Vergebe mich Vater, weil ich gesündigt habe

Forgive my trespasses, and forgive me for those who have trespassed against me.

And yet, now, all is right with the world.

I committed a sin yesterday. A sin only unto myself. I said forbidden words, and although at the time I had very good reasons to say them:

"Auf Englisch, bitte?"

Now hear me out. I was in line at Schöneberg Flughafen. A very serious German woman in Sicherheit asks me a question in German. I could almost make out what she said. In fact, I knew every word she said, just not exactly what she was asking for. I had made a promise myself never to utter those words here. And yet not wanting to spend a few hours in a security, and really wanting to get on my nonrefundable flight, I asked:

"Auf Englisch, bitte?"

"Can you open your bag and take the electronics out of your bag?"

"Ja, sicher" antwortete ich zurück.

And thus I did. And so I did. She scanned everything through once again and everything checked though again.

But tonight, I evened the score. I was in a bar, and talking with a local (in a Lokalklub, i.e., nothing English, don't play Englisch music, tourists go away), I was checking out and clearing my tab. They do it by name, and they said "Ihre Name, bitte?"

"Josef," I said. I had found out earlier it's an entirely uncommon name, even among Jewish people, probably apart of the German Angst.

"Seven Euros sixty, please," he said. Yeah, he asked me in English.

And thus I even the score:

"Auf Deutsch, bitte?"

"Oh, entschuldigung! Ich meinte es nicht, dich zu beleidigen!" He didn't mean to insult me.

"Es ist okay," ich sagte. "Ich bin Amerikaner."

"Oh! Ich wüsste es nicht, dass du Deutsch sprachtest!" He didn't know I spoke German.

And so, the score was even. Karma does have it's ways. And then, I laughed most the entire way back to my hotel. :-)

Blogdatum: Samstag, 09.09.2006