As a German in New York, when I feel lonely and out of place I read the Merriam Webster Dictionary. It makes me happy to see words like “Fahrvergnügen,” “Zeitgeist,” “Doppelgänger” and “Leitmotiv,” and  I always marvel at the beauty of these compound nouns. I also think it is just aweso

me that Americans think the same way and have made them part of the English language as well. What I find even more amazing is that Elementary and Junior High School students know how to spell German words without ever having used or heard them before. I still remember this very smart kid that came in second at the 2008 National Spelling Bee Contest. This is a competition where children have to spell really impossible words and the winner gets $35, 000  and a picture with the President – all broadcast on prime time TV. And there are plenty of German words.
This year 12-year old Sidharth Chand just rattled off “K-U-L-T-U-R-K-A-M-P-F”.* Amazing!

In New York City there are spelling bee contests for adults only  every month, which is much more fun. First, the words might be a little different from the ones the kids have to spell and  secondly, you feel more allowed to pick on adults when they make mistakes. (“What? You don’t even know how to spell “pornological”? What planet are you living on?”).

Grown-ups are also allowed to memorize words differently. In Oregon for instance, the 56-year old Bill Long participated in the National Senior Spelling Bee and failed to spell “caipirinha” correctly. He punished himself by drinking the Brazilian cocktail for over a week and took the word “learning strategy” to the next level.

I suggest starting a spelling contest only with German words, just because there are so many: Posaune, Achtung, Angst, Blitzkrieg, Hinterland, Kindergarten, Poltergeist, Rucksack, Schnitzel, Verboten, Wunderkind.
I wouldn’t bother with trophies for the winners. Just give them a nice cold beer and some brats and they’ll be happy. Discover your “Sprachgefühl” (an intuitive sense of what is linguistically appropriate) and if you long for something German -  read the Merriam Webster Dictionary.

* “Kulturkampf (literally, “culture struggle”) refers to German policies in relation to secularity and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, enacted from 1871 to 1878 by the Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck. In the USA, the term Kulturkampf and its calque “culture war” has beenis used since 1960 to describe conflicts between Conservatives and Liberals.”

Annette Baran

When I left my old job in Germany, my colleagues gave me a couple of gifts.  They thought might be helpful for me in New York. Besides getting a German cookbook for different types of wholewheat bread and rolls (indispensable), I received my new Bible, the wonderful and hilarious book “I’m a Stranger Here Myself,” by Bill Bryson. It was just so refreshing and comforting to read that other people love the American culture like I do — yet- see it through a different lens once they have lived overseas.

My all-time favorite story is the one where Bill enters a pretty empty restaurant and sits at a table without waiting to be seated (the most normal thing in Europe). The waitress comes up and says indignantly, “I see, you already found a table,” and Bill responds,: “Yes, and I even got dressed by myself this morning!”

Inspired by this book, I started this blog and hope you’ll enjoy and forgive my different take on things here in New York. For somebody who didn’t grow up with mailboxes for with flags, roasted Marshmallows and who always had real candles on their Christmas Tree (without knowing anybody whose house got burned down), it’s quite an adventure to assimilate happily in New York – but I managed and here is why:

First of all, you notice that “No” is the longest word in the English vocabulary. People who use it, say “I don’t think it is a good idea”, “I really can’t say right now” or “Let me get back to you on this one”. Here, it takes a lot of time to just simply express that you don’t feel like something. But there is hope.

Recently, I was sitting on a playground set with my two-year old son. A baby boy came crawling up the stairs, not able to walk yet and wanted to pass us. He looked at us and said,: “Excuse me” and when we let him pass, he turned his head and said loud and clear “Thank you so much” before taking on the plank bridge while struggling with keeping his pants from slipping down and displaying his Sesame Street diaper. His Mom called him asking, “Would you like some juice, honey?” and he really answered, “Not right now, Mommy.”

It gave me the chills to hear a baby boy of maybe a year and change talking as if he was in a business meeting. But when his Mom announced that it was time to go home, he finally turned into the kind of baby I know. He forgot about the 101 of diplomacy that babies inhale with their formula here and yelled, “NOOOOO!” - I was very proud of him for just being so normal. All of a sudden I felt a little more at home.

Annette Baran