Now that Peter and I are back from Japan, I want to share some of my thoughts and observations with you, mainly because my feelings about Japan have changed so radically since I was 21 and spent six weeks in Tokyo. As a college senior, I won a small fellowship permitting me to compare factoryContinue reading “More Cherry Blossoms!”
Category Archives: Language
Some Useful Rat
When I was about thirty, I traveled around Germany with one of my uncles. A year or two before that, I’d taken beginner German classes for two or three months. You’ve heard the saying, “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” Well, my trip to Germany made that clear. At the places we were staying, thereContinue reading “Some Useful Rat”
Teacup or Water Glass?
I was playing tennis with a Swiss friend recently, and the third time I dropped the ball I said, in German, “I can’t believe I’m such a butterfingers today.” It’s almost the same word in German as in English, even if the vowels are pronounced differently: Butterfinger. Except that it doesn’t exist in German, soContinue reading “Teacup or Water Glass?”
Kim Hays 