Deutch Lernen
It was a quiet afternoon at the Xavier institute. While a Saturday would normally consist of sleeping in and playing video games, this day was going to be a little different. Kurt Wagner, a native German, had been a member of the institute for quite some time. He had gotten very close to many of the other students, and they too to him. It was only natural, that in time, they would want to get to learn about their blue, furry friend a little bit more, and something that had always fascinated them was the fact that he was from Germany. Kurt would, on occasion, allow his language to slip back into his native tongue, and the students began to become more and more interested in German the more they would hear it. They politely asked Kurt if he would mind teaching them a little, and naturally he didn't mind at all.
The professor arranged a lecture in one of the rooms of the mansion. Even though only certain students expressed interest, Professor Xavier found it proper for all of the institute residents to attend. After all, Kurt was taking his time to teach them and being generous enough to share his knowledge, so it was only right that all of the students were present.
It was one o'clock once all of the students had gathered in the small lecture room, as well as Professor Xavier. Only a few moments later Kurt arrived, who was both eager and understandably nervous to teach. He had never taught a class before, and was hoping that they would enjoy his lesson. As he got situated, he greeted the class. "Alright everyone. As you requested, I am going to teach you 'ein bißchen Deutsch', or 'a little German'. But don't worry, I am not going to give you too much, just some simple things to start you off with. So, here we go: Guten Tag," he said with much enthusiasm. "Have any of you picked up what that means yet?"
Kitty readily raised her hand. She, out of all of those at the institute, had spent the most time around Kurt and had certainly picked up more German from him than the other students had. "Um, it means 'hello', right?"
Kurt smiled at her eagerness to participate in his lesson. "Ja, well… it literally means 'good day', but that is also the same as 'hello'." He then directed his attention to the rest of the 'class'. "You also have different greetings for other parts of the day. You use 'guten Abend' for 'good evening', and you use 'gute Nacht' for 'good night'." Kurt then wrote the three greetings up on the board, and the others couldn't help but notice the odd capitalization.
Scott was the first to ask, "Hey, Kurt? Why would you capitalize the times of day?"
"Oh… that is because they are nouns. All nouns are capitalized in German."
Evan also inquired, "Why?"
Kurt wasn't really prepared for those questions, and he honestly didn't know the answer either. He just laughed a responded, "Eh… I don't know exactly. It's just the way it is? Maybe the nouns are just showing off." The class giggled. "It's just easier to remember that they are just always capitalized. So, now, onto the real lesson: Being able to communicate simply in German. We'll start off with saying your name. To say your name, you say 'Ich heiße [pronounced hi-seh], and then your name. So, I would say, 'Ich heiße Kurt.' And then, to ask someone else's name, you say either 'Wie heißt du?' or 'Wie heißen Sie?' depending on the situation."
Rogue, surprisingly, was the next to participate. "So, which is which?"
"Well… 'du' is used in an informal setting, and 'Sie' is formal. If it's between you and your friends, or a child… you'd use 'du'. Otherwise, to authority figures and strangers, you'd use 'Sie'. Understand?" The class nodded. "Ah, sehr gut! We are getting somewhere! Would anyone like to try saying their name?"
"Ok, sure", replied Bobby.
"Ok then. I will ask you for your name, and you reply 'Ich heiße…' Okay? Alright. Wie heißt du?"
"Oh… umm, Ick heiße Bobby'."
Kurt smiled at his pronunciation. For once he wasn't the one with the accent. "Gut, Bobby. The only thing is your 'ich'. It's not pronounced 'ick'. It's.. more like a… softer sound. Like, when you say the English word 'human', drop the 'man' and the remaining 'hu' is much more like the soft 'ch' sound in 'ich'."
Bobby then tried to correct himself. "Ih-human. Ih-human. Ich.. Ich?"
Kurt couldn't help but giggle, "Ja, that's it! See, it's not so hard." He once again focused on everyone. "Now, the next thing I am going to teach you is to ask how someone is doing. To ask your friends, you'd say 'Wie bist du?', or formally you'd say 'Wie sind Sie?'. This means 'How are you?' To answer, you'd respond, "Ich bin…" and your status. Here…" Kurt went over to the black board and wrote a small list of descriptive words and their meanings, as well as pronunciations to the best of his ability:
Wie bist du? [Vee bist doo] = How are you?
Ich bin _ = I am _ :
Gut [goot] = good
sehr gut = very good
nicht so gut = not so good
ganz gut [gants goot]= alright/fine
traurig [trow-ich]= sad
glücklich [gluek-lich]= happy
After giving them time to review what he had written, he resumed his lesson. "So, Kitty. If I were to ask you 'Wie bist du?', how would you answer?"
Kitty wasn't expecting to be put on the spot, but she knew Kurt only called on her because he had confidence in her. "Umm, Ich… bin gut?"
"Ja, correct. It's the same for any of the others as well. Ich bin glücklich, for example, is 'I am happy'. It's just like English in order. Not too hard, right?"
Evan, once again, chimed in. "How do you say you're hungry? Man, I'm starving!"
Kurt laughed, "Well… that's actually a little different. You would say 'Ich habe Hunger', which literally means 'I have hunger'. You don't really say 'I am hungry' in German. I mean, you can, but it's not that common. There are a few states that are said in this way, which I'm not going to get into now. Now then… anything specifically you all would like to learn? Well, that's simple, that is."
Jean, for the first time, had chimed in. "How do you say 'I love you'?"
"Well, you would say 'Ich liebe dich'. But, in Germany, this is used nowhere near as much as it's used in America. People seem to throw it around so much here; it's so weird to me. In Germany, you only say 'Ich liebe dich' to your family, extremely close friends, and your partner. And even then, it's used sparingly. When you say it, it's really something special"
"That sounds so romantic," responded Jean. Kitty agreed, and the guys simply rolled their eyes.
Kurt smiled. He loved teaching everyone about his language and culture back in Germany. He couldn't wait for the next question "Anyone else?"
Kitty was the next to volunteer a question. "So, like, what about family members?"
"That's easy. See, in German, there are one of three articles that go along with a noun; der, die, or das. It's just like the English 'the'. There is really no set rule about which goes to which noun, but your question is one exception. Every male member of the family would get 'der', and every female would get 'die'. 'Das' is neuter, and not used in this instance. I will write them for you:"
Familie [Fah-mill-yeh]= Family:
die Mutter [moo-ter]= Mother
die Großmutter [gross-mooter] = Grandmother
der Vater [faht-er]= Father
der Großvater [gross-fahter]= Grandfather
die Schwester [shvest-er] = Sister
der Bruder [brood-er]= Brother
"So, I'll take one more question. Anyone?"
"I have one, Kurt," said Professor X, "How do you say mutant?"
Kurt laughed, as the English and German word is nearly identical. "Mutant is 'der Mutant [moo-tahnt]'. To say 'I am a mutant' you would say 'Ich bin ein Mutant", and to say 'we are mutants' you would say 'Wir sind Mutanten".
"Wait… why wouldn't you just say 'Mutants'," asked Rogue.
Kurt replied, "There are many ways to make a noun plural in German. Adding an 's' is one of them, like in English, but in the case of 'der Mutant', an 'en' makes it plural. But, once again, this is too complex to get into at the moment."
Rogue sighed, "Ugh… German's too confusing."
Kurt laughed at Rogue's frustration, "You would get the hang of it if you wanted to. But, if you want to learn another language well, you have to want to. If you don't, it will be confusing and you won't be able to get it."
Professor Xavier added, "That's right Rogue. It takes patience like anything else. And thank you Kurt for explaining that to me."
"Oh, no problem Professor!" He turned to the rest of the class, "Alright, one last thing I will teach you and then I will let you go, which is numbers, or 'Zahlen'. I will teach you 1-10. Ready?" The class nodded. "Alright, to count to ten in German, it goes as follows: Eins, zwei [tsvei], drei, vier [feer], fünf, sechs [zecks], sieben [zee-bin], acht, neun [noyn], zehn [tsen]." Kurt paused to take a moment to write this down as well for the students to copy if they were interested. "Everyone have that? Ausgezeichnet*! And now, I will let you all go. I hope I didn't bore you too badly!" The class tried to assure him that they weren't bored, though secretly a few of them had been, namely Evan and a majority of the new recruits. They were, however, still polite. "Alright. Well, thank you everyone. Good-bye. Tschüss!"
As Kurt was heading out of the room, Kitty caught up with him. She said to him, "Hey, Kurt. Thanks so much for doing that for us today. That was so interesting! I am like, totally going to be learning German now."
Kurt smiled. It made him feel so good that he had inspired Kitty so much that she wanted to learn his native language. "That's great Kitty. Maybe, eventually, we can talk German together."
Kitty replied, "Yeah, that would be totally awesome. Well, I'm going to go off for a while, but I'll catch ya later! Bis später [biss schp-eight-er]!"
Kurt was surprised to hear Kitty say this to him, as he was certain he hadn't taught them the phrase 'see you later' during his lesson. He simply smiled and cheerfully replied, "Bis später, Kitty!"
*Ausgezeichnet = Excellent
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this! I tried to make it interesting, lol, I hope it wasn't too bad. :P Last semester I took my first German class, and since I know a fair bit now I thought I'd make this fic to not only entertain, but also teach a little German to those here. :) I couldn't get into anything too complicated, but I threw a little out there. Please review and let me know what you think! Tschüss! :D