tackling life as a real person in a foreign land

follow my travels as i work in frankfurt tackling both life as a real person and as an awkward foreign person...

Monday, August 8, 2011

pig banger

In an effort to fully understand the "you say German words funny comment," I asked my fellow intern about it at lunch today. He told me I probably just said some word wrong, and when I responded that I had been ordering "strudel," he started laughing pretty hard and said, "yeah, you do say it funny." apparently there's a gigantic difference between the way Americans say "strudel" and the way Germans say "strudel"...which is, predictably, pronounced just like the American "strudel," just more German sounding, and this difference is the FUNNIEST thing ever (please see previous post about how Germany was voted the least funny nation in the entire world). 

This led to a conversation about Germans names (and how they're, well, not the best....the beloved "Gertrude" comes to mind...as well as Holgar, Dirk, Felix, Helga, etc). Eventually famous soccer super star, Bastian Schweinsteiger, came up. As it was explained to me, "schwein" means "pig" and "steiger" comes from the verb "steigen" (to increase, rise), and to "besteigen" somebody means to "mount/climb" them (in the PG-13 kind of way). So, basically, the vice/co-captain of the German national soccer team is Bastian Pig Banger. Childhood must have been rough.


pictured: class B misdemeanor and a bottle of hair gel

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