The miracle of language learning

Jenny took her final German test of the year today--for all intents and purposes, her German course is finished. I'll be the first to tell you that Jenny doesn't put off studying to the last minute. She's been working towards this test all year really, but she studied intensely for the past 10 days or so.

Coincidently, just as Jenny began to master some of the more complex verb constructions (ex. the passive voice: "Consumer goods have been manufactured" instead of "Factory workers have manufactured consumer goods"), Nikolas has been mastering these as well. The only difference is: he's doing it naturally, without books and grammar lessons.

The other night in the bath, he spotted some grime on the lower part of a shower door. "Papa, die Tür muss geputzt werden! (The door has to be cleaned!)" What takes third-year German students some serious consideration before they've mastered that type of sentence, he's been able to do just be listening to it being used.

Jenny's been working hard to learn all her irregular verbs in the past tense. Nikolas uses verbs in the past tense when he's speaking about something in the past. He still makes mistakes saying things like "Ich habe es gebringt" instead of "Ich habe es gebracht" (I bringed instead of I brought), but he understands what he has to do.

Jenny's goal was to learn enough German so that we can all speak German in the home once we get back to Pennington. Since Nikolas was born, it's been me primarily who's been speaking to him in German. I'd say she's achieved that goal--she's learned so much!

And learning German is so much easier today for those who speak English. German speakers are in love with English much like Germans loved David Hasselhoff in the 1980s. For those who can read German und would like more info on the "Englishness" of German, click on the image above to read my letter to the editor published in this past Wednesday's Salzburger Nachrichten.

What's in a price?

If you think like I do sometimes, you've wondered why the cost of a meal out is so much. Regardless of where you are, though, prices of meals in Austria are not much different than they are in our area of New Jersey. The drinks here, if anything, are more expensive. Depending on where you are, a half liter of soft drink (about a quart) can run around $6.50--no joke! It's cheaper to drink wine or beer, and it's been that way since I started coming here as a kid.

But the back page of the menu at a restaurant we were at the other day really made me think about what goes into the price of a meal and a drink at a restaurant. The list was put together tongue-in-cheek, I'm pretty sure. Usually, like in the States, you'll see a message somewhere stating that prices don't include tip. This menu went a bit further, though. This is what it said, translated into English--

It's understood that our prices:

are in euros not including tip,
and include 10 to 20% value-added tax,
tourism tax,
salary tax,
church tax,
income tax,
sales tax,
business tax,
social security and health insurance,
fire and liability insurance,
life insurance and old age care insurance,
theft and broken glass insurance,
fire department contribution,
liquor license,
treasury contribution,
gas and heating costs,
warm and cold water costs,
sewage costs,
electricity costs,
chimney cleaner,
security technician,
leasing contracts,
garbage removal,
compost removal,
washing and cleaning detergents,
toilet paper,
paper towels and hand soap,
repairs,
maintenance contracts,
telephone costs,
decoration costs,
live music costs,
fees to AKM (royalties),
radio and TV fees.

(Interestingly, from a cultural standpoint, there are some costs here we do NOT have in the States: church tax, radio fees, old age care insurance).)

Our meal came to €19 (about $25), which for lunch, isn't something we'd want to spend everyday, but it wasn't the end of the world. And when you consider all the stuff you're getting (and you know what many paper towels some of you use in the bathroom!), then $25 isn't a bad price at all!

Arguments and Statements of a 4-year-old

Nikolas loves to learn--he really does. If I explain to him how soap works (no mention of ions, of course), he runs to his mother and tells her what he's learned.

But he reaches a point when he'd like to have something to add. It might mean changing the rules of a game (not to make it easier for him to win--if anything, his rule-changes make it difficult for anyone to win) or it might mean changing chemistry concepts. Or sometimes he says things to just be different or to get a rise out of us.

Today included some dingers.

When we got back from being away, we put a pot of coffee on to brew. After a few minutes, Nikolas called out, "Mommy, I smell coffee." Jenny replied, "That's because I put some coffee on." Nikolas whined, "But I don't want to smell coffee."

Okay.

Both Jenny and I took turns hitting the tennis ball with him. It was hot today and we practice on the tarred surface of the entrance to a church. I know. It sounds silly but it's a BIG entrance. Anyway, we were both exhausted from running around. Nikolas hits everything but it doesn't always go right to us (which it shouldn't in tennis). While we're both panting, desperate for shade and water, Nikolas says, "Ok, this is the game--I run around this area and you two try to catch me."

Uh, no.

As Nikolas watched an ice cube melt into water, I explained that water can exist in three states (I don't know why my high school chemistry is coming out lately--it was 20 years ago!): solid or ice, liquid or water, and gas or steam. "No," Nikolas said in German, "there are four states: ice, water, steam and noodles."

Okay.

Later, Nikolas said, "You know that show that has a character in it that wears a white shirt and has hair like me?" We didn't know what show he meant. "They found dog bones on that show. I eat dog bones, you know."

Okay.

My favorite snack (right now, anyway)

Austria is a land of the most delicious desserts on earth. Seriously, Salzburg has countless cafés and Konditoreien (a confectioner--they just bake goodies!), and the assortment of Kuchen, Torte, and other inventions can make your mouth water as you speed by a showcase on your bike.

But right now there's no other snack for me than the one you can only get at Hofer right now. That's the discount grocery store that we go to almost daily. The name of this snack has a very German name, so please don't despair if you cannot pronounce it. The name:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

They're chocolatey, they're good. I want to drink a liter (about a quart) of milk with each cookie. I want to eat a whole pack of cookies in one sitting (12), but I stop myself at three.

I should be craving Apfelstrudel or Sachertorte, but instead I can't get these Chocolate Chip Cookies off my brain. Tell me it's not bad. I mean how could something that tastes so good be so bad?

Antauchen, Part 2!

There's an update in the "Antauchen" saga! I know you've been hoping there would be. (Please read previous post first if you haven't already)

Gabriella, next year's Resident Director, is in town for three days to learn the ropes. I've been taking her around to meet the people and see the places she'll need to know about next year. While viewing one of my student's CLEAN dorm rooms, I started telling my "antauchen" story.

Gabriella, whose father is from Salzburg, actually lived here as a 6-8 and 14-15 year old back in the 80s and 90s. She remembered the word, again really just an Austrian word, and she remembered it meaning not only to push someone on a swing, BUT also to "push" yourself or to pump your legs so that you swing on your own! So you can "antauchen" someone else and you can "antauchen" yourself.

Mystery solved. Nikolas was right, which means that he DID teach me a word I didn't know!

Antauchen

I predicted that it would someday happen, as long as Nikolas continued to learn German. That someday was today. Sort of.

I remember a professor at UMaine once telling us that if we kept up with German, it wouldn't be long before we learned words that HE didn't know. How could that be? we wondered. He was a native speaker, for goodness sake. He went on to explain that we all have our own interests and if you pursue those in a foreign language, there are terms that not everyone is familiar with. He used pottery as an example. If you're involved in making pottery with a wheel and using techniques that don't involve everyday words, well, you're learning vocabulary that not everyone knows.

So Nikolas was swinging today and very proud to show me that he can now pump with his feet to make himself swing. Interestingly, Jenny and I have both, throughout the year, tried to explain this to Nikolas, but he either didn't get it or he secretly didn't want Mama or Papa to stop pushing him on the swing!

I asked him how he learned this. I often ask him this question when he talks about things he knows, and he always says, "In der Schule" (in school). But when he said that what he was doing involved "Antauchen," I really wanted to know where he's learned that word.

Because I didn't know it.

Now I knew "tauchen" and "untertauchen" mean 'to dive' and 'to dive under' or 'disappear,' but I'd never heard it with the "an" prefix. He said that his friend Cornelia (next to Nikolas, she dressed like a zebra, he dressed like a monkey for Sommerfest at Kindergarten) had used the word. He's understood it to mean "kick with your legs."

So after he went to bed, I looked it up. It wasn't in my dictionary. So I looked it up online, and it wasn't in my favorite online dictionary (LEO). Then I went to Beolingus, which I don't use that often, and there it was. It's an Austrian German word. Much like British and American English, there are many differences in vocabulary between German in Germany and German in Austria. The same goes for Switzerland.

Interestingly, "antauchen" doesn't mean to kick with your legs after all, but instead it's the Austrian term for "anstossen" or 'to push someone on a swing.' My only guess is that Cornelia was telling Nikolas that if he pumped with his feet, he wouldn't need someone to provide "antauchen."

So although it wasn't quite the scenario I predicted, Nikolas' German-learning did lead me to expand my own vocabulary, even if it is Austrian German. Will I tell him what "antauchen" really means? Yes and no. The next time we're swinging, I'll ask him, "Kann Papa dich antauchen?" His mind might puzzle over it for a bit, but he'll learn it if we keep it in context, the way he's learned so much this year.

Things you don't see in an American newspaper

Aside from the fact that you hear German on the street and most everything else is in German, you can sometimes forget that you're somewhere other than home.

An average reading of the The Salzburger Nachrichten, the city's major newspaper, reminds me that we're not in the U.S. (not the fact that this, too, is in German!). Here's a sample of "different" things from this week:

* a job ad for a handyman who will live in the apartment complex he'll take care of asks that the man (women need not apply) be of Christian upbringing. This is short for Don't be Turkish (Muslim) or Bosnian (Muslim) or Christian-god-forbid from some Middle Eastern country (Muslim).

* most job ads ask for a photo to be included with the résumé. This is short for Don't apply if you look like a foreigner (Muslim) or are Christian-god-forbid unattractive.

* A Salzburg brothel is having its license revoked because two of its 12 prostitutes were not officially registered. That means the number of legal brothels in Salzburg is down to 14.

* a 15-year-old Salzburg girl was fined € 80 ($110) for underage drinking (she had a can of beer in her hand). She cried bitterly because she was about to turn 16 in a couple of days, which is the legal public drinking age.

* Salzburg police ushered Mexican tourists off a plane arriving from Frankfurt this past weekend and banged them into quarantine until it was determined that they didn't have swine flu.

Welcome to Austria!