There is rather more learning of German going on in our house than normal. Wilma is more than happy and joining in when she can, but the rest of us are struggling. Obviously I started life learning Flemish, but that’s all a very long time ago now. We have all visited Switzeland but we didn’t learn that much while we were there. Oh I know important words like ‘Essen’ and ‘Kuchen’ and of course ‘Frühstück’ but beyond that I’m a bit more sketchy. Now they want us all to join in a board game in German and I can’t help but think that Wilma might have a bit of a head start.
It all reminded me of my puppy training classes. They were held in a very wet field in Belgium and of course were all in Flemish. Now, I know I just said that that was my first language but of course it was not just me being trained, it was my Mistress as well. Her first language is most definitely not Flemish. To be honest, there are days I’m left wondering whether it’s English either, but that is a completely different issue. Anyway, whilst I was ready for each activity, by the time she caught up the rest of the class had gone on to the next activity. Now, if one of the commands had been ‘The lion is in the garden’ we’d have been first there, as that was her favourite phrase on the language course we went on. However, there were no lions on the training course nor for that matter in the garden of our house. It’s fair to say we were pretty useless and had to rely quite heavily on me teaching our Mistress things at home. By the time the others came to train her she was already doing quite well, even though they had the advantage of training her in English.
Anyway, I’m off to join in brushing up my German – Der Löwe ist im Garten – no, it really doesn’t have the same ring to it as the Flemish!
Alfie
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