 |
| Terrasse at night with xmas decorations. |
This past week was a bit uneventful. No trips, no adventures, and no misadventures. The wife and I solidified plans to travel to Strasbourg, located in the northeast part of France, this upcoming weekend. We also went to one of our favorite restaurants in Zurich, Terrasse. There tomato soup is one of the best we've had since we've been here and we've had our fair share of tomato soup. This says a great deal for a meat and meat type guy like myself!
Oh and I also started my intensive Deutsch courses. Three hours a day for three days and this is what I think I know:
Wie Heisst du?...Ich Heisse Herr Williams, Farah Williams....Mein vorname ist Farah, mein vorname ist arabisch und Mein familiename ist englisch.
Woher Kommst du? Ich Komme aus den U.S.A aus Chicago. Chicago liegt im zentro-westenlich von den U.S.A. U.S.A liegt im Zentro von den Nordeamerica und Sudelich von Canada.
Wo Wohnst du? Ich Wohne in Zurich in Seefeld.
Sprachen Sprichst du? Ich spreche englisch und wenig spanisch und lernt deutsch....
So that's it, 9 hours and I can say I'm from Chicago, in the midwest of USA and that the US is south of canada. The class is actually pretty fun. We have 10 students and none of them are from the same country. Which brings us to another interesting point. People are loyal to their home countries and to their home countries' history.
My class:
Fatlume from Kosovo, Cecilia from Sweden, Bruno from Portugal, Alfred from Nigeria, Sasa from Serbia, Mohammed from Algeria, David from Spain, MaiXia from Singapore and Elisabeth from Italy.
On the first day of class we had to introduce ourselves and when I heard that Fatlume was from Kosovo and Sasa was from Serbia I thought there was going to be some problems. Sasa is kind of a jokester and he speaks Arabisch, francousitsch, italianisch, Serbiaistch (arabic, french, italian and serbian). Both he and I lead the class in talking in our native tongues. I think I received 3 red cards today in class and he received 5. It's pretty much like soccer, it's a foul. At one point we had to describe where our home country was relative to surrounding countries and Sasa was just struggling to the point where he and the teacher were yelling at one another. Sasa was confusing north and south and east and west. So he would say something like "Serbia liegt sudenlich von Kosovo" and he should have been saying "Serbia liegt nordlich von Kosovo" Two seconds later the teacher said something that amounted to, maybe it politics that's confusing you, and Sasa in perfect Deutsch said, I speak french, I speak Italian, I speak arabic, politics is not the problem, my deutsch is the problem....The class immediately went quiet and then we started to laugh when Fatlume started to laugh. It was sort of a historical cultural breakthough....But that's the class and I enjoy adding a little more structure to my day with 3.5 hours of class and 1-2 hours of homework. Learning the language has come easier than I expected but speaking the language is just proving to be difficult. Pretty awesome that in a foreign country where there are 8 different languages, I can still manage to be the center of all of the jokes. But it's been fun and in between all the laughter, everyone helps one another out...as best they can. Oh so Sasa doesn't speak english but every time he looks my way he says "Farah" probably 15 times a day...pretty odd.
 |
| Cecilia from Sweden |
 |
| Sasa from Serbia |
 |
| Mohammed from Algeria |
 |
| Fatlume from Kosovo |
We're off to Strasbourg this weekend which is in Northeast France....liegt im Nordosten von France. Interesting fact about Strasbourg is that during WW1 and WWII, Germany always tried to annex it but the U.S and allies always placed it back in the hands of France. Currently, it houses one of the legislative bodies of the EU and has major German-Franco influences, especially since it sits right on the border and has been a part of both countries. Looking forward to sharing that great experience with you all next week!
Auf Wiedersehen!
No comments:
Post a Comment