Gardening and nature conservation - or chopping nature to bits

In my first year at Manchester University, I joined two societies in the first week, Freshers' Week, when at least 40 student societies set up stands in the large hall of the Student Union building to woo new members. The two that I joined were the Folk Dancing Society (a very strenuous 3 hours on a Wednesday afternoon) and the Conservation Society. They didn't meet up so often and I only went out once with them and that was to chop down trees that shouldn't have been in that area and to clear the land. 

Recently, I have persuaded one of my three landlords to let me have a go at the small strip of 'garden' in the back yard. Frankly, I couldn't do any worse than the caretaker of the building who hacked all the living plants to bits and left the dead trees and shrubs in situ. Thankfully, I can see some tentative [zahhaft] signs that the poor plants are recovering. A lot of plants are bloody-minded [stur] and refuse to give up. 

I've tackled some of the easier parts of the strip - those that aren't blocked by the 101 bikes that seem to breed in but never leave the yard. And today, it was the turn of a large bush that was being choked by horrible thick tendrils of ivy. (I really hate ivy, although I'll put up with the variegated variety, having daintier leaves and being more interested in colour.)

An entire "Biotonne" or green waste bin was full by the time I had finished and the little corner looked a lot brighter and the bush seemed a lot happier at being free and able to feel the breeze through its branches. Once I get a good grip of that area, more plants will join those that I've already planted out.

It did, however, amuse me to think that a lot of gardening seems to be hacking nature to bits in an attempt to allow the plants to thrive and live in harmony with each other.

Horrible ivy

Nice ivy

"I'm so lonely....you what?"

I keep reading about how more and more people feel lonely and isolated. About how they often don't talk to anyone for days or even weeks. And yet, is it any wonder when so many people go about with earphones stuck in their ears?

When I walk through the park or even through town sometimes, I might greet individual people. A quick "Morning" and a smile or a nod means that you acknowledge a person as they pass by. Often, though, the person just doesn't respond as they just don't hear you. 

And it's not just the younger people either. In a gym a while back, I complimented someone on their T-shirt and the older woman had to take the earphones out of her ears so that she could actually hear what I had said. Fortunately, I had stood in her line of sight and she had seen that my lips had moved. 

It's hard to have a conversation or even exchange a few bright and cheery words if people go round with their ears focused not on the world around them, but on something else entirely. 

You can't complain that no-one talks to you if you can't hear the words that they do say to you.

12-year-old Germans better at English than native speakers

I am coaching a 12-year-old girl in a neighbouring town online. Two Mondays ago, she asked if I could explain a new rule to her about how to use the present to describe the future. 

Basically, you use the present simple to talk about things that go according to a schedule or timetable, e.g. the plane lands at 3 p.m. or the film starts at 10 a.m. When you are talking about arrangements that involve people, then you use the present progressive or continuous (two names for the same thing). So you would say, "I'm having my hair cut tomorrow." That would imply that you've already rung up and made an appointment. You've arranged something with someone else. Another example: "I'm meeting Tom for coffee at 10." Or "I'm flying to London next week."

When I explained the rules to her, the little 12-year-old German girl understood. Imagine my horror when I received similar e-mails from my German mother (who has been in the UK for longer than I've been alive) and my British-born sister telling me about my sister's travel plans for the coming week. Both of them were using phrases such as "I fly/she flies to Munich next Monday." 

How can it possibly be that 12-year-old children in Germany are meant to speak and write better English than people who have spent decades in an English-speaking country or are even so-called native English-speakers? Considering that this girl does not get top marks in English, I shudder [schaudern] to think what marks my mother and sister would get in English. Not good ones, that's for sure.

Blog recommendation

I've just come across this blog by one of my translation clients:

https://schleicher-sprachen.de/english-blog/

Well worth dropping by to see their latest entries - generally revolving around language, especially English.

Two of my doctors are mummy's boys

I have three doctors I see from time to time, all female, including a dentist and a GP (general practitioner or Hausarzt), who are both Russian speakers from Ukraine. 

Recently, I have had to get used to the idea that they are now being replaced by their sons. Firstly, I went to the GP with pains in my shoulders, especially the left one. I was asked whether I wanted to see Herr Doktor or Frau Doktor. I don't care, I replied, so long as I see a doctor.

So I got an appointment with the doctor's son, fresh from medical school in Bulgaria. Quite a good-looking guy, if you like beards. At my second appointment with him, after receiving the results of an MRI scan (MRT in German), he wanted to send me to see some specialist for a further test. At one point, he made a call and spoke in Russian. I thought he had rung up the place he wanted to send me to, but at the end I heard him say "Spasiba, mama", and realised he'd rung his mum up to ask for her advice.

Something similar happened at the dentist's. I needed my dentist to look at something worrying I had found in my mouth and after an X-ray, he said that the tooth needed to be pulled to prevent any infection. Reluctantly, I agreed, and he made an appointment for me at 9 a.m. the following Tuesday. "Mum will be there," he said, and I thought that meant she was going to pull the tooth. As I told him, I had only been to female dentists for many years as they had smaller than male dentists and yet were just as strong. He looked down at his hands and said, "I take after my mother." And I have to admit that his hands were probably smaller than mine. 

Anyway, it turned out that he pulled my tooth and his mum was just on site - just in case he needed her help. 

I find it touching that they are respectful of their mothers' abilities and superior knowledge and experience, but only time will tell whether I stay with them. We shall see.

Probably the most powerful poem you'll ever hear

Now, some of you might think I was being over-dramatic when I talked about being jumpy with all the lights from the mobile phones in the theatre in my blog on "concert rage". "What is she on about?" you might have thought. "How can she think she's in danger in a theatre? I don't get it."

Well, I studied at Manchester Victoria University. I've often said that Manchester was the most dangerous place I've ever lived in - and that includes London. During my three years there, I learnt to be very cautious. So many females students were attacked; a Japanese tourist had her handbag ripped from her shoulder by a jogger on the main street of Oxford Road - a busy street full of people; a grandmother was murdered in a nearby park; hands were thrust into student rooms through open, ground-floor windows in an attempt to steal whatever they could; there was a peeping Tom at the back of our student hall; security guards escorting female students from the nearby student hall of Owens Park Tower would attack and rape them instead. Even I was attacked from behind while going to visit friends in a private house in a residential area. The place was not safe. And, naturally, the perpetrators were all male. That is why all women were urged to be alert at all times.

But that was many years ago and you would have thought that things had improved by now. 

It seems not. Listen to this poem which was first broadcast on Women's Hour last week and was then on Pick of the Week as so many people contacted the BBC to ask if they could hear it again. If it's too fast, use the settings (the symbol that looks like a cogwheel or a daisy) to slow it down a bit. Or listen to it again and again... it's bloody good.

At What Point - by Caitlin O'Ryan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOcNK-4xr34

Oh, the irony of German election candidates and their campaigns

As you probably know, there will be an early national election here in Germany on Sunday 23 February. When you walk around town, you will see election posters everywhere.

And also as you have probably noticed, there is a move in Germany towards being anti-immigration - mostly in an attempt to pre-empt the AfD and so prevent them from being voted into power. Even the other parties are now jumping on to the anti-immigration in an attempt to grab the popular vote.

But, oh, the delicious irony of seeing people who don't look at all like your vision of a blue-eyed blond German campaigning to keep foreigners out of the country.

Take this election video that I just came across on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tu_XGtx6lQ8

That's Sahra Wagenknecht, who upped and left the The Left party and created her own just a short while back: Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (what chutzpah - to call an entire political party after yourself, eh?). Does she look German to you? If it hadn't been for her Iranian father, she wouldn't be here today.

And then there is Iranian-born thoracic surgeon Dr Lida Azarnoosh of the FDP party (Free Democrats). Take a look at her campaign poster:

https://www.instagram.com/fdp_ddorf_ov3/reel/DEsEdmiMIA7/

According to her "Migration: even good will must have its limits". 

She's been in the country since 2015 and is already telling the Germans what to do.

With a declining German birth rate (1.35 per woman according to an official source), if we don't import people, then who is going to do the jobs and pay the taxes to fund all those German pensioners? 

If the AfD gets into power, the plan is to "re-migrate" all the foreigners - even those with German passports. Like me. I keep telling my classes that they may have to find a German English-teacher in future as I may be kicked out of the country - which makes them look alarmed.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that. 

We truly live in "interesting times".