Guten Tag

With apologies to my high school German teacher Frau Duvall, other than guten tag and auf wedersehn, I don’t remember anything from my four years of German. Oh, there is one other phrase I do remember –don’t ask me why I remember this of all things- Es Regnet und es regnet. It rains and it rains.

There were only four of us in our trekking group –well five, if you count our Vietnamese guide. The other two were a young couple from Germany. They spoke impeccable English. But once in a while, when they were talking between the two of them, they would speak in German. Occasionally, I would pick up a word or two that I recognized. Mostly just der, die and das.

Either I missed it or the guide book failed to mention it, but June is the rainy season in Northern Vietnam. The first day of our trek, it rained steadily and heavily.

Germans. Rain. Oooh, Ooooh. I know this. I caught up to our Germans, sidled up next to them, and proclaimed with all confidence, “Es regnet und es regnet.”

“Ah, sehr gut! You speak German.”

Why yes, yes I do.

Thank you, Mrs. Duvall.

-Jack