Out Like a Lamb

The Second Language Triumph

Immersion in Salzburg, week 8:

One block from the birthplace
where music's most famous infant
composed his first great howl,

I now howl. Ich heule jetzt.
I am bilingual!

I see a garten.
(That's an easy one)

I hear kinder.
(They don't really wear Lederhosen, you know)

I scent flowers, blumen -

daffodil and tulipán,
sonnenblume and rose.

I bow, all dopey American pride
and sing Die Zauberflöte to them all.




note ▼

April 11—Somehow incorporate a word or phrase of another language into your poem

One of my favorite jokes:

Q. What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
A. Trilingual.

Q. What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A. Bilingual.

Q. What do you call someone who speaks one language?
A. American