Monday, June 1, 2009

Verblüht

I have found that with living in another country and learning a new language, some things just don't translate. I continually find myself speaking a funny, mixed, language of it's own, we affectionately call "Denglisch" (Duetusch/German and Enlglish) I speak to my friends here in "Denglisch" but sometimes have problems when I talk to others who don't know both languages. What frustrates me the most is when I have to ask my German husband to translate a word into English because it has somehow left the drawer in which I last stored it in... some things just sound better in English and some things sound better in German.

I took these photos recently and my husband quickly passed them over because the flowers are at the end of their blooming time. I told him that it was the exact thing that I liked because the photos show what the flowers look like when they are "verblüht" (luckily he understands "Denglisch") which I would translate to mean "bloomed out", but the German word just seemed to say exactly what I meant.

I think it is easy to overlook the odd and unusual beauty of something just because it appears to be past it's prime... but don't we all do that at one time or another?

8 comments :

  1. I adore taking pictures of so called "Plattenbauten". I love theyr melancholy beauty.
    People first think this is kind of odd, but when they take a look at the pictures I took, they mostly do understand why I consider them to be beautiful.
    Guess the same thing just happend to me by taking a look at your "verblühten" flowers.

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  2. omg these are beautiful! so what language do you and your husband speak in? i met jorge in the states so we speak in english. in fact, it sounds weird when he speaks to me in spanish... have a great wee!

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  3. I also met my husband in the States, so we speak mostly English, but often also mixed (Denglisch). Sometimes it's hard to get him to stop... I ask him something in German and he answers me in English. I speak German with my in-laws and many of my friends, but I am thankful that I have several friends who love to speak and practice their English.

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  4. I can totally understand what you mean.
    Being Dutch in Germany.......On top of that we speak a lot of English with our friends and Mark at work. And some French sometimes. So we have a strange mixture of those 4 languages between us.
    We sometimes have a good laugh when we talk to each other in a mixture of all those languages.
    And don´t get me started on embarrassing mistakes I made in German! ;)

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  5. Hey even though both of my countries speak "English" we still get amused at some things. There are times I don't know I am being totally Brit and other times I sound like I was born and raised in the South. I spoke French in front of hubby once when in Paris and he was in awe... maybe I should brush up a little!!!! :0)

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  6. i was just admiring the remnants of the roses in our garden on Sunday. Stefan thought I was nuts too! too funny! and we're 90% english too, except with friends and family, all German, and then sometimes we speak so gemischt! all Genglish =) i owe you an email, but am catching up/my breath first! too much kitchen building!

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  7. I remember my first year in Italy, that was not easy..but also fun...one day Allison your GERMAN will be just fine

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  8. I agree about the language, some things just sound better/fit better in one language. Also if I've mainly talked about something in german, I often find myself asking, now how do I say that in english! Laura in ludwigsburg... we're down south near stuttgart. baroquebabies if you want to say hello!

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