it's all schwiizerdütsch to me
| I confess: I don't speak any foreign languages. In my defense, I have tried out a couple. I studied French for years (high school and college), and even spent a summer living in France with a French family. My French got pretty good, but it also quickly got pretty rusty with a few years of no practice. Then I met my Colombian husband and decided to learn Spanish. At first, my Spanish got all mixed up with my French, and whenever I tried to speak Spanish it came out in Sprançais. Or would that be Frespañol? Anyway, after an intensive Berlitz course and now six years of listening to my husband speak to my kids, my limited Spanish has kicked out the French for good. Unfortunately, my Spanish has two main problems: one is that my verb conjugation is basically nonexistent, and the other is that my vocabulary is mostly focused on child rearing. So if you want me to tell you to stop talking with your mouth full and eat your vegetables, I am all set.
Now that we are living in Switzerland, we are surrounded by people speaking Swiss German, or Schwiizerdütsch. Unfortunately for us, Swiss German is not a written language, so people read and write High German. Fortunately for us, almost everyone speaks English so it isn't really an issue. However, I do want to try to learn German as part of our cultural experience...and I also really want to learn to read the darn signs. Today the new GPS got us a bit lost and headed me straight into a roadblock (yes, again). I wasn't sure if the sign said that I couldn't go through at all, or maybe it said something like local traffic only, but I decided to plow through anyway and hope for the best. It worked out, but that's quite a tricky little game to play! Especially with three kids in the backseat when you're semi-lost in the Swiss countryside.
After navigating the roadblock, we headed to the Kinderzoo to meet our friends. Before our friends arrived, my girls wanted a snack and we headed to the little restaurant. I was so impressed to see apples, oranges, and sacks of popcorn among the food choices! My kids love popcorn so I bought a couple of sacks for them and a coffee for me, and we sat down for a rest and watched the flamingos play. Man, some things about Switzerland sure are awesome. After a few minutes our friends arrived, sacks of the same popcorn in hand, snacking away. We saw other folks were feeding the donkeys the popcorn, so we figured it was okay, and joined in. I then asked the food vendor next to the donkey stall how to say "popcorn" in German. She pointed to the sack and said, "Well, it says there 'Tierfutter...' 'Tier' means 'animal' and 'futter' is 'food,' so 'animal food'...'Tierfutter.' For real. We were feeding our kids the animal food. Note to self: schedule German lessons right away!
I have had a more positive experience here with my French and Spanish. The French comes in remarkably handy at the grocery store, since most food has labels in both German and French. Also, right now we just have whatever random seven tv channels come with our temporary apartment, one of which is in English (CNN), one of which is in Italian, and one of which is in French. When Henry and I listen to the one in Italian, sometimes we (especially he) can get the gist of what they are saying. But when he turned on the French channel last night--voila! I could understand almost every word. I was captivated by some terrible show for a full half an hour, just thrilled with myself for understanding what they were talking about. I guess there's hope for me and this whole foreign language thing yet.
photos today=Fun With German:
Tierfutter
Christ Schmuck (a local jewelry chain)
Schmuck Forum (a jewelry store on the way to school)
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