Re: [Sks-devel] status page

[Robert J. Hansen]

> "You've seemingly overlooked that the message was typed on a cell and
> the autocorrect isn't designed for English. 'This message was sent from
> my Android phone via K-9 Mail.' And because you instantly become
> personal in your first post and aren't engaging with the real issues,
> you're dead as a conversational partner to me."

Ah, thank you for the correction!  :)

With respect to the German language -- I spent a good bit of my 18th and
19th years in Saxony, and it literally changed my life.  I found Germany
to be a warm and welcoming place, and the vast majority of your
countrymen were kind to me.  I haven't been back since, although I'd
like to.

And what the hell.  This list has had enough drama and bad feelings as
of late, so I'll share a funny story from Hildesheim.

---

I was on a bus with my host sister, who had a major English test the
next day.  She asked if we could speak English so that she could get
some practice in before the Prüfung, so there we were chatting away.
Sitting across from us was a mother with her young daughter, and the
girl's eyes were wide as saucers as she watched me.

She tugged on her mother's sleeve and whispered to her, "Mutti, Mutti!
Ein Ausländer!  Hier!  Er ist Ausländer!"

For non-German speakers, that's a pretty rude thing to say.  "Mom, Mom!
 A foreigner!  Here!  He's a foreigner!"  My host sister and I gave her
a quizzical "we're right here and we can hear you" look, her mother made
fulsome apologies, and tried to hush her daughter.

The daughter just repeated it, louder, so everyone on the bus could
hear.  The mother looked as if she was about to die of embarrassment.

Finally I spoke to the little girl directly.  "Ich bin nicht 'ein
Ausländer,'" I said, scare-quoting the phrase with my fingers.  "Ich bin
Amerikaner, ein Exchangestudent, und ein Freund zu meiner Freundin."

My host sister elbowed me suddenly and I knew I'd committed some gaffe,
but I went on anyway.

"Ich bin Robert.  Was ist deine Name?  Wer ist deine Mutti?"

The little girl looked as if I'd just slapped her.  She turned away,
stuck her nose high in the air, and said in an imperious voice --
"/That's/ all right.  /I/ speak /English/."  She looked like a little
queen, really, and her accent was straight-up Alistair Cooke.

The entire bus broke out laughing.  After the laughter subsided I asked
my host sister what was wrong.  "Nothing," she said irritatedly.  "You
just kind of implied we're dating.  I'm your Freundin?"

I blinked.  "What?  It's the feminine of Freund..."

"Yes, and it's used for girlfriends."

"So what's used for friends who happen to be women?"

"Freundin, of course."

I shook my head.  "But it's the /same word!/"

She shrugged.  "It's more about how you say it, I guess."

I stared at her a moment.  "Your language makes absolutely no sense, you
know that?"

She gave me a glower and a smile.  "This, from the English-speaker."

The bus had a second round of laughter over that.  :)