I sat through the fourth session of my elementary German course this morning. The Direct Method of teaching requires the teacher (lehrerin) to use nothing other than the German throughout the lesson so Estonians, Frenchies, Maltese, Hungarians and Swedes alike are fully immersed in the linguistic nuances of asking someone whether he/she (singular) is married (Sind Sie verheiratet?)
Four lessons later and I am still only capable of performing a basic gestapo-like interrogation asking for such interesting details as place of work, place of normal residence, postcode and of course – marital status. The lesson became more interesting today as a gentleman from the Cameroons belatedly joined the class and joys of asking “Wo wohnen Sie?” for a mind-numbing number of times (over einhundert). Unfortunately I have not yet mastered the Gothic script that would fulfill my dreams of Sturmtruppen-like transcriptions so occasionally my mind wanders onto other mind-wandering subjects.
I could not help wondering whether a PL Immigrant Assimilation class would look any similar to the motley crew of students responding attentively as to the whereabouts of various monuments in Stadt Koln. Of course I would have to replace Ghislain, Camille and Czaba with the various Sid, Seifeddin and Haile but you get the drift. “Fejn hu il-loki? Ghax il-vera nixtieq inpixxi u qaluli li Malta hadd ma jbul ma’ l-art”. Mr Zarb would correct the occasional error and repeat endlessly the various conjugations of the verb “tbul” shortly followed by the flash cards of various pictures of the inside of a W.C. room – “Dan it-tojlit… jekk int ragel tajjeb li tgholli is-sedil“.
Seriously. I promise it’s not the German, I’m actually loving the language. But four hours of repetitive nonsense coupled with memories of Inhobbkom Joseph’s Ghoxrin Punt did conjure up some weird scenarios. It was a bit like “Do not mention the War” but more of “Semitic please… not arab”.
Lost in the world of Wo, Wir, Wer and Was I am finding that I have developed a (hopefully temporary) sense of detachment from the colourless politics back home. Maybe the effect we have been describing for so long – as was recalled once again by David in his Maltatoday column – is finally having its long term effect. We might need to step back and remember what real change we have been calling for before the soldiers and lieutenants of the preservation of status quo and mind-numbing bipartisan antics begin to yell victory.
“Dan pastizz. Il-pastizz huwa tajjeb. Il-pastizz ma fihx laham. Tista’ tieklu anki fir-randan. Ir-randan huwa celebrazzjoni nisranija. M’ghandhux x’jaqsam mar-ramadan. Nhar-il wiehed u tletin ta’ Marzu niccelebraw Jum il-Helsien ghax minghalina li hlisna mill-Inglizi… issa ikkapparajna lilkom jekk Alla jrid… le Rashid… mhux Allah imma Alla… wiehed ghandna siehbi… “
