#Scurf154: Dazed and confused in Frankfurt
A language known yet unknown
First week in Germany as a flapping tourist and I find myself more puzzled at the German language than ever. The days they start slow. There is a light at the window, a small loving, breakfast follows and then comes some arbitrary office work.
Then begins the stepping out adventure and figuring things out side of it. For starters, I have to make it clear that I know a fair (B1) bit of German. Although a questionable amount of time has passed since I exercised my language skills. But being here, why does it feel like I don’t know any German at all. Like none of it.
Be it at a cafe or in a restaurant or just anywhere really, train station, walking, german seems to be floating in the air (along with the DUST). There’s a fair bit of dust in Frankfurt — hello! I try to face the language like a friendly little cousin from a past life and pat at its dimply cheek, but the language flies past. Fast and furious into the light, late summer air far away from my grasp.
Before arriving here I had thought of chasing at it with the usual — google lens, duolingo, translate, etc. But over the last two days here I’ve realised I have to resign myself to it. I have to try. That can be done by speaking in broken fragments, or in halting efforts. A few lessons on Youtube or Duolingo will help but nothing like learning on the ground, right?
Frankfurt is as international (yes you know the place isn’t the thing if we bring in the “As xyz as abc” comparison) as London. And so, there is little to no need for me to force in my German language prowess. But there has to be an effort, I need to be put on a comely exterior so I am able to warm up to the environs.
Yesterday the children in the residential courtyard here played all day long — what with the first day of school (soon approaching or school has already begun??). It was at one point during their play hours, which just bdw lasted from roughly 11am till 5pm (insane, right?!?! Indian parents wouldn’t even…), that I heard some of them chirp in German while playing with a dog or cry at having to go back indoors.
The cries, laughter, playing — everything happened ever so subliminally in German. So much of catching the whiff of a new language is being able to negotiate its contours in these small alleyways — saying hello, bless you, or even just politely nod at a passerby. These things, I am beginning to understand (with a whole lot of help from M) don’t necessitate a knowledge per se of the language but of responding to your environs in a particular way.
In India, we are mostly avoidant of intimacy of all kinds. We don’t say sorry, excuse me, or even hello in public spaces. If someone’s in our way, we push past them, or simply rough up their shoulders in a non-confrontational way and move on. I think that’s a way of saving time, given India’s population and crowds if one starts to say sorry each time they move out of someone’s way, we might end up being on the road for a good portion of the day.
But it is also something more. It is our way of respecting and upholding social codes that we’ve grown up with. With covid some bit of it did change. We started sneezing into the corners of our elbows, or masking up if unwell. But largely, we still continued to be silent, and a little bit creepy too, and go about our ways. Where is the time to be polite!
But that changes here. As soon as I arrived, the server at the pizza bar last noon asked me if I wanted to order. I told him I was waiting for a friend. Now, had this been India, the server would’ve gone away. But this guy hung around making small talk with me in English. For over 10 minutes. I was sick!!!!
It was equal parts baffling and pleasing. He spoke in a fluent English which was mesmerising but I also felt a daunting guilt for not speaking in German. The German that I know SO WELL! Come on ANANDI.
This has to change. Tonight by the riverside I ordered my wine in German, and then the currywurst order happened in a German even more fluent. Soon, M and I were by the riverside conversing in our B1 level Germans. His far, far more polished than mine.
‘We shared special moments of corporal endeavour and spiritual, world-expanding fulfilment. We practised and practised.’
Or something like that!
