Great story. Sometimes the simplest words can trip you as you learn a language. I once called a casket/coffin in German a Leichenkiste, literally a body box. The people with me laughed heartily. One then said, "Good try. We call it a Sarg."
LOL. I had a very strict German German teacher at one time and she taught us schüchtern for shy. To my relief, it's also scheu, much easier to pronounce.
And then there are the borrowed words. I learned my Dutch in Belgium (so, Flemish, rather, although it's mostly the same except for the accent) where orange juice is "oranjesap", lo and behold, in Holland, they just say "jus d'orange", with an accent... keep it simple :) !
Flemish is much softer and has many loan words from French, like cadeau. I studied a French guide to flamande and the deeper I went, the more I found the differences between Dutch Dutch and Flemish Dutch.
They knew about ten languages between them, knew German but didn't speak it. It was a German-speaking neighborhood though, in part, so I heard it from an early age. I started French in 4th grade, had it for eight years, learned German in my 50s. Moved on to Dutch and Swedish, am on day 266 of Swedish on Duolingo.
Great story. Sometimes the simplest words can trip you as you learn a language. I once called a casket/coffin in German a Leichenkiste, literally a body box. The people with me laughed heartily. One then said, "Good try. We call it a Sarg."
LOL. I had a very strict German German teacher at one time and she taught us schüchtern for shy. To my relief, it's also scheu, much easier to pronounce.
And then there are the borrowed words. I learned my Dutch in Belgium (so, Flemish, rather, although it's mostly the same except for the accent) where orange juice is "oranjesap", lo and behold, in Holland, they just say "jus d'orange", with an accent... keep it simple :) !
Flemish is much softer and has many loan words from French, like cadeau. I studied a French guide to flamande and the deeper I went, the more I found the differences between Dutch Dutch and Flemish Dutch.
They knew about ten languages between them, knew German but didn't speak it. It was a German-speaking neighborhood though, in part, so I heard it from an early age. I started French in 4th grade, had it for eight years, learned German in my 50s. Moved on to Dutch and Swedish, am on day 266 of Swedish on Duolingo.
What a gift to know another language. Were your grandparents speakers?
Marvelous! Thanks for the chuckle :)
Gern Geschehen (You're welcome)