The problem with learning a new language, is that since the local speakers do not expect that you should speak their language, they always tend to go like, ” Umh? ” whenever you attempt a sentence.
I must say that I am extremely surprised at our German learning curve. The kids speak and read and write German. Since I am not yet proficient, I will not say that they are very good, but I suspect they are good. Yesterday, Alex, Denzel and I were in the car, waiting for the girls. The radio was on, in German, as we don’t have any English stations. Then Alex goes like, ” Oh my, people are killing bears so that they can make fur coats………” Denzel and I looked at each other is surprised shock. The little dude kann Deutch sprechen und verstehen!
As an employee benefit, I have been taking 1.5 hours each Thursday, of German in the office with 3 other collegues. At first I found it tedious, expecially when we would have too much work in the office, but after a while our German teacher spoke less English and more German. The most difficult part is telling what you did over the weekend, in German ofcourse. With time, I realized that I could tell what my German speaking collegues in the office were on about.
My neighbour, a nice Swiss lady, completely refuses to speak English, as she claims not to know any. Then, she tends to be rather chatty. Whenever I bump into her, I am always sure I will rattle for no less than 5 minutes, in German ofcourse. What I am never sure is whether we really communicate. I always wonder whether we are discussing the same topic.
With time, without realizing it, I am speaking German, and my vocabularly has really grown.
Not so with Denzel.
We have not recovered from 2 of his fatal errors.
1. Ich bin banana = I am a banana. Meant to be > Ich mochte eine banane = I would like a banana
2. Ich bin toilette. That one i will leave to your imagination.
He too has a class every Friday at work, and the I like to jab him on Thursday evening, ” Have you done your German homework?” What usually follows are anecdotes about his teacher, aptly known as Rudolf. Once, after a class that had not gone down so well, Denzel bumped into Rudolf in the gents. Then Rudolf went on a teasing offensive, ” somebody did not know too much today…”
The girls are doing quite well, though Laura does not like to speak German, at all. Recently, she brought home test results with words scribbled accross in bold red, ” Klassen beste!” Yap, my girl was tops in that test. I warned them though, that the kids will not be too amused with them. They already are the best in English, so how dare they be good in German. Aber das ist Leben.
****unedited!
