USMB Coffee Shop IV

[Bloodrock44]

Morning Coffee Mates. Mrs. Blood is German. We moved to America when she was 21. So I asked her the other day, when you think, do you think in German or English? She answered English. Interesting.

That is indeed interesting, because I have now lived in Germany almost 17 years, came here when I was 33, and now I dream almost exclusively in German (sometimes in French). My little one was born here, so German is her primary language, but since very very first day on Earth, I have only spoken English with her. There have been entire months where the only two people I spoke English to were my daughter and my sister (who lives in the States). My daughter is going through the phase where she sometimes thinks in German and sometimes in English. It is fascinating to watch, because she gets a certain look of concentration on her face when she is thinking in English... wow.

wow, that just struck me as being really cool. you dream in german. I guess I never really thought about it, but eventually I guess you assimilate to that point.

I had never really thought about it either. I was the 1st English speaking person my wife ever met. We could hardly carry on a conversation. She learned English quickly. We moved to America and she eventually graduated from a major university Suma Cum Laude. She has no German accent at all. People don't realize she's from Germany unless she tells them. Now she says she thinks and dreams in English.

 

[Jughead]

its a nice day but we keep getting these pesty sun showers and every once in a while a dark cloud come by and dumps on you. its not all that bad but I feel like I'm working wet all day.

these weekends go so fast. I can't believe it is already late sunday afternoon

Showers are good. They save the effort of having to water the lawn and the vegetable garden. On the other hand, they also make the grass grow faster which means cutting it more often. We can't win unless we replace the lawn with 100% desert landscaping.

Weekends do indeed go by fast, too bad the rest of the week tends to drag. One way to fix this is to make sure there's enough tee... like tee off time on the golf course.

I wish it would rain once a week at a specific time for a specific length of time. I could schedule around it better, but alas, I'm glad to get rain when I can because for the last 3 or 4 years, we haven't been getting too much. One of our lakes has almost totally dried up.

LAKEHILLS — Tourists are steering clear, businesses have closed and wells are failing in this shoreline town because of troubles with its lifeblood, Medina Lake, according to those who work and live here.

The reservoir only is about 9-percent full, leaving “waterfront” homeowners a long walk from wetness, docks grounded and locals anxious about the future.

The café that Johnny Hubbell opened in 2010 did fine until the falling lake sucked away customers.

“We were very successful until the lake dried up,” said Hubbell, who closed shop in September. “It killed us.”Residents on edge as Medina Lake evaporates - San Antonio Express-News

Looks like the drought is affecting several states. The entire state of California is currently under a severe drought. This is serious as it impacts food prices. Meat and dairy products are affected. Not to mention fruits, especially strawberries since California supplies a good portion of the strawberries that we eat.

 

[SFC Ollie]

That is indeed interesting, because I have now lived in Germany almost 17 years, came here when I was 33, and now I dream almost exclusively in German (sometimes in French). My little one was born here, so German is her primary language, but since very very first day on Earth, I have only spoken English with her. There have been entire months where the only two people I spoke English to were my daughter and my sister (who lives in the States). My daughter is going through the phase where she sometimes thinks in German and sometimes in English. It is fascinating to watch, because she gets a certain look of concentration on her face when she is thinking in English... wow.

wow, that just struck me as being really cool. you dream in german. I guess I never really thought about it, but eventually I guess you assimilate to that point.

I had never really thought about it either. I was the 1st English speaking person my wife ever met. We could hardly carry on a conversation. She learned English quickly. We moved to America and she eventually graduated from a major university Suma Cum Laude. She has no German accent at all. People don't realize she's from Germany unless she tells them. Now she says she thinks and dreams in English.

Yeah My ex learned her English pretty fast too, but she learned it from a group of young troops in the Bars of Germany....You can imagine how i wanted to shrink under the table when i brought her home and at dinner she looks at Mom and says "Pass the ******* potatoes."

 

[SFC Ollie]

 

[Noomi]

Hope everyone is having an awesome Monday!

 

[WelfareQueen]

Hope everyone is having an awesome Monday!

Not yet Noomi....but we're getting there.

 

[Mr. H.]

Hope everyone is having an awesome Monday!

Not yet Noomi....but we're getting there.

Hey Noomi... what was the weather like tomorrow?

 

[Mr. H.]

And so, with this... I shall make my 29,000th post.

 

[Sherry]

And so, with this... I shall make my 29,000th post.

 

[Mertex]

It's still Sunday here in Texas, Noomi, but very close to the end.....so I shall have to say:

 

[CorvusRexus]

A new one? Already? I swear the last one was put up last week!
You guys are just really popular people.

 

[CorvusRexus]

wow, that just struck me as being really cool. you dream in german. I guess I never really thought about it, but eventually I guess you assimilate to that point.

I had never really thought about it either. I was the 1st English speaking person my wife ever met. We could hardly carry on a conversation. She learned English quickly. We moved to America and she eventually graduated from a major university Suma Cum Laude. She has no German accent at all. People don't realize she's from Germany unless she tells them. Now she says she thinks and dreams in English.

Yeah My ex learned her English pretty fast too, but she learned it from a group of young troops in the Bars of Germany....You can imagine how i wanted to shrink under the table when i brought her home and at dinner she looks at Mom and says "Pass the ******* potatoes."

Everyone I've dated has been at least partially ethnic German (pretty much everybody where I live is) but never from Germany. In fact, I've never even been to Germany.

 

[Pogo]

Morning Coffee Mates. Mrs. Blood is German. We moved to America when she was 21. So I asked her the other day, when you think, do you think in German or English? She answered English. Interesting.

That is indeed interesting, because I have now lived in Germany almost 17 years, came here when I was 33, and now I dream almost exclusively in German (sometimes in French). My little one was born here, so German is her primary language, but since very very first day on Earth, I have only spoken English with her. There have been entire months where the only two people I spoke English to were my daughter and my sister (who lives in the States). My daughter is going through the phase where she sometimes thinks in German and sometimes in English. It is fascinating to watch, because she gets a certain look of concentration on her face when she is thinking in English... wow.

I am a native English speaker, can do Spanish acceptably, French very poorly. I can read and write the three as well as Latin (fairly) and Norwegian (poorly),

Some I read that when one dreams in a language, then the person is fluent in that language.

I have only dreamed in English my entire life.

Perhaps whether fluent or not it's what you're used to day-to-day. I know when I came back to the States after living in France for several months, for a while I was still thinking in French and had to take a moment to translate internally before speaking, although whatever point that shifted back to English was so gradual as to be imperceptible. Whether my dreams were in French I can't remember.

Also found I had to re-learn a couple of slang phrases that I knew before but forgot.

 

[Pogo]

And so, with this... I shall make my 29,000th post.

I love that thing. My favorite part is the carriage return

Immediately made me think of this:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2LJ1i7222c&feature=kp"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2LJ1i7222c&feature=kp[/ame]

 

[Sherry]

 

[Statistikhengst]

Morning Coffee Mates. Mrs. Blood is German. We moved to America when she was 21. So I asked her the other day, when you think, do you think in German or English? She answered English. Interesting.

That is indeed interesting, because I have now lived in Germany almost 17 years, came here when I was 33, and now I dream almost exclusively in German (sometimes in French). My little one was born here, so German is her primary language, but since very very first day on Earth, I have only spoken English with her. There have been entire months where the only two people I spoke English to were my daughter and my sister (who lives in the States). My daughter is going through the phase where she sometimes thinks in German and sometimes in English. It is fascinating to watch, because she gets a certain look of concentration on her face when she is thinking in English... wow.

wow, that just struck me as being really cool. you dream in german. I guess I never really thought about it, but eventually I guess you assimilate to that point.

I like the word "assimilate" in some ways, [MENTION=24208]Spoonman[/MENTION], and think it's pretty appropriate here. In order to really hone-up on the German language, I took the advice of a good friend and mentor, who recommended that in my first two years, I first establish a circle of German friends and talk with them only in German, cost what it will, and since I do lots of sports, that was easy to do. He also recommended that I buy books that I had already read in English and this time, read them in German. So, I started with Frank Herbert's DUNE trilogy. He then recommended that when I watch TV, only Station 1 (ARD) and Station 2 (ZDF), because the reporters speak perfect High German (Hochdeutsch) - without accent. Of course, everyone has an accent of sorts, but the concensus is that the cleanest of High German comes from the city of Hannover, so it is called "hannoverisches Deutsch". So, yeah, the assimilation thing happens with time, but I am still through and through a US-American and proud of it.

After being here so long, I note even the slight changes in body language and clothing that separates Americans from Germans. Just yesterday, when I was with my little one at a fete (with lots of jarring rides, cotton candy, the works), as we walked by a couple with two kids, based on how the guy was walking and wearing his jeans, I know he was an "Ami" (the German slang for "US-American") and sure enough as we passed that couple, he was speaking English with a midwestern Accent. I said a quick hi to him and his wife, it ends up they are from Auburn Hills, Michigan (suburb of Detroit) and he studied at the University of Akron, which is one of my two Alma Maters. Small world. Chuckle, chuckle.

Now, if I catch a film in English late in the evening, a strange thing often happens: in my dream, I rerun part of the film, but in German, in spite of the fact that I just saw the film in English. The human brain is an amazing thing.

So, yeah, "assimilated" is pretty accurate.

 

[Statistikhengst]

wow, that just struck me as being really cool. you dream in german. I guess I never really thought about it, but eventually I guess you assimilate to that point.

I had never really thought about it either. I was the 1st English speaking person my wife ever met. We could hardly carry on a conversation. She learned English quickly. We moved to America and she eventually graduated from a major university Suma Cum Laude. She has no German accent at all. People don't realize she's from Germany unless she tells them. Now she says she thinks and dreams in English.

Yeah My ex learned her English pretty fast too, but she learned it from a group of young troops in the Bars of Germany....You can imagine how i wanted to shrink under the table when i brought her home and at dinner she looks at Mom and says "Pass the ******* potatoes."

 

[Noomi]

Just found out about a karate seminar being held in Melbourne. Places might be limited so you have to get in as soon as possible. Going to send off a text message to Tracy to ensure I have a place in this. She'll be heading down there as well. Will be awesome for us to learn something new!

 

[Statistikhengst]

Hope everyone is having an awesome Monday!

Not yet Noomi....but we're getting there.

Hey Noomi... what was the weather like tomorrow?

Ahh, I know that trick. Get advance info from the future and then claim to be a mind reader!! Wise guy!!!

 

[Statistikhengst]

Good morning, everyone, Happy Monday - and here's wishing for a good start into your week!

I was waiting for Foxfyre to post her good night and prayer list (I really like that list), but have lots of business appointments today and gotta get going.

Today's celeb no. 1 drinking coffee:

That's Gillian Anderson (X-Files).