Just a word about semantics....

If I refer to the greeting 'Grüß Gott' it refers to the South, in Austria, and Bavaria. It means 'God's Greetings'. Which is ok...., It is just something you say in greeting without really thinking about what it means, you know?

My former colleague and very good friend Nancy was working in a Burger King in Berlin, didn' t know German so well yet, and a Bavarian came in one day... And in the north, they just say 'Guten Tag'... good day. So the first time a Southerner came in and said 'Grüß Gott', she assumed it was a Mormon or even worse, a Jehovah Witness, and she yelled, 'NO!'

And that has to be one of the funniest things I have ever heard....

Good grief, hey. Words carry meaning, believe me.

And you can really get it wrong if you just take them at face value. I had a young girl come into the ho-tel one evening and tell me she had been charred to death at home. At least that is what I thought I heard, 'durchgebrannt'. Thoroughly burned. And I thought, 'Odd, I don't see any scars...' A misconception that was finally cleared up two hours later when the Kripo (criminal police) came in and checked our books. 'Durchgebrannt' was slang meaning she had run away from home, and they were looking for her. I was told I had done the right thing, they took her back to her parents in a town up north, and I just cancelled the whole reservation thing and felt stooopid.... But I didn't let on about that misconception, except to my boss, and she never let me forget it, and would laugh and laugh....

I don't know why this came to mind this evening.... guess it was just something I ate, who knows...

This is gonna be a long weekend.....

And words carry meanings we often aren't even aware of.