Precerpt from My 20th Language: L6 German: Grandpa Hayden
Grandpa Hayden
After graduation, I had another personal touch with German: my
new husband’s grandfather, Grandpa Hayden. Grandma (Fisk) Hayden and Grandpa
Hayden were both German in heritage. They may have been first-generation
immigrants, but given how good their English was, they either came as children
(a possibility) or were second-generation immigrants.
German stayed in the family, though, and Carl heard some of
it growing up in Niagara Falls, NY with his grandparents. (I don’t think his
mother spoke German much at all.) So, it made sense for him to study German in
high school. Unlike me, who received a lot of encouragement from my teachers,
he received discouragement, which led to his dropping the German class—and never
taking another language in his life. (If only L2 teachers understood the sensitivity
of students! Well, some do…) The complaint? He spoke “kitchen German.” Well, of
course, he did. That is where he learned it—in the kitchen. Nowadays, he would
have been labeled a heritage learner. Back then, he was labeled a bad student.
We spent our honeymoon in Daytona Beach, Florida. Carl’s
grandparents, now snowbirds, had fled the cold and snow of Niagara Falls (one
of the snowiest cities in the country) for the too warm (for me, the Mainiac unused
to temperatures above 80) Sunshine State. They invited us to partake of the sun
and their orange and grapefruit trees, so we spent all summer there: honeymoon
(brief), parttime jobs (mostly).
Carl’s grandfather regularly met for a card game with friends
of his, all German immigrants. He brought me (but not Carl) along because they
delighted in a “young’un” and American who spoke German. For me, it was a grand
opportunity not only to put my German to use but to get some of that very
useful “kitchen German” that one never gets from a formal course.
Outside his card group, Carl’s grandfather never spoke
German. Even to Grandma. Everything was English. One time, when we dropped by
to visit, I casually said, “Guten Abend; wei geht’s?” [Good evening, how are
you?] To which, Grandpa replied, “The hell with gates; jump over the fences.” I
never forgot it; it always brings a smile. That was Grandpa Hayden!
For more precerpts from My 20th Language, click HERE.
For more posts about language learning, click HERE.
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