Hanna, Michelle and I met with my friend Elisa for lunch
Saturday afternoon. Elisa comes from Augsburg, Germany and is here in Austria
studying psychology at the University of Salzburg.
Our conversation constantly oscillated from English to
German as we compared American and European stereotypes. The German word for
stereotype ‘stereotyp’ is adopted from the English word. In fact, Germany has had a huge influx of 'Denglish' words every year for a decade now, resulting in some heated debate amongst language purists. Verbs like 'relaxen' and 'shoppen' are replacing there much more German equivalents 'einkaufen' and 'entspannen'. Elisa noted, though, that the English language has borrowed German's ‘Kindergarten’ and
‘Doppelgänger' (not to mention 'eisberg', 'zeitgeist', 'angst' and 'apfelstrudel'). She recalled 'doppelgänger' specifically because she had read it in an English copy of Harry Potter. We then had to
discuss what houses we’d be sorted into if we were at Hogwarts, which book was our favorite (Half-Blood Prince, duh!) and who our
celebrity Doppelgängers were. I can’t remember which language any of us were
speaking in the end, I just felt overwhelmingly pleased that Elisa didn’t fit
the cold, reserved German stereotype we had had in mind back in August, and
that she didn’t see us as fitting the superficial, uneducated American mold. Mittagessen macht viel spaß, und wir haben viel gelernt.
On a side-note, I was told I have a little Meryl Streep in
my countenance. I must now preserve my face to retain any possible shadow of
The Goddess.
…IT PUTS THE LOTION ON ITS SKIN
Watch Emily Owens MD if you have nothing to do, it's good and the main character is Meryl's daughter, which is awesome! I thought doppelganger was only a word in How I Met Your Mother, I have never heard it anywhere else, so good to know. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteHalf-Blood Prince is underrated. I would say my favorite is Prisoner of Azkaban though. Meryl Streep?! What a compliment!
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