Say How?
Last week’s post on the Paris Catacombs and its eerie inspiration for writing was a little heavy. Let’s go with something a little lighter this week 
“What’s your name?” the vet asks as I make an appointment over the phone.
“Jennifer Zeiger,” I answer. I’m beyond relieved that she speaks English. German’s hard enough when I can’t see the other person’s face.
“Jennifer siga?” she asks.
I frown. “Z-e-i-g-e-r.” I spell it out.
“S.”
“Z.”
“Sorry, what?”
I thought in moving to Germany that it’d be easier to say and use our name. It’s German, after all, meaning “pointer” or “sign maker.” In the U.S., we often get extra letters added—an extra L is particularly common—and get all sorts of pronunciations.
In Germany, we have different problems all together and the above example has become a regular occurrence.
What I didn’t realize is that the German pronunciation is very different from the English and the alphabet has different names for the letters. “Zee” isn’t a letter in their alphabet. They call that letter “set” and it sounds like a “ts” not a hard “zzz”.
It’s like doing brain acrobatics just to give my name over the phone. Healthy brain acrobatics that are probably making my thinking muscle stronger, but OWWW!
“Set-a-ee-geh-a-er.” I spell it out.
“Ahh, tsIgah!” she says.
I face palm my forehead but internally am proud that I got it right enough for her to understand. “Ya,” I answer. “That’s correct.”
Blessings,
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