• Ich MaK Dich…

  Filed under Coolness
  Sep 8

  I am in Germany for the first time ever, and thankfully, I have a good friend who is willing to let me live at his place with his family. Now, for those of you who don’t know, children in Germany start learning English at the young age of 9. My friend’s older daughter M can speak and understand me fairly well considering she just started learning my tongue this year. His young son, J, who is age 6, however, is another matter.I felt bad for the kid. He tried and tried to communicate with me, and we just didn’t. Sometimes I knew a word here and there, and he did as well. We tried unsuccessfully to teach each other our own language with limited success.

  Well, my friend had to make a run to the bank and I was left alone with the youngest. I went about making breakfast, and hoped the child wouldn’t get too frustrated with dealing with me. He chattered at some length about I don’t know what, and I nodded and basically kept to my business of making omelets.

  And then, he kept asking me something over and over. He went really slow so I’d be able to understand — after all he was speaking in plain German — but I just didn’t get it. So, I ran to the computer and found an online friend who might be able to translate. I had to spell it phonetically. Here’s what I wrote:
  “i di da vunst da vIe da?”

  After a while, and after saying it slow, he said something about Texas, so my online friend and I sort of figured out he might be able asking me “Is Texas like what it is here?” But again, no way for me to communicate back. My little friend got frustrated and left for a few minutes, and I went back to my breakfast…feeling a little bad about the whole thing.

  Then, he came back and said very plainly “Heather” and handed me a piece of paper.

  It read “Ich Mak Dich”. I figured it must be fairly important, bordering on emergency, so I ran to the computer and asked my friend what he just said. Here is our conversation

  Me: He wrote “ich maek dich” on a piece of paper.  Do I need to call an ambulance?
  Friend: It means “I like you”. But he misspelled it. It should be “ich mag dich”

  It was at that moment my heart melted.  Talk about being blown away. The kid is a charmer for sure.

Leave a Reply