Re: Aokoye's Journey Through German (and other languages?)
Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:30 am
To anyone who says they can't understand people who speak the Viennese dialect of German, they haven't heard anything yet and I'm what, an hour and a half outside of Vienna in Pinkafeld in Burgenland. I just got to my friend's parents' house yesterday afternoon and I feel like I'm finally on vacation, a lovely German/English speaking vacation.
Language wise, I'm speaking 100% in German with everyone other than when Mercedes and I are having conversations 1:1, at which point 75% of the time we're speaking English. Yesterday evening was an example of people remarking on my German in a way that was actually them giving me complements as well and also being genuinely interested in where I learned German. Mercedes' parents had three of their friends over for dinner so I was only speaking German outside of answering the question, "what is the word for X in English?" I think it was also probably the most Mercedes had heard me speak German at that point so she was also like, "no really, your German is actually really good." At some point the dialects became an amusing phonological study for me in part because that was the only way I could pick out some of the words. An easy example is, [tyːɐ̯] (Tür) becoming [dyːɐ̯].
I suspect Mercedes' dad and I are also going to end up bonding over cooking. I've never been in such an amazing kitchen in my life. I have another friend whose previous house had an amazing kitchen, but this trumps anything I've seen. Also I am going to end up flipping through a lot of cookbooks. There's a very large bookshelf full of cookbooks, a smaller one also full of cookbooks, and then multiple stacks of cookbooks on top of the small bookshelf along with 40 some cooking magazines (probably more). He also has the full set of Modernist Cuisine.
Language wise, I'm speaking 100% in German with everyone other than when Mercedes and I are having conversations 1:1, at which point 75% of the time we're speaking English. Yesterday evening was an example of people remarking on my German in a way that was actually them giving me complements as well and also being genuinely interested in where I learned German. Mercedes' parents had three of their friends over for dinner so I was only speaking German outside of answering the question, "what is the word for X in English?" I think it was also probably the most Mercedes had heard me speak German at that point so she was also like, "no really, your German is actually really good." At some point the dialects became an amusing phonological study for me in part because that was the only way I could pick out some of the words. An easy example is, [tyːɐ̯] (Tür) becoming [dyːɐ̯].
I suspect Mercedes' dad and I are also going to end up bonding over cooking. I've never been in such an amazing kitchen in my life. I have another friend whose previous house had an amazing kitchen, but this trumps anything I've seen. Also I am going to end up flipping through a lot of cookbooks. There's a very large bookshelf full of cookbooks, a smaller one also full of cookbooks, and then multiple stacks of cookbooks on top of the small bookshelf along with 40 some cooking magazines (probably more). He also has the full set of Modernist Cuisine.