Memories of my German Language Class!

Lynda Jensen Sobieski, Miss Scott, Chester Tom

We all had a language class that was part of our curriculum.  I remember it being in my junior year, most of us took spanish, french and there was also german. When I received my list of classes my language listed was german. That is great but I already spoke german. I wanted to change my language to french. I thought that would be an awesome language to learn and who knows I may go there someday. I had to go and see Miss Scott..does anyone remember Miss Scott?  She was the german language teacher in our school.  She was Scottish, but had an excellent german vocabulary.

So, here I am in her office and she asked me what I wanted to study instead.  I told her that I was eager to study french and she then asked me what do you plan to use it for?  I don't know..I just want to learn it and I may go to France one day.  She started to speak to me in german and I answered her when she came out very loudly, "you don't know the proper german, you speak low german:".  Wow!!..I got upset at what she said and found that to be pretty harsh words.  My pronunciation of some words were not correct as she later explained and felt that I would be better off in her german class where I will learn to speak "proper" german.  I walked out of her office so disappointed.

The class was almost full and I was surprised on how many were interested in german.  I felt good and thought I had one over on everyone since I already speak german.  Not so..whenever a new word was introduced, Miss Scott would call on me to pronounce the word to the class.  "Did you hear how the word sounds?"..class said "yes", then Miss Scott said  "That is not how the word is pronounced", ofcourse the class laughed.  This happened a couple of times until I told Miss Scott that it was upsetting to me.  When she explained to me why she was so rough was that she wanted me to improve my german and since I was speaking it at home, we were starting to include english words and losing the german I already knew

After some time, I grew to like my german class and Miss Scott and enjoyed the challenge.  Towards the end of school, an opportunity was brought to us to be an exchange student in Germany during the summer months.  We were to attend classes at a university and would stay at a host home for that whole time.  The cost was not that much but enough that we could not afford to send me.  It would have been a really wonderful opportunity.

After that conversation with Miss Scott, we got along very well.  Infact, she wrote in my yearbook in german and it says "The dear little Senaf, I wish you well in everything".I appreciated her concern and help because german has a proper and a lower vocabulary and to speak it correctly in business the proper is much needed.   (proper and low means regional language)

I am inviting everyone to share your story of your language class. You can comment your story below or if you are unsure about writing a blog, send me the information you want posted and I will post it for you. We all are interested in your experience.

85th Street and Columbus

Do You Remember??

Now I remember a pizza place on the corner of 85th and Columbus Avenue.  I don't remember the name of

the place. I am also not sure if it is the first restaurant there or the second one in.  We would come out of school just before 3pm and some of us met at the pizza place just for a slice of pizza, socializing and then we went home. Now I know you must think I have nothing better to do than to search out places of memories.  Well, I do have better things to do but being that we are having a one of a kind reunion and since we all missed our prom (remember?) it's kind of making me melancholy.  Good thing that I am for we all get to enjoy and bring our minds back to the days before our lives changed and we became responsible adults.  

If anyone has anything to add to this, comment on the bottom of this blog. If you have any photos of the old pizza place, let me know too.  

Class of 1968 42nd Reunion 2010

Harlem BBQ

(Photo by D. Bell) Courtesy of UptownFlavor

Last year on June 26th, 2010 our Class of 1968 had our 42nd Reunion.  It was our first reunion since graduation in 1968.  Here is a video of the day taken at Harlem BBQ, NYC

I was not able to attend our first reunion.  Leave a comment on the bottom and share your experiences on this special day.

(You can turn off the IPad on the right panel in order to hear the video and when done you can turn it on
again)

Thanks to Angel Munoz, we have live videos of everyone who attended the reunion.  It is a long video and comes in 6 parts.  Enjoy!