Reply #25: Actually to really GET that essay [View All]

[Karenina]

one has to be not only bilingual, but also have some in-country experience. It's a bit like "Shrek." The obscure references flew over the kids' head and the adults were laughing their asses off. The essay is 10 pages or so. When I first read it, the tears accompanying side-splitting laughter rolled freely halfway through the first page. The really remarkable thing is how TIMELESS it is. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in language. However, if you are bilingual, have spent any time in Germany and have NOT read it, you simply MUST DO SO NOW. It is some of the funniest shit ever written.

There is so much hilarity in the just first paragraph:

"I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in Heidelberg Castle, and one day I surprised the keeper of it with my German. I spoke entirely in that language. He was greatly interested; and after I had talked a while he said my German was very rare, possibly a "unique"; and wanted to add it to his museum."