What does “beschallen” mean in German?
Hip-Hop-Musik macht Schweizer Käse angeblich besser
B2 German listening practice · Swiss German · Picked for people who know more
German has a single verb for piping music or sound at something: beschallen, formed from Schall (“sound”) plus the prefix be-. You can beschallen a hallway with announcements, a cow with classical music, or, in this clip, a wheel of cheese with hip-hop. English needs four or five words for the same idea: “to play music at,” “to expose to sound.”
This reel reports on a real Swiss experiment: a 2018-19 collaboration between Bern University of the Arts and a cheesemaker in Burgdorf aged Emmental wheels under different musical genres. The hip-hop wheel reportedly tasted better than the classical or rock ones. The German verb beschallen lets the bizarre experiment fit into a single tidy sentence.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this B2 German listening practice video?
How common in written German
How common in spoken German
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than B2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-DE 2011 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Swiss agricultural news (SRF, NZZ, Tages-Anzeiger)
- ▸In German-language popular-science content (Quarks, Galileo)
- ▸In German PA-system and concert technical writing
- ▸In German farming and animal-welfare debates
- ▸In Swiss tourism content about Emmental and alpine cheese