Awww! I love your kid! (warning: Language!)

[Imogene]

Holy crap, yeah, I know, childless by choice currently... but a couple came in today with their granddaughter, who they set on the counter in front of me, and I heard the girl ask her Oma, "Ist das ein maedchen?"
Oma sagt, "Nein, das ist ein Mann."
I grinned to myself as the girl asked, and frowned at the Oma. I almost replied, "Nein, ich bin nichts," but I couldn't form it correctly in my head, and didn't want to say something inappropriate.

Oma and granddaughter spend the entire transaction conversing in German, and I'm floundering out of my league, with only three semesters of German under my belt some three, four years ago.

Although I did say "Tschuss!"
I got that one right, at least.

I don't speak English
Damn you, zip codes!
I had a woman in my line today, whom I got all the way through the transaction with, and had just asked her for her zip code. And she just stood there, staring at me.
R: "You're zip code?"
L: "My code? No."
R: "Your zip code?"
L: "I don't speak English."
R: "Your *louder* Zip Code?"
L: "Oh... #####."
R: "Thank you."

What did she want me to do? "I don't speak Spanish."?

[Andara Bledin]

....

"Language" indeed.

^-.-^

[Pedersen]

For those of us (like me) who understood none of the German, I post the Google translation of the german phrases.

"Ist das ein maedchen?"
"Nein, das ist ein Mann."
"Nein, ich bin nichts,"
"Tschuss!"

"Is that a girl?"
"No, this is a man"
"No, I am not,"
"Bye!"

[Imogene]

For those of us (like me) who understood none of the German, I post the Google translation of the german phrases.


"Is that a girl?"
"No, this is a man"
"No, I am not,"
"Bye!"

Wow, Google translation actually understood my spellings? I'm impressed.
Although, I was going for "No, I am neither" as my response.

[Andara Bledin]

Yeah, you might have been going for neither, but you still said just not.

Google tells me that what you wanted was, "Ich bin weder."

My mind kept pulling up "zwichen" which means between, and could also be valid.

(I took 2 years worth of German in high school 'cause I refuse to learn Spanish and I don't like French, and they didn't offer Japanese)

^-.-^

[Canarr]

"Nein, ich bin nichts" would translate zu "No, I am nothing".

You would use "Ich bin keins von beiden" to say "I am neither". Though I'm not sure why you would want to claim that in any case...

"No, I am not" would mean "Nein, bin ich nicht", that would refer to the last sentence spoken, meaning you would deny being a man and confirm being a girl.

[Imogene]

See why I didn't say it out loud? I didn't even know the word I was looking for. Though, I suppose I could've said that, and messed with Oma's head.