Apr 17, 2023·edited Apr 17, 2023Liked by Gregory Warner
One of the weirder multi-lingual experiences I've had was ending up in a Russian-Ukrainian-English conversation taking place among three people plus myself. Each of the other three people was using a different language of choice to speak while understanding all three. I could understand everything that was being said, but I couldn't say anything. It was like my brain shortcircuit-ed and couldn't decide among the languages available to it for a response.
Another thing I really love are the literal translations of certain German sayings, like “Now we have the salad!” Or “I hold it not out!”
And to find these funny, you have to know both languages.
In Germany, English is used a lot in advertising, sometimes alone and sometimes together with German. It’s not always effective, but keeps bilinguals on our toes.
My favorite experience of bilingualism since living in Germany for the past 24 years: the “openness” in my brain--it’s hard to explain, but I carry these two languages (English, my native language, and German, which I learned in high school and then again/for real when I moved here) with me everywhere I go, and it’s especially fun to read things as if they could be either language. Advertisements like “Hell Bier” or “Bad Ideen” or a sign with a doctor’s name “Just Neiss” are all really hilarious to me because part of me will know the German pronunciation and meaning, but the persistent born-in-America part of me will read them as if they’re English, and then crack up.
My husband grew up in an area of Germany where there is an ethnic minority who speaks a different language--Sorbish, a Slavic language. And when we’re there for a visit and we attend church services with my mother-in-law, I know that I won’t understand a thing. So I play this little game and open my mind to the *sounds* of the language and listen for any combination of sounds that might make sense to me--in English, German, Spanish, French (any language I’ve had contact with). And I *always* hear several “words” this way, which are, of course, completely without context, and this makes the whole thing become a kind of crazy hilarious poetry performance for me.
I wonder if anyone can relate at all to what I’m talking about???
This is a friend's story to tell...but briefly, my US-born friend also speaks Russian, which allowed her to connect with a few baristas at a neighborhood Starbucks. Then the current invasion occurred, and the baristas stopped speaking to her in Russian and shifted to another language among themselves. Connection lost due to geopolitics. Which is exactly why we need the stories that you tell, Gregory.
One of the weirder multi-lingual experiences I've had was ending up in a Russian-Ukrainian-English conversation taking place among three people plus myself. Each of the other three people was using a different language of choice to speak while understanding all three. I could understand everything that was being said, but I couldn't say anything. It was like my brain shortcircuit-ed and couldn't decide among the languages available to it for a response.
Another thing I really love are the literal translations of certain German sayings, like “Now we have the salad!” Or “I hold it not out!”
And to find these funny, you have to know both languages.
In Germany, English is used a lot in advertising, sometimes alone and sometimes together with German. It’s not always effective, but keeps bilinguals on our toes.
Here’s some linguistic nerding out for you: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110465600-009/html?lang=en
My favorite experience of bilingualism since living in Germany for the past 24 years: the “openness” in my brain--it’s hard to explain, but I carry these two languages (English, my native language, and German, which I learned in high school and then again/for real when I moved here) with me everywhere I go, and it’s especially fun to read things as if they could be either language. Advertisements like “Hell Bier” or “Bad Ideen” or a sign with a doctor’s name “Just Neiss” are all really hilarious to me because part of me will know the German pronunciation and meaning, but the persistent born-in-America part of me will read them as if they’re English, and then crack up.
My husband grew up in an area of Germany where there is an ethnic minority who speaks a different language--Sorbish, a Slavic language. And when we’re there for a visit and we attend church services with my mother-in-law, I know that I won’t understand a thing. So I play this little game and open my mind to the *sounds* of the language and listen for any combination of sounds that might make sense to me--in English, German, Spanish, French (any language I’ve had contact with). And I *always* hear several “words” this way, which are, of course, completely without context, and this makes the whole thing become a kind of crazy hilarious poetry performance for me.
I wonder if anyone can relate at all to what I’m talking about???
Please tell us about your year learning accordion and teaching philosophy at Donetsk University!!!
Love this.
This is a friend's story to tell...but briefly, my US-born friend also speaks Russian, which allowed her to connect with a few baristas at a neighborhood Starbucks. Then the current invasion occurred, and the baristas stopped speaking to her in Russian and shifted to another language among themselves. Connection lost due to geopolitics. Which is exactly why we need the stories that you tell, Gregory.