Die Kaffeestube - German and Austrian cyber Kaffee und Kuchen

[admylin]

Kaffeeklatsch for anyone in a German speaking country or interested in German, Kommt herein und setz euch!

forgot the 'with' after 'cope'!

DH's godson must be about the same age as your DS, admylin; I think Florian is becoming less popular here than it used to be. Still, it could be worse - imagine having a surname that starts with Schitt. DH was interviewing for a job yesterday and that was the start of the successful candidate's name; DH was trying not to laugh when he told me. Not too bad if you only ever stay in Austria, but not great if you have to deal with people in English-speaking countries.

Hope the Klempner turns up soon. I'm sure we call them something different in Austria, but am struggling to think what - Installateur, maybe. Or is that something different again?

I also still snigger at Florian, although I haven't met any kids called that, only people my age. Friends of mine called their daughter Fab iana (minus space) - I really find that awful and chav.

I had to fb-stalk you to remember your dc's names, admylin. I can see why your dd gets annoyed, but it is a pretty spelling for an English speaker.

Ploom I´m another who would say there´s and have spent 5 mins saying "There is Pat... There are Pat..."

Choosing names that are o.k. in both languages can be tricky. Dd has a v in her name and I forgot that Germans would pronounce it as "f" and dh didn´t think to point it out. I pronounce her name the English way and everybody else the German way and it hasn´t seemed to bother her. I really liked Nathan for a boy, but dh said Germans would pronounce it Nart-han, so I quickly dropped the idea. Nutella It´s probably wise to avoid any name with a "th" as the mispronunciations would drive you mad.
I´m sure I´ve mentioned before, but we know someone with the surname Wanka. It always makes me laugh when I imagine him answering the phone.

hupa DS has a th in his name, but luckily it's pronounced just as a t even in English (you can probably guess what it is!). Avoiding v's is probably also a good idea if you don't want them to be mispronounced; one of my friends at school renamed herself Wickie for a while after the school German exchange. They pronounced Deborah in an interesting way too (stress on the second syllable). The DC pronounce their names in both the English or German ways, depending on which language they're speaking, but at least the Austrian way isn't a mispronunciation that would drive me mad.

I may have already mentioned the Trafik in Linz called Wanke; that always makes me snigger too.

Just sitting watching the 30 minute programme run on my dishwasher with the under sink cupboard door open to make sure nothing is dripping!! Looks as ii I have my dishwasher back! The Klempner was OK, put a pipe down through the work top and on leaving reminded me that if I ever move iut, those pipes are Eigentum of the landlady - she's most welcome to them and thankyou very much is what I waved him off to!

Lol at Wanke Linzer and Wanka hupa - German is so funny, I always laugh when I hear someone saying 'hast du lust'!

Silken it serves me right for not learning my German alphabet! Dd has even asked if it's possible to change names but she couldn't come up with an alternative! When ds was a baby he was so double chinned and chubby we called him Helmut (after Kohl) for a joke! Now that would have been a hard one for the family to get used to!

I am going to put a note on the monitor to remind me to review message too!

I had a debate with the class I teach about the countable or uncountable quality of butter... apparently it is countable in Bayrish

They're probably right Englishwoman Bayrish (said with lots of throaty phlegm noises on the "r") is very odd :o

Ha ha ha... Wanke Wanka!
I don't know if I posted here about the wall of midwife photos (sorry if you read this already) when we had a hospital tour; but it really cracked me and DP up. There was one Frau Suck and one Frau Dick.... I want to go to that delivery ward and hope they're working then shout down the hall "SUCK... DICK" see if they come running :)

Yes you all make very good points when it comes to names and I hope that I already know enough to avoid any major pitfalls. DP liked Charlotte but I hate the way it's pronounced in German (there is bound to be a Charlotte here on this thread isn't there...) I love the name but the emphasis on "lotta" always makes me think of Austin Powers characters

We had a nightmare choosing names too Nuttella - DH vetoed Emily on the oft cited wouldn't work in Germany clause - but we lived in England then. Of course now we live here 1 know 2 Emilys (1 age 10, 1 toddler). DD ended up with a name that works in both languages but is fairly unusual in the UK, only we forgot to check the German top 100 and when we moved here we discovered it is ridiculously common, in fact it must have been the default name choice in her year of birth and the one before and after :( She is not very pleased and is always referred to as "Die (first name last name). Although the plus side of that is her fame is widespread and people I have never met before say "Ah (last name) - Die (DD)!" and reveal that their granddaughter was talking about her the other day or something... She did try using her middle name for a bit but didn't like the way Germans pronounced it...

We had an even harder time with DS1's name, but when it came to DS2 I just went for an English one with no mispronunciation pitfalls - DH had objected to very English names for the older 2 as he didn't want them to be mistaken for Germans with English names.

EnglishWoman I think I've mentioned on the thread before that Emily was my preferred choice for DD1 but "too English" for DH, although he "allowed" it as her middle name. Mind you, I'm sure I would have got constantly annoyed by mispronunciations (the i being pronounced like an i, for example) and/or misspellings. There's a girl in DS's KiGa group called Emely and I'm convinced it's because they heard Emily and thought that's how it should be written.

I should probably confess at this point that DD1 has just written a letter to a new penpal, written her full name and spelt her middle name... Emely.

Nutella No Charlottes on this thread AFAIK (I think hupa's DD is the only one whose name I don't know but as she said earlier it has a v in it, you should be safe ). I think it's a fairly old-fashioned name here in Austria and I've certainly never come across any Charlottes here (another argument of DH's against Emily was that Emilia is very old-fashioned; I did try to point out that although similar, it's a different name).

There's a guesthouse just across the road from us called Haus Suck, which always amuses British visitors when we walk past it.

Oh, and I've just asked DH whether butter is countable as bayrisch often seems to be similar to Austrian German. He said that strictly speaking it isn't, but it is if you're speaking dialect.

Linzer I've never seen Emely before!

How was the weekend? we had a very quiet and dull one really. Dh went into work as usual to do some extra work for himself as his week is filled up with student supervision.

He's trying to get them to change his pay rate according to his years of experience but they still want to give him an Überstundenpauschal and keep him on the lower rate. It's driving him mad because in the end he'd get the same money anyway only he wants it to be official and not as if it's them being generous giving him the Überstunden thing.

To top it all the boss was in on Sunday and he reminded her to atleast get the Pauschal contract ready to sign and she said he was hasseling her and if his wife went out to work he wouldn't have to worry about earning more money - he couldn't sleep half the night trying to calm himself down.

I can't believe your DH's boss would say that, admylin. (Actually I can, going by previous things that you've written...) His salary should be completely independent of what you do or don't earn; she sounds like a complete nightmare to work for.

We went to my ILs for the weekend and DD1 is still there; DH's niece is bringing her back home on the train on Wednesday. DH decided to sort out his boxes in the garage while we were there (the one that's full with about 100 of SIL's boxes; DH had four or five in there), but it's no less cluttered as SIL and her DC decided they wanted the lot! It's like they have a sixth sense for clutter, since as soon as DH got the boxes out, they suddenly appeared and started rummaging through them; it was like being at a jumble sale! Two of the boxes were full of horribly old-fashioned plates, dishes, cups, etc. that had belonged to DH's great grandmother plus a few attractive brown/orange mugs of DH's, obviously from the 1970s. DH's niece kept muttering about them being in an excellent condition and how could anyone throw them out, so she's got them all - and is welcome to them. I asked DH whether he'd managed to get rid of anything at all; he said he'd managed to smuggle a few things into the bin, but wouldn't be surprised if they find their way back out again. I've never met such a family of hoarders.

Sounds like their home must be rather cluttered! Maybe the niece was saving stuff for when she moves out and sets up her own home?!

It's one thing after the other at dh's workplace. He's seriously going to go to Berlin and speak to his old boss about returning there even though the research isn't really what dh wants to do. Atleast he was respected and treated well there. It's all a mess becaus ethe dc are so settled in school and it would be better to stay put until they've done their exams (another 4 years for ds and 5 for dd) but that's along time for dh to last in a work atmosphere like here.

I think she's planning on taking the things with her when she goes to university in the autumn. Although apparently she can't cook and is planning on eating in the Mensa the whole time, and DH is convinced she'll be home every weekend (like his sister was). The problem with their clutter (although it's probably not a problem for them) is that they have lots of outbuildings to keep boxes of old baby clothes, Lego Duplo, soft toys, Überraschungseier toys, etc. etc. etc. etc. (which are no doubt all being kept for the grandchildren).

How would you feel about moving back to Berlin, admylin? I agree that four or five years is a long time for your DH to have to put up with that kind of treatment at work. You spend so much time at work that if you're unhappy there, it inevitably spills over into the rest of your life.

I'll never understand why people keep those things - those Ü-Eier toys are just cheap plastic rubbish aren't they? Ds's friend has boxes full of those Macdonald free gifts (the happy meal ones) to pass on to his dc so he says. I'm sure his dc will be delighted!

I think Berlin would be OK, the move would probably cause me to have a nervous breakdown and finding a decent school for the dc would be a challenge but otherwise I'm not settled here anyway so I could move anywhere. Actually I think at their age (my dc are 13 and 14) Berlin would be great for them now.

admylin can I come?? I'm sure my DP wouldn't mind :o I'd love to live in Berlin. Ho hummmm

Linzer DP's parents are awful hoarders! They built a massive house years ago - which of course has an attic, a garage and a cellar all full of crap- and they only occupy the ground floor

Well we spent last night looking up baby names and it didn't go too badly. There were some that didn't make it on the list once DP said them in German. Also there are one or two which wouldn't be a pronunciation problem in Germany but are not known in germany so might be a spelling problem.... well it isn't a short list yet.

Nutella yes come too, Berlin is only a couple of hours train journey away so not too far!

Infact, if dh did have to go to Berlin we'd stay here and go at weekends until we found the right flat/house and school. Just heard that the boss has filled in the forms for his extra money and dh has booked a whole month off from 25th July he never takes holidays! He really is fed up.

Do you have any plans for your DH's month off, admylin? It's good that his boss filled in the forms in the end.

I was quite happy to leave at the end of both my years in Berlin but when we were back there a couple of years ago, I found myself imagining that I could live there again. I have no experience of living there with children though, apart from the ones I was au pairing for which isn't quite the same.

Have a friend coming over for coffee in about an hour, so I'd better start tidying up (although hopefully it won't take a whole hour). I was feeling a bit fed up about various things yesterday, so am looking forward to a good moan.

Enjoy your moan linzer it does help doesn't it?! What's been bugging you?

No plans really but dh will be going to Berlin for part of that time as he is meeting his old boss and doing a few jobs for him (they're trying to publish some work so are finishing that off) so we'll join him for a few days atleast.

I think living in Berlin with small dc can be frustrating in the wrong area. We lived in Mitte near the regierungsviertel and there were no dc around and it was very quiet somehow almost like a ghost town at weekends. Other areas are more family friendly of course. But now with teens, there's so much for them there and getting around is no problem once they get to know the UBahn and tram system.

Yesterday I showed dd how to shave her legs! She has been on about it for ages as all her friends do it so yesterday was the day! It took her ages as she was very careful!

At about 11pm she called me as her gerbil was ill, sat with it (and her as she was upset) for an hour and a half then it seemed to have recovered so she put it back in its bed and slept with it next to her bed. It's fine this morning.

Oh, just feeling a bit taken for granted and getting very fed up with it. I'll PM you.

I seem to remember being told by my mum and grandmother that I should start shaving my legs; I think I was about 11! The joys of having Celtic colouring. DD1 has inherited my dark hair and pale skin (everyone says she's a mini me) but I'd never suggest shaving her legs to her unless she brought it up.

I know, I remember starting when I was about 13 I think and I did tell dd that once you start shaving, you have to keep it up as they will grow back as stubble but she really wanted to! I'm more worried about her cutting herself but I did buy her one of those fancy razor sets for women. Maybe an electric razor would be better/safer?

Know the feeling about being taken for granted. You're probably (and rightly) exhausted and ready for a break. How long 'til you set off on holiday?

Yes, I suppose an electric razor would reduce the chances of her cutting herself. I used to have one when I was a teenager, but went back to using disposable razors; can't remember why exactly, but I think you get a closer shave with the disposable ones (or at least you used to).

DH keeps saying how urlaubsreif he is, but we've only got a week until we go to Italy so no too much longer now. I'm actually not feeling any more tired than usual as the children are still out in the mornings and I don't have the stress of teaching or chauffeuring the DC to activities in the afternoons. I'm definitely looking forward to the change of scenery, lack of housework and time to read, though!

What's up, Linzer? I hope your moan helps, sometimes it's the best thing, just getting it all off your chest.
That is a lot of hoarding! I'm a bit of a decluttering addict at the moment. DH is worried he and DS will end up in the recycling soon.

admylin The more you tell us about your DH's work the more shocked I am. What a cheeky woman his boss is! I hope he came back with a suitably cutting response, or was he too shocked to respond?
Was it weird showing your DD how to shave her legs? I mean weird in the sense of, she's really not a little girl anymore.

Nutella How's the list going? It's quite hard finding names that work in both countries without the risk of hideous mispronunciation, isn't it.

Does anyone know whether it is recommended to vaccinate babies against ticks (well tick-related infections)? We're off to Austria (Steiermark) for a few days in Sept/Oct and the area is bright red on the tick danger zone map. I've called the Dr and am waiting for the receptionist to call me back as I couldn't really find a clear answer on the internet. Just wondered if any of the Austria-dwellers knew.