Re: [Cz-L] All this language stuff

When Bobby (Gerhard) corresponds with me, we use Rumanian, German and
English. E-mailing is especially good for this mishmash. But when we met is
Paris some years ago including wives Rodica and Stefi some French and Hebrew
was added. For juicy expressions of course Idish too. He forgot to mention
that his French is of Prof. Bong (uncle of Marianne Hirsch) origin, (private
lessons in Albertinengasse 16 in 1944/5) and only some decades later
perfected in Paris.

I can only subscribe in my case to Bobby's disclaiming of special talents
for languages, although I think that in his case the appropriation of new
languages came easier than in mine. We simply had to learn them for "social
survival". He also forgot to mention Latin as somehow underpinning his later
Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. Living in Israel since 1950 I had less
occasion for meeting those, but instead my Russian has improved and if not
spoken then at least written and read French and English. German is still an
erster Stelle.

Of course speaking several languages makes understanding a new met related
language easier. The other side of the coin is the estrangement from the
mother language that leaves a certain lack, at least I think for creational
writing. Either you are immersed in one language, or you are good at
several. An exclusive or.

 I hope somebody was right mentioning that after their multi linguistic
proficiency humor is a second specific quality to the descendents of the
town . Hardy Breier's case seems to be a good example.

Berti Glaubach
Haifa.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "frieda tabak" <frieda_tabak_at_yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 4:14 PM
To: <GERHARDRODICA_at_aol.com>; <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Subject: Re: [Cz-L] All this language stuff

> Dear Gerhard,
> When I tell my English only speaking American friends that I
> have a working knowledge of about eight languages, three of them
> fluent, and that I can make myself understood in a foreign
> country in their language two weeks after being there, they tell
> me that I have a special talent. No, I say, it's simple --I'm
> from Czernowitz.
> --- GERHARDRODICA_at_aol.com wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>>
>>
>> I I was born in
>> Cernauti, although
>> let's call it Czernowitz. My first language was German (our
>> variant of it),
>> soon enough I mastered a good understanding of Yiddish (from
>> my
>> grandparents), some Rutenian from a "domestic worker". Then
>> in the "Meisler" grade
>> school, Romanian, French, Hebrew, and a more literary German.
>> During the first
>> Soviet occupation, I went to a Ukrainian Middle School, so I
>> became proficient in
>> Ukrainian and Russian. During the second Soviet occupation, I
>> went to the
>> Yiddish Middle School, thus learned to write correct Yiddish.
>> In the meantime I
>> also started private English lessons.
>> I spent a year working in Israel, so I am reasonably fluent in
>> Hebrew.
>> My work in the US led me to various countries. After four
>> months in Brazil,
>> I became fluent in Portuguese (Ukrainian and Portuguese have
>> now faded). A
>> year in Venezuela, and I spoke fluent Spanish (now kind of
>> rusty), then
>> because my wife's family settled in Italy, and I have been
>> there every year for the
>> last 40 years, I am fluent in Italian. Lately we lived in
>> France part time
>> for 14 years, so my French is pretty good.
>> Nu, am I a language maven ? Hell no, I just dabble in all
>> these languages,
>> dream in Romanian and count obviously in German ,and curse
>> (forgive me people)
>> in earthy Romanian or Russian. I also spent four months
>> working in Egypt,
>> but Arabic didn't stick.
>> Abi gesund,
>>
>> Gerhard
>> (Bobby) Schreiber
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Received on 2008-01-11 10:45:43