Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams Speaks German: How to Say It Correctly & What It Means

Did you know that Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams speaks German? Jenna Ortega is great at a lot of things, but her pronunciation in German could use some serious help. In this post, I’ll teach you how to say what she said in German with proper German pronunciation, and what she meant by it. You might be surprised by how her dark and dry sense of humor translates to the German language. 

If you are really wanting to put your German learning on track, consider joining Herr Antrim’s Deutschlerner Club! For just $14.99 per month you will get access to his full A1 and A2   courses plus new materials as he creates them. You will go from knowing zero German to being able to have a short conversation in a short few weeks. Before you know it, you will be conversational in German on a variety of important topics, all while mastering German grammar.

What did Jenna Ortega say in German in the series “Wednesday”?

Genießen Sie Ihr authentisches Pilgrim Fudge aus Kakaobohnen, bezogen von den unterdrückten Ureinwohnern des Amazonas.
Enjoy your authentic Pilgrim Fudge made with cocoa beans, procured by the oppressed indigenous people of the Amazon.

Alle Einnahmen dienen dazu, die armselige Schönfärberei der amerikanischen Geschichte aufrechtzuerhalten.
All proceeds go to uphold the pathetic whitewashing of American history.

Übrigens: Fudge wurde erst 258 Jahre später erfunden.
Also, fudge wasn’t invented for another 258 years.

Hat jemand Interesse?
Any takers?

Why was Jenna Ortega’s German pronunciation in the series “Wednesday” so bad?

Jenna Ortega is an American actress. Her American accent is really prominent in this scene in German. This is due to the fact that she had only been learning German for about a week before they filmed this scene.

She was so flustered while filming that she completely forgot the word for “258”, so she just said the English number instead. This is actually quite common for language learners, because numbers are stored in a different part of the brain from language.

How could they have made Jenna Ortega’s German pronunciation better?

Let’s assume for this that she only had one week between being told there was a scene in German and having to film said scene. If that is the case, she should have been set up with a German speaker who could guide her through each of the words and phrases she needed to say in her lines. Don’t worry about teaching her the meaning or anything that isn’t explicitly pronouncing the words in the script.

She probably would have still had an American accent, which would be perfectly natural, but she wouldn’t have squished so many words together or outright mispronounced parts that aren’t even difficult for English native speakers. Some of the words she said, simply don’t sound like the words she was trying to say, because the pronunciation was simply wrong. Not due to an accent, but due to not knowing what the words were or how the sounds are made.

This is a training issue and not a linguistic failure of Ms. Ortega. It is the duty of the director to make sure that their actors are well trained in the things they need to do. She learned how to play the cello and how to fence for this role. It stands to reason that she is completely capable of learning to speak four sentences in German with proper pronunciation. The director simply didn’t prepare her properly for this scene.

Jenna Ortega could have also taken my A1 Beginner   German course, which comes with a membership to my Deutschlerner Club. It starts with pronunciation and continues on until you can have a basic conversation in German. After that you can continue straight on into my A2   Elementary German course, which will make you conversation in German on a variety of topics. Click here to join today!

If you are really wanting to put your German learning on track, consider joining Herr Antrim’s Deutschlerner Club! For just $14.99 per month you will get access to his full A1 and A2   courses plus new materials as he creates them. You will go from knowing zero German to being able to have a short conversation in a short few weeks. Before you know it, you will be conversational in German on a variety of important topics, all while mastering German grammar.