Well, Diane and I have come full circle. Thirty-seven years ago we met in a high school Social Studies class after the teacher moved my seat for reasons we won't discuss here. We became friends, then more than friends, attended separate colleges (successfully), married, raised four children, held jobs, bought and sold houses, became missionaries, became grandparents, all the usual and some of the unusual things - but now, as we said, we've come full circle. We're back sitting next to each other in a high school classroom and studying German. It's no longer col to be the oldest kids in class.
German, we hear, is a logical language - so far the logic escapes us. We're hearing terms like "dative" and "accusative" - can you even remember what that stuff refers to from your days in English class? People say English is quirky - and it is - but it's also oftentimes economical. Take the article "the" for instance. In English we say, "the boy, the girl, the boys, the girls, the cow, the herd, the watermelon, the crop, the cell, the cells, the organ, the limb, the body, the family, the community, the state, the country, the continent, the hemisphere, the planet, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe, the mind of God". What a useful word "the" is. German is logical so this language says, " der Junge, die Jungen, das Mädchen, die Mädchen, die Kuh, die Herde, die Wassermelone, die Ernte, die Zelle, die Zellen, die Orgel, das Bein, des Körpers, der Familie, der Gemeinschaft, des Staates, das Land, dem Kontinent, die Halbkugel der Erde (literally - half scoop of earth!), des Sonnensystems, der Galaxie, das Universum, der Geist Gottes. Der, die, das - and we're not even talking about the prepositional variations as yet!
But - it is good to begin to formerly work on this language because it is not one that just gets absorbed by hanging around German speakers and there is progress. It's just hard for the half century plus brain to exercise cells that have lain domant for so long. The great motivtion, besides better understanding this place and culture we live in and besides making life all around a bit easier, is Diane and I get to compete on test and quiz scores.
Well, gotta study now!
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2 comments:
you can learn it by hanging out with germans....the thing is that you cant hang out that much with germans in Kandern (which I secretly call an american colony when speaking about it ; ) ) the german mentality is probably not as supporting for learning it though. we either want to help by responding to the german phrases with english or we want to practice english ...sorry for you guys! But generally when not talking of kandern the absorbing works if you are consequently speaking german with americans. 3months and we got a pretty fluent german speaker from ohio in our church...Aber ich liebe Kandern und ich wünsche euch viel Erfolg beim Deutschlernen!
I'm reading a book by Peter Viertel, a memoir of the late 40's & 50's, centered on his screen writing career, but especially his friendship with Papa Hemingway. PV recalls all the creative/literary Germans who visited his parent's salon in California (they left Berlin in the 20's), who invariably dismissed some innovative new American piece as being just a derivative of something European.."so & so did that in Berlin back in '23"...so much for the smug claim of economical, logical grammar! Not that there aren't lots of nutty things about English, but at least we don't dwell on the dative, or genderfy stuff! Keep Enjoying, you'all look good with gray hair! Paul D.
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