Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Das ist hell

Lemme tell you a story...


Once upon a time, I was in German class (here, in this building right here).

As class started I realized I hadn't finished one section of our homework.  So, I'm sitting there scribbling like mad: "Ich bin....Du...bist..."  when I glance up and see this written across the board in huge letters:

"DAS IST HELL"

Whoa, what?  Whoaa....  Because, to me, that pretty much translated to exactly what you think it translates to.

And I thought, "Hey now, that seems a little harsh.  It's not that bad here."

My teacher kept pointing upwards and saying, "Das ist hell.  Das ist hell." And I was like, "Liebe Teacher, you're confused.  That place isn't up.  It's down.  Way down."

Everything was backwards.  Everything was confused.  "Das ist hell!  Das ist hell!"  Bwaahahaha.  Twilight zone. It was getting scary.  She really was trying to get me to understand that up in the sky was hell.

Then she turned off the light and said, "Das ist dunkel."  Turned on the light and said, "Das ist hell."  Off: "Dunkel"  On: "Hell"

That was the day I understood that I could use mild English curse words to say common things like, "light."

You can bet your bottom dollar that I walk around every day thinking of sentences with "hell" in them all the time.  I am a rebel.  I have gone rogue.

3 comments:

  1. Ha! This brings back memories of my 19 y.o. self. At the MTC, few things were more satisfying that to walk out of the building into the bright sunlight and say to my companion "Hell, Elder!", while all the poor people there to learn Spanish or Japanese looked on aghast.

    Then there was the woman in Berlin to whom we taught a first discussion. (In Berlin, first discussions were all we ever taught.) She had several very energetic, very badly behaved children, but she told us proudly that her "Kinder sind ganz hell". Who was I to disagree?

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  2. HAH! Haaahahah! Oh yes, GANZ hell. Die Kinder sind sehr hell, naturich. Genau!

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  3. That sounds like a swear word to us !
    love you,
    Grandma and Grandpa Healey

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