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Learning German

I was born and raised in New Ulm. At that time there were still many old timers who spoke German, but as time had passed, their German became sprinkled with English words pronounced with German accents. My Dad owned a furniture store and his father helped him run it. I can remember many afternoons that my grandfather and an old timer would talk for hours in German.

My Dad served in Germany during WWII. After the war he was an MP with the job of translating between the local Germans and the American occupation forces.  He got along well with the Germans and was able to communicate with them, but the German he spoke in New Ulm had become Americanized, so that when he approached, the German women would say in fun, “Watch out! Here comes the German language corruptor!” (Hier kommt das Deutsch verderber). He was asked to serve as a translator for the Nuremburg trials, but he turned that down, knowing his German was not good enough for such an important job.

My mother spoke only German until she started school. Her parents had both immigrated from Germany, and always spoke German to each other. They had a large bible in their living room which was in German that I would often see my Grandfather reading.

At home my parents would converse in German whenever they didn’t want us children to understand the conversation. Later I studied German in High School, and my Dad loved to have conversations with me in German. He would always advise me, in German, to be careful of talking too much, something that had been drilled into him as a soldier during the war.

I made use of a computer to help with the translation, but the German I had learned and my knowledge of the New Ulm area was invaluable in resolving German idioms,  references to landmarks and making the translation coherant.