When I was younger I lived near Kaiserslautern, a small town not far from the French border. That’s not what it’s known for, though. Ramstein (the town, not the band with two m’s) is close by, and because of the military bases around 50,000 Americans live in the area: soldiers, civilian staff and their families. It’s the largest American military community outside the US, and that came with some perks.
When release dates still mattered
I always got the DVDs (or VHS tapes) long before the German kids, because I could shop on the base near where I grew up.
This was the 90s: before Napster, before Kazaa, and before streaming, which would have been hell on a 56k modem anyway. I do miss that sound, though. Movies came out in the US first, and sometimes it took a full year before they were released anywhere else. I watched Episode I about eight months before it reached German cinemas. I don’t quite remember whether I was a jerk and spoiled it for everyone.
Often, by the time a movie opened in Germany, it was already out on DVD in the States. On the base everything was American: you paid in dollars, the fast food was American and so were the media. Movies and video games followed the American release schedule. Very cool when you’re twelve.
How my friend learned English
It took a while, but here’s the language part.
I had a friend I hung out with every day. He was German, didn’t speak English with many people, and his school wasn’t great, so his English lessons were bad. But the kid could speak the language.
We watched so many movies and played so many video games together that he learned a lot from them. Everything was in English, and we both preferred the originals anyway. Japanese wasn’t an option back then, the English translations of the games were much better than the German ones, and more titles were available. Getting to play them before the other German kids was a bonus.
Luckily his vocabulary wasn’t limited to insults and the words you need to save the world. He picked up a lot of grammar from the role-playing games and some great expressions from the movies.
Later I got some samurai-talk lessons thanks to Akira Kurosawa. And one line that stuck with me is “the cow exploded” from Three Kings. It doesn’t mean anything. I collect sentences like that, ones absurd enough to make a native speaker laugh, and I still like finding out how to say this one in other languages:
- Die Kuh ist explodiert.
- La vache a explosé.
- La mucca è esplosa.
- 牛が爆発した。
- Lehmä räjähti.
I’m prepared for the one situation where I might need to comment on this exact scene unfolding, and at the same time I hope it never happens.
Movie nights
It’s hard to squeeze those years of intense nerding out into one event, but a movie night followed by a talk about the film seems like a good start. Plenty of German movies are worth watching, and some made it overseas: Das Boot, Lola rennt and Der Untergang are famous, and there are lesser-known gems too. And contrary to popular belief, Germans can be very funny, so there are some great comedies to get through.