World Laughter Day May 6, 2012

Have you laughed today?? I hope so, because today, May 6, 2012 has been declared World Laughter Day!! It happens every year on the first Sunday in May.

It all began in Mumbai, India on January 11, 1998. The first celebration in the US was held in 2001 and organized by Steve Wilson, president of the World Laughing Tour. Wilson is a clinical psychologist and author of Eat Dessert First and The Art of Mixing Work and Play.

How do I know this? Well, I was doing a little research on Hasya Yoga – or Laughter Yoga – founded by Madan Kataria. (Here’s an article about it from Yoga Journal.) I’ve never tried it, but I think I’d love to! I have to see if my yoga studio will start a class or at least hold a workshop in it!

Now what does this have to do with bilingualism? Well, not much really. But I happen to be a firm believer in the healing powers of laughter. So it got me thinking about how much fun language can be if you let it. I always encouraged my students to laugh at themselves when they made mistakes. When learning a new language, mistakes are inevitable, so you may as well get used to it and just have a good chuckle about the funny things we end up saying! Here are some of my favorite stories. You German-speakers will hopefully get some giggles out of them. For the rest of you, I’ll try to explain the mistakes clearly enough so you get the joke!

When I was 21, I spent my first summer studying abroad at a Goethe Institute in Freiburg, Germany. For most of the 8-week course, I went around saying, “Ich bewundere mich, ob….“  What I thought I was saying is, “I wonder if/whether….”  Turns out I wasn’t saying that at all but rather, ”I admire myself if/whether….”  Not only does it sound completely ridiculous, but it also doesn’t make any kind of grammatical sense. Luckily, someone finally pointed out my mistake! What I should have been saying was “Ich wundere mich, ob….” – one tiny little prefix was the cause of all this silliness! (And it turns out, most Germans wouldn’t really say even that – they would say “Ich frage mich, ob….” – something more like “I ask myself if/whether….” Go figure!)

A friend of mine spent a summer abroad in Munich, Germany. This wicked friend – along with her fellow students – let a poor girl go around the whole summer saying, “Ohne Zwiebel!” She meant to say “Ohne Zweifel” which means “Without a doubt!” What she said instead was “Without onions!” Ha ha ha! That one still cracks me up! In fact, my friend and I still say it, just for giggles

I had a first-semester student who wrote the following sentence in an essay, leaving me completely baffled: “Ich setze mich unter den Baum in den Farbton.” I read along fine until I got to the last word. “I sit down under a tree in the …” HUH?? Now Farbton isn’t a word that is particularly challenging. But because of the context, I couldn’t figure it out and had to look it up. It means “shade” – but not the kind of shade from a tree, rather the shade of a color! Farbe = color, Ton = tone. Thus, the tone (or shade) of a color. Makes perfect sense … just not in that sentence! Gave me such a chuckle – even more at myself than the mistake my student had made.

Another student wrote the following in an essay: “Ich komme aus Porzelan.” Now, I know we often advise students not to use the cognate when they look up a new word in the dictionary. But in this case, that was the wrong advice! Porzelan – as you may have guessed – means porcelain in English. So her sentence reads: “I am from porcelain.” Can you guess where she’s really from??? China!! She must have looked up China in her English-German dictionary and found two choices: China and Porzelan. Alas, she made the wrong choice!

Well, I hope these little anecdotes have given you a giggle for today! For another interesting article on humor and foreign languages, check out this post on Multilingual Living about the frustrations of humor getting lost in translation.

Happy Laughter Day!! Hope this finds you smiling!

Puzzling February 27, 2012

It seems like Aleksander has always loved his puzzles. It all started with a shape-sorting ball. I think he was about 8 months old when I dumped the shapes out for him in his playpen and rushed back to the kitchen to finish making dinner. When I came back, all the shapes were in the ball! I was dumbstruck! For his 1st birthday, he got a couple of Melissa & Doug sound puzzles. (Okay, I wasn’t too sad when the batteries wore out on those! Sometimes I think they were possessed! We’d turn out the lights at the end of the night and the ambulance would sound its siren!!)

Around 18 months, I got him an alphabet puzzle. It said it was for ages 2+ but I thought it was cute, so I bought it anyway. He took to it right away! Before long, he could find the right piece, even if it was upside down or turned over! Here he is, putting in the pieces (check out the intent expression):

For his second birthday, his Oma & Opa gave him an easel. One side is a magnetic wipe-board, and he loves putting up his alphabet magnets. Before long, we realized he recognized his letters! Once he started talking, he quickly learned his alphabet. And the first song he sang on his own was “ABC”. He says the alphabet in German, too, although not quite as easily. Of course there are those tricky letters – in German “E” sounds more like “A” and “I” sounds more like “E”. He says them correctly if he’s saying the whole alphabet, but individually, he still mixes them up.

The one problem with his alphabet puzzle was that it’s in English! Some of the pictures work, like A for apple and Apfel or M for moon and Mond. But when I speak German with him, I can’t very well say “C” – “Karotte”. The German word for carrot begins with K, not C.

And so I finally broke down and made a big purchase from Amazon.de. The shipping is flat-rate: about 15 Euro, as long as you’re buying books, CDs, DVDs, and select toys. Of course I got a couple of other books and CDs, and I even got Anika to order with me, so we could share the shipping. It was worth every penny!!! I found an alphabet puzzle with great pictures. Most of the letters even have two pictures. Aleksander just loves it! And now I can practice the alphabet with him in German. Even when it isn’t technically our German-speaking time, we do this puzzle in German. When he asks to do it, I remind him that it’s a German puzzle, so we’ll have to speak German. Sometimes he tries to insist on English, but I insist right back by speaking German Here’s a nice big picture of it, so you can see the images:

Happy Birthday, Dad! May 9, 2011

Today is my dad’s birthday. So what does that have to do with German and bilingualism?

Well, he took 8 years of German in high school and college.  . . .  And he can’t speak a lick! He’ll gladly take the blame and admit he didn’t put a lot of time into studying. But from what he’s told me, it also sounds like he was working with the antiquated grammar-translation method – enough to put even the most motivated student to sleep!

After eight years, he can remember only one word: “Fremdenverkirschbüro“. It makes me giggle every time he says it. See, it’s supposed to be “Fremdenverkehrsbüro,” which is the foreign travel office. But what he really says (according to my translation) is foreign office of the wayward cherries It makes for a funny story, but really, it’s such a shame. As he’d be the first to tell you.

Fast forward to the next generation… My older brother and I both started to learn German in high school. Unlike my dad, we had an extraordinary teacher. We both loved it so much, we continued to study the language (and literature and culture) in college. My brother hasn’t had much opportunity to speak German since he graduated, but he still speaks very well and loves the chance to do so. I fell in love with the language and just kept studying it. And I’m able to keep it fresh by teaching, not only in a classroom, but now to Aleksander.

On to the third generation… Now it is Aleksander’s turn (whether he likes it or not!). My dad’s story offers just one more motivating factor to continue speaking German with Aleksander. I think bilingualism is such a gift to give him, and I’d be doing him a disservice if I didn’t continue to try. I know my dad is really excited that I’m speaking German with Aleksander. It means a lot to have his support and encouragement.

So thanks for the inspiration, Dad! And Happy Birthday!

Tanzen! March 9, 2011

I’ve always loved to dance. But I don’t get much of a chance to dance these days. I was reading a blog recently in which a mom mentioned that she dances with her kids every afternoon. What a great idea!!

Of course, for me that means it has to be German music! I have a rather limited  -  and pretty random  -  mix of music that I’ve collected over the years. It’s been fun to hear some old favorites and get to know some of the newer songs I’ve downloaded more recently.

Now, Aleksander is only 15 months old. But he loves music and he loves to dance! He’s only just started walking, so he doesn’t do too much dancing standing up. Instead, he sits and waves his hands around while kind of bouncing on his bum. It’s hysterical! But he also likes it when I hold him and twirl him around

The only problem is that Aleksander doesn’t like all of my music. So sometimes he turns off the stereo! So far, he’s not a fan of Die Fantastischen Vier. I guess that’s fair … German hip-hop isn’t exactly kid-friendly! But he claps after songs by Ina Müller, Ganz schön Feist, and Montag (some of my new acquisitions).

I don’t know how much this is doing for the improvement of my German, but it sure is fun!