These are my German protégés, lets call them Sophie and Jörg (just because one of them has to have umlauts). I am their English speaking nanny, Frau Barbara. After a recent discussion with my cousin about German race relations, I was reminded of a session many months ago, Jörg was staring up at me with those big blue eyes, listening to me speak this foreign language. His mom said with all sincerity, "he's never seen a brown person close up before". I laughed out loud. Was she serious or telling some kind of German joke? She clarified, "I mean anyone that has brown hair, brown eyes, and [browner than ghostly white] complexion". OK, she was serious. I have been laughing about this one for months. If I am brown, what do they think of Gianna? In addition, for several weeks she thought SpongeBob was made of cheese, which also had me in stitches, "that Cheeese Man that Gianna likes" is what she called him. I take it back, maybe Germans do have a sense of humor!!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Frau Milk Chocolate Schmidt
These are my German protégés, lets call them Sophie and Jörg (just because one of them has to have umlauts). I am their English speaking nanny, Frau Barbara. After a recent discussion with my cousin about German race relations, I was reminded of a session many months ago, Jörg was staring up at me with those big blue eyes, listening to me speak this foreign language. His mom said with all sincerity, "he's never seen a brown person close up before". I laughed out loud. Was she serious or telling some kind of German joke? She clarified, "I mean anyone that has brown hair, brown eyes, and [browner than ghostly white] complexion". OK, she was serious. I have been laughing about this one for months. If I am brown, what do they think of Gianna? In addition, for several weeks she thought SpongeBob was made of cheese, which also had me in stitches, "that Cheeese Man that Gianna likes" is what she called him. I take it back, maybe Germans do have a sense of humor!!
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That is so funny! Did you have your vacation tan at the time?
ReplyDeleteThat's leaving me speachless.
ReplyDeleteNo vacation tan, this was late September 2009, so I had a weak summer-in-Frankfurt "tan" that was mostly faded back to my American shade of white. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt that her comment was 1. somehow lost in translation from German to English and 2. partially influenced by the young age of her son and the fact that he hadn't left the house much to see...uh...brown people.
ReplyDeleteLOL... and yet not really funny... you are a brown person!!!??? Wow... that is a few steps back for race relations in Germany!
ReplyDeleteThose wacky Germans. Making it seem like WWII was no accident... but what's really upsetting is Spongebob. I mean really, since when does cheese live in the ocean? That's just offensive. :)
ReplyDelete