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 be...