Tuesday, October 6, 2009

German Class Round-Up

I am entering my seventh month of German classes (my 3rd in Frankfurt) and although I'm not so sure I will ever get a job for which German fluency will be necessary, I am glad to be learning more about German language and culture. But mostly I enjoy classes because I have a very juvenile sense of humor. I laugh out loud, or sometimes covertly, through most of class.

Because I aim to please, I have translated the best quotes from my classmates into English for you. Recapping the stories that go with these quotes would probably be boring, but feel free to imagine the weird conversations that precipitated these:

"Ha ha. You have made a mistake. Now you will be beaten!"

"Your government is corrupt. You need some communism."

"Ghosts are a different topic than foreigners."

"Can you better define this 'shit'?"

"In my life I have experienced that men fillet very often. (long pause) Oh, I mean flirt, flirt very often."

"Where is that answer in the text?"
"Between the lines."
"Between which lines?"

"Please, I am very frustrated and I would like to speak with your ladder!"

"Men are primitive. Primitive, but sexy."

I suppose the funniest part of German class is that everyone comes from radically different cultural backgrounds, which apparently have very different ways of looking at issues. Or they are all completely nuts, I'm not 100% sure either way. But my favorite classmate is Natasha, who is on holiday in Belarus for the last two weeks. :( She speaks so fast that our teachers can't correct her and she is full of ideas. One class we spent conversing about controversial issues and I lost it during the third issue because Natasha had for all topics this chain of logic

bad parenting ---> teens putting their shoes on the u-bahn seats ----> Controversial issue X

X= school shootings, truancy, racism, alcoholism, drug abuse

The moral of the story is, never put your feet on a chair when in Belarus. Who knew one could learn so much about the nature of life in a German class?

Are you from Belarus? Do you know any further societal ills caused by putting your feet up on public transportation? Feel free to leave a comment.

2 comments:

Juliana said...

Personally, I would have chosen the dialog you wrote today about a certain someone sleeping with the boss... or maybe your speech for my wedding? :) the quotes are very nice.
I remember I was teaching animal names one day and I asked if someone knew how to say butterfly in German. One of my students didn't hesitate and said Butterfliege!! I love that word. Invented words are so much funnier than normal ones!
Schönes WE!

Bonnie Jean said...

Ah, Katy, I love seeing that you've updated your blog - somehow, the idea of you attempting to learn German and moving about every three seconds always put my own issues with non-working doorbells and missing electrical keys (and English "customer service") rather into perspective. I keep repeating to myself: Katy survived it, I can too... ;)