i just knew
i would never get it out of my head
it was great to see you
i took italian for one year in high school
but all i caan remember is
basta basta ragazzi
i really just wanted to stay in dr. megna's class
and i could have taken an independent study
french four
but
i didn't think i could
because
i couldn't understand the french verbs
and i had managed through the three years
but
i didn't think i'd make it through the fourth
the conjugations didn't make sense
now
possibly this is because
i wasn't given an adequate explanation
but
things that are done frequently
that didn't seem to be done frequently
and
word order didn't make that much sense either
now german
in college
it made sense
but
it was very regimented
and
it helped me understand english grammar
up until then
i think i had just instictually known
how things should sound
which might have been
because english grammar was modeled correctly
when i was growing up
or
it might have been
reading
but
i'd say
i didn't really learn english grammar
until i learned german
and had to really understand what case
and clauses
and that whole bit
but
language lesson dialogues
were fun
the french ones were always
some misunderstanding
about
which floor something was on
or showing up at the wrong date
because all that stuff was different
although
i only remember
je m'appel sylvie
in a very deep voice
like she was twenty
but she'd already destroyed her voice
with four packs of cigarettes a day
for ten years
the italian ones were always
crazy young italian guys
running around
getting into trouble
the german ones
were always about some topic
that didn't help you with anything
you might actually need to get by in german
like abortion
or the local government
or something
never
how do i catch a bus across town
or where is the train station
or common things people might actually say
one time i was in a park
alone
and this woman came up to me
she was older
and maybe homeless
not sure
but somewhat disheveled for sure
she came up to me
got right up in my face
and started chanting some witchcraft
about fire eye
i think
i may have screamed and run away
probably not exactly
but
something that would have registered as that
to a crazy park lady
but
in retrospect
i think she wanted a light
she wasn't holding out a cigarette
but
what else could
feueraugen
really have been about
