Its that thing you know

Invariably, all the people I have met in Berlin speak more than one language. The last sentence is a colossal understatement because most people speak three or more languages. And when you speak many languages, the most profound benefit that you have is having something else to talk about with strangers you meet for the first time, other than weather and world politics. You can talk about languages themselves.
More often than not, people will also tell you how they have a “thing” for languages. I don’t know what having a “thing” for languages means but it certainly means something cool or else people wouldn't be saying that so often. This reminds me I also used to say the same thing. And I don’t anymore because I speak only two languages and that’s a low number of languages to know if you want the claim of the “thing with languages” to be taken seriously by anyone.

So virtually everyone I have met here I have told this one thing. I generally tell it right after telling them how similar I think German and Urdu are (which happens when I tell them that “I AM learning German” (this happens when they ask me “ARE you learning German”?)). Anyway so when I tell them I think Urdu and German are similar, their response is always “really? How come” and then I pull up my sleeves and get into the nitty gritties. I have told the exact same thing to many people so many times that it almost seems like a script that I rehearse over and over again. Lately I have been thinking whether I have become so old that I do not remember I am repeating myself or not. I certainly do hope I haven’t. This similarity in these languages is telling people the word for “capital city” in Urdu. In my defence, if indeed you can come to your own defence, but in my defence, the word for “capital city” in Urdu IS really interesting and it DOES really remind me of how words are constructed in the German language. For the interest of the reader it is “dara-ul-hakoomat” and it means a region within which the government of a country is located. Wonderful isn’t it. There you go. Now when we meet for the first time, you would know what I will say.

 OHHHHHHHH Now I see why I am so pathetically sad and lonely here. It makes perfect sense now.