Discussion → My life on the Strassenbahn
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Hi, guys!
I know there are several German speakers out there, so I wanted to add this poem I wrote twenty years ago when living in Vienna. I thought when I took the job there, as an international equity broker for Austrian stocks (I was lousy at it) that I spoke German until the daily update on my first morning. Everyone spoke in Austrian dialect and I didn't understand a word! (Neu ja, Madel, a right mess you've got yourself into!) Fortunately, whatever else was wrong with my time in Vienna, the coffee was always good. Same could be said of my Dutch and Spanish adventures too. Really don't know why I moved to America.
Lou
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By the way, should that be 'Altere' with an umlaut? Aeltere?
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"Everyone spoke in Austrian dialect and I didn't understand a word!"
to add to the challenge, if you had taken a trip to Munich, it would have been the same, but different situation: Munich dialect.
and yes, 'Altere" goes with Umlaut, here's the word with "Ä" to copy and paste: "Ältere"
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this poem made me want something about vienna, too. especially the ferris wheel in the prater comes to my mind, which i rode with my mum...more than thirty years ago now. gosh. is it time for more therapy?
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Dankeschoen! I am sorely in need of umlauts! Would it be correct to write it out as 'Aeltere?" I know you can for o-umlaut.
That technicality aside, the Prater Ferris wheel with your mum, Finnegan? Gosh you make me feel old! My boyfriend and I used to rent bikes and cycle in the Prater at weekends, ending up for coffee and cake in the little pagoda cafe. In fact, most of my adventures ended up in a cafe when I was in Vienna. Inevitable really.
And Dorothee - I love Munich! Weirdly, I understand everything! My sister lived for a time in an apartment by the Englischer Garten. Happy memories of Sunday breakfasts in Schwabing served by waiters in long white aprons. Warm boiled eggs and Semelbroetchen with honey. Yum! Maybe if I don't retire to the South of France, I'll retire there. (We can all dream, can't we?)
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louise why the hell would you not retire to the south of france if you could. dont even think about munich, please. (sorry, bavarian readers / writers). i studied in munich for a while, it was a lovely place then, very self unaware, but that has changed now, unfortunately. live in the south of france, take weekend trips to berlin for raunchy nights, to vienna for pastries, and to london to see heathrow airport. there, i said it.
our own plans (we already did the south of france, the london and the berlin thing) are to retire to new york city because we like big apples. and: english is spoken.
(yes, i am aware this is not a travel the world site but a literary community. i cannot really justify my musings as such but: too late. enjoy.)
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and by the way "Aeltere" is no good IMHO. if you really want to avoid the "Ä" (but why would you) then stick to "Altere", i'd say.
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Ta, Dorothee and Finnegan. Please don't stop your musings on those places where we learned the languages we write in (or butcher, in my case). I have a sneaking suspicion that you want somewhere to spend those muggy New York summers, Finnegan, with such vehement exhortations for me to take my retirement in the South of France. I'm good for any writers retreats as long as you clean the hair out of the bathtub after you and bring me lots of single-malt Scotch.
Group Description
Second Tongue is the group for the bi- and multilingual fictionaut.
It doesn't matter to us whether your first language is French, Chinese, Greek, Swahili, Italian, Urdu, or any other of the world's groovy languages:
Make this your home, share your English writing and discuss with us what it means, for you, not to write in your mother tongue.
We also welcome native English speakers, who live and write abroad or who write in another language than English.
Share the pain - and the gain!
Dorothee, Finnegan and Nora
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