Reply #196: It IS fun to be multilingual [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

My first such experience was when I was tapped to serve as coffee pourer at the wedding of one of my relatives. Her mother (my grandmother's sister) had been brought up in a bilingual German-American household, and her father was from Germany, and all in all, the extended family on my mother's side was bilingual to a greater or lesser degree. Including me.

As I was pouring coffee, I overheard as one of the German guests tilted his head in my direction and asked the bride's brother: "Wer ist das hübsche Mädchen?" ("Who's the pretty girl?")

"Die Tochter meiner Kusine," the bride's brother replied. ("My cousin's daughter")

"Ich will sie kennenlernen," said the guest. "Stellen Sie mich ihr vor." ("I'd like to meet her. Introduce me to her.")

"Ach, sie ist zu jung für Sie--nur fünfzehn," the bride's brother told him. ("Oh, she's too young for you--only fifteen.")

All through the conversation, I played monolingual American. When the German guest came to get his coffee, he committed the common mistake of trying to take both the cup and saucer that I held out. "Man nimmt nur die Tasse," I told him, smiling sweetly. ("One takes only the cup.")

He nearly dropped "die Tasse." :evilgrin: