German Language Ponderings with Steph from Transcontinental Overload: S7E3

In this episode, Steph Cook of Transcontinental Overload is kind enough to ponder 3 aspects of German that strike me (Geopats Steph) as strange. Her insights and humo(u)r about these differences is a sheer delight. You will never hear the German language in the same way again. 

Original publication date: July 17, 2020

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Another word that appears in the German list and not in the English list is ferien. Vacation. Isn't that amazing? Because I thought that was so interesting. No way. It does not holiday, holiday or vacation does not appear in the most commonly used words. Wow. 500 most commonly words in the English language. And that's distressing. It's just right. So I thought that was just now you now you know why I don't live in my passport country. And that is exactly. And I was like, yeah, that totally makes sense.

unknown 0:33

You've made a mess of me. You've made a mess of me.

SPEAKER_06 0:40

Welcome to the Geopaths Language Podcast, where we learn about the world through the different languages that people learn and their language stories. In today's episode, I am thrilled to talk to another Stephanie. I'm talking to Steph Cook from the Transcontinental Overload blog and podcast. A wonderful expat podcast. And I have to say that because I was on there recently, but actually I was listening for quite a while before that. So I'll put a link in the show notes to my own episode. And so the double Steph experience can be a double episode. Her episode with me and my episode with her, which is this one right here. Who is Steph Cook? Steph was born in Munich, Germany, and she lived in the UK in her 20s. She met her English husband, had two kids, and 10 years ago, they moved to California. For the past four years, however, they've been living in Austin, Texas, which is where she is right now. She loves languages and multicultural living, and I think all of that will definitely come out in this episode. This episode is a little bit different because instead of just interviewing Steph about her language story, which she promises to come back and do at some point, yay. I'm taking three of the things that I found confusing, curious, or interesting in my own German language learning journey, and I'm asking her, a native German speaker, what she thinks of them or what kind of uh what kind of insights she can provide to them. And her answers are very, very surprising. Okay, let's jump into the questions that I have for Steph about things that I find very curious about the German language so far. Okay, this is gonna sound a little weird, but thank you, Stephanie, for joining us on the language show of the Geopaths Podcast. It can only be good. Yeah. A little context for the listeners. Steph actually interviewed me for her podcast a few days ago. And just before the interview, I was studying my German and thought, what am I doing? I'm talking to a German native speaker in a few hours. I need to pick her brain on these questions I have right now. So I sent the questions to her. But of course, just with the first interview, we talked so long that we were both so exhausted that we scheduled a second time to chat, and that is right now. So what's in this mini episode is going to be some ponderings I've had over the past, I would say, three months of very slowly, very on and off studying German. Let's introduce you and your podcast. All right.

SPEAKER_05 3:09

So, yes, I'm Steph, and I recently launched a podcast called Transcontinental Overload. I actually have a blog of the same name that I've been writing for the last 10 years. And uh yeah, it's 10th anniversary these day this this year, and which is why I created the podcast to celebrate. I started writing that when I first left the UK, so I'm originally from Germany, but moved to the UK, and then 10 years ago to the States, and I've kind of felt like I needed to do something. And then this time last year I've I started thinking I really want to change, exchange stories and not just write about what I've been doing and my thoughts, um, but actually hear other people's and then share those. So that's where the podcast idea came from. There you can find all of my stuff at uh transcontinentaloverload.com. You can find my blog, my podcast, as uh also like a little thing that you can click if you want to get in touch, if you want to be a guest on the podcast. I'm on Twitter as overloaded Steph. And I have a Facebook page too, is also a Transcontinental Overload. So Steph, are you ready for some of my weird pondering? Absolutely. And I love ponderings on language and on the German language in particular, because it's also something I don't normally have to consider what German is like for foreign language uh learners. So it's always interesting to actually dive into my own language.

SPEAKER_06 4:42

Can we assume correctly that your first language was German?

SPEAKER_05 4:45

Yes, it was cool.

SPEAKER_06 4:46

And what other languages do you know?

SPEAKER_05 4:48

Um so I learned English in school, but not until I was I think in seventh grade. So my first language was Latin. So I learned Latin uh in fifth grade, age 11, which is very tough, but a wonderful basis for everything else. And I think it's it really helped me to pick up other languages. And I I did have uh I did study French in school, I think year nine, yeah, ninth grade, something like that. And then uh I loved languages, always did, and I went on to study languages, so English with English and French as my major foreign languages, and then I wanted to learn Spanish. And I taught myself the basics, moved to Spain for a summer, uh, so that I could uh go into the advanced class at my language school because I didn't want to start from scratch, and so I did that. Smart. Um, so I do uh theoretically I have French and Spanish too, although they're both a little bit rusty these days, I guess. I'm I always feel like I it would come back uh if I lived in those countries. I could probably you know become I was almost fluent in French, and uh I'm not these days. And Spanish I think I'm quite confident reading, reading it, but I I don't speak it very well.

SPEAKER_06 6:14

So I always love noticing the first words that I hear a lot of. When I was in Argentina, quiero was one of them. And uh Necesito, and there's there's always words that just I was like, okay, what's that? I'm looking it up, and I know that one because that's like every third word is that word. When I came to Germany, canau, noch, doch, which I still don't fully understand those two, but that's fine. Genau is easy. And I'm wondering when you, even though you studied English at school, what were the words that you noticed that were used really frequently? Well, you were first in the UK and then now you're in the US. So when you first moved to the UK, were there do you remember it all? Like what were the words that you heard really often?

SPEAKER_05 7:00

It's a good question. Very good question. It it actually had to really look up some word lists because I actually don't think there's a big difference. So I it's it wasn't like, oh my god, that word, what is it? But I think the difference is also that I had studied English extensively before I went to the UK. So I had I was a fully trained translator before I went to the UK. So it wasn't like it was hit it hitting the the UK was hitting me with all these words that I didn't know because I I it just sounds really horrible to say I knew most of them, but the the only difference was the way they were said and the way they were used and the pronunciation, because that's not necessarily something that you prepared for when you even though I was trained by native speakers, it's a very different experience when you're actually in the country and people, especially like Southeast England and London, you've got the Cockney rhyming slang and just the the South East uh pronunciation of things, and so it's a it's very unique, and I'd never heard anything like it. But the sort of I can't say that I can really see a big difference in the words used. I did look up like the 500 most commonly used words in both languages though, because I was really interested about the question was like, and I was like, is there a difference? And actually, I looked up that list and it's pretty identical, but what I found interesting there's uh there's three words that appear on the the German list that are not on the English list of the 500. Yeah, isn't that interesting? Okay, so yeah, so there are three words I've I noticed were on the German, and even within the first like 100 most commonly used words, and they don't appear on the English list, not even in within the 500 words. And I thought that was interesting. And one word is Fahrrad, which is bicycle. Really? Uh-huh. Oh my god. Well, wow. But you know, I mean, people I think in general cycle a lot more than people in America, in the States.

SPEAKER_06 9:02

In the country with a country, yeah. And certain cities. And yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:06

In the UK, you have uh cities like Oxford and Cambridge where everyone bikes. But I thought that was interesting, and I I kind of generally feel there's more cycling going on in Germany. So that was interesting. Another word that appears in the German list and not in the English list is Ferien, vacation. So isn't that amazing? Because I thought that was so interesting. No way. It does not holiday, holiday or vacation does not appear in the most commonly used words. Wow. 500 most commonly words in the English language, and that's distracting. It's just right. So I thought that was just now you now you know why I don't live in my passport country. And that is exactly and I was like, yeah, that totally makes sense. Yeah, the other word that was in that list, and I thought that was really interesting, was so the the word police appears in the German most most commonly, yeah. Yeah, but not in English. So Polizei is is used way more in the German language than police is in the English language.

SPEAKER_06 10:12

That is very strange. That one I find very hard to believe.

SPEAKER_05 10:16

Yes. I well, but wow. But yes. So but vacation?

SPEAKER_06 10:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:22

That just shows. So who put out this list? Well, it probably have various lists. I looked at a few. I got I I got I went completely nerdy and went to all the things. You did. Yeah. You did more research than I did for this. Well, I did because I honestly couldn't answer the question without any research because I was like, I I don't think there's a big difference between those words.

SPEAKER_06 10:42

Well, just like in your day-to-day or even pre-COVID day-to-day existence in the US versus your day-to-day when you lived in Germany ages ago. Can you think of any words that you might hear or use that in one place, not another? I mean, obviously the translation of the word.

SPEAKER_05 10:59

I think it, yeah. I mean, obviously the the in the US, especially, the to greet someone or just talk to someone with how's it going, or how are you know, how are you doing? How are you doing? Do you even say that to the p the person at the cash register in the supermarket? You would never say that in Germany to a cashier. You wouldn't say, Oh, you know, how's your day going? They would just look at you like you've lost your mind. And they they have. So I think even though you know I knew obviously what those words meant, I didn't know that that's what you used or you had to use in your kind of uh daily life a lot. Just to not say when someone says, Hey, hi, you know, to to not just kind of nod at someone, but to actually uh engage and say say some some things like how's it going, how are you doing, how's your day, and have a nice day and enjoy the rest of your day, and you know that kind of stuff. So all these things that don't really mean anything. They don't mean it's not like people here really want to know, but it's just something that you have to get used to to saying. And that was completely new to me coming from Germany. And even even in the UK, even in the UK, you it's it's very normal to to fluff up your you know your conversations and to use use little uh you know, I thought I was in heaven moving from Germany and moving to the UK, but then coming coming here was another of revelation. So but it's a it's it's like yeah, and going back to Germany, although things have changed there as well. So people are a lot more friendly compared to when I when I left over 20 years ago. But yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:48

I just want to pop in for a minute with a couple of announcements about what we're doing on the Geopaths Language podcast as well as all of the other Geopaths podcasts. Geopaths podcast has split up into a number of different podcasts. For example, Geopath's Language, which you're listening to right now, Geopets Podcasting, which is about uh where we learn about the world through podcasters and podcasting, Geopats Books, which used to be Bookish Expats, where we learn about the world through books. You see where this is going. Geopets Coffee, where we learn about the world through coffee. Uh blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The Changing Scripts YouTube channel is now revamped, and it is now the Geopets Language YouTube channel, and that's where I am putting my own language learning journey, my updates, my challenges, all the kinds of things I was doing with the Changing Scripts YouTube channel when I was learning Mandarin Chinese. I'm now doing in German, not in German, in English about German, with some German mixed in. And I will eventually, hopefully sooner than later, get back to Mandarin Chinese. And inevitably, there's comparisons that I do with the learning that I did with Mandarin Chinese and the language itself and of German. So I hope to have more of those dual language learning experiences going on there too. I will put that in the show notes, of course. And so therefore, I have a quick request for you. We have started a steady account, which is like Patreon, but it's based in Berlin, Germany, and it has some different features from Patreon. There's a level of professionalism I want to bring the podcast to, and those are beyond the free services that I've been using. I do detail more of these stream tools and the and the basic services that I need to run the podcast over on the steady account, so you can check the link down below and get all of that information there. However, you can, if you can, I really appreciate your financial support. So thank you so much for coming along with this language journey with us. Let's get back to the episode. So the next question. And I thought, wait, what the heck is the German word for okay? Because that just looks like okay in English. So I still have the lingering question of is there an actual word for okay? Because so so is negative, yeah, and okay is not.

SPEAKER_05 15:28

So yeah, okay is okay, and you can absolutely use it. It is really the most used expression, and it it is what it is. It's it's okay, it's not good, not bad. And but is there a German word that means okay? That's just not yeah. So you can say, I mean, it's more like uh not just a word, but a little expression. So you can say get schon, it's going. G-E-H-T.

SPEAKER_06 15:53

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 15:53

Get schon. It's going basically. Yeah. Or um get kla. That's another one. But you wouldn't you wouldn't necessarily say that about how you're feeling. So you can say, is that okay with you to do this? And then you can say get cla.

SPEAKER_06 16:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:14

And uh another word for another expression for gechon, so in that again varies from where you are in the country. So in Bavaria you can also say pasteon. It's which paston is to fit. Yeah. So instead of gechon, gecho, you can say pasture. But that's very Bavarian. So you pasture pasture, you immediately out yourself as a southerner.

SPEAKER_06 16:41

So see, I know zero French, but that sounds French.

SPEAKER_05 16:44

Oh, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_06 16:45

That's probably not an accident, right?

SPEAKER_05 16:47

Possibly not. No. Yeah. Pasture. And then also that varies with the with the dialects, but pretty much you are completely fine with okay. And just say it more German. So don't say okay, you say okay.

unknown 17:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 17:01

Okay.

unknown 17:02

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 17:03

Germans also like to if you if you want to say okay, o okay with a more positive spin, you can say okay. And if it's more negative or like slightly, it's like okay. So it's just, it's really and you've probably noticed that there's some some things like Germans like to sing words instead of just saying them. I don't know if you've noticed juice.

SPEAKER_06 17:26

Yeah. I have noticed the rainbow of juice. And I I stupidly like texted, like voice messaged a few friends of mine, and I'm like, okay, so there's a lot of emotion in juice. Like I've I'm hearing so many different versions, and they're like, okay, is that different than goodbye in English? And I'm like, no, not really. But I'm not used to hearing choose. So for me, it sounds weird to have a heartbeat in it.

SPEAKER_05 17:50

I tell you what, and it's usually it's on the phone. When you're on the phone in in the in the US especially, you can talk to someone and or leave a message. Sometimes it's like you leave a message on the answer phone, you say, blah blah blah blah, dah, dah, okay, bye. And you just finish the conversation like that. You say just say okay, bye. And it's totally fine. It's there's nothing abrasive or anything. It's like, all right, bye. Or bye. It's you would never say tschuss. You would never do that because that would be so rude. Like chiss is is yeah, you cannot say just it doesn't, you can't do it short in a short way.

SPEAKER_06 18:31

No, no. And I've noticed even in like public places where there's like two or three customers or something, or doctor's office or whatever, when somebody who's been sitting there the whole time and you've not chatted with them, they when they go in and they and they're done and they paid and whatever, and they're about to leave, they'll say choose to the entire room. And I'm like, but we didn't even make eye contact. I mean, it's sweet. I do not resist friendly people, but I'm just like, oh, oh, okay. I got it. I got it. I'll do that now.

SPEAKER_05 19:00

But absolutely, and it's very common too, especially if you're waiting at the doctor's and uh to if you enter the waiting room, you say good morning or to to everyone. It's part of it's etiquette. And it's so funny because I don't think you know they don't do that in they don't do that in the UK, even though UK usually has way more etiquette and things that you have to do when they always say how rude the Germans are, but it's not it's actually not true. And it's so normal. Or if you enter a if you get into a uh an elevator, you it's it's normal to say or to to even to just nod at people and say, yeah. Hello. I don't think I've been in millions of people. I don't think you know the funny thing is it doesn't happen when it's only one person.

unknown 19:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:47

So come to think of it, that's too personal. Come to think of it polite in numbers. If someone's riding the elevator and you enter the elevator, I don't think you have to say hello. I think that's too like, whoa, what does he want? But if it's several people, it's mostly fine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:05

Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's really coming as a very uh strange language, I think. No, no, no, no, no, no, not at not at all. Every language, well, let me rephrase that. Every language is strange. And within every language and every culture, there's a range of ways that things are done. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:23

Oh, and we we could probably spin this out and talk about this for hours.

SPEAKER_06 20:27

Oh. Ad nauseum. Um, okay, so the next question. So I know beautiful and I know ugly. I forget ugly, but I know I used to know the word for ugly. And the other day my husband and I were walking down the street, and there was this little girl that was dancing down the street, and she was adorable. And I really wanted to say she is cute in German, and I did not know the word. And my husband swore up and down it was um was it sus is sweet? And he said it was that, and I just died laughing because she just turned into a pancake for me, because the pancake's sweet. And I'm like, is that really true? Is is like a person being cute like sweet, like a dessert? Oh yes, he's absolutely right.

SPEAKER_05 21:09

What and I'm not telling um, it's I mean, that's really the the first word that comes to mind when I see or hear cute is Zeus. And we would even it's like growing up, uh you know, teenager, and you would kind of look at this boy over there, and someone would be like, oh, they're so Zeus. Even like a teenage boy would be described as Zeus.

unknown 21:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:33

Absolutely. I don't know if that's still the case or if they have something else going on now. Um, you know, I haven't lived there for so long, I don't know, but that was definitely a word we'd use. But there is a whole range of expressions and words you can use uh instead of Zeus. And it always depends on the context. So I like to use this one website, and I can't think of it now, it's it's Leo. It's and it's a it's an online dictionary. And I literally well I I kind of came to my own, I made my own little list of words to use for cute. And then I typed in cute into the Leo translation website. And it was funny because it listed like on the left, it said cute, cute, cute, cute, cute, like ten word ten times cute, and then every time was a different word in in German. So there's a it was lovely. It was a it's a really nice screenshot. I can actually send you the screenshot maybe because it's just so funny. Because it's exactly it's like there's one word in English, and then there's like a gazillion words in in German, which is so interesting. Because I think English has more words than German, but yeah, obviously. And so yes, you could have said goldig, which is like I don't know even what that translates as. It's like it's not golden, but goldig. Or niedlich. Nietlich. Yeah. And then putsig that's another word. See, that one sounds negative to me. Putzig. However, putzig you could only use with an animal. It's like you would use that with like a small animal doing something cute. Okay. Uh and nietlich and goldig to an extent also like small children, cute kittens, that kind of stuff. Another word is knufik. And you might knuffig, and knuffig is a word that is not really used in the south, so I would never ever say knuffig to anything, but you can say knuffig. You can say that for people and knuffig a tube. It's like, yeah, it's kind of a cute guy. But you could also say it for something that's just comfy. So I've looked at the like the context when you can use it, yeah. And I've come to the conclusion, and I might be wrong, but that my my impression is that it's a word that you can use for something that is huggable. So something that makes sense, something that is kind of cozy, that you can snuggle up to, or you know. That was my impression of Knufik.

SPEAKER_06 23:58

Like a teddy bear in English. You say, Oh, he's such a teddy bear, then it is you are comparing it to a kind of my impression.

SPEAKER_05 24:05

But I mean I could be wrong, and and I have I've lived outside of Germany for so long now that sometimes my uh my own radar and sense of the language is is questionable. So it's well language. Language goes on when we leave.

SPEAKER_06 24:18

Yeah, there's Then you probably know more about American slang right now than I do. Yeah, well, I don't know, but that's that's a whole other my kids would disagree.

SPEAKER_05 24:28

Well, there's a client. We know this much, you know this much, I know this much. Absolutely. Um but yes, there's so many words, and then there's the other one is Herzig. Herzig is like it's like cute heart, you know, you you kind of see little little hearts. But also, I think more used with maybe something cute, like a little child or something cute. And then the other thing is when you want to say a cute dress, oh your dress is really cute. You wouldn't you wouldn't say Zeus or Knuffic or anything, you would say net is cleit. That's a cute dress. Okay. So net and so it's very specific. It's very it's very specific. But that's why it does it, they're just so many, and it's just Zeus is yeah, 90% of the the cases it's is the right right word to use. Yeah. But yeah. Oh, and I've forgotten the best one. And that might make you giggle too. I also don't really use it, but I if someone uses it, I know exactly what they mean. And it's similar to knuffig. And it is schnuckelig.

SPEAKER_06 25:32

How did you know that was gonna make me black? Say that again. Schnuckelig. It it reminds me of Snuff a lot, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 25:43

So there is something very um yeah, you kind of you get a sense. Yeah, schnookelik. That's funny. And when is that one used? Is that a personal kind of schnukalik? Uh yeah, yeah, I guess. I have to think about that when you some it's a feeling, it's very much a feeling. Yeah, it's very much a feeling and oh so rich so richtig schnukelig. Das war so richtig schnuckelig. That was really that was so kind of nice and and cozy and yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:14

That's so funny. You realize next week when I hear this out in public when I'm eavesdropping because I do that, I'm gonna send you a message going, I just heard it! So And the people next to me.

SPEAKER_05 26:27

Oh yeah, they would be like, What? What's so I would say I mean all these are not used as much as Zeus, but they exist and I think they're great.

SPEAKER_06 26:37

Sure. I mean Yeah, no. I I love specific words. Love it, love it. Final question because I love writing and 10 years of blogging, you clearly do too. What keyboard do you use? Are you using a German keyboard or an English keyboard?

SPEAKER_05 26:52

I use an English keyboard, and I actually have used an English keyboard from the start because my first laptop I bought I bought in the US. I was visiting, and uh I didn't have my own laptop, and I was using the the library laptop or computer at the at university, and I wanted my own, and I was visiting the States and I bought one. It was cheaper there than so and I at the time I didn't I wasn't aware that you could ch actually change your keyboard with certain settings, you can change it, even though the letters say something different, because it's it's it's the the Y and the and the Z or the Z that is different, and then some of the the umlauts, the U and the U and the E. But I I have learned to how to type those on my English keyboard, so I'm fine, and I've I've only ever used that, and I I write mostly in English anyway, so it's always always been the English one for me. And and sometimes when I'm say I'm staying in Germany with someone and I don't have my laptop and I have to use theirs, it does take me a while to get used to the German keyboard, but I've I don't struggle with it so much, and I think it's it's pretty much like driving. So I'm very used to driving in on the left-hand side of the road or the dri the it doesn't bother me that much. It always takes just a a few minutes of where am I, what am I doing, what is this? And then I'm just I think my brain has just learned to deal with that, so yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:21

Yeah, yeah. I'll never forget when I was backpacking and I was in Prague, the h hostel had, you know, that that just row of internet computers, and and the period and the comma were switched. And I swear I look like an idiot. I had to reread emails and go back and delete because it just looked like I just had like an entire like my entire email was a giant comma splice, and I'm like, what just happened? And I don't think I realized for like the first three or four emails, and then I'm like, why do I seem like an idiot in these emails? What is happening? And I'm like, oh, different keywords. I hadn't really thought about that before.

SPEAKER_05 28:56

But I've had those experiences too though, like writing my my thesis. I think I was doing I had to at the end I had to go in and replace all you know, when you like find something and it's like I just did it wrong every single time. So I'm just yeah um yeah, there's ways around it, but yeah, that's funny. But also, did you know that the like the the especially the um the comma and the period or full stop are used in the opposite way in German with numbers? I'm getting a sense of that now.

SPEAKER_06 29:27

Yeah. There's and the period after first, second, third really throws me. I want the sentence to be over. Yeah. So yeah, I'm getting right now I'm doing a lot more of the passive, I'm probably like low A2 kind of thing. So I'm getting more of the passive learning stuff going on. But I have noticed because I I I love reading and writing, I have noticed that punctuation is extremely different.

SPEAKER_05 29:54

Yeah, I actually had a uh German translations a few years ago where I I sent it off and because I typed it on the the English with English keyboards, the punctuation was English, and they actually sent me sent some back and said, You might want to um look into your German punctuation rules again. And I was like, Oh no! And yes, because the yes, the just all sorts of of things are different, and I had completely ignored that, forgotten about that. So but I'm yeah, so there's lots of things to look out for beyond the words. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 30:30

Oh, that's a good name of a book. Beyond the words. Oh Take It and Run. Yeah Oh my goodness. Are you still doing translation work now?

SPEAKER_05 30:42

I'm not currently doing it, but I could always go get back into it, but I at the moment, because I'm I'm writing so much and working on the podcast and editing a lot, so I spend a lot of time at my desk. And I felt like when I was doing translation work, I did not want to spend any more time sitting in front of a screen. And translation work also is it's the kind of work that you get it, and people want you to do it like within 24 hours, and so it's it's very hard to do part-time, you know, just do a few hours a day. That doesn't ever happen. So you get a translation and you just there's nothing else you can do. You have to translate, and it just didn't I kind of felt I wanted to do other things uh sitting at my desk. So I'm not currently doing any anything. Yeah. And I'm actually I've noticed how my German is getting worse because I'm not um translating. So yes. There is that. It's a great way to stay connected with the with a language. So I have to make more of an effort. I love to listen to German audiobooks and you know, read the German paper and things like that just to stay connected.

SPEAKER_06 31:58

You've gotta keep it alive. Yeah, yeah. When I was teaching when I first started teaching English, I was teaching mostly beginner classes, and I had to go and read the most highfalutin stuff I could find afterwards just to keep the bigger words in because I I loved my students, I loved teaching, but I could not retain my own language. I was just like it wasn't even a different language, it was just a very basic form.

SPEAKER_05 32:22

Oh, and it's so nice to listen to listen to uh very clever people in your in your own language use beautiful words and you think, oh yes, that's how I imagine myself uh speaking, not but yeah, it's it's a good it's a good practice. But we and it's very normal, I read as well, that it's very normal to lose some of your language. The more other languages creep in and your brain just is only you know, we we haven't I think unless you've been conditioned from a very young age with the languages, I think it's just it's one of those things that you can't do it all perfectly, and that's fine. Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:00

Um and most polyglots are only good at a few, and then they'll know bits of other languages. I think they said I don't know, there's been all kinds of polyglot studies, but I think they said seven's kind of the max that you can be fluent at. And the brain just really doesn't do much. And it's it's interesting.

SPEAKER_05 33:15

I've was when I studied um interpreting, I did some like simultaneous interpreting techniques and things, which is oh, that's so crazy. That's what I w I wanted to do when I was like 22. I thought I was gonna go and be one of those people at the you know in the EU sitting in the yeah, and it's just too crazy. But I was studying with a girl who was she had four languages. I think she was she lived in Switzerland, and so she spoke French, Italian, and German fluently, and she was she had English at a very high level. And she couldn't do it. She could not do any uh she was like her brain exploded. She couldn't she couldn't do it, and she was like, I can't believe this. I speak all those languages fluently, yeah, and I'm perfectly happy switching in between them, but I she couldn't do it. It was interesting to see because she was amazing. I mean, everyone's like, oh my god, you you you have to you don't even have to study, you can just nope, she couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_06 34:11

Yeah, I interviewed a Chinese interpreter. She had been doing it so long and she was so ridiculously talented at communicating. I don't even want to stick one language onto it because there were a number of them, that she said she was getting a little bored. So her latest challenge was not just to get the meaning across, but to get the speaker's style in the other language as she was simultaneously translating. Wow. And all I could think is, how am I interviewing you? I am not worthy. Wow. Like how I never even knew that was the goal of anybody. I just thought, get the meaning out, get the meaning out. It's happening.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

It's hard enough to to kind of get the facts in there. Oh let alone the grammar, let alone the the style. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:58

Oh Lord. And she was annoyed that it was taking a while to get good at it. And I'm like, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 35:03

I I think it's amazing. It's I I have to say, I've never felt more kind of alive than when like in those training sessions that we had, and we had like mock conferences and things to practice, and you are on fire. Like your brain is you could feel your brain, every single cog is is is working and turning, and it's just crazy. And it's it gives you an amazing buzz. It's like you you just wow. But afterwards, you were so drained, and very often you don't retain anything that you've you've said, anything that you've translated. It's almost like you're a medium and it passes through you, and it's just it's the craziest experience ever. And yeah, I just knew I couldn't sustain that uh professionally. I could never do that. So I'd never pursued it uh further. But yeah, I have the the most, I mean, uh absolute utmost respect for people who are good at it.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

Every day, working in Roller Street, picking up garbage, every day, stand up in here with you, big enough garbage, all the trash to the yard, taking crash, and my garbage, very deep, garbage. I can't sleep. Wait a bad meat embark of me. I won't take it up to 30 Art and the kind of girl Take your teeth out of the party, fill your cup, now I'm stuck, cleanin' up, taking your heart, you're the free little beat, now my heart is starting to party. Every drink makes me think of a stink. Made them back to me.

SPEAKER_05 40:03

Also, it's interesting because so you just called me Stephanie, and I am so used to be called Steph, Steffi, Steffi, which is the German one, or Stephanie. And it's so when do you prefer to be called? So you know that's a very interesting question because I kind of feel like um I have different names in different countries. I'm most comfortable with uh Steph. And that's I think when I first moved away from Germany, where I I was always uh Steffi or Stephanie Stephanie in um that always kind of made me feel like I was at work, so office kind of thing. And then in the UK they like to shorten people's names to a one-syllable one. And so I became Steph, and I kind of like that. That suited me, and I'm very happy with that.

SPEAKER_06 40:53

When I was teaching Spanish students, they don't really have words that start with S. So I was Estef. And they couldn't do the pH very well, so I was a step, a step, a step, and I'm like, okay, I know what you mean. Yeah, we're let's keep going.

SPEAKER_05 41:05

Yeah, you know, they I was I was Steffi. Steffi, they could say. That was that was a good one. And that was fine by me too. But I these days, and um these days I'm I'm also fine with the Stephanie. I'm probably grown up enough now to be a Stephanie.

SPEAKER_06 41:19

It definitely depends on the context. Definitely for sure. For years I went without knowing other Steph or Stephanie's, and all of a sudden I've met you and about three or four other women just within a few podcast groups that I'm in. And actually, my German course online right now has two other Stephanie's in it. And I'm like, oh, what is happening? It's just like all of a sudden there's other me's.

SPEAKER_05 41:43

It's a nice name. It's a nice name. I think I I I w when I was in school, there were lots of them. And I think it was just maybe the the fashion at the time. And uh so I didn't really appreciate it. And I was and but yeah, I'm happy with my name these days, especially as there are so many ways to say it. And so it's exactly what it's like.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

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SPEAKER_00 42:33

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