Preface

This project was created in order to make children know some German and Italian  idioms and their meanings.

First of all we  collected many idioms (modi di dire, Redewendungen Sprichwörter) with the help of our parents , grandparents and Mates . After that we chose the most common idioms , then we were divided in groups and we wrote short stories using them. At the end we tried to represent them with imagines and videos made by us.

This small ebook contains all the stories we created in our international mixed groups, and you will find also the illustrations and drawings we created thinking to the addressees of this book.Since we plan to work with younger students we hope they will enjoy this work and  appreciate our effort to visualize the stories we created together.

Group1: Tommaso, Gabriel, Simon, Gaia A.

This story is for the teenagers, wrote by: Simon K.; Gaia A.; Gabriel T.; Tommaso V.

The Adventure of Fritz

Two days ago, Fritz was talking with Frau Lucia and she told him that he had to do a project but he refused to do it. Frau Lucia told him “Non rimandare a domani ciò che potresti fare oggi!”. But as Fritz was a German boy, he didn’t understand a word so she had to translate it. So then she said “Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen” and then he understood it.

The day after, Fritz told Frau Lucia that he didn’t want to do the project because for him it was stupid and so Frau Lucia got angry and his Italian exchange partner shouted to him “VOLA BASSO” and his friend Thomas explained the meaning of the idiom to him. He said that it means that he should be less arrogant.Thomas is a really close friend to Fritz, but in reality he says bad things about Fritz to his friends.

At the end of the day, Fritz heard Thomas talking to Gabriele about him and so he felt really bad because he thought that Thomas was his friend. Thomas has always been so good and nice to him, but in reality, their whole friendship was just a lie. So Fritz decided to talk to his friend, because he wanted to know why he did that. When he started to talk to Thomas he discovered that once Thomas liked a girl called Daniella, but Fritz didn’t know it and he got together with her and since then Thomas has hated him. So he decided to take revenge and become friends with him just to make fun of him.

Fritz felt really betrayed and he said “Jede Muenze hat zwei Seiten”. Then he left without saying a word, while Thomas was laughing at him. Then the Italians Simone and Gabriele came along and asked him what it means.  So Fritz explained to them that it means that someone has two sides all while trying to hold back his tears. Simone and Gabriele felt really bad for Fritz, so they decided to beat up Thomas, so he learns that he shouldn’t do something. So then, Fritz became really close friends with Simone and Gabriele and everything was fine. Only Thomas wasn’t fine, because he ended up with a bloody nose.

GROUP 2: Alice V., Bastian, Luisa, Federico.

Basti and never a joy

Once upon a time, there was a boy called Basti and his Maths teacher was always mad at him, because he wasn’t good at the subject. She used to tell him that his bad marks were his fault. Every time Basti had lessons with that mean teacher, he said: “Mai una gioia! (I’m so unlucky)!”, because he felt so out of luck. Although Basti wasn’t good at Maths, he loved going to school and attending other lessons, such as English or Geography. He was a nice boy and the other teachers were very proud of him: the only problem he had was that bad teacher. His marks were especially high in Italian class and in German class, since his family was multicultural: his mother was from Italy and his father was from a German town. They had got married and they had decided to live in Germany, in Berlin, so Basti could speak different languages without any difficulties.

Basti wasn’t used to being treated unkindly by teacher so he couldn’t believe that was really happening to him. He used to complain about the teacher to one of his best friends, Lukas, and he often did it in front of their classroom at school. Lukas was good at Maths, but he understood why Basti didn’t like the teacher: the way she treated Basti wasn’t fair and he knew. Basti and Lukas’s classmates knew it wasn’t fair, but they couldn’t find a way to make the situation stop. The only thing Lukas could do was helping Basti with his homework, to make him get higher marks, but that wasn’t working either.

He was a nice boy and the other teachers were very proud of him: the only problem he had was that bad teacher. His marks were especially high in Italian class and in German class, since his family was multicultural: his mother was from Italy and his father was from a German town. They had got married and they had decided to live in Germany, in Berlin, so Basti could speak different languages without any difficulties.

One day, Basti was telling Lukas how stressed out he felt after Maths lessons and as soon as he said the teacher’s name, she appeared behind them, with a furious look. Basti immediately thought: “Wenn man vom Teufel spricht…(Speaking of the Devil…) ” and now he was sure the teacher would hate him even more. In fact, the teacher got meaner to him and he also got sent to detention for being disrespectful: everybody thought that made no sense because of the good marks Basti had in all the other subjects. Basti’s classmates were all whispering to each other: ”That’s ridiculous!”.

Maths lessons were terrible for Basti and he was thinking about changing school, when suddenly his class got wonderful news: the mean teacher had been transferred and a new teacher was about to arrive to the school. They didn’t know why the teacher had been transferred to another school, but they hoped it was because of her unfair behaviour; they hoped the principal had realized she wasn’t a good teacher at all and he had fired her. So all the students were very excited and they knew they could do everything they wanted, because no teacher was there. Lukas said “Quando il gatto non c’è i topi ballano! (When nobody controls us, we can have fun)” many times to his friends. They screamed in the classroom and put on some music to sing and dance: they had a fun time and they were laughing during the school hours. The students couldn’t believe that was actually true!

The new teacher came very soon, though, so the fun had to stop and the students had to go back to normal lessons. The new Maths teacher was such a sweet person, she was very glad to help her students, so finally Basti got high marks in the subject. He was really relieved and thought: “Besser spaet als nie! (Better late than never)”.

Group 3: Sara, Maria, Lena, Mati B.

this story is for kids, and it was made by Sara G, Matilde B, Lena B, Maria R.

THE ADVENTURES OF MARY

Once upon a time there was a girl called Mary. She had long, blond hair and brown eyes. She was tall and skinny and she liked playing tennis. She also liked going out with her friends and when she was with them she always had a lot of fun and she “ride a crepapelle/lacht sich kaputt” ( means laugh a lot). She lived in a small town near a river and she often went there with her friends: she liked swimming with them there. One day she woke up early because she wanted to buy a present for her grandmother’s birthday, that  will be celebrated that evening.

She didn’t know what buy for her so she decided to ask her friend Claudio. They met at the bar and they had breakfast together: they ate croissants with jam and Nutella and they drank cappuccino and tea. They spoke a lot and they searched on internet ideas for the present. They looked for a shop near the bar where they could buy it, but when they arrived there it was closed. So Mary said: “Mai na gioia” (means when you don’t have joys and you’re unlucky). With her friend Claudio they searched for another shop and there they bought a scarf with flowers. In fact her grandmother loved flowers and they thought that they had bought the perfect present for her.

Then because they were tired, they went to a park and they laid on the grass. They listened to music and they played to cards. They had a lot of fun, but then they wanted to relax and rest so they fell asleep.

They woke up late in the afternoon and they noticed that they were late for the grandmother’s party. They started to run and they hurried up. They were searching for the right street but they got lost.

Mary was sad and she started to cry, so Claudio told her not to worry and he told: “Alle Wege führen nach Rom/Tutte le strade portano a Roma” (it means that every road leads to Rome). Then she was calmer so they asked people information for the right road to take and they started to walk. After 5 minutes they finally reach the grandmother’s house and they were “Im siebten Himmel/al settimo cielo” (on cloud nine).  They had a lot of fun and the grandmother really liked the present for her, and that scarf became her favourite one.

Group 4: Benedetta, Thomas, Alice A., Hanna.

We are Thomas, Hanna, Benedetta, Alice and we wrote a story about a boy who sleeps all time and looses the opportunity.
this is a story for children.

ALLER GUTEN DINGE SIND DREI

Once upon a time there was a little Italian boy, who was very sleepy and lazy all the time. He was always in his house and had no friends.

One day his mother said to him: “Why are you so lazy all the time? Can’t you go out with your friends? Do you know that chi dorme non piglia pesci?

The boy answered: “Oh just a silly idiom of parents, I don’t care!”

His mother was very angry and replied: “You don’t even know what it means!!!

“Oh i do! It’s like when you do nothing and you lose your opportunity”

“Yes, just think about it…”, she said.

The boy didn’t mind and he continued to sleep. He dreamt about a german girl who said to him that he need to change his behavior. He remembered this sentence: “Aller guten Dinge sind drei”.

He didn’t know what it means but he thought about it all the day.

He was walking around the city when he met a girl who offered him a bowl of sweets. He was happy and he took one and then she said “Aller guten Dinge sind drei, take two others because 3 is the perfect number!”

He remembered that girl of the dream and said “ Why are you here? Who are you? And what are you doing in my life?”

She replied: “Oh dude, questions over questions. Ich versteh nur Bahnhof.”

He asked: “What should that mean?”

She replied: “It means that I don’t understand anything. Because I can’t understand you.”

He got angry: “Don’t joke! Why don’t you take me serious?

The special girl answered: “Just because you don’t take anything for serious. You don’t care about your life. Just change it. Stay focused!”

And then she was gone. He thought about her words very often, and in the end he changed his meaning. He made plans for his life and tried to reach them.

Group 5: Teresa, Toni, Felix, Silvia, Francesca.

The beautiful Rose dress

Beatrice and Lena are best friends. They want to go to the luna park but their mother say that they cannot go there alone, so Beatrice and Lena say “mai na gioia”. After few minutes the two friends decide to go there  even if the mothers don’t know that they are going out alone.

When Lena and Beatrice arrive to luna park, Lena wants to do an extreme roller coaster that is only for over eighteen, Beatrice say no but Lena do it anyway. They get in trouble because their mother found them and the two friends said “Jetzt haben wir den Salat”.  After they decided to go to the Disney Castle, there are many figures like, Mickey Mouse or something else.

Lena wanted to take a picture with a princess who got a beautiful rose dress. So they went to the princess to ask if they can take a photo , but the woman told Lena, “No, I have to make a show now”. Because of this decision Lena started to cry. Her friend Beatrice laughed about this and the Mother told her “streue jetzt nicht noch auch Salz in die Wunde”. After that they come back home sadly and go to Mc Donald for dinner.

Group 6: Nicole, Sarah, Chiara, Klaus

The story is for children in the age of 10.
There are two characters:The protagonist, a lazy little boy.
And his mother who is very ambitious.
Italian idiom: chi dorme non piglia pesci.
German idiom: Hier schaut es aus wie im Schweinestall.
Written by:Klaus B. Sarah B. Nicole L. Chiara B.

Lazyness

One day a little boy, named Harald  was laying in his bed drawing a lot. So the whole floor was full of drawings, pencils and water colors.                                                                    He was in there for a couple of hours so his mother worried about him and thought: “Should I look after him?”. She had an idea. “He must be hungry so I bring him something to eat, a little snack like a toast or an apple.”, she thought

So she prepared the snack for her little boy. On the way to his room the tablet  fell down and the mother had to get the vacuum cleaner, dustpan and broom and a wet cloth.                                                                                              To the mothers surprise the boy came out of his room full of drawings because he heard how it fell down. He asked his mother what happened. “I don’t know, it just fell out of my hand”, she said. “Oh no!”, the boy yelled, “my yummy food!!!”. While the mother was collecting the pieces, the boy watched her and shouted at her: “ This looks like a pigsty!”

Now the mother was getting furious because she was already cleaning up the mess she made.

She said to Harald that she wants to have a look at his room, Harald immediately ran into his dirty room trying to clean up the gigantic mess he made with drawing so many pictures.                                                                            During the project “cleaning up in one second” his mom came in and was shocked. A couple of seconds ago her son was shouting at her because she made a mess and now this. She just gave him a this look of reproach.

Now she came nearer and told her son and said: “ If you are lazy all the day and only draw or sleep and don’t  tidy up your room you won’t reach something in your life or can realize your dreams.”

Group 7 : Anna Cecilia, Francesca, Melike, Evelin

This story is for kids, it is about 2 puppies: Rex and John. We’ve used this idioms: ”Chi dorme non piglia pesci” “Capisci 8 per 18” “Mit dem falschen Fuss aufstehen” ”Alles ist in Butter”
Made by: Francesca F, Evelin S, Melike M, Anna Cecilia F.

Puppies in trouble

Rex is a big lazy brown dog and he woke up this morning with his left foot, it means in a bad way. Because he fell off the stairs and John has told him that he ate his breakfast, Rex was really upset.

John is a small and lovely puppy and also his brother. So Rex got angry with his brother and John said:” who sleep doesn’t catch fishes, my dear”. He only wanted to make a joke but the situation got worse because Rex got offended so he went outside angrily.

John reached him outside and he said: ”You understand 8 for 18, it was a joke, I have hidden your breakfast, I haven’t eat it. Immediately Rex got calm again and said: “Maybe this day won’t be as bad as I thought”. But he wasn’t right. When he got to the kitchen, his owner was already driven to his work. His name was Alexander and he was his best buddy since he was born.  Few years ago he found Rex in a corner, lonely, without his mother. The paw of Rex was broken and Alexander took care of him until now. “I can’t believe Alexander forgot to take a walk with me!”, he shouted. Sadly he went out of the door, he wanted to be alone.

Rex haven’t ever been alone outside  because he’s afraid of the noise from the streets.  But this time he doesn’t care about it. He started running faster and faster and didn’t look at the other things around him, so he almost got hit by a car. “heyy, watch out!”, screamed the guy inside the vehicle. Now Rex didn’t know what to do. At this moment he realized that he were lost because he absolutely had no clue where he was. Around him were just a lot of skyscrapers which looked all the same. People all over the street, moving on fast and a lot of different means of transport. Rex was frightend. He wanted to cry but he was busy at searching his way back home to John and Alexander. Suddenly someone touched his shoulder. “Rex? Is it you?”, asked a voice behind him.

“Kevin! Oh, I’m so glad to see you!”, Rex shouted. Kevin was one of his best friends, he loves the time with him when they’re together in the park and play ball games. “So what are you doing here? I never see you walking in this area, so where is Alexander?”, Kevin asked his best friend.

‘’I don’t know, I’m looking for him, he escaped  without saying a word”

So they went together to look for him around the city, it tooks all night but a dogcatcher brought them to a kennel.

Meanwhile Alexander returned home, he realized that his dog weren’t at home so he became worried and he called the cops.

Fortunately they have known about two lost dogs find  that night and they were free.

So now for Rex was everything in butter, everything fine.

Group 8 Giulia G.Lenni Caterina . Beatrice T Michaela

The land-owner tale

Gruppo: Caterina, Leonard, Giulia , Michaela e Beatrice .
-the story can be told to children of the age of 6 to 10.
-we used this idioms: Die Kuh vom Eis holen , chi dorme non piglia pesci.

The land owner

Once upon a time there was John, a young and handsome land owner, that was in love with a beautiful girl named Giusy. This girl was in love with another guy called Fernando, an handsome, rich and brave knight ; Fernando loved making long walking with Giusy.

One day , when she was alone, John spoke to her and he told her that he wanted to get to know her better. But there was a problem, because there were two men that were in love with the same woman.

Suddenly John had a innovative idea : « Er holte die Kuh vom Eis.” In other words, he solved this miserable problem. One night,  John went to Fernando’s house, kidnapped him and left him in a cave because he wanted Giusy only for himself. But one day Fernando came out of the cave , took Giusy and went far away  from that little town. Unfortunately John was sleeping and he didn’t realize the escape of Fernando from the cave so he started to cry.

He saw them on the knight’s horse but they were really fast and too far away from him so he couldn’t do anything .
John remained alone and as the idiom says : “Chi dorme non piglia pesci“.

Group 9: Marta, Angelina, Jakob, Giada.

We are Marta B, Giada V, Angelina H. and Jakob K. We wrote this story for eleven year old children. The main character is jakob, who is a lazy boy.

The story of Jakob

One day a kid called Jakob went to school at 7:30 and during the lessons he worked hard but at 13:00 he came home and he was very tired so, after lunch , since he had no homework, he decided to relax. He slept for two hours and then he played video games, after that he ate, played and slept again. While he was doing this his mother was cleaning and cooking. When she asked him to help her, he refused to do it, so she got very angry and she screamed:“ Non stare con le mani in mano“.    

Jakob didn’t understand the meaning of that idiom and he asked his mother to explain it to him. His mother told him:“ Stare con le mani in mano means to do nothing when you are supposed to do something”! Jakob understood the meaning and he decided to help his mother. After the work with his mother was finished, Jakob called his friends, because he was in a good mood. Jakob and his friends decided to go to the city centre. Once there, they found a big crowd. Probably it was a demonstration.

Without knowing what this demonstration was about, they decided to join the movement. It didn’t take long that Jakob couldn’t see his friends anymore. He was surrounded by many strangers, that were shouting something. Jakob got in panic and started crying, as he realized that he was lost and lonely. After crying for a while he said:“ Ich habe ein Ass im Ärmel, I have a map and my phone“!

Jakob called his friends and he asked them where they were. They told him that they were in front of a wood. So Jakob looked for the wood in the map and he arrived there. When he found his friends he was very happy and he hugged all of them.

Group 10 Johannes, Arianna, Lorenzo, Benjamin, Jennifer, Matilde L.

THE WISE GRANDMOTHER

(For children)

Once upon a time a young girl called Ari went shopping with her grandma Theresa. It was a warm a sunny day in March in the little city in northern Italy. They went to a store called “H & M” which sells nice dresses. Her mum Theresa didn’t want her to buy a dress because she already have six very nice dresses in her room. After discussing this a lot of times Theresa got very angry and she forbid her daughter to buy it. So Ari decided to persuade her grandma Matilde to buy it. They discussed a lot about it but in the end she said no because it’s too expensive. So the girl decided to  buy it on her own even though her mum and her grandma didn’t allow it. Then her grandma said: “Your greed is going to cost a eye of your head if you don’t stop spending all your money on unnecessary expensive things“.

Matilde wanted to comfort her granddaughter so she proposed to buy a cheaper shirt instead. Ari got very angry and said: „ I only want to have this beautiful dress“. Matilde was very sad about it and wanted to teach her granddaughter something and told her: „Don’t bite the hand which feeds you“. Ari had to think about this for some seconds but then she got the point. She was dumb focusing getting the dress instead of taking the present of her grandma. After recognizing this she said sorry a lot of times to her grandmother for being so rude to her. For apologizing she invited Matilde in a coffee shop to drink some hot coffee and to eat a piece of tasty cake. “Thank you for teaching me this very important lesson about how to live”, Ari said. Her grandmother answered: “That’s why I’m here. I have to give you wisdom which I have collected in my long life so you can give advises to your kids in the future”.

In this moment the waitress arrived and brought two coups of latte macchiato and a piece of strawberry and one piece of raspberry cake. “It makes 11.50 euro”, she said. Ari wanted to pay the bill but her grandmother already handed the money to the young lady. “I wanted to pay because I wanted to appologize”, Ari said. Matilde answered: “You have learned your lesson. Save your money for some important stuff like a car or your driver’s licence. I won’t need that much money in my live anymore.” Ari replied: “Thank you granny”. After some quiet minutes Theresa arrived to pick her up. “How was the shopping trip”, she wanted to know. “Granny bought me a new shirt, see! And I learned my lesson…I won’t buy this expensive dress.”,

she answered. Her mum replied very happily: “Nice. So your wise grandmother taught you something right?” “Yes, and it was very important.”, Ari said.

THE END

 our special dictionary

here you will find a collection of  idioms we collected with the help of our Grandparents, Parents, and Peers.

We worked with our teachers and peers and we tried to find correspondences in English, Italian and German.

We hope you will find it useful and  that you have fun with the stories we created. Besides we  invite  you  to try to create  new stories starting from the idioms  we collected ,listed and translated  for you into the three languages of our project.

Buon divertimento, viel Spass! and do not forget: enjoy what you do!

1) That’s the crux of the matter.è il nocciolo della questione da liegt der Hund begraben

2) She has been around. La sa lunga  kein unbeschriebenes Blatt sein

3) to steal the scene [or show] from sb, rubare la scena

4) to be wet behind the ears à unexperienced  puzzare ancora di latte  noch grün hinter den Ohren sein

5)Gespannt sein wie ein alter Regenschirm.

wound up like a drum. Teso come una corda di violino Gespannt sein wie ein alter Regenschirm.

6) It looks like a pigsty  sembra un porcile!   Hier schaut es aus wie im Schweinestall.

7)slow and steady wins the race chi va piano va sano e va lontano  Eile mit Weile!

8) it’s the early bird that catches the worm! Chi dorme non piglia pesci Der frühe Vogel fängt den Wurm/ Die Fischfangsaison nicht verschlafen!

9) Never a joy !  Mai una gioia!–>  Very ironic :My life sucks, and here I am, once again, with another failure/I can’t seem to find happiness/I’m hopeless, I never do anything right. Nie eine Freude/ nie ein Bißchen Glück!

10) he’s got a screw loose  Gli manca una rotella eine Schraube locker haben

11) a thankless task  una gatta da pelare  eine harte Nuß

12) One doesn’t count the teeth of a gift horse. A caval donato non si guarda in bocca  Einem geschenktem Gaul schaut man nichts ins Maul

13) It costs an arm and a leg. Costa un occhio della testa . Kopf und Kragen kosten.

14) first come, first served”Chi prima arriva meglio/prima  alloggia  Wer zuerst kommt, mahlt zuerst.

15) Never bite the hand that feeds you.  Non sputare nel piatto in cui mangi Beiß  nicht die Hand, die dich füttert

16) to die of laughter ridere a crepapelle sich tot lachen

the early bird catches the worm  Il mattino ha l’oro in bocca Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund.

17)  Harm set, harm get. chi la fa l’aspetti Wer anderen eine Grube graebt faellt selber rein

18)  just chillax! Scialla!  Chillax/ fiedlich! .

19) can’t see past his own nose.

20) non vedere più in là del proprio naso ein Brett vor dem Kopf haben

some quizzes

to test your knowledge

Afterword

we believe that the added value of this small ebook is precisely the fact that our students have managed to collaborate, having fun, creating short stories, having in mind the addressees:  their younger schoolmates. Despite all the difficulties that unfortunately this year in some moments made us fear of having to interrupt our project, we were able to complete our work and we created together a product that we think can be really useful to familiarize younger students with numerous ways of saying and concepts in the three languages ​​of our project: Italian German English. The small vocabulary that the project partners have created and illustrated will be a fun first step in the world of foreign languages. We hope that our little readers can feel the great motivation that supported our students during this project.

Have fun then and .. good eTwinning to everyone!