I went to a small church school. I won't tell you how many was in my graduating class because I probably already have. Ok 1. I said it was small! My mom was one of the main teachers and that fact alone caused me some grief with some of the kids in other grades. Some on and off again friendships stemmed from it.
Some of the high school kids. There WERE boys! just not in this pic. I'm in the back with hair hanging over my face.My Grandpa was the minister of our church and VERY German. He taught classes in German. We also had Latin for a couple years taught by someone actually NOT related to me! I think...
My older sister Ruth Ann and I were the only ones in one of the German classes one year. Grandpa had us translating passages out of a German Bible into English. It's really not too tough to do your homework when you have 15 English Bibles in the house... :) *score* But it was kind of funny to hear German translate into old English from young teenagers, so we had to mix it up a bit. Twist a few words around... Change the "thee"s to "you".
We also cheated a bit more than that... If our assignment was to translate several verses at one time from the Bible, we knew we didn't have to turn it in. During class Grandpa would have Ruth Ann read the translations of the even passages and then I'd do the odd.How ironic is that? Me? Odd? I guess it's descriptive...
So when we did our homework, Ruth Ann did only the even passages and I only did the odd. Then during class, Grandpa might forget and ask Ruth Ann to start with the odd passage. He was getting pretty old at that point and we were able to swap our papers under the table. He never caught on... I'm sure tho, where he is now, that he knows....
So getting back to my German phrases. I learned *some* German during those classes. I can probably figure out what a German sentence is about but definitely not fluently.
Here are some that I use on a regular basis besides the title of this post...
Wo bist du? - Where are you?
Ja das ist ein schnitzelbank. - Yes that is a schnitzelbank.
Das ist ein hund! - That is a dog!
Du bist ein hund! - You are a dog.
Achtung! - Attention!
Mach schnell! - Hurry up!
verboten. - Forbidden.
Was ist los? - What is the matter?
dummkopf. - dummy.
fraulein - young lady
ein bisschen - a little bit (we didn't ALWAYS use this in the proper context... kind of like swearing wrong in another language! so it really doesn't count.)
Most of which I learned from Hogan's Heros!
Whenever I use some of these phrases in everyday use, it always makes the kids stop and look at me funny with their head tilted...
Was ist dass du sprecht?
9 comments:
I think the German language is neat. When my daughter was young, she attended a German Magnet School and I was also able to take a class in conversational German. I remember a few phrases:
Wo ist mein ______? (Where is my _____?) The noun I insert is usually in English, though.
Ich habe hunger! (I'm hungry!) I say this one a lot.
Do you know the nursery song Der Katzentatzentanz? About the cat that dances on one leg?
That is so cool. I took French in high school and I completely regret it. I should have taken Spanish because Den, Anna, and DJ can speak Spanish. I'm pretty sure they are cussing at me but I can't tell. It's ok cuz I just cuss back in French. French just sounds kind of weak.
Have a great week!
DH throws some random foreign words and phrases at me sometimes. Irritates the hell out of me.
After seeing that photo of you as a teen all I can say is that you can NEVER deny that Ryan is your kid....not like you'd ever WANT to deny he is....or anything...lol
I took French like SonyaAnn...so we'll be over in the corner swearing and then waving a surrender flag.
I only had the option of French or Spanish in my high school tho my brother had taken German there 7 years earlier.
If the daughter does end up in the Air Force she has been given the choice of taking the Linguistics courses so she can learn Farsi and interrogate pows....oh goody!
for a minute there i thought i needed this page translated. haha...this is so neat....i wish i spoke another language....i can't comprehend the simplest words...:) love the old pics!
My FIL came to the US via Austria at the age of 14. The TO still knows a little German.
when ever I hear german it makes me think of my inlaws and I get very frightened ;-)
How cute you were!!! (and still are!)
Yeah, but what IS schnitzelbank? lol
All my sons took German in high school and did very well in it. If they are talking about something and don't want me to know about it, they'll start talking in German. That or they are just making stuff up just to piss me off :o/
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