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Saturday, April 26, 2014

Differences between the English and his German wife (grammar irregularity intended)

As you know from my personality test (I love this test; and there are many truths in it!), I am unable to focus on one topic for a long time, therefore I'll relate something I have not written about here yet, because it is a difficult topic in an English-German marriage. Besides, my test says,  I am easily bored and need the excitement. Today's excitement was an argument -of the good-natured kind- about what it means to be English or German. I think we fulfilled every national cliché possible with what we observed as differences.

Apart from my maiden name, no school uniform in my school years and that you English (I am looking right at hubby writing this) drive on the left, whereas we drive on the right (!) side, there is one difference which I find still striking. I think about the various kinds of bread. Before every English man and woman starts throwing that at me, let me first assure you, I love English bread, and French baguette as well (for the record). But, everytime back home with my in-laws, I keep doing one thing: I take a single slice of bread and play with it. It's the little kitten in me. When I see a single slice of bread, I want to have it. I do that because you can bend it back and forth, squeeze it, threaten it, shoot it, and every other kind of activity ... and it will always get back into the original shape. I really love that.

My mom always said 'Don't play with your food!' and now I do it every time we are in Britain and I am known throughout the family for that. It has turned into a running gag and you can assume what it is like when my brothers in law ask me if I want some bread. That happens almost at every meal, for around the first three days and then again on the last day, before we leave. 

I hope  you are not my personality type, otherwise you are probably not even reading this anymore. :) Now, the higly explosive message that I referred to hubby is that I also believe German bread tastes better. ... If you disagree, you are in good company, feel free to comment. But hubby is on my side, because more than ten years here and he has learned to love German bread. Different colours, tastes, more variety.

And I am not saying that there is no variety concerning bread in England. But nevertheless, it is completely different. Some of what you English (looking at hubby again) call brown bread, would qualify as white bread in brown colour only, with our local baker. Maybe I should make myself clear about the taste. This is really more about variety, not so much  about good or bad taste, though there are many kinds of bread that you don't find in Britain at all, and other kinds where I prefer the taste of the continental bread.

And this is not meant as English-bashing either! If anybody, hubby is proud to be British and English. I am proud of my husband and love his ways, and there are so many good things that Britain and the English have: NHS, tolerance, high class education, a unique identity, Royals, English food (far better than its reputation), and so much more. ...   But not the good bread :))) Sorry folks, I couldn't resist.


Please, don't be seriously annoyed with me, for teasing a little. I love Britain, England, the English -one of them every night- and hope nobody takes this kind of  teasing seriously. As English and Germans, and any other nationality, we are surely somehow different, but definitely equal.



4 comments :

  1. I lived in germany for a while. German bread has much variety. The sweeter ones I loved, the schwarz ones, not at first, but eventually i did. Unfortunately i never came across a good cup of tea or jam to go with it.
    If german is your mother tongue, your english is excellent!
    Hugs DF

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  2. Hi DF, lol, the schwarz ones are critical. I love them, hubby prefers the English version of that a lot. Yes, you are right about the tea and jam, we bring supplies from Kent every time, because we can't get all the good stuff around here. Thank you :), yes German is my mother tongue, and I have learned most of my English within hubby's family, which includes that his brothers have tried to teach me their swear words - successfully. They thought that was endlessly funny and I got a red bum as a result, because I used some of these.

    hugs

    Nina

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  3. Nina, we have Italian, French, Belgian and Portuguese bread here in Canada, but none specifically called "German". We do have a bakery that produces an impressive selection of rye breads, so I think that counts as German. As for Canadian bread, it's probably white, whole wheat or whole grain.

    Hugs,
    Hermione

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  4. Hi Hermione, I really do hope that you are not miffed because of my claims, because if my entry hurt you, or any other, that wouldn’t be ok and it would make me sad if I caused that.
    But, since you are Canadian and not from Kent, I take your comment as an addition on Canadian variety, which is awesome. I think Belgians also have a lot of variety when it comes to bread, many kinds are similar to what our local bakers produce. And from those kinds which are different, I only recall eating some very sweet brioche-like bread. There also is a very sweet Portuguese kind of bread/roll which I love. Those very sweet kinds of bread are not for every day, though, it’s more like something you could have for tea, as a replacement for cake, or on Sunday morning, with jam.

    hugs

    Nina

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