www.derdiewas.de - Die Website zum Buch von David Bergmann
"Der, die, was?" auf Englisch:
"The, the, what?", page 2
Suddenly, I no longer had the impression that I was particularly clever. This was such a disappointment that I even forgot to ask Bodo if Herr Hasenclever was “ein hohes Tier” (a big shot; literally “a high-up animal”) or just “ein alter Hase” (some old hand; literally “an old rabbit”). I thought it was a real shame that my newfound word didn’t have the meaning I had thought it had and which had delighted me so for a week. However, when learning a foreign language, you are bound to have an abundance of disappointing experiences. Fortunately, dozens of funny situations arise as well, many of which, however, only seem comical long afterwards, and often far, far away from the scene of the linguistic crime. Thankfully, I have been keeping a diary for years so that I, too, can sometimes join in the laughter.
Three and a half years previously, on 12 February 1994, I began learning German for fun. And I am still enjoying it to this very day. During this time, Germans have asked me thousands of times how this can be possible. My absolutely honest answer: Because German is such a beautiful, efficient, important, and, most of all, fun language! If I had received a roll for every sceptical glance I got in reaction to this proclamation, I would be rolling in it.
In my opinion, unfortunately far too few Germans seem to realize just how humorous their mother tongue really is. I am firmly convinced that they just don’t pay enough attention to their own language. For example, the unforeseen poor election results for Angela Merkel and the CDU in the Bundestag elections of 2005 were a big surprise for many people - but not for me. Although the reason was staring people in the face from just about every street corner, few, if any, Germans appear to have noticed it. The omnipresent posters showed a picture of a smiling Mrs. Merkel next to the CDU election pledge of “Mehr Arbeit!” (More work!) This clearly violated a principle of one of the most intelligent Germans of all time, Albert Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Of course, the slogan should have been “Mehr Arbeitsplätze!” (More employment!) I suspect that many voters registered this subconsciously, and then, due to some vague uneasy feeling, voted against the CDU..