Time to learn more German

I’m sure it’s been said before, that a great way to learn about a culture is through its language. For this reason Fernando and I want to learn German, even though most everything at Solvay is in English and most of the people that I find myself wanting to talk to also speak it sufficiently. We could survive without German, but probably not thrive, which is of course, what we are striving to do.

Yet at the moment, the language learning situation is pretty pitiful. Fernando has taken four classes and I only three. Between us we have six different titles of beginner German series textbooks, workbooks, and CD’s. The books reveal that the pages stop being turned at around page 32, while the pricy box of CDs is still wrapped in cellophane. I am also finding myself to be less adventurous with the language than I was upon arriving here (which most Germans would probably say is a good thing), and have had trouble finding a daily routine that includes studying German. Excuses abound, some better than others, and we do plan on getting better about it, ASAP.

So if understanding a language is a window into the culture, then knowing 1/10th of the beginner level of a language would seem merely to enable the confirmation of stereotypes. Everyone knows, for example, about the timely and punctual German, whose buses and trains always run on time. Well, until I learn more of the language, I guess I’m doomed to be led by these generalizations. Because my meager German study, coupled with about two months of on-the-ground observation, confirm the stereotype of obsessive punctuality. What I have also encountered is a general preoccupation with time, which I am not sure is a symptom or a cause.

Telling Time
Military time is alive and well in Germany, considered the official way of reporting time in anything written—newspapers, office hours, train schedules, movie times, etc. But not only is it used, it has a name, “24-Stunden-Hr”, and there is an entirely different set of words one must use to report time in this military style. In reality, it’s not difficult, just like reporting the time off of a digital clock, so that “19:23” would be “nineteen twenty-three”. However, the military time system must NEVER, under any circumstances, be confused with the other, more colloquial, “street” way of telling the time, called “Die Uhrzeit”. This one is more difficult, as it is based on more than just numbers, requiring agility with terms such as a quarter before, a quarter after, and half three (2:30), and also with such absurd expressions as three minutes after a quarter to, four minutes after half seven, a minute before a quarter after, and just a few minutes before the hour, etc. I cannot imagine managing such eloquence if asked the time on the street, let alone interpreting the answer if I had to ask. Good thing I wear a watch.

Special “Time” Words that Don’t Exist in English
We have all heard about how the Eskimos have lots of word for snow, leading us to conclude that snow is important to them. In a similar fashion, the Germans have several words to describe time and dates that do not exist in English. For example, the concept of “morning” is simply not precise enough. There’s a special expression to refer to the hours between 10 and 12 noon in order to distinguish them from the “morning”, which is from 6 to 9:00 only. There is also a special way to greet someone if you see them at around noon, which is when the country lunches. You say something that sort of means “Mealtime”, but you say it regardless of whether the person is eating or in any position to do so anytime soon. In the afternoon, there are several different farewells, all dependent on whether that person worked that day, is still working, will be working tomorrow, is unemployed, or a student. In terms of holidays, there is a special term to describe that awkward week between Christmas and New Years, as well as about four different ways to refer to New Year’s. And come to think of it, one of the only German words that I knew before moving here, learned in some A.P history class in high school, was “Zeitgeist”, which means the spirit of the time. It figures that English would import a time-related vocabulary word from German.

Recurring Themes in German Text Books
Between my study at home and my classes here and in Atlanta, I have noticed that there’s one topic that all the coursework treats with unexplainable intensity: greetings and time of day. The question is “Was sagt man?” (What does one say?), followed by several little pictures indicating what time of the day it is. The answers, of course, are expressions like “Guten Morgen”, “Guten Abend”, etc. But they always throw in a trick, in the form of a little picture of 12:00 with a sun, indicating noontime. But you must never say Guten Mittag (Good Noon) because that’s just ridiculous. Ha ha ha!! Mittag is a sacred time (deserving its own special greeting, as we saw) and should never be referred to directly. In these books there is also an urgency to teach us about the elusive subject of when “good morning” should switch to “good afternoon” and “good afternoon” to “good evening”, etc. Not one exercise but several centered on this theme that just seems like common sense to me. And special attention is paid to make sure that no student EVER greets or says goodbye to an acquaintance with “good night”. “Gute Nacht” is reserved for that person staring at you from across the bed with his/her head on a pillow, ready to catch some zzz’s.

My Teacher’s Obsessions
In our first class, after conversing with me for about five minutes in German, Andree stopped his “immersion” methodology short and grabbed a calendar from the wall. Not to practice numbers or days of the week, but to show me the national saints holiday calendar and the dates of the school vacations. Unfortunately, I learned that there are fewer observed church holidays in the North (where Hannover is) than in the more religious South. The next lesson we had a lengthy discussion, in English, about the strict opening hours of German stores and how he appreciates the fact that nothing is open on Sundays. He also gave me about five different ways of saying “At the moment”, arguing with himself for several minutes about which was the best.

It doesn’t take long to get the sense that this country is ruled by the clock. After my class for example, I walk downtown to the metro stop and the 6:00 bells are chiming like mad, seeming to go on until almost 6:15. They seem to be saying, “Stop work already!” “Go home!” “Have your supper and then head to bed!” The evening is reserved for rest and maybe watching TV. Unfortunately for me, it’s the evening when I like to vacuum, do laundry, and run out to Publix for milk and peanut butter. Oh well.

But there’s one significant thing that kind of throws a monkey wrench into this generalization about Germans’ time-obsession. Remember those excuses for not studying that you thought I was going to spare you? Well, one big one was that my teacher arrived irritatingly late for our lesson 2 out of 3 times, and even pulled a “no show” for our 4th. AND he didn’t call to apologize. So what gives with my chronically late Teach? Oh, wait… his name is Andrée Prannà, and he’s half Italian. Capiche?