Sunday 2 September 2012

Storytelling Sunday–Back to School

Now my kids are grown up we don’t have the ‘back to school’ thing in September.  But it still feels like we should start anew, as Summer comes to a close, and Autumn approaches.

Sian suggested a ‘back to school’ story for today.  Not quite ‘back to schhol’, but this about learning:

We did a motorcycle tour of Germany way back in the mid 1980s.  We had both done O-level German at school, so decided to enrol on a German evening class to brush-up.  We really enjoyed our classes, Renate, our teacher was really funny, and it was a lovely group.  We learned ‘holiday’ German, for example, how to book a room:

Haben Sie ein Zimmer frei bitte? (Do you have a room free?)

to which in our text book they would reply:

Mit Bad oder Dusche? (With bath or shower?)

Well imagine our delight when we stopped in Cologne for our first night, and asked in our best Deutsch:

Haben Sie ein Zimmer frei bitte?

to which they replied, straight out of the text book:

Mit Bad oder Dusche?

We had a hard time keeping a straight face!  And we still snigger about it today!

We did have a really lovely time exploring the Romatische Strasse, into the Alps for a bit, then back up through the Black Forest.  The weather wasn’t always that good, but it was a brilliant holiday!  Not sure we’d go abroad without any accommodation booked nowadays though.

I am afraid I haven’t scanned in any of our photos of the trip, but here’s one of a really lovely town called Rothenburg ob der TauberI found off the internet:

1205571889_EPqec-L

 

Linking up with Sian’s Storytelling Sunday.

8 comments:

Maria Ontiveros said...

Great story! It reminds me of when we went to Paris. My husband had practiced the phrase for "can we leave our bags until check in time?" over and over on the train. We arrived in the lobby of the hotel, he said his phrase. The attendance looked and him quizzically and asked "do you speak English?"
Rinda

Irene said...

Thast a lovely photograph to accompany your story. My attempts at any language, text book or not, usually end with my family in fits of laughter. You did great! Irene

Mel said...

I had to read this through twice to get it! I bet it was a funny moment!

Missus Wookie said...

I love it when people have learned their lines! :)

Sounds like a great trip and I'm sure your preparation helped too. Wookie loved Germany when he worked there and took me back for a weekend/second honeymoon. We'd love to go back. I'll remember your lessons :lol:

Elizabeth said...

Don't know if I would have the courage to go on a trip like that, but you sure make it sound like fun.

Melissa said...

How fun that you were able to use your new language skills & get the "right" answer. LOL

Sian said...

Oh, that's so funny - I think we must have had the same German textbook as you becasue that phrase sticks out in my mind too. It reminds me too of a Paddington Bear story where he gets a really old phrase book which teaches him how to say "My Grandmother has fallen out of the stagecoach" - as a youngster reading that I was totally confused lol

It sounds like a great trip Linda. That's an amazing picture isn't it? so full of colour and atmosphere

Thanks for sharing your language story today

Alison said...

I'm still catching up with Storytelling Sunday!...I can just imagine you trying not to laugh
Alison xx