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Posted by Kris Krieger on December 20, 2007, 4:17 pm
> "Kris Krieger"> wrote
>> Whan I was working at the agency, one of my coworkers told me that
>> she had been stationed in Berlin at teh time Kennedy injected that
>> bit into his speech. THe funny thing was that Berlin residents
>> didn't really call themselves that- OTOH, a "Berliner" was a kind of
>> exceedingly popular type of filled donut... So the Americans loved
>> it for one reason, and the folks
>> in Berlin were amused for a different reason. ;)
>
> I had heard that but in all my time living there I never saw such a
> thing as a Berliner pastry.
Maybe the time frame made a difference...? It's just one person's
anecdote - she might have though it more common than it was. But I still
likethe story. "I am a DONUT", <LOL!>
> BTW: Baked goods are HUGE in deutchland.
> (in fact, IN germany I'm not even sure the word *berlin* exists. I
> know the word *german* doesn't exist, as it is a strictly external
> word. IN Germany the country is named Deutchland - not Germany.)
I often wondered how they got "Germany" from "Deutschland". There are
changes that occur over time (see Grimm's Law), but ti still seem slike a
bit of a stretch to me...
> Its a pretty easy language to pick up on as many of the words are the
> same or similar to english words. My first drafting instructor (7th
> grade) was german and he gave me some insight on the language. One of
> the things he mentioned is that the germans don't create new words for
> new stuff, they just add more letters onto old words, thats why you'll
> see many instances of words that have 30 or more letters.
I loved German, took it in HS and UNiversity. I didn't use it much in
work, tho'. Studies Russian first by myself, then through tutors, but
had to take a College course before I could start work (so I took the
INtensive Summer Session in Russian at INdiana U. in Bloomington).
RUssian is liek German in that, if you don't know the word for something,
you can add otherwords together and people will very often understand
what you're talking about.
I'll eventually load up my Spanish program and try to learn some, but
that's because it's practical - unlike most poeple, the Romance languages
are less comfortable for me than the "rougher" languages, because I grew
up hearing (if not being taught) Polish and some German. I'd like to
learn Chinese at some point, too, because I'm fascinated by the idea of a
language that uses *both* sounds and tones - closest humans come to a
language based upon music.
But German is cool, IMO. I also like the pics of the country and
architecture. I relate to them.
> My first impression of the written version of german was that it was
> ancient and very literal, words were spelled like they sounded.
YEs, it's quite literal in that way. Russian is similar.
I did not like French too much; took too many letters and extra words to
write things. I write slowly as it is, so last thing I need is more
words'n'letters <L!> I had learned some, but never stuck with it.
Of course, I haven't used anything but English for over a decade, so at
this point, I can barely remeber anything at all of any other language -
no ractice, and my brain dumps whatever isn't being used at the current
time (or at least puts it into a very deep cold storage...)
>
>>> <Merry Christmas>
>
> ~~Frohe Weinachten~~
Now that I do remember!
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