7.07.2010

Linguist-ric

I took Latin, Spanish and German in High School, which hasn't impacted my life much, other than I'm able to order a beer in most countries (and might be an idiot savant at the Reader Digest vocabulary quiz).

My son Patrick, however, has had some difficulty with his college requirement to take (and pass) four semesters of a foreign language. So far, he's failed German, French and Spanish (twice? This semester's grades haven't been posted yet, but I'm not entirely optimistic).

He's come to the conclusion that he's always thought in German, but never been able to articulate those thoughts (which, some might argue, has been his trouble in English, as well, though he does have a firm grasp of 'redneck').

He's optimistic about the next attempt at German, since he started listening to German music and posting foreign phrases on his Facebook. Today? He ended our conversation with "Ich liebe dich". His accent is sounding gut.

4 comments:

Terri G said...

I know sauer kraut and "vas es los?". Can he tutor me next semester?

;)t

ColleenQ said...

terri: his only hope, probably, is to sleep with the professor ;)

For the most important lesson, "Eine bier, bitte!"

Anonymous said...

4 semesters of a foreign language, Ouch. Long road until completion.

BTW, the background on your blog is AWESOME.

Moflo

ColleenQ said...

Thanks, Moflo! I keep waiting for you to start your blog...or at least join Facebook, bigshot!