When you haven’t spoken a foreign language for a little while, it’s always a little surprising just how quickly it all comes back to you. I was in Germany for barely 36 hours over the weekend, meeting some old friends and returning to Heidelberg once more.
With most of them being French or Swiss, we conversed in German for the most part, although as the girlfriend doesn’t speak German we had to do a lot in English too, so she wasn’t left out.
It’s weird which vocabulary comes back, and which words don’t. Often I’d find myself umming and ahhing as I tried to pull up a word from the recesses of my brain, but at other times I’d instantly be able to respond when someone else was asking for the translation of a random word. The mind is a funny thing.
Despite not being totally immersed in the German language this weekend (the girlfriend was with me, and there were some other Brits/English-speakers there too), by the time I got home I could tell that my brain was in some kind of linguistic limbo: I’d be looking out of the window on the bus or train, and my thoughts would wander from one language to the next. My sentences would start in one and finish in the other, without me intending to do so. It was just the way that my mind was wandering.
I sort of realised after a few minutes that it was happening, and it threw me. I’m not bilingual in any sense, but being in a German-saturated environment for a couple of days reawakened these pathways of a sort. It’s still in my head today, with odd German words or phrases popping up from time to time.
Damn, I’d love to be completely bilingual.
40 Minute. Wembley is back!! Nur umgekehrt wie 1966. Lampard haut den Ball unter die Latte, es geht klar hinter die Torlinie. Der Schiedsrichter hat es nicht gesehen. Man moechte sich nicht ausmalen, was jetzt in der Redaktion der “Sun” los ist.
From Der Spiegel’s minute-by-minute commentary of the England - Germany game. A rough translation:
40th minute. Wembley is back!! Only vice-versa from 1966. Lampard struck the ball against the bar, and it clearly bounced behind the goal-line. The referee didn’t see it. You don’t want to imagine what’s happening in the newsroom of The Sun now.
I love it, that’s gloriously German humour.
Oh, and it was a goal by an absolute mile. This might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in terms of introducing goal-line technology sooner rather than later.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Rammstein - Du Hast
Tomorrow evening, I’ll be ticking off one of the bands on my list that I’ve always wanted to see live: Rammstein. They’re on at Wembley Arena, and thankfully a mate of mine managed to get a couple of tickets.
Rammstein are famous for their live shows, which are usually full of explosions and incredibly pyro-maniac in nature. I read somewhere that they do this because they expect the general (non-German) audience not to fully understand the lyrics. Thus the music and the visuals become more important to the experience of the live show.
I’m biased, because I speak German, but I love this band. The lyrics are actually really clever in their use of puns and wordplay, and the themes they cover aren’t the usual ones you find in music. Put this together with some absolutely pounding industrial metal, and it’s a match made in heavy metal heaven.
I’m really excited about tomorrow night, and can’t wait. After Rammstein, the only two bands that I desperately want to see live: Korn, and Faithless. Sometime soon, sometime soon…
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It’s been a while since I posted about Julia Allison, but that German article doing the rounds today tickled me. It’s relatively scathing and has a real disbelief element ingrained throughout.
[Sidenote: I knew that years of learning German in school and then living there for a while would eventually come in handy.]
The premise is that our lovely JA is a “real life” Carrie from SATC, and that she has modelled her life on the character. I can’t be bothered to translate the whole article, but there’s some choice parts to it:
The Cream-cake/tart Factor [This is the title of the piece. It actually works better in English, as “tart” in German isn’t quite as dual-meaning/nasty as it is in English]
… Julia claimed, “If there’s a Carrie of my generation, I’m it!”
… And Julia has already found her Mr Big: “We drove through New York in his Mercedes cabriolet, and he showed me everything. I’ll never forget how he bought me my first ever pair of Manolo’s at Barneys.”
… That she only goes out with rich men is something she acknowledges: “Ambition and success are the criteria which fascinate me.” It’s just that successful men tend to have the most money.
… Tip: Let yourself be bought/sponsored. “My Mr Big financially supported me for two years.”
… Omnipresence is the key to success.
It just amuses and amazes me to hear of people that live in a completely different world to me and everyone I know. But that’s enough JA for one day.
