“SpangDeutschLish”

Rose’s next door neighbors are from Austria. I’ve been teaching her a few German phrases so she can communicate with them better. They speak English rather well, but she wants to make an effort to learn some of their language. I’ve been trying to teach the kids some German, too.

After four (or was it five) years of German, I chose not to take German as my foreign language credit at Milligan. After trying (and failing) to master Greek in undergrad, I eventually settled on Spanish. Initially, I could only come up with German words when I was trying to speak in Spanish class. That wasn’t a very good thing. During my first oral exam, she asked me (in Spanish) if I knew where the bathroom was. All I could think of was an answer in German.

The best way I can describe what I had to do was train myself to think of Spanish instead of German. That way, any time I heard a foreign language, I could respond in Spanish (since that was the language I’d hear in Spanish class…as would be expected). Whatever switch that had to be flipped in my mind was eventually triggered. I stopped thinking of German phrases and Spanish became my ‘default’ foreign language.

I was never very good at Spanish, but I guess I learned more than I thought. When I tried to have a conversation with Rose’s Austrian neighbors today, all I could come up with was in Spanish. I understood what they were saying to each other, but I just couldn’t think of anything to say to them in German.

Stupid language barrier.

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Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"
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