-We had a substitute teacher for German lessons because our teacher was sick. She is the usual teacher for the next level of classes so it was interesting to meet her. During our exercises, I came up with my usual goofy sentences, such as "Maria was late to class because she bought a big cat" and from the sample sentence, "Paul was so drunk" (yes, weird sample for a textbook) "that he wore the lampshade." At first the teacher didn't understand my funny examples but then she liked them. I figure that it has to be boring to keep hearing run of the mill samples so why not jazz it up. She commented that we were just about as advanced as her next level class. That's good to hear. She also mentioned how unusual it is to see an American (me) in an advanced German class. I get that a lot!
-We hosted a language cafe and welcomed some new people to our group. Of course, we didn't practice German much; we switched to English, which is pretty much the norm.
-I had to run some errands in Ramstein and decided to check out the Korean grocery store called Seoul Market (FB page here). The store is tiny and packed with Korean and Asian groceries. There are also really good California rolls (rice and vegetables wrapped in seaweed wrappers) and fresh kimchi too. I bought some of all of these things and especially enjoyed the California rolls. I had a really nice chat with the owner, basically in Denglish; when asked, she noted that she prefers to speak German but was happy to try in English too. She offers Korean cooking classes too, traveling to the host's home and bringing the supplies for a fee. Cool, huh?
-Moo had surgery to remove a fatty tumor on his haunch and a growth on his chin. A few weeks ago I had thought he wouldn't need surgery because the growth on his lip from November had gone away. He had a new skin tab type thing on his chin and sometimes his whole chin would swell. The vet removed the growths and reported that they were both benign. The poor kitty had a rough night of recovering after surgery; he got sick twice. Afterward, he planted himself on my chest and closed his eyes tightly. The next day he was fine besides being unhappy about wearing the cone of shame, which prevents him from biting at the stitches.
Poor Moo! The dreaded Cone of Shame...I hope all is well now. I'm sure that felt good to hear you're nearly ready for the next level of German class! Isn't it frustrating (afterwards) when you realize in a language group where you could/should speak German, everyone eventually switched to English? Happens all the time.
ReplyDeleteFunny moments in class: Last week during practice with Modalverben, one of my students said, "Ich möchte meine Frau küssen." Another man said, "Ich auch!" I said, "SEINE Frau?!" :-) They all laughed - they're getting used to my sense of humor, too. Fun times!
I think I dislike the Cone of Shame a bit too; it makes me feel so guilty! Poor Moo is itchy and miserable so he sits next to me, purring really hard and sticking his face by my hand in hopes that I'll pet him/scratch his face. There's only so much I can get done when he does this and I feel so guilty when I ignore him. However, he's naughty and bites at his stitches without the cone on so he's stuck with it and will have to wear it for a while even after the stitches are out so everything can completely heal.
ReplyDeleteThat's a cute situation from your class. I love it when someone makes a mistake and everyone (including the mistake maker) has a good laugh together. It lightens the mood.