"Janchen"

Speaking in a foreign language requires a degree of social intrepidity that is unprecedented in comparison to any speaking situation in your native language. Essentially, anytime you open your mouth to speak, a risk is incurred. Did you understand the thread of the conversation correctly? Is your response sound? And if it is, are you accidentally employing slang or euphemisms? Even though I am typically diffident around people I don’t know well, my penchant for foreign languages has fortuitously bequeathed me with the audacity to speak up in foreign tongues. Sure, I still feel the twinge of hesitation and ponder silence, but my itch to hone my skills usually wins out in the end. Thankfully, I haven’t knowingly ended up saying anything compromising or offensive to a stranger, but I’ve had my share of awkward speaking moments and misunderstandings.
Ironically my favorite language mishap actually happened to be at a seminar for German students who were gifted in speaking English. In the three days of the program, there wasn’t very much German spoken, and it was actually my brain still being in “German mode” that created the circumstances for my miscomprehension.

The students all arrived at the hostel where we were staying at different times, and Janchen* was one of the first to show up. The teacher who invited me to the workshop as a native speaker, H (also my supervising teacher next year), said to me, “Oh, there’s Janchen, he’s the only boy here.” I inferred that the student’s name was Jan (pronounced, “Yahn”), but I was confused about why H and the other teacher kept calling him ‘Janchen’. In German, the ending “chen” (pronounced “hyen” with a hint of “ch” between the ‘h’ and ‘y’) is either used as a diminutive or as a term of endearment when added onto the end of someone’s name. Understandably I was puzzled that both teachers were referring to Jan so informally in comparison to the other students, but I went with it, figuring there was a missing link somewhere.

There was. The next day, the students reintroduced themselves since one girl arrived late. When it was Jan’s turn, instead of simply saying that his name was Jan, he put on his most serious face and said, “My name is Jan. Jan Chen.” My confusion quickly dissipated. His name was Jan SPACE Chen; he was Chinese-German. The teachers were pronouncing his last name as it would be spoken in German. Oy. I had to wear my best teacher face to keep from having a laughing fit. Not only because of my own mistake, but also because the inflection of Jan’s sentence had matched itself precisely to the statement, “My name is Bond. James Bond.” Sometimes students make the funniest, most endearing remarks without knowing it.

I never did discover why the teachers had called Jan by his first and last name smashed together, but I did share the story with them later, and we all had a good laugh about it. I guess that no matter what the reason is behind a language mistake, the two most important things are that you learn from it and that you can laugh about it later so it doesn’t stop you from putting yourself out there again.

Deine,
N*

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.