Nine … Ich weiß nicht!! Ich spreche kein deutsch
Bist du krank im koft?
nach einem Freund fragen …
the back story ...
Took 2 years of German in high school. The teacher gave us an assignment of creating a question to ask the teacher. The above question was what I came up with and strangely one of the few phrases I retained over the years. It made the class laugh and I got a passing grade for the assignment.
der die das die
den die das die
dem der dem der
des der des der
I memorized it for a test and is has (basically) stuck all these years.
the back story
1 year of German in HS and the conjugation of the word “the.”
Our assignment was in going to a German deli and ordering a sandwich. “Bitte machen Sie mir ein Roastbeef-Sandwich”
“Please make me a roast beef sandwich”
I do remember a little more because of my “roots”. but not very much and I usually Google translate to make sure I got it right, LOL.
“ich liebe dich” is one I would tell me girlfriends … LOL
Add “Borbecker Plat” from what my relatives told me.
Often we simply say “dat”…Honestly, I hated my german classes because I could fall back on to what sounded right when I spoke it. Never learned the grammar behind it well. But got an A in my only year of 4th year German as a Sophmore and then in college took a conversational German class as a pre-freshman. Probably would have flunked a grammar test though.
Ach du lieber
Verdammt, I took four years of German in high school… Never did pass.
Two years here. Almost nothing retained.
The first year was taught by a Czechoslovakian who did a good job teaching German. The second year taught by a German who had a hard time teaching his own language. He studied to be a teacher, but had not intended to teach that. It was a pleasant class as it didn’t take much to get him started just talking about life in Germany.
The Czechoslovakian shook his head over some of our expressions. “Back and Fort” – NO NO – you can’t start out going back, first you must go Fort – it should be “Fort and Back”
Only one year for me, hardly anthing retained. I can count and sing most of Oh Christmas Tree. All together now…Oh Tannenbaum, oh Tannenbaum, wie troi sind deine blatter.
I’m shocked at how many took German. I always thought French and Spanish were the staples. I just happened to have a little old lady (about 4’ 9") with hair to the ground when she took it out of the bun she always wore that taught at our private school.
Not shocked but do find it interesting …
We grew up in an area where there were a lot of people of German heritage. A lot of relatives were German and Irish. The year, that we started high school, we moved to southern California and was still thinking German would be good (besides it seemed easy compared to French or Spanish). Fifty years later living in Texas, pretty sure we should have taken Spanish.
Why didn’t somebody tell us we should have studied Spanish? 4 years of German here. Used to be useful, when travelling to Germany, and was a lifesaver once in Czechoslovakia. (An elderly gentleman came to my aid–he’d had to learn German during WW 2.)
My recent high school grad started German in middle school and took it all the way through high school. I studied French, and kid had won the 6th grade French award, so I was originally sad but grew to appreciate and now even admire modern German.
My French studies started in kindergarten, continued through 5th grade, and then I had two challenging years in high school–my only Bs!
My foreign language in college was statistics–no joke. Stats classes counted for FL credits, as did coding (which I did not take).
My Spanish is limited to “que hora es?” and “donde esta…?” and I’m sure I neither wrote nor say them correctly!
I get that. For me, my father served in Frankfort during the Korean War. Lucky for him, he was a tall guy, they made him a MP for his time in service.
For that same reason, I ended up as an electrician, since as a laborer I got in front of the bulldozer one to many times.
I guess I wanted to learn all the words he knew in German. Though as I recall they were mostly “naughty” and not taught to us in the classroom.
I did keep trying, even after four years of German I never did pass the first year. That is fine, at least they let me keep trying. Not exactly like today, it was not a thing at the time.
My son had a similar path, he took Latin, never did pass. Though the school let him try. I remember one conference with the Latin teacher. I wanted him to quit, she said, no he needs to keep trying. “He is growing very smart in our class.” Like I, he never did pass, yet she was correct.
He left the earth soon after that. Every time @Dogtamer “speaks” I think of him.
I lived in Luxembourg from ages 7-12. Required to take French for 5 years and only know a few common phrases. In my defense, I went to an American school and most of my friends were American (DuPont and Goodyear have plants there).
You’re doing all right!
I wish I was a fluent speaker and listener in Spanish. It’s the foreign language my mother took in high school, and she loves it, has been to Spain, etc–though she is also not fluent, but a proficient reader, basic speaker, and adequate listener.
School-only learning puts students into artificial emphasis on printed language and unrealistic expectations of speech speed.
My languages in school were French and Spanish. I’m more proficient in French and have visited France multiple times and have used it there. I only had three semesters of Spanish, I can read it better than I can speak it. Many French and Spanish words are similar which helps with understanding written Spanish.
I don’t speak German but have been in Germany and Austria and I know a handful of words from traveling there. I once stayed with a German family for a few days and listened to them while they casually chatted in their native language. German can be a very descriptive language and a couple of words popped up while they were chatting that caught my ears’ attention. One word sounded like “Slobberish”. My host said that it was a (baby’s) bib. In this case, “slobber” is a good word for a bib. I couldn’t find it in the online translators but I will take her word for it. The other word was “Stinktier” which means “skunk”. Having a word with “stink” in it is a good descriptor for a skunk.
LOL
My most useful phrase in Spanish, other than the ordinary pleasantries: Una cervesa, por favor.
Worked well in Uraguay and Argentina. Also Agua con gas, por favor, before noon.
Your post reminds of of something that tickled my brother so much that it stayed with him for better than fifty years. He had to borrow a car – a Volkswagon bug. This was when they were somewhat new to America and attracted a lot of interest. A previous owner had used a dymo labeler to create labels for various things in pseudo-German. Der blinken-klicken for the turn signal; die weipen-flappen for the windshield wipers. He sadly does not remember the rest.
Back when I was still drinking we traveled to Mexico quite a bit and that came in handy. I was also able to use “el baño por favor”. My problem is that my Spanish is ‘limited’ so asking in Spanish inevitably ended up with the answer being in Spanish and me having to have my wife interpret for me.
She taught Spanish at nearly all levels over the years. Our High School had an exchange program with schools in Mexico City for about 25 years. She and other teachers would take a group of 50 or 60 students down one year and then host about 100 Mexican students coming up here the next year. Always at Spring Break (Easter) for about 10 days.
I went along a few times and they went all over Mexico – had some interesting times with the mummies in Guanajuato. Some of the HS girls were somewhat surprised to see certain male features in their full state.
She has been retired for probably 25 years but still has a former student see her and talk to her for a while – rarely in Spanish! She is the store interpreter for the customers that are more comfortable in their native language which happens a lot.
My ‘language’ was French and the best part of it was having an actual teacher from France teach as an exchange teacher for 1 year. Well, at least until the administration informed her that here in the US teachers were expected to wear a bra… (It was the early 1960’s after all.)