Re: Closing Gitmo

"funky cold medina"

I found Germans much more likely to be pleased that you were "trying" to
speak a little of their language. But like I said, they do NOT do lines
and
their driving habits are something to behold.


I'll never forget sitting in an Irish Pub in Berlin watching a goofy
French soldier attempting to pick up a German woman. He didn't speak
German very well and she didn't speak French... after a few
exasperated tries, he switched to English. And pulled it off. Ha.
====================================

The semester I was in France, I stayed in an apartment owned by a very nice
family that did not speak any English. My French was very poor, but it
turned out that we both could make ourselves understood in German. When we
spoke in public, the locals were not happy that we were speaking in German.
There is certainly no love lost between the Germans and the French, even to
this day.




The phrase I wrote out above is a popular colloquialism in Germany.
Rough translation:

'And out of the void, a voice directed us saying - you should laugh,
and enjoy life... for it can always get worse. So, we laughed, and
were happy.

And it got worse.'
=================================

Thanks for the translation ... I got the general drift, but one of the
things that I never "got" while in Germany was humor. Very difficult.
There was only one joke that I ever got.

A friend held up a 50 Pfennig coin and asked why the girl was "kneeling."
(This coin has a young girl kneeling in what appears to be a wheat field
with a basket of wheat in her lap.)

When I responded, I do not know. (In German, of course.) He said, for 50
Pfennig, she will not lay down.

That is the only joke I ever understood ... but I always laughed anyway.


.

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