Words from an Irishman on his way home...

Friday 11 June 2010

On becoming deutsch

The deathgrip that japan holds on my allegiances is slipping. I can
feel myself moving over to the other side of the "axis": go team
Germany!

I am loving learning a new skill, and German is proving to suit me
down to the ground. Don't get me wrong - in the short time I've been
studying it's already been maddening. Why on god's green earth would
the noun for boy be masculine and yet the noun for girl be neutral,
not feminine. I feel there is some drunken bureaucrat out there just
throwing some dice to decide these articles at random.

I do also think there's another bureaucrat whose job it is to edit
Goethe institute textbooks to put a positive spin on modern germany.
I've only been studying for a month but already I've learned four
different ways to say 'nice'. Seriously I think it took several years
of Japanese before I knew more than one word for that concept. It
makes me think of that simpsons episode where the Germans take over mr
burns's power plant and they're warning monty not to cross them, "we
Germans are not as nice as you might think." and he's all sarcastic
and "Oh Smithers, the Germans will get me!" Ah back in the day when
that show was still funny...

Kind of linked to this, the addict in me remembered how useful tv was
in learning French and Japanese. I mean my ability with French had a
lot more to do with watching reruns of 'ally mcbeal' and 'murder, she
wrote' than with four years of university.

So now I'm immersing my after work self in German programming. And who
knew German soaps were so good!!! My god, I've only been following
them for a week and we've already had kidnappings, attempted murders,
weddings, deaths, the lot. And I've never bought into this whole
"German's have no sense of humour" bunk. This shit is funny and had me
lol-ing many times.

Well the sun is shining and I'm on the terrace if my fave vegetarian
restaurant in Azabu Juban. Time to put down the phone and dig into my
taco rice and corn tea.


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