Stahlke Adoption

Me and I

You can learn a lot about someone's native tongue by the mistakes they make in a foreign language. Kola is exclusively using "me" instead of "I" in his English: "Me is hungry," or "Me and him go to library."

Jonathan knows more Ukrainian than I do, so I asked him for his take on this issue. Sure enough, there are a lot more reflexive constructions in Ukrainian than in English. I know from past experience that German has similar characteristics:

The weather was very cold as Undine and I waited on the platform for the train. It was late, as the trains in east Germany often were in the years right after the 1989 Wende (literally, "change" as in the Berlin Wall coming down). Undine and I normally spent time together at the Institut fuer Musikwissenschaft, where she taught as a postdoc and I was based for my research. But this weekend, she had invited me to travel to her home and meet her family.

Undine knew that my spoken German wasn't too strong yet, although I was able to read well enough to get my work done. Undine spoke very good English, but she suggested that we speak German together so I could improve my skills. One way she helped me was to suggest I use the formal "Sie" (you) with her rather than the "Du" that is more typical for friends. The "Sie" construction meant that I could use verbs in their infinitive form, which was much more manageable.

As we waited for the train, the weather was quite uncomfortable. "Ich bin kalt," I told her. At first she stared at me with an odd look, and then I could see her role as a language teacher kicking in. "Mary, it's ok in English to say 'I am cold,' but in German 'Ich bin kalt' does not have the meaning that you intend. Instead, you need to say 'Mir is kalt' (To me, it is cold)."

Or, more concisely, "Me is cold"!

posted by Stahlkes @ 9:47 AM