Before I moved to Norway, I spoke really good German. I was fluent. And then I moved to Norway and all of a sudden, not a word. I still understood it, still read it, but when it came to speaking it: nope! For every two German words that would come out, four Norwegian ones would come out as well, making it nearly impossible for a German person to understand me. It was very frustrating. Not that I used German much, but still...
Recently I got two new bookcases and I finally got out all the books that still resided in boxes. One of them is 'Bas Boris Bode', a German children's book. My dad bought it for me when I was in my teens, after I had seen the television series. I don't know whether I ever read it then, but I hadn't gotten rid of it, so in the bookcase it went. Until I needed some reading material for work and I thought: well, I might as well read that!
So, over the past week I have been reading this book at work. When I have to wait for more than three minutes at a stop, I will take it out of my bag and start reading. There was only one problem: every time a passenger came in with a question, I would answer in a mixture of a lot of German and a little bit of Norwegian!
It's a good thing I have nearly finished the book. And my next book will be in English again. Or Norwegian, or perhaps even Dutch. Just no German books for a while (I have three more German books, I wonder what happened to the fourth).
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteheheheheh - actually I know just exactly the sort of confusion of which you speak; there are times when all I can come up with is the Hindi word for something, sometimes the Sanskrit... then there is the Aussie thing and even after a year and a half I still think in dollars and cents!!!
confusion aside... it is fabby to know other tongues!!! YAM xx
It Is fab to know other tongues. As long as you can distinguish between them! But at least my mind is a bit more at ease now: I can still speak German. Albeit with Norwegian in it...
DeleteYour facility with languages is quite wonderful.
ReplyDeleteSOOOOOO you are saying that you were giving the passengers.... MIXED MESSAGES???? THAT is funny...
ReplyDeleteLol, I have that with Italian. The first day always English comes out ! But then suddenly I speak fluently again. I don't speak Italian very much since I don't work anymore and don't go to Italy, only sometimes with a friend or my sister in law in Italy !
ReplyDeleteI love that you can read and speak in so many languages! I only know English.
ReplyDeleteYou need some wine. Whenever SHE drinks wine, SHE can speak German....well....a little...BOL!
ReplyDeleteI am not quite sure how my boss would react if he were to see me swigging wine behind the wheel of the bus! I guess I would be without a job within a second, so perhaps not the best idea!
DeleteYour ability to speak so many languages is an amazing ability.
ReplyDeleteWell, it has helped me out in some sticky situations in the past, so I love being able to speak different languages.
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