Exercise and Parkinson's - Guten Tag!

I’ve decided that whatever else happens, I’m going to keep learning. I’m going to exercise my mind as much, or perhaps even more than, my physical body. The old grey cells need a workout as often as possible and I don’t like to think of what would happen if I let that go. I thought I’d try to learn German.

Okay, you say, that sounds pretty random. Why German?

It’s actually not quite as random as it may sound. Most of my heritage, and that of my husband’s, is German – those good old Kohnens, Foxhovens, Myers, Pimples, Reinharts, and Guchs. Learning German means learning a bit about my family’s roots.

One of my many dreams is to travel some day. I’d like to take my family to visit all those places where my friends are living: Australia, England, Switzerland, and Germany. Australia and England would be relatively easy. They speak mostly the same language that we do. My good friend, Eric, currently lives in Cornwall, England, but his house is in Cochem, Germany. It’s right by a castle! Ideally, I’d like to be able to visit while he’s still living in Cornwall and then travel on with him to Germany. It would be so much more fun to visit if I understood at least a little bit of the language. My daughter has already begun looking through German language textbooks.

There’s another reason I’d like to understand German. Last weekend, I was reminded again of just how effective music can be to keep me moving physically. A major dystonia episode hit me just as I was attempting to drive home from visiting a friend. I had just enough time to turn the car on then off again, leaving the music playing on the CD player, before my arms twisted up painfully and I knew I wouldn’t be leaving for awhile. Fortunately, my friend eventually saw that my car was still there and figured out what was up. He came out, opened the door of the car, and asked what he needed to do to help. I had him pull my hands towards him, firmly, and once they started to release, he began moving my arms to the music till my muscles released completely. Music and movement together are magical.

So what does this have to do with learning German? For one thing, it was a German CD that I was listening to in the car. Not long ago, my son had me listen to a song by the German acapella group, The Wise Guys. That song was a sort of parody of Brittney Spear’s, “Hit Me Baby One More Time”. What struck me right away was how much better it sounded in German. This group was good! I started looking them up on YouTube videos and listening to their songs. At the same time, I was doing some volunteer teaching in our high school and I spoke with a student who is on exchange from Germany. It seems that The Wise Guys are a very, very popular group in Germany.

“Mrs. Reinhart, do you understand German?” The student gave me an odd look. I had to admit that the extent of my foreign language skills was enough Spanish to order at my favorite Mexican Restaurant and enough “Guyspeak” (the language men speak to each other) to avoid awkward situations while spending time with my friends who are men. “But how,” the student continued, “can you listen to The Wise Guys if you don’t understand German?” I tried to tell her that their singing was so lovely that I didn’t have to understand it all. She nodded and then added, “But they are sooooooo funny!” They are? I didn’t know that. I looked up lyrics to some of the songs and had the computer translate the pages. Computer translations leave a lot to be desired but I did get the gist of what the songs were about. In Meine heisse Liebe, “My hot love” refers to their morning cup of coffee and in their version of Frank Sinatra’s song, “Something Stupid”, the something stupid they say is not “I love you” but “you need a shave”. I was hooked. I decided that I wanted to learn enough that I can sing along.

For now, I am slogging through that first chapter of the “German for Idiots” course that we borrowed from the library. If the Wise Guys would write a song that included only the beginning vocabulary words, I’d be set! I have, however, learned a few helpful phrases from their songs already. If anyone asks me how I am, I can reply, “I am a little slow, a little wonky. I have Parkinson’s...ABER SONST GESUND*!”

Come on, grey cells, get working.

(*but otherwise healthy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsebaH20wKI