Recently I have been pondering the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which: postulates a systematic relationship between the grammatical categories of the language a person speaks and how that person both understands the world and behaves in it (wikipedia says it better than I can!) This isn´t surprising given that I spend a large amount of time learning a new language and I am fairly immersed in a culture I wasn´t familiar with 4 months ago, and I still am not used to. My language is starting to develop to the point where I can over hear conversations, read things and get the general idea (I finished my second romance novel the other day) and sort of understand television.
My high contact with Germans time is during my commute, which takes over four hours of my day when I head out to Basel. What are these German´s saying to each other? Why doesn´t anybody smile? Why do they look so pissed off at the world? Why do the men at my work never smile at me, or make eye contact, or respond to me saying Hallo (the Germanized hello). Who knows. But I think I am starting to get an idea. When your language has over 12 ways to say the, who has time to respond to an innocuous Hello. When you have to think about declination all day, how can you look anything but pissed off.
Ok, that´s not where I was going originally, but these serious Germans undergo a miraculous transformation when they turn on the English. Suddenly they are smiling and animated and energetic. Jane made the observation that many German men go from sounding sort of manly and serious in German to becoming giggling and valley girl esque in English. I certainly noticed that with my trainer!
I am excited to find out what actually goes on when the Germans speak German because at this point all I know is they say genau (exactly) zum bespiel (for an example) and alles klar (everything is clear) way too often. Just thinking about those examples is a peak into the cultural window.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Saturday, November 3, 2007
In Search of Kurbis
It is the Kurbis - or pumpkin - time of year. Everywhere I look I see advertisements or signs of pumpkin soup. What are the cooking on tv? Pumpkin soup. What is that in the newspaper, oh, a recipe for pumpkin soup. I wrote about my attempt to make pumpkin soup with pickled pumpkin..today I was going to find some form of pumpkin and make the soup. So Jan and I got up and went into the city. We browsed the market, but the pumpkins looked hard to deal with, so we decided to try the specialty food shop. Finally, we asked for help. The women helpfully said, that there is no such thing as pumpkin puree, no such thing as cubed pumpkins in a jar. You have to make pumpkin anything out of a real live pumpkin. Great. Jan said there is probably a conspiracy with the pumpkin farmers guild to keep pumpkin puree off the market and I am starting to agree.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The 7:18 Strikes Again
This morning was rough for a few reasons:
1. I had to wake up early to write a test. Not so horrible, but not exactly fun.
2. After washing my hair cut styled hair, Jan told me it was back to looking straw like. I guess that means frizzy - but I am on a quest to get rid of the straw hair.
3. The 7:18 train was crowded to the point of some guy leaning against me even though school is on vacation. But that extra hour in the morning is soooooo nice.
1. I had to wake up early to write a test. Not so horrible, but not exactly fun.
2. After washing my hair cut styled hair, Jan told me it was back to looking straw like. I guess that means frizzy - but I am on a quest to get rid of the straw hair.
3. The 7:18 train was crowded to the point of some guy leaning against me even though school is on vacation. But that extra hour in the morning is soooooo nice.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Strange Encounters with the Germans
Yesterday I had a fitness evaluation at my new gym and a hair cut. Here are some highlights of the two experiences.
1. The guy in the gym and I spoke in a mixture of German and English. He continuously referred to the lower body as downstairs and the upper body as upstairs.
2. When I wasn't sitting far enough back he said something like, make sure your booty has contact with the seat.
3. The poor man was clearly flustered by my high percentage of body fat and low VO2 capacity so he continously reassured me that nothing was accurate, especially for women.
On to haircutting
4. She had me stand up for the entire hair cut. Soooo bizarre.
5. She asked if I wanted to blow dry my hair or have her do it. Unwittingly, I said she should do it. She proceeded to hang about 8 brushes from my head and took 30 minutes to dry the hair.
6. For said treatment I think she charged me an extra 20 euros. Great.
I promise a picture post soon. I've been taking a lot. I just need to get them uploaded.
1. The guy in the gym and I spoke in a mixture of German and English. He continuously referred to the lower body as downstairs and the upper body as upstairs.
2. When I wasn't sitting far enough back he said something like, make sure your booty has contact with the seat.
3. The poor man was clearly flustered by my high percentage of body fat and low VO2 capacity so he continously reassured me that nothing was accurate, especially for women.
On to haircutting
4. She had me stand up for the entire hair cut. Soooo bizarre.
5. She asked if I wanted to blow dry my hair or have her do it. Unwittingly, I said she should do it. She proceeded to hang about 8 brushes from my head and took 30 minutes to dry the hair.
6. For said treatment I think she charged me an extra 20 euros. Great.
I promise a picture post soon. I've been taking a lot. I just need to get them uploaded.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Weinacht Already
Those in the Clark family will be happy to know that Marzipan Kartoffels are already in the stores. Unfortunately, Jan decided to give away the last two packets to the guys who delivered our new table. (sure, they did it for free, but he should have given them a tip or something!) Jan is generally much more generous with anything marzipan than I am. All of the stores have Christmas displays and last night, the Munster - the Cathedral - in the center of the city was illuminated by lights. We decided that they must be testing them, but who knows, maybe it is already that time of year.
I am excited about the Christmas markets and Gluh wine and all of the fun of Christmas time, but it's not even Halloween yet. Or Thanksgiving... It all seems a little bit premature.
I am excited about the Christmas markets and Gluh wine and all of the fun of Christmas time, but it's not even Halloween yet. Or Thanksgiving... It all seems a little bit premature.
Pumpkin Soup
In honor of fall, last week I decided to make pumpkin soup. Pumpkin soup is very popular in Germany and somehow I kept hearing about it. So I sent Jan off to the store to find some canned pumpkin or at least some form of pumpkin that is ready for cooking. Jan came home with two very nice looking class jars of cubed pumpkin. So one chilly night I picked up a can of coconut milk and set of to make Thai inspired pumpkin soup. This went well as I sauteed the onions, put in some spices and then poured in the pumpkin chunks. At this point I decided to taste the pumpkin and it tasted sort of funny. I looked at the jar and realized that it was PICKLED PUMPKIN. Gross. So not sure what to do, I kept on cooking the soup, hoping that you can cook out pickle flavor. I learned that no matter what you add, the pickle flavor goes nowhere. Soon there will be pumpkin soup take two.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
A Wedding and A Class Reunion all in Two Days
Last weekend was wonderful. Jan and I headed out for his former roommate's wedding and his 10th class reunion.
First we rented a car. For reasons that I still do not understand, Jan opted out of the exciting convertible mini cooper and instead went with some French car.
With our new car we spent a day doing as much shopping/stockpiling as possible.
Usually, Jan and I are carless, and any shopping is a production involving a bike, a backpack, and very strategic packing. We now have enough canned tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato sauce, olives, and condiments to last us through (I hope) much of the winter. Now instead of riding bikes up the steep hill, in the snow, with about 50 pounds on our backs, we can eat endless pots of chili.
The Wedding
We almost didn't make it to the wedding - we were late due to a detour and then could not find the town hall. After much searching and asking for directions, we found it, but it seemed to be abandoned. Just as we were about to give up hope, the wedding party came walking down the hill and we promptly jumped in our car to follow them to the reception.
The reception was at a resort/hotel/spa in the Black Forest. It was beautiful, if a little chili. We started with champagne on the deck, but quickly went inside to a long sit down dinner.
Jan's former roommate met his now wife when she studied abroad in Freiburg and lived next door. She is Australian, so Jan and I sat at the Australian table (so I could actually communicate). The Australians were pretty funny and good company.
Germans have a thing called Program at weddings - events that are planned. We were entertained by a very good a capella group who wore costumes and were very funny. The brides brothers sang some songs, and we saw a slide show of the groom growing up. All in all very sweet.
Jan and I stayed up until 2 and then hit the bed at our hotel.
The next day we had a delicious breakfast and checked out. We visited Jan's father and brother for lunch and then passed out for several hours.
Jan's class reunion was also fun and I found out some juicy info on Jan such as the story of Wilde Hilde. Many of Jan's classmates are still students, still live at home, etc. Germans don't seem to hurry to get to the financially independent, good job stage of life.
Now I have a week left of no teaching, and I am devoting myself to sleeping, reading, and trying to learn German. :)
First we rented a car. For reasons that I still do not understand, Jan opted out of the exciting convertible mini cooper and instead went with some French car.
With our new car we spent a day doing as much shopping/stockpiling as possible.
Usually, Jan and I are carless, and any shopping is a production involving a bike, a backpack, and very strategic packing. We now have enough canned tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato sauce, olives, and condiments to last us through (I hope) much of the winter. Now instead of riding bikes up the steep hill, in the snow, with about 50 pounds on our backs, we can eat endless pots of chili.
The Wedding
We almost didn't make it to the wedding - we were late due to a detour and then could not find the town hall. After much searching and asking for directions, we found it, but it seemed to be abandoned. Just as we were about to give up hope, the wedding party came walking down the hill and we promptly jumped in our car to follow them to the reception.
The reception was at a resort/hotel/spa in the Black Forest. It was beautiful, if a little chili. We started with champagne on the deck, but quickly went inside to a long sit down dinner.
Jan's former roommate met his now wife when she studied abroad in Freiburg and lived next door. She is Australian, so Jan and I sat at the Australian table (so I could actually communicate). The Australians were pretty funny and good company.
Germans have a thing called Program at weddings - events that are planned. We were entertained by a very good a capella group who wore costumes and were very funny. The brides brothers sang some songs, and we saw a slide show of the groom growing up. All in all very sweet.
Jan and I stayed up until 2 and then hit the bed at our hotel.
The next day we had a delicious breakfast and checked out. We visited Jan's father and brother for lunch and then passed out for several hours.
Jan's class reunion was also fun and I found out some juicy info on Jan such as the story of Wilde Hilde. Many of Jan's classmates are still students, still live at home, etc. Germans don't seem to hurry to get to the financially independent, good job stage of life.
Now I have a week left of no teaching, and I am devoting myself to sleeping, reading, and trying to learn German. :)
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