I have been impressed by how much a language phrase book can tell you about a country’s culture and climate before you visit. I remember our Mandarin phrasebook had instructions on what you’ll need to say to the taxi driver:
“Look out for that cyclist carrying 8 large pigs!”
“Please slow down!”
“This is it, we’re going to die!”
The German phrasebook, on the other hand, was full of useful everyday conversation tips such as:
“Heute ist das Wetter furchtbar!” (Today the weather is horrible.)
“Es geist, wieder mal!” (It’s bucketing down, once again.)
“Schick du doch sie darunter, Uwe!” (Send her down, Huey!)
“Ich hatte gerne ein einzelfahrt flugticket nach Spanien.” (A one way plane ticket to Spain, please.)
As I think Neil has observed, the word for weather here is both a noun in German and an adjective for German weather in English. Sean emailed us a meteorological sattelite image to show that it does rain in Canberra and we are waiting for a sunny day here before we send one back.
huru
Brendan
