Studying languages is good therapy for me–the right blend of escapism and mental effort.  A few weeks ago, I decided German would be my latest target language. I’ve got some German characters in the novel I’m working on and I want to get inside their heads.

For years, I was uneasy about Germany and I haven’t ever visited the country.  I remember playing “war” as a kid, with Americans and Germans chasing each other through the bushes.

We didn’t get that anti-German sentiment from my dad, even though he’d been in the invasion of Normandy, He went to Germany in 1952 on a team denazifying the West German educational system, and photos show him in his usual sociable mode, making friends right and left.

He brought home little peasant dresses for Lee and me.

These days, I’m finding learning German a lot of fun. So many surprises! Those  wonderful long wild words, like Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung (speed limit.)  The fact that Mädchen (little girl) is grammatically not feminine, but neutral. The verbs that have detachable parts. If English had those, we might say things like, “he foxed us out” instead of “he outfoxed us.” 

It’s super that there are so many cognates between English and German. Finger is finger and Hand is hand. When you’re learning (lernen), those words are gimmes–a gift.

But, as in life, you’ve got to beware the “false friends.”  You wouldn’t give someone a Gift in Germany–that’s poison in English. Fast means almost and bald means soon.

I just heard on the news that for the first time, VE-Day was celebrated today in Berlin. Das ist wunderbar!