In honor of Erich’s Swiss & German roots, we’ve decided to try to raise him “auf Deutsch.” I’ve been learning to speak German through Post-it's around the house, Marc’s diligent tutoring, and the language learning software Rosetta Stone. I was studying almost daily until I started working again 3 weeks ago. Since then it’s been going… okay. Marc used to bug me to study constantly, but soon realized life would be too busy until he’s done with school. Just yesterday he informed me that he would be a "German studying Nazi" once finals are over. I knew he was only joking that he would be strict, like Seinfield’s "Soup Nazi" (“No soup for you!”), so I took joy in pointing out the undertones of what he'd just said. He’s so cute when he blushes.
In some of my Rosetta Stone lessons I have to match phrases with pictures. My most recent lesson was about size. Fat is “dick”, thin is “dünn”, and very is “sehr.” The sentence below reads:
“The women are very fat.”
I call THAT a German lesson. I’m glad I’m learning the important things first!
Now... do you think those women know they’re in that picture?
5 comments:
Perhaps not the best choice of words on my part...
I often think that about the pictures of fat people. Like when the Today show does a segment on American Obesity and they have all these shots of people walking around that are fat. They always cut off their face - but imagine you are watching that one morning and you see yourself with your head cut off. Talk about depressing.
Good for you for learning German. I hope Erich catches on. But I remember that Thanksgiving in DC we had with the Bohns and I don't remember which sibling it was but they only spoke french to their little girl and I was afraid to talk to her and she didn't understand anything we said. I hope someday when I see Erich I will be able to talk to him.
Too funny, Ali! I don't think Melbo was there that year, but I was. And don't worry, that particular niece was just, shall we say, a difficult toddler. She screamed whenever my husband and I looked at her or passed her room (I'm not kidding), so you weren't the only one afraid of a 2-year old. We had resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd probably never have any sort of relationship with her after that visit. FYI, she's a very friendly, adorable, loving 6-year-old now and speaks English just as well as her French!
Other M&M, good luck with the German! I'm impressed with your diligence, Melbo. Michel speaks Russian to little miss G, but he's not home very often because of law school so I'm not sure how much of it is catching on. Sadly, my studies of Russian ended a long time ago and stopped around learning my colors, counting to five, and saying "bread" and "milk." Maybe I'll take inspiration from you and whip out my old Russian study CD rom.
Yeah Melbo... where WERE you that Thanksgiving in DC?
I almost said something about that Marc, but held off. I'd just like to say that the magic you and Melbo share is priceless!
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