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Mark Twain had an abiding fascination with Germany and spent over a year in the country with his entire family. Based in Heidelberg and Berlin, he undertook excursions to all parts of Germany as well as Switzerland and Austria. Before leaving for Europe, Twain hired German nannies for his children, who gave them instruction in the language and conversed with them, so that they could practice their skills. Twain actually wanted the children to read German books before English books – his reason being that they would learn English no matter what, and it would be easier for them to learn other languages while they were young.
With this daily exposure to the German language, at his Connecticut home and while living and traveling in German speaking countries, it can be conjectured that Mark Twain had quite a fair comprehension of the language. Eyewitnesses of the period report that the entire family spoke fluent German.
Yet, he writes of his German skills: “I am complimented a good deal on my German, in Berlin. On one occasion I emptied out a sentence of 47 words and it had only 63 grammatical errors in it.”
On another occasion, he reprimands himself, saying “You have been a fool. If you had put in as many years improving your spiritual nature, as you have put in on the German language, you could have been in heaven by this time.”
In reality, Twain was so versed in the German language that he actually translated the popular mid-1900 century German children’s book, STRUWELPETER into English; as a Christmas present for his daughters.
But, for the sake of his audience, the humorist prevailed and in 1880, Mark Twain described his futile attempt to learn the German language with its incomparable grammar and other peculiarities, in an essay poignantly entitled THE AWFUL GERMAN LANGUAGE
PERFORMANCE: June 3 at 20:00 hrs in MERLIN
TICKETS: https://loveyourartist.com/de/events/dark-monday-awful-stuttgart-FPRBD3
In cooperation with: DAZ – Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum, Staatministerin für Kultur und Medien, Kulturverein Merlin e.V.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Merlin Kulturzentrum, Augustenstraße 72,Stuttgart, Germany
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