Language Contact

In the German Elle that I brought back with me, I see two pages side by side that are a great example of the place of English in German society – and how easy it is even for fluent speakers to misunderstand a foreign language / culture.

On the right, we see an ad for a product entirely in English.  It’s very common for German ads to use  English  product names (e.g. Loreal’s “Made for me Naturals”) or slogans (e.g.”Everywhere at Home” for Schneiders of Salzburg, both examples taken from this magazine).  But this is the first ad I’ve ever seen entirely in English, picturing an American icon and commemorating an American achievement, the walk on the moon.  This is for a German public! Why would non-Americans, unless they were space enthusiasts, care about wearing the same watch (Omega Speedmaster) that Neil Armstrong wore on the moon on July 20, 1969?

And on the left there’s an article about a new service in New York (which seems to be the most happenin’ city on the planet in German eyes) called Wing Women, which provides shy single men with women who will accompany them to bars and other social spaces, help them get a conversation started with an attractive woman, and then discreetly withdraw once it seems like they can take it from there. The phrase wing woman is of course a variation on “wing man,” which originally referred to a pilot who supports another by flying beside him and a little behind. I think the German authors of this article must have scratched their heads and asked “why is this business called Wing Women?” and, not knowing the English idiom, come up with their own explanation.   Namely, these women are called Wing Women because “in a metaphorical sense they lend wings, by smoothing the way of self-conscious single men to their dream woman (my translation from German).”

Home Again

I am really liking being back in the States.  Not in a bitter way – all in all the year in Germany was a great experience, and I really hope I get the opportunity to live there again sometime.  (Partly because I haven’t given up hope of trying to crack the hard nut is German society for me.)  But it’s so great to know what’s going on again!

Just a tiny little example: the other day I called information to get the phone number for a bar called Ashley’s.  When the operator asked for the name of the business and I said “Ashley’s,” she was silent for a few seconds, so that I finally said “yeah, that’s it – Ashley’s.”  She said, “Oh, I thought you said ‘actually…’” – and we both laughed, it was a funny misunderstanding.  I never got to the point where I could enjoy that kind of interaction in Germany, because 1) few people (with a couple exceptions) seemed to share my sense of humor, 2) humor depends a lot on timing, and I’m just slower auf Deutsch and 3) in Maslowian terms, I had to work so hard at just understanding what was going on on a basic level, that I often didn’t get the nuances of a situation well enough to share a laugh, especially with a stranger.  Not that I never caught any nuances at all or gave up trying to interpret situations.  I just rarely had any confirmation other people’s — close acquaintances or not — interpretations of a situation matched up with my own.  When I think about how confused I was the first 4 months of my time there — and how the confusion never really got resolved, it just kind of dissipated as I lost the need to seem like I fit in — I marvel at how much harder it would have been had I gone somewhere that’s really different from the US, like Africa or Asia.  And I marvel at how brave people are who go to Europe from those areas, who don’t have the benefit of speaking a language that everyone wants to learn and coming from a country that everyone seems to have some measure of respect for, even if it’s grudging or mixed with criticism.

A German friend of mine, to whom I often confided my confusion and irritation with German culture and who spent 3 months herself in Canada, said more than once that she looked forward to hearing whether I felt as at home in the US, once I got back, as I expected to.  In fact I heard from more than one German who had lived abroad that they really missed wherever they’d been once they got back, and had trouble transitioning back into their native society.  But except for a couple faux pas where I’ve gotten  little too close to people in public (as evidence by stares) and realized that my notion of personal space needs to be re-enlarged, I am having no trouble  reentering American society.  (Oh, and I really miss the milk.)  It’s good to be home!