Join me on a search for that most elusive of creatures: the Basler Bear-Crow.
Dear Auntie SAM: How important is knowing German in Basel?
As regular readers know, I started my career in care-giving at 11 years old (See „Games People Play“).
From earning those certificates and babysitting, I then cared for elderly people, children, & adults with special needs in institutions and private homes throughout the States.
For 15 years – in addition to waiting tables, cleaning houses, and entertaining at drag shows (as one does during one’s salad years) – I supported myself primarily by attending to someone in need.
My favorite clients were the ones who didn’t speak.
Some couldn’t. Some wouldn’t. Others used words only as games.
One woman, with mental retardation and severe cerebral palsy, verbalized exclusively with the sounds „Grrr“ and „Caw“.
„Caw“ was her normal language. The one I might call „English“. And the ways in which she composed the syllable conveyed her desire, happiness, sadness, & compassion as completely as any more seemingly complex vocabulary.
„Grrr“ was reserved for those more intimate aspects of communication. The kind most people only allow with close friends and family. Anger. Frustration. That feeling that’s best described as, „You’re such a sh*t. But I love you anyway“. In Basel, we can think of this language as „High German“ 😉
And then, of course, she used silence. That marvelous dance whereby two or more people express everything without words.
My favorite. „Dialect“.
And this is the way language works in Basel: You’re on the outer circle if you only speak English. If you know German, you have access to a greater number of people, opportunities, resources, and understandings. But it’s being able to communicate in Dialect that gets you that all-access backstage pass.
And, take it from your dear, seasoned Auntie: backstage is where the real show happens.
If you accept the package that Big Pharma offers, you’ll likely run out of money before you get past how to order a beer. If you even have the time to study that far.
And, yes, in a very kind & absolutely a very positive step in the correct direction, Basel became the first canton in Switzerland to offer its immigrants (yes, you: „expat“) free German lessons during their first year.
Both are good, but small assistances to a challenge that you will largely need to overcome or ignore. Because that’s really how life is here.
Most expats who come to Basel to work in Big Pharma live in an „Expat Bubble“. They go to work in English-speaking offices, hang out after work with English-speaking co-workers, frequent bars & restaurants with English-speaking servers & menus, go home to English-speaking families living in their own English-speaking world. The German that rattles off their tongues the easiest is, „Tut mir leid, mein Deutsch ist Schlecht. Sprechen Sie Englisch?“
And this works for many.
So, if you’re going to bother with lessons at all, don’t kid yourself that a few months to a year of German lessons will lead to integration. Or, even, understanding.
For that, you’ve got to pierce that bubble. And you have to give yourself time.
Yes, of course, it takes bravery. But, mostly: humility & humor.
Because no matter how much assistance any one offers you. No matter how much work you do in class. In order to really get past just ordering beer, you simply must allow yourself to „Grrr“ and to „Caw“. You must allow for the pain & humiliation of knowing you are much more intelligent than you can currently express.
And then trust, especially in silence, that the people around you actually care enough to hear.
XO
AS
—
This might be a little late notice, but a truly wonderful group of performers will sing & play TONIGHT at UNION. NOBODY READS featuring SARAH E. REID, NICK NOBODY, & FLORIAN HAAS take the stage at 9PM … and yes, UNION has an ENGLISH MENU.
TOMORROW NIGHT (THURSDAY) see a unique exhibit at HISTORISCHES MUSEUM BASEL. The MUSEUM OF BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS: WINNER of the KENNETH HUDSON AWARD for MOST INNOVATIVE MUSEUM IN EUROPE, this disturbing collection of objects is an ARCHIVE OF FEELING displaying objects representing broken relationships around the world. VERNISSAGE in MUSEUM FÜR WOHNKULTUR 6PM.