Right Click Block

Monday, September 12, 2011

Another Adventure in Deutsch!

Once upon a time, Jessica had a real live conversation with a real live German lady... using MOSTLY GERMAN!

Right at the beginning of our walk today we were stopped by a cute little old 80-year-old lady.  She had pushed her walker (!) off to the edge of the sidewalk so we could pass and she could sit and rest.  But no one can let two smiley little girls pass by without chatting to them... so we ended up talking to her for ten minutes! 

She lives right down the road from us and had walked down to the cemetery to put flowers on her husband's grave (sniff...).  It takes her a long time to walk because she has to stop often to rest.  I already knew this actually, because I had seen her over an hour before this on her way down the road. 

I told her that we were Americans and my husband was Air Force at Sembach.  That we'd been here 5 months (has it really been that long already?) and will be here about 3 years.  We talked about the girls and how old they were... she mentioned it was funny how much hair Lily had but how Samantha had none (ha ha lady) and how much work it is to have two small ones.  Her two grandchildren are in their twenties. 

We talked about how I was walking down to Wasgau for some fruits and veggies and how the girls were going to be tired for their nap when we were done.  She laughed at Sam sucking her thumb.  And taught me how to say thumb... but I forgot ;o)

She said if I ever see her sitting outside her house to stop by with the girls and say hello.  She told me she has many flowers they can look at :o)  I told her I would (unfortunately, I have no clue which house it is!) and we parted ways with "have a nice day".

Seriously... she only used a few words in English!  And I used many more German words than I realized I knew!  I learned all that stuff about her and communicated all that stuff about us just limping along with her broken English, my broken German, and that good old universal sign language/gesturing.  It was so cool!

So I'm definitely a believer in Rosetta Stone now.  It's kind of lame and repetitive and boring and I have to force myself to try to do it at least four times a week.  I don't like practicing my German.  But I love being able to talk to little old German ladies. 

So bring on the Rosetta Stone! :o)

1 comment:

  1. I had to translate between an old man tending bar in the train station on saturday and all of the guys...kind of like your story! (the boys are like children) haha

    ReplyDelete