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  • Madame O

    Madame O

    Which languages do you speak and how did that impact your life?

    An open letter to my French teacher and various language missteps.

    German 101

    When I was in the eighth grade, I moved to a completely new school district for probably the seventh time in my life. On day One, I sat in a German class where everybody was already speaking German. I wish I would’ve persevered but eighth graders minds aren’t made that way.. starting a new school that’s the last thing one needs and that is to struggle in the first class of the day. In retrospect, I wish I would’ve. 

    parles-tu français

    I had a French class in high school I wish I would’ve taken more seriously.. if you take one step back, I wish I would’ve planned out my language classes better I would prefer Spanish or German. Our French teacher Madame Ortwein, trade to teach French, but I never could apply myself and I regret that to this day. I also regret how disrespectful I was to the teacher for not trying to learn what she was trying to teach me. I did go to France later on in life and I could order food and read some of the signs. It was embarrassing. Despite what you were told to people of France were nice even with my broken French.

    Let’s Go To Colombia

    We decided to go to Columbia during the middle Pablo Escobar Cartel regime. To prepare for this, I took eight weeks of Spanish not a private home of a lovely young lady from Honduras. We were looking to open a business and the people who were hosting us spoke very little Spanish. I eventually spend some time in Mexico, trying to immerse and took a few classes.

    I was married to a German

    Yes, I can use the past tense fairly well.

    Young couple have enough trouble communicating. My journey into the German language is a story for another day.

    I usually start my mornings by doing some German, but somehow started writing this essay.

    Vielen Dank, dass Sie dies an diesem schönen Morgen gelesen haben.

    Ich verstehe dieses Lied sehr gut.

    Diese Mutter
  • Diese Mutter

    Diese Mutter

    Von wem lässt du dich am meisten inspirieren?

    Das ist einfach genial. Die Mutter kocht, und die Kinder essen nur Chicken Nuggets oder trockene Nudeln.

  • I Was Born At An Early Age

    I Was Born At An Early Age

    What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?

    I’m not the type of person that usually doles out advice to someone who is younger than me. But then again, mostly everybody is younger than me.

    I’m not a big fan of unsolicited advice.

    I’m a little embarrassed about the world we are handing the younger generations. By giving unsolicited advice, our generation doesn’t have a lot of credibility.

    If we rephrase it a little, it softens the message. I like to share ideas with people younger than me and then again I listen to them.

    Make a Mess

    For example, our four-year-old grandson talks with me and he always wants to know German words and phrases.

    Our kids when they were growing up, I used to point out landmarks of where we sat on this planet. The kids still reflect on how it was such a great learning tool as they feel they can navigate most places.

    Leading by example it’s not a bad way to go. Our middle daughter is now an avid runner. The other two are artists with stunning language skills. And I certainly learned just as much from them as they from me.

    So keep an open mind and keep learning

  • Is Anybody Out There?

    Is Anybody Out There?

    Who are you most inspired by?

    We find inspiration in unexpected places. I don’t think there is a most when it comes to inspiration.

    A simple case of Inspiration

    I’m rather impressed by people who can speak multiple languages. We have some knuckle draggers in our country, who go out of their way to hassle people who are not speaking English.

    i know my own struggle of learning a second language.

    Put my inspiration doesn’t come for the exception but rather the norm as Approximately 43% of the global population speaks two languages fluently, while around 17% speak three or more. Multilingualism rates vary drastically by region, heavily influenced by education policies, neighboring countries, and immigration. In Europe, about 65% of the population speaks at least one language natively in addition to their mother tongue.

    Being able to speak fluently is one thing, however another skill set is actual listening.