From the Life of a Bilingual Writer...(III)

Fun Facts

I have started to try lip reading whenever I watch a synchronised (German) version of an English speaking film or series. It is amazing how many words I can already recognise if I pay attention and the face is shown well!

After I had translated my Miro the Dragon stories into English, single sentences or ideas for the next stories come to me in either German or English (which can be quite annoying since the stories started as a German children's book series and are supposed to stay that way, even if they are translated and published in America--does that make sense?)

Every now and then, one of my other languages takes over my mind, and I imagine certain situations in that language. Those "episodes" are often triggered by some random thing, like a name (and it either frustrates or amazes me, depending on how much I actually remember spontaneously).

Even when speaking German, I tend to use American measurements now.

I felt weird talking German to anyone while I was in America. When I did, I often had situations where I instinctively switched back to English.

During my first weeks back in Germany, I ended up using English words and/or sentence structure without noticing until after it was said.

To be continued...

Word of the Week ... XXII

My word this week is:

"deific"

Meaning: godly, but with a less reverent aspect as "sacred"

Example: The dinner last night was really deific, thanks!

I only learnt of this word yesterday, and it stuck with me enough to be worth a blog post.

German Tenses--An Overview (Part I.1)

Active Tenses, Regular Verb, with “haben”: Indicative Mode

“fragen” is a regular verb which builds its compound tenses with the modal verb “haben” (to have).

Infinitiv == (infinitive)

fragen == (to ask)

Indikativ == Indicative Mode

Präsens == (simple present)

ich frage == I ask

du fragst == you ask

er/sie/es fragt == he/she/it asks

wir fragen == we ask

ihr fragt == you ask

sie/Sie fragen == they ask (you ask—formal address)

Präteritum == (simple past)

ich fragte == I asked

du fragtest == you asked

er/sie/es fragte == he/she/it asked

wir fragten == we asked

ihr fragtet == you asked

sie/Sie fragten == they asked (you asked—formal address)

Perfekt == (present perfect)

ich habe gefragt == I have asked

du hast gefragt == you have asked

er/sie/es hat gefragt == he/she/it has asked

wir haben gefragt == we have asked

ihr habt gefragt == you have asked

sie/Sie haben gefragt == they have asked (you have asked—formal address)

Plusquamperfekt == (past perfect)

ich hatte gefragt == I had asked

du hattest gefragt == you had asked

er/sie/es hatte gefragt == he/she/it had asked

wir hatten gefragt == we had asked

ihr hattet gefragt == you had asked

sie/Sie hatten gefragt == they had asked (you had asked—formal address)

Futur I == (future I)

ich werde fragen == I will ask

du wirst fragen == you will ask

er/sie/es wird fragen == he/she/it will ask

wir werden fragen == we will ask

ihr werdet fragen == you will ask

sie/Sie werden fragen == they will ask (you will ask—formal address)

Futur II == (future II)

ich werde gefragt haben == I will have asked

du wirst gefragt haben == you will have asked

er/sie/es wird gefragt haben == he/she/it will have asked

wir werden gefragt haben == we will have asked

ihr werdet gefragt haben == you will have asked

sie/Sie werden gefragt haben == they will have asked (you will have asked—formal address)


Since I am currently writing up a summary of German verb tenses (and likely more grammar topics to follow) for my sweetheart, who started learning German, I will dedicate Wednesdays to "German Grammar Wednesday" for the time being (read: until I run out of topics). If you have particular questions or want to have a particular grammar topic covered, please let me know.

Next week: Part I.2 (Subjunctive and Imperative of "fragen")

Fun with Pronunciation--English

For all of you who think they know English pronunciation to a t, try yourself at this poem by G. Nolst Trenité which I found online last week. It is amazing, and I am pretty sure I got a few words wrong when I read it aloud. However, it was great fun to test myself. This poem shows the chaos of English pronunciation in a fun and compelling way. After you have read this, maybe you understand a little better why people who learn English as a foreign language may make pronunciation mistakes.

To take just one example from the poem:

Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?

We have the same letter combination but various pronunciations. There is no hint as to why you pronounce the word the way you do, and learners of English have two options: to look it up in a dictionary, which is highly impractical in a conversation, or to take their chances with one pronunciation and hope it is the correct one.

Granted, that's exactly the reason why most language courses (even the self-learner courses) come with audio CDs. You only get that far with such a course, though. After that, there are so many different ways to improve your English, not all of which come with pronunciation help. At least, I haven't yet seen a single novel which gave me the correct pronunciation after each word....

Guess what I am trying to say: Be a bit more tolerant towards someone speaking English as a second language when they try to get it right but make pronunciation mistakes. And, just for fun, imagine you trying to pronounce their native language correctly....

Thanks again for this delightful poem, English Pronunciation, G. Nolst Trenité!

Word of the Week ... XXI

This week's word of the week is something I stumbled upon while looking up some other word, and it made me smile, so here it is:

"thank-you-ma'am"

Meaning: A thank-you-ma'am is usually a hole or bump in the road which makes everyone in the car nod unvoluntarily while driving across.

Example: As we drove across a thank-you-ma'am, my sister almost spilled her coffee.

The word seems to have been around in the 19th century in colloquial American English. I have no idea, though, whether or not it is still in use. Americans, ever heard or used it?

Language as Tool Sets

Language gives us the tools to communicate. However, instead of just being one huge set of tools, language is a series of related and often overlapping tool sets. We have a certain vocabulary and way of speaking or writing appropriate to a certain situation, and we can change the way we speak and write accordingly.

Just imagine the language used in law texts (also called legalese), and now the way parents speak with their small children. Yes, I chose two so drastically different sets of language tools on purpose; that way, it is easiest to see how these tool sets differ in choice of vocabulary and sentence structure. Furthermore, we can use these examples to show that not everyone has access to the same tool sets. On the one hand, most people automatically use the appropriate tool set to speak with small children--that seems to be genetically "installed"--but on the other hand, many people who do not usually have to deal with legalese have trouble making any sense of it.

Writers usually have more than one tool set for writing too. Many writers write in more than one genre and every genre has its own tool set (or even several tool sets) to convey the genre-specific atmosphere and feeling. The sets vary in use of vocabulary, sentence length and structure, use of tenses etc. A medieval novel will use different words than a futuristic sci-fi novel, or a contemporary YA novel. Every time a writer tries his hands at a new genre and strives to find his voice for that genre, he acquires another tool set.

To fully utilise a language's potential, you should strive to acquire as many tool sets as you can. It will allow you to communicate effectively in any situation, which is the main reason why language exists. To communicate.

Language Learning Books--OMG!

So, I sorted through all my stuff I want to take with me when I'm moving after Christmas. Honestly, I was shocked when I saw the amount of boxes! Most of them are filled with my books--not just novels, but lots and lots of language learning books. I have eight really big books (and I'm talking about letter size, two inches thick, counting as deadly weapon on the top shelf): four dictionaries (for four different languages), two monolingual dictionaries, one idiom dictionary and one, probably the biggest of all, listing all the Italian verbs and their uses. Furthermore, I own a variety of grammar books, language courses, verb tables, smaller dictionaries (for other languages), and other useful language learning materials.

Why did I gather such a huge amount of stuff?

Well, the first and most obvious reason is because I am learning and working with several languages. But does that really account for having more than one grammar book for any single language? I know I am weird, but I simply love having several possibilities to look something up. Too often, I tried to find something in a grammar book, just to realise that my grammar book didn't sufficiently cover that topic. Granted, by now, I know several websites about grammar for one language or the other, as well as several online dictionaries, but there's nothing that can beat the experience and feeling of leafing through countless pages, scanning the content pages, and finally finding what I need.

The value of my private language learning library? I'm not sure, but I guess well over 1,000 euros (adding the purchasing prices together). It has taken me about half of my life to gather what I have so far, with many of the books having been birthday or Christmas gifts. Yes, I am proud of my little library, but boy, that's a whole lot of books! You never notice until you move and have to carry everything from apartment to car, to storage, to new place....