Lately, I started a random series about my adventures with the English language in a world that speaks German. English has become a part of my life when we moved to Buffalo 17 years ago. A few years after we were back again I started a daily email conversation with my best friend for quite a while who lives in California.  Since May 2014 I am running this blog and my daily working hours on it are increasing. Meanwhile, I can say that I spend 90 percent of my time in English rather than in German. That can be a little tricky…

Was that German or English???

When we lived in Buffalo some words I needed more in English than in German. For example, when I did my shopping list, I did it in English. It became a habit that I used some words only in English without even thinking about it. I did not even differ. Often I also did not remember if I had read something in an English or German magazine. It simply didn’t matter. But sometimes it did!!!

Back in 1999 my mom and my grandmother visited us in Buffalo. On their first evening, we went for dinner. My grandmother could not speak a single word of English and I translated the menu for her into German: “This pizza has ham, bacon, tomatoes, and mushrooms on it.”

“Ok, again, there is ham, bacon, tomatoes, and mushrooms, on it!” “What is on it?”, my grandmother asked again. You all know that I am not the most patient one. I told her a third time what this stupid pizza had on it, already a little bugged out.  Then my grandmother asked: “But what’s “mushrooms”?” Was she kidding me, or what? “You cannot tell me you don’t know what mushrooms are! You are 72 years old and have cooked all your life!” I felt the heat slightly raising up in my face.

My grandma was surprised that I got angry and looked at me with big eyes:

“But I don’t understand the word mushrooms.” (Oops, sorry grandma!)

In Love and Light!