Equal Goes It Loose

The World Of Teaching & Learning English

13 Things About Equal Goes It Loose

Posted on 04.17.08 11:18AM under From The EFL World, Language Learning, Thursday 13

Thirteen Things about Equal Goes It Loose1. The name:As I teach English as a second language in Germany I thought a blog about my time here would be fun to have. And so I thought I would steal the name from one of the more famous mix ups from German into English, from an incident in 1965 when Germany’s President Heinrich Ltibke turned to Queen Elizabeth the II and stated a literal translation of “Gleich geht es los.” He meant “it will soon begin”, but what he said was “Equal goes it loose.” WTF?

Having taught English in Japan, Korea and in England to Italian kids, I am aware that false friends and literal translations are bound to cause embarrassment. But in Germany it appears that they are particularly so. Here the word “geil” is used to mean cool, awesome, excellent, etc. However its original meaning was horny. My friend Samara teaches at a school here, and a student tried to compliment her by announcing (in English) that she was a “horny teacher.” The class went silent before erupting into laughter, and both Samara and the student went a little red. The class then had to explain to him that the proper translation of geil in that case was not horny, but cool. You can find the full story here, but it was treasures like that I wanted to save and so I began another blog.

To be fair however the embarrassment works both way. The first time I met my German partner’s family had its fair share of blushes. Halfway through the afternoon I bit into an apple that was less than crisp and I declared (in English, as at this point I spoke 4 words in German) “ugh, this apple is mushy!” The was followed by shocked silence, and a tentative “what did you say.” I explained that the apple tasted mushy. And my partner laughed so hard before explaining what mushy in German was. Think the term for female genitalia that we have that means a little cat.

In addition to such treasures of mortification I also wanted a place that I could try to keep some of my own ideas for teaching English on. I know myself that I am forever finding great places, and then forgetting what they are or were. So I hope that with this blog I can keep track of some of my favorite links and places, and lesson ideas.

I travel, I love to travel, and if I could I would do nothing BUT travel. And so I do take paid posts on my other blogs (I have two, Sticky Apple Kisses and Confessions of A Gypsy Princess). It means I can travel and get paid without having to have a regular job that requires me to actually BE somewhere at a set time. The problem was that I noticed Gypsy became a little too saturated with paid posts. BUT I liked the income that meant my debt was decreasing and my travel stayed the same. So I started Sticky, but after Gypsy was google slapped Sticky is the only blog that brings in decent paying posts. I dont want to have the same thing happen to Sticky that happened to Gypsy. Yet I dont want to lose an income that lets me travel. The solution? Another blog with a different focus so that I hope between the two I can eventually have the same income without losing the quality of the blog.

Wakeboarding in Switzerland: having the time and money makes blogging worth it!

I love to write, I have always loved to write. But I never have the time. Blogging gives me that time. While I will not make time for other things, I will make time for blogging, it is like online journaling. And with Equal Goes It I hope anyone thinking of working ESL, or wanting to, can read it and ask questions, as I think its a great idea, but not the easiest one. So helps me, helps someone else, hurray!

Videos! For some reason I could never get videos to work on my wordpress blogs until recently, and another place to post them is a good excuse as any!

Other bloggers! It seems like with each blog you start you get a different readership. Sure some of the people are the same, and thats awesome too. But with Gypsy I met different people in the blogsphere than I did with Sticky, and despite Equal being less than a month old I have already found some new blogs I never would have found otherwise.

And since every blog has a blogger, the last couple will be directly about me! I am an ESL teacher who just can not seem to escape. This is one of the better lives for those who have a Gypsy heart. And I am quite the Gypsy at heart. This is the first time I have renewed a VISA, and I already have itchy feet, despite taking off for another destination for travel every month.

10.

I am slowly learning German (I am in a class), but really I wish I could speak Spanish and Russian. But they won’t exactly help me here, and besides Oma would murder me for learning another language first.

11.

I want a pug. Badly. So badly my friend sent me this link, and I do sometimes pop it into my browser just to whimper and sound pathetic in an effort to get one. But in all honestly we do travel too much for a dog, but even if we didnt, though I have broken my partner down to the point where a dog is ok, he could have written this article.

12.

I have learned not to use the “pop” in the German classroom. It is another one of those words that translates with sexual connotations.

13.

And last, but not least, no matter where i go or where i live, the center of the world for me will always be Newfoundland!

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Read Comments

Posted by grace on 04.17.08 11:43 am

I lived in Japan for more than 10 years and kudos to you for teaching there! Happy TT!
Posted by maggieESHOPMAFIA on 04.17.08 11:44 am

Love the pictures. Great list. What an adventurous life.
Posted by Toni on 04.17.08 3:39 pm

Great post and great stories. Good luck learning German!
Posted by admin on 04.17.08 6:11 pm

Gaaa Toni, I tried to visit your blog and leave a comment but you dont allow the name with url and I dont have an open id!
Posted by pussreboots on 04.18.08 12:08 am

Fascinating TT. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Nicholas on 04.18.08 6:08 am

Nice to see you include Labarador in your Newfoundland map!