I Will Name My Son That Name

Bahasa Indonesia – Deutsch

My student Kevin (not the real name), who has studied at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA, just practiced the alphabet. He speaks very good English, since he has lived in the USA for several years. He found it interesting that the German alphabet sounds similarly like Indonesian alphabet. It means it shouldn’t be so difficult like in English.

The German alphabet is pronounced similarly like in Indonesian language. However there are some letters which are pronounced differently like: J [yot], Q [ku], V [faw], X [iks], Y [ʊpsilon], Z [tsɛt]. There are also umlauts like ä, ö, ü and diphthongs like [ai], [oi] and [i:].

Kevin practiced to spell and pronounce names: names of cities, family names and first names, also abbreviations in fields like transportation, car, TV and computer.

The master from material engineering got a problem as he read this sentence: „Guten Tag, ich heiße Däubler-Gmelin.” Däubler. Oh, oh, how is this name read? So, ä is an umlaut, which is pronounced [ɛ]. Because [ɛ] meets [u], then it becomes diphthong [oi]. Two thinking steps are needed for it. :-) So, Däubler is pronounced [doiblǝr].

Kevin was surprised. He has laughed and said: ”This name is cool! I will name my son this.” Kevin would name his son Däubler-Gmelin, if he got married and had a son. Sweet. :-)

Kevin is not only smart: he has concentrated well on the lessons and could find answers from my explanations. Kevin is also a lucky guy. He has got a job, as he was still in the small and peaceful city Ann Arbor. There was a Job Fair in his campus, in which there was a company, whose seat is in Hannover, Germany. Kevin applied for a job and he is employed by that German company. Great, Kevin! No need to apply many times for a job in many companies and to be jobless for a long time as many Indonesian University graduates, who are not so lucky, must unfortunately experience it.

Kevin takes the German course with me by his initiative, because he knows, he needs German in his daily future life in Germany.

Such a big luck I never have in my life.

Congratulations, Kevin!

You have read text 39. 
Please read text 40: The Suffering of the Honey from Rauenstein

Back to text 38: Oh, That’s “Ihr Lieben”