tourists

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Für wie lange bleiben Sie in Deutschland?

Published February 28, 2013 by Sandee

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I love hearing people speak German.  One day I followed some German tourists.  I didn’t even know what they were saying.  I don’t speak German.  Perhaps they were saying, “Why is the schwarze lady following us?”  They looked like nice people.  They were tall.  The guttural precision and command of the language makes me…amorous. I’ve seen Run Lola Run a few times in German.

I asked German bloggers if they could translate “How long will you be in Germany?”  I want a character in my short story to say it.  These are different translations from the nice German bloggers:

“Für wie lange bleibst Du in Deutschland?”

“Für wie lange bleiben Sie in Deutschland?”

“Wie lange bleibst du in Deutschland?”

During my translation quest, I discovered a couple of friends speak the language.  One spoke German to me yesterday.  It made my eyes roll into the back of my head.  Another friend who speaks German said my pronunciation of the sentence was good and that maybe I was German in another life.  He’s an artist — sometimes they say things like that.

Rammstein had a popular song on the radio called Du Hast.  There’s a song on the cd called Spiel Mit Mir.  Sure it’s about incest between siblings, which I don’t believe in, unless you’re trying to keep your royal blood intact.  Those Germans – so severe, so kinky — ha!  The singer beefs up that “command” thing in this song for a dramatic, menacing effect.  It sounds like he’s hawking up phlegm, and I hate when people actually do that, but to punctuate a sentence — yes.  Here, check it out:

Und, I had sausage this morning, which is very German.