Anyway, Happy (belated) New Year. Here's a funny thing that happened this morning:
I passed out a new song in my advanced choir - a German madrigal. We currently have a student who is a transfer from an international school in Germany. She's American (and speaks English without an accent) but she basically grew up with the language, so it seemed natural to enlist her help with the pronunciation.
Me: "Not to put you on the spot, Diane, but since you are a fluent German speaker, maybe you can help us. "
Diane: "Umm well.. actually the first line 'Tanzen und springen' (Dancing and leaping)... everyone needs to make sure they put the 't' sound before the z in Tanzen. ('tahntzen')
Me: "Like the way we say 'Mozart'. 'Tan-zen' probably sounds funny to a German speaker.
Diane: Well, without the 't' it sounds like the German word for 'transvestite'.
Me: Ah..... good to know.
2 comments:
Good to see you back! Isn't it amazing all the little things the students can teach us? Unfortunately my students are often shy about helping words in their language.
I cannot adequately tell you HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS.
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