Cats and the English language

[Barbara]

Bisi, Menden is much nicer than I expected. I spent my 10 years in Guetersloh (guess with what company) and I imagined it a little like that.
But, there I have been living in a timbered "kotten".

Catnapper, unfortunately Menden is more than 400 km (250 miles) from here but Munich has an airport

[Killearn Kitties]

More lovely pictures! I love the house your aunt is living in Sabine. It looks lovely.

I've only been in Germany twice. I spent a summer in Esslingen am Neckar staying with German friends, many years ago. Also our German department at school used to do an exchange visit with a school in Kassel. Their students came to Scotland first and then we went there a few months later. I haven't been to Kassel since, although I seem to have heard the name a lot in the news lately!

Neither of these places seem very close to any of you living there.

[Sirrahsim]

I just love this thread I wish that I remembered living there, but I was just a baby at that time I hope to go visit there some day. I know that I can catch a plane from here with relative ease to go visit Germany. My hunny's father lives at Ramstein (sp?) SO who knows, maybe we'll get a chance to go out there sometime before we leave Japan. I've heard about how beautiful Germany is and I SOOO can't wait till I get my chance to go and see it as an adult. My husband and I were considering trying to get stationed there next, but at that point we'll probably be wanting to start our family so I would want to be a little closer to home and my Mommy! This thread is so fun, I hope it continues

[Barbara]

Kassel is quite near to where Kirsten lives

[Killearn Kitties]

Yes, I've just discovered that! Kirsten PM'd me. I'm still trying to reply to her - desperately trying to remember all those names of places we were taken. I was still at school and that wasn't yesterday! In fact, I seem to remember that Germany was hosting the World Cup at the time, which kind of dates the trip!!

[sqwelch]

Originally posted by Barbara
June, people here say that the Bavarians are the Scots of Germany! And we are only one and a half hour of Nuremberg, so if you ever are in the area, let's have a beer together

That would be lovely Barbara, hopefully one day I'll take you up on that !!!

[Kirsten]

So funny, so many of you have connections to Germany in some way! I'll go and try to find some more photos again, I once had a website with pictures of my hometown...

However, here are two pics I've taken at Hanstein Caste, black and white ones, but the castle is really cool, about 1,000 years old. And there is a great medival restaurant nearby:



bisi.cat, the houses of your hometown look beautiful, we also have these timbered houses in our town center, really old buildings. I grew up in one btw.

Isn't it strange that so many who are visiting Germany go to Bavaria? That's why I was so surprised when I read that Killearn Kitties have been to Kassel once. Well, I think I remember when the World Cup was in Germany, that's been the year when my sister was born.

Kirsten

[Randy_K]

My mother was born in Oldenberg which used to be on the border near East Germany. Her family emigrated to the USA when she was only one year old so she has only the memories of the old country from her older brothers and sisters. She is now 80 and now wants to visit Germany. She even has gotten a passport so I know she's serious! It has been said that about 40% of the population of the USA has some bloodline connection to Germany.

[Edwina's Secretary]

At the end of the Revolutionary War there was discussion about whether English or German would become the official language of the new United States of America.(Hebrew was discussed as well.) In the end of course, no official language was designated!

[Randy_K]

Quite so on the language issue. There was quite a mix of languages to deal with. German (Hessian) soldiers fought for the British during the Revolutionary War under a contract created by a treaty between Germany and England. England brought over 29,000 Hessians to the colonies and about 12,000 decided to stay as the war's end. On the other side, France provided 26,000 soldiers and sailors to the Revolutionary forces some of whom decided to stay as well. If you include all the other immigrants, like the Dutch speaking Amish for example, it became quite a difficult task to decide on one or more "official" languages.

[Barbara]

It's a very interesting question to think about how world history would have developed of a decision had been taken: e.g. Hebrew which is very difficult to learn for people from other language groups like the English, French or German

[Kirsten]

Originally posted by Edwina's Secretary
At the end of the Revolutionary War there was discussion about whether English or German would become the official language of the new United States of America.(Hebrew was discussed as well.) In the end of course, no official language was designated!

Oh, I didn't know that, it's interesting!

Randi_K, I think it's great that your mother has these plans. She probably wants to learn something about her roots.

Kirsten

[catnapper]

Originally posted by Edwina's Secretary
At the end of the Revolutionary War there was discussion about whether English or German would become the official language of the new United States of America.(Hebrew was discussed as well.) In the end of course, no official language was designated!

Why doesn't the US have a designated language? It starting to cause a lot of problems. Not to start a debate, but here in Reading, there are as many people speaking Spanish as there are English. A lot of the english speaking people resent the spanish and actually tell people "You are in America! Speak English!" It a big issue here. My neighbor was the one who successfully got Spanish on the voting ballots last election (that one hit the national news) People are passionate about both sides and I can see points of view on both sides (yep, I'm wishy-washy here)