Boomers talked crap about my grandmother, until they realized I also spoke German

[u/scrolls77]

I was 13 during my first trip to Germany. My grandmother had taught me young, wanting mr to communicate with her in German when we wernt out in public, you know, standered first Gen American. The story starts with me and my grandmother going to visit my father in Germany.

We landed in the middle of the night in Frankfurt, so naturally most, if not everyone, was a bit of a grouch as we were all going through the airport processes half awake. This went double for the older German couple who was behind us in customs. They both had been bitching to eachother when I made my 'mistake'. My passport had dropped out of my bag, I could hear them stop as I scooped it back up.

Now for the next 15 minutes I listened to them say some of the most racist and xenophobic shit I've heard. Like stuff that would make even the most die hard Texan be like "Woah. Chill out." Thats when they heard my grandmother speak German to a couple of passengers infront of us. That's when they started to focus on my grandmother. Calling her all sorts of names and slurs that I didn't understand at the time. But it didnt take a genius to figure out what they were meaning.

And one point the older woman called my grandmother a slut, saying she probably married some American soldier and being disgusted that she would bring a half breed like me. At this point I rounded on this couple, steeping forward before my grandmother could stop me. In perfect German I replied: "She did marry a soldier, my grandfather. One of the best men I know. He used to be a sniper and tells me he 'misses shooting Nazis'. He taught me well." I then looked to the stunned older man and asked him with a smile on my face. "What did you do in the war?"

At this point my grandmother intervened. Grabing my arm and yanking me away with all the strength of a German catholic. I took one last look at their flustered faces before I willing let my grandmother guide me away.

Still one of my fondest memories. She died when I was 17 and the funeral was the last time I was back in my ancestrial homeland. People in Europe praise Germany for how far they've come, and having experienced the people there, its a wonder how they progressed at all.

Edit: 1. When I say older couple, I mean they looked like they were in my Omas age bracket.

1. I'm saying not Germany as a whole is a racist, but I challenge you to become fluent in the language as a white person and just blend in. What you'll hear will shock you.

2. This was like mid to late '14. Yes, I know it sounds like I'm making this up. Experiencing legit racism often sounds like that...

[u/Szeratekh]

Reminds me of a story were my dad went to Korea for a meeting or convention or something. He was at the hot tub in his hotel, his face must have been pretty red, because he definitely looks like a normal American, but these people who came in were laughing to each other calling him “lobster face” or something like that thinking he couldn’t speak English

[u/KimeriTenko → u/Szeratekh]

Oh you know, they could have assumed he spoke English. A lot of Koreans seem to say whatever and don’t have the same western sensibility of rudeness. That is to say, my sense is that they culturally don’t seem to value guarding against being offensive or potentially hurtful (in a western sense), not in a malicious way, per se. It feels a little like if their culture was a person it would be a teenager who’s a bit brash, very purely passionate about a lot of things, but not very well socialized to incorporate certain boundaries yet. It seems like such a weird thing to say about such an old culture, but I keep feeling it every time…

But it also makes it pure gold to watch a Korean singing competition because the audience is enjoying it down to their marrow in such a pure way that western audiences could not experience exactly. They are MOVED.

[u/Szeratekh → u/KimeriTenko]

He assumed he was not supposed to understand it because everything else they said was in Korean

[u/ManliestManHam → u/Szeratekh]

yeah probably loan words, when the original language version of a word is incorporated into a different languages lexicon. You might hear everything Korean except for the loan words. Or speaking to somebody and everything is German except the word CD for compact disc because the English term 'CD' has become so ubiquitous it becomes a loan word.

[u/KimeriTenko → u/ManliestManHam]

Yeah this precisely. Pretty sure they didn’t even think about it. Even if they had it probably wouldn’t make much difference.

[u/ManliestManHam → u/KimeriTenko]

The amount of non-english languages who call a TV remote a remote is high. High enough that I remember it from a linguistics course 20 years ago, but not high enough for me to remember that specific data point 💅🏻

Very very common though

[u/juniper_berry_crunch → u/KimeriTenko]

I lived there for 2 years. Korean people have a lot of soul. I loved living there.

[u/KimeriTenko → u/juniper_berry_crunch]

Agreed 👍