My Tryst with German – Premature Booting!

I have this uncanny ability to be the last one to board the flight no matter how early I reach the airport and this time is no different. I quickly wind up my calls to some VIPs in my life and I rush to the boarding gate.

Boarding the flight, I remember that mine is a middle seat. I regret that I will have to disturb my neighbour who must have already nestled himself/herself cozily in his seat and see his wry face to occupy mine.Therefore, no wonder that I am surprised when I see this cherubic old man beaming, smiling and gesturing welcome as he gets up from his seat to let me slip into mine.

I settle myself down, exchange a few words of courtesy with the lady next to me who is a PhD working with Illinois University and wonder if I should read or go to sleep. And that is when my lighthearted travelling mate interjected my thought process with – “Where are you going?”, “What do I do?” and the like, in German. I am happy that my frugal, rather rusty knowledge of German (thanks to the basic A1 course I had completed a year ago) enables me to reply to his questions. But his questions don’t stop with that and he moves on to tougher questions and a more elaborate introduction about himself. Recognizing that I would have to charter tougher waters now I try to switch to English. And then realization dawns – our friend here knows only one laguage in the world – German, with just a few words of English.

Sure, I was expecting this scenario once I set foot in Germany and was looking forward to sharpening my language capabilities but didn’t expect it to descend on me within minutes of stepping off my home ground.

However, I am heartened to see that my limited knowledge of German is no discouragement for my neighbour to continue our conversation. Whenever I fail to understand him, he uses comparisons, examples and elaborate gestures to convey the message. I find this in stark contrast to my experiences in China the week before. The first instant the local Chinese realized that I didn’t speak a word of their language, they would retrieve into their shell like a clam. They would neither make any attempt to understand nor respond to my attempts to coax them into a session of dumb charades to communicate. This, no matter how desperate the situation.

My travelling companion has an interesting story to tell. I understand that he and his wife (he points to a lady sitting across the aisle) spend 6 months in Munich, Germany and 6 months on holiday in Bangalore, India every year. What do they do when they are in India? – They try out new restaurants, spend time at the Golf Club, play housie with friends and relax. Whoa! What a way to live!

So why this affiliation to India? – He is a German but his wife is half German-half Indian with her father being from Germany and mother being from India – a Tamilian.

His wife stands up to strecth her legs and joins our conversation. She complains that they have been married for forty years and despite all his promises to learn English, till date the only language he knows is German.

Once the wife retires to her seat, he explains that he was on holiday in Sri Lanka when he met her for the first time. (I begin to wonder if has been holidaying his entire life.) I am surprised when he tells me that they got married within 30 days of knowing each other. I now look at this couple with renewed interest – they get married within 30 days of knowing each other, they have been married for 40 years, and they spend most of their life holidaying!!!

Having imparted the vital peice of information, the conversation turns to me and what I would do in Germany. He compliments me on my German. I agree that I have surprised myself. I shower a hundred blessings on my German Instructor at Bosch for not throwing me out of his class despite being super duper irregular and for the brilliant manner in which he taught – the only reason I remember what I do, one year down.

Once our food is served and cleared, with wishes of ‘Guten nacht’ and ‘Schones traumen von boyfriend’, my travel companion retires to sleep.