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 a 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…

Do you speak English?

I always do my big shopping tour in Austria (just 20 minutes away from my home) instead of Liechtenstein because it is a lot cheaper and you get a tax refund. Therefore I need to stop at the border for a stamp on my receipt. I do that every week so that is a routine and I also know the peeps over there almost by name.

Recently I was again there for getting my stamp and handed the receipt over. I said: “Guten Morgen.”(good morning) But I noticed that the lady was a little busy with chatting with her colleague about another colleague. I thought I better not interrupt that deep and important conversation and I drifted away in thoughts about my next blog post. I started forming phrases in my head and even lines for a poem showed up – of course everything in English.

Suddenly I was thrown out of my thoughts when the stamp hit the receipt. The lady handed it over wordlessly. I took it and said to her: “Thank you, have a nice day.” While saying the word “day” I just realized that I had spoken English. Whatever she thought of me or how she might have looked… I don’t know, because I turned around quickly and made my way to the car without looking back…

In Love and Light