Montreal Photojournal 4: Mes Aïeux at Les Francofolies

There’s been too much science on here recently.

Having been a bit of a homebody recently, I forced myself out into the city. Les Francofolies French-language music festival has been going on, and so I wandered on down to Place-des-Arts. Getting there just in time to sneak through before the gates closed to access the area near the stage, I was able to manage a pretty nice spot beside the main stage, though I still had no idea what act was coming up.

The act was Mes Aïeux, an impressive Quebecois Folk-rock group. As my French has not improved nearly as much as I would have liked this summer, I only got maybe half of the lyrics, but still enjoyed the show. As I found in the past with German, catchy music is a good way to develop an ear for the language, and so I think I may have just found a way to help improve my French.

 

I didn’t catch the reason why, but the encore started off with the previously suited-up band now donning space suits for the next number. Perhaps I don’t want to know why.

A New Home, New Language, New Culture

Seeking out research opportunities in my field has brought me to McGill university, located in the beautiful city of Montreal, Quebec. I wouldn’t have believed you, had you told me a few years ago that I would be here now. That said, it has not been overly difficult to get adjusted and settled in here. While the primary language here is French, Anglophones have little difficulty navigating, speaking with locals, and basically doing anything, as most people here are bilingual. I’m told that it is in fact difficult to learn French here as if you have any sort of Anglo accent, people revert to English. My 9th-grade French education has come into use, but has by no means been essential.

While it is taking me some time to adjust to the rapid-fire pace of downtown in a major urban centre, the noise of constant traffic outside my bedroom and a general attitude of disinterest by passers-by that I’m not used to, I’m beginning to get settled in, used to things, and comfortable.

I expect I will have a lot to offer up about this fine city in the future. For now, I’ll leave up a photo of downtown Montreal, as seen from Mont-Royal, the city’s namesake.

Quirks of the Deutsche Sprache

At times, the German language can be quite funny in how literal it seems to a native English-speaker. Perhaps I need to just take a better look at English as well, though. Following is a short list of things that are sort of odd in the German language from an English perspective. Given more time, effort, and initiative, I could definitely add to this, because I know there are TONS more examples. Feel free to add suggestions.

Glove = Handshue

Yes, that's hand + shoe

Mietwagen = Rental Car

And if a butcher rents a vehicle to make deliveries, well then I guess it works in both languages.

Nachrichten= News

Nothing special, but the interesting thing is you can use Nachricht as a singular, as in

Ich habe ein gutes Nachricht für Sie
I have a good "new" for you.

Leiter = Ladder
Feurzeug = Lighter

This has caused confusion several times, like when I got confused stares for needing a ladder to start a Bunsen burner

Food and drink = Lebensmittel

Literally, the medium of life. Which is, of course true.

Meat = Fleisch

Body = Korper

It's not just the accent. Some things in German just sound more offensive because they sort of are.

Protein = Eiweiß

Ei is egg, weiß is white - so yes, protein is actually called eggwhite.

Lingua franca

I'm glad I was raised in English, because working in the scientific field is much more accommodating to Anglophones. Those who naturally speak another language typically have to learn English to work in the scientific field, even if they are in a country where everyone speaks a different language.

In my lab, general conversation goes on in German unless there is a particular reason to include me or one of the other native English-speakers. However, once a presentation is taking place, the default language becomes English. Everyone who works in the scientific field pretty much has to learn English to get by, and I guess I am just lucky that it is my mother tongue. Or unlucky, because while here it means there's less incentive to learn a different language, as I can mostly get by in English.

So I have mixed feelings. It makes a career as a scientist much easier from my end, but I feel like I got ahead without trying when compared to my international colleagues. And I may in fact be losing out on the benefits of learning another language, simply because additional languages always aids understanding of ideas and processes.

I also have to wonder why, exactly, English is the language of choice? Before coming to Germany I did not realize that there would be so much of a requirement for students and researchers to speak English. I remain quite surprised to keep finding so many people who speak English, when in a lab back home almost all other students are monolingual Anglophones. Perhaps the history of science with the British Royal Society? Or the American influence in science in the 20th century? Or just luck?

I seem to recall Dan Brown had some idea about English being the language of science, but I'm not going to go there. I hope to keep the conspiracy theories to a minimum, unless, of course, they are MY conspiracy theories.

Question of the day: If WWII or the Cold War had ended differently, would we all be learning German or Russian to work in science? Or French? Or Japanese?

My certificate of adequacy

I now consider my grasp of the German language "adequate".

At lunch, I was recruited to translate between German-speaking servers and English-speaking customers. Aren't I proud.

"Kannst du Englisch?"
"Why yes, yes I do."

Even better is that they had to ask that question after I talked for a while in German. My disguise is almost complete.

Salzsäure - don't put it on your potato chips!

After looking for a while today for hydrochloric acid, probably one of the most common of all laboratory chemicals, and not finding it, I was quite surprised. Turns out that in Germany, hydrochloric acid is actually salzsäure, literally "salt acid". apparently German just as full of silly trivial names as any other language. Take that, stereotype of the careful, meticulous German scientist. Us English-speakers tend to think we're the only ones with the ability to make simple things difficult, but it looks like people everywhere do it. People are people, no matter where you are.

Er fahrt sehr gut

One of the best things about learning a new language is finding unintentionally funny phrases. There's a lot of German words that sound similar but mean completely different things in English, making for some interesting misunderstandings and some fun language classes. I'm sure that the same occurs when anyone listens to me attempt to speak German.

The nice thing is, this gives me a get out of jail free card. I can walk up to some huge guy, tell him that his mother wears army boots in German, and then say that it was a misunderstanding because I speak English. We can both laugh about it as he beats the living tar out of me.

In fact, it also works the other way too.

Me: "Your mother was a hamster and your father reeked of elderberries!"
Random passerby: "What?"
Me: "Ha ha. Entschuldigung. Ich spreche Deutsch. I meant to say: 'What a nice day for a walk outside!' "


.......and because I can't help myself:

Germans like to fahrt. Many look forward to enjoying long, relaxing fahrts. Often, they will fahrt together and enjoy food while fahrt-ing. There's nothing better to help you forget about work than to just unwind while you fahrt. I am fahrt-ing right now, and have been for more than a week now. I think everybody enjoys a nice, relaxing fahrt.


Edit: Now I actually understand the language, I realize that the word I was looking for was reisen, or perhaps feiren, but not fahren. Let it stand, however, to be proof of my naievetee. And let the last word show that I still have no idea how to spell.