The most striking contrast one might find when living in another country is the language barrier. The German language is a violent and ugly language. In fact I think one can pass for a native speaker by just hissing and growling, with an occasional choking sound thrown in from time to time. And it’s best if you can spit all over the place while speaking. The more spit the more German. Wait, I don't even know if that's right. Anyways...
Linguists who have done speech analysis of Hitler’s impassioned speeches have shown that when he really got going he was just screaming out non-sense. And that’s what I hear when the Germans speak: non-sense.
The other day I was at a Doner’s sandwich shop which, if you haven’t heard, is the best food one can ever hope for from a fluorescent lit food truck. It’s Greek food prepared by Pakistanis, heaven inside of a gyro. As I stood there, fumbling with my order, truly embracing the whole "Stupid Amerikaner!" thing I realized the people making the food were speaking Arabic, the people behind me German, and me with my inept English. And to me, that’s a pretty cool thing.
Foreign languages, despite their infliction of utter confusion, truly show you how far from home you are. The closest you can get in San Marcos to hearing some language diversity is hearing Dan’s trademarked ‘Hola!’
The salute that shortly follows is nice too, but we have plenty of that around here.
7 comments:
I love the hola!
Obviously you didn't make it out the the outlet malls enough. If you want to see cultural diversity at it's finest, you just need to take a trip to Tanger on a Saturday.
They had those Doner things in Italy too...they scared me so I never ate one. I did eat Itallian chinese food, and itallian Mexican food.
The outlet malls are pretty much the cultural cross roads of the entire world. I hate the outlet malls. I went exactly twice, once with Kari Kennedy to buy her shoes, the second with Nikki and Matt Lyke to buy me shoes. The place is a freakin nightmare.
But I heard the gondola ride is suh-weet!
sooo.. this is my first comment for you michael my dear and i feel its an important one because i would like to remind you that i remember making a trip to those outlets with you and matt lyke. yall bought matching shirts. it was cute i guess. kinda scary. but cute.. :)
That picture is super sweet! how are you doing? nikki is trying to convince me that you are really married... i don't know what to make of this crazy womens talk. what's up?
I was there when you bought those shoes.
I have the "pleasure" of going to the mall at least twice a week.
It's pretty horrible.
German isn't an ugly language once you learn it. It's all in the patterns and three-in-one words...Du bist intelligent, du müsst nur ein bisschen mehr Deutsch lernen. Ich hoffe, dass du ein guter Zeit in Deutschland hast! Tschuss! Oh, and congratulations, Jessie told me the news the other day!
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