
Cate is sort of on the mend but is still at home and of course this is an added strain on my home duties as it requires constant attention to her needs for water and lemon juice and coffee and such.
Last night she spent from 7:00 PM until 11:00 PM on a telephone call and I simply would not have thought this would have been possible – but clearly it is because she did it – barking like a seal every now and then - but muting the call when she did so as to not alarm the other participants.
I have just finished my second week with Frau Knickerbocker and I must say that up until a week or so ago I thought that separable verbs were the worst things the Germans had ever invented – but no – there are in fact more ghastly things.
Each – yes EACH German is Nominativ, Akkusative or Dativ and (depending on what they are) this will determine how you form the rest of the sentence you are about to construct.
Did I mention that you also have to know what the gender of the noun is? EVERY noun.
There are of course many other rules – too numerous to mention. Some so arcane and so baroque that they would make Machiavelli swoon.
It is astonishing to me that Germans can communicate at all.
I am eternally flabbergasted that Germans do not meet each other in the street and emit guttural grunts while flapping their arms uselessly in the air - attempting to convey the meaning of their words.
It is a language composed in bedlam by a committee of loons.

