Sick in Bed

Luzie and Hamsti

We all spent the last days more or less sick in bed. We had a strange headache flu. The weather was grey and stormy with occasional rain-showers. But the sun made a short appearance every day. The best place to be is in bed anyway so we all were quite happy.

We will leave for Germany in exactly two weeks. That was quite a surprising change of plans, which makes everything much easier. But it also came fast. I am not fully recovered yet and I fret the long flight, especially now, not feeling my best.

I talked to Debbie yesterday and she said, how she loves long flights, to look out of the window, to go somewhere far away and I thought, that is the right way to look at it. I always fret flights and maybe that is why they always were fretful. From now on I will look forward to this journey!

The kids and Sven haven’t been to Germany since three years. Anton is almost double his size now. They hardly speak a sentence without using an English word. I wonder how they will feel. Whether they see it as a familiar or a foreign place. They are very excited.

Both were born in Berlin, but they only lived there permanently for two years, since they can remember. A woman told me about her grand children who live in America. She said, they are so American now. When she visited them, they told her to let them do all the talking in the shops, because people might not understand her ( South African English). That made me think whether my children are more South African than German now. For me they are German with no doubt, but I wonder how they will see it.

Luzie asked me where we are going to stay. I said, we will stay with Axel in Kreuzberg. She looked at me disappointed and said: But I want to stay in Berlin. (Kreuzberg is one of the most famous parts of town). It is definitely time to take them for a city tour and make them get to know every part of their city of birth. Otherwise they might take away our German passports.

I am excited too, but I have mixed feelings. I always had; longing to go back to a place that used to be my home knowing it is not my home anymore. A place I love but where I don’t want to live. I have to change my attitude. I have to look at it as going to my most favorite holiday destination

I love to live in South Africa but I don’t like to think I will live here for the rest of my life. But I think it is more the thought that I don’t like, spending the rest of my life at one place.

Mr. Duplisted

Luzie told me a funny story yesterday, which might explain how new words come to life. The children in her school frequently ask them for German words or sentences. They want to know what is I love you in German: Ich liebe dich or: you are stupid = Du bist blöd.

The sentence will be passed on to other children and like in the game broken telephone (stille Post), where a word is whispered from ear to ear, the words get twisted from child to child.

Ich liebe dich became one word: Ischlibbedisch and Du bist blöd also became one word: duplisted. They say I ischlibbedisch and you are duplisted (dubistblöd)

Now duplisted is the new word for stupid. You are duplisted. And Mr. Duplessies, the not so popular math, history, afrikaans and geographie teacher became Mr. Duplisted.

Lost in Translation

It is still difficult for me to follow fast conversations at a noisy dinner table. The words I hear often don’t make sense. I wish I could read the English subtitles. That’s how I prefer to watch movies, which even my Afrikaans friends think is funny.

I had even more difficulties to understand English, recently. South African English, of course. Tonight, Brian said that Sven dishdubbed. I have never heard that word before. I gave up, after asking him three times to repeat the sentence. When I asked Sven, what Brian just had said about him, he said, Brian was telling, that he had dished up for N.

Yesterday my friend Su used a word, I have never heard before. It sounded like turfview. I thought about something between a sidewalk and a turtle dropping.
When I asked her what that word meant, it turned out she had said: The two of you.

When Su says parts it sounds like pots. When she says two, it sounds like toe. Now quickly say: toe of you toe of you toefyou toefyou TURFVIEW.
And they think my English is funny!

Funny

Looking at my English it turns out that I end up using it turns out and I end up a LOT.

My favorite expressions are those which don’t have an equal in German. Like to end up.

I wonder if my limitation of the language will end up to turn out to be an advantage.

My clever daughter wrote the best Afrikaans poem in her class nevertheless her Afrikaans is the worst of all. q.e.d.