chain of fools

i like people with a sense of humor. and when learning a new language, a sense of humor is key.

there is an italian guy in my class with whom i always seem to end up. he's cute in that "my little brother's friend is so cute" kind of way. the other day, when sandra asked us to work together, i went to the other side of the room (we never sit at the same table, which is why its so weird that we're always paired together) and when i sat down next to him i said, "wir sind immer zusammen." [we're always together] and then he said, "yeah, we're working girls." ?? did he just call me a prostitute?? i was like, "huh?" and then he spoke more slowly, "we're working good." ohh right. so i told him what i thought he said and he laughed. then sandra hands out the paper for us to work on and its full of drawings of a woman doing things - waking up, going to the movies, etc. and we're meant to have a discussion saying what she's doing. but some of the pictures aren't super clear, so he and i went through and said each thing in english first.

me: at 9am, she woke up
him: at 9:20 she made breakfast
me: after that, she studied
him: then, she touched herself while looking in the mirror
me: ...

i thought i was going to have to explain what he had just said to make sure he understood. then he starts laughing and i realize he did, in fact, realize what he said AND meant to say it. we laughed really hard because the picture really looks like she's either giving herself a mammogram or should be given some privacy. we don't even know how to say either of those things in german. so, we decided that it was the picture for getting dressed.

we continue through the sheet. after she got dressed she took the subway and then went to class. she stood in line and then went to a museum. she studied in the library, made some photocopies and then the next drawing of her is with a boy sitting on a bench. my italian partner then said, "she make sex." i had to laugh at 1) the english translation and 2) his italian mind! to me, they are clearly "flirting" which is a word we know. i wonder if all italians think like this.

so that was the italian guy.

yesterday in class, i was sitting at a table with the israeli diplomat. we were doing an exercise where claudia had a birthday party (a character in our book) and her friend stefan burned the dinner. our teacher asked us what we could do if we were with claudia, stefan, and the other party goers. some people said, "we could go to a restaurant." "we could eat at someone else's house." then the israeli diplomat says, under her breath, "wir konnen Sebastian essen." [we could each sebastian] she kind of chuckled and i looked at her with a puzzled expression. huh? sebastian is the sexy smoker who sits on the other side of the room. i look up at him and he had heard the diplomat say his name so he had this weird look on his face and had a hand in the air as if to say, "what?? why would you eat me?" so i look back at the diplomat and now she is really laughing. keep in mind, this whole time, her back is turned to sandra. so the teacher can't see that she is laughing. i look back over at sexy smoker and he had the most... ridiculous face. i started laughing. which made the diplomat laugh harder. so then i'm laughing harder. and the more i thought about it, i was like, "what the heck?? why would we eat HIM? he's so skinny, he wouldn't taste any good!" so then i'm trying really hard not to laugh, which just makes me laugh harder. then sandra asks if i'm ok and if i need to go get some water. i think she was trying to get me out of class, but i knew if i had to stand up i would just laugh harder, so i continue to try to control my laughing. i take one more look at the diplomat whose shoulders are just shaking with laughter and i start crying. not sad crying, but the "i can't believe i'm laughing this hard and i can't stop and its not even that funny!" crying. after about 5 minutes i finally calm down. later i asked the diplomat why she said that. "well, because he burnt dinner." and i said, "no! stefan burnt dinner. sebastian wasn't there!" and she just said, "oh, well i meant we should eat the guy in the story because he burnt our dinner." so she was laughing at the prospect of eating the guy in the story and i was laughing at the prospect of eating sexy smoker.

so now combine the two.

after the diplomat and i complained that we were working with the weaker students, sandra put me, the diplomat, and the italian guy together. we were supposed to come up with a situation where one person introduces a second person to the third person and then everyone has a party. so we just start talking in our group and for some reason, i completely blank on anything i can say. so diplomat and italy are just talking back and forth and i think to give me an easy question, italy asks me, "wo sind die toiletten?" [where is the bathroom?] we laugh because, while we know this is correct, it's kind of funny to say in a skit about a party. so then i tell him the first door on the right. then later he asks for some food so i tell him its in the kitchen, the first door on the right. we laugh at the prospect of the bathroom being in the kitchen. while we're busy laughing, every other group has written out scenarios and is ready to present to the class. we have NOTHING. so, we go up to the front and improvise. i open the door, diplomat introduces me to italy and i beat italy to the cuff and say, "are you ok? the bathrooms are the first door on the right." so he laughs and says "thank you, i dont feel so well" and goes off. the diplomat and i have a short conversation where she tells me "this is my funny italian friend." he comes back and then we all go to get something to eat in the first door on the right. no one in class laughs. i dont think the class got our sense of humor. or maybe our german is just so far above everyone else's, they didn't understand what we were saying. that must be it.