Ship of Fools: Chapel at the Wartburg Castle, Eisenach, Germany

The Mystery Worshipper

Ship of Fools: Chapel at the Wartburg Castle, Eisenach, Germany

Calm, cordial – and an inkpot thrown at the devil!

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Urganda

Fascinating. Thank you. I am assuming all this was in German?

Portola

Yes, Urganda, the service was all in German. English is my mother tongue, but I have been living in Germany for a long time, so that I feel at home in the language.

Amanda B Reckondwyth

I envy you, Portola. Learning German has been on my to-do list for a long time, but I've never gotten around to it.

Portola

In learning German I had three things which helped me: (1) I had 4 years of German class at high school. (2) After moving to Germany I was totally immersed: reading, writing and hearing German from morning to evening for decades. (3) My wife is a native German (which is why I live in Germany) who taught German grammar and literature; she has been correcting my language mistakes (as well as other mistakes) regularly. Anyone who wants to know more about the challenges of the German language can read Mark Twain’s “The awful German language”.

Amanda B Reckondwyth

Thanks for pointing me to Twain. I'll look that up.

Portola

"The Awful German Language" is a chapter in Twain's book "A Tramp Abroad". He decribes the difficulties of learning German with his typical ironic humor.