Some funny stories about learning German.
I always have learned that the German word for chicken is Hünchen. And that the German word for dog is Hund. Since I was a freshman in highschool, this is what I have known! However, people don't speak German here. They speak Austrian. So my Hausfrau told us one night that we were eating Huhn. Which sounds very much like Hund to my American ears. So for weeks! for weeks I tell you! I thought I had been eating dog that night, Hund! But no, I had been eating Huhn. Chicken.
That explains why I thought dog tasted so much like chicken.
It also cleared up a lot of confusion I had about why I was eating dog, when Austrians love their dogs so much.
Another hilarious Rebekah story:
Somewhere I read the word ausgezeichnet.
From context clues, I picked up that this word meant excited. And so I went around using my new found German word. Oh, we're going to the opera. 'Ich bin so ausgezeichnet!' Oh, we're having dinner with unsere Hausfrau. 'Ich bin so ausgezeichnet!' And I couldn't figure out why any native German speakers weren't responding to my excitment. Perhaps, they just thought the crazy American was very enthusiastic. And then, at lunch one day before we were about to tour a castle, I procceded to tell my friends how excited I was to see this castle, auf deutsch of course. And then when I was encountered with questioning looks we discussed the meaning of this word. And I learned an important lesson that day. Ausgezeichnet does not mean excited. It means awesome. More or less. SO I had been going around saying. I am awesome! I am sooo awesome! And, you know what. I am pretty awesome. So I guess it did translate alright.
Learning German is great.
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