It was a Tuesday, I distinctly remember. All the strange things in life usually happen on Tuesdays don't they? On this particular Tuesday, I was idly flipping through a course catalog trying to pick courses for this term.
Have you noticed how things sound a lot more profound in a foreign language? Well, I have. You can say "My dog is wet" and sound like you've solved the world's energy crisis. Especially when the listener does not speak aforementioned language.
Anyway, having narrowed my options down to German and French, I decided to give the problem more thought.
French, incidentally, is a great language. Their umbrellas are male while their windows are feminine. And you can tell someone to go to an undesirably warm place governed by a man with horns, and sound like you're asking him to water the begonias.
Lovely, perfect!
Long story made longer, I'm taking German this term. (There's a very rational explanation for the above, but it probably won't make sense to you, so I'll just skip it shall I?)
German though, is not quite so bad. In German, you can say something perfectly useless, like "Once is No Time" and win the Jerusalem Prize
Most of my classmates in this course apparently know German. Like Socrates, I know nothing. Well, almost nothing. I can say Flughafen, Danke Schon and Guten Morgen. Though some would say "Good morning, Airport, Thank you" is enough German for one person.
If you were ever actually in Germany, it would get you right out!
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23 comments:
All i can say as u wud've noticed is sehr gut!!!we can have cool secret conversations in deutsche!!sooper..viel Glueck !!!
I do believe that those saying "Good morning, Airport, Thank you" are the tourists and visitors fleeing, unable to stand the nasty food...
Consequently a very common phrase they pick up is "Dies ist schlecht" :-)
@Nandita: Sie sind nett ;-)
Je ne comprend pas pourquoi tu as choisi l'Allemand au lieu de la Francais? C'est la plus belle et la plus romantique langue au monde!!!
Nandita, Yep - Once I learn we can. Have to learn french too so that I and Falken have a non english language in common ;)
Nandan, I took two years of bad french in high school. Wanted to right those wrongs but didn't have enough points to bid for French during course bidding.
fsn2.0, Uh.. Begnadigen??
"something perfectly useless, like "Once is No Time" and win the Jerusalem Prize" LOL
Incidentally, p do you know Teamgeist?
Other vaguely german terms i know :
Schadenfraude
Weltschaung
Zeitgeist
Sacher Torte (which may not be German but is delicious nonetheless)
What about gesundheit, poltergeist, kindergarten? Guess these are fairly common in English usage
just stumbled across ur blog.rad it all in a good sitting....nice and profound expressions.
check mine if you want
blog.360.yahoo.com/defonce_prep_vie
gutten morgen....
LOL!!!
and isn't it schadenfreude btw??
@suze:Falken knows french a?wat a good one!didnt know tat
@fsn:Danke.Sie sind nicht sich zu schlecht:P
Folks, the language is called Deutsch. Also, there are several misspellings in the German words in the comments.
Ihr könnt nichts auf Deutsch lernen, wenn ihr euch auf die Sprache so wenig interessiert.
terence, Potato Potato to you my friend.
That doesn't really convey the same meaning when written down does it?
Anyway, I'm sure you got what I meant :)
And just to be fair, I occasionally mishpell Englis words two
why dont u try spanish?
Hey, everything in german is gender specific too :) Its a rather guttural language though. I love the "R" sound, don't you??:) If you know how to growl, you'll get the pronounciation just right!
Tja, I will say Tschuess for now, enjoy the language!
New languages are always exiting to learn. It's a great feeling to be able to say 'hello ! how are you ?' even if that is all that we can say, when we visit their country or vice versa !
However, I keep wondering what value add is it to learn French / German / Russian and eventually end up working in Bangalore or Delhi where you need to speak Kannada / Hindi ?
Is it that we take for granted Indian languages ?
El Español también es muy agradable ;). Yo Sé, yo hablo Español :)
Erm. Ich kann nicht dieses auf Deutsch sagen, aber ich versuchte… Ich benutzte Google übersetzer.
Yay me!
Give me a pat on my back and all ;)
I wonder how you say "Take us to your leader" in Betelgeusean. Whoops! Did I [i]accidentally[/i] reveal my plans?
You shall now forget what I said?
Uhuh! What do you mean this is not MIB?
:D Spamming's fun. Hey, Suze. Sorry for that ;). My excuse is it's a quarter past two and the day of my last exam... err... before the quizzes I will have from 26th.
Okay, now I am depressed. I think my world domination plans have to be put on hold :(
du bist sehr schön
how cool am i???
du bist sehr gut! :) Ich lieben Sie!
You might find this to be a helpful resource in learning German:
Deutsch wiki browser
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