LL-L "Language teaching" 2009.11.02 (03) [EN]

Tue Nov 3 02:14:12 UTC 2009

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L O W L A N D S - L - 02 November 2009 - Volume 03
lowlands at lowlands-l.net - http://lowlands-l.net/
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From: Jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2009.11.01 (03) [DE-EN-NDS]

 Ron wrote:

 Dear Hanne,

I hope you don't mind that I am responding in English in order to get
everyone else on board. Also, Hanne, I know that your English, especially
your passive English, has been improving fast, in part thanks to your
participation in LL-L and in part thanks to your efforts to overcome the
disadvantage you had in East Germany before the fall of the Wall.

Thanks, Alter! It's great, your giving some support to our Hanne, as far as
her efforts to take part here in English are concerned. She's really doing a
good job!!

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm
Lower Saxony, Germany

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Members' news

Of course I "support" our Hanne, Jonny! After all, she's a friend of mine.
But I would "support" her even if she wasn't.

Before the fall of the Wall, few East Germans had real contacts with
foreigners. At least I can state that there were few meaningful
one-on-one contacts.
Those that there were typically involved the privileged few Party members
that were considered beyond suspicion, those that lived in fine apartments,
were able to order Western-made goods, to subscribe to foreign periodicals
and to welcome foreign visitors.

The average East German person did not mix with Russians or with other East
Europeans, leave alone Westerners, though some would have guarded contacts
with visiting West German relatives, honest conversations being limited to
the Westerners' visits, because you couldn't say certain things in letters
that were subject to inspection. Most of those that learned Russian in
school had no everyday opportunities to speak Russian (and teaching
standards tended to be poor, anyway, as poor as our English instruction
tended to be in the 1950s and 1960s). The percentage of East Germans with at
least fair active spoken command of Russian was probably a lot smaller than
the percentage of West Germans with at least some active spoken command of
English, at least after about the 1960s. Many East Germans envied us West
Germans our studying English, a language that is generally more accessible
to speakers of German than is Russian. This seemed all the more so to those
of them with at least passive command of Low Saxon. I heard this from my
East German cousins and their friends, also from some other East Germans
that felt relatively free to speak. Russian has a different script and a
complex morphology, not to mention a phonology that most speakers of West
European languages find rather difficult. Apart from that, those East
Germans were quite aware of the fact that we Westerners were able to travel
internationally and thus able to practice and use our foreign languages if
we felt like it.

In East Germany, good intensive and extensive foreign language studies
tended to be the privilege of designated specialists, academics and
functionaries. This includes command of languages other than Russian and
English, especially Spanish and French which were necessary for contacts in
places like Cuba, Eastern Africa and other "developing" places into which
East Germany coat-tailed with the Soviet Union. I have to add to this that
in the academic sphere some of the best descriptions of and textbooks for
African languages were authored and published in East Germany -- at least
some of the best (for instance for Swahili) that I have come across.

Those East Germans under retirement age that received permission to spend
their vacations abroad, which in most cases meant in Warsaw Pact countries,
usually were kept pretty much isolated, typically in compounds cut off from
the local populations, such as on fenced-off Black Sea beaches (West German
tourists being confined to separate fenced-off beaches ...).

Average East Germans gained access to English instruction pretty late,
perhaps beginning in earnest a couple of decades before the fall of the
Wall. But, again, teaching methods tended to be outdated, and the best most
people could hope for was to be able to listen to English recordings and
watch the occasional English language film, unless they worked in and around
places like East Berlin's Alexanderplatz toward which foreign visitors on
day visits from West Berlin gravitated.

Hanne had some English lessons also, but they didn't amount to more than a
hill of beans. It is only lately that she's put a lot of effort into
catching up, in part because she wants to be able to be in touch with the
rest of the world, and being a member of Lowlands-L and thus being in touch
with all of us all over the world means a lot to her. It's always good to
have real incentives, isn't it? She's found that her knowledge of Low Saxon
is an advantage in her endeavor.

So please consider Hanne's efforts in this light, folks. Irrespective of
what you personally think about the fall of the Wall, let's rejoice at our
Hanne being able to mingle with us these days! Before the fall of the Wall I
was convinced that this sort of thing was never going to happen.

Apart from all this, Hanne a very sweet thing and the most devoted and
giving friend anyone could possibly wish for.

And, talking about Hanne, please check out her latest appearance in the
press:
http://lowlands-l.net/hanne/en/press.php

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

Hanne's general site: http://lowlands-l.net/hanne/

•

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