Friday Shuffle - Language Week Edition

Before I could speak much German I could sing in German. I think learning songs, just simple tunes, can help you learn a foreign language.

I started with a couple children's songs. B's memory is faulty when it comes to stuff like this but the first tune I learned to sing was:

Fuchs, du hast die Gans gestohlen, gib sie wieder her, gib sie wieder her!
Sonst wird dich der Jäger holen, mit dem Schießgewehr!
Sonst wird dich der Jäger holen, mit dem Schießgewehr!

Translation:
Fox, you've stolen the goose, give it back!
Else we'll get hunter with his gun!

And I learned:

Alle meine Entchen,
schwimmen auf dem See, schwimmen auf dem See,
Köpfchen in das Wasser,
Schwänzchen in die Höh'.

Translation:
All my little ducks
Swimming on the lake
Little head in the water
Little tail in the air.

Sometimes while goofing around I'll sing to the tune of Alle meine Entchen:

Alle meine Entchen
Gib sie wieder her!
Kopfchen in das Wasser
Mit dem Schießgewehr

I then progressed to learning the chorus of songs one may hear in a beer tent or at a barbecue party when the beer is flowing freely and the corny music you'd never listen to otherwise is played. Everyone sings along and sways or claps and honestly it's a lot of fun when everyone's a little tipsy and in a fine mood. I learned songs like Der Eierman and:

An der Nordseeküste, am plattdeutschen Strand
Sind die Fische im Wasser und selten an Land

Translation:
On the North Sea coast, on the flat German beach (it's a play on words meaning the area where Plattdeutsch is spoken)
The fish are in the water and seldom on land.

These are songs that everyone learns the chorus to. Whether you hear a recording of the song or hear a band sing it live, they sing the verses and everyone joins in on the chorus. One of the most popular songs that everyone sing along with the chorus is this:

Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht, aber unsere Liebe nicht.
Alles, alles geht vorbei, doch wir sind uns treu.

Translation:
Marble, stone and iron break but our love doesn't.
Everything will someday be over but we'll remain faithful.

I have been in a lot of beer tents and beer gardens and parties and I have never hear that song played when everyone didn't join in singing the chorus. Everyone. From old ladies to teenagers to hulking tattooed types - I see them sing. I was once convinced that you weren't allowed to live in this country unless you knew those two lines of lyrics.

Until this point I only knew the chorus of songs but finally I learned an entire song in German from start to finish and it happens to be one of my favorite song. It's by an old East German rock band called The Puhdys called Alt wie ein Baum and some of the lyrics are:

Alt wie ein Baum möchte ich werden
genau wie der Dichter es beschreibt,
alt wie ein Baum, mit einer Krone die weit-weit-weit-weit
die weit über Felder zeigt.

Alle meine Träume . . . fang' ich damit ein
Alle meine Träume . . . yeh yeh yeh
zwischen Himmel und Erde zu sein
zwischen Himmel und Erde zu sein.

Translation:
I'd like to become old like a tree
Just like the poet has written
Old like a tree, with a crown (treetop)
with a reach that spreads out over the fields.

All my dreams...begin with one
All my dreams...yeah, yeah, yeah
To be between heaven and earth.

Here - take a peek and hear for yourself how the song goes.



I saw the Puhdys sing the song live a few years ago on German Reunification Day when the national celebration was held in Magdeburg and I had tears in my eyes and so did everyone around me. Singing along loudly with tears in our eyes. Music has such power to unite people, regardless of which language it's sung.

Time to shuffle:

1. Come And Get Your Love - Redbone
2. Dirty Harry - Gorillaz
3. You Only Live Once - The Strokes
4. Son Of A Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield
5. Hurt - Johnny Cash
6. Thick As A Brick - Jethro Tull
7. Surrender - Cheap Trick
8. Adalida - George Strait
9. Lust For Life - Iggy Pop
10. Big Ten Inch Record - Aerosmith

Have a great weekend. And sing out. Loud.

Because I Said I Would

It's nearly 11:15pm and I'm in a semi-panic because I haven't written a blog entry for today and the prospects of finding something interesting about which to write dwindle by the second. On any other day this would be remedied by my skipping it for a day and instead curling up on the sofa to watch an episode of Criminal Minds and puzzle over why I find Matthew Gray Gubler alternately hot and nerdy. In my world hot and nerdy generally never go together but he pulls it off quite well and all the while wearing some pretty daring dork glasses which I found out recently aren't part of his character's costume but are instead his own real pair of glasses. Plus he has the sort of sense of humor that I love.

Warum mache ich Heute nicht einfach keinen Eintrag? Weil es die Language Week ist und ich habe gesagt ich schreibe jeden Tag etwas in meinen Blog in einer andren Sprache. Einen Tag auszulassen würde mich unvollständig und rastlos lassen. Es wurde mich geschlagen fuhlen lassen. Die bittere Realität mich selbst zu etwas zu verpflichten und es dann nicht fertigzustellen. Ich wurde mich fühlen als ob ich dafür veräntwortlich wär, ein Naturgesetz geändert zu haben und mir dadurch etwas schlimmes passern wurde wie z.B. wieder ins Krankenhaus zu kommen und im TV wurde nichts anderes laufen als Wiederholungen von Full House.

Translation: So why aren't I skipping today's entry? Because it's Language Week and I said I'd write a blog entry every day featuring a language in which I don't normally write. Skipping a day would leave me restless and incomplete. I'd experience the hollow feeling of defeat. The bitter reality of committing myself to something and leaving it unfinished. I'd leave myself open to a shift in the rules of nature and something bad may happen to me like being stuck in the hospital with nothing but re-runs of Full House on TV.

There. There's your German. All's now right with the world.

Let's sum up today's blog entry:

• Nothing happened in my life today that warranted mention in my blog.
• I felt compelled to write a blog entry anyway because of my participation in Language Week and not doing so would give me a bad feeling.
• The words published here have helped me narrowly avoid the disaster of potentially being subjected to the most un-funny TV show in history.
• Matthew Gray Gubler is hot in a nerdy way.

All Together Now

Language Week, Day Three. I'll give you a paragraph of German.

Ich bin eine dieser fanatischen Personen, die es nicht aushalten können, wenn sich die verschiedenen Lebensmittel auf dem Teller gegenseitig berühren. Einige Lebensmittel können sich berühren. Es macht mich nicht verrückt, wenn sich mein Ruhrei und der Speck berührt, aber es werde mich verrückt machen, wenn sich der Speck und der Ahornsirup berühren. Ich esse Gemüse von verschiedenen Schüsseln, damit sich zum Beispiel das Wasser von meinen Spinat nicht mit dem Hünchen berührt. Pommes Frites dürfen nichts anderes berühren, wie zum Beispiel Soße oder ähnliches. Ketchup und Majo mussen immer getrent sein. Ich esse Wurst und Kartoffelsalat von verschiedenen Tellern. Wenn der Kartoffelsalat die Wurst berührt odor den Ketchup, dann wurde mein Kopf implodieren wie die Luke bei Lost.

Translation: I'm one of those fanatical people who can't stand it if their food touches on the plate. Some foods can touch. I won't go crazy if my scrambled eggs touches the bacon but I would go nuts if the syrup from my pancakes touched the bacon. I eat vegetables in separate bowls to prevent something terrible happening like the water from my spinach touching my chicken. French fries have to be kept free of any touching of food or sauces. Ketchup and mayonnaise has to be separate for French fry dipping. If I'm eating wurst and potato salad they have to be on separate little plates because if the potato salad touches the wurst or the ketchup touches the potato salad my head will cave in like the hatch implosion on Lost.

And yet this was my supper tonight:



That's a Döner Teller - essentially the ingredients of a Döner Kebap without the bread and with French fries thrown in as well. And it's all on the same plate. Slices of lamb. Salad comprising of lettuce, red cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes and corn. The afore mentioned fries. And it's all slathered with tzatziki sauce and some sort of red steak sauce stuff. And it's all touching! What's even worse, I fork it all up - meat, fries, salad, sauces all together - and shove it into my mouth. Mingling. Foods that normally should not only be on separate plates but you'd be lucky if I let them be on the same table together and yet I happily and greedily gobble them down in that Döner-y mishmash, all the while nearly making the food-gasm moaning noise as my eyes roll to the back of my head.

Maybe it has something to do with me being an American in Germany eating food made by Turks. I'm making my mouth into a sort of United Nations.

Bi-lingual Happiness

It's day two of Language Week - third day I've been writing some of my blog entry in German. If I do it an extra day does that mean I get extra credit? A gold star? Brownies after supper?

In any case, we've got knitting talk and we've got good news. Which first? Oh let's do knitting first. If I give you the good news first you'll skip the knitting.

The first sock of the Simulated Basket Weave socks I'm knitting for Darling Mollie is finished.



Technical information: It's knit with two skeins of Regina 4-ply Silk yarn, one in black, one in pink. The black is well used but I believe I have more than enough pink leftover in the skein to knit the second sock.

I want credit for knitting that sock with two colors of yarn and I didn't turn it into something that looks like a monkey has been at it. Mosaic pattern knitting isn't really difficult as long as you keep track of which round you're knitting and you keep your yarns separated and not allow them to get wrapped in one another. I strongly recommend using a yarn bra for each skein to aid with that. Take an old pair of pantyhose and make your own.

That was all in English because I knit English style I'm simply too lazy to translate all of that, plus I don't know a lot of German knitting vocabulary and B's rubbish at German knitting vocabulary as well. I'll present the good news in German and translate for you.

Es ist ofiziell. Es gibt kein zurück mehr. Ich habe mein Ticket gebucht und bezahlt um im Oktober in die USA zu fliegen. Ich verlasse Deutschland am 10. Oktober, verbringe einen nicht enden wollenden Tag im Flugzeug nach Memphis, und zur Abendbrotzeit bin ich in Mississippi. Ich besuche dort meine Familie. Freundinnen von mir von überall aus den Staaten kommen um mich dort zu sehen an einem Wochenende. Dann am Abend des 27. Oktober sage ich meinem Heimatland auf weidersehen, hoffentlich nicht für immer.

Weißst du was das Beste an einem Besuch zu Hause ist? Ich muss werend der ganzen Zeit nicht Deutsch sprechen. Weißt du was komisch ist am Besuch zu Hause? Ich erwische mich selbst dabai ab und zu Deutsch zu sprechen.

Translation:It's official. No turning back now. I've booked and paid for my ticket to fly to the US in October. I leave Germany on October 10th, spend a nearly unending day flying to Memphis, and by supper time in Mississippi I'll be there. I'll be there visiting with family, friends of mine are coming in from around the US to visit me on one of the weekends I'm there and then on the evening of October 27th I'll be saying goodbye to my homeland once more - hopefully not for good.

Know what's one of the best parts of going home for a visit? I don't have to speak German the whole time. Know what's one of the weird parts of going home for a visit? I'll find myself speaking German sometimes anyway.

Consequences of Nosiness

Yeah, sorta cheating today. I didn't myself write the German you're about to read but I did do the translation on my own.

I came upstairs from fetching the mail this morning and plopped down on the sofa to read this to B:

Sehr geehrte Anwohnerin!

Sie wurden am heutigen Tage durch the Kriminalpolizei aufgesucht, jedoch nicht angetroffen.

In Zusammenhang einer Straftat vom 30.03.2007 wird eine Zeugin gesucht. Gegen 18.30 Uhr wurde auf der Straße vor Ihrem Haus ein PKW aufgebrochen und Sachen aus diesem entwendet. Hinweisen zu Folge soll eine Frau aus Ihrem Haus diese Straftat beobachtet und verantwortliche Personen gesehen haben.

Sofern Sie Hinweise geben können bitte ich Sie, sich mit mir telefonisch in Verbindung zu setzen. Ich bin tagsüber under der Rufnummer: blahblahblah.

Für Ihre Mitarbeit bedanke ich mich im Voraus.

[Name of police officer lady]
Kriminalhauptmeisterin

Translation: Dear Resident (the grammar indicates that it addresses a female resident),

Today the police investigation division was seeking you but you weren't at home (Note: I was home all morning - no one rang or came to my door).

We are seeking a witness [the grammar indicates a female witness] to a crime committed March 30, 2007. At approximately 6:30pm on the street where your apartment building is located an automobile was broken into and articles were stolen. Subsequent clues indicated that a woman from your apartment building had observed this crime and the responsible people involved.

If you can give further clues I ask you to contact me by telephone. I can be reached during the day at this telephone number: blahblahblahblah.

For your cooperation I thank you in advance.

[Name of police officer lady]

Lead Criminal Investigator

Of course at this point B nearly stood up and walked. He got all freaked out that I'd seen some sort of auto break-in and didn't bother to tell him about it. Not the case at all - since it was just shoved into the mailbox without an envelope and since the police didn't actually ring by us I believe it was put in every mailbox in our building.

Immediately I thought that I would be no help at all because I haven't seen anyone break into any cars around here. I live in the main shopping area of Magdeburg and there are metered parking spaces on either side of the street. While I recognize the cars belonging to some of my neighbors, for the most part the cars here are those belonging to people here to shop or go to the theater or visit a local restaurant. Unless I saw someone with a slim jim popping the lock on a car door, there's no way I could tell if someone was breaking into a car and stealing from it or if they were doing something in their own car. Evidently I'm not the female witness the police are seeking.

Then I got to thinking about the letter a bit more. How did they know that a female may have seen the break-in? Someone must have seen a woman looking out her window at the street below - someone who saw the woman but didn't see the break-in itself. And this witness would have to be someone that could be seen in the window from the street which leaves out anyone on the higher floor - to see into the windows on the higher floors someone would have to stand way far away and then they likely wouldn't be able to see if the person in the window was male or female.

So who would the observers of the person thought to be a witness to the crime? Perhaps the police who showed up first on the scene. It could be they saw someone looking out of their window down at them and are now thinking that perhaps that same woman saw the break-in as well. Hmmm...well I do live on one of the lower levels of the building - I live three floors above the ground. It wouldn't be hard for someone standing on the other side of the street to look up and see me if I were standing in my kitchen window, which is the window I'd normally use to look outside because the curtains come only halfway down the window. But I haven't seen anything unusual going on. No break-ins that I can remember.

And then I remembered that some time ago I saw police outside our building and they were talking to a couple and the doors were open to a Mercedes parked across the street. I even remember telling B about it - that I thought someone must have tried to steal a car or steal something in the car because the car was there and there were three or four police cars around. I even remember watching a cop take fingerprints off the car.

Holy smokes! Maybe they think I'm that witness! Yikes!

Maybe I should call this investigator after all. I don't remember what date I saw the cops with the Mercedes - it could have been at the end of March but it could have been last fall for all I remember. I do know it must have not been during the winter because it would have been too dark to see anything like fingerprinting the car and I don't remember the people wearing winter coats. I never saw a break-in but if I'm the witness they believe may have information, I maybe should tell them that while I watched them doing their police thing, I never saw any actual crime and this investigative path is a dead end.

And here I was so close to being like I was on an episode of Law & Order - albeit a lame one.

Apologies in Advance for Dodgy Grammar

Christina, always the lady in the know, turned me on to Language Week 2007 (June 25 to June 29) and since I'm always game to make a complete ass of myself take up a new challenge I thought I'd participate as well. Want to know the rules and what's it all about, Alfie? Take a look here. I'll be doing my entries in German as it's the language I know best after English. Pity. All those years and all that money spent on learning Spanish. I have a feeling that for every German word I learn, another Spanish word gets squeezed out of my head. I likely won't write entire blog entries in German - I simply don't have that sort of time to turn my brains to mush trying to figure out correct grammar and spelling - but I'll try a paragraph or two. With English translations provided, of course.

Wenn du eine neue Sprache lernst ist der erste Schritt sie zu verstehen. Dann lernst du sie zu sprechen. Danach lernst du in der neuen Sprache zu lesen und sie zu schreiben. In anderen Worten du beginnst mit dem einfachtesten Schritt gehst über zu unheimlich schwerigen teil bei dem du fast die Lust verlierst. Lesen ist nicht so schwer, aber schreiber kann schnell zu einer frustrierenden Erfahrung werden, besonders wenn du versuchst in einer Sprache zu schreiben, in der sich Gs anhören wie Ks und wenn du sprechen lernst du es auch noch in dem lokalen Akzent lernst, das wird dich auf jeden Fall in Schwerigkeiten bringen wenn du versuchst die Worte so zu schreiben wie du sie aussprichst.

Translation: When you learn a new language the first step is understanding it. Then you learn to speak it. Afterwards you learn to read and write in the new language. On other words you go from the most simple to something so annoyingly difficult that you don't even want to bother. Reading really isn't so bad but writing can quickly end up being an exercise in frustration, especially when you're trying write in a language where Gs can sound like Ks and when you learned to speak you learned a local accent that will definitely get you into trouble if you try to spell words the way you pronounce them.

Okay, that's enough German for today. I think I hurt myself.

Anyway, all I've said so far is that I honestly hate writing in German. Reading, while I'm not brilliant at it, is fine. I mean I can read newspapers and magazines but reading a novel would be too much work for me and I like reading to much to make it into a headache inducing effort. Writing intimidates me. I get freaked out about correct spelling and I always have to ask if I want to write das or dass in a particular sentence. Getting it wrong would be quite irksome to me. I can generally bullshit my way through understanding more complicated conversations. I find that people are usually rather forgiving of bad grammar and goofy pronunciation of words when I speak. I can generally get the gist of a newspaper article but writing? When you get it wrong it's out there for everyone to see. It's a heinous looking as white shoes with black stockings.

And that's why I'm taking up this challenge. It's an opportunity to improve my writing ability and it's a way to entice me into doing something I'm normally loath to do. And maybe by the end of the week I'll be able to figure out on my own to correctly use das or dass.