I thought that Italians were particularly good in making chaos out of normality, I believed so till I went to a German course in Germany.
Well, as my husbands likes to point it out "in East Germany".
I do not know the west, I am inclined to think sometimes that Germany is one only state, but I prefer not to say anything about it.
Let’s pretend there are still two Germanys...
Coming back to the language course.
I finally decided it was time to learn this wonderful language and, after many do it yourself trials I decided it was time to invest some money to do it once and for all.
Of course the money invested was not toooo much, following Mrs Broghammer´s style...why spend if you can save?
Every Thursday I spend one and a half hour with other five people of five different nationalities and one teacher, the only one of course German (east German)in the local School and we talk German, or better, we are supposed to talk German.
I wouldn’t say it is boring, I do not see much the results, but, as the teacher says the results will come...
I thought my German was non existent, till I met the Chinese who knows even less than me and I was elected immediately teacher, since I can communicate with her better than the teacher...
The big problem is that we are five different people with five different levels and five different mother tongue.
We have two books, the level one and the level two, but we do not follow any book, we jump from one page to the 120th, then back to number first, and so on.
We jump from present to past tense, from verbs to adjectives and so on.
This looks to me a very peculiar course and I see it as a little bit chaotic, but if enjoying is learning, well, we won’t miss to learn German...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Habemus shower
Yes, after three weeks and Euro 1075 we have a new shower.
It is something so ugly that I think, with all my efforts, I wouldn´t have been able to make a worse one.
Yesterday evening I was on the verge of divorcing my husband.
I was swearing against Germany and all the Germans and their way to work.
In Italy it would have taken one week and Euro 300 for having a nice looking, nice working normal shower.
Which in principle should be a place where you go to wash yourself and stay a few minutes.
It doesn´t really matter if a few drops of water can eventually reach the walls or the floor.
It doesn´t matter to an Italian or to anybody from anywhere from the world.
But IT MATTERS to a German.
Not one only drop should NEVER reach anywhere outside where it should be.
In order to do so, you (the Germans) have to build an artificial wall around it and glue any possible tiny hole.
It took exactly 7 hours to do so and the rest of my life to get used to it.
I got a big lesson yesterday.
First you should never dream.
Dreams are there to be deluded and the dreamer too.
Second, you should always hire somebody you can talk to and more than anything somebody you can understand.
Never presume.
Especially when you are in Germany.
Germans are different and not always predictable.
We had the biggest lesson not so long ago and we should never undervaluate.
You are likely to be the same in BAD and in GOOD...
It is something so ugly that I think, with all my efforts, I wouldn´t have been able to make a worse one.
Yesterday evening I was on the verge of divorcing my husband.
I was swearing against Germany and all the Germans and their way to work.
In Italy it would have taken one week and Euro 300 for having a nice looking, nice working normal shower.
Which in principle should be a place where you go to wash yourself and stay a few minutes.
It doesn´t really matter if a few drops of water can eventually reach the walls or the floor.
It doesn´t matter to an Italian or to anybody from anywhere from the world.
But IT MATTERS to a German.
Not one only drop should NEVER reach anywhere outside where it should be.
In order to do so, you (the Germans) have to build an artificial wall around it and glue any possible tiny hole.
It took exactly 7 hours to do so and the rest of my life to get used to it.
I got a big lesson yesterday.
First you should never dream.
Dreams are there to be deluded and the dreamer too.
Second, you should always hire somebody you can talk to and more than anything somebody you can understand.
Never presume.
Especially when you are in Germany.
Germans are different and not always predictable.
We had the biggest lesson not so long ago and we should never undervaluate.
You are likely to be the same in BAD and in GOOD...
Friday, February 6, 2009
The Broghammers go to the "Grundbuchamt"
After one full morning and a few kilometers walk around Quedlinburg, Mr. Broghammer could walk home embracing a thick bundle of documents regarding our new home.
Now we know in details how many millimeters is our court wide and, more than anything, we know what to tell our neighbors.
They will come to put brand new and very visible sticks on the border of our property and close to them there will be big signs "No Trespassing" obviously in German, which I still do not know.
No German soul that doesn’t belong to Schmale Strasse 13 will be allowed to put a foot on the up mentioned land, not even dogs, especially not dogs.
And Mr. Broghammer will take care of that...
No more broken bottles or empty firecrackers cartoons, no cigarette, nothing.
That for the sake of the German Broghammer´s land.
It can be quite difficult to understand to a novice, but I will try to write when and where all this began.
Mr. Broghammer, when living in Italy, had the chance to point out how much different Germany was from Italy.
No disposal of bottles and rest of cigarettes on the road, no trespassing of borders from neighbors, everything looked so spiky and span in his country.
When the Broghammers decided to move to Germany "You will see the difference".
The fact was that Mrs Broghammer didn´t see that much difference in Schmale Strasse.
On the contrary, coming soon after the beginning of the year, Schmale Strasse 13 and the garden looked very unkempt and very dirty.
Broken bottles, every kind of garbage on the road, and...the neighbors car in our court!
I didn’t complain too much, I even enjoyed having the visit of some friendly dogs in our land, but for Mr. Broghammer that is really too much.
Finishing to teach lessons to the Italians, he has to begin with his own home land.
Now we know in details how many millimeters is our court wide and, more than anything, we know what to tell our neighbors.
They will come to put brand new and very visible sticks on the border of our property and close to them there will be big signs "No Trespassing" obviously in German, which I still do not know.
No German soul that doesn’t belong to Schmale Strasse 13 will be allowed to put a foot on the up mentioned land, not even dogs, especially not dogs.
And Mr. Broghammer will take care of that...
No more broken bottles or empty firecrackers cartoons, no cigarette, nothing.
That for the sake of the German Broghammer´s land.
It can be quite difficult to understand to a novice, but I will try to write when and where all this began.
Mr. Broghammer, when living in Italy, had the chance to point out how much different Germany was from Italy.
No disposal of bottles and rest of cigarettes on the road, no trespassing of borders from neighbors, everything looked so spiky and span in his country.
When the Broghammers decided to move to Germany "You will see the difference".
The fact was that Mrs Broghammer didn´t see that much difference in Schmale Strasse.
On the contrary, coming soon after the beginning of the year, Schmale Strasse 13 and the garden looked very unkempt and very dirty.
Broken bottles, every kind of garbage on the road, and...the neighbors car in our court!
I didn’t complain too much, I even enjoyed having the visit of some friendly dogs in our land, but for Mr. Broghammer that is really too much.
Finishing to teach lessons to the Italians, he has to begin with his own home land.
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