AOC Endorses Joe Biden: 'Absolutely' Must 'Rally Behind Our Democratic Nominee'

[DFW]

131. The greater lingustic achievement

That would be us raising our two daughters to be 100% bilingual and bi-cultural. It took an iron-willed effort to speak English to them from day one, paticularly in the first years they could speak, as I would speak to them in English (which they understood perfectly), while they would reply in German, their first language. The fact that my wife and I speak German with each other didn't help. But finally, they started replying in English, especially when they realized that people they cared to converse with, such as my parents and siblings, understood no German. The great payoff came gradually, but now, when they speak English, no one thinks they are anything but American, and when they speak German, no one here thinks they are anything but German. Both, of course, are correct.

As for me, as I said, convenience was the great motivator. Not to say I haven't enjoyed my moments of amusement. I was once introduced to a new employee at a hotel in Brussels that I stay in frequently. I was introduced by a French-speaking employee, and told that the incoming assistant manager was from Sweden. She complimented me on my French, but figured I knew no Swedish at all. I said, no problem, please hold up the palm of your hand and place it one centimeter from my own upheld palm, and close your eyes for thirty seconds. Being the polite Scandinavian, she did as I requested, assuming I was playing some kind of joke on her. After about 30 seconds, I said, OK, I think I have absorbed enough. Enough WHAT? I said, Swedish, of course. She said, yeah, sure. I said that I wouldn't joke about something so easily disproved, and that she could now switch to Swedish if she wished. So she switched to Swedish, and I continued to converse with her in Swedish without missing a beat. After picking her jaw up from the floor where it had dropped, she asked how I had developed such an incredible technique for instant language learning? I said I invented it out of necessity. She was rendered speechless by my "technique."

Finally, I admitted that I had studied Swedish for years in college and visited Sweden regularly. I had little choice, as the rest of the hotel staff, who knew all along that I spoke Swedish, was having difficulty keeping a straight face (as was I).