Spanish Lessons: General Observations On The Linguistic Situation At Real Madrid.

[jenny-jenkins.livejournal.com]

Mesut Chats With A Spanish Teacher And Speaks Two Words of Spanish
While Sami Khedira Looks On! 

Also: Nuri Sahin is a Keener (But Hamit Altintop Probably Isn't!) - More on That Below!

Translated by me, jenny_jenkins.

(Originally posted June 2011)



Interviewer: Now then, learning Spanish. How's it going? You started from zero - could we say that? How far along have you come? How do you feel?

Mesut (biting his lip): I'm doing well. I can speak, now and then, in Spanish - and I understand it. But speaking, natuerlich, is much more difficult. I'm getting along at any rate, and I find it's a lot of fun, because we were always learning in different ways ["eine Abwechslung haben" - could also be translated as "variety" or "change of pace"]. And earlier, when I was learning - before I came to you - I would often give up because I just couldn't be interested in it [he looks rather sheepish at this!] and I just couldn't learn that way. But since I've been learning with Mindstorm Group it's been lots of fun and I have a great deal of interest in learning und so...

Interviewer: A final question. Would you recommend this method of learning?

Mesut: In every way. I have many friends who  have noticed, or who have visited from Germany who have [completely unintelligible mumblemumblemumble - Jenny suspects he means to say "my friends have noticed I've improved"]* and it's lots of fun and you learn a great deal and I would recommend it to anyone.

Interviewer [sounding absurdly relieved as the interview comes to an end!]: Super! Thanks a lot. We'll see each other soon. I wish you all the best in the coming year and lots of luck with the football.

Mesut: Muchos gracias!

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Of course, there's no pressure on Mesut at all at this moment - none at all - especially not since readers of Bild Zeitung learned two weeks ago that Nuri Sahin has not only been taking Spanish lessons for two years but has great hopes of carrying on his next conversation with his Spanish teacher entirely in Spanish!


 
What have you been up to Nuri? I've been learning Spanish!



And of course - who could possibly live up to Sami Khedira? 

Which brings us to... 


...An Unintentionally Hilarious Bonus Video (Because Passing Up Opportunities To Post Anything At All About Big Brother Sami Khedira Is An Opportunity Jenny Won't Be Missing!)

Here we have Sami Khedira speaking at far greater length and with far more self-possession as Mesut sits along like a bored child in school - which he is - sort of - while Sami looks more of a responsible big brother than ever!

Mesut! Why so adorable?


But not to worry Ozileris!

So far as we of the Bild Zeitung reading public are aware, Real Madrid's fourth German - Hamit Altintop - has not, as yet, taken up Spanish lessons, being far too concerned with his health at the moment after a minor operation last week. But just to get an idea of the sort of linguistic pressure Mesut must be under, we present the following - Sami Khedira speaking far more than just two words of Spanish!

Oh dear!

Well, never mind. It would seem that in the Spanish Lesson Sweepstakes, Mesut will be taking third place!



Screw the keeners! We can still talk German to each other!



A note: Sami Khedira was famously trailed around by two of Mindstorm Group's Instructors at all times when he arrived in Spain - they did it in shifts to promote learning in an atmosphere of "active mental relaxation" - they even came to his games! One suspects that it was Sami who persuaded Mesut to (or, alternatively, shamed him into) giving them a try!

Poor Mesut!



Mesut depicted when Bild visited his house - sticky notes were all over the walls!


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Minor Update - Darling sashatwen dug out her earphones and came up with - "... und meine Freunde, die aus Deutschland hierher gekommen sind finden diese Methode auch sehr geil. Wie ich es (!!!) finde, das bringt auf jeden Fall einen weiter (!), man lernt sehr viel..."
 
Which translates to English roughly as - "and my friends, who have come out of Germany, find this method is very cool and I find that it brings one further along. You learn a great deal."

The German has been reproduced so that the full grammatical horror of the "mumblemumblemumble" can be got across! For those of you learning German, Sasha has helpfully placed exclamation marks next to the worst of Mesut's cringingly, head-desk-slamming, cute-in-a-really-bad-way grammatical imperfections! 

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