Schreiben

Much of the early literature in organic chemistry is in German. For this reason, many chemistry majors at some point give consideration to learning a bit of German. One of the key reference works, known simply as 'Beilstein,' provides an index to the chemical literature by chemical structure class. Prior to the advent of computer tools, when one wanted to consult early chemical literature for a procedure ('recipe'), it meant a trip down to the library stacks and some knowledge of where to find references in the well-worn 'multi-Band' set of Beilstein volumes - Completely in German, of course. So, a good idea to have a basic grasp of the common nouns, verbs, and a bit of grammar.

I didn't.

Somehow I managed to hack through the assignments that required Beilstein, and it's not that I didn't enjoy it, I just didn't take the time to actually do some careful study, being more attracted to actually doing synthesis work in the lab or learning something about programming computers, which were just beginning to come on the scene.

Later, we decided to host exchange students, which we did over several years and along the way it included a couple of students from Germany. This was a new opportunity to study the language, which I did through noontime classes at work. My teacher assured us that in only 30 years, we could become fluent! I think the students appreciated the attempt to learn their language, although they were clearly much more interested in things like going to concerts of American bands. I did help both of them learn to drive and they got their licenses, another priority since it is much more difficult in Germany.

I've never been there.

It's so easy to say the wrong thing in a foreign language. I mean, it's hard enough in English! I've had a tendency to try and show-off the little that I know, which earned some sympathetic looks from some of these students as I proudly stated something in words that clearly missed the intended meaning. I think that's been my main lesson from studying foreign languages - a dose of humility is important.

Why this topic today, then?

Still trying to impress, I guess.

One of the clearest messages I pick up out of those books by MatthewMarkLukeandJohn is that how we treat 'the least' matters incredibly. It doesn't matter if I study Greek to get this more clearly (or more likely to throw into the 'try to impress' tool kit).

Sorry, this wandered from the original direction.

Thanks for reading - I'm off to pick up a few things at the grocery store and then off to rehearsal. Later.