Real Quotes by Real Students – Credulous

Ever since my first day teaching, my students have said some pretty unpredictable, strange or just downright hilarious things. In class you learn to expected the unexpected, and I’ve found that a either snappy reaction to turn a comment on its head or good acting skills are my best friends in the classroom when put in a situation that leaves the classroom precariously on the edge of disorder. Funny, awkward or otherwise, these moments in class never cease to make me remember why I adore working with each and every one of my students (although sometimes the situation is not funny until afterwards) and having the chance to get to know them and their vibrant personalities.
As such, I’d like to share these snippets with you. I’ve been keeping track of them, and I’ll post them from time to time. Of course, they are all anonymous for the protection of the innocent. Here we go.


Since the beginning of the school year, I’ve maintained a masquerade with my students. H had me pretend not to speak German, and mostly I succeeded at masking my actual knowledge. Sometimes, however, I wasn’t terribly successful. It can be awfully hard not to react automatically to a language you’ve been learning for thirteen years. And thus arose situations like the following:

Remember, Richard from this story? Well, he set the stage here as well.

Richard: “Kannst du bitte herüber rutschen?” (Can you please scoot over?)

(I do it.)

Meng (the girl who sits in front of him): “Sie versteht dich?” (She understands you?)

(Richard shakes his head “yes” and I shake mine “no.”)

Meng believed me even though I had reacted to what she said in German.

Or like this one in the 9th grade:

As I was walking around the classroom, I overheard this snippet.

Joey (the class clown): N* kann sehr gut Deutsch! (N* can speak German very well!)

Uwe: Nein! (No!)

J: “Doch!” (Literally “however”, but functions as the fantastic one-word German comeback for expressing disagreement)

U: Nein!

The emphatic refusal to believe that I might speak German on Uwe’s part was priceless.

Many of my students now know I speak German…it’s not hard to figure out if you think about it, but there is still a sizeable population that remains unconvinced. Regardless of their opinion, they all speak only English to me, so I guess H’s strategy worked.

Deine,
N*

Real Quotes by Real Students – Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Ever since my first day teaching, my students have said some pretty unpredictable, strange or just downright hilarious things. In class you learn to expected the unexpected, and I’ve found that a either snappy reaction to turn a comment on its head or good acting skills are my best friends in the classroom when put in a situation that leaves the classroom precariously on the edge of disorder. Funny, awkward or otherwise, these moments in class never cease to make me remember why I adore working with each and every one of my students (although sometimes the situation is not funny until afterwards) and having the chance to get to know them and their vibrant personalities.


As such, I’d like to share these snippets with you. I’ve been keeping track of them, and I’ll post them from time to time. Of course, they are all anonymous for the protection of the innocent. Here we go.

Dessau has a good-sized Vietnamese population, and the parents of these families very often run shops that are full of just about anything you can imagine, from scarves to thread to tablecloths to cards to tools. One of the 8th grader’s parents has such a shop, and during the unit about jobs, he was trying to describe the store.

He said, “My parents store sells EVERYTHING…clothes, garden…Dingen…”

“Ding” is akin to “thing” in English. And this was one of those perfect situations where Dinglish* (no pun intended) came to the rescue perfectly.

Deine,
N*

*For those of you who don’t know, “Dinglish” refers fondly to situations where German (Deutsch) and English are mixed together.

Sächsische...Silly!

19. Mai 2011

On occasion I have been known to be silly. Silly mixed with a healthy dose of the comic events that seem to saunter along in my wake. Combined with the fact that I'm super busy and a little stressed at the moment, a good friend of mine, my salsa buddy from university (and current penpal), T, is coming to visit me in Germany this week, and I'm so excited I'm practically spinning. All this crazy energy has certainly made for an interesting past week or so.


I shouldn't be allowed a bike.

 It all started two weekends ago when the inevitable happened. I finally fell off my bike. I can't really explain it any other way than by saying this: I have no fear. And on my bike, if you know me at all, you know that I SHOULD have fear. But apparently not. Here is the inner monologue I had with myself in the five or so seconds prior to crashing:

"Gee, look at that car parked half way in the bike lane. It's pretty narrow. Can I fit there? Sure, why not? Well, maybe not, but I could take that curb, right? Um, bad call. AHHHHHHHHHH!"

In my attempt not to look stupid by having to do the awkward hop-run off my bike, I effectively willing rode into a seven inch curb, resulting in a stunning display of my side-hopping abilibes as my bike rebounded off the curb into me before I took it over with me into the rock bed surrounding a tree. Fantastic. I landed on my hands, knees ricochetting painfully off bike bars. Somehow my knees and my dignity were the only parts that came out bruised. I guess I wasn't going that fast. In what world did hitting a curb seem like a good idea? No fear, I tell you.

Come to think of it, this isn't the only recent bike disaster of mine. A week or so prior to the curb incident, I inadvertently let all the air out of my tire when I was trying to pump it up five mintues before I needed to head to Wernigerode. It came rushing out at record speed, which I wasn't expecting, and I really wondered how it could be so hard to pump up a bike tire. Granted I did end up having a flat, so I wasn't totally to blame, but it still added insult to incompetency. It turned out to be lucky that I went forth sans bike because, aside from the fact that my tire probably would've died on my trip, my train to Dessau was so late that I had to run two flights of stairs to change platforms, which I never could've managed while lugging my bike.



Hiking in the Sächsische Schweiz
The Bastei

 Last weekend was spent with a fellow ETA, Emily, in Leipzig because we wanted to visit the Saechsische Schweiz for a hike. We got out at Kurort Rathen and took the ferry over the river to climb the hundreds of stairs up to the Bastei. The view was magnificent over the blue-skied, fertile valley and the fresh air and enticingly eerie magic specific to German forests gave me the getaway I'd been craving. ä



You can probs see the Czech Rep.
from here



To get back to my main point, though, my mind works in mysterious

ways, linking from one thing to the next at the speed of light, and in part because she thinks this way as well, Emily and I are epic conversationalists. When she and I get together or talk on the phone, you can guarantee that no work will actually get done as we bounce from topic to topic, with each one increasing the nerdiness quotient of the conversation, the longer we talk. Usually we subject bounce



Literally right out of
Caspar David Friedrich



simultaneously, but it has been proven that we are NOT indeed telepathic. In a rare silent moment as we descended scores of metal squares on the Schwedenloecher (Swedish holes) Trail, my energetic frenzy helped me take about ten gigantic mental steps away from the previous conversation we'd had before saying, "There are a lot of German verbs that start with 'e'," in a quippy yet contemplative tone. Emily just laughed. I would've too, honestly.

The night of the Castle season finale was not better...it was perhaps the so-called icing on the cake, in fact. The particularly wrenching finish to the third season did not help make me any calmer, and post-Castle that evening I was pouring my energy into my favorite new activity: travel enabling. I got on g-chat to enable Emily.

Me: We have to go through Leipzig on the way to Weimar. You should come with T and me.

E: Well, I'd like to, but I have to see about money.

Me: We all go on a Sachsen-Anhalt Ticket, then it's 10 Euros each.

E: Oh, well I should be able to handle 10 Euros.

We proceeded through a variety of tangents before landing on the topic of if getting to Croatia in July is feasible. WE were discussing potentially flying with EasyJet from Hamburg.

Me: I'm trying to figure out where they fly...It looks like they fly to Zagreb from Hamburg on EasyJet.

E: but we'd have to get to hamburg

Me: Querdurch ticket.

Emily: ah, right. i feel like that's just your comeback now

Me: :)

E: i could make a "your mom" joke and you would find a logical way to say "querdurch ticket."
 
At least my energy's being put to good use. And that brings me to today, Monday, where I am sitting antsily in school, waiting for the moment when I can throw the 80s tunes on now my Ipod and suppress the urge to dance down the street (I should be banned from the 80s when I'm excited...they don't do anything to help that situation!), so I can get home to pack a bag and then hop on a train to the Berlin airport, where at 21:30 this evening, if all goes as planned, I can start putting all my frenetic energy into being a good hostess!!

Deine,
N*

Travel by Number

Sweet street art

23. Mai 2011

Springtime in Vienna!

Vienna Secession...art dork!

Naschmarkt, Vienna

Handpainted Easter eggs!

My Easter Break trip in April was epic.  I saw and experienced so much that any amount I write about it really can’t do it justice.  The magnitude of both the distance I traveled and the sites I visited is truly massive…honestly there is no honest way that I can accurately verbalize my sensual impressions of Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest, but I can leave a road map of my journey and hopefully spark some part of you to give due time to these three capital cities on the Danube river if you haven’t already or remind you of hidden memories of a prior trip that are still lingering off in the corners of your mind.

Poppyseed noodles!  Europe has the best fair food!

Enjoying the little things

Train to Bratislava...Wiesel???

Far from home

Eating veggie with the Hare Krishna

• 3 capital cities • 90 kilometers walking • 26 hours in the train • 1 Danube River • 20 Lipizzaner Stallions • 1 terraced palace view • 2 world class museums • 1000s of hand painted Easter eggs • 1 Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” • 1 contemporary ballet mystery • 2 angry Brits • 2 turtles in a train station • 1 advertisement for my homeopathic flu medication • 3 grumpy Slovak train station employees • 3 sweet Slovak “grandparents” pointing me in the right direction • 1 €5 (and somewhat useless) map of Bratislava • 1 failed trip to Devin Castle • 3 vegetarian restaurants • 5 Hare Krishna • 2 fair trade stores • 2 questionable statues • 1 drinking fountain feeding directly from underground springs • 1 world class performance of Ravel’s “Bolero” • 10 thermal bath pools • 1 Gellert Hill hike • 7 days of gorgeous weather • 2 Chinese twin roommates • 5 vibrant markets • 1 Polish hippy hostel • 6 postcards with international postage • 1000s of new sights, sounds, smells, tastes and impressions •

Never seen an ad for my flu meds before

I love traveling in Eastern Europe!

Deine,

N*

Lock gates started in Budapest

Artsy Fischerbastei

Jewish memorial

Poppyseed ice cream???  Yum!

Danube from Gellert Hill, Budapest

Sunset behind Gellert Hill...perfect last night!

N* sucht den Supermarkt

6. Mai 2011

If there is one thing Germany gives generously, it's vacations during the school year. The break for Easter was a week and a half long, and the first week was the perfect time for my second solo trip. What started as a trip to Budapest turned into a trip to Budapest with a day trip to Vienna, turned into a trip to Vienna and Budapest with a day trip through Bratislava.

After four trains and 10.5 hours, I arrived in Vienna. Having decided that saving money was probably wise, I set out for the city center hoping to find a supermarket. This began a week-long saga or what I narrated in my head as "N* sucht den Supermarkt." In Germany, the show "Deutschland sucht den Superstar," (Germany looks for a Superstar), "DSDS" for short, is similarish to "American Idol" in the U.S. I think, and is incredibly popular. So much so in fact that Lena came over on the Saturday night preceding my trip to show it to me because "Everyone watches it, and if you want to be in on conversations, you have to know what's going on." So with this recent cultural experience on my mind, "NSDS" sort of popped into my head throughout my perpretual supermarket search.

Finding a grocery store in a new country is not always easy; if you don't know what to look for, they can blend right in! But once you do find them, having a look around is fascinating! You can tell a lot about a culture just by seeing what they typicall buy. Plus, it's always an adventure figuring out the system in the grocery store and then getting to try new things as your reward for getting it right.

Deine,
N*

Real Quotes by Real Students – Looks like German…sounds like German…

Ever since my first day teaching, my students have said some pretty unpredictable, strange or just downright hilarious things. In class you learn to expected the unexpected, and I’ve found that a either snappy reaction to turn a comment on its head or good acting skills are my best friends in the classroom when put in a situation that leaves the classroom precariously on the edge of disorder. Funny, awkward or otherwise, these moments in class never cease to make me remember why I adore working with each and every one of my students (although sometimes the situation is not funny until afterwards) and having the chance to get to know them and their vibrant personalities.


As such, I’d like to share these snippets with you. I’ve been keeping track of them, and I’ll post them from time to time. Of course, they are all anonymous for the protection of the innocent. Here we go.

In class, we encourage all the students to speak only in English, and sometimes I’ll call them out on speaking German if I catch them at it when I’m walking around. The cleverest comeback I’ve heard all year actually came from Frank-Frederick’s (you can read about him here, here or here)  friend, “Timo”:

N* (to the student speaking German): “That’s an awfully interesting form of English your speaking.”

T: “Oh, it’s a new dialect.”

N*: “Oh really…and it sounds so much like German, too”

T: “Yes, they wanted to make it easier for us.”

Well, you can’t beat that can you? A+ for creativity.

Deine,
N*

Real Quotes by Real Students – Just Like N*

Ever since my first day teaching, my students have said some pretty unpredictable, strange or just downright hilarious things. In class you learn to expected the unexpected, and I’ve found that a either snappy reaction to turn a comment on its head or good acting skills are my best friends in the classroom when put in a situation that leaves the classroom precariously on the edge of disorder. Funny, awkward or otherwise, these moments in class never cease to make me remember why I adore working with each and every one of my students (although sometimes the situation is not funny until afterwards) and having the chance to get to know them and their vibrant personalities.

As such, I’d like to share these snippets with you. I’ve been keeping track of them, and I’ll post them from time to time. Of course, they are all anonymous for the protection of the innocent. Here we go.


Frank-Frederick often leaves little comments for me in his essays if he knows I’ll be grading, which after hours of reading about something like the American school system, I really appreciate. In that particular essay, this is what he wrote:

“The two biggest dances of the year are Prom and Homecoming. There you can take pictures as souvenirs [like N* :D].”

I’m glad that my students did enjoy the photos that I put into my presentation.

Deine,
N*