeen, that deliver the finest meat – check out their online catalogue for further information.

German speakers are also in demand and we received a few job advertisements in the last few weeks:

• The German Consulate General in Edinburgh is looking for a new team member for legal and consular matters in the passport and visa section. Click here for further details.
• BBA Reman, which is based in Rochester is looking for a country manager based in Hamburg. Click here for the full job specification.
• Recruitment firm Elliott Browne in Newcastle is also looking for German speaking staff. They’re a leading supplier of Microsoft Dynamic and Microsoft Sharepoint professionals.

I’ve also had two emails recently regarding Au Pairs. Christine Goodwin, who runs the Northumbria School of English in Whitley Bay, has joined forces with Fiona Stöber, a Newcastle born teacher that now lives in Germany, to offer an au pair programme for German au pairs and British families. The scheme will run during a 5-week period in July and August. For further information contact Christine on 0191 2525265 or email english.school@btconnect.com. Click here for full article on the North Tyneside Business Forum website.

Another Stammtisch member is also looking for an au-pair position for a 25-year old German here in the UK. Does anybody in our group have any experience or recommendations that I can pass on? She’s looking for a family with children that she can care for. Thanks!

The German Consulate General in Edinburgh is responsible not only for Scotland, but also German nationals based here in the North East of England. They’ve recently started a Facebook page which gives you an update on what’s happening in their region and Germany.

Some more dates that may be of interest to you:

The University of Newcastle is holding some German research talks on the following topics:

3 May Elizabeth Andersen (SML) Brigitta of Sweden and the Printing Houses of Lübeck

10 May Debbie Pinfold (Bristol) Conceptions of Childhood in the Literature of the GDR

The joint concert of the Northern English Singers and Gelsenkirchen’s Madrigalchor on Saturday, 9 June at 7.30pm at St James’ United Reform Church, Northumberland Road in Newcastle.

Newcastle City Council are currently organising two events as part of the ‘Newcastles of the World’ – these will be attended by 17 people from Neuburg-an-der-Donau. First there is a river boat tour on 24 July (tickets £25/head), which includes welcome drink, buffet and music. Two days later, on Thursday, 26 July a dinner will be held to launch the new ‘International Newcastle’ initiative. They expect around 300 people for dinner and an evening of music, with tickets costing £45 or tables £450. We’re thinking of joining at least one of the events with the Stammtisch and I just wanted to have some feedback from you what you think. Thank you!

Anyway, that’s all from me for today. I would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter and look forward to a catch up on 23 April.

Following a 10-year career in language teaching, whilst completing an MA in French and Spanish at the University of Northumbria, Hélène decided to take the plunge and launch her own business.

Experience Northumbria draws on Helene’s language skills and hobbies and interests, which include running, cycling, walking, horse riding, classical music and films.

“Every year I had friends visiting the North East and afterwards they would rave about the beauty of the region. As they were here during their holidays, we would do a lot of outdoor activities. We always talked about the potential of doing foreign language tours in the region and this has been on the back burner for a couple of years. Now I’m in a position to offer tours in French, Spanish and English, and in German later.” explains Hélène.

Experience Northumbria specialises in groups of 7 participants or smaller that will visit the area either for a long weekend or for up to a week. Helene will organise the complete itinerary, from transport to accommodation in either hotels, bed & breakfasts, cottages or farms, she’ll arrange restaurants or tea room visits, supervise walks, runs or cycle tours and has partners who will deliver other activities such as horse riding, kite-surfing, golfing etc.

Hélène added: “One of the aims is to show the region’s common history with other European countries. French monks, for example, came to the North East to start abbeys or priories and the Blanchland monks became really powerful. A couple of years ago, I was doing a walk arund my grandmother’s village in Auvergne, where the local council had put new signs to explain the heritage of the village to visitors. It turned out that John of Gaunt, once owner of Dunstanburgh castle, had fought (dare I add unsuccesfully?) at the doors of the village, in a conquest expedition to France during the 100-Year War.”

To find out more about Helene’s tours, visit http://www.experiencenorthumbria.co.uk and we will also arrange a special Stammtisch tour to a historic site in the region later in the year.

As you’ve probably noticed, I have not been able to organise a Stammtisch night for next Monday, but hopefully we will have another one soon.

In the meantime, here are some other news about forthcoming visits and initiatives that might interest you.

The first of our region’s town twinning initiatives will be in March, when pupils and staff from Gelsenkirchen and Gladbeck will be in the area as part of Theatre Royal’s InterTWINed 2012, a drama festival for young people aged between 13 and 22 years. From 13 to 16 March, the People’s Theatre in Heaton will host their performances and those of other participating young people from Ireland, Poland, Estonia, Italy, Norway and of course Newcastle. Newcastle City Council is also currently looking for host families for the visiting young people and staff (from 11 to 18 March) – if you want to get involved, let me know as I have more information to send out. For more information on the festival, visit www.intertwined2012.co.uk.

There will be another German delegation to the area at the end of April and we will try and organise a joint event during that visit. And there will be a visit of the Madrigalchor from Gelsenkirchen in June, which is partnered with the Northern English Singers. Both choirs will perform at a joint concert on Saturday, 9 June from 7.30pm at the St James United Reform Church in Newcastle.

The Wear Valley Twinning Association is currently organising a trip to their German partner, the town of Bad Oeynhausen in North Rhine-Westphalia. The trip will take place from 6 to 14 September 2012 and cost is currently around £302 (the more participants, the more the cost will decrease). Included in the price are luxury coach travel, ferry, accommodation at local host families and a number of day tours, incl. one to Hannover and other social activities. If you want to find out more, email Denise Lee at dlee2405@virginmedia.com or call 07808 597 069.

You may be aware of the campaign “Cities Fit For Cycling”, which was launched by The Times. This public campaign and 8-point manifesto is calling for cities to be made fit for cyclists and needs as much support as possible. Click on the link to read more and take action: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/contact/ There are three ways you can take action and support The Times Cities fit for cycling campaign:

1. Pledge your support by signing the campaign’s list and tell your story of Britain’s roads.
2. Spread the word by tweeting your support.
3. Raise the issue of cycle safety with your local MP by emailing them directly. Do this before the 23rd February because this is when there will be a backbench business committee debate about this issue in Westerminster Hall.  http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/backbench-business-committee/news/mps-to-debate-cycling-saftery-in-cities/
 
On the job front – EURES have passed on another vacancy for a technical writer/translator in Roding, Landkreis Cham in Bavaria. The employer is the Mühlbauer AG and they are looking for somebody with good English, proficient knowledge of German and with an affinity to technical subjects. The tasks involve the creation of customer related manuals or text modules in English and German, to carry out translations and to co-ordinate translation projects with external agencies. Copies of certificates are required. The salary is between €2,000 and €3,000/month. If you want to find out more or want to apply for this position, contact Stefanie Soiber – stefanie.soiber@muehlbauer.de

Through the German business networking platform Xing, I’ve recently come across this portal that helps you find language holidays, on and off-line courses, forums about language learning, jobs with languages and so on: www.langwhich.com.

We have another food recommendation and this time it’s from Heike McFarlane. She wanted to recommend Falko (www.falko.co.uk), a German baker and master pastry chef based up in Edinburgh and Gullane. Heike thinks his bread and cakes are fantastic and there’s no better Christmas Stollen than Falko’s. His 22 staff had to learn German as all of the recipes for his handmade creations were all in German and he also has to important certain ingredients that are not available in Scotland. It’s not even just the Germans, that think Falko knows his breads – apparently the ‘Observer’ also announced in 2007 that Falko is the best baker on the island. Maybe we need to get a Stammtisch order in with the next person travelling north of the border?

And more Brez’n were discovered in the Waitrose in Jesmond. Please keep sending in your ‘German’ food discoveries to share them with our group!

I hope you all have a very enjoyable week and enjoy your pancakes and Krapfen on Tuesday!

We’re also looking to add a forum to our Stammtisch blog and I wondered if there is any interest in this? Let me know!

I recently received a request for an internship placement from Germany. Unfortunately my company can’t provide this at the moment, but maybe somebody else has an opportunity? The media management student is looking for a 6-month placement starting on 10 September 2012. He has already worked for PR firm Scholz & Friends in Germany and will soon do an internship with Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg. His full application can be forwarded to interested organisations.

Another bi-lingual job opportunity has arisen at Alnwick Castle. They are currently looking for tourist guides for the summer months – eg a Stateroom Guide, who shows guests around the castle rooms or Knights Quest Guide, that dresses in costume. English has to be the main language and as a second language, Alnwick Castle is looking for fluent German, but also French, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese speakers. I can forward the full details to anybody interested and candidates then need to apply directly with the HR manager at Alnwick Castle.

With the London Olympics approaching fast, our Stammtisch member Tanja Cooper thought it would be great to restore the City Stadium right here in the heart of Newcastle and turn it into an Outdoor VELODROME. She is currently looking at potential funders and sponsors and our question was if there are people in our Stammtisch group that have experience with or an interest in such projects. I can then forward you further information that Tanja has already collated and put you in touch with her directly. Maybe when completed, we can all get our bikes and have a Stammtisch outing at the Velodrome?

If you’re missing your weekly fix of Strictly Come Dancing, I can highly recommend Dansbanx to you. John and Catherine Banks used to dance competitively, they’re qualified dance teachers and offer ballroom and latin dance classes here in the region. You can either join into existing classes or take private lessons, whichever you prefer. If somebody is looking for a partner, just let me know and we try to help.

On the food side, I’ve recently discovered Brez’n in Marks & Spencer in Silverlink and they assured me, they bake them every day. Also Lidl (Hadrian Park, near Tyne Metropolitan College) has now fresh artisan rye bread. Another bread recommendation was that Fenwick’s in Newcastle has some very good Russian rye bread. If anybody else has any ‘German’ food and drink knowledge, please let me know so we can share it with everybody else.

Other Christmas events taking place in the region are for example:

4 November – 31 December: Christmas at Alnwick Garden

19 November – 2 January: Christmas at Beamish Museum

Saturday, 3 December: Tynemouth Christmas Festival from 12noon till 7pm.

7 to 11 December: Newcastle Christmas Market

7 to 10 December: Winter Festival: Gatehead’s Saltwell Park will turn into Enchanted Parks.

Sunday, 10 December: Advents Celebration from 5pm in the Martin Luther Church in Clarence Street/Copland Terrace in Newcastle.

There is, of course, our own Christmas Stammtisch on Monday, 12 December at the Mansion House in Jesmond. 

Starting at 7pm with a Glühwein reception, our dinner includes Hühnerleberpastete mit Zwiebelmarmelade (chicken liver pate with onion marmalade), Champignoncremesuppe mit Mandeln (mushroom crème soup with almonds), Gebratene Weihnachtsgans mit Apfelrotkraut, Badischen Klössen und Schwäbischen Spätzle (Christmas goose with apple red cabbage, potatoe dumplings and spaetzle) and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (blackforest gauteau), Stollen and Pfeffernüssen (biscuits).

For those that are not so much into the birds, we also offer roast loin of pork stuffed with prunes as an alternative.

Please state your preference when booking. As the Mansion House caters specifically for our group, you need to pay by latest 5 December – cost per person £20 – simply call the Mansion House on 0191 281 0836. If you haven’t told me yet that you’re coming, please email me so I can track numbers for this event.

On Saturday, 26 November the German Christmas Basar will be held from 11am to 2pm at St James United Reformed Church in Newcastle (close to City Baths). And two weeks later, an advents celebration will take place on Sunday, 11 December from 5pm in the Martin Luther Church in Clarence Street/Copland Terrace in Newcastle.

This weekend it’s all happening of course in Durham, where you can enjoy Lumiere 2011 until Sunday. As part of the Winter Festival, Gatehead’s Saltwell Park will turn into Enchanted Parks from 7 to 11 December.

But if you want to experience a German Christmas and don’t want to venture off the island, just head north on the train to Edinburgh, where the Traditional German Christmas Market starts already next week on Thursday, 24 November and lasts until 24 December 2011.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) also has a special offer on – from London you can get to your favourite German Christmas market for €49 in 2^nd Class one-way. Journey times are around 5 hours and for information, just click here for further details. From Newcastle there are also direct flights to Düsseldorf where you can easily get to many markets in the west of the country. Earlier this month, Lufthansa also announced one way fares of £39 from London, Birmingham and Manchester to Berlin, which is also a good gateway to the historic cities of Leipzig and Dresden in Saxony. And maybe with the launch of the new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport in 2012, the North East eventually gets good transport connections again to middle and eastern parts of Germany?

Also not too far from Berlin is the Harz National Park, which is partly in the states of Saxony Anhalt and Lower Saxony and covers an area of 24,700 ha. Click here for images and information on Christmas events in the region and here for a Deutsche Welle film about the countryside, its towns and villages and legends. 

I hope that has put you in the mood for Christmas and travelling near and far and look forward to seeing many of you at our annual Christmas dinner.

There will be Christmas stalls at Tynemouth Village Green (just in front of King’s School), with mulled wine, hog roast, an opportunity to meet Santa & to feed reindeers, late shopping and carol singing.

The Priory Theatre is also showing some Christmas films – unfortunately Polar Express is already sold out, but there are still some tickets for A Wonderful Life (these can be bought for £5 at Tynemouth shops such as Children of the Revolution, Ruby & Frank’s, Allards’ or Busy Lizzies for the 7pm show.

The largest independent library outside of London holds its annual book sale on Friday 25/Saturday 26 November (10am to 4pm) and Sunday 27 November (12pm to 4pm). Thousands of books will be available on a range of subjects, but also LPs, CDs etc all at reasonable prices.

There will be an entry charge of £1 and all proceeds will go to the Lit & Phil appeal.

You can look forward to a Glühwein reception, Hühnerleberpastete mit Zwiebelmarmelade (chicken liver pate with onion marmalade), Champignon-cremesuppe mit Mandeln (mushroom crème soup with almonds), Gebratene Weihnachtsgans mit Apfelrotkraut, Badischen Klössen und Schwäbischen Spätzle (Christmas goose with apple red cabbage, potatoe dumplings and spaetzle) and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (blackforest gauteau), Stollen und Pfeffernüssen (biscuits).

The cost per person is £20 and pre-payable to the Mansion House either by debit card or cheque. If you’re planning to join us, please let me know so we get an idea on numbers.

The German Christmas Basar will also again take place on 26 November from 11am to 2pm in St James United Reformed Church in Newcastle (close to City Baths). If you are looking to get involved with a stand or in any other way, please contact Michael Mehl directly, email: germanchurch@gmail.com.

All about Christmas in Germany – visit Discover Germany website for lots of information on the best places to go and information on traditions. And if you want to be spoilt after trailing along Christmas markets, why don’t you relax in one of Germany’s Best Wellness Hotels.

Export capability, engineering & technology and strong medium sized companies contribute to the success of the German economy. In a recent Handelsblatt article, various correspondents compared the German economy with the US, Britain and France to see what has been done differently – click here for their analysis. Guardian correspondent John Kampfner gave his opinion this week on the recent commons debate about Europe – click here to read his comment piece.

Both Germany and Britain have still many historic sites dating back to the Roman frontier days. Hadrian’s Wall Heritage is working with their colleagues from German Limes and if you want to find out more about their work, click here for their newsletter. If you’re interested in this topic, please drop me a line.

And a last piece of information: in the UK we eat frozen desserts like chocolate mousse, strawberry cheese cake and blackforest gateau from Coppenrath & Wiese, while the Germans are on Diet Chef from Scotland to loose weight. Any thoughts?