So today I made potato leek soup, which came out being just okay, but when I have soup, especially something so comforting as I recall potato leek soup being, I expect it to be orgastic. Maybe it was the carrots. I've never been much of a carrot supporter.
the very ugly potato leek soup that was in need of its carrot garnish
And just to get y'alls attention back, I also made Lemon Gem Cupcakes from VwaV, but without soymilk because it's a total waste for me to purchase an entire liter. I never was much of a milk drinker (vegan or pre). The only thing it's good for is cupcakes and black tea. I put in some water mixted with cornstarch where the soymilk shoulda been. I've no idea how that changed the cupcake, but they look fine to me. there are one or two lemon cupcake that I'm not giving to the family. if anyone would like one delivered in the next 24hrs or so, please let me know.
I just wanted to make use of this cool-looking plate
It's come to my attention of late that I really don't care for speaking German. It was my intention in coming here, however, to learn the language thoroughly and to be able to speak it like a German. My skillz are adequate. Yesterday evening, for instance, I met with a friend in Neuss and we spoke German for the first hour and it was fine. I know my grammar isn't great, but I'm understandable. I guess I thought, back in early 2007, that I'd get all immersed and involved in the "culture" here; I do like parts of it, but a lot of it gets on my nerves (the Germans' closed mindedness and coldness being at the top of my list).
This is a stark contrast to my feelings about the French language. I bought a small book in French over the week-end to read for pleasure and I'm going to Lille for the week-end with the intention of practicing their language. By this I can tell that it's not foreign languages that I dislike, it's just... German.
Hopefully things will change when my Deutschkurs begins next week and my mind will be opened up to some new literature or grammatical nuances. I also won't have so much damn freetime to brood on these sorts of things. In the meantime, I'm going to keep enjoying switching to English.
I'd love to hear some of your sentiments on the foreign languages you might've learned (or wish you had).
Tomorrow will be a funnier blog post, I swear.
6 comments:
I enjoy your philosophical rumblings. A language is indicative of the culture. That's why they put all those Euro countries together so that when you get bored you cross a border. :-) Here in the US it's like a TV show, with cockfights between the Dems and GOPs, and whether or not a VP candidate can run a country if her 17-yr old daughter gets pregnant. Here's one for you: a client of mine overheard a local guy at a diner say he's not voting for Obama b/c he didn't choose Hilary (wow! enlightened!). Then he says, "Besides, Obama shouldn't be allowed to run for Pres - he isn't even American. He was born in Ha-wa-ii!"
that doesn't make me feel any better.
ps. if mccain wins, i'm never returning to the US. that's that.
I read your comment on learning German. Here http://www.deutschakademie.de/online-deutschkurs/
you can find a quite nice online German grammar trainer. It features a help function, that lets you contact a GFL teacher for asking particular exercise related questions. It may take a few days to get the answer by E-Mail, but the site is for free.
I'm all for French.
And I'm thinking about asking the Rincks about learning Spanish...I'm seriously considering spending some time down in Mexico.
Turkish is fun, too. We should both take up that.
Ian says: Well, I think, based on my own observation, as well as friends' experiences, we all seem to have had the same thoughts you have. Some friends couldn't take it and left. Some lost souls have remained, me being one of them. I can certainly tell you that I had many aggravations regarding the language and the culture, even though I still felt lots of goodwill towards the place.
But as my German abilities increased, my frustrations decreased. And I no longer experience these incidents of coldness, and most of the old frustrations are now just amusing memories...I believe that most of the difficulties came solely from culture-clash which eventually dissipate as you learn to navigate the german landscape and not just be some bumbling Ausländer (not that you bumble!).
When I took German in junior high, my teacher kicked me in the shins when I got an answer wrong. It somehow seemed appropriate, having a German teacher kick you. Needless to say, I have painful associations with that language.
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