Language Lessons

1. The other day I was at a second-hand kid store that is near my house, so the lady that works there (/owns it?) kindof knows me. So when I came up to buy my stuff (including a really good winter coat that drowns Talmage, but he can wear it this winter anyway), she said that she had an English question for me. Her English is okay, but she told me her son is taking English in school and there was a German word (she said it, but I have no clue what it is) that she only knows “p-i-s-s-e-d off” as a translation. However, she knew that that isn’t very nice and wondered if there was a nicer translation. I had to laugh, and I told her ticked off works just as well. So the rest of the time as she was getting me checked out she kept saying ‘ticked’ and finally wrote it down so she wouldn’t forget. Happy to be of service. :)

2. This week Brett spent a couple of days at a meeting/conference for surgeons and he gave a talk about his robot. He gave the talk in English (the university’s official language is English) and later someone came up and was talking with him (in German) and said “You're English is really great! Did you spend time in America?” ha ha! He said yes, yes he had. :)

3. Talmage still doesn’t have any more words than his six or so, but we realized a while ago that he actually does have a couple psuedo-words. When he wants a drink he always makes a glottal sound, kindof like “gung.” He does the same “word” every time he wants a drink. Also, he doesn’t actually say the word “no” (strange isn’t it?), but instead he says “DADDO!” It’s different than dada, which means dad of course. He uses daddo anytime he’s mad or doesn’t want something or someone to do something or whatever. Silly boy.

4. A while ago we were all talking about amnesia at dinner time for some reason. Hazel and Jethro had never heard of it so we explained what it is and all that. Later, when Brett and I were in the bathroom washing up kids or running the tub or whatever, Hazel came in and said, “So, what do you do if you have a ninja?” Ha ha! Brett’s like, “I don’t know—fight it I guess.” It was funny funny.

5. The other day Jethro brought me two school papers to sign, which I did. Then quite a while later he came back and said, “If you were going to write a letter saying sorry for not doing homework, how would you start it?” Hmmm, let me think about that. Also, let me look a little further into what I just signed. It’s unfortunate that although he could have gotten off the hook completely since what I signed was in German and I had no idea what it was, he had to come ask that mildy suspicious question. :) (By the way, he had just forgotten to have me sign a test earlier, and so he had to write a page apologizing. And Brett read the paper and it made us laugh. Also, Brett was super impressed with how good his cursive is. He had to basically learn it in in the little bit of time since school started—since other kids learned it in 2nd grade and he sort of skipped 2nd. Brett said that it was way better than he could do.)

6. It’s really cute hearing the kids speak some German. Jethro speaks it a lot, but I only hear Hazel say little bits here and there or a little when she’s playing with other kids. She’ll say “gau” which means right, or little things like that. And even Ethne will say “nay” a lot. Ever since we moved here in fact, when we stayed with our friends for a few days, and all the kids learned “nay” from their little girl. (Nay being the Swiss-German word for nein or no.) Here are some Swiss-German phrases I hear a lot:

Grüssech mitenand – Hello (to more than one person- for just one person you just say Grüssech. I hear this from EVERYONE. No one says Gutentag or anything else. This is the typical Swiss greeting.)

Salü/Sali – Hi

Tschüss or Tschüss zäme– Bye / bye to more than one person

Merci vilmal – thank you very much

Genau – exactly, that’s right, etc. (I’m not sure if this one and the following ones are Swiss-German or just plain German.)

Doch - a positive exclamation if you're trying to make a point and someone is contradicting you

Personally, I love when I hear German/Swiss-German speakers say Prima! or Tip-top! (Both mean great/cool/etc.)

7. Finally, I’m so excited that my brother Wyatt decided to follow in my perfect footsteps and go to USU’s Communicative Disorders program. He just sent me an email telling me all the classes he’s in and it made me so excited because I’ve taken them all and remember all the professors and it made me remember good times in the COMMD building. Actually Wyatt’s going to be an audiologist, not a speech pathologist like I was going to be, but it’s the same COMMD program in the beginning. (This totally fits with the title of the post because all his classes right now are speech and language classes.)

p.s.

-Excuse me, this is a truly a sublime metamorphosis of the Lane Meyer I think the crowds were expecting to see here at Brodie Mountain today. Perhaps you can tell us what, what brought on such an enchanting, exhilarating feat?

-Language lessons!

-Language lessons. Inspired words from a man who knows how to ski.

(Clip here)